Chapter 72: Semifinals against South Korea

In the middle, because of Cheng Hai's poor passing skills, he failed to give enough advance, causing Qu Bo to reduce his speed to receive the ball, and then he was pasted by the defender who was chasing behind him.

But Qu Bo didn't panic, and there was no need to panic.

Because, before receiving the ball, he had already seen Cheng Hai, who passed the ball, bypassing the two defenders who were defending him and running to the front.

Therefore, Qu Bo did not try to catch the ball and then dribble into the penalty area to break the goal, but did not stop the ball and directly sent the ball to the front of Cheng Hai's running position.

Qu Bo's passing was more reliable than Cheng Hai, so that Cheng Hai didn't have to reduce his speed to catch the ball, so that the two defenders who were following closely behind him couldn't go around in front of him to block the way.

In fact, this is a collision between Cheng Hai and Qu Bo, but the passing distance is a little far.

The next thing is simple, by hitting the wall to form a single knife Cheng Hai dribbling the ball into the penalty area, facing the frightened goalkeeper Sha Fei, a low shot hit the far corner, the center of gravity to the near end of Sha Fei can only freeze in place, turn his head in despair and watch the ball into the far goal.

In the 42nd minute, Cheng Hai scored a hat trick to expand the score to 4-0.

When Cheng Hai formed a single knife, the Chinese fans in the stands had already stood up.

When the ball flew into the net, all the Chinese fans applauded and cheered excitedly, shouting Cheng Hai's name and bowing to him.

The CCTV-5 commentator in the commentary seat also shouted excitedly:

"The ball is in!"

"Cheng Hai once again got a single chance through a counterattack and broke through the Jordan team's goal!"

"Cheng Hai scored another hat-trick and helped the Chinese team to take a 4-0 lead."

"Although the first half was not over yet, we can be sure that the game is over early."

"The four-goal lead of the Chinese team is impossible to be reversed by the Jordan team!"

Yes, anyone knows that the difference of four goals is like a trench in football, and even Jordan's own players are desperate.

Cheng Hai and his teammates celebrated for more than half a minute, and no one in the Jordanian team protested to the referee that the Chinese team had celebrated for too long, and in the end, the referee himself couldn't stand it, so he took the initiative to intervene, let the Chinese team end the celebration and return to their own half, and let the Jordanian team open the middle circle.

After the game restarted, the Jordan team, which was completely depleted, did not launch a counterattack, but just played lazily, and was almost broken by Cheng Hai's long-range shot from outside the penalty area.

If the goalkeeper hadn't played well and saved the ball, he would have conceded again.

Even so, the referee blew the whistle at the end of the first half, and the Jordanian players came off the pitch with their heads hung down and looked completely defeated.

The Huaguo team returned to the locker room amid the applause and cheers of 30,000 overseas Chinese fans.

At halftime, both the commentators and the guests were basically sure that there would be no surprises in this game, and the Chinese team would definitely defeat Jordan to advance to the semifinals, just to see if the Jordanian team could score one or two goals in the second half to save a little face.

As a result, after the start of the second half, the Jordan team really got up.

Maybe it was what the manager said at half-time that boosted morale, and the Jordanian team was in a very different state of mind than it was at the end of the first half.

They took advantage of the fact that the second half had just begun, and the players of the Huaguo team were still a little excited and did not enter the game, and launched wave after wave of onslaught.

Finally, in the 53rd minute, the Jordan team hoisted the ball into the penalty area with a free kick opportunity in front, and their striker Abdul grabbed the first point and shook his head to attack the goal, and the ball was headed into the goal of the Chinese team.

Jordan finally pulled a goal back to make it 1-4 and only three goals behind.

The Jordanian fans in the stands were finally able to celebrate loudly after holding back most of the half.

The goal boosted the morale of the Jordanian team, who seemed to see the possibility of a miracle.

After all, there is a history in the history of football where three goals have been scored in six minutes, and with almost 40 minutes remaining, it is theoretically possible to equalize.

Of course, this requires the Jordanian team to break through the cauldron and make a desperate bet and gather the strength of the whole team to attack.

It is definitely not possible to have fewer people, they do not have a superstar like Cheng Hai, and even their main strikers are injured and absent, and there are no arrow figures, so they can only rely on collective strength to break through the defense of the Huaguo team.

As for Cheng Hai's counterattack?

I can't take care of that much for the time being.

After the game restarted, the Jordanian team really broke the kettle and made a desperate bet, almost all of them pressed over the midfield line to participate in the attack, and sometimes even left only one central defender to guard against Cheng Hai.

When such a picture appears, the end is already predestined.

Cheng Hai's full value of running without the ball, grabbing points, acceleration, speed, etc., is not vegetarian.

The goal scored by the Jordanian team before can only be said to be the luck of the Jordanians, but the Chinese team, which has Cheng Hai, the top striker in Europe, is definitely beating Jordan in terms of offensive and counterattack capabilities.

So, when the time came to the 61st minute, the Huaguo team played a quick counterattack again, and finally Cheng Hai received Zheng Zhi's pass and broke through the last defender into the penalty area to hit the far corner, which was a matter of course.

The score has become 5-1 between the two sides, and the Chinese team once again leads by four goals.

Cheng Hai made his debut in the Qatar Asian Cup, and the total number of goals in the four games has reached 12, an average of three per game, which is simply appalling.

When Cheng Hai kicked the ball into the goal, even the commentator of Qatar National Television, who should have been neutral, exclaimed:

"The ball is in!"

"Oh my God, Cheng Hai has scored again!"

"Happy seniors! The first big four happiness of this Asian Cup was born, Cheng Hai from the Chinese team, Cheng Hai completed the achievement of the big four happiness in the 61-minute game! ”

"Huaguo leads Jordan 5-1, the game is completely over, Jordan can't have any chance to equalize and reverse this game."

"It's shocking! It's so powerful! We deserved to lose to China in the group stage. We didn't lose to the Huaguo national team, but to Cheng Hai. ”

"Now, Cheng Hai has played four Asian Cup games, and his total number of goals has reached 12, an average of 3 per game, which is simply stunning!"

"It is a good efficiency for other strikers to achieve an average of more than 0.5 goals per game, but Cheng Hai averaged 3 goals per game, which is an admirable efficiency in any historical period and in any competition."

"There is no doubt that Cheng Hai is the top striker in the world today, although he is only 18 years old and has only been in professional football for less than a year, but the number of goals and efficiency he has achieved in less than a year is enough to embarrass countless world-class strikers!"

Indeed, Cheng Hai's goal not only made the Chinese and overseas Chinese fans in the stands applaud, but even those neutral Qatari fans, and even some Jordanian fans who were enemies, applauded him.

Cheng Hai's world-class performance deserves anyone's respect and admiration.

After the resumption of the game, the morale and fighting spirit of the Jordanian team that was aroused by the head coach at halftime completely disappeared.

The reality of being four goals behind is not something that can be erased by any story or words, and all Jordanian players have accepted the fact that they will be eliminated.

In the 70th minute, when Cheng Hai was substituted, thunderous applause rang out in the stands, and countless fans applauded Cheng Hai and paid the highest tribute to his performance today.

Although Cheng Hai has been off the field, the Jordanian players on the field have not launched a counterattack.

Because the gap is too large, they know that even a counteroffensive is useless.

The two sides began to grind on the field to stall for time.

In the 90th minute, the referee saw that the backward Jordanian team had no intention of playing, let alone launching a counterattack and trying to score, so he simply did not give stoppage time and blew the whistle at the end of the game.

With a 5-1 victory over Jordan in the quarter-finals, the Chinese team advanced to the semi-finals.

When the referee's whistle sounded, Cheng Hai was undoubtedly rated by the system as the best player on the spot in this game.

With the addition of goal awards, winning awards, etc., Cheng Hai's level experience has risen to level 22 3,262,100/3 million, and it is automatically upgraded to level 23 262,100/5 million, and Cheng Hai is rewarded with an upgrade reward of 30 skill points, and the balance of skill points is 33.

However, in terms of upgrading skills, Cheng Hai's luck is more unlucky, and the goalkeeper skill "GK Position" is randomly opened, with an initial attribute of 3.

This refers to the best position choice for the goalkeeper without thinking and subconsciously. The higher the attribute of this skill, of course, the more reasonable the position, and the easier it is to save the opponent's shot.

For the goalkeeper, if this skill is increased to the full value, it is obvious that it can turn decay into magic, and dissolve many opponents' attacks invisibly, as if the opponent's shot was directly given to him.

But for Cheng Hai, who is now a striker, this skill is useless, and his skill points will not be wasted on this skill.

Since there are no new skills that need to be used, the 30 skill points obtained by Cheng Hai can be used for heading and bouncing.

He spent 10 skill points to increase the header of 17 to 19, and then spent 10 skill points to increase both the bounce and the header of 19 to the full value of 20, and spent all the 30 skill points obtained from this upgrade, and the balance of skill points was still 3.

After completing the addition points, Cheng Hai's data and basic attributes become:

Host: Cheng Hai

Nationality: Huaguo

Date of birth: 25 May 1992

Team: Borussia Dortmund (Germany)

Height: 179cm

Weight: 72kg

Grade: 23

Experience: 262,100/5,000,000

Skill Points: 3

Archery: 20

Ball stopped: 20

Physique: 20

Dribbling: 20

Steals: 6

Bounce: 20

Headers: 20

Grab points: 20

Cross: 5

Balance: 20

Acceleration: 20

Speed: 20

Gatekick: 3

Man marking: 5

Throw-ins: 5

GK saves: 3

GK Position: 3

Runs off the ball: 20

Barb shots: 4

Rainbow Over: 2

Long Passes in the Air: 2

Defensive Position: 4

Seal passes:1

Matthews feints: 20

With 12 skills or physical fitness reaching the full value of 20, Cheng Hai is even more looking forward to the next semi-finals.

……

After the match with the Jordan team, the news of Cheng Hai's big four joys received greater coverage around the world.

After all, he has entered the knockout round at this time, and Cheng Hai can still stage the big four, which is enough to prove his strength.

Cheng Hai is regarded by many people as Asia's No. 1 striker, and even the title of the world's No. 1 striker has come out.

Of course, Cheng Hai will not admit this, it is too offensive. He has not yet won any championships or individual honours in Europe, and he cannot afford such a nickname, even if he is the world's number one in goal efficiency at this time.

The next day, the other two semi-finals were decided, with Australia vs Iraq and Iran vs South Korea tied 0-0 in the space of 90 minutes before going into extra time.

In the end, the semi-finals are Japan, China, Australia, and South Korea.

In addition to China, the other three teams can be called Asian hegemons.

Australia is a frequent participant in the World Cup, but I don't want the Chinese team to be extremely difficult to hit the World Cup every time.

Japan and South Korea are the winners of the Asian Cup, and there is no problem in calling them Asian hegemons.

The opponent of the Chinese team in the semifinals is South Korea.

When it comes to Korean football, Chinese fans must have mixed feelings and all kinds of tastes welling up in their hearts.

Since 1978, the Chinese national football team has never defeated the South Korean national football team in an official match, and it was not until last year in 2010 that Gao Hongbo's national team ended a 32-year history of Korean phobia in the East Asian semifinals with a score of 3-0.

But for last year's game, the South Koreans did not admit it, they thought that the South Korean national football team sent some second-team players, and it was normal to lose to the Chinese national team, and the Chinese national team did not really defeat the main players of the South Korean national football team.

Such rhetoric naturally made Chinese fans quite unhappy, and everyone had long held their breath and wanted to teach the Koreans another lesson.

During the Asian Games, the national Olympic team led by Cheng Hai defeated South Korea's national Olympic team with a score of 3-2 in the quarterfinals, and their plan to exempt them from military service through the Asian Games went bankrupt, which boosted morale.

But it was a U23-level contest of the national Olympic team, not a real contest between the first team members of the two national teams.

And this time in the semifinals of the Asian Cup, South Korea will definitely do its best. If the South Korean team loses to Huaguo again this time, then there is no reason to find it.

Before the game, the two sides naturally had a big war of words.

The media and fans of the Chinese team said that this time they would beat South Korea in a dignified manner, leaving the Koreans with nothing to say.

The South Koreans said that only Cheng Hai was enough to see the Chinese team, and they had found a way to contain Cheng Hai.

As long as Cheng Hai is restricted, it will be easy for the South Korean team to win against the Chinese team.

Cheng Hai said in an interview that there are many teams that want to limit him, but they definitely do not include the South Korean team.

South Korea's number one star, Park Ji-sung, immediately hit back, and the South Korean team will use their overall strength to defeat Huaguo and advance to the final.

The bickering between the two sides continued until the semi-finals.

At 16:25 p.m. on January 25, 2011, at the Khalifa Stadium, which can accommodate 50,000 spectators, with the referee's whistle, the first match of the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup semifinals between China and South Korea officially began.

After Jordan was beaten 5-1 by China in the opening game, South Korea learned their lesson and did not shrink in the opening stages.

As they designed before the game, they believe that the overall strength of the Korean team is higher than that of the Chinese team.

As long as they play the game at their own pace and strive for more goals, even if they are scored one or two by Cheng Hai, it doesn't matter the overall situation, as long as they score more goals than the Huaguo team.

What's more, for Cheng Hai, they also made targeted defensive deployments, and they would not easily let Cheng Hai run out of space to shoot.

The tactics of the South Korean team are to take the initiative to attack.

Therefore, after the start of the game, the two sides tested a little, and after the Huaguo team discovered the opponent's tactics, they retreated decisively and started a defensive counterattack.

With Cheng Hai's full speed, defensive counterattacks are actually the most suitable for him to play.

As long as he gets the opportunity to counterattack, I believe that Cheng Hai will give the opponent a fatal blow.

However, before Cheng Hai can give the South Korean team a fatal blow, the Chinese team needs to withstand the South Korean team's attack first.

Indeed, as the Koreans said, except for Cheng Hai, the other players of the Chinese team are not as good as the South Korean team in terms of overall strength.

When the South Korean team pressed all the players and took the initiative to attack, the defense of the Chinese team became quite tight.

Even if Cheng Hai drew the attention of two or three defenders of the opposing team in front and did not let them step forward to participate in the attack, Park Ji-sung, Ji Chengyong and others in the front court of the South Korean team alone were enough to make the Huaguo team scramble.

Fortunately, after this period of competition and training, the Chinese team has increased a lot of confidence and matching, and there were no mistakes in the defense in the first few minutes to give the South Korean team a chance.

It wasn't until the 6th minute that South Korea barely managed to complete a shot from outside the box, which was easily saved by goalkeeper Yang Zhi.

The next corner kick did not make any waves, and the South Korean team continued to attack.

However, no one can really keep the ball at their feet all the time. Even though the overall strength of the South Korean team is stronger than the Huaguo team without Cheng Hai, the Korean team does not have an overwhelming technical advantage.

In the 9th minute, a precise and sudden tackle from the side of Cho Woo-il broke the South Korean team's possession.

The ball that was shoveled away by Zhao Xuri fell at the feet of Zheng Zhi.

At this time, Cheng Hai, who was running without the ball and grabbing points with full value, had realized that this was an opportunity to counterattack, so he was ready to catch the ball in an offside position.

As a result, just a moment before Zheng Zhi's pass, when Cheng Hai was rushing towards the South Korean team's penalty area and preparing to form a single knife against offside, the two South Korean defenders Zhao Yongheng and Huang Jaeyuan, who were dragging behind, did not retreat to intercept Cheng Hai, but suddenly took a step forward together.

It was this step forward that made Cheng Hai in an offside position at the moment of Zheng Zhi's pass.

Although Zheng Zhi's pass was good, and Cheng Hai received the ball smoothly and formed a single knife, the linesman's flag had already been raised.

Cheng Hai was offside.

The counterattack was unsuccessful.

Cheng Hai frowned, looked at the proud Korean team players, and thought to himself:

"Is the way you stop me from fighting back is to create an offside position?"

"If that's the case, then I'll thank you!"

"Next, let me show you how powerful a full-value off-ball run can be in an offside position!"