Because he has locked the right to qualify from the group in advance, Lippi put Xu Xin, Li Xueming and other substitutes who have played in the first two rounds of the group stage in the final round of the group stage against North Korea, as well as a number of substitute players who have never played before, into the starting lineup.

Lippi made this choice because he wanted more players to experience the atmosphere of the continental competition, so as to lay the foundation for the World Cup qualifiers that will start in June. The group stage alone will span nearly 10 months, and if some of the main players suffer injuries during the period, some substitutes will inevitably be needed.

Because of this, Lippi will give more players the opportunity to show themselves when qualifying from the group is a foregone conclusion.

As it turned out, Lippi's choice was definitely wise. Not to mention those "marginal people" who rarely play on weekdays cherish this rare opportunity to play, from the moment the referee blew the whistle, he followed Lippi's instructions in the front court to launch a ferocious pressing of the North Korean team more than the main players, and even Li Xueming, Xu Xin and other team semi-main players, also used 12 points of strength to show their full strength as much as possible.

As a result, the Chinese team, which has a large-scale rotation of the lineup, not only did not show the slightest slackness because of the early qualification, but because it wanted to show its self-worth in front of Lippi, it showed a fighting spirit that was more than the team's main force in the game.

In the end, although the Chinese team failed to continue the smooth attack of the first two rounds, it still defeated the North Korean team with a score of 2-0 and won the first place in Group B without dispute.

Since the 2004 Asian Cup held in China and the championship unfortunately missed, not to mention trying to hit the Asian Cup championship, even the minimum standard of qualifying from the group, the Chinese team has not been able to complete two consecutive competitions.

This time, the Chinese team not only successfully advanced to the knockout stage as the group leader, but also played a smooth offensive (or barely up to the standard of beautiful football) that has not been seen for a long time since the 2002 World Cup qualifiers.

Although the quality of the attack dropped in the final game against North Korea, the fact that they were able to win the game with ease despite the large number of substitutes and the appearance of the team's fringe characters made the domestic fans even more excited.

As a result, after the Chinese team undisputedly advanced to the knockout round as the top of the group, the domestic media and the vast majority of fans gave due praise to the performance of the Chinese team, and praised the choice of the Football Association, which has always been known for its mediocrity and incompetence, to hire the world-famous coach Lippi to take charge of the national football team.

Unlike the unanimous praise of the domestic media and fans, the South Korean and Australian media were quite unimpressed by the rare excellent performance of the Chinese team.

In their opinion, although the performance of the Chinese team in the group stage is amazing, the reason why the Chinese team was able to successfully win the top spot in Group B is the result of the "not strong enough" of the competitors.

Although Saudi Arabia is dressed as a "first-class team in Asia", due to the relationship between the two consecutive defeats at the feet of the Chinese team in the Asian Cup qualifiers, the Saudi Arabian Football Association has made a painful determination to complete the replacement of the old and new teams in advance even if they cannot qualify for the Asian Cup in order to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers starting in June.

Therefore, in addition to individual positions such as goalkeeper, central defender and central midfielder, the main lineup of the Saudi Arabian team participating in this Asian Cup has been adjusted in a large area.

While Saudi Arabia's failure to qualify for the knockout rounds was a disappointment for Saudi Arabian fans, the young players who had been through the tournament had gained valuable experience in continental competitions.

Although Uzbekistan, which advanced as the second in the group, maintained the integrity of the main lineup, many of the main teams were in a tired state because of their play in the Russian Super League. As a result, the Uzbek team played only seventy or eighty percent of the strength in the group stage at most.

As for the North Korean team, which has been "closed to the country" for a long time, it is just the role of "accompanying the prince to study", and participating in this cup is just a rare "trip".

Therefore, even if China qualify for the knockout rounds as group winners, their Asian Cup journey will only end there, as their quarter-final opponents will be Australia, who are aiming to win the title.

The Australian team, which has more than a dozen players who play in major European leagues, is definitely better than the Chinese team with only two players playing in the European league.

If Feng Quan, who has continuously broken many records in Europe's top five leagues, has not been plagued by injuries, perhaps the Chinese team still has the capital to compete with the Australian team, but in the case of Feng Quan's "inability to play", the Chinese team's chances of winning are only two percent at most.

When the Australian coach saw that the Chinese team actually sent a number of substitutes in the game against the North Korean team, he was still a little disdainful.

Although Lippi's rotation of the lineup can restore the physical strength of the main players to a certain extent, the Australian team also sent a large number of substitutes in the final round of the group stage, so the main players of both teams will almost always be in the best physical condition in the knockout round.

As a result, with the two teams almost equal in fitness, the balance will naturally tip in favour of the stronger side overall.

Therefore, it is almost impossible for the Chinese team to defeat themselves.

As a result, even though Australia's domestic media and fans are quite dissatisfied with the team's "negative game" attitude in the final round of the group stage, they firmly believe that the Australian team will easily advance to the semi-finals with no suspense tactics for the Chinese team.

Until the day of the quarterfinals against the Chinese team on January 22, Australian coach Postecoglou, who had always been in the chest, couldn't help but feel a wave in his heart after getting the starting list of the Chinese team.

"Why did the Chinese team have four substitutes in the starting lineup? Is it because they are destined not to win us, so they deliberately sent those people to fill up the numbers, so as to prepare an excuse for defeat in advance? Australia's assistant coach wondered.

"The head coach of the Chinese team is Lippi, who is known as the "Silver Fox", so things will definitely not be as simple as you think. Postecoglou said in a deep voice.

"And, the most incomprehensible thing to me, why did that injured guy appear in the starting lineup?"

…………

PS: China vs. Australia starting line-up

Goalkeeper: Wang Dalei

Defenders: Li Xueming, Zhang Linpeng, Feng Xiaoting, Xu Xin

Midfielders: Zhao Xu, Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi

Front: Feng Quan, Gao Lin, Wu Lei