Chapter 366: Can You Qualify with a Tie?

Because Gao Zheng and Xu Jiang were just facing before the game, everyone's attention to this game was diverted a lot to this matter.

I don't pay so much attention to the game itself.

This also invisibly reduced the pressure on the players of the Chinese team.

But on the Indonesian side, there is a different understanding — they were ecstatic when they heard that Gao Zheng was openly antagonistic to a reporter and angrily reprimanded him at a press conference.

With the virtue of Chinese football, shouldn't the Chinese Football Association expel Gao Zheng for violating discipline?

After the Chinese team lost Gao Zheng, the team fell into chaos, the military spirit was discouraged, and they had no intention of playing when facing them.

Isn't this a great chance for Indonesia to win the game?

However, when the two sides announced the starting list two hours before the game, the Indonesian side found that Gao Zheng was impressively listed.

The Chinese Football Association did not expel Gao Zheng?

AIA was surprised.

When Gao Zheng opened the scoring for China in the opening 14 minutes, and instead of celebrating the goal, he ran to the center circle with the football in his arms, the outcome of the game seemed to be out of suspense.

Towards the end of the first half, Gao Zhengyou sent a cross on the side to help Wu Lei score with a header.

The Chinese team led Indonesia 2-0.

Gao Zheng was able to start, which made the fans of the Chinese team very happy. Because it seems to mean that what happens off the field doesn't affect the game – maybe people are more concerned about it than the outcome of the game.

In the second half, Gao Zheng did not score, but he sent two more assists and completed a hat trick of assists, helping the Chinese team defeat Indonesia 5-0 at home.

The two games beat Indonesia by nine goals, which is really a good goal difference. In this way, when the final competition for the group qualifiers, if it is necessary to compare the goal difference, the Chinese team will take advantage of it.

In fact, when facing the weakest team in the group, any team will demand a win while also getting as many goal difference as possible.

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After playing the game with Indonesia this time, Gao Zheng did not rush back to Italy non-stop, because there was still a national team game.

He will join his national team mates in preparing for the Asian Cup qualifiers in Xi'an, where they will face the strongest team in the group, Saudi Arabia.

The result of this game may be directly related to whether the Chinese team qualifies or not.

At the same time that China beat Indonesia at home, Saudi Arabia also beat Iraq 2-1 at home.

The situation in this group is as follows: Saudi Arabia has won four games in four games, has 12 points, and is in first place. The Chinese team has nine points with three wins and one loss, ranking second, Iraq has three points with one win and three losses, ranking third, and Indonesia has won four games and has zero points, ranking first from the bottom.

Saudi Arabia has already qualified for the group in advance, and the Chinese team is in a good situation, as long as the remaining two games are not lost, they can basically qualify from this group. If Iraq wants to qualify as second in the group, they will have to count on the Chinese team to lose most of the remaining two rounds of the group stage, and they themselves will have to win most of the games to hope to squeeze out the Chinese team by goal difference with the same number of points.

It's not easy to do that, though.

China now has a goal difference of nine and Iraq has a net difference of three, a difference of 12 goals.

Even if the Chinese team loses to Saudi Arabia at home, as long as they draw with Iraq in the last game, they can still qualify as the second in the group.

Not to mention that China may not be able to lose at home to Saudi Arabia, as long as they take one more point, they will qualify for the group ahead of schedule – Iraq will have to fight for the only third place in the group with the best results.

Therefore, the next match between the Chinese team and Saudi Arabia is crucial, as long as it is a draw, it can qualify!

Slow, as long as there is a draw, you can qualify?

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The phrase "you can qualify if you draw" has almost become a curse for Chinese football, so that many elderly Chinese fans are in a beat when they hear this sentence, for fear that something will happen again.

Although it stands to reason that for the two teams of China and Saudi Arabia, a handshake is the most favorable result, and the two sides can join hands to qualify without hurting the harmony or breaking the bones. But no one can guarantee that the game will play out according to this idea.

Not to mention that China and Saudi Arabia have some grudges when it comes to football.

The Chinese team has reached the Asian Cup final twice in history, but has not won a championship. One of the times we reached the final and lost the championship must have been impressive, that is, in 2004, we lost to Japan in the final on our own home. But this is the second time.

The opponent who lost the Asian Cup championship for the first time was Saudi Arabia, it was 1984, when the Chinese team was strong, all the way to the final, but in the final it lost 0:2 to Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia stepped on the body of the Chinese team, won the first Asian Cup championship in their country's history, and this also opened the prelude to Saudi Arabia's football domination in Asia, they later won the Asian Cup three times, before the Japanese team won the Asian Cup four times in 2011, It is one of the countries with the most titles in this competition – the other two other three Asian Cup winners are Japan and Iran.

The Chinese team has not yet participated in the Asian Cup.

It's normal to say that you lose to a better and stronger team in a game, and it's not a grudge.

Then the scene in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers is the real "deep hatred".

At that time, the head coach of the Chinese team was Su Yongshun, and the players included Chi Shangbin, Li Fusheng, Rong Zhixing, Gu Guangming, Zuo Shusheng, and Shen Xiangfu...... All of them are well-known figures in Chinese football, and some people say that this is the most powerful Chinese team in history.

The Chinese team is divided into a group with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and New Zealand to play home and away games, and the top two teams in the group qualify for the World Cup in Spain.

The Chinese team drew 0:0 in the first two rounds and lost 0:1 to New Zealand, which was not a good situation, but then the Chinese team returned to strength and defeated Kuwait 3:0 - you must know that Kuwait had just won the championship in the 1980 Asian Cup, and it was strong and in the limelight - playing Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team killed 4:2 and 2:0 home and away, and won three consecutive victories.

In the last game, the Chinese team lost to Kuwait and took the lead in ending all the games.

The inexperienced Chinese team thought it was a foregone conclusion and that there were almost no surprises, so they disbanded the team after the match against Kuwait, and the players went home for the Chinese New Year.

There was a reason why they were so big-hearted, as China were ahead of rivals New Zealand on points and goal difference, as long as New Zealand didn't beat Saudi Arabia by five goals away in the final round. You must know that Saudi Arabia was able to draw 2:2 at home in New Zealand at that time, and there is no reason to lose five goals after returning home.

Therefore, the Chinese team feels that the situation is very stable, and they can celebrate reaching the World Cup finals for the first time in history when the final round of matches is over.

Saudi Arabia didn't think much of it when they returned to their home stadium, losing by five goals - they lost 5-0 to New Zealand.

In this way, the Chinese team and New Zealand are the same in terms of points and goal difference, ranking joint second after Kuwait.

Both teams must play an extra game on the gravity field.

The Chinese team, which was hastily assembled and seriously underprepared, faced New Zealand in Singapore, and was very uncomfortable with New Zealand's rough play, and finally lost to New Zealand 1:2 and lost the right to qualify for the World Cup.

Saudi Arabia's self-serving approach has brought great harm to Chinese football.

Although 31 years have passed since this incident, it is impossible for the current Saudi Arabian team to have a player from that year, and the Chinese team also participated in the World Cup in 2002.

World Cup qualifiers and Asian Cup qualifiers are not the same either.

But that doesn't mean Chinese fans have forgotten about it.

After all, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are both "brothers" of West Asian football, and it is not surprising that the two teams will do anything for the glory of West Asian football.

Maybe in order to help its West Asian brothers qualify for the Asian Cup, Saudi Arabia will do its best to beat the Chinese team?

Therefore, it cannot be wishful thinking that Saudi Arabia will release water on the Chinese team after obtaining the Asian Cup quota in advance.

Saudi Arabian football has a tradition of releasing water, but they will never release water to East Asian teams.

If the Chinese team wants to ensure the qualification from the group, it must take their fate firmly in their own hands.