After the match against Saudi Arabia, China will face their second opponent in the group stage in Brisbane, Uzbekistan.

Compared to Saudi Arabia today, Uzbekistan is much stronger, and they are the seeded team in this group, the first tier.

However, compared to Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team had a worse result against Uzbekistan.

Because Uzbekistan only joined the AFC in the nineties of the last century, the history of the Chinese team against them is not long.

The Chinese national team has faced Uzbekistan nine times in history, and these nine games refer to international A-level competitions.

In these nine games, the Chinese team won only three games, drew one, and lost the remaining five games.

Two of the three games won were inconsequential warm-up matches, only in the 2001 World Cup Asian qualifiers, the Chinese team defeated Uzbekistan 2-0 at home, but then they lost to their opponents on the road, and the unbeaten golden body in the top 10 was broken.

And the games that the Chinese team lost were basically important games.

For example, in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, the Chinese team was strong and reached the final, aiming to win the championship. They met Uzbekistan, who was participating in the Asian Games for the first time, in the final, but the Chinese team lost 2:4 to the Asian newcomers in the final, missing the golden opportunity to win gold in the Asian Games.

Then in the group stage of the 1996 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan was short of major generals compared to the same squad that won gold at the Asian Games two years ago. In the game, the Chinese team did have the advantage, the first 80 minutes played very beautifully, but the momentum was not scored, but because of impatience, at the last moment by the opponent twice counterattacked, and finally with a score of 0:2 again.

In the 2007 Asian Cup, the Chinese team was once again in a group with Uzbekistan, and the Chinese team could qualify from the group after a draw, and the situation was very good. But it was this damn "draw to qualify", so that the Chinese team did not know how to play in the game, and finally the Chinese team lost 0:3 to Uzbekistan, Zhu Guanghu's Chinese team created a shameful record: the Chinese team failed to qualify in the group stage of the Asian Cup for the first time in 27 years.

In the 2011 Asian Cup, the Chinese team was placed in a group with Uzbekistan for the third time. This time, the Chinese team is no longer able to qualify with a draw, but must beat Uzbekistan to qualify. As a result, they drew 2-2 with Uzbekistan and unfortunately went out.

The last time China and Uzbekistan played each other was in a warm-up match in 2013, where China lost 2-1 to Uzbekistan.

This is only the history of the national team level, at the level of the national youth team, there was a very humiliating defeat against Uzbekistan - it was the knockout stage of the 2008 Asian Youth Championship, and the national youth team and Uzbekistan played until extra time, but there was an accident in the last minute of extra time:

The Uzbek goalkeeper was awarded a free kick in the box by the referee after touching the ball twice in the box, and the goalkeeper was sent off with a red card after arguing with the referee because he was dissatisfied with the decision. At this time, Uzbekistan had used up three substitutions, and had no choice but to let defender Tutahukhayev play as a temporary guest goalkeeper.

In such a situation, the situation of the Chinese team is very good, and it should only be a matter of time before they advance and qualify for the World Youth Championship - even if the free kick in this penalty area is not scored, can the next penalty shootout, facing a defender who is a temporary guest goalkeeper, still not score a penalty?

As a result, in the subsequent penalty shootout, the then national youth player Wu Xi kicked the football off, and the temporary goalkeeper also saved Li Zhichao's penalty kick to help Uzbekistan defeat the National Day with a score of 4:3 and qualify for the World Youth Championships.

Being eliminated by the opponent in such a way is simply a huge humiliation and disaster for the national youth team.

And it is worth mentioning that Tutahukhaev, who was the goalkeeper to eliminate the national youth team, is also in the Uzbekistan team this time. In the national youth team that was eliminated at the beginning, there are also two players in the current Chinese team, namely Wu Xi, who missed a penalty, and fullback Zhang Linpeng.

Historically, the Chinese team is not at all dominant, they and Uzbekistan have met four times in the group stage of the Asian Cup, and the first three times have all been planted at the feet of this team, and it is difficult to find a victory.

However, after Gao Zheng this time, the confidence of Chinese fans is still very strong.

Of course, some Chinese media may think that the fans are too optimistic, and keep pouring cold water on everyone, telling them that it is not unusual for the Chinese team to win the first round of the Asian Cup group stage, but the most important thing is the second round. Judging from the statistics, all the Chinese teams who qualified for the group stage basically won the second game.

In the last two Asian Cups, the Chinese team failed to qualify from the group, all because they did not win the second group stage.

With Uzbekistan's strength, blind optimism is not conducive to the Chinese team defeating the opponent, but will send a wrong message to the international players - that is, they are now very strong, no one is afraid, and anyone can win. If you play with such emotions, you are likely to lose the game because of pride.

If they lose to Uzbekistan in the second round, they will have to face North Korea, which is known for their tenacity, in the final round......

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However, during the training of the Chinese team, head coach Perrin sang the opposite tune with some domestic media:

"You must always remember that you are strong, stronger than others think! To be honest, I don't know much about the feud between Chinese football and Uzbekistan, and I'm not interested in understanding the records in those old paper piles, and the historical results of four or eight years ago don't represent anything. You're different now than you were four or eight years ago, not to mention the team. Uzbekistan is strong, but we are not weak either, and I believe that as long as everyone believes in this and puts their best self into the game, we can beat Uzbekistan! Remember what I said earlier? We're going to be the first in the group, let's get back here! ”

As a coach, when you need to boost morale, of course, you won't come up with any historical statistics to hit your players.

And the players weren't really nervous.

The domestic media's claims may be able to influence many fans, but they are not yet able to influence the national team.

After beating Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team was relaxed when preparing for the game.

A reporter took pictures of the Chinese team players talking and laughing in training, and Gao Zheng also expressed confidence in an interview with Chinese reporters after training: "If you want to win the first place in the group, you must beat Uzbekistan, right?" So isn't it easy? We're definitely going to win. ”

Because the Asian Cup group stage is in the case of the same score, the rules are the same as in Europe, let's first look at the relationship between the two teams with the same score. As long as the Chinese team defeats Uzbekistan, even if the Chinese team loses to North Korea by a large score in the last group stage, it will definitely be able to top the group, because no matter whether Uzbekistan wins or Saudi Arabia wins, in the case of the same score as the Chinese team, they will not have an advantage in the relationship with the Chinese team - they have all been defeated by the Chinese team, so as long as the Chinese team can beat Uzbekistan, they will lock the first place in the group in advance.

Another reporter asked about the goal, Gao Zheng said: "The team's victory is the most important. Of course, if the team needs me to score, then I'll score. ”

He downplayed the goal and it didn't seem to be a difficult thing to do.

But everyone is still a little worried, after the excellent performance in the last game, Uzbekistan will definitely pay more attention to Gao Zheng's precautions, will he still have a chance to score at that time? If Gao Zheng is restrained by Uzbekistan, can the Chinese team really deal with Uzbekistan?

This concern seemed to prove that the first 22 minutes of the match between China and Uzbekistan was not "unfounded".

Because Uzbekistan scored!