Chapter 256: Red Wave
The day after China eliminated Japan to advance to the Asian Cup final, another semi-final was played, with hosts the United Arab Emirates taking on Qatar.
Just 22 minutes into the first half, the UAE goalkeeper made a mistake in a save to give Qatar a 1-0 lead.
Before half-time, Qatar's Almoez Ali scored to widen the gap 2:0.
In the 80th minute of the second half, Qatar scored another goal to seal the victory and lead 3:0.
In stoppage time, the UAE team made a mistake and sent another goal, and finally the Qatar team eliminated the host UAE 4-0, and advanced to the final for the first time in 43 years since participating in the Asian Cup in 1976!
It is worth mentioning that the 22-year-old demon star Ali of the Qatar team scored the 8th goal of this Cup, tying the single Asian Cup goal record held by Ali Daei for 23 years!
Dai Zhiwei is currently ranked second in the Asian Cup goal list with 6 goals, and there is still a gap of 2 goals from Ali, but he hurried back to the team after the quarterfinals, and he scored a hat-trick in two consecutive games in the following two games.
However, just before the Asian Cup final between the Chinese team and the Qatar team, the hottest topic in China was not the discussion of the final, but the scandal between Yang Chaoyue and Dai Zhiwei.
On the second day of the Sino-Japanese War, some netizens broke the news on social platforms that after the game, the hotel where Yang Chaoyue of the Rocket Girls Group lived was very close to the hotel where the Chinese team stayed, so they went to the hotel to visit Dai Zhiwei at night.
Subsequently, Yang Chaoyue's economic team denied the relationship and posted: "Mr. Dai has been entrenched in the single camp for a long time and wasted public resources. β
And Dai Zhiwei himself also came forward to deny the relationship on Weibo, posting: "I received a bottle of peach blossom wine on my birthday last year, hoping to get off the list, but the visual inspection has not worked." Hope to have a good performance in the finals! β
Although he denied it, netizens complained one after another: The words of celebrities, just listen to them.
β¦β¦
On February 1, 2019, the weather was sunny at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Today, it is the venue for the final of the 2019 Asian Cup.
AFC President Salman and other giants came to the VIP table early to sit with the officials of the UAE Football Association to watch the most important match of the year in Asian football.
In addition to these Asian football giants and some football celebrities, senior officials of the UAE also sat in a VIP seat, in addition to the appearance of managers of major European teams and other people also attracted a lot of media attention.
It was getting late, the stands were packed, and the players of the two teams participating in the final had already walked into the stadium under the guidance of the referee on duty, and the game was about to begin.
Today's opponent of the Chinese team is the Qatar team, the dark horse of the men's football team in the Asian Cup. The first to kick off is this absolute dark horse, the Qatar team with a formation of 4-4-2 is obviously playing the idea of defending with all its might, and the Chinese team is the old lineup.
The starting lineup of the Chinese teamββ
Goalkeeper: Yan Junling
Defenders: Liu Yang, Shi Ke, Zhang Linpeng, Liu Yiming
Midfielders: Hao Junmin, Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi
Forwards: Zhang Yuning, Dai Zhiwei, Wu Lei
Qatar's starting line-up β
Goalkeeper: Saad
Defenders: Karim Hassan, Pedro Correa, Bassam Sisam, Tariq Salman
Midfielders: Bouilem Hokshi, Akram Afif, Aziz Hatem, Asim Madibo
Forwards: Hassan Haydos, Almoise Ali
After Almoise Ali and Hassan Haydos drove the ball, only Almoise Ali turned and rushed into the backfield of the Chinese team, and Hassan Haydos's first reaction was not to press the attack, but to defend in a position.
"It looks like this final is not going to be good." Although he was involved in scandals in the past two days, Dai Zhiwei still put all his mind on this game, and the team in front of him, which had no desire in attack, was destined to give him a headache as soon as he started.
"But will they be able to stop my thirsty sledgehammer?"
The Qatar team, which made every effort to shape the iron gate in front of the goal, easily gave away possession, and Liu Yang gently pushed the ball to Wu Lei's feet.
Wu Lei then knocked with his right foot, and the ball quickly rolled to the front of Hao Junmin, and then Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning, who had already started, sprinted to the backcourt of the Qatar team.
Quickly crossing the halfway line, Hao Junmin smashed the ball with his left foot, shook off Akram Afif, who pounced on the steal, and then knocked the ball with his right foot, and the ball fell to Zheng Zhi's feet.
Without waiting for Zheng Zhi to take the ball, Aziz Hatem rushed over quickly and stealed. Zheng Zhi approached the ball with an arrow step, and after firmly protecting the ball, his body shook and caused Aziz Hatem's body to deviate slightly, and he poked the ball with his toes and quickly wiped it over.
Aziz Hatem's face changed, and he immediately turned around and desperately chased after Zheng Zhi's figure.
Although Zheng Zhi is getting older, but the game has just begun, his physical fitness is not inferior to his young opponent, Aziz Hatem was completely unable to catch up with this old guy for a while, and could only watch Zheng Zhi burst to the front of the penalty area.
Hassan Haydos rushed over with all his might, and Karim Hassan also made a quick save from the penalty area.
Facing the two "Hassan", Zheng Zhi's sudden figure stopped, and he looked up to find Dai Zhiwei's figure.
When there is a problem, finding Dai Zhiwei has become the most important offensive tactic of the Chinese team.
Zheng Zhi just glanced at it, and then his right foot moved, and the ball had already rolled over quickly.
Pedro Correa desperately pestered Dai Zhiwei to prevent Dai Zhiwei from easily receiving the ball and breaking through, and Bassam West Sam also rushed over, wanting to intercept Dai Zhiwei head-on.
However, Dai Zhiwei's movements were very slippery, and with a twist of his body, he broke away from Pedro Correa's entanglement, picked up the ball with his right foot, and passed the ball from the head of Bassam Sisam into the Qatar team's penalty area.
Due to the attack of Pedro Correa, Bassam Sissam and Karim Hassan, only Tariq Salman and Bouwarem Hokshi were left in the penalty area to defend Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning, and the Qatar team's defensive strength looked very weak at this moment.
Take advantage of his illness and kill him!
Zhang Yuning quickly pounced on the landing point of the ball, and his feet soared into the air, grabbing before Tariq Salman, who was also jumping to the top, and the header was ferried in front of Wu Lei.
Wu Lei and Bouilem Hokshi both pounced on the ball, and just after the ball hit the ground, they just bounced up, and both feet kicked over quickly, almost at the same time, both feet kicked the ball.
The ball flew towards the goal, and the goalkeeper of the Qatar team, Saad, who had been prepared, rose up and flew towards the goal.
Although Saad's arm did not reach the ball, it did not run into the goal behind him, but flew off the line by grazing the post.
Wu Lei and Bouarem Hokshi turned around at the same time and raised their arms to look at the referee, shouting in unison that the opponent had touched the ball out of the bottom line.
Unfortunately, the referee's finger was firmly pointed at the goal, and the goal kick was awarded to the Qatar team.
The ball boy quickly threw the ball in, Saad picked it up unhurriedly, walked to the line of the small penalty area, and then looked up at the midfield before driving the ball out - this game Qatar team wants to use all means to consume the time of the game as much as possible.
Tariq Salman took the ball from Saad and fired a through ball to the feet of Hassan Haydos, who faced Ramsey who pounced on him and moved his left foot to get to the feet of Akram Afif.
Akram Afif reached out to catch the ball, and the figure of Hao Junmin had already pounced on him, interfering with his ball, and in desperation, he had to pass the ball to the side.
Unexpectedly, Zheng Zhi behind Asim Madibo suddenly started to kill, squeezed away and stretched out his feet to catch Asim Madibo, cut off the ball first, and at the same time pushed the ball with his feet, and the ball rushed to Dai Zhiwei, who was looking for an opportunity in the backfield of the Qatar team.
After a few breaths, Dai Zhiwei, who was running with the ball, was already gradually pulling away from Asim Madibo.
How could Bassam Sisam in the penalty area stay still, gritted his teeth and desperately rushed out again, and pounced on Dai Zhiwei head-on, although he knew that it was difficult for him to intercept Dai Zhiwei, but even if he stopped the opponent for a second, he could give other Qatar players more time to organize the defense.
In the face of Bassam Sisam's ushering interception, Dai Zhiwei, who was running, hid the ball behind him with a step after Bassam Sisam pounced, and knocked his right heel down, but the ball was picked up from behind Bassam Sisam's head.
Rainbow overlooked!
Bassam-Sisam was angry for a while, and before he could turn around, Dai Zhiwei's figure had quickly wiped his side.
However, Bassam Sisam was not entirely in vain, and the next blocker, Karim Hassan, had already pounced on Dai Zhiwei quickly.
Facing Karim Hassan, Dai Zhiwei looked at the position of goalkeeper Saad, and then looked at the running position of Zhang Yuning and Wu Lei's two teammates.
Tariq Salman was in a hurry, giving up the defense and Wu Lei was about to pounce, but Dai Zhiwei didn't want Karim Hassan behind him to bring him any more trouble after breaking through Karim Hassan, so he smashed the ball with his left foot, and quickly followed with his right foot is a slash!
Saad moved desperately, roaring and flying to the ground and rolling towards the goal, but although his movements were very standard, his arms stretched to the extreme still could not touch the ball.
Dai Zhiwei's shot was too tricky, grazing the inside of the post in the far corner and running into the goal line, which was blocked by the side net and rolled back to Saad's back.
1:0οΌ
The cheers rose to the sky, and the vast majority of Chinese fans were thunderous!
"The 7th goal!" He Wei of Huaxia TV Sports Channel looked at Dai Zhiwei's outstretched seven fingers and explained, "This is Dai Zhiwei's 7th goal in this Asian Cup, only a few goals short of Almoez Ali's 8 goals, Director Xu, do you think Dai Zhiwei is likely to achieve a comeback?" β
Today's partner with He Wei is still Xu Yang, he smiled, "It is not difficult for Dai Zhiwei to score another goal for the Qatar team, it depends on whether he cares about this honor, after all, the Asian Cup Golden Boot Award may not be an important award in his opinion." β
Xu Yang couldn't stop being proud when he said this: When will our Chinese players not even be able to look at the Asian Cup Golden Boot?
Qatar coach Felix Sanchez's old face turned red with anger at the goal, and he stood on the edge of the pitch with a gloomy face, but he was not a first-class manager, and he didn't know how to make adjustments - in fact, even if the world's top coach changed to his position, he was helpless to face Dai Zhiwei.
Silently picking up the ball from the back of the net, Saad slammed it into the middle of the field, where his team-mates were already frustrated and awaiting another kick-off.
The referee did not let the Chinese players waste more time, and quickly recalled Dai Zhiwei and others in celebration, so that the game could be restarted again.
After the Qatar team's Almoiz Ali and Akram Afif drove the ball, they did not delay time in the midfield, and quickly rushed to the backfield of Huaxia, but they could not organize a decent attack in the face of the Chinese team's defense for a while, so they could only choose to pass the ball back to their own backfield.
Hassan Haydos received the ball from Tariq Salman from the backfield, and Wu Lei's steal allowed him to quickly pass the ball to Aziz Hatem.
But Aziz Hatem also failed to form a breakthrough, and Zheng Zhi's figure was already pressing in front of him.
In terms of the strength of the midfield, the Chinese team is not weaker than the Qatar team, after all, Zheng Zhi, Hao Junmin and Wu Xi have all experienced the baptism of the World Cup, which is slightly worse than the Japanese team, but it is already a first-class level in Asia.
The only problem is that there is no successor, Zheng Zhi is 39 years old, Hao Junmin is 33 years old, the youngest Wu Xi is still half a month away, and the other players are still embarrassed.
Intercepted by Zheng Zhi, Aziz Hatem's forward figure froze, and the ball was quickly passed to the feet of Hassan Haydos.
Hassan Haydos didn't dare to slack off, facing the ball rolling over, and without waiting for Hao Junmin to pounce on and steal, a pick pass turned out to pass the ball directly behind him and fell to the feet of Akram Afif, who came back to receive the ball.
Liu Yang quickly pounced from the penalty area, trying to interfere with Akram Afif's ball protection and passing.
How dare Akram Afif linger in the Chinese team's defense?
He glanced at Almoise Ali's form, moved his feet, and quickly passed the ball.
Almoise Ali, who is currently the first in the Asian Cup scoring list, is in the penalty area, empty!
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