The 2018 World Cup in Russia is less than 10 months away, and there are only two rounds left in the top 12 of the Asian region.

In Group A, Iran is currently leading the pack with 18 points, China is in second place with 3 points, and South Korea and Uzbekistan are third and fourth with 11 and 10 points respectively.

These four teams are also the only teams left in Group A to qualify, while Iran and China are undoubtedly the two most likely to break through.

In the last two games, the Chinese team only needs one victory to ensure that they will advance to the 2018 World Cup in Russia with their heads held high.

Since 2002, Chinese football has never been so close to the World Cup finals.

Two weeks before the match with the Uzbekistan team, the Chinese Football Association announced the 23-member training list of the Chinese team in the last two games of the World Preliminaries.

In the list, Lippi selected a total of 4 U23 players, Yatai defender He Chao was selected for the Chinese team for the first time, and veteran Zhao Xuyang returned to the national team. Both have been in good form lately, and it can be seen that Lippi's criteria for selecting players are still in recent competitive form.

Evergrande is still the player who has contributed the most international players, and in the case of Huang Bowen's serious injury, there are still six players selected for the national team.

A week before the "Battle of China and Ukraine" competition, the Chinese team sounded the "rallying call" in Wuhan and officially entered the preparation stage of the last home event of the top 12.

In order to meet the upcoming "China-Ukraine War", the Wuhan Organizing Committee has also made arrangements for the event security, food hygiene, transportation security, medical security, etc. in advance.

According to the organizing committee, as early as 10 days ago, they invited the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Drug and Food Administration, and medical, traffic management, transportation and other relevant departments to hold a joint meeting to arrange and deploy a series of things such as event security, food hygiene, traffic security, and medical security, and all this is to ensure that the Chinese team defeats the Uzbekistan team in the last home game on the 31st of this month and enters the Russian World Cup one round ahead of schedule.

For this competition, the Drug and Food Administration sent people to conduct food sampling inspections in the hotels where the two teams stayed. It is understood that the sampling results are satisfactory.

"Actually, it's normal." A person in charge of the organizing committee said that Wuhan has undertaken many international competitions, and the recommended hotels are all five-star hotels, and the food is absolutely trustworthy.

In this competition, the Chinese team chose the Sheraton Hankou Oceanwide Hotel, while the Uzbekistan team chose the Intercontinental Hotel near the Wushu Center.

Because the away team is not familiar with the place, it is reasonable to choose a hotel near the competition venue to facilitate training and competition. The Chinese team's choice to stay at the Sheraton Oceanwide Hotel is more like a "habit".

In March last year, in the top 40, the Chinese team chose the Sheraton Oceanwide Hotel, and finally defeated the Maldives team, laying the foundation for advancing to the top 12 in the future.

This time, the Chinese team chose here again, in addition to a good luck, it also made it easier for them to better prepare for the game.

The Chinese team's pre-match preparation ground is still the same as the previous top 40 against the Maldives team, choosing the No. 1 and No. 3 venues in the Tazihu Football Training Base. Its site and lawn requirements meet international standards.

On the day of the game, the organizing committee will set up a number of bus and subway buses for fans to watch the game. Of course, there will also be some traffic restrictions in place near the competition venue, which is also a preparation for the smooth running of the game.

Before the game, the organizing committee will provide a special bus to transport the players for training, and on the day of the game, there will be a special bus to open the way for the team bus to ensure the smooth progress of the game.

The Wuhan police will activate the strictest security in the history of football matches, and spectators must enter with "one ticket and one ID card" in their real names.

In this game, Wuhan used real-name ticket purchase and real-name ticket verification for the first time in a football match, and the audience must enter the stadium with "one person, one ticket, one ID card", and children under 1.2 meters must enter with tickets under the guidance of adults.

It is worth mentioning that the 45,000 tickets available for sale a week before the "Sino-Ukrainian War" have been sold out, and from the real-name ticket purchase, about 30% of them are fans from this province and about 70% from other places - which means that at least more than 30,000 fans from other provinces have come from afar to support the Chinese team, not including fans who can't buy tickets.

After several on-site inspections, the police set the safety risk level of the competition site as red. The Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau will organize 5,530 security forces on the spot, and at the same time, the city's public security organs will implement first-class service on the day of the competition, and organize more than 6,000 police officers to be on duty.

At the same time, the police will also strengthen the control of civilian "drones", strengthen the maintenance of order at rail transit stations near the venue, and actively divert the flow of people.

On the day Dai Zhiwei departed from Manchester to return to China, the Chinese Football Association China team released a poster for the Chinese men's football team that was about to blow the rallying cry before the big war - "Courage and Perseverance - The Road Ahead is Long, This Heart Will Not Change".

The poster reviews the 60th anniversary of the World Cup from 1957 to 2017!

In the face of the possibility of qualifying again, even if Huaxia football has a long way to go, it will not change its mind!

While the Chinese team is preparing intensively, the Uzbekistan team is also training for the Chinese team. Recently, they played a warm-up match against Kyrgyzstan at home, and the result was a big 5-0 victory.

Rashdorf, Sergeyev, Mirzaev, Masharipov and Heinrich scored for the team. This Central Asian Wolves play a more European style of play and have a stronger impact, among which Akhmedov, who plays for Shanghai SIPG, is the core of the team, and it is worth mentioning that the current Uzbek team is very good at controlling the tempo, often wearing down the opponent's fighting spirit in the first half and then attacking in the second half.

Dai Zhiwei only arrived in Wuhan on the afternoon of the 28th to join the national team, but this is already the shortest time he has theoretically had since Manchester United's victory over Leicester City.

His arrival also brought good weather, and with a light breeze, the temperature in Wuhan gradually dropped.

And the arrival of the last player of the Chinese team has also intensified the tension.

Unlike in the past few days, the Chinese team seemed relatively quiet when training began yesterday, and even some of the team's managers, who are usually happy to talk to each other, chose to remain silent.

On the night of Dai Zhiwei's return to the team, Cai Zhenghua, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, and Zhang Jian, secretary general, also flew to Wuhan, and the Chinese Football Association paid no less attention to the game, but when asked about the topic of "qualifying" and "winning", the staff of the Football Association answered not so directly, they were all eager for the Chinese team to win, but no one dared to put too much pressure on the soldiers.

The Chinese team's starters, Lippi lined up the strongest formation, Evergrande six will start the game, captain Zheng Zhi sits in the midfield, Dai Zhiwei, Yu Hanchao and Wu Lei form an attacking trident.

China line-up:

Goalkeeper: Zeng Cheng

Defenders: Deng Hanwen, Zhang Linpeng, Feng Xiaoting, Li Xuepeng

Midfielders: Zheng Zhi, Hao Junmin, Zhang Xizhe

Forwards: Wu Lei, Dai Zhiwei, Yu Hanchao

Uzbekistan line-up:

Goalkeeper: Nesterov

Defenders: Tukhtahujaev, Klimets, Ismailov, Denisov

Midfielders: Deparov, Akhmedov, Bikmaev, Shomurodov, Shukurov

Forward: Sergeyev

"Against Uzbekistan, we have to pay special attention to the counter-attack, now is not the time to be heroic, but to get points. In particular, Artemisia's defense has not been able to relax. The two wings should pay attention to shrinking back, and don't just think about taking a dragon into the box with a kick and then picking the Uzbekistan team off the horse. We don't have the qualifications to underestimate the enemy, you know? 'Lippi repeatedly stressed tactics to his players in the dressing room before the game.

The players all nodded solemnly, the Uzbekistan team is not an opponent that can be easily defeated, and the opponent still has the possibility of entering the World Cup in Russia, so he will not give up easily.

On the night of the game, Wuhan Sports Center was really crowded, from the first fan to the last fan to sit down, the stadium was always fluttering with passionate singing, seeing their team's players enter, they would give bursts of cheers, and the stadium commentator was constantly inciting the emotions of the Chinese team fans, the atmosphere of Wuhan Sports Center can be said to have reached the extreme.

At a glance, Dai Zhiwei saw that the stands were completely red.

Almost all the fans in the stadium were wearing red T-shirts with the words "Wuhan Hu, Tianxia Ying" printed on them, and Huaxia Football was ready for tonight's game.

In this match, which decided whether the Chinese team could participate in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Uzbekistan team kicked off first, and after passing a few kicks, the ball quickly rolled to Akhmedov's feet.

It's just that as soon as he received the ball, a figure rushed to the front of him and kicked him fiercely, Akhmedov's right leg flung back uncontrollably, but the center of gravity was finally stabilized in the panic, but the football only jumped up and down in place a few times, and was stopped by Hao Junmin and passed back to the backcourt.

From the very beginning, the Chinese team showed the players of the Uzbekistan team that they were bound to win this game!

The players of the Uzbekistan team were stunned by Hao Junmin's steal and looked a little surprised.

However, then the players of the Uzbek team began to wait for the attack of the Chinese team.

After Hao Junmin grabbed the ball, he passed the ball to Zheng Zhi on the right side. At this time, the defense of the Uzbek team was already in place.

As soon as Zheng Zhi received the ball here, the players of the Uzbekistan team over there had already followed. As a result, Zheng Zhi's speed couldn't get up, so he had to hand it over to Wu Lei, the frontcourt organizer of this game, but this time the offense changed from a surprise attack to a positional battle, and the Chinese team lost the best opportunity to sneak attack.

However, at this time, Wu Lei is indeed a sharp blade in the Chinese team, he and Yu Hanchao made a small cooperation on the side, when Yu Hanchao passed to the middle, Wu Lei quickly conceded, a feint to lead the ball brought a defender, and successfully leaked the ball to Dai Zhiwei in the middle.

Dai Zhiwei received the ball with his back on the line of the penalty area, and Ismailov behind him kept pushing him up.

After Dai Zhiwei made a false move, he turned around with the ball in the opposite direction and dodged Ismailov's save, but Uzbekistan had already laid a net against him.

Dai Zhiwei still couldn't hit the goal before Klimetz slid the tackle, and the football was easily held by Nesterov in front of the goal.

The game went on all the time, it was smooth, and the referee rarely honked his horn.

If it weren't for the Uzbek team's gritted teeth and insistence on defending it, with Dai Zhiwei's surprise attack alone, the door of the Uzbek team would have been blasted open more than once or twice.

Singing was heard in the sky above the Wuhan Sports Center, and in the eyes of the Chinese fans, it was only a matter of time before the team attacked so fiercely that it was only a matter of time before they scored goals, so they tirelessly sang praises for the team, encouraging their beloved team to take down the shrunken Uzbekistan team early.

But it turns out that Huaxia fans are too optimistic!

The Uzbekistan team took the lead in the 12th minute, the Chinese team's attack was intercepted, the Uzbekistan team launched a counterattack at the first time, Jeparov passed, Shomurodov shot hard from 25 yards on the left, Zeng Cheng failed to prevent the ball from going into the net.

0:1！

The entire Wuhan Sports Center lost its voice at the moment when Shomurodov's shot flew across the goal line, and the silence was terrifying!

Even the hundreds of Uzbek fans who came from afar did not dare to make any cheers on behalf of the nearly 50,000 Chinese fans!

For Chinese fans, this is an unacceptable nightmare start!

After opening the scoring, the Uzbekistan team's attack was completely opened, and they played better and better with a relaxed mentality, and immediately, the Chinese team's back line sounded the alarm, and under the involvement of two attacking players, Bikmaev and Akhmedov both got the chance to hit the goal, and they really succeeded again.

The Uzbekistan team expanded the score in the 19th minute, Shukurov broke through to the edge of the penalty area to send a through pass to Feng Xiaoting and Zhang Linpeng, Li Xuepeng's delay allowed Sergeyev to successfully counter offside, and he easily shook Zeng Cheng and shot into the empty goal.

0:2！

"! What's going on? ”

Seeing Sergeyev celebrating in front of the Chinese team's goal, Dai Zhiwei clenched his fists.

If it weren't for the only sanity left, he really wanted to give Sergeyev, who was standing in front of the goal of the Chinese team and celebrating loudly, an iron fist of punishment and tell him: You are a trash!

Dai Zhiwei's performance in this game is actually not bad, he completed 3 shots in the first 18 minutes, 2 of which hit the goal frame, as long as he continues to keep it, it is a matter of time before he breaks the goal.

However, the progress of the game was beyond everyone's expectations.

Before the game, the whole Chinese team and fans thought that the team would win this game easily, but now it seems that they have this idea completely ignorant - the current Chinese team has no qualifications to underestimate the enemy.

Lippi was confused, from the beginning he judged that according to his own tactics, even if the Chinese team did not lead in the first half, it should not fall behind, but from the current situation, his reputation is about to be lost.

Could it be that in the case of a good situation, Chinese football will once again become the laughing stock of the country?