Chapter 456: Dominance
The performance of the Dragon Country team in the top 12 of the Asian zone of this World Cup qualifier is amazing!
The first five rounds of victories allowed the Dragon Team to grasp the initiative to advance early, and did not fall into the dilemma of catching up four years ago again.
However, in the sixth round, in the away match with the Australian team, the dragon country team encountered a test.
The Australian team has created a lot of trouble for the Dragon Country team in their home stadium, although Shen Feng did his best in this game, scored a goal, and planned to score, and indirectly assisted his teammates to score a goal, but still could not bring victory to the Dragon Country team.
The other players of the Dragon Country team were collectively lost in this game, sleepwalking on the field, and their performance was substandard and disappointing.
The league momentum of the Dragon Country team in the round of 12 came to an abrupt end and was forced to draw 2:2 by the Australian team.
The fans and media of the Dragon Country did not criticize the Dragon Country team because of this draw, because even if they won a draw, the performance of the Dragon Country team in the top 12 matches was still remarkable.
The point is, the lead is still obvious.
In this round of the Japanese team's match with the North Korean team, the careless loss of Jingzhou, 1:2 away to the North Korean team, in the round of 12 and the North Korean team's game, one draw and one loss, now the wind falls.
Because of this defeat, the Japanese team's ranking in Group A also fell from second place in the standings to third place, and was overtaken by the North Korean team.
After the North Korean team won this victory, in the first six rounds of the round of 12, they have won three games, one draw, and only lost two, showing unexpected toughness.
With only four rounds left in the round of 12, the Dragons are as many as eight points ahead of third-placed Japan in the group, not to mention the goal difference, which basically ensures the top three spots in the group.
Such a performance offset the frustration of being beaten by the first draw in the top 12 to a certain extent.
After the sixth round, the round of 12 will enter a four-month off-season, with the next match not taking place until March 18 next year.
Shen Feng, along with other Dragon Nation internationals who play in Europe, did not return to Dragon Country with the team after the match against the Australian team, but flew directly back to Europe to continue the club game.
Other Dragon Nation internationals who play in the Dragon Super League will start their holidays.
However, the holiday season is not long, because in mid-December, the Dragons will regroup to prepare for the Confederations Cup, the test match for the World Cup in Qatar next January, January 2021.
The Confederations Cup is a World Cup test match organized by FIFA, the event is arranged in the year before the World Cup, and the venue is the host country of the World Cup in the second year.
There are a total of eight places for the Confederations Cup, and in addition to the host country and the winner of the last World Cup, the other six places belong to the new champions of the six continental cups except Antarctica.
The Dragons are the champions of the Asian Cup, so they have qualified to represent Asia in this Confederations Cup.
In this event, there was an unexpected situation, that is, the Dragon Country team not only won the Asian Cup, but also won the championship of the last America's Cup!
In the 2019 Copa America, the Dragon Team defeated Argentina, Brazil and other world powerhouses as an away team and won the Copa America!
Let the South American Football Confederation, in the following two years, become a joke in international football.
In order to avoid embarrassment, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) had to urgently negotiate an emergency Copa America in 2020, the year after the last Copa America, to re-decide a South American champion to represent South America in the Confederations Cup.
The 2020 Copa America was won by Uruguay – the sixteenth Copa America title in Uruguay's history!
In addition to the Asian Cup champion Dragon Nation, the Copa America champion Uruguay, the host Qatar team, and the last World Cup champion France, the remaining four participating teams are the African Cup of Nations champion Cameroon, the Oceania Cup of Nations champion New Zealand, and the Central and North American and Caribbean Gold Cup champion Costa Rica.
Originally, the last place in the competition belonged to the new European Cup champion France, but because the French team had already obtained the right to participate in the previous World Cup, the team representing Europe in this Confederations Cup was postponed to the runner-up of the European Cup.
This past summer, England were the runners-up team in the European Championship.
The eight teams will be divided into two groups, with a single round-robin match in the Confederations Cup, with the top two teams advancing to the semi-finals before a single-elimination match to determine the winner.
In the group draw ceremony that has been completed, the Dragons are in Group B with England, Cameroon and New Zealand, and the host Qatar, France, Uruguay and Costa Rica are in Group A.
The Confederations Cup will be played from January 3 to January 16 at six stadiums in Qatar.
This is the first time for the Dragon Team to participate in the Confederations Cup, and they attach great importance to this event, and it is also a rare opportunity for the Dragon Team to be able to compete with strong players such as England and Cameroon in the game.
However, the Dragon Country team did not have too many expectations for the result of this game, and the biggest purpose of the competition was to train soldiers.
More importantly, it is the World Cup qualifiers.
The time of this year's Confederations Cup coincides with the winter break of the Serie A League, and Shen Feng represents the Dragon Team in this Confederations Cup, so he doesn't have to miss too many Inter Milan games.
After the match with the Australian team in the World Cup qualifiers Asian round of 12, after returning to Serie A, Shen Feng seemed to bring the bad luck of the Dragon Country team back to the Inter Milan team, allowing the Inter Milan team to eat the first draw in Serie A in more than a season.
Inter Milan's winning streak in Serie A is therefore fixed at 55 games, and the Serie A league record for the new season is also up to 15 rounds.
Even so, Inter Milan still set an unattainable record in international football!
Before Inter Milan's one-and-a-half-season winning streak, the winning streak in Europe's top five leagues was only 19 games, and Inter Milan has now nearly tripled this record!
The 15-game winning streak in Serie A in the new season is also the record for consecutive wins in Europe's top five leagues this season.
Inter Milan's performance this season is still the best among the giants in Europe's top five leagues.