For this upcoming AFC Champions League matchup, the entire Asian football community has paid close attention. Not only Chinese media, but also Japanese and South Korean media in East Asia have also offered advice to Evergrande. In the eyes of the Japanese and South Korean media, this duel between the strongest teams in East and West Asia is related to the "honor of East Asian football", and the AFC Champions League champions in the last five years have all been won by East Asian teams, and the Japanese and Korean media hope that Evergrande can defend this honor.

Evergrande's opponent in the final was Dubai Al Ahly FC from the United Arab Emirates. The champions of last season's UAE Premier League knocked out many of the giants of West Asia to reach the AFC Champions League final for the first time in their history, and the desire for the title speaks for itself. Even the UAE royal family has expressed great interest in this final.

Compared with the cautiousness and excitement of the opponent, Evergrande seems to be relaxed. Head coach Scolari even gave the squad a short two-day holiday. However, for Wen Zhihao, who has nowhere to go in Guangzhou, it is obviously better to practice at the base to be fulfilling.

After Brazilian international Paulinho arrived in the second half of the league, Wen Zhihao quickly got on good terms with him, and asked Paulinho from time to time for some midfield defensive skills. After all, the Spanish dream midfielder who led Xavi and Iniesta in the 2013 Confederations Cup final was locked into stealth.

From the first day he arrived at the team, Paulinho was deeply amazed by Wen Zhihao's talent, and even called Wen Zhihao "Chinese Neymar" in private. For this talented young junior to humbly ask for advice from him, Paulinho naturally will not hide his secrets. Of course, with the guidance of this kind of midfield defensive master, Wen Zhihao's improvement on the defensive end is predictable.

On the first day of the holiday, when Wen Zhihao came to the gate of the training base, Paulinho was already waiting for him there. Seeing Wen Zhihao, Paulinho immediately walked over and hammered Wen Zhihao's chest, and said half-jokingly: "Hey, you kid is really boring, take a good vacation and let the uncle come to accompany you to practice, you bother me to pick up girls!" You've got to make it up to me! ”

Wen Zhihao glanced at him, pushed the boat down the river and said, "Yo, Jose, what's the matter, why don't I wait for the end of the matter and I invite you to a dragon?" ”

"Really? Hey, that's what you said! Paulinho unceremoniously climbed up the pole.

Wen Zhihao also saw the thickness of this guy's face, and immediately said: "Say you're big!" Hurry up and get down to business, believe it or not, I won't pass you the ball in the final? ”

Paulinho didn't dare to say anything more immediately. The man in front of him is the core of the team's midfield, the brain of the offensive organization, and who he passes the ball to depends on the mood of others. If you really let yourself run on the field for 90 minutes, it will be really hard.

According to Paulinho, Wen Zhihao's defensive ability can be graduated, but Wen Zhihao is not satisfied, he wants to learn the unique skill of the "violent bird": ultra-long-distance set-piece shot.

But Paulinho did not advise Wen Zhihao to learn. He said that Wen Zhihao is still young, and the muscle density and explosiveness of his legs are not enough to support the intensity of shots from a distance of more than 35 meters. Wen Zhihao doesn't believe in evil, and wants to try it after watching Paulinho's demonstration a few times. However, I tried a few times, and all of them jerked off without exception. Wen Zhihao shook his head helplessly, it seems that it is really not good, and he should not use this trick unless he has to.

Four days before the start of the finals, the whole Evergrande team rushed to Dubai on the special plane of the boss Xu Jiayin to prepare for the away trip of the first leg of the finals. This is Evergrande's special treatment every major event, Wen Zhihao can't help but sigh that it is really a giant, with a lot of money, even the top clubs participating in the Champions League final are estimated to have no such treatment, and he has a little more confidence in his heart.

In such major continental finals, the madness of the Chinese media can often shock the world. Domestic television, Internet and paper media sent a huge reporting team, with a total of nearly 200 people to follow up on Evergrande, and various media have given predictions for the finals and expressed optimism about Evergrande's prospects. After all, the background of the AFC Champions League is not comparable to the opponent.

At the same time, the official website of the AFC also made an outlook. This AFC Champions League final is defined as a "showdown of twin stars". The reason is that former Brazilian Cruzeiro's twin stars Goulart and Ribeiro will play together as opponents for the first time, and the AFC believes that this set of matchups will be the highlight of the final.

Domestic fans were dissatisfied with the AFC's selective ignorance of Wen Zhihao, who was about to be crowned the Golden Boot, and tens of thousands of fans sent encouragement through Wen Zhihao's Weibo, and as Wen Zhihao's performance continued to highlight, his Weibo followers soared to 2 million. There are also countless fan girls who have left messages to be Wen Zhihao's girlfriend and give him a monkey. Wen Zhihao chose not to care about this and smiled. Now only wins and championships can keep him motivated. The rest, let's talk about it later.

……

"CCTV! Cctv! Audience friends, you are watching the first leg of the 2015 Asian Football Club Champions League Finals......" accompanied by He Wei's formatted CCTV opening remarks, the first leg of the final officially started at Dubai Rashid Stadium.

Scolari continued to use a regular starting XI for this game. Guomen Zeng Cheng continued to guard the goal, due to the suspension of South Korean central defender Kim Yingquan, four international players Feng Xiaoting, Mei Fang, Zhang Linpeng, Li Xuepeng sat in the back, midfield double back captain Zheng Zhi partnered Paulinho, Goulart and Wen Zhihao still appeared in the center and right position of the forward line, as the offensive duo, the international player Zheng Long was in the left midfield, and the single arrow was the Brazilian Elkeson.

Dubai Al Ahly, who was fighting at home, took the initiative to shrink the formation and play a defensive counterattack, but the opponent's defense was extremely aggressive, and the Evergrande players turned their backs many times in the frontcourt.

Wen Zhihao knew that the opponent was going to adopt hooligan tactics again, and his teammates lacked confidence in taking the ball under this kind of defense. After experiencing this kind of scene many times, Wen Zhihao decisively chose to make a personal breakthrough and open up the situation with points and faces.

After making a decision, Wen Zhihao no longer hesitated, facing the body of the opponent's lower back, Wen Zhihao lowered his center of gravity in a half-squat posture, and spread his arms in front of the opponent. Wen Zhihao felt the change in the power of the opponent's body, and gently picked the ball with his right toe with his back to the opponent, and the Al Ahly player only felt a black and white thing flicker in front of his eyes, and his chest was hit inexplicably, and the yellow figure in front of him suddenly disappeared.

His heart suddenly tightened, and he hurriedly looked back at his own half.

Wen Zhihao took the ball forward a few meters after getting rid of it, seeing that there was no teammate to plug in, Elkeson on the front line was pressed close to the opponent's defender Adimar, and he simply swung his calf hard, and the outside of the arch of his right foot was pumped along the middle and lower part of the football, and the ball flew towards the goal with an imperceptible arc, and goalkeeper Ahmed struggled to stretch his body to the extreme, but still failed to touch the ball. Just as the Evergrande players were ready to celebrate, the ball grazed the left post and hit the billboard behind the goal.

The home team fans at the scene were all exclaiming, Wen Zhihao covered his head with a wry smile, his face was full of disbelief, the feedback of this ball was very good, why didn't it go in?

He Wei's tone in the comment seat was full of regret: "Oops! What a pity! Wen Zhihao's beautiful pick-up pass, a very threatening long-range shot, is just a fraction away from the goal! ”

Then He Wei joked in a brisk tone: "Before the game, the official website of the AFC believed that the duel between the former Cruzeiro twin stars was the focus of the final, and Wen Zhihao's series of performances just now was a blatant stealing of the scene?" ”

The fans who stayed up late in front of the TV to watch the game laughed when they heard this.

Stealing the show?

Who is the protagonist in this year's AFC Champions League?