Fans who pay attention to the Top 12 of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia should know that after losing to Vietnam, the Chinese team has withdrawn from the competition for the right to qualify in advance, and the next two rounds of competition have also become a battle for honor. In Group B, there is a team whose performance is also very disappointing to their fans, after 8 rounds, they have a hard to win, and the points are comparable to the national football team. It is worth mentioning that this team has also won the Asian championship!
I believe that many fans have guessed that this is the Iraqi team from West Asia. At the 2007 Asian Cup, the Iraqi team went all the way to the end without being favored, and unbelievably lifted the Asian Cup championship trophy. However, with the retirement of the golden generation such as Younis, the strength of the Iraqi team has inevitably declined. In this year's Round of 12, Iraq won the first 8 rounds of the competition and temporarily ranked 5th in the group with a record of 5 draws and 3 losses.
On this national team match day, Iraq also played two rounds of matches against Iran and Lebanon. The battle with Iran was originally a good opportunity for the Iraqi team to score points. Because the number one star of the Iranian team, Azmoun, was unfortunately infected with the new crown virus and did not go out with the team, but in the face of such a huge advantage, the Iraqi team still did not seize the opportunity. Although they held out for 45 minutes, the city gate was lost in the second half. Center Talemi scored the only goal of the game to lock the score between the two teams to 1-0, and iraq moved to Lebanon with regret.
In the second game against lebanon, the Iraqi team occupies a relatively large advantage in terms of paper strength and world ranking. Iraq did score first, with striker Hussein scoring the lead. But just before half-time, Lebanese defender Sabra equalised the score with a chaotic battle in front of goal. In the second half, both teams did not achieve anything, the 1-1 score was maintained until the end, and iraq's dream of 3 points was completely destroyed.
After 8 rounds, the Iraqi team won a win and only got 5 points, just equal to the Chinese team. However, unlike the Chinese team, in the B group where the Iraqi team is located, there is still hope of qualifying for 5 points. With two consecutive wins in the last two rounds, Iraq has the hope of beating the UAE to third place in the group and qualify for the play-offs. The opponents of the last two rounds of Iraq are the United Arab Emirates and the Syrian team, which have been out of the game early, and whether they can seize the opportunity depends on themselves.
Not long ago, the Iraqi Football Association has issued an official announcement that coach Petrović has been dismissed due to poor results in leading the team. The FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION will set up a professional committee to discuss the team's future plans. It is worth mentioning that this is already the second manager of the Iraqi team to leave the class during the round of 12, and their previous coach was the Dutch coach Edowakat, but after the 3-0 defeat at home to South Korea, Edvarkat resigned as the coach. Today's successor Petrović still has not led the team out of the slump, and he has not escaped the fate of the class. Seeing the iraqi football association's approach, many Chinese fans are also calling for it, hoping that the Chinese football association can learn from it and directly fire Li Xiaopeng, the "firefighting coach" who led the team to lose humiliatingly to the Vietnamese team.
I don't know if this change of coach will make the Iraqi team reborn?