After 8 rounds of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia, Saudi Arabia, a veteran strong team that has won the Asian Cup three times, maintained its first position, leading the B group standings with 19 points, Japan ranked second in the standings with 18 points, Australia ranked third with 15 points, Oman ranked fourth with 8 points, The Chinese men's football team ranked fifth with 5 points, and Vietnam ranked at the bottom with 3 points. The Saudis had a chance to kill the promotion suspense, but they missed the opportunity to go straight to Qatar two rounds earlier, losing 2-0 to direct rival Japan in the 8th round.
It is worth mentioning that the 0-2 loss to Japan is Saudi Arabia's first defeat in the Asian round of 12 of the World Preliminary Round, and this defeat may be fatal, because it means that Saudi Arabia is now even the first place, and it is afraid that it will not be able to qualify for the World Cup, and the last two rounds may be done by Australia and China's men's football team. According to the current situation, Saudi Arabia's 4-point advantage is not safe, and the last two rounds have been against the Chinese men's football team and Australia.
In terms of lineup configuration, Saudi Arabia and the Chinese men's football team are comparable, the first leg once kicked out the glue game screen, and finally won the Chinese men's football team 3-2, but the second half of the game was once crushed by the Chinese men's football team; Saudi Arabia and Australia are clearly distinguished, Australia's overall strength has obvious advantages, there are many players in Europe, Saudi Arabia has no players in Europe, the card disadvantage is obvious, although the first leg is a 0-0 draw, but Australia's offensive is fierce, Saudi Arabia with the excellent performance of goalkeeper Mohammed Yamigao to get 1 point.
What is more sinister is that the Chinese men's football team confirmed that it will still exert its strength in the last two rounds, and will not be discouraged to Saudi Arabia because it is out of the round two rounds in advance, and the Football Association has issued an order to the national football team to fight to the end. At that time, Li Xiaopeng may use more impactful young players and a group of naturalized players, such a combination of tactical characteristics will be more distinct, the advantages of naturalized players may be highlighted, which will be a very unfavorable situation for Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia loses to the Chinese men's football team, and Australia breaks the cold in the case of hard bar Japanese team, the probability of Saudi Arabia's exit will be greatly improved, and it is feared that 2 consecutive defeats will be directly squeezed by Australia to the third place.
Although the third place has the opportunity to participate in the playoff counterattack promotion, but there is little hope, the intercontinental play-off team in the Asian region of the World Preliminary Tournament will play against the intercontinental play-off team in the South American region, Chile, Peru and Colombia in the South American region are competing for the intercontinental play-off place, if Saudi Arabia participates in the play-off as the third place, even if it defeats the third place in Group A, it will also have a high probability of losing to the top south American team, thus missing the World Cup. Therefore, in a sense, the match between Saudi Arabia and the national football team is a life and death battle, according to the official announcement of the AFC, the kick-off time of this match is arranged in Beijing at 23:00 on March 24, the match is played at the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates, and the national football team will play as the home team, which will be the best opportunity for the national football team to find a sense of existence.