On March 20, the Chinese men's football team continued to train in Sharjah, UNITED ARAB Emirates. In this expedition to West Asia, Li Xiaopeng recruited 25 players. Due to Li Lei's injury in the training of grasshopper clubs, it is expected that he will be suspended for 4 weeks, and he will not qualify for the next two World Preliminary Round of 12 matches. Naturalized player Jiang Guangtai has already arrived in the UAE for training, and after the arrival of the national football team, he has returned to the team to participate in joint training and is expected to continue to serve as the main force.
According to the arrangement, the Chinese men's football team and the U23 men's football team arrived in the UAE on a chartered plane on March 17, and the two teams stayed together at the hotel in Sharjah. On the 18th and 19th, the Chinese men's football team has conducted two trainings, and the team's personnel are relatively neat at this stage. In addition to Li Lei's absence due to injury, the rest of the players participated in the training on the 19th, and Li Xiaopeng can determine the main lineup against Saudi Arabia according to the state of the players.
The only naturalized players are Jiang Guangtai who has arrived in the UAE, while Alain, Lo Guofu, Axon and Fernando are all in Brazil, who have not trained systematically for a long time and are not in good physical condition. Originally, the Football Association arranged 4 players to conduct relevant tests, and then decided whether to recruit 4 people, but the 4 people failed to participate in the test as required, and the national football coaching team also made a decision to directly abandon 4 naturalized players. In contrast, Jiang Guangtai has not only passed the test, but has also recently stayed in the UAE to train and wait for the arrival of the national football team.
On the 18th, the national football team completed its first training after arriving in the United Arab Emirates, gao zhun wing was absent due to illness, and the rest of the players were trained to adapt. On the 19th, Gao Zhunyi's physical recovery, he also participated in the joint training normally, and 24 players of the national football team can participate in the future preparation. Sun Jihai, assistant coach of the national football team, also stressed in an interview that the national football team is a team, and everyone is part of the team and will go all out.
According to the schedule, the national football team will face Saudi Arabia at 21:00 Beijing time on March 24, this game, Saudi Arabia can qualify for the World Cup in advance as long as it wins, and they will also arrive in the United Arab Emirates in advance to prepare for the game, and attach great importance to this key showdown. For the national football team, in the case of losing the opportunity to qualify in advance, the whole team must also go all out to play a good game, after all, the previous two losses caused a lot of repercussions, especially the 1-3 loss to Vietnam made the whole team very stressed, Li Xiaopeng also hopes to enhance the confidence of the team through the next two World Preliminary Round of 12 matches.
Judging from the overall lineup configuration, the national football team has not changed and adjusted much, but the main lineup will have some minor adjustments. Especially in the absence of Wu Lei and 4 naturalized players, Li Xiaopeng wants to create a new offensive combination. In the 3 warm-up matches in Haikou, the national football team is the lineup of the 343 drill. Not surprisingly, Yan Junling is still the starting goalkeeper, the back line adopts the configuration of 3 defenders, Zheng Zheng, Zhu Chenjie and Zhang Linpeng start many times in the warm-up game, and Jiang Guangtai will compete for the main position after returning to the team. The positions of the two wing-backs, Liu Yang, Wang Shenchao, Ji Xiang and Tong Lei, and Gao Zhunyi all had opportunities. Defender Wu Xi was suspended, Liao Lisheng, Xu Xin, Jin Jingdao and others participated in the competition, and the forward line Liu Binbin, Zhang Yuning and Dai Weijun had a greater chance of starting, and the three also started many times in the warm-up match. On the whole, the formation and playing style of the national football team will change, and as for the effect, it can only wait for the game to be tested.