The 9th round of The Qatar World Preliminary Round of 12 In Asia Group B, China's home match against Saudi Arabia will be kicked off at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates at 7 p.m. local time on March 24. Both parties should go to the competition venue for adaptation training one day before the competition. However, because the away team was preferentially selected to train at 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. local time on the 23rd, the Chinese team decided to abandon the plan to go to the competition venue to train after comprehensively considering one side. As a result, the Chinese team adjusted the time for its team to participate in the pre-match press conference. It is understood that with head coach Li Xiaopeng attending the press conference is the defensive backbone Zhang Linpeng, which also indicates that Zhang Linpeng will most likely wear the national football captain's armband in the Sino-Saudi Arabian competition in the case of Wu Xi's suspension.
The venue for the Sino-Saudi arabian competition was arranged in the Sharjah Stadium. According to the regulations, the Saudi team as a away team has the priority to choose the pre-match venue to adapt to the training time. They asked for adaptation training from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. local time on the 23rd. This means that if the Chinese team goes to the competition venue for adaptation training, it must be arranged after the saudi team's training. To this end, the AFC proposed to arrange the start time of the Training of the Chinese team at 8 o'clock that night.
However, in order to avoid the team's own preparation rhythm being disrupted, the national football coaching team decided to abandon the plan to go to the competition venue for pre-match adaptation training after study, and continued to arrange the last pre-match training in the Khalid Stadium in the training base of Sharjah Club. Since the Chinese team had played 3 round of 40 matches and 3 "home" matches of the top 12 at the Sharjah Stadium before this, the whole team was generally familiar with the conditions of this venue. In addition, on the evening of the 20th local time, the team has adapted in advance on this field. Therefore, the adjustment of the pre-match training schedule will not adversely affect the team.
According to the AFC official regulations, the pre-match training of both sides must be open to the media for the first 15 minutes. It is reported that a number of Saudi reporters have arrived in the UAE to report on the match, so the Chinese team has also extended the start time of the last pre-match exercise from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time before, which is exactly the same as the kick-off time of the China-Saudi Arabia match. In this way, Saudi journalists can immediately rush to the Chinese team training site after watching the first 15 minutes of training of the Saudi team. After the adjustment of the last practice time before the game, the time of the Chinese team's pre-match press conference was also adjusted from the original 7:15 to 7:45 p.m. local time on the 23rd to 5:15 p.m. at 4:45 p.m. The Saudi team's pre-match press conference is scheduled from 5:45 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
It is understood that with coach Li Xiaopeng attending the pre-match press conference of the national football team is Zhang Linpeng, the absolute main force in the back line. In the case of Wu Xi's suspension of accumulated yellow cards, Zhang Linpeng will most likely appear on the field as the captain of the national football team in the Zhongsha competition.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao