At 23:00 Beijing time on March 24, the Chinese men's football team will sit in the 9th round of Group B of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia, sitting at the "home" Sharjah Stadium to face the strong opponent Saudi Arabia. Although the Chinese men's football team has missed the World Cup in advance, as coach Li Xiaopeng said before the game, the Chinese men's football team needs to fight for the face of Chinese football. In this game, there are still 5 major points worth paying attention to by Chinese fans.
Highlight 1: The national football team will fight for the face of Chinese football and strive to avoid 3 consecutive defeats
The Chinese men's football team entered the 2 games of the top 12 in 2022 and lost all of the 2 games, and the last 5 rounds of 12 matches drew 2 and lost 3 losses, and the performance was quite bad. Recently, the war of words between veteran artist Gong Hanlin and the Chinese men's football community has also added an alternative point of view to this game. Whether the national football players can avoid 3 consecutive defeats and use a victory to fight back against Gong Hanlin's doubts will be the focus of attention from the outside world.
Watch point 2: Can the Chinese men's football team snipe Saudi Arabia and destroy the opponent's early exit plan?
At present, Saudi Arabia has accumulated 19 points in 8 rounds of 6 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, ranking first in Group B. Since the match between Australia and Japan in the same group took the lead in this round, if Australia loses, Saudi Arabia will join Japan in the Qatar World Cup before playing against China. If Australia draws Japan, the Saudi Arabian Chinese team can also qualify early. If Australia wins against Japan, Saudi Arabia must defeat China to qualify early. Therefore, although the national football team did not qualify for the World Cup, it can still play the role of a spoiler.
Highlight 3: If the national football team loses again, it may be surpassed by Vietnam and fall to the bottom of the group
China is expected to surpass Oman to advance to Group B after the last two rounds of matches, and if there is another miss, it may be surpassed by Vietnam and ranked at the bottom of the group after the round of 12. If the national football team loses to Saudi Arabia in this round and Vietnam overturns Oman, the Chinese men's football team will fall to the bottom of the group in the first round.
Watch point 4: Without the 4 major naturalized players and Wu Lei, who will Li Xiaopeng use on the attack line?
In the last 2 matches of the round of 12, Wu Lei, who stayed in the Espanyol team, and 4 naturalized attackers Axon, Fernando, Luo Guofu and Alain were collectively absent. The Chinese men's soccer team's originally relatively abundant attack line suddenly became unavailable. In the face of saudi arabia, a strong enemy in this game, Li Xiaopeng will hope that which international footballer will destroy the city for the national football team. From the perspective of warm-up matches, young players such as Zhang Yuning, Liu Binbin, and Dai Weijun are expected to pick up the beams.
Watch point 5: Wu Xi is suspended, who will become the new main back of the national football team
There are only 24 players in the Chinese team to Go to West Asia this time, and the suspension of captain Wu Xi in this game has brought difficulties to Li Xiaopeng's guidance of the platoon, and who will replace him in front of the defensive line will be worthy of attention. And the two backs of Shandong Taishan team, Jin Jingdao and Xu Xin, will undoubtedly be popular candidates.