At 23:00 Beijing time on March 24, the penultimate round of Group B of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia, the national football team faced Saudi Arabia. In terms of strength and ranking, the gap between the two teams is very large, Saudi Arabia scored 19 points in the first 8 rounds, ranking first in the group, and the national football team only scored 5 points in 8 games, ranking second from the bottom. All aspects are at a disadvantage, just like coach Li Xiaopeng said: the goal of national football is to save face.
Due to the early exit, coach Li Xiaopeng did not recall Wu Lei and naturalized players, in addition, Guo Tianyu, who stayed in the Portuguese Premier League, and Li Lei of the Swiss Grasshopper Club did not return. In this campaign, Li Xiaopeng discharged a 5-3-2 formation, Zhang Yuning and Liu Binbin served as the starting double forwards, Xu Xin, Liao Lisheng and Arthur Junmin were behind them, and the 5 defenders were from left to right: Liu Yang, Zheng Zheng, Zhu Chenjie, Zhang Linpeng and Gao Zhunyi, and the starting goalkeeper was Yan Junling. For the Saudi team, the formation was 4-2-3-1. Before the match, because Australia in the same group lost to Japan, Saudi Arabia had actually qualified from the group in advance and got a Ticket to the World Cup.
It is worth mentioning that in this game, the U23 echelon of the Chinese men's football team is also watching from the sidelines, and the U23 men's football team is participating in the Dubai Cup football tournament in West Asia. Before the game, the national football coach given by the broadcaster was actually Li Tie, making a big oolong!
After the opening, there was no accident, the national football team fell behind in an all-round way, and Saudi Arabia's possession rate reached more than 70%! In the 14th minute, Zhang Linpeng made a mistake at the back, And after the Saudi steal, he completed the shot in front of the penalty area, and the ball was deflected off the goalpost. In the first 15 minutes, the broadcaster gave the possession data, and the Saudi Arabian possession rate was as high as 79.3%, and the national football team only had 20.7%! In the passive situation, the national football team continued to shovel at the defensive end, and in the 23rd minute, Zhang Linpeng tackled the ball in the penalty area, and the Saudi player fell to the ground, and after the VAR was judged, the referee did not award a penalty. After that, the high-precision wing was crossed by the crotch, and Zhang Linpeng once again accurately shoveled the ball out of the sideline. Liu Yang made a mistake in returning the pass, Saudi Arabia counterattacked to create danger, and Zhang Linpeng blocked the key. In the 34th minute, Dosari broke through continuously on the flank, and Zhang Linpeng once again shoveled to block the bottom line.
From the 23rd minute to the 34th minute, in just 11 minutes, the national football team was tragically besieged, and Zhang Linqian made four key defenses to ensure that the Chinese team did not lose the city gate.
However, in the first half of stoppage time, the national football team still conceded the ball, the Saudi arabian team opened the right corner, SheikhRi scored a header, and the national football team fell behind 0-1.