At 23:00 Beijing time on March 24, a focus battle in Group B of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in the Asian Zone was contested, with the Chinese team playing against Saudi Arabia. The Chinese team won only 1 game in the first 8 rounds of group matches, lost 5 games, ranked second from the bottom, and has missed the World Cup. When the Chinese team played Saudi Arabia in the first leg, it lost 2-3, and there were naturalized players to help. And this time the Chinese team once again played saudi Arabia, no Alain, no Luo Guofu, no Wu Lei. Obviously, this match was extremely challenging for the Chinese team, but the Chinese team tried their best to force a draw with Saudi Arabia.
In this game, the Chinese team discharged a 541 defensive formation. Yan Junling served as the starting goalkeeper. Gao Zhunyi, Zhang Linpeng, Zhu Chenjie, Zheng Zheng and Liu Yang partnered at 5 defenders. Arthur Junmin, Liao Lisheng, Xu Xin and Liu Binbin formed a 4 midfielder. Zhang Yuning single forward topped the front. Jiang Guangtai, Wang Shenchao, Zhang Xizhe, Jin Jingdao and Dai Weijun sat on the bench.
After the game began, it quickly entered the rhythm of Saudi Arabia, and the energy of the Chinese team was spent on defense, and it basically did nothing on the offensive end. Babri, Dosari and Shahrani all had good chances, but none of them scored. Saudi Arabia, which was dominant, finally seized the opportunity to score a goal towards the end of the first half, and it was Sheikhri who scored the goal and rubbed it on the top. At the end of the half, China fell behind 0-1. The Chinese team only had 27% of the ball in the first half, without a single shot on goal. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, scored 1 goal on target with 8 shots on goal.
In the second half, it was easy to fight again, and it was still Saudi Arabia that controlled the situation and continued to attack. The Chinese team managed to seize an opportunity to complete the goal, but was blown off because of offside. Saudi Arabia, despite its fierce attacks, was never able to score its second goal. The turning point of the game came in the 81st minute, when Amri gave a handball inside the penalty area to the Chinese team. The Chinese team sent Zhu Chenjie to take the penalty, which was a bit of a surprise. Zhu Chenjie withstood the pressure and deceived the goalkeeper to score a penalty to help the Chinese team complete the draw. The final score was fixed at 1-1, and the Chinese team drew with the powerful Saudi Arabia.
The goal-to-shoot ratio for this match was 18:2. Saudi Arabia had 18 shots on goal, while the Chinese team had just 2 shots on goal. The passive Chinese team was able to draw the powerful Saudi Arabia, which is a commendable thing. It should be known that in this game, Li Xiaopeng did not use naturalized players from beginning to end, and jiang Guangtai, the only naturalized player who entered the big list, did not play. Although this game was drawn, the national football team also created a historical embarrassing record, that is, for the first time, 6 consecutive World Cups were not won. In the post-match sofascore rating, Zhu Chenjie scored a team-high 7.6 points, and he had 5 clearances, 6 interceptions, 2 steals, and also scored key penalties in this game, which was very eye-catching.