In the World Preliminary Tournament that ended in the early morning of March 25, Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team stubbornly drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia in the case of extremely passive scenes, and such a national football team deserved the applause of fans.
Due to Japan's 2-0 victory over Australia, the suspense of the group was ended early, and Saudi Arabia and Japan both entered the Qatar World Cup, so that the match between Saudi Arabia and the national football team was no longer stressed, although Saudi Arabia still sent a number of main players. The starting lineup of the national football team is full of Taishan elements, Liu Binbin, Liu Yang, Zheng Zheng, Liao Lisheng all started, arthur Junmin, Xu Xin, Gao Zhunyi also played in the Taishan team, don't forget that coach Li Xiaopeng also came out of the Taishan team.
The gap between the national football team and the opponent is still very obvious, the entire first half of the national football team was completely suppressed by the opponent, the shooting contrast was 0-8, Saudi Arabia in the halftime stoppage time by Sheikh Li's header to break the goal, the half of the national football team 1 goal behind. In the second half, the national football scene was still suppressed, but there was a slight improvement, Zhang Yuning once equalized, but was blown offside, and the slow motion was displayed between the milliseconds.
In the 80th minute, the national football team finally ushered in the opportunity, Gao Zhunyi crossed from the right side, Jin Jingdao's header in the penalty area was crossed, Amri handball foul, the referee decisively awarded a penalty, after 00 player Zhu Chenjie stood on the penalty spot, he steadily took the penalty, the Chinese team equalized, and finally the national football team drew 1-1 with Saudi Arabia and got a valuable 1 point.
This draw benefited from the hard work of the players, of course, there are some elements of luck, from the data point of view, the national football team is fully inferior, the number of shots is 2-18 behind, the possession rate is only 26%, and some other major statistics are also completely suppressed by the opponent. In fact, the requirements of the fans are very simple, as long as the players put out their hard work, why not lose?
After the game, coach Li Xiaopeng also praised the fighting spirit of the players, he said that every player deserves praise, and the difference in strength between the two teams today is still very obvious, but the players worked very hard and were lucky to get 1 point. For next year's Asian Cup, Li Xiaopeng said, I am not sure about this, but I believe that we will take it slowly and get better step by step.
At present, the 4 direct qualifying places in the Asian region have been determined in advance, and the 4 teams of Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran have divided 4 places, which is also the traditional pattern of Asian football, Australia locks the play-off place, and the other group's play-off place has not yet been determined, and the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Lebanon all have opportunities.
The biggest underdog in the World Preliminaries came from the European zone, last year's European Championship champion Italy hosted North Macedonia at home, the whole game, the Italians shot 32 times, while the opponent only had 4 times, but the Italians wasted one by one, North Macedonia staged a kill in the 92nd minute, Italy lost 0-1, two consecutive World Cup matches.