In the second round of the top 18 of the World Preliminaries, the national football team played Saudi Arabia at home. Jiang Shenglong continuously created the opponent's own goals and red cards within 3 minutes, becoming the number one contributor to the national football team's lead.
Starting from the first game against Korea, Ivankovic let Jiang Shenglong switch to the back midfield, and the first game against Japan also continued this choice. However, Jiang Shenglong was criticized by the media for exposing the problem of slow turning and lack of concentration when dealing with Japan.
In the first battle against Saudi Arabia, Ivankovic continued to trust Jiang Shenglong and let him continue to partner with Li Yuanyi in the back, and his choice finally paid off. In the 14th minute of the game, under the pressure of Jiang Shenglong, Tambati accidentally scored an own goal.
Just three minutes later, after Kano fell to the ground, he deliberately stretched out his foot to kick Jiang Shenglong, and the referee showed Kano a red card after watching the slow motion. In such a short period of time, Jiang Shenglong helped the national football team not only take the lead, but also have an advantage in numbers.
Famous reporter Chen Hua commented, "Why does Ivankovic always use Jiang Shenglong?" This set-piece goal should give an answer. At the very least, his height and header have a certain tactical value in set-piece coordination. In the 2023 season, if Wu Jingui was behind when he coached Shenhua, I remember that in the last 10 minutes or so, he would also play as a cameo center forward and score a few goals. ”