Before the game, the starting list announced by the Chinese national team was actually quite controversial.
First of all, Lippi's 4-3-3 tactical personnel arrangement has worried many people. Uzbekistan cannot lose in this game. They are 4 points behind South Korea, while the Chinese team is three points ahead of South Korea, with more options than Uzbekistan.
and South Korea are much more relaxed.
Some "knowledge football emperors" on the Internet and even sports celebrities and people in the football industry think that China should play a safer 4-2-3-1, and can completely let the Uzbek team attack, and then wait for opportunities to counterattack.
The 4-3-3 style of play is a bit too risky.
Secondly, the old captain Zheng Zhi not only did not appear in the starting lineup, he was not even included in the 18-man roster.
This is more surprising than Lippi's 4-3-3 playing style.
Although at the subsequent press conference, the spokesperson of the national team explained that Zheng Zhi was unable to play due to a strain during training, but from the reports and video materials given by the media, it can be seen that Zheng Zhi is completely able to play on his own
He was walking, probably with a slight strain, but the injury was not serious.
According to the opinions of most fans and insiders, unless Zheng Zhi suffered a serious injury, as the team captain, locker room leader, the most stable Dinghai Shenzhen in the team and the most experienced player, how could he appear in the Ten Tennis Team?
On the eight-man roster.
For example, in the first official game of the national team after Lippi took over, against Cartel, when the team could not attack for a long time, it was Zheng Zhi who stepped forward and organized a successful attack, breaking the deadlock of the game.
The team scored a goal to take the lead, and finally won the game successfully.
In the subsequent top 12 games, the Chinese team won every game in which Zheng Zhi played. The loss to Iran had a lot to do with his inability to play.
In the match against Uzbekistan, which will determine whether the Chinese team can qualify in advance, almost everyone thought that Zheng Zhi would at least appear on the bench on the sidelines.
In real history, Zheng Zhiye was indeed the mainstay of the Chinese team in the top 12 competition.
Zhang Sheng, who has been paying attention to the national team, probably knows the reason why Zheng Zhi's body is a little unable to bear it now.
Since Zhang Sheng came to this timeline, in addition to the emergence of giants like Longteng, which made Evergrande not as easy to win as it was in real history, a large number of outstanding players have also flowed out of Longteng, objectively strengthening the team.
There are several strong teams in the Chinese Super League that want to make a difference. As the captain and absolute main force of Evergrande, Zheng Zhi plays more intensely, and the task of "mutual progress" brought by the system makes the Chinese Super League teams even more fierce.
Benefit.
No matter how good Zheng Zhi's physical fitness is, how self-disciplined he is, and how rich his experience in allocating physical energy in the game is, in fact, compared with the real history, he will play more tiring and difficult.
Since the second half of last season, Zheng Zhi has been injured many times and his recovery results are not ideal, which is not unrelated to these reasons.
After all, he is 37 years old.
These issues were also mentioned by many commentators and guests responsible for explaining this game.
In view of the importance of this game, in the past, the live broadcast party would start the live broadcast at most one hour before the game, but this time multiple platforms started the live broadcast early, and the program officially entered the show as soon as the national team bus was preparing to leave the hotel.
With more than two hours of pre-match analysis, the program team and guests were very well prepared.
In addition to the tactical and personnel analysis of this game, PV Sports also made a short documentary - Qualifying Day, which interviewed the parties involved in the Chinese team's qualifying in 2001. Even Milu, who was abroad, was interviewed. It can be seen that
The program team attaches great importance to it.
All those interviewed, including Milu, had an optimistic attitude. Everyone generally believed that there would be no problem for the Chinese team to qualify this time. Considering that they also qualified one round early in 2001, they were even more concerned.
Propose a sense of history repeating itself with divine will.
After the documentary was broadcast, the time card was very good. All the players of the Chinese team had completed their warm-up. There were exactly 10 minutes left before the game. This time allowed the players' body temperature to be maintained to the level that they could start the game immediately.
After the players relaxedly returned to the locker room to tidy up their equipment, Lippi took over.
He clapped his hands gently, the sound was not loud, but it was like a chicken shepherd blowing the whistle in his hand. All the members of the national team turned their attention to Lippi.
Lippi is very satisfied with everyone's respect for him.
"Boys, the game is about to start. I hope everyone knows what this game means." Unlike previous games, Lippi's speech this time seemed very solemn, "The World Cup is the dream of countless players. And
In this country, the homeland of our team, it is the dream of countless fans. They have been waiting for sixteen years since the last time they entered the World Cup."
While talking and waiting for the translator to translate, Lippi turned his head and asked Li Gang directly in English: "You have experienced the whole process of the last World Cup. Can you tell me how you felt at the time."
Li Gang had obviously practiced with Lippi in advance, and the former had no sense of surprise when asked: "That qualifying event happened to be in my hometown, and the moment we qualified that night was the best moment in my life.
"
"It's not just me, I believe that that day was also one of the best days in the career of Chinese fans." Li Gang continued to recall excitedly, "Everyone should have seen or experienced the grand occasion at that time.
It's four: everyone is celebrating! I think it's the same for the Italians, Mr. Coach."
Regarding the topic raised by Li Gang, Lippi nodded and said: "Yes. Even though the Italian national team has won four World Cups, in every World Cup qualifying match, all Italians will put in all their efforts and passion, otherwise the consequences will be difficult."
material."
"Because everyone knows that they represent a country." Lippi said almost word for word, "So, boys, you are fighting for the 1.3 billion Chinese people."
Lippi's words were meant to inspire the players, but what he never expected was that his words came true. Later, the Italian team was eliminated by the Swedish team in the play-off stage and failed to advance to the finals of the Russian World Cup.
stage.
Of course, this is something.
In the locker room at this time, all the national team players were filled with the pride of winning glory for their country.
Lippi's emotions have been aroused.
"Of course, don't be too nervous." Lippi is also afraid that the players will go too far. "Now, our position in the standings is more advantageous than them. We have won a complete victory at their home court before, and our strength is stronger than them. As long as we are better than them.
We do not underestimate the enemy and are not afraid of fighting. I believe that we will be the final winner. And all of us will be remembered by the fans and Chinese football."
After Lippi made his statement, Zheng Zhi, as the captain, stood up.
"As you can see, I can't play in today's game." Zheng Zhi patted the back of his thigh lightly, "I'll leave this game to everyone."
After speaking, Zheng Zhi bowed deeply to everyone.
The players in the national team were generally in awe and fear of this old captain who was always calm, serious and unsmiling. Seeing his rare behavior of such emotional fluctuations, everyone was a little at a loss for a moment.
As the second captain of the team who was promoted by Lippi and maintains the balance of the team, Li Yun, a player from the Longteng series, is the captain of this game.
Even though Li Yun is now the main player of the Bundesliga and Champions League teams, he does not dare to underestimate seniors like Zheng Zhi who have played in the Premier League, Europe's top competition.
"Captain...", he quickly stood up and wanted to comfort the other party.
Zheng Zhi straightened up and raised his hand to wait for himself to finish: "Once, in 2002, I missed the World Cup. Thirteen years have passed since I first participated in the World Cup qualifiers in 2004, and this is my fourth
There are not many thirteen years in a person's life, and I can't wait for another four years." He looked at his teammates sincerely, "This time should be my last attempt. You usually give me
I, as the captain, have given you a lot of support, and now I leave my wishes to everyone.”
"Captain!" In order to avoid Zheng Zhi's embarrassment, Li Yun took over eagerly, "Don't worry, we are a team. No matter what, pursuing victory is the goal of all of us, and victory also belongs to our team.
Everyone.”
The team's captain and vice-chairman both expressed their attitude. As the head coach, Lippi felt that the encouragement before the game had had an effect. He raised his wrist to check the time on his watch, clapped his hands again, and called everyone over: "
Li Yun said it well, victory belongs to all of us. The game is about to begin, so everyone should be prepared."
After hearing the instructions from the head coach, the teams also began to check their equipment for the last time and make final preparations for the upcoming game.
When everyone was about to enter the players' tunnel, Lippi stopped Nie Jiang alone and signaled for everyone to leave first.
"Nie." Lippi pulled Nie Jiang seriously, "You are from Jiangcheng, and today's game is also in Jiangcheng. If you can qualify today, like coach Li Gang, you will celebrate in your hometown. This is countless
A moment that players dream of. You are an important part of the team's offense. You have great strength and the potential of a top player. Tonight, it's your time to perform."
As Mr. Lippi spoke, he shook Nie Jiang's shoulders vigorously, appearing very excited.
Nie Jiang replied extremely sincerely: "I will, Mr. Head Coach. I will definitely do my best to complete this game and win."
Pre-match training and regulating emotions have always been Lippi's specialty. Historically, when he led the national team to the World Cup preliminaries for the second time in 2019, in order to make the players tense up, he once pushed hard during the explanation.
After pushing Wei Shihao, the players next to him were a little frightened.
In order to make the players nervous, the old man has always worked very hard.
"The players have entered the tunnel." Huang Jianxiang, who was responsible for the broadcast commentary, was also shocked at this time. "It seems that everyone's expressions are very relaxed. Wu Lei is still greeting Akhmedov. These two club teammates today
But we have to compete with the national team."
"Actually, there are many people in this Uzbekistan team who know the Chinese team well. In the starting list, not to mention Akhmedov who plays for Shanghai SIPG, Ismenov who plays for Changchun Yatai, Guangbei
Jingguo An has two people, Klimets and Sergeyev." Su Dong, who is partnering with Huang Jianxiang, looked at the manuscript in his hand and said, "Their veteran Deparov, as a two-time Asian Footballer of the Year, and
China has a record of many matches. The Chinese team doesn’t have many secrets for them.”
"Indeed. It's a pity that Zheng Zhi, the captain of our national football team, cannot play. He and Deparov are real contemporaries. In fact, we are also very familiar with this team." Huang Jianxiang continued, "Defensive counterattack
This has been the tactical feature of the Uzbekistan national team for so many years. At the same time, their players are hardworking, physically fit and have strong impact. It is very distinctive in Asia. Look at several of their frontcourt players.
Kemayev and Shukurov are such tall players."
"Before the game, Coach Lippi said that although this is a very important and very difficult game, he still hopes that both sides can provide a wonderful duel." Su Dong smiled at the corner of his mouth, "This is the old man poking fun at the other side and asking the other side.
Attack it."
At this moment, the FIFA Fair Play song sounded, and the game was about to begin. They were about to start playing the national anthem. Huang Jianxiang and Su Dong also acted very professionally and immediately silenced themselves, giving each other enough respect.
As soon as the national anthem of Uzbekistan was played, the game reached its first climax. The national anthem of the People's Republic of China sounded. The 45,000 fans who filled the stadium stood up and sang the national anthem loudly.
"The game has officially begun." After the national anthem, the captains of both sides completed the procedures, and the referee's whistle sounded, Huang Jianxiang said, "The Chinese team's starting lineup for this game is goalkeeper No. 1 Zeng Cheng, and the four defenders Li Xuepeng, Li Yun, and Du Zhenyu
, Zhang Linpeng lined up from left to right. This midfield combination is relatively rare. Ding Huaiyi is fixed on the left because Zheng Zhi cannot play. Wu Xi is also injured and has not been included in the national football squad. The defensive midfielder plays for the Portuguese Liga.
Xu Mingyu from Rexos, and Hao Junmin in the right midfield. On the front line, Nie Jiang is in the center, Qin Minghao is on the left, and Wu Lei is on the right. This should be the strongest striker combination in China."
"We also had a discussion when we got the roster before the game." After Huang Jianxiang introduced the Uzbekistan team's starting lineup, Su Dong began to interact with the opponent, "Du Zhenyu on the defense and Hao Junmin in the midfield.
What do you think of the two changes?"
"In general, there are disadvantages and advantages. The technical capabilities of the three midfielders of Ding Huaiyi, Xu Mingyu and Hao Junmin are absolutely sufficient." Huang Jianxiang analyzed, "The three of them are known for their delicate skills at the feet. And among the three of them, the first two are better.
They all play in Europe, and the latter also has experience in Europe. In terms of strength, they are not worse than the opponent's midfielders. On the contrary, I feel that only Akhmedov is at the same level as the three of them in the opponent's midfield.
."
"But the shortcomings of these three people are also obvious, that is, they are not very tough players. Whether it is physical confrontation or the speed of facing the opponent's full-backs, they do not have many advantages. This needs to be improved in the game.
Let’s see the actual effect... Let’s look at this ball first!” Huang Jianxiang added.
"Hit the door with one kick!!!!" Huang Jianxiang was still saying, and Su Dong's standard voice rang out as he was paying attention to the situation on the court.
