There is a dream called football

Chapter 158 Journey to the Asian Cup

Chapter 158 Journey to the Asian Cup

The 2004 Asian Cup was the largest football tournament ever held in China. All 16 strong Asian teams came to China to participate. This was the first time that the Asian Cup was expanded to 16 teams.

The favorites to win the championship are Japan, China, South Korea and Iran.

July in the capital is a bit hot, but the enthusiasm of the media has not diminished at all. Tomorrow is the opening match between the Chinese team and Bahrain.

Alihan expressed before the game that he was very confident in winning the first match.

"We will start the Asian Cup with a victory."

Immediately a reporter mentioned the opening game of the European Cup, and the favorite Portugal lost.

Alihan laughed at this, "But aren't they still the champions in the end?"

But in general, the national football team at this time is an enhanced version of the 2002 World Cup, and there should be no problem in qualifying for the group.

Alihan was more cautious about the first game of the group stage, and the starting lineup was not announced until an hour before the game.

442 lineup.

Li Weifeng and Zheng Zhi played in double positions, and in the end Ali Han still trusted the young Zheng Zhi.

Alihan chose Li Jinyu and Li Qiao as the forwards. Lei Wen didn't start the game because Ali Han could see very few games in the Portuguese League. He still had doubts about Lei Wen's status, so he was a little conservative.

At 7:17 pm on July 8th, the 6 seats in Gongti were fully occupied. When the national anthem was played, Li Qiao was still very excited.

Li Qiao chose the No. 17 jersey for the national team. No. 9 and No. 10 are worn by the big brothers. Li Qiao is also embarrassed to speak. Fortunately, this is the last Asian Cup for the big brothers, and it will be his turn in the future.

After the opening game, as expected, the Chinese team formed a suppression, and the Bahrain team retreated very deep. The commentator Huang Jianxiang couldn't help but think of the European Cup opener a month ago, when Greece did this.

So on the football field, the side that looks weak does not necessarily lose the game.

Li Qiao is very strong, but he hasn't formed a tacit understanding with his teammates after the start. The Chinese team played three warm-up matches a month, all of which were against domestic teams. Because it was after the season, there was no strong team to warm up.

For example, when Li Qiao runs diagonally, Shao Jiayi's pass is always slower, and Li Qiao is offside.

Shao Jiayi gestured frequently to express his embarrassment, and Li Qiao also expressed that he was fine, but there was indeed a gap between him and Deco's pass.

Duan Xuan said: "Li Qiao is very strong, but it won't work if he can't cooperate with his teammates."

"It takes time, Shao Jiayi hasn't caught Li Qiao's rhythm yet."

The first half was spent in offsides again and again, and the score was fixed at 0-0.

Many fans began to worry that the national football team would lose the chain. After all, this situation had happened before. In the second half, something that made the fans even more worried happened.

1:0.

dumbfounded.

Tens of thousands of people in Gongti suddenly petrified. Although many people "poisoned milk" before the game, don't be like Portugal, but no one wants this kind of thing to happen.

"I think of Portugal."

"However, I hope that the national football team can still win, because the goal of the national football team is not only to qualify for the group, but also to be the first in the group, so as to avoid the strong teams in the knockout round."

After conceding the ball, Alihan learned from the painful experience. The reason why Li Qiao couldn't perform well was because he didn't cooperate well with his teammates, so he decisively replaced Li Jinyu and replaced him with Lei Wen.

Lei Wen and Li Qiao played double forwards.

What no one expected was that Alihan's substitution was cured this time, and the Chinese team equalized the score after 5 minutes.

This time it was Lei Wen's breakthrough, and the Bahrain players stuck to him like brown candy. When Lei Wen attracted more and more defensive players, he flicked his ankle and passed the ball to Li Qiao on the other side, and Li Qiao had only one defensive player on his side.

He used his speed to pass the last defensive player and then decisively volleyed from the close corner, and the ball was scored.

Tens of thousands of people in Gongti are excited, the goal is beautiful, and this goal is really crucial.

Alihan chuckled. He really thought too much. In fact, if there is a super player in Asia, he can just do it alone. There is no need for any complicated cooperation.

After the goal, the Chinese team played more simply, just like playing volleyball, just hang it directly in the opponent's half, and let Lei Wen and Li Qiao solve the problem.

The tacit understanding between Li Qiao and Lei Wen is very good, coupled with the baptism of the European League, it is very easy to play Bahrain.

After another 5 minutes, Li Qiao received the pass from Lei Wen and controlled the ball in front of the penalty area. The Bahrain players thought that Li Qiao was going to break through by himself, so they froze.

After Lei Wen took the ball, he made a move, forming a single shot, and pushed the ball into the goal again.

2:1.

It took only 10 minutes after the substitution, and the Chinese team completed the overtake.

The fans are very happy, this plot is good-looking, better than pure violence, at least this kind of plot makes the fans excited.

Bahrain's strength is limited, and they rely on one breath to support them. When this breath is vented, their defense line is full of loopholes.

In the 85th minute, Li Weifeng received a corner pass and headed the ball heavily into the goal. It was 3-1, and the Chinese team also sealed the victory.

The final score was 3 to 1, and the Chinese team won the first match of the Asian Cup.

Li Qiao and Lei Wen received the highest scores after the game, but the MVP was Lei Wen, and Arihan's substitution was highly praised by the fans.

"Gongti fights to become the king."

"The champions of the Champions League play for their worth."

"With Li Qiao, we can imagine Germany two years from now."

However, some calm media analyzed that if Li Qiao's position was withdrawn, the effect might be better, such as in Porto.

The media in that era was relatively simple, not as noisy as it was later, but the national football players ignored it after the game. After all, for the Chinese team, the most important thing is the knockout stage of the Asian Cup. The group stage is indeed relatively simple.

The fact is indeed true. The Chinese team beat Indonesia 7-0 in the first round. They qualified for the group in two rounds and basically secured the first place in the group. In the third round, Alihan made a rotation, hiding most of the main players. In the end, they tied Qatar 0-0 in Gongti and successfully won the first place in the group.

In the quarter-finals, the Chinese team defeated Iraq 3-0. In the semi-finals, the Chinese team faced the biggest test since the start of the match, which was the physical confrontation with the toughest Iranian team in Asia.

Iran is not only an opponent to the Chinese team, but also a painful history. When it hit the World Cup in France, the most painful defeat in Chinese football was thanks to the opponent.

So before the game, the media had to mention that heavy history-the Golden State tragedy.

(End of this chapter)