Chinanews client, Beijing, October 12 (Bian Liqun) After winning the first win of the World Preliminary Top 12 in the 3:2 lore Vietnam, the pressure on the national football soldiers was finally released.
But at the moment they have no time to stop. At 1 am Beijing time on the 13th, the national football team will go to the "devil's home" against the fourth opponent of the top 12 stage, Saudi Arabia, and this opponent has won three consecutive victories.
The national football team arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Image Source: Chinese Football Team
Throughout the past encounters, the national football team is no stranger to Saudi Arabia, and even against this strong team in West Asia, it can still leave some good memories.
At the 2015 Asian Cup, the national football team led by Perrin defeated Saudi Arabia with one goal in the group stage, laying the foundation for the historic achievement of qualifying for the winning group.
Going back further, in the 1997 Top Ten, the national football team, which played at the Dalian Golden State Stadium, defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0 with a header from Zhang Enhua.
However, the game experience between the national football team and Saudi Arabia in the second round was not good. After a 1:1 draw with the opponent, the national football team regrettably left the game. Fan Zhiyi even missed a penalty in that game.
In that top ten competition, Saudi Arabia finally qualified as the first in the group and appeared in the World Cup in France in the midsummer of 1998.
If it weren't for the two rounds of matches against Iran, the national football team could have appeared together.
In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Saudi Arabia played in the 2:1 final of the group match against Egypt.
As an Asian powerhouse, Saudi Arabia has always been a frequent visitor to the World Cup.
Since its first participation in the World Cup in 1994, Saudi Arabia has continuously participated in the 1998 World Cup in France, the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Although there has been a trough since then, but after a regrouping, Saudi Arabia has made it to the 2018 World Cup in Russia as it wishes.
Compared with the "golden age" national football team in the 1997 top ten competition, this national football team is now quite different.
Compared with the 2015 Asian Cup period, the Saudi team today has greatly enhanced its strength after the "replacement".
This year's top 12 match Saudi Arabia started three consecutive victories, especially the 1-0 victory over Japan in the last round, which is enough to explain the problem.
After losing to Saudi Arabia, Japan scored 3 points with the national football team.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
Under the circumstances, the national football's last battle against Saudi Arabia is very difficult.
At present, Saudi Arabia ranks 56th in the world and the national football ranks 75th.
According to statistics, the National Football Team has played against Saudi Arabia 17 times, with 6 wins, 4 draws and 7 losses. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the National Football Team has played 5 times with its opponents, 1 win, 1 draw and 3 losses.
Not only is it at a disadvantage in terms of strength, it is reported that at least 40,000 local fans will be influx in the match between the National Football Team and Saudi Arabia, which will be very disadvantageous for the National Football Team, which has not played a real away game for a long time.
For the national football soldiers who have been training overseas for more than a month, the physical fitness of the battle against Saudi Arabia is also a major test.
In the "life and death situation" with Vietnam, the national football's physical energy consumption is not small, and in the face of the more impactful Saudi Arabia, whether the physical condition of the international footballers can be sustained is a big question mark.
Zhang Yuning (first from left) played well in the match against the Vietnam team.
Picture source: IC photo
Although facing many unfavorable factors, the national football team still has to try to get points in the face of Saudi Arabia.
From the strategic point of view of the top 12 games, after losing to Australia and Japan in the first two games, the national football's fault tolerance rate is already low. Fortunately, winning Vietnam in the last round can be regarded as keeping the hope of hitting the third place in the group.
In this campaign against Saudi Arabia, winning is of course the most satisfactory result, but judging from the current comparison of the strength of the two sides, the national football team's goal is to score points is the most realistic goal.
In the third round of the World Preliminary Round 12 in the Asian region that ended early on the 8th, Beijing time, with Wu Lei's lore, the Chinese team narrowly defeated Vietnam 3:2.
Image source: Visual China
Not surprisingly, the National Football Team will regain the defensive style of the game against Japan. From that game, although the scene is very passive, it can really restrain the Japanese team's offense. In the second half, it was able to fight back. .
Therefore, against Saudi Arabia, defense is the top priority, followed by whether it can effectively counterattack.
In addition, the national football team should also make good use of set-piece opportunities.
Whether it is the 2015 Asian Cup or the 1997 Top Ten, the winning goal of the national football team to break through the opponent's gate is generated from set-piece opportunities.
Against Saudi Arabia, can Wu Lei stand up at a critical moment?
Image source: Visual China
At the pre-match press conference, the national football coach Li Tie said that after the match with Vietnam, the national football came to Saudi Arabia from the UAE, and the players received sufficient rest and trained for the Saudi team.
Li Tie revealed that with the exception of Hao Junmin and Li Lei who were injured, the other players were all ready for the game.
"Saudi Arabia is a very strong team, we will fight every ball on the court."
Regarding the "Devil's Home Stadium" of the Saudi team, Li Tie said: "Saudi Arabia has played two home games in the past. We played in the neutral field and the away game. This is a huge difference. It is completely different between having fans and no fans. I believe All the players in tomorrow’s game will be very excited.” (End)