In the top 12 of the World Preliminaries, which started at 11 pm on November 11, Beijing time, the national football team drew 1:1 with Oman, but unfortunately scored 1 point.
Although under the node of "Double Eleven", in the face of a critical battle that impacts World Cup qualification, so many numbers "1" are somewhat out of date.
The national football drew with Oman 1:1.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
For the national football team with a severe qualifying situation, this draw is indeed not enough to quench one's thirst. It is also very regrettable to be equalized with an advanced goal.
With the cheer of 5,000 Chinese fans, the national football team, which fought far in Sharjah, UAE, still failed to achieve a victory as expected.
In fact, in addition to Wu Lei’s goal, the national football team had at least two very good opportunities to expand the score in this game, but they were not able to grasp it. After the game, coach Li Tie and captain Wu Xi both admitted that they were very sorry. .
5 matches, 1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses and 4 points. Although the national football team has not completely lost hope, it is really difficult to counterattack.
After 20 years, the Chinese team and Oman met again in the world preliminaries.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
Speaking of the opponent's Oman team, this is an opponent that can awaken the beautiful memories of the national football team.
In the world preliminaries 20 years ago, it was the 1-0 victory over Oman at home, and the national football team entered the 2002 World Cup two rounds ahead of schedule.
In that world preliminaries, the national football team completed a "double kill" against Oman, which can be said to have laid a solid foundation for the final qualifying.
Twenty years later, the two teams met again in the world preliminaries and they were already in a vicissitudes of life.
Group photo of the national football players before the game.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
Before this campaign, the national football team ranked 5th in the group with 1 wins, 3 losses and 3 points in four games, which is 3 points behind Oman, who is ranked 3rd.
If the national football team wants to grasp the initiative to qualify for the play-offs, defeating Oman is a goal that must be achieved.
In a sense, this is also an out-and-out "life and death".
The national football soldiers are no strangers to this situation, as it was in the third round of the match with Vietnam.
Faced with the Vietnam team, which made it into the top 12 for the first time, the national football team still had a certain advantage in experience and strength, and finally survived the difficulty with a 3:2 victory to avoid an embarrassing three-game losing streak.
But compared to the Vietnam team, the strength of the Oman team, which is full of "dark horse" attributes, is much higher.
Under the leadership of Ivankovic, an "old acquaintance" of Chinese football, Oman defeated Japan in an upset 1:0 in the first game away, and lost a small 0:1 to Saudi Arabia in the second game. After that, it lost to Australia 1:3 and defeated 3:1. Before this round of competition, Vietnam, with 6 points, they beat Japan in third place.
From the perspective of the world rankings, Oman is currently ranked 77th, and the national football team is ranked 75th.
From the point of view of value, the Oman team is worth 6.1 million euros, and the national football is worth 19.1 million euros, occupying a certain advantage.
In previous matches, the national football team is also in an advantageous position. In the previous six matches, the national football team achieved 4 wins and 2 losses.
Of course, these data advantages have little impact on the game.
The national football starting lineup.
Image source: Chinese football team.
In this game, Li Tie made some adjustments to the starting lineup. Alan and Luo Guofu all started. The former served as the midfielder, the latter as the full-back, Zhang Yuning as the single forward, and Wu Lei as the full-back.
In the midfield, Xu Xin, who is biased towards defensive attributes, replaced Zhang Xizhe, who was not very effective in the previous game. Captain Wu Xi continued to play in the midfield. Zhang Linpeng returned to the right back on the defensive line. As the left back, the goalkeeper is still Yan Junling.
These changes have indeed played a role.
In the 20th minute, the national football team got a corner kick and Wu Lei scored in front of the goal to help the Chinese team get the first chance.
This corner kick was actually due to the cooperation between Alan and Luo Guofu on the left side of the frontcourt.
In the 25th minute, the two made another connection. Alan made a pass from the left, and Luo Guofu jumped to the goal, but the Oman goalkeeper strenuously saved it.
Not only on the offensive end, on the defensive end, Alan and Luo Guofu also appeared in key positions to intercept and clear the siege.
In the 42nd minute, the Oman team took a corner kick and Luo Guofu blocked the opponent's extremely threatening barb shot in front of the goal.
After the half-time, the national football team had a surprise to keep the 1:0 advantage.
Wu Lei (left) and Luo Guofu celebrate the goal.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
In the 66th minute, the national football team made a substitution adjustment. Hao Junmin and Wu Xinghan replaced Xu Xinhe and Luo Guofu, who played well. This also became a turning point in the game.
Then there was a sudden change in the field. In the 74th minute, Oman got a corner kick. Halsey scored a header to equalize the score. China 1:1 Oman.
In the 79th minute, the national football team changed again and adjusted, and Axon replaced Alan.
In the end, the score of 1:1 was maintained until the end of the game, and the national football team scored the point that did not quench their thirst.
Alan (first from left) and Luo Guofu (first from right) played extremely well in this game.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
After the game against Oman, the national football team also ended the first half of the World Preliminary 12 finals, 5 matches, 1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses and 4 points, ranking second from last in Group B and 5 points away from the third Japanese team in the group. gap.
It is indeed a difficult task to catch up with 5 points with 5 games left, and the opponent to catch up is the strong Japanese team.
Although the opponent's condition in the top 12 matches is not ideal, the national football team does not have enough hard power to reverse this gap.
Next, the national football team will play against the Australian team second in the group in Sharjah in the neutral position, and will play away against the Japanese team in January of the next year.
If you want to reverse the 5-point gap, the national football team must at least ensure that they defeat the Japanese team in an away game without losing to Australia. The difficulty can be imagined.
In the first round, the national football team lost to Japan 0:1.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
But since the hope has not been dashed, the national football team continues to fight hard.
After the half-time of the last twelve finals, the national football team scored only 2 points in 5 matches, 2 draws and 3 losses. There is as much as 7 points away from Uzbekistan, which is third in the group, and the qualifying situation is more severe than the current national football team.
However, in the second half of the 5 games, the national football team achieved 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Many of them defeated South Korea and Uzbekistan, and finally accumulated 12 points, only 3 points away from the South Korean team who directly qualified for second place. The third group of the play-off places is only 1 point behind Syria.
The half-time standings of the last 12 finals.
But it has to be said that this counterattack of the National Football Team is inseparable from the blessing of the famous coach Lippi, and it is also inseparable from the advantage of being at home in the key battle and the prosperous Chinese Super League.
Although Li Tie's national football team has made progress, the "growth price" paid in the first half of the five games is too great.
In the post-Jinyuan era, the Chinese Super League has been fragmented and deserted under the epidemic prevention and control and the preparation of the national team...
Going round and round, the national football team wants to create miracles, I am afraid there is really no "bargaining chip".
(Author Bian Liqun)