Reborn Liverpool

Chapter 409 Knockout situation

1月16日，2019阿联酋亚洲杯C组最后一轮，华足在阿布扎比-阿勒纳哈扬体育场0-2输给了韩国队。

In the end, the Huazu team ranked behind the South Korean team with 2 wins and 1 loss, qualifying as the second in the group.

The opponents of the top 16 knockout round of the Huazu team have been determined. At 1:20 on January 22, they will play against the Thai team.

As long as the final round of the group stage is tied, the Huazu team will qualify as the first in the group and enter the relatively weak lower half.

However, after a 0-2 defeat, the Huazu team can only decide to go to the upper half as the second place in Group C to face the second Thailand team in Group A that has been waiting there for a long time.

Speaking of the Thai team, I have to mention the originally insignificant warm-up match at the Hefei Stadium on June 2013, 6. As a result, the national football team led by the former Spanish national team coach Camacho lost 15-1 to the young players. The Thai team played.

In the game that created the biggest difference in the loss against Thailand, the poor performance of the Huazu team caused an uproar.

After the game, the players and coaches of the national football team were also greatly affected. Camacho dismissed get out of class, Gao Lin's remarks aroused doubts from the outside world, and the careers of Zhao Peng and Geng Xiaofeng took a sharp turn for the worse.

Although after that loss, the Huazu team defeated the Thai team twice in the warm-up match, but 1-5 is still often mentioned as a shame.

The Thai team did not perform well in this Asian Cup. They lost 1-4 to the Indian team in the first match of the group stage. Although they immediately defeated Bahrain 1-0 after the coaching change, and finally won the right to qualify for the group, but the national football team In the current state, the chances of winning are still relatively large.

Although the opponents of the Huazu team in the first round of the knockout round are not too strong, but after entering the top 16 from the top 8, this area is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

The Japanese team, the Iranian team and the Saudi Arabian team may all fall into this half of the zone, especially Japan and Iran. With the strength of these two teams, the possibility of winning the first place in the group is very high, and entering this half of the zone is almost certain.

The second half is relatively easy. The host United Arab Emirates and the weakened Australian team are both in the lower half. After the South Korean team enters, the possibility of reaching the final is very high.

If the Huazu team eliminates the Thai team, it is likely to face the Iranian team that entered the knockout round as the No. .3, winning is out of the question.

In the top 2018 stage of the 12 World Cup qualifiers, the national football team has played against the Iranian team twice, with a record of 2 wins. It can be said that the Huazu team is not afraid of the Persian cavalry.

If the national football team breaks through Iran in the Asian Cup, it will be possible to face another powerful team-the Japanese team.

On the whole, it is not difficult for the Huazu team to enter the quarterfinals as long as they perform stably, but it is difficult to break into the quarterfinals.

However, for Lippi and the Huazu team, as long as Zhang Mai and Zhang Yulin are not absent, no Asian team can stop the Huazu team from winning the championship.

……

The 2019 Asian Cup group stage was all over on January 1. The traditional strong teams such as China, South Korea, Japan, and Iran easily advanced to the top 17, while the eight underdogs such as North Korea, Yemen, and the Philippines returned home, showing that Asian football The layout of the layout has not changed significantly.

The current Asian Cup has expanded from the previous 16 teams to 24 teams, making the three new teams Yemen, the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan on the highest stage of Asian football. According to the regulations, the top two teams in each of the six groups and The four teams with the best results qualify for third place.

After three rounds of fierce competition, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, Jordan and Australia, South Korea and China, Iran and Iraq, Japan and Uzbekistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were directly promoted as the top two teams in the group, and Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, Oman and Vietnam became the top two teams. The four best-performing groups advance to the round of 4.

There was a huge gap between the strength and weakness of the group stage, and several battles scored big scores:

球门14次被破的朝鲜队成为丢球最多的球队，他们先以0:4不敌沙特，接着0:6败给卡塔尔，最后1:4输给黎巴嫩。出局的土库曼斯坦和也门队都是三场比赛共丢10球。

约旦队首轮以1:0爆冷击败了卫冕冠军澳大利亚队，这支世界排名仅109位的队伍在第二轮以2:0击败叙利亚队，成为本届亚洲杯第一支进入淘汰赛的球队。

The performance of the former "fish belly" India and Vietnam teams is remarkable:
The Indian team beat Thailand 4:1 in the first round and won the first Asian Cup final in 55 years;
Vietnam took the lead twice in the first round, lost 2:3 to Iraq, and defeated Yemen 2:0 in the final round.

A total of 36 goals were scored in 96 group games, an average of 2.67 per game.

With 4 goals against the North Korean team, Qatar striker Almoyez Ali temporarily leads the scorer list with 7 goals.

In this Asian Cup, the Hua Guo team was fighting for the top spot in the group between China and South Korea. Due to the rotation needs of the competition, Wu Lei, Feng Xiaoting, and Hao Junmin were absent, and the "two Zhangs" were directly hidden by Lippi, while South Korea The team sent a main lineup led by Sun Xingmin.

The 0:2 defeat of the Huazu team once again showed that, no matter in terms of speed, impact, technology and age structure, there is a big gap between the Huazu team without "two cards" and the top Asian teams like South Korea.

Fortunately, the confidence of the Huazu team is still there. In the words of head coach Lippi, when the core players in the team are not playing, the team has no ability to dominate Asia.

The Huazu team will face the Thai team in the round of 20 on the 16th.For the national football team, the performance stage of "Two Zhang" has really arrived.

……

The dust of the 2019 Asian Cup group stage has settled, and the performance of Qatar is what stands out in other group matches.

Qatar defeated Saudi Arabia 2-0 to win the top spot in the group. In this game, the Qatar team has a very high offensive efficiency, showing a sophisticated side compared to the Saudi team.

Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar will encounter strong opponents in the 1/8 finals, which is much more difficult than facing Thailand in the 1/8 finals of the national football team.

"The match between Qatar and Saudi Arabia ended with a 2-0 victory for Qatar and won the first place in Group E as it wished. What impressed me most about this match was the youthful maturity of the Qatar team. In fact, the average age of the Qatar team is not very old. Small, but compared to the opposite Saudi team, it still shows a sophisticated side."

Mourinho praised the performance of the Qatar team, talking about the Qatar team's offensive efficiency is very high:
"This Qatar team is based on last year's U23 Asian Cup runner-up team. Qatar's ultimate goal is to organize the team through careful preparations for the 2022 World Cup. From the point of view of ball possession, Qatar is still low. It is against the Saudi team, but the offensive efficiency of the Qatar team is really very high. It should be the most productive team in this Asian Cup. Ali scored a goal in the first and second halves. He has scored 7 goals and has become the best team in this Asian Cup. Contender for marksman."

Although the Saudi team has a lot of offensives, it still suffers defeats. Mourinho also said that the Saudi team seems immature:
"Saudi Arabia's offense gave me the feeling that there was a lot of thunder and little rain, and they even hit the goal frame, which really showed their technical and delicate side. But this is the case in football fields. Teams with strong ability to seize opportunities can often have the last laugh. So the Saudi team still looks a bit immature."

Mourinho specifically mentioned the contest between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which is also a duel between the Spanish coaches of the two teams:
"This game is also a PK between two Spanish coaches, Pizzi of the Saudi team and Sanchez of the Qatar team. Pizzi was very famous when he was a player. He was able to lead the Saudi team to the World Cup, and he still has the ability to lead the team. But in today's competition for the top spot in the group, he still lost to compatriot Sanchez, and this result also pushed Saudi Arabia to the Japanese team in the 1/8 finals."

沙特将在1/8决赛遭遇日本，卡塔尔则将在1/8决赛遭遇到伊拉克队，穆里尼奥也直呼华足在1/8决赛面对泰国队着实轻松：
"The 1/8 final between Saudi Arabia and Japan will also be very interesting. Qatar will also face the powerful Iraqi team in the 1/8 final. Such a 1/8 final will also be exciting, but I think Huazu Their first knockout match was very easy, and their opponent was the Thai team, which is far inferior to opponents like the Iraqi or Japanese teams who can test the quality of No.4 in the World Cup!"

……

In the 2019 UAE Asian Cup, all the top 16 teams were produced, and the extreme situation of accumulating 1 point and 0 goals to qualify did not appear. The saddest one is Lebanon.

在小组赛阶段的最后一个比赛日，E、F两组结束最后一轮争夺。日本队2-1击败乌兹别克斯坦队，阿曼队3-1战胜土库曼斯坦队；卡塔尔队2-0击败沙特阿拉伯队，黎巴嫩队4-1战胜朝鲜队。

Among them, Oman and Lebanon, which ranked third in Group E and Group F, both scored goals in stoppage time, but their fates were very different.

Oman's goal ensured they won't have to wait;
Although the Lebanon team, which originally controlled its own destiny, scored a goal in the 8th minute of stoppage time and thus won 4-1, but with the same points, goal difference and number of goals as the third Vietnamese team in Group D, it is still relatively difficult to compare. Disciplinary points but lost to the opponent for a while.The Lebanese team received 7 yellow cards in the group stage, while the Vietnamese team had only 5 yellow cards. Therefore, the Vietnamese team advanced and the Lebanese team was eliminated.

Although the Japanese team reversed the Uzbekistan team to get the first place in the group, but then the Saudi Arabia team lost 0-2 to the Qatar team, which made the Asian Cup quadruple champion and the Asian Cup triple champion have a direct dialogue in the round of 16. In the upper half where the Japanese team is located, there is another Iranian team that has won the Asian Cup three times. Of course, the Hua Guo team is also in this half.

Unlike the teams in the upper half, which have won 10 championships, the South Korean, Iraqi, and Australian teams in the lower half have all won championships, but the total number of championships is only four.

However, in the lower half is the half area where the top four teams of the last (2015) Asian Cup, Australia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq joined forces.

As for the Hua Guo team, at 1:20 on January 22, they will face the Thai team in the first knockout stage;

如果晋级，将在1月25日凌晨0点与伊朗队和阿曼队之间的胜者展开1/4决赛争夺；

If you pass the test again, the semi-final competition will start at 1:28 on January 22 with the winner of the Jordan/Vietnam team and the winner of the Japan team/Saudi Arabia team;
To advance again will be the final at 2:1 on February 22st.

All 1/8 knockout matches and schedule are as follows:

Jordan VS Vietnam at 1:20 on January 19
At 1:20 on January 22, Thailand VS Huaguo
Iran VS Oman at 1:21 on January 01
January 1 at 21:19 Japan VS Saudi Arabia

January 1 at 21:22 Australia VS Uzbekistan
January 1 at 22:01 United Arab Emirates VS Kyrgyzstan
South Korea VS Bahrain at 1:22 on January 21
January 1 at 23:00 Qatar VS Iraq

……

The goal of the Hua Guo team is to win the Asian Cup this year, breaking the bleak football history of the Asian Cup without a championship.

Huazu is full of confidence in the game at the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain on January 1, but Lippi has repeatedly emphasized that the Thai team should not be taken lightly.
After all, the Hua Guo team has many players with yellow cards, and when facing the Thai team with serious injuries in the midfield and backcourt, special attention must be paid to avoid receiving any more cards.

Unlike Huazu’s relatively stable performance in the group stage, the Thai team has experienced ups and downs. After losing 1-4 to the Indian team in the first game, the team experienced a coach change. The local coach Sirisak Jodiatai took over temporarily. After that, he led the team to achieve 1 win and 1 draw, thus successfully advancing and meeting the Huaguo team.

The Chinese team and the Thai team have faced each other 26 times in A-level matches before, and the national football team has 17 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses, occupying an absolute advantage.

However, it was too shameful for the 1-5 defeat to the Thai ([-]) team, which had a profound impact on the Chinese, so this battle was tinged with revenge.

Although the Thai team has made great progress compared with before, especially on the basis of maintaining the fast and flexible characteristics, the team awareness has also improved significantly.

But the Thai team, which has appeared in the Asian Cup finals 7 times, has only won 2 games in regular time so far.

The focus of the Huaguo team is how to avoid getting a card against Thailand, which will be related to the future advancement of the Huazu team.

Since this Asian Cup has accumulated two yellow cards and suspended one match, those with one back will not be cleared until the semifinals.

Therefore, once Zhang Linfan, Gao Lin, Feng Xiaoting, Liu Yang and Liu Jianye with a yellow card received a yellow card in the game against Thailand, they would not be able to play even if the team advanced to the quarterfinals.

Since the quarter-finals are very likely to meet the powerful Iranian team, and this is the knockout stage, as long as they lose, they will be out. Therefore, the players who originally had yellow cards in the game against Thailand need to avoid getting another card.

The 2007 Asian Cup national football match against Uzbekistan was due to the suspension of Zheng Zhi and Li Weifeng for accumulating yellow cards, which led to the team being out of the game with a net score of three eggs.

It is worth mentioning that before the confrontation with the Thai team, it was reported from the Italian side that the son of "Silver Fox" was attacked at the door of his house and received death threats. There will be some impact at least.

For the Thailand team, the two central defenders Tongsong (No. 15) and Promlak (No. 5) will both be suspended for the game against the national football team due to accumulating two yellow cards, but the other player suspended for one game in the last round of the group stage Central defender Herm Weibang (No. 6) can return for this campaign;

In addition, midfielder Dehemet has been determined not to be able to play in this Asian Cup due to a serious back injury; defender Chunu Anse (No. 16) also has a minor injury, but it should not affect his appearance from the pre-match point of view.

……

For the purpose of stabilizing the morale of the Huaguo fans, Lippi must have answered questions from many media reporters after the training on January 1:

"No one may play against Thailand, but Zhang Mai and Zhang Yulin will definitely be the starters!"

It seems that after losing to South Korea in the last game of the group stage, the pressure on the Silver Foxes increased greatly, and finally showed the fangs of the Huaguo team who vowed to win the championship.

(End of this chapter)