Fengba Greenery

Chapter 329 Semifinal opponents
Chapter 173 The opponent in the semifinals

Although there were nearly 10 minutes left in the game, when Lippi saw the football rolling into the South Korean team's goal, he turned around and sat back on the coach's bench.

This is often the case in football games. When one side has difficulty finding a way to restrain the opponent's tactics, the result of the game will not have too many surprises.

The Koreans couldn't defend against Li Qingshan, which meant that the possibility of the Korean team winning this game was basically gone.

When the game resumed, the lagging South Koreans started to attack with the ball, but under the sway of the mouse, it was difficult for their offensive strength to penetrate the Chinese team's defense, posing any threat to Zeng Cheng's goal.

In the No.806 minute, the Chinese team scored another goal to seal the victory.

At that time, after Li Qingshan stopped the ball, he found Wu Lei who replaced Yu Chao. Wu Lei fully displayed his speed and left the two central defenders of the South Korean team behind. .

The referee decisively awarded a penalty and then showed Kim Jin-hyun a red card.

The head coach of the South Korean team, Stillik, stood on the sidelines, frowning, and he didn't react until his assistant reminded him that his goalkeeper had been sent off, and at this moment the South Korean had to replace it with a new goalkeeper. This penalty.

Goalkeeper Kim Sung-gyu from Ulsan Hyundai didn't even have time to warm up, so he put on his gloves in a hurry and stood in front of the ball.

Unprepared, Kim Sung-gyu missed the penalty kick from Li Qingshan in the wrong direction, and Li Qingshan easily scored the ball.

Three to one!

The Chinese team sealed the victory.

In the next game, the Koreans launched a desperate attack, but they failed to receive any effect.

Until the last minute of stoppage time, the Korean attack continued.Finally, when Feng Xiaoting cleared the ball with a big foot, the referee blew three whistles, which was the end of the game!

"The game is over! The Chinese team defeated the South Korean team [-]-[-] and reached the semi-finals of the Asian Cup!" Duan Xuan tightly fixed the headset with his hands, and shouted with all his strength amidst the cheers at the scene all day road.

"Now the Chinese team can go to rest first. Their opponents in the semi-finals will be selected after the match between the Japanese team and the UAE team tomorrow, and the strength of the UAE is obviously lower than that of the Japanese team. Therefore, the Chinese team's semi-final The opponent is likely to be the Japanese team!"

Duan Xuan was right, when the game was over, Lippi was already ready to face the Japanese team in the semi-finals.

The first day of the quarter-finals ended, and the Australian and Chinese teams that successfully entered the semi-finals needed to know their opponents after the end of the second day.

The other two quarter-final matches are Iran against Iraq and Japan against the United Arab Emirates.

There is no doubt that Iran and Japan are the top teams in Asia. Therefore, almost everyone is optimistic about these two teams advancing to the semi-finals.

Of course the Japanese team thinks so too.

Before the game of the Japanese team started, the Japanese had almost announced their promotion in advance.

In particular, Keisuke Honda, the head star of the Japanese team, said at the pre-match press conference of the Chinese team: "Our opponent in the semi-finals will be the Chinese team, which is a good thing for us. The consumption will be a little less, and we will have some advantages in the final."

The implication of Keisuke Honda's words is that not only did he not pay attention to their opponent UAE in this game, but he also did not pay attention to the Chinese team.

Indeed, in the half area where the Japanese team is located, there are not many strong teams, especially after the strongest South Korean team was "surprised" by the Chinese team. From the perspective of the Japanese team, there is almost no obstacle to reach the Asian Cup final .

Keisuke Honda's words are indeed a bit arrogant, but the strength of the Japanese team gave them the confidence to be arrogant.

Since the 90s of last century, Japan's football governing body has formulated an ambitious and practical football development plan.Japanese football implements a complete set of tactical systems from top to bottom. The teaching materials used by all Japanese youth training institutions are formulated by Japan on the basis of learning Brazilian football and considering the characteristics of the Japanese themselves. From the national team to the amateur team, from From top to bottom, they use almost the same set of tactics.

The parallel youth training system of Japanese campus football and professional clubs has cultivated a large football population for Japanese football. With the support of a large football population, Japanese football has taken off after entering the 21st century and has become the top team in Asia. If It is not limited by the physical fitness of the Japanese players themselves, they even have the strength to challenge the strong European teams!
Take the roster of the Japanese team this year as an example. The players who played in the five major European leagues include Kagawa Shinji, Honda Keisuke, Nagatomo Yuto, Okazaki Shinji, Uchida Atsuto and others.

With these players who have studied abroad in Europe as the backbone, supplemented by the top Japanese players in the J-League, and supported by a complete tactical system that they played from childhood to adulthood, the Japanese team is undoubtedly a team in terms of personal ability and teamwork. A team that can only move sideways in Asia.

But the Japanese team is obviously out of luck in this Asian Cup.

In No.90 two minutes of stoppage time, the Japanese still led the UAE [-]-[-]. However, at the end of the game, Omar Abdurrahman, known as Gulf Messi, scored a goal on the penalty area line. The goal was scored with a curve ball to help the UAE team equalize the score and drag the game into overtime.

In overtime, neither side achieved anything, and in the penalty shootout, Keisuke Honda missed a penalty, and the United Arab Emirates made all five free throws. The total score of the Japanese team was [-]-[-] and the United Arab Emirates blocked them from the semi-finals.

This Asian Cup seems to be very popular and unpopular.

Another quarter-final match between Iran and Iraq ended in overtime. Iran was eliminated by the Iraqi team in a penalty shootout after the overtime.

The United Arab Emirates and Iraq reached the semi-finals, while the Japanese and Iranians could only stop in the quarter-finals and go home early.

The opponent of the Chinese team in the semi-finals became the UAE team.

This made the Chinese media very excited, because in their view, the difficulty of playing the Japanese team is obviously much more difficult than playing the UAE.

But Lippi didn't see it that way in an interview.

"I don't think it will be easier to play against the United Arab Emirates than Japan. The United Arab Emirates eliminated the Japanese team and reached the semi-finals. There are no weak teams in the semi-finals. It will be a tough game. We will do our best. prepare."

"When it comes to the semi-finals, every team's goal is of course the championship. I hope that after 10 minutes, the team that gets the tickets to the final will be the Chinese team!"

(End of this chapter)