Champion’s Heart

The knockout stage will be played first by Japan, who face rivals Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals.

Shinji Kagawa performed very well in this game, scoring twice to help Japan beat Uzbekistan 3:2.

This is the first time he has scored in the Asian Cup.

Not long after the Japanese team's game just ended, the Chinese team appeared on the stage.

Their opponent is Jordan.

The final score was 2:1, the Chinese team defeated Jordan and entered the semi-finals!

The one who scored the goal for the Chinese team was Gao Lin, who also scored twice in this game, and the one who scored twice for him was Zhou Yi.

After the game, China’s Internet was full of celebrations, celebrating that the Chinese team entered the semi-finals of the Asian Cup again after seven years. Some netizens ridiculed Gao Lin and said that after the Zhouyi, Gao Linsman really became Gao Linsman, not Gao Linsman. The plane is gone.

Zhou Yi's two assists for Gao Lin can almost be called nanny assists, that is, the striker can hit the football without any technical content...

In four games, Gao Lin scored four goals and is already the top scorer in the Chinese team.

Before Zhou Yilai, Gao Lin was more often responsible for tactical tasks than scoring tasks in this team. He serves as a fulcrum for the Chinese team's offense in the frontcourt. He has the body and skills, can hold the ball, and can also play the ball. And although he is a center forward, he has a wide range of activities in the frontcourt. He can be seen from the left, center and right. He also plays hard and runs actively, which is a bit like a model worker.

These characteristics of him fit well with Gao Hongbo's tactics that require the national team to cooperate on the ground. Therefore, although Gao Lin has been criticized for his poor shooting skills, he is still Gao Hongbo's favorite player in the national team. Gao Hongbo will always give priority to it. Pick him to start.

No one expected that after Zhou Yi came, Gao Lin suddenly became the top scorer!

And not only in the team, but also in this Asian Cup. Gao Lin also now has four goals. Tied with Korean player Gu Zizhe for the first place in the scorer list.

In the assist list, Zhou Yi topped the list with five assists. No one can threaten his position... This performance at least shows that Zhou Yi is now a top midfielder in Asia, even though he is only nineteen years old...

I won't be 20 years old until February of this year

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The Chinese team, which reached the semi-finals, is only one step away from the final.

As long as they can beat their semi-final opponents...Australia.

Although the Chinese fans and the media are as happy as the Chinese New Year, Klopp definitely doesn't want to hear the news at all.

Except Zhouyi. Shinji Kagawa's Japanese team also reached the semi-finals.

This means that his two important main players will have to play the entire Asian Cup before returning to the team...

Even if both the Chinese team and Japan lose the semi-finals. They still have to play a third and fourth finals!

The only thing that can comfort Klopp a little bit is that...the third and fourth finals will be played one day earlier than the finals. If the teams of the two are participating in the third and fourth finals, they can return to the team one day earlier...

But at that time, it was already January 28th. That's the end of January.

While the Asian Cup was in full swing, the second half of the Bundesliga also started. Dortmund is still the first to play. In the eighteenth round of the league, Dortmund, who lacked Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa, was defeated by Leverkusen 3:1 away.

The influence of Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa was not revealed.

From the scene, Dortmund without Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa did not run as smoothly as in the first half of the season.

Zhou Yi is the core of Dortmund. The impact of his absence on Dortmund is not a little, but very large. Shinji Kagawa is like a lubricant in the frontcourt. A machine can't do without lubricant, so Shinji Kagawa is also very important for Dortmund.

The absence of these two important figures made them in a hurry to face the aggressive third place Leverkusen in the away game.

After the decline of midfield control. Leverkusen easily took the initiative. Finally lost a 1:3.

The defeat of this game shortened Dortmund's lead in the standings from ten to seven points at once.

This is not over yet. In the next nineteenth round of the league, Dortmund was tied 1:1 by Stuttgart at home.

Counting the last round before the winter break, if Dortmund loses to Frankfurt, this is Dortmund's three consecutive league rounds without victory. This has never happened to Dortmund, which was fully staffed in the first half of the season.

It's no wonder that Klopp hopes that the Chinese team and the Japanese team will all go home after the end of the group stage...

Originally, the Chinese team hoped to be eliminated in the group stage, but unfortunately they have Zhou Yi, and the situation is different.

There will be the twentieth round of the league next. Dortmund will challenge Wolfsburg away. This game will be played on the afternoon of January 29. Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa will definitely not be able to catch up.

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At 9:15 p.m. on January 25th, Beijing time, the semi-finals between Japan and South Korea began.

After 90 minutes of fierce fighting, the Japanese team and the South Korean team drew 1:1. In overtime, both sides also scored a goal. In the end, it was 2:2 in 120 minutes. The two sides could only enter the penalty shootout.

In the penalty shootout, the top three players of the South Korean team all missed penalties, and only Nagatomo Yuto of the Japanese team kicked away. In the penalty shootout, the Japanese team eliminated South Korea with a score of 3:0 and entered the final first.

Later, the Chinese team debuted, and their opponent in the semifinals was Australia.

Since joining the AFC in 2006, although Australia is a country in Oceania geographically, its Football Association is affiliated with the AFC and can participate in the Asian Cup.

For Australia, joining the AFC naturally has their interests. That is to increase their chances of participating in the World Cup. Because the Oceania Football Association had only two professional teams in Australia and New Zealand before, and the others were all island countries in the Pacific Ocean, and their football level was very backward. The World Cup quota assigned by FIFA to Oceania Football Federation is only half.

In this way, if Australia wants to participate in the World Cup, they must first get the first place in the Oceania qualifiers, and then compete with the fifth place in South America for the half place, and sometimes they will also compete with Asia.

It's okay to compete with Asia, but it is too difficult for Australia to compete with South America for qualifying places.

After all, the level of South American football is much higher than that of Australia.

Therefore, Australia has always hoped to leave the Oceania Football Confederation and join the AFC.

The AFC that accepts Australia also has its own interest considerations.

All along, the level of Asian football is not very high, but there are many members. So there can be four to four and a half places in the World Cup. However, because the performance of Asian teams in the World Cup is generally not good enough, if the AFC wants to win more places in the World Cup, it needs to improve its own strength. And if Australia, which is not bad in strength, can join the AFC, it will help improve the overall strength of the AFC and win more resources.

So this is something that is beneficial to both parties, and naturally it hit it off.

The effect of Australia's joining the AFC is remarkable. Before joining the AFC, Australia had only participated in two World Cups in so many years, in 1974 and 2006.

After joining the AFC, they immediately qualified for the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Now, the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifiers are about to start, and Australia is also very hopeful to enter the World Cup finals again...

As for the interest demands of the AFC...the benefits of Australia's joining have not been seen at all yet.

Instead, other teams in Asia became victims.

For Asian teams, Australia is like a tiger breaking into the herd.

Although their skills are rough, they can rely on their strong bodies to deal with those Asian teams with delicate skills.

This is probably one of the important reasons why they were able to finally stand out from the Asian qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Although the physical fitness of Chinese players is better than that of Japan and Southeast Asian teams, it still has a slight disadvantage compared with teams like Iran and Uzbekistan. Not to mention comparing with Australia.

Playing against Uzbekistan, the Chinese team was physically suppressed terribly. Only by Zhou Yi leading the team to pass and cooperate can they compete with the opponent.

And this game will definitely provide a reference for Australia.

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In an interview before the game, Zhou Yi said that although Australia is a strong team, since they have reached the semi-finals, how could they easily admit defeat?

We have a saying in China, it's called 'everyone has come'. Zhou Yi said with a smile to the AFC official website reporter who interviewed him. Since we have come here and we are only one step away from the final, how can we be content to stop in the semi-final? So we will definitely reach the final.

The reporter on the official website of the AFC was a little surprised. She asked back: Sure?

Sure. Zhou Yi nodded to confirm again.

And Zhou Yi's opponent in this game, Australian star Cahill also expressed his confidence in reaching the final in an interview.

Zhou Yi is a very good player, but football is a team sport, not an individual sport. Cahill shrugged. What he meant was that the overall level of the Chinese team was too poor, and it was useless for Guang Zhouyi to perform well alone. We'll make it to the finals because we're stronger! (To be continued.) Enable new URL