As the first group match approaches, people are paying more and more attention to the game itself, and no one cares about any gossip other than that.

The Chinese team's opponent in the first round of the group stage is Saudi Arabia.

This is the old opponent of Chinese football, and it can also be said to be the victim of Chinese football. Of course, there are quite a few victims of Chinese football in Asia. Saudi Arabia is just one of them, not the most painful victim...

In this Asian Cup qualifier, the Chinese team was divided into a group with Saudi Arabia.

In the first game, the Chinese team lost 1:2 away to Saudi Arabia. At that time, the head coach of the Chinese team was still Espanyol Camacho, and Gao Zheng had not yet been selected for the national team.

Later, when the two teams met again, Gao Zheng was already a member of the Chinese team. The Chinese team faced Saudi Arabia at home. That game was related to whether the Chinese team could successfully qualify for the Asian Cup.

In this game, Saudi Arabia caused some trouble for Gao Zheng and was very strict in defense of Gao Zheng, so for a while, Gao Zheng could only pass the football to his teammates after attracting Saudi Arabian defensive players. However, his teammates were not very neat and wasted the opportunities he created.

In the end, Gao Zheng shot himself to solve this problem.

This scene is very similar to the previous warm-up match between the Chinese team and Palestinians.

Such a confrontation experience also makes everyone feel a little worried about the prospects of the Chinese team.

At that time, Saudi Arabia had basically obtained the qualification to qualify in advance, so it was not enough to do its best.

But in this Asian Cup group stage, Saudi Arabia has absolutely no reason to let go. Although they lost to South Korea 0:4 in the previous internal warm-up match, who knows whether they deliberately released smoke bombs to the Chinese team?

You should know that China asked the media to record the whole game in that warm-up match. Saudi Arabia did not deliberately avoid the Chinese media. Is there any conspiracy?

If the Chinese team thinks Saudi Arabia is a soft persimmon, they may be in trouble.

In fact, if the Chinese team did not have Gao Zheng, even if they could enter this Asian Cup by chance, they would not be optimistic at all. In this group, they can even be said to be the weakest team. After all, in the history of the Asian Cup, the Chinese team and the other three opponents in this group have never won twice against Uzbekistan, both in the group stage, and the result was a 0:3 defeat and a 2:2 draw; they played against Saudi Arabia four times in the Asian Cup, with the Chinese team draws and three losses; they also had a 1:2 encounter against the Chinese team in North Korea.

Even if you have Gao Zheng, the situation may not improve much. Because rationally, Gao Zheng is like a huge torch burning in the darkness, and he can be seen from any angle.

As opponents of the Chinese team, they will definitely study Gao Zheng seriously and make targeted tactical arrangements. Everyone knows that as long as Gao Zheng is restricted, the Chinese team will be without any threat, so why not do this?

In fact, before the first round of group stage, when Saudi Arabia's head coach Kosmin Olaroyu accepted the Saudi Arabian local media "Middle East" and said that if he wanted to defeat the Chinese team, he only needed to freeze Zheng Zhi and Gao Zheng. Saudi Arabian players who faced them should try to reduce the activity space of the two people and prevent them from playing too easily.

As long as the Chinese team's offense can be curbed, in Olaroyou's opinion, there is no suspense to defeat the Chinese team, because the Chinese team's defense is really not very good. After all, they have a "Chinese team nemesis" Hazaz. He has blown up China's defense line before, whether against Guangzhou or against the Chinese team.

However, at the public press conference before the game, Olaroyou said another thing: "...We have to face the strong Chinese team in the first game. The Chinese team is very strong and has a good organization, and the head coach is also very outstanding. We will try our best to solve some problems that arise in the warm-up match and welcome the Chinese team in the best condition... We will strive to win the right to qualify in the group..."

Listening to this, how low the posture is, and how swearing the Chinese team is, it makes people wonder if the previous interview is true.

But perhaps when facing domestic media only, what he said has a little credibility.

Because similarly, what the Chinese coach Perrin said at the press conference was completely different from what he said to the domestic media. He did not emphasize the first place in the group, but instead made Saudi Arabia crazily.

Both sides are desperately bragging about their opponents, and when talking about their team, they say they will do their best.

Both coaches are giving each other poisonous milk, and hope this will work a little...

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When Gao Zheng walked out of the passage wearing the Chinese team's red jersey and walked into the stadium with his teammates, they were warmly welcomed by the Chinese fans on the scene.

He looked up and looked around. The Brisbane Stadium, which could accommodate 50,000 fans, was quite empty, and it was completely incomparable to the home atmosphere of Atletico Madrid.

However, if you have watched another match between North Korea and Uzbekistan in the same group, you will feel that the atmosphere of the Chinese team's match is already very warm.

The shouts of "Come on the Chinese team" were filled with ears.

It makes every Chinese fan feel as if he is coming to his home court, rather than playing in a foreign country.

It is said that 14,000 Chinese fans and local Chinese fans came to watch the game on the spot.

Looking around, red is the main color where the crowds gather, while green or white in Saudi Arabia is rare.

This is not Gao Zheng's first game, nor is it his first national team game. But for some reason, he was still a little nervous when he looked at these Chinese fans who had an absolute advantage.

He didn't feel that his dream came true when joining Sampdoria, and he didn't feel that he had realized his dream when playing for Atletico Madrid. But today, at this moment, he felt that his dream came true.

Wearing the Chinese team's jersey, he stands on the stage of the Intercontinental Competition on behalf of the Chinese team.

Calm down, Gao Zheng, this is just the Asian Cup. And your real goal should be the World Cup!

Thinking of this, Gao Zheng took a few deep breaths to calm his emotions.

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"After a series of ceremonies before the game, the players on both sides are now standing in their respective positions, and the game is about to begin..." said He Ping, a commentator on the spot. "In fact, in terms of historical confrontation records, we and Saudi Arabia should be in the same position, with six wins, four draws and seven losses. But the problem is that it has been too long since we last defeated Saudi Arabia. The last time we defeated Saudi Arabia was in the top ten in 1997. Since then, we have never had any British opponents. I hope the young men of the Chinese team can muster up the fighting spirit and courage to defeat Saudi Arabia and get the first prize for the Chinese team's Asian Cup journey!"

"The good news is that last year's Asian footballer Shamrani of Saudi Arabia was absent due to injury..." Commentary guest Xu Yang smiled. "Of course, I believe that even if Shamrani was not injured, the young men of the Chinese team should not be afraid..."

"Saudi Arabia has Shamrani, we have Gao Zheng!"

He Ping and Xu Yang both laughed.

After joking, the referee also blew the whistle to the beginning of the game.

"Okay, the game begins! CCTV! CCTV! Audiences, welcome to the first round of the 2015 Australian Asian Cup Group B group stage, the match between the Chinese team and Saudi Arabia!"

After the standard opening remarks, the game began.
Chapter completed!