After the match against Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team will usher in the group stage Uzbekistan in Brisbane.

Compared with today's Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan is more powerful. They are the seed team of this group, the first-class.

However, compared with Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team's performance against Uzbekistan is even worse.

Because Uzbekistan joined the AFC in the 1990s, the Chinese team has not had a long history of confrontation with them.

The Chinese national team has fought with Uzbekistan nine times in history, and these nine games refer to international A-level events.

In these nine games, the Chinese team won only three games, tied one game, and the Chinese team lost all the other five games.

Moreover, two of the three games won were insignificant warm-up matches. Only in the top ten Asian qualifiers in the 2001 World Cup, the Chinese team defeated Uzbekistan 2-0 at home, but then they lost to their opponents away, and their unbeaten gold body in the top ten match was broken.

The games lost by the Chinese team are basically important games.

For example, at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, the Chinese team was strong and reached the finals and was determined to win the championship. In the finals, they encountered Uzbekistan, who participated in the Asian Games for the first time. As a result, the Chinese team lost to the new Asian team 2:4 in the finals, missing the great opportunity to win gold at the Asian Games.

Next, in the group stage of the 1996 Asian Cup, Uzbekistan lacked a major general compared with the lineup that won gold at the Asian Games two years ago. The Chinese team did have the advantage in the game. They played very well in the first 80 minutes, but they did not score points. Instead, because of their impetuousness, they were counterattacked twice by the opponent at the last moment, and finally resented the hatred again with a score of 0:2.

In the 2007 Asian Cup, the Chinese team was once again divided into a group with Uzbekistan. At that time, the Chinese team could qualify from the group if they tied, and the situation was very good. But it was this damn "you can qualify when you tied", which made the Chinese team not know how to play in the game. In the end, the Chinese team lost 0:3 to Uzbekistan. Zhu Guanghu's Chinese team set a shameful record: the Chinese team failed to qualify in the Asian Cup group stage for the first time in 27 years.

In the 2011 Asian Cup, the Chinese team was divided into the same group with Uzbekistan for the third time. This time, the Chinese team no longer had to qualify by a draw, but had to defeat Uzbekistan before qualifying. As a result, they drew 2:2 with Uzbekistan and were eliminated unfortunately.

The last time the Chinese team and Uzbekistan met was in a warm-up match in 2013, when the Chinese team lost 1:2 to Uzbekistan.

This is just a history of national team-level confrontation. At the national youth team, there was a very shameful failure in the match against Uzbekistan. It was the knockout stage of the 2008 Asian Youth Championship. The national youth team and Uzbekistan were still difficult to solve in overtime, but an accident occurred in the last minute of overtime:

The Uzbekistan goalkeeper touched the ball with his hands twice in the penalty area and was awarded a free kick in the penalty area by the referee. The goalkeeper had an argument with the referee because he was dissatisfied with the referee and was sent off with a red card. At this time, Uzbekistan had used up three substitutions, and in desperation he could only let the defender Tutahuhayev make a temporary guest appearance at the goalkeeper.

Under such circumstances, the situation of the Chinese team is good. It should be only a matter of time before the promotion and qualify for the World Youth Championship - even if the free kick in the penalty area is not scored, in the next penalty battle, can you still not score a penalty when facing a defender who temporarily plays a goalkeeper?

As a result, in the subsequent penalty shootout, Wu Xi, the national youth player at that time, missed the football. At the same time, the temporary goalkeeper also saved Li Zhichao's penalty, helping Uzbekistan defeat the National Day with a score of 4:3 and qualified to participate in the World Youth Championship.

Being eliminated by the opponent in this way is a huge humiliation and disaster for the National Youth Team.

It is also worth mentioning that Tutahuhayev, who was the goalkeeper, eliminated the national youth team, was also in the Uzbekistan team this time. In the national youth team that was eliminated, there were two players in the current Chinese team, namely Wu Xi who lost a penalty and full-back Zhang Linpeng.

In terms of historical record, the Chinese team has no advantage at all. They met Uzbekistan four times in the Asian Cup group stage, and the first three times fell under the feet of this team, making it difficult to win.

However, after having Gao Zheng this time, Chinese fans are still very confident.

Of course, some Chinese media may think that the fans are too optimistic and keep pouring cold water on everyone, telling them that it is not uncommon for the Chinese team to win the first round of the Asian Cup group stage, but the most important thing is the second round. According to statistics, all those who qualify in the group stage of the Chinese team basically win the second game.

In the last two Asian Cups, the Chinese team failed to qualify in the group because they did not win the second group stage.

With Uzbekistan's strength, blind optimism is not conducive to the Chinese team's defeat of their opponents. Instead, it will also convey a wrong message to the international players - that is, they are already very strong now, no one is afraid of anyone, and anyone can win. If you go to the game with such emotions, you may lose the game because of your pride and underestimation of the enemy.

If you lose to Uzbekistan in the second round, if you want to qualify in the group, you have to fight North Korea, which is known for its tenacious style in the last round...

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However, during the training of the Chinese team, head coach Perrin sang a counter-tune with some domestic media:

"We must always remember that you are strong, stronger than others imagine! To be honest, I don't know much about the grudges between Chinese football and Uzbekistan, and I am not interested in understanding the records in the old piles of paper. Four years ago, the historical results of eight years ago could not represent anything. Now you are completely different from you four years ago, eight years ago, let alone the team. Uzbekistan is strong, but we are not weak either. I believe that as long as everyone believes in this and shows the best self in the game, we will definitely beat Uzbekistan! Remember what I said before? We want to be the first in the group and let us return here!"

As a coach, when you need to boost morale, of course, you will not use any historical confrontation data to hit your players.

And the players weren't nervous.

The statements from domestic media may affect many fans, but they cannot affect the national team.

After defeating Saudi Arabia, the Chinese team was relaxed when preparing for the battle.

A reporter photographed the scene of Chinese players talking and laughing during training. Gao Zheng also expressed his confidence in an interview with Chinese reporters after training: "If you want to be the first in the group, you must defeat Uzbekistan, right? So isn't this very simple? We will definitely win."

Because the rules of the Asian Cup group stage are the same as those of Europe, first look at the mutual victory and loss relationship between the two teams. As long as the Chinese team defeats Uzbekistan, even if the Chinese team loses a big score to North Korea in the last group stage, they will definitely be the first in the group, because no matter whether Uzbekistan wins or Saudi Arabia wins, they are not in the advantage of the victory and loss relationship with the Chinese team when the Chinese team is the same - they have been defeated by the Chinese team. Therefore, as long as the Chinese team can defeat Uzbekistan, they will lock in the first in the group in advance.

Another reporter asked about the goal question, Gao Zheng said: "The team's victory is the most important thing. Of course, if the team needs me to score, then I will score."

He downplayed the goal in an understatement, which seemed not a difficult thing.

But everyone is still a little worried. After the outstanding performance in the last game, Uzbekistan will definitely pay more attention to his defense against Gao Zheng. Will he still have a chance to score? If Gao Zheng is restricted by Uzbekistan, can the Chinese team really deal with Uzbekistan?

This worry seemed to be proved to be "unnecessary worry" when the Chinese team and Uzbekistan began twenty-two minutes.
Chapter completed!