Chapter 33: Rivals and Expectations

When England fans were crazy about Li Qingshan's senior year, Li Qingshan had already appeared at Dalian Airport at 10 o'clock at noon the next day, because the first opponent of the top 12 was away against South Korea, so the national team's training location was chosen in Dalian, a football city near the Korean Peninsula. Outside the exit of the airport, groups of fans were here early to welcome Li Qingshan's return.

Li Qingshan's reputation in domestic football has long been at its peak, and after helping Manchester United win the historic treble last season, Li Qingshan has indisputably become the number one star in the hearts of Chinese fans.

After all, Manchester United is a bigger club than Atletico Madrid, and in Asia, Manchester United's influence far exceeds that of Atletico Madrid. Unlike Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have been arguing about the number one stars before, Li Qingshan is the number one in the hearts of Chinese fans at this time - although he has not yet received the Ballon d'Or certification.

Outside the airport, the logistics staff of the national team sent a minibus to greet Li Qingshan. With the help of airport security personnel, Li Qingshan boarded the car and went to the national team's training base in Dalian.

South Korea are no easy opponents to deal with, and the domestic Super League has been suspended for two weeks in preparation for this game - most of the Chinese players are from the Chinese Super League, to be precise, except for Li Qingshan, the rest of the players are from the Chinese Super League.

Therefore, except for Li Qingshan, the players of other national teams have been training at this training base for two weeks, and when Li Qingshan arrives, the team will leave for Seoul, the capital of South Korea, to go to the away stadium for adaptive training.

This is the national football team's 15 years after the first 12 matches in the Asian region of the World Preliminaries: in 2001, the national football team won the tickets to the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan in the top 10 rounds in advance, but in the next three World Preliminaries Asian games, the national football team failed in the top 32 and top 20 respectively, and never entered the final stage. On the stage of the World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team has not played against Asia's first-class teams for too long.

After 15 years, the Chinese team has once again entered the final stage of the qualifiers, and the whole Chinese team is quite cautious about playing South Korea away.

When it comes to South Korea as an opponent, there is always a variety of bitter memories in the minds of Chinese fans.

Although in the Asian Cup two years ago, the Chinese team defeated the South Korean team 2-1 with Li Qingshan's goal, but to really say that the Chinese team has a comprehensive disadvantage when facing the South Korean team - otherwise how can there be such a thing as Koreanophobia.

According to FIFA official statistics, the Chinese men's football team and the South Korean men's football team have met 33 times in history, and the Chinese team has 3 wins, 11 draws and 19 losses, scoring 22 goals and conceding 45 goals, which is at a significant disadvantage. In the 33 meetings with South Korea, the Chinese team has a win rate of only 9.1%.

In the World Preliminaries, the Chinese team met South Korea once, that was in the 1990 World Cup qualifiers on October 20, 1989, the Chinese team lost 0-1 to South Korea in Singapore, and Kim Zhucheng scored the only goal of the game. The two sides met 27 times in the warm-up matches, with the national football team winning 2, drawing 10 and losing 15, scoring 19 goals and conceding 38 goals. The first time the Chinese team defeated South Korea was in the warm-up match in January 1949, when the Chinese team defeated South Korea 3-2. The second victory over South Korea was in the 2010 East Asian Championships, when the national football team defeated South Korea 3-0 with goals from Yu Hai, Gao Lin and Deng Zhuoxiang, breaking the curse of 24 years of winless South Korea. The third victory over South Korea was in the 2014 Asian Cup, when China defeated South Korea 2-1 in the quarterfinals, counting the previous victory in the East Asian Cup, which was the only two wins for China against South Korea in the international A-level competition.

Although China and South Korea are close neighbors, at the level of the men's national team, the two sides have not played each other much in major tournaments, and the vast majority of them have come in friendly matches.

This South Korean team is a real powerhouse in Asia - although the Chinese team has Li Qingshan in the team, it does not mean that the Chinese team is above the opponent.

In the first match against the Chinese team in the first match of the World Cup qualifiers round of 12, the South Korean team announced their list of 21 people.

Facing South Korea again this time, in addition to having 4 backfield players who are currently playing in the Chinese Super League, South Korea's midfield can be described as star-studded. In addition to the South Korean beast waist - Han Rong, who is currently playing for Galafa SC, there is also Son Heung-min (30 million euros), who plays for Tottenham and has set the second-highest transfer record for Asian players, as well as Li Qinglong, a former Korean genius who currently plays for Crystal Palace, and Qi Chengyong, who plays for Swansea and is praised as South Korea's Gerrard by the Korean media. In addition, there are two players who play for Augsburg in the Bundesliga and Zheng Yourong in the Chinese Super League. In the midfield alone, all nine players of the South Korean team are foreign players in Europe, and such a luxurious configuration has to make it difficult for the Chinese team to face the South Korean team.

Lippi said in an interview that the South Korean team is a strong opponent, if you want to break through in the top 12, the first game against South Korea is quite critical, in the group of the Chinese team, the South Korean team and the Iranian team are the biggest opponents of the Chinese team's group breakthrough, if you can't score points on the direct competitors, then in the form of the group, the Chinese team will undoubtedly not be too optimistic.

Lippi said that playing South Korea away will certainly be a tough game, and in Seoul, the Chinese team should be guaranteed to get at least a point.

Unlike Lippi's low profile, the fans of the Chinese team are very confident in this road trip.

The source of their confidence is naturally Li Qingshan.

Compared with Li Qingshan's starlight, South Korea's players in Europe seem to have become foils one by one, just like the bright moon compared to the fireflies, even the biggest Korean star Son Xingmin, compared with Li Qingshan, it seems that he can't take the stage.

Moreover, the 2014 Asian Cup championship gave the Chinese fans strong confidence.

As long as there is Li Qingshan, the Chinese team can defeat all opponents in Asia - the Asian Cup championship is proof of this!

Therefore, in the public opinion of Chinese fans, fans are more confident than before in this battle between China and South Korea.

Some media outlets sent out a questionnaire on their website, titled: What do you think of the outcome of the battle between China and South Korea on September 1.

As a result, 80 percent of the Chinese team won the game, more than 10 percent chose a draw, and only a few percent of the remaining people thought that the Chinese team would lose.

If such a survey had been placed a few years ago, it would have been reversed. It can be seen from this that the appearance of Li Qingshan has brought great confidence to the fans.

Fans are full of expectations for the Chinese team to break through from the group and reach the World Cup finals for the second time.