Chapter 125: National Team Match Day

The Madrid derby between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid will be played at the Bernabeu Stadium in the third round of La Liga. But before the start of the third round of the league, there is a two-week international break.

Now the proportion of internationals in the Atletico Madrid team is also starting to rise, and after the match against Eibar, Griezmann will report to France and Mandzukic will report to Croatia. As soon as many internationals left, Atletico Madrid's squad shrank in half, and Simeone had to draw a group of players from the youth team to maintain the team's training.

Li Qingshan was no exception, as soon as the match against Eibar was over, he rushed to the airport, boarded the plane to Beijing, and where he met the national team.

The Chinese team will play a warm-up match in Anshan, Liaoning Province on September 4 and Harbin, Heilongjiang Province on September 9. The opponents are Kuwait and Jordan, respectively.

This is a warm-up for the Asian Cup in January next year.

On September 1, Li Qingshan returned to Beijing, and after joining the team, the team traveled from Beijing to Anshan, Liaoning Province on September 2.

Liaoning has always been a major sports province in China, especially in football, and now the province with the most professional football players in China is Liaoning Province, in this national team, Feng Xiaoting, Yu Hanchao and others are all from Liaoning, accounting for almost half of the national team.

Liaoning fans have given great support and enthusiasm to the Chinese national team.

Of course, this is not only the national team with Li Qingshan, but also after Lippi took office, the entire national team has a new look, and the stubborn problem of the Chinese team's attack over the years seems to have been solved after Li Qingshan.

From the moment the national team's bus drove into Anshan City, the players of the national team felt the enthusiasm of Anshan fans. To be honest, for a long time, the role of the national team was mostly negative, and it was not bad for the fans not to scold, and it was basically impossible to expect them to welcome them. There may be a few die-hard fans who have been following the team, but when a team's results are declining, it can be difficult to keep the fans.

Even the national team is no exception.

In the past national team games, there were no people in the stands, there were few spectators, and even if most of the tickets were given, few fans came to cheer for them. Sometimes, in order not to embarrass the number of people in the stands of the national team's games, the host city will also organize students from schools and employees of state-owned enterprises and institutions to sit in the stands, so that the whole stadium will not be so cold.

But now, there is still half an hour before the start of the game, and the stands of the Anshan Olympic Sports Center are already crowded.

Fans have gone through the darkest days, and most Chinese fans are now very easily satisfied – as long as they can play the content and play the spirit, even if they lose the game, they are happy.

Of course, I'm even happier to win.

In the match against Kuwait, Lippi fielded a full main lineup in the first half, with Li Qingshan topping the attack.

The Kuwait team seemed helpless against Li Qingshan's dominance in the penalty area, their two central defenders were not tall enough, and the physical confrontation was not enough for Li Qingshan to see. This is also the weakness of the West Asian team, the West Asian players are agile and fast, but the physical confrontation is not their strong point. So when they face a tall and strong high school striker, they look very embarrassed.

In the first half of the game, Li Qingshan scored a goal and assisted twice, and the Chinese team defeated Kuwait 3-0.

After the start of the second half, except for goalkeepers Zeng Cheng and Li Qingshan, Lippi replaced all the other starters and replaced them with another lineup. Because Li Qingshan is far away in Spain, the distance to and from China is too long, and the time span of the Spanish league and the Chinese league is different, so sometimes he may not be able to participate in the national team training camp, so Lippi desperately hopes that all the players under his command can play with Li Qingshan and find a feeling for each other.

In the end, the Chinese team scored another goal in the second half and won 4-0 at home against Kuwait.

In fact, Lippi did not design too complicated tactics for the Chinese team, Lippi's tactics boiled down to one - when Li Qingshan is on the field, create as much space as possible for crosses! When Li Qingshan was not on the court, he gave up possession of the ball and played defensive counterattacks.

Lippi's thinking is very pragmatic, he has coached Guangzhou Evergrande for two years, and he knows very well what level of China's top football players has reached. Not to mention the main lineup against the four top four Asian teams in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Iran, they sent out a second-tier lineup, and the strength of the players is higher than that of the Chinese internationals.

Therefore, Lippi's approach is very pragmatic. Your overall player strength is high, then I won't compare with you as a whole, I have a Li Qingshan with absolute air superiority in my hands, and the whole of Asia can defend against Li Qingshan's central defender, to be honest, Lippi really hasn't seen it, therefore, when Lippi faces these Asian strong teams, he completely relies on Li Qingshan's single-point blasting.

The offensive aspect relies on Li Qingshan, and Lippi's focus is of course on defense. As coaches in Italy, defending is almost something they are born with.

In the second warm-up game against Jordan in Harbin, Li Qingshan did not enter the starting lineup. Lippi mainly wants to examine the team's actual defensive situation and counterattack ability when Li Qingshan is not on the field.

And he also needs a set of B plan when Li Qingshan is not on the field, after all, it is difficult to avoid injuries to players due to the confrontational nature of football, and Lippi does not dare to guarantee that Li Qingshan can always be injured....

In the six months since Lippi took charge of the national team, it seems that the results are still quite good. Although China did not score in the first half, their defence left Jordan with few shots on goal.

The ratio of shots between the two sides in the first half was 4-1, with China having four shots on goal and hitting the frame twice, while Jordan had only one shot on goal and also put anti-aircraft guns.

In the second half, Li Qingshan came on as a substitute in the 60th minute, and he quickly threatened after coming on. Yu Hanchao found the top of Li Qingshan's head in a cross from the side, Li Qingshan did not directly head the goal at the back point, but pointed the ball to the middle, and Wu Lei, who was inserted forward, hit the post in the face of the opportunity of the empty goal........

Fortunately, Li Qingshan scored a clever follow-up shot, and the Chinese team led the Jordan team 1-0.

The ball ignited the atmosphere of the fans.

But then the Chinese team did not score, which was also the score at the end of the game.

After two consecutive victories in the warm-up matches, Li Qingshan left China by plane that night and returned to Spain.

Next, Atletico Madrid is about to start preparing for the derby in Madrid!