Chapter 164 The Asian Cup is here

Having a league during the winter break is a blessing for the players.

The consumption of football for players is very large, the European season is cross-year, eight or nine consecutive months of high-intensity and high-density games, for the players are a severe test of physical and mental health, and a winter break of about a month, giving players time to rest and adjust.

Atletico Madrid won all the way before the winter break, and they clung to Real Madrid in the league and did not fall behind in the league.

This is undoubtedly something that makes the whole of Atletico Madrid happy.

But Simeone isn't very happy right now.

After the 16th round of the league, a Chinese reporter asked: "After this game, Li Qingshan will temporarily leave the team for at least a month, and he needs to go to the Asian Cup, will this affect the team." ”

Obviously, this question made Simeone's good mood disappear in an instant.

The Chinese Football Association will be able to arrange for Atletico Madrid to play commercial matches in China and several teams in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou next summer after the season, which will undoubtedly greatly expand Atletico Madrid's influence in China. Therefore, the upper echelons of Atletico Madrid compromised on the matter of letting Li Qingshan return to China in advance.

But for Simeone, the team's most important scorer is leaving just when the team is in perfect shape. Simeone had never paid attention to this kind of event before, but now, this event on the fringes of the football world will have such a big impact on Atletico Madrid.

What makes Simeone even more helpless is that the Asian Cup is actually scheduled to be held in winter!

Asia is in the northern hemisphere, and the winter is cold, so what kind of Asian Cup is it to do?

Simeone apparently ignored the fact that Australia, despite joining the AFC, is no longer Asian........ they are in the southern hemisphere, which is summer.

"Yes, we have negotiated with the Chinese Football Association, and we will let Li Qingshan go back to the Asian Cup. Li Qingshan is an important player for us and his departure will inevitably have an impact on the team. But we have a very big squad and in the forward position we have players to step up to. We are a team, and our other players have the ability to seal the vacancies left by Li Qingshan.........."

The Asian Cup started on January 9 and ended on January 31 by the time the final was played, more than 20 days.

Even if the Chinese team fails to qualify after three group games, it will not be until January 18, when the last group stage of the Chinese team will be played, and by then, the La Liga winter break has long passed.

This also means that Li Qingshan will miss at least five Atletico Madrid games, and if China make it all the way to the Asian Cup final, Li Qingshan will miss eight games, including key matches such as La Liga at home to Barcelona and Copa del Rey two-legged against Real Madrid.

This situation really gave Simeone a headache.

Li Qingshan is the guarantee of Atletico Madrid's goals, and since the beginning of the season, Li Qingshan's goals alone have accounted for 50% of the goals of the entire Atletico Madrid team.

As soon as Li Qingshan left, the team lost one of the most stable and relied on scoring points.

But no matter what, Atletico Madrid can't find a reason not to let Li Qingshan go to an international event like the Asian Cup.

Fortunately, during this time, Atletico Madrid frantically grabbed points and was not driven by Real Mara, which can be regarded as minimizing the loss after Li Qingshan left.

………….

In fact, before the winter break of La Liga, the Chinese national team had already started training and preparation for the Asian Cup.

The Chinese Super League is not a New Year's Eve, in early November, the last round of the 2014 season has been played, in order to prepare for the Asian Cup, the Chinese international began to assemble on the ninth day of December.

The national team, which was without Li Qingshan, played two warm-up games after the assembly, both of which were against Kyrgyzstan, and the Chinese team won 4-0 and 2-0 respectively.

In the Asian Cup, the Chinese team and Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea were divided into Group B, and the warm-up with Kyrgyzstan was to some extent also to simulate the game with Uzbekistan.

Lippi's national team did quite well in the warm-up games, but that didn't mean much.

In the previous Chinese team, there was also a name, called the king of the warm-up game, and in the warm-up game, the Chinese team even knocked down the top teams of time such as the French team and the German team.

But when it came to the official competition, the performance of the Chinese team was obvious to all.

Therefore, it is not much of a matter how many games you win in the warm-up matches, what matters is the official results.

This Asian Cup is the first official tournament since Lippi took over the team. What kind of results this team can deliver in the Asian Cup is what matters.

Especially with Li Qingshan. Li Qingshan's outstanding performance in Atletico Madrid has indeed made fans give more hope to the Chinese team with Li Qingshan.

In the past, the Chinese team had a stubborn problem that the striker was weak, but when there was Li Qingshan, no team had the confidence to say that the Chinese team was weak - a striker who scored nine goals in the Champions League group stage and scored nineteen goals in the sixteen rounds of La Liga, how could he be weak?

Therefore, with such a super striker, should the national team's goals in the Asian Cup also be adjusted accordingly?

Prior to this, Lippi said in an interview: "Our players are no worse than any team in Asia! ”

The media generally regarded the old man's words as a word of encouragement for the international players, but correspondingly, the discussion about what the national team should achieve in the Asian Cup has also begun to heat up.

According to the goal set by the Football Association for the national team, it is to reach the quarterfinals, that is, to qualify from the group.

This goal still seems very realistic, after all, the Chinese team is no longer the Chinese team of the past, and Asian football is not the Asian football of the past.

But when Li Qingshan was born, the atmosphere began to be subtle. Many media outlets have mentioned that the Chinese team with Li Qingshan should have further goals - for example, reaching the semi-finals.

On the first day of Li Qingshan's return to China, a reporter asked about his goals in the Asian Cup.

In this regard, Li Qingshan's answer immediately made the reporters a little dumbfounded: "Do you still need to ask, of course it is the champion!"

Without waiting for the reporters to reflect, Li Qingshan continued.

"Isn't it important to aim for the championship in any competition? Whether it can be achieved is another story, but the direction should be this! ”