Chapter 138 Preparing for the Asian Cup

Atletico Madrid, who played one man less, couldn't get the score back in the end. Li Qingshan works hard, but when there is a lack of support, he is not able to explode every game.......

And Atletico Madrid were not very lucky, they even won a penalty in the 60th minute of the second half, but Raul Garcia's penalty was saved by the opposing goalkeeper.

The final score of the game was 3-1, and Atletico Madrid relied on a corner kick in the last minute of the game, and Li Qingshan knocked the ball into the opponent's goal, but the current goal has little impact on the overall situation.

Atletico Madrid suffered their first defeat of the season at the Mestalla Stadium.

After this game, thanks to the successive wins of Barcelona and Real Madrid, Barcelona reached 19 points, five points ahead of Atletico Madrid. Real Madrid's recent form has picked up, with 15 points after a wave of consecutive wins, surpassing Atletico Madrid by one point.

In second place in the league is Valencia, who have 17 points and are two points away from Barcelona FC.

"Atletico Madrid have had their ups and downs in the league since the start of the Champions League group stage, with just one win in their last four league games, two draws and a defeat that have seen them drop from second to fifth in the league. At the back, neither Oblak nor Moya can replace Courtois, which is why Atletico Madrid have conceded more goals this season. Luckily, in the Champions League, Simeone's side have maintained their consistency. ”

'This defeat shows that Atletico Madrid may not have enough bench depth to play on two or even three fronts, and for Simeone, last season is no longer replicable and he must find a focus for the team. It's only a new start of the season and I think he's going to focus on the league. It's too difficult to defend the Champions League, and since the Champions League has been restructured, no team has been able to do that! ”

Football is like that, after the last Champions League game, the media exclaimed that Atletico Madrid was unstoppable, but when you lose, the media immediately see the wind at the helm.........

.............

Fortunately, after this league game, the FIFA international break is here again. For Simeone, he now misses the days when Li Qingshan didn't have to play in the national team at all last season. Spain and China are thousands of miles apart, and the consumption of players' physical fitness is too great, even now Simeone has not found that Li Qingshan's physical fitness is declining, but this does not prevent him from worrying.

Faced with a call-up to the national team during the international break, Atletico Madrid could not be stopped. However, due to the recent negotiation between the Chinese Football Association and Atletico Madrid about the recruitment of Li Qingshan to participate in the Asian Cup in Australia in January next year, the Asian Cup is not held during the FIFA international break, so it needs to be negotiated between the Football Association and the club.

Originally, the two matches of the Chinese teammates in this international break were against Jordan on October 10 and Thailand on October 14. Since the eighth round of La Liga will be played on October 18, the Chinese Football Association agreed that Atletico Madrid will not let Li Qingshan participate in the match against Thailand on October 14, he only needs to return to China to participate in the training camp of the national team competition, and then after playing the warm-up match in Jordan on October 10, Li Qingshan can return to Madrid.

Lippi's choice of Jordan as a warm-up opponent was also purposeful.

The 2015 Asian Cup will be played in Australia, and the group will be decided when all 16 teams have been decided to reach the Asian Cup finals.

The Chinese team is in Group B, and the opponents in the same group are Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. The choice of the Jordanian team as a warm-up opponent is obviously for a warm-up against Saudi Arabia. Jordan and Saudi Arabia are both West Asian teams with a similar style of play. Although the Asian Cup is still three months away, for the Chinese team, this is already their most important tournament in the last two years.

The 2018 World Cup qualifiers have not yet begun, and when the Chinese team was eliminated from the 2014 World Cup qualifiers early, the national team basically has no official game tasks, so even in a warm-up cup like the East Asian Cup, the national team has sent a first-team lineup.........

For fans, being able to watch an Asian Cup is already quite satisfying. What's more, Lippi's national team looks to be in very good shape now, and the Chinese team with Li Qingshan may not be without the strength to fight when facing Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Even the Chinese media think so. Japan and South Korea, as close neighbors of China, are naturally the objects of comparison. If it was before, the Chinese team, which did not have any foreign players, would not have a player who could get a hand to compare with the other party.

First of all, the South Korean team, the South Korean team's foreign army has Ji Chengyong and Son Heung-min, and Ji Chengyong, who plays for Swansea, is the midfield defender that Swansea's midfield relies on, but Swansea and Atletico Madrid are obviously not at the same level. And Son Xingmin plays for the Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen, which is currently also competing in the Champions League, Son Xingmin has made two appearances in the Champions League and scored one goal, compared with Li Qingshan's efficiency of four goals in two appearances, it is naturally far inferior. Therefore, the Chinese media have come to the conclusion that our Li Qingshan has completely blown up the two of them in terms of both individual ability and collective honor.

As for the Japanese team, Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa are their biggest players. Keisuke Honda joined AC Milan as a free agent from CSKA Moscow in January 2014 and, surprisingly, he also donned the number 10 shirt at the same time. But Honda, who wears the number ten, is not doing well in Milan, coupled with frequent injuries, although Milan is an old giant, but Atletico Madrid is a new upstart in the Champions League, and the two are not at a loss in comparison, and Li Qingshan is the absolute main force of Atletico Madrid, and Honda does substitute players.

As for Shinji Kagawa, since Alex Ferguson's retirement, Kagawa has gradually lost his place at Manchester United, and after Van Gaal took over, Kagawa returned to Dortmund from Manchester United in August this year. However, Kagawa, who returned to his old club, also had his ups and downs, and Dortmund also suffered a cliff-like decline in the Bundesliga.

Therefore, in the comparison with the Japanese team, the Chinese media also cited classics to fully prove that Li Qingshan completely exploded Honda and Kagawa. Therefore, although the Chinese team has a significant gap with Japan and South Korea in terms of overall strength, Li Qingshan is one position ahead of Japan and South Korea at this point.

This Asian Cup, you have to play!

Of course, the fans were easily persuaded by the media, and under the media hype, the Asian Cup three months later began to be highly anticipated by the Chinese people.

In the game against the Jordan team, Li Qingshan started the game. Due to the injury of the veteran Zheng Zhi in the league, Li Qingshan wore the captain's armband for the second time to wear the national football team.

Perhaps it was the blessing of the captain's armband, and the Middle Eastern team was a little helpless in the face of high-altitude balls, so the Chinese team defeated the Jordan team 4-2 with the help of Li Qingshan's two goals and two assists.

Li Qingshan then left the team and returned to Spain.

The national team has another game against Thailand.

Originally, this match did not have any special significance, but when you think of the background of last year's 5-1 loss to the Thai youth team, there are also many media outlets mentioning revenge.

Of course, if the final score of 3-0 is considered a successful revenge, then it is also worth rejoicing.