At 4:30 pm on the 15th, with the whistle of the Portuguese referee Doss, the first leg of the World Cup qualifiers between China and Costa Rica officially started.

The 35,000-capacity San Jose National Stadium was full, and Costa Rican fans, Chinese fans and some foreign fans cheered for their teams with applause and singing before the game began, and the atmosphere of the game was extremely lively.

The starting formation of the Chinese team in this game is 442 with a balanced attack and defense, although it is an away game, but Li Huan does not think that Costa Rica has the strength to force the Chinese team to play the iron bucket formation, after more than half a year of running-in, the Chinese team is more and more tacit understanding, more and more familiar with it, and now in the face of opponents with similar strength to themselves, or even slightly stronger, the Chinese team still uses a balanced 442, not a conservative 451.

There is no doubt about the goalkeeper, or Zong Cheng, whose performance has been stable and excellent, the four defenders are Li Huan, Xu Bin, Wang Chunlei, Fan Yang, Wu Han, Liu Chao, Chen Teng, Yu Tong, and forwards Zhang Dong and Xu Yang.

Costa Rica's starting lineup for today looks like this: Goalkeeper 1 - Alvarredo; 2-Mora, 4-Umana, 5-Martinez, 3-Borges; Midfielders: 20-Marshall, 14-Oviedo, 10-Ruiz, 16-Bolanos. Forwards: -11 - Campbell, 9 - Saborio.

Costa Rica, like the Chinese team, has adopted a 442 style of play, Costa Rica's usual formation is 3-5-2, and with the rise of the defensive backbone No. 5 Martinez, Costa Rica has also used the offensive and defensive balance of 442.

Costa Rica's offensive was very bullety and flexible. They usually put opponents through midfield and then use their incredible speed on the flanks to counter-attack. When their two wings press the attack, the rest of the midfielders will quickly fill the void left by them. With an almost African physique, Costa Rica's players have exceptional speed and can often deal a fatal blow to the opposition defence.

Because of Li Huan and Fan Yang, the Chinese team's style of play is also focused on the side, when the opponent's style of play is similar to their own, the Chinese team's side attack has also been affected to a certain extent, Li Huan and Fan Yang are afraid of Costa Rica's counterattack, before they are familiar with Costa Rica, the Chinese team's offense is not as active as the original.

Costa Rica took the lead in playing a three-man combination on the right flank, Marshall went straight on the left flank, Campbell received the ball and burst into the box, but the Chinese defender Xu Bin passed the ball out of the bottom line when the cross was made.

Although the threatening attack was disrupted, the Costa Rican fans gave a loud applause and cheered on their team.

After withstanding the first wave of Costa Rica's attack, the Chinese team did not show weakness. In the 9th minute, the Chinese team's counterattack, Yu Tong took the ball in the middle and saw that no one was grabbing, and he raised his foot 30 meters from the goal to shoot from a distance, and the angle was too positive and was held by goalkeeper Alvarredo on his knees.

In the 12th minute of the game, Costa Rica strengthened the counter-robbery, and the Chinese team's midfield pass made continuous mistakes, and the Chinese team had no choice but to use foul actions to block Costa Rica's goal.

In the first ten minutes, the Chinese team's performance was a little unsatisfactory, and the players were obviously a little nervous, probably because they were about to enter the World Cup, and the young players could no longer hold back their desire to enter the World Cup, and they wanted to solve the opponent at half time like dealing with Iran.

Li Huan on the field and Chu Fu off the field couldn't stop frowning, they couldn't understand the players of the Chinese team anymore, they couldn't understand why they were so nervous, the time was still very long, they were fighting away again, and it was normal for the offense to suffer a little setback at this time.

In fact, this is when the Chinese team wants to enter the World Cup too much, and the degree of desire is too high, this desire becomes resistance, and he will make the players extremely afraid of failure, so it has caused the current situation of the Chinese team players.

Costa Rica is characterized by freedom and casualness, and the style of play is full of passion, the worse the Chinese team plays, the better they play, the whole team is like moving as a whole, offense and defense have become a main body, and it is difficult for the Chinese team to even find a chance to counterattack.

In the 30th minute of the first half, Costa Rica scored first. There was a hole in the left defense area where Fan Yang and Wang Chunlei were located, and the gap between them was too large, and they were not able to keep up with the players who stepped forward in time. At this time, Costa Rica midfielder Bolanos slashed into the gap between the defenders of the Chinese team, and Campbell responded to form a single knife in the face of Yang Zhi to push the ball into the lower right corner of the goal. China is 1-0 behind Costa Rica.

Originally, Costa Rican fans were not optimistic about their team, and they were very happy to be able to draw at home, because the Chinese team with Li Huan was too strong, but half an hour passed, the Chinese team not only did not show the terrifying attack of Tu Yue Yi, but also couldn't even defend, Costa Rican fans were very suspicious that this Chinese team was still not that Chinese team, whether it was a pirate.

Suddenly they found out that they had scored, and the Costa Rican fans were so excited and overjoyed that they sang "Beautiful flag of honorable motherland, show us your life." Under that clear, blue sky, there was peace, purity and serenity", celebrating their star goal.

One goal behind, awakened the fighting spirit of the Chinese team, but at the same time awakened the fear of the Chinese team, originally they thought that they could easily enter the World Cup, many people have even made a plan to celebrate the World Cup, how to celebrate with their families, and what to bring to Brazil. Now that they suddenly found out that they could still be eliminated, this fear and anxiety about the equaliser made the players very uneasy, and the more they tried to play well, the worse they played, and they couldn't even catch the pass that they were not forced to make.

Less than two minutes before the first goal, the Chinese team's defender Wu Han was too small when passing back to the goalkeeper, and was intercepted by Costa Rican striker Campbell, this time the Chinese were dumbfounded, they could only hope that their door god Zongcheng could save the Chinese team.

However, the door god Zong Cheng is not a god, he is just a door god, he is only 22 years old, at this time his mentality is not better than others, seeing his teammates playing himself, Zong Cheng was so angry that he almost wanted to eat Wu Han, he rushed out of the small penalty area in anger and pounced on Campbell's single ball.

Campbell was in a good mood after scoring a goal, his self-confidence was bursting, and in the face of the attacking Zong Cheng, he actually played a spoon to shoot, and Zong Cheng, who was known for his quick reaction, just had a lot of brains "Why did Wu Han pass the ball like this?" He's playing with me. Such a question, I didn't judge Campbell's hanging shot in time, and I could only watch the ball slowly fly into the net.

2:0!

Costa Rica, playing at home, have a two-goal lead.

This is a process that even the most optimistic fans did not expect, they once again gave their heroes with stormy applause, they chanted the name of "Campbell", although the enemy is strong, but their heroes are leading them to fight for their fourth World Cup dream, although in the end it may be that the Chinese team broke out and reversed again, but such a process has made the fans very satisfied.

Li Huan and Chu Fu both smelled danger.

Li Huan began to roar at his teammates, it is absolutely impossible to go on like this, the Costa Ricans have signs of going crazy, and it really makes the Costa Ricans lead by a large score, and it will be very difficult for the Chinese team to equalize again.

However, before Li Huan's words could play a role, an uncontrollable exclamation suddenly came out of the stands, and the danger once again fell on the head of the Chinese team.

On the left flank of the Chinese team, Ruiz is galloping down like a lightning bolt"

Behind him, the emaciated full-back Fan Yang staggered after him, but soon fell to the turf in embarrassment due to his unstable center of gravity", and he pretended to lose his center of gravity in a physical confrontation with Ruiz.

At this time, the smell of danger is getting stronger and stronger!

The whole world is glued to Ruiz!

Ruiz roared all the way and went straight to the bottom line.

He didn't have the slightest intention of cutting across the middle to hit the goal, and Wang Chunlei, the central defender of the Chinese team, stepped forward to block.

However, Ruiz did not give him a chance to get closer, and immediately got up and crossed before Wang Chunlei could make a move...... The ball flew over Wang Chunlei's head. And it happened to be where Costa Rican goalkeeper Alvarredo couldn't get out of the way.

At this time, Campbell, who scored twice, was like a haunting ghost. When everyone was not paying attention, it came to the deadliest position again. Seeing him jump up will deliver a fatal blow!

He's like a killer when people finally realize his presence, the assassination, has been done!

However, at this time, a tall figure jumped up in front of Campbell, and in the air, the tall figure grabbed the same position as Campbell, and the two heads and the ball collided together, and the ball lost its crosshair in the impact of the two heads, and flew out of the direction of the goal.

The Costa Rican fans sat down in their seats in frustration, they were so disappointed that they were ready to celebrate, the cheers were already in their throats, but they were choked. This feeling is really bad, it's like being forced to pull it out when you want to **.

The fans of the Chinese team jumped up with joy, and some of them were already excited to hug each other and cry.

"Long live Li Huan! Long live Li Huan! ”

It was Li Huan, and at this urgent moment, it was Li Huan who came to the position of central defender to block Campbell from scoring a hat trick, and also prevented the Chinese team from continuing to fall into the abyss.

(To be continued)