At the press conference before the third game of the group stage, reporters asked Horton what he thought about Hao Haixi and Gao Feng.

Holden did not avoid this question.

He said: "I think Huang Jianxiang has said it a little too much. No one wants to lose the game, right? We must win at the lowest price. After leading the big score, there is really no need to continue to chase and fight hard."

“When we go to the knockout round, we have to be careful.”

"As for the attitude he mentioned at home and abroad? I didn't see it, I don't know how he saw it. Every player wants to win and knows how to protect himself and protect victory."

"I don't want to influence the team's unity because of some unrealistic remarks. We are good now, the team's goal is to reach the finals and win the championship."

Horton thought of the team's unity. He was worried that some of the remarks would affect the locker room.

Then the reporter asked Zheng Zhi again.

"Zheng Zhi, what do you think?"

Zheng Zhi has been paying attention to these things for a long time. He said: "You can accept criticism. If we perform poorly, there will be no problem. But if anyone does not work hard and perform poorly, please name it..."

"Anyway, I haven't seen anyone stop working hard. The competitive atmosphere in the team is very strong now. If anyone performs poorly, he will lose his starting position. So everyone is playing with this force, everyone is united and contributes to the country. The reason why they play is relaxed is because of the coach's tactical needs. He said we should pay attention to protecting ourselves. So it is wrong to interpret us without reason."

"Of course, I don't think Huang Jianxiang did it on purpose. He was worried about us and was just worried about us. The starting point was right. This was a misunderstanding."

Zheng Zhi and Huang Jianxiang are intimate and speak very well.

Then he talked about Gao Feng again.

"As for what Brother Feng said, there is no problem. He is a loyal person, a very good person, and has a good relationship with many big guys in the team. He speaks straightforwardly, so naturally it sounds a bit uncomfortable."

"Actually, whether it is Huang Jianxiang or Gao Feng, they all want to be good for the national football team, and the starting point is the right one, right? Of course, we cannot always be at the forefront. It is precisely because we play football under the attention of Chinese fans every day, so as players, we must be ourselves."

...

...

In this third game, Zheng Zhi still failed to become the starter. After winning the first two games, the Chinese team had already won the first place in the group. Even if they lost the last game, it would be useless for the South Korean team to win two games in a row, because the record between the two sides was that the Chinese team won, so the Chinese team must be the first in the group.

Therefore, putting Zheng Zhi on the bench is a waste of resources, at least for Inter Milan. Inter Milan lacked Zheng Zhi on the weekend and won in Verona was very difficult. The 2:1 result was quite dangerous. At that time, the media believed that Zheng Zhi was not there and Pirlo's position was a failure to move backward. The team lacked enough creativity. If French goalkeeper Frey had not performed well, Inter Milan might not have won the victory.

Now it's a coincidence that the Chinese team vs. Kuwait match is just the same as the Italian Cup between Cagliari and Inter Milan.

In the live broadcast room of Italy Sky Sports, guest Bergomi received news that Zheng Zhi had once again become a substitute, and was exploded on the spot.

"A bastard,"

"It's so a bastard. If the British don't want Zheng Zhi to start in the group stage, why would they be so anxious to recall him to the national team? You can completely recruit Zheng Zhi back after the group stage. Now, Zheng Zhigan is sitting on the bench, while Inter Milan is painfully lacking in core. It's a very stupid wrong decision no matter how you look at it!"

Because of the pain of playing Verona last week, Mourinho did not dare to be careless in the second leg of this Italian Cup even if he played Cagliari in the second round of the second round. The lineup was still dominated by the main players, but the forward partner was replaced by Recoba and Vieri.

This is indeed completely contrary to the Chinese team sent by Horton. The Chinese team's lineup is weaker than the second round. The goalkeeper is still Jiang Jun who performed well in the first two games. The four defenders are Wu Chengying, Zhang Enhua, Xu Yunlong, Chen Gang, and the four midfielders are Shen Si, Ma Mingyu, Qi Hong, Zhao Junzhe, and Xie Hui and Qu Shengqing on the front line.

Except for Ma Mingyu and Qi Hong who were bleak in overseas study, everyone else was a player who was playing football in China.

The Kuwait team's lineup is goalkeeper Majidi, Abdullah, Abdullahman, Shamali, Asel on the back line, and the four midfielders are Mutaili, Harabiey, Azemi and Ottoman. Houwadi and Abdullaz are still in charge on the forward line.

Faced with the opponent's intensive defense, the Chinese team seemed to have little way to attack the position. In the whole first half, there was only one shot, and only 40 minutes, the Chinese team Qu Shengqing quickly started after getting the ball in the penalty area. The opponent's defender made a push move. Qu Shengqing fell in the opponent's penalty area, but the referee from Malaysia signaled the game to continue. After that, neither side could create another scoring opportunity and ended the first half with 0:0.

In the second half, in order to increase the vitality on the field and further train the team, the Chinese team replaced the left forward Shen Si with Shao Jiayi and Li Xiaopeng with the right forward Zhao Junzhe. The situation was no different from the first half.

Offensive constipation. There are almost no chances of shooting.

In the end, the two sides tied 0:0...

Although it was just a draw, the Chinese team won two wins and one draw in three games, and advanced to the quarterfinals with the first place in the group. The opponents in the quarterfinals of the Chinese team will be Group A and Group C with the highest points. If nothing unexpected happens, the next opponent of the Chinese team will be from Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two of which are more likely to be West Asian teams.

The Chinese team's game just ended, and Inter Milan's game quickly came to an end. However, Inter Milan and Cagliari scored 1:2, and the total score in the two rounds reached 3:3, and the home and away goal difference were 1 goal. In this case, they would enter the penalty shootout.

As a result, Inter Milan was in a tragedy. In the penalty shootout, they were actually eliminated. Dalma and Dibiagio lost penalty kicks one after another and gave Cagliari the opportunity to advance to the second round.

1:2.

With the tragic score, Inter Milan also ushered in its first defeat of the season.

This failure is naturally what Italian sports media are most happy to see. Everyone is looking forward to the failure of Inter Milan and finally waited for it.

The Republic commentator Mauro (who once worked as teammates with Ziko, Platini and Maradona) commented:

I think it's still very objective. Losing is not a tragedy, but it's really unexpected. They lost to the second-tier team Cagliari. This shows that Inter Milan is actually too dependent on the Chinese. In the two games without him, Inter Milan seemed to be unable to play again. Inter Milan encountered an unexplainable day. The Nerazzurri needs a more formed style of play: 1:2 loss to Cagliari is a painful lesson and needs reflection. Mourinho's idea is very simple, and he wants to use Pirlo to make up for Zheng Zhi's position after leaving and let Dalma replace Pirlo's original position, but this proves to be a failure. Pirlo did not take on such a heavy responsibility. Pirlo played very hard, but he does not have the ability of Zheng Zhi.

Evening Post commentator Sconceti also said:

After lacking Zheng Zhi, Mourinho should choose to change the lineup. He should no longer stick to 4312, but should change the lineup to 442, or 352, or 433, either making the team more offensive and defensive balance or making the team more aggressive. It is obvious now that after lacking Zheng Zhi, Inter Milan will not attack, and the offensive quality has dropped by 3 times. The defensive end has actually been affected to a certain extent. No one controls the ball in the backcourt, which has led to a little chaos in the team's defensive system. All this seems to be back to last season, Lippi's Inter Milan is like this.

Padowan, editor-in-chief of Turin Sports, said: In fact, when playing Verona away, Inter Milan was unable to perform well. The continuous away game finally exposed all the problems. The current strikers are no longer magical and cannot use their personal abilities to solve the goal, Inter Milan's tank stopped. In a short period of time, I think they can get out of the predicament without Zheng Zhi. What's scary is that Zheng Zhi will have to stay in Lebanon for a long time. Inter Milan still has two league games and one Champions League...

At the post-match press conference, Mourinho's emotions became a little excited due to constant questions from reporters.

"I know you really hope Inter Milan will lose the game, and today you will get what you want."

"Losing is not a bad thing. Only by losing can we see clearly where our strength lies. If we keep winning, we will float."

"It's just that we lost the game we shouldn't have lost, we said goodbye to the Italian Cup."

The reporter asked: "Jose, do you miss Zheng Zhi?"

Mourinho shrugged and asked back, "Do you miss your wife for a few months?"

Reporter:... But I thought to myself, of course I don’t want to do it outside, I can eat it secretly!

Another reporter asked again: "He was in the Chinese team tonight and didn't play for another minute. What do you think?"

Mourinho's muscles on his face were thrusting and thrusting, but he was still humorous, "Very good, this means that Horton is helping Inter Milan to maintain Zheng Zhi. Zheng Zhi will not appear, which means that he will not be tired or injured, and then he will give us a healthy Zheng Zhi."

I can only think this way. Can I still curse Horton like Bergomi?

He had already been prepared to lose Zheng Zhi, but he didn't expect that Pirlo would not play the role of Zheng Zhi. Now that missing Zheng Zhi is useless, I just hope that Pirlo can get up as quickly as possible.

...

...

The next day, the 12th Asian Cup group stages were all over, and the quarterfinals were all produced. The specific matchup situation in the quarterfinals was: China vs. Qatar.

Kuwait vs Iraq

South Korea vs Iran.

Japan vs Saudi Arabia

In the first half, China's opponents are much weaker than in the second half. Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia have all run to the second half. How lucky is this? After the four teams fight to the death, they will have to lose at least a few layers of skin. The Chinese team is just taking advantage of the fisherman.

Not enough for the Qatar team, but it made Chinese fans grit their teeth. Once the match came out, even Chinese players were extremely excited. This was the "enemy" of the past, and they must avenge the one-point revenge in the quarterfinals.

Among the current Chinese teams, many old internationals participated in two matches with Qatar in the top ten matches in 1997. At that time, the Chinese team drew 1:1 away and lost 2:3 at home. Coincidentally, Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Haji, who led Qatar to many good results, returned to the coach before the Asian Cup after leaving Qatar for a while and met the Chinese team again.

Many international players discuss Qatar while having dinner.

Zhang Enhua commented: "Qatar's strength has declined compared to the top ten games, and we should have the confidence to defeat it."

Fan Zhiyi said: "Qatar team is used to playing 352, and we play 442. Therefore, the key point of dealing with Qatar team is to pinch its two sides. In addition, the Qatar team is afraid of pressing and quick counterattacks, so we must play more firmly in the game."

In recent years, the Chinese team has faced Qatar several times, but it has lost to its opponent in the top ten. Today, Qatar team is not strong, and in comparison, it should be the weakest team in the quarterfinals of this year. In three group matches, they tied Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Japan one after another, giving people the feeling that when they meet teams that are weaker than them, they can use their opponent's psychology to adopt corresponding tactics to lure their opponents into mistakes. However, the prerequisite for not losing in the group match is to draw against the opponent, but it is not the case after entering the knockout match. If you can't win, you will lose.

After playing against the Japanese team, Qatar's Bosnian coach Haji said: "The bullets in our gun chamber are almost used up. How can I play the future game well! What's worse is that our opponent is the Chinese team!" After three games, the Qatar team faced a situation of being injured and stretched. It was choosing a goalkeeper and two main defenders. One striker could not appear due to injury, and two players who could substitute were injured. This may be the smokescreen released by Haji, let's not talk about it.

Judging from the characteristics, style of play, good personal skills, weak overall ability, and unfast offense and defense conversion speeds, especially not many ways to attack opponents. Therefore, they adopt defensive counterattack tactics, focusing on interception and dense defense in the midfield. Faced with such an opponent, if the Chinese team cannot play as much as they should and lack the confidence to dare to invest in troops and dare to win, they are very likely to be worn down by the opponent and be soaked in overtime or penalty kicks. At that time, it is unpredictable who will win.

But Chinese players don't think so.
Chapter completed!