The loss to Spain in the first round of the group stage did not cause many surprises in Ukraine, but the downturn of last year's Golden Globe winner Andriy Shevchenko made the media more worried.
"Ukraine has stood on the edge of a cliff. Sheva must cheer up. The second match with the Chinese team will be a battle of life and death!"
Ukraine is entering the World Cup finals for the first time, but Shevchenko is already 30 years old, and he can't accept going home in despair after the group stage.
AOL Arena in Hamburg, where the match between China and Ukraine will be held.
The Golden Globe winner was very active at the beginning of the game, frequently threatening the backcourt of the Chinese team. In just 4 minutes, he stopped the ball on the edge of the penalty area and turned around, then sent an angry shot through the gate of Li Leilei's handle .
0:1! The Chinese team was in a backward situation at the beginning!
Conceding the ball so early made the players who were still immersed in the joy of the previous victory feel a little overwhelmed. They wanted to press the attack, but instead created a void in the rear. Shevchenko and another Ukrainian striker Vononin created one after another. Chance.
Fortunately, Wang Feng made up the defense in time to destroy the offense. He loudly reminded his teammates to shrink their defense, and even if they were behind, they could not play against each other.
His reminder and active defensive running finally made his teammates wake up. The first victory means nothing at all! So everyone returned to the right track and placed a bus in the backcourt to block Ukraine's sharp attack.
In the first half, the scores of the two sides did not change again, and they changed sides to fight again. The head coach Ali Han made successive substitutions and adjustments, and Cao Yang and Xu Yunlong, who had better physical strength, were replaced on the defense line.
In the 54th minute, the Ukrainian army pressed forward to attack, Karen Yeshenko hit Zhang Yaokun with a long shot from the outside of the penalty area, and the latter made a clearance.
Wang Feng quickly started on the sideline of his side's penalty area. His speed was very fast. In a few seconds, he rushed from the defensive line to the center circle. At this time, there was only one defender Nes Machini in the Ukrainian backcourt.
The two rushed towards the ball, and under the watchful eyes of countless spectators in the stands, the distance between Wang Feng and Nes Mazzini got closer little by little. When the ball fell, both sides had already moved forward!
Relying on his excellent confrontation ability, Wang Feng squeezed away the opponent and took the lead to touch the ball. He raised his right foot and gently pushed the ball to the right, then accelerated again to throw off Nesmaccini, and made a one-handed attack towards the penalty area.
At this time, the Ukrainian goalkeeper Shovkovsky had already attacked near the sideline of the penalty area. Seeing this, Wang Feng continued to move the ball to the right with his big foot, avoiding the save from Shovkovsky, and then caught up with the ball and shot the empty goal. succeed.
1:1! The Chinese team tenaciously equalized the score!
Nesmaccini, who had been chasing behind him, watched the ball hit the net, and he could only lie helplessly in the small penalty area.
"Beautiful defensive counterattack! Ukraine made an irreparable mistake! They thought that the Chinese team was helpless, so they aggressively pressed the offense in an attempt to secure victory. Unexpectedly, Wang Feng's one-thousand-mile attack pierced through the defense line."
"Running from his own penalty area, Wang Feng surpassed five Ukrainian players one after another, and was the first to touch the ball. As his name suggests, his speed is as fast as the wind."
"Now that the problem has returned to Ukraine, do they still have the courage to continue to go out and seek a victory?"
Unprepared, Ukraine did not attack with all its strength. They had to be wary of Wang Feng's speed, so the defensive pressure on the Chinese team was greatly reduced.
Wang Feng continued to play the role of defender, and he disrupted Shevchenko's offense several times with clean tackles and tackles.
In the 79th minute, Shevchenko dribbled the ball past Ji Mingyi on the right side of the penalty area and was about to kill towards the penalty area. Wang Feng's tackle came to his feet again, successfully swept the ball out of the boundary and brought Sheva down.
The Ukrainian immediately stood up and put pressure on the referee, but the referee on duty saw that this was obviously a good defense, and insisted on giving Ukraine a sideline kick.
Wang Feng said in Italian from the side: "Don't struggle Andre, you know that my defense has always been very clean and there will be no disputes."
Shevchenko waved his hands helplessly: "Can't you respect the seniors in Serie A? Every time I shovel, I turn my back on their backs."
"Speaking of which, why do you always stay in the backcourt as a striker, attack me, bastard!"
Wang Feng was also very helpless, he also wanted to attack, and a draw could not guarantee an advantage in qualifying, but helplessly, Ukraine's offense was too sharp, he had no way to rush out regardless, and stayed in the midfield to wait for the opportunity.
In doing so, there is a high probability that you will not be able to wait for your teammates to pass the ball, but will instead watch your own team being scored.
The Chinese team also tried a counterattack at the last moment of the game. After Wang Feng dribbled the ball through the center line, facing the dense defensive encirclement, he had no way to break through and had to switch to a positional battle. Soon the ball was snatched by Ukraine.
In the end, the two sides scored a goal and shook hands. In the other group match, Spain defeated Tunisia 2:0. The Matador, who had won two games in two games, qualified one round ahead of schedule, while Tunisia was eliminated in both games.
The competition for the second place in the group is heating up. Although the Chinese team temporarily leads with 4 points and Ukraine has 1 point, the Chinese team will face the powerful Spain in the final round, while Ukraine will face the bottom Tunisia.
The domestic media started counting the points one after another. Until now, no one thought that the Chinese team would win and tie. Since the promotion is just around the corner, why can't they fight for it?
The game against Spain, whether it is a victory or a tie, will qualify directly, and a tie will qualify!
If the Chinese team loses to Spain, they need to calculate the goal difference and the total number of goals. The Chinese team now has a goal difference of 1 and a total number of goals of 3. Ukraine has a goal difference of -1 and a total number of goals of 1.
Only when the Chinese team loses 0:1 and Ukraine wins 1:0 can they qualify steadily, otherwise they will still be eliminated because of goal difference or total goals.
Head coach Arihan didn't want the fate to be in the hands of others, so he set the tone for the team, and the game with Spain must be at least a draw!
"Everyone, Spain has already qualified ahead of schedule~www.mtlnovel.com~ They should prepare for the next knockout round instead of going all out. This is our chance."
"Don't be afraid of any opponent. We won the African champion Tunisia and drew with Ukraine, which has the European Ballon d'Or winner. The promotion is at your fingertips."
"The strategy of the game is still the same as the previous two games, defend to the end with all your strength, and leave the offense to Wang Feng to judge. Wang, you performed very well in these two games, and the connection between offense and defense is just right. Keep it like this!"
After the two rounds, Germany and Ecuador advanced in Group A, England and Sweden advanced in Group B, South Korea was eliminated, Argentina and the Netherlands advanced in Group C, Portugal advanced in Group D, Mexico and Angola continued to compete, and Iran was eliminated at the bottom.
Group E is more complicated. Italy has 4 points, Czech Republic and Ghana have 3 points, and the United States has 1 point. Anyone can advance. In Group F, Brazil advances ahead of schedule, Australia gets 3 points, Japan and Croatia get 1 point each. Group G is a relatively unpopular group. Switzerland ranked first with 4 points, France only scored 2 points, Saudi Arabia also scored 2 points, and Togo ranked last with 0 points.
The Asian teams that still retain the possibility of qualifying are China, Japan and Saudi Arabia.