On March 22, China's national soccer team will face Saudi Arabia in the 9th round of the 12-team tournament. According to Sports Weekly, Yasir Al-Meshal, the president of the Saudi Football Association, hinted in an interview that although our team has no hope of making it out of the tournament, the players still need to remain vigilant because no match can be won easily.
After the first eight rounds of competition, our team with 1 win, 2 draws and 5 losses accumulated 5 points, ranked fifth in the group, early farewell to the stage of the 2022 World Cup. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, topped the list with 19 points with 6 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and as long as they beat our team in this round, they will be able to lock up their World Cup berth in the early round.
Facing our team, Yasir Al-Meshal, the President of the Saudi Football Federation, kept his head up and reminded his players not to take their opponents lightly. He emphasized, "Our team is not in the World Cup, which may give the Saudis an extra challenge when they play them. Although we are slightly better, the game will never be easy and our team could still put on a great show in front of us and put us under immense pressure. Therefore, our players will have to be fully focused and this is something that our technical team has particularly emphasized while preparing for this match."
Due to the epidemic, our team's match against Saudi Arabia will be moved to Sharjah, UAE. The president of the Saudi Football Association said that their match in Sharjah has a geographical advantage over traveling to China, as Sharjah is closer to Saudi Arabia.
It is worth mentioning that in this round of 12 matches, Japan, ranked second in the group, will challenge Australia, ranked third in the group, on the road. If Japan can beat Australia, regardless of the result of the match between Saudi Arabia and our team, Saudi Arabia will advance to the World Cup in one round. However, the Saudi Football Association executives and manager Reynal have a very clear goal, which is to get three points in the match against China.
