Late at night on June 15, Beijing 16 2:00 am, the Chinese men's football team will embark on the land of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, and lock the top of the group, the Syrian team to promote the round of 12 to start the final battle of the 40 strong group A. The Chinese men's football team will be the best team in the world. Although from the overall situation, the possibility of the Chinese team "out" is extremely low, but the desire to play in the Qatar World Cup Chinese team is not only the pursuit of advancement, but also to maintain the dignity of the seeded team of the 40 strong competition through this weighty competition, for the 12 strong journey to a good start. Current preparations show that the team's top scorer Wu Lei is undoubtedly carrying the expectations of the entire team. At the same time in the full attack, the Chinese team also need to focus on limiting the opposing scorer, their former "bitter enemy" Mavis play.
Looking back at history, since the first meeting at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing on July 23, 1966, China has played Syria 13 times, with a record of 7 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, scoring 26 goals and conceding 12 goals. On paper, China holds a clear advantage. However, of those seven wins, three were friendly matches and one was a World Invitation Tournament. The last time China beat an opponent in an official tournament was 25 years ago in the group stage of the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, when they thrashed their opponents 3-0 thanks to goals from Ma Mingyu, Li Ming and Li Bing.
The most recent meeting between the two teams took place on November 14, 2019, when China went down 1-2 away to Syria in Dubai, UAE, in the first half of the 40-team tournament. In the last edition of the World Qualifying 12, China lost 0-1 at home and drew 2-2 on the road. In recent years, the Chinese team has been a clear underdog in their big match encounters with Syria.
It is worth mentioning that even though Syria's best scorers like Herbin and Soma are unable to participate in this match due to injuries and other reasons, there are still good attacking players like Mawas in the team. Mawas scored key goals in both rounds of the double-header of the last World Preliminary Round 12, which kept China out of the World Cup in Russia.
Of course, the root cause of the Chinese team's repeated failure to impact is still not as good as others. In order to realize the "turnaround" in this round of matches, the Chinese team must first ensure that their own technical and tactical level to play well, while maintaining a calm mindset.
Late in the night of June 14 and early in the morning of June 15 in Beijing, the Chinese team arrived at the Khalid bin Mohammed Stadium in Sharjah for their last training session before the tournament. All 28 players participated in the training except for the injured tomorrow.
Due to the upcoming hard battle the following day, head coach Li Tie kept the training length to a little over an hour. Formation adjustment remains the focus of pre-match training. Judging from the training in recent days, it is likely that the Chinese team will play a similar or the same starting lineup as in the China-Philippines match. However, combining the gains and losses of the previous rounds, the coaching staff may adjust the formation from 442 to 433, playing the 3-forward attacking tactics. Among them, Ackerson is in the center, Wu Xinghan and Wu Lei may be divided into the left and right ends. In the midfield, captain Wu Xi is expected to form a double back with Jin Jingdao, and Zhang Xiezhe a person as a sudden forward defender. As for the other personnel arrangement may be roughly the same as the first two rounds of the game.
Wu Lei is undoubtedly a key part of the Chinese team's tactical system. Previously, he has been in the 40 rounds of 7 consecutive rounds of debut, and accumulated 6 goals, but also contributed a number of valuable assists. "The expectation of the whole village is now the expectation of the whole team. Of course, Wu Lei's excellent play is inevitably attracted the opponent's special "care". The Chinese team also need to help Wu Lei in time to neutralize the threat from the opponent.
While being well prepared on the technical level, the Chinese team also needs to remain proactive on the mental level. Although from the overall situation of the current 40-team tournament, even if the Chinese team lost in this round of matches, there is still a certain possibility of advancement. However, recalling the adverse effects of the change of venue, the arrogance of the opponents and the humiliation of the last 40, the Chinese team will need to pluck up the courage to fight the opponents. In the words of the fans, "the Chinese team should not only get out of the line, but also can not plant face, should stand up among the top 12."
It is understood that Du Zhaocai, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport and party secretary of the CFA, and Chen Xuyuan, president of the CFA, did not visit the team at the stadium, as they did before the match between China and the Philippines. The members of the CFA's front delegation are well aware of the importance of allowing the team to train quietly so that they are in a good frame of mind to go all out for the battle.
Expected starting lineup of the national football team: goalkeeper: Yan Junling; defenders: Stanley Wang, Jiang Guangtai, Zhang Linpeng, Tang Miao; midfielders: Wu Xi, Jin Jingdao, Zhang Xunzhe; strikers: Wu Xinghan, Ekerson, Wu Lei.
