In the early hours of this morning, Iran beat Uzbekistan 2-0 and accumulated 20 points with six wins and two draws in eight matches, locking the qualification in two rounds ahead of schedule and becoming the first Asian team to enter the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The result of this match also has a positive impact on China's qualifying situation.
Uzbekistan's loss to Iran is undoubtedly good news for the national soccer team, which is now seven points behind Uzbekistan with one game less, and eight points behind South Korea, which also has one game less (South Korea will be on the road to face bottom-ranked Qatar in the current round), and will have a direct confrontation with Uzbekistan in the 9th round.
If the national soccer team beats Syria this evening, the difference between the national soccer team and Uzbekistan will be narrowed to four points. The difference with South Korea, who have played one less game, will be reduced to 5 points. Once South Korea beats Qatar, the national soccer team will ironically not be able to overtake South Korea and will not be able to finish second in the group, but will have to strive for third in the group. If the South Korean team after three rounds of a draw (draw Uzbekistan) two losses, the national football team won all three matches also has a theoretical possibility to win the second group.
If the national football team draws Syria, wins all of the next two rounds against Uzbekistan and Qatar, loses all of the next two rounds in Uzbekistan, and Syria plays poorly in the next two rounds, the national football team still has the theoretical possibility of squeezing out Uzbekistan and Syria.
If the national football team can win against Uzbekistan at home in the 9th round, the difference between the two teams will be further reduced to only 1 point (provided the national football team wins against Syria)! In the final round of the tournament, the Chinese soccer team will travel to Qatar with a 1-point difference, while Uzbekistan will face South Korea at home. If they beat Qatar on the road and South Korea doesn't lose to Uzbekistan, they will overtake Uzbekistan in points. Of course, there is another extreme scenario, if the national soccer team draws with Qatar and Uzbekistan loses to South Korea, the national soccer team and Uzbekistan will have the same points, so the national soccer team needs to get more goal difference to ensure that the ranking is better than Uzbekistan, but the national soccer team in this case has 12 points, and hope that Syria will not score more than 4 points in the next two rounds.
Of course, in the case of three wins, the national football team will also encounter such a situation: ranked more than Uzbekistan, but with Syria or South Korea, so the national football team in the premise of winning also to ensure that enough goal difference, in order to maximize the hope of their own out of the line. Of course, all calculations are based on the premise of the national football team's winning streak!
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