Chapter 393: Protect Drinking Water
One-on-one shot, the king of martial arts!
The camera focused on Wu Lei. Wu Lei, who came in from the right, took the ball at a very fast speed and faced goalkeeper Belranwand alone. Belranwand rushed out from the goal line and Wu Lei began to slow down.

Push!

"Belanwand! Bellanwand blocked Wu Lei's shot!"

“Oh my god, a great save from Beiranvand!”

"Wu Lei! Just a little bit more!"

He Wei held his head and sighed. Zhang Lu didn't know what to say and could only laugh.

"Damn it, Brother Leizi..."

Jiang Yuan held the back of his head with both hands and leaned his upper body backwards. If Liao Lisheng hadn't held him up, Jiang Yuan would have fallen to the ground.

[Damn, what's wrong with Wu Lei? Isn't he the top scorer in the Chinese Super League? Why can't he score on a one-on-one shot? ]

[Isn’t this normal? Xiao Jiang’s arc pass to Wu Lei didn’t change the odds.]

[It's a bit unbelievable that he missed the shot, but Xiao Jiang's pass just now was really awesome. Since Jiang Yuan joined Chelsea, I rarely see him make passes of this level.]

[This is not a good thing. Jiang Yuan's position in Chelsea is very forward, so there is basically no chance for long passes. But in the national team, he has to keep returning to defense, so this kind of pass is very necessary. The main reason is that the defense is not strong enough.]

[Defense? I think the core problem is the midfield. The Chinese team's midfield is too bad. Liao Lisheng can pass the ball, but he loses the ball very quickly. It's better to play 4231 and let Liao Lisheng play as a front midfielder.]

[Here we go, classic I know more about football than the national team coach]

[You mean Li Yi? Just look at the decision to play against South Korea. If you randomly pick anyone in the comment section, the Chinese national football team can play better than before. How can Li Yi be called a substitution? That’s not a substitution.]

【Come on China, beat the crap out of Iran! 】

There was a one-on-one opportunity at the beginning of the game. Although no goal was scored in the end, it was a great help to the morale of the Chinese players and fans.

Originally, fans thought that the best result of playing against Iran would be a draw, but now it seems that the Chinese team still has a chance to score a goal facing Iran's defense!
Clap clap clap!

China's corner kick, Jiang Yuan hurriedly ran towards the home team's goal, and along the way he specifically looked for Wu Lei: "Brother Lei, it's okay, it's just a small problem"

The one-on-one opportunity that Wu Lei missed was very important to the Chinese team and it is also a goal that is worth reflecting on.

We need to reflect, but not now. The most important thing now is how to find the next chance to score a goal.

Liao Lisheng stood at the corner kick spot and kicked the ball out with a kick. The ball showed a standard arc, and when it reached Jiang Yuan's diagonal back, it began to slow down, and finally began to fall in front of Jiang Yuan.

coming!

Jiang Yuan, who found the opportunity, adjusted his center of gravity and ran quickly towards the small penalty area. The two defenders of the Iranian team reacted very quickly, one in front and the other on the side, and the two completely blocked Jiang Yuan's position.

Montazeri and Praliganj are both tall central defenders, and it is very difficult to break through the defense of both of them at the same time, but Jiang Yuan also knows that this is a rare opportunity.

In the video, Jiang Yuan completed his jump despite being pulled by Praliganj, and when he was about to head the ball, Montazeri also jumped up and made direct physical contact with Jiang Yuan. With the forces from two different directions, Jiang Yuan's center of gravity began to float, and he finally fell to the left and back.

"Referee! Referee!"

Zhang Yuning immediately ran to the referee Jahari, and Feng Xiaoting also rushed over behind him: "Foul, they fouled!"

“Let’s go!”

The fans in the away team's stands began to blow whistles. Although the sound was not loud, it was enough to vent their dissatisfaction.

Jiang Yuan had just completed the jump and was about to reach the highest point, but was knocked down by Montazeri at this moment.

One hundred percent, this is one hundred percent foul!

The grass on the court was very soft, so it didn't hurt much when Jiang Yuan fell to the ground. Despite this, he didn't stand up immediately, but rolled around on the ground, looking like he was about to die.

"Sir, sir!"

Montazeri spread his hands to Jahari: "This is not a direct foul. His body was already unstable before he jumped."

Originally, it would be useless for the fouled player to explain to the referee, but Jahari seemed to be inspired by Montazeri.

That’s right, Jiang Yuan had already lost his balance before he jumped.

and so……

"Beep!"

Jahari blew a light whistle, crossed his arms and then unfolded them again.

no penalty!

"What the hell?"

Upon learning that there was no penalty, Jiang Yuan immediately jumped up from the ground and chased after Jia Heli, asking, "Sir, this is not a penalty. Are you sure this is not a penalty?"

"I'm sorry, but please leave"

Jahari held his right hand in a palm shape, blocking in front of him. At this point, how could Jiang Yuan let it go? He chased after him and wanted to complain, but Ibrahimi and Taremi came over and the two of them stopped Jiang Yuan together.

"Fuck you"

How could the Chinese players tolerate seeing their leader being stopped? Zhang Yuning and Feng Xiaoting ran up and started pushing the Iranian players. Feng Xiaoting even knocked Ibrahimi to the ground.

"Beep!"

The referee showed Feng Xiaoting a yellow card, and the conflict finally ended.

“xuuuu——!!!!”

"Idiot, stupid referee! Idiot!"

The away team stands were filled with complaints from Chinese fans. This Jahari is a talent among talents. It was clearly the Iranian team that committed a foul in the penalty area at the beginning, but in the end only Feng Xiaoting received a yellow card.

The Iranian team fully demonstrated its home advantage at the Azadi Stadium today.

In the 28th minute of the first half, Iran was almost suppressing China with its powerful attacking line consisting of Jahanbakhsh, Guternejad and Taremi.

Queiroz is very smart. Facing China, he adopted a pressing tactic that he used in every game. Other teams’ pressing was high-pressure pressing, but Iran was different. Iran not only had high-pressure pressing, they also had low-pressure pressing.

Rushing forward on one's own defense line to press the opponent's offensive players may sound stupid, but considering that he needs to exchange physical strength with Jiang Yuan, Queiroz's action is still very reasonable.

"Hiss, if we continue to play like this, the Chinese team will be in trouble."

"Well, Queiroz's intention to target Jiang Yuan is obvious. Jiang Yuan is tired of defending now, and even more tired of attacking. If he continues to play like this, he won't be able to hold on for long."

"The top priority for the Chinese team is to find a suitable way to deal with Iran's tactics of exchanging physical strength. Only in this way can they have a chance to win the game."

Whether it was He Wei or Zhang Lu, the two commentators from CCTV both discovered the problem.

The best way to deal with this extreme pressing tactic is to let Wu Lei stand out and attack from both directions, leaving Iran with nowhere to press, but the Chinese team cannot do this.

There is actually no essential difference between the current Chinese team and Chelsea in the second half of this season. Neither Falcao nor Wu Lei has enough hard power to act as Jiang Yuan's wingman, which means that Jiang Yuan has to bear almost all the pressure on the offensive end.

Very uncomfortable!

At the 30th minute of the first half, the broadcaster gave the offensive data of the two teams in the upper left corner of the screen. In terms of ball possession, Iran had an advantage with 69%. The number of shots were 5 and 3 respectively. Neither side scored a goal.

Putting aside the fact that the one-on-one opportunity was not scored and the penalty was not awarded, the Chinese team can still accept this score.

The problem is, these two factors really cannot be ignored!
The Chinese fans at the scene were very upset. If Wu Lei had scored a solo goal and Jiang Yuan had gotten a penalty, the score might have been 2:0 for the Chinese team.

In fact, the current situation on the field is a bit unexpected for Chinese fans, because so far, the best chances in the front court have come from the Chinese team's offense, and there are two of them. On the other hand, the home team Iran, who are at the top of the standings, did not get many excellent scoring opportunities.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the Chinese team's quick defense in the frontcourt. In order to deal with Iran's powerful three-way breakthrough, Gao Hongbo asked Jiang Yuan, Wu Lei, and Zhang Yuning, three forwards, to participate in the backcourt defense many times, which was a headache for the Iranian players on the field.

Even so, Li Yi and Gao Hongbo's expressions were not particularly optimistic. The high-intensity defense of the forwards would inevitably lead to physical exhaustion, which means that the Chinese team's excellent defense so far was exchanged for their offensive ability in the second half!

It is said that Gao Hongbo is famous for his solid defense. The fact is, when facing some strong teams, some gambling-style strategies and tactics can actually create miracles.

“Beep, beep, beep!!”

"Beep beep beep!!!"

The home team fans blew a fake whistle at the scene, and there were also cheering songs. The Chinese fans were actually singing as well, but with a 10-fold difference in numbers, it was basically impossible for the Chinese fans' singing to louder than the home team's stands.

"Go up, go up!"

Ibrahimi got the ball in the center circle again, and Jiang Yuan quickly signaled Wu Xi to rush up to defend and prevent Ibrahimi from breaking through with the ball.

As the captain of the Iranian national team today, Ibrahimi has a very good overall view. That is to say, if Ibrahimi stays in the center circle, his vision can cover the entire Chinese team's half.

Hearing Jiang Yuan's suggestion, Wu Xi rushed forward and used his body to block Ibrahimi's forward passing route. Ibrahimi saw Wu Xi coming up, retracted his thigh which he had just raised, and then changed direction to the right. Wu Xi also followed. When Ibrahimi walked to the right, Wu Xi stepped out with his left leg.

However, what Wu Xi did not expect was that by doing this he had fallen into Ibrahimi's trap. When Wu Xi opened his legs, Ibrahimi turned his ankle and kicked the ball directly between Wu Xi's legs.

"Oh~!"

There were exclamations on the field. Ibrahimi used his advantage in body orientation to run around Wu Xi without the ball and finally caught the ball in front. "A very wonderful pass from the captain of the Iranian national team!"

"We can look at this Iranian attack!"

"Ibrahimi...passes the ball to Milad Mohammadi on the left. Then Mohammadi decides to run to the end line with the ball himself!"

"Although he is of average height, Mohammadi is very fast, which puts pressure on the Chinese team. Does Zheng Zhi have any good way to deal with it?"

"Let Wu Xi come over to take a look? Alas, Wu Xi couldn't come over. Zheng Zhi didn't dare to rush forward directly. Mohammadi got rid of Zheng Zhi almost easily."

"Come to the baseline, and Zhang Linpeng!"

A big part of the reason why this Iranian team was able to achieve good results in the Asian qualifiers is because their attack was very fast.

Iran's speed is not the kind of counterattack speed of Chelsea, but a pure quick attack. Just like just now, after getting rid of Wu Xi's defense, Ibrahimi suddenly attacked, causing Wu Xi to be unable to make up for the defense on the right, which gave the Iranian full-back the opportunity to attack from the side.

The Iranian team's full-backs and wingers are both relatively fast runners. Now the Chinese team's bottom line feels under tremendous pressure, especially Zhang Linpeng. Now Zhang Linpeng needs to face Taremi and Mohammadi at the same time, and these two players have excellent acceleration abilities.

The camera focused on the right bottom line of the Chinese team. Mohammadi dribbled the ball with the outside of his foot and approached Zhang Linpeng little by little. The latter did not dare to kick rashly. Every time Mohammadi moved forward, Zhang Linpeng retreated. During the game, Zhang Linpeng stepped directly on the penalty area line.

The offensive player cuts inside and reaches the side boundary of the penalty area. At this time, the defensive player needs to worry not about the opponent suddenly entering the penalty area, but...

"Give me an inverted triangle! Mohammadi, give me an inverted triangle to Aizatolasi's feet"

"Adjust one step and shoot directly!"

boom!
Goalkeeper Zeng Cheng stepped up again and successfully demonstrated his strength as the No. 1 player. He clenched his fists and then kicked the ball out with one hand.

Zeng Cheng did not insist on holding the ball, because the ball was going too fast and no goalkeeper would be able to catch it.

However, the ball Zeng Cheng hit was not a clearance. The ball hit the grass and landed at Cafuri's feet.

This guy is waiting just outside the penalty area!
Grass!
Jiang Yuan felt something was wrong, and he ran back quickly from the left front court. But at this time, it was useless for Jiang Yuan to run fast, because Jia Fuli was already at the edge of the penalty area. If the Chinese team wanted to keep the goal, the defender had to stand up.

In the live broadcast, Jiang Zhipeng ran up and blocked Ghafouri sideways, preventing Ghafouri from running to the baseline and passing the ball like Mohammadi.

However, Cafuri had no intention of going down to the bottom line at all. After finding that his right side was blocked, Cafuri kicked with his right foot and stepped into the penalty area in the next step.

At this time, the Chinese team stretched out three hands in the penalty area, and all three hands came from Iranian players.

!!!

Feng Xiaoting felt something was wrong, looked to the right, confirmed the positions of other Iranian players in the penalty area, and took the initiative to move forward after thinking.

At this time, it is not realistic to steal the ball. As a central defender, Feng Xiaoting only needs to help Zeng Cheng block the near corner and then pass the far corner to Zeng Cheng.

At this time, Jiafuli did a trick, pedaling his bicycle and suddenly going down. The tense environment and Jiafuli's unexpected action made Feng Xiaoting go straight up and use his body to force Jiafuli out of the baseline. Poor Jiafuli fell on the plastic track.

What the hell!

Jiang Yuan held his head in his hands, and his whole expression was weird.

This is a penalty kick!
"Nonono, nonono..."

Jiang Yuan shook his head, and together with Ibrahimi, they ran towards the referee almost at the same time. The other players didn't think about it and let Cafuri wail on the plastic track for a while and get the penalty first!
"It's a penalty!"

The opening line was the most classic. Unexpectedly, the referee Jahari directly ignored the captain of the Iranian team. Seeing this, Jiang Yuan decisively said: "Our players' arms are not open, sir, I can guarantee that you can clearly see this. Our players' arms are not open at all."

What is being debated now is whether this was a reasonable confrontation or an illegal confrontation. If it was the former, then the Chinese team would be very safe; however, once the referee determines that it was an illegal confrontation, then it would be a 100% penalty.

The final result given by the referee is...

"Wow, there is no penalty!"

No penalty!

hiss--

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. At this moment, the Chinese players felt like they had survived a disaster, and Feng Xiaoting was even grinning.

If he gave away a penalty when the score was 0:0, Feng Xiaoting would definitely be subjected to cyberbullying!
"Hey, this is a penalty!"

Ibrahimi was very dissatisfied with the referee's decision and ran up to fight for the last chance, but the Chinese players were not fools. Zhang Yuning and Wu Xi went up and directly separated Ibrahimi and the referee.

Then will I give you a chance to ask for something? Of course I won’t!
I originally thought that the referee was using the home whistle, but I didn't expect that this guy was so outrageous. This would also be a penalty in the Premier League, but the referee just didn't blow it.

Of course, considering that the Chinese team was given one less penalty kick earlier, it is not completely unreasonable for Jahari to do this and forcibly balance the score.

Neither team made any substitutions throughout the first half, and the first half ended with Jiang Yuan's flying tackle on Gafuli on the wing.

"Well, the first half of the game is over. Both teams found many chances to score, but unfortunately, neither Iran nor China scored a goal."

"Hmm... In the first half, I felt that Iran had a slight advantage. What do you think of this, Coach Zhang?"

"That's true. Overall, Iran is more competitive than China, both in offense and defense. Speaking of defense, Li Yi's tactical arrangements today have changed a lot compared to the previous game, hehe. The most obvious thing is the forwards' return to defense. In today's game, the Chinese team's frontcourt players were obviously more active in returning to defense than in the previous game, which is a good thing, hehe."

"Coach Zhang is right. Li Yi made a big change to the Chinese team's tactics in just five days to target Iran, especially the forwards' return to defense. I think this is very good because he almost completely restricted the performance of several main Iranian attackers."

"Yes, that's right. But throughout the first half, the Chinese team's forwards were very active in returning to defense, and even the midfielders were very active in returning to defense. If we do this, our offensive ability in the second half will definitely decline. Hmm... three substitutions seem to be a little insufficient at this time."

He Wei and Zhang Lu's analysis was quite accurate. The Chinese team's tactics today were one of sacrifice, sacrificing the second half to ensure the first half.

There is a common question in the minds of fans in the live broadcast room now, which is why Li Yi wanted to completely change the team's tactics within 5 days.

As the player with the highest status and the most power in the Chinese men's football team, is Li Yi's choice a bit impulsive?

……

In the visiting team's locker room at Azadi Stadium, Li Yi sat on a bench in the corner of the room.

That year, the 39 players' locker room was like a mess.

squeak--

Gao Hongbo skillfully pushed the tactical blackboard to the middle. I don't know what happened to the Azadi Stadium. The exterior looks quite impressive, but the equipment inside is old and broken. This tactical blackboard alone is probably 7 or 8 years old.

"As expected, the result of the first half was good. I think it was good, so it should be okay, right?"

Gao Hongbo wanted to get recognition from the players. Although he was called a player, Gao Hongbo actually only looked at Jiang Yuan's eyes. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with Jiang Yuan's eyes, Gao Hongbo continued his narration.

"A draw is still pretty good, but what you have to understand is that we consumed more energy than our opponents in the first half. So I can also tell you that we will basically be suppressed by our opponents in the second half."

Although he made a tactical board, Gao Hongbo did not use it at all and just made up his own narration.

He actually said these things before the game started. With this kind of play today, the Chinese team will definitely have a very difficult time in the second half.

Queiroz is not stupid. Seeing the Chinese team play like this, he will definitely replace the forward to press the team in the second half.

In other words, in the second half, not only will the Chinese team's forwards be physically exhausted, but the midfield and backcourt players will also be under great pressure.

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and looked at Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning who were sitting next to him: "Can you still run?"

Wu Lei and Zhang Yuning looked at each other and then nodded.

"It's okay. If you can't run, just say it's okay."

Jiang Yuan said he didn't want his teammates to hide anything, but Zhang Yuning still said he could run for a while. After all, he was a center forward, so he didn't have to run that far even if he tried to defend.

Wu Lei was in a bit of a pickle. Encouraged by Jiang Yuan, he raised his right hand and said, "I may need a substitution, maybe in the 65th to 70th minute."

"no problem"

Gao Hongbo agreed immediately. Originally, one of the three substitutions was reserved for Wu Lei.

After saying the most basic things, Gao Hongbo focused his attention on Jiang Yuan. The latter stood up, and Gao Hongbo sat down on the therapy bed next to him.

"tatata"

A series of voices rang out, and Jiang Yuan moved the magnetic buttons on the tactical blackboard at a very fast speed: "Iran will also change the offensive line, but Coach Gao also said that their first substitution will be later. Do you still remember the captain of Iran? He should not be able to run much, so we can go in his direction specifically."

Jiang Yuan was right. As a defensive midfielder in the 4231 formation, Ibrahimi's running range is very exaggerated. In addition, facing Jiang Yuan, the Iranian captain basically has no chance to conserve his energy. It is estimated that he will be replaced in the second half like Wu Lei. Before that, the Chinese national team players can look for opportunities from Ibrahimi.

"Well, Brother Yuan, is there anything else?"

Zhang Yuning looked up and asked. From the U19 Asian Cup to the Olympics, and finally to the current Asian qualifiers, Zhang Yuning has followed Jiang Yuan all the way up. He can be said to be Jiang Yuan’s number one fan.

“Anything else…?”

Jiang Yuan thought about it carefully, and finally looked at Li Yi in the corner: "Today is an away game, Xiaotie, please protect our drinking water and don't let others touch it."

……

(End of this chapter)