After the last round of the Qatar Asian Cup Group A group match, Lu Wenbin's stoppage time winner and Uzbekistan's 6-point elimination became hot topics among media and fans from all over the world.
It was not surprising that Lu Wenbin came on as a substitute despite his illness and scored one goal and one assist, and finally scored the winning goal in injury time. Everyone was just appreciating Lu Wenbin's wonderful goal.
But Uzbekistan's elimination in the group stage with 6 points did shock countless football experts and fans.
Some fans never thought that there was a possibility of being eliminated with 6 points, and even those football experts who knew that there was such an extreme situation, no one thought that such an extreme situation would actually occur.
In a short time, Uzbekistan became famous all over the world and won the sympathy of countless fans.
Of course, the Uzbeks certainly don't want this kind of sympathy.
What they want is to advance, but the facts are already determined and cannot be changed.
On the other hand, the media and fans of the Chinese team that advanced to the knockout stage were praising Lu Wenbin for his stoppage-time winner while also being concerned about his condition.
Fortunately, the Chinese team held a press conference the next day, claiming that Lu Wenbin's cold was not aggravated by the game and the fainting at the last moment, and that he was almost recovered, which made the Chinese media and fans feel a lot more relieved.
At the same time, the last round of group matches in Group B was played the next day, and the opponents of the Chinese team and Qatar were also announced.
Qatar, first in Group A, will face Jordan, second in Group B, in the quarter-finals, while China, second in Group A, will face Japan, first in Group B, in the quarter-finals.
Seeing that China's opponent is Japan, although some fans feel that they are unlucky to meet Japan, the favorite to win the championship, most Chinese fans are still excited.
You know, the Chinese team has not defeated Japan in international A-level competitions for more than ten years.
Many people believe that as long as Lu Wenbin recovers, the Chinese team will definitely defeat the Japanese team.
Lu Wenbin did not disappoint Chinese fans.
On January 18, when Group C was playing its last round of group matches, the Chinese team held a press conference and Lu Wenbin attended, announcing that Lu Wenbin had recovered from his cold.
Then, that afternoon, Lu Wenbin began to participate in team training as normal, and the news was reported through media reporters.
For a moment, the morale of Chinese fans was even higher, and they vowed to win this Sino-Japanese war and avenge their previous humiliation.
"Lu Wenbin has recovered from his cold and has resumed normal training!"
"Lu Wenbin will definitely start in the Asian Cup quarter-finals!"
"Can the Chinese team end its history of not winning against Japan for more than ten years? This is the battle!"
Many domestic fans who had never been to Qatar before have now even organized to fly to Doha to cheer for the Chinese team and help them win this Sino-Japanese war.
Of course, the Japanese will not be scared, even if their opponent is Lu Wenbin.
They respect Lu Wenbin, but don't think highly of the Chinese team.
Some Japanese players claimed that they did not need to defend Lu Wenbin, and they just needed to pool the whole team's strength to score more goals than Lu Wenbin alone.
What this means is that the Chinese team's sieve-like defense allows them to surpass the Chinese team in terms of goals scored.
The confrontation between the two favorites to win the championship, coupled with the history of grievances between the two countries, not only attracted fans from China and Japan, but even many neutral fans from Qatar rushed to buy tickets to watch this battle live.
On January 19, with the end of the last round of group matches in Group D, the top eight lists for the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup were all released, namely Qatar and China in Group A, Japan and Jordan in Group B, Australia and South Korea in Group C, and Iran and Iraq in Group D.
Next, it will be a real knockout match to determine the winner.
The quarter-final matchups are Qatar vs. Jordan, China vs. Japan, Australia vs. Iraq, and South Korea vs. Iran.
Among them, the match between groups AB will be on January 21, and the match between groups CD will be on January 22. China VS Japan is the first game of the quarter-finals.
On the afternoon of January 21, 2011, the Al Gharafa Stadium in Doha was packed.
Except for the neutral fans or Qatari fans who were cheering for Ballon d'Or winner Lu Wenbin, the other more than 20,000 spectators were all fans of the Chinese and Japanese teams.
Banners reading "China must win" and "Japan must win" were displayed in the stands, with neither side trying to lose.
During the pre-match warm-up, Lu Wenbin, who appeared to be in good health, performed a few goal frame-lifting performances for everyone, which stunned the Japanese players and fans and put him under a lot of pressure.
It seems that Lu Wenbin has really recovered!
At 16:00 in the afternoon, with the referee's whistle, the first quarter-final of the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup between China and Japan officially began, and the Chinese team won the right to kick off.
Although Lu Wenbin had recovered and the Japanese were very vigilant, they were still almost caught off guard by Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin was ready to replicate last year's Puska's Goal of the Year award by dribbling past several players at the start of the game and scoring a goal.
Fortunately, the Japanese team is more vigilant than Lyon and attaches different levels of importance to Lu Wenbin.
Although Lu Wenbin dribbled past three players, he still took advantage of the gap in the penalty area where Lu Wenbin dribbled the ball too far and kicked the ball away.
Although he did not score a goal, Lu Wenbin successfully gave the Japanese team a warning.
His skillful dribbling, strong body, super fast speed and frequency of dribbling all make people think of Lu Wenbin who scored numerous goals in European competitions.
The Chinese fans in the stands were immediately cheered up and started cheering crazily for the Chinese team and Lu Wenbin.
The team suffered a crushing 0-3 defeat in the second round of the group stage and a narrow 3-2 win in the third round. Although they advanced to the knockout stage, it still made Chinese fans feel a little frustrated that they didn't get to see Lu Wenbin invincible in Europe.
Even though everyone knew that Lu Wenbin had this problem because he had a cold, everyone still felt aggrieved.
Now seeing that Lu Wenbin has finally returned to normal and has given the Japanese team a warning right from the start, everyone is naturally boosted and feels hope of victory.
Sure enough, in the next game, Lu Wenbin finally regained the momentum of the FIFA Golden Ball winner and European Golden Boot winner.
Although the Japanese team had been prepared for Lu Wenbin's strength, they were still unable to resist him.
In the 5th minute, Lu Wenbin received a pass from Deng Zhuoxiang at the corner of the penalty area and suddenly shot into the far corner. Although the ball went wide of the goal, it scared the Japanese players on and off the field.
Just a few minutes later, Lu Wenbin had another good chance to shoot.
In the 12th minute, Lu Wenbin dribbled past two players outside the penalty area, attracting the attention of most of the Japanese players, and then made a diagonal pass to the side of the penalty area. Zheng Zhi, who was in the open space, received the ball and shot.
Zheng Zhi's shot attracted the attention of all the players and spectators, only Lu Wenbin continued to rush towards the penalty area without stopping after passing the ball.
Then, when everyone saw Zheng Zhi's shot being blocked by the goalkeeper and falling into the penalty area, and wanted to clear the ball, they found that Lu Wenbin suddenly appeared like a ghost at the landing point of the ball, and kicked the ball into the goal before the Japanese defender stretched out his foot.
Lu Wenbin's full-value off-ball running showed its value at this time.
Suddenly, all the players and fans on and off the field celebrated excitedly, while the Japanese players felt confused as they looked at Lu Wenbin's back as he ran to celebrate.
As favorites to win the championship, they were led 1-0 by the Chinese team in the first 12 minutes.
The one who scored the goal was the one they had been paying extra attention to.