The Chinese team reached the final of the Asian Cup, causing nationwide carnival in the country.
During this period when the storm of cracking down on gangs and counterfeiting in the football world has brought Chinese football as a whole to the bottom, the Chinese team has won consecutively against Japan and South Korea to reach the Asian Cup final, which has greater positive significance than 1984 and 2004.
As the saying goes, three times the limit, we only won the championship the first two times we reached the finals.
Now that they have reached the finals for the third time, it should be China's turn to win the championship, right
Moreover, with Lu Wenbin, the new FIFA Ballon d'Or winner, in charge, the Chinese team has been one of the favorites to win the championship since before the start of the tournament.
After defeating Japan 4-1 to advance to the semi-finals, the Chinese team has become the team with the highest odds of winning the championship among the four semi-final teams.
Chinese media, whether sports or general, central or local, and even internal newspapers of government agencies and enterprises, have been reporting extensively on the news that the Chinese team has reached the final of the 2011 Asian Cup.
"The Chinese team defeated South Korea 4-2 and entered the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup finals!"
"After 1984 and 2004, the Chinese team reached the Asian Cup finals for the third time!"
"The Chinese team has reached the Asian Cup finals for the third time. Can it win the Asian Cup championship for the Chinese team in history?"
"The world's top star Lu Wenbin leads the Chinese team into the Asian Cup finals. The whole country is looking forward to the Chinese team taking back the first intercontinental championship trophy!"
Of course, in addition to celebrating the victory and reaching the finals, the Chinese media did not forget to condemn Zhao Rongheng's diving and the head coach's misjudgment.
If it weren't for Zhao Rongheng's fake fall and the head coach's misjudgment, Lu Wenbin could have easily scored the winning goal within 90 minutes and ended the game. There would have been no need to play overtime and waste 30 minutes of energy.
However, this matter can only be condemned.
Lu Wenbin hadn't even completed his turn at the time, so it wasn't a sure-shot chance.
Referee misjudgments are also part of football. Even the goal-scoring case that England encountered in the World Cup in South Africa had to be left unresolved, let alone these ordinary misjudgments.
The most important thing is that the Chinese team is the winner.
The winners are tolerant. The main content of the national media was celebrating the Chinese team's advancement to the finals. Zhao Rongheng's fake fall was just treated as a joke to be condemned and ridiculed.
Later that evening, the other semi-final was decided.
Playing at home, Qatar still lost to Australia with a big score of 0-4.
In fact, with Qatar's strength, it would be difficult for them to even qualify from the group stage.
If Lu Wenbin had not caught a cold in the group stage, they would never have been able to beat the Chinese team in the second game, let alone a 3-0 victory, which would have been difficult to do even with the help of the referee.
It was precisely because of Lu Wenbin's cold and the help of the referee that they were able to win the last two games against China and Kuwait 3-0 despite losing 0-2 in the first game, gaining enough goal difference to rank first in Group A and advance.
Reaching the semi-finals is already the limit for Qatar.
Qatar will definitely lose to any of the other three teams in the semi-finals.
It was only natural that they were slaughtered 4-0 when facing Australia, which is currently ranked first in Asia.
Judging from the situation on the spot, if the referee had not been more considerate, Qatar might have conceded more goals to Australia.
Reaching the semi-finals is an unexpectedly good result for Qatar. Qatari fans are also quite excited, which has laid a good fan base for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
In this way, the two teams for the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup final have been determined: the Chinese team with FIFA Golden Ball Award winner Lu Wenbin versus Australia, the number one team in Asia.
This is the first time Australia has reached the Asian Cup final since it left the Oceania Football Confederation and joined the Asian Football Confederation.
In other words, no matter who wins the championship between China and Australia, a new champion and a new king will definitely be born in the history of the Asian Cup.
Since the first Asian Cup in 1956, the Asian Cup has produced seven Asian champion teams: South Korea, Israel, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iraq.
In 2011, whoever wins between China and Australia will become the eighth champion team in the history of the Asian Cup.
The final was on January 29, and the third and fourth place finals were on January 28. Before that, Lu Wenbin watched a live broadcast of Inter Milan's game.
On January 26, in the Italian Cup quarter-finals, Napoli VS Inter Milan, Lu Wenbin was almost scared to death.
In this Italian Cup match, Inter Milan's forwards lost their accuracy and drew with Napoli within 120 minutes, and the score went into a penalty shootout with 0-0.
In the end, Inter Milan won the penalty shootout with a score of 5-4 and advanced to the semi-finals thanks to the opponent's mistake in missing the penalty in the third round.
Fortunately, they won in the end. If they lost, Lu Wenbin would not have been able to lead Inter Milan to win the treble this season.
Afterwards, the Chinese team began closed training to prepare for the final.
On January 28, in the third and fourth place final of the Asian Cup, Qatar lost to South Korea at home with a score of 1-3, which was not as bad as the loss to Australia.
However, no matter what, the fact that Qatar, ranked 12th in Asia, was able to get fourth place in the Asian Cup has made many Qatari fans ecstatic.
Qataris' love for football has reached a new level.
Next up is the Asian Cup final between China and Australia.
China is currently ranked 79th in FIFA rankings and sixth in Asia. Australia is ranked 26th in the world and first in Asia.
It seems that there is a big difference in the rankings between the two sides, but sometimes the rankings cannot truly reflect the strength of the two teams.
Of the two final teams, the outside world prefers China to win the championship because China has Lu Wenbin, who is recognized as the best active Ballon d'Or winner in the world today.
Australia's head coach said in an interview: "The final will be very difficult! China's Lu Wenbin will be Australia's biggest enemy in winning the championship! No matter how many people defend Lu Wenbin, it is difficult to really limit him. What we have to do is to rely on the strength of the whole team to score more goals than Lu Wenbin."
Facing Australia, which has the strongest overall strength in Asia, the Chinese team is naturally extremely cautious.
Gao Hongbo didn't even send two forwards to start the game. Instead, he sent three defensive midfielders right from the start, playing a 5311 formation. The frontcourt could only rely on Zheng Zhi and Lu Wenbin to fight.
Such a formation will make Zheng Zhi and Lu Wenbin very tired, and it will be difficult for them to launch an attack, but this is the only way.
Given the strength and level of the Chinese team's defense line, they can only rely on the number of people to set up the bus and iron bucket formations to make up for the lack of strength.
In the end, will the Chinese team win the championship with the performance of Golden Ball winner Lu Wenbin, or will Australia defeat the Chinese team with its overall strength? We can only wait for the start of the final. (Seeking monthly votes)