Everyone knows that this is Lu Wenbin's 200th game, and he can break the 400-goal mark by scoring four goals in a row.
Therefore, after Lu Wenbin scored the first goal and knowing that they could not defeat the Chinese team, Iraq focused most of its energy on defending Lu Wenbin.
They didn't want Lu Wenbin to score four goals against them and complete the iconic goal of 400 goals in his career.
However, Lu Wenbin's physical strength, speed, dribbling, off-ball running, passing, vision, judgment, etc. are all full, and even his creativity has 17 points. It is not easy for opponents to defend him.
In the 28th minute, Lu Wenbin dribbled the ball in the frontcourt and Hao Junmin was running beside him to support him, but no one paid attention to him: Lu Wenbin attracted the siege of four Iraqi players.
With four people surrounding him, it was still difficult to dribble the ball past him. It was not impossible, but the probability was low.
Even if Lu Wenbin dribbled at full value, it would be difficult to succeed.
Therefore, after observing for a while, Lu Wenbin's full judgment made him suddenly brake while moving slowly forward, creating a little distance between him and the Iraqi players who were retreating and defending.
Then, Lu Wenbin shook his ankle and passed the ball to Hao Junmin who was a few meters away. Then he started suddenly and squeezed through between two Iraqi players.
Although a player was knocked down by Lu Wenbin, the referee did not blow the whistle, so Lu Wenbin ignored it. He ran while pointing his finger in front of him, indicating Hao Junmin to pass the ball.
Hao Junmin was naturally familiar with this kind of wall-to-wall cooperation tactic. After seeing Lu Wenbin's pass and sudden forward movement, he was ready to cooperate with Lu Wenbin.
Before the ball reached his feet, Hao Junmin raised his foot.
Then, without stopping the ball, he directly passed it to the penalty area in front of Lu Wenbin.
However, in front of Lu Wenbin, there was one last defender, Hashim, who rushed up, ready to block the ball and wait for other teammates to return to defense.
However, Lu Wenbin is faster than Hashim.
Before Hashim touched the ball, Lu Wenbin touched the ball first and shot directly without stopping.
The ball passed by Hashim's feet, avoided the save of goalkeeper Kasder, and went into the far goal along the post.
The Iraqi players who were desperately chasing back could only watch in despair as the ball flew into the goal and as Lu Wenbin and his teammates ran to celebrate.
Lu Wenbin scored twice to help the Chinese team lead Iraq 2-0 away from home, and scored his 118th goal of the year and 398th goal of his career.
The commentator from China Central Television in the commentary booth shouted excitedly:
"The ball goes in, the ball goes in! Lu Wenbin scored twice and scored his 398th goal in his 200th game, only two goals away from his 400th goal in his career! We may very well witness a miracle of averaging 2 goals per game after playing 200 games!"
Not only Chinese commentators, but also commentators from other countries were explaining loudly to the audience, even commentators from Western European and American TV stations.
Although this is an Asian World Cup qualifier, due to Lu Wenbin's popularity, there are still European and American countries willing to broadcast this Asian game.
After all, Lu Wenbin’s fans are now all over the world.
As long as it does not conflict with the live broadcast time of games in one's own country, it is acceptable to broadcast the games in which Lu Wenbin participates to meet the needs of Lu Wenbin's fans.
After scoring two goals, Iraq guarded Lu Wenbin even more strictly.
However, no matter how strictly they defended, they could not completely abandon the others and use 11 people to defend Lu Wenbin.
Although Lu Wenbin has completed 400 goals in his career, it would not look good for them to be the background board. However, if Lu Wenbin is completely ignored and other people score crazy goals, it will be a bloodbath with a huge score, which will also not look good.
At least, the whole world knows Lu Wenbin's strength.
It was understandable that Lu Wenbin scored four goals, but it would have been even more shameful if he had been completely defenseless against the rest of the Chinese team and scored double-digit goals.
Therefore, even though Lu Wenbin had completed half of his quadruple goal, Iraq paid more attention to defending Lu Wenbin, but was unable to put all its efforts into defending him.
Having three people defending around him at all times, and others to provide backup, means he has already given his all.
This kind of defensive strength is indeed extraordinary. If it were a defensive player from a European team, it would be really difficult for Lu Wenbin to score again.
However, the defensive capabilities of Iraqi players cannot be compared with those of top European teams, both in terms of individual ability and positioning.
In the 43rd minute, as the first half was about to end, the Chinese team created another shooting opportunity in a positional attack.
However, because there were too many people around Lu Wenbin and there was almost no gap, Lu Wenbin did not force a shot this time. Instead, he saw through the opponent's gap and passed the ball to the left side of the penalty area. Yu Hanchao cut in from the wing and shot.
No matter how close the defense is, the players' eyes are always on the ball. After Lu Wenbin passes the ball, the defensive players will naturally relax.
Yu Hanchao's shot finally attracted the attention of several Iraqi defenders. Lu Wenbin got a brief gap and immediately bypassed the defensive player in front of him and entered the penalty area.
Lu Wenbin didn't know whether Yu Hanchao's shot would go in, but he had to be prepared.
As a result, Yu Hanchao's shot did not go in, and did not even hit the goal frame. Instead, it hit the post and then bounced back into the penalty area.
However, the bouncing ball landed closer to Iraqi defender Shakir, and Lu Wenbin fell behind by one step.
Seeing Shakir half-turned and raised his foot to clear the ball, Lu Wenbin, who couldn't reach the ball, could only jump up and turn around to block the hole.
In fact, this is just a blocking action after failing to grab the point, delaying the opponent's counterattack, and doing one's best.
However, what Lu Wenbin did not expect was that when he jumped up and turned around, he suddenly felt the ball hit his buttocks, causing him pain.
Shakir's long-foot clearance is still very powerful.
However, when Lu Wenbin's feet landed on the ground and he had no time to turn around to see where the ball flew to, he heard a loud "bang" on the court, with applause and cheers rang out, and his teammates inside and outside the penalty area also rushed towards him with their hands raised and shouting.
"Did the ball go in?"
Thinking of this, Lu Wenbin turned his head and first saw Shakir behind him with an expression as if he had seen a ghost. Then he saw the ball bouncing happily in the goal and goalkeeper Kasde crawling on the ground with his face covered.
Lu Wenbin was extremely lucky and used his butt to block the long-foot clearance of Iraqi defender Shakir directly into the goal, completing a hat trick and helping the Chinese team to a 3-0 lead.