Lu Wenbin's talented performance, like the Ice Prince's dance, silenced all the Japanese in the Tokyo National Stadium and made the Chinese fans feel extremely excited and proud.
However, after celebrating the goal and restarting the game, the Japanese players were not intimidated by Lu Wenbin.
Although we hate Japan, sometimes we have to admire their spirit and will.
During World War II, Japan was able to occupy so much territory in Asian countries, and after the war it was able to quickly rise from the ruins to become the world's second largest economy. The entire country and nation always has its merits and is admirable.
If the Chinese team didn’t have Lu Wenbin, a pervert who played football with cheats, they probably wouldn’t have even won their first Asian Cup title.
After the game restarted, the Japanese team neither retreated and defended because of fear of Lu Wenbin, nor did they rush forward in a hurry to equalize the score. They still maintained their rhythm and fought hard with the Chinese team.
The Chinese team failed to take advantage of the morale boost from the first goal to gain a bigger lead.
Instead, the Japanese team often used the advantage of their overall strength over other Chinese players except Lu Wenbin to threaten the Chinese team's goal.
In the 17th minute, the Japanese team made an exquisite cooperation in the frontcourt, broke through the Chinese team's defense, and Shinji Kagawa completed a very threatening small-angle shot in the corner of the small penalty area.
Fortunately, China's goalkeeper Zeng Cheng predicted the situation in advance and made a crucial save, pushing the ball out of the baseline with his fingertips.
In the subsequent corner kick, the Japanese team failed to grab the first point and was cleared by the Chinese defender who headed the ball out of the penalty area.
But the Chinese team failed to launch a quick counterattack. Zheng Zhi's pass to Lu Wenbin was intercepted and the two sides started fighting in the midfield again.
In the 24th minute, the Chinese team attacked. Lu Wenbin, who had the ball, was originally preparing to make a wonderful pass to break through the Japanese team's defense and create a scoring opportunity for striker Gao Lin.
But at that second Gao Lin did not understand Lu Wenbin's passing intention and started a little slowly, resulting in the ball being intercepted by the Japanese team. The Chinese team missed an opportunity to counter-attack and score.
The Chinese fans in the stands sighed, Gao Lin slapped his head in annoyance, then gave Lu Wenbin a thumbs up and made an apologetic expression.
But Lu Wenbin was not as upset as they were, nor did he have time to be upset, because the Japanese team, which had stolen the ball, had quickly passed it out and launched a counterattack.
Lu Wenbin tried to intercept, but since the last game with Iraq, the Japanese also knew that Lu Wenbin's defensive ability has greatly improved, and he seems to be better than China's defensive generals such as Zheng Zhi and Zhao Peng.
Therefore, the Japanese had no intention of passing through Lu Wenbin. They passed the ball with two kicks, avoiding Lu Wenbin and passing it to the frontcourt.
The Chinese team, which was just on the attack, was hit by a quick counterattack.
Japan's final pass was made by Shinji Kagawa to striker Ryoichi Maeda, who made a straight pass that avoided Zheng Zhi and center back Du Wei. Maeda received the ball before another center back Zhao Peng and rushed towards the Chinese team's penalty area.
Although Zhao Peng was not completely thrown away, he was separated by Maeda Ryoichi and was unable to grab the ball.
The two of them pulled and entangled all the way and rushed towards the Chinese team's restricted area.
When they were about to enter the restricted area, Zhao Peng became anxious and did something irrational.
Zhao Peng, who was unable to steal the ball, made a diving tackle from the side, trying to stop the ball.
As a result, he failed to tackle the ball, but instead knocked Maeda Ryoichi to the ground. He rolled two or three times, covering his foot that was tackled by Zhao Peng and crying out in pain.
Zhao Peng blocked Maeda Ryoichi's shot that was about to enter the penalty area, but committed a foul.
Players from both sides rushed forward immediately. The Japanese players were naturally angry and said that Zhao Peng's tackle was a serious foul and should be severely punished.
Chinese players including Lu Wenbin claimed that Zhao Peng did not tackle Maeda Ryoichi at all and that Maeda Ryoichi was faking a fall.
They are all just speaking for their own people. In fact, Lu Wenbin and other Chinese players all knew that Zhao Peng definitely committed a foul this time, it was just a matter of seeing whether he would get a card.
Anyway, Zhao Peng's purpose was to tackle the ball, not to deliberately tackle someone. Maeda Ryoichi was not seriously injured and had already stood up with the help of his teammates.
The Chinese players, including Lu Wenbin, thought they would get a yellow card at most, and what everyone wanted was not to get a card.
However, the referee from Singapore separated the quarreling players and directly showed Zhao Peng a red card, sending him off the field.
Everyone on the Chinese team was shocked. As the captain, Lu Wenbin was the first to yell at the referee, saying that Zhao Peng's action definitely did not meet the standard of a red card.
Other Chinese players also gathered around and put pressure on the referee, and Chinese fans in the stands shouted "black whistle".
But the Singaporean referee insisted on his own opinion and even put his hand in his pocket, threatening Lu Wenbin and others that he would take action if they continued to pester him.
Zhao Peng came over and persuaded his teammates to leave one by one, and then left the field. After 24 minutes of the game, the Chinese team had to face the situation of being one man short, and a key central defender at that.
However, the decision made by the Singaporean referee cannot be changed.
For some reason, the Chinese Singaporeans, who are supposed to share the same origin and ethnicity, like to oppose China in all aspects of politics and economics. Sometimes it seems that they hate China more than Japan and the United States.
The Japanese team got a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt with an excellent position and distance.
Naturally, the ball was taken by Keisuke Honda, the free kick master of the Japanese team.
Honda Keisuke did not waste this opportunity and kicked the ball into the corner of the Chinese team's goal. Zeng Cheng was out of reach and could only watch the ball go into the net.
The Japanese team equalized the score, with the score at 1-1, and the Chinese team will face the situation of playing with one less player in the following period.
As a last resort, Zheng Zhi, who was originally in the defensive midfielder position, had to continue to retreat and stand at the central defender position, leaving Zhao Xuri alone at the defensive midfielder position.
As the attacking midfielder, Lu Wenbin could only retreat appropriately to help Zhao Xuri defend in the midfield, and was further away from the Japanese team's penalty area.
But there is no way. The Chinese team cannot play with three defenders, and there is only one central defender among them. In that case, the defense in the penalty area will definitely be a problem, and Zhao Xuri, a midfielder, cannot face the overall attack of the Japanese team.
Fortunately, Zheng Zhi is an all-around player who started out as a central defender, so he has no problem playing as a central defender.
Lu Wenbin has also maxed out his defensive ability, with a positioning value of 10 points, which will be of great help to the Chinese team's midfield defense.
However, if Zheng Zhi and Lu Wenbin retreat at the same time, China's offense will definitely be greatly affected.
But there was nothing that could be done about it. Who made Zhao Peng irrationally foul? Who made the Chinese team face a Singaporean referee and then play with one less player