In the next few minutes, the situation between the two sides changed. The Chinese team began to shrink their defense, while Uruguay pressed forward to attack.
I don’t know what the situation is in Spain and Nigeria, but now the Chinese team is leading Uruguay, and the real-time points are China 4 points and Uruguay 3 points.
As long as Nigeria fails to beat Spain, China can advance ahead of Uruguay.
Therefore, the Chinese team had reason to shrink its defense, and Uruguay could only press forward on the offense.
But in front of the almighty Lu Wenbin, Uruguay's attack was almost completely blocked or disrupted, making it difficult to pose a real threat.
It was not until the 44th minute that Uruguay's 45-degree cross from the wing, which was deliberately avoided by Lu Wenbin, was found by Suarez who headed the ball at the first point, but it went over the crossbar.
After 1 minute of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half.
In the locker room, the Chinese team learned the halftime result of another game from the goalkeeper coach who had been following the game: Spain, which played with a half-substitute lineup, was already leading Nigeria 2-0 after only playing the first half.
Under the Spaniard's passing and controlling techniques, the African champion Nigeria, which had extremely low tactical literacy, was defeated even though Spain fielded half of its substitute lineup.
Upon hearing the news, the Chinese players cheered with joy.
However, Lu Wenbin immediately poured cold water on everyone, warning everyone not to be happy too soon as they were only leading by one goal.
As long as Uruguay equalized the score in the second half, there would be no need for a reversal, and Uruguay, not China, would qualify from the group.
Therefore, in the second half everyone must work together to defend well and wait for opportunities to counterattack.
If the Chinese team can take a two-goal lead, then they will basically be in the game.
With his personal achievements and the aura of leadership, Lu Wenbin's prestige is now much higher than that of a coach.
After Lu Wenbin said this, everyone naturally calmed down.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and the Chinese team retreated to play a defensive counterattack, while Uruguay pressed forward to attack from the beginning of the second half.
They also knew the result of the other game. That score meant that as long as they equalized the score, they could beat China and Nigeria and qualify as the second in the group.
Such a situation naturally made Uruguay fight very hard.
But under the organization of Lu Wenbin, the Chinese team's defense was very solid.
This is not just a matter of Lu Wenbin helping on defense.
Lu Wenbin's physique, physical fitness, speed, jumping, defense, positioning, tackling, etc. are all at the maximum level. Whether it is frontal defense or lateral interference, he can disrupt the opponent's offense to the greatest extent.
Secondly, as a superstar who has been in the top European clubs for a long time, Lu Wenbin’s understanding of defense is better than that of domestic players and even coaches.
As he spends more time playing as a defensive midfielder and as his understanding with his teammates in training and games improves, even if the opponent deliberately avoids him, he can use his experience and vision to remind and direct his teammates on the back line how to run, position themselves and defend.
Of course, Lu Wenbin and his teammates don’t have a very good understanding of each other yet, but they are already much more skilled than in the first and second games.
This is also the reason why Uruguay has not seized good opportunities to make threatening shots in this game.
They did try to avoid Lu Wenbin in the middle and attack from the wing, but on the one hand, there was Lu Wenbin's reminder, and on the other hand, the goal was in the middle after all, so they had to return to the middle in the end.
They did not have passing and assisting masters like Xavi and Iniesta of the Spanish team. The only player they could rely on, Suarez, was nailed down by Lu Wenbin most of the time, resulting in their failure to break through the Chinese team's goal.
The continuous attacks but failure to score goals made the Uruguayan team more and more impatient.
Especially when the Chinese team had the ball to attack, they were panicked and anxious, and their handling method was a bit excessive.
In the 69th minute, Uruguay attacked from the flank, but under the command of Lu Wenbin, wing midfielder Ramirez's cross was too low due to the interference of the Chinese full-back. Before it entered the penalty area, it was intercepted by Dewey halfway and kicked to Lu Wenbin who ran out of the open space.
Lu Wenbin dribbled the ball forward, passed Lodeiro and passed it to Hao Junmin, who then passed it to Zheng Zhi who was almost at the top of the penalty area.
As a result, Hao Junmin's pass was a little too long, and Zheng Zhi could only try his best to catch up, but still failed to control the ball in advance.
The central defender Coates rushed over and made a diagonal tackle, trying to take the ball away.
But at the same time, Zheng Zhi didn't want to waste this opportunity.
"If you can't control the ball, help Lu Wenbin get a free kick, there's still a chance to score!"
With this thought in mind, as Coates flew over to make a diagonal pass, Zheng Zhi also leaped hard, flew over to tackle, and then tackled the ball away before Coates.
The next second, Coates's studs hit Zheng Zhi's ankle.
Zheng Zhi didn't have time to dodge, and Coates didn't have time to retract his legs.
Zheng Zhi suddenly screamed, and this time he was not pretending. It was a very painful scream, so heartbreaking that it made all the Chinese people at the scene and in front of the TV feel nervous. The fans at the scene also immediately cursed Coates.
Hao Junmin rushed over and pushed Coates who was still on the ground, but was immediately separated by Uruguayan players. The referee quickly intervened to avoid a conflict.
The team doctor quickly entered the field, gave a quick check and then sent Zheng Zhi off the field on a stretcher. He then left the stadium without even waiting for the game to end.
This injury is very serious and he must be sent to the hospital immediately.
The referee gave Coates a yellow card and awarded the Chinese team a free kick, which again caused dissatisfaction and boos from Chinese fans in the stadium, but they were unable to change the referee's decision.
Gao Hongbo replaced Deng Zhuoxiang in the attacking midfielder position for Zheng Zhi, and then Lu Wenbin took the free kick.
Lu Wenbin had taken a free kick before, but the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out of the bottom line and did not go in.
For this free kick, Lu Wenbin's skills were still on cooldown and he could not use system skills, so Lu Wenbin had to take the penalty himself.
However, Lu Wenbin's free kick skills have already reached perfection.
The most important teammate in the team was injured by the opponent and left the field, and the extent of his injury was unknown. Lu Wenbin was very angry and vowed to score the penalty.
But Lu Wenbin did not lose his mind.
After the referee blew the whistle for the free throw, Lu Wenbin took a few deep breaths calmly, forced himself to calm down, and then started his run-up.
After a few steps, Lu Wenbin stood still with his left foot and kicked the lower middle part of the ball with his right foot. The football flew into the air, passed the wall of people, drew an arc in the air, and went into the blind corner of the Uruguayan goal.
Lu Wenbin scored the winning goal with a free kick, and the Chinese team led the South American powerhouse Uruguay 2-0.