Lu Wenbin did not become complacent because of the praise on TV, nor did he become indignant because of the doubts and insults from some netizens.
He understands his goal: if he can't win a championship or get signed by a European club, everything will be empty talk.
Others can slowly start from the domestic league, but he is already 17 years old. Some players have played in the top European leagues at the age of 16. He can't afford to delay and doesn't want to waste time along the upgrade route of China League Two, China League One, Chinese Super League, and European second-tier leagues.
The best career development path is to win a championship in one step and sign a contract to play football in Europe.
It is certainly gratifying that Meijiang Middle School seems to have no problem qualifying from the group stage, but there are still knockout rounds to come, and the teams they face will become stronger and stronger, making it increasingly difficult to advance.
Thinking of the challenges he will face, Lu Wenbin dare not get carried away.
Fortunately, after so many formal competitions and the intentional physical training by the coaches and team doctors, the overall strength of Meijiang Middle School is no longer what it used to be.
Even without Lu Wenbin, the current Meijiang Middle School can still compete with teams like Maotai Children's School.
Considering Lu Wenbin's personal strength, winning the championship is not really hopeless.
The European Cup featured Danish fairy tales and Greek mythology, so it is not impossible for a dark horse miracle like Meijiang Middle School to emerge in the Chinese high school league.
After the second round of group matches, all teams rested for another day before starting the third round of the group matches on August 15.
On the morning of August 15, the first match of the third round of Group G was between Meijiang Middle School and Xining No. 1 Middle School.
In this game, Zhang Minghai replaced several main players. In addition to Lu Wenbin, only Xiang Youming remained on the front court, while Han Dapeng and Nie Yingkun were both replaced.
Two substitutes were also put on the defensive line to give the main defender a rest.
The average density of group matches, one game every two days, is very physically demanding for these high school students who are not professional players.
After winning two games in a row, Meijiang Middle School has actually advanced to the next round and almost secured first place in the group.
In the last game, unless Meijiang Middle School loses by a large margin and another game is decided by a large margin, a team with the same points as Meijiang Middle School but a higher goal difference can snatch the first place in the group from Meijiang Middle School.
If Meijiang Middle School can get a draw, they will secure first place in the group with 7 points. No matter how Datong Middle School and Baotou Steel No. 1 Middle School perform, their ranking will not be threatened.
Therefore, in the last game, Zhang Minghai deliberately selected some substitute players to allow the main lineup to have some rest.
The result of this half-main and half-substitute lineup was that Meijiang Middle School had a hard time in the last game.
Although Xining No.1 Middle School had been eliminated in advance, they obviously did not want to return home with zero points after losing all three games. In the last game against Meijiang Middle School, which had already qualified in advance, they still hoped to win a victory and retain a little dignity.
In addition, Meijiang Middle School did not field all its main players, but instead replaced some substitutes, which gave Xining No. 1 Middle School hope. The morale was high and they played very hard.
However, even so, with Meijiang Middle School's increasingly skilled and well-coordinated bus tactics, Qinghai Xining No. 1 Middle School still failed to score a single goal in the end.
Instead, it was Lu Wenbin who scored two goals through two personal heroic quick counterattacks and headed in a corner kick, helping Meijiang Middle School to beat Qinghai Xining No. 1 Middle School with a score of 3-0.
One of the counterattacks was a long shot outside the penalty area. Lu Wenbin's sudden long shot after creating an angle outside the penalty area was becoming more and more threatening.
The process was hard, but the result was gratifying.
While helping Meijiang Middle School beat its opponent 3-0, Lu Wenbin also increased his personal goal tally to 9 goals, standing out in this national finals.
Meijiang Middle School won all three games in the group stage, ranking first in Group G with 9 points and advancing with their heads held high. They will occupy a relatively advantageous position in the subsequent round of 16 draw.
With three goals and the win in this game, Lu Wenbin gained 200 experience points, and his personal level experience increased to level 6 692/1000.
In the afternoon, in the match between Shanghai Datong Middle School and Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel No. 1 Middle School for the second place in the group, Datong Middle School was ultimately more skilled and defeated Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel No. 1 Middle School 3-1 thanks to Gu Zhengpeng's outburst and another player's goal.
Gu Zhengpeng scored two goals and scored twice.
Datong Middle School finally advanced as the second in the group and became the team with the worst performance in the group stage among the eight seeded teams.
Of course, they are not the worst.
The most unlucky team was Wuhan No. 12 Middle School in Hubei Province. They were put in the same group with Yanbian No. 1 Middle School in Jilin Province and Chongqing No. 7 Middle School, which were not seeded teams but very strong. This made that group a group of death.
As a result, in this death group, Wuhan No. 12 Middle School unfortunately ranked third due to the disadvantage of goal difference and was eliminated, becoming the only seeded team that failed to qualify from the group stage.
After the afternoon games, all group matches will be over and the top 16 teams will be produced. The round of 16 will start after two days of rest, giving the qualified teams two days of rest.
The evening Tianjin News naturally reported the completion of the group stage of the National Finals of the High School League and the list of the top 16 teams that advanced to the knockout stage, and focused on reporting on the teams and players who performed well in the group stage.
Among them, Lu Wenbin, as the best performing individual player, received a considerable amount of coverage, almost the same treatment as the host Tianjin No. 54 Middle School.
The performance of 9 goals in three games surprised countless people.
In previous national finals, even the top scorer who reached the final and finished 7 games rarely scored more than 9 goals, but Lu Wenbin achieved this in the group stage.
You have to know that this is the national finals. The average of three goals per game is more than half more than the 4 goals scored by the second place in the scorer list. It is simply too abnormal.
The scouts who watched Lu Wenbin's game started reporting to their clubs, and so did Claire.
That evening, Claire called her boss Dietmar Hopp, who was traveling in Shandong, and reported her tracking results of Lu Wenbin's next two group matches.
Hope was also surprised to hear that Lu Wenbin scored twice and a hat trick in the next two games, bringing his total number of goals to 9.
Even though this is just a high school league, considering Lu Wenbin's age, it is already amazing enough to have such strength and goal efficiency.
In addition to the most crucial goal-scoring ability, Claire also reported to Hope the qualities and abilities she observed in Lu Wenbin's physique, speed, dribbling, shooting, off-ball running, etc.
Although she couldn't digitize it like the system, she could make a pretty good judgment based on her experience.
After listening to this, Hope decided to return to Tianjin and personally watch Lu Wenbin's performance in the knockout round.
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