Brazil, Curitiba, Arena da Baixada, the scene of the third round of the World Cup Group B match between China and Spain.
After the start of the game, Spain took advantage of its overall strength to launch an active attack, and used its excellent passing and controlling style of play to tear open the Chinese team's defense and score goals.
However, after the first two group matches against Chile and the Netherlands, Lu Wenbin and his teammates have become more coordinated and are more adept at commanding the defense.
Although Spain's team consists almost entirely of superstar players, they are indeed in poor form in this World Cup.
Especially after losing 1-5 to the Netherlands and 0-2 to Chile in a row, the players of this championship team suffered a considerable blow in their confidence.
It is not obvious in the ordinary passing, cutting and running, but it is very obvious in the final shot.
In the 14th minute, after almost 20 passes, Xavi finally got a chance and passed the ball into the empty space in the penalty area.
Villa slipped into the gap like a loach and shot without stopping before the Chinese defender could clear the ball.
Seeing Villa successfully take the ball and shoot in the penalty area, the Chinese fans in the stands held their breath, while the Spanish fans stood up and prepared to celebrate.
As a result, the ball didn't even enter the goal frame and went far away from the goal.
The Spanish fans in the stands immediately sighed, and Villa on the field also slapped his forehead, his face full of pain.
This is the aftermath of the 1-5 defeat to the Netherlands and the 0-2 loss to Chile: the players lack confidence and their shooting has lost its standard.
In the 22nd minute, Torres also performed the same scene: he received Fabregas's heel pass and kicked the ball into the stands.
The Spanish team created a lot of shooting opportunities by relying on the team's passing and control advantages, but few of them hit the goal frame and posed a threat.
The consequence of constantly wasting opportunities is being counterattacked by the Chinese team.
In the 30th minute, exactly half an hour later, Iniesta passed the ball to Villa, but Lu Wenbin seized the opportunity and intercepted it halfway, then passed it to Yu Hai for a quick counterattack.
After Yu Hai ran across the center line with the ball, he kicked a 45-degree cross before the opponent's full-back came forward. Wu Lei headed the ball in the penalty area, but did not shoot. Instead, he headed the ball back to Lu Wenbin who was running in from the back row.
After passing the ball to Yu Hai, Lu Wenbin rushed forward at full speed and volleyed the ball without waiting for it to land at the top of the penalty area. The ball pierced the sky like a sharp arrow and went straight into the blind corner.
The CCTV commentator raised his arms and shouted:
"The ball goes in, the ball goes in!"
"Lu Wenbin scored a goal, and the Chinese team is leading!"
"The Chinese team leads the defending champion Spain 1-0!"
Thanks to Lu Wenbin's volley, the Chinese team led Spain 1-0, and the Chinese fans at the scene and in front of the TV cheered loudly.
However, Spain's overall strength is indeed stronger.
Even though Lu Wenbin was in person, he was still just one person and couldn't transform into thousands of incarnations and spread across the stadium.
Before the end of the first half, Spain's Iniesta broke through midfielder Zhao Xuri and made a wonderful pass to the penalty area, and forward Torres received the pass from Iniesta.
Torres finally did not waste this good opportunity and scored a goal for Spain to equalize the score.
After 1 minute of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and both sides entered the halftime break with a score of 1-1.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and continued the game.
After scoring the goal, Torres found a lot of confidence and became quite active, but Gao Hongbo made targeted arrangements during the halftime break, asking the midfielders and backcourt to focus on defending Torres and not let him shoot easily.
Lu Wenbin and his teammates faithfully carried out the head coach's tactical instructions.
In the 52nd minute, Villa made a cross from the flank, and Torres rushed into the penalty area and wanted to head the ball, but Zhao Peng risked a collision and injury and headed the ball away in advance, preventing Torres from heading the ball into the goal.
In the 68th minute, Xavi made a wonderful pass to the penalty area. Torres received the ball and adjusted himself to prepare for a shot, but Lu Wenbin made a precise tackle from the side and the ball was taken away, but there was no foul.
While defending against Torres, who had regained some confidence, Lu Wenbin did not forget to counterattack.
If we score one more goal and win, it will always be better and more advantageous than a draw.
In the 74th minute, Qin Sheng's close pressing caused Iniesta to make a passing error. Lu Wenbin intercepted the ball midway and started a counterattack with the ball.
After running across the center line and breaking through Xavi, Lu Wenbin's former teammate Ramos rushed up and pulled Lu Wenbin down, allowing Lu Wenbin to get a free kick about 35 meters away from the goal.
The distance is very far, which is why Ramos dared to decisively pull down Lu Wenbin and even commit a foul.
There had been free kicks from such a long distance before, but Lu Wenbin hadn't scored, so he felt somewhat confident.
However, although the success rate of free kicks from such a long distance is relatively low, it is not completely impossible to score.
Ramos made a mistake.
The key is that Lu Wenbin's system skills have cooled down, enough to make a high-quality shot.
Witnessed by hundreds of millions of viewers at the scene and in front of TV, Lu Wenbin activated his system skills and hit an erratic elevator ball, causing Casillas to lose judgment on the path of the ball.
The ball passed through Casillas' waving hands and went into the goal.
Casillas' wrist touched the ball but failed to stop it from going into the net.
The Chinese team leads Spain 2-1.
Chinese fans cheered, but Ramos could only hold his head and sigh helplessly.
The reason for the goal loss was his pulling foul.
After scoring this goal, the Chinese team entered defensive mode, hoping to maintain the score of 2-1 until the end of the game.
But Spain, which has lost two games in a row and has lost everything, really can't afford to lose again.
Everyone went crazy, running and sprinting desperately, vowing to score a goal. Lu Wenbin and his teammates tried their best, but they couldn't withstand the Spanish attack.
Finally, in the 88th minute, Spain scored the second goal with Xavi assisting Villa and equalized the score again.
However, there were only four or five minutes left until the end of the game.
Although both sides wanted to score more goals, there was too little time left for both sides.
After three minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Thanks to Lu Wenbin's third brace in the group stage, the Chinese team tied with the defending champion Spain.
But the Chinese team couldn't celebrate as everyone was nervously waiting for the result of another game.
Two minutes later, another game ended. The Netherlands did not give up and easily defeated Chile 2-0.
All the Chinese people at the scene and in front of the TV burst into huge cheers instantly.
The Netherlands team won all three games and scored 9 points to advance as the group leader. The Chinese team won one game and drew one game and scored 4 points to advance as the group runner-up. Chile scored 3 points and Spain scored 1 point, both of which were eliminated.
Under the leadership of Lu Wenbin, the Chinese team not only achieved their first World Cup victory, but also successfully qualified from the group of death and made it into the top 16 of the World Cup.