At 13:00 on July 4, the first quarter-final between France and Germany officially kicked off at the Maracana Stadium.
Thanks to Hummels' goal in the 13th minute, Germany defeated France 1-0 and advanced to the semi-finals.
At 5 p.m., it was the turn of the second quarter-final between China and Colombia. The venue was the Castelao Stadium in Fortaleza. The winner would face Germany in the semi-finals.
Because Zeng Cheng was shown a red card in the previous game and was automatically suspended for one game, Wu Sihuo will be the starting goalkeeper in this game.
Most of the fans in the stands were Chinese. Many Brazilian fans who thought Brazil would advance and bought tickets for the match in advance eventually sold their tickets to wealthy Chinese.
Castellon Stadium became the home stadium of the Chinese team.
Colombia is currently ranked 8th in the world and is quite strong.
However, the Chinese team even eliminated the host country and the football kingdom of Brazil, and their mentality has become much more confident, which is very different from when they played in the group stage.
Just four minutes into the game, Lu Wenbin passed the ball to Yu Hai, who dribbled the ball on the wing and did two bicycle kicks, passing the Colombian player who was defending him, which drew applause from the Chinese fans in the stands.
Yu Hai's performance this time fully demonstrated the difference in his mentality.
It cannot be said that the nervous mentality in the group stage has completely disappeared, but facing Colombia, an opponent with much less deterrence than Brazil and Spain, at least they dared to make fake moves to pass the opponent.
After completing the dribbling, Yu Haibin took a few steps forward with the ball, then cut inside, prepared to dribble past the midfielder Sanchez who was trying to intercept him outside the penalty area, and broke into the penalty area to shoot.
Yu Hai's spike dodged Sanchez, but Sanchez was probably a little angry and embarrassed, so he turned around and pulled Yu Hai to the ground from behind.
After Yu Hai fell to the ground with his arms and legs spread out, Sanchez finally woke up from his dream and raised his hands to signal to the referee that he was not the one who pulled Yu Hai down.
But this action was too obvious, and Sanchez couldn't say that it was not a foul.
Although the referee did not show a yellow card, he gave the Chinese team a free kick on the left side of the penalty area, only about 25 meters away from the goal.
At this distance and position, Lu Wenbin's free kick threat is too great.
And now, the game has only started for 4 minutes.
Despite Sanchez's efforts to defend himself, the referee's decision could not be changed.
Lu Wenbin stood behind the ball with a smile, waiting for the referee to signal that he could take a free kick, and then kicked the ball into the near goal in an arc.
Just in the fourth minute of the game, the Chinese team took the lead over Colombia 1-0 thanks to a free kick created by Hai and a penalty scored by Lu Wenbin.
This unexpected goal loss made Colombia very nervous.
They wanted to attack aggressively, but were afraid of Lu Wenbin's counterattack. They wanted to play it safe, but could not break through the Chinese team's defense led by Lu Wenbin.
As a result, before the end of the first half, in the 44th minute, the Chinese team seized another opportunity. Lu Wenbin made a lob pass into the penalty area, Hao Junmin cut in from the wing, and with an irregular volley, the ball went into the goal.
Thanks to Lu Wenbin's pass and shot, the Chinese team led Colombia 2-0.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and continued the game.
In the second half, Colombia was about to launch a massive attack, but the Chinese team made a substitution.
Zheng Zhi replaced Wu Sihuo, Lu Wenbin changed to play as goalkeeper, and Zheng Zhi played in Lu Wenbin's position as defensive midfielder.
The Chinese team's defense is even more unbreakable.
Although there was no counterattack threat from Lu Wenbin, Colombia launched a massive attack and had many threatening shots, but they were all saved by Lu Wenbin.
It was not until the 88th minute that Colombia made a lucky shot, which hit Feng Xiaoting and changed its direction, evading Lu Wenbin's save and pulling away a point.
But before that, Lu Wenbin had already scored China's third goal in the 72nd minute through a free kick created by Wu Lei.
In the end, thanks to Lu Wenbin's two shots and one assist, the Chinese team defeated Colombia 3-1, won the quarter-finals, and advanced to the semi-finals.
This has tied the best record for an Asian team set by South Korea in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.
The key point is that the Chinese team did not rely on the referee, but instead eliminated the host Brazil team.
This team is much tougher than the South Korean team.
Not only China, but many Asian countries also reported it extensively, treating it as a breakthrough for Asian football. This is a complete change from 2002 when everyone was ashamed to mention South Korea's achievements.
Next, Argentina defeated Belgium 1-0 and the Netherlands defeated Costa Rica on penalties. The top four teams of the 2014 Brazil World Cup were thus decided: Germany, China, Argentina and the Netherlands.
The Chinese team has become the biggest dark horse in this World Cup.
However, the Chinese team's dark horse journey ended here.
None of the remaining three teams can be resisted by the current Chinese team.
Especially our semi-final opponent Germany, which even won the championship in the end.
On July 8, the first semi-final between China and Germany kicked off.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 5-2, with Germany in the lead and China behind.
The German team defeated China with a resounding 5-2 victory. If it weren't for the fact that Lu Wenbin was in charge of the backcourt and scored two counterattack goals, China would probably have lost even more.
The German team has reached the final of this World Cup and is ready to launch an attack on their fourth World Cup title.
On July 9, the second semi-final ended with Argentina defeating the Netherlands in a penalty shootout and advancing to the final. Maradona's successor Messi led Argentina to attack their third World Cup title.
On July 12, in the third and fourth place final, the Chinese team met the Netherlands again after the group stage.
In the group stage, they lost to the Netherlands 1-3, but at that time Lu Wenbin had not yet used his trump card as a goalkeeper.
In this third and fourth place final, the Chinese team changed their tactics and let Lu Wenbin play as the starting goalkeeper, hoping to win third place by relying on defense.
But the reality went against their wishes. The Dutch team's attacking power was indeed too strong. The Chinese team was suppressed to the point where they had almost no power to fight back and did not provide Lu Wenbin with any free kick opportunities.
The Dutch team continued to challenge the Chinese people's nerves with shots.
Although Lu Wenbin blocked many of the Netherlands team's sure goals with his saves, he still missed sometimes.
In the 74th minute, Lu Wenbin saved Robben's first shot after breaking through the wing and cutting inside, but the ball did not go out of the baseline, but hit the post and bounced back into the penalty area.
Then, Van Persie appeared at the landing point and poked the ball into the goal.
Lu Wenbin, who was lying on the ground trying to block Robben's long-range shot, was powerless to do anything about the follow-up shot.
The Chinese team ultimately failed to create a miracle and was defeated 1-0 by the Netherlands, ending up in the semi-finals and only finishing fourth in the Brazil World Cup.
This game proved that when Lu Wenbin served as goalkeeper, he lost the threat of counterattack against the opponent and could only passively take the beating. The opponent could attack the Chinese team with all their might without restraint, and then defeat the Chinese team with just a lucky shot.
Lu Wenbin is still suitable to play as a defensive midfielder, and the goalkeeper can only play occasionally in emergencies or penalty shootouts.
But even so, this is an unprecedented highlight moment for Chinese football, making fans across the country feel extremely happy and gratified.