After the quarter-finals were over, the organizing committee also conducted the semi-final draw.
The draw for the semi-finals resulted in two teams from Liaoning Province, Shenyang Huimin Middle School and Dalian No. 48 Middle School, playing a derby within the same province, while Meijiang Middle School would face the host Tianjin No. 54 Middle School.
The two Liaoning teams originally thought that they would meet in the finals and play a provincial derby in the finals. But they didn't expect that the draw would be bad and they would play a provincial derby in the semifinals.
Meijiang Middle School had no objection to the draw. Apart from its status as the host, Tianjin No. 54 Middle School was inferior to Shenyang Huimin Middle School and Dalian No. 48 Middle School in strength.
It can be said that Meijiang Middle School drew a good lot.
Of course, this is only relative to the other two teams.
Judging from the surface strength, Meijiang Middle School itself is the weakest among the four teams in the semi-finals. Making it to the semi-finals is already an absolute dark horse miracle.
People from Tianjin No. 54 Middle School also believed that drawing Meijiang Middle School in the semi-finals was also a good draw, which was better than facing the two Liaoning teams.
Regardless of whether the draw is good or bad, the matchup schedule has been released, so let's just focus on preparing for the semi-finals.
On the morning of August 23, the semi-final/provincial derby between Shenyang Huimin Middle School in Liaoning Province and Dalian No. 48 Middle School officially began.
Both teams are from Liaoning, a province with strong football heritage. Both teams have won national championships and are strong teams with almost the same strength.
Within 90 minutes, the two sides were tied 2-2 and had to go into overtime.
Then, due to physical reasons, both sides played until the end of the 120-minute overtime without either side scoring a goal to defeat the other, and the score remained 2-2, with no winner determined.
In the end, both sides had to go into a penalty shootout, and Dalian No. 48 Middle School had the last laugh in the penalty shootout.
They defeated Shenyang Huimin Middle School 4-3 in a penalty shootout and entered the final.
After the first semi-final was over, at around 7pm in the evening, the second semi-final between Guizhou Province Meijiang Middle School and Tianjin No. 54 Middle School was about to begin.
When Lu Wenbin and others walked into the Tianjin Olympic Center Football Stadium, they were shocked by the tens of thousands of spectators in the stands.
Although Meijiang Middle School also played against Guangzhou No. 5 Middle School at the Olympic Sports Center in the previous quarter-finals, that game had no appeal to local citizens of Tianjin. There were only a few thousand or two thousand people in the stands, which was incomparable to the scale of this game, which was estimated to be 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Moreover, these spectators are not just here to watch the fun.
There was a group of student cheerleaders who were probably organized by Tianjin No. 54 Middle School to cheer for the school team. There were about one to two thousand people, with trumpets, gongs and drums, banners, etc., cheering for Tianjin No. 54 Middle School in the stands.
There were also some cheerleaders who were probably the family members and relatives of the school team members. They were fully equipped and were cheering for the players of Tianjin No. 54 Middle School in the stands.
Other local fans who came to watch the game based on publicity naturally also supported the Tianjin team.
As for Meijiang Middle School, there were only some Guizhou compatriots who worked and lived in Tianjin supporting them. Moreover, there were definitely not many people, anyway, Lu Wenbin and others did not see them.
After warming up and explaining the tactics, at 19:30, with the referee's whistle, the semi-final between Guizhou Meijiang Middle School and Tianjin No. 54 Middle School officially began.
In this game, after learning from the lesson of Guangzhou No. 5 Middle School's defeat to Meijiang Middle School in the quarter-finals, Tianjin No. 54 Middle School chose to focus on defense first, trying not to let Lu Wenbin score a goal, and launched a defensive counterattack.
Moreover, they sent two players from Tianjin Teda Youth Team to closely guard Lu Wenbin, and there were others to assist in defense and restrict Lu Wenbin at any time.
Although Lu Wenbin's personal strength is definitely stronger than all of them, the opponent has several people defending him, and their strength is not weak. Whether Lu Wenbin breaks through or passes the ball, his success rate is not high.
The result of both teams playing defensive counterattacks was that the scene became very ugly.
20 minutes into the game, neither side had a single shot on target, with the ball mostly being passed back and forth between the respective midfield and backfields. Some spectators were so bored that they were reading novels on their phones in the stands instead of watching the game.
Of course, the scene was ugly, but the players on both sides were very nervous.
Tianjin No. 54 Middle School was afraid of Lu Wenbin's personal breakthroughs and shots, and Meijiang Middle School was also afraid of the opponent's counterattack, so no one dared to be careless.
Both sides guarded the backcourt carefully and did not dare to press forward aggressively.
However, after a stalemate of 20 minutes, Meijiang Middle School took the lead in making adjustments.
Taking advantage of an opportunity to serve a sideline ball, Lu Wenbin ran to the sidelines and whispered a few words to coach Zhang Minghai. Then Meijiang Middle School changed its tactics and began to attack as a whole, instead of Lu Wenbin fighting alone in the frontcourt.
If the two teams really keep playing defensive counterattacks and drag the 0-0 score into a penalty shootout, Meijiang Middle School will have little chance of winning.
Except for Lu Wenbin, the shooting skills of other players of Meijiang Middle School are mostly not as good as those of Tianjin No. 54 Middle School, and the goalkeeper level is also far behind.
Therefore, Meijiang Middle School must attack and try to resolve the battle within 90 minutes, or at the latest within 120 minutes. If it is dragged to a penalty shootout, Meijiang Middle School will definitely lose more than it wins.
However, in order to prevent a counterattack by the Tianjin team, the so-called offense of Meijiang Middle School only consisted of Nie Yingkun, Xiang Youming and Han Dapeng in the midfield to cooperate with Lu Wenbin. The other players in the back line only moved their positions slightly forward but did not even cross the center line.
On the offense, there were only three or four people including Lu Wenbin facing the entire defense line of Tianjin No. 54 Middle School.
This is just like when other teams press forward and face the entire defense line of Meijiang Middle School. Even if Lu Wenbin has more outstanding personal abilities, he cannot break through everyone and score.
As for the passed balls, Han Dapeng and others were unable to seize them. Some were intercepted or destroyed by the opponents, and some shooting opportunities failed to score goals.
On one occasion, Lu Wenbin was double-teamed by three opponents and used a spike and a fried meatball to create a very small angle and made a quick pass.
As a result, Xiang Youming's shot after receiving the ball in the penalty area was too straight and went directly into the arms of the opponent's goalkeeper, missing a good chance to score.
45 minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half of the game, and the score between the two sides was still 0-0.
Meijiang Middle School's aggressive attack failed to score a goal, and Tianjin No. 54 Middle School's occasional counterattacks also failed to break Meijiang Middle School's goal.
Both sides entered the halftime break with a score of 0-0.
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