Doha

The capital of Qatar, the largest city.

Here, the Chinese team has no good memories. They have no wins against Qatar and lose to Saudi Arabia, Iran and South Korea.

On November 9, the Chinese team came to Doha again, and this time they faced the Western Asian powerhouse Iraq.

At home, due to Gao Xiaodong's absence, the Chinese team lost to Iraq 0:1.

Currently, the Chinese team, Iraq and Jordan have three wins and one loss.

There is no suspense in this round of game against Singapore, and the three-pointers were almost 100%.

In this way, the showdown between Iraq and China became the key battle for whom advances from the group.

Due to the civil war in Iraq, Iraq had to play against the Chinese team in Doha, a neutral country in Qatar. Before the game, this was seen as weakening Iraq's advantage, but it turned out that this was just a beautiful fantasy of the Chinese.

Previously, the Chinese team sent staff to Doha and booked the training ground for Arabi Stadium for daily training. However, after the team arrived, the stadium suddenly notified the Chinese team that they could not use Arabi Stadium. Iraqi team received the approval of the Qatar Football Association and obtained the right to use this training ground.

The Chinese team protested ineffectively and had to change the training at the Technical Committee Stadium. The Technical Committee Stadium was further away from the Sheraton Hotel where the Chinese Football Team was staying, and the quality of the turf was also poor, which had a certain negative impact on the Chinese team's training.

The Chinese team is not worried about the unfair treatment in the training ground. What they are worried about is the referee issue. The AFC is basically controlled by West Asians. Not to mention the Chinese team, even Japan and South Korea are often treated unfairly.

If the referee blew the home whistle, the Chinese team will be very dangerous in this game.

Gao Xiaodong's return will definitely greatly improve the strength of the Chinese team, but it is hard to say whether it can offset the referee's unfair punishment.

The Chinese are not suffering from persecution. Although the Chinese team has poor performance, they are too frustrated, but they have received unfair treatment from referees in key games.

At 22:15 on November 11, the fourth round of the Group A of the Brazilian World Cup Asian Qualifiers kicked off, and the Chinese team challenged Iraq at the away game Doha Al-Arabi Stadium.

Iraq's starting lineup was basically copied from the last round of Shenzhen's away victory over the Chinese team: 12-Kasder; 19-Hashim, 15-Hussein, 14-Shakir, 16-Sayed; 4-Munier, 20-Khalid; 17-Abduzahair, 5-Akram, 9-Karim; 10-Eunis.

The starter of the Chinese team is replaced by many people compared to the home game against Iraq, which is very similar to that against Jordan, and only the central defender Li Feng was replaced by Du Wei.

Goalkeeper 22-Yang Zhi; the four defenders are 3-Sun Xiang, 4-Du Wei, 6-Feng Xiao, 13-Liu Jian; the fourth midfielder: 7-Zhao Xu, 16-Huang Bowen, 23-Zheng Hua, 10-Gao Xiaodong; the forwards: 11-Qu Bo, 9-Yang Xu.

The referee of this game, Green, is from Australia and is only 31 years old.

Green only became an international referee five years ago. In the 2009 Asian Cup qualifiers, the Hong Kong team's home game against Japan was Green's first international A-level event.

Green's law enforcement game is relatively loose. In his 57 games of law enforcement, Green showed a total of 166 yellow cards, including 68 home teams and 98 away teams; 6 red cards were shown, all of which were given to the away team; 10 penalty kicks were awarded, 6 to the home team and 4 away teams.

Judging from this data, Green's law enforcement is fair and is not particularly unfriendly to the visiting team.

The first one to kick off the ball was the visiting team China.

Yang Xu fell down and Qu Bo passed back to Gao Xiaodong, and the Iraqi player quickly overwhelmed the middle circle to press.

Before the game, Iraqi players and coaches said that they would not ask for a single point, but they must score three points, and the Iraqi team will never conservatively seek a sum.

Judging from the momentum of Iraq at the beginning, they do hope to win the Chinese team in Doha and take the initiative to qualify.

Facing the fierce pressing of forward Younis, Gao Xiaodong did not pass back. When Younis rushed to him less than three meters, Gao Xiaodong suddenly dunked the ball horizontally.

Yunis didn't expect Gao Xiaodong to not pass back. His speed did not decrease and he was preparing to directly press the central defender of the Chinese team. Gao Xiaodong's dunk directly knocked Yunis so hard that he almost fell to the ground.

Iraq has many players pressing through the middle line. Just as Yunis was drifted past, Karim rushed over again.

Gao Xiaodong made a move to pass the ball horizontally, then dunked the ball again and shook Karim over again.

Gao Xiaodong took advantage of the Iraqi players' misjudgment and used two identical movements to pass the pressing of the two players. This wonderful performance made the Chinese fans of Wanli Expedition very excited. They all applauded and shouted: Gao Xiaodong did a beautiful job!

However, the commentator of China, He Hui, did not agree with Gao Xiaodong's success in his half. "Xiaodong's success is very beautiful, but there is no need. Passing through cannot create a threat. If you are intercepted, the defense line will be in danger."

What He Hui said certainly makes sense, but he doesn't understand Gao Xiaodong's thoughts.

Gao Xiaodong knew that the key to the Chinese team was good at losing streaks. He hoped to use his actions to boost the confidence of his teammates and make a good start for the game, so he was out of the game at the beginning.

This is also because Gao Xiaodong is very skilled and brave. He is not worried that these second-rate players in Iraq can cut off his ball. Even if they cut off, the Chinese team will be in three lines and he can return to defense. Iraq will not be able to create much threat.

Gao Xiaodong's two passes really inspired the players of the Chinese team. Seeing Gao Xiaodong dribbling the ball over the middle circle, the players of the Chinese team quickly stepped forward and responded to Gao Xiaodong.

Iraq's front pressure was blocked. Seeing Gao Xiaodong crossing the middle circle, he immediately moved closer to Gao Xiaodong and grabbed Gao Xiaodong from three sides.

At this moment, Zheng Hua from the middle lane also inserted. Gao Xiaodong passed it back to him and then ran the position was a safe choice, but Gao Xiaodong did not pass it to Zheng Hua, but instead divided the ball into the gap between the people and passed it to Qu Bo.

This is a very unexpected pass. The pass line is too small and it is easy to be cut off, but as long as it passes over, it is a good ball, because the wing forward is going to grab Gao Xiaodong.

After Qu Bo got the ball, he quickly walked along the side road to the bottom line.

Iraqi bald left-back Abbas was suspended due to a red card, and the substitute full-back Hashem was replaced.

Qu Bola went to the right to receive the ball because he felt that Iraq's left-back might be Iraq's weak link.

Hashem was forced to accept a single challenge from his opponent's striker just now before he entered the game, which made Hashem a little nervous.

Seeing that Qu Bo was at a very fast speed, Hashem quickly retreated to prevent Qu Bo from using his speed to force himself to eat.
Chapter completed!