host must win

Chapter 19

The Chinese team has a bright future, not only the team has noticed, but also the all-knowing fans are impossible to miss.

At this time, the Chinese fans hadn't experienced so many beatings later, and they seemed very idealistic in many cases.Especially in this World Cup, the trend of the Chinese team is advancing on the trajectory everyone expected: win Costa Rica, lose Brazil, then according to the progress of the script, the next step is to draw with Turkey.

One win, one draw and one loss, get 4 points, and then advance to the knockout round, everything is planned and under control!
Even, many fans are already thinking about the knockout.

In this World Cup, the knockout stage will be divided into upper and lower halves, but the upper half is not the four groups of ABCD, but the four groups of ACFH, and the lower half is the four groups of BDEG.Moreover, the matchup method is Group A against Group F, Group C against Group H; Group B against Group E, and Group D against Group G.

If the Chinese team finally advances to the knockout round as the second in Group C, then their opponent will be the first in Group H.

The four teams in Group H are hosts Japan, Belgium, Russia and Tunisia.These four teams are not considered strong teams. In the FIFA points ranking before the start of the World Cup, Belgium, the strongest, only ranked 23rd, one place lower than Turkey; followed by 28th. Russia, Tunisia at 31 and Japan at 32.

If the Chinese team can beat the 29th-placed Costa Rica and draw with the 22nd-placed Turkey, then why can’t the Chinese team, after reaching the knockout stage, beat one of these four teams?

If the Chinese team can break into the quarter-finals, their opponents in the quarter-finals will be the winners between the second in Group A and the first in Group F.

Currently, dark horse Senegal ranks second in Group A, ranking 42nd in the world; Sweden ranks first in Group F, ranking 19th in the world.For the Chinese team, they are still not invincible opponents.

And if they can pass this hurdle again, then the Chinese team will be really awesome and directly advance to the semi-finals!
Of course, the group stage is only halfway through, and everything is still variable.

Moreover, the premise of everything is that the Chinese team can draw or even defeat Turkey and advance to the knockout round.

Although all this is still far away, it cannot stop the fans from dreaming, after all, dreams are innocent.

………………

For the other three teams in Group C, the one with the greatest hope of advancing is indeed the Chinese team.

This is not only because of their current advantage in points, they also have an advantage in terms of schedule.

The match between the Chinese team and Brazil took place at 6:8 pm on June 8, local time in South Korea, while the match between Costa Rica and Turkey took place at 6 pm on June 9.In other words, the Chinese team will have nearly one more day of rest than Turkey.

And Costa Rica has the worst prospect of promotion. Not only do they have one less rest time than the Chinese team, but their opponent in the final round is still the mighty Brazil.Moreover, they are also at a disadvantage in their mutual record with the Chinese team.

According to the World Cup promotion rules, first compare the points, compare the goal difference when the points are the same, then go to the number of goals scored, and then the mutual record.

To put it simply, the current promotion prospects of these three teams are as follows: the Chinese team must advance if they win, and there is a high probability of advancing if they draw; Turkey only needs Brazil to beat or draw with Costa Rica while defeating China; If you want to advance, not only do you need to defeat the mighty Brazil, but you also have to count on the Chinese team to draw with Turkey, or the Chinese team loses to Turkey, but you beat Brazil.

………………

With the relatively bright prospects of the Chinese team qualifying, countless fans began to gather in Seoul.

As the opening match of the Korea-Japan World Cup, the capacity of the Seoul World Cup Stadium is much larger than that of the Chinese team's previous two games, and it can accommodate more fans to watch the match.

Gwangju World Cup Stadium and Jeju World Cup Stadium can only accommodate more than 2000 fans to enter and watch the game, but Seoul World Cup Stadium can accommodate more than 4000 fans, which is the second most among the ten stadiums in South Korea, slightly less than the capacity Daegu World Cup Stadium with 20 fans.Even with the 7 stadiums used throughout the World Cup, the Seoul World Cup Stadium can rank in the top three, and the Yokohama Stadium has the largest capacity of [-] people.

During the group stage, not many people from countries like Turkey came to the far east to watch the football, but more local fans from Japan and South Korea.Another exception is China. China, which is not far from Japan and South Korea, has too many fans flocking to Japan and South Korea to watch football.If it is not impossible to buy tickets, it would not be a problem for Chinese fans to completely fill the stadium.

According to media estimates, there will be at least 4 Chinese fans watching the match between the Chinese team and Turkey, which is about the right to qualify. In addition, there are estimated to be [-] to [-] local Korean fans. It's not bad to have thousands of fans in the stadium.

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When Chinese fans flocked to Seoul from all over the country, as well as Japan and South Korea, the Chinese team has been conducting closed training in their assigned training base. Except for the opening hours stipulated by FIFA, Milu's support for the Chinese team The training content is completely confidential, and players are required not to disclose the training situation to the outside world.

But judging from the performance of the players after training, everyone seems very confident.This can't help but make all the media who pay attention to the Chinese team very curious about what kind of training Milu has given the Chinese team to give the players such confidence.

It is a pity that all players, including the staff, have kept this secret.Everyone can only continue to wait, until the game starts, everything will be clear.

Time passed quickly, and the group stage entered the third round on June 6.

韩国当地时间6月11日下午3点半，A组第三轮两场比赛率先开战。结果此前1平1负的卫冕冠军法国队，再次让人瞠目结舌的以0:2的比分输给丹麦队。

With 3 matches, 1 draw, 2 losses, and 0 goals, the French team became the worst defending champion in the 72-year history of the World Cup, while Denmark and Senegal broke into the top [-] together!
At 2:0 p.m. on the same day, the group stage of Group E also ushered in the finale.The German team beat Cameroon 2:1, 3 wins and 0 tie to secure the first place in the group; Ireland beat Saudi Arabia 3:12, and got another promotion spot, while Saudi Arabia scored [-] eggs in [-] games, and has already secured the World Cup The position of the worst team.

On the 12th, the four games of Group B and Group F were played in the afternoon and evening respectively. As a result, in the two games of Group F, Sweden drew 1:1 with Argentina, Nigeria drew 0:0 with England, and two European teams Join hands to advance. In Group B, Spain narrowly beat South Africa 3:2, scoring 3 points in all 9 games; Paraguay won Slovenia 3:1, with the same points and 0 goal difference, with 1 goal. The advantage overwhelmed South Africa and advanced to the top sixteen.

At this point, the eyes of the world have focused on the next few games on the next match day, among which is the focus match between the Chinese team and Turkey.

(End of this chapter)