On November 1, in the final round of the second stage (Group B) of the women's football qualifiers for the Paris Olympic Games, the Chinese women's football team will usher in a "life-and-death battle" with the South Korean team in Xiamen. If the Chinese women's football team wants to continue its hopes of qualifying for the Paris Olympics, it must do its best to win, and at the same time, it also needs luck.
According to the rules of the competition, only the first group and the second group with the best result among the three groups will participate in the third stage of the Olympic preliminary competition. After the first two rounds of Group B, the South Korean team and the North Korean team are both 1 win and 1 draw with 4 points, ranking the top two in the group, the Chinese team is third with 1 win and 1 loss and 3 points, and the Thai team is at the bottom of the group after two consecutive defeats.
Due to the huge difference in the strength of the "fish belly" Thai team and the North Korean team, the North Korean team will most likely win the final round, with 7 points. In view of this, the Chinese women's football team is left with only one way to defeat the South Korean team and strive to become the second place in the group with the best results.
It will not be easy to beat South Korea. The Chinese women's football team has not found the best state in this Olympic preliminaries, due to the absence of the main player Wang Shuang due to injury, coupled with the fever of the two main players, the head coach of the Chinese team Shui Qingxia can only continue to try the lineup in the first two games, but the effect is not ideal. The team obviously lacked tacit understanding and cooperation on the field, and the problem of weak forwards was prominent, losing 1:2 to the North Korean team in the first game, and only 3:0 defeating the weak Thai team in the second game.
South Korea were undoubtedly the better side, showing their attacking firepower in a 10-1 thrashing of Thailand in the opening game, before holding North Korea to a 0-0 draw with a tenacious defence. The team's 16-year-old naturalized player Cathy Fell has been in impressive form and has scored three goals.
In this out-and-out crucial battle, the Chinese team, which has the home advantage, must show a better performance than the previous two. Shui Qingxia said: "The more important thing is to adjust the mentality, and we should play more openly." In our home stadium, we have to enjoy the power of the fans and solve the details as much as possible. ”
In addition, even if they beat South Korea, it is highly likely that the Chinese women's football team, which has six points, will need to compare points and goal difference with the runners-up of the other two groups. According to the current points situation, with Australia in Group A and Japan in Group C basically locked in the first place in the group, Uzbekistan in Group C may become the biggest competitor of the Chinese team to advance.
Uzbekistan will face India, the weakest team in the group, in the final round, and a successful win will also take six points. At present, the Chinese team has 3 more goal difference than the Uzbekistan team, but the Uzbek team will kick off later than the Chinese women's football team, and they are fully qualified to strive for more goal difference according to the score of the Chinese team. It can be said that the fate is not entirely in the hands of the Chinese team itself.
For the Chinese women's football team, what can be done is to win the game with as many goal difference as possible in order to strive for a greater chance of victory.
In recent years, the Chinese women's football team and the South Korean team have staged classic duels many times. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics qualifying play-offs and the 2022 Women's Asian Cup final, the Chinese women's football team defeated the South Korean team in a desperate situation and won a heart-wrenching victory.
This time, the struggling Chinese women's football team will face the challenge of the South Korean team again. Looking forward to the "sonorous rose" that has created countless miracles and inspired thousands of Chinese people, it can usher in a strong rebound and fight for a precious victory.
Source | Xinhua
Editor-in-charge | Li Geli
Editor: Li Geli
Source: Xinhua News Agency