The 2026 World Cup Asian Round of 18 continues, the 2026 World Cup will carry out the reform of expansion, and the number of qualifying places in the Asian zone will increase to 8.5 accordingly, and Asia's second-rate teams Iraq, Uzbekistan, U.A.E. and other teams are eyeing the promotion places. At 20 o'clock on the evening of September 10, Beijing time, the second round of the round of 18 will usher in a key battle, the Chinese men's football team will sit at the home of Dalian Barracuda Bay Stadium to face Saudi Arabia, due to copyright and poor national football results, CCTV's CCTV5 sports channel will not broadcast this blockbuster matchup.
The Saudi team is a first-class team in Asia, currently ranked 56th in the world and 7th in Asia, and the team is worth 29.33 million euros. Saudi Arabia won the Asian Cup three times at the end of the last century, has participated in six World Cup finals in its history, and at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Saudi Arabia defeated eventual champions Argentina in the first round of the group stage. The Saudi league introduced Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Neymar and other superstars after the Qatar World Cup, thus opening the Middle East oil gold dollar football, and the world's eyes are focused on the Saudi league.
However, the Saudi team wanted to go further after the World Cup, so they invited the coach of the European Cup champion, Mancini, but Mancini has not brought qualitative changes to the Saudi team since taking office, but the Saudi team has been repeatedly upset by weak teams after Mancini took over. In the group stage of the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia was forced to draw by Thailand, and in the round of 36 of the Asian region of the World Preliminary Championship, Saudi Arabia was forced to draw by Tajikistan, and in the final round, they also lost to Jordan at home, resulting in a drop in the rankings, thus losing the status of the second team in the round of 18.
In the first round of the round of 18, the Saudi team was forced to draw at home by the Southeast Asian fish belly team Indonesia, which made Mancini's pressure increase sharply, Mancini said in an interview that the Saudi league poured into many high-level foreign aids, which made the playing time of Saudi local players compressed, so the state of Saudi players was not adjusted to the best, which led to the decline in the overall record of the Saudi team, in other words, the reason for the loss of the game is that the player is not the responsibility of the coach, so it caused the dissatisfaction of the Saudi players, and Mancini's control of the Saudi dressing room is weakening.
Compared with Saudi Arabia, the level of Chinese men's football has declined more obviously, since the 2002 World Cup, the Chinese men's football team has not participated in the World Series for 22 years, the level of the team has not only not increased, but has fallen to the third-rate level of Asia, with Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian fish belly. In the first round of the round of 18, the Chinese men's football team was humiliated by Japan by 7 goals away, setting a record for the largest defeat in the world preliminary round.
The pressure of head coach Ivankovic is huge, the players and the outside world have doubts about Ivankovic's lineup in the first round, facing a strong Saudi team, Ivankovic will definitely change the formation, will not make the mistake against Japan, change tactics, focus on defensive counterattacks, after solid defense, use Wu Lei's speed to counterattack and find opportunities. The national football team and the Saudi Arabian team have a total of 19 times, and the national football team has won 6 wins, 5 draws and 8 losses.
In the last World Preliminary Tournament in the Asian Top 12, the national football team played home and away against Saudi Arabia with a score of 1-1 and 2-3, and now both teams are in a trough, the national football team has the advantage of home field, if it can defeat Saudi Arabia 1-0, it will be equivalent to creating a miracle, the last time the national football team was able to defeat the Saudi Arabian team was back in the 2015 Asian Cup group stage, when the national football team defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0. Another highlight of the match was the battle between two big coaches, Ivankovic and Roberto Mancini.