Chapter 1 A Last-Minute Goal

Qatar never expected that after leading by two goals in the first half, they would be caught up by the Chinese team in the second half…

A draw was not very meaningful for them. In an earlier game, Uzbekistan defeated Kuwait 2-1, securing their own advancement from the group while sending Kuwait home early.

If Qatar ultimately drew with the Chinese team, giving China four points and themselves only one, then in the final round of group matches, China only needed to avoid losing to Uzbekistan to advance from the group, regardless of the outcome of Qatar's match against Kuwait. Qatar, along with their fellow West Asian brothers in Kuwait, would be eliminated.

This was, of course, unacceptable to Qatar.

So after the game restarted, they launched a fierce offensive against the Chinese goal, hoping to score a decisive goal in the final moments.

But those who knew Zhou Yi well knew that this situation was exactly what he liked most!

In the eighty-seventh minute, Zhou Yi made a long pass from the backfield, accurately finding Hao Junmin. The latter took the ball and ran wildly, charging towards the Qatar goal. Then, after entering the penalty area and attracting almost all of Qatar's defenders, he passed the ball horizontally.

Deng Zhuoxiang, cutting inside from the other wing, was completely unmarked, and in front of him, most of the goal was wide open!

He faced the ball and swept it sideways, sending the ball rolling into the Qatar goal…

An undisputed and impeccable counterattack, a textbook classic!

The referee, Kim Dong-jin, could only point to the center circle, indicating that the goal was valid!

"Ahhh! Goal! Goal! A last-minute goal! This is a last-minute goal! In the eighty-seventh minute, Deng Zhuoxiang's goal sealed the victory against Qatar!!" Liu Hong roared excitedly. Although it was already two in the morning, he didn't scare anyone, because at this time, fans in China were shouting even louder than him.

Everyone knew what this victory meant—they would secure a spot in the knockout stage ahead of time!

Four years ago, in 2007, when the Chinese team was eliminated from the Asian Cup group stage, countless fans smashed their teacups and TVs, vowing never to watch the national team's games again. From being runners-up in the 2004 Asian Cup to failing to advance from the group stage in 2007, this huge gap was indeed unacceptable to many…

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Deng Zhuoxiang ran wildly towards the coaching staff, celebrating the goal with his teammates and coaches who were waiting there. His hair was wet and stuck to his forehead, and his face was filled with an excited smile.

Behind him were the Qatari players, slumped on the ground, stunned.

Zhou Yi also ran with his teammates to the coaching staff to join in the celebration.

He could hear the boos and curses from the Qatari fans in the stands. He raised his fist towards the stands with the loudest boos, showing off his triumph.

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In the final moments, the trailing Qatar team launched a desperate counterattack, with as many as six minutes of injury time.

But the Chinese team still held on to their one-goal lead. When the South Korean referee Kim Dong-jin blew the whistle to end the game, the Chinese substitutes who had been waiting on the sidelines screamed and rushed onto the field, celebrating their elimination of the host team on Qatar's home turf.

Liu Hong and every Chinese viewer in front of the TV felt a sense of pride and satisfaction.

Not only because this game was a come-from-behind victory, but also because Qatar's various off-the-field tactics during the game made them feel extremely uncomfortable.

If this had been in the past, after falling behind by two goals in the first half and encountering unfair treatment, the Chinese team might have given up, because losing the game like that would have truly been due to factors beyond their control.

But this time, everyone saw a team that vowed not to give up.

This was probably what made all the fans in front of the TV the happiest. If a game was just about winning, it would only be worth three points. But if this victory had more meaning, then the significance would be very different.

Through this game, the Chinese team not only won three points and secured a spot in the knockout stage ahead of time, but also demonstrated a completely different mental outlook.

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Because both the Chinese team and Uzbekistan won their two games, the two teams would advance hand in hand. In the eyes of some, the Chinese team's last game against Uzbekistan was not that important.

Being able to advance from the group stage was already good enough, so why think about more?

But Zhou Yi didn't see it that way.

He still wanted to fight for the top spot in the group. He wasn't doing this to avoid Japan, because it was still hard to say where Japan would end up in their group.

It was simply out of the thought that "if you can get first place in the group, why settle for second?"

Japan defeated Syria 2-1 in their second group game, and were tied with Jordan with four points and the same goal difference, so it was hard to say where Japan would end up.

In fact, Uzbekistan had the same idea: they wanted to fight for first place in the group because they didn't want to face Japan, who might become the first-place team in their group.

As the most successful team in Asian Cup history, Japan still had a lot of influence in Asian football and was an opponent that no one wanted to face.

Therefore, the third round of group matches between the Chinese team and Uzbekistan was actually very intense.

Yu Hai, who replaced Gao Lin as the starting forward in this game, received a pass from Zhou Yi in the sixth minute and scored the first goal for the Chinese team.

However, in the thirtieth minute, Uzbekistan's Akhmedov equalized the score for his team.

Just one minute into the second half, Heinrich scored again for Uzbekistan, taking a 2-1 lead.

Ten minutes later, in the fifty-sixth minute, the Chinese team won a free kick on the right side of the penalty area. Hao Junmin took the free kick, and the ball went around the wall and straight into the far corner. The Uzbek goalkeeper could only watch the ball fly into the goal.

The Chinese team tied the score!

After that, the two sides fell into a stalemate.

But this score was favorable to the Chinese team. If the 2-2 score held until the end, and the two sides drew, then with both teams having seven points, this year's Asian Cup regulations stated that first, the head-to-head record between the two teams with the same points would be compared. Since the two teams drew, this could not be compared.

Second, the goal difference between the teams in their head-to-head match would be considered. Because of the draw, the two teams were tied on this item as well.

Third, the number of goals scored by the teams in their head-to-head match would be considered. Both teams scored two goals, so it was still a draw, and it was difficult to determine the winner.

The fourth step was to look at the total goal difference of the teams with the same points in the group stage. In this item, the Chinese team had an advantage, and this advantage came from Zhou Yi's persistent efforts after the Chinese team took a two-goal lead against Kuwait in the first group game. In that game alone, the Chinese team had four goals difference. The 3-2 victory over Qatar gave the Chinese team another goal difference, for a total of five. And what about Uzbekistan? They defeated Qatar 2-0 in the first game, with a goal difference of two, and in the second game, they only defeated Kuwait 2-1, for a total of three goals difference. They were two goals behind the Chinese team in goal difference.

Unless they beat the Chinese team in this game, they would not be able to get first place in the group no matter what.

The Chinese team had much more room for tactical choices.

When the situation was deadlocked, they were not in a hurry to attack, but patiently maneuvered with Uzbekistan.

If Uzbekistan was unwilling to settle for a draw and wanted to strengthen their attack to win the game, then Zhou Yi could directly make a long pass from the backfield, threatening their goal.

Just like the last goal that Qatar lost in the final moments of their previous game.

But Uzbekistan didn't have much of a choice. If they didn't attack and didn't score, a draw would mean second place in the group. Pressing forward to attack could, of course, lead to the Chinese team scoring again and losing the game, but losing the game would also mean second place in the group, so a draw and a loss meant nothing to Uzbekistan. They only needed a victory.

If they attacked with all their strength, they might still have a chance to score a goal and eventually defeat the Chinese team, turning the tables and winning.

So this was not a difficult multiple-choice question.

In the time that followed, the Chinese team was under enormous pressure, but at the same time, this pressure also contained opportunities.

It was just that the Chinese team did not seize them… Of course, Uzbekistan did not score either.

In the end, the two teams shook hands and made peace with a score of 2-2.

The Chinese team took first place in the group thanks to their goal difference, while Uzbekistan could only settle for second place.

The next day, the final rankings of Group B were also determined.

Japan evaluated their last game and won a 5-0 victory over Saudi Arabia, similarly relying on goal difference to squeeze out Jordan and become first in Group B.

In this way, if the Chinese team and the Japanese team were to meet, it would really only be in the final—just as Zhou Yi had predicted.

Uzbekistan was unlucky enough to face the powerful Japan in the first round of the knockout stage.

And the Chinese team's opponent was Jordan.

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Being able to advance from the group stage naturally made Chinese fans very happy.

However, there were also many people who felt that the Chinese team should have advanced from the group stage anyway, given their strength, and that it was not worth celebrating or being happy about.

The two sides even argued online.

Of course, this had nothing to do with the Chinese team. Most people were already very satisfied with the Chinese team's performance in this Asian Cup.

Before the competition, the talk of the Asian third-rate teams caused a lot of dissatisfaction, but in fact, the Chinese team performed quite satisfactorily, so everyone didn't care much about what the Asian third-rate teams were saying. No matter what they say, as long as we can win, that's all that matters. Victory is the only truth!