Before the game, even the most optimistic Chinese media just did not deny that the Chinese team could defeat Japan, but even if they win, they would probably win, and it would be a close winner. Chu Zhongtian is the key to the key, and the performance of Chu Zhongtian directly determines the result of this game. If Chu Zhongtian performs well, the Chinese team will still compete with Japan. If Chu Zhongtian performs abnormally, the game can end here.

The slightly pessimistic media simply think that this is the last game of the Chinese team in this Asian Cup. The important thing is not to win, but to play our style in the game. Losing cannot lose, and we must not die in a cowardly manner. "As long as we show the fighting spirit and fighting spirit of our players in the game and play our things, even if we lose the game, I don't think anyone will blame anything."

For Chu Zhongtian, this sentence is nonsense, a complete lie. No one can keep a normal mind after losing. "As long as we do our best, we can be ashamed of our hearts" is just an excuse for the loser to deceive himself. If he can win, who wants to lose? If he can win, who is willing to "lose the best"?

He walked onto the court with a very strong idea, and he came here to win. At Wimbledon, at Metz, and at Hoffenheim, he never played football to face the media after losing the game, saying lightly: "We did our best." If we really tried our best, we shouldn't lose. That's what Chu Zhongtian thought.

※※ Japan's midfield control is indeed stronger than the Chinese team. This can be seen from the beginning of the game that they have firmly controlled the football under their feet. The game was kicked off by the Japanese team. They were not in a hurry to attack, but they fully utilized their advantages and controlled the ball in the midfield, luring the Chinese team out bit by bit.

The game has just begun, and the formations of both sides are still a bit compact and there are not many gaps, so you need to be a little patient.

Makoto Hasegawa is the main midfielder in Wolfsburg and is also a well-deserved main player in the Japanese national team. He is the right forward in Wolfsburg, but in the national team, he plays as a midfielder and just faces against Chu Zhongtian.

These two opponents in the Bundesliga have reunited in the Asian Cup.

Both of them are familiar with them. As the most representative stars of their respective countries in the Bundesliga, they have faced each other in club games many times.

However, Makoto Hasegawa was at a disadvantage most of the time in the competition with Chu Zhongtian. The results of Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim could also reflect this. Their last match was in the 17th round of the Bundesliga this season, where Hoffenheim challenged Wolfsburg away. In this game, Chu Zhongtian and Ibissevic shone brightly throughout the game. Chu Zhongtian assisted Ibissevic twice to score, and Hoffenheim finally defeated Wolfsburg 2:1 away.

Makoto Hasegawa performed in that game in moderation, and Wolfsburg's goal had nothing to do with him.

Although he is known as "Japan's Barak" and "Asian Kaka", in terms of strength, he is still very far from Chu Zhongtian. Chu Zhongtian's talent is obviously stronger than Hasegawa Makoto.

The two did not deliberately confront each other directly in the club. Makoto Hasegawa, who has always abides by discipline, only listens to the head coach's arrangements. He does whatever the head coach asks him to do. Generally, few head coaches will let his right forward against the inside to go one-on-one with the opponent's back midfielder. But it is different in the national team. Makoto Hasegawa is a back midfielder, and Chu Zhongtian is the same. The two can often meet.

Makoto Hasegawa was holding back his energy and wanted to defeat Chu Zhongtian in the game. Wolfsburg where he was located only won once against Hoffenheim. Last season, the first match between the two sides was in the twelfth round of the league, Hoffenheim lost 1:2 to Wolfsburg. Other games were either lost or tied. This time he hoped to make up for this regret by using the huge gap between the Japanese and Chinese teams, defeat Chu Zhongtian and eliminate the Chinese team he led.

There is another person who also wants to defeat Chu Zhongtian in the game, that is, the striker Shinji Kagawa who plays for Dortmund. Although his position is not in line, this does not prevent him from regarding Chu Zhongtian as his number one rival. Also a genius, Shinji Kagawa's talent is obviously higher than that of Makoto Hasegawa. When he was a teenager, he was trained in the Barcelona youth training system in Japan, and was famous all over the country when he was very young.

He was once called "Okuhiro Wing" by the famous Japanese football commentator Yoshi Nonomura during the game, and his partner in the team was also called "Kaitaro".

In the South Africa World Cup last year, Japan was calling on Japanese coach Takeshi Okada to take Shinji Kagawa to South Africa, but for the purpose of protecting young players, Takeshi Okada did not choose him to be included in the 23-man roster. However, he ordered Shinji Kagawa to experience the players and went to South Africa with the pair to observe and experience the world's high-level events. In daily training, Shinji Kagawa also made his own contribution. He was attracted by the Dortmund club and eventually transferred to Germany for a price of 350,000 euros, becoming the seventh Japanese player in history to participate in the Bundesliga.

Shinji Kagawa started very well at Dortmund. He scored consecutive goals since the warm-up match and scored twice in the first game of the Europa League and assisted once. So far, he has scored eight goals in the Bundesliga, second only to Chu Zhongtian, who has scored nine goals.

Hasegawa Makoto and Chu Zhongtian have fought many times in the Bundesliga. As a Bundesliga recruit, Shinji Kagawa only fought with Chu Zhongtian once. The gunpowder smelled very strong in that game. Shinji Kagawa formed a gang with Chu Zhongtian in that game. In fact, it was one-sided. Chu Zhongtian forgot after the game. Shinji Kagawa still remembers how Chu Zhongtian knocked him to the ground in the game, and turned around and ran away with no sports spirit, and did not come up to pull himself up and took the initiative to show his goodwill.

In that game, Chu Zhongtian and Kagawa Shinji each completed an assist, and Chu Zhongtian assisted Van Nistrui to score, helping the team lead again. Kagawa Shinji assisted Barrios to score the first goal and helped the team equalize the score.

But overall, Shinji Kagawa was not satisfied with his performance because he faced a "Hoffenheim Team 2" who had almost changed his main players at home. He did not score, and Dortmund did not win this Mars-like game.

Although Dortmund later won a row of victories and eventually became the Winter Bundesliga champion. However, the failure to defeat Hoffenheim at his home game still made Dortmund's players feel knotted.

There is no way to take revenge in the league, so you can complete revenge in the national team. That's what Kagawa Shinji thinks.

※※※Precisely because of so many people's attention, Chu Zhongtian encountered trouble at the beginning of the game.

No matter whether he holds the ball or not, no matter where he is, there will always be many Japanese players around him, either watching from afar or simply sticking to his body to interfere.

It made him unable to organize the attack calmly.

Of course, the Japanese team knew that this kind of tight pressing defense might not be able to limit Chu Zhongtian's performance. Once he quickly passed the football, he would fail in tight pressing. This was verified when Chu Zhongtian was in Hoffenheim.

But nothing is absolutely absolute.

Chu Zhongtian's quick pass in Hoffenheim can work because the whole team plays fast football. They have played like this for three years, and the players have been familiar with this style. But what about the Chinese team? The Chinese team had no style before Gao Hongbo. Only after Gao Hongbo came did Gao Hongbo establish the style of ground coordination. But this is not the fast football style of Hoffenheim. Therefore, if Chu Zhongtian intends to use fast pass to tear open the Japanese team's defense line, he will find that his set will not work for the national team because of the lack of teammates who can cooperate with him. No matter from the perspective of the Chinese team, the players are far from Hoffenheim's players.

Therefore, as long as the Japanese team presses against Chu Zhongtian, isolate him from other Chinese players and let him fight alone, it is equivalent to being able to deal with Chu Zhongtian and the Chinese team separately. Except for Chu Zhongtian, other Chinese players are no threat to the Japanese team. As long as Chu Zhongtian can be guaranteed to play no role, the Japanese team will definitely win this game.

※※※The Japanese team has focused all their attention on Chu Zhongtian, and other Chinese players don’t care much.

This is exactly what Chu Zhongtian hopes to see.

Now when you mention the Chinese team, you will talk about how Chu Zhongtian is like. It seems that there is only one person in the Chinese team, that is Chu Zhongtian, and Chu Zhongtian is like the Chinese team. When everyone studies the Chinese team, they only need to study Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian used this mentality to attract the opponent's defensive attention to himself, and then provided opportunities for his teammates. He felt that these players under Gao Hongbo still had certain strength. As long as he could create opportunities for them, they could change the results of the game by seizing one of them.

The Japanese team tried their best to stop Chu Zhongtian, but they didn't expect that Chu Zhongtian had no intention of being the protagonist in this game. In this game, he had to do his best to assist his teammates and be a supporting role.

When his teammates passed the football, the Japanese players rushed up to defend Chu Zhongtian, trying to cut off his ball and fight back. Unexpectedly, Chu Zhongtian did not stop the ball at all. His legs spread apart, leaked the football through his crotch, and then turned around and ran.

The football missed to Deng Zhuoxiang, who was following behind him.

Deng Zhuoxiang was the core player of the Chinese team when Chu Zhongtian was away. The same was true for today's game. He was the core, while Chu Zhongtian was the cover. Then Deng Zhuoxiang passed his teammate directly, Gao Lin shot, and the football went slightly off.

The Japanese players obviously did not expect that Chu Zhongtian's game was just an auxiliary.

When they all focused on Chu Zhongtian, their defenses against other Chinese players were no longer tight.

Before the game, Chu Zhongtian told everyone that they were a whole and that they wanted to compete with the Japanese team in a team, that's what it means.

"We feel unfamiliar to the Chinese team in the game against the Japanese team..." CCTV commentator Liu Jianhong said after watching the 15-minute game. Although the Chinese team had performed well in the group stage before, today's Chinese team is particularly outstanding, so Liu Jianhong feels unfamiliar to it.

Another meaning of strangeness is that Chu Zhongtian, who was shining in the first three games, is a little low-key today. Although the football was passed to him, he has done more to ferry and redirect, with fewer fatal first passes, fewer exciting people, and has not seen long shots so far. This may be related to the Japanese team's defense against him.

Makoto Hasegawa followed him closely like a hunting dog. As soon as he got the ball, he rushed up and collided with him and interfered with his possession.

This is seen as the main reason why Chu Zhongtian performed normally.

Japanese players also think so. In their opinion, Chu Zhongtian has been curbed. The next time is their big attack!

However... When Makoto Hasegawa passed the football to Shinji Kagawa in front and planned to launch an attack, Chu Zhongtian stretched out his foot to stop the football. Then, Chu Zhongtian passed the football to the front and the Chinese team launched a counterattack. The Japanese player who had just planned to attack had to run back to defend.

Chu Zhongtian has mastered this rhythm very well. Every time when the Japanese team's offensive is about to rise, Chu Zhongtian will suddenly exert force, creating a threat to the Japanese team on the offense and forcing the opponent to return to defense. The Japanese team players always feel that the game is not smooth.

Chu Zhongtian is a metronome. He controls not only the rhythm of his own team, but also the rhythm of the opponent.

Relying on Chu Zhongtian's ability, the Chinese team and the Japanese team were in a stalemate and were not at a disadvantage.

Sometimes they even have a slight advantage. Because the Japanese team cared too much about Chu Zhongtian, it weakened their defense against other Chinese players. No matter how weak the Chinese players were and were not strong enough, they could still create many threats in the face of such ordinary defense.

So in the 37th minute, when the Chinese team scored the first record, it was natural.

Chu Zhongtian attracted the attention of three Japanese players on the wing. Hasegawa Makoto, Kagawa Shinji and Honda Keiyu surrounded Chu Zhongtian. As a result, Chu Zhongtian forced the football out of Hasegawa Makoto's crotch. He did not have a very obvious leg swing. He just poked it with his toes, and the football disappeared in front of the three people. After Deng Zhuoxiang received Chu Zhongtian's pass, there was no defensive player around him. He could adjust calmly and then launch an attack.

He divided the football to Rong Hao on the side, Rong Hao made another cross, Gao Lin, who followed up in the middle, quickly inserted it and headed the ball!

The Chinese team's series of cooperation was very simple and fast. Although Masato Kaichi made a save, it was useless. The football flew into the goal from the top of his head.

"The Chinese team actually scored first!" Foreign commentators exclaimed. Everyone was more optimistic about the Japanese team before, but they didn't expect that the Chinese team would score first... Only the Chinese team's commentator was the happiest. Liu Jianhong took out his signature commentary method: "Gao Lin! The ball went in! The ball went in! In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In, In!! The Chinese team led 1:0! This was something that many people did not expect before the game!"

The Chinese players who scored the goal hugged each other excitedly to celebrate the goal. The Japanese players seemed a little lost. They seemed unable to accept that their strong self was scored by a goal... What Shinji Kagawa didn't understand the most was that the three people around Chu Zhongtian, why could he still pass the football out... He spread his hands to Makoto Hasegawa, with a questioning expression: "Why? Why is this!"

Makoto Hasegawa didn't know how to answer his question. With his own understanding of Chu Zhongtian, even if three people surrounded Chu Zhongtian, he could find a way to spread football... It is often performed in the Bundesliga. He felt that maybe Shinji Kagawa would not ask such questions if he stayed in the Bundesliga for two more seasons.

For some people, this is a talent and cannot be explained clearly.

Despite this, Makoto Hasegawa's fist was clenched. He watched the football pass through between his legs and then concealed the ball. This was a shame for him!

The Chinese players who scored the goal seemed very excited. It is not easy for the Chinese team to score the goal of the Japanese team. They drew three goals from South Korea in the semi-finals of the East Asian Championship last year, but none of them could open the Japanese team's door.

Another reason for them to be excited is that this score allowed them to lead the Japanese team in the game, which will give them the upper hand in the competition.

While celebrating the goal, a player asked Chu Zhongtian: "What should we do next? Are we defending?"

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "Continue to attack!" Chinese players are most likely to make such a mistake. When they have the advantage, they don't know how to play. It's not safe to lead a ball, so Chu Zhongtian certainly wants more goals.

"The Chinese team scored a goal... They took the lead, Gao Lin!" The Japanese commentator's reaction was much more dull. "Chu Zhongtian was still able to pass the football under the defense of three people, which is really amazing!"

Faced with Chu Zhongtian's outstanding performance, even if he was an enemy, he had to bow down and surrender.

Although Gao Lin scored the goal and Rong Hao assisted, the camera lens firmly locked Chu Zhongtian. Commentators from various countries gave Chu Zhongtian all the praise they could think of.

What about Chu Zhongtian? I wish everyone was like this. If this happens, his teammates will get more opportunities like this.

Come on, come and defend me. If you think three people are not enough, four people, five people... eleven people!

Looking at the Chinese players cheering and celebrating the goal, many Japanese players confirmed one thing - the Chinese team they saw was indeed different from the Chinese team that was previously weak and could be bullied and collapsed when the situation was difficult.
Chapter completed!