Chapter 1 The Lucky Hotel

When Zhou Yi passed the football to the wing, many people didn't realize who he was passing to. It wasn't until they saw Hao Junmin appear in their line of sight.

The winger stopped Zhou Yi's pass with his foot, then dribbled the ball forward, heading toward the Iraqi goal.

At this moment, Iraq only had two center backs in their own half, besides the goalkeeper.

Hao Junmin used his skill to shake off the first Iraqi player who came to challenge him, and then he had already reached the edge of the Iraqi penalty area.

Next, he decisively took a shot!

The football made contact with the second Iraqi player who came to block his shot, causing a slight deflection. The change in direction wasn't significant, but it was just enough to bypass the Iraqi goalkeeper's fingertips and then skim the inside of the far post before flying into the goal!

"Great shot! Great shot!!! Hao Junmin! China leads 1-0 on the road!" Liu Hong shouted excitedly, pumping his fist in the air. "This is great news!"

Hao Junmin was also very excited. After scoring, he ran towards the bottom of the stands, waving to the Chinese fans, earning cheers and applause from them.

Then he turned around, and Zhou Yi and the others had already run over.

They hugged each other tightly.

The Iraqi players provided the perfect backdrop for their celebration.

The commentator for Qatar TV was stunned and didn't immediately report on the match.

It was unexpected that in a match where Iraq had the advantage, China scored first…

But this unexpected turn was just an illusion of the Qatari commentator. In fact, with Iraq's playing style, it was only a matter of time before they conceded a goal…

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On the sidelines, Gao Hongbo was also very happy and celebrated the goal with his assistants, exchanging high-fives.

This goal was a typical counterattack scored by the Chinese team. Only two people were involved in the entire process: Zhou Yi, who passed the ball, and Hao Junmin, who scored.

What did this show?

It showed that his arrangement was correct: entrusting the decision of whether to counterattack to Zhou Yi, and letting Hao Junmin be ready to launch a counterattack in the front.

Defensive counterattacks don't require a lot of troops, so there's no need to worry about being counterattacked by the opponent after going up to attack.

It relied on individual ability.

Although Hao Junmin didn't get much playing time in Germany and returned to China, he had at least trained in a Bundesliga club for one and a half seasons. In terms of football philosophy and awareness, he was currently the closest to Zhou Yi in the national team.

So since they couldn't rely too much on Zhou Yi, they could appropriately increase Hao Junmin's tasks.

Judging from this goal, the implementation of this idea was effective.

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After China scored, they returned to their defensive counterattack state, not trying to score another goal just because they had scored one. After all, this was Iraq's home field, and who knew what tricks the West Asians would pull on their own turf.

So China was cautious.

After scoring, they retreated and continued to play as they had before, as if they hadn't scored at all, still wanting to get a draw on the road.

But Iraq knew that the score was different now, and the following game would be different too!

They had no choice now but to continue to attack the Chinese goal fiercely, completely ignoring the gaps behind them. If China seized the opportunity to score another goal… then they would be done for. But if they were afraid of this and didn't dare to attack, they would be equally doomed!

For the two teams in the game, each was an opponent that must be defeated. If Iraq wanted to turn the tables, they had to defeat China at home, just like China wanted to defeat Iraq at home.

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Iraq's fierce attack put a lot of pressure on China. In the eightieth minute, right-back Zhang Linpeng received a red card for a foul and was sent off directly.

The situation suddenly became extremely unfavorable for China.

The Iraqi and Qatari fans in the stands cheered, seeming to see hope for Iraq to equalize or even defeat China—there were still ten minutes left in the game, and they perhaps thought Iraq could score two goals in a row.

This wasn't unreasonable, as any team would experience some emotional fluctuations when a player was suddenly sent off.

But this situation didn't quite apply to this game…

Because just as Iraq seized the opportunity of having one more player to launch a full-scale attack on China, they were once again hit by a Chinese counterattack.

This time, it was still an attack involving only two people, in the same format as Hao Junmin's goal. The passer was Zhou Yi, but the receiver and scorer was Gao Lin.

This time Zhou Yi didn't pass the football to the wing, but directly passed it into the core area of the Iraqi defense, because Iraq was pressing too high, and there was no one in their core area. When Gao Lin received the ball there, some people even thought he was offside, but in fact, Gao Lin wasn't offside when Zhou Yi passed the ball.

After receiving the ball, Gao Lin turned around and dribbled forward, only taking a few steps before entering the penalty area. Then, facing the onrushing Iraqi goalkeeper, he chose to chip the ball over him.

The football flew over the goalkeeper's head and plunged into the Iraqi goal.

In the eighty-second minute, China led Iraq 2-0 on the road, almost securing the victory!

"Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal!!!" Liu Hong was very excited, even more excited than when the first goal was scored, because although the first goal was scored, he was still worried that Iraq would equalize in the end. But this goal allowed everyone to breathe a sigh of relief—the victory in this game was secure!

On the sidelines, Gao Hongbo also felt that this game was secure. He clapped his hands vigorously, and the usually shy him was now smiling happily, with exaggerated movements.

The Chinese players all swarmed towards Gao Lin, even goalkeeper Yang Zhi.

"How is it, Lao Fu? Did Zhou Yi get into form early?" Gao Hongbo asked Fu Bo next to him.

Fu Bo smiled and didn't say anything.

He had misjudged.

But he was very, very happy that he had misjudged.

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Gao Lin's goal completely killed the suspense of the game. The Iraqi players lost their fighting spirit after conceding the goal. Counting stoppage time, there were actually ten minutes left in the game, but it was almost impossible to score two goals in a row in these last ten minutes. It would be good enough if they could score one goal. And even if they scored two goals in a row and equalized, it wouldn't mean anything to Iraq.

Because taking a draw on the road was originally China's minimum requirement, and they could completely accept it, but Iraq couldn't.

So thinking of this, Iraq didn't have the fighting spirit to continue fighting.

And China, still led by Zhou Yi, retreated to defend, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, not becoming complacent because they had almost secured the victory, not giving Iraq any chance at all.

In the end, China defeated Iraq 2-0 on the road, securing a crucial victory in a crucial game.

With the victory in this game, China earned three points, and their total points in this group became eight, temporarily ranking first while the game between Jordan and Singapore hadn't finished yet. But in the end, they would still be overtaken by Jordan, because it was almost certain that Jordan would defeat Singapore at home.

Nevertheless, China had already achieved the best result, pushing Iraq down. If Iraq wanted to still be able to advance from this group and enter the top ten, they had to win all of the next two group matches, especially the game against Jordan, which they had to win in order to have hope.

But that was already Iraq's problem, and had nothing to do with China.

Next, China could go to Singapore, the weakest team in this group, with a relatively relaxed attitude.

If they could win that game, their points would reach eleven, and at the same time, they would sit back and watch the tiger fight, waiting for the result of the game between Iraq and Jordan.

If Jordan could defeat Iraq at home, then China, with eleven points, would have a four-point difference with Iraq. China would advance from the top twenty group one round in advance and advance to the top ten. The last game against Jordan would be insignificant, and the two teams would advance hand in hand in a very friendly atmosphere.

And if Iraq defeated Jordan on the road, then their points would reach seven. With only one game left, they would still be four points behind China, and it would be impossible for them to threaten China no matter what. Jordan was their direct competitor to advance from the group.

Even if China lost to Jordan at home in the last game, and Iraq defeated Singapore, China would still advance as the second in the group.

So as long as they could defeat Singapore in the next game, China would have already secured a spot in the top ten!

Fate was now firmly in China's hands!

Such a situation would have been difficult to happen to the Chinese team before…

Chinese fans were momentarily stunned by such happiness and hadn't realized that the situation was already very favorable to them.

After the game, everyone started calculating the points online and realized that China was only one step away from the top ten!

Since the 2002 World Cup, the Chinese team had never been able to participate in the top ten stage of the Asian qualifiers again. It was unbelievable to say this—the football of such a big country as China in Asia couldn't even participate in the last stage of the qualifiers. It was simply embarrassing!

In the past, Chinese fans would never consider the possibility that we couldn't participate in the top ten. At that time, we only worried about how the team would break out of Asia and go to the world.

Comparing the past, it seems to be a regression that it is so difficult to enter the top ten now.

This is of course a regression, but a regression that can participate in the top ten is always better than a regression that is not even qualified to participate in the top ten.

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After the game, Zhou Yi, who was being interviewed by reporters from various countries in the mixed zone, was very happy. He said with a smile: "I said before the game that Qatar is our lucky place, see, I didn't say anything wrong, right? We won a key game victory here, which is very important for us. And I also said before the game that it was a pity that we couldn't live in our 'lucky hotel', but now I find that the hotel we are staying in this time is also a 'lucky hotel'. That's great, we have two 'lucky hotels' in Doha! The choice is much wider!"

The Chinese reporters laughed when they heard Zhou Yi say this. They all knew why Zhou Yi said this.

Before the game, Qatar did something disgusting. Anyone with a normal IQ knew what was going on, but suffering from a lack of evidence, it was really hard to say anything. Besides scolding a few words in their own media, it couldn't affect the other party at all.

But now it's different. After the Chinese team defeated Iraq, Zhou Yi brought up the old matter and mentioned the "lucky hotel". In the eyes of the Chinese reporters, it was simply a blatant slap in the face.

You thought that sealing our "lucky hotel" would help Iraq defeat China?

Naive!

We can find another "lucky hotel"!

Next time, if you have the ability, you can close all the hotels in Qatar under the pretext of renovation!

Sure enough, the faces of the Qatari media reporters were a little embarrassed when they heard Zhou Yi say this…