The first appearance in the knockout stage was the Japanese team, who faced their opponent Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals.

Shinji Kagawa performed very well in this game, scoring twice, helping Japan defeat Uzbekistan 3:2.

This is his first time in the Asian Cup.

Not long after the Japanese team's game ended, the Chinese team made a debut.

Their opponent is Jordan.

The final score was 2:1, and the Chinese team defeated Jordan and entered the semi-finals!

The person who scored for the Chinese team was Gao Lin. He also scored twice in this game, and the person who assisted him with the second goal was Zhou Yi.

After the game, China's Internet celebrated its Chinese team's second Asian Cup quarterfinals after seven years. Some netizens joked that Gao Lin said that after Zhou Yi, Gao Linsman really became Gao Linsman, not Gao Fei.

The two assists Zhou Yi gave to Gao Lin can almost be called "nanny assists", which means that the forward player can score football without any technical content...

In four games, Gao Lin scored four goals and was already the number one scorer in the Chinese team.

Before Zhou Yi came, Gao Lin was not responsible for scoring tasks in this team, but tactical tasks. As a fulcrum for the Chinese team's offense in the frontcourt, he has physical and skill, can hold the ball, and can also make the ball. Although he is the center, his range of activities in the frontcourt is also very large, and he can see him both on the left, center and right. He is also hard-working and running actively, which is quite a bit like a model worker.

These characteristics of him are very consistent with Gao Hongbo's tactics that require the national team to cooperate on the ground. Therefore, although Gao Lin has always been criticized for his poor shooting skills, he is still a favorite player in the national team. Gao Hongbo will always give priority to his starting lineup.

No one expected that after Zhou Yi came, Gao Lin suddenly became the best scorer!

And not only in the team, but also in this Asian Cup, Gao Lin now tied for the first place in the scorer list with four goals, with Korean player Ju Zizhe.

Zhou Yi ranked first with five assists in the assist list, and no one could threaten his position... This performance at least shows that Zhou Yi is now a top midfielder in Asia, although he is only nineteen years old...

It will be until February this year that it will be twenty years old

※※※

The Chinese team that reached the semi-finals is only one step away from the finals.

As long as they can beat their semi-final opponents...Australia.

Although Chinese fans and the media are as happy as the New Year, Klopp is sure not to hear the news at all.

In addition to Zhou Yi, Shinji Kagawa's Japanese team also entered the semi-finals.

This means that his two important main players must play in the full Asian Cup before they can return to the team...

Even if both Chinese and Japanese lose the semi-finals, they still have to play a third and fourth final!

The only thing that can comfort Klopp may be... The third and fourth finals will play one day earlier than the finals. If the teams of the two are participating in the third and fourth finals, they can return to the team one day early...

But it was January 28th at that time, and the whole month was about to end.

When the Asian Cup was in full swing, the second half of the Bundesliga also began. Dortmund was still the first to play. In the 18th round of the league, Dortmund, who lacked Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa, was defeated 3:1 by Leverkusen on the road.

No influence of Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa showed up.

From the scene, Dortmund, without Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa, is indeed not as smooth as the first half of the season.

Zhou Yi is the core of Dortmund. His absence has an impact on Dortmund not just one point, but very big. Shinji Kagawa is similar to lubricant in the frontcourt. A machine cannot do without lubricant, so Shinji Kagawa is also very important to Dortmund.

The absence of these two important figures made them a little busy against the aggressive third place Leverkusen on the away game.

After the midfield control dropped, Leverkusen easily took the initiative and finally lost 1:3.

The failure of this game shortened Dortmund's lead in the standings from ten to seven points.

This is not over yet. In the next 19th round of the league, Dortmund was tied 1:1 by Stuttgart at home.

Including the last round before the winter break, if Dortmund loses to Frankfurt, this is Dortmund's three consecutive league games, which has never happened to Dortmund, who is well-staffed in the first half of the season.

No wonder Klopp hopes that both the Chinese and Japanese teams will go home after the group stage...

Originally, the Chinese team was eliminated in the group stage with hope, but unfortunately, the situation was different with Zhou Yi.

Next is the 20th round of the league, with Dortmund challenging Wolfsburg away. This game was played on the afternoon of January 29, and Zhou Yi and Shinji Kagawa would definitely not be able to catch up.

※※※

At 9:15 pm on January 25, Beijing time, the semi-finals between Japan and South Korea began.

After ninety minutes of fierce battle, the Japanese team and South Korea tied 1:1, and both sides also scored one goal in overtime. In the end, the draw was 2:2 in 120 minutes, and both sides could only enter the penalty final.

In the penalty shootout, all the top three players of the Korean team were lost, while only Yuto Nagato kicked the ball away. In the final, in the penalty shootout, the Japanese team eliminated South Korea with a score of 3:0 and entered the final.

Later, the Chinese team made a debut, and their opponent in the semi-finals was Australia.

Since joining the AFC in 2006, although Australia is geographically an Oceania country, its Football Association is affiliated with the AFC and can participate in the Asian Cup.

For Australia, joining the AFC naturally has their interests. That is, they can increase their chances of participating in the World Cup. Because before, only Australia and New Zealand were two professional teams in the Oceania Football Association, and the others were all island countries in the Pacific, and their football level was very backward. FIFA only had half a place to participate in the World Cup.

In this way, if Australia wants to participate in the World Cup, it will first win one in the Oceania qualifiers, and then compete for the fifth place in South America for the half of the place. Sometimes they will also compete with Asia.

It's okay to compete with Asia, but it's too difficult for Australia to compete for qualifying places with South America.

After all, the level of South American football is much higher than that of Australia.

So Australia has always hoped to break away from Oceania Football Federation and join the AFC.

The AFC that accepts Australia also has its own interests.

The level of Asian football has always been not very high, but there are many members. Therefore, four to four and a half places can be assigned to the World Cup. However, since Asian teams generally have not performed well enough in the World Cup, if the AFC wants to win more places in the World Cup, they need to improve their own strength. If Australia, which has not bad strength, can join the AFC, it will help enhance the overall strength of the AFC and gain more resources.

So this is something that is beneficial to both parties, so it naturally hits it off.

The effect after Australia joined the AFC was significant. Before joining the AFC, Australia had only participated in two World Cups in so many years, in 1974 and 2006.

After joining the AFC, they immediately qualified for the final round of the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Now, the qualifiers for the 2014 Brazil World Cup are about to begin, and Australia is also very likely to reach the World Cup finals again...

As for the interests of the AFC... I still don’t see the benefits of Australia’s participation.

However, other Asian teams became victims.

For Asian teams, Australia is like a tiger breaking into the flock.

Although their skills are rough, they can only rely on strong bodies to deal with Asian teams with delicate skills.

This is probably one of the important reasons why they were able to finally stand out from the 2010 South Africa World Cup Asian qualifiers.

Although the physical fitness of Chinese players is excellent compared to that of Japan and Southeast Asian teams, they are still slightly inferior to teams like Iran and Uzbekistan. Not to mention Australia.

When fighting against Uzbekistan, the Chinese team was physically suppressed. It was entirely up to Zhou Yi to lead the whole team to play, pass and cut to compete with the opponent.

And this game will definitely provide reference for Australia.

※※※

In an interview before the game, Zhou Yi said that although Australia is a powerful team, since it has reached the semi-finals, how could it be easy to admit defeat?

"There is a saying in China that is 'all come'." Zhou Yi said to the AFC official website reporter who interviewed him with a smile. "Since you are here, it's only one step away from the final, how can you be satisfied with stopping in the semi-finals? So we will definitely reach the final."

The reporter from the AFC official website was a little surprised and asked back: "Absolute?"

"Absolute." Zhou Yi nodded and confirmed again.

Zhou Yi's opponent in this game, the Australian star Cahill, also expressed his confidence in entering the finals in an interview.
Chapter completed!