After a full day of rest and a week of recovery training, Zhang Jun kept his condition at a pretty good level. On March 18, in the 23rd round of the Serie A, Fiorentina challenged Bologna away, and the away team defeated Bologna 3-1. Zhang Jun did not score, but he had an assist.

After twenty-three rounds of the league, Zhang Jun's goal number stopped above twenty. However, although there were no goals in three rounds of the league, his first place was still not threatened. Adriano, who ranked second, is still three goals away from him. In a league like Serie A, the difference between the three goals is quite considerable.

After Fiorentina played this round of the league, she had to let people go back to China to participate in the competition.

Although Sabato is unwilling to do so, this is a FIFA mandatory rule, which is a World Cup qualifier that concerns the life, death, honor and disgrace of a country, so he has to let people go even if he doesn't want to.

Zhang Jun, who hurried back to Fiorentina but only played one game, was going to fly to China again with Xiang Tao and Cru. This time they would not leave just one game, they would play the entire first half of the round, including hosting South Korea at home and challenging Australia away.

These two games are very critical for the Chinese team. As long as they can be won smoothly, the general trend of qualifying will be basically determined. Therefore, Qiu Suhui has also recruited all the overseas players of the Chinese team again to form the strongest lineup.

The last time he easily defeated Kuwait 5:0, although it increased morale and the confidence of the Chinese people, Qiu Suhui was also worried that this would lead to some players' underestimation. You should know that neither South Korea nor Australia are easy to deal with.

From Milan, Italy to Beijing, China, then from Beijing to Chengdu, then flew non-stop to Chengdu, and then took the national team's special car directly from Chengdu Airport to Maojiawan training base.

Basically, all overseas returnees follow this route to return to the team.

Although the two games were connected this time, the national team had enough time to prepare for the second game. However, the first game still seemed a little nervous for the national team.

Because according to FIFA regulations, in this A-level competition, players flying across continents must arrive at the national team for 48 hours at the latest to report, and almost all clubs will reach the deadline for their own interests before they can be released.

Therefore, these overseas returnees only returned players who played in the second-rate league came back early, 72 hours in advance, and the rest were Zhang Jun, Xiang Tao, Kelu, Yang Pan, Li Yongle, Wang Yu, An Ke... and others arrived two days in advance.

The players who played in the Italian league came back on a flight. Since Fiorentina was about to play against Inter Milan soon, Xiang Tao kept making jokes about Li Yongle on the plane. From their relaxed laughter, they really couldn't feel the tension of fighting South Korea. Their players were different. Since the National Olympic Team, they had never lost to South Korea, so the traditional "HK fear" was useless to them. It should be said that the South Korean team that came from the National Olympic Team did not take much advantage of the game against the Chinese team.

Since there was a lot of time to prepare before the game, Qiu Suhui did not arrange complex tactical training, but only trained the set pieces, mainly to allow the returnees to adjust their state, restore their physical strength, and move freely at other times.

Sophie was alone in Florence, and Li Yan did not come with him. Domestic football was not within their coverage. So now Zhang Jun has to call Sophie every day. Of course, he would not go to the hotel's business room to make public calls, but instead contacted him directly. There were many similar situations with him. Yang Pan also reported his work situation to Yilan every day, while the other bachelors called their parents to remind them to watch the game then.

While Zhang Jun was wandering around the hall, he happened to see Xiang Tao finishing the phone and pulled him: "Call your girlfriend?"

"Mao!" Xiang Tao opened his mouth and said something swearing, "Call me an old man." The Sichuan dialect "old man" means father.

"Tsk tsk." Zhang Jun smacked his lips, "Xiang Tao, you are a big boss, why don't you find a girlfriend?"

Xiang Tao was stunned for a moment. His father had just told him the same thing. Logically speaking, he now has a reputation, status, money, and so many female admirers, so it should not be difficult to find a girlfriend.

"You care! I haven't played enough yet, why are I care about finding a girlfriend?" This is Sichuan. Xiang Tao, who returned to his hometown, naturally kept talking in Sichuan dialect, completely ignoring Qiu Suhui's former rule that "only speaking Mandarin is allowed".

"Can you watch too many A-movies and become sexually incompetent?" Zhang Jun laughed.

"My day!"

"What?!" One of the few people who had just come out of the elevator suddenly shouted. Zhang Jun looked closely and found that it was An Ke, and his teammates were from other national teams. "Xiang Tao is incompetent? Oh my God! I told you that it was not good to watch too many A-movies, but you didn't listen..." An Ke's loud voice attracted the attention of the others in the lobby, and the teammates around him laughed loudly.

Xiang Tao was too lazy to say anything to those who were deliberately trying to do him, so he got into the elevator.

Of course he wouldn't be sexually incompetent, he should have given Zhang Jun this sentence. But he didn't think so much at the time.

Xiang Tao leaned into the empty elevator and pressed the 24th number. The elevator vibrated slightly and began to rise slowly.

How could he have no girlfriend? How could he have a "superb, handsome, tall and toned" man like him have no girlfriend?

But that was already eight years ago. At that time, he had already joined the Sichuan team's youth team. He often sneaked over the wall to have fun at night. Because he was just eighteen and adult, he could go to bars and disco entertainment venues like the ones. Chengdu is a city with bright lights and wine and caring spirits, and he always meets a lot of chickens in these red light districts. Not long after he arrived, he was brought in by their senior brother, the first team players, and he often visited those places. However, since the youth team was not subsidized, he could only watch it most of the time and could not go.

It is a very frustrating thing for young people to have extra energy but they can't release it. So when he accidentally met three gangsters near a middle school that day and wanted to harass a girl, he rushed forward without saying a word. He was not thinking of a hero to save the beauty, but simply wanted to vent his extra energy.

Xiang Tao received professional training and had very good conditions. Finally, he let out three little kids who had just entered the third grade of junior high school. He was excited at the time and did not pay attention to whether the girl ran away. After the match, he found that the girl was still standing aside.

"What are you doing and you haven't run away? Do you want to be harassed by these guys?" He said, kicking the unlucky guy lying on the ground.

"No...No..." Maybe it was scared, the girl stuttered a little, "I...I just want to...I want to say thank you to you."

Xiang Tao was stunned. The girl was not speaking Sichuan dialect, but Mandarin with a northern accent.

"Are you not a local?" Xiang Tao also asked with his very crappy Trump.

The girl nodded desperately, then covered her mouth and said, "But I understand Sichuan dialect, please don't... talk about Trump."

Xiang Tao suddenly felt that he was a hero in front of the beautiful woman-oh, I forgot to say that when Xiang Tao saw it, he realized that the girl in front of him was really a beautiful girl.

Later, this first-year high school girl named "Youyou" became Xiang Tao's legitimate girlfriend.

The relationship between the two has experienced many tests, such as parents disagree, third party intervene, misunderstanding, etc. However, neither of them broke up in the end. Xiang Tao was always satisfied with this. Later, he entered the first team and made a lot of money to impress her parents, and then formally proposed to Youyou.

However, the relationship between the two was only maintained for two years, three months and nine days, and then they died - of course it was not a cliché plot like a man and a woman who had lived and died. It was because Youyou's parents went to Canada three years ago to develop, and now they are developing very well and have officially immigrated to Canada, so they wanted to take Youyou to Canada. Youyou delayed this for a long time until the college entrance examination was over, and finally couldn't continue.

On the day You You left, Xiang Tao did not even go to the airport to see her off, but hid alone in the team dormitory to smoke secretly. For this reason, he was almost fired from the Sichuan Youth Team.

In fact, what he thought at that time was that being fired was also a good result.

At first, they could maintain some EMAIL contacts on the Internet. Later, as the two people's time to go online decreased, these electronic messages gradually decreased. Xiang Tao thought that maybe Youyou had found a new boyfriend in Canada. His first love lasted only two years, three months and nine days, and it ended, but it became an eternal pain deep in Xiang Tao's heart. So he has never wanted to find a girlfriend now, because he can't forget the lively and cute Youyou.

The elevator stopped with a "ding" sound, the door slowly opened, and Xiang Tao walked out. But he found something was wrong. This was not the twenty-fourth floor. At least he did not see the beautiful waiter diagonally opposite the elevator.

Soon he found himself in the lobby on the first floor... Xiang Tao knocked on his head, turned around and walked into the elevator.

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"Don't be proud just because we defeated Kuwait 5:0. Tomorrow's opponent is the South Korean team, which is the strongest team in this group. We must not underestimate the enemy!" Qiu Suhui explained the players seriously what tomorrow's arrangements were.

However, Xiang Tao sang against him below: "Oh! Qiu Zhi, we have never lost to South Korea since the National Olympic Team. I think many people here are not afraid of Koreans at all, we don't have Korean fears!"

"Yes, yes! It should be their turn to be afraid now." Someone below agreed.

Qiu Suhui looked at these indifferent players and was a little amused. He tried hard to make the atmosphere tense, but it was useless at all.

"Okay, Xiang Tao." Qiu Suhui looked at Xiang Tao and said, "If South Korea scored a goal from you tomorrow's game, then you will automatically suspend the game for three games. How about it?"

Xiang Tao was stunned for a moment: "No, coach? They said too..." He looked back and found that everyone was pretending to be honest, as if no one had ever echoed him just now.

"Stop looking at it randomly, what about you? How about it?"

Qiu Suhui looked at Xiang Tao, but Xiang Tao was not willing to admit defeat. He stared at Qiu Suhui and said, "Okay, I agree."

Cru whistled.

Xiang Tao turned around and glared at him.

"Wanglaoji (the nickname given to the left back Wang Ji by his teammates), you have a chance, you must catch it!" An Ke patted Wang Ji beside him.

Wang Ji smiled awkwardly.

Xiang Tao turned his head and glared at An Ke, and An Ke glared back without being outdone.

"Okay, stop making trouble, let Qiu Zhi continue to talk." Yang Pan was supposed to play the role of the captain. As soon as he spoke, no one said anything.

"...Tomorrow...well...damn, where did I talk about it just now?" Qiu Suhui suddenly forgot where he said just now after Xiang Tao and An Ke made a fuss.

“Ah haha——!”

A huge burst of laughter suddenly broke out in the conference room. Even Yang Pan, who was very serious just now, couldn't help laughing. Some even brave men kept stomping their feet and slapping their hands. The scene was extremely chaotic.

Finally, Qiu Suhui had to give up the attempt to continue talking and laughed with his men.

In the end, he failed to make the atmosphere tense. Maybe it was really like Xiang Tao said. In Hexi for thirty years, Hedong for thirty years, China was afraid of South Korea for more than twenty years, and now it is time for the Koreans to taste the taste of "fearing in the middle".

After the pre-match preparation meeting like a tea party, Qiu Suhui and Hu Li went out for a walk as usual to clean up their thoughts and stabilize their mood.

Qiu Suhui stood in the garden outside the hotel, looking up at the gray night sky. Then he said to Hu Li beside him: "I remember the first game we two led the team at the same time seemed to be against South Korea, right?"

Hu Li nodded: "I played in the Olympic qualifiers with the Korean Olympic team."

"You remember it quite clearly."

"That was my first time coaching a national team, of course I knew it very well. And I still remember that we seemed a little nervous at that time."

"Don't talk nonsense, you are nervous, I'm just comforting you."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

"Time flies so fast. Six years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the children have grown up."

"And you are no longer excited about being able to compete with South Korea." Hu Li said to Qiu Suhui.

Qiu Suhui laughed: "That's because the Chinese team's opponent is not in Asia now, and our eyes have been turned to a broader world! There is nothing to be excited about in the game against Asian teams."

"Then you are still fighting with Xiang Tao..." Hu Li was a little puzzled.

"I just want to arouse their fighting spirit. In addition, let foreigners see who is afraid of who now. Although that kid Xiang Tao likes to make trouble, he said some things well. Since we started the team building of the National Olympic Team, we have never lost to South Korea, so we have no psychological burden and even have advantages. Besides, tomorrow is our home court, and the fans in Sichuan are very enthusiastic and will not lose to South Korea's "Red Devils Cheerleaders" at all." Qiu Suhui said with confidence. He saw the current positive side of the team at today's preparation meeting.

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Chengdu Sports Center (Here is corrected: Because I don’t know enough about Chengdu, I mistakenly wrote Chengdu Sports Center as the Sichuan Provincial Stadium. In fact, the stadiums that are qualified to host World Cup qualifiers and other events are only Chengdu Sports Center and Longquanyi’s dedicated football stadium. Thanks to the book friend "Linghu Cong" for your reminder.) Located in the center of Chengdu, it is only a ten-minute walk from Tianfu Square, the heart of Chengdu.

The transportation here is convenient and has a spacious square as a gathering point for fans, so the popularity of the Municipal Sports Center soared during the qualifying round. The game is still three hours away, but there are many fans from all over the country gathering in Tianfu Square. This has also become a place for them to have fun.

There are many policemen around, paying great attention to the situation inside the square with great vigilance. The World Cup qualifiers held in Chengdu are a huge business opportunity in Chengdu, but they are also a huge test for the Chengdu police.

Fortunately, so far, the Chinese team has outstanding record, and the fans have not taken any extreme actions except carnival.

Today, because it is a contest with the Chinese team's old rival in Asia, South Korea, the number of people is more than before. Many Chinese fans even held slogans that insulted South Korea, and of course they were soon confiscated by the police.

The fans shouted slogans, "China team! Rise up! China team! Rise up!" Many foreign fans also shouted like this with Sichuan fans. Their shouts attracted many tourists passing by around Tianfu Square.

In addition to enthusiastic fans, more than 30 various media gathered here. Before the Chinese team set out, they filmed the style of Chinese fans.

When the old cow from Changsha, Hunan appeared in his Monkey King outfit, it immediately attracted everyone's cheers. The camera and the camera also pointed the lens at him.

Lao Niu played a golden cudgel and shouted: "Sun Houzi is not afraid of heaven and earth! The Chinese team will never be afraid of Korea!"

"Okay!!!" Just like the Peking Opera fans, everyone shouted loudly. "Die South Korea! Fuck South Korea to death!" Then, all kinds of swear words blurted out...

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To be continued...