Last night, the men's under-16-year-old football finals of the 15th Games of the People's Republic of China ended a new round of competition in Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. Jiangsu, Beijing, Shandong and Hubei team advanced to the semi-finals. Hubei team defeated Shaanxi 1-0 in the first round of knockouts. The semi-finals will encounter the old acquaintance of Shandong team in the preliminaries. It is worth mentioning that because the top three other groups, Guangdong, Shanghai and Zhejiang were eliminated respectively, Hubei team became the only remaining group first in the finals, which shows the fierce competition in the game.
Hubei team won two consecutive victories in Group D in the group stage to qualify for the first place, Shaanxi team qualified for the second place in Group C, and the two sides met in the semi-finals. Previously, the two sides had not met in the game, and they were determined to win this battle.
In the game, the Hubei team still showed the spirit of winning when they met on a narrow road. After a simple test at the beginning, they launched a fierce offensive. In the first half, the Hubei team won a free kick in the frontcourt. No. 20 midfielder Zhang Zhengxi drove the ball to the middle of the penalty area. No. 32 guard Cheng Shenghan jumped high when he drifted in the air to the left. When his body drifted to the left, the ball flew out of the barrel and jumped straight into the net, 1-0. Since then, the Hubei team continued to attack fiercely, but failed to expand the results.
In the second half, the Shaanxi team was eager to equalize the score and began to invest in heavy attacks. The Hubei team took advantage of the empty defense of the rear and launched wave after wave of offensives, constantly tearing open the defense line and continuously bombarding the goal. However, the Shaanxi goalkeeper played his bravery and made the Hubei team's three single shots and several sure-fire goals return. Shaanxi's counterattack once put a lot of pressure on the Hubei team's defense line. Fortunately, the whole team was highly focused and did not give the opponent an opportunity to take advantage of.
After the game, Cheng Shenghan said: "I was very confident when I scored today and felt very good when I grabbed the point. This is my first goal at this National Games. I am also very focused on defense. I have handled the rescue balls better. I scored 90 points for myself. Like all my teammates, I have the more confidence I play."
Hubei team foreign coach Mark said: "Today, the whole team created a lot of opportunities, but they lacked in seizing opportunities. This is the first knockout match, and the opponent's strength is also very strong. In the end, we won the game. This is the most important thing. All the players performed well. In the next semi-finals, there is only one day and no time to adjust. The whole team must continue to work hard and fight continuously. The confidence and tenacious will of all the players will make us strive to move from victory to victory."
In another semi-finals match that started in the afternoon, Shandong team defeated Shanghai team 2-1. The Shandong team will play the semi-finals with the Hubei team on the evening of September 13. On March 16 this year, in the final match of the Hubei region of the National Games U16 Qualification Championship, Hubei team defeated Shandong team 3-0. After half a year, the Shandong team made its way to the semi-finals and showed its strong attack power. Experts believe that the two sides will be evenly matched again and the outcome will be difficult to predict.
The other two semi-final matches, the hosts' favorites Guangdong lost to Jiangsu 2-4, and Zhejiang lost to Beijing 1-2. In this way, another semi-final match was released, and Jiangsu and Beijing will compete for another final ticket.
The manuscript comes from: Hubei Sports
