Chapter 256

Cao Yang's corner kick was a little higher, and it went directly over the heads of Jiang Xiaolin and Li Weifeng in the middle, and landed in the corner of the small penalty area.

Everyone looked at the back of the goal along the flight path of the ball, and there was only one Chinese player wearing the No. 10 jersey near the landing point: Zheng Zhi.

The Chinese fans were a little frustrated when they saw Jiang Xiaolin couldn't get a header, and they immediately raised their hearts: Zheng Zhi would probably head the ball to form an attack.

Many people began to mutter unconsciously: "Head it in! Head it in!"

Correspondingly, the Iraqi players and the few dozen Iraqi fans in the stands seemed very nervous.

The two Iraqi defenders nearby immediately turned around and rushed towards Zheng Zhi, trying to interfere with Zheng Zhi's header.

But it was too late.

As soon as they moved, the ball had already landed on Zheng Zhi's head.

Zheng Zhi grabbed the first point without interference in the corner of the small penalty area at the back point, and headed the ball towards the Iraqi goal with a powerful header.

Zheng Zhi is a rare all-round talent in Chinese football, with good offense and defense, and also very good headers.

If someone interfered, he would definitely not be able to head as accurately as Jiang Xiaolin.

But now that he headed the ball without interference, Zheng Zhi's choice of ball path and attack angle would be much safer.

He successfully headed the ball with a very high quality, and headed the ball to the upper dead corner of the goal on his side.

Goalkeeper Noel had already started moving to the back end of the goal after seeing that the ball was too high and Jiang Xiaolin and others in the middle could not head it.

If Zheng Zhi's header was not of high quality, it would still be saved by Noel.

However, Zheng Zhi's header without interference was of too high quality and went straight to the dead corner.

Although Noel jumped up and tried to pass the ball, he missed the ball by a hair's breadth and could only watch the ball fly into the goal from the intersection between the crossbar and the upright.

In the 22nd minute of the first half, Cao Yang assisted Zheng Zhi in a corner kick attack and China led Iraq 2-0 at home.

The players rushed to Zheng Zhi and celebrated the goal happily. The Chinese fans in the stands also applauded and cheered continuously, celebrating the second goal of China.

On the other hand, the Iraqi team, from players to coaches, was a little frustrated.

Of course, they would not be willing to surrender.

The Iraqis, who are suffering from the Iraq War, have an extraordinary toughness in football.

They need victory to boost the morale of the country.

Therefore, after the game resumed, Iraq did not shrink its defense, but pressed forward and launched a strong attack.

However, the configuration of the Chinese team's double defensive midfielders made it difficult for them to attack effectively. After all, Iraq is not a strong team, and its ranking in Asia is only one place higher than that of the Chinese team.

In addition, the domestic wars continued, and they could not train and play at ease, so Iraq's technical and tactical level can be imagined.

It is still difficult for Iraq to forcefully break through the defense of the Chinese team, whose strength has improved a lot.

At the same time, the presence of Jiang Xiaolin of the Chinese team is a greater threat to Iraq.

The speed shown by Jiang Xiaolin in this game has surprised everyone, and the Iraqis have to defend.

Therefore, after attacking for a few minutes, Iraq's offensive slowed down, and everyone began to fight and strangle each other in the midfield, attacking and defending each other.

But Iraq got a chance instead.

In the 34th minute, the ball was on the Chinese team's side. The front midfielder Huang Bowen tried to break through the middle with the ball, but was shoveled out by the opponent's back midfielder Akram with a fierce and accurate sliding tackle, and the ball fell to his teammates' feet.

Iraq immediately launched a counterattack, and then formed a wing breakthrough and cross. Although forwards Nasser and Mahdi were closely watched by the Chinese team's defense line, because it was Iraq's quick counterattack, the Chinese team's defense line could not take care of everything.

So, the front midfielder Imad who inserted into the back row of the center found a gap, grabbed the first point without defense, and made a powerful diving header, heading the ball to the Chinese team's goal.

Song Zhenyu's save touched the ball, but because the angle was too tricky and the force was too great, he failed to save the ball. In the end, the ball hit his fingertips, changed direction and hit the post, and then bounced into the Chinese team's goal.

Iraq finally got back a point, the score between the two sides became 2-1, and the Chinese team was only one goal ahead.

The extremely rare dozens of Iraqi fans in the stands celebrated excitedly, and the Iraqi players on the field and the coaches and substitutes on the sidelines also celebrated enthusiastically.

The morale of the Iraqi team that scored the goal was immediately boosted, and it seemedI saw the hope of equalizing the score.

After all, they were only one point behind now.

Afterwards, Iraq's attack or counterattack was much more resolute, and there was a momentum to take advantage of the opportunity to score again to equalize the score, and it really had a little advantage in the game situation.

However, it is not possible to score a goal just by having the upper hand on the football field.

In the 39th minute, Iraq had not scored the second goal, but the Chinese team passed the ball to the front court through a quick counterattack and passed it to Jiang Xiaolin's feet.

This time Jiang Xiaolin did not form a single knife. There were two Iraqi central defenders in front of him blocking his way forward, and there were also Iraqi midfielders watching from behind.

But because it was a counterattack, the encirclement had not yet formed. Moreover, there were Huang Bowen, Cao Yang and others on both sides to respond, and the Iraqi defensive players did not dare to completely give up the defense against Huang Bowen and others, and all came to besiege Jiang Xiaolin.

Therefore, Jiang Xiaolin had a relatively loose dribbling space outside the penalty area. But if he wanted to enter the penalty area, he would definitely be strongly intercepted.

However, Jiang Xiaolin did not want to enter the penalty area.

When he dribbled the ball to the right side of the penalty area, he changed direction and dunked to avoid an angle, and then he shot a long shot directly outside the penalty area.

This time Jiang Xiaolin's long shot was quite good, not only with power and speed, but also with an arc.

Although it was a long shot, the goalkeeper had a long time to save, but Jiang Xiaolin's arc shot just bypassed Noel's ten fingers and went into the goal along the goal post.

With Jiang Xiaolin's double goal, the Chinese team scored the third goal in the 39th minute of the first half and took a 3-1 lead.

The commentator of the National Television Sports Channel in the commentary booth stood up excitedly and shouted:

"The ball is in! The ball is in!"

"Jiang Xiaolin scored the third goal of the Chinese team and his second goal!"

"Jiang Xiaolin scored twice and regained a 3-1 lead for the Chinese team!"

"This is the Jiang Xiaolin we are familiar with, the Jiang Xiaolin who scored so many goals."

Indeed, although Jiang Xiaolin scored 4 goals in his national team debut and completed a big four, the game against Jordan was always just a friendly match and was not very convincing.

The two World Cup qualifiers against Qatar were Jiang Xiaolin's first two official games in the national team, but Jiang Xiaolin only scored one goal and one assist in the two games.

Although it looks good, it is inevitable to feel disappointed when compared with Jiang Xiaolin's performance in the Eredivisie and the National Olympic Team, where he scored so many goals.

There are many comments on the Internet that Jiang Xiaolin cannot adapt to the national football game or does not work hard in the national football game.

But now, with Jiang Xiaolin scoring twice in the first half, these remarks are naturally self-defeating.

Both the commentator and all the Chinese fans are convinced by Jiang Xiaolin's performance.

Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen and other Chinese players naturally swarmed up to warmly congratulate and celebrate Jiang Xiaolin's double goal.

In the next few minutes, Iraq fought back with all its strength, trying to score a goal to narrow the score gap, but it has not succeeded.

After 1 minute of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half. The two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 3-1, and the home team of China led Iraq by two goals.

During the halftime break, Iraq made a substitution adjustment and replaced a defender who did not perform well in the first half.

The new players were in good condition, had a high desire to win, and performed well. They strengthened Iraq's defense very well, making it difficult for Jiang Xiaolin and the Chinese team to easily get a chance to shoot, and the two sides started a tug-of-war.

20 minutes into the second half, neither side had scored a goal. Although there were several threatening attacks, none of them turned into goals in the end.

Until the 67th minute, Jiang Xiaolin consciously pulled to the side, taking away two Iraqi defenders in the middle, giving the attacking midfielder Huang Bowen a chance.

After the winger Xiao Zhanbo broke through on the left, he made a cross. Huang Bowen inserted in the back row to replace the gap left by Jiang Xiaolin's pull. After receiving Xiao Zhanbo's pass on the penalty area line, he dribbled the ball and dodged an angle before shooting.

At the moment Huang Bowen shot, Jiang Xiaolin changed direction and shook off the player guarding him and rushed into the penalty area.

He just rushed into the penalty area as a routine, looking for a possible supplementary shot.

As a result, Huang Bowen's shot did not go in and was saved by goalkeeper Noel.

But Noel didn't save the ball from going out of the baseline, nor did he hold it in his arms. Instead, he saved the ball and made it change its direction and hit the post and bounced back into the penalty area, just in the direction where Jiang Xiaolin was running.

Jiang Xiaolin was immediately overjoyed and accepted this bigHe didn't even need to stop the ball while running. He just volleyed the ball into the empty goal after Noel fell to the ground.

Jiang Xiaolin completed a hat trick with a supplementary shot, and the score between the two sides became 4-1. The Chinese team was already 3 goals ahead.

The commentator shouted excitedly in the commentary booth:

"Hat trick! Hat trick!"

"Jiang Xiaolin scored again, he completed a hat trick!"

"This is Jiang Xiaolin's first hat trick in the national team's official match!"

"The super shooter who scored so many goals in the Eredivisie and made us look forward to it played a high-quality game in the national team's official match!"

"Congratulations to Jiang Xiaolin and the Chinese team!"

"In another game, Australia was already leading 3-0 away. We estimate that we will advance to the top ten with Australia one round in advance!"