I changed football.

"Because Kuwait in Group G was banned by FIFA after playing 5 matches, their remaining 3 matches were all ruled as 0-3 losses."

"However, this move forced a change to the original simple rule of comparing the points of the five teams in each group to qualify, and it was adjusted to only compare the results of the top four teams in each group."

"Therefore, under these rules, after just defeating the Maldives 12-0, the Chinese team is already ranked second among the four best second-placed teams. If they can win against Qatar in the second round of the final 40-team qualifying round, they will successfully advance to the final round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, which is the 12-team final round, regardless of goal difference!"

"This is definitely good news for the Chinese team. We secured a large enough goal difference against the Maldives, and the chain reaction triggered by Kuwait's suspension is in our favor. Furthermore, North Korea unexpectedly drew with their opponent in the same round. Therefore, if the Chinese team can defeat Qatar at home in the final round, we will advance to the final round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers for the first time in 15 years—what used to be the top ten round is now the top twelve round!"

"The Chinese team has failed to qualify for the World Cup in three consecutive editions, failing to even make it into the final round of 12. This time, however, we are very close to the final round of 12. Let's cheer for the Chinese team and hope they can qualify!"

……

After the match against the Maldives, Li Yuan received the mission reward, the Memory Bread. After eating the Memory Bread, all his memories from his previous life about this World Cup qualifier came flooding back.

This life is much better than the previous one.

In the previous life, because the goal difference was different at the beginning, and because the results of the other matches were unfavorable to the Chinese national team in the round against the Maldives, in the final round against Qatar, not only did the Chinese national team need to defeat Qatar by 2 goals or more, but the other three teams also needed to lose.

But this is a new era after all. First of all, the Chinese national football team, led by Li Yuan, won a crushing victory over the Maldives, giving them an advantage in goal difference. Then, North Korea, a rival of the Chinese team, drew again in this round, making things different from the previous era.

So once both conditions are met, the Chinese team only needs to defeat Qatar, who have already qualified as the group winner, in the final round of the World Cup qualifiers to advance to the final round of 12 without having to rely on any other team's results.

Li Yuan is in a great mood right now.

Not only Li Yuan, but all the national team players were in high spirits.

……

March 29, Xi'an, Shaanxi Stadium.

The stadium was now completely full.

The stadium, which can hold nearly 5 people, was already a sea of ​​red.

Li Yuan started the game again.

In this match, Gao Hongbo made some personnel changes in other positions.

It's still the 4-2-3-1 formation.

The goalkeeper is Zeng Cheng.

Left-back Ren Hang, right-back Zhao Mingjian, center-backs Feng Xiaoting and Zhang Linpeng.

The two defensive midfielders are Huang Bowen and Hao Junmin.

Left winger Jiang Ning, attacking midfielder Zhang Xizhe, center forward Wu Lei, right winger Li Yuan.

In fact, if Li Yuan were to say it, although it is 2016, it is time to start preparing for the future. Those veterans who will not reach the World Cup cycle should retire early so that newcomers can come in.

However, Li Yuan is not the head coach, so he cannot control the recruitment process.

Every head coach has their own recruitment style.

This time, Gao Hongbo recruited Du Wei.

They were really criticized a lot.

The reason for the criticism is: why would you recruit a 34-year-old veteran who can't even get playing time at the club?

Li Yuan could actually understand Gao Hongbo's reason for recruiting Du Wei. It was simple: he wanted to find a veteran to anchor the team. After all, Du Wei had participated in the 2002 World Cup and even started and played the full 02 minutes in the last two group stage matches. That was his seniority, and Gao Hongbo recruited him to give him some authority.

However, he was heavily criticized by fans.

However, after winning the first game 12-0, the criticism subsided a bit.

In fact, every national team coach has their own style when recruiting players. If the recruitment and player selection methods of many national team coaches were applied to the Chinese national team, they would definitely be criticized to death.

It's just that many fans don't understand, and they often say "only Chinese football is like this," but actually you know too little.

Some people say that Chinese football is corrupt, but in reality, there are many corrupt football associations.

It's just that they achieved good results and qualified for the World Cup, so it's fine.

If the national football team doesn't achieve good results, then you should just take the criticism.

Just bear with it.

Only when you achieve results will you receive relatively objective treatment.

Li Yuan has always thought this way: you can play badly, but you can't let others say it.

In fact, Chinese fans have sharp eyes.

You lost the game, but you played exceptionally well, so no one is criticizing you.

In 2025, the Chinese national football team lost 1-3 to Japan. Do you see anyone criticizing them?

Of course, there are still some, but there are far fewer people criticizing them now.

Why?

The Chinese team scored a beautiful goal in that match.

And throughout the match, despite the gap in overall strength between them and the Japanese team, they played with great effort and determination.

That way, even if you lose in the end, not many people will criticize you.

That's actually how it is.

Having been reborn, Li Yuan's primary dream is naturally to advance his professional career.

The most important of these is the national team.

Clubs are important, of course, but in his previous life, Li Yuan could watch Real Madrid games, and he could watch other teams' games.

But ultimately, Li Yuan will always just be a fan of the Chinese national team.

If I can use my influence to change Chinese football in this lifetime, that would be wonderful.

In his previous life, Li Yuan always enjoyed reading football novels about players who played for the Chinese national team, even though people would always comment that it was all fake.

Li Yuan would reply to him—it's not fake that there are super-rich systems in urban novels, it's not fake in fantasy novels, but it's fake that a football novel mentions leading the national football team to the World Cup.

Reality is cruel enough; can't we dream in the world of novels?

Now that Li Yuan has the opportunity to lead the national football team to the World Cup in the real world, he will naturally give it his all.

At this moment, Li Yuan, who was standing at the back of the team, stepped onto the court.

In this match against Qatar, Li Yuan went all out from the very first minute.

Qatar is definitely much better than the Maldives.

However, Qatar, having already qualified as the group winners, did not have much fighting spirit.

Although they still fielded all their main players in this match.

However, the players' form was clearly poor.

Li Yuan seized the opportunity and created a long-range shot at the start of the game, which was saved by the Qatari goalkeeper.

Corner kick.

Li Yuan entered the penalty area and raised his hand towards Huang Bowen, who was taking a corner kick from the corner flag area, indicating that he should smash the ball onto his head.

Huang Bowen was still a little hesitant. Wasn't this a bit too obvious?

If you raise your hand, I'll pass it to you.

However, Huang Bowen still chose to trust Li Yuan and passed the ball out.

Despite being double-teamed by two Qatari players, Li Yuan still leaped high into the air like a dragon taking flight, then headed the ball into the goal.

1:0.

Li Yuan scores a goal.

China is in the lead.