Lebanon will set aside their three high-profile first-round victories over the Philippines (85-80), New Zealand (86-72) and India (104-63) to top the Group D standings when they face their Chinese counterpart in the AFC Asian Cup quarter-finals. men, which Indonesia will host until next Sunday at 4:00 pm Beirut time, in a new “face-off” between Lebanon and China in an official competition, after having previously faced each other in previous World Cup qualifiers and in Cup competition Asia.

Lebanon at the forefront:

At the end of the first round, the Lebanese team took first place among the Asian countries participating in the big Asian competition, ahead of second Australia, third South Korea, fourth Iran and fifth New Zealand, due to their high performance in his three matches in the first round and in line with certain technical criteria.

The match between Lebanon, a country of 5 million people, and China, a country of 1.5 billion people, is a life-or-death match for the two countries, as there is no place for a single mistake or “unfinished blow”. because the loser is automatically eliminated from the competition and the winner advances to the semi-finals.

Date of confrontation:

In the history of the two teams, Lebanon has managed to win only once in the previous World Cup qualifiers at home in the Nohad Nawfal complex, while the rest of the matches were won by the Chinese dragon, the most famous of which was three in the Asian Cup. The first match in the first round of the competition, which took place in Shanghai (China)) In July 2001, when China, led by its giant Yaoming, won the match, which witnessed many problems and clashes, and one of the injured was Joe Vogel from Lebanon.
And China won the second match in the final of the same tournament without any problems, and China and Lebanon qualified for the World Cup, held in Indianapolis (USA) in 2002.
The third match was the final match of the 2005 Asian Cup held in Doha (Qatar) between Lebanon and China and China resumed their victory and the two countries qualified for the World Cup in Japan in 2006.

The Lebanese road is easier:

On their return to the quarter-final match, Lebanon’s road was paved and easy with three straight wins in the fourth group in the first round, so that Lebanon went straight to the quarter-finals, as did Australia (leading group A). South Korea (leading group B) and Iran (leading group C). Unlike Lebanon, China (29th in the world and 4 Asians) suffered in the second group, as they lost to South Korea (81-93) in their first matches, and then narrowly (80-79) beat Bahrain, by one point, and then over Taipei (95-).80 to finish second behind South Korea, forcing a quarter-final cross-match against Indonesia on Monday, and the Chinese dragon bared its teeth and thrashed the host by fifty points (108-58) in a strong show to set the date with a close-knit Lebanese team in the flag decider. brought back captain Ali Haidar, who will play a life-changing match after arriving in Indonesia on Tuesday.
The Lebanese team will enter the match with high spirits and no losses in the tournament, aiming to resume their victory over China in the World Cup qualifiers and advance to the semi-finals to face the winner of the Iran-Jordan match. who won in a deadly time thanks to a historic trio over Taipei and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Final at a time when China will be looking to inflict Lebanon’s first defeat of the tournament and keep it out of the competition Lebanon knows its task will not be easy in a match where the focus factor will be play a major role.
Lebanon will play the match under any pressure, unlike the Chinese, who at the beginning of their career seemed shaken by the defeat to Korea and a hard-fought victory over the modest Bahrain team, as we have already mentioned.
The Chinese national team has 6 players taller than two meters: Zhi Wang (2.12 m), Qi Zhou (2.12 m), Zi Ming (2.10 m), Xao Zhai (2.05 m), Hao Fu ( 2.07 m). and Gong Gu (2.01 m).
As for the Lebanese national team, it has five players taller than two meters: Ali Haidar, Karim Ezz El-Din and Jonathan Arledge, each with a height of 2.06 m. As for Youssef Hayat, his height is 2.03 m, like at Hayek. Keodjian.

And if the difference in height is in the interests of the Chinese, then the Lebanese team is capable of resisting the Chinese through its homogeneous composition, especially since it includes fierce fighters. Darvish, Wael Arakji (one of the brightest players of the first round), Ali Mizher, Ali Mansour and Karim Zenon, Gerard Hadidyan and Eli Chamoun led by coach Jad Al-Hajj.

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