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at 8 pm on september 10th, beijing time, the chinese national football team will face saudi arabia in its first home game of the world cup round of 18. on the evening of the 9th, head coach ivankovic and player wang dalei attended the pre-match press conference together.

starting from the press conference of saudi coach mancini an hour and a half ago, the press center with at least 200 seats was packed, which shows the high attention on the first home game of the chinese national football team in the round of 18.

after taking his seat, ivankovic smiled and gestured to everyone, "first of all, welcome everyone. i am excited to be here. i see so many reporters. this is the football city of dalian. i hope the fans can fill the stadium and hope to reward everyone with a wonderful game. the team situation is that the players have recovered mentally and spiritually. liu yang is injured and cannot participate in this game. seeing so many fans, the team must repay everyone with good performance and positive results."

after losing to japan 7-0 in the first match, should we focus on defense or offense in the match against saudi arabia? ivan said, "it is not common to lose in the last match. football is like this, unpredictable. we must get out of the trough with the best possible results. we knew it would be difficult when we drew the lot. the top three opponents in the group of death are regulars in the world cup. judging from the situation in the first round, bahrain and indonesia should not be underestimated and can have a huge impact. no game is easy, and we must go all out to deal with every game. for football games, it is impossible to emphasize only offense or defense. we must strive for the best results. of course, defense is the most basic in the game."

saudi media asked, ivan has coached in the gulf region for many years and is very familiar with mancini, whether this can help the chinese national football team against saudi arabia? in this regard, ivan said, "as everyone knows, there are no secrets now. the key is how the players play and deal with the situation on the field. saudi players are experienced and often participate in the world cup. in the last world cup, they defeated the eventual champion argentina. for us, we must pay attention to our opponents. especially in the past two years, the saudi league has invested a lot and the level is also improving. i believe this will help them."

ivan also praised mancini, "the other coach is a champion coach who led italy to win the european cup. his experience can enhance the team's strength."

will there be any adjustments to the formation and system for tomorrow's game? ivan revealed, "for a team, it is impossible to change the style of play and ideas overnight. after this period of preparation, we have formed our style of play. from our perspective, we let the players play in the positions that the club is familiar with, give full play to their own characteristics, and play well in the game as a whole. a real football game is not a video game. players need to have their own habits and ideas, and need to be together for a long time to become better. every coach has his own ideas, and players also need to adapt to the ideas of different coaches. this requires a process."

wang dalei said, "sitting here in front of everyone, i feel a little ashamed. in the last game, we lost 0-7. as the captain, veteran player and goalkeeper, i have an unshirkable responsibility. i hope this score can give us more motivation to face this game. in the past few days, we have seen many fans supporting us in the hotel. we players are very moved. there are also many media friends coming, which shows that everyone is still paying attention to us. we need to change our attitude. in the past two days, with the help of the head coach, we have gradually come out of the haze of the last game. i hope tomorrow will be a wonderful game and give back to the fans."

in the past two days of training, wang dalei and wu lei have been actively communicating with the players. wang dalei revealed, "there was such a session before the training the day before. wu lei, as the captain, told everyone about the team's situation and encouraged the young players not to lose confidence. i also gave a few supplementary words, hoping that everyone can cheer up and forget the defeat. the coaching staff also communicated with the young players individually, so that they can get out of the failure as soon as possible. the team must have something to say, and we have also said it within the team. what we want to do is to play well in this game and not let the fans and the people of the country down again. no matter what, we must play out our spirit first."

source: yangtze evening news/ziniu news reporters zhang hao and zhang chenyan (from dalian)