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on the evening of september 10th, beijing time, in the 2026 world cup asian zone top 18,the chinese men's football team played 11 against 10 for a long time at home in dalian, and eventually lost to saudi arabia 1-2, suffering two consecutive defeats.

in the first half, during a corner kick attack,jiang shenglong caused his opponent to score an own goal and took the lead. but then saudi arabia's kadish scored twice with headers from corner kicks to reverse the score, with the winning goal coming in the 90th minute!

in this game, the chinese team had a dream start, scoring a goal and having one more player. however, despite the good situation, the chinese national team was eventually defeated and failed to score any points. the coaching ability of head coach ivan was criticized again, especially the late substitution in the second half. after the game, ivankovic bowed his head to thank the team, and the fans in the stadium collectively shouted: ivan, get out!

this was ivankovic's sixth match as the coach of the chinese national football team, with a total of 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses. after this match, the chinese national football team has a total record of 7 wins, 5 draws and 9 losses against saudi arabia, scoring 25 goals and conceding 28 goals. the last time they defeated their opponents was in the 2015 asian cup, and the last time they defeated their opponents in the world cup qualifiers was in 1997.

jiang shenglong said in a post-match interview:i'm sorry to the fans who support us., we didn’t hold on to the end with one more player, and we didn’t get the final 3 points. i think the opponent is in the same situation as us, we lost, we lost, we didn’t have enough ability, we can repay the fans who support us with a better performance in the next game.”

at the post-match press conference,head coach ivankovic said: "first of all, congratulations to the saudi team for their victory, and thank you for the support of so many fans. we lost two set pieces in the game, and ultimately lost, which is a pity. the players fought very hard.it was not easy to go from the big loss in the last game to the hard-working performance in this game.。”

a reporter asked if ivan would resign after the game., and then other reporters responded with applause. ivan said awkwardly: "this question should not be for me. after all, the last game was a big loss. the three hot teams in our group, japan, australia, and saudi arabia, are very strong teams. for us, the group goal is to be in the top 4 and enter the next stage of the play-offs. we are working towards this goal. the performance in this game was better than the last one, and we still have great hope."

when asked by the media about the reason for not making substitutions at the last minute, ivan replied: mancini replaced the forward with a defender. we did not make any adjustments because the field operation was reasonable. some substitutions were due to injuries, and the active running of the two wingers can still play a role. the situation on the football field is very complicated, including zhu chenjie's possible injury, so we have to leave substitutions for possible changes.

when asked about how to face bahrain and indonesia after they have already scored points, ivan said: we have analyzed our opponents.it was difficult for us to score points in the first three games, but we have to try our best in every game.

after the first two rounds of games, the chinese national football team ranked 6th in the standings with 0 points after losing both games.on october 10, the chinese national football team will challenge the australian team away in the third round.

source: beijing youth daily, jiupai news, people's daily