Chapter 615 The Game Begins

The FIFA Club World Cup, commonly known as the Club World Cup, is actually an informal event that FIFA merged the former Club World Cup and Toyota Cup.

In fact, the first Club World Cup was held in Brazil at the beginning of this century. There were eight teams participating in the competition, including the previous year's Champions League champion Manchester United, the Brazilian champion and host team Corinthians, the South American Libertadores champion Vasco da Gama, the North American Champions League champion Necaxa, the Toyota Cup champion Real Madrid, the Asian Super Cup champion Al Nasser, the African Champions Cup champion Casablanca and the Oceania Champions Cup champion South Melbourne.

FIFA originally planned to make the Club World Cup a traditional event based on the first Club World Cup, and had already decided to hold the second Club World Cup in Spain, and this Club World Cup also invited more teams to participate than the previous one.

However, due to the bankruptcy of FIFA sponsor ISL, the Club World Cup had to be cancelled. It was not until four years later that FIFA finally merged the Club World Cup and Toyota Cup, and then there was a new Club World Cup.

At that time, there were only six teams participating in the new Club World Cup, namely the champions of the six continents. However, after two games, FIFA added another quota for the host country, and this competition system has been used to this day.

The rules of the Club World Cup are that the host league champion team will first compete with the Oceania champion team, and the winner will then form four teams with the champions of Asia, Africa, Central and North America and the Caribbean, and be divided into two groups to decide two semi-final places.

The European Champions League champion team and the South American club champion team will directly enter the semi-finals and compete with the other two teams respectively. The winner will meet in the final to compete for the championship, and the loser will compete for the third place.

But whether it is the earliest or the current Club World Cup, the champion is always born between the European champion team and the South American champion team. Teams from other continents have never won the championship of this championship.

Therefore, Al Ain's early entry into the final this time has given many people unlimited reverie. It just so happens that the team playing against Liverpool is also an Asian team, so it is easier to create topics.

What's more, Liverpool's star player Li Qing is from China, and China's teams have always been at an absolute disadvantage in the confrontation with Japanese teams, and whether at the club level or the national team level, China's people have never taken advantage of Japanese people.

This also gave more people an excuse to create topics. The headlines that Liverpool will be upset by Kashima Antlers in this game, the two Asian teams will meet in the final, and the Asian team will win the Club World Cup for the first time in history appeared on major media websites.

After the referee of this game was confirmed to be Brazilian Wilton Sampaio, it aroused the imagination of countless people.

The reason is that from the past experience of this Brazilian referee, although the penalties he enforced were fair, the enforcement standards were slightly relaxed, which gave many people more different ideas.

On December 19, at 8:30 pm local time in the UAE, more than 30,000 fans flocked to the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi to watch the last semi-final of the Club World Cup, the match between Liverpool and Kashima Antlers.

Because it is located in West Asia, most of the fans who came to watch the game tonight are local and Asian fans. There are also many die-hard fans of Liverpool, but compared with the fans of Kashima Antlers, they are slightly inferior in number.

Before the game started, the fans were in the stands, using various forms and methods to liven up the atmosphere of the team they supported. Among them, the fans of Kashima Antlers were the most enthusiastic.

However, this had no effect on the Liverpool players who were warming up on the field. However, after hearing the English mixed with dirty words from the Kashima fans in the stands, many players' eyes became particularly cold.

In this game, Kashima Antlers wore their red jerseys, and Liverpool wore their away jerseys. Just based on this detail, it has become a sign that Kashima fans think their team is about to win.

Whether it is Klopp or Liverpool players, they all sneered at this, and Li Qing didn't take today's game seriously. As a result, he was very unhappy after being treated like this by the media and Kashima fans.

Li Qing knows very well about the grievances between China and the island countries, especially in modern history. As a Chinese, Li Qing has the obligation to teach the players and fans of Kashima how to behave in this game!

With the whistle of referee Wilton Sampaio, Liverpool kicked off first. Mane pushed the ball to Li Qing. Li Qing looked at the opponent's goal with a sharp light in his eyes.

[Superstar Moment] Start!

Li Qing took the ball kicked by Mane and shot at the goal of Kashima Antlers without any hesitation.

Kashima Antlers goalkeeper Quan Chuntai only felt a flash of white light in front of his eyes, subconsciously turned his head, and saw a ball drilled into the net.

"What?"

The players of Kashima Antlers, who had just stood firm on the court, were stunned, and the fans in the stands were also dumbfounded. The head coach of Kashima Antlers on the sidelines was dumbfounded.

Klopp was drinking water on the sidelines at this time, and he didn't pay attention to what happened on the court.

It was not until he heard the referee blow the whistle, ruling that the goal was valid and signaling the players of Kashima Antlers to kick off that Klopp suddenly realized something. The water bottle in his hand suddenly fell to the ground, and his eyes immediately turned to the goal of Kashima Antlers.

A ball lay quietly in the goal of Kashima Antlers.

How long has the game been going on? When did the ball go in? Is Liverpool already leading?

Such questions appeared in the minds of everyone at the scene, and no one could digest this sudden goal at once.

The Liverpool players on the field were also a little dumbfounded. Everyone was holding back their energy and preparing to show their opponents a little color, but the referee signaled a goal.

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson on the goal line even looked back at his own goal, and then looked at the opponent's goal, with a puzzled look on his face.

It was not until Li Qing jumped on Henderson and began to celebrate loudly that the Liverpool players on the field woke up and accepted the fact that their team was already leading.

The Liverpool fans in the stands who were preparing to watch the game quietly, after a brief silence, roared like a tsunami.

This unexpected goal made them ecstatic, and all kinds of depressed and suppressed emotions before the start of the game were instantly released.

However, they were not prepared for the celebration this time, and they didn't even know who scored the goal, so they didn't have time to sing the "Li Qing Song" that they usually sang when Li Qing scored a goal.

However, this did not affect everyone's happiness. Liverpool owner John Henry, who had just sat down in the VIP room, hugged his wife regardless of everything after learning that the team had scored a goal.