Actually, Australia's failure to score in the first half, trailing China by one goal, was perfectly acceptable to Australia's coach, Holger Osieck.

After all, this was China's home ground, and the Chinese team had made rapid progress in the past two years, finishing as runners-up in the Asian Cup, winning the Olympics, and drawing with Japan away in the previous top ten match.

From any perspective, China was definitely not an opponent to be ignored or underestimated.

Therefore, Osieck was quite satisfied with the result of conceding only one goal in the first half.

Because they had only conceded one goal, he had greater expectations for the second half—Australia had drawn two and lost one in their first three games, so they certainly weren't looking to take another defeat in this fourth game.

Winning against China on their home ground was Osieck's goal.

It was quite contradictory, thinking on the one hand that China, playing at home, was strong and not to be underestimated, while on the other hand setting the goal of defeating China on their home ground.

In the locker room, Osieck constantly encouraged his players, telling them that they were only one goal behind and that they had a full forty-five minutes in the second half to defeat China on their home ground.

"...The Chinese players' performance in the first half will make them mistakenly believe that they can easily defeat us at home. When they become complacent, that's when we will defeat them!"

In the Chinese team's locker room, head coach Gao Hongbo was also reminding his players that a one-goal lead was not secure and that they should be wary of Australia's fierce attacks in the second half. But at the same time, Australia's fierce attacks were also an opportunity for China.

"As long as we can withstand their attacks, we will definitely have many opportunities to counterattack," Gao Hongbo told his players.

※※※

After the second half began, the Chinese team, led by Zhou Yi, continued to launch attacks on Australia's penalty area. The intensity of the attacks made it difficult for Australia to even cross their own half. The Xi'an fans in the stands of the Zhuque Stadium also supported their team with huge cheers.

China's performance reminded people of the period after China had just scored in the first half. The attacks were truly like a tidal wave, exciting to watch.

Australia had obviously anticipated that China would launch such fierce attacks at the beginning of the second half, so they retreated across the board, consolidated their defense, and focused on withstanding China's aggressive attacks first.

Thanks to their efforts, Australia's goal was not breached. After ten minutes, China once again slowed down their pace; the players needed to catch their breath.

And Australia seized the opportunity of China slowing down to launch their counterattack.

Faced with Australia's counterattack, the Chinese team did not engage in a decisive battle in the midfield, but instead retreated to the thirty-meter area, fighting them near the penalty area.

This allowed them to fully utilize their advantage of layered filtering in defense, making it difficult for Australia to truly threaten China's goal.

In the process, Zhou Yi began to look for opportunities to counterattack.

Australia would definitely not be content to lose on their away game, and even a draw would probably not satisfy them. Their results in the first three games had been too poor. Understanding this, Zhou Yi was confident in his judgment.

He firmly believed that Australia would continue to increase the intensity of their attacks, and when they pushed out completely, that would be the time for China to counterattack. For now, they needed to wait patiently.

※※※

Australia's attack did not initially go all out, because they also had to guard against China's defensive counterattacks. So the defensive line was basically still behind the center line, but this level of attack clearly couldn't do anything to the goal guarded by Sun Pan.

After attacking for a while, Australia's offense was still not able to pose much of a threat to China's goal, and there were not even many high-quality shots.

Seeing that the score could not be changed, anxious emotions were slowly growing in the minds of every Australian player.

They were well aware of what goals they had come to China with. If they still couldn't win this game, with no wins in four top ten matches, it would be a bit doubtful whether they could qualify for the World Cup.

Why had they chosen to join the Asian Football Confederation in the first place? Wasn't it precisely to make it easier to enter the World Cup finals? It would be quite embarrassing if they couldn't even get through the Asian qualifiers.

Moreover, the pressure from domestic public opinion would become very great.

After this game, there were still five match days left. Australia would have a bye in these five match days, which meant there were four games left.

If they lost to China now, Australia would only have two points after the match, and the gap between them and their direct competitors, China and Japan, would widen further.

China had three wins and one draw, with ten points, surpassing Japan to become the top of the group, while Japan had two wins and two draws, with eight points, ranking second. Australia, with a mere two points, would probably have trouble even securing fourth place in the group.

So losing this game would be very bad for them.

Thinking of this, the Australian players became more and more impatient in the game.

※※※

Unknowingly, in the back-and-forth between the two sides, fifteen minutes had passed in the second half, and there were only thirty minutes left until the end of the game.

In order to change the current lukewarm situation of the attack, Osieck decided to make adjustments.

He asked the defensive players on both wings to actively step up and participate in the attack, so that Australia's attack would be more layered, forming a wolf pack-like offensive, layer upon layer, wave after wave.

Only through such an offensive could they create enough pressure on China's defense, forcing them to make mistakes and creating opportunities for Australia.

When even Australia's defenders pressed forward to participate in the attack, for a moment, their offensive did bring great pressure and trouble to the Chinese players, and it did create some dangerous situations in front of China's goal.

Faced with these dangerous situations, Chinese fans and commentators were all terrified, but Sun Pan was overjoyed—finally he could show off!

Previously, the quality of Australia's attacks had generally not been high, and it was difficult for him to have any brilliant performances. They were all just some regular saves, and it was impossible to even have a difficult save.

Now it was different...

Australia's desperate attack gave Sun Pan many opportunities to perform.

He began to frequently appear in close-up shots and slow-motion replays.

"Sun Pan has made another beautiful save! Australia's offensive has been a bit fierce during this period. China's three lines have almost been compressed into one line, which is very dangerous..." Liu Hong said worriedly.

In the Zhuque Stadium, as long as Australian players got the ball, Xi'an fans would use swear words and boos to interfere with them. But how could Australia, a well-trained team and one of the top teams in Asia, be easily interfered with by fans? They had prepared everything before coming to the away game to take all three points. They were going to be enemies with 1.4 billion people in China.

Sun Pan was very excited during this period, and Guo Nu and Yang Muge were also very active. Zhou Yi was not seen on the screen as often, so much so that if someone thought of him, they might think that Zhou Yi had become invisible.

But in fact, Zhou Yi was not idle either. He had been observing the situation on the field, firmly remembering the running routes of the Chinese and Australian players in his mind, and analyzing some patterns through these records.

He felt that the right opportunity to launch a counterattack had arrived.

※※※

After Australia's two full-backs came up to participate in the attack, their offensive methods became simpler and more direct—that is, constant crosses from both wings, with Tim Cahill, who was excellent at heading, jumping up to compete in the middle.

Cahill's header was indeed quite threatening, but Guo Nu was not easy to deal with either.

Sometimes, even if Guo Nu couldn't head the ball, his close marking and contesting would interfere with Cahill, making it difficult for him to comfortably head the ball towards the goal.

Here it was, Australia was making another cross from the wing. Tim Cahill sprinted and then jumped high, trying to head the ball, but he collided with Guo Nu in the air. He still headed the ball, but all his strength was used to fight Guo Nu in the air, and the moment he headed the ball, he was already at the end of his strength.

Sun Pan jumped in the air, stretched out his hands, and easily plucked the ball down.

He was still a little dissatisfied, feeling that this save was not exciting enough.

Just as he was about to complain, he saw Zhou Yi winking at him outside the penalty area.

In order not to attract attention, Zhou Yi did not make any gestures, just winking at him. If someone didn't know Zhou Yi very well, they would be surprised and at a loss when they saw him grinning and winking hard, not understanding what was wrong with Zhou Yi, whether he had suddenly had an epileptic fit...

But Sun Pan was not like that. When he saw Zhou Yi like this, he knew what he was going to do.

So he didn't bother to complain that Guo Nu didn't give him a chance to show off, and directly passed the two people, swung his arms around, and threw the ball out.

He didn't throw it directly to Zhou Yi, because there were two Australian players next to Zhou Yi.

He used so much force to throw the ball directly to China's front line, to He Ying!