Chapter 290 Breakthrough, World Cup Group Draw

I don’t know if the Premier League had expected Li Qing to break his record of 31 goals in a single season last season in the 14th round of the league. Liverpool’s away challenge to Stoke City in the 14th round of the league is the last game in November.

Of course, everything is accidental. There are five other games at the same time as Stoke City vs. Liverpool, namely Arsenal vs. Huddersfield, Bournemouth vs. Burnley, Chelsea vs. Swansea, Everton vs. West Ham United, and Manchester City vs. Southampton.

In the focus battle at Bet365 Stadium, Li Qing started the game. Stoke City coach Mark Hughes fulfilled his pre-match promise and closely guarded Li Qing, but Li Qing was in very good condition. He helped the visiting team score the first goal in the seventh minute of the game.

A powerful long shot knocked Grant’s goal.

Juli TV commentator Zhan Jun was ecstatic: "Li Qing scored his 31st goal this season! He tied his record of 31 goals last season! The game has only started for seven minutes, and there is still plenty of time for him to continue scoring goals!"

The score fell behind early, and Stoke City players had to step up their offense to try to equalize the score.

In the 20th minute, Li Qing made a long pass behind him, and Salah cut behind Shawcross, got the ball and dribbled past goalkeeper Grant to score an empty goal.

After falling behind by two goals, Mark Hughes' team could no longer care about restricting Li Qing, because... Stoke City is in poor condition this season, with only 13 points in the past 13 rounds, only 3 points ahead of the relegation zone.

Li Qing, who lacked multiple defenses, was very active. In the 39th minute, he helped Liverpool expand the score to three goals.

"Oh-My-God!"

Sky TV commentator Andy Gray said loudly: "A double goal! Li Qing contributed his 32nd goal of the season! 32 goals in 14 games, the efficiency is incredible! He is now only two goals away from the 34 goals in a single Premier League season created by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer!"

Perhaps because of the limited ability of the opponent, Li Qing did not play very elegantly in the second half, and his enthusiasm was not particularly high. Seeing that the team was leading by three goals, Liverpool coach Klopp decisively replaced Li Qing to prepare for the next devil's schedule.

In the end, Liverpool defeated the home team Stoke City 3:0 with two goals and one assist contributed by Li Qing at the Bet365 Stadium, winning ten consecutive league victories and continuing to rank first in the league with 40 points.

Manchester City's home performance was relatively stable. With goals from Aguero and Sterling, they narrowly defeated Southampton 2:1 and ranked second in the league by two points. Manchester United, ranked third, is already 8 points behind, which means that the battle for the league championship this season is likely to be between the defending champions Liverpool and Manchester City.

The 14th round of the 2017-2018 Premier League season has ended. The British media, European mainstream media and sports media around the world have basically reported on Li Qing breaking his record of 31 goals in just 14 games, which he scored in 15 games last season.

A large number of media reporters and fans believe that Li Qing's record of breaking the Premier League single-season record set by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer will most likely be broken in the next round!

Liverpool's next opponent is the newly promoted Brighton. According to the comparison of their strength, Li Qing, who has already scored 32 goals this season, is not 100% able to break the Premier League single-season goal record, but at least it is very likely to tie the record.

However, as time came to December 1, the focus of the world's media quickly shifted to the Kremlin Concert Hall in Moscow.

The 2018 Russia World Cup group draw ceremony will be held as scheduled at the Kremlin Concert Hall!

Around 8pm, Li Qing was watching the live broadcast of the World Cup group draw with Solanke and Arnold in his mansion, which ended a series of cultural performances. At the beginning, Klopp, the player of the German team who won the last World Cup, returned the World Cup trophy.

Looking at the glittering World Cup trophy, Li Qing's eyes were full of yearning.

Arnold turned his head and asked Li Qing: "Li, do you want to lift the World Cup trophy?"

"Of course!"

Li Qing looked at the huge LCD TV screen and said without blinking, until the screen switched, he clenched his fist: "World Cup champion, is my goal!"

Solanke and Arnold looked at Li Qing's confident eyes and were envious. When they were sixteen years old, they were still playing in the National Youth League and Youth FA Cup, and the sixteen-year-old Li Qing has become the focus of the world.

According to his excellent performance, he will definitely be a main force in England's participation in the World Cup in Russia.

The 20-year-old Solanke doesn't have much confidence in himself. In tournament-style games, coaches tend to pay more attention to bringing defensive players. The number of forwards is bound to be limited, especially with super forwards like Harry Kane and Vardy, and wingers like Sterling, Li Qing, Chamberlain, and Rashford, who are outstanding internationals. It is difficult to occupy a substitute position.

Arnold is very confident. This season, he has become the first choice for Liverpool's right back. If he can continue to perform well this season, not to mention the main right back, there will be no problem with the substitute!

The two looked at the TV with different ideas. Li Qing has traveled through time for more than a year and doesn't remember the results of the group draw of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, the changes in the FIFA ranking position brought by his little butterfly are likely to affect England's position ranking and the draw results.

This group division is based on the FIFA ranking in October, which means that the large number of points brought by defeating Germany and Brazil in November will not work, which leads to England's embarrassing ranking.

According to the team classification, England, ranked eighth in the world, should be the seeded team, but the host Russia automatically enters Group A and occupies a seed seat, which means that England, ranked eighth, can only be relegated to the second-tier team.

The other seven seeded teams are Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland and France.

The draw ceremony follows the principle of avoiding teams from the same continent, but since there are 14 participating teams in Europe, there are at most two European teams in each group.

The group draw is very rigorous, and a total of eight world football legends were invited to serve as lottery guests, including Maradona, Cannavaro, Puyol, Blanco, Cafu, Fran, Banks and Simonyan.

Except for the host Russia, which is destined to be placed in Group A for the opening game, the other seven seeded teams have their respective groups in the subsequent draw.

Portugal was assigned to Group B, France to Group C, Argentina to Group D, Brazil to Group E, Germany to Group F, Belgium to Group G, Poland to Group H. The eight seeded teams were settled, and the atmosphere at the draw became tense. Even Solanke and Arnold, who were sitting in front of the TV, felt nervous.

The first second-tier team to be drawn was Uruguay, which naturally appeared in Group A. The next team to be drawn was Spain, which means that the two teams from the Iberian Peninsula appeared in Group B. The atmosphere at the draw was clearly on the rise.

Denmark was the third European team to be drawn and was placed in Group C. When the fourth second-tier team was drawn, the entire concert hall was in an uproar.

"Oh my god!"

Solanke and Arnold's pupils shrank at the same time and exclaimed.