The World Cup Virus

Lin Feng also followed the World Cup draw.

He was not as pessimistic as the fans online about the Chinese team's group.

Italy, the top seed in the group, were the defending champions, but their strength had declined severely. They were nowhere near as frightening as they had been four years ago.

Paraguay were quite strong. If he remembered correctly, they seemed to have finished seventh in this World Cup.

But the fact that they had struggled to put away the Japan team in the knockout stage and had gone all the way to a Penalty Shootout showed that they were not actually that formidable. At most, they were evenly matched with the Chinese team—perhaps even weaker.

As for Slovakia, although they were a team from Europe, they were the weakest side in the group.

The only cause for concern was that Slovakia was not a team reliant on Star Players. They had reached the World Cup through strict discipline, superb teamwork, and outstanding execution.

Moreover, they adhered to Counter-Attack tactics, which meant the Chinese team would have to push forward and attack.

If they failed to score after prolonged pressure, or if the defense line made a mistake and gave their opponents an opportunity, the Chinese team could very well suffer an upset against them.

In short, the other three teams in this group were all quite capable, but none of them were so strong as to inspire despair.

Whether they could advance depended entirely on the National Football Team's own performance.

There were still six months until the World Cup. Now that they already knew their opponents, the remaining six months would be used by the National Football Team to finalize their squad and find teams with strength and styles similar to their group-stage opponents for warm-up matches.