『Chapter error, click here to report』

With Tang Zheng's last-minute goal in stoppage time, the Chinese team defeated Croatia at the Nizhny Novgorod Arena and became the fourth team to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

In the quarter-finals, the Chinese team will face Portugal, which defeated the host Russia.

The media had long speculated about this possible contest, and now the speculation has become a reality, and it has naturally become the focus of everyone's attention.

Tang Zheng, who was celebrating the victory with his teammates, was soon pestered by reporters in the mixed zone, and as in the past, Tang Zheng preferred to be interviewed by domestic media reporters, and then interviewed by media with relatively good relations or a fairly good reputation.

Although there is nothing to hack at Tang Zheng's level, leading the team to the quarterfinals, the next preparation is particularly important, and he doesn't want the media to affect the preparation of his teammates.

Especially when the next game is against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, in his heart, this game is only allowed to win and not lose!

Face is important, national glory is even more important!

Four years ago, we lost to the Netherlands on penalties, and four years later we must go further against Portugal, which is not strong in overall strength!

The Nizhny Novgorod Arena was completely reduced to a sea of joy for Chinese fans, wave after wave.

Whether it was the Chinese fans inside the stadium or the Chinese fans in the fan square outside the stadium, they all celebrated wildly, venting the great excitement brought by the national team once again advancing to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Croatia is not a team on a par with the Chinese team, but a team with stronger overall strength than the Chinese team, and it can win the game in this case, which shows that the Chinese team has a chance to win a stronger team than itself.

Facing Portugal in the quarterfinals, there is a high chance of winning!

Tang Zheng did not forget his lost friend Modric, and after accepting the media interview, he took the initiative to walk to Modric, who was still sitting on the grass.

Modric looked up and saw Tang Zheng's familiar smiling face.

I don't know why, Modric's calm face subconsciously turned into a smile, and then rolled his eyes.

"It seems...... You don't need my comfort, Luca. Tang Zheng said playfully.

Modric felt Tang Zheng's ridicule, did not continue, but stood up along Tang Zheng's outstretched right hand, and then took the initiative to change the topic: "Congratulations, Tang, you got together with Cristiano in the quarterfinals as you wished." ”

"Why do I think you're a little sour?"

Tang Zheng covered his nose and said.

"Go, go, go. Modric was speechless: "I wanted to beat Cristiano's Portugal, but you guys actually eliminated us!"

Speaking of this, Modric suddenly thought of something and asked curiously: "Don, your teacher told me, did you see the defensive weaknesses I saw a long time ago?"

Tang Zheng shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands: "I don't know what you're talking about." ”

Modric smiled and said to himself: "Originally, I was just guessing, but now I know the answer, you guy is really terrible! ”

"Actually, you can abandon your Croatian citizenship and join our Chinese national team. Tang Zheng blinked: "In four years, we can work together in Qatar to attack the Hercules Cup." ”

"I'm too lazy to pay attention to you. Modric smiled and punched Tang Zheng in the left chest, then took off his jersey and handed it to Tang Zheng: "Change the jersey, I should also comfort and comfort my teammates." ”

“OK！”

※※※

The Chinese team defeated Croatia 2:1 to become the fourth team to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, which was a big upset, but considering that the two goals of the Chinese team were scored by Tang Zheng, there was also a lot less news about the upset of the Chinese team.

In the perception of many media, as long as Tang Zheng plays well, any team can beat!

Croatia is at most a world-class team, and it is completely out of the top teams, otherwise it would have been said by the media to be one of the favorites to win the championship.

However, the Chinese team that beat Croatia became the focus of the global media, as Tang Zheng and Cristiano Ronaldo will meet for the first time in the World Cup as captains of their respective national teams.

At the club level, Tang Zheng defeated Cristiano Ronaldo, so ...... What about at the national team level?

The global media is roughly divided into two types, one is optimistic that the Chinese team led by Tang Zheng will beat Portugal to advance to the semifinals, and the other is optimistic that Cristiano Ronaldo, who is in excellent form, will lead Portugal to defeat the Chinese team.

Although the Portuguese national team is not the favorite to win the championship, the overall strength is still considerable, significantly stronger than the Chinese team led by Tang Zheng.

Therefore, it is really difficult to say who will advance to the semi-finals of this World Cup, and coupled with the 'old hatred' that Tang Zheng and Cristiano Ronaldo have been deliberately unearthed by the media, this game will be full of highlights.

The Chinese team who beat Croatia were still in a state of excitement after returning to their hotel, but head coach Lippi did not interfere with the players, because he knew that deliberately suppressing the emotions of the players would bring rebellion.

There are still five days left in the quarter-finals against Portugal, and the players still have plenty of time to prepare, so they can sleep late if they go to bed late.

No impact!

At noon the next day, the whole Chinese team took a chartered flight south from Nizhny Novgorod to Sochi, the southernmost point.

The Chinese team and Chinese fans are no strangers to the city of Sochi, because the third group game between the Chinese team and Peru was played at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi.

In that game, the two sides ended up 1:1, but the Chinese team scored four points in the previous two games, and the victory or defeat of the last game was not particularly important, even if it was acceptable, so head coach Lippi consciously let some players who had not played in the World Cup appear on the stage.

Facing Portugal at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, the Chinese team was full of fighting spirit and enthusiasm for recovery training in the afternoon, not at all like a team that was high until midnight last night.

However, head coach Lippi took into account that the players were too high last night and that the intensity of the first training session on arrival in Sochi was very low, focusing on recovery.

At 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Russian time on the same day, there were two 1/8 finals at the Samara Stadium and the Rostov-on-Don Stadium respectively, Brazil vs. Mexico and Belgium vs. Japan.

There was no suspense in the match between Brazil and Mexico, with Roberto Firmino and Neymar scoring twice in the second half to beat Mexico.

There is no suspense in the 1/8 finals between Belgium and Japan, after all, the Belgian squad is too luxurious, and the Japanese team can qualify from the group is more due to luck, but no one expected that the Japanese team would score two goals in a row at the beginning of the second half and lead Belgium.

Thankfully, Vertonghen and Marouane Fellaini equalised twice in five minutes, before a stoppage-time winner from substitute Chadley netted a thrilling run to the quarter-finals.

The last two quarter-finals are Sweden and England, which means that the four quarter-final meetings are Uruguay vs France, Brazil vs Belgium, Sweden vs England and Portugal vs China.

The quarterfinals were decided, and the World Cup entered a two-point break.

Of course, this is for fans who follow the World Cup.

Players who represent their respective national teams to reach the quarter-finals must seize the time to prepare in the short gap to make it to the semi-finals!

In fact, when the game came to the 1/4 finals, the tactical play of each team has been formed, and there will be no new tactical play, but more to familiarize with and study the opponent's tactical play, so the preparation of the Chinese team revolves around recovery, familiarization and research.

※※※

The first match day of the 2018 World Cup quarter-finals in Russia was Uruguay vs France and Brazil vs Belgium, and the preparation of the Chinese team also came to the final stage, and before the end of the game, as in the past few days, the head coach Lippi arranged for the players to train for penalty shootouts.

Four years ago, the Chinese team was eliminated by the Netherlands on penalties in the quarterfinals, and four years later, if they enter the penalty shootout again, they can't fall into the same pit.

The penalty shootout training is not a simple five rounds, but each player has to play three times in a cycle, and the goalkeepers are Yan Junling, Zeng Cheng and Wang Xiaolei respectively.

Football is a fast-changing game and any eventuality can happen, so every player could be in the penalty shoot-out.

Naturally, training can't be compared with real games, after all, the pressure felt by the players in the penalty shootout cannot be described in words, so the penalty shooting rate in training is very high.

But as Dortmund's number one goalkeeper, Yan Junling's performance is still quite good, except for the two goalkeepers and his own 20 players, he saved a total of five penalties, a considerable statistic!

You should know that under normal circumstances, penalty shootouts are five rounds, unless the winner has not been decided after five rounds.

Twenty goals saved for five goals is equivalent to one out of four goals saved, and in a thrilling penalty shootout, saving one goal can help your team win a penalty shootout!

For the data handed over by Yan Junling, the coaching staff of the Chinese team is very satisfied.

The goalkeeper in the second round was Zeng Cheng, and compared with Yan Junling, his save success rate was much lower, only three out of 20 goals, two of which were missed by teammates who took penalties.

Zeng Cheng's save success rate is lower than Yan Junling's is what Lippi and his coaching staff thought of in advance, and the goalkeeper position is very special and will not be easily rotated.

The third round was played by Wang Xiaolei, and the players who took the penalty in the first few rounds were the ideal penalty players in Lippi's mind, and the hit rate was extremely high.

Because of the height limitation, the penalty players knew Wang Xiaolei's shortcomings, and they all chose to play two lower corners and upper corners, so they didn't save a ball until the fifteenth round.

Shi Ke plays as a central defender, and his footwork is naturally not very good, and the past two cycles have been dominated by explosive shots, hitting one and throwing one.

"Beep~"

With the whistle of Li Tie, who was a guest referee, Shi Kezhu picked up his right thigh.

Wang Xiaolei's eyes froze, and the whole person was like a shark smelling blood, and his left foot pushed the ground, but at this moment, he felt a sharp pain in his left calf and stomach, and the body that was about to take off fell.

Shi Ke flew into the goal with a penalty kick, but no one paid attention to the goal, but looked at Wang Xiaolei, who was frowning and trying to exert his left foot.

After a simple diagnosis by the team doctor, Wang Xiaolei confirmed that it was a soleus muscle strain, which was considered to be an early withdrawal from this World Cup.

However, the penalty training did not end because of this, and head coach Lippi turned his head to look at Yan Junling: "Yan, you continue to guard the goal." ”

At this time, Tang Zheng suddenly grabbed Yan Junling, who was about to walk towards the goal, and winked at head coach Lippi: "Hey~ head, I want to feel what it's like to be a goalkeeper, is it okay?"

If it were other players, Lippi would definitely refuse on the spot, Tang Zheng was different.

Thinking about it, the unfavorable situation of player injury in the preparation for the game, the player's mood must be affected, and it is inevitable that he will not become the second Wang Xiaolei in the intensive training, as the captain Tang Zheng took the initiative to apply as a goalkeeper to complete the third cycle of penalty training, which has the effect of diverting the attention of the players.

What is a captain?

This...... It's the captain!

So, Lippi tapped his chin: "No problem." ”

Media reporters and fans who watched the Chinese team's training in the outfield of the Fisht Olympic Stadium were surprised to see Tang Zheng take the gloves handed over by Yan Junling and stand in front of the goal.

This...... Is it to be a goalkeeper?

A few seconds later, they determined that Tang Zheng was a guest goalkeeper to complete the task that Wang Xiaolei, who had left the field injured, had not yet been completed.

But reporters and fans who often follow Real Madrid's training are not surprised, Tang Zheng will occasionally make a cameo appearance as a goalkeeper in Real Madrid's team training, in addition to the very difficult to save shots, Tang Zheng, who is outstanding in height, reaction and prediction, is also very impressive in terms of save success rate.

The last four players to take penalties were Wu Xi, He Chao, Deng Hanwen and Liu Yiming.

Not to mention, Tang Zheng, who is 1.94 meters tall, stands in front of the door and spreads his arms to give people a very depressed feeling, except for Wu Xi hitting the ball into the upper left corner of the goal, He Chao, Deng Hanwen and Liu Yiming were all pounced by Tang Zheng, who was very accurately predicted.

According to the success rate of consecutive saves, Tang Zheng is even higher than goalkeeper Yan Junling.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the low quality of the players who took the penalty at the end.

Tang Zheng completed the last practice of the Chinese team before the game as a goalkeeper, which became a hot topic of discussion among the media and fans on the Internet.

Many fans posted on Weibo and Twitter that Tang Zheng was a goalkeeper who was delayed by goals and assists, otherwise the Chinese team would have won the Dutch team in the penalty shootout in the 1/4 finals of the last World Cup.

Seeing that the fans were hotly discussing and diverting the unfavorable atmosphere of Wang Xiaolei's injury and absence from the rest of the World Cup, Tang Zheng was very satisfied.

At 5 p.m. local time in Russia, Uruguay faced the favorite France at the Nizhny Novgorod Arena, and the French team defeated Uruguay 2-0 with two goals from Raphael Varane and Antoine Griezmann in the second half to advance to the semifinals.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Brazil faced Belgium at the Kazan Stadium, because of the ability to seize the opportunity, luck and referee factors, the favorite Brazil lost to Belgium 1:2 and was unfortunately eliminated.

：。 ：

"Bookmark for easy reading"