Chapter 68: A Disaster (I)

'England still played 4-4-2 today and they put out their strongest squad and it looks like they're looking to top the group and fight for a strong place in the next games. Zhang Dao looked at England's lineup and said with a frown.

Liu Jianguo also nodded lightly, "Yes, Giggs and Bellamy all appeared in this game, which really surprised us." The goalkeeper is Butland. Defenders Taylor, Caulk, Tomkins and Richards, midfielders Cleverley, Elan, Ryan Giggs and Ramsey, forwards Bellamy and Söder, to be honest, the most eye-catching in this squad is the 37-year-old Giggs, who suddenly announced that she would join England's Olympic team, after all, he had been playing for Wales before. ”

"Yes, but the lineup of our game is very surprising, Ai Huan did not even appear on the bench, and the national Olympic team has not responded positively to this, but there is some news that they want to train the substitute lineup, and this topic is still very unsatisfactory to all of us. Zhang Dao said indifferently, and in his heart, he had already understood something, it seemed that Ai Huan had been exiled again, but this topic could not be said clearly.

"Maybe we can see a new performance in today's game. The goalkeeper is still Liu Dianzuo, the defender Cai Huikang, Feng Xiaoting and Zhang Lindong, and Xu Luyang was also placed on the bench. Midfielders Bai Peng, Lu Peng, Ba Li, Hu Fan, Zhou Tong and Jin Cheng, the forward line is still Wu Lei. But if you want to work on the bench, that's not how it is arranged, but let's take a look at today's game. ”

The final round of the men's group stage at the Olympics started at the same time, with China and England coming together to fight for top spot in the group, and China had won two consecutive games before the group, and a draw would have been needed to win the group. England, on the other hand, are second in the group with one win and one draw, and there is still a possibility of elimination in this game, so they have to win this game, so they also sent the strongest squad.

The match started sharply at five o'clock local time, and as the whistle blew, the game between the two sides began.

The Chinese team unanimously said before the game that they would show their best state and strive to win the first place in the group stage, and the meaning of the words was that even if there was no Ai Fan, they could play a very beautiful game, and the previous game did make many people think that the level of the Chinese team should at least be able to keep a draw, so the outside world is still more optimistic about this game, but no one expected that the first half was like a disaster.

England were fierce from the start, with Ryan Giggs playing a long pass from the right to the left just a minute into the first half, Bellamy got the ball and cut inside, but Bai Peng got ahead of Soder to kick the ball out.

In the fourth minute, it was Giggs who sent a precise through ball again outside the penalty area, and Bellamy continued to dunk the ball in the penalty area to get rid of Zhang Lindong's entanglement, but this action seemed a bit redundant and made him lose the opportunity to shoot in vain.

The first real shot of the game came from the Chinese team, in the sixth minute, Zhou Tong sent the ball with his back heel outside the penalty area, and Wu Lei followed up with a left-footed stab shot but was caught by the England goalkeeper.

It is fair to say that the Chinese team performed well in the first ten minutes, especially Bai Peng's outstanding performance, and his defense in the midfield also made the Chinese team look very calm, but in the ninth minute his problems began to appear.

An inexplicable mistake by Bai Peng in the ninth minute gave the Englishman a corner kick opportunity. Rashem took a corner kick from the right, and during the flight of the ball, Bellamy ran to the middle from the right side, heading sideways to the incoming ball, and the ball flew to the left side of the gate, Cai Huikang intended to clear the ball, but a kick was empty, and the ball hit the post or bounced into the net, and England opened the scoring to make the score 1-0.

"It's a bit of a problem defensively, but it's also a bit of a shame because they're lucky, but we don't look bad. Although Liu Jianguo felt a little sorry for this goal, he still didn't think there was any problem, after all, the Chinese team performed very well in front of him.

But the fact was a resounding slap in the face, less than three minutes later, England's second shot on goal was scored again, first Richards kicked out, Allen frontfield header ferried to the left, Giggs got the ball on the left side, after entering the penalty area, he faced Liu Dianzuo and suddenly sent the ball to the middle, Bellamy fell directly in front of the penalty area to scoop and scored, the score also became 2-0, and what was really disappointing was that when he shot the goal, there was a huge space around him, and there was not even a person who came to mark him.

However, after conceding two goals in a row, the Chinese team's counterattack also improved a little, and they launched a counterattack in the fourteenth minute, but Wu Lei's shot at the last moment hit the plane directly, which also made this counterattack look a bit anticlimactic.

The Englishman immediately launched a counter-attack, and it was Ryan Giggs' ball that pierced the Chinese defence, and Soder was about to face Liu Dianzuo one-on-one, but Feng Xiaoting's tackle interfered with him, and then his hasty shot went over the crossbar.

In the fifteenth minute, Cleverley shot directly from the left side 30 meters away from the goal, and this time Liu Dianzuo finally made an effective save.

A minute later, Zhou Tong made a free kick in England's backfield, but without a player like Ai Huan, the free kick was nothing, Hu Fan's direct shot did not make a personal wall, but allowed England to create a counterattack, but fortunately, the goal did not pose any threat.

The Englishman then slowed down and continued to attack, and in the 19th minute Ramsey went straight in front and Bellamy's diagonal shot from the right side of the box went just wide.

And in the twenty-fourth minute, England finally scored again, this time it was Rashem who instigated an attack in the midfield, Bellamy rushed to the front of the penalty area with the ball on the left side, first paused the rhythm, and then he handed the ball to Giggs, who ran up quickly, who took the ball directly to the vicinity of the small penalty area, Liu Dianzuo wanted to go out to block, Giggs tried to come to a piercing ball, but he didn't expect the ball to hit the leg of Zhang Lindong, who was back to defend, and flew into the door, three to zero. He is also the oldest player to score a goal in the history of the Olympic Games, and his name will be recorded in the history of the Games.

What no one expected was that this was just the beginning, and after the Chinese team conceded three goals in a row, it seemed that they had lost their spirit, and the whole team collapsed in front of everyone's eyes.