The quarterfinals between China and Switzerland were held at the St. Petersburg Stadium.

St. Petersburg Stadium, also known as Krestovsky Stadium and Zenit Arena, is located at the source of the Baltic Gulf of Finland on the Neva River and is the northernmost of the 12 stadiums in this World Cup. It was just completed last year and is a UEFA four-star stadium with a capacity of 68,134 people.

The weather in St. Peter's today is not bad, it is a little cool in the evening, which is quite suitable for the game, at least Dai Zhiwei feels that the weather is very comfortable.

The Chinese team drew the away team today, wearing the red jersey, while the Swiss team wore the white jersey.

The big war has not yet begun.

And the bloody breath has already spread.

Bloody battles are on the verge of breaking out!

Because many of the main players in the Chinese team and the Swiss team are suspended, the starting lists of both sides are also extremely concerned.

Compared with the Swiss team's decent starting lineup, Lippi lined up a 5-4-1 extreme defensive formation, with five defenders and two midfielders in the starting lineup, and it was bound to integrate defensive counterattacks into the bones.

The reason why there will be a formation of 5 defenders + 2 backs is not entirely conservative because Lippi is conservative, but because after Feng Xiaoting and Zhang Linpeng were suspended, the Chinese team fell into the dilemma of having no rice to cook.

Individual strength is not good, you can only make up the number of people.

Switzerland's starting line-up –

Goalkeeper: Zommer

Defenders: Juru, Michael Long, Akanji, Ricardo Rodriguez

Defenders: Behrami, Xhaka

Avant-garde: Shaqiri, Djemayli, Zubair

Forward: Dermic

The starting lineup of the Chinese team——

Goalkeeper: Zeng Cheng

Defenders: Li Xuepeng, Shi Ke, Gao Zhunyi, Liu Yiming, Yu Hanchao

Midfielders: Wu Lei, Zheng Zhi, Wu Xi, Hao Junmin

Forward: Dai Zhiwei

"Well, I won't say anything more. It wasn't the first time we played against Switzerland, so we had to solidify our defence and fight back and wait until the end of the game when their spirit dropped before we looked for opportunities. Lippi gave his final words to the Chinese players in the dressing room.

"Dai, you have to support the team more in the midfield, use your ball control to stabilize the rhythm more, and be careful not to concede the ball easily!"

Dai Zhiwei nodded when he heard this, indicating that he understood.

“OK！ Then you can do a good job, remember, we are the Chinese team that defeated the defending champion Germany, we have gone through a lot of difficult games, and this game will not be difficult for us! Our goal is—" Lippi deliberately dragged out the tail.

"Reach the quarterfinals!" The Chinese players shouted in unison.

After the victory over the German team, the Chinese players also have higher goals, at least the current Swiss team is not as strong as the German team, isn't it?

Lippi nodded in satisfaction and watched as the players walked out of the dressing room one by one, patting them on the shoulders one by one to cheer them on.

When he came to the stadium and waited for kick-off, Dai Zhiwei stepped on the turf under his feet, and the St. Petersburg Stadium was the best stadium he had encountered since arriving in Russia.

The game soon began with the referee's whistle.

In the first five points of the game, neither side invested too much in the attack, the Chinese team did so because they wanted to defend solidly, and the Swiss team did not have too much intention to be too tentative.

The team that defends and counterattacks plays the knockout round, which is so dull.

But it didn't take much time for the pace to pick up.

Surprisingly, the protagonists on the field at this time were neither Dai Zhiwei, nor Shaqiri, Dermic and Xhaka, but the left-back of the Chinese team and the right-back of the Swiss team: Li Xuepeng vs Zhu Lu.

Compared with Zhu Lu, who once played for Arsenal, Li Xuepeng is an absolute nobody, but he is not false at all, but he is-for-tat.

Since the victory over the German team, the players of the Chinese team have not said anything else, at least in terms of confidence, it is a "boom" soar!

Due to the tactical needs of both teams, it was the Swiss right-back Julu who started to attack first.

The Swiss midfielder fell to his feet, and after attracting the attention of Hao Junmin's defence, Xhaka suddenly shifted the ball to the right, and at this time, Zhulu, who was inserted at high speed, received the ball and took a step forward.

At this time, the Chinese team's ground defense remained neat, and Li Xuepeng, with the assistance of Zheng Zhi, stopped Zhu Lu's progress.

Zhu Lu did not blindly force the bottom, but he knew that the Chinese team had 3 central defenders in the penalty area, so he chose to pass the ball back to the middle, and then rushed to the bottom line.

Xhaka met the ground in the middle, and when he saw his teammates running tacitly, he immediately stuffed the ball straight behind Li Xuepeng.

All of this was done in an instant, and Li Xuepeng had already followed Zhu Lu when he was at the bottom. But after all, he turned around and chased back, and this time he was still left behind by Zhu Lu.

Xhaka's pass was just right, and Julu saw Shi Ke who was coming over in the middle to fill the position during the run, so he received the pass and crossed directly.

Shaqiri caught the fighter at the first time, just to avoid the block of Gao Zhunyi and Shi Ke, who was returning, he adjusted the angle slightly when shooting, and the ball flew far off the goal.

Although they were unable to score, the Swiss attack showed the power of Juroud on the right flank.

Li Xuepeng stared at Zhu Lu's distant figure, not knowing what he was thinking about.

Next, a Chinese attack was blocked and a corner kick was awarded. Dai Zhiwei, who was about to ambush outside the forbidden area, was suddenly stopped by a person, and when he looked back, he saw that it was Li Xuepeng.

Dai Zhiwei looked at him suspiciously, and asked him what was the matter with his eyes.

"Zhiwei, I know that the coach's tactics in this game are to defend solidly and look for counter-attacking opportunities. But can you help me a little bit more when I'm attacking? Li Xuepeng didn't look at Dai Zhiwei, but looked at the figure in the penalty area who was ready to defend.

Dai Zhiwei thoughtfully followed Li Xuepeng's gaze to the position of the Swiss team, suddenly understood something, and replied with a slight smile: "Don't worry, no problem." ”

Only then did Li Xuepeng turn his gaze to Dai Zhiwei, smiled and patted him on the shoulder and pushed him to the front.

After speaking, Li Xuepeng turned around and returned to the midfield, and when attacking corner kicks, he usually pays attention to the opponent's counterattack in the midfield.

A counterattack from the Chinese team and Li Xuepeng is also coming.

In the subsequent game, under Dai Zhiwei's conscious bias, the duel between Li Xuepeng and Zhu Lu gradually showed a white-hot trend.

In fact, not only the Chinese team, but also the Swiss team consciously passed the ball all the way to Zhulu, and in this way, the side where Li Xuepeng and Zhu Lu were located became the first battlefield for the two teams to meet.

In the 27th minute, the Swiss team launched an offensive on the right flank. After receiving a pass from Behrami on the wing, Djulu took the ball directly from an angled angle and crossed it. Shaqiri in the middle of the field may not have a height advantage, but his clever snatching of points has earned him opportunities.

Shaqiri flicked the ball with a header and the ball flew straight into the top corner of the goal.

Fortunately, Zeng Cheng, the Chinese team's national goal, has performed quite well recently, although the ball is a little difficult, but he still blocked the ball on the post with his flying pave.

Shi Ke in the middle immediately turned around and prepared to clear the siege, but at this time, Dermic who was ambushed in the penalty area came up to interfere, and Shi Ke, who appeared for the first time in the World Cup, kicked as soon as he was nervous, and the football rolled to the sideline of the penalty area along the same road.

"I'll go!" Dai Zhiwei in the midfield squirted out at once, this is simply a defensive sinkhole!

Li Xuepeng was running hard to kick the ball out of the danger zone, but suddenly he saw a figure rushing in front of him.

Zhu Lu and Li Xuepeng, who had just assisted, ran towards the football at a desperate speed, and the speed of the two was not much different, but Zhu Lu was closer to the football, and when Li Xuepeng's sliding shovel was about to be sealed in front of him, Zhu Lu took the first step and shot vigorously.

Zhu Lu's outside instep drew an outward arc and turned directly to the other side of the goal, and Zeng Cheng had just gotten up and hadn't reacted yet.

"Bang!" There was a loud bang, and the hearts of the fans began to buzz and tremble like the goalpost.

"Hey!" There was a sudden sigh in the audience, and the Chinese fans were glad in their hearts that the goal was not scored.

However, although Zhu Lu's shot still did not score, it means that there is a hole in the defense of the Chinese team!

“Shit！” Lippi stood on the sidelines and looked dissatisfied. Zhu Lu's shot just now frightened the old man lightly, if this goal really scored, then the rest of the game will be very difficult for the Chinese team.

Thinking of this, Lippi also hurriedly expanded his hands to his mouth and shouted loudly into the field.

This is not common for Lippi, which shows how difficult the situation is for the Chinese team.

After Li Xuepeng on the field got Lippi's warning, he also patted his cheeks with both hands.

Among the five defenders on the field of the Chinese team, except for Li Xuepeng, who played 3 group games, Yu Hanchao is a cameo, and the other three have not played a minute before.

Originally, Lippi entrusted Li Xuepeng with a heavy responsibility, but now it seems that he is a little pressed down by pressure.

Next is the Chinese team's attacking opportunity, Dai Zhiwei received a pass from Hao Junmin, and broke through to the left wing.

Zheng Zhi saw Dai Zhiwei running towards him, and he approached the middle lane to give Dai Zhiwei enough room to break through.

After Dai Zhiwei dribbled past the midfield, he was surrounded by the Swiss team, and Xhaka and Behrami all appeared next to him, as if trying to give him a sandwich bag.

Dai Zhiwei glanced at the two Swiss team players around him with his spare eyes, and when he was thinking about how to get rid of these two guys, he suddenly caught a glimpse of red in the corner of his eye.

He picked up the speed of the dribble and went straight to the direction of Behrami.

"Hey! Boy, do you think I'm a bully? Behrami was very unhappy when he saw Dai Zhiwei rushing directly towards him.

Just when he thought that there was going to be a "Mars collision with the earth" between him and Dai Zhiwei, he suddenly saw Dai Zhiwei actually pass the ball, and after the pass, it was almost like a gust of wind passing through him.

Behrami was excited, and hurriedly turned to chase Dai Zhiwei, while Zaka on the other side had already followed Dai Zhiwei closely. Behrami hesitated for a moment, then pounced on Zheng Zhi, who was holding the ball.

Zheng Zhi passed the ball back to Dai Zhiwei after he passed him. Although there is Xhaka behind him, who doesn't know Dai Zhiwei's speed?

After Dai Zhiwei received the pass, Xhaka saw that he was slow, took a step forward and crashed into Dai Zhiwei, ready to interrupt the Chinese team's attack with a foul.

"Yo!"

Dai Zhiwei didn't plan to go toe-to-toe with Xhaka, and passed the ball out first.

Zhu Lu suddenly felt nervous, because he found that Dai Zhiwei's ball was passed behind him, and at this time, Li Xuepeng had unknowingly rushed there.

When Zhu Lu was about to chase back, Li Xuepeng was only two or three steps away from the ball, but when he turned around and took the first step, Li Xuepeng was already ready to cross.

Switzerland's centre-backs Michael Long and Akanji are already in the box.

Zhu Lu directly fell to the ground and slid into a sliding tackle, wanting to destroy Li Xuepeng's cross at the last moment.

But the moment Li Xuepeng touched the ball with his left foot, the three defenders of the Swiss team realized that their judgment was wrong, Li Xuepeng smashed the ball, dodged Zhu Lu's sliding tackle, and then directly brought the ball into the penalty area.

“Fuxk！” Michael Lang let out a low curse and rushed over.

Li Xuepeng was not arrogant enough to think that he could easily pass the Swiss defenders, and directly made an inverted triangle pass when Michael Lang came up to fill in the position.

Michael Lang reacted quickly, quickly turned around and prepared to chase the ball, and saw Zheng Zhi running wildly towards the ball.

Michael Lang picked up his pace even more, rushing towards Zheng Zhi with a sliding tackle just as he bent his bow and arrow. At this time, it is no longer about shoveling him, but about completely blocking the angle of his shot.

Looking at the menacing Michael Lang, Zheng Zhi sent the ball into the penalty area with his left foot, and Wu Lei, who was suddenly sent out of the diagonal stab, shot directly in the opposite direction, and the football directly changed direction and hit the Swiss goalkeeper Zomer by surprise, and could only watch the football slowly roll towards the goal.

"What's the matter!" Next, Dai Zhiwei couldn't help but curse, it turned out that although Wu Lei's shot caught Zomer off guard, the speed was too slow, and it was cleared by Ricardo Rodriguez, who defended in time, on the goal line.

The fans of the Swiss team erupted in a hysterical!

The supporters on both sides are two different atmospheres, and the football field is always so brutal.

In the 40th minute, it was the Chinese team's attack again, Dai Zhiwei struggled past Behrami, and was entangled by Michael Lang before he could pass the ball.

Michael Lang was very pestering, Dai Zhiwei was delayed a little, and Behrami, who was thrown off, followed again, and Dai Zhiwei didn't dare to be careless under the two of them, and the ball was lost so that the Swiss team counterattacked, which was not fun.

Dai Zhiwei had no choice but to pass back, Swiss coach Stokevic smiled lightly after seeing it on the sidelines, and at the pre-game press conference, he said that attaching importance to Dai Zhiwei's defense is not an empty cannon or a smoke bomb, but his true heart.

In this game, the Swiss team has already laid a net against Dai Zhiwei!

(End of chapter)