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The reason why the Russian team did not fall behind in the first half hour of the opening hour is not only that their defensive strategy has been very effective, but also because the team can also create enough threats for the opponent on the offensive end.

England's back three system already needs timely support from team-mates at the defensive end, otherwise too much space will give the opposition forward line a lot of room to move. But Henderson, who plays as a single midfielder, is not a full-time dirty sapper, otherwise his template for his youth would not have been Gerrard, so the captain of the Three Lions is actually lacking in the protection of the defensive line behind him.

Southgate's thinking is still to hope that the two wide defenders can drop back to become full-backs when the defence is a little tight, which is also a common way to change the back three formation. It's just that this will inevitably cause a great test of the physical fitness of Terpier and Danny Rose, because they also need to run hard to catch up in the frontcourt, otherwise in the case of Kane being targeted and unable to play his skills, the team will not be able to create any threat in the Russian penalty area by relying only on the sometimes supernatural and sometimes extremely unreliable Sterling.

It was the open field left behind by the two wide forward assists that Cheryshev and Golovin each received passes from their teammates at the back and played two quick counter-attacks.

The first of these was full-back-turned-Kele Walker, who used his speed and agility to intercept Cheryshev's through the Yellow Dragon and force the latter to cut wide and deliver a cross. As a result, Smolov, who was not dominant in height and strength, could not fight for the landing point under the marking of Stones, and although the ball was received by Golovin who followed up on the right, the rest of the English players were basically in place by then, and did not let the Russian team take the opportunity to threaten the goal guarded by Pickford.

As for the second time, it was even more dangerous, as Zagoev, who returned to the front of the penalty area to participate in the siege, received the ball from the feet of Sterling and immediately moved to the right after receiving the ball from the feet of his teammates. The current Russian number one Golovin immediately showed his excellent dribbling skills, first using a simple change of direction to flick past Danny Ross who came to intercept him, and then taking a long stride past left centre-back Harry Maguire who tried to end the counter-attack with a sliding tackle, and in front of him was a large open field.

Fortunately, Stones didn't press his position too high when his side was besieging just now, giving him a chance to make up for his team-mate's mistakes. However, the disadvantage in speed only allowed the Premier League star centre-back to temporarily reluctantly block the opponent's intention to cut inside, but could not completely resolve the danger.

In the end, after taking a step into the big penalty area, Golovin completed a set of small combos with great speed, that is, pretending to slow down and adjust his pace, but suddenly used the outside of his right foot to slant the ball towards a wave, taking advantage of the defender's momentary pause and dodging space to shoot directly with his feet. The ball passed under Stones' crotch and flew like a cannonball towards the far corner.

Unfortunately, the shot had a slight inspin, and although it dodged the right hand of Pickford, who quickly made a side pounce, it also flew out of the frame of the goal, and finally hit the billboard on the outside of the field with a dull and powerful impact.

Had the attacker, who plays for Ligue 1 Monaco, have been a little calmer, or have taken a step forward to lure the opposition defender into making a break to get better visibility, or had chosen to hold the ball and wait for his team-mate Smolov, who was already struggling forward in the middle, to flank him, he would have posed a greater threat.

However, Li Mudi will not be too demanding that the players must pursue absolute perfection, in addition to the fact that it is impossible to do, it is also related to the ability of this group of players. Even if you are the best player in the Russian superpower, there is a huge gap between the 24-year-old and the world's top players, and given that he has always played as a midfielder or left winger at the club and is not very used to playing on the right side, it is enough to satisfy the manager.

England did not dare to invest as much in attack as they did before after the defensive threatened by these two counter-attacks, and the two wing-backs reduced their assists sharply, always maintaining the attention of the quick return after conceding the goal. As a result of the change, neither team could get too many scoring chances on the offensive end until the end of the first half, and a dull battle was already starting to show.

Soon after the start of the second half, Southgate began to take the initiative to change, and seeing that his side's weaknesses in positional warfare were being targeted by the opponent, he ordered his team's three lines to retreat en masse, hoping to attract the premise of the Russian team's defence, so as to take advantage of the speed and impact of the English players.

However, his wishful thinking did not work, and the reason why Li Mudi's team was able to stay out in dialogue with strong opponents today was that Zagoev, who played the role of central midfielder in a 4-3-3 formation, can be said to have played a big role. The core of the Russian men's football team, who has just passed 30 years old, can not only actively participate in interceptions on the defensive end, but also play the role of initiator in counterattacks, and his accurate long passes and open vision are the most crucial part of the team's ability to quickly complete the transition between attack and defense.

And when the Three Lions made a proper gesture of recovery and conceded part of the ball, it was Zagoev who organized all the Russian players on the field into a whole, showing the team's ability to control the ball as a team that was not weaker than the opponent, and let the Englishman's hopes of high-intensity pressing and thus create a quick counter-attack were directly dashed.

There has always been a joke about illusions in football, which everyone should be familiar with, and that is the meme "England are strong, Italy is weak", which is used to make fun of how these two teams perform in major tournaments and in warm-up or qualifying matches.

We will not mention the situation in Italy here, but just look at how the Three Lions became Three Meows.

Before almost every World Cup or European Championship starts, the England team will be touted as the favorite by the outside world, especially the domestic media, and the title of "the strongest England team in X years" should be very familiar to older fans.

However, since they first participated in the World Cup in 1950 as the originators of modern football, they made an 11-0 bloodbath of the United States team, the biggest joke in the history of world football, officially imprinted the illusion of "England is strong" in the minds of the world.

Later, although the 1966 World Cup on home soil was successfully won by the advantage of the hosts, in the knockout stage, it was suspected that the home field was used to change the venue so that they could play at Wembley all the time, which took advantage of the physical and fan support effect. Coupled with the controversial goal of the century in the final against West Germany, the Three Lions' only attempt to reach the top is somewhat stained.

I won't mention the results here, otherwise England fans will be unhappy, let's just take the 2018 World Cup in Russia as an example. Although the team finished fourth, their performance was unconvincing based on the quality of their opponents in seven games.

The victory against Tunisia in the first game of the group came from Kane's lucky strike in the last moments; This battle slaughtered Panama, which seemed to be domineering, but in fact it was bullying the inexperienced World Cup newcomers, and was scored by the opponent, and the performance was far from as good as the score showed; In the final game, Belgium, although it hid most of the main force because it wanted to enter the relatively weak competition semi-zone, but when the opponent was also on the bench, it was still a small defeat, which was barely ignored as a strategic consideration.

After entering the knockout round, the England team was lucky, first welcoming Colombia, which lacked an absolute core and reduced offensive firepower by at least 40%, but could only win through penalty shootouts; The quarter-finals against the former bitter hosts Sweden were the best game of the Three Lions in this tournament, but the suspension of the opponent's defensive core Rustig also had a great impact; In the semi-finals, facing Croatia, which has experienced two penalty shootouts in a row and is on the verge of exhaustion, the Three Lions finally turned into three meows, and were dragged to death by the opponent in the environment that all parties have been optimistic about, and unfortunately missed the perfect opportunity to break into the final.

As for the third- and fourth-place matchups, Southgate once again used a number of substitutes, so the result of the defeat to Belgium didn't seem to say much. But anyone with a discerning eye knows that even if they are on the full main force, the result of the game will not change, and the kick is just not the kick, that's all.

All in all, England played a total of seven games in the World Cup in Russia, with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses (3 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses if penalty shootouts do not count into the result), which is really not very good. And putting aside the two victories in the group stage that are obviously lacking in gold, when facing a team that is not much worse than them, or even slightly stronger than them, the performance is actually quite bad, which is exactly in line with the above delusion.

Therefore, Li Mudi did not have a trace of fear in his heart when facing this so-called favorite to win the championship, and he knew very well that as long as the Russian men's football team can stick to its own characteristics and limit the opponent's advantages, then this game will never lose within 120 minutes.

Sure enough, when the game reached the sixty-second minute, Southgate, who was unwilling to continue to wear out the game in such a tepid way, took the lead in choosing to change his tactics. He first replaced Jesse Lingard with Dier, freeing up Henderson, who had been dragging behind midfield, and allowing the Liverpool star to play to his strengths in passing and tempo. Rashford was then brought on to replace Raheem Sterling, and with Russia concentrating their forces on Harry Kane, Rashford, who has a stronger impact and can play a role in running and pulling without the ball at his feet, is clearly more suitable.

After this adjustment, the England team's front line immediately became active, and the speed and explosiveness of the double 19, combined with years of experience accumulated at the world's top giants Manchester United, made the 22-year-old Rashford put huge pressure on the Russian backline as soon as he came on the pitch. In particular, he frequently launched attacks on the right side of his side, making the 33-year-old left-back Kombarov extremely embarrassed to defend, and Li Mudi had no choice but to replace the faster Schennikov, but it could only play a role in some barely limiting effect.

After having his teammates on the side to attract firepower, Kane, who had been stuck in the quagmire, also seemed to see hope of breaking free, and Li Mudi had to order the team to retreat as a whole again, returning to a single tactic of defensive counterattack.

However, just as the Three Lions began to invest more in attack, Zagoev instigated a classic multi-point flowering counterattack to turn the tide of the game in one fell swoop.

In the 70th minute, Ali's forced break at the edge of the box was blocked, and he immediately made a mistake when he tried to poke the ball to a teammate behind him before he fell to the ground, just in time for Cheryshev to get back to the defence. The latter immediately passed the ball to Zagoev and then took a big stride towards the court.

Zagoev spun around and shook off Danny Rose with a stop-or-go belt, then lifted his right foot to deliver a quick and sharp through-the-ground stopper that allowed Golovin, who had already started to pick up, to dodge Harry Maguire's interception and go straight to the landing point in the hinterland.

After grabbing the ball in front of Dale, who was on the defensive, Golovin did not choose to go it alone, but after performing another feint to accelerate forward, he sent the ball to the far end of the space with a huge arc. There, Cheryshev, who had been cutting forward at high speed, flanked him and after a few adjustments, he fired a powerful left-footed shot from 13 or 4 yards from goal before Stones' flying tackle arrived.

Pickford, who moved to the best defensive position in time, struggled to save the heavy shot from the side, but could not control the direction of the second drop, and was followed up by Smolov in the middle to score in the bottom right corner of the goal, changing the score to 1-0.

The goal upset the balance of the pitch and the Englishman had no choice but to continue to press the ball in hopes of recovering a 10th per cent before the end of 90 minutes of normal time.

However, Li Mudi unexpectedly replaced the goal-scorer Smolov with high school striker Dzyuba at this time, allowing the experienced veteran to use his still strong body to bully Kyle Walker, who was fast but only qualified in defensive selection and anticipation, so that the latter could not be distracted to make up for the defense. On the other side, Golovin and Cheryshev, who were almost at the bottom of their fitness but still gritting their teeth, began to take turns attacking Harry Maguire, who was the slowest player, forcing Southgate to use his last valuable substitution at the back.

Unfortunately, this trick did not last until the last minute, first midfielder Zobnin was sent off in the 81st minute for accumulating two yellow cards, leaving Russia with only 10 men to cope with the remaining time. Later, in the second minute of stoppage time, Zagoev, who has a glass physique, fell to the grass again, and although the English thought at the time were deliberately delaying time, the news that the doctor diagnosed a knee ligament strain after the game still stunned all the fans who followed the World Cup.

In the end, the Three Lions, who kept hoisting the ball into the opponent's penalty area like crazy, still failed to get past Russia's tall and tough defense, and could only finish third in the group with a narrow defeat, laying a deep hidden danger for the subsequent one-eighth final exit.

As for the winning Russian team, although it failed to surpass Sweden to win the first place in the group due to goal difference, it played an amazing momentum in the first leg of the knockout round with Iceland, the second place in Group E, on the evening of the 29th, and entered the quarterfinals with a score of 3-1.

However, four days later in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Russian men's football team, which was already inferior in overall strength and lacked the core of Zagoyev, still stopped their progress in this cup. Defeated 0-2 to the re-emerging German Tank, with the second-best European Cup record in history (second only to the semi-finals in 2008, not counting the Soviet side. The results of the United Nations period were a successful and somewhat regrettable end to their 2019-20 season.