Chapter 697: Stopping at the Final Four
At 13 o'clock at noon on July 4, the first 1/4 final of France VS Germany officially kicked off at the Maracanã Stadium.
With Hummels' goal in the 13th minute, Germany beat France 1-0 and advanced to the semi-finals.
At 17 o'clock in the afternoon, it is the turn of the second quarter-final of the Chinese team VS Colombia, the venue of the match is the Castellão Stadium in Fortaleza, and the winner will face Germany in the semi-finals.
Because Zeng Cheng was shown a red card in the last game, he was automatically suspended for one game, and Wu Sihuo served as the starting goalkeeper in this game.
In the stands, most of them were Chinese fans. Many Brazilian fans who thought Brazil would advance and bought tickets for this game in advance ended up reselling the tickets to Chinese who were not bad for money.
The Castellon Stadium became the home of the Chinese team.
Colombia is currently ranked 8th in the world and has a good strength.
However, the Chinese team was even eliminated by the host and football kingdom Brazil, and the mentality has become much more confident, which is very different from when playing in the group stage.
In the 4th minute of the game, Lu Wenbin passed the ball to Yu Hai, who stepped on two bicycles with the ball on the side and passed the Colombian players who defended him, causing a round of applause from the Chinese fans in the stands.
Yu Hai's performance this time fully reflects the difference in his mentality.
The trembling mentality in the group stage cannot be said to have completely disappeared, but in the face of Colombia, an opponent whose deterrence is much lower than that of Brazil and Spain, at least dare to fake moves to pass.
After completing the pass, he took a few steps before dribbling the ball on the seaside road, then cut inside and prepared to smash the ball outside the big penalty area to get past Sanchez, the defender who intercepted him, and shoot into the forbidden area.
Yu Hai's smash flashed past Sanchez, but Sanchez may have been a little annoyed and turned his hand to drag Yu Hai from behind and knocked him to the ground.
After falling to the ground on the ground, Sanchez woke up like a dream, raised his hands and signaled to the referee that Yu Hai was not pulled down by himself.
But the action was too obvious for Sanchez to say he didn't foul and he didn't foul.
Although he was not shown a yellow card by the referee, he gave the Chinese team a free kick on the left side of the front of the big forbidden area, only about 25 meters away from the goal.
At this distance and position, Lu Wenbin's free-kick threat is too great.
And now, it's only four minutes into the game.
Despite Sanchez's strong pleas, the referee's decision could not be reversed.
Lu Wenbin stood behind the ball with a smile, waited for the referee to signal that he could take a penalty, and kicked the ball into the near goal in an arc.
In the 4th minute of the opening game, the Chinese team led Colombia 1-0 due to a free kick made by Hai and Lu Wenbin directly scored.
This unexpected goal conceded made Colombia directly distraught.
wants to attack aggressively, but is afraid of Lu Wenbin's counterattack. wants to play steadily, but can't break through the defense of the Chinese team led by Lu Wenbin.
As a result, before the end of the first half, in the 44th minute, the Chinese team seized another opportunity, Lu Wenbin picked a pass to the forbidden area, Hao Junmin cut in on the side, and an irregular volley swept the ball into the goal.
With Lu Wenbin's pass and shot, the Chinese team led Colombia 2-0.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again.
In the second half, Colombia was trying to attack, but the Chinese team made a substitution.
Zheng Zhi replaced Wu Sihuo, Lu Wenbin changed to goalkeeper, and Zheng Zhi played Lu Wenbin's back position.
The Chinese team's defense is even more impregnable.
Although there was no threat of Lu Wenbin's counterattack, Colombia pressed the attack aggressively and shot a lot more threateningly, but they were all saved by Lu Wenbin.
It wasn't until the 88th minute that Colombia hit a lucky shot that hit Feng Xiaoting to cause a line change, dodging Lu Wenbin's save and pulling back a point.
But before that, Lu Wenbin had already scored China's third goal in the 72nd minute through a free kick created by Wu Lei.
In the end, relying on Lu Wenbin's two shots and one pass, the Chinese team defeated Colombia 3-1, won the 1/4 finals, and advanced to the semifinals.
This has equalled the best record of an Asian team set by South Korea in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
The key is that the Chinese team did not rely on the referee, but also eliminated the host Brazilian team.
This is much tougher than the Korean team.
Not only China, but also many Asian countries have reported it as a breakthrough in Asian football, which is a different scene than in 2002, when everyone was ashamed to mention South Korea's achievements.
Next, Argentina defeated Belgium 1-0 and the Netherlands defeated Costa Rica on penalties, and the semi-finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil were Germany, China, Argentina and the Netherlands.
The Chinese team has become the biggest dark horse in this World Cup.
However, the dark horse road of the Chinese team has also ended here.
The remaining three teams, no matter which one, are not what the current Chinese team can resist.
In particular, Germany, the opponent in the semi-finals, even won the championship in the end.
On July 8, the first semi-final of China VS Germany took the lead.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 5-2, with Germany in front and China in the back.
The German team played a hearty 5-2 victory for China, and if it weren't for the Chinese team with Lu Wenbin sitting in the rear and scoring two counter-attack goals, I am afraid the Chinese team would have lost more.
Germany have reached the final of this World Cup and are ready to challenge for their fourth World Cup title.
On 9 July, the second semi-final was over, with Argentina beating the Netherlands on penalties to reach the final, with Maradona's successor Lionel Messi leading Argentina to their third World Cup title.
On July 12, in the third and fourth place finals, the Chinese team met the Netherlands again after the group stage.
In the group stage, the Dutch team lost 1-3, but Lu Wenbin's killer weapon as a goalkeeper had not yet been used.
This time, the Chinese team changed its tactics in the third and fourth finals, letting Lu Wenbin play the starting goalkeeper, wanting to win a third place by defense.
But it backfired, the Dutch team's attack was indeed too strong, and the Chinese team was suppressed so that they barely had the power to fight back, and they did not provide Lu Wenbin with a free kick opportunity.
The Dutch team, on the other hand, constantly challenged the nerves of the Chinese with shots.
Although Lu Wenbin pounced left and right, saving many of the Dutch team's must-have goals, there were still times when he missed.
In the 74th minute, Lu Wenbin saved Robben's first shot after breaking through the inside on the wing, but the saved ball did not go out of the bottom line, but hit the post and bounced back into the forbidden area.
Van Persie then appeared at the landing spot and stabbed the ball into the back of the net.
Lu Wenbin, who fell to the ground and didn't get up in order to save Robben's long-range shot, couldn't do anything about this supplementary shot.
After all, the Chinese team still failed to create a miracle, and was defeated by the Dutch team 1-0, stopping in the semi-finals, and only won the fourth place in the World Cup in Brazil.
This game proved that when Lu Wenbin was the goalkeeper, he lost the threat of counterattack against the opponent, and could only be beaten passively, and the opponent could attack the Chinese team with all his strength unscrupulously, and then beat the Chinese team with a random dribble.
Lu Wenbin is still suitable for playing in the back, and the goalkeeper can only make an occasional cameo in an emergency or penalty shootout.
But even so, it is already an unprecedented highlight moment for Chinese football, which makes fans across the country feel extremely happy and gratified.