May 22, 1968!

It was a special day, especially for the feud between England and Sweden, as it was the last time England won against Sweden in the main draw.

It's June 15, 2012, uh, 44 years, another 44 years, the last World Cup in South Africa, England won the cup again after 44 years, and this European Cup, they met an opponent who had not won for 44 years, and fate arranged it all together so strangely.

And this game is a do-or-die battle between the two teams.

After the first round of Group D, England and France drawn, and Ukraine reversed Sweden with a brace from the nuclear warhead Shepchenko, so this game, for both teams, whoever loses will go home!

England rushed from Krakow, Poland, to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in more than an hour in the morning, this ancient city on the banks of the Dnieper River, the terrain is very unique, located on a 90-meter-high platform, surrounded by cliffs on three sides.

Moreover, it was an important trade route stronghold between Asia and Europe in ancient times, and it has experienced countless baptisms of war, as early as the 12th century, Genghis Khan's grandson once occupied it.

England's evening game will be played at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, home of the Ukrainian national team, and England will be no stranger to this stadium, as they have been to the qualifiers many times.

Shaped like Beijing's Temple of Heaven, or more like a giant torch, the stadium stands on the hillside of Kyiv and is huge, with a capacity of 60,000 spectators, and the final of the European Championship will also be held in this stadium.

England, who arrived in Kyiv about 10 hours early, rented the training base of Ukrainian powerhouse Dynamo Kyiv in the afternoon, where they will have a recovery session before the evening game.

After the hustle and bustle of the first two days passed, England, as always, Capello announced his starting line-up a day earlier, just like the first game.

There are doubters and supporters of this in the entire English media, but in the end, it depends on the final result of this game, winning, there is nothing to say, and if you lose, it is estimated that Capello will end up stubborn.

Gambling! This is the headline of today's "442" evaluation of the England team, the article mentions: Capello had better pray that their front field can cover the mistakes in the backfield, from the effect point of view, this England's back line, is becoming their drag, perhaps, England will break out of the shocking upset, can not qualify from the group!

In the other three rounds of the group stage in advance, Group A is still chaotic due to its close strength; In Group B, the German team won two consecutive victories to establish the first place in the group early, leaving one qualifying place, and after the final round of the life-and-death battle between Portugal and the Netherlands, Denmark is not completely out of chance; In Group C, Spain and Croatia are tied on first and second places, and Italy will repeat the mistake of South Africa returning home from the World Cup group if they don't take advantage of their chances in the final round.

The current round of Group D will determine the prospects of the four teams, England and France, who drew in the first game, naturally have to go all out to win and grasp the initiative to qualify, Ukraine's first win, it is full of confidence, and the only Swedish team to lose also wants to find a sense of existence here in England.

Because their striker is called Ibrahimovic!

"We are not afraid of England, that's for sure, on the contrary, we have enough psychological advantages, in 44 years we have not lost to them in official competitions, it is a long enough history and enough for us to be proud," he said in an interview with ESPN: European Cup in the morning.

'We lost to Ukraine in the first round and it was an accident and this time we will correct our mistakes because there is a striker here called Ibrahimovic and I will let their defenders know what hell is"

"Mark and I are rivals in La Liga, to meet in the Euros also gives me a chance to get revenge, in my opinion, Ronaldo is more attacking than Mark, of course, Messi is not bad, the four of us dominated La Liga, last season lucky Mark but he won't always be lucky"

If you want to talk about Ibrahimovic, although his goal rate is not low, it depends on who he compares with, and compared with Mamero, he can be said to be completely not in the same class, even when he was at Manchester City.

His fame comes from his comprehensive personal tactical fulcrum ability, or he is praised by fans as a man with his own tactical system, he can protect the ball alone, take the ball, distribute the ball, organize the attack, and score goals in the front court!

His style of play can be said to be very similar to Suarez, the god of Liverpool, but after Suarez arrived in Barcelona in his previous life, he changed his style of play, and because of the presence of Messi, he became a pure center forward.

But Ibrahimovic's personality has not changed much, and doing his own thing has always been his signature, so Mackin sometimes wants to ask him, I let you avoid the tragic fate of going to Barcelona, how should this be counted?

Throughout Ibrahimovic's career, his best performances were during Inter's single-core centre-forward period and Ligue 1 period, but the tragedy is that the top coach, or the coach who aims for the Champions League, will not pin their hopes on him, because history has shown that he does not have the quality to lead the team to that level.

Otherwise, during the Inter period, a shrewd coach like Mourinho would not have sold him and then won the Champions League the next year! , maybe you will think of Neymar, who wants to be the boss, but has no choice but to be the tragedy of life.

Now that Ibrahimovic has not gone to Barcelona, the trajectory of Manchester City and Real Madrid still proves that he is the top center forward, because he is more suitable with Cristiano Ronaldo than with Messi.

The most critical point is that Ronaldo does not need so much possession in Real Madrid, he has completely changed his style of play and has become a finishing killer, which gives Ibrahimovic space to take the ball and do the ball.

And Real Madrid scored so many goals in a season, often playing big scores, enough for them to divide the number of goals, which is the fundamental reason why they do not have conflicts but appreciate each other.

Or you can understand Ibrahimovic as a strengthened version of Benzema.

This also caused the embarrassment of Benzema, the first fulcrum of the future universe, who could not even compete with Higuain in Real Madrid's forward sequence, because he was too similar to Ibrahimovic's style, referred to as the poor version of Ibrahimovic.

And Ibrahimovic's physicality meant he didn't need to be a substitute, and Benzema simply felt that it was a huge mistake for him to come to Real Madrid, otherwise he wouldn't have been so crazy when he scored a header against England.

It's definitely suffocating!

"Ibrahimovic and I are old rivals, from the Premier League to La Liga, and now to the European Cup", Makqin quickly saw his interview, and replied in seconds, "He is indeed a strong center forward, but unfortunately, I have never lost to him, 44 years is not a problem, we have broken the 44-year fate of the World Cup in South Africa, England and Sweden in the past 44 years, in my opinion, it is more of a coincidence, there is no need to take it to heart"

"As long as we don't make mistakes ourselves, any opponent, we can win, this crucial game, I believe we will treat it with 120 per cent, winning is the only result"

In the afternoon at the training base in Dynamo Kyiv, Capello focused on the defense against Ibrahimovic, and the whole world knows that the core of Sweden is Ibrahimovic, and if you want to play Sweden, you must limit him.

This job was given to Ferdinand by Capello, and among England's defenders, he is the only one who has this one-on-one condition, both in terms of physical fitness and experience.

Now all he needs is to do what he told Capello: get back to his form!

Ferdinand's substitute is Cahill, Macklin's old teammate, of course he is familiar with, intellectually speaking, he also feels that Capello is the right choice, because although Cahill is versatile in the back line, his biggest shortcoming is soft, maybe the average striker is fine, but for Ibrahimovic, he has the strength to crush Cahill.

There are many things that you can always feel like are better than the current choices that didn't happen, but in reality, they are just irresponsible fantasies, just like there are never ifs in life.

At around 5 p.m., the England team finished dinner, spent a while in the hotel to eat, and then boarded the bus to the stadium to the cheers of the fans.

Perched on a hillside, the stadium is magnificent and modern from afar, and England has a particularly large number of fans, as Sweden has a population of less than 10 million, and England has the advantage in terms of the number of fans.

The fans with their faces painted in the English flag immediately fell into jubilation when they saw the team's bus coming, the draw in the first game did not dampen their enthusiasm, and since winning the World Cup, they have inexplicable confidence in this national team, as if they will eventually survive no matter how difficult the situation.

"Go, England, kill that big man in Sweden", "Three Lions will win!" "Mark, Mark, give us another European Cup!" ”

The crowd is passionate and the voices are boiling!

They smiled and waved to the fanatical fans outside, and the bus drove directly into the stadium, and the only thing that could repay this group of fans was the final victory.

Before the game, Sweden coach Hamlin vowed that they would continue their tradition and beat England again to get the initiative to qualify.

'England are world champions, that's understandable, but they're not invincible, my lads are ready to tell them why we're unbeaten for 44 years!' , he said in an interview.

Before the start of this game, the other Group D match Ukraine vs France was divided in Donetsk, and the advantage of the Ukrainian hosts was not able to play again, and they lost 0:2 to France in the reality of the difference in strength.

In this way, in the instant standings of Group D, the French team has 1 win and 1 draw, ranking first, Ukraine has 1 win and 1 loss, ranking second, and the match between England and Sweden has become quite crucial, and if they lose, they are basically determined to be out.

The two sides quickly changed their jerseys and warmed up on the pitch, which also ignited the enthusiasm of the pitch, and as soon as they entered the pitch, the frenzied atmosphere came, although the stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, but the atmosphere is no worse than that of a professional football stadium, because it is the home of the Ukrainian Super League powerhouse Dynamo Kiev.

"Boom", "England", "Mark", "Gerrard", seeing the England players in white training jackets coming out to warm up, the England fans in the stands immediately became agitated.

Sweden, on the other hand, are back at home in yellow, with their jerseys similar to those of Dynamo Kyiv and Ukraine, while the stadium's seats are mainly yellow.

"Hello everyone, the England players have started to warm up, it was Mark who came out just now, he was wearing the new warm orange sneakers for this European Cup", Lineker said to the camera, "and now there is about an hour before the start of the game"

"Wilson", Lineker turned his head and asked, "Capello still chose the same starting lineup as in the last game, how do you comment on this choice?"

"I can only pray for him, for England", Wilson said directly, "this game is quite crucial, we can't afford to lose, Capello continues to insist on his choice, what can I say? After all, he is the manager of England, but I don't want to see the situation happen again."

'And Frank Lampard, Capello probably trusts Gerrard's ability on the right side more, then Lampard is the only option at the back unless Parker is used'

Alan Shearer and McManaman also nodded and said: "Capello does not want to break the tactical understanding that England has formed, which is understandable, but in attack, Rooney and Gerrard have to play better than the last game, after all, Carroll is still difficult to do"

And the Mack Qin on the field can't hear this, they only know that this game must be won......