With 56 per cent possession and 8 shots on target from 18 attempts, just looking at these stats and looking at the final scoreline, Belgium will take the match against Ireland for granted.

But just look at the first half, the European Red Devils are not the Red Devils, but the Red Cats. Not everyone in the red jersey is a demon.

The second ranking in the world is not glory, but a handle; The star-studded lineup is not confident enough, but it becomes a burden. In the first battle, he spurred his horse and was helpless in the face of the blue iron wall of Italy. Facing Ireland in the second game, Belgium's "golden generation" has no reason to retreat.

After the defeat in the first game, Belgium coach Mark Wilmots adjusted the starting lineup, compared with the previous game, the right-back, the back, and the front side were replaced, Kevin De Bruyne returned to the middle, and Belgium still continued to use the 4231 formation.

Ireland coach Martin O'Neill was very dissatisfied with the failure to win Sweden in the last game, but in the face of the strong European second in this game, O'Neill wisely changed the formation to 4411, Sean Long played a single striker, and Wesley Hurahan, who scored a goal in the last game and was elected as the best player, moved behind him, but from the perspective of the game, it was more about retreat defense, after all, the Belgian is too fierce.

The main theme of the first half of the game was that Ireland retreated to their own half, with Belgium continuing to dominate possession. With four defenders and four midfielders, Ireland's defensive formation is reminiscent of Simeone's Atletico Madrid, but the biggest difference between the two is the positioning of the two managers in the defensive position of the centre-forwards.

As a central striker, Long has no defensive duties, has been on top of the opposition half, dreaming of a counterattack, scoring goals himself, and becoming Ireland's hero. However, due to Lang's lack of defense, Hulahan can cover a lot less defensive area in the early part of the formation, and it is difficult to protect the sides of the formation, so that Ireland's full-backs have to repeatedly go straight up, leaving a lot of space on the wings.

Although they defended with all their might, Ireland's midfield defense intensity was very insufficient, although they tried to keep the goal in the first half, but it was not that Ireland defended well, but more because Belgium's old problem was not solved - offensive procrastination.

Belgium's passing, running and lack of thought in the opposition's attacking third were too slow, although Ireland gave many attackers with the ball in the middle too much free space and plenty of time to watch, adjust and play the ball. Perhaps, Wilmots hates that his team does not have a dry student, otherwise, with such a large space in the middle, a dry student with a hundred shots on goal can take Belgium to the sky with a long shot.

A clear case in the first half was when the new Manchester City thigh De Bruyne, who had scored and assisted in all competitions last season, took the ball in the box and turned to create space for himself, and the best position was in the middle of his team-mate Moussa Dembele, who was unguarded and facing the goal, and it was the best choice for him to play the ball in terms of position and timing. Because De's thigh has already pinned down 3 opponents.

Perhaps because Dembele is not Manchester City's awesome teammate Argentine star Sergio Aguero, not Spain's midfielder David Silva, and not even the African elephant Yaya Toure who can shoot from a distance, De Bruyne didn't seem to see Tottenham's back, but turned again with elegant dance steps and distributed it to Yannick Carrasco on the wing.

Carrasco's cross was already from a tight angle and the Irish defender was back in position, so the timing of the attack was delayed by De Bruyne, who ignored Dembele.

What the? You say the author Jun is making up the Belgian player feud? Leak for! Leak for! The national problem and infighting in Belgium have been going on for a long time, and readers can ask Du Niang if they don't believe it.

The illusion of not conceding a goal in the first half misled the anxious O'Neill, who mistakenly thought that the team's chain defense was successful, and he could no longer "sit still". He started the second half and had good chances, but O'Neill trusted the wrong person.

As a single center forward, Lang is a wolf who lacks calcium in his mind and can't run smartly, and Ireland's single and dull offensive thinking can only be blamed on him, yes, just blame him.

The midfield was unable to retreat in time after a massive attack, and Belgium was effective in this counter-attack after adjusting their style of play in the second half.

Carrasco, who has a heart for a striker, has a lot of range of motion and often moves into the middle to confuse Ireland's defenders, thinking that he is the center forward for Belgium. It was he who actively stepped forward, bringing the Erlai defense back to his own penalty area, one person attracted two defenders, and behind him was Romelu Lukaku, a small monster transformed into a forward midfielder, using the space created by Carrasco, seizing the gap in front of the defensive line, receiving the pass from Germany's thigh, dribbling to the penalty area and curling a left-footed volley, and finally scored the first goal of this European Championship for the second European player in the 48th minute of the second half.

Belgium's style of play in the second half did play the second strength in Europe, using the width of the field and inserting the attack later, which was to seize the lack of defensive pressure on the Irish side, and Lang was a typical pit daddy, did not participate in the defense, and lacked cover in the middle, as a result, a cross from the Belgian right-back, Axel Witsel completed an undisturbed header, Belgium led by 2 goals, and changed the goal difference from negative to positive, well, I don't know if 0 is positive, At least the Red Devils' goal difference is no longer negative.

In the 70th minute, there was another counter-attack, and young captain Eden Hazard did not choose to shoot himself in the face of the Irish bald goalkeeper, but selflessly crossed to Lukaku, and after Spain's Alvaro Morata, the little monster became the second player to score a brace in a single game at this European Championship.

After 9 minutes, O'Neal, who couldn't bear it anymore and knew that he had made a big mistake, finally replaced the offense that made him miserable, and he almost didn't contribute on the defensive end (0 steals attempted), and the single way of running on the offensive end made his teammates' offenses useless many times.

The lack of defensive ability in the midfield led to a wide open goal in the middle, and perhaps the gambling attack in the second half was not a very wise choice. In the bad situation of only 1 point with one draw and one loss, if you want to fight for the third place in the group with the best results, you must defeat the old giants Italy who qualified in advance, and Ireland is more than lucky.

Although they beat Ireland 3-0, for Belgium, which has a lot of problems, the opponent will not give them so much space in the future. If the slow attacking pace is not addressed, the world's second-ranked team may become the most invaluable team ever if it fails to reach the semi-finals.

Of course, the author Jun said that the world ranking of the national team is actually a combination of eggs, and it is not a manifestation of the real strength of the national team at all, so for this kind of ranking, the author suggests that readers can ignore it directly.

The second round of the group stage has the last two games left on this day, with the penultimate game being a war between the freshmen and the not-freshmen of the European Cup. Two teams, one wants to get three points and qualify from the group early. One wants to score three points and lay the foundation for qualifying from the group.

It stands to reason that this is a match between two second-tier European teams, and there are no big stars in the team, but the Hungarian uncle goalkeeper and the oldest player to create a European Championship player, Gábor Kirari, is still quite a bright spot, making this game worth watching.

What are the highlights? In the first game against the dark horse Austria, he tried his best to keep the goal open, and in this game against another dark horse Iceland, can the famous autumn pants brother not concede the ball again?

The biggest highlight of the result is that after the childlike old naughty boy defused an attack from Iceland in the 28th minute, he passed the ball to his teammates under his crotch, which made people see that the football game also has a funny side.

I have to say that although this uncle, who is the same age as Ronaldo and "nuclear warhead" Andrei Shevchenko and other players of the 76 golden generation, is not confused, his goalkeeping skills are still leveraged, and several saves are absolutely world-class.

However, no matter how old people are, no matter how much they exercise, they will slowly decline, and in the 39th minute, a corner kick mistake was made, bringing down Regner Sigurdsson and Tamas Kadar tripped Aaron Gunnarsson, and the referee awarded a penalty.

The foul was hilarious, because I don't know if it was a Kirali foul or a Kadar foul that caused the penalty, but in short, it was a penalty, which seems to be uncontroversial.

The penalty taker is the heart of Iceland's midfield, and the most famous Icelandic sniper in Iceland, Gilvi Sigurdsson, Uncle Kiraly failed to create a miracle and made the wrong save, giving Iceland a one-goal lead.

So far in this European Cup, there have been several strikes, if the goal after 85 minutes is called a strike, this year's France is definitely a kill.

Unwilling to lose, Hungary finally equalized in the 87th minute, and the hero was the enemy.

Adam Nagy cut through in front of the penalty area, Nemanja Nikolic crossed low from the right side of the penalty area, and Bigil Sevason cleared in front of the goal.

Failed to take all three points, and the players on both sides were unwilling. Whether it can appear in the group stage depends on the result between Portugal and Austria, the strongest group F in the last game of this round.

For them, the best result is a draw.

It was also a crucial battle for both sides that had to take the three points, however, the course of the game was dramatic and the result was expected.

It was a bitter one for Portugal captain and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who broke a team record and equalled a European Championship record in this game, but Ronaldo, who has a lot of self-esteem, would rather trade it for a valuable three points.

The 0-0 draw has left all four teams in Group F with the possibility of qualifying from the group and also the possibility of being eliminated. (To be continued.) )