238. Three Lions vs. Red Devils: Strange starter
The night before the Europa League transfer window opened, the first match of the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 kicked off at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.
Although in the 100th second after the opening kick-off, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who had continued his goal drought for 644 minutes, opened the scoring with a outflanking goal in the middle, scoring his first goal of this European Championship and setting the second-fastest goal in the history of the European Championship, the golden equalizer scored by Portuguese teenager Renato Sanchez, who also made history, after more than half an hour, made the two teams draw in regulation time and extra time, and then through the penalty shoot-out, Portugal 6-4 had the last laugh.
At 18 years and 317 days, Alexis Sanchez became the fourth-youngest player to score at the European Championships. The top two are England's Qiansheng (15 years, 169 days), Switzerland's John von Lantang (18 years, 141 days) and England's Wayne Rooney (18 years, 237 days).
On top of that, he is also the second-youngest goalscorer in the history of the knockout stages of the European Championship, still England's Qiansheng (15 years, 183 days), followed by his current team-mate, Portugal's all-time goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo (19 years, 146 days), who is also the second-youngest goalscorer in the tournament so far.
Portugal, who qualified for the semi-finals on penalties, set a magical record: the first team to reach the semi-finals without a win in 90 minutes.
In this European Cup, Portugal is slow to heat up, the first game of the group stage was first forced to draw by the dark horse Iceland, and then due to the blank draw with Austria, the last game Ronaldo finally exerted his power, and he equalized three times before he entered the knockout round in a thrilling situation.
Due to the special format of this tournament and the performance of some strong teams, Portugal was lucky to enter the relatively easy place, and was jokingly called the "upper half of the Europa League" corresponding to the second half of the "Champions League" by fans.
All of a sudden, Portugal became one of the favourites to win the tournament.
Two knockout matches, all draws in regular time, one overtime stunner, one Russian roulette, miracles, and so on, the first team to win the Euro semi-finals in 90 minutes.
In fact, apart from a winless run in regulation time, Portugal only have a 25-minute lead in this cup tie. You could say it's "fate favors", but it's more of a sign of resilience and fighting spirit.
Portuguese supernova Alexis Sanchez, who was voted Player of the Match by UEFA for two consecutive games, said: "Good luck? No, where does luck come from without effort? ”
Portugal coach Fernando Santos even directly said that no matter whether the game is played well or not, it doesn't matter whether the team can qualify or not.
The question then becomes: can we see the first team to win a trophy in regulation time at the top level?
It will depend on whether the opponents in the semi-finals will say yes or not, and the whole Portuguese team will gather in the lobby after the game to watch the second quarter-final match on the big screen.
Whether it is the Three Lions who have Cristiano Ronaldo, who is not weaker than their captain, or the genius tactical run-in that has not been pinched into the overall Red Devils to slaughter the lions, the result of this game will determine the key to Portugal's promotion to the final.
If you had to ask Portugal what they would most like to play in the semi-finals, I'm afraid that everyone, including Santos, would choose Belgium.
Only the team that has played against Qiansheng will know that he is terrible.
In a friendly match in England at the beginning of the month, although some of the main players were hidden and Qiansheng only played half of the game, it was his two world-wave goals in the half that helped the Three Lions defeat this formidable opponent for the first time, albeit only in a warm-up game.
It was also the strong strength shown by Qiansheng in the half that made the Portuguese extremely reluctant to play against England, so at this moment, they were Belgian fans.
Lille's Pierre Moroy Stadium is almost full of more than 48,000 seats, and under the starry sky, the brightly lit stadium is divided into two colours, half pure white and half magical red.
In the stands, Martin Taylor, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker looked at the fans in England's white jerseys and were impressed by their enthusiasm and passion.
This time, the commentary is now outdoors, in order to enhance the sense of the scene, due to the venue, the commentary lineup for this scene is only three people.
The match shocked many people, including the Belgian royal family, the family of Prince William of Great Britain, and the family of former England international David Beckham...... Of course, it is indispensable to have a Chinese relatives who only cheer for Qiansheng.
England, dressed in white, fielded a 4-3-3 formation with the following starting line-up:
Goalkeeper: No. 1 Joe Hart
Right-back: No. 12 Nathaniel Klein
Centre-backs: Gary Cahill No. 5 and Chris Smalling No. 6
Left-back: No.3 Danny Rose
Defender: No.17 Eric Diere
Midfielders: No. 10 Wayne Rooney (c), No. 20 Deli Alli
Right winger: No.4 James Milner
Center: No. 9 Qiansheng
Left winger: Adam Lallana
Wearing a black and red jersey, Belgium fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation with the following starting line-up:
Goalkeeper: No. 1 Thibaut Courtois
Right-back: No.16 Tomás Meunier
Centre-backs: No.2 Toby Aldwellreid, No.3 Thomas Vermaelen
Left-back: No.21 Jordan Lukaku
Defenders: No. 4 Radgar Nainggolan, No. 6 Axel Witsel,
Forwards: No. 7 Kevin De Bruyne, No. 10 Eden Hazard (c), No. 11 Yannick Carrasco
Forward: No.9 Romelu Lukaku
Seeing the starting lineups of both sides, Lineker on the commentary stage frowned slightly.
"Judging from the starting list, the England team has a big change in the frontcourt, and the two wingers, one is the midfielder and the other is the striker, which is more suitable than a winger." Taylor decoded England's list and then asked the two commentators next to him.
The fans next to them also looked at them, and they were also puzzled by England's squad.
Lineker still seemed to be thinking about something, and Shearer said: "I don't understand why it's been four games, Roy doesn't know exactly which formation and which personnel are best for his team!" Adam and James are probably more of an adduction midfield, and this formation is not so much 4-3-3 as 4-2-3-1! Such a tactical arrangement is very puzzling! ”
It is clear that Shearer is unhappy that England manager Roy Hodgson has not yet developed a mature tactical system for the Three Lions.
Lineker exhaled slowly, looked at the England coach's bench with deep eyes, and said word by word: "Roy is afraid!" (To be continued.) )