(PS: The author is very busy today, so he will combine the two into a big chapter, and the next chapter will start the quarterfinals.) ）

The largest number of overseas players in history (9), the most complex club affiliation in history (16 teams), the youngest squad in team history and the second youngest in this European Championship (25.81 years old), and the largest immigrant player team in history (9 players), the Germanic chariot that appeared in the French summer was different from any German team in history, which is not only an inevitable trend driven by the trend of history, but also the result of Juachim Loew's deliberate creation for many years.

From the struggles against Ukraine and Poland, to the ease with which he conquered Northern Ireland, to the bloodlessness of crushing Eastern European Slovakia in the quarter-finals, Mario Gomes replaced Mario Gotze as the striker, and the centre-forward approach replaced the striker as the blueprint for the tactical blueprint, which was almost destined to be a turning point for Germany in the French summer.

From two victories over Northern Ireland and Slovakia, Loew has managed to embed the classical centre-forward into his possession tactics. Gomez, on the other hand, started with a goal against Northern Ireland and went on to score his second goal against Slovakia, his fifth European Championship goal for Germany, thus sharing the glory of Germany's top scorer at the European Championship with legendary goalscorer Jürgen Klinsmann.

Behind them were the legendary centre-forwards of the "national bombers" Gerd Müller, Dieter Müller and Rudy Worrall, as well as current national team team-mate Lucas Podolski, who all scored four goals.

It is worth mentioning that before Gomez scored, Slovakia captain Martin Skrtel was pushed down in the 12th minute to create a penalty, but Mesut Ozil's penalty was saved by Slovak goalkeeper Matus Kozačk.

The last time Germany missed a penalty at the European Championship was back in 1976, when former Bayern president Uli Hoeness lost a point in the final of the European Championship in Belgrade.

The last time a Germany international missed a penalty in a major tournament was against Serbia in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup.

The most recent to miss a penalty in a national tournament was current captain Bastian Schweinsteiger (7-0 Gibraltar in June 2015).

Commenting on the penalty missed by Mesut Ozil, SPORT1 commentator Mario Basler, former Germany international Mario Basler, said: "At 11 metres, it has to be scored! Oh my God, it would have been nice if Thomas had come to punish him......"

German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn also gave his opinion, saying: "By looking at Mesut's body language, you can already see which direction he will shoot. But sometimes it happens. ”

Former German centre-back Christoph Metzelder said Slovakia had no chance despite missing a penalty.

The 27-year-old opened the scoring against Slovakia, who made his 63rd appearance for Germany and scored in the eighth minute was not only his first goal for the national team, but also the fastest goal in the history of the German team at the European Championship.

The previous record holders were current USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann and current Germany Under-21 boss Hirst Hrubesch, both of whom scored in the 10th minute. Among them, Klinsmann's goal was scored in the group stage against Denmark in 1988 and Hrubesch in the final against Belgium in 1980.

Julian Draxler, who scored the third goal and was voted UEFA's Man of the Match award with one pass and one shot, started the game in place of Gotze and was very active.

He also became the first German player to score and assist in a game since Philipp Lahm at Euro 2008.

Germany's clean sheet streak has expanded to five games after a 3-0 win over Slovakia, with German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer keeping five consecutive clean sheets and a record 450 minutes without conceding a goal, the first time in Germany's 108-year history.

If they can keep a clean sheet in the next two games, Neuer will break the record of 681 minutes held by former international Jens Lehmann in 2007/2008 - although it has not been consecutive.

After England beat Northern Ireland 5-0 to create the biggest score difference in this European Championship, the European Red Devils defeated Eastern European Archers Hungary 4-0 to advance to the quarter-finals, declaring war on England with the second-largest margin of victory and fighting for semi-final hopes.

Belgian captain Eden Hazard, who has been residing in form, was named the best player of the match by UEFA for his team's passing in this game.

Since 1949, the Italian national team has not beaten the Spanish national team by two goals for 67 years, and in the just-concluded quarterfinals, Italy defeated Spain 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals, causing a small upset.

After the opening, he put the game into his own rhythm, scored the first goal in the middle of the first half by continuing to press, and then organized short bursts to harass the opponent's defence while shrinking appropriately, and used the substitutions to complete the redemption and wait for the opponent to pour out and then score at the last moment...... This is the same tactic that Italy taught Belgium two weeks ago, and it is also the tactics they used to take revenge on Spain today.

They have the oldest starting lineup, with an average age of playing today and retiring en masse tomorrow; They have the most civilian squad in the past decade, and even veteran fans will sigh who this Nima is; Everyone thought that the main task of their trip was to lead the fans to reminisce about the days in the sunset, however, they first took out the talented Belgium, tied Zlatan to the cross, and then sent the Irishman to the round of 16 with the glory of motherly love, and finally stood in place and waited for God to send that fateful opponent.

This is the most civilian team in the history of the Azzurri and one of the oldest teams in the tournament with the highest average age.

Eight years ago, Luis Aragonés and Spanish midfielder Xavi kicked off the Tiki-Taka era with a long conversation between Luis Aragonés and Spanish midfielder Xavi in the build-up to the European Championships, and the quarter-final win over Italy after extra time and penalties was considered a rite of passage for the Matadors.

Eight years later, the bitter summer in Brazil has made the former kings determined to rebuild their old days, and the high-pitched group stage experience has once again put a question mark over their future, and long-time rivals Italy will be the touchstone of their revival.

The performance of both sides in the final game of the group stage was not up to expectations, and Spain, who played with the main team, not only failed to lock up the top spot in the group, but suffered from the double consumption and trauma of physical reserves and psychological level, and Vincent del Bosque's only gain may be to understand from the defeat that the tactics of relying on the double back to carry out defensive ball control have become outdated, and attacking and defending with all their strength is the only way for this team.

Italy's best opponents at this stage may not be the likes of Ireland and Sweden, with the back five under pressure to bounce back and the situation is under Antonio Conte's control, with injuries on the sidelines.

In a team that has a large number of wide versatility and sapper midfielders, Antonio Candreva is almost the only irreplaceable player in the Italy manager's namesake and almost the only player in the blue-clad midfield who can provide inspiration and imagination.

Spain's midfield players are technically at the level of the continent, but at the micro level, Alvaro Morata, Francisco Fabregas and Nolito's ability to handle the ball in tight areas (space, precision and rhythm in successive passes) is still far behind the likes of Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and David Silva, and their weaknesses can easily be exposed in relatively fixed half-court battles.

Morata and Nolito are not absolute speed and long-range space users, and they need to be delivered from midfield, receive the ball in the 30-metre area up front and make contact with their team-mates quickly after completing breakthroughs. Without a quick attacker who could settle the battle on their own, and with at least three or four passes from counter-attacking to finishing, Croatia proved incapable of defending in the low post, losing possession was a disaster for Spain, and Italy's courage to press high was based on Spain's lack of pace.

Spain's possession has completely degenerated into an inefficient back-to-back foot that operates around midfield, and at certain points in the game they didn't even have enough possession to keep the Italian penalty area under siege, a very passive situation unlike the defensive possession they played against Croatia. Bosco's obsession with established routines led Bosque to choose to do nothing, which is a double-edged sword in a cup competition that emphasizes tactical games; With the continuous improvement of anti-counter-attack tactics, Tiki-Taka has been surpassed by the in-place, the transformation of Iniesta into "Xavi" is not enough to help the team complete a soft landing, the system compatibility problems and rejection caused by non-Barcelona players continue to ferment, and Spain, which has lost its heirloom, has lost the comparative advantage that it was proud of in the past.

With a rock-solid defence, a simple and efficient attack, a rich tactical connotation and a thrilling visual impact, old-school Italian football has blossomed into a breathtaking beauty under Conte's interpretation, and after thrashing Belgium in the first round of the group stage, the most stardom-studded team in history has once again delivered a perfect performance. Like Simeone's Atletico Madrid, Italy have once again shown that teams on the underdog side can make up for the gap in individual ability through tactical refinement, and thus gain the right to have an equal dialogue with teams with smooth attacks.

Resolutely "clean-up" the technical midfielders, vigorously promoting sapper players, ******** while always being on the lookout for their own people, and adding tactical lessons every night while completing fully closed training sessions, Conte's high-pressure rule has not provoked a mutiny within the team, but has made this grassroots team more united than ever. Like Elaño Herrera, Conte has made himself the sole superstar of the team, branding the team as his own, and Italy is halfway there when the players are willing to be sent as "blind" for him. The fact that the Azzurri advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Championship without being favored is a victory for the "superstars" and a victory for the common people.

With similar plots and different tactics, Italian coach Antonio Conte is worthy of the reputation of a master tactician. If Italy can go far in this tournament, Conte has a good chance of becoming the best manager of this tournament.

The 31-year-old Giorgio Chiellini's close-range strike in the 32nd minute not only gave Italy the lead but also ended Spain's streak of not conceding a goal in the knockout stages of the European Championships.

Nicknamed "Coconut", Italy's main defender scored his country's seventh goal, becoming the second-most goalscorer of the tournament, behind only his team-mate Daniel De Rossi (18 goals).

Spain's record for a clean sheet in the knockout stages of the Championship is also set at 679 minutes, with the last time Spain conceded in the knockout stages of the Championship was back in 2000.

In this game, Spain, as the away team, wore a white jersey, and after the loss, Spanish fans and the media unanimously agreed that the white jersey curse was too powerful and demanded that this color be removed.

Spain have lost all of their last six white-clad tournaments, including a 2-1 defeat to Italy in the 1994 World Cup; 2-3 defeat to Nigeria in the 1998 World Cup; Euro 2004 lost 1-0 to Portugal; 1-5 defeat to the Netherlands in the 2014 World Cup; In this European Cup, they lost 1-2 and 0-2 to Croatia and Italy in succession.

It is worth mentioning that the last time Spain lost in the knockout rounds of a major tournament was exactly ten years ago today.

On 27 June 2006 (local time), Spain were defeated 3-1 by France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. People have to sigh, the arrangement of fate, the terrible fate.

It was Italy's high striker Glatiano Pelle, who scored his second goal of the tournament and became the second highest scorer of the tournament with Giorgio Chiellini.

Voted by UEFA officials as the Man of the Match of the match, it was Leonardo Bonucci, a Juventus centre-back who made six clearances, four interceptions and 34 passes.

Since the beginning of this European Cup, Bonucci has participated in all the games without falling, and with a long pass assist in the style of Andrea Pirlo, he has been affectionately called "Pirlo" in the back line by Italian fans.

After the Spanish national team's defeat, coach Bosque resigned, and veteran goalkeeper Igor Casillas also announced his retirement from the national team, and his record of 174 appearances for Spain is waiting to be broken.

The exit of Spain, the defending champion of the European Championship, is enough to show the true nature of death in the bottom half.

The last game of the quarterfinals is the two dark horses of this European Cup, both of which are participating in the main competition of an international competition for the first time and qualifying for the group stage for the first time.

The British Red Dragon Wales, three lines have a central axis core press, the back line is captain Ashley Williams, the midfielder is Aaron Ramsey, and the forward is the most famous and world-top three Gareth Bale.

The new Nordic pirate Iceland, with its tenacious fighting spirit and defense, beat the top favorite from the group stage of strong opponents, and the strong Portuguese team qualified, full of dark horse components.

The collision of the two new armies, both with a strong English football style, no matter who wins, will set a new record in team history.

The game was a thrilling affair between the two teams, with Iceland opening the scoring in the sixth minute when centre-back Kari Odenasson headed in a powerful ball from his team-mate, and Ragnar Sigurdsson stabbed the ball into the back of the net before the Welsh centre-back.

Wales fought back frantically after conceding the goal, and ten minutes later, Bale's cross from the wing was met by Billkiel Mayer Sevarsson. It was his second own goal of the tournament, which he scored late in the group stage against Hungary to deprive Iceland of their first European victory.

Sevarsson became famous after the European Championship and was nicknamed "Oolong Go" by the fans.

After the equaliser, Wales dominated the attack, Iceland dominated the counter-attack, and both sides had a number of chances, and after 90 minutes, the two sides were tied and went into extra time, which was the third game in the quarter-finals to reach extra time.

Due to the fear of Bale's free kicks, the Icelandic team rarely fouled in this half, and a limited number of free kicks, Bale did not score, plus the Icelandic bus made Bale have no space to sprint, and could not play his speed advantage, and the Welsh team that fell into the positional battle exposed the shortcomings of the lack of center fulcrum and the lack of solutions in the positional battle.

In extra time, both sides played very carefully, neither of them wanted to make mistakes, and the score lasted 1-1 until the end, and finally, the second penalty shoot-out in the first stage of the knockout round was born between the two new teams.

The penalty shoot-out ended after only five rounds, Wales hit all five shots, Bale hit in the fifth round, Iceland's Kolbertern Sigsolsson's penalty kick bounced off the post in the fifth round, and Wales beat Iceland 5-4 on penalties to beat Iceland 6-5 on aggregate and advance to the quarter-finals in history.

After this match, the quarterfinals were born, and the quarter-finals were as follows:

Poland vs Portugal

England vs Belgium

Germany VS Italy

France vs Wales

Among them, England and Germany are two strong dialogues, which is eye-catching.

After the quarterfinals, Spinach also updated the odds for each team to win the championship and the odds for the Golden Boot.

The odds to win the quarterfinals are as follows:

France: 4 to 1

Germany: 4 to 1

England: 4 to 1

Belgium 5.25 to 1

Italy: 7.5 to 1

Portugal: 8 to 1

Poland: 19 to 1

Wales: 29 to 1

As you can see, hosts France and World Cup winners Germany and England are the favourites.

In terms of the odds of the Golden Boot Award, because Qiansheng staged a big four in the last game, 7 goals have been a new high since the 1984 European Cup, so Spinach believes that even if England stops in the top four, there is no suspense for Qiansheng to win the Golden Boot Award, so it closed the market early.

Ahead of the quarter-finals, the media took stock of the goals scored at this European Championship.

There have been 44 matches played so far in this European Championship, with 24 teams scoring a total of 93 goals.

The first goal came in France's opener against Romania, when Olivier Giroud's header opened the scoring campaign for the European Championships.

The 93rd goal was an own goal by Icelandic right-back Sevarsson against Wales.

At the club level, Premier League runners-up Arsenal's players have scored a total of nine goals, including seven goals (England), Oliver Giroud (France) and Ramsey (Wales), which makes Arsenal temporarily top of the club's goalscoring charts.

This season's Champions League winners Real Madrid are second with six goals, including Bale with three (Wales), Cristiano Ronaldo with two (Portugal) and Luka Modric with one (Croatia).

Real Madrid's arch-rivals Atletico Madrid are third with four goals, followed by leading scorer Antoine Griezmann (France) with three and Carrasco (Belgium) with one.

It is worth mentioning that Norwich, who have been relegated from the Premier League this season, are also at the top of the list, thanks to two Irish players - Robbie Brady (2 goals) and Vess Khurakhan (1 goal). With three goals, the Canaries are not only stronger than Barcelona (2) and Bayern Munich (1), but also second to Chelsea (1) and Manchester United (1).

However, despite being at the bottom of the scoring charts, the top three in the Premier League - Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City - occupy the top two assists charts.

Arsenal topped the table with eight assists, with Gansheng (four) alone accounting for half. Of the remaining half, Ramsey alone (twice) accounted for a quarter.

Chelsea and Manchester City are both tied for second place with four, with Belgian stars Eden Hazard (Chelsea) and Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) each providing three assists.

Every tournament, will be a lot of football lovers, football experts to dig into the changes in football tactics, this French European Cup, up to the quarterfinals, Italy, Wales and Northern Ireland success has made people see the charm of the back three, this kind of charm born in the world series, in this field is very eye-catching.

The development of football tactics is a process of spiraling and wavy progress, and the tactics that were once abandoned can lead the trend today, and the style of play that is abandoned today may be rediscovered one day in the future, even if two strategic concepts with very different styles are likely to produce a wonderful chemical reaction when they collide.

Herrera's extreme emphasis on space became the inspiration for Ernst Happel's experiment with all-attacking and all-defensive football in The Hague, and the positionless revolution brought about by all-round football promoted the evolution of zone defense, and the popularity of 442 eventually led to the emergence of its natural enemy three-back formation, and the rapid reaction of 442 formation in crisis public relations eventually formed the current tactical pattern dominated by the 433 and 4231 formations, and the 352 formation and its variants interspersed.

In this era of information explosion, the tactical update cycle and the speed of detailed evolution are changing with each passing day, and as a charismatic and varied tactical blueprint, the back three formation is fully qualified to occupy a place.

Similarly, the elimination of Spain, who insisted on the Tiki-Taka style of play, does not mean that this tactic is outdated, just like the English free man tactics created by Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson for Qiansheng, sometimes there are the right people to have the right tactics. (To be continued.) )