Unlike the group stage, the knockout stage is a bitter battleground, and the losing side will be eliminated directly, so both teams will give their best and do their best to win. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The European Championship has reached the knockout stage and only one game is played every day.

All the media will be focused on the clash between Italy and England, which is also the final game of the quarter-finals, and the last four will be out at the end of the game.

England and Italy are both strong teams, relatively speaking, Italy has done better in recent years, they won the World Cup in Germany in 2006, while England team is facing the embarrassment of not being able to play well for a long time, and even saying that they have not been able to play well for a long time.

Both teams are also historical rivals.

At the beginning of the game, fans from both sides began to cheer for their respective teams, and the audience was already hot at the first time.

The media's cameras have also begun to frequently point at the stars who have attracted much attention.

The biggest attraction of the Italian team is none other than Balotelli, who is also the most watched in the game, because relatively speaking, Morris's performance is more stable, and other outstanding stars in the England team can also be said to be veterans, and many people believe that Balotelli's performance can determine the outcome of both sides.

A lot of people expect Balotelli to perform, and even if he doesn't get the ball, the TV screen shows his movements, his confrontations with defenders, and so on.

Balotelli is doing well.

Now he's in his prime, and his strong body makes him very comfortable in the game.

Wan Sheng is also very concerned about Balotelli, this strong player, is indeed a rare outstanding striker, but Wan Sheng is not too worried, he has made detailed arrangements for Balotelli's defense, Balotelli is not like Pirlo, a very game-inspired player, it is difficult to have any special surprising performance, there should be no big problems.

Wansheng pays more attention to the team's performance.

The main key point of this game is the battle for midfield.

England and Italy have a similar style, they are tougher defensively, their attacking skills are relatively weak, and if they want to play a situational advantage, they must have the initiative in midfield to be able to suppress the opponent.

For the battle for midfield, England has little advantage.

Although he is confident that Morris is stronger than Pirlo, players such as Gerrard and Ashley Young are not so strong in terms of technology, and Wansheng emphasizes more on using physical advantages to fight hard and grab with the opponent in order to achieve the effect of suppressing the opponent.

If you want to play a real effect, you still have to look at the performance of the players on the field.

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Ten minutes into the game, both sides played relatively conservatively.

England fought fiercely in the midfield, but the attack in the front field still paid great attention to the formation, defenders and midfielders, and did not rush to insert, and it was more important to stabilize the defensive line.

This is what Wansheng particularly emphasized.

Italy are good at defending and counter-attacking, and giving them the opportunity to counter-attack can make England's goal very dangerous.

It's the same in Italy.

In this game, Italy returned to the traditional style of play of four defenders, Abate, Barzagli, Bonucci and Barzaretti, with four defenders sitting at the back, plus three back three De Rossi, Pirlo and Marchisio, which shows how solid Italy's defense is.

This line of defense is also not easy to breach.

Italy were not so aggressive in attack, with two of the back three always in the back, De Rossi inserted more often, Andrea Pirlo was relatively less, and the other midfielder, Barzaretti, didn't even go up front for the first ten minutes.

This solid style of play also makes the game ugly.

But there is no media or fans who are dissatisfied with the game, because they have been prepared for a long time, any team against Italy, the field will not be too good, even Spain, if the opponent is England, then be prepared for 'the whole game is not good'.

Fifteen minutes into the game, neither side has let go of the attack, statistically speaking, both sides are similar, England had two shots on goal, but both were long-range shots, Italy had one shot, Pirlo hoisted the ball into the box, but Balotelli's header was too far from the goal, about ten meters to try to put the ball on the tip of the head, than a long-range goal.

The media commentator summed up the past games by saying, "Both sides played solidly, there were not many chances in attack, and the shots were a bit of luck. ”

"Gerrard and Ashley Young each had a long-range shot, but only Ashley Young hit the woodwork, but unfortunately he didn't hit the force and was easily picked up by Buffon."

'Balotelli had the only shot on goal from Italy, but he also struggled to break through the England defence and find any good chances......

That's the only chance.

Many fans watched the game and found that Balotelli's running and scrambling were good, but as long as Balotelli was near the penalty area, he had few chances.

This was due to England's tight defence.

The England team defended against Balotelli, and the players who stood close to Balotelli constantly used their bodies to fight Balotelli.

In the eyes of many fans, this is unwise, because Balotelli is very strong, but now Balotelli himself has words of suffering.

He is indeed strong.

But even the strongest person can't help but keep the opponent colliding with each other.

The England defenders on the opposite side, who collided with him physically, did not fall behind at all, and it was Lescott who caused him the biggest trouble.

Wan Sheng allowed Lescote to focus on defending Balotelli.

The reason for handing over this task to Lescot is very simple, one is that Lethcote has excellent individual ability, has a lot of experience in the game, and is already the world's top central defender, and the other is that Lescot knows Balotelli very well, and the two play for Manchester City together.

Lescott defended Balotelli and was definitely experienced.

England have Lescot and Balotelli is going to have a good performance, so it's going to be too hard.

Balotelli was frustrated, and after a ball was cut off, he said to Lescott, "You can't just change someone to defend?" Let's talk about it, put some water? ”

Lescott smiled.

"By the way, I wonder why you're more difficult than in the club?" Balotelli continued.

If it weren't for the fact that the two were club teammates, the referee would have seen Balotelli chattering all the time, and even wanted to give him a card to warn him not to 'provoke'.

In fact, Balotelli spoke his mind.

In the Manchester City club, Lescott is also the main central defender, and the two often play each other in training, but relatively speaking, he still has a chance to break through Lescot, and he doesn't feel that Lescott's defense is so tough, but when it comes to England and Italy, why is this guy so difficult?

"Because our coach is Wansheng."

Lescott said something that Balotelli didn't quite understand.

That's exactly what Lescot thinks, his reverence for Wansheng has exceeded '100', which is the limit of absolute trust, and when Wansheng is the head coach of the team, he feels full of fighting spirit and confidence, and he is more motivated to train and play.

If Lescott were to explain it himself, he would definitely think it was 'mental power', but in fact, it was the most real feeling.

Lescote is a member of the players' union 'Elders'.

Even if Wan Sheng is not the head coach of Manchester City, Lescott can still enjoy the attribute bonus of the players' union, but the coaching skill bonus is gone, after Wan Sheng became the head coach, the skill bonus of the football training master system has given him some improvement, especially in the official game, the coaching skill has more achievements, the strength has improved, and the performance will naturally get better.

Lescott himself did not know, and Balotelli did not understand.

But Lescote had already played to a higher level, and Balotelli could only be bitter with doubts, and he thought unconsciously in his heart, "That Chinese really has so much ability to make Lescott trust to such a point?" ”

Balotelli's play was limited, and Italy's attack as a whole was also limited, but the two sides were still evenly matched, because England did not make much progress in attack.

At this point, the performance of the core of both sides becomes particularly crucial.

Pirlo and Morris......

There was a lot of media hype before the game, Pirlo is the absolute heart of Italy, also known by the Italian media as the 'king of Italian football', and the Spanish newspaper El Mondo de Sport called him 'Leonardo da Vinci on the football field', and is considered the most convincing talent in Italian football since Roberto Baggio.

Pirlo's technique is very comprehensive, his long-range shooting ability is as precise as a scalpel, and he is proficient in organising, scoring and set-pieces, and this versatility is amazing.

Many fans criticized Pirlo's soft style of play and unsuitable for the midfield position, but the improvement of Erlo's defensive skills is obvious to all, "What is even more commendable is that Pirlo has an excellent leadership temperament, and the bumpy displacement at the beginning of his career has made him extremely strong-willed. ”

Maurice is also very good.

Compared to Pirlo, Morris's football is more practical, which is widely accepted by the media.

Morris's all-round is not inferior to Pirlo's, with set-pieces, precise through balls, excellent playmaking, and his strength over Pirlo lies in the stats: Morris has more assists and goals for both club and country, and in defence, Morris has also made a great contribution.

The Italian media are reluctant to admit that Morris is better, but the real numbers can't hide it, in terms of goals, Morris scored 21 goals for Atletico Madrid in all competitions last season, Pirlo only had a pitiful five, Morris is almost a top scorer, and his assist number is also two more than Pirlo.

Therefore, when the outside world evaluates the two, they use 'Morris's football is more practical, and Pirlo's football is more gorgeous'.

When it comes to the real game, it's a confrontation between 'practical' and 'gorgeous'.

This description has some accuracy.

When Pirlo got the ball, many neutral fans also shouted, because many of the Italians' actions were very eye-catching, while Morris played more directly, whenever he got the ball, most of the time, like other teammates, he came directly to pass the ball, whether it was a precise straight stop, or an ordinary pass, Morris was difficult to find Pirlo's kind of 'gorgeous', but the final result of the two was basically the same.

If Pirlo's game statistics can be the same as Morris's, then Pirlo is undoubtedly more popular.

Pity......

Morris's 'practical football' effect has been slowly reflected, with Morris as the core, England's pace has been constantly increasing, Morris will not slow down even a second, Pirlo is different, his slow-paced football, so that the whole of Italy can not be fast.

The rhythm of the two sides began to diverge.

England are definitely not a high-end team with a high level of technique, and it is impossible for them to control the situation by adjusting the tempo.

Many big clubs can't do this, not to mention the England team, which is recognized as 'technically rough', the whole team is not good at using a rhythm-changing style of play, but the current game, there is no need to take the initiative to do it, as long as they go to play normally, the Italians themselves are a little uncomfortable.

When football is at the feet of England, it's a direct and fast attack.

On the contrary, when it reached the Italian feet, it became slow, and it seemed that the attack was not in a hurry at all.

The change in the pace of the ball makes the 'slow' side gradually faster, which is a subconscious behavior of the players, just like the people next to them are running fast, even if they can't keep up, they have to be faster, the head coach Prandelli did not have this guidance, and the Italian players did not care, but subconsciously did so.

But they are not used to the fast pace as a whole!

One of the things that is very noteworthy is Pirlo, who is a very technical player and a very confident player, he likes to play at his own pace, even though the pace in England is very fast, but as soon as the football is at his feet, the tempo slows down.

Andrea Pirlo played fine, but the rest of the Italian players started to get used to it.

Striker Cassano was a little impatient, and when he cut in again quickly, he looked back to see that the football was still in midfield.

"Hurry up, pass it over!" Cassano raised his hand for the ball.

There was no result from this action, Pirlo could not pass directly from the middle line, and the push could only be taken step by step, otherwise it would be easy to be tackled by the opponent.

But Pirlo's football isn't so solid either.

Even if he is praised by the outside world as the 'king of Italian football', he is just an ordinary person, as long as he is an ordinary person, he will make mistakes.

This time, after Pirlo got the ball, Morris rushed up to intercept it.

Pirlo wanted to flick past Morris as well as any other England defender, and he steadied the ball to the left.

This action is very sophisticated, very deceptive, Morris was also fooled, the action was a little in the opposite direction, Pirlo was about to rush over, but Morris's action coordination and explosiveness are better, under the ability of the football training master system, he is the world's top professional player, when Pirlo did that, Morris turned around for the first time to adjust, and stopped in front of the ball with his foot in advance.

Pirlo rushed up and kicked Morris.

This direct collision is related to movement, but also to strength, Pirlo lost directly to Morris, and he was carried to the ground by a strong force.

Morris took the ball and made a quick pass to his teammate.

Counterattack!

"Good chance!"

England launched a quick counter-attack!