Chapter 123: The Final Mystery

France and Italy have been eliminated one after another, and it can be said that in South Africa, European teams have created the worst record in the history of participating in the World Cup, and Switzerland is the last straw on this worst.

When the Spaniards defeated Chile and created a great opportunity for Switzerland, the Swiss themselves gave up their bright prospects, and in the end Switzerland burst into tears after exiting, but judging from the performance of this game, the Swiss tears were clearly self-inflicted and did not deserve sympathy at all.

Before this game, Chile has two wins and six points, Spain and Switzerland are one win and one loss, although Chile is temporarily at the top of the group, but from the perspective of the schedule, Switzerland's qualification may be the largest, the last round Switzerland faces Honduras, the weakest group strength, Spain faces Chile, because Spain has not yet ensured qualification, so Bosque's team must win, and once Spain defeats Chile, Switzerland defeats Honduras, Switzerland and Spain will join hands to qualify, Moreover, Switzerland's chances of beating Honduras are much higher than Chile's victory over Spain, so on the whole, Switzerland and Spain have the best chance of qualifying, while Chile, who are temporarily top of the group after two rounds, are relatively dangerous in the final round.

But in the end, the truth is that Spain defeated Chile, but Switzerland can be said to have drawn with Honduras in a thrilling way, and can only be eliminated with their opponents.

The United States attacked the whole field in the final battle of life and death, and finally scored in the second minute of stoppage time, staging the Hollywood miracle of the World Cup, but the Swiss Alpine miracle has not arrived, Heathfield seems to be waiting for the result of the Spanish game, as the saying goes, watch the food and eat, but Heathfield is watching Spain play chess, completely pinning his hopes on his European compatriots, as long as it is possible not to contribute himself, the Swiss are more willing to choose to play peacefully after 90 minutes and advance, In a life-and-death battle, they never thought of assassinating their opponents like sabers.

There is no shortage of upsets in this World Cup, and the biggest upset comes precisely from Switzerland, they beat the European champion in the first round, and in the battle of life and death, Heathfield seems to have pinned all their hopes on the Spaniards, after the opening Swiss Army Knife was reluctant to go out, they seem to want Spain to beat Chile by a big score, so that they only need a small victory to advance to the round of 16, but hope has always come by their own struggle, the Swiss put their hopes on others, and Chile seized the opportunity by itself, two goals behind in the first half, and at the same time sent off by a red card, but Bielsa still played attacking football, and pulled a goal back in the second half, forcing Switzerland into a desperate situation, because in this case, Switzerland must score two goals to qualify, and at this time the awakening is too late, enjoy it for too long, and after the need to exert force, the whole body is weak.

In addition, at the moment when it was necessary to adjust, Heathfield's substitutions were very mediocre, replaced by Yakin, Frey, Shaqiri, replaced Fernandez, Nkuf and Hugel, two midfielders replaced two midfielders, and a striker replaced a striker, all of which were counterpoint substitutions, and in the case of the most need to strengthen the attack, the substitutions of Heathfield, who also defeated Spain in the first game, were so conservative and unenterprising, and after these people came on the field, although Switzerland took the initiative on the field, it did not form a substantial threat, Instead, it was Honduran striker Alvarez who came close to scoring in the second half, and if it weren't for Benagrio's brilliant save, Switzerland would have been outright.

Consider that a day ago, Lippi changed two attacking players at the same time after half-time, and finally exchanged for the ups and downs of the last ten minutes, and today's Switzerland, if you want to find a figurative analogy, the frog in warm water may be more appropriate, against the weakest Honduras, the Swiss originally intended to enjoy it easily, wait for the good news of another game, and then score a goal to break into the round of 16.

But Chile struggled out of hell and ascended to heaven by its own efforts, while Switzerland, which was comfortable in warm water, finally fell into hell slowly.

Compared with the performance of Honduras in the final round without scoring a goal, Switzerland, who had an upset victory over Spain, is even more unenterprising, and their exit may be a great blessing for the World Cup, because such a team staying on the stage of the World Cup will only reduce the overall charm of the World Cup.

Compared with the Swiss team's unenterprising attitude, Spain and Chile have teamed up to dedicate to the fans, the most exciting offensive game since the start of this World Cup.

Before the start of this game, the best news for Spain was the return of Andres Iniesta, and in the subsequent games, he showed good form, it can be said that Iniesta is the propulsion of Spain in this game, and the key to the team's progress to the round of 16.

Spain's passing skills rose to a new level as soon as Andres Iniesta came on and the team quickly took the lead, with Andres Iniesta almost giving a solo recital in the first half and scoring a beautiful goal to seal the victory, which was crucial for Spain.

In the 36th minute of the game against Chile, Andres Iniesta, after completing a steal in the middle of the field, did not take the ball into the box, but chose to distribute it to Villa on the wing, who knocked back on the left and Iniesta fired the ball into the goal from a tricky angle.

In addition to this goal, Iniesta has always been very eye-catching, active, restless, and as long as he gets the ball, he can always make a difference.

It can be said that Iniesta's comeback has allowed the Spanish team to regain some of the lost style. Although Silva and Cesc Fabregas did not play, Andres Iniesta injected style into the Spanish team with his own feet.

Villa's tactical asymmetry on the flanks and his lack of opportunities to play forced Iniesta to quickly abandon the flank position assigned to him on the tactical board and move closer to the middle, and it worked wonders.

Spain emerged victorious and finished top of their group to advance to the round of 16, where they will face Group G runners-up Portugal in the first knockout round, and with Spain's current form, it should not be a problem to overcome this battle of teeth and advance to the next round.

Chile, which qualified second in the group, lost the game, but it made fans all over the world can't help but cheer for their defeat.

In the World Cup, losing a game reduces the team's hopes of qualifying by at least half, so utilitarianism is essential. It can be seen that in order to ensure that the two sides take one point each, many boring draws have been born in the World Cup, and the most recent is probably the battle between Brazil and Portugal.

But the emergence of the Chilean team, so that this World Cup has not become a "world sad", the offensive tone that people love to see, is particularly clear in the Chileans, even for a super team like Spain, even if they are 10 to 11, but the desperate attack, so that the Chilean team has undoubtedly become a passionate team that has soared in popularity in this Cup.

In the first two games, the Chileans contributed two passionate victories, this time against Spain, the Chilean team sent off one man in the first half, but they did not choose the iron bucket formation at all to prevent the increase in the number of goals conceded, but tried to press out to play, so that Spain, which is the best at ball control tactics, became scrambling under the crazy impact of Chile.

Obviously, people like to watch teams that rely on offense as the only criterion for survival, even if there is too much immaturity in this offense.

Football is a reproduction of some form of war, but football is by no means a war full of too much human wisdom, speaking of the highest state of war, the Chinese believe that it is "a soldier who surrenders without a fight", and football also comes to this set to see?

Then there will be no such sport at all, the birth and development of any sport has its simple and even naïve concept to support, for the first idea of football, is to find ways to kick into the opponent's door, rather than trying to make their own door not breached.

Bielsa thought so early on, the Chileans accepted his point of view in their entirety, Bielsa is famous for playing 3313, of course, he was also out of class for playing 3313, this World Cup, his Chilean team's starting formation is all 433, adding a defender, and there are fewer people attacking in the frontcourt?

Of course it can't be, the Chilean team of the madman Bielsa, if it is strong, it is a defensive figure in the three midfielders, and the fullbacks cannot be used as defenders at all, and the theme of the game is to push forward together, and if Bielsa wants to rotate, all the people will be changed in the midfield.

With the most representative game against the Swiss team, the importance of this ball is very clear to both teams, the midfielder of the Chilean team, Vidal mainly plays on the left side, using his super wide range of running, to hit the right wing of the Swiss team, Fernandez is generally on the right side, the position is pressed forward, in fact, it is a right forward, Carmona is commanding in the middle, Bosanoel plays left winger in the front, Suazzo is in the middle, Sanchez is right, pay attention to his midfield, Vidal and Fernandez are obviously more offensive than defensive, speaking of 433, It looks more like the configuration of the 4141, and even more radical to the point of being indescribable. And the two fullbacks of the Chilean team, especially Isla on the right, rushed forward every game, forming wave after wave of attacks.

The premise of playing like this requires the players on both sides to press resolutely, the breakthrough ability is very strong, and the short passes on each line are all for the sole purpose of moving forward quickly, although the South American players generally have good footwork, but let them keep pushing forward, of course, very tired.

But Bielsa would rather make substitutions to keep this strong offensive momentum alive than engage in balance and stability, so should Bielsa's Chilean team defend?

Judging from the performance of these three games, the most basic defense he advocates is to fix two central defenders who are not up, one midfielder can retreat to assist in defense, and the others take offense as the biggest purpose, of course, try to run back when returning to defense, especially the midfielders, but if they can't run back, it's not something Bielsa has to worry about.

Under such an almost "perverted" request, the Chilean team that fans saw, even if it faced Spain, played 10 to 11 in the case of being sent off early, and the lineup was completely unbalanced, but also knocked on the Spanish defense by replacing the midfielders, and on a Mira, they all thought that Mila came up to fill the back position of the sent off Estrada, but as a result, Mila hit the front court as soon as he came up and scored with a hanging shot. When the Chilean team doesn't care about the defensive gains and losses, trying to find the opponent's space to attack, it becomes their only motivation to play.

Recalling the 98 World Cup, Chile had Salas and Zamorano at that time, but in their own half, they released a five-back lineup, and created a good record of drawing the Italian team in the group stage, but in the face of Austria, which can be attacked, it is still this kind of trick, and the quality of the draw is much lower, and after entering the round of 16, the back five are like toys in front of Brazil, and they were beaten 4:1 without words.

And the current Chilean team, can be regarded as understanding one thing, to make themselves play refreshed, to win the love of the world, if there is no superstar, use the style of play to please, of course, this kind of courage, is not completely brave, although Chile is so little defender, but want to get him three? Let's be careful not to let the Chileans beat their goals first.

In the next game, Chile will face Brazil, who are the easiest team to break down Chile's attacking lineup, with big wins over Chile in both qualifiers, but will Bielsa suddenly switch to a Paraguayan-style turtle team?

Obviously unlikely, even if he knows that he will be doomed, Bielsa will definitely put the Chileans' strong attack system in front of the Brazilian team without hesitation, if the final outcome of the game is to lose five goals, his Chilean team must lose 1:6 or 2:7.

Besides, at this time, you must not believe in evil, you can't lose like this as soon as you meet Brazil, maybe this game of 16 into 8 is an earth-shaking victory of Bielsa's football philosophy, with a team like Chile that makes people boil, any of his games are destined to have exciting content that fans can't imagine.

I have to admit that Bielsa is an outlier, an outlier who is the only one left in the case of football becoming more and more utilitarian, and his game does not require victory or defeat, what is required is not to fall behind on the field.

You can take a look at this match with Spain, although Spain won in the end, but in the whole game, in most of the 10 to 11 situations, the Chilean team did not lag behind at all on the field, and even at some points in time, the Spanish team with the advantage in numbers and the score leader played with no temper.

The Chilean team with Bielsa can be said to be lucky for the World Cup in South Africa.

Even Degan, who watched this game, said: "In this World Cup, the team I most hope to meet is Chile, and when the time comes, the scene must be very intense!" ”

It's just a pity that the passionate Chile wants to meet Belgium, and the first thing to face is the increasingly utilitarian Brazil.