Chapter 174: The Great War in Europe
People are always like this, satisfaction, for human beings, never exists, people's desires are always endless, in the past, when Belgian football was at a low point, it was worth celebrating the whole country to be able to reach the Shijie Cup and the finals of the European Cup, but now with the results of Belgian football getting better and better, the appetite of fans is also getting bigger and bigger, losing to Turkey, in the eyes of many Belgian fans, it is simply unforgivable.
There was more and more criticism of the team, and Deegan began to sit still, he could scold the players with blood, but no one else had the right to do so.
"I'm really skeptical now that we're playing for Belgium as a country, although the result of the previous game was a bit disappointing, but my teammates have done their best, they don't deserve to be blamed like this, I know some people are just afraid that the world will not be chaotic, and if something happens, they will jump out and make waves, I advise those people to be quiet, otherwise, when we fight back with the results, they will only swell their faces!"
Digan's words were very sharp, but the effect was very obvious, and after Digan refuted some domestic criticism, he suddenly fell silent.
Because the fans are relieved, and since Degan has spoken, they have nothing to worry about, because Degan never lets them down.
After the first matchday, the European Championship was still in full swing, and the other host who came out confirmed what people said about them, the fish belly team is the fish belly team, although the score of Zuihou was only 1:0, but the whole game, Croatia was completely in control of the situation on the field, if it was not for bad luck, perhaps the score gap was much larger.
In the other Group B match, the favourites Germany comfortably defeated Poland 2-0, with Prince Podolski of Porti scoring twice, and German fans are expecting the team to win the championship, but also begin to expect Podolski to win the title of the top scorer in this competition.
The next to be ignited is the group of death in Group C, the first match of Romania led by Digan teammate Mutu against France, before the game, people were unanimously optimistic that the French team will easily win, but the result was unexpected, Henry still continued his tradition of poor performance in the competition, the game was like sleepwalking, but Romania had a few opportunities to counterattack, but unfortunately the luck of the last kick was a little worse, coupled with the excellent performance of Frei, who finally sat in the main position, and finally the two sides drew 0:0.
Two and a half hours later, another game of the group was played in Bern, where the pre-match was watched by the Italian team Zuihou to the disappointment of all the fans who liked them, and in the battle with the Dutch, the Italians' proud reinforced concrete defence became a tofu scum project, and Ruud van Nisney, Sneijder and Van Bronckhorst scored the Shijie Cup winners with three slashes.
In this game, only Maggio and Montolivo got the opportunity to come off the bench among the several players in Fiorentina, and Pazzini, who was originally expected to be highly, only sat on the bench for 90 minutes, and Toni, who was the main player, and Piero, who came on as a substitute, completely failed in the game.
So much so that after the game, some Italian media angrily said: "We have very good young talents, but Donadoni is indeed a group of old men." ”
Of course, this fiasco is not all the old man's fault, after watching this game, Digan remembered a person's name Barzagli, the only comment is that it is too rubbish, Digan does not understand how such a player can enter the Italian national team and still be able to play.
Take a look at the second goal Italy conceded, when Italy took a corner kick and was cleared by the Netherlands, and the Dutch three players quickly counter-attacked, while Italy only had a few players back at full speed.
As a striker, Di Natale rushed back to his own penalty area at full speed, although he did not prevent Sneijder's goal, but as a striker, his initiative is very respectable, and he can't help but ask at this time.
Barzagli, where are you?
With Maldini's retirement, Nesta's withdrawal from the national team, and Cannavaro's injury, the current Italian backline has really become a fatal problem for them.
Zambrotta and Grosso belong to the assist-type side position, and in the second half of this game, they can be seen many times with beautiful breakthroughs and shots, but unfortunately they are all a little off.
Panucci is quite old and should not have come, but to be honest, it is because of his good relationship with coach Donadoni that he came to this European Championship and played. Materazzi is indispensable in Italy right now, but he is a defensive defender after all, and he cannot be entrusted with important tasks.
In this Italian team, those who know a little bit about the ball can clearly feel the disconnection of Italy's midfield, Italy's midfielders are Pirlo, Ambrosini, Gattuso, and Camoranesi.
Andrea Pirlo, Ambrosini and Gattuso are full AC Milan midfielders, and it should be noted that Ambrosini was a substitute for Kaka at AC Milan, while he was previously a substitute for Totti in the national team.
So now Italy still lacks an attacking midfielder like Kaka and Totti, the only bright spot in the midfield is Pirlo, too strong, there is nothing to say about organizing attack and defense, and both free kicks almost broke Van der Sar's ten fingers, absolutely shijie master, but unfortunately it is difficult to hold alone.
The attacking line started with Di Natale and Toney, Di Natale was good and conscientious, and it was normal for him to be substituted because of his fame.
Toney is undoubtedly Italy's number one striker now, but he wasted too many chances, the most memorable being a one-on-one shot against Edwin van der Sar, which would have been a hit if it had been Inzaghi.
The end result was that the Netherlands won Italy in a very Italian way, although there were three goals in the game, but it always felt a little boring, when the orange team learned to play defense, maybe not as complicated and gorgeous as before, but it seemed to indicate that in the past was always depressed and fell into the Matthew effect cycle of the Netherlands, if you can, who wants to be the uncrowned king?
Football is a sport of winning and losing, the so-called winning wonderful and losing beautiful this kind of rhetoric is just a momentary rhetoric, no matter how beautiful it is, it is also a loss, no matter how ugly it is, after all, it is a win, not to mention that today's Dutch play is not ugly, people can see Ruud van Nisney or Sneijder in the two or three Italian team defenders in the middle of the pass, shooting, you can see a beautiful bicycle pass, an accurate cross or over the top, what belongs to the Dutch is always Dutch.
And this ball is not necessarily a bad thing for Italy, it is not difficult to see in the game, the Italians' fighting spirit is not strong, 06 years only won the shijie Cup, and most of the main players of Juventus and AC Milan behind the phone gate, also ran for two seasons for a living, psychological and physical exhaustion can be imagined, but after this game, I am afraid that I have to cheer up anyway, if you want to get out of this group alive, you can't do it without fighting spirit.
The Swedes won the next two Group D games, and although Ibrahimovic did not score, he was able to taunt the loser at the end of the game.
2:0!
Defending champions Greece have been stripped of their mythical cloaks, while the Vikings have seen hope of progressing from the group.
The result of the other match was somewhat surprising, 4:1, and it was widely believed before the game that this match between Spain and Russia should be evenly matched, but in fact, the Spanish team won completely.
Now the head coach of this Spanish team, Calagones, should be happy, and the French team has failed to break the door of Romania because no player can fully take on the core of the post-Zidane era. Spain, on the other hand, are "troubled" by having too many playmakers in the midfield, and of course it is a happy trouble.
Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Alonso, they are all midfield commanders of their respective teams, but only two players can play in the national team, and the head coach Aragonés chose the Barcelona combination of Xavi and Iniesta, which can be more tacit, but at the expense of a talented midfielder like Cesc Fabregas.
In the 442 formation, Senna, who was defending behind Xavi and in front of the backline, Iniesta could not appear in the middle and could only play as a right midfielder, while Silva played as a left midfielder. The back four of Ramos, Puyol, Marchena and Capdevilla, as well as the forward pair of Torres and Villa, are no surprise.
Although Iniesta is on the right, his range of activities in the game is more in the middle, and the right-back Ramos did not have many assists before the opening, in addition, Xavi's position is on the left side of the middle, and left-back Capdevilla has frequent assists, so the overall formation and offensive of the Spanish team in the first half of the game "left. Tilt".
In fact, Spain's two goals in the first half were related to left-back Capdevilla, and in the 20th minute, Spain's first goal was initiated by left-back Capdevilla.
Capdevilla crossed from the back and Torres went too wide in front of the box, but Kologin accidentally kicked the ball back to Torres when he cleared the ball.
Facing Akinfiev who fell to the ground, Torres calmly knocked on the middle, and Villa quickly followed up and pushed the empty goal, 1:0.
In the 44th minute, Capdevilla once again became the source of the attack, Russia's tactical corner kick was cleared, Capdevilla broke through on the left side and crossed, Iniesta passed directly to the right side of the front, and Villa scored a single goal against offside, 2:0.
More importantly for Spain, doubts about whether Villa could be a perfect match with Fernando Torres were dispelled, and the first goal of the game was Fernando Torres' breakthrough and selflessly passing the ball to Villa's empty goal, which also opened the prelude to Villa's hat-trick. And the communication gradually formed between the two in the game also made a perfect pair of strikers ready to come out.
At the beginning of the game, Villa and Torres did not communicate much on the field, but as the game progressed, the frequent cross-changes seemed to allow the two to find a way to communicate, "the ditch is the way, the pass is the goal" This sentence is vividly reflected in the game between the two, effective communication allows them to get more and more opportunities, Torres's efforts to grab the opportunity to break through and face the goalkeeper directly, and Villa's flanking of nearly 30 meters also makes Torres look at it, lightly crossing, and a push shot in the face of the empty goalA goal was so born, and all of this was played by effective communication.
This goal also made Villa find the feeling of scoring, although Torres was replaced by Aragonés in the middle, but there was not much running, but a lethal pass can be said that he completed the task well, and there was no lack of ideas for the manager to see that the overall situation had been determined to retain his strength.
Villa scored a hat-trick in this game and became the biggest contributor to Spain's victory, but just before the game, Calagones was still setting off smoke bombs: "Yes, Villa is good, but first he needs to be in the squad!" ”
Between Cesc Fabregas and Villa, Calagones ultimately chose the latter, with the burly Torres as the "first bird", Villa played comfortably by the side of the Holy Child, and then had the first goal.
Villa was very happy to be the best player of the game, but a little unsatisfied: "I was excited about the hat-trick, but more importantly it was the team-mates, Torres and Iniesta passed the ball well, and Cesc Fabregas gave me a couple of good passes in the second half, but I couldn't take my chances because of the drop in energy. ”
It was Villa's European Championship debut, with Huluwa equalling Alphonso's record for the total goal scored by a Spanish player in the European Championship in just one game.
Villa has a considerable level of possession jishu, and whenever Huluwa gets the ball in the middle of the field, the Spanish midfielders can rest assured that they can boldly move forward collectively.
Xavi's volley was saved in stoppage time from a mysterious cross from in front of the Villa penalty area, but Cesc Fabregas still scored his first goal for his country with a header.
With three goals and one attack, Villa's stats in this game can be called monsters.
After the game, the media also gave Huluwa a game-high 9.5 points: "The most exciting individual show in this European Championship so far." ”
While getting Spain off to a flying start, Villa also went down in history with this hat-trick. This was not only the first hat-trick of this European Cup, but also the first hat-trick in eight years, and it was also the first hat-trick of the Spanish national team in three years.
Spain defeated South Korea 3-1 in the group stage of the 90shijie Cup, and former Real Madrid legend Michel scored a hat-trick. Eighteen years later, Villa is yet another matador to wear a hat at the shijie tournament.
From this moment on, Villa has officially stepped out of the shadow of Raul, and all shijie fans can forget the former owner of the Spanish No. 7 jersey one by one. Gonzalez.
In addition to Villa's hat-trick, it was substitute Cesc Fabregas who scored the fourth goal for Spain, who had a premonition that he would be on the bench long before the game: "I'm only 21 years old, I'm still young. I'm in the best shape right now, but if I don't be patient enough, it will be a disaster. ”
Although he is already the new king of the Gunners, Cesc Fabregas, who is still a newcomer and a substitute in the national team, accepted the starting race with such a cold mentality, which set the stage for his success from the start.
If it weren't for tactical needs, what other coach on Shijie would dare to take the initiative to give up a top midfielder like Xiaofa. Calagones has no choice, abandoning Raul and Guti have made him an "enemy of the whole people", and in front of the old coach and this national team, there is only one option to win the championship. In previous tournaments, Spain has never lacked flashiness, but the contrasting performance between the offensive and defensive ends has always made them hate in advance.
In the 54th minute of the game, Xiaofa replaced Torres, who assisted a goal and had a slight ankle injury. Fabregas's jishu characteristics are needless to say, and after his debut, La Masia's "senior" Xavi took the initiative to retreat and Senna continued to contain the central stronghold. Fabregas, who is only supported by Flamini this season, can attack and defend with ease, and the number of people who provide him with "hardware support" has doubled at this time, and it is inevitable that he will complete the surprise.
'I can fit anywhere in midfield.
Fabregas was confident of his adaptability before the game, and after his debut, his main area of activity was more towards the right midfield, and Villa's goal with a hat-trick came from Fabregas's move to the right side of midfield, a scalpel-like diagonal stopper.
Opportunity always favors the prepared, and Cesc Fabregas is clearly not satisfied with just one assist. In the first minute of stoppage time, when Xavi's volley from inside the box was saved, the Gunners appeared like a ghost in front of the goal line and comfortably scored the first goal of his international career on his European Championship debut.
The victory has quelled the doubts surrounding the Spanish team, and Cesc Fabregas's ability has been proven, and he will undoubtedly gain more trust from the boss in future battles.
In this game, Cesc Fabregas gradually moved into the role of the command tower, even with a big brother like Xavi by his side. You know, pinch the whole team, dispatch offense and defense, this is the highlight part of Fabregas's tactical characteristics, how to make full use of the old coach to enrich the Spanish offensive tactics, for the Matador's championship journey is very critical, after all, a championship division, still need the protagonist of Bjihua.
The Spaniards won the victory, and the head coach of the Russian team, Hiddink, was furious, "Hurry up and ask the next question!" Obviously, the ambitious Russian before the game, after falling at the feet of the Spanish matador 1:4, was not satisfied with the performance of his disciple, and even publicly said: "Almost nothing was played, we didn't play at the level of the whole game, there was a period of haode at the beginning of the second half, but then we lost our own things, which annoyed me the most." ”
However, Hiddink doesn't think losing the first game will be too much of a blow to the team, after all, Spain are the strongest team in Group D: "We are a young team, we lack the experience of the big tournament, this is the time for the players to gain experience, they need to pay for their youth, this game did not completely lose hope for us, there are still two games waiting for us, we need to look to the future, but I was a little disappointed with the performance of the players today." ”
The Russians, who had achieved outstanding results in the qualifying rounds and warm-up matches, did not show their strength in the tournament, and the team that was thought to be likely to cause an upset before the game was swept, no wonder the coach was annoyed, and whether the Russian team led by Hiddink, which is known as the best in history, can really achieve breakthrough results, and how the Dutch adjust the mentality and state of the players in the last two games is particularly important.
Spain's defeat of Russia may not have been a surprise, but what was truly surprising was that Spain had won such a leisurely stroll.
There is no doubt that Russia, which can beat England in the qualifiers, will definitely not be so vulnerable, and Weishenme will play so badly in the main match of the European Championship?
The answer may be found in Pavlyuchenko, Russia's number one killer.
Pavlyuchenko, who plays for Spartak Moscow, is the 27-year-old goalscorer who is 188cm tall and has a good header and is the top scorer for Spartak Moscow every year.
In the European Championship qualifiers, Russia beat England 2-1, when Pavlyuchenko's brace helped Russia win.
Such a "natural air tyrant" should have been the most troublesome attacker for Spain's slightly short striker, and the heavy rain in the sky during the game was more conducive to Pavlyuchenko's physical liliang type of shooter, all these factors should have been very useful.
But as the game progressed, a scene that made everyone jaw-dropping appeared, the Russians suddenly stopped fighting and robbing, did not rely on their bodies, and switched to playing jishu.
Pavlyuchenko, on the other hand, has been operating on the wing throughout the first half, becoming a quasi-winger, and most of the time, Pavlyuchenko has been operating on the wing, on the edge of the box.
This tactical arrangement is extremely surprising, allowing a natural air bully to switch to a winger, which not only makes Pavlyuchenko's power sharply reduced, and the play is extremely awkward, but also makes Russia lose an offensive high point.
In the 44th minute, Pavlyuchenko took a free kick, and after being blocked by the wall, he grabbed everyone to find the second point and then shot, and the ball whistled and hit the crossbar.
This scene proves that Pavlyuchenko has an extremely good feeling and form in this game, but it is a bit funny that he is used as a winger in such a good form.
It wasn't until the second half that Hiddink realised what was wrong, Pavlyuchenko was brought into the box, and the natural air lord quickly regained his vitality, setting up a chance for Bisteroff with a header in the 51st minute and Casillas in the 72nd minute after carrying a man from the top of the box. In the 78th minute, his shot from the second spot went wide of the post, and in the 86th minute, he scored a goal for Russia with his trademark header.
Throughout the second half, Pavlyuchenko had five shots, two on the woodwork, one goal and a free-kick in front of his side, while Russia also had the means to attack lethally as he returned to the box.
Comparing Pavlyuchenko's very different performances in the first and second halves, one can conclude that Russia's poor performance in this game cannot be blamed solely on the players, but on the tactics.
However, looking at Hiddink's coaching history, he is used to using tall players to pull on the wing, when he was in charge of the South Korean team, Xue Qixuan, who is close to 190cm tall, was used as a winger, and when Hiddink coached Australia, the team's best header nicknamed "Helicopter" Cahill was often fixed on the wing. To the Russian team, this victim became Pavlyuchenko.
However, this time Hiddink's change of tactics failed, Pavlyuchenko was not Xue Qixuan, Pavlyuchenko, who was not known for his running ability and breakthrough ability, lost his power when he pulled out of the penalty area, and the Russian team also missed the most haode way to attack the Spanish team. In the end, it is not surprising that there was a fiasco.
After this game, Spain was originally in second place with 1 to 5 in the pre-match odds table of the famous bookmaker William Hill. But after tonight's game, William Hill immediately adjusted the odds, and although Spain is still in second place, the odds have fallen to 4 to 1.
In the eyes of professional bookmakers, Spain's hopes of winning the championship are undoubtedly another layer bigger, Russia is indeed not a strong team, but judging from the previous record, Spain's performance is still very convincing.
After a 4-1 sweep of Russia, Spain are now unbeaten in 17 games in all competitions, the only one in the world to do so. In the course of 17 games unbeaten, Spain have won against the likes of England, Italy and Sweden, and this unbeaten run has a surprising gold content.
While improving on their often weak defence, Spain have built up a lethal attacking system through quick counter-attacks and central midfielders.
After abandoning a group of veterans such as Raul and Guti, Caaragonés used a group of energetic young people to create a rapid reaction force, and the smooth switching between the 442 and 4141 formations made the Spanish attack invincible and the defense as stable as Mount Tai.
The signing is a guarantee for Spain to make a breakthrough, and the Matadors are in Group D, where there is neither a host nor a first-class team, so Spain can not only easily qualify from the group, but also minimize the consumption to prepare for the knockout rounds.
Looking at the first round of the group stage, the only one who can match Spain in terms of spectacle and momentum is Germany, with Germans being the favourites to win the tournament and, like Spain, are in Group B without a team that can really challenge their authority. Moreover, Austria and Switzerland have a large German diaspora, and the Germanic chariots with the right time and place are likely to be the only obstacle in the way of Spanish hegemony.