Chapter 184: The Flames of War (3)

The match between Spain and Sweden has actually become a battle for the top spot in Group D, Sweden's first game was 2-0 victory over Greece, and Ibrahimovic's rebound in form is good news for Sweden, but if you want to beat Spain, who has strong ball control, physical fitness is a great test for the aging Sweden.

In the first game, 8 of Sweden's starting 11 players over the age of 30, the main striker Larsson is about to turn 37 years old, and the midfielder Ljungberg is also 31 years old.

Sweden's attacking output is mainly based on the trio of Ljungberg, Ibrahimovic and Larsson, and once Ljungberg and Larsson lose their stamina, Ibrahimovic's support in attack will be drastically reduced, and it will be more difficult for Sweden to win.

Spain are the best at possession, Sweden must be in a passive defensive situation in the game, their running will inevitably increase, the whole team of 8 players are over 30 years old, whether they have enough physical strength to cope with Spain's smooth frontcourt pass, this will be the problem that Swedish coach Lagerbeck will have to face.

For the Swedish team, the strength of stars such as Ibrahimovic is a source of confidence for the team, but the problems of the team itself cannot be ignored, and this game against Spain will directly test their "dark horse" quality.

Sweden won the defending champion Greece 2:0 in the first game, and the qualifying situation suddenly became clear, although Ibrahimovic performed average in the first game, but that wonderful goal still made him a hero of Sweden.

In the second round of the group stage, Sweden will challenge the mighty Spain, but before the game, from the Swedish training base, there was bad news, in the group confrontation, Castren moved too much when defending Rosenberg, and his ferocious pressing annoyed Rosenberg, who tried to rush up to beat Rosenberg, but goalkeeper Shaban immediately stepped forward to hug Rosenberg and defused an unnecessary conflict.

It should not be surprising as this is not the first time that there has been infighting within the Viking squad, as Ibrahimovic came close to strife, even before the first game against Greece, and Ibrahimovic has spoken to the media that Ljungberg and Wilhelmson should be left on the bench. As a result, this statement immediately caused turmoil within the Swedish team, and head coach Lagerbeck had to stand up to clarify the facts, so that the crisis within the team was suppressed for the time being.

Now the Swedish team is at the most critical moment of the group stage, and fans who like Sweden can only hope that the conflict between Castren and Rosenberg will not destroy the harmony within the Swedish team.

Sweden are facing a crisis of unity within the team, while Spain are facing the loss of their head coach after the European Championships, as has been the case in the past, and the European Championships will inevitably cause a storm of head coach sacking, and it is now certain that Swiss coach Kuhn and Czech coach Brückner will both leave after this tournament.

With his contract with the Spanish Football Federation set to expire this summer and Calagones set to leave the Matadors, where will the Spanish boss go? According to Spain's Marca newspaper, Calagones has already found his next stop in charge of Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce.

It is said that the contract has been signed, and there are two reasons why it has not been made public. On the one hand, Calagones is leading Spain to the European Championships, so it is not possible to attend the press conference announcing the news, and on the other hand, he is afraid that the release of this news will distract the matadors and affect their results in the European Championships.

Despite the Spanish Football Federation's efforts to keep him, the veteran boss seems to have made up his mind, and now he only wants to lead his Matadors army further in this European Championship.

The final result of this game, Spain narrowly defeated Sweden 2-1, Torres scored the first goal of the national team in 08, Ibrahimovic equalized for Sweden, Villa scored a stunner in injury time, and the Matadors won both games to rank first in the group with 6 points and advance to qualify.

The biggest contributor to Spain's victory is naturally Villa, who scored four goals in two games, and Villa has the potential to win the European Championship Golden Boot, but in an interview, the modest Villa did not mention his performance too much.

'It's important that we have six points from two games, so it's great for me to keep scoring, but it's more important that the team is still winning.

Villa have been in excellent form, and his strike partner Fernando Torres has also shown what he can do, scoring 24 goals in his debut season in the Premier League, making him the most goalscoring player in Spanish history to play in an overseas league.

Before the opening of the European Championship in Switzerland and Austria, the Spanish media also had great expectations for Torres, and even the media said that 2008 would be the prelude to the era of Torres in Spain, but this unprecedented pressure almost broke the nerves of the "Holy Child", although the first game was very good, but failed to score, or some media in Spain criticized him, but fortunately, Torres used a European Cup debut goal, and responded to all doubts.

As in every international tournament in the past, Spain will always be hailed as the favourites to win the tournament before the competition, but every time this expectation becomes a burden for the matadors, who are not able to perform as well as they should when they race, and end in disappointment.

However, this time the situation is different, and under Calagones's tutelage, the Spaniard has clearly developed a more resilient nerve, and after Spain's 4-1 thrashing of Russia, the Matadors players have been unloaded with huge baggage, including Torres, of course.

At the age of 19, Torres captained Atletico Madrid, scoring 84 goals in 214 league games and 15 goals in 50 games for his country. ”

Everything pointed to Torres being able to withstand pressure, so when infighting and skepticism erupted together, Torres quickly found a solution by scoring goals.

Moreover, in the year of playing in the Premier League, Torres has not only improved his shooting skills and physique, but also greatly changed the psychological quality of the golden boy.

Torres' goal came in the fifteenth minute, Xavi took a tactical corner kick to Villa, Huluva attracted two defenders and passed the ball to Silva outside the box, the Valencia winger cleverly rubbed the ball in front of the six-yard box, Torres almost kicked the ball into the goal with a very irregular stepping motion.

Torres finally exploded after the goal, and it was no longer possible to suppress the joy in his heart, his first international goal in nine months, and his first goal in two European Championships.

His team-mates rushed forward to congratulate him, and after Villa hugged Torres in a hat-trick, the Spanish team once again showed their solidarity to the whole of Europe.

Torres was in a better position after the goal, turning and volleying in the box in the 61st minute after receiving a pass from Silva, in the 63rd minute his follow-up shot near the penalty spot was unfortunately blocked by the Swedish defender with his body, in the 70th minute Torres created a chance for Villa with a "scorpion swing" pass, and in the 72nd minute he used a header to create a good chance for Senna.

Torres had five shots on goal in the game, the most of the two teams, four shots on target, and nearly 10,000 meters of distance after the game, which is also valuable for a centre-forward.

In particular, in the second minute of stoppage time, when Capdevilla launched a long ball attack from the back, Torres used a perfect run to attract the attention of the two Swedish defenders, Nilsson and Melberg, thus creating the conditions for Villa to single Hansson in the box.

After this game, Torres's performance not only dissipated the previous doubts, but also locked the position of the main striker in the old coach's heart.

Before this game, the old coach announced the starting line in advance to support the disciple, but everyone knows that Villa is now in the limelight, if Torres can't catch up, the old coach is likely to cut his love and remove him, so that Xiaofa can play 4-1-4-1, in the warm-up game, the Holy Infant received such a warning.

But now, the power of the two-striker combination is obviously greater, and Villa needs a "big target" like Torres to cover, 4-4-2 obviously overpowered the 4-1-4-1 that had been tried for a long time and won all the games, and the Spanish formation debate could be put to a close for the time being.

Speaking after the game, Torres said: "I'm calm, I've scored one goal each with Villa and two goals have helped us qualify, it's not easy to do well in the Euros, the pressure and the pain are something you have to bear. ”

Goals from Torres and Villa opened the door for Spain to win, and a solid defence preserved Spain's victory.

The "great left-back" should by no means be just the "patent" of the Italian Grosso, but the left-back who is active in the traditional European powers, and there are many excellent pillars among them.

The 30-year-old Capdevilla was a case in point, and after two instigations in the opening game, the Yellow Submarine wing-back assisted with a long ball to complete the winner.

Unlike many left-backs in the history of the Spanish team, Capdevilla does not have a strong ability to play alone, and breaking through is his technical shortcoming.

However, compared to these shortcomings, he has advantages that no one else has, and in recent seasons the full-back has always been associated with goals, whether for Deportivo La Coruna or Villarreal, and in the season just ended, Capdevilla scored three goals.

Capdevilla, who is in the international tournament for the third time, has been in the spotlight long before the start of the European Championships, scoring in three previous matches against Sweden in qualifying and in the warm-up against France and Peru, and he has become the same left-back as Grosso, and his late bloomer is also similar to Grosso.

He made his debut for Spain at the age of 30 and had a bitter two previous major tournaments, spending time on the bench at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.

In the World Cup two years ago, Calagones had given up Capdevilla to recruit Peña despite public opinion, but the performance of the Argentine-Spanish international disappointed the old coach.

Capdevilla played a key role in the first two goals against Russia, first finding Torres with a long ball from 50 yards and setting up the assist for the Reds' Holy Child, and then putting Andres Iniesta's name on the assist list with a long-distance pass.

In this game, Capdevilla, who started again, once again played the role of "winner and loser", and in the second minute of stoppage time, his kick on the left side of the backfield was suspected to be cleared, and inadvertently allowed Villa to complete the stunner.

Capdevilla, wearing the No. 11 shirt, is clearly another alternative player at the back, and judging from this game, the yellow submarine full-back who plays at left-back has become the player with the most passes in the team.

The courage to take on more responsibility for the ball in a star-studded Spain team is a sign of self-confidence in itself, and his "unstinting" style of play in the defence is similar to that of Mihajloc, another excellent defender who wore the number 11 back then.

While completing the offensive task, Capdevilla also played a very important role in the defense, and it was because of the outstanding performance of Capdevilla and others that helped the Spanish team to maintain the victory.

Of course, Spain were able to win in the end, thanks to one person, that is, the Swedish god Tajbrahimovic, the Swedish elder did not play badly, on the contrary, it was very good, but only 45 minutes.

Before the match between Spain and Sweden, Spanish goalkeeper Casillas said in an interview: "We must be careful of the Swedish team, especially Ibrahimovic in the forward line, which is an opponent I need to pay special attention to!" ”

However, in the game, Ibrahimovic still used just 45 minutes to make Ramos, Casillas, two Spanish national treasure stars, depressed, and Ibrahimovic used this performance to prove why Real Madrid was willing to pay 70 million to buy him.

Ibrahimovic was a complete nightmare for the opposition defence, first in the ninth minute when he flicked a clever pass for Ljungberg on the left, who burst into the box and tested Casillas.

Then in the 22nd minute, he suddenly stuffed a "stream of consciousness" pass on the left side, which the Spanish defenders didn't realize, but Larsson suddenly came out of the crowd and volleyed in the middle, although the ball flew away, but this can be regarded as the most exciting tactical cooperation of the Swedish team in the first 30 minutes.

Then the game entered "Ibrahimovic time", in the 34th minute, Sweden's Stoll from the right side of the ball to the back post, Ibrahimovic ran at high speed to grab the spot, leaned on Ramos, and then stopped back, turned in front of the goal to shoot, although Casillas blocked, but finally could not prevent the ball from rolling into the goal.

For this goal, Ibrahimovic completely relied on physical fitness in the penalty area, taking advantage of his height and long legs to control the large range, and made a quick stop to "eat" Ramos raw, and then turned to shoot, although there was no leg swing, but he used his super explosive power to once again "eat" Casillas, who is known for his quick reaction.

By playing with Spain's two national treasures, Ibrahimovic proved his ability and worth!

It's a pity that Ibrahimovic, who had just played his senses, had to be substituted in the midfield.

After the game, Sweden coach Lagerbeck pointed out in an interview: "Zlatan has been injured all the time, but he insisted on playing, and after the first half, we found that his knee was swollen, and for the safety of the athletes, we decided to replace him, but Ibrahimovic's injury is not very serious and he should not miss the next game." ”

Perhaps after the game, fans will ask, if Ibrahimovic had stayed on the pitch, would Spain have been able to win?

There are no ifs and ifs on the football field, but people can analyze the problem from another side.

In the first half, Ibrahimovic had an overwhelming advantage in the technical confrontation with the Spanish players, but in the second half, although the Bremen goalscorer Rosenberg, who replaced Ibrahimovic, was not small, but Rosenberg could not replace Ibrahimovic at all.

It can be said that when Ibrahimovic was present, he could only make the Spanish defenders uncomfortable, and after Rosenberg came up, the Spanish defenders immediately became the masters of everything!

Indeed, as a striker, Ibrahimovic's physical and technical characteristics ensure that he can always dominate the competition with defenders, and the training of Inter Milan in two seasons has also greatly improved his shooting skills and efficiency.

If Ramos and Casillas are the best defensive players in La Liga, then Ibrahimovic proved at least one point through this game that he now has the means to deal with any type of defensive player.

The match is over, and the two teams will face each other to see who will qualify for the second place in Group D, Sweden and Russia.

And Spain's outstanding performance has also made them the favorites to win the championship after the Dutch team.

The smoke of the second round of the game has cleared, and the flames of the European Championship show no signs of being extinguished, because the real battle of life and death is coming.

Group A, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Belgium will compete for the last qualifying spot, Group B, Croatia will qualify early, Austria, Germany, Poland will start a three-way fight, Group C, the Netherlands will advance in advance, Italy, France and Romania will compete fiercely for the second qualifying spot, and Group D, the contest between Spain and Greece, which has advanced early, has become an exhibition match, Russia and Sweden, the two old enemies who have been fighting since the Middle Ages, will be on the football field, Engage in a fight to the death.