Chapter 591: The Big Dark Horse, Santa Crul, and the treacherous Van Gaal

On the other side, Argentina once again convinced all the fans, not that they lost the game, but on the contrary, they still won. They met Belgium in the quarter-finals, but they were a 0-1 winner.

Belgium, with Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Vincent Kompany, Vermaelen and Thibaut Courtois, are a young guard force to be reckoned with, but they certainly don't have enough strength against an established club like Argentina. And Argentina's squad is stronger and more luxurious, but Argentina once again staged a thrilling thrill, they were almost forced to a penalty shootout by Belgium, and this time it was Messi who stepped up. Although it was not his goal, it was he who caught the attention of the Belgian defence when he attacked with the ball, and then provided an assist to the centre-forward Higuain. The performance of the small smoking gun in this World Cup is not satisfactory, but this time he seized the opportunity of Messi to create a zào for him, scored the only goal of the game, and let Argentina enter the semi-finals, which can be regarded as adding a lot of points to himself.

If Argentina's game made the fans worry to watch, then the table Xiàn against the various strong Tulip Army of Spain in the group made the fans sadistic.

They were stunted to a dull draw in 90 minutes of regulation time, with neither team scoring a single goal. Then, after 90 minutes, the two teams failed to score a goal in 30 minutes of extra time, and it was expected that Costa Rica did not score, but it was a surprise that the Netherlands did not score.

Costa Rica relied on their strong defensive counter-attacking ability to pull the more powerful Dutch team off the altar, allowing the Dutch team to play a penalty shootout with Costa Rica. What kind of strength is Costa Rica? Of the 32 teams participating in the World Cup, they may be the last ones, but they are all strong teams that are not weak, such as England, Italy, Uruguay and Greece, which are known for their defense.

When the game could not be opened, the old coach Van Gaal also made a substitution, he replaced Lens in the 76th minute, and in the second half of extra time, that is, the full 106 minutes, he replaced the old Dutch striker Huntelaar.

However, these two substitutions did not lead to goals, but only threatened the Costa Rican goal more in a certain way, so that the Costa Rican attacking line, led by Ruiz and Joel Campbell, could not pose a threat to the Dutch goal.

It is worth mentioning that Costa Rica's main striker Joel Campbell is an Arsenal player, who transferred from Saprissa to Arsenal's youth team in 2011

Strictly speaking, Joel Campbell is still Li Zihan's brother, but Campbell has been loaned to other leagues abroad all year round.

There weren't many pre-match highlights, and although it was undeniable that Costa Rica were the biggest dark horses in this World Cup, when they met the Netherlands, everyone thought that was it.

So the only topic that can be worth the media to deal with before the game is the battle between former Arsenal leading goalscorer Robin Hero, Robin van Persie and current Arsenal youngster Joel Campbell.

Another highlight is the spear vs. shield, with the Netherlands being one of the most attacking teams at this World Cup, having scored 12 goals and conceded just four goals in their four games so far. And Costa Rica is even crazier, except for the penalty shootout, although only five goals have been scored in four games, but only three goals have been conceded, which is the team that has conceded the fewest goals so far in this World Cup, and there is no one!

None of them could have imagined that the outcome of the game would be like this.

When the game entered its most thrilling penalty shoot-out moment, Louis van Gaal used his last remaining substitution.

This substitution greatly surprised everyone, and it also surprised everyone.

Van Gaal was very resolute at the beginning of the penalty shoot-out to replace the current No. 1 international of the Dutch team, TSirison, with goalkeeper Krul, who plays for Newcastle United in the English Premier League. Although Krul is Newcastle's main goalkeeper, he is only the second goalkeeper in the Dutch team, and the younger and better Sirisson is the first goalkeeper.

It's just that Van Gaal's substitution at this time is really incredible, because Siricent is not injured, there is no need to make substitutions, and secondly, this game and even this World Cup so far Sirisen's table Xiàn not only did not make mistakes, but even the table Xiàn was very good, so everyone couldn't figure out what the reason for Van Gaal's replacement of Sirison at this time.

Could it be that Krull has a knack for saving penalties? But when he was at Newcastle United, I didn't see him have any special penalty skills

No matter how unbelievable, Van Gaal's substitution was very resolute, and the fourth official did play the electronic card of substitution.

The penalty shootout began, and after guessing the coin, Costa Rica took the penalty first. Costa Rica's first penalty was Borges, a midfielder for AIK Solna, who plays in the Swedish league. Borges' penalty went straight into the bottom right corner of the net, and Dutch goalkeeper Krul was on the right track, but it was still out of reach. The conceded penalty made everyone once again more incomprehensible to Van Gaal's tactics of changing goalkeepers, if it was Sirison, would the ball be saved?

The Netherlands' first penalty was captain Robin van Persie, who also chose the bottom right corner of the goal for a penalty, and although Navas was right, Van Persie's shot was from a very good angle and still scored. Netherlands 1 to 1 Costa Rica.

Costa Rica's second-round penalty was led by captain Ruiz, who also chose the bottom right corner of the goal, but his shot was weak and saved by Krul! The penalty saved showed that Krul was not incompetent, but Ruiz's penalty was too problematic.

Robben of the Dutch team's second penalty, Peter Pan decisively shot straight into the upper left corner of the goal, deceived Navas, and the Netherlands beat Costa Rica 2-1.

Costa Rica's fourth-round penalty was won by Bolanos, who was on the right track, but Krul was on the right side again, which was amazing. After judging the direction of the opponent's penalty in a row, and also saving a penalty, everyone began to understand Van Gaal's decision, and Krull did have experience in saving penalties.

In the fourth round of the Dutch team, it was Kuyt who took the penalty straight into the bottom left corner of the goal, and although Navas judged the right direction, Kuyt's shot was too tricky. Netherlands 4-3 Costa Rica.

At the most crucial moment, it was Costa Rica's turn to take penalties. If Costa Rica's fifth-round penalty shooter scores the ball, the game will continue and the pressure will shift to the Dutch side, because the final penalty is the most critical, and if the Dutch team misses the fifth penalty, then the two sides are on the same page again and the game continues.

And the Dutch team is good at taking penalties and scoring goals, and finally there are veterans Sneijder and Huntelaar.

Costa Rica's centre-back Umana stood in front of the crucial penalty and then took a deep breath to deliver the most crucial and fateful goal for Costa Rica.

Umana's penalty was a half-high shot that flew to the right, and Krul was once again miraculously right, saving the penalty with a brave hand.

Umana, who took the penalty, knelt on the grass in a daze, and the Costa Rican players seemed to leave their bodies and souls all at once, looking at the brave Krul blankly, with no focus in his eyes.

The Dutch team rushed onto the pitch to celebrate their progress to the last four.

Although Costa Rica were eliminated by the Netherlands, everyone stood up and applauded their cousins. This included the fans of their opponents, the Netherlands, who also came up to comfort the Costa Rican players after the first celebrations, and the opponent's watch won the respect of the big stars.

Joel Campbell hugged his brother Robin van Persie with tears in his eyes, and then began to thank the fans for their support. Van Persie, on the other hand, handed his captain's armband to an old fan in the stands who was over seventy years old in a captain's costume.

After watching the match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica, John Dassler, who was in the stands, slapped Li Zihan sitting next to him on the thigh: "Fake!! When the Costa Rican people approached us and wanted us to be their shirt sponsors, the idiots in the sports investment department rejected them in the end, and now they are being picked up by Italy's Lotto!! ”

Li Zihan grinned at him in pain

With Costa Rica's excellent performance, their shirt sponsor Lotto has certainly become one of the winners, and they have paid the least price but reaped the biggest gains, if it weren't for Van Gaal's "cunning" substitution of the substitute goalkeeper, and finally played well to eliminate their biggest enemy Krul, maybe Costa Rica would have advanced to the last four

Although Costa Rica were eliminated from the knockout rounds, the next day's media and newspapers were full of reports and articles praising Costa Rica, and it was clear that Costa Rica lost the game but won the respect of fans around the world.

And at the crucial penalty shootout moment, Van Gaal, who was magically replaced by a substitute goalkeeper, also became the target of the media's "sycophancy". Of course, there is also the more magical Krull.

"The Dutch team defeated the big dark horse Costa Rica twice, one is Van Gaal and the other is Krull," some media sarcastically mocked yesterday's Dutch team.