The final battle in the Group of Death has come to an end, with the Netherlands and Italy waiting for their opponents.

After the first two rounds of Group D, Spain won all two games and accumulated six points to qualify early, and coach Calagones said before the game that he would make a large number of changes to the starting line-up against the last group stage opponent, Greece, the winner of the last European Championship.

Having already secured the top spot in the group ahead of schedule, and in order to prepare for the quarter-finals with Italy, there is no reason for the Spanish team to make a risky move in this game.

And it is not without injuries in the team at the moment, Puyol's right foot and David. Silva has both injured his toes, while Xavi and Cazorla have also suffered collision injuries of varying severity. In addition, players with yellow cards in previous matches will not play. The scheming Calagones knew all of the above.

'I'm going to make changes to the starting line-up for this game so that every player gets the chance to show their talent at the Euros.

In this European Cup, the Spanish team can be described as a peak squad, and players like Alonso and Cesc Fabregas can only play as a "B team", so even if it is a second team, it is unlikely that the Greek team will get out of the game.

The early qualification allowed Caragonés to rotate as much as he wanted, and Xavi, who came off the bench in the first two games. Alonso finally started the game and the Liverpool midfielder didn't treat it as a friendly: "It was a very important game for those of us who don't play very often. ”

Alonso, who played as a midfielder, did not break his promise, although it may not seem amazing, but in the process of Spain's reversal, Alonso played an extremely key role.

Alonso was named UEFA's Man of the Match after the game with his outstanding performances at both ends of the pitch, and the Liverpool midfielder also made a victory declaration to Italy after the game: "Although Italy struggled a little at the beginning, they are still world champions, their level and quality are unquestionable, but we are very confident and we are ready for everything. ”

Spain came out on top of the tournament with three games in their prime, while the defending champions had to go home with a three-game defeat, and four years later, the defending champions were once again stunned.

Rehhagel's side have failed to score in the first two rounds, and the defending champions will be on the historic spree of the European Championship if it weren't for a goal from Spain's bench against the Spanish bench.

Looking at the performance of the Greek team in three games, compared to four years ago, the aging Aegean division can be said to be more than enough.

In the first game against Sweden, the Greek team did not lose to the Vikings in all technical statistics, but the overall strength was dragged down by the individual weakness.

Ibrahimovic had a flash of inspiration, and a clearance mistake with Setaridis left the Greeks to lament their bad luck.

In the second game against Russia, the aggressive football that Rehhagel emphasized, the players did really well, and the Greeks even had a slight advantage in absolute scoring opportunities.

However, a fatal mistake by the decorated goalkeeper Nikopolidis led to another defeat and the defeat of the Greek team ended their European Championship journey early.

The only goal for this game against Spain was to score and score points, and Charlisteas's goal did give the Greeks a glimmer of hope of picking up points.

But as in the first game, the advantage of the Spanish players in terms of personal quality made the Greek team only watch the opponent complete the reversal.

When the Spanish teenager De La Rede kicked the goal, when Guiza reversed the offside position, whether it was Basiñas or Delas, they could no longer see "yesterday" from their backs.

After this defeat, Greece lost all three games, scoring only one goal, which has created the worst record in the history of the defending champions in the history of the European Championship finals.

Objectively speaking, it is a miracle that the Greek team can return to the main match as the first in the group in the preliminary round, this team has not changed much in terms of personnel in four years, and there is no innovation in tactics, I believe that the most optimistic Greek fans will not have much hope for the team to defend the title before the start of the game.

Although the Greek team is out of the tournament and has the worst record, fans should not be surprised, throughout the history of the past 12 European Championships, no team has been able to defend the title, which has become one of the curses of the European Championships.

In the last four European Championships, except for France in the last edition, the three defending champions have failed to qualify for the group stage in the main stage. In the 1996 group stage, Denmark won 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, accumulating 4 points and went home, and after 2000, the German team smashed the golden sign of the Germanic chariot with a humiliating performance of only 1 point in 3 games.

But Greece and the aforementioned teams are far from the worst defending champions in history, as defending champions France failed to qualify for the 1988 European Championship in Germany, making them the only defending champions in the history of the Gallic Roosters to fail to qualify.

Compared with the French team back then, the "achievements" of today's Greek team should not bear more criticism, after all, the championship four years ago was not too high.

The Greek team went home, and at the same time, another life-and-death battle that did not need to be compared to people's faces was also being played at the same time.

Wonder coach Guus Hiddink has led different teams to qualify for the group in three World Cups, and this time he will lead Russia, which was thought to be a potential dark horse before the game, to continue this rule.

In Hiddink's view, Sweden is a very strong team, many players play in Europe's top leagues, and as the oldest team in this European Cup, the team's personnel have been working together for a long time and have a good tacit understanding.

But this does not mean that the Russian team will be tied and the Swedish team can keep the draw, but Russia must win, and this game must be played as a knockout game, win or go home, there is no other choice.

After beating defending champions Greece in the last round, Guus Hiddink's side have largely come out of the shadow of a big defeat to Spain in their first game, and morale is now high.

At the press conference before the game, Hiddink repeatedly emphasized that he must keep an eye on the opponent's number one star Ibrahimovic, and will arrange a special person to keep an inch away from him, and stressed that he will not make the mistake of Spain in defending Ibrahimovic, giving Sweden so much room to play.

Hiddink is very confident in the appearance of the group, as early as when Russia beat England to advance and knock the latter out of the qualifiers, Hiddink once made a bold statement: "We will surprise the world in the final stage of next year's competition!" ”

Of course, Hiddink definitely has the confidence to say such things, and for more than 10 years, he has proven his magic time and time again.

For more than 10 years, it has become almost an iron rule that Hiddink, no matter which team he commands, will definitely qualify for the group in the tournament.

And in 2008, he once again challenged a new goal, leading the Russian team, which has never reached the quarter-finals of the European Championship since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Russia's participation in the 1994 World Cup and the 2002 World Cup, both of which were returned home at the end of the group stage, can be called the "death star" of the tournament, but this time, Hiddink is convinced that he can succeed.

In fact, Russia's performance at the beginning of this European Championship was quite bad, and after the 1-4 defeat to Spain, many predicted that the strength of the Russian team was overestimated, and Hiddink was nothing more than that.

But now, Russia's sluggish performance in the first game seems to be Hiddink's trick of "Tian Ji Horse Racing", due to the suspension of the core of the midfield, Arshavin, Hiddink chose to hide his strength in front of Spain and go all out to play the last two games, which is both reasonable and successful.

In this game, Hiddink defeated Sweden coach Lagbeck, and the Russian team dominated the overall advantage, which was not only a victory for the players, but also a tactical success for the coach.

2：0！

This resounding victory proves that Hiddink was able to create so many myths, and it is by no means in vain, the truth is there, once or twice, it can also be said that it is luck by chance, when the same thing has lasted three or four times, this can no longer be explained by the word luck alone.

Hiddink's magic in this game, the most critical point, is his use of Pavlyuchenko, the tall center is often called the "penalty area bully" by fans, but if this air bully is still like a "penalty area fox", then he must be a rare outstanding striker, there is no doubt that Pavlyuchenko played this game is such a striker.

Against Sweden, Russia almost completely controlled the course of the match, and it was Pavlyuchenko who turned the advantage into victory, the big fox who always showed his strength consistently.

The match between the Swedish team and the Russian team is directly related to who can get the last ticket to the quarterfinals of this European Cup.

In the 24th minute of the game, Pavlyuchenko was in the penalty area, received a pass from a teammate, and scored sideways at the first time, turning the Russian team's fierce attack into victory.

Judging from the running line of this goal, the tall Pavlyuchenko did not make himself a turret-like figure, first making a small sprint to the back point in the penalty area, and then immediately ran back to the penalty spot, a simple run, to get rid of the Swedish defender who was marking the defense, and created an opportunity for himself to be unmarked and singled out the goalkeeper.

Pavlyuchenko's performance in this goal is actually only a microcosm of his flexible running position throughout the game, from the whole game, Pavlyuchenko has almost never been in the box by the opponent to form a close match, from this point of view, Pavlyuchenko is definitely a fox in the penalty area, an extremely intelligent striker on the field.

After the game, the Russian media also regarded Pavlyuchenko as the team's hero, "Russia's national hero", "the guide of the Russians in the knockout round of the European Championship again in 20 years", and there were countless words of praise. But for them, Pavlyuchenko's performance was something they were accustomed to, and the media simply used the phrase "as smart and brilliant as ever" to describe Pavlyuchenko's brilliant runs. ”

Pavlyuchenko's cleverness is not only manifested in creating shooting opportunities for himself, as the team's center forward and the fulcrum of the attack, Pavlyuchenko's performance can be compared with Italian center Toni.

The Italian was a complete fixture against France, with most of his team-mates' passes focused on his head and feet, but Toney's performance seemed to be a bit disappointing.

Pavlyuchenko was more like a pawn in the team's overall attack in this game, looking for shooting opportunities, Pavlyuchenko was still trying to pull back and forth, creating opportunities for his teammates to score.

It can be said that the Russian team's attack can show such power, Pavlyuchenko's flexible running position as a center forward is the main reason, and it is definitely not an exaggeration to describe Pavlyuchenko's role as "one son works, all the games are moving".

Pavlyuchenko knocked on the door of victory for Russia, and the soul of this Russian team was injected into someone else: Arshavin, the new tsar of Russian football after Mostovoy.

Because of the ban, Arshavin was unable to participate in the first two group games, and against Sweden, Arshavin gave full play to his all-round ability.

For the Russians, a win is necessary to qualify from the group, and the Swedes did not have much of a decent offensive before Pavlyuchenko's goal, but when Russia took a one-goal lead, the Swedes gradually stepped up their attack.

However, Arshavin's goal in the second half completely deprived the Swedes of hope of equalizing, and his goal also completely laid the foundation for Russia to reach the last eight knockout rounds of the European Championship for the first time in history.

Arshavin played definitely more than just the goalscorer in this goal, starting from the break from the back of the midfield, the Russian team only used three passes and one shot to complete the goal, Arshavin was not only the team's goalscorer, but also the mastermind of the goal.

With goals from Pavlyuchenko and Arshavin, Russia advanced with their heads held high, and Hiddink will face his native Netherlands next.

Russia qualified and Sweden were eliminated, marking the end of Ibrahimovic's second European Championship campaign.

After the game, the newspaper "Milan Sport" used "Ibra is eliminated", not "Sweden is eliminated", and said: a bad Swedish team said goodbye to the tournament with a brilliant Ibrahimovic.

Indeed, Ibrahimovic played well in this tournament, but he only had two legs in the end, and his performance in this tournament was enough to shake off the hat of "wasted chance shooter" on his head.

After three games, Ibrahimovic scored two goals, one from outside the box and the other from inside the box. Such efficiency is enough to prove that Ibrahimovic is talented. Unfortunately, Ibrahimovic has had too few opportunities and he has not been able to get the support of his teammates.

After the exit, Ibrahimovic also looked very angry, he has always been unscrupulous, after the game, bombarded all the people who should be in charge: "I don't understand why it will be us who will be eliminated in the end, I tried my best in the game, but some people only mix on the pitch for 90 minutes, but such people can get the opportunity to start in a row, and some originally talented players can only sit on the bench, and some people have to be responsible for this." ”

Everyone knows who Ibrahimovic is referring to, and he has always been unhappy with Ljungberg's dominance of the team, and he has complained before, but this time, it was just a general outburst.

But no matter what, the game is over, and Ibrahimovic can only reluctantly accept the result.

The group stage of the European Championship is over, and the knockout stage will begin.

Belgium vs. Germany is a contest of the same style of football, but now that Belgium have brought back Digan, the outcome of this game is full of uncertainties.

No one can ignore the power of Degan, even the arrogant Germans, when he learned that his team would face Belgium in the knockout round, the German coach Loew couldn't help but be a little disappointed: "Belgium are a difficult opponent to play against, if you add a Degan, they have the ability to challenge any team in the world, this game, we really need to prepare well!" ”

The Germans do have to be cautious, if they continue their previous form in the group stage, the weak backline will not be able to withstand the crazy onslaught of Degan.

However, the hard nerves of the Germans are also an element that cannot be ignored, and no one knows if they will suddenly burst into a small universe in the knockout round and play a team football to kill Belgium.

The contest between Turkey and Croatia, people have always been optimistic about Croatia, thinking that Croatia will be black to the end and repeat their 98 years of magic.

Netherlands vs. Russia, it will be a contest between the Dutch team and the pseudo-Dutch team, and it is really impossible to tell who is real and who is fake, Basten injected the Netherlands with the practicality of Italian football, and Hiddink brought the essence of Dutch football to Russia.

Finally, Italy and Spain, Italy has never lost to Spain in previous tournaments, but Spanish football people have always looked down on the Italians' style of football, the contest between the two, who will win the final victory, whether it is Spain's sharp spear, or the Italians' solid shield, this will be left to the test of the game.