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With Italy beating Ecuador in the second round of the group stage and their rivals Croatia at the feet of Mexico, the Blues' qualification in Group G has become a chaotic mess!

For example, Mexico, which is currently at the top of the list. Don't look at Mexico at this time, they have won two games and two points to get six points, with a three-point advantage over Italy and Croatia, the two champions and third place winners of the last World Cup, but if they lose to Italy in the final round of the game, and Croatia defeats Ecuador, which has lost two games in a row and is basically hopeless, and gets enough goal difference from it, then they are still likely to be blocked out of the round of 16 by Croatia and Italy.

Another example is Italy, who just squeezed out Croatia in second place in the standings, although the result of taking all three points from Ecuador has relieved some of the pressure on their shoulders, but the qualifying shì is still not optimistic, even if they beat Mexico in the last group game, because Croatia's opponent is Ecuador, a recognized fish belly team in Group G.

So, unless Italy can get enough clean sheets against Mexico, they are still likely to become only the second defending champions in World Cup history to fail to emerge from the group stage. (Note: The first team to do so was Brazil in 1966, who won just one and lost two at that World Cup due to Pele's injury and the aging of key players such as Garrincha, and were eventually snuffed out in the group stage by Eusebio's Portugal and Hungary's surviving remnants.) ）

So, while leading Italy to a clean victory over Ecuador saved Zoff a lot of face and made the criticism of him much quieter among the fans, it didn't mean that Zoff could rest easy. After all, Italy still has a lot of pressure to qualify, and if they are happy too soon, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not repeat the mistakes of the Brazilians; Moreover, although the team won the match against Ecuador, it does not mean that the tactical style that Zoff is pursuing is flawless. In fact, there are still many deficiencies in Italy today, which urgently need to be made up and strengthened by Zoff.

After all, the advantages and disadvantages of Italy in the two group games have been clearly seen by most coaches and experts. They realised that the Italian coach's talent was definitely on the defensive side, and he really didn't know anything about the offensive end, only knowing how to let the players rely on their individual ability to impact the opponent's defense, or use the tacit understanding and inspiration between the players to complete some offensive coordination.

Predictably, it will not be easy for Zoff to reach the same heights as his predecessor Maldini Sr. in his current career as head coach of the national team. Unless he can find a way to optimize Italy's current attacking system, it will not be a problem to wait until the knockout stage and rely on Vieri to rush so much. After all, the defense of those traditional strong teams is not dry, Vieri's personal ability is strong, but he is not to the point where he can pick a group of people on the field, otherwise, Inter Milan in the previous life would not have been forced to miss the league championship for many years.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at the other groups.

Compared to the upsets in the first round of the group stage, overall, the traditional powerhouses seem to have regained the feeling of winning after eating their first blow in this round of games. Spain and Brazil both won both games in their respective groups and qualified early; England relied on a penalty kick from David Beckham to defeat Argentina in the Anglo-Argentine game, and Beckham also successfully avenged a shot at the World Cup in France four years ago; Portugal, who suffered a shock first-round defeat to the United States, also won as they beat Poland 3-0 in the pouring rain to prove what a golden generation is all about.

However, in this round of the group stage, not all the traditional powerhouses have emerged victorious. Not to mention Argentina, which won the first game, Beckham's penalty made the favorite to face the reality of stumbling with the Swedes in the final round; Germany, who beat Saudi Arabia 8-0 in the first game, also suffered a draw, and Klose, who shone in the previous game, could not change the outcome of the team's draw with the Irishman despite scoring his fourth goal of the tournament; Not to mention Russia, which once dominated for a while, the polar bears, which have been slumping since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, even lost to the host Japanese team in this round of the game, and the veteran group headed by "Tsar" Mostovoy is exhausted, suggesting that the last group of former Soviet relics in the Russian team is about to bid farewell to this stage.

The most unfortunate were France, who drew with Uruguay in their second group game after being upset by Senegal's "France II" in the first round, and neither Trezeguet, Cisse nor Thierry Henry were able to bring a goal to France. In the end, the team, which had also won the European Championship runners-up two years ago, could only accept the embarrassing reality of not scoring a goal in two games and on the verge of being eliminated.

Time waits for no one, after the second round of the group stage is over, immediately after, the final round of the group stage related to the final fate of the 32 teams participating in the World Cup finals will kick off immediately, all the teams that have not yet secured the qualification, but also have a glimmer of hope of qualifying are all gearing up, ready to make a final fight for a place in the round of 16!

Teams are working hard to qualify, and Italy is no exception. No, with three days to go before the match against Mexico, Zoff pulled Maldini into his room to discuss the team's next tactical play with the captain.

"Paul, I'd like to hear your opinion on the upcoming match against Mexico." After the two sides were seated, Zoff asked Maldini kindly that he would still give some preferential treatment to the captain of the national team who has participated in four World Cups, "Of course, if you don't know where to start, then I'll give you an example." For example, what do you have to say about the team's starting lineup for the next game? ”

The reason why he decided to ask Maldini about this is because Zoff feels that one more person is more strength, and with the experience of many years of following Maldini Sr., Sacchi and Capello and other tactical masters, he must have seen some problems that the team has now and he does not see. Therefore, if the starting lineup is adjusted according to his construction, then these problems may be solved.