If it is a period when there are only 16 teams in each group and only the top two teams qualify, winning both games does not guarantee early qualification from the group.

Because it could happen that three teams have two wins and one loss, and the other unlucky team loses all three.

As a result, the three teams need to look at goal difference to determine the top two teams in the group.

It's rare, but it's also seen in the World Series.

In the 12th World Cup in 1982, Algeria, West Germany, and Austria in Group B were all 2-1, and Algeria was eliminated in third place due to a small goal difference.

In the Champions League, a similar situation has actually occurred.

The Champions League group stage is a double round-robin, and this score has to be multiplied by two, so in the 2013-14 Champions League group stage, Arsenal, Napoli and Dortmund are all 4-2 with 12 points, and finally Napoli is eliminated in third place.

But in this year's European Cup, the third place in the group with the best results can qualify, so the Swedish team can be said to have entered the round of 16 in advance!

After all, it's not common to have a group with a 6 points to finish third, let alone have more than 5 6 points to finish third......

'It was a bit of a surprise win that gave Sweden three points and made them the first team to qualify in this group of death.

"It's been a bit of a disappointment for Italy in this game. Their opening win over favourites Belgium has left the Italian side in the spotlight and thought they could do better in this tournament. ”

"But the truth is, the Italian team is not too impressive in front of the Swedish team. Sweden, on the other hand, showed convincing strength for the second time in a row. ”

In other words, the overall performance of the Swedish team is better than the first game against Ireland, and the attack and defense are also relaxed, and they have always controlled the game steadily. Considering that Italy are stronger than Ireland, such a performance is indeed a bit surprising. ”

"If you just rely on this game, the Swedish team can even show them that they have endless possibilities. After all, not just any team can play the Italian team so badly! ”

"Of course, if the Swedish team wants to go further in this European Cup, it will undoubtedly require them to maintain this form for a longer time, which will also test Pan Yi's overall control of this kind of competition."

"But now there is a very favorable situation for Pan Yi's Swedish team. That is, they have already qualified early, which also makes Sweden's final round against Belgium a less important game, and Pan Yi can also take the opportunity to rest more key players to prepare for a more brutal knockout match. ”

"It's very critical. Because whether it is the European Cup or the World Cup, the schedule is actually very intensive, and such a rest opportunity is really rare! ……”

In the commentator's slightly excited commentary, the Swedish players on the pitch were already celebrating excitedly.

Before the start of the European Championship, almost everyone was not optimistic about Sweden, thinking that they would be eliminated at the bottom of the group, and even after Pan Yi took over, this view did not change much;

This also made the Swedish national team hold back the fire.

Now, they're out ahead of schedule!

Two wins in a row in this group of death!

Therefore, the previous feeling of being a little aggrieved can finally be vented well, which makes this group of Swedish internationals look very excited.

On the other hand, the players of the Italian team who competed in the same game all lowered their heads and looked depressed.

Originally, they were the team that thought they could qualify early!

However, since they lost to Sweden, they will have to beat Ireland in the final round, which is not so certain.

After all, the Italian tradition is that when you are strong, you are not weak, when you are weak, he is weak, when you think he is strong, he is weak, when you think he is very weak, he will be strong to show you......

"Congratulations, Chief!" When Desiglio saw Pan Yi walking towards him, an indescribable stiff smile immediately appeared on his face.

On the one hand, it was because Italy lost, and on the other hand, it was because he didn't even get a minute to play in this losing Italian team!

This also shows that after Pan Yi left Milan, Desiglio's career development did not go as smoothly as he expected.

It can't be said to be very bad - after all, it can also be selected for the Italian national team, but when it comes to popularity, it is certainly not true.

Overall, just a qualified player in the big five leagues, that's all.

"Good luck too!" Pan Yi could only pat Desiglio's shoulder to show comfort.

The master leads the way in, and the cultivation depends on the individual.

Desiglio's future still depends on himself.

Fortunately, he is only 23 years old this year, and he still has a chance to improve......

——

There was a crowd at the post-match press conference.

Journalists and media from all over the world gathered here, all waiting for the appearance of the managers of both sides, hoping that they could make some comments on the game, especially Pan Yi.

Antonio Conte came on first, but today he lost and obviously wasn't in a good mood.

After briefly answering questions from several reporters, he hurried away.

And when Pan Yi appeared, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly reached a climax.

Obviously, this is not only because of Pan Yi's reputation as the world's No. 1 coach, but also because of the two games he has played with the Swedish team.

Especially today to be able to suppress Italy like this, and make Conte's team play so uncomfortable, which fully reflects the fighting power of this Swedish team.

It can be said that after this game, if anyone criticizes Pan Yi and his Swedish team again, it will really mean that they are talking nonsense.

After all, this is the first team to qualify for this European Championship!

"Mr. Pan Yi, what do you think of this victory?" A reporter was the first to raise his hand to ask.

"It was a very tough race. Italy were strong and created a lot of threats for us, but in the end we won the game and that was very important because the victory belonged to everyone and to the whole team. ”

Pan Yi's answer was very formal, and it also gave Conte enough face.

Another reporter stood up: "Mr. Pan Yi, which player in the Swedish team do you think played the best today?" ”

Pan Yi smiled: "Everyone's performance is very good. Ibrahimovic and Isak were of course fantastic in scoring for us, but I want to give special credit to Victor Lindelof today, who completely defended the top scorer and Pelle, who I think has the potential to play in the big clubs. ”

The reporters all nodded.

Since Pan Yi joined the team, Lindelof has also seemed to be a different person.

In addition to defending well, he also took on the responsibility of Sweden's play at the back, keeping the Swedes' already somewhat chaotic ball system in order.

This has to make people admire Pan Yi's accuracy in employing people.

After all, under his predecessor, Lindelof was nothing more than a reckless man who often rose to the top.

At this time, Pan Yi continued: "Of course, I still want to emphasize that playing a major tournament like the European Cup relies on the joint efforts of the 23 players in the team, rather than relying on one or a few players to do it. ”

At this time, another reporter raised his hand: "After two consecutive wins, the Swedish team has actually qualified from the group." Will you make some changes to your squad when you play Belgium? ”

"Of course!" Pan Yi nodded, "I have to think about the game from the big picture. If there's a chance to rest your players, why not? Of course, the position of the group will also affect the opponents in the knockout round, and I will also consider it. ”

"But since the third place in the group can also qualify, it's hard to predict your top 16 opponent now, right?" The reporter asked, "The situation of qualifying will be much more chaotic than before." ”

Pan Yi smiled and said, "Then, let's try to occupy a good position in the group, and then let others think about how to avoid us." ”

——

Soon, Belgium vs. Ireland also began.

Fellaini, Nainggolan and Seaman were replaced by Dembele, Carrasco and Meunier respectively.

However, in the first half, the attack of both sides was lackluster, and the two teams drew 0-0.

After the start of the second half, Belgium's offensive was in full swing.

In the 48th minute, Ireland's free-kick attack failed, Belgium launched a quick counterattack, De Bruyne distributed the ball to Lukaku, and the little monster scored with a left-footed shot on the penalty line, Belgium led Ireland 1-0, which was Lukaku's first goal in the European Cup.

In the 61st minute of the game, Belgium continued to cooperate, Meunier sent a cross from the side, Witsel quickly stepped forward and scored with a header in the penalty area, helping Belgium lead 2-0.

In the 70th minute, Belgium scored again, Hazard calmly knocked in the penalty area, Lukaku pushed in front of the goal, Belgium led Ireland 3-0, Lukaku scored twice.

In the end, Belgium won 3-0 against Ireland.

This victory made Belgium's points jump to second in the group, while Ireland lost both games and swallowed five eggs, and there was little hope of qualifying.

It has long been clear that Sweden will be top of their group as long as they remain unbeaten in the final round.

And for Italy and Belgium with three points, in fact, it is the same, that is, if you don't lose, you have a good chance of qualifying, the difference is only the group position and the opponent in the knockout round.

Given that the first group in Group E is likely to meet the second in Group D, and Group D is composed of Croatia, Spain, Turkey, and the Czech Republic;

The second team in Group E will meet the first team in Group F, and the four teams in Group F are Hungary, Iceland, Portugal and Austria;

Judging from this situation, perhaps finishing second in the group is not a very bad choice.

Of course, third place in the group should be avoided as they will face the top of Group A, and for now, hosts France have a good chance of standing in that position, having just beaten Albania 2-0 and won both games.

However, this is still a theoretical arrangement.

Since it is not known which group will finish third, there is some uncertainty here, and it is not yet entirely confirmed.

——

The final round of Group E is scheduled for June 22, the final day of the group stage.

Therefore, before the start of the two matches that start at the same time, Italy vs Ireland and Sweden vs Belgium, the rest of the group standings have already been settled.

In the final round of Group A, which ended first, France drew 0-0 with Switzerland, while Romania lost 0-1 to Albania, which puts the final position of Group A with 7 points, Switzerland 5, Albania 3 points, and Romania 1 point out.

Then there is Group B, where they took top of the group after Wales beat Russia 3-0 a bit unexpectedly!

England, who finished second in the same group, also secured the right to qualify, while Slovakia also secured the right to qualify with three points.

Group C is ranked with 7 points for Germany, 7 points for Poland, 3 points for Northern Ireland and 0 points for Ukraine.

In Group D, which Pan Yi needs to focus on, there was a big upset in the last round, Croatia defeated Spain 2:1!

It also allowed Croatia to beat Spain to top the group, while Spain could only settle for second.

Finally, in Group F, Hungary and Portugal completed a 3:3 goal battle, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring twice.

In this way, Hungary is first with 5 points, Iceland is also second with 5 points, and Portugal is third with 3 points after all three games.

Portugal have also qualified as they have already finished third in the previous groups with three points and a negative goal difference.

In this way, the final round of Group E is a bit delicate.

The top of the group will be Spain, who are second in Group D, while Hungary, who are second in Group F, and France, who are third in Group A, will also qualify.

In other words, the first place in Group E may not be as good as the second place to play......

However, Pan Yi didn't think about it so much, because he was ready to "release the water".

Well, not to release water.

It's a big rotation of the lineup!

The players who started before were all sitting on the bench, and all the original substitutes started!

Even the starting goalkeeper was replaced by Robin Olsen from Copenhagen.

As a result, all the players of the Swedish team, except for the number three goalkeeper Kargren, ushered in their appearance at the European Championship.

As for the Belgian side, since they have not yet secured a place in the qualifiers, they are still in the main lineup.

But their mentality is a bit strange.

They want to qualify, but they want to finish second in the group, so they can play Hungary instead of Spain.

Therefore, the Belgian players played a little absent-mindedly on the pitch, not in that 100 per cent fighting state.

"Sweden's Lustig broke the ball and gave it to Hijemak, who dribbled forward and passed it to Levitzky......"

"Levitsky took the ball, turned around and went straight behind Vermaelen, Kulusevski got the ball and went down to the bottom line and crossed ......"

"The ball is in! Marcus Berry scored!! ”

Countless fans wearing yellow Swedish jerseys jumped up from the stands, raised their arms and shouted loud slogans of celebration, making the entire Nice stadium seem to be in the whirlpool of a storm.

"In the 14th minute, just 14 minutes after the opening kick-off, Sweden took the lead in scoring the Belgian goal!"

"1-0, it was a very sudden, but it felt like a taken for granted. Because the Swedish team has been very active in attacking forward from the beginning, putting huge pressure on the Belgian team's defense! ”

"And the Belgian team is clearly not in good shape. Against the Swedish team, who played with an all-substitute lineup, they looked helpless? ”

"If they continue like this, they will be in danger. Belgium still have three points in the spot, but the goal difference has dropped to zero. If they concede another goal, they may not be able to match Albania and Turkey......"

The live TV footage and the big screen in the stadium were all replaying the whole process of the goal just now.

Everyone can see that in the moment when the Swedish team switched from offense to defense after the ball was broken, the players of the Belgian team obviously did not have the awareness to counter-attack at the first time, and even the defense was slow, looking listless and weak.

From Levitsky getting the ball to the diagonal pass that followed, Vermaelen never returned to his position.

When Kulusevski passed the ball, Aldeveld was naturally blocked by Marcus Berry, who headed directly into the box and scored without much interference.

'There's a clear problem with the Belgian team. After this goal, it felt like a lot of Belgian players were complaining to each other about something, not encouraging. ”

By this time, the Swedish players had returned to the pitch in unbridled celebrations, and the game was about to begin.

But it is clear that the morale of Belgium shows no signs of picking up.

'It now seems likely that the news about the pre-match fighting in the Belgian dressing room is true.

Although the on-site commentator didn't say it explicitly, from his tone, everyone could hear one thing, that is, disappointment.

This may be the stubborn problem of Belgian football.

After all, in football, in addition to the level of the team, the unity of the team is also an important factor in determining the results of the game.

In the past, some strong teams often had infighting due to many problems, such as Yugoslavia, where there were many nationalities, and the players in the national team were divided into gangs, and the Dutch team had a lot of players from the colonies, and they did not deal with local players.

And in Belgium, they don't even speak the same language in the team!

The Belgians are made up of French-speaking Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemish peoples, and the two peoples have always been at odds with each other.

And this confrontation has a long history, and this clash of cultures and languages has also been brought to the football field.

Belgium missed three European Championships and two World Cups from '02 to '12, and one of the main reasons was the faction of Walloons and Flemish players in the team.

Later, the Belgian golden generation appeared, and they were finally able to participate in the tournament, but the contradictions in the team remained.

During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Belgium internationals Vermaelen and Witsel attended a press conference at the same time. On the spot, Vermaelen spoke Dutch, while Witsel insisted on speaking French......

There are even rumors that in order to avoid language conflicts, the Belgian team will speak English uniformly, because English is safer and will not cause division within the team because of language.

As a result, Belgium was able to play a dozen on its own in the qualifying stage, but as soon as it arrived at the tournament, it was disheartened.

"Maybe it's because the current situation of qualifying from the group has caused divisions within Belgium." The commentator speculated, "For example, the Walloons think that they have to fight for the first place in the group and not be afraid of any opponent; And the Flemish people think it's good to be second in the group......"

"Of course, this is just my guess. Maybe their internal contradictions are more complicated than I thought. ”

"De Bruyne, for example, is Flemish, but he has some other contradictions with his father and mother, Courtois from Flemish and Wallo, respectively......"

"But the problem is that if this continues, they may end up being eliminated from the group!"

——

Of course, Pan Yi has also heard of Belgium's internal contradictions.

Well, since his previous life as a fan, he has heard more than once about the contradictions within Belgium.

Even such a contradiction continued until the end of the 2022 World Cup......

can only make people sigh that the golden generation that they finally emerged gradually grew old, and they failed to win any decent championships.

This also shows that football is really not just a sport that tests physical and technical skills, but more depends on whether the whole team can form a whole and work together.

This is also why Pan Yi has never liked that kind of stinging player.

Including Pep Guardiola.

Cancelo at Manchester City in his previous life, wasn't he strong? At least it is also the top three levels in the same position.

But because he had conflicts in the dressing room, including losing his temper as soon as he didn't start, Guardiola didn't get used to him and sent him away.

And after Cancelo left, Manchester City's results got better and better, and finally became the treble!

Although in Belgium now, there are several Chelsea players such as Lukaku, Hazard and Courtois, which can be regarded as Pan Yi's "hometown" team;

But he can only make sure that these people don't have conflicts in the Chelsea team – well, the three of them themselves are not easy to clique up.

And when it comes to Belgium, Pan Yike can't take care of it.

Even in the future of Chelsea, Pan Yi may not be able to control it, after all, he is no longer a Chelsea manager......

——

With a whistle from the referee, the game was over.

1:0, Sweden defeated Belgium!

In other words, Marcus Berry's goal in the 14th minute was the only goal of the game.

In the next 70 minutes, although the Belgians were disheartened, Sweden's substitute lineup was also limited after all, so the two sides also reached an inexplicable balance and kept the score until the end.

This also made all the Swedish fans at the Nice Stadium cheer up excitedly in celebration.

None of them imagined, definitely never imagined, that the game would become like this.

Belgium is also a European powerhouse, after all, ranked second in the world.

The Swedish team came on as a substitute, and even in the 70th minute, Pan Yi replaced the third goalkeeper Kargren, so that he was addicted to the European Cup......

But that's it, Sweden still won Belgium and won all three matches!

Of course, this is surprising, because Belgium can't be that weak in any way, and Sweden can't be that strong, but it just happened.

And then......

Even more startling news came from another venue:

Italy suffered a surprise 0-1 defeat to Ireland!

Well, Italy's loss, it doesn't seem like much of a surprise?

But in this way, Group E has formed a series of Sweden winning all three games with 9 points, while the other three teams are all 1 win, 2 losses and 3 points.

It's just that in this set, Belgium has a goal difference of 0, Italy has a goal difference of -1 and Ireland has a goal difference of -4.

As a result, Belgium finished second in the group "as they wished"!

Italy finished third in the group and Ireland was eliminated in fourth.

And because Albania, the third place in Group A, and Turkey, the third place in Group D, are both 3-point goal difference -2, which means that Italy has also qualified!

In the knockout round of 16, the fate of the three teams in Group E was also decided:

Belgium vs Hungary;

Italy VS France;

Sweden vs Spain!!

(End of chapter)