Before Spain played, the battle between Croatia and Turkey in Group D was the first to take place.

Croatia almost scored in the first minute.

Rakitic's cushion shot grazed the post and flew off the line as Croatia came close to a dream start.

Turkey's strength is not weak, and in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, it also reached the semi-finals and finished third.

In the face of Croatia, a direct competitor, the Turks did not hesitate at all, and directly put on a 4141 formation, and the intention to score points on the Croatians is very obvious.

In the face of aggressive Turkey, the Croatians played very calmly.

With a strong midfield, they gradually controlled the pace of the game after passing the phase of mutual testing between the two sides.

Mandzukic, Perisic, Brozovic and others have had great scoring opportunities, but unfortunately they didn't take advantage of them.

In the end, it was Modric who stepped up, and in the 41st minute of the first half, he seized an opportunity for the opponent to clear the ball, volleyed the ball non-stop, and hit the ball into the dead corner on the left side of the goal, helping the team break the deadlock and rewrite the score to 1:0.

It was a beautiful goal, but it was also very difficult.

Originally, Croatia's left wing-back Brozovic wanted to pass to Mandzukic in the box and let him head the goal.

As a result, Mandzukic did not grab the first landing point, and the ball was cleared by the opposing defender.

The ball that came out of the ball happened to fall in front of Modric.

Modric on the periphery saw the ball flying towards him, did not adjust at all, and directly volleyed, not only suddenly, but also extremely tricky, the opponent's goalkeeper had nothing to do about it, but could only watch the ball into the net.

After taking the lead, Croatia played more calmly, constantly taking advantage of the weakness of the opponent's single back and frequently attacking the opponent's ribs, so that the Turks could take care of one and the other.

Although the difference in possession between the two sides is not huge, Croatia only have 52 per cent possession and Turkey have 48 per cent, just 4 percentage points behind.

However, there was a huge difference in the number of shots on goal between the two sides, with Croatia having 19 shots on goal with six on target, and would have scored more had it not been for the frequent squandering of chances.

Turkey, on the other hand, managed just nine shots on goal, two on target, and had very few dangerous shots, not producing the effect they wanted to see before the game.

After winning this game, the Croatians breathed a sigh of relief.

Turkey are their direct rivals for group progression, and beating them means they have the initiative to qualify.

As long as they can beat the Czech Republic in their next game, they will be sure to qualify.

If you're lucky, you might even be looking forward to picking up points against Spain and fighting for a chance to top the group.

For Turkey, the result was very bad.

They will face defending champions Spain in their next game, and even though the outside world feels that Spain have been severely weakened after losing Lin Quan, Turkey's chances of beating them are slim.

After the match between the two teams, both Croatia and Turkey tacitly chose to keep a close eye on the Spanish side of the game.

They want to judge Spain's strength through this match between Spain and the Czech Republic, and by the way, verify the speculation of the outside world to see if Lin Quan will really miss the game.

There are many teams who think the same way, and the match between Spain and the Czech Republic has attracted a large number of fans, and countless viewers have watched it live on TV and the Internet.

In the German team's training base, Loew led a group of coaching staff members to sit in front of the TV and watch the game intently.

The German's expression was quite serious and he watched with great concentration, especially the head coach Loew.

The defeat at the last World Cup haunted him and all the Germans, and in the past two years, Madame Le has thought of countless ways to beat Spain and get revenge.

And this European Championship is the time to verify the results of their hard work over the years.

For the Germans, this European Championship has two main purposes:

1. Get the championship

2. Defeat Spain!

If the final is against Spain, and they take a magnificent revenge in the final, stepping on the corpse of Spain to win the championship, it is simply not more wonderful.

At the same time, inside the French team's training base, the head coach of the French team, Didier Deschamps, is doing almost the same thing.

At the same time, at the training bases of many national teams, many of them silently turned on the TV and locked the TV program on the match of Spain vs the Czech Republic!

And on the Internet, fans have long been arguing.

"You say, will Emperor Lin appear today?"

Whether Lin Quan will play or not is the focus of the most attention in this game.

A lot of people are paying more attention to this matter than the game itself.

On the Internet and major media, some people think that Lin Quan will play, and the previous thing is just that he and Spain put a smoke bomb on the outside world to confuse the opponent.

Some people also believe that Lin Quan was injured in the Champions League final, which is something that fans all over the world have witnessed, and now it is less than half a month before the end of the Champions League final.

Neither side can convince anyone, and the final answer will not be known until the game starts.

At four o'clock in the afternoon of June 13, the match between Spain and the Czech Republic officially began.

At the start of the game, there was a spectacle on the pitch: instead of focusing on the pitch, the fans turned to the Spanish bench.

It's not just Spanish fans who do this, neutral fans and even Czech fans are doing the same.

The reason for them to do so is simple, Lin Quan was not seen in Spain's starting line-up.

If he can't find someone in the starting lineup, he could end up on the bench.

However, after searching all over the Spanish bench and looking inside and out of the dozen or so players sitting on the bench, everyone still couldn't find the person they were looking for.

In the end, people saw Lin Quan watching the game with Guardiola and several younger siblings in the stands.

Lin Quan was dressed in casual clothes, sitting in the stands and talking to Guardiola from time to time, looking relaxed.

Seeing that the camera was aimed at him, Lin Quan also waved his hand to the camera and said hello to the fans at the scene.

However, his outfit also meant that he missed the first game in Spain.

The results quickly spread online and offline at a viral rate.

Lin Quan's tag that was absent from the European Cup even directly topped the Twitter trend list, and the major media couldn't even wait for the results of the game, so they directly picked up the pen and started writing, and reported the news as soon as possible.

For a while, all kinds of reports came one after another.

"The world's first person to miss the European Cup! 》

"In the absence of the core figures of Spain, the Bullfighting Legion may encounter Waterloo! 》

"Lin Quan was absent from the European Cup, and the suspense of the championship arose! 》

This is quite decent, some media that go off the rails want to make a big news when they seize this opportunity:

"Manchester City superstar may have broken his leg, and the world's first person will be ruined by injury! 》

"Football superstars have fallen, and it is rare to see Lin's breakthrough in the world!" 》

Relying on some chasing after the wind, these media dare to conclude that Lin Quan was ruined by injury.

And that's not even the most outrageous, there are even more outrageous:

"Manchester City did not renew the contract with Lin Quan, and the Manchester City legend may be abandoned! 》

"The first person in football is disheartened or will retire early! 》

……

Good guy, Lin Quan has to call him a good guy when he sees it!

Just because he missed a game, these shameless media and reporters have already sentenced him to death.

The three of them became tigers, and the media's ability to do things was really terrifying.

But at this time, he was in the stands, and he didn't know anything about it.

"By the way, why didn't Bosque let you fight?"

Pep Guardiola is both Lin Quan's coach and his adoptive father, and he is most familiar with Lin Quan's condition.

Although it sounds incredible, after a careful and comprehensive examination by the Manchester City team doctors, it was determined that Lin Quan's injury was not serious, and he could resume training and games after a week or two of rest at most.

Lin Quan and Manchester City FC also informed the Spanish national team of this result, but Bosque still chose not to let Lin Quan play, and even did not give him the opportunity to be a substitute.

The purpose of this is mainly twofold, one is to extend the rest time of Lin Quan as much as possible to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

The second is to use the hype of the outside world to put a smoke bomb on the competitors to confuse them.

Spain's first opponent is not strong, and the probability of winning is very high.

If they can win it, then the chances of qualifying will be very high.

In this case, Bosque can consider hiding Lin Quan's killer move all the time, and suddenly show his killer move in the knockout stage, catching the opponent off guard.

Of course, if you don't win the first game, or lose the second game to Turkey, and the third game has to play a life-and-death battle with Croatia, then Bosque can only use this hole card in advance.

After explaining Bosque's intentions to Guardiola, Guardiola nodded:

"His approach is safe, but without you, the game will be ugly!"

Pep Guardiola is a prophecy!

This game is indeed very unsightly!

In the case of Bosque sending all the main forces except Lin Quan, the Spanish attack was called a constipation.

With a strong midfield, Spain has been firmly in control of the game, with a possession rate of 72%, a whopping 729 passes and a pass success rate of 89%!

With a super high possession rate, they created a total of 18 shots on goal, but the forwards' feet stinked, and only 4 shots on target from 18 shots, while the opponent only had 4 shots on goal but 3 shots on target.

The Spanish fans in the stands were stupid!

Is this still the Armada we remember?

How did TM get it like this?

It's only been one game, and Spanish fans have already begun to miss Lin Quan.

If Lin Quan was there, he wouldn't have played so stinky!

These guys, they can't play football without Lin Quan!

Spanish fans are tormented to death by their own teams, and neutral fans are drowsy by the endless inverted feet of Spain.

The Czech fans, on the other hand, were startled by the frequent shots made by the Spanish strikers.

Although the opponent's shooting rate is very low, and the accuracy is not good, but the more this is, the more scary it is!

Because even he doesn't know which direction his shot is heading, how does this make the goalkeeper predict and save?

The Czech goalkeeper is none other than the legendary goalkeeper of the Blues, Petr Cech.

Petr Cech was cautious at the start of the game because of Spain's fame.

Keep reminding yourself in my heart: Although Lin Quan is not there, the opposing team is full of big-name stars, so you can't be careless.

However, after experiencing the unreliable bombardment of the other side, the Cech people were numb!

That's it?

Spain's strikers are at this level?

I'm more reliable than you guys when I go up and kick!

On the sidelines, Bosque couldn't stand it.

After seeing that Morata missed another one-on-one shot, he began to make substitutions.

Alvaro Morata, Nolito and Cesc Fabregas were replaced one after another, and the attacking group in Spain's front field was pushed and reset.

However, the substitutions who came on were just as unreliable.

After getting the ball, he only knows how to pass and pass, and he can't penetrate the opponent's defense.

In the end, it was a set-piece opportunity that allowed central defender Pique to grab the opportunity to head the goal, and knocked on the opponent's door with a header in the 87th minute of the second half, winning 1-0.

The fans who watched the game, both Spanish and neutral, all walked out of the stadium with a curse.

We came with the expectation of appreciating the highest level of football, and you gave us this whole show?

I don't know if you think this is the King of Chef Competition?

Spain's title is indeed resounding, but the actual performance is really unbearable.

This performance is even more hip-pulling than the performance of the French team in the opening game.

It's a shame that the goal of the French team is really scored by the striker, and your Spain goal has to rely on the defender to score, it's simple, spicy eyes!

Not surprisingly, after the end of this game, there were a lot of voices on the Internet and in the media that were negative about Spain.

Some people can't wait to jump out:

"I announce that Spain is withdrawing from the European Championship title race!"

"Agreed, with Spain's state today, I doubt they can beat Croatia!"

"Croatia's strength is not weak, Spain will really lose, once Spain loses, their group first will definitely not be able to keep, without the group first, then the knockout stage, Spain will be miserable!"

There are many people who hold this view, and even the coaches and players of other teams, after watching this game, feel that their opportunity has come!

Especially Spain's next opponent, Turkey, who seem to see hope of qualifying!

(End of chapter)