Stade de France on July 8, 2016.

The second semi-final of this European Championship was played here.

The match received a lot of attention before the game, and before the game even started, a large number of fans poured into the stadium.

Among them, the number of fans of the host French team is significantly higher.

Of the 80,000-capacity stadium, at least 50,000 are French fans, and fewer than 20,000 are wearing Spanish red jerseys.

With the advantage of numbers, the French completely suppressed the visiting fans in terms of momentum.

They sang the French national anthem, chanted the name of every player on the pitch, and filled the stadium with applause and cheers.

This is perhaps the closest they have come to winning the championship in the past decade.

As long as you can win the strong opponent of Spain, isn't it still a good idea to defeat Portugal in the final?

The Frenchman looked determined to win the game, as evidenced by the fighting spirit from their players.

During the pre-match warm-up, the players of the French team were all very excited and excited, as if they couldn't wait to start playing.

Compared to them, the Spanish side seems much calmer.

After all, the average age of the team is several years older than the other side, and they have won various honors before, whether it is the mentality of this kind of competition or the desire for the championship, it is not as strong as the other party.

This is both good and bad for Spain!

There is calm in every major event, which is the mentality of the strong.

Keeping their mentality calm will reduce their nervousness and they won't make mistakes easily during the game.

But the declining desire for the title will also hurt their morale.

Many teams have won the championship honor, and the morale of the players has dropped rapidly, which has led to a sharp drop in results.

This was the case with Inter in the 10-11 season, after winning the treble, this team, which is mostly veterans, showed a cliff-like decline in the second season.

This is certainly related to the change of manager, but it is also inseparable from the loss of desire and motivation of the players themselves.

And the current Spanish team is already in this state.

After the warm-up between the two sides, the managers of both teams seized the last bit of time before the start of the game to give the players a pre-match mobilization in the dressing room.

Compared to the bustling French dressing room next door, the Spanish dressing room can be described as quiet.

Bosque is not the kind of coach who is very good at stirring up the emotions of his players, he laid out his tactics one by one, and then encouraged the players before getting them ready to play.

Deschamps, on the other hand, made the final mobilization in the dressing room of the French team, and although there were two doors apart, Deschamps' voice still came faintly from the cracks in the doors.

Although I couldn't understand what the other party was saying, the subdued tone and the loud echoes of the players below showed that their pre-match mobilization seemed to be doing a good job.

Sure enough, when the two sides left the locker room and met in the players' tunnel, Lin Quan could clearly see that the French players on the opposite side all seemed to have been beaten with chicken blood.

Even Kante, who has always been introverted and shy, seems to be unable to suppress his small universe at this time, and is about to explode.

What kind of ecstasy soup did this guy Deschamps pour into these French players, and make their morale so high?

Thinking of this, Lin Quan was a little worried that the other party would launch a fierce attack at the beginning, so he told a few teammates about his worries in advance.

"At the beginning of the game, first stabilize one hand, and wait for the opponent's momentum to run out!"

Young players are susceptible to being beaten, but that doesn't last long.

Spain has a lot of veteran players and a lot of experience, so they can be patient.

But only if they can withstand the onslaught of the French.

France's coach Didier Deschamps glanced at Spain's starting line-up across the tunnel as he passed through the tunnel and was relieved when he was sure Andres Iniesta wasn't among them.

Sure enough, as he thought, Iniesta's injury was very serious and he did not recover so quickly.

In this way, the French team has a better chance of winning this game.

As the game time approached, the referee began to lead the players in.

Each of the 22 players from both teams led a caddie through the players' tunnel and onto the court.

After playing the national anthem, shaking hands before the game, exchanging team flags and guessing coins, players from both sides took their positions and the game was finally about to begin.

As Lin Quan thought, the French team did not choose to choose the venue after winning the coin guessing session, but chose the ball.

It seems that they really plan to take advantage of the manager's bowl of chicken soup to launch a fierce attack on Spain while the effect is still there.

Beep!

With the referee's whistle, the semifinals of the European Cup, the match between France and Spain officially began.

Olivier Giroud kicked the ball to Antoine Griezmann and raced towards the Spanish half.

At the same time, Sissoko, Payette, Pogba and others are also rushing forward.

As soon as the game began, the French team put on a desperate posture and rushed up to ask for Spain's life.

Seeing this scene, the French fans at the scene were extremely excited, and they also shouted loudly one by one, trying to create more momentum for the French team's attack.

Seeing that the opponent attacked so fiercely as soon as he came up, the Spanish fans who went to watch the game from afar couldn't help but be scared.

The Spanish car, although luxurious, is a veritable classic car.

Facing the young and impactful line-up of the French team, they were worried that the Spanish team would not be able to withstand being directly crushed.

Thankfully, what they feared didn't happen.

Because of Lin Quan's reminder before the game, the Spaniards had already prepared for the French's attempts.

Seeing that the opponent launched a rush attack at the beginning, they chose to shrink the formation backwards for the first time, not giving the opponent a chance to play a fast attack.

When Antoine Griezmann dribbled the ball into the opposition half, he was surrounded by almost all defenders, unable to continue to break forward or pass to Giroud, who was in the middle of a multi-man pack, to drop back and force a shot.

So you can only stop, pass back to your teammates, and let your teammates reorganize the attack.

Although the Spanish formation was slightly pressed out by the opponent's return ball, it did not cross the halfway line overall.

As a result, there is still little room for the French team to attack forward, and every time they pass forward or dribble the ball, they face huge resistance, and they may lose the ball if they are not careful.

As a last resort, the Frenchman had no choice but to give up the intention of rushing and began to slow down the tempo, waiting for his teammates to follow up, and then patiently organize the attack forward.

In the French team's dugout, although the team's plan to start the game failed, Deschamps's expression did not change.

The Spanish team is not a fish belly, if they can beat them so easily, then they will not be able to spend so much energy and make so much preparation.

If it doesn't work, there are other ways.

Even if it is a positional battle, this lineup of the French team may not be afraid of the other side.

Compared with the French team, which is in a hurry to attack, Spain's side is not in a hurry.

After successfully defending off the opponent's attack, they also did not try to launch a quick counterattack and give the opponent back the color.

Instead, under the leadership of Lin Quan, he patiently controlled the ball in the backcourt, mobilized the opponent's players to run back and forth, and consumed the opponent's physical strength.

Except for a few people such as Lin Quan, these Spanish players on the court are all veterans with very rich game experience.

Maybe in terms of impact, they are not as good as this group of young lads in the French team.

But with more experience, they were able to turn the young guys around.

At the front, the likes of Olivier Giroud, Payette, Antoine Griezmann and Sissoko were very aggressive at first, pressing the ball carriers, trying to intercept or even steal the opposition's passes.

But the Spanish players are calm and very cooperative.

They can move and respond quickly when the opponent rushes towards the ball carrier, so that the ball carrier can always find a safe way to play the ball at critical moments.

If they can't, they can still pass the ball back to the goalkeeper.

As a goalkeeper for the Spanish team, having excellent ability to play the ball is a must-have skill for them.

And in this game, the starting goalkeeper arranged by Bosque is still Casillas, who performed well in the last game.

He has been cooperating with these players on the field for a long time, and he has a very tacit understanding with each other, and his teammates are very relieved to have him behind him.

As a result, there is often such a scene on the field, when the French players are approaching a Spanish player violently, the Spanish player passes the ball out at the last moment.

From the perspective of Spanish fans or neutral fans, it seems to feel very thrilling, and they can't help but feel frightened.

But from the perspective of the French fans, this is not the case at all.

They feel that the other side is deliberately playing tricks or even humiliating their players, otherwise why is the ball passed out when they are about to succeed when the time is just right every time?

Once or twice can be said to be accidental, and every time it is like this, then it is definitely not accidental.

"The Spaniard is so daring, he's almost playing with fire in front of his own goal!"

In the CCTV studio, several commentators couldn't help but sweat for the Spanish team after seeing this scene.

"Probably no other team would dare to do that except for Spain, right?"

"Even if other teams have such courage, they may not have such skills!"

A commentator couldn't help but shake his head, perhaps thinking of the national football team.

The national football team belongs to the kind of team that can't hold the ball at all, the football seems to be hot at the feet of the players, even in their own backfield, they can't hold it at all, and the opponent panics and messes up when they grab it a little, as if only the big foot kicks the ball far away can make them feel at ease.

Compared with the national football team, the Spanish players not only have better skills, but also have better psychological quality, I don't know how many times.

Under the huge pressure of losing the ball if the ball is broken, they still play so steadily, they don't make a single mistake, it seems to be dangerous, but in fact they are as stable as old dogs, turning the opponent's play.

This skill is really not something that ordinary teams can have.

Being walked is a pretty bad experience, as it can quickly drain a player's energy and take a serious toll on their morale.

After trying to grab for minutes but couldn't even touch the ball, the Frenchman gave up.

They've already put in four players to come and press, so it's impossible to keep putting in the troops, right?

If they really continue to increase the weight, if the opponent suddenly takes advantage of the lack of troops in their rear to come up with a wave of rapid counterattacks, then the French team may not be able to eat and go around.

The Frenchman used his own experience to tell everyone not to try to steal the ball from under Spain's feet when they are down at the back.

Seeing that the opponent's morale has been almost consumed, the chicken blood that was fought before the game has basically subsided.

After Lin Quan received the ball again, he no longer participated in the backward feet in the backcourt, but carried the ball forward.

This is a signal that the Spanish team is about to attack!

Seeing this scene, the players on the scene suddenly perked up.

Before Spain watched them drowsy at the back, many people have already cursed.

At the beginning of the game, he shamelessly poured his feet, did he want to use hypnosis to make us sleep?

Fortunately, Spain was not so shameless and finally began to attack.

This made fans look forward to seeing what wonderful combinations the Spanish side could play.

With Andres Iniesta out of action, Lin Quan dropped back to midfield and Pedro took his place on the wing.

As the core of Spain's midfield, Lin Quan just approached the halfway line with the ball, and was immediately targeted by the French team.

Kante, Payette and others have almost all set their sights on him.

Especially Kante, he was like a piece of kraft candy, rushing up and sticking to Lin Quan, no matter whether Lin Quan had a ball next to him or not, he had to turn into a cage and shroud Lin Quan in it.

N'Golo Kante's one-on-one ability is extremely strong, and his physicality and fighting spirit make him the toughest of the current active midfielders on the planet.

I'm afraid no one wants to face this guy in the middle lane, even Lin Quan.

However, compared to others, because Lin Quan and Kante are teammates, he knows Kante's technical characteristics and personal habits very well.

In addition, the two have been training against each other in the club, so he knows very well that he has a high probability of beating Kante in a one-on-one heads-up.

This gave Lin Quan a certain psychological advantage, and also made Kante a lot more cautious when defending him.

Some of the opportunities that might reach out to intercept other players when defending have been steady, N'Golo Kante has chosen to stay steady and not rush to the occasion, preferring to miss the opportunity rather than make a mistake.

Kante's caution gave Lin Quan a little headache.

It's not easy to get past Kante one-on-one, and the other party is so careful, and what's worse is that Kante is not alone, he has teammates to assist.

This made Lin Quan's situation even more difficult!

(End of chapter)