There was a gloom in the dressing room in Portugal, and coach Fernando Santos felt the solemn atmosphere in the dressing room, and he was thinking about what he could do to regain morale.

In the first half, they didn't play particularly badly, the difference between the two sides was not big in terms of statistics, Spain also had a higher possession rate than Portugal, there was not much difference between the two sides in the number of shots on goal, and the number of times Portugal scored into the 30-meter danger zone was even more.

Spain's goal was more of an accident than a combination of goals that broke through their defence in a positional battle.

But backwardness is backwardness, regardless of what method the other party uses to enter, in short, the other party has broken the goal.

It's a big headache!

Playing the second half with the disadvantage of falling behind is not a script he expected.

"In the second half, we're going to change our tactics!"

Fernando clapped his hands, attracting the attention of all the players, and then spoke slowly.

……

In Spain's dressing room, Bosque was also planning second-half tactics.

"The second half was dominated by defensive counter-attacks, Portugal will definitely attack, their backfield will inevitably be very empty, as long as we can seize the opportunity to switch from defense to attack at the right time and send the ball to the feet of the striker, we will have a chance to score!"

Portugal's defensive intensity was high in the first half, and Spain did not take much advantage in the positional battle.

But once the opponent attacks in the second half, it is impossible to have such a strong defensive ability.

In this case, Spain was even less difficult to score than in the first half.

Of course, this is also risky, as the probability of Spain conceding will also increase as they step up their attacking efforts, and if they fail to withstand the pressure and be equalised before the counter-attack is successful, it will be difficult to say.

So Bosque made some adjustments to Spain's formation, he was ready to replace Xiaofa, replace Martinez, and then let Martinez's position retreat and change to a back five formation.

But Xiaofa is an important point of the Spanish team in the counterattack, and once Lin Quan also puts in the counterattack, he is even the only point of the ball.

In this case, if he is replaced, in the counterattack, the responsibility of the ball will all fall on Lin Quan.

Bosque does not suspect that Lin Quan does not have such ability, in fact, with Lin Quan's organization and passing level, he is fully capable of this job.

But Lin Quan is not only an important member of the Spanish midfield, but also an indispensable attacking cone in the forward line, and the most consistent scorer in the Spanish team.

If you put him in the back, relying on the likes of Morata and Pedro on the front line, Bosque always feels a little unreliable.

It's not that the level of these people is not good, they are definitely first-class or even top players in the world, but if you compare them with Lin Quanyi, the gap is comparable to the Mariana Trench!

So, he looked at Iniesta and Thiago on the bench.

Both have good playmaking and passing skills, and if they can be brought on the pitch, they won't have to worry about that.

It's just that the defensive ability of both men is a bit worrisome.

If they were to be replaced, they would have to let Sergio Busquets come down, but Busquets' defence in the Spanish midfield was so important that he couldn't be taken off easily.

Spain will be under a lot of defensive pressure in the second half, and in this case they cannot replace Sergio Busquets.

So Bosque was very entangled and did not make up his mind for a long time.

……

The fifteen-minute break was fleeting, and the players from both sides returned to the pitch for the second half.

As Bosque expected, as soon as the second half began, Portugal immediately picked up the pace of the game, wasting no time to pour their feet, pull and probe, and launched a fierce attack on the Spanish goal.

They initially tried to attack from the middle, but the Spanish were densely populated in the middle and the formation was tighter.

The Portuguese players' foot skills are not as delicate as the Spanish players, and they can't play with the subtlety of threading the needle, and after several strong attacks to no avail, the Portuguese decisively changed their tactics and began to focus on attacking on the wings.

Nani was very active, threatening on the flanks and even sending a dangerous cross to Cristiano Ronaldo in the box, but Ronaldo failed to capitalise on his chance, and his header was too angled and just over the crossbar, missing the opportunity.

Ronaldo saw that his shot did not go in, and held his head in annoyance, the Portuguese fans in the stands were more uncomfortable than him, beating their chests one by one, eager to replace Ronaldo on the field and put the ball in the ball just now.

Of course, this is impossible, Ronaldo is already the strongest header among the active players, and anyone else may not be able to do better than him.

Although the goal was not scored, the Portuguese seemed to see an opportunity.

In the next few attacks, they frequently sent in low crosses in an attempt to replicate the attack.

Ronaldo is very desperate in this game, as long as his teammates cross, whether he can receive it or not, he will fight hard, even if he is injured.

For Cristiano Ronaldo, this could be the closest he has come to winning the title in his entire national team career.

If you don't take advantage of this opportunity, you may never have a chance to win the championship again.

So, if you don't fight now, when will you wait?

It's just that sometimes it doesn't necessarily succeed if you fight, Ronaldo's header is so threatening, it is impossible for Spain to be defenseless.

Ramos, as a teammate of Ronaldo's club, is very clear about Ronaldo's header ability.

So after Ronaldo entered the penalty area, he was inseparable from him, trying to interfere with and destroy his header opportunities.

There is always no way to grab the landing point at the first time, and he has to use his body to fight or even some hidden small actions so that Ronaldo can't exert his strength, at least not give him a chance to jump comfortably to compete for the top.

Ronaldo was very helpless about this, and protested to the referee several times, but the referee was indifferent.

Ramos' level of pulling is still within the range of reasonable physical confrontation, and with both of them in the penalty area, his whistle can't be blown easily.

In such a crucial game, it is important to minimize human intervention in the game.

Unless the opponent has a very obvious foul, otherwise, if he easily awards a penalty to Portugal, then he will not be poked in the backbone by fans all over the world?

Seeing that Ronaldo was struggling to support himself in the penalty area, Portugal immediately made a substitution, replacing Ed, who is 190 tall, and replacing Sanchez, a left wingback.

The intention was clear, to increase Portugal's impact in the box and to break the deadlock by taking advantage of crosses from the wings.

After Ed came on the field, he played a big role, at least sharing the pressure on Ronaldo, so that Ronaldo didn't have to be sandwiched.

And in positional battles, he can also take the ball with his back to Ronaldo, so that Ronaldo can get better shooting opportunities.

Portugal's attack has improved markedly since the substitution of Ede, and the threat to the Spanish goal has increased dramatically.

In the 65th minute of the second half, Ronaldo received a pass from Ed, and suddenly got up at the top of the penalty area and hit a long-range shot, almost penetrating the door of Spain.

If it weren't for Casillas' high concentration, who has worked with Ronaldo for many years and knows Ronaldo's shooting habits very well, this goal might have really scored!

Seeing that the team fell into passivity, the front of the goal became noisy.

Bosque made a substitution immediately, replacing Cesc Fabregas with Martinez.

Martinez is 1.92 meters tall, and when he was at Bayern, he was transformed into a central defender by Pep Guardiola, which allows him to adapt to both the midfield position and the central defender position.

Bosque brought him on to strengthen the defence, but when attacking, he had to move forward and back to the midfield, as a point of play and a point of contact.

With Martinez on the pitch, Spain's defensive intensity increased dramatically, and the positioning of the back five also reduced the opposition's attacking space from the wings.

Portugal also wanted to do the same way as before, but found that the effect was not ideal, so Nani began to try to change, attacking more inwards rather than passing.

But in this way, Ronaldo and Ed are a little embarrassed.

Cristiano Ronaldo is not a stand-up striker, he lacks the back-to-back ability of a traditional centre-forward, and after no team-mates pass the ball to him, he voluntarily retreats to the comfort zone of the ribs, intending to complete the attack from here.

This choice cannot be wrong, after all, Ronaldo made a few very beautiful shots after returning to this position.

But with the opposition defending tightly, it is not so easy to break down the goal in this position.

Cristiano Ronaldo will have a hard time replicating his success at club level in Portugal, where the midfield is far inferior to Real Madrid.

While Portugal was on the offensive in a big way, Spain was not idle.

They seized the opportunity to play several counter-attacks, and Morata even scored a one-on-one goal, only to be blown off by the referee for offside.

Alvaro Morata felt he was in good shape today, especially when there weren't too many people to watch him, and he felt he might really be able to score in the final.

Spain's counter-attack worked, and Portugal felt threatened and did not dare to attack as recklessly as before.

But after Xiaofa was substituted, they realized that as long as they could contain Lin Quan's passing point, they could completely stifle the Spanish team's counterattack.

As a result, several midfielders of the Portuguese team took turns to interfere with and obstruct Lin Quan's pass, not giving the Spanish team a chance to play a quick counterattack.

On the field, the best chance to score is at the moment when the opponent turns from offense to defense, at this time a large number of personnel are involved in the attack in the front court, and the defense is extremely empty, as long as someone can pass the ball out at the first time, pass over the opponent's densely populated midfield, and pass to the empty rear, it can directly threaten the opponent's goal.

And it is not easy to complete this passing task, because the ball carrier must not only have a wide field of vision, accurate passing, but also a strong ability to get rid of the ball when the defender pounces on him, and complete the forward pass.

Those who can have these abilities at the same time are all the world's top midfielders, such as Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne and Real Madrid's Luka Modric.

The national football team lacks such key players, resulting in every counterattack being ineffective, and being slightly blocked by the opponent, either losing the ball, or being forced to pass back, and then turning into a positional battle.

Once forced into a positional battle, it will be more difficult for the weak national football team to score goals when the opponent is ready to fight, so it is not surprising that there are no goals in three games in the Asian Cup.

In the midfield of the national football team, no one can hold the ball at all, the formation of the back five can only defend, unable to counterattack, blindly passively beaten, lucky not to lose the ball to keep a draw and get a point, bad luck can't hold it, then you can only lose.

The Portuguese were lucky, and Lin Quan happened to meet these conditions.

He has a very broad vision and is not only keenly aware of opportunities and opportunities.

He even knows the position and movement of every player on the pitch well, and his foot technique is very delicate, and his passing ability is extremely outstanding, and he can often send the ball to the feet of his teammates in the most comfortable way, so that they can complete the shot comfortably.

What's more, Lin Quan has the ability to get rid of it at the top.

It's easy to get past a defender one-on-one, especially in a hurry, when he swoops in to intercept him, and it's almost a sure thing to get past him.

Therefore, the best way to deal with him is to wrap him up with multiple people, but in a hurry, how can there be so many people to wrap him?

So the Portuguese chose another way - fouls!

In the 69th minute of the second half, Spain's counterattack opportunity, Lin Quan just got the ball and was about to pass the ball out, when he was knocked to the ground by Adrian who rushed from the side.

Beep!

As soon as the whistle blew, the referee immediately stopped the game and pulled out a yellow card to warn the Portuguese midfielder.

Adrian neither reached out to pull Linquan nor protested to the referee, but just lowered his head and left on his own.

There is nothing to protest about this foul, his foul action is very obvious, and he can't deny it if he wants to.

If he wasn't the last defender, it wouldn't have been as simple as a yellow card.

Adrian wasn't the only Portuguese player to get a card on Lin's body, as Alexis Sanchez, who had been substituted, was booked for a foul on Lin Quan in the first half.

Counting Cedric, who received a yellow card at the beginning of the game, Portugal received a total of five yellow cards in this game, three of which were generated because of Lin Quan.

It can be seen from this that the Portuguese side has paid a huge price to restrict Lin Quan.

Seeing midfielder Adrian eat cards, Portugal coach Fernando couldn't sit still.

He called Moutinho from the bench and gave him a good chance before he was ready to send him on.

The position of the midfield is very crucial, if the player does not dare to foul because of a yellow card, it will be a conceded goal.

So, you have to go up with someone who can do tactical fouls.

The number of fouls on the Portuguese side is indeed a little more, and the number of yellow cards is so high, it is a bit difficult to play.

However, it is strange to say that in the case of all teammates eating cards, Pepe, who is known as a warrior monk, has not received a yellow card until now, which has to be said to be a very surprising thing.

Pepe actually felt very lucky in his heart, Lin Quan was not particularly active on the wing in this game, and the main objects he had to defend were Morata and Pedro.

It is not particularly difficult to defend these two, and with Pepe's own ability, it is not impossible to deal with it, so he can't commit fouls.

Many times, Pepe's foul is a retaliatory foul after being annoyed.

The nature of this foul is more egregious, which is the main reason why he often receives red cards and even additional bans.

It's a good thing that Pepe didn't eat cards, but seeing the game time pass little by little, and the Portuguese team failed to score for a long time, this made the Portuguese fans at the scene anxious.

Now how can you care about eating cards or not eating cards, you guys should hurry up and score!

There isn't much left of regular time for the game!

Time is running out for the Portuguese team!

(End of chapter)