"How's it going, how does it feel to be in the national team?"

After the two warm-up matches, the outside world collectively looked down on the Spanish national team.

And this view spread quickly and widely among Spanish fans, and even Pep Guardiola, who was on vacation in Asia, heard about it, and called Lin Quan for this purpose.

"It's the same as before, I don't have any special feelings, if I have to say, it's probably that there are more young players, which makes the status of an old man like me in the team automatically rise to a higher level."

Hearing Lin Quan's quip, Guardiola on the other end of the phone breathed a sigh of relief.

There is also the mind to joke, which shows that the situation is not very bad.

Probably the media reports are a bit exaggerated, this Spanish team is indeed facing a serious problem of aging and lack of talent, but it is not so unbearable.

After all, with 22-year-old Lin Quan in charge, the lower limit of this Spanish team will not be too low.

But the media is right, Spain will be easy to reach the knockout rounds, but it will be very difficult to win the championship.

Judging by Guardiola's eyes, the biggest favorite in this World Cup should be the French team.

But this kind of cup competition is very accidental, even if it is the favorite to win the championship, once the performance is not good or something accidents happen, there is still a possibility of being knocked out.

So until the last minute, no one can be sure of the ownership of the championship.

I chatted for a while with Pep Guardiola, who had already booked his ticket for the 14th and was clearly preparing to watch Spain's first match.

Whether as a coach, a father or a fan, Guardiola will not be absent from such an important event as the World Cup.

But if he comes on the 14th, he won't be able to catch up with the opening game of this World Cup.

……

On June 8, the Spanish team arrived in Krasnodar, Russia, by plane.

In the coming month, it will be used as a training base for the Spanish team, provided that they do not get eliminated and fight until the end.

When I got off the plane, a large number of fans came to the airport to pick me up.

When these fans saw Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Pique at the front, they cheered excitedly, chanting the names of the players and the names of the Barcelona club.

Although Barcelona's record has declined in recent years, the fan base accumulated by the Dream Three Dynasty is indeed not to be underestimated.

These people, who seem to be here to pick up the Spanish national team, are actually coming for several Barcelona players.

When Ramos, who was walking behind, passed by, these fans still shouted Barcelona's name unconsciously, which made Shui Ye couldn't help frowning and glared at the fans who shouted the loudest.

The man seemed frightened by Ramos' gaze, and his voice stopped abruptly.

As a player of Real Madrid, Ramos does not like Barcelona, after all, the grievances between the two teams in the league are too deep, and there are many contradictions and conflicts between the two sides.

But to be honest, in the Spanish national team, in the past ten years, it has been the Barcelona gang that has been more influential than the Real Madrid gang.

Compared with Real Madrid, Barcelona pays more attention to youth training, or Barcelona's La Masia academy has a high success rate in the past ten years, and a large number of outstanding youth players have emerged, making them firmly occupy the dominant position of the Spanish national team.

Real Madrid, on the other hand, under Zidanega's policy, is more inclined to buy established stars from the outside to act as the face of the team, and will only leave less impressive positions for newcomers and academy players.

Later, even these positions were handed over to foreign players, making Real Madrid almost a mercenary army, and most of the main positions in the team were occupied by foreign players.

Your own main players are not domestic players, so naturally there will not be many international players.

So in the national team, it is normal for the Barcelona gang to suppress the Real Madrid gang.

However, in this year's national team, Real Madrid's players surpassed Barcelona's players for the first time.

Among the 23-man international players selected for the squad this time, there are 6 players from Real Madrid, and only 4 players from Barcelona.

That's why Ramos is so unhappy, when there were few people, the limelight was robbed by the Barcelona gang, and he had nothing to say, but now that there are more people in the Real Madrid gang, the limelight is still stolen by the Barcelona gang, and he is not very happy.

Compared to the players of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the players who play in other leagues or other clubs did not react much to the action of the fans in the stadium.

The grievances of the Western Super Giants have nothing to do with them.

The only thing worth worrying about is probably whether the Real Madrid gang and the Barcelona gang will affect the unity and combat effectiveness of the team if they continue to fight like this.

The Barcelona players were followed by Real Madrid's players, but the reaction of the fans at the scene was very muted, except for a little applause and cheers when Ramos and Isco passed by, and the others barely fished anything.

This is actually not surprising, although Real Madrid was the champion of the Champions League last year, but the people selected for the national team, such as Nacho, Carvajal, Lucas, Asensio and others, are either substitutes, or are in positions that are difficult to show, so the exposure is not high enough.

Compared with them, Lin Quan, who appeared later, immediately detonated the scene as soon as he appeared, and was warmly cheered by thousands of fans at the scene.

Lin Quanzheng was talking and laughing with Thiago, who played for Bayern, and was startled by the sudden huge cheers.

When I looked up, I found that it was actually coming for me, and a smile immediately appeared on my face.

He waved at the fans and said hello.

“Привет！”

I didn't know Russian, but I learned a phrase of 'hello' in Russian before I came, which came in handy.

Although Lin Quan's pronunciation was not standard, the fans at the scene were still very surprised when they heard it, so they raised the cheers by a few decibels, attracting the eyes of people around the airport.

"Who is that man? Such a big show? ”

"It looks like it's from the Spanish national team!"

"Damn, it's really fake, doesn't that mean that Emperor Lin is inside?"

"Then can it be fake, don't you see the banners and slogans held by the fans?"

"Hehe, it's a coincidence, let's take a look, I heard that Lin Huang likes to sign autographs and take photos of the fans who pick up the plane, maybe we can also hit a big luck!"

There are still many people who think like this, as a famous fan fanatic in football, Lin Quan usually will not refuse the fans' request for autographs.

But today the situation is a little different, and the people in charge of security at the airport don't want to get themselves in trouble.

With so many fans crowded here, one can make a mess if you're not careful.

If a criminal takes the opportunity to do something sabotage, then the fun will be great.

So they separated the fans from the players and didn't give the two sides a chance to make contact.

In this way, after the Spanish players got off the plane, they got on the team's bus and drove directly to the training base.

Upon arrival at the training base, Bosque told the players to hurry up and allocate their rooms and then familiarize themselves as quickly as possible.

I don't need to train today, I have to rest for a night and recharge my energy, and tomorrow I will be back to training.

While the World Cup has not yet started, there are still several sets of tactics to practice on the Spanish side.

……

Just when the Spanish team arrived in Russia, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, France and many other favorite teams also arrived one after another.

They were joined by fans and journalists from all over the world.

For a time, the streets and alleys of Moscow were filled with fans wearing different national team uniforms.

The atmosphere of football began to thicken, and the attention of the entire football world also converged here.

Taking advantage of the fact that the World Cup has not yet opened, major media have started warm-up and momentum activities in advance.

On June 9, the German media took the lead in revealing the five favorites for this World Cup arranged by German football celebrities and experts.

In the list put out by the Germans, the Germans are the biggest favourites to win the tournament.

The lineup is luxurious, the overall value surpasses that of Spain, and the young and impactful Gallic Rooster ranks second.

Two-time defending champions Spain are third.

Latin American giants Brazil and Argentina are fourth and fifth, respectively.

Perhaps because they were worried about the oil of the host's house, the Germans sold the host a face and put Russia in the top eight.

After the German's ranking was announced, it naturally caused a heated discussion among the majority of fans.

Many people think that the Germans are too shameful to sell themselves and boast and rank themselves first.

However, they have little opinion on the ranking of other positions, and fans have their own opinions on who is the number one favorite.

Some people think it's Germany, some think it's France, and no one thinks it's Spain anyway.

"Tsk, aren't they just two warm-up games? As for the disdain of the Spanish team? ”

There are fans who support Spain who can't stand it, and the rest of them look down on the Spanish team too much.

The overall strength of this Spanish team is indeed not as good as the previous two World Cups, but it is not as unbearable as they say.

It's a very simple truth, who do you think is stronger between Lin Quan in 18 years and Messi in 14 years?

If it's not easy to compare, then compare Lin Quan in 18 years and Messi in 18 years, Argentina is now the top five favorites to win the championship, but the overall strength of Argentina is far worse than Spain.

This Argentina team is almost completely supported by Messi, and without Messi, it will not be able to play, and Messi, who was forced to withdraw from the national team, had to come back to save the game.

They can all finish in the top five, how can Spain be third?

Of course, there is not much support for such voices.

"Come on, you say that Spain can squeeze Germany and France down?"

Spanish fans have the heart to say that these two teams are their own defeats, but the records of the two sides are a few years ago, and they really haven't played against each other much in the last two years, so they hold back what they want to say.

I typed words on the keyboard for a long time, and finally deleted them all, leaving only one sentence:

"See you on the field!"

Of course, the winner or loser of the game is not determined by the quarrel of the fans, whether it is a mule or a horse, and it is always known when it is pulled out and yo-yo.

On June 14, the opening match of the 2018 World Cup began.

The first match is the host Russia against the Asian team Saudi Arabia.

Because in the German's prediction, the host was 'watered' into the top eight, which made many people more optimistic that Russia could win this game before the game.

After all, no matter how bad Russia is, it is also a European team, and Saudi Arabia is just an Asian team.

And the performance of Asian teams in the last World Cup was so miserable that there were calls in international football to see FIFA cut the World Cup quota in the Asian region.

Of course, there are also some gambling dogs that don't go off the beaten path.

After all, the stronger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish!

Since everyone is optimistic about Russia winning, let's take a gamble and buy Saudi Arabia to win.

There is a good saying, football is anti-buying, villas are by the sea!

If you lose to work in the sea, you win the tender model of the clubhouse.

But there is also a saying that is also very good: bet on dogs, bet on dogs, and have nothing.

Everyone is optimistic that Russia will win, and of course there is a reason for him.

In the opening game, Russia kicked Saudi Arabia 5:0, shocking a bunch of people's jaws.

It also made the risky gambling dog lose everything!

Seeing that his team was mistreated, the Saudi crown prince who attended the opening match could talk and laugh at first, but as the team conceded more and more goals, he finally couldn't hold back.

Damn, what the hell is this kicking!

On the other hand, the Russian president on the side, laughing like a child, kept clapping and never stopped.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was sandwiched between the two, had an embarrassed expression, Russia is not a traditional strong team, and actually played Saudi Arabia 5:0.

The strength of the teams in the Asian region is too watery!

It is conceivable that after this game, calls for the reallocation of World Cup places will definitely appear.

But for the sake of the promotion and development of football, the quota on the Asian side must not be moved.

After all, the current 4.5 places have made it difficult for the two most populous countries to participate in the World Cup, and if the places are cut again, then these two countries are afraid that they will not have any hope of entering the World Cup in this life.

But if the quota in Asia is not moved, then countries in Europe, Africa and other competition regions will make trouble again.

It's a headache just thinking about it!

At this moment, he began to seriously think about his previous proposal for the expansion of the World Cup.

If the number of entries is expanded to 48, the opposition will be much smaller.

And after the quota is relaxed, more teams can participate in the Asian region, and the opportunities for those two populous countries will naturally increase greatly.

It's just that this is easier said than done.

There are those who support the expansion of the army, and naturally there are those who do not.

And after the expansion to 48 teams, the existing schedule will definitely need to be adjusted, and then it will involve the timing of the leagues in each country and the coordination of clubs.

The second match immediately after the opening match was the remaining match between Uruguay and Egypt in Group A.

Egypt is not a traditional powerhouse, but Egypt has received a lot of attention at this World Cup.

The main reason is because Egypt has a star named Salah in the team.

Salah was a stellar performer last season and has now become one of the hottest stars in football, a household name in Egypt and an idol for many young people.

However, Egypt lost to the stronger Uruguay side in this match.

This also proves once again that football is a team sport, and it is not enough to be strong alone. (End of chapter)