With Spain knocking out Croatia to reach the semi-finals, the top four teams of this World Cup have all been born.

They are France, England, Spain and Belgium.

As you can see from the distribution of these teams, this is another big win for European football.

The Europeans have monopolized the last four of the World Cup, while their arch-rivals, Latin America, have been wiped out.

Since the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Latin American teams have missed four consecutive World Cup finals.

In 2006 and this year, they didn't even make it to the semi-finals.

Gone are the days when South American football competed with European football and even gained the upper hand, and now football has officially entered a new pattern of European football dominating the world.

This is not surprising, as South America's home leagues simply can't compete with European leagues, which has led to a massive loss of players from their home country to play in the top five leagues.

The loss of a large number of excellent players has lowered the competitive level of the leagues in South American countries, and the level of local players has begun to decline.

The decline in the level of local players will directly affect the combat effectiveness of the national team, resulting in the deterioration of the national team's performance.

……

This is not comparable to Lukaku, who scored 4 goals, and as for the number of assists, De Bruyne, who has 4 assists, is tied with Lin Quan for the top of the assist list in this World Cup, while Hazard only has 1 assist.

Even if they are lucky enough to beat the Spanish team, they will most likely meet their nemesis France in the final.

However, the performance of the French team is not weaker than them in the slightest, and the overall squad of the French team is younger and more reasonable, and the players in all positions are very strong, unlike Spain, which does not rely on Lin Quan's performance as much.

Of the 14 goals scored in five games for Belgium, Hazard has managed just one, and it was a penalty.

Everyone is arguing about who is more optimistic about winning the championship.

In the 7 meetings between England and France so far this century, England has won 1, drawn 2 and lost 4, and is at a disadvantage across the board.

If you want to solve this problem, in the final analysis, you still have to do a good job in the local league and keep the talent as much as possible.

But these are all things for South Americans to consider, and European football is hailing their victory at this time.

Football has always been a team sport, so there are many people who are more optimistic about the French team.

After the release of the semi-finals of this World Cup, there will inevitably be some controversy within the football world.

Although the outside world is more optimistic about the French team, the Belgian players expressed their confidence in defeating the French team when they were interviewed by reporters before the game.

And that is still the French team in a state of recovery, and now they have met the French team at their peak, and their chances of winning are even slimmer!

As for the European Red Devils Belgium, although they have a strong squad and everyone thinks they are good, those who have watched them play do not have much confidence in this team.

Although Eden Hazard captained Belgium, the Blues' top names have not been doing well at this World Cup.

Of these four teams, Spain are the defending champions and have won two World Cups in a row, so they have been considered favourites from the start.

I always feel that this team can only play against the wind, not against the wind.

As for England and Belgium, the Three Lions have already surprised the British by reaching the last four this year, and they can't say they don't have any ideas about titles and other accolades, but they themselves know that with the quality of England's team, there is little hope of winning the World Cup.

Their opponents in the semi-finals, France, are tough stubble, and Belgium will have a hard time getting through them.

If nothing else, it is a question of whether they can survive the semi-finals against the Spanish team.

Eden Hazard: "France are strong but we are a better team and my team-mates and I will beat them tomorrow and prove ourselves!" ”

Otherwise, so many excellent players have left their homeland since they were young and went to Europe to break through, and even if they succeed in the end, I am afraid that they will become the shape of European football.

Hazard's performance did not match the expectations of the outside world before the game, and as many fans recognized as the best player to break through in addition to Messi, Hazard should have achieved a more explosive performance.

After all, Belgium's opponents in the group stage are not strong, and Hazard should have better statistics.

But none of this happened, so Hazard was in a hurry.

He's in a hurry to prove himself, and if he doesn't make a mark in this game, he'll probably disappoint the fans who support him.

Compared with Hazard, who is eager to prove himself, Lu Yuanwai, who has performed well in this World Cup, is inexplicably optimistic:

"The French team is very strong, their number 10 is very fast, almost catching up with me, but I am better than him, their defenders can't defend me, so the winner must be us!"

The reporter who interviewed him was speechless when he heard his words: Are you sure that a center forward wants to compete with a winger on the other side?

Although Lukaku's speed is indeed not slow, it is still far behind Mbappe, who is the fastest wide player of all teams in this World Cup, according to the official statistics of the World Cup.

His terrifying impact was impressive to anyone who watched France play.

The last person to be interviewed was Belgium's midfield core De Bruyne, compared to the first two opponents, De Bruyne, who is not good at dealing with reporters, is completely honest:

"France are better than us, so it's going to be tough, but we're not going to throw in easily, we're going to play our own stuff and try to win this game!"

The reporter who interviewed De Bruyne looked at De Bruyne and then at his two teammates, and couldn't help but wonder: Is this really from the same team?

Lin Quan saw the interview video of De Bruyne on TV and couldn't help but reach out to support his forehead.

How can this guy boost the opponent's morale and destroy his prestige before the game?

Although it is true that the overall strength of the French team is better than that of Belgium, this kind of thing must not be said, and it must be said after the game, and it can only be said after the victory over the French team.

Other times it is not appropriate to say such things, and thinking of this, he called De Bruyne:

"Hey, what's the matter? I'm about to turn off the lights here! ”

Kevin De Bruyne seems to be in a hurry to sleep and has a semi-final ahead of tomorrow and doesn't want his schedule to be disrupted.

"There was something going on, but now it's okay, come on tomorrow, we'll see you in the finals!"

After Lin Quan finished speaking, he took the initiative to hang up the phone.

De Bruyne on the other side of the phone felt a little inexplicable, and he called over at night just to say such a sentence?

He is not surprised that the Spanish team will enter the final, but the current situation of the Belgian team may not be able to enter!

……

July 11, St. Petersburg Stadium.

The first semi-final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia has begun.

The match will be played against France in the blue jersey and Belgium in the red jersey.

It's another classic red and blue battle!

Although everyone was more optimistic about the French team before the game, it was the Belgian team that took the initiative on the field after the opening.

In this game, the Belgian team can clearly do a lot of homework in advance, and they are well prepared for the opponent's attack from the wing, so that the rapid counterattack of the French team did not work.

On the other hand, on the Belgian side, with De Bruyne's excellent performance, they played a few dangerous attacks in the first half.

But the strikers seemed to have forgotten to bring their shooting boots today, and on several occasions they spit out the pie that had been fed to their mouths.

De Bruyne's outstanding performance has aroused the vigilance of the French team, and his team-mate Kante at the club has been specially arranged by French coach Didier Deschamps to keep an eye on De Bruyne.

N'Golo Kante's defensive ability is among the best in the world, and even Lin Quan is troubled by him, let alone De Bruyne.

De Bruyne, who was targeted, began to decline in performance, and it was difficult to make such high-quality passes.

This led to a sharp drop in Belgium's attacking threat, and Eden Hazard, who had vowed to lead his team to victory before the game, was again in the middle of a tough battle.

He's tried a lot of tricks, and he's succeeded a few times, but maybe he's too eager to prove himself, or maybe he's not seeing where his teammates are.

He chose to shoot himself instead of calmly passing to a better team-mate, which led to his breakthrough being unscaturing and not threatening.

The first half ended quickly and the two sides were tied 0-0.

On the pitch, Belgium had the advantage in terms of the number of dangerous attacks and possession, but the threat posed by the opponent's counter-attacks was greater.

Thibaut Courtois had already made three good saves in the first half, while France's goalkeeper Lloris had only one.

This is very worrying for Belgian fans, who are known to be a slower team.

Their performance in the first half does not represent their true strength, this team habitually explodes in the second half, suddenly hitting the opponent by surprise and killing the game in a short period of time!

This is how Argentina fell at the feet of France, and another South American team, Uruguay, also lost to France in the same way.

So, don't think Belgium had the advantage in the first half, and the same will be true in the second half.

The situation in the second half is likely to be very bad for them.

"The French team and the Spanish team feel like two extremes!"

"Yes, there are too many young players in the French team, there are ups and downs in form, it takes time to find form, it looks very slow, but once you find your form, it feels a little unstoppable!"

"On the other hand, the Spanish team, because there are many veterans in the team, there will be physical problems in the second half, so they are more used to finishing the game in the first half."

"I'm really looking forward to these two teams meeting in the finals, one is slow and the other is the first to attack, hehe, I really don't know who has the last laugh!"

Although the outcome of this game was scoreless, many fans have already sentenced Belgium to death in their hearts.

Dominated in the first half, missed a chance to score, and wanted to stop the French attack in the second half?

I want to eat it!

Sure enough, as soon as the second half began, it was as if the French team had changed teams.

The players seemed to wake up from their sleep, and they all became energetic and high-spirited.

Belgium's goal was tested continuously, and in the 51st minute, it finally couldn't hold on, and the opponent used a corner kick tactic to head a header.

The goal turned Belgium's situation for the worse and it has now turned into an attacking round for their opponents, who now have nothing to fight back and simply have no hands to attack.

On the other hand, the French team, after scoring a goal, their offensive became more aggressive, the offense in various positions blossomed at multiple points, and the Belgians could not take care of themselves in various tactics such as positional warfare, sports warfare, and rapid counterattacks.

In the 63rd minute of the second half, Mbappe received a pass from Pogba, made a quick assault along the side, cut inside to the penalty area and burst into the shot, rewriting the score to 2:0.

Sure enough, just like the written script, the French team after waking up killed the game in just ten minutes in the second half.

Thirty minutes later, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game.

The favourites France comfortably defeated Belgium 2-0 to reach the final first.

Their opponents will be the victors between England and Spain.

Seeing France beat Belgium so easily, the whole football world was shaken after the game.

Although everyone knows that the French team is very strong, they didn't expect it to be so strong.

So much so that many Belgian fans publicly shouted to the Spanish team after the game:

"Team Spain, are you ready?"

Lin Quan watched the live broadcast of the whole game on TV, and to be honest, the Belgian team really lost unjustly.

In this game, they wasted a few opportunities that should not be wasted, the French team was not easy to play, and they wasted the opportunity again, what did they use to win?

But seeing the French team so strong, Lin Quan himself was also a little shocked in his heart.

Mbappe feels even more powerful as he did two months ago, and it feels like he's suddenly upgraded again.

This kid's ability to run long distances and cut inside has been greatly improved.

If you meet him in the final in the future, it's hard to say whether your teammates will be able to withstand his attack.

And the style of play of the French team is actually very restrained against Spain, they were strong in the second half, and Spain was weak in the second half.

Facing the French team that was invincible in the second half, even if they scored 2 or even 3 goals in the first half, they may not be able to win steadily.

And what's even more troublesome is that the French team's backline is actually not weak, at least much stronger than Lukaku thinks.

The duo of Umtiti and Varane cannot be said to be very strong, but the two make up for each other's shortcomings, one is fast and agile; One is physically strong, with strong frontal defense, physical confrontation and positioning ability.

Coupled with the opposition midfielder and N'Golo Kante, which is difficult to overcome, it is really not easy to score against the French team.

Therefore, I am afraid that this final will be difficult to play, and the chance of Spain meeting the French team may not exceed 50%.

If you don't have yourself, I'm afraid the odds of winning won't even be 20%. (End of chapter)