The second half of the round of 8 matches also officially began after Italy confirmed their promotion to the top 4, first of all, Paraguay, the strongest defense in this Cup, challenged Argentina, the champion of the 97 Copa America (the real result of the 97 Copa America won by Brazil). On the contrary, the Argentine team has been soaring since the group stage, scoring 16 goals in 4 games and conceding only 1 goal, the Argentines have used their powerful firepower to defeat all the opponents they encounter, truly interpreting the concept of "the best defense is attack".

Although the little donkey Ortega was suspended for a red card in this game, the star-studded Argentine team will naturally have the right players to make up for this lack. The biggest gain of the Paraguayan team in this World Cup is the rookie Santa Cruz, but if Paraguay wants to achieve a miracle in this game, in addition to doubling down on defense, the two wings must be able to pierce the Argentine defense sharply, so as to give more assistance to the single-arrow Santa Cruz.

All in all, this is a game that no one is optimistic about Paraguay, and the two sides have also made certain changes to the lineup according to the form of the players in the previous four games:

Paraguay 4-5-1

Goalkeeper: Chilavert

Defender: Celso. Ayala, Carlos. Gamarra, Rivarola, Francisco. Arce

Defender: Robert. Acuna, Benitez

Full-back: Dennis. Canisa, Jose. Cardoso

Forward: Carlos. Paredes

Forward: Santa Cruz

In this game, Paraguay's original main striker Cardoso was placed by the coach in the right midfield position, in order to solve the problem of the team's counter-attacking efficiency caused by Gombos's empty speed but rough technology, and the forward line is the supernova Santa Cruz, who is still 17 years old in one month. Although the youngster's speed is average, the header advantage can ensure the team's control of the first point of the high ball in the front court, and the technical characteristics of Santa Cruz are also relatively mysterious for the Argentine players, which also helps the players to play, after all, the defender's defense is always relatively passive.

Argentina 3-2-2-1-2

Goalkeeper: Roa

Defenders: Ayala, Jose. Chamot, Zanetti

Defenders: Redondo, Almeida

Forwards: Veron, Maradona, Marcelo. Gallardo

Forwards: Batistuta, Crespo

Argentina's first 4 games in the offensive end of the wind and rain, for the same South American team Paraguay is very familiar and understood, Passarella will definitely not make major changes to the lineup, this game is just the use of River Plate's main forward Marcelo. Gallardo replaces Ortega, who received a red card and is suspended.

Marcelo. Gallardo is not a tall player, the best time of his career in his previous life was playing for Monaco in Ligue 1 in the 99-03 season, especially in the 99 season he and the team of Gyuli, Trezeguet, Marco. Simeone's attacking line is invincible, Gallardo has contributed 8 goals and 14 assists as a striker throughout the season, and Gallardo has scored 6 goals, his style is not like a typical South American player, with skill at his feet but never sticking to the ball. As the organizational core of the team, he has a very broad vision and is good at playing short passes.

It's a pity that Monaco soon sold the booming Trezeguet, plus Marco. Simeone's form declined dramatically as he aged, and Gallardo struggled to cook without rice, and the team fell from the league title to 11th and 15th in the table in the following two seasons. Marcelo. In Gallardo's last season at Monaco, the team even brought in a rookie coach, it was none other than France captain Didier Deschamps in the 98 World Cup, and Monaco finished runners-up in the league this season and qualified for next season's Champions League. But the club's debt of up to 50 million euros was directly transferred to the second division by Ligue 1, and it was forbidden to buy players.

Didier Deschamps had no choice but to settle on loan players on both fronts, with Real Madrid's Morientes, Paris' Cisse and 19-year-old Adebayor joining the squad. This is such a team in the Champions League group stage 7:2 slaughtered Deportivo La Coruna and won the group, and then eliminated Lokomotiv Moscow, Real Madrid and Chelsea in the knockout round, unfortunately Monaco lost 0:3 to Mourinho's Porto team in the final of that year and was the runner-up. At the end of the season, at the age of 27 and at the peak of his career, Gallardo chose to return to the Argentine giants River Plate, who have brought him numerous accolades. After retiring as a player, Gallardo became the head coach, led River Plate to many titles, and even almost became the head coach of Barcelona.

In fact, this is a very good player, Argentina has been lacking in the previous life after the Batty era is such a simple and efficient midfield core, in this case, with the rebirth of the male protagonist, we will also dig more jade like Gallardo in the future, and give them a chance to make a name for themselves in football. (Welcome readers to comment and recommend)

There is really no suspense in this 8-in-4 game. In the 23rd minute of the first half, Maradona started in the middle and connected three people, and in front of the penalty area and Gallardo's collision with the wall, he easily broke into the Paraguayan team's penalty area and scored in the far corner, and Argentina led 1:0.

After that, Paraguay frequently relied on long passes and Santa Cruz's high air advantage, and threatened the Argentine defense from the wing several times in a row, and in the 38th minute of the first half, Santa Cruz received a cross from Cardoso on the right and hit the post with a header, almost equalizing for Paraguay. Seeing this, Passarella decisively replaced Almeida with a more defensive Simeone, and it was enough to have a Redondo who was good at both offense and defense in the back midfield, at this time Argentina needed a player who could cut off the opponent's quick counterattack in time, and the old rogue Simeone was undoubtedly the best choice.

Soon the first half ended with Argentina going into the break with a one-goal advantage.After 15 minutes, neither side made any adjustments and the game entered the second half.

Argentina deliberately accelerated the pace of the game, Paraguay was under great defensive pressure, and even if the defense was successful, it was mostly a hasty clearance, and it was difficult to form an effective support for the front.

The midfield of the Argentine team is getting smoother and smoother, in the 14th minute of the second half, Redondo threw a throw-in on the right side, Veron stopped the ball on his chest and turned sideways and passed the ball directly into the front of the Paraguayan penalty area, Crespo's head-shaking attack was held up by Chilavert with one palm, and then Paraguay's central defender pushed the ball out of the penalty area, after Gallardo on the periphery unloaded the ball, first faked the shot and then opened the gap horizontally to the right, and then rubbed the ball over the top and handed it to Barty at the far point, who jumped sideways without waiting for the ball to land, A beautiful volley helped Argentina take a 2-0 lead.

Paraguay, who are two goals behind, can only start to press forward and start a counterattack, and whether the knockout round will do more harm than good for this team that is stronger than attacking, or vice versa, the most important thing is to see if they can knock on the opponent's goal first. Once you take the lead, the next iron bucket formation and rapid counterattack will inevitably make the opponent walk on thin ice, but like this, Argentina scored two goals first, then I'm sorry, even if the opponent is holding a dragon slayer knife and leaning on the sky sword, you have a Swiss army knife in your hand, then you have to bite the bullet.

Then in the 22nd minute of the second half, Argentina won a long-distance free kick on the right side, Veron's precise cross was laughed at by Crespo who was guarding in the middle, and a header completely destroyed the Paraguayans' hopes of qualifying, and Argentina still carved three large holes in it in the face of the turtle shell made of iron.

Paraguay scored a face-saving goal in the 41st minute of the second half, Cardoso cut inside on the wing, used Santa Cruz to cover in front of the penalty area to shake off Ayala and Redondo in succession, and when the Argentine defense thought the opponent was going to shoot from a distance, Cardoso crossed diagonally to the feet of Arce who stepped forward on the right flank, and the latter's cross was smashed into the goal by Santa Cruz with a header.

In the end, Argentina won 3-1 and three of the top four spots were already in place. That night, just when people began to discuss the results of the match between England and China the next day, Li Boen received a call from across the ocean, and he was afraid that he would not be able to play tomorrow's game, and something big would happen!