Chapter 189 Group D

The decisive battle of the death group has come to an end, and the Dutch and Italian teams are waiting for their opponents.

After the first two rounds of group stage in Group D, Spain won two games and scored six points ahead of schedule. Head coach Caragones said before the game that he would replace a large number of starters against the last group stage opponent, Greece, the winner of the last European Cup.

Since the first place in the group has been locked in advance and to prepare for the quarter-out match with Italy, the Spanish team has no reason to take risks in this game.

And at present, there are not no wounded soldiers in the team, Pujol's right foot and David. Silva's toes have been injured, and Harvey and Cazzola have also suffered different degrees of collision injuries. In addition, players with yellow cards in previous games will not play. The resourceful Caragones naturally knows all this.

"I will adjust the start list of this game so that every player can get the opportunity to show his talents in the European Cup."

In this European Cup, the Spanish team has a strong lineup, and players like Alonso and Fabregas can only play as "Team B", so even for the second team, it is unlikely that the Greek team wants to retreat completely.

Early qualifying allows Caragones to rotate to his heart's content, and Harvey, who appeared as a substitute in the first two games. Alonso finally made his debut, and Liverpool's midfielder did not regard this game as a friendly match: "This is a very important game for us players who don't play often."

Alonso, who served as the midfielder, did not make a promise. Although it did not seem amazing, Alonso played an extremely key role in the reversal of Spain.

With his excellent performance in both offense and defense, Alonso was officially selected as the best player in the game after the game. Liverpool's midfielder also issued a victory declaration to Italy after the game: "Although Italy has some struggles at the beginning, they are still world champions. There is no doubt about their level and grade, but I We are very confident and ready for everything.

The Spanish team was successful in three games and qualified, while the defending champion could only go home with a total loss in three games. Four years ago, the Greeks broke the world. Today, four years later, the performance of the defending champion is once again stunning.

After the first two rounds, Rehagel's team lost in a row and did not score a goal, and in this game against Spain's substitute team, if Charisteas had not scored a goal, the defending champion would have been stared even more on the stigma of the history of the European Cup.

Looking at the performance of the Greek team in three games, compared with four years ago, the Aegean master with severe aging personnel can be said to be more than weak.

In the first game against Sweden, the Greek team's technical statistics are not inferior to the Vikings, but the overall strength is dragged down by individual weakness.

Ibrahimovic's inspiration and a mistake in solving the siege with Setaridis made the Greeks have no luck.

In the second game, the players have achieved the aggressive football emphasized by Russia and Rehagel. In terms of absolute scoring opportunities, the Greeks are even slightly superior.

However, the fatal attack of the meritorious goalkeeper Nicopolidis made the team lose again. While losing the game, Greece's trip to the European Cup has ended early.

In this game against Spain, the team's only goal is to score goals and points. Charistias' goal did give the Greeks a glimmer of hope of scoring.

But like the first game, the Spanish player's personal advantage allows the Greek team to watch the opponent complete the reversal.

At the moment when Spanish young player Delad took foot on the goal, when Guiza reversed his offside, whether it was Brazilnas or Delas, they could no longer see "yesterday" from their backs.

After this defeat, Greece lost all three games and scored only one goal, which has created the worst record of defending champion in the history of the European Cup finals.

Objectively speaking, it is a big miracle that this Greek team can return to the main game as the first in the group in the preliminaries. In the past four years, this team has not changed much in personnel, and there has been no tactical changes. I believe that the most optimistic Greek fans will not have too much to defend the team's title before the start of the game. Great hope.

Although the Greek team has been out and has created the worst record, fans do not need to be surprised. Throughout the history of the past 12 European Cups, no team has been able to defend its title, which has also become one of the curses of the European Cup.

In the last four European Cups, except for the previous France, the three defending champions did not qualify in the group stage. In 1996, the Danish team returned home with 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss and 4 points. After 2000, the German team smashed the golden signboard of the German chariot with a humiliating performance of only 1 point in 3 games.

However, Greece and the above-mentioned teams are far from the worst defending champions in history. In the 1988 European Cup held by Germany, the defending champion France did not even qualify for the main competition, thus becoming the only defending champion in the history of the European Cup that failed to qualify.

Compared with the French team in those years, the "achievements" of today's Greek team should not let them bear more criticism. After all, the success of the championship four years ago is not too high.

The Greek team went home, and at the same time, another life-and-death battle that did not need to look at people's faces also started at the same time.

Magic coach Hiddink led different teams to qualify for the group qualification in three World Cups. Will Russia, which is considered to be a big dark horse before the game, continue this law?

In Hiddink's view, Sweden is a very powerful team. Many players play in the top leagues in Europe, and as the oldest team in this European Cup, the team's personnel have cooperated with each other for a long time and have a good tacit understanding.

But this does not mean that the Russian team will be defeated, and the Swedish team can be tied, but Russia must win. There is no other choice but to see this game as a knockout match to play, win or go home.

After defeating the defending champion Greece in the last round, Hiddink's team has basically come out of the shadow of losing to Spain in the first game, and the team is now morale high.

At the press conference before the game, Hiddink repeatedly stressed that he must keep an eye on the opponent's number one star Ibrahimovic, will arrange someone to stay with him, and stressed that Spain will not make mistakes in defending Ibrahimovic and give the Swedish tower so much space to play.

Hidink seemed very confident about the group's appearance. As early as when Russia pressed England to advance and eliminated the latter from the qualifiers, Hiddink once made a bold statement: "We will surprise the world in next year's final stage!"

Of course, Hiddink absolutely has the confidence to say such a thing. For more than 10 years, he has proved his magical magic again and again.

For more than 10 years, Hiddink has been able to qualify in the competition no matter which team he leads, which has almost become an iron law.

In 2008, he once again challenged a new goal and led the Russian team. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian team has never reached the last eight in the European Cup. Moreover, Russia participated in the 1994 World Cup and the 2002 World Cup, and returned home at the end of the group stage. He called the "death star" of the competition, but this time, Hiddink firmly believed that he could succeed.

In fact, Russia's performance at the beginning of this European Cup was quite bad. After losing 1:4 to Spain, many people predicted that the strength of the Russian team was overestimated, and Hiddink was just like that.

But now, Russia's sluggish performance in the first game is similar to the trick played by Hiddink. Due to the suspension of Arshavin, the core of the midfield, Hiddink chose to hide his strength in front of Spain and go all out to fight the last two battles. Now, this strategy is both reasonable and successful.

In this game, Hiddink defeated Swedish coach Lagbeck, and the Russian team had an overwhelming advantage, which was not only a victory for the players, but also a tactical success of the coach.

2:0!

This complete victory proves that Hiddink can create so many myths, which is by no means a false reputation. The reason is there, once or twice, can also be said to be accidental luck. When the same thing has lasted three or four times, this can no longer be explained by the word luck alone.

The magic of Hiddink's game, the most important point, is his use of Pavlyutchenko. The tall center is often called "the king of the forbidden area" by fans, but if this empty bully is still like a "fox in the restricted area", then he must be a rare excellent striker. There is no doubt that Pa Vlyuchenko played such a striker in this game.

In the game against Sweden, Russia almost completely controlled the progress of the game, and the one who turned the advantage into victory was Pavlyuchenko, the big fox who can always give full play to his strength steadily.

The match between Sweden and Russia is directly related to who can get the last ticket to the quarterfinals of this European Cup. It is impossible for Sweden not to fight hard in the game, but the Russian team is quite relaxed in attack.

Only in the 24th minute of the game, Pavlyuchenko received a pass from his teammates in the penalty area and shot sideways at the first time, turning Russia's fierce offensive into victory.

Judging from the running line of this goal, the tall Pavlyuchenko did not make himself a battery-like figure. First, he made a small sprint to the back of the penalty area, and then immediately ran back to the vicinity of the penalty point. A simple running position got rid of the Swedish defender who was staring and created a An unmarked opportunity to single-handed goalkeeper.

Pavlyuchenko's performance in this goal is actually just a microcosm of his flexible running position in the whole game. From the whole game, Pavlyuchenko has almost never been formed by his opponent in the penalty area. From this point of view, Pavlyuchenko is definitely a A fox-like figure in the penalty area, an extremely smart striker on the court.

After the game, the Russian media also regarded Pavlyuchenko as the hero of the team, the "national hero of Russia", and "In 20 years, the Russians have once again appeared as the guide in the European Cup knockout stage", with countless praises. But among them, Pavlyuchenko's performance is something they are used to. For the description of Pavlyuchenko's wonderful running position, the media only used the phrase "smart and excellent as ever."

Pavlyuchenko's intelligence is not only manifested in creating shooting opportunities for himself. As the team's center and offensive fulcrum, Pavlyuchenko's performance can be compared with Italian center Tony.

The Italians have completely become a heavy gun for the team against the French team. Most of their teammates' passes are concentrated on his head and feet, but Tony's performance seems to be a little disappointing.

Pavlyuchenko is more like a pawn in a team's overall attack in this game. While looking for shooting opportunities, Pavlyuchenko is still trying to pull back and forth to create opportunities for his teammates to score goals.

It can be said that the Russian team's attack can show such power, and Pavlyuchenko's flexible running position as a center is the main reason. It is absolutely not an exaggeration to describe Pavlyuchenko's role as "one son, full of movement".

Pavlyuchenko opened the door of victory for Russia, and the person who injected soul into the Russian team was Arshavin, the new Tsar of Russian football after Mostovoy.

Because of the suspension, Arshavin failed to participate in the first two group matches. In the match against Sweden, Arshavin gave full play to his comprehensive ability.

For the Russians, they must win to qualify from the group. Before Pavlyuchenko scored, the Swedish team did not have a decent offensive, but when Russia took the lead with one goal, the Swedish team gradually strengthened their offensive.

But Arshavin's goal in the second half completely deprived the Swedish of hope of equalizing, and his goal also completely laid the foundation for Russia's first time in European Cup knockout.

Arshavin's role in this goal is definitely not only as simple as the goalkeeper. From the time the midfield was back to break the ball, the Russian team only used three passes and completed the goal with one shot. Arshavin is not only the team's goaler, but also the planner of the goal.

With the goals of Pavlyuchenko and Arshavin, the Russian team advanced, and Hiddink will face his homeland Netherlands next.

Russia advanced and Sweden was eliminated, which also marked the end of Ibrahimovic's second European Cup trip.

After the game, the Milan Sport newspaper used "Ibra to be eliminated" to note that it was not "the Swedish team was eliminated" and discussed that a bad Swedish team said goodbye to the competition with an excellent Ibrasimovic.

Indeed, Ibrahimovic played very well in this cup, but in the end, he only has two legs. His performance in this competition is enough to get rid of the hat of a "wasting opportunity shooter" on his head.

In three games, Ibrahimovic scored two goals, one was a long shot outside the penalty area, and the other was a handsome shot in the penalty area. Such efficiency is enough to prove Ibrahimovic's outstanding talent. However, unfortunately, Ibrahimovic got too few opportunities, and he couldn't get the support of his teammates around him at all.

After the exit, Ibrahimovic also looked very angry. He, who had always been unscrupulous, bombarded all the people who he thought should be in charge: "I don't understand why we were eliminated in the end. I fought for all my power in the game, but some people were just on the court. After 90 minutes, such a person can get a continuous start, while some talented players can only sit on the bench, and some people must be responsible for this.

Everyone knows who Ibrahimovic refers to. He has always been dissatisfied with Yongberg holding the team's main position. He has complained before that this time, it's just a constant outbreak.

But no matter what, the game is over, and Ibrahimovic can only accept the result.

The European Cup group stage dissipated, followed by the knockout stage.

Belgium vs. Germany, this is a match between football of the same style, but Belgium has now welcomed Degan, and the result of this game is also full of variables.

No one can ignore the power of Degan. Even the arrogant Germans, when they learned that their own team would face Belgium in the knockout match, German coach Lov couldn't help but be a little disappointed: "Belgium is a difficult opponent to deal with. If you add a Degan, they will have the ability to go to the world. We really need to prepare for the ability of any team to launch a challenge!"

The Germans are indeed cautious. If they continue to continue the previous group stage, the weak defense line will not be able to withstand the crazy impact of Degan.

However, the hard nerves of the Germans are also a factor that cannot be ignored. No one knows whether they will suddenly burst into a small universe in the knockout stage and have a team football to kill Belgium.

In the battle between Turkey and Croatia, people have always been optimistic about Croatia, believing that Croatia will be black to the end and reproduce their 1998 magic.

The Netherlands vs. Russia will be a battle between the Dutch team and the pseudo-Dutch team, and it is really difficult to tell who is true and who is false. Basten injected the practicality of Italian football into the Netherlands, while Hiddink brought the essence of Dutch football to Russia.

In the end, it is Italy and Spain. Italy has never lost to Spain in previous competitions, but Spanish footballers have never looked down on the Italian football style. Who will win the final victory? Is it the sharp spear of Spain or the solid Italians? Shield, this will be handed over to the game for inspection.