i am beckham

Chapter 235

"Saul was careless, he missed Roberto Baggio's free kick. The England players looked very frustrated, the goal came a bit suddenly"

After scoring the goal, Zola rushed towards Baggio excitedly. The two embraced. Baggio kissed his forehead, then patted his shoulder, and pushed him towards the fans' stand of the visiting team.

Zola celebrated wantonly in front of the Italian fans from afar, while behind him were England players with confused faces.

Seaman put the glove on Campbell's big head to comfort him: "We have to move on, this is not your fault."

Campbell spread his hands with a bitter face: "But I can't think of anyone else to blame"

This big, big, and thick Premier League man was terrified by his mistakes. His mind was full of the scene of the England team finishing second in the group and then going to the play-offs.

The scariest thing about people is to scare themselves.

And Gary Neville, who squeezed out a smile and put his hands on his hips, joked: "Look, he's not as good as you as a central defender!"

Gary Neville nodded: "But I can't blame him, he is only 22 years old, and he is still a child."

Gary Neville caught Beckham off guard by pretending to be aggressive at this time, but he was relieved immediately.

At this time, you can still pretend to be aggressive, which shows that your mentality is not bad.

After England conceded a goal, there was an uproar at Wembley Stadium, and then normalcy returned.

Except for a few big trolls who couldn't help roaring, most of the fans behaved decently, and everyone sang "God Save the Queen" in unison.

Trying to get his spirits up, Beckham looked at the excited Italian players and pretended he was one of them.

Old John said that the most important thing on the football field is to make yourself happy. As long as the effect is in place, it doesn't matter even if you lie to yourself.

He tried it, and the effect was good, but Gary Neville didn't buy it. He has a mantra: "On the football field, happy is happy, unhappy is unhappy, and all emotions don't affect my performance."

Everyone has their own way of life.

10 of the players in the Italian team were happy, only Baggio had no expression on his face. It is said that after the final, his emotions have always been like this.

It's hard for Beckham to imagine what a moment like that means for a player, but it must have been devastating.

The game restarted, and the Italian players ran tirelessly on the field as if they were electrified.

The English players who have just experienced a blow are obviously slower, especially Campbell, who has just made a big mistake, is struggling extremely.

If Seaman's encouragement and Pierce's rant, it is estimated that he will make mistakes in a short period of time, and now he can even concentrate.

After Italy took the lead, Maldini completely dispelled the idea of ​​a one-on-one match with Beckham. He knew very well that scoring the second goal as soon as possible is more important than competing with his opponent for a while.

In the next 10 minutes, the Italian team had three chances to score, with Zola and Casiraghi wasting one each, and the third came from Cannavaro's long-range shot, which was blocked by Gary Neville with his body.

The Italian team became more and more confident as they played, while the England players were tired of coping and getting more and more tired.

Hoddle stood on the sidelines and witnessed his team crumbling, with a look of panic on his face, and the expression of contempt on everything on his usual face seemed to be unbearable.

Taking advantage of the dead ball on the field, he beckoned Beckham to come over, pointed to Maldini and said, "David, find a way to make him lose control, I don't care what method you use, foul or talk trash, waste more time on him!"

After he finished speaking, he waved his hand and turned his head away.

Beckham had no choice but to accept the order. I have to say that the experience of playing under this kind of coach is really not very good.

If you have emotions, you have emotions, but things still have to be done. This method is really worth trying.

Gary Neville sent the ball out of bounds. Batty was entangled by Albertini as soon as he took the ball. He subconsciously turned his back to the frontcourt to protect the ball. This action seriously delayed the attack.

Batty looked around for his teammates, and there was a stalking Italian on the running route of the English players.

Seeing that Di Matteo was about to attack, the Newcastle midfielder panicked even more. He saw Beckham running to meet him, like a drowning man seeing a life buoy, he grabbed onto it firmly.

In order to catch his pass, Beckham had already led Maldini to run around and a half, but the opponent was so tight that he could only run to the midfield to catch the ball.

But at the same time he was catching the ball, Maldini also followed, and the Italian team did not intend to let the England team have a moment to breathe.

After Beckham received the ball, he turned around like a sideways dribble. Maldini froze for a moment, but still chased after him.

Beckham, who came to the wing, did not pass the ball, but dribbled the ball forward along the wing against Maldini.

Maldini has excellent balance ability. While sticking to Beckham, he hit the opponent with the swing of his body.

Beckham groaned in his heart, this buddy didn't let himself relax for a second.

If it weren't for Gary Neville's aggressiveness during extra training, he would definitely not be able to withstand the defense of this super defender now.

Maldini was also very upset. This young man obviously didn't take himself seriously, and he seemed to be working along the sidewalk by himself.

He found the gap and suddenly put a shovel, shoveling the football out of the sideline, and Beckham also fell on the lawn.

"Oh, David seems very motivated, but it is difficult to break through Paul's defense in this way!"

"England took the throw-in, David continued to dribble along the side, Cannavaro came up to double-team, he stretched his leg and tripped David, England got a free kick on the side!"

The referee blew his whistle after checking the human wall. Beckham was not in a hurry to kick the ball.

"David's free kick bypassed the Italian defense, Shearer grabbed the first point, but his header was not much of a threat under the interference of Ferrara. It was the first chance England got in nearly 15 minutes!"

Batty grabbed the first point of Peruzzi's goal kick, and Beckham grabbed the football one step ahead of Maldini. He continued to take the ball to the side, then stopped suddenly and flashed out of space, and suddenly transferred the ball laterally to the left.

Pierce passed the ball to Le Saux, who immediately passed the ball to McManaman, and the Liverpool fast horse passed the ball to Beckham after Cannavaro interfered.

Beckham suddenly took a long shot from a position nearly 35 meters away from the goal, and the football went straight to the upper left corner of the goal.

Peruzzi lacked mental preparation and barely crossed his body to hold the ball out of the baseline.

corner kick!

Applause erupted at Wembley Stadium, which was the most threatening attack since England's opening.

Relying on Beckham's performance, the England team finally recovered.

Seeing the recovery of the England team's combat effectiveness, the Italian team, which has always advocated the 1-0 doctrine, was not aggressive, but waited for an opportunity to counterattack.

The Italians' concrete defense is nothing to brag about. As long as they put their minds on defense, European teams basically have nothing to do with them.

As for the South American teams, many say that when someone comes crazy and suddenly shines, no one can bear it.

The scene returned to balance, but the England team did not get a good chance in the final stage of the first half.

Back in the locker room, Beckham drank half a bottle of energy drink in one go.

If it weren't for the fear that drinking too much would affect running, drinking a bottle of water now would be a matter of raising one's head.

This is one of the few overloaded halftimes he has experienced. If it weren't for the time he delayed with his physical fitness, it would not be surprising that the England team conceded goals one after another.

This is the case in international competitions. The pressure on players is far greater than that on clubs.

The greater the pressure, the greater the psychological contrast after losing the ball.

It often happens that two teams with similar strengths have been at loggerheads. As a result, the psychological balance is seriously tilted after scoring a goal.

Baggio missed a penalty kick in the World Cup final. Two years later, he still hasn't regained his energy. However, a player who performed well in a major competition may have an excellent competitive state for the next few years.

This is international football.

Hoddle wanted to give a passionate speech, but the English players obviously didn't like him.

Now Beckham can predict how the opponent will play in the second half, and try to attack for 10 minutes first, and if the effect is not good, he will defend and counterattack.

Italy's counterattack ability may not be very sharp, but the defense is really disgusting, let them take it back, the result of the game is really hard to say.

But it’s hard to say and you have to force it. If both teams play normally, the other games will basically be a complete victory.

Then in the two games between each other, whoever scores more will appear.

Sure enough, Italy started with a strong attack, and their main attack direction today is Di Matteo.

The reason is simple. The England team has the 21-year-old Beckham and Gary Neville on the right, and the experienced Pierce and Le Saux on the left. As long as a team with tactical quality can easily find the main direction of attack.

In the 47th minute, Di Matteo received a through ball from Maldini and forced a breakthrough, but was blocked by Gary Neville to protect the ball out of the baseline.

Two minutes later, the two started a rematch, and Gary Neville made a successful tackle.

After another 5 minutes, DiMatteo tried his best to make the other side look good. He and Zola completed a wall, two passes and one to compete with the opponent's speed, but Gary Neville got stuck again.

Annoyed, the Italian saw that he couldn't get the ball at the bottom line, so he pushed Gary down.

Seeing his expression, Beckham suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

A sentence from Old John suddenly appeared in his mind: "Football is a winner's sport, not a gentleman's sport. No one cares about the loser's feelings. Only the winner can be respected!"

The referee blew the whistle to indicate a foul by Di Matteo, and then Gary Neville stood up and raised his arms in displeasure: "What's the matter with you?"

Di Matteo patted the other party to express his friendliness. His slap just now was indeed a bit too much.

As a result, his hand was opened by Beckham before he even touched Gary Neville.

The referee, who had already run towards Italy's backcourt, noticed something was wrong and hurried back.

Beckham looked at Di Matteo angrily: "What's wrong with you kicking like a piece of shit!"

Di Matteo hurriedly raised his hand to indicate that he was not malicious, but when his hand was raised halfway, Beckham grabbed his hand and pushed hard.

Di Matteo was caught off guard and took two steps back before stopping. Beckham also retreated to Gary, and he stuck to Gary angrily.

Being bullied by a 21-year-old player, even if DiMatteo was wronged, he couldn't hold back emotionally.

He subconsciously pushed Beckham, but this time the opponent was not good at blocking, but took advantage of the situation and sat on the ground.

Beckham turned his head to look at the referee at the same time, he pushed, do you care or not?

When Di Matteo saw the referee speeding up towards him, he immediately hugged his head, knowing that he was on the right track.

He put his hands together and explained to the referee, but the referee on duty didn't look at him at all, and raised his hand and raised a yellow card.

"Two yellows turned into one red. Di Matteo was sent off in the 54th minute of the game. The England team will play one more man in the next game. David got his two yellow cards!"

Seeing that the Italian team was sent off one man, Martin Taylor in the studio was excited.

No matter how difficult the Italian team is, the next game will be 10 against 11.

Here comes England's chance!
The game restarted, and the Italian team immediately fell into a passive position.

The England team took advantage of the trend to attack, but the Italian team could only be forced to recover and defend intensively in the penalty area.

England kept moving the ball around the Italian team, and the Italian team's defense methodically resisted.

At 70 minutes into the game, the England team was still behind 0-1. The players on the field were embarrassed to find that the Italian team couldn't attack, but they couldn't attack themselves either.

So the England players tacitly chose intensive crosses, and the Italian goal was suddenly in danger.

With England's short pass penetration ability, it is okay to play against teams like Poland and Georgia, but it has no advantage in front of Italy.

Seeing that the ground ball was not a threat, the England players simply started the mode of infinite crosses to compete for the top.

In this way, Shearer and Le Tissier got header chances in a row, Peruzzi received a high block, and the Italian players took turns to block the eye-catching to barely guarantee the goal.

To strengthen the defense, the Italian team replaced Baggio with Nesta in the 81st minute, which meant that they completely lost their ability to counterattack.

The England players kicked bloody with crosses from the wing, and Beckham's crosses continued to pose a threat.

In the 85th minute, he imitated Baggio and let the cross bounce off the penalty area line, and the Italian defense suddenly panicked.

Shearer headed the goal, Peruzzi subconsciously supported it with his hand, McManaman followed up with a supplementary shot, the football hit the crossbar, and the entire Wembley Stadium sighed.

England continued to attack, while Italy completely abandoned organization and cleared whenever they got the ball. They were only one step away from victory.

At the end of 90 minutes of regular time, the fourth official raised the overtime sign.

3 minutes of stoppage time for the whole game.

Seaman kicked the ball to the frontcourt with big feet, and Beckham and Maldini took off at the same time.

Ince and Cannavaro took off at the same time, the Italian central defender lost his balance in the air, and Ince ferried the football into the penalty area.

Seeing that Shearer succeeded in grabbing a point, Ferrara didn't even think about it, just kicked the football, and the football flew out of the baseline against the crossbar.

The England players are all stunned, this guy is really a mess.

corner kick!
In the 91st minute of the game, Seaman ran into the penalty area of ​​the Italian team.

Beckham took a corner kick, Seaman grabbed the first point in the crowd, he headed the ball to the right of the post, and Peruzzi was completely dumbfounded.

Fortunately, Zola blocked the football with his chest at the post, and Ferrara kicked the ball out of the touchline.

At 92 minutes into the game, Seaman was about to run back, but was stopped by Shearer.

Gary Neville wiped the football violently with his clothes, and then stepped back five meters. He was going to throw a grenade into the penalty area.

As he slammed the ball into the penalty area, the entire Wembley Stadium was boiling. The players of the Italian team and the England team tried their best to rush towards the football in the penalty area!

(End of this chapter)