i am beckham

Chapter 490 European Cup

UEFA EURO 2000 was the first world competition to be jointly hosted by two countries.

Beckham learned from John Sr. that this tournament is considered the best in European Cup history.

The English media have already analyzed the game clearly.

The 16 participating teams were divided into four groups, of which Group A included defending champion Germany, World Cup runner-up England, veteran Romania and rising Portugal.

The English media generally believe that this grouping is acceptable, because there is really no seed team weaker than Germany.

As the defending champion, the German team is probably one of the worst seeded teams in the history of the European Cup. They ranked second among all 33 teams with an average age of 32 in the World Cup in France.

Two years later, the average age of the German team decreased slightly, but most of the younger players were substitutes, and the main players were all old men.

The Romanian team is the team with the oldest average age in this European Cup. This game will be the swan song of the old men's World Series.

From the media to the players, England did not have a good opinion of Romania. It was this team that almost kicked England out of the group stage.

England met Argentina, the Netherlands and Brazil in the knockout rounds, although Beckham's return helped the team through.

The English media has been emphasizing a truth for a long time: if you don't get the first place in the group, the whole game will be very rough.

All England fans are looking forward to their team can give the old Romanian "end".

But Beckham felt that it was okay. Without Romania, the England team would go smoothly in the group stage.Once the England team is eliminated by Croatia in the knockout round, Hoddle will definitely throw all the blame on him, telling the media that his behavior disrupted the England team's tactical deployment.

Everything has two sides, and people usually value the side that is good for them, and no one is exempt from it.

The Portuguese team did not enter the finals of the World Cup in France, but this team led by Figo actually has many outstanding players.

From the perspective of book strength, they are obviously better than Romania and Germany.

The four teams in Group B are host Belgium, Sweden, Turkey and Italy.

The Belgian team is probably the most questioned host in all the World Series. This Belgian team has long since lost the shadow of the world's top teams. They were dragged to death by a stick in the last game of the group stage two years ago, and their strength has been widely questioned.

With such a seeded team, the Italians are probably also laughing in their hearts. It should not be a big problem for them to qualify for the group.However, the Vikings Sweden and the growing Turkish team should not be underestimated.

In the just-concluded Europa League final, Galatasaray and Arsenal staged an epic classic battle. The two frustrated clubs in the Champions League regained their face in the Europa League.

Although the Turkish giants lost 3-4 in the end, the excitement of the game and the fighting power of the two sides at the last moment are considered to be the "epic battle" in the history of the Europa League.

The four teams in Group C are Spain, Norway, Yugoslavia and Slovenia.

The Spanish team, known as the "king of the budget game", has always been considered one of the best teams, but their "good" character can only be reflected in the qualifiers.

No matter what kind of opponent they encounter in the qualifiers, this Spanish team can turn danger into luck and qualify smoothly.

But when the results of the main game are in, this star-studded team can hardly hide its embarrassment.They were blocked from the round of 16 by Nigeria and Paraguay in France, which was a shame.

In this cup, the Spanish team is no longer considered to be the favorite to win the championship. Everyone thinks that with their performance in the big competition, it is normal to overturn on Norway and Slovenia, and both Norway and Slovenia have advanced to the European Cup for the first time.

Another eye-catching team in this group is the Yugoslavia team. This country has always been rich in good players. The separated Croatian team can reach the semi-finals in the world, and Slovenia can also qualify for the European Cup. The strength of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not bad. Many people think that the Slavs are naturally good at sports.

The four teams in Group D are the Netherlands, Czech Republic, France and Denmark.

This group is considered to be the death group of this competition. Since the end of the group stage, Manchester United players collectively mourned Schmeichel for 1 second. The other three teams in this group are too strong.

The World Cup champion France, the star-studded host Netherlands, the skilled Czech team, the weakest must be the stubborn Danish team.

It is true that there are no weak teams in the European Cup. If the England team dares to play the moths in the World Cup in the group stage, it is basically useless to qualify for the group stage.

Even if the England team is considered the strongest team in the group stage, the German team and the Romanian team have entered the World Cup knockout round, while the strength of the Portuguese team is on the bright side, and no one is good.

So on the second day after the end of the Champions League, Beckham and several other selected players rushed to London to join the team.

This time, the players of the England team are basically based on what they had done two years ago. There is still a shortage of left-back positions. Phil will most likely be the main left-back. Butt is also selected for the squad. In addition to Husky, Scholes and Gary Neville, Manchester United has a total of 6 players selected for the squad.

Beckham's coming to the England team is completely different. The team is full of old buddies. Shearer, Adams, Seaman, Ince, McManaman, Campbell, Keown and Southgate are all players who cooperated together four years ago.

Owen is his little brother who has been developing for a long time. Although this kid has played well in Liverpool in recent seasons, he is still the only one to follow.

As for fringe players like Fowler, Bambi, and Phillips, it's too late to take the initiative to lick them, so how dare they prick them in front of them.

Without a strong head coach like Ferguson, Beckham is a special existence in the England team. Shearer and Adams talk about "brother, take it easy, it's up to you whether we can win a championship before retirement" and live comfortably.

In this World Cup third-place team, Brian Keane and Keegan seemed a bit weak. One had no coaching experience, and the other had successful coaching experience. The media did not give them the credit for the World Cup, so the two of them were in constant panic while being chased by the English paparazzi.

These two people are like assistants around the boss of the team every day, "David, what you are practicing today is our tactics, how do you feel?", "Alan, you have scored a lot of goals this season! With you here, we can rest assured!", "Tony, I heard that your calf muscles are not very comfortable. Don't use your strength in training these two days, there is no need to compare with children."
Although the training environment is very comfortable, Beckham does not intend to lie down and be an uncle.

On the contrary, he and Gary are still the most hard-working players. Phil is the first to start, and he has a lot of training all day long. Husky and Bart also want to get a chance to play. The club has the most games. The latest report to the "Manchester United Six" came to Wembley.

For these players who play 45 games a year, the training intensity of the England team is the same. No matter how tiring the training is, it is not as refreshing as a week of double matches.

In this way, after a fulfilling week in the London base camp, the England team will have 9 warm-up matches in the next 3 days.

Their first opponent is the Slovenian team. As a team about to participate in the European Cup, Slovenia's strength is online, and the state must be well adjusted. Moreover, it is almost impossible for the two teams to meet in the European Cup. Spain and Yugoslavia basically do not give the opportunity.

If they meet, it can only be said to be fate, so there is no need for the two parties to hide.

The England team fought with the main force in the first half and beat the opponent twice. They used a rotation lineup in the second half and finally took away the opponent 3-1.

Neither of the two teams is going to go all out with real swords and guns. Bide is the foundation and tactical quality. The England team is not under much pressure against the Slovenia team.

The 19-year-old Barry in the game made Beckham feel a little bit interesting. This kid has already played the main force in the Villa team. He can play the left center back, left back, midfielder and midfielder in the three center backs. His performance is very stable.

This little guy, who played 30 times last season, formed a meat grinder midfielder with Butt in the second half, making the Slovenian core Zahovic unable to take care of himself, and his level is good.

England then defeated Denmark 2-1 at the Imperial Stadium in Belgium. The Imperial Stadium used to be the Heysel Stadium.

Interestingly, Schmeichel took all the penalty kicks of the Danish team in the warm-up match. I heard that the team wanted to commemorate his last World Series with a goal. The Danish team's goal came from his penalty.

The intensity of the warm-up match is not high. Players can play a game for up to 60 minutes, which has little impact on physical fitness.

The opponent of the England team in the last warm-up match was the Croatian team. The third place in the World Cup did not break into the European Cup, but the strength lies there, which is just right for training.

The England team finally defeated their opponents 2-0, basically achieving the goal of warming up.

The team then rushed to Eindhoven to prepare for the first group match of the European Cup. The opponent was the Portuguese team with gorgeous books.

The closer the big game is, the more nervous the players are.

Beckham's mood is somewhat affected, but now he can be regarded as a seasoned player and has learned to adjust his mood in tension.

Gary Neville has become the team's psychological counselor in the past two days, and he pretends to be a master.

After all, he is a right back who has been targeted by opponents in countless games. He is definitely experienced in self-regulation.

Every time he gave advice to the newcomers between training sessions, the title of his speech was "If the world was against you".

Beckham has heard it once, not to mention, the principle combined with personal experience, it is not bad, the most important thing is that this kid has a very rich personal experience, adding oil and vinegar for several days without repeating it.

Lloyd also came, with a helpless face, probably because Hathaway insisted on coming, and he was worried about letting his daughter come alone, so he had to put down his work, his wife and son, and ran all the way to watch football.

Beckham asked the father and daughter to have a meal. At the dinner table, Lloyd comforted himself: "I had almost no rest last year. This time I have the opportunity to come out and relax. There is no time to finish the work."

Just as Beckham was about to agree, Lloyd's cell phone rang suddenly and he ran out to answer the call for 20 minutes.

As soon as Lloyd left, Hathaway immediately became active, telling Beckham that she passed five passes in the audition, got the leading role, and the movie will start shooting soon.

Beckham sincerely congratulated her. In a blink of an eye, the girl was already 18 years old. She was a busy little girl at the beginning, but now she has grown into a beauty.

It is no exaggeration to say that if Hathaway is randomly placed on the street now, the return rate is more than 90%. Some artificial people have tossed it a few times, but the effect is not as good as her.

Of course, Beckham can't guarantee that the girl won't move at all, and she has to make some fine-tuning to enter Hollywood by relying on her face.

But what is certain is that the big appearance has not changed, after all, it can be seen several times a year.
After eating, Lloyd drove to Brussels to watch the opening ceremony of the European Cup with his intimate little padded jacket, and then came back to watch the England team's game. They followed wherever the England team went.

On June 6, the much-anticipated European Cup finally opened in Brussels, Belgium. The England team gathered in the conference room of the hotel to watch the live broadcast.

At 8:22, the opening ceremony officially began. 179 actors participated in the "kick-off" performance, which described a dream theme. Through the magic of football, adult men and children discovered the "pure" sport of football.

Listening to the host's commentary, Beckham felt powerless to complain. When have you ever seen things linked to money be pure?
Not long ago, Manchester United was staged a hat-trick in which the goal was invalidated by the referee on the court, which is simply a steal.

Afterwards, I don't know which link went wrong. The referee later took care of the Manchester United team, which is strange.

In the live broadcast, a superstar inflatable man more than ten meters tall, controlled by a group of people, kicked an inflated balloon not far away, and then the audience cheered inexplicably.

Seeing this scene, all the English players in the conference room laughed, and they showed off this thing.

Then the band's float appeared on the stage, and the pop singer invited by the organizer from Sweden brought an electronic rap on the float. The song was called "Champion 2000", and the title of the song sounded like the name of a football game.

Then the flags of each representative team entered the arena in turn, and the open mode is over!
After preparing for the opening ceremony for two years, an inflatable man and electronic rap were produced. The host said that it took 11 minutes.

Is this a bit short?
But the embarrassing time is always short. After a few commercials, the Belgian and Swedish teams walked into the stadium and started the European Cup opener.

The Swedish team used a header to put Belgium into a mess at the beginning of the game. The Belgian players swung their kicks when they got a chance in the frontcourt, which was unreasonable at all.

The game scene was not very good, but the last few shots of both teams were good, and there were many shooting opportunities.

Belgium inexplicably had two scoring chances towards the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, both of which were converted into goals, and their goalkeeper stopped the ball in the face of the Swedish striker and was easily poked and scored.

At the end of the game, the Belgian team defeated the Swedish team 2-1 at home and got a good start, and then the Italian team narrowly beat Turkey 2-1.

The England game will be played in a day and a half. After watching the game, Beckham decided to go back to sleep.

Let's talk about tomorrow's matter tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)