Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 546 One Person's Revenge!
5:2! ! !

This is the final result of the contest between England and Ecuador.

After Wang Li scored the third goal, although the Ecuadorian players were still working hard for the glimmer of hope of victory, the strength of the English players who regained their morale was absolutely unimaginable. The team's three fronts were open. Offensively, the Ecuadorians were helpless to fight back.

In the end, Beckham and Joe Cole scored goals for the team.

The Ecuadorians won the first half but lost the whole game.

For this result, Ecuador coach Sutares seemed very helpless, but the old coach was not too sad after the game. After all, for Ecuador, being able to reach the World Cup knockout round is already a historic breakthrough.

In the post-match press conference, Ecuador coach Suarez said in an interview: "This is a very difficult game, very tough and tactically demanding. We don't have many scoring opportunities, and they have many opportunities. , This is the difference in strength between the two sides. I think, I am very satisfied with the performance of the players, we even led the score in the first half, which I did not expect before."

When a reporter asked about Wang Li's performance, Suarez said: "Sometimes a world-class superstar can influence a game. I admire the opponent's No. 21 Alan Wang. He has always performed very well. If He scored hat-tricks in other games and I will definitely congratulate him."

"In the game, it is very difficult to maintain a very high level of shooting, but he did it, three shots and three goals. I really have nothing to say about this, but his performance is fantastic. It is a pity that he is not an Ecuadorian player, but the opponent's. I can only congratulate the England team for better results next."

Regarding the loss of this game, Suarez did not avoid the topic, but jokingly said: "We have given everything for our jersey, and we feel very calm about everything we have done. McLaren said to me after the game We're a really good team and if we keep going this way we'll improve a lot."

"This sentence is very encouraging to me. I also hope that the team can continue to develop like this. I hope that we can always enter the World Cup. This is already very good for us."

But not only the head coach of Ecuador, but also many Ecuadorian players were interviewed. As losers, they have the right to say a few words after the game, which will be regarded by the media as their last words before leaving the World Cup.

Ecuadorian player Valencia said in an interview: "We have tried our best, and the team makes me happy. We lack a little bit of luck, and we still lack some strength. I think it would be great if the team could have more star players like the England team." Okay. But I think England could have been a bit more conservative, they were too open and that's why we scored two goals in the first half."

Forward Delgado said: "We told the world that we are a good team, and that may be enough. We have come step by step in this World Cup. This is our last game. Very sad. We had a very happy time in Germany and we enjoyed it."

The game was hot, and after the game the two teams were friendly.

The one-eighth finals ended in this way, and on the second day, the one-eighth knockout matches of each round had also been fully over.Unsurprisingly, the host Germany easily defeated Sweden 2-0, and Argentina also defeated Munich. These two teams, which were evaluated as possible dark horses in the early stage, have all come to an end in the World Cup.

In addition, the Italian team, which has always been optimistic, easily eliminated the Australian team 1:0 under the leadership of 'Silver Fox' Lippi; Brazil easily defeated the Ghana team 3:0.

In the two games that have attracted much attention, Portugal beat the Netherlands 1:0, and Spain lost 1:3 to the French team. These two games are the focus of the top 16 matches in the World Cup.

The only match in the round of 16 that can be called an unpopular match was between Switzerland and Ukraine. There is no doubt that since it is said to be unpopular, of course it was the first time that the Ukrainian team entered the World Cup and advanced to the quarterfinals .

After 90 minutes of the game, Switzerland had no way to fight back with three balls from Ukraine.

This Shevchenko's one-man team entered the World Cup for the first time and directly reached the quarterfinals. This created a World Cup historical record, that is, the best result achieved by the team participating for the first time.

Of course, these have nothing to do with the England team, because after the victory over Ecuador, the entire England team fell into the tense atmosphere before the war, which was rarely seen in the past.

Just because England's next opponent is Portugal. . . . . .

Portugal! ! ! ! ! !

Just after the game between England and Ecuador ended, the official website of the German "Kicker" newspaper called this game a "fated duel". There will always be endless topics between England and Portugal, whether it is History, or present.

40 years ago, in the 1966 World Cup in London, England stepped on Portugal's shoulders to reach the final and won the only World Cup championship in England's history in one fell swoop. The team's history of shame.

Eusebio, known as the "Black Pearl", is a football player who was born in Mozambique, Portugal.

In the hearts of the Portuguese, Eusebio is like Maradona in the hearts of the Argentines.Like Maradona, Eusebio has always inspired his national team to move forward bravely.

In the semi-finals of the 1966 World Cup, England defeated Portugal 2-1 to reach the final and eventually win the championship.Although this was a great shame for the Portuguese, Eusebio was still the brightest star in that World Cup. He was the top scorer in that World Cup, scoring nine goals alone.In Portugal's 5-3 victory over North Korea, he even scored four goals alone.

Eusebio's performance was so good that Madame Tussauds in London quickly made a wax figure of him soon after.

Now that Eusebio is old, all he can do is cheer for his team in the stands.

In an interview with Kicker newspaper, Eusebio hopes that the "Brazil of Europe (Portugal)" will achieve unprecedented success and reach the top of the podium.

The first thing Portugal has to do now is beat England at the Gelsenkirchen Stadium this Saturday.

Eusebio had been Portugal's top scorer until last year when Pauleta broke his record.Eusebio firmly believes that the Portuguese team can break into the final and win the cup.

In the group stage, the 64-year-old Eusebio was moved to tears after watching Portugal's 2-0 victory over Iran. He said: "I have a strong feeling that the Portuguese team will be better than what we played in 1966." Better results. It's not bragging at all, I can totally feel the confidence shown in the team and I'm optimistic that they will make it to the final. Ironically, that's for most of our golden generation players , or the first World Cup final."

Yes, in the early 20s, the players of the Portuguese youth team were called the golden generation of Portugal. won the championship.

There are many famous players among them, such as Rui Costa, Cotto and Figo all belong to the golden generation of players.Now Figo is still playing for the national team and served as the captain of Portugal.

Now Eusebio has been staying with the Portuguese players. For all the players of the Portuguese team and coach Scolari, it is very important for Eusebio to be with the team and provide them with some pertinent advice. Meaningful thing.

In this regard, the head coach Brazil coach Scolari said: "Eusebio is considered the greatest player in Portugal. There is no doubt about it. Every word he said is a treasure to the players. Yes, because he is the idol of many players, some of them played football under his influence. I also saw some players write down what Eusebio said in a small notebook as motivation motto."

When a reporter asked about this, Eusebio admitted that he could only say some encouraging words and make some pertinent suggestions.

He is still reminiscing about the failure of the World Cup 40 years ago: "After losing to the England team, the feeling of collapse is unimaginable. When we were about to reach the historic final, but suddenly went out, it hurt our hearts. I just want to convey my feelings to the players of the Portuguese team and hope this will further strengthen their determination to win."

Compared with Portugal's uplifting momentum, the England team wants to win even more if they want to defeat the England team and have completed the "shame" revenge 40 years ago.

Because in the European Cup two years ago, England lost to the host Portugal on penalties in the round of 2. This scene is still deeply engraved in the minds of every English player, even Wang Li. Without exception.

In that game, Wang Li played as a substitute, but a goal can only help the team to a draw.Thus, David Beckham missed a penalty kick, making him the sinner of England's failure.

And now, the same England team has the hope of revenge. They don't have to wait half a century, they got the chance in just 2 years.

For this result, the English players were obviously very happy. After they fought against Ecuador, they fell into serious training. Everyone hoped that the team could beat Portugal head-on to avenge their shame.

"I'm excited to play Portugal. My mistake two years ago knocked England out and I still remember that moment very well."

After the game against Ecuador, Beckham said in an interview with reporters: "I can't forget this scene. Eriksson asked me to take a penalty kick. I was a little nervous, but as the captain, I had to make a good start for my teammates. Unfortunately, I still failed."

"Now, we have met them again. I think we will not be afraid of anything now. All teams that stand in our way to win the championship will fail, including Portugal of course."

The day after the results came out, the media began to make crazy reports and comments on the Anglo-Portuguese war.

Compared with the other three games: Germany VS Argentina, Brazil VS France, Italy VS Ukraine, there are too many stories to be told between England and Portugal, and the most important thing is that the players of the two teams also went head-to-head , no one shied away from this topic, each of them looked excited and wanted to defeat their opponents in the big battle.

However, at this time, many football commentators began to speculate on the final result. According to some historical records, various "England penalty kick failure theories" emerged from scratch, and instantly dominated all arguments——
England and Portugal will draw and lose to Portugal on penalties! ! !
Such an argument may seem a bit strange, but it is still reasonable, just because England has failed too many penalty kicks in important international battlefields: the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the 1996 European Cup, and the 1998 French Cup. In the World Cup and the 2004 European Cup, in recent years, England has all fallen on penalty kicks in these events, and the last time it was eliminated by Portugal.

This is the history of England's blood and tears! !

What others don't know is that on the second day after the match against Ecuador, the head coach McClaren asked the English players to do penalty kick training for the entire morning. Even the young head coach, Mr. I am very afraid that this kind of thing will happen to the England team again.

Fortunately, McLaren is not very afraid of penalties, because the current England team is not the same team as it was two years ago. The main change is that the team has an extra goalkeeper who is responsive and good at penalty kicks. --Thomas Clark.

In this way, even if it came to a penalty shootout, McLaren felt that the England team had a higher winning percentage.

On the third day, that is, on June 6, all members of England went directly to Schalke in Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Two days later, that is, the big battle on July 29.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Portuguese team also arrived at Schalke.

The war seems to be on the verge of breaking out. At this critical moment, most of the players of the two teams are concentrated in the training ground for training, and no team discloses their training content, and the media reporters can only take advantage of the free time in training. Find some players on the outside of the court to 'chance encounter' and get some news materials.

On June 6th, just one day before the quarter-finals with this focus, Portuguese midfielder and superstar Luis Figo made a bold statement, claiming: "To deal with England, 30 minutes is enough. Need to practice penalties."

In an interview with The Sun, Luis Figo revealed that the Portuguese team did not put in effort to practice penalty kicks because they firmly believed that England could be resolved within 90 minutes.

"Until now we haven't practiced penalties, maybe tomorrow or the day after if the coach wants to. I hope to beat England in 90 minutes, but if the game goes to extra time, it will not be good for us. Not a problem. Our goalkeeper is good at saving penalties, but in a penalty shootout, anything can happen. It's a psychological problem, we hope the nerves are stronger than England. I think we have played well in the game Mental quality, we want to be better than the English in every way."

When the reporter asked about the problem he was most afraid of encountering in the game, Figo focused on Wang Li: "Alan Wang, before I left Real Madrid, I went to East Asia with him to participate in several commercial games. I have some doubts about his ability. Understand, he will be our most difficult enemy the day after tomorrow."

Having said that, Figo changed his subject: "However, I have the confidence to lead the team to victory over England. Because that team is Allen's team alone, and there is a gap between their other players and us. I don't think we can win. any obstacles."

"He (Wang Li) has always said that he will score more goals than his opponents. I also believe that he will score goals the day after tomorrow, but we will score more than them. We will end the battle within 90 minutes."

Figo's posture is indeed very high, and his confidence seems to be sufficient. When a reporter asked whether Portugal's lack of two generals Deco and Costina tomorrow would affect Portugal's performance, Figo said that he would move to the middle, and said: "No matter where I am, I will give everything for my team and my country."

It seems that he has decided to quit the national team after the World Cup. "Maybe England want revenge, we won them two years ago and now we are focused on winning them again."

Such words, to the ears of the English, become blatant contempt.
At least, during training that afternoon, the entire England team presented an atmosphere of revenge. Every player was training hard, and they were very serious.

Perhaps Figo did not expect that the words he used to boost the morale of the team also successfully aroused the fighting spirit of the English players.

However, at least on the day before the game, no players in England were interviewed, and even Wang Li continued to do shooting training silently, and did not appear in the sight of media reporters, counterattacking Figo's remarks.

This made reporters all over the world feel a sense of loss, because Wang Li basically made a statement about winning before every game, and then Wang Li's team would easily win.

"Maybe the England team is really going to lose this time." Many people think so.

However, at the same time, Wang Li is working hard to enter the training. He has never been optimistic about other games and some historical records. Yes, that game was also his only defeat since he joined the professional league.

That feeling of powerlessness is still deeply lingering in his mind until now! ! !
This match might become his own revenge! ! !

(End of this chapter)