champion my dream

Chapter 289 Warm-up match vs Croatia

The Croatian team is currently ranked 27th in the world. As the runner-up of the 2018 World Cup and the creator of the top 2022 of the 8 World Cup, after the 2022 World Cup, it was like a cliff. What is the reason for dropping to 8th, even they themselves don't know.

Facing the upcoming European Cup, they are in the same group as England, Finland, and the United States. If they want to break out of the group stage, they must get back to their form as soon as possible.

They had just had a warm-up match with the Mexican team before, and the result was a 0-2 loss, which made the players worse. In the last five games, they have not tasted victory, and 2 draws and 3 losses are terrible.

Playing at home today.Against the Chinese team, which has lost two consecutive warm-up matches, the whole Croatian team is full of confidence and must recover from the Chinese team.

The Chinese team's warm-up match trip to Europe seems to be an away game. Two of the three warm-up matches have ended, and the results were 1-3 and 0-2, both of which were lost.

Now, facing the last opponent in the warm-up match, the Croatian team, the Plaid Army has been sluggish recently, and its state has fallen to a trough.

The game was held in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. This is a newly built stadium with 35000 seats. Naturally, there are no empty seats today.

Compared with the Chinese team, they are more eager to win this game with the advantage of home court. They also had three warm-up matches in the European Cup cycle. Later, considering the poor state of the team, they canceled the game against the Spanish team.

So they are the same as the Chinese team, this is the last warm-up match before the European Cup.

Well, players from both sides are already starting to enter the field.

We saw the familiar faces of the strongest starting lineup of the Chinese team again, and of course the opponent also claimed to be playing with the strongest lineup.

10 minutes before the opening, the Croatian players obviously lacked confidence. Although it was a home game, it was the Chinese team that controlled the situation.

The Chinese team took advantage of the fact that the opponent had not yet found their form. In the 12th minute, the captain and Lu Yun cleverly cooperated with multiple feet to disrupt the opponent's defense. In the end, the captain Zheng Wei opened the scoring and helped the Chinese team take a 1-0 lead.

The fans at the scene seemed to be a little excited. They originally hoped that this game would be a turning point for the Croatian team. Unexpectedly, it was the Chinese team who knocked on the door first.

Although the Chinese team is nearly ten places ahead of them in the recent world rankings, from their historical records, the winning rate against Asian teams is as high as 80%. When the sun sets, the upcoming European Cup will definitely be out of their game.

Unexpectedly, after conceding a goal, the Croatian team woke up like a dream. If they don't cheer up, they will become a hasty passerby in the European Cup.

Amidst the shouts of 35000 fans, the Plaid Army seemed to let people see the style of the 2018 World Cup again, and their never-say-die spirit finally broke out.

In the 17th minute, they were ashamed and courageous, and they almost equalized the score. Fortunately, Weilong bravely resolved two consecutive supplementary shots.

In the 23rd minute, the Croatian team asked for a substitution, and the formation of 442 became 433. Their morale has already improved, so they must increase their offensive strength.

Although the Chinese team did not make personnel adjustments, it also changed the 2323 tactics to the 1234 tactics.

Croatia has a profound football background. Although they are a small country with a population of 500 million, football talents are simply flooding. Although they have fallen to the bottom, they are still a strong team that is not afraid of any team.

Soon, they took advantage of the momentum at home and took control of the situation.

In the 32nd minute, the Croatian team created chaos in front of the Chinese team's goal with a set kick in the frontcourt.

As a result, the captain hit the center post, and No. 23 made a supplementary shot to tie the score at 1-1.

The moment the goal was scored, the coach of the Croatian team roared frantically.He has held this breath for too long.You know, they haven't scored a goal for 326 minutes, and now they have finally broken the scoring drought. As the head coach, they are naturally excited.

The fans in the stands were even more moved to tears.

The Croatian team is also getting more courageous, wasting two excellent goals in a row in the 37th and 42nd minutes.It can be seen from this that their biggest problem is the lack of a representative striker, like Dave Suk, who has a left-footed predecessor who can play the violin.

The score of 1-1 ended the first half.

In the second half of the first half, the Croatian team gradually recovered their form, and their ball possession rate was evened from 41% at the beginning of the game to 52%. From the perspective of various statistics, they are also slightly ahead of the Chinese team.

After changing sides, they continued to put pressure on the Chinese team.

In the 49th minute, the Chinese team seized a counterattack opportunity. Zhang Yike's header hit the defender's shoulder and bounced into the bottom of the net.

The Croatian team, who fell behind again, did not get discouraged, but instead made them more united. Since breaking the scoring drought, they are extremely eager to score again.

After the Chinese team once again took the lead, we did not choose to confront our opponent head-on, and focused more on defensive counterattacks.

In the 69th minute, the opponent's No. 23 stepped forward again, with a world wave, passing through the crotches of Liu Yuxuan and Weilong.In this game, his performance was also the best player in the team.He also helped the team equalize twice.

In the 77th minute, the Chinese team made a steal from the backcourt and immediately launched a quick counterattack. Liu Wenjian made a long pass and found Zhang Yike. Opportunity...the opponent is fully back on defense...

Oops! Tactical foul, opponent tackles the ball out of the touchline.If this ball allows Zhang Yike to break through, it will form a one-on-one, and even further form a one-on-one.The opponent's kick was decisive enough. Although the ball was shoveled, but the move was too big, the referee still drew a yellow card.A free kick is awarded.

Fortunately, Zhang Yike was not injured, just rolled on the ground and got up again.

Zhang Wei took the penalty, and Zhang Wei held up two fingers high, which is a tactical cooperation.

"Beep..."

Zhang Wei ran up, and suddenly there was a "touch", and the ball drew an arc in the air and went straight to the upper right corner.It turned out that I chose to open the door directly...

The opponent's goalkeeper was unexpected. Fortunately, the distance was a bit far, and he bravely held the ball out with one hand.

Not good, the opponent grabbed the landing point, they are counterattacking quickly, very fast...

The Chinese team is careful... Everyone quickly return to defense...

It’s not good, it’s the 23rd one riding Juechen again, one hits two...

The other players on both sides are fighting for speed.Croatia's captain has emerged from the middle...two on two...

Wei Long is concentrating on...

At the critical moment, Liu Wenjian chose to attack. Not good. No. 23 was cunning. Before Liu Wenjian made a tackle, he gave the ball to the captain. As a result, he and Liu Wenjian collided. He got up and quickly broke through Liu Wenjian. Liu Wenjian also got up and turned around to catch up. Unfortunately, he was half a step too late...

Two-on-one, an excellent opportunity for the Croatian team... They easily cooperated to pass Liu Yuxuan, Wei Long faced two singles, but failed to create a miracle...

The Croatian team achieved a major reversal and finally defeated the Chinese team 3-2, finally ushering in a long-lost victory.

This is the end of the European tour of the Chinese team warm-up match. Although they lost all three games, they have benefited a lot from the upcoming European Cup. There are still a few months before we can review ourselves and hope that the European Cup can go well. farther.

(End of this chapter)