Chapter 188 Group C (Part 2)

Chapter 188 Group C (Part 2)

From a certain point of view, this life-and-death match between Italy and France can also be regarded as a make-up match for the World Cup final in Germany in the previous life.

Because of the emergence of the variable Degan, the protagonists of the German World Cup finals became Italy and Belgium. Zidane's golden head did not have the stinking Materazzi, so that there was less grievance between the two, but it was buried. Degan's left leg caused Belgium to lose the final.

Now in the group stage of the European Cup, the two teams that were supposed to stage a peak duel in the World Cup in Germany have shifted the battlefield to the European Cup.

Before the game, the heavy rain suddenly came and poured down, performing the best prelude to this tragic life-and-death battle. What is more miraculous than the heavy rain is that two rainbows appeared unexpectedly, across the sky of the Zurich Stadium, attracting a lot of noise. countless.

As night falls, the rainbow disappears, and the two declining nobles have been reduced to looking at other people's faces in a blink of an eye. Albertini appeared on the rostrum to cheer for his brother Donadoni. He looked more like a diplomat in a neat suit. Home, shuttling among senior officials of FIFA and UEFA.

In this game, Cannavaro and Materazzi, the pair of golden iron gates, could only sit on the bench and worry about it. After the start of the life-and-death battle, every time the ball went out of bounds, they were always the first to rush out to "get the ball" ", Cannavaro even limping, he seems to hope to use this way to encourage his teammates not to give up.

After the start of this life-and-death duel, the scene was not exciting enough, but it was more than intense. Players from both sides frequently confronted each other without the ball, trying to overwhelm each other in momentum. Abidal walked past the Italian bench after being sent off. After swearing at the Italian, Materazzi took the lead and was about to fight back, but was held back by his teammates.

Perhaps it was the Dutchman Huntelaar who decided the game. His goal was passed to the Italian bench early. One pass to ten, ten to a hundred, became a well-known secret among Italian fans, and cheerful singing immediately replaced harsh boos Voice.

Everyone knows that this is not an aristocratic performance in pursuit of the scene, but a survival battle begging for results. Then Van Persie scored a goal on another court, which was once misrepresented as a Romanian goal. The big screen displayed the words Holland 2:0, the French were completely gone? They lost interest and left the field one after another.

Gattuso, who was finally replaced, roared excitedly, opened all the mineral water bottles, and poured them on the heads of every teammate on the bench. When the final whistle blew, he was the first to run in front of Donadoni. , grabbed the head coach's curly hair and yanked it, completely disregarding the way of teachers and students.

The rainbow in 2006 seemed to be back again, and the Italians celebrated as if they had won the world championship, but at this moment, everyone was celebrating with an expression of surviving a catastrophe.

Finally, on this night of life and death, the light of miracles shone on Italy, and the Azzurri returned to the world from the border of death. This is of course thanks to the Dutch team's great spirit of fair play, but of course the Italians should also be proud of their indomitable spirit.

What makes the Italians even more happy is that the core midfielder Pirlo was also "resurrected" in this game. It was his outstanding performance in the first half that opened the door to victory for Italy.

In fact, since the World Cup in Germany, Pirlo has not been able to find his best form for a long time. Although he is still indispensable to his team, he is still not the high-speed midfield brain.

After the start of this European Cup, Pirlo continued the recent downturn. In the first two group matches, Pirlo's performance can only be said to be mediocre.

Although Pirlo was rated as the best player on the spot in the last game against Romania, in fact many experts were very dissatisfied with Pirlo's performance. At present, there is even a saying that Donadoni will abandon Pirlo.

Regarding this statement, Pirlo himself is not worried: "The coach decides who can play, but I believe he will choose me."

Pirlo is very confident. Facts have proved that Donadoni did not dare to give up Pirlo. In the most critical game, Pirlo finally repaid the coach and all Italian fans.

In this game, Pirlo's precise and effective command and dispatch reappeared in the game, which was not seen in the past two games. Before Pirlo was replaced, he created opportunities for his teammates many times. Shortly after the opening, Panu Qi received a corner kick from Pirlo and almost headed the net.

The most exciting scene happened in the 200,000th minute of the game. Pirlo sent a precise long pass near the center circle. After Tony stopped the ball in the penalty area, he was tripped by Abidal from behind. The referee whistled a penalty kick and sent Abidal was sent off with a red card, which was definitely a fatal blow. Italy took the lead and also took advantage of numbers.

It was Pirlo who scored a penalty for Italy. The AC Milan midfielder calmly kicked the ball to the upper left corner of the goal. Although French goalkeeper Coupe fought hard to save, he could only look at the ball and sigh.

Three minutes later, Pirlo sent an overhead ball again, which created a chance for Tony to face the goalkeeper directly, and almost sealed the victory for Italy in advance, but it was a pity that Tony's finishing kick was a hair's breadth away.

Undoubtedly, it was Pirlo who understood the loopholes in the French team's cooperation after changing the central defender partner, resolutely attacked the gap in the French center, and quickly laid the foundation for Italy's victory.

If it weren't for Tony's bad luck today, Italy could have scored at least two or three goals in the first half. Luo, it is enough to make Italy cheer.

But Pirlo also had regrets in today's game. Before the end of the first half, the French team insisted on counterattack when Perotta was injured instead of kicking the ball out of the sideline. Benzema.

Although Pirlo's move made people see the unity of Italy, but Pirlo, who already had a yellow card, received another card because of this action, and will miss the quarter-finals because of accumulating two yellow cards.

This is a very big blow to the Italians, just as "Gazzetta dello Sport" said, Pirlo is the only irreplaceable person in Italy, and today's victory against France has once again proved this point.

But Pirlo has no regrets about this. Talking about the next game, Pirlo is very confident in his teammates: "We have many excellent players, such as De Rossi, Ambrosini, Montolivo and Perry. Rota, I firmly believe we can go further."

In the face of life and death, this time the Italian team was finally favored by the goddess of luck. Rather than saying that the game was won by the Italians, it would be better to say that it was presented by the French. There were too many problems in the French team in this game. First, Ribery got injured, and then Abidal gave Italy a penalty and was sent off. Most of the time, only ten players could fight. All the Italians had to do was seize the opportunity and win.

Donadoni admitted after the game that Italy had good luck today. At the same time, he did not forget to thank his old friend Basten. The Netherlands beat Romania 2-0, which made Italy stay in the European Cup.

In Italy's 3 group matches, 1 loss, 1 draw and 1 win. In terms of performance, they have stepped up to a higher level. Donadoni especially praised the players: "For a long time today, we played 11 against 10. The players played at critical moments Still a little nervous, but overall, they played well today and I'm happy with the score."

Before the Italian-French war, the Italian media were complaining about the bad luck of the team. Facing France, Italy finally had a good time. Donadoni also admitted that the team had good luck today: "Italy's luck is not that bad, 1:0 After leading, we had a lot of chances and luck finally came when De Rossi took the free-kick."

Italy was able to advance, thanks to the Netherlands. The Dutch second team beat Romania 2-0. Donadoni naturally remembered to thank Basten: "Many people asked me before the game if I called Basten. This is ridiculous. Yes, I understand Basten's personality and I never doubted that the Dutch player will give his best in the final game."

However, while the Italian players were wildly celebrating the victory, there was one person who seemed very frustrated. This person was Tony. The performance is undoubtedly a failure.

Creating penalties and wasting a bunch of chances, that's Tony.

The inability to score goals is actually not entirely on Tony alone. His current situation on the court can be said to be isolated and helpless. On the front line, apart from Tony, there is no other player who can share the pressure for him.

When attacking, I repeatedly hit Tony. In addition to passing Tony, I still pass Tony. Just imagine, which team will Italy play against, and the opponent will not send a few defenders to defend Tony closely?

No matter how strong Tony is, he only has two legs and one head after all. How can he comfortably shoot between the opponent's seven or eight thick thighs and three or four jumping heads?

But is Italy really so embarrassing that no one can use it?

of course not!

For example, in the second game, Pacini kept the promotion hope for Italy. Unfortunately, after becoming a hero of the team, he was once again forgotten on the bench by Donadoni in this game.

After sitting for 90 minutes, I celebrated the promotion with my teammates.

In this European Cup, Fiorentina is the team that contributed the most players to the Italian team. Maggio, Antonini, Abate, Montolivo, Ledesma, Motta, Pacini, a total of seven players, almost One-third of the Italian team.

But after three games in the group stage, only Montolivo, Paccini and Mota got the chance to play. Montolivo and Pacini were reused, but Motta could only play against the Netherlands. When I was playing, I showed up during garbage time, only encountered football once, and then I had to taste the bitter fruit of defeat with my teammates.

In this regard, even Fiorentina coach Prandelli was very dissatisfied: "I don't understand why Mr. Donadoni wants to bring my players to the European Cup. Is it just to let them be spectators? My The players are the best, last season's treble can explain everything, but in Mr Donadoni's eyes, they have become defective products."

Prandelli had no choice but to complain. Among the other Fiorentina players selected for the national team, Frey was the main force in the first two games of the group. It was only in the last life-and-death match against Italy that Coupe replaced the main force.

Ujfalusi is also the absolute core of the Czech team's defense. Although the Czech team was eliminated in the group, his performance has been affirmed by people.

Not to mention Kompany, Belgium's absolute main force, no one can replace him.

Although Marchena was a substitute, he also got a chance to come off the bench in the game against Russia and played the main role in the game against Greece.

Modric is the absolute core in Croatia. He started all three group matches and scored goals.

Mutu is also Romania's number one star.

But Donadoni turned a blind eye to the members of the Triple Crown, which is really a strange thing.

But fortunately, the Goddess of Victory favored the handsome Italian guys in the end, allowing them to qualify for the group stage. After losing to the Italian team 0:2 and being out of the European Cup, the French team could only leave sadly.

Just after losing the game, the French midfielder Iron Gate Makelele immediately announced that he would withdraw from the national team. In addition, Thuram also expressed his intention to retire.

"This event is the last time I play for the French team," the 35-year-old Chelsea midfielder told reporters this year. The game against Italy was his 71st appearance for the French team. This number will stop updating in the future.

In his last game for France, he played all the time and tried his best, as he did most of the time, but unfortunately failed to save the French team.

Makelele is regarded as the best defensive midfielder in the world. He has strong running ability, large coverage area, fierce one-on-one defense but reasonable technique, and strong pass control ability. He can launch an attack after a midfielder steals. The textbook called the position of the lower back.

However, due to his advanced age, his physical fitness will inevitably decline, and it will become more and more difficult for him to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the midfielder in the international arena, so he has no choice but to quit.

It is a pity that he has represented the French team for many years, but has never won a major championship, which will become his lifelong regret.

After losing 0:2 to Italy in the European Cup, in the face of reporters' questions, Makelele said: "I didn't get a trophy for France, but being able to wear the blue jersey and play for France is my greatest honor." ."

Shortly after Makelele announced his withdrawal, Thuram, who represented the French team in 142 games and played the most games for the country, also said that this would be his last game for the French team.

Thuram can be described as a meritorious player of the French team. He once represented the French team to win the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Cup. It's over.

In fact, after the defeat of the French team this time, these two may not be the only ones who quit the national team. Long before the start of the game, Henry expressed his intention to quit the national team after the European Cup.

Perhaps soon, Henry will follow in the footsteps of Makelele and Thuram, and the midfielder Vieira and goalkeeper Coupe have also been selected by the French media as candidates to quit the national team.

The retirement of many veterans, in the final analysis, is still disappointment with the team's performance. It can be said that it has reached the point of discouragement, as well as conflicts with the head coach.

In fact, not only the players, but most of the French media and fans believed that the French team's three games without any bright spots in the European Cup were all due to Domenech's unpredictable tactics, and the players also complained about it. In the first game, the main defender Thuram was not included in the starting lineup. According to internal information from the French national team, it was Thuram who proposed to Domenech before the game that he was extremely disappointed with the performance of the French team. He voluntarily withdrew from this life-and-death battle on the grounds of concentrating on the competition.

The defensive line suddenly lost its main force, causing Abidal to play hastily in the battle with Italy. The facts of the game proved Domenech's fatal trick. You must know that Abidal has never played as a central defender. In his new position, and against the Italians, Abidal looked unsure, and the red card was inevitable against the backdrop.

The indisputable fact is that the French team does not have a substitute for Thuram. Boumsong is a traditional central defender, but Domenech turned a blind eye and paid a heavy price for being out.

Although the contract between Domenech and the French Football Association will not end until 2010, it is certain that with the disgraceful end of the French team in this European Cup, the fate of Domenech's dismissal has become clear. , and the French team, which has staged countless championships in world football, will also set off a revolution of renewal. Makelele, Thuram, and even Henry will definitely leave the national team because of Domenech's low-level tactical mistakes. It is embarrassing that the golden generation of the Gallic rooster bid farewell to international football with such an ending.

The escape battle of the group of death ended, but it also gave people a very exciting game. People need to admire Basten's professionalism, not only because of 9 points and 9 goals, but because he found a way to revive Dutch football way.

At the same time, we must also admire the perseverance of Donadoni and the Italian team, even though they played unsatisfactorily, even though they relied on Mutu's mistakes, the Romanian team's downturn was able to qualify, but please note that most of the Italian teams in history They all started to enter the state from the second stage of the game.

This game, which is defined as a life-and-death battle, can be said to have no competitive reference value. The only thing that can be defined is that the French team is far away from the world's top level. They need a new Zidane and a new concept.