Chapter 196 German Dynasty Curtain Call
Three goals behind in the first half, this situation is obviously not what people expected before the game, and most of the Belgian team took the lead. It was exhausting to cope, and finally before the end of the first half, the whole line collapsed, conceding two goals in a row, and was beaten 3:0 by Belgium!
"This is inexcusable!"
In the locker room, Loew completely exploded. He was not satisfied with all the details of the team's first half, not at all. The team is completely committing suicide slowly.
"Schweinsteiger! I don't know what you were doing in the first half, what is it about that afro that attracts you so much, even makes you more crazy than the team's victory!"
"Barack! You're the captain of the team, but I don't see you taking responsibility at all!"
"Mertesacker, Friedrich, Metzelder, are you playing on the court? You can be satisfied by qualifying for the group stage, right? Our penalty area has completely become the Brazilian's back garden!"
While Loew was furious, the atmosphere in the Belgian locker room was very warm. Antiiennis had already told the team about some problems in the first half, and then it was Digan's turn to play.
"Guys! We made the Germans cry. We blinded everyone. Before the game, some people thought that our European Championship was over, but now we let them know that Belgian football is not to be insulted." ! What shall we do next?"
"Bury the Germans thoroughly!"
"Let them leave the stadium crying!"
"Very good! That's right!" Degan roared loudly, "The game is not over yet, and I don't think the Germans are going to give up. What they like to do most is to show their strength when the situation is very unfavorable. Their tenacity, but this time, we do not intend to give them this opportunity to kill them completely and let them know that the era belonging to the Germans is completely over!"
After the start of the second half of the game, the Belgian team unexpectedly did not choose to defend. They were still attacking, and the offensive was more fierce than in the first half.
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The Germans are indeed very tenacious. While defending desperately, they also recovered a goal in the 63rd minute of the second half. Klose got the ball in the penalty area and was about to turn around and shoot, but was blocked by Kompany first. Ballack got it from outside the penalty area, and then scored with a long shot.
The Germans seemed to see hope again, but the development of the next game completely deviated from their expected script. Only five minutes later, the Belgian team scored again, and it was Degan who scored from the left. Foot shot, flew directly into the far corner of the German goal.
4:1!
In the subsequent game, although the German team scored a counterattack, and in the 82nd minute Klose scored a header to tie the score to 2:4, but the general situation was gone, and they could only accept a failure in the end. .
The moment the referee's whistle blew, Belgian players, coaches, and other staff who had been waiting on the sidelines rushed into the stadium to celebrate the victory together.
The Belgian fans in the stands kept cheering, shouting the names of every player, unwilling to leave for a long time.
Degan held his hands high, surrounded by his teammates like a king, and enjoyed the cheers of the fans. At this time, no Belgian player would feel jealous. Everything Degan got now is taken for granted.
Three goals!
It took only one game for Degan to raise his ranking to the second place in the current European Cup scorer list. There is only Villa in front of him.
Just before, people were still discussing that Villa would become the top scorer of this European Cup, but now Degan told everyone, as long as it is about the ranking list of goals, before he speaks, anyone None have a say.
The Belgians were cheering and celebrating, the Germans were dejected.
After the game, a sad Ballack didn't show up in the mixed zone at all, and went straight to the bus. Hitzelsberg became the plenipotentiary representative of their tragic generation.
Regarding the result of 2:4, Frings actually expressed no regrets. He said: "This is a big gift from us to the opponent. There are too many chances, and then our midfielder has to turn the center to defense, and the support for the striker is correspondingly reduced. The more we play, the more passive we become, how can we not lose?"
At the press conference after the game, Loew said at the beginning: "I tried my best!"
Indeed, although Loew will definitely face a lot of criticism after being eliminated, he really tried his best in this game. The German team's loss was not a matter of luck, but of strength. To be precise, the Germans Lack of a super striker like Degan.
At the last moment of the game, Loew replaced Podolski with Gomez. The German team transformed into a double striker and played the last card. The purpose is to use Gomez's height of 191cm to strengthen the impact on the Belgian defense. , to save the defeat.
But it is a pity that although Loew's wishful thinking was sound, Gomez was too disappointing. The Bundesliga silver boot last season handed in a blank paper in the ten minutes he played, zero shots and zero passes. Ball, for nothing.
Gomez's performance is so pale. Of course, there were tactical problems in Germany that had lost their fighting spirit at the time and did not cross with all their strength to give full play to Gomez's header advantage, but more importantly, Gomez's own state was too sluggish. .
In fact, it is not the first time that Gomez has disappeared in this European Cup. In the three group matches, Gomez, as the starting striker of the German team, not only failed to score a goal, but also frequently wasted opportunities and missed shots in the small penalty area many times.
Especially in the third match against Austria in the group stage, Gomez kicked the ball one meter high in front of the goal, making it hard to imagine how he did it.
Gomez's downturn not only destroyed Germany's offense, but also affected the performance of other German players. Therefore, after entering the knockout round, Loew could only put him on the bench.
Before the knockout round, a British media selected the "Top Ten Parallel Importers" of this European Cup, and Gomez was on the list. The British described the German's star of hope as always allowing the German tanks to "10 men", and his only contribution was to clear the opponent in front of the goal.
Such a description is harsh, but Gomez has no way to fight back, and his performance is indeed unjustifiable. This game was originally an opportunity for Gomez to prove himself again, but he used the weakest performance to nail his current European Cup in the memory of shame.
Although the German star Mateus excused Gomez: "Gomez's problem is psychological. He is still too young and inexperienced."
But in any case, this cannot change the reality that Gomez has held back Germany. You must know that in the entire European Cup, Gomez did not score a single goal, and even shot very few shots within the goal range. Unbelievable for a top striker.
Of course, Gomez is not the only center forward in Germany's sluggish performance. He is accompanied by Kuranyi, who has not even threatened the opponent's goalkeeper in this European Cup.
Such a pair of striker partners is simply a waste of precious places in the competition. Fortunately, the performance of the other two German forwards Podolski and Klose is quite stable, so the German chariot can stumble into the knockout round. There is no way to make up for the weakness of the center forward in this game against Belgium.
If you look at the history, you will find that the German team has achieved good results in the World Series, almost all of which are inseparable from the performance of super forwards. In the 1970s, Gerd Muller made great contributions to Germany's winning of the World and European Cup championships; Rummenigge was in the 1980 European Cup championship; in the 1990s, Klinsmann and Bierjo The two bombers of the husband and wife supported the German striker successively. It can be said that it is under the leadership of an excellent center that Germany can continue to move from victory to victory.
Although Klose and Podolski performed well in this European Cup, the Germans will still feel ashamed, because Klose and Podolski are actually Polish, that is to say, pure German strikers How could such a Germany, which failed to score a goal for the German team and relied on "foreigners" to destroy the city for itself, regain its past glory.
The only thing that makes the Germans look forward to is that although Gomez failed in his debut at this European Cup, he is still young after all, he is not yet 23 years old, and his future is still bright. And although Gomez also has Spanish ancestry, he was born in Germany after all. Compared with Klose and Podolski, Gomez is much more "German".
There is still hope for Germany's future, but for some people, this is the last time they will participate in an international competition wearing the German team jersey, such as the 38-year-old Lehmann, who was once the super goalkeeper of the German team, even the Lion King Kahn was squeezed to the bench by him, but in today's game, he was pierced by the Belgian four times in a row through the handle of the goal. After the game, Lehmann expressed his disappointment: "I am very disappointed with the final result. It's going to be a dull ache for days, months, and years to come."
For Lehmann, this is his last major competition, and perhaps his last appearance for Germany: "This will definitely be my last European Championship. Not being able to reach the semi-finals is unbearable for me."
Lehmann and Kahn have been competing to become the number one goalkeeper of the German team for many years. Lehmann finally got the appreciation of the former head coach Klinsmann in the 2006 World Cup and became the number one goalkeeper of the German team, helping the German team win the third place. It was in the penalty shootout between the German team and the Argentine team in the quarter-finals that he made great contributions to the German team's victory.
Kahn withdrew from the national team after the World Cup, and Lehmann's position was further consolidated, but this time, he failed to lead the German team further.
The championship seems to have become an unbearable burden for the Germans.
In this game, apart from Lehmann, there is another person who may be even more disappointed. The German team captain Ballack, who played with an injury, left a deep impression on fans all over the world.
The German tough guy fought bravely until the last moment even though his right brow bone was cracked during the game and he was bleeding profusely. When the final whistle blew, Ballack stood still and looked up at the sky, which was very touching. As the captain of the favorite to win the championship before the game, and as a fighter with high hopes from the Germans, Ballack is destined to become the champion of this European Championship. Tragic hero.
Ballack was injured. It happened in the 76th minute of the second half. When Ballack was fighting for a header with Kompany, he bruised his right brow bone, and blood flowed all over his face.
The referee stopped the game in time, and Ballack went to the sidelines for emergency treatment, and returned to the court after only three minutes. As the bleeding did not stop, two minutes later, Ballack was forced to go to the sidelines for treatment. After two treatments, the tough guy is back on the field. Ballack almost tried his best, but unfortunately, the injury clearly prevented him from going all out.
The final whistle sounded, facing the score of 2:4, the German captain had to look up to the sky and sigh.
The fate of Ballack and the championship is still going on, and this time, he is farther away from the championship, he even fell at the gate of the semi-finals, did not get a chance to compete, why did he not win the championship?
After the game, the serious Ballack did not answer this question directly: "I am sorry that I did not win the championship, but each of us did our best, and the German team has done its best."
Regarding the loss, German coach Joachim Loew refused to analyze the reasons for Germany's defeat at the post-match press conference, but instead praised the Belgian team for their excellent skills and believed that they should win.
"The Belgian team is very skilled. They created more chances than us in the game. The victory should be theirs. I will not analyze the game. I think it will take a few more days, wait for the game to be farther away, and review it when everyone calms down." , it will be better than the current analysis, and everyone is in a mess now."
Although Loew seemed anxious during the game, in the post-match press conference, he had regained his composure: "Of course at the end of the game we were disappointed that we didn't make it to the semi-finals, but in general, I have great respect for the whole team. We are still satisfied with our performance during the competition. We enjoyed the game together. The whole team has always been full of fighting spirit. Although we lost today and we admit defeat, this is the motivation that motivates us to continue to struggle and improve. Our next goal is Get a ticket to the World Cup."
Loew also admitted that through this European Championship, we can see where the German team needs to improve: "We really need to improve further, because we can't always play at the level we should. Our opponents have been very stable in this game. , from the beginning to the end, they maintained a high level, which is why they won. The Belgian team had more chances than us today, especially in the first half, especially Degan. There is only one sentence in his evaluation, he is phenomenal!"
On the Belgian side, Antiiennis appeared at the press conference with Degan. For the victory, Antiiennis was very excited: "Yes! We did it, all of this is unbelievable, but when the game After it was over, I took it for granted again, my players fought hard on the pitch, they deserved this victory, for my opponents, I can only say that Germany is a great team, but today they played It wasn't very good, especially in the first half, they didn't play their style at all, although in the second half, they recovered two goals, but it was too late, I want to thank my players, they played for everyone who loves Belgian football Man, dedicated a great game, of course, I should thank Rhodes, he brought the victory, three goals, I think he is great now!"
Degan was a little embarrassed to be praised so much by Antiiennis: "Yes! The game was very exciting. We achieved a great victory, but the victory is not a matter of one person. All our players played very well today. For example, Fellaini, he completely controlled Schweinsteiger, so that the German team could not form a more threatening attack. This is the key to our victory. Of course I am happy to be able to complete the hat-trick, but I am even more happy The most important thing is that the team has advanced, I think now no one will think that we are here to dawdle in the European Cup, next, we will continue to move forward until the end!"
In the semi-finals, Belgium will face Turkey, which is short of major generals. Although Turkey defeated Belgium in the group stage, Belgium lacked the absolute core of Digan at that time.
Now that the two teams meet in the semi-finals, Turkey has only five or six substitutes before the game due to injuries and suspensions. Facing the strong and powerful Belgium, I am afraid that they will be in bad luck.
The German European Cup is over. After the game, some German media even pessimistically stated that a dynasty has been completely destroyed. As the winner of the European Cup three times, before the start of the competition, the German is unanimously optimistic about the championship. , but in the end the Germans could only end their European Cup trip in 2008 with an embarrassing result of the quarter-finals.
The Germans, representing the old forces, fell, while Belgium, representing the emerging forces, took the opportunity to rise. The alternation of the old and the new does not only happen in one team, but also in the world of European football. A renewed battle.
No one dares to judge how long Belgium can go with Degan. As the Belgian media said, the Belgian team with Degan has unlimited possibilities.
Perhaps before the game, people would scoff and still hope that the Germans would kill Belgium and extinguish the arrogance of the Belgians, but now, looking at Degan's wonderful performance, perhaps only the championship is their only goal.