The sixth professional football player who started with Manchester United

Chapter 71 Fighting Croatia 2
On the afternoon of March 3, the Croatian team arrived at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Wales will face a life-and-death battle with Croatia here today.

The two sides are currently only one point apart in the standings. If Wales can continue the state of the last time the two sides met in this game and defeat Croatia again, they will completely take the initiative in their own hands, and even win. Opportunity to compete for first place in the group.

But if they lose to Croatia, everyone knows what it means to Wales. At that time, the 4-point gap will be an insurmountable gap for Wales.

And this game is also crucial for Croatia. You must know that before the start of the qualifiers, in the eyes of the Croatians, they did not regard Wales as their opponent. In their eyes, they were the only one in this group. Our opponent is Belgium, but who would have known that after five rounds of competition, not only was there a big gap between ourselves and Belgium, but now we are not even qualified to qualify directly as the first in the group, and we even have a few places to participate in the play-offs as the second place. Unstable.

After arriving at Cardiff Stadium, Croatia head coach Stimach also said in an interview with reporters that this will be a game that determines the fate of both sides.

"It's going to be a very, very difficult game and a very, very important game for both teams. I have to admit that we have overlooked our opponents in the previous games, so this is the last time we will play against each other. The reason for losing the game when we met, but I believe that after that game, my team members and I will not make the same mistakes again. I have studied the opponent seriously, and I believe we will definitely win this game of."

Soon the time came to [-]:[-] in the afternoon, and the starting players of both sides walked out of the tunnel.

The tens of thousands of Welsh fans present also gave the team huge cheers and applause to support the team.

Koeman formed a 4222 formation in this game, goalkeeper Myhill, Gunter, Ricketts, Ashley Williams, Ben Davis on the back line, Collison and Dabao in the midfield. The defensive midfielders, the two full-backs are Bell on the left, Ramsey on the right, and Bellamy and Morrison on the forwards.

This lineup is basically the strongest lineup in Wales right now.

Although goalkeeper Myhill is of American nationality, he represents Wales and currently plays for West Bromwich Albion.

Gunter, Ashley, and Ben Davies on the backline all played for Premier League teams, especially Ashley and Ben Davies were teammates with Dabao in Swansea, while Gunter played for the Premier League team. reading.

Not to mention the midfielder, they are basically playing in the top league.

So it's no wonder that Stimarch said that he underestimated Wales before. The most important thing is that the tacit understanding between the Welsh players is very high.

On the Croatian side today, Stimac formed a 442 parallel formation. The goalkeeper is Pletikosa, and the back line is Simunić, Srna, Lovren, and Korluka. Kranjčar, Rakitic, Modric and Badelli in the midfield, Petric and Mandzukic in the forward line

In this Croatian starting lineup, the biggest star is Modric who plays for Real Madrid.

In addition, Mandzukic, who is currently playing for Bayern, is also in very good form at the club this season. Koeman also studied his opponents carefully before. Mandzukic has scored 11 goals at Bayern so far this season. There is also Rakitic who plays for Sevilla.

It is worth mentioning that the starting lineups of both sides, Croatia players are distributed in the five major European leagues, while Wales players are mostly playing in England.

After guessing the side hosted by the referee, the starting players of both sides quickly stood in their positions and waited for the start of the game.

At this time, the atmosphere at the scene has almost reached its peak with the cheers and shouts of tens of thousands of Welsh fans.

When Dabao shook hands with the opponent just now, he could also feel the fighting spirit in Modric's eyes. No one expected that he would encounter the opponent again on the court so soon, and it would be another life-and-death battle.

From the club to the national team, I have to say that the arrangement of fate is really wonderful.

Soon after checking the goal nets of both sides, the referee also came near the center circle. After checking the time, the referee blew the whistle to start the game.

With the whistle blowing, Wales, who got the kick-off, directly knocked the ball back to Dabao behind.

The game officially begins.

What Stimach never expected was that after the start, Wales did not try to solidly defend and test as he expected, but directly increased the rhythm of the game.

Facts have proved that this really caught Croatia by surprise.

Obviously, the Croatian side did not expect the opponent to start the attack at all.

In the 3rd minute of the game, after Dabao received a cross pass from Bell, he suddenly made a powerful move and accelerated to avoid Rakitic's press. Then he caught up with the football and did not hand it over immediately. Instead, he directly dribbled the ball across the center line. When Modric and Rakitic, who was chasing him, were about to form a double-team, a cross-field ground ball was suddenly sent to Collison's feet. , Collison adjusted after catching the ball and sent the ball in front of Dabao again, giving Dabao enough time to accelerate.

This moment of acceleration and amazing explosive power allowed Dabao to get rid of Modric's follow-up defense, and then directly followed the rolling trend of the football and sent a long pass.

The football was sent to the feet of Bell, who had formed an in-cut on the left, as if precision guidance had been installed.

Bell directly accelerated the ball and passed his opponent, instantly forming a one-on-one shot.

The next thing to do is to face the goalkeeper directly and shoot into the far corner. The football bypasses the goalkeeper and rolls into the goal.

1-0, the game had just started. None of the Welsh fans in the stands expected happiness to come so quickly. Everyone was prepared for what would be a hard battle.

After scoring the goal, Bell was even stunned for a moment. It wasn't until he heard the referee's whistle indicating that the goal was valid that he realized it and ran to the stands crazily.

Koeman on the sidelines kept grabbing his hair, as if he couldn't believe that the team took the lead so quickly.

On the other side, Stimach also couldn't believe what was happening in front of him.

(End of this chapter)