The Era of Emerald

PS1: This is an update on Thursday, a little bit late, I hope readers don’t pay too much attention to the update time, and I promise not to stop updating...

PS2: Let me talk about the book friend group here. The group numbers are three, seven, zero, five, four, nine, nine, one, nine. The verified answer is NTR Knight, um, that's it.

The hosts Portugal were upset by Greece in the European Cup opener, a result that really surprised many people.After all, although Portugal is not considered a top team in European football, and the lack of center forwards has been plagued by this team with top midfielders, no one can deny that there are also Carvalho and Ronaldo in the golden generation. Waiting for the new generation of players, they can still stabilize the Greek team in terms of strength.

However, in this game, although Portugal has an absolute advantage in many indicators such as the number of shots and the time of possession, Ferreira's low-level error in the 6th minute forced the hosts from the beginning of the game. Fighting under the unfavorable situation of falling behind, and the penalty kick scored by Basinas in the second half made the situation even worse!

I would like to add here that due to Zhuang Mingge's previous actions, Scolari, who was secretly dissatisfied with Ronaldo, did not let the star of hope come off the bench in this game, so the person who was forced to foul in the penalty area It became Simao, not Ronaldo in the previous life.

In this way, Greece successfully ended their embarrassing history of never winning in the finals of the competition, and successfully won three points that are extremely important to them; while Portugal suffered a defeat, they were also depressed. It became the first host team to lose in the opening game since the introduction of the group stage in the European Cup in 1980!

"Portugal actually lost to Greece in the opening game. This is really unexpected news." Looking at the newspaper reports about the game, Zhuang Mingge felt that Portugal's loss in this game was really wronged. "If Ferreira hadn't If the opponent is given the goal gift package at the beginning of the game, it will not be easy for Greece to win the game. After all, the goal set by coach Rehagel at the beginning is to play defensive counterattacks. With no lead in the score, Portugal, which is superior in technical ability, can handle Greece, which has not yet shown confidence."

For Portugal's defeat to Greece in the opening game, Zhuang Minge still regrets it.After all, this European Cup can be said to be the last chance for Portugal's golden generation of players headed by Figo to win.If they wait until the World Cup in Germany two years later, these stars will all enter the twilight period of their careers, and the hope of winning the championship will only be smaller.

Despite Portugal's shock opener defeat, no one was taking Greece, who had just won their first group stage, seriously at this point.In the eyes of the vast majority of people, the reason why Greece was able to defeat the mighty Portugal was mainly due to the host's idea of ​​underestimating the enemy, and at the same time, with the help of defensive counterattack tactics and iron-like tactical discipline, as well as the error gift package offered by Ferreira, Only then did Portugal steal three points from Portugal.When they play against Spain in the next game, these lucky guys will definitely show their true colors, and the qualifying situation in Group A will also return to the right track.

However, four days later, when Spain, another strong team in Group A, also suffered from Greece, people were surprised to find that Greece, which had achieved one win and one draw after two rounds of the group stage, had quietly defeated The initiative to qualify for the group is in their own hands!

Because at this moment, among the other three teams in the same group as Greece, although Spain also has one win and one tie and Greece is neck and neck in Group A standings, the opponent of the Matador in the final battle is their neighbor. The host of the European Cup, Portugal!

Since Portugal has achieved one win and one loss in the previous competition, while Greece faced the declining sun in the last round of the group stage, Russia, which has lost both games in this European Cup and has been confirmed to be out of the group ahead of schedule, therefore, Whether it is Spain or Portugal, if they want to ensure their qualifications for qualifying in the group, they must defeat their opponents in the final battle and take all three points.Otherwise, if the two teams deliberately played tacitly in the last round, but Greece defeated Russia, which had no fighting spirit, then Portugal would be in trouble.Conversely, if Portugal wins, then Spain will be that unlucky guy.

Faced with such a critical qualifying situation, Spain and Portugal, who had put on a good attitude before the European Cup, no longer cared about their appearance. The football associations of both sides issued an ultimatum to the teams, demanding that they must win This life and death battle!

After talking about the precarious situation of qualifying hosts, let us now take a look at the defending champion Italy.Unlike the Iberian duo who are unswervingly advancing along the rut of history, the performance of Italy led by Trapattoni in this European Cup can only be described as very different from the previous life.

Thanks to Deco and Diego Milito, two fresh blood with strong immediate combat power, Vieri's state has declined from his peak but is still at an international first-class level, and Inzaghi has not been affected by his previous life. Missing this competition due to such serious injuries, coupled with the collective selection of young players such as De Rossi and Cassano, made the Italian team under Trapattoni not as old-fashioned and old-fashioned as in the previous life.Therefore, in this European Cup, Italy, which has always had a slow start to the competition, performed quite well in the group stage.

In the first match of the group stage, Italy relied on the goals of Pirlo, Milito and Inzaghi to defeat Denmark, which was planning to defend a draw, with a 207-406 goal, making the opponent realize that they are experts in defensive counterattacks .Then, facing the Swedish team with well-known stars such as Ibrahimovic, Larsson, and Ljungberg, Italy firmly controlled the initiative on the field under the command of the dual-core midfielder Pirlo and Deco (sorry, Totti still made a famous "saliva gate" incident in the first game of the group stage), and scored a goal in the No.[-] minute and No.[-] minute respectively by Vieri and Cassano.

Therefore, although Ibrahimovic still scored the shocking scorpion tail in this game, Italy, which had already established a two-goal advantage, finally defeated the Vikings without any risk and won the game.

In this way, after the first two rounds of the group stage, Italy qualified ahead of schedule with six points from both games!As for Denmark and Sweden with the same three points, they need to decide another team that is eligible to advance to the quarter-finals in the final round of direct confrontation.