Football: The strongest post-zero generation

The England team arrived in the coastal city of Rijeka in Croatia. The two teams will have a direct confrontation in the second round of the A-level fourth group. The match venue is Rujevica, the home ground of Rijeka Football Club in this city. The stadium can accommodate 12,124 fans and is the most common small professional football stadium in Croatia.

What’s interesting is that Rijeka Football Club was founded in Italy in 1925. At that time, it was called Fermanaghspor and it belonged to the Italian second-tier league team. Until 1942, the club moved from Italy to Yugoslavia, and its name was changed from Fermanaghspor. The name was changed to Kvanja, and in 1954 it was renamed Rijeka Football Club.

Closer to home, small stadiums have the advantages of small stadiums. The England team, which is good at using the width of the field, is likely to be restricted in the game at Rujevica Stadium. It has a great advantage to launch a defensive counterattack against Croatia at home, but objective factors have a negative impact on the two teams. The team will have a lot of impact.

Due to the illegal signs in Croatia's previous home games in France's European Cup qualifiers, UEFA punished Croatia by clearing the stadium twice at home, which means that home and away fans are unable to go to the Rujevica Stadium to watch the game.

If we have to talk about who has the greatest impact, it is naturally Croatia at home. The lack of home fans cheering on the sidelines will affect the performance of the players to some extent. However, as the saying goes, there are policies and countermeasures, and the Rujevica Stadium is concave. The stadium is surrounded by mountains, making it easy for local Croatian fans to watch the game from a distance.

When necessary, they can still erupt into loud and violent shouts like a tsunami to support the home team.

The focus of the English media is not only the opponent Croatia, but also the former Manchester City player Sancho who has made a prosperous career in Dortmund in the Bundesliga. He was selected into Southgate's new national team squad for his outstanding performance in the Bundesliga. Also came to Rijeka, Croatia with the team.

If Sancho can get a chance to play, he will become the second player born in the 2000s to play in England's history, and become the first national team in world football to field two players born in the 2000s. By then... he will definitely make a great story. .

Time flies. On the day of England's away game against Croatia, the Rujevica Stadium seemed a little deserted due to clearance, even though there were loud cheers from the surrounding hills from time to time.

Li Qing and the England team members all felt a little uncomfortable. They were used to the fanatical atmosphere of the game, but now they suddenly came to an empty professional football stadium, which was somewhat unaccustomed.

After a while, the Croatian players also came to the court to warm up. They felt exactly like the English players. However, since they lost 0:6 to Spain in the first round as a guest, they came to the home court to face England this time, trying hard to win a victory.

The UEFA Nations League adopts a relegation system. Croatia is originally the weakest team in the fourth group of Class A and is the team most likely to be relegated to Class B. If it cannot score enough points at home, it is very likely that it will be relegated to Class B after four rounds. Got demoted.

It is 8:45 pm local time in Croatia, which is 2:45 am in the capital city. It is a suitable time period to watch the Champions League game, although this time is not suitable for the schedule of Chinese fans, in front of the TV or computer monitor There are still tens of millions of fans waiting for the game to start.

"Beep~"

With the whistle of the referee Bruchy on duty, the second round of the 2018-2019 UEFA Nations League A-Level Group 4 officially started.

England, which had a kick-off advantage, took the lead in attacking. China Channel 5 commentator He Wei gave the iconic opening remarks and announced the starting lineups of both sides to the fans in front of the TV.

The official formation given by the home team Croatia is 4231. The goalkeeper is Livakovic, the defenders Pivaric, Vida, Lovren and Jedevai, the double midfielder Rakitic partners with Modric, and the three forwards Perisic, Kovacic and Kramaric, with Rebic at the front.

The visiting team England's formation has changed a lot compared to the World Cup. It has changed from the original three-centre-back system to the current four-back system, which is 433. Goalkeeper Pickford, defenders Chilwell, Maguire, Stones and Arnold, midfielders Henderson, Dier and Barkley, forwards Sterling, Harry Kane and Li Qing.

England is the World Cup champion in Russia, and the value of its players has increased significantly. In addition, the premium of England's players is very high, and their total value is higher than that of Croatia. Of course, the result of the football match cannot be determined based on the value, but based on the differences between the players of both sides. Ten minutes of competition determines the winner.

The home team Croatia's players are not as valuable as England's, but their overall strength is not much different. In addition, football is a team sport, and Croatia is a team with a very good overall performance. This is why it qualified for the World Cup with a play-off spot. The fundamental reason why Croatia can finally advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup.

England's offensive was overwhelming, and Croatia's defense was very good. Even if there was no purely defensive midfielder in the midfield, they could still complete the defense against England players with their overall tacit cooperation.

Li Qing is the most threatening English player and has received the most defensive attention. However, Li Qing had no intention of exerting force at the beginning of the game. He mainly drove England's overall offensive rhythm through running and transition.

Modric and Rakitic play for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. They are famous metronomes and rhythm masters in world football. However, in the first fifteen minutes of the game, they were not as good as Li Qing. He retreated to the midfield to organize the game. The offense is very distinctive and relaxed, which makes the defending Croatian players complain endlessly.

The small stadium not only prevents England from making reasonable use of the width of the stadium, but also reduces the running distance of Croatian defensive players. However, it cannot withstand Li Qing's acceleration from time to time to test the ability of Croatian players to turn around, especially Pivaric and Li Qing who are defending Li Qing. Perisic and Modric on defense.

Less than twenty minutes into the game, Pivaric, who was mainly defending Li Qing, felt physically exhausted.

In the 18th minute, Li Qing received a pass from Henderson in the attack and changed his previous ball posture. He suddenly dribbled the ball inside. Pivaric and Perisic failed to follow, but the second reaction was very quick. However, At this moment, Li Qing, who had a wide field of vision, suddenly used the arch of his left foot to pass the football to Arnold, who was running at high speed along the right sideline.

"Oops!"

Croatia coach Dalic realized something.

Li Qing passed the ball very well, and Arnold did not need to make any adjustments. He followed the pre-game offensive routine and passed a powerful low pass while running.

Harry Kane, who ran into the small penalty area, attracted the defensive attention of Vidal and Lovren but was not on the passing route. Vidal and Lovren, who overran, saw the football rolling behind them and felt strong uneasiness.

I saw Sterling running to the right side of the penalty spot, his foot rising and falling, and the football flew quickly to the upper left corner of the goal. Goalkeeper Livakovic stood there without any reaction...

China Channel 5 commentator He Wei's voice rose an octave: "The ball has gone in! The ball has gone in! England leads the home team Croatia 1:0 in the 19th minute of the game."

The Croatian fans standing on the top of the mountain looked at the result in the binoculars and were very disappointed, even though they had thought of such a result before the game...