football's number one madman

Chapter 589 The Final Group Match

Written wrong yesterday, Belgium was ranked No. 2 in the world, second only to Germany.
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"We are meeting to study Belgium's tactics, do you guys have any suggestions?"

When Southgate was analyzing the characteristics of the next opponent to the players, Lee Polo sent a message in the "Chelsea player chat group".

Soon two people responded to him.

Courtois: "Belgian goalkeepers are invincible!"

Hazard: "Belgium's number 10 is second in the world!"

Cahill, who secretly glanced at the phone, almost laughed out loud.

Southgate pretended not to see their small movements, and just coughed:
"This game is about the competition for the top spot in the group, and we should pay more attention to it."

"The previous two opponents, Tunisia and Panama, are just appetizers and desserts. Belgium is our first strong opponent in this World Cup. If we don't perform well, the previous two big victories will only become a joke!"

He spoke seriously, and the players couldn't help but straighten their backs. Lee Polo and Cahill also quietly put away their phones.

Southgate just nodded:

"A more realistic problem is that, judging from the current situation of each group, if we score all three points, we will enter the upper half of the knockout round as the number one in the group.

The upper half of the area may become a death area full of powerful enemies. Germany, Brazil, Spain, and France will all be waiting for us here.

On the contrary, the opponents in the lower half are relatively weak, so I would like to hear your opinions. "

Li Poluo raised his eyebrows:

[Is this South Gate out of his mind? 】

[Just a few seconds ago, we said that we should attach great importance to it and go all out, but now we want to lose the ball and enter the second half? 】

Before he criticized the head coach's capitulationism and utilitarianism, other teammates came forward.

The first to express his opinion was the team captain Henderson:
"With all due respect, coach, with our current strength and morale, this issue should not be considered at all."

Vice-captain Cahill, English dancer Lingard, happy gang leader Sterling and others all expressed their support:

"We just want to fight a bloody way in the dead half!"

"We are not afraid of France, Brazil, Germany!"

"We want to punch Spain, kick Germany, and step on the past two champions to win the championship!"

"It's a pity that there is no Italy, the champion in 2006, otherwise we can win three consecutive lore!"

Lee Polo even shrugged:

"Coach, if you want a rotation for this game, I can support it.

But if you want to go to the lower half to bully the weak, I will be the first to say no! "

Southgate's mouth twitched.

He regretted it so much!
[If I knew this earlier, what a fart to discuss it! 】

[Just push it all the way, isn't it over? 】
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While England and Belgium are actively preparing for the battle, the duels in other groups have already started.

In Group A, which took the lead, Egypt lost 1:2 to Saudi Arabia. Although Salah scored consecutive games, he was unable to prevent the team from losing three games in a row.

The host, Russia, suffered its first defeat since the start of the game. It was beaten by Uruguay with a score of 0:3. As the second place in the group, it entered the relatively weak lower half...

In terms of the previous two rounds of performances, it is also difficult to determine whether they did it on purpose.

Group B was originally strong and weak, but in the first two rounds, Spain and Portugal each had 4 points, while Iran had 3 points. Anyone can advance.

Portugal once led Iran 1-0, but Ronaldo then paid tribute to Messi and missed a penalty kick, which missed an excellent opportunity to expand the score. Iran seized the opportunity of the opponent's morale drop and tenaciously equalized the score, making the situation very tense. severe.

Fortunately, Portugal was united as one, and finally held the tie, and joined forces with Spain, which defeated Morocco, to qualify.

The situation in Group C has long been clear. France and Denmark played a 0-0 tacit match in the third round, and the European duo advanced side by side.

Group D has attracted much attention because of the presence of Argentina and Messi.

Croatia won all three games and advanced early, while Argentina, which had only one point in the first two rounds, had to be reduced to a showdown with Nigeria.

Faced with the desperate situation of being eliminated if he does not win, Messi finally stepped forward and scored the first goal in the 14th minute, and finally scored his first goal in this World Cup...

But Nigeria, unwilling to be eliminated, quickly regrouped. Lee Polo's good teammate Moses created a penalty kick in the 6th minute of the second half and scored the penalty himself. The two sides returned to the same starting line...

The whole of Argentina became impatient, and Messi even got a yellow card because of this, but in front of Nigeria, which has Moses, Iwobi, Mikel, Ndidi, Ighalo and other players, the Pampas Eagles did not have much Method.

It was not until the 86th minute that Argentine central defender Rojo took advantage of a set-piece opportunity to score with a header, killing the last suspense and ensuring that Argentina entered the knockout stage.

The situation in Group E is also very clear, with Brazil and Switzerland advancing without any suspense.

The biggest surprise broke out in Group F. Sweden and Mexico both advanced. Germany, the last champion and world No. 2, was beaten 0:[-] by the Korean team that had already been eliminated in advance!
You know, this South Korean team was kicked 15:0 by the British just three weeks ago!

After this battle, the German team was ashamed!
Because of their hip-pull performance, tens of thousands of people around the world took to the rooftops!

The South Korean team was unanimously believed that they were honored to lose!

Although Group H is a group of rookies pecking each other, the suspense did not end until the last moment.

Colombia beat Senegal 1-0 and qualified with 6 points.

Japan, which previously shared the top spot with Senegal, lost to Poland, which was at the bottom of the group.

Then Japan, which had the same score of 4 points, began to calculate small points with Senegal.

两支球队都是1胜1平1负，都是进4球丢4球净胜球为0，直接交手的战绩则是2:2平！
FIFA had to use the last rule to compare the number of red and yellow cards!
As a result, Japan got 4 yellow cards in three rounds, while Senegal got 6.Relying on the advantages of fair play points, the Japanese team made a thrilling advance...

Somewhat strangely, Group H was obviously the last group, but their game was four hours earlier than Group G.

So while England was still warming up, the other teams in the upper and lower halves had already taken their seats.

Top half: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Japan, Portugal, Mexico
Bottom half: Russia, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Colombia, Croatia

Just as Southgate analyzed, the risks in the upper and lower halves are very different.

Among the 7 teams in the upper half, except for Japan and Mexico, which are less powerful, the others are all top 10 top players in the world!
Among the 7 teams in the lower half, Spain is considered the top team...

But both Southgate and the players in England agreed in the pre-match interviews:
"The World Cup is a stage for the strong, and we are eager to fight with stronger opponents!"

(End of this chapter)