Football Feast, Starting From the Acquisition of European Clubs - Chapter 491

Chapter 491 The fate of the second child is too miserable

As in the previous life, in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Argentina was in Group D with Croatia, Nigeria and Iceland.

On June 16, Argentina played against Iceland in its first game.

With Di Maria’s goal, Argentina beat Iceland 1-0.

While getting off to a good start, Chen Ran also got a “Level One Chicken Blood Card” from the system.

In another match in the same group, Croatia defeated Nigeria 2:0, beating Argentina to rank first in the group with a goal difference advantage.

Five days later, on June 22, Argentina ushered in the strongest opponent in this group, Croatia led by Modric.

Modric is 33 years old this year, but because he has maintained a very good competitive state, he is an indispensable member of both the Crystal Palace club and the Croatian national team.

Croatia this year can be said to be strong and strong. In their previous life, they reached the finals of this World Cup, and finally lost to France and finished second.

In the Croatian team, in addition to Modric, there are many good players such as Rakitic, Perisic, Mandzukic, Brozovic, Lovren, and Joel Luka.

Chen Ran attached great importance to this opponent. He regards Croatia as a touchstone, as the World Cup runner-up in his previous life, it can just be used to test the quality of the current Argentine team.

For this reason, Chen Ran adjusted the starting lineup of the Argentine team. He put the center Higuain who started against Iceland on the bench and played defensive counterattack wholeheartedly.

Forward Aguero

Messi

Left midfielder Di Maria, central midfielder DePaul, central midfielder Paredes, right midfielder McAllister

Left back Acuna, center back Otamendi, center back Mascherano, right back Molina

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez

On the Croatian side, facing the famous champion coach Chen Ran, the head coach Dalic naturally formed the strongest lineup, ready to have a good fight with Chen Ran.

Center Mandzukic

Left midfielder Perisic, midfielder Modric, right midfielder Rebic

The midfielder Brozovic, the midfielder Rakitic

Left back Strinic, center back Lovren, center back Joel Luka, right back Vrsaljko

Goalkeeper Subasic

“Boss, long time no see, you are still so handsome.”

Before the game started, Modric came to Argentina to say hello to Chen Ran.

“Hahahaha, little Luca, your skills are getting better and better now.”

“Boss, I’m already 33 years old this year, you still call me Little Luca?”

Looking at Messi, Mascherano and others who were giggling aside, Modric protested to Chen Ran helplessly.

“Haha, no matter how old you are, you are still the ignorant boy I brought to the Crystal Palace from Croatia.”

Off the field are friends, we can talk and laugh together. But when it comes to the field, neither Modric nor Messi and Mascherano have any intention of letting go.

Since the Argentine team led by Chen Ran is now focusing on defensive counterattack tactics, Croatia can easily take the initiative on the field.

However, the three-person counterattack team composed of Messi, Aguero and Di Maria also posed a great threat to Croatia’s defense, forcing Dalic to leave enough manpower to prevent Argentina’s counterattack.

In this way, the scruples in Croatia did not dare to attack with all their strength, so that the pressure on Argentina’s defense was not very great.

Led by two veteran players, Javier Mascherano and Otamendi, a group of young Argentines managed to hold off Croatia’s attack by running and scrambling with all their might.

Until the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half, the score remained at 0:0 without any change.

“I didn’t expect that Chen Ran’s reformation of Argentina would be successful, and the defensive counterattack would be played well.”

“However, there are still loopholes in Argentina’s tactical play. Mascherano is only 174 cm tall, and Otamendi is only 183 cm tall. Such a combination of central defenders has worrying air defense capabilities.”

“It’s okay, I checked, and the central defenders on the Argentine bench are all good in height. There are 185cm and 188cm, which are enough for most teams.”

“The guys you mentioned are all in their early twenties. This is the World Cup. Do you dare to play with central defenders in their early twenties? If they have no problem with their ability, then Chen Ran will not be able to take Mascherano out of the game.” The defensive midfielder withdraws to play as a central defender.”

“What the upstairs said makes sense. It seems that the lack of height is indeed a big loophole in this Argentine defense.”

“Hahahaha, when Chen Ran was coaching Belgium, he used high-altitude bombing tactics crazily because of the tall players in the team. I want to see what the result will be if this Argentine team meets Belgium.”

“Holy crap, that’s going to be a lot of fun!”

During the halftime break, Chen Ran, who was very satisfied with the performance of the Argentine team in the first half, did not make any substitution adjustments except for giving the players blood as usual.

On the Croatian side, the head coach Dalic was very entangled.

Reason told him that facing a strong team like Argentina, it is already a good result for Croatia to achieve a draw.

But the situation on the court where Croatia took the initiative in the game made him a little unwilling to just get one point.

After hesitating for a long time, at the end of the intermission, Dalic finally made up his mind to take a gamble.

Subsequently, he replaced the defensive midfielder Brozovic with Kovacic, who has a better offensive ability.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, I was overjoyed when I saw Chen Ran, who had been substituted and adjusted by Croatia.

After replacing Brozovic, Croatia does not have a pure defensive midfielder on the field, which is more beneficial for Messi and Di Maria to play defensive counterattacks.

As Chen Ran expected, after Kovacic came on the field, he frequently rushed to the frontcourt to participate in the offense, leaving the defensive task of the Croatian midfielder to Rakitic alone.

But Rakitic himself is not a full-time defensive midfielder, and he can’t take care of it alone.

When the game progressed to the 62nd minute, the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez held Mandzukic’s header firmly in his arms, then quickly got up, and threw the ball with a strong hand. to midfield.

At this time, Messi had already retreated to the center circle, and before Rakitic kicked out to destroy it, he used the instep of his right foot to directly transfer the ball to Di Maria on the left.

Di Maria first used a personal ball to pass, passed Croatia’s right forward Rebic, and then ran all the way along the left line.

Seeing Rebic pass the barrier in front of him, Croatian right back Vrsaljko rushed up to intercept Di Maria.

Di Maria did not choose to continue to dribble this time, but pushed with the arch of his left foot, and passed the ball to Aguero who was advancing at high speed with a through ball.

Aguero received the ball with the opportunity, but at this time, Croatia’s central defender Joel Luka has been closely following him, and firmly stuck the inside line, not giving Aguero a chance to hit the goal.

Seeing that the shooting angle is getting smaller and smaller, Aguero simply gave up the idea of ​​​​cutting in and directly hit the goal with his left foot at a small angle.

“boom!”

The shot was of high quality and the ball flew fast and fast to the close corner of the Croatian goal.

However, since Joel Luka is not out of position, Aguero has very few shot angles to choose from.

Croatia’s goalkeeper Subasic has moved to the near post ahead of time, directly blocking Aguero’s shot.

Fortunately, Aguero’s shot was powerful enough. Subasic didn’t dare to hold the ball directly, and the ball didn’t bounce off the baseline, but bounced to the middle of the penalty area.

Suddenly, a small figure jumped out from behind.

It’s Messi!

I saw him lightly poke with the toe of his right foot, grabbing the ball towards the Croatian goal before another Croatian central defender Lovren made a clearance.

At this time, Subasic was still at the near post and had no time to make a second save, so he could only watch the ball roll into the unguarded goal.

“GOAL!!!”

With Messi’s astute supplementary shot, Argentina leads Croatia 1:0.

“Chen Ran is really awesome! Now this Argentina team, he has trained them to play defensively and counterattack smoothly.”

“The goalkeeper throws the ball vigorously to launch a counterattack. Messi retreats to score the ball. Di Maria dribbles the ball and passes through. Aguero hits the goal from a small angle. Messi catches up with the supplementary shot and scores. The whole counterattack has been going forward, no Any extra movements may add up to ten seconds.”

“It is true. In the past, who would have imagined that Argentina would play such a beautiful defensive counterattack?”

“Croatia will definitely counterattack crazily next, it depends on whether Argentina’s defense line can hold it.”

As judged by the fans, Dalic couldn’t sit still when he saw that Argentina had counterattacked successfully.

The goal he set for himself is to take at least one point from Argentina. Losing is definitely not the result he wants to see.

Soon, under the command of Dalic, Croatia aggressively pressed the attack. Even the two full-backs who stayed in the backcourt in order to curb Argentina’s counterattack before began to frequently insert assists.

However, this is exactly what Chen Ran hoped to see.

As Croatia aggressively presses the offense, the loopholes in the defense are getting bigger and bigger.

In the next game, Di Maria and Aguero also took advantage of counterattack opportunities to score a goal each.

As for Croatia, Mandzukic scored a face-saving goal only after Chen Ran began to replace with young players to increase his game experience.

In the end, with the goals of Messi, Di Maria and Aguero, Argentina easily won Croatia 3:1, and Chen Ran also got a “Level 1 Recovery Card” from the system.

In another game in the same group, Nigeria defeated Iceland 2:0.

As a result, Argentina ranked first with six points after winning both games, while Croatia and Nigeria both scored three points, both of which still have the hope of qualifying for the group stage.

Moreover, because the rules of the World Cup are when the points are the same, first look at the goal difference and the number of goals scored, so Argentina still has the possibility of being eliminated.

Four days later, on June 27, Argentina ushered in the last game of the group stage. As long as they don’t lose to Nigeria by more than three goals, they can guarantee the right to qualify for the group.

For this game, Chen Ran of course continued to adopt defensive and counterattack tactics. In order not to have an oolong incident of overturning the ship in the gutter, he still dispatched the entire main lineup.

On the Nigerian side, they have no way out.

In this game, they not only need to beat Argentina, but also get as many goal differences as possible, so that they can hope to qualify for the group stage.

Obviously, such a Nigerian team eager to attack is just right for Argentina’s defensive counterattack tactics.

When the referee blew the whistle at the end of the first half, Di Maria and Aguero had already scored goals through counterattacks on Argentina’s side. Argentina led Nigeria 2:0.

African teams have a characteristic, that is, no one can stop them from playing crazy. But once in adversity, it is easy to be defeated like a mountain.

In the case of 0:2 behind, Nigeria needs to score at least five goals to get the right to qualify for the group.

Facing a strong team like Argentina, this near-impossible task suddenly caused the morale of the Nigerian players to plummet.

Seeing this situation, Chen Ran also replaced the main players one after another to save his energy for the next knockout round.

In the end, with the goals of Di Maria, Aguero and Dybala who came off the bench later, Argentina beat Nigeria 3-0.

In this way, Argentina successfully advanced to the top sixteen with a beautiful three-game winning streak. At the same time, Chen Ran also got a “Level 1 Sight Card” from the system.

In another match in the same group, Croatia defeated Iceland 2:1 and won another qualifying place as the second place in the group.

Except for Chen Ran, no one knows how big the difference is between the first and the second.

In the previous life, Croatia beat Argentina to rank first in the group, so they avoided the subsequent champion France and reached the final all the way.

Argentina, who was not up to date, had to fight the French team in the quarter-finals.

Although they and the French team dedicated one of the most exciting matches of the 2018 World Cup, the score of 3:4 could not conceal the fact that they were eliminated and went home just after reaching the top 16.

Now, because Argentina has grabbed the first place in Group D, their opponent in the quarter-finals has become the second Denmark in Group C.

Croatia has to face the strong opponent of the French team.

In this regard, Chen Ran can only say sorry to Modric in his heart. I am afraid that his World Cup runner-up medal will be lost by himself.

Of course, Chen Ran is also very much looking forward to a miracle in Croatia.

If they can get rid of the French team in advance, then the difficulty for Argentina to compete for the World Cup championship will be greatly reduced.

At this moment, Chen Ran felt that he was a die-hard Croatian fan for 20 years!

(end of this chapter)