Midfielder.

Chapter 404

Liechtenstein, a small country with a territory of less than 160 square kilometers, is estimated to be smaller than the Vatican, and their combined population is just over 3.

How big is 160 square kilometers?Intuitively speaking, if you drive, you can travel across its borders in about half an hour at a speed of about [-] kilometers.

Basically, if you want to complete the feat of crossing a certain mountain country, then this is definitely the best choice, even if you are 70 years old, as long as you can ride five kilometers, you can complete the crossing.

In fact, these numbers are not enough to describe its small size. The tourism department of this country once launched a hypothetical tourism project, which is to rent out the entire country, but the cost is only [-] US dollars.

Seventy thousand!This is not a dream, but the most realistic thoughts of the cabinet members of this country.

If nothing else, this proposal will become a reality within a few years after being approved by the monarch. At that time, any guy who wants to have a god's addiction can consider visiting here.

It is estimated that speaking of it this way, even people who have never seen this country can know that it is roughly the same.

This is a country that is not even considered a big name in Europe, but such a country with a combined population of less than half of the Stadium of Light is presumptuous under the noses of the Portuguese.

The total number of people playing football in Liechtenstein may not be as large as the reserve team of the Portuguese Super League team, but they have completed a great performance under the watchful eyes of the European Cup runner-up.

2:2, that's what Portugal did against such a small country at the Stadium of Light, it wasn't the worst thing, the worst part was that they fell behind for most of the second half.

And it's not one goal behind. The zero-to-zero first half is embarrassing enough, but after the start of the second half, the Portuguese team was scored consecutively by their opponents within 10 minutes.

This made Scolari throw the drink bottle to the ground angrily on the sidelines, but the Brazilian's anger did not bring courage to the players, and even his anger disturbed the emotions of the players on the court.

Disorganized, clueless, a group of people running around the field like headless chickens, this is the real performance of the Portuguese team, those big-name stars are simply a group of idiots at the moment.

No one can stand up and organize the offense. Most of the time, the Portuguese team's offense is a mess. Almost everyone is fighting independently, and there is no smooth cooperation at all.

It's either aimlessly kicking in the midfield, or the defender often kicks the ball directly to Pauletta.

You expect Pauletta to hold the ball under the attack of two opponents?Isn't that daydreaming?

Not to mention that Pauletta is still weak, even Deco, Simao, Ronaldo and other players with relatively stable performances are all entangled by the opponent, and no one can hold the ball calmly.

Liechtenstein didn't know what kind of medicine they took. Anyway, from the first minute after their debut, this group of guys seemed to be fighting for their lives with the Portuguese team, and they fought fiercely every time.

This made the Portuguese, who was planning to win the opponent by a big score, a little unprepared, including Deco, who has always been stable, who was also a little flustered this time. He was entangled by the opponent and could only keep retreating to get the ball.

Behind Pauletta, there was no one who could step up, which made the Portuguese, who had a relatively thin offensive line, lose the initiative to attack. Deco could not press forward, and the two wings began to weaken.

Ronaldo and Simao can only rely on their technical advantages to create as many opportunities as possible on the wing.

But what big waves can be turned out by the assault of two people alone. Under the opponent's strict defense, the two crosses from the wing were all successfully cleared, and the only threat was choked by the opponent.

The counterattack of the Liechtensteiners was impressive, especially at the beginning of the second half. They even took the risk of pressing forward and scored two consecutive goals with the help of Portugal's carelessness and luck.

One is a long-range shot that directly passed through Pepe, and the other is a refraction that hit Carvalho's back directly.

With these two goals, Portugal's first choice goalkeeper Ricardo was helpless. Not only was his sight blocked when the opponent shot, but also because of such a weird refraction of the ball that made him want to cry.

It's rare to see Ricardo get angry, but in this game, this goalkeeper with a strong personality yelled loudly at his back line more than once. It can be seen that he is very dissatisfied.

When a reporter was about to interview him after the game, Ricardo threw down a hard sentence, "Being scored two goals by the opponent, I have nothing to say, I can only say that this is a bad game."

The bad thing is not only the Portuguese defenders, almost the entire team performed poorly. They were lucky to equalize the score. If it wasn't for the opponent's defenders who didn't kick in time, Simao still doesn't know if he can blow the counterattack for the team. The horn, his goal, has a lot of luck.

If it wasn't for Figo who took the lead at the last moment, and 2 minutes before the end of the game, an angry shot from the penalty area line equalized the damn score, no one knows what kind of embarrassing scene it will be after the game.

Such an offensive performance is simply impossible to satisfy, including what they themselves think.

Portuguese fans have always been very tolerant, especially when they support the national team's games, they seem to be very centripetal. No matter whether the team wins or loses, they will cheer for the team.

But at the moment when Figo equalized the score, there was no cheering on the field, and even the applause seemed messy. Instead of cheering, the cheers of the fans were booing, and everyone was already angry.

They can accept the loss, and they can also accept the team's undefeated golden stature, but it is not such a failure, facing a team like Liechtenstein that has almost no winning record in the qualifiers.

Portugal has to rely on Figo's miraculous performance to save the team, what's wrong?Is this fucking football played by the European Cup runner-up! ?Can't even play Liechtenstein and still win the championship?
What the hell is the World Cup, all go to hell, even if this kind of performance can enter the World Cup, it can only be used as a foil, maybe they will be torn to pieces by those powerful teams!
The fans at the scene even threw piles of debris from the stands when the Portuguese players exited the field.

Those fans who were still waving the national flag to cheer for the team have now rolled up the national flag in their hands, and then vented their dissatisfaction loudly at those who they regard as idols.

"Don't you feel ashamed? You can't win such a game! Go to hell!"

Faced with such roars, the only option for the Portuguese players is to hide in the locker room before the opponent throws some dangerous objects, otherwise, they really don't know what will happen.

The anger of the fans erupted completely. Even after the game, the angry fans shouted loudly outside the Stadium of Light, "Your poor performance is really not worthy of the title of European runner-up!"

Even the media reporters who have always been tolerant did not give the team any face after the game. Some people even congratulated the Liechtenstein team on the perfect performance this time.

And many media pointed their fingers at Scolari. Everyone expected to hear something different from the Brazilian, but that calm old man still had time to play Tai Chi Push Hands.

"The game is over. The score of 2:2 did surprise many people, including myself, so now I have a lot to sum up, and I don't want to give any reason."

"A draw, a point, maybe it's more positive than losing the game, but I have to admit, it was a bad game, but it's not the end of the world."

"I can only say that the opponent's performance is better than ours, so even if they win the game, it is correct, and my team should review why their performance is so poor!"

Although Scolari did not point out any problems in his words when he spoke, it is obvious that he is very dissatisfied with such a result, and even a little angry.

Because his face was always gloomy, even when answering questions, he was very brief.

Anyone can see that this Brazilian old man is very upset now. He is like a volcano that is about to erupt. As for who can be burned, it depends on who is the unlucky ghost. Fang and the media did not appear to be so tit-for-tat.

After answering a few questions, Scolari also bluntly refused the subsequent interview. After staying for less than 10 minutes, the Brazilian old man left the press conference with obvious anger.

As for whether Scolari went back to the locker room to learn from Ferguson's hair dryer, that's unknown.

Anyway, everyone knows that those who did not perform well in this game will definitely have a bad time this time.

Everyone knows what kind of temper Scolari is. It is obvious that the performance of the Portuguese team in this game is very problematic, so Scolari will definitely use his iron fist to clean them up.

Even if the torture of Scolari did not cause any disturbance at the scene, it gradually heated up after the game, especially regarding the team's results in the last three games and the ranking in the group.

Not saying it doesn't mean it's okay, maybe the first two games can be prevaricated with accidents, but at this point, it's obviously not convincing, three times, then it's not an accident.

What's more, it was still tied in embarrassment by a team like Liechtenstein. Even if the media didn't want to provoke Scolari, it is estimated that those angry fans would point their finger at the Brazilian old man.

If this draw had been made a month ago, it might have just brought some criticism, but the current schedule and standings are definitely not that optimistic. The Portuguese team was ahead of the chase before three rounds. Slovakia and Russia have five and six points respectively.

But these three draws not only made them unable to continue to consolidate their points advantage over their main competitors, but also because the two draws with Estonia and Liechtenstein fell into an unprecedented crisis. They are now only ahead of Slovakia and Russia one cent.

The worst thing is not only this, the two games between them and Slovakia have ended, the idea of ​​​​wanting to suppress the opponent can only be placed in the subsequent games with other teams, but now the opponent that Scolari is most worried about is It is the Russian who has been working hard since the second half of the qualifiers.

Especially after being bloodbathed by Portugal, the Russians have won all the last five games, conceded only two goals, but scored [-] goals. Such crazy attack power makes all opponents feel It was frightening, including Scolari, who was also wary of the opponent's pursuit.

Originally, if these three games could win two games, maybe the Portuguese team would not be in such an embarrassing situation now. You must know that after two rounds of games, they will go to Russia for an away game. Scolari has experienced it before. The troubles of playing on artificial turf like in Russia.

Teams that have been pursuing small-scale cooperation and interspersed running will appear very uncomfortable once they get to that kind of artificial turf. Moreover, Russia has never lost in their recent home games, and there has only been one draw in the past two years. , Such a terrifying home win rate is indeed a bit scary.

In fact, before the start of this game, many Portuguese media still had an idea that if they could maintain a leading posture, it would not matter if they lost to the Russians in the away game, but this idea is no longer realistic. , then the opponent will complete the overtake.

With the last three rounds of the group stage remaining, even Scolari knows what it means if they are successfully overtaken by the opponent, play-offs?Or be eliminated directly, these two goals are not what Scolari wants, and losing the top spot in the group is a disaster for anyone.

If in the previous stage, Portugal still had enough loose conditions to allow them to make mistakes, then it seems that they have no chance to enjoy their advantages in points now. Whether they can hold the top spot in the group depends on the away game against Russia What is the result when you are human.

At this time, even the bosses of the Football Association who have always supported the national team and Scolari began to put pressure on the Brazilians by insinuating. After the Greek team is likely to have a tragedy in the qualifiers, the Portuguese do not want to Such unlucky things also happened to me.

If the champions and runners-up of the European Cup are rejected by the World Cup, I don’t know if this is a joke, especially the Portuguese, if they are defeated by their opponents after leading the way, then the hat of their pseudo-strong team will definitely be The buckle is more secure, and no one can afford this crime.

Even Scolari felt a kind of pressure coming to him after the game. In the first three days after the game, the Brazilian old man even let his assistant do the daily training, while he was alone Staying in the office, carefully flipping through the tapes of the last three games.

In fact, whether it was before or after the game, Scolari knew the team's various performances well. Except for the game against Liechtenstein where they were a little arrogant and caused an embarrassing situation, the rest of the two games Among them, the Portuguese team's offense has problems.

The most important thing is the organizer. Whether it is Deco or Figo, they can only hover around the midfield. Especially when encountering obstacles, Deco is too stable to press forward easily, and Figo has no self-subversion With the sharp feeling of the period, neither of them has a good way of defending intensively.

Originally, the poor striker was enough to cause Scolari a headache. Now it seems that it is not only the striker that has problems. Once the opponent puts all his energy on the midfield and fights with himself, it is difficult for the core players to face the pressing mark. To make a better organization at the time, the support that the striker can get is very little.

If this situation continues, even if Portugal can beat Russia in the away game, it will be difficult to achieve good results in the World Cup. Scolari is also thinking about it. In the silence of the past few days, the Brazilian old man has thought about countless possibilities. But in the final analysis, it is difficult to make any changes with the current players.

Even if he has already called to recruit Postiga, but whether the addition of a striker can solve such an urgent need, even he himself has no way to be sure. Players who grab points better than break through.

If there is no midfielder to give him enough support, even if he replaces Pauletta as the main force, it is impossible to bring much change. The kid can only be used as a backup. The biggest problem left for Scolari now is Who can inject vitality into the Portuguese team in the midfield? Although he already has a candidate in his heart, looking at the newspapers piled up on the table and the big news about the kid on it still makes Scolari unable to make up his mind.

The Brazilian old man may not only care about his own face, he is also thinking about whether the kid can really bring the changes he wants to the team if he enters the team. If he can't, then this time the gamble will be lost. Thoroughly, and it will also disrupt the tactical system that he carefully built.

Hesitating, this may be the most real state in Scolari's heart now. This old man who has never softened with anyone even when he was in the Brazil team has also really felt the pressure from all sides.

He is tough, no one doubts this, but toughness should also have a premise, that is, he can lead the team to win continuously, just like Mourinho, that guy is tough, but he relies on Your own record, otherwise don't expect a simple and tough person to conquer others.

After thinking for a long time, Scolari still called Mendes. No one knew what he had said to the other party, but Mendes' secretary still saw his boss put down the phone, then The smile on the corner of his mouth, that kind of satisfaction that blooms only after wrestling with others.

"A stubborn person will also bow his head in the face of pressure. There is no general victor in this world. You have won the World Cup once, but this does not mean that you can dominate everything."

No one could hear Mendez's whispers, but this famous manager now knows that he won this round of wrestling, and the other party showed weakness. Maybe that kid will accept such an invitation.

An open and secret fight finally came to an end. . .

(End of this chapter)