Football feast, starting from the acquisition of European clubs

Chapter 491 The end of the second child is too miserable
Like the previous life, in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Argentina was in Group D with Croatia, Nigeria and Iceland.

On June 6, Argentina's first game was against Iceland.

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 6, 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 and important member whether in the Crystal Palace club or in the Croatian national team.

This time Croatia can be said to have a strong army. In the previous life, they reached the final 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, put the center Higuain who started against Iceland on the bench, and played defensive counterattack wholeheartedly.

striker aguero

Messi
Left Midfield 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 Chen Ran, the famous champion coach, 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

DM Brozovic, DM 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 ran 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 laughing 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."

They are friends off the court, and they 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 of Croatia did not dare to attack with all their strength, so that the pressure on Argentina's defense was not very great.

Under the leadership of the two veterans, Mascherano and Otamendi, a group of Argentine boys used their spare no effort to run and scramble, and even carried the Croatian attack.

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 tactics. Mascherano is only 174cm tall, and Otamendi is only 183cm tall. Such a combination of central defenders has a worrying air defense capability."

"It's okay. I checked. 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 you said upstairs 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 shit, that's sure to be fun!"

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

On the other side of Croatia, head coach Dalic was very entangled.

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

However, 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 is better at organizing offense.

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

After replacing Brozovic, Croatia does not have a purely 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 No.60 and two minutes, 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 retreated to the vicinity of the middle circle, and before Rakitic's foot was destroyed, he used the instep of his right foot to directly transfer the ball to Di Maria on the left.

Di Maria first passed the ball with one man, passed the Croatian right forward Rebic, and then ran all the way along the left line.

Seeing that the barrier Rebic in front of him was passed, 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 a through ball passed the ball to Aguero who was advancing at high speed.

Aguero took advantage of the situation and received the ball, 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!"

It was a quality shot and the ball flew swiftly and swiftly into the close corner of the Croatian goal.

However, with Joel Luka out of position, Aguero's options for shooting angles are small.

Croatian goalkeeper Subasic had moved early to the near post and blocked 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, and poke 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 helplessly as the ball rolled into the unguarded goal.

"GOAL!!!!!!"

With Lionel 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 frantically 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 he was counterattacked by Argentina.

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 was exactly what Chen Ran hoped to see.

As Croatia pressed forward aggressively, the holes in the defense grew wider and wider.

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 started 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 [-] Recovery Card" from the system.

In another game in the same group, Nigeria beat Iceland 2-0.

In this way, Argentina ranked first with six points after two victories, 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 to look at the goal difference and the number of goals first when the points are the same, Argentina still has the possibility of being eliminated.

Four days later, on June 6, 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, of course, Chen Ran continued to use the tactics of defensive counterattack.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 have 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.

One characteristic of African teams is that 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 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 [-] 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, which did not live up to expectations, had to slam against 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 [-].

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

Croatia, on the other hand, had to face the strong opponent of the French team.

For this, 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 looking forward to a miracle from Croatia.

If they can get rid of the French team in advance, then the difficulty for Argentina to compete for the World Cup title 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)