road to victory

Chapter 352 The European Cup Begins

A week of training brought the French players back to normal. At this time, Fan Shang also used the system to improve some players who were not in good condition. By the way, he also improved the tacit understanding of the lineup.

The 2000 European Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium was the first time in the history of the European Championship that it was jointly hosted by two countries (Belgium and the Netherlands).

France is placed in Group D. The opponents in the same group are the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Denmark. This group is very strong. All four teams have won the European Cup.

Group D is called the death group together with Group A. The four teams in Group A are Germany, Portugal, Romania and England.

In fact, none of the 16 teams participating in the European Cup are underdogs, and they are all at the top level in the world. It is equally difficult to be divided into any group.

France's first match was against Denmark at the Jan Bredel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium. It was just the second time France met Denmark in the group stage of an international competition after the 98 World Cup.

Denmark in this European Cup is in the era of the old and the new. In 1992, the representatives of Danish fairy tales, the Laudrup brothers, withdrew from the national team, leaving only one Schmeichel in front of the goal, so their strength is better than 98. There was another drop in the year.

Fan Shang felt a little fortunate. France missed the warm-up match because of Fan Shang's kindness. A team that did not play a warm-up match before the big game is quite strange.

But Fan Shang is not worried, playing the warm-up match is nothing more than to improve the state and adjust the formation. Now these two tasks are directly done by the system, which can completely allow the players to rest better.

After a week of training in Clairefontaine, France went directly to Bruges to meet the game against Denmark.

In this game, Fan Shang directly adopted a strategy of pressing the offensive. France should continue to play defensive counterattacks, and this is what Fan Shang is best at, but the offense must be practiced. After all, if the historical trajectory is correct, then the final In a game, France must attack across the board.

In this game, France's offense did not disappoint Vincent, nor did it disappoint the fans and media all over France. In the first game, they won Denmark with a score of 3:0. Henry, Wiltord and Blanco scored goals. .

France's group stage schedule is actually really good, because their first and second games are played on the same field, which saves the pain of exhaustion.

After this game, France stood by and waited for the second game four days later. This game was against the runner-up of the last European Cup, the Czech Republic. Now the Czech Republic can be said to be really strong. Nedved, Rosicky , Jankulovski, Poboski, Smicer, Jan Koller and other famous players are mostly in their prime. Although they lost 0:1 to the host Netherlands in the last game, but The Netherlands scored a penalty in the last minute, so this game is very watery.

This game can be said to be ups and downs. Henry scored the goal in the opening 7 minutes of France, but in the 35th minute, the Czech Republic tenaciously tied the score with a penalty kick.

Then the two teams fell into a stalemate. Until the 70th minute of the game, Djorkaeff, who was replaced in the second half, once again took the lead for France. The score of 2:1 was finally maintained until the end of the game.

After this game, the qualifying form of this group has been clarified. France and the Netherlands also won two consecutive victories and got the chance to appear at the same time. It depends on the collision of the two teams in the last game, who can get the first place in the group.

And the final match between the Czech Republic and Denmark will be a friendly through and through.

Vincent also comforted his old player Pavel Nedved after the match against the Czech Republic.Speaking of this European Cup, many Bordeaux or former Bordeaux players have entered various national teams, not to mention France. Among other teams, Spain has Mendieta and Belleron, Germany has Ballack, etc. .

Fan Shang was in the same predicament as Yakai was in the same situation this time. Whether to win the first place in the group or the second place in the group, like Yakai at that time, he called several coaches together to study this matter.

In fact, Fan Shang already had a plan in mind. He hoped to follow the historical track, take the second place in the group, and let Italy go head-to-head with the Netherlands. However, this approach needs to be agreed by the people under him, so a meeting is still required.

"Now we have a difficult problem, maybe after 98, some of you have already understood it." Vincent pointed to Le Maire and others. "It's whether we want to take the first place in the group or the second place."

"Jacques, let's analyze the difference between the two positions first." Vincent gestured to Santini again. In fact, the two had passed through before, and the second place in the group is the best destination in France.

Santini stepped forward, stated the difference between the two, and finally said that he felt that the probability of finishing second in the group was more likely to enter the final than taking the first place in the group.

Vincent applauded Santini first. His speech was very provocative, and the coaching staff below kept nodding. Except for Le Maire and Joel Hart, everyone else was discussing.

Why should the two of them be excluded, because these two will support no matter what Fan Shang says, this meeting has nothing to do with the two of them in theory, just let them act as a pawn.

"I think what Jacques said is very reasonable. I think the last game will focus on training and let the players with yellow cards rest." Le Maire did not disappoint Vincent.

"Yes, the goalkeeper can also let Lamar play, then the two competitions are Barthez guarding the gate, and it is time to change his face." Joel Hart also echoed.

There are already three of the coaching staff who have few people agree, so it is difficult for others to say anything, and this idea of ​​focusing on military training and supplementing achievements is also unified.

So in the formation, Fan Shang put all the players who did not play in the previous two games into the starting lineup. Of course, this number is not enough, so he used the players who had not received a yellow card in the previous two games, and finally Complemented the starting 11 people.

However, the Netherlands has deployed all their main players at the Amsterdam Stadium. Their goal is to win three consecutive group matches. After all, they are the hosts, so it is impossible not to show some domineering.

However, although France sent a lineup combining the main force and the bench, they did not lose to the Netherlands in terms of momentum.

Less than 10 minutes into the game, Trezeguet broke the goal of the Dutch team in France.

But in the 14th minute of the game, the Dutch team played the score 1:1 by their center Kluivert, and this score was maintained until the intermission.

(End of this chapter)