Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

Li Qi, who had no idea that he had been envied by a beautiful black girl, sat calmly in the VIP viewing seat, ready to watch the highlight match of the third round of the Group B match of the 2007 European Youth Championship, the Italian U21 team against the Czech U21 team.

Even if Li Qi knew Olivia's little thoughts, he would just ignore them. After all, who plays and who doesn't is the head coach's job. The substitutes are on standby for the knockout stage. This is the task given to him by the coaching staff and the overall strategy of the team. It is not something he can decide.

But Li Qi didn't know that the English media had already been ready to praise him to death, and even demonized him a little, making countless English fans who didn't know the truth think that the real person who has the final say in the Italian U21 team is Ricardo Li Qi. Isn't it true? Didn't you see that in the post-match press conference, the head coach Casiraghi was Li Qi's repeater and didn't dare to go against Li Qi's interview opinions...

This high-grade black is not easy to wash...

However, Li Qi actually used substitutes and players who had played less in the previous third game, which was actually a sign that Italy was ready to do its best. After all, with a guaranteed qualification spot, the main players would definitely not work hard. Even if Li Qi was sent to play, Li Qi would probably just want to easily maintain a 0-0 draw, or score a goal first and then counterattack to slowly kill time.

Only substitute players, in order to perform well and let big clubs see their value, will try their best in a game where only a draw is needed.

So Casiraghi really made a big rotation, even the goalkeeper was the third goalkeeper, No. 22 Andre Concini;

接着4-4-2的首发阵容中，四后卫一字排开是6号莫塔、13号科达、15号卡尼尼和14号克里希托；

The midfield quartet is No. 21 Cigarini, No. 16 De Sena, No. 8 Aquilani and No. 20 Lazzari;

The forward combination is No. 9 Pazzini and No. 11 Rossi.

The one who gave Casiraghi such determination to make an eight-man rotation was Li Qi, who was sitting on the bench, bragging to Acquafresca and comforting his younger brother who was waiting patiently.

Casiraghi thought that if the score fell behind, he would close the door and let the dogs go, oh no, it was Li Qi. In this way, there is a strong player to support the bottom line, so there is no need to worry about letting the substitutes feel the atmosphere of the competition. This is good for their growth, and it can also allow the main players to get enough rest and avoid yellow card suspension.

As for the opponent, the Czech U21 team, Li Qi did not pay much attention to it. He really didn't know anyone or had any impression of the Mavericks. He just let the coaching team headed by Casiraghi take care of the preparations.

As expected, in this match, Li Qi sat peacefully on the bench and watched the game for more than 90 minutes, because Italy was adept at defensive counterattacks in its genes, and the opponent Czech Republic was in a desperate mood, so the result was better than expected, so Li Qi naturally had the opportunity to rest and watch the show.

In the evening after the rain, with a cool feeling of 20 degrees Celsius and friendly weather with cloudy and breezy weather, at 6:18 on the evening of June 19, the last group match of the European Youth Championship between the Italian U21 team and the Czech U21 team started on time; however, the game soon fell into the rhythm of Italy's pre-match arrangements.

Just four minutes into the game, the Italian national youth team, which relied on defensive counterattacks, seized the loopholes in the Czech team's defense. Aquilani, who had scored with a long shot in the previous game, broke the deadlock with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Although the Czech U21 team, which was lagging behind, launched a fierce counterattack, with Papadopoulos receiving a cross from a set piece in the 14th minute of the game and heading in a goal that equalized the score, beating Canini; Italy soon took control of the game and frequently threatened the Czech team's goal with sharp counterattacks. Not only did the Czech team find it difficult to shoot, but they could only constantly commit fouls to stop Italy's advancement.

Before the end of the first half, Italy, which had already had four consecutive shots on target, once again took the lead.

In the 44th minute, Pazzini received a cross from Cigarini, calmly stopped the ball with his chest, and volleyed with his right foot. Unfortunately, Pazzini, who was unlucky in this game, was saved by the Czech goalkeeper again. However, this time Rossi, who was lurking in the middle of the penalty area, followed up and shot the ball into the empty goal before it was cleared.

The Italian U21 team entered the halftime break with a score of 2-1 and had a huge advantage on the field, so Casiraghi was naturally not in a hurry to replace Li Qi, but instead replaced Canini, who was a little absent-minded after making a header mistake in the first half, with Chiellini.

Chiellini did not disappoint the head coach's trust after he came on the pitch. Just 10 minutes into the second half, he received a corner kick from the right side from Rossi and headed the ball into the Czech team's goal again.

When the score reached 3-1, the Czech Republic, who wanted to fight back, had no way to speed up. First, it was the third group match in seven days, and the main lineup was already tired. Second, they were on the brink of being eliminated if they couldn't win by a big margin, and the morale of the team was extremely low. Third, the constant mistakes made the players lose trust in each other, or they just didn't want to cooperate more, but only wanted to perform well and attract the attention of the scouts in the stands so that they could get a better contract next season...

Ten minutes into the game, Casiraghi made his second substitution, seeing that the Czech team was showing no improvement at all. He finally sent on Acquafresca, the only player in the team who had not played yet, to replace Rossi, who had already scored a goal, and partner him with Pazzini, who was not very lucky today, to see if the new forward combination could gain something more.

The Czech U21 team also made two substitutions around the 65th minute. The head coach hoped that the fresh blood could activate the team's offense and create a miracle in the last 25 minutes of the game.

But it was obvious that Czech striker Jan Holenda and midfielder Redl, who came on as substitutes, had no way to repay the head coach's trust and were also caught in a vicious cycle of fighting alone.

Ten minutes later, although Italy failed to change the score again, it was obviously in a state of besieging the Czech Republic. Therefore, Casiraghi was completely relieved and did not plan to use Li Qi in this game.

We still need to let Li Qi rest more. After all, Li Qi played a lot of games in the just-concluded season, including the La Liga, the Spanish King's Cup, the UEFA Cup, and the national team's European Cup qualifiers...

So in the 78th minute of the game, Casiraghi used up the last substitution of the game and replaced Aquilani, who scored the first goal and regained his form, with Lazari.

In the end, when the final whistle blew, Pazzini and Acquafresca still failed to score the first goal of this cup, and the score was fixed at 3 to 1. The Italian U21 team easily defeated the Czech U21 team in the last group match of Group B, winning all three games and accumulating 9 points, securing first place in the group.

No matter what, all the England fans who temporarily became Italy fans, including Olivia, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although most of the substitute players were sent out, the Italian U21 team did not let England go after all, and made the efforts of the England national youth team in vain.

Because almost at the same time as the Italian game ended, another game in Group B also ended.

尽管英格兰国青的后腰赫德尔斯通在比赛的最后一分钟吃到了红牌，但是不影响利塔和德比什尔分别在比赛的第5和第77分钟建功，为英格兰U21代表队拿下了一场关键的2比0的胜利。

The England U21 team has four points in three games in the standings, reversing Serbia's three points in three games, and advanced to the knockout stage as the second in the group.

Earlier, the last two group matches of Group A of this European Youth Championship also ended.

The host Netherlands National Youth Team drew with the Belgian U2 Team 2-21 in the final round of the group stage, and the two teams advanced to the knockout stage as group first and group second respectively.

其中荷兰U21代表队凭借着首轮1比0击败以色列、次轮2比1击败葡萄牙，以三战胜一平积7分的战绩荣获小组第一；因此淘汰赛的对手是B组第二的英格兰U21代表队。

The Belgian national youth team drew with Portugal in the first game, but in the second round, they defeated Israel 18-1 with Mirallas's winning goal, even though Lukaku star Fellaini took the initiative to draw the Ruby War God Card in the 0th minute and forced a rest. They then surpassed Portugal with 5 points in three games and finished second in Group A.

The Belgian U21 team's opponent in the semi-finals is the Italian U21 team, which even overshadowed the host team in this European Youth Championship.

In another third-round match of Group A, the Portugal U21 team defeated the Israel U4 team with the biggest score difference in this European Youth Championship, winning 21-. Manchester United star Nani scored a wonderful goal and became the most dazzling star of the game.

It was in the 50th minute of the game. Nani was 20 yards away from the goal. Facing the entanglement of the defensive players, he suddenly shot the ball. The ball drew a wonderful arc and flew into the blind corner of the goal. It was a world wave and also the fourth goal of Portugal in this game.

However, Nani's performance was mediocre in Portugal's previous matches when they lost to the Netherlands and drew with Belgium. Therefore, although the star player of the Portugal national youth team finally found his feeling against Israel, the weakest team in the group, it was too late; because Belgium drew with the Netherlands in another match, Portugal could only accept the fate of being eliminated and missed the semi-finals of this European Youth Championship.

However, Portugal's journey in this European Youth Championship is not over. As the third in Group A, they unexpectedly got a chance to play in a play-off. They will play a play-off with the third Serbian team in Group B to decide which team will participate in next year's Huadu Olympics.

As for why Li Qi paid extra attention to Nani, it was because Raiola told him that many scouts and analysts in European football are comparing the two, believing that they are one of the best attackers in this age group and the most likely candidates to change teams and create transfer records in this summer window.

However, Li Qi does not think that Nani is comparable to himself. First of all, Nani is obviously a winger, not even a demolition player, while he is an organizing player. The two have completely different functions on the court and different technical characteristics.

In addition, Li Qi thinks he is the La Liga champion, the Champions League champion, the UEFA Cup champion, the World Cup champion, the World Youth Championship champion...but what does Nani have?

In Li Qi's opinion, Nani, who has never won the Portuguese Super League and only one Portuguese Cup, is almost like a blank slate. And Nani's performance in this European Youth Championship is indeed almost like a blank slate. He played 3 minutes in 270 games and only scored one goal. As a winger, his assist was for Dandan...

Looking at Li Qi's performance in this European Youth Championship, he was on the bench in the first game and did not play in the third game. He played for a total of more than 120 minutes, but scored 4 goals and 2 assists, an average of creating a goal every 20 minutes or so, and helped the team successfully finish first in the group and qualify.

Li Qi still doesn't understand why Nani is compared to him. Is it some agent with ulterior motives who is using him to hype and promote Nani? After all, the target of his comparison should be at least Messi or Ronaldo.

Even if he wants to take advantage of his own popularity, his own level must be strong enough, otherwise the consequence will be that the goods will be thrown away if compared with each other, and people will die if compared with each other. Obviously, Nani's level is not strong enough, at least at this stage, Nani has not shown the strength to leave the novice village.

It would be the same even if Nani was given another chance to perform in one game, such as the play-offs four days after the group stage.

Although he scored a penalty in the final shootout, in the regular 90 minutes of the game and the subsequent 30 minutes of overtime, facing Serbia's pragmatic and iron-clad defense, Nani did not have any outstanding performance except for a yellow card.

而纳尼只凭借点球大战罚中的一粒点球也并不足以让葡萄牙U21代表队通过附加赛，最终死守全场的塞尔维亚U21代表队凭借着点球大战中4罚全中的战绩成功挤掉了点球5罚只有3中的葡萄牙，收获了欧洲区最后一张08年华都奥运会的门票。

……

Forget it. Li Qi doesn't plan to continue paying attention to Nani. He just took a look out of curiosity. Mainly, he wanted to compare his influence among agents or scouts in European football. He didn't expect that his benchmark would be this guy. It was really a blow.

"It should be someone's malicious hype with ulterior motives, and it is definitely not my own overestimation. After all, I am the best player in both the UEFA Cup and the King's Cup this season, and I also won the UEFA Cup Golden Boot! Although it is tied..." Li Qi summarized this comparison, and then began to prepare to pay attention to the subsequent European Youth Championship knockout stage. After qualifying from the group stage, it will be directly the semi-finals. After all, there are only 8 teams in the final round, and there are only 2 groups...

@

This European U21 Championship is also an Olympic qualifier. According to the regulations, the top two teams in each group will qualify to participate in the 08 Beijing Olympics.

However, since the England U21 team, which finished second in Group B, could not represent Britain in the Olympics, UEFA had to allow the third-placed teams of the two groups to play an additional play-off to decide who would replace them in the Olympic Games.

As for why Britain, which won two Olympic football gold medals in the early days of the Olympics, did not participate in the Olympic football matches, the reason may be a bit complicated.

Part of the reason is that the development of the Olympics and the changes in rules have made the British football world dissatisfied. First, only amateur players were allowed to participate in football matches, until the current system of U23 plus three over-age players, coupled with some other political factors, which made British football begin to move away from the Olympics.

Another reason is that Britain can only participate in the Olympics as a country, so another contradiction arises.

That is, the four federal members of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all have their own independent seats in FIFA. The right to participate in the Olympics requires them to form a joint team, which involves many more complicated issues than football and is difficult to resolve; so starting in 1974, the UK simply gave up participating in Olympic football.

However, the next Olympics will be the London Olympics. Who knows whether Britain, as the host country, will come up with a plan to participate in the Olympic football competition again?

……