[football] walk side by side

Scolari stared at the pitch, thoughtful.

Originally, he was still thinking about how to solve the predicament in Portugal, but now, Cyril gave him a very informative answer with practical actions.This made the Portuguese coach's mood a little complicated for a while.Happily, the immediate predicament does not seem to be without the possibility of reversal. The complication is that, as the head coach, I am not as good as my own players in terms of the tactical response of this game.

But Scolari is not the kind of narrow-minded person. As long as he can win the game, the process is not important to him.It is also for this reason that when the Portuguese players returned to the locker room during the intermission, what greeted them was an apology from the Portuguese national coach.

"I'm sorry for this game." There was no extra ambiguity or foreshadowing. When the players returned to the locker room one after another, Scolari said straight to the point: "We played badly in the first half. But I must say that this is not entirely your responsibility, as the head coach, the tactical mistakes in this game are also my unshirkable responsibility. In this regard, I must apologize to you.”

Originally, he thought that he would be reprimanded by the head coach when he returned to the locker room, but he didn't expect that the first thing he heard was the head coach's apology for his mistakes. Ferreira was stunned, his face flushed slightly.

How he performed in the first half of the game, Ferreira himself is also self-aware. The two consecutive conceded goals are directly or indirectly related to him. Scolari took the initiative to take responsibility at this moment, but he felt I feel a little embarrassed.

Cristiano lowered his head without making a sound.

Although he scored a goal in the last 5 minutes of the first half and scored a goal for Portugal, it is clear that Cristiano did not become in a better mood because of this.In any case, it is a fact that Portugal was almost overwhelmed by Germany in the first half, and all of this, apart from the problems of the Portuguese players themselves, Scolari's tactics also accounted for a huge proportion.

Cristiano's character made him export something to comfort Scolari-because the Portuguese coach did need to be responsible for his mistakes, if it wasn't because he didn't want to embarrass the coach and they at least saved face in the last 5 minutes, He couldn't even guarantee that he would get angry in the locker room on the spot.

Generally speaking, when Cristiano is unwilling to give a step, it is Cyril who comes out to smooth things over, and this time is no exception.

"In the first half of the game, each of us has an unshirkable responsibility," Cyril said, with a calm tone as if he was not affected by the emotions of the first half: "The most urgent thing now is the second half of the game. What should we do? tactics."

Cyril didn't understand why Scolari didn't prepare backup tactics, maybe because he thought Loew, who was sent to the stands, was not worth mentioning?Being forced to be isolated because of the coach's tactical mistakes is bad, but this is not enough to be the reason why Cyril is angry with Scolari-as he said, this game needs to be for this reason. Scolari is not alone in the charge.

"Yes, the most important thing is the second half of the game." Scolari took a deep breath and turned to face the tactical board. The positions of the chess pieces on the tactical board remained the same as before they left. , and put one of the pieces that was put aside in the midfield. "Mereres, I'll put you on in the second half instead of Moutinho."

As soon as he said this, the players below suddenly showed weird expressions.

No, maybe only one person is an exception - at least Cyril smiled slightly and listened quietly to him explaining the tactics for the second half.

Scolari's eyes swept across Cyril's face, as he expected, and the latter obviously understood his intentions immediately.However, to be precise...you can't say you understand it, right?He thought with a wry smile in his heart, this was originally the other party's first idea.

The other players were not without reason - Meireles was a defensive midfielder.

Now the score on the field is 2-1, Portugal is still one goal behind Germany, and if they want to win Germany, they have to score at least two goals.What does it mean that the head coach chooses to replace a defensive midfielder in such a situation where the team has greatly enhanced its attacking power?

Not to mention other players, even Meireles himself showed a bewildered expression at the moment.

Scolari did not explain the reason to them immediately, but after saying this, he pushed a midfield piece further forward, "In the second half of the game, Cyril switched to attacking midfielder. Germany Coe is in charge of scheduling and organization instead of Cyril, Meireles, your goal is to defend wholeheartedly, and don't let the Germans break through easily."

Some players are still confused, while other players with clear thinking gradually understand the intention of the head coach.

It is true that there is nothing wrong with replacing Meireles for defense, but it is not just for defense.Cyril's position was moved forward in order to cooperate with the striker in the frontcourt, more precisely, to activate the firepower of the Portuguese striker.

In this way, Cyril's forward move will inevitably weaken the Portuguese midfielder's interception ability, and the Portuguese defense line is already relatively fragile. In this way, replacing Meireles is a very clever substitution.

After a short intermission, the game continued.

Just like Scolari decided at halftime, Portugal completed the change in the first minute of the second half. After 1 minutes of warm-up, Meireles also stepped onto the field, replacing the injured support Moutinho.

The double midfielder becomes a single midfielder, Cyril moves forward, Moutinho goes off, and a defensive midfielder is replaced.

This series of changes made everyone a little unexpected. Flick frowned and began to communicate with the coaching staff around him in a low voice. In the stands, Love also had a somewhat helpless expression at the moment.When his eyes fell on Cyril again, his expression was quite resentful.

According to his original plan, it was impossible for Scolari to react, and this tactical crush against Portugal also gave him enough confidence to win the game.

But the existence of Cyril changed everything.

Portugal was able to use the intermission time to change tactics on the spot, but when Germany lost him, they could no longer make corresponding changes based on Portugal's changes.

In the next game, I can only hope that God is on the side of Germany...

Maybe God really heard Loew's heart's desire, but in any case, the fact is that shortly after the referee announced the start of the second half, Germany scored again!

In the 50th minute of the game, Pepe tackled Klose from outside the penalty area. Although he went towards the ball at the opponent's feet, the dangerous move still earned him a yellow card and gave Germany a Free kick chance from outside the penalty area.

As usual, Schweinsteiger took the penalty kick. He kicked off the ball on the left, and repeated the trick to hoist the ball into the penalty area.

The ball bypassed the human wall in the air and landed in front of the Portuguese goal, causing a burst of confusion.Pepe, who was originally guilty of bringing a free kick to Germany, naturally did not miss Ballack. His movements were faster than the German midfielder. As soon as he jumped up, he felt his jersey being grabbed by someone. After such a short delay, Ballack easily shook his head and succeeded again!

"GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!! MICHAEL BALLACK!! BEAUTIFUL HEAD!! Schweinsteiger made two passes and one shot, again assisting Ballack for the goal! Ricciardo couldn't react to it, his hands didn't even Touch the ball!! 3-1!! Germany extended the score again!"

The commentator was still cheering for Germany, but Pepe, who was pulled by the corner of his clothes and pushed by him at the critical moment, was about to explode!

He got up from the ground angrily, and when he jumped up, he was about to roll up his sleeves to settle accounts with Ballack—although he usually looks a little shy, but on the court, Pepe has a violent temper that explodes at the slightest point. After a while, someone plotted against him and scored a goal. Naturally, he refused to give up whatever he said.

However, before rushing straight to Barak and raising their fists to make a move, Cyril and Deco, who were startled, jointly pulled them away.

Is the 3-1 situation bad?

Yes, it's pretty bad.Throughout the European Cups, it can be said that there are very few who can reverse the game beyond the two-goal gap.

But Cyril and Deco are very clear - when Portugal's defense line is already very poor, Pepe shoots Ballack because of anger, and after he gets a red card, Portugal will really be hopeless at that time.

During the time when the two held Pepe, Scolari was not idle.The Portuguese coach angrily accused the German midfielder of unsportsmanlike goals.

"He pushed someone before scoring! This action is obviously foul!"

The referee shook his head persistently, indicating that the goal was valid.

The impact of this unexpected scoring process and result on Portugal is almost visible to the naked eye.

The defensive movements of the defenders became bigger, Deco also seemed a little absent-minded, and the worst thing was-Cristiano started dribbling alone again!

Nowadays, when Cristiano is individualistic, it is actually very rare. Only when the team is in a bad state and Cristiano himself feels a lot of pressure, he can't help but enter the state of "only relying on himself", but it is undeniable Yes, no matter how sharp his breakthrough is, it is difficult to be threatening in front of the entire German defense line.

When Germany got another chance to set the ball, Cyril finally couldn't help it.Before lining up any walls, he first called all the players aside and gathered them together.

"Want to win this game?" Cyril asked.

This straightforward and meaningless question caused a moment of confusion among the teammates, but Cyril continued: "If you want to win, just do what the head coach says-we still have a chance."

After saying this, he walked up to Cristiano again.

Cristiano pursed his lips.

He thought Cyril would talk about the opportunities that were ultimately squandered because of his insistence, but he didn't.Cyril put his hands on his shoulders, his expression was never serious.However, what he said was another sentence that was completely unexpected to him.

"Chris." His eyes were fixed on him, and his tone was calm: "Do you believe me?"