Chapter 312 Defeat Argentina and advance to the World Cup finals!

"Lin Quan, it's him again. When the game was at a stalemate, he once again stood up and saved the team!"

"The Spanish fans at the scene were in a frenzy. They shouted Lin Quan's name and regarded him as the hero of the team!"

In the commentary booths of various countries, after Lin Quan scored the second goal, the commentators gave all kinds of praise from all angles.

In the World Cup semi-finals, he was able to stand up twice to help the team stabilize morale and take the lead.

Lin Quan's role on the court really cannot be overstated.

After Lin Quan scored the goal, he pointed at Mata who passed the ball to him.

He jumped high, rode on Mata's body, and celebrated excitedly.

“Well done!”

"Lin, good shot!"

After seeing Lin Quan score, his Spanish teammates chased him madly, surrounded him and Mata, and joined their celebration.

Even goalkeeper Casillas performed a somersault in front of Spain's goal to celebrate.

This ball came at the perfect time!

The Argentines had just started to gain momentum when Lin Quan's goal extinguished their momentum.

If this goal had come a little later, the Argentines might have taken advantage of this momentum and launched a crazy counterattack.

If they really scored another goal, Spain would be in great danger! Now, Spain, who had a one-goal lead again, could play more calmly.

Messi silently fished the ball out of his own goal, walked back to the center circle with the ball, placed the ball at the kick-off point, looked at the Spanish players who were celebrating the goal, and waited quietly for the kick-off.

The offensive that the Spanish team just launched was something he and his teammates often performed when he was at Barcelona.

In fact, many of the opposing team's teammates are his former clubmates.

It’s a pity that at this time all these teammates stood against him and became his opponents.

To be honest, Messi is not comfortable playing in the Argentina team.

Argentina's midfield strength is far less than that of Barcelona, ​​so he has to play the role of both father and mother in the Argentina team.

However, before completing the transformation, Messi was not very adaptable to this kind of job.

If he is asked to be a blaster and a goal-scoring machine, he can do it easily, but if he is asked to be the core of the organization, it is a bit too much for Messi at this time.

Messi's transformation was forced to be completed in the following years after the national team and the club suffered defeats.

There has always been a question in the football world: which one is better, Messi 91 or Messi 19? Messi 91 refers to the Messi who scored 91 goals in the natural year of 2012.

The 19 Messi refers to Messi after completing his transformation in 2019.

Which of the two is stronger is a matter of opinion, but one thing is obvious: Argentina's strength has improved after Messi's transformation.

This can be seen from the fact that Argentina won the Copa America and the World Cup, two championship trophies with great value! Before this, Messi's performance in the national team had always been mediocre.

But now, Messi has not completed the transformation. Although he has certain organizational skills, it is still very difficult for him to complete the work of the core of the organization with ease like himself in a few years.

Therefore, Messi now still needs to rely on Xavi, Fabregas, Andreas Koeman and others to assist him and pass the ball to him.

But in Argentina, he does not have such support.

So, after the restart, although Messi was very active and tried hard to equalize the score.

But his efforts were not rewarded, and Argentina's attacks failed time and time again.

After most of the game, Spain has found a way to limit Argentina's attack - keep a close eye on Messi and keep him away from the goal as much as possible!

Messi's finishing ability is obvious to all, but his organizational ability is far not as strong as his finishing ability.

Therefore, if he is asked to pass the ball to other teammates to complete the attack and not given the opportunity to attack directly, Argentina's offensive threat can be greatly reduced.

This is what Martinez did after he came on the court.

Facing the 1.92-meter-tall Martinez, a small player like Messi could have gotten rid of his opponent by relying on his extremely fast pace and flexible body.

But this trick failed when facing Martinez! On the sidelines, Bosque and defensive coach Puyol saw Martinez intercept Messi's attack again, and both of them were relieved and smiled.

"Haha, Lin is really a treasure of ours. Not only can he make unparalleled contributions on the offensive end, but his contribution to the team on the defensive end is also not small!"

"yes!"

Puyol nodded in agreement.

Most people may be confused by what the two said, but everyone can see Lin Quan's performance on the offensive end, and he is indeed unstoppable.

But I don’t see how strong his performance is on the defensive end?

Although Lin Quan's attitude towards returning to defense is very positive, his defensive ability can only be described as average, and the gap is obvious compared with professional defensive players.

Outsiders cannot see Lin Quan's value on the defensive end because they don't know the Spanish team's special training methods before the game.

Before the game, Lin Quan served as a sparring partner for the defensive players in the team, helping them adapt to the feeling of defending Messi in advance.

After having such a sparring partner, the Spanish defensive players have gained some experience on how to defend Messi.

Although Martinez has been abused by Lin Quan thousands of times during team training, he has grown and improved every time he is abused.

The accumulated experience came in handy when defending Messi.

Moreover, the game has already reached the 70th minute.

Messi's physical strength has declined a lot. He already had physical problems, and after such intense consumption, the remaining physical strength can no longer support him to complete a series of extraordinary moves.

So, on one side, there is Martinez whose defensive ability has been enhanced, and on the other side, there is Messi whose breakthrough ability has been severely reduced due to physical limitations.

After the two met, it didn't seem so surprising that Martinez was able to successfully defend Messi.

And Martinez isn't fighting alone.

Whenever Messi dribbles the ball, the Spanish players nearby will immediately provide assistance and double-team him, further depleting Messi's energy.

This kind of consumption tactic caused Messi's physical strength to decline very quickly.

Every pass brings a huge burden to Messi.

In the 78th minute, due to a serious decline in physical strength, Messi even made a rare mistake and gave the ball directly to his opponent.

Seizing the opportunity of Messi's mistake, Spain launched a counterattack.

Mata made a straight pass, but Lin Quan, who was on the passing route, chose not to receive the ball and deliberately passed it to David Silva.

David Silva shot directly, but Romero reacted quickly and saved the ball.

Martinez on the outside controlled the landing point of the ball and tried a long shot.

His shot itself was not very threatening, but the ball hit the defender and refracted, bouncing towards the goal. The ball was about to fly into the Argentina goal, completely killing the suspense of the game.

The Argentine fans and players on the field were almost in despair! However, at this critical moment, Zabaleta stood up.

He completed the block near the goal line in a thrilling manner, sliding and blocking the ball with his body.

When he shoveled the ball out of the goal, the ball had already touched the goal line. If he had been a few tenths of a second slower, the score would have become 3:1! Huh! Seeing Zabaleta destroy the ball, the Argentine fans and players collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

Martinez was a little annoyed. When he shot the ball, he was just trying to make a blind shot and didn't have much hope.

But the refraction aroused his hope again.

Hope was raised and then dashed.

"It's okay, go to the penalty area and I'll pass the ball to you!"

Seeing Martinez’s frustrated face, Lin Quan patted him on the shoulder and comforted him.

"good!"

After hearing Lin Quan's words, Hama immediately turned his worry into joy and happily ran into the penalty area to compete for the header.

After Hama came on, Spain had three high points on the field.

Ramos, Pique and Javi Martinez.

Among these three, Ramos is definitely the best header player.

So Lin Quan repeated to Ramos exactly what he had just said to Hama.

"Really? You'll really pass it on to me and not lie to me?"

Ramos had long been looking for an opportunity to show off his header power. When he heard Lin Quan's words, he was extremely excited.

"Of course. When have I ever lied to you?"

Lin Quan blinked, looking harmless.

Ramos was fooled and ran into the penalty area happily. Despite the interference from Demichelis and Garay, he tried hard to grab a good jumping position.

As for Pique, Lin Quan did not have much confidence in his heading ability, so he did not give him any instructions in person.

He held the football and placed it in the corner area. After taking a few steps back, he looked towards the penalty area.

Ramos is at the back post, Pique and Martinez are at the front post.

Lin Quan then gestured to pass the ball to the back point, signaling his teammates to start running.

When Ramos saw Lin Quan's gesture, he immediately felt relieved and pretended to run forward. When the opponent's defender ran with him, he suddenly turned back.

This move is his trump card to get rid of the defender's defense. If he wants to complete a header comfortably, he needs to get rid of the interference of the defensive players as much as possible.

Otherwise, if he competes with his opponent for the header and his bodies collide in the air, it will easily affect his strength. In that case, even if he grabs the landing point, it will be difficult for him to head the ball with high quality.

However, what Ramos did not expect was that Lin Quan had already used this gesture once in the first half. After seeing it, the Argentine players naturally understood where the opponent was going to kick the ball.

So, when Ramos tried hard to create space, he found that not only did he fail to create space, but he attracted more defensive players.

Ramos had Argentine defenders in front and behind him, and he was squeezed in the middle and unable to move.

What the hell?

Why are they all rushing towards me? Why

don't you mark the two tall guys in front of you?

In Ramos' shocked eyes, he saw that Lin Quan's free throw flew to the front point instead of the back point.

Damn, even this guy conspired to deceive me! Ramos realized at this time that he had become cannon fodder to attract the enemy's firepower, but he had no time to complain, and saw Martinez leap high like a rocket, and with a bang, he shook his head like a lion and headed the ball towards the goal.

Good header! With the eyes of Ramos, a header expert, he could immediately see that Hama's header was of extremely high quality.

Martinez is known for his versatility and he once played as a center forward under Bosque.

Under Guardiola, he is often sent into the opponent's penalty area to compete for headers.

It can be said that in the Spanish team, if we talk about who has the strongest heading ability, Ramos is number one.

Martinez is firmly in second place.

Hama's header was in a very tricky position and at a very fast speed. Romero had no way to deal with it. Although he reacted, he didn't touch the ball at all.

The football hit the bottom edge of the crossbar and flew into the goal!

3:1!

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Spain extended their lead in the 80th minute!

If Lin Quan's goal had secured the victory, then Hama's header could be said to have completely killed the suspense of the game.

Even with injury time, there were only a dozen minutes left in the game. It was very difficult to score two goals in the last ten minutes, especially when Argentina's core player Messi was exhausted.

So, after scoring this goal, everyone in Spain went crazy!

Martinez rushed towards Lin Quan excitedly and gave him a bear hug.

"Thank you Lin!"

The opponent said to pass the ball to him and he really passed the ball to him, and the position, angle and speed of the pass were just right.

If Lin Quan had not passed the ball very well, Martinez would not have been able to head the ball with such high quality.

So, he must thank Lin Quan!

"Haha, you're welcome. This ball was mainly because of your good header!"

Lin Quan's pass was indeed good, but if Martinez's own heading technique was too poor, no matter how good his pass was, it would be useless.

Therefore, most of the credit for this goal should be attributed to Hama himself.

"Hey, you two should stop being so humble. Lin, you said you would pass the ball to me, why did you stand me up?"

Ramos also wants to score, even more than Hama.

Although he is a defender, he has the heart of a striker!

"Sergio, you are a strategic weapon of our team, how can you be exposed so easily?"

Facing Ramos's accusation, Lin Quan lied in a serious manner.

"Really? Am I really that important?"

Ramos was skeptical about Lin Quan's words, but the other party's praise of the strategic weapon made him feel very useful.

"Of course, your heading ability is the best in our team. If that's the case, you must save this ability for the most important occasions!"

"And isn't the final in a few days more important than this semi-final?"

"Don't you want to use your superb header skills to score a stunning goal in front of hundreds of millions of fans around the world?"

No matter how many holes there are, flattery will never wear out.

Lin Quan's affirmation made Ramos feel highly valued, as if his status in the team had improved a lot at once!

The big picture that Lin Quan painted made Ramos feel that he was carrying a heavy sense of responsibility and mission on his shoulders.

He nodded repeatedly and said:

"Well, what you said makes sense. Let's save this header for the final!"

After saying this, he quickly returned to his defensive position with a serious look on his face, and prepared diligently to perform his duties as a defensive player.

Ramos is now looking forward to the final in four days and hopes to show off his heading skills in front of fans all over the world!

It would be best if he could score a header that all the fans would remember for the rest of their lives! Martinez's goal dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Argentine players, and Sabella on the sidelines hastily made substitutions.

But he didn't dare to replace Messi, who was exhausted. Even if Messi didn't have much energy left at this time, he couldn't be replaced.

Because he is still on the field, it means that Argentina still has a glimmer of hope.

But once he leaves the field, it means Argentina will give up the game, and the remaining players' fighting spirit will be even lower! However, Messi, who has little physical strength, can't even play half of his strength.

Faced with Spain's increasingly tight defense, Argentina's offensive seemed powerful but had no effect at all.

In the 88th minute, Di Maria suddenly fell to the ground after breaking into the penalty area.

The Argentine players excitedly rushed to the referee, asking for a penalty.

The location of the foul this time was undoubtedly inside the penalty area. The key now is whether the Spanish defensive player committed a foul.

The slow-motion footage from the scene showed that Pique's hand seemed to touch Di Maria, but it was more like an unintentional action and not an intentional foul.

But Di Maria didn't care about that. When he felt someone touched him, he immediately chose to fall to the ground. This was a great opportunity to ask for a penalty.

Pique excitedly explained to the referee what happened in the penalty area and protested against Di Maria's diving.

After discussing with the assistant referee, the referee finally awarded a penalty.

The penalty made the Spanish fans at the scene very dissatisfied! There were endless protests such as black whistle and diving! "The performance of Angel was a bit exaggerated!"

"It really falls down with just one touch!"

"It looked like Pique accidentally bumped into him when he turned around, and there was no subjective intention to foul!"

"That's right. Di Maria's breakthrough space and shooting angle were blocked. Who would be stupid enough to commit a foul at this time?"

The views of Spanish fans were naturally ridiculed by Argentine fans.

"A foul is a foul, don't touch Di Maria if you can!"

"That's right, if you make a mistake you must admit it, and if you get beaten you must stand at attention!"

"Haha, Messi stepped onto the penalty spot. If he scores this goal, Argentina will definitely be able to seize the opportunity to tie the score and defeat Spain!"

Amid the cheers of Argentine fans and boos of Spanish fans, Messi walked to the penalty spot.

He took a few steps back and looked at the Spanish goal.

Messi closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down, then took a deep breath and started running! Casillas closely watched Messi's every move, judging the direction of the opponent's shot, ready to save at any time.

left!

He made the right judgment, but failed to save the ball!

Because Messi's penalty kick went into the upper left corner!

In such a crucial game, Messi actually chose to take the penalty kick in such a risky way.

This reminds people of the previous match between Spain and Mexico, when Lin Quan also scored a similar penalty.

These two people seem to have big hearts!

After scoring the penalty, Messi quickly rushed into the goal, picked up the ball and ran towards the center circle.

There was little time left in the game and they were one goal behind.

If they wanted to tie the score and drag the game into overtime, they had to attack every second! Spain on the other side was also very aware of this, so after Argentina scored a point with a penalty kick, they retreated across the board in the following minutes.

The restrictions on Messi reached a more stringent level, and Messi could hardly get the ball at this time.

As soon as he gets the ball and passes it out immediately, he will be double-teamed or even kicked down.

After Messi was restricted, Di Maria became the most active person on the field.

However, Di Maria's diving style of play is actually a bad thing for Argentina at this time.

Spain's tactic against Di Maria was even simpler - foul.

And every foul will disrupt Argentina's offensive rhythm.

Every time Di Maria was violated, he would fall to the ground and scream, which actually wasted Argentina's own offensive time.

This greatly reduced Argentina's offensive threat and they were unable to score the third goal.

In the 4th minute of injury time, there were only a dozen seconds left before the end of the game.

Argentina's last offensive chance, the ball was passed to Messi's feet.

He summoned up his remaining courage, broke through the double-team of several Spanish players, created a little space, and managed to complete a long shot with great difficulty.

Unfortunately, the ball failed to pose a threat and was saved by Casillas.

The referee looked at the time and blew the whistle to end the game.

After more than ninety minutes of hard fighting, Spain finally defeated Argentina with a score of 3:2, got the last ticket to the final and met with the German team.

They are only one game away from defending their World Cup title!

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(End of this chapter)