Chapter 523: Bosque's Plan

Although the outside world was very harsh in criticizing him, the Spanish coach Bosque was in a good mood.

Don’t worry about whether the kick was good or not, just tell me whether you won or not?

At the post-match press conference, Bosque said he was very satisfied with the team's performance and hoped that the outside world would give more time and patience to the young players in the team.

"Morata and Nolito didn't perform well, it's not because they are not strong enough, I think it may be related to their lack of experience in such a big game. I hope everyone will not be too harsh on them and be more tolerant of young players!"

The reporters were not satisfied with Bosque's answer. Who would listen to you talk about Morata and others? Everyone is here for Lin Quan. Please tell us about Lin Quan!

In his heart, Bosque actually knew what these reporters wanted to hear, but the old coach was in a playful mood. The more the reporters wanted to know, the less he said. Instead, he rambled on at the press conference, talking about his team-building ideas, his recollections of the team's glorious history, and his vision for a better future.

The reporters finally couldn't help it and interrupted the old coach's long speech, asking directly: "Mr. Bosque, you added Lin Quan's name to Spain's 23-man roster, but he did not appear on the field, and he was not even seen on the bench. Is it true that he is unable to play for the team due to injury as rumored by the outside world?"

Bosque glanced at the questioner and saw that he was a Spanish reporter. This question was probably what Spanish fans were most concerned about.

In order to reassure his fans, he finally responded positively: "Lin is fine and can play for the team at any time!"

Sometimes, even if you tell the truth, not everyone will believe it, just like what happened now. Bosque's truth sounded like a bunch of lies to the reporters at the scene, and not a single word of it was believed.

A reporter from France asked: "If that's the case, why didn't you let Lin Quan play in this game? Without Lin Quan, Spain completely lost its dominance and almost couldn't even beat the Czech Republic!"

Bosque frowned slightly, feeling somewhat displeased with the reporter's words.

The opponent's words were obviously meant to sow discord between Lin Quan and the other Spanish players! "I don't think the Czech Republic is a weak team. In fact, they performed very well and are a very admirable team!"

Bosque first had a commercial exchange of praise for Spain's rival, the Czech Republic, affirming the opponent's strength, and by the way, he set up a reporter who had just started to belittle the Czech Republic, thus occupying the moral high ground.

As expected, the Czech coach smiled immediately after hearing what Bosque said: Spain's strength is ranked first in the world by FIFA, and it has occupied this position for six years. It can be called the old overlord of football.

Bosque was also listed as one of the candidates for the world's best coach because he led his team to win two World Cups, a European Cup and a Confederations Cup.

It is definitely something to boast about that the Czech team can be recognized by such a strong opponent.

On the contrary, the Czech coach's eyes were a little cold towards the rude and arrogant French.

"In addition, the main reason why Lin Quan was asked to rest was because he played more games in the club than other players, so he was given some extra time to rest. It was not because of injury as rumored by the outside world!"

Bosque is an old fox. Taking advantage of the opportunity of French reporters stirring up trouble, he once again reinforced the outside world's perception that Lin Quan was injured.

He knew that the more he refuted the rumor that Lin Quan was not injured, the more the outside world would suspect that he was lying and would instead believe that Lin Quan was injured.

As expected, after the content of the press conference was reported, the outside world did not believe what Bosque said and thought he was lying.

If Lin Quan can really play, then Bosque has no reason not to use him. Even if he is not allowed to start and lets him sit on the bench to cover the team, it will be of great help to the team. At least it can greatly improve the morale of the players on the field, making them less worried and more calm and confident.

However, Bosque did not do so, so there is only one truth - Lin Quan's injury is very serious and he cannot play for the team!

After drawing this conclusion, the outside world's view of the Spanish team completely changed.

There is less awe for the overlord and more of a desire to watch Spain being bullied by a dog when it is in a desperate situation.

Some people who are still skeptical about this matter have their eyes firmly fixed on the second game in Spain.

If Lin Quan had not played in this match, they would have completely believed the rumors from outside and no longer regarded Spain as the biggest competitor for winning the European Cup.

Bosque was very satisfied with the reaction from the outside world and really did not plan to let Lin Quan play in the second game.

Since they have won, they have the capital to continue to play! And judging from the performance of Turkey in the first game, Bosque feels that they are easier to play than the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic was indeed not strong, but they were able to recognize their own strength, position themselves correctly, and choose a very pragmatic defensive counterattack tactic. Although they were defeated by Spain in the end, their defense was indeed very successful, and they persisted until the 87th minute of the second half before conceding a goal.

On the other hand, Turkey did not seem to put itself in the right position. In the first game, they looked down on Croatia and wanted to compete with Croatia, but then they were taught a lesson by Croatia.

They have already lost one game, and if they fail to win this one, there is a high chance that they will be eliminated.

So Bosque judged that the opponent would most likely continue to attack! Spain's current problem is that the striker is weak. The offensive system in the frontcourt is built around Lin Quan. Without Lin Quan, the key player, the players are at a loss, and the offensive system is not running smoothly, so it is difficult to score goals.

But this does not mean that their defense will also have such problems. It will be very difficult for Türkiye to break through their defense.

Once Turkey presses forward, their backcourt will be empty, and Spain will have plenty of room to counterattack!

Simply put, Spain's current lineup and playing style are not afraid of you pressing forward, but are afraid of you shrinking and defending. If you are really determined to park the bus, let alone the Czech Republic and Turkey, even if you replace it with the Chinese national team, it will be difficult for Spain to defeat the opponent!

Bosque didn't let Lin Quan play, so Lin Quan was happy to have some free time.

While he had some free time, he took time out to go to Lyon to watch a match between Belgium and Italy.

This is a contest between the European Red Devils and the European Blues! As a new European team, the Belgian team has greatly improved its strength in recent years, and its world ranking has soared to third place, second only to the last World Cup champions and runners-up Spain and Germany.

Italy dropped to 12th place due to two consecutive World Cup defeats.

If we only look at the FIFA rankings and the lineups of both teams, Belgium should have the upper hand in this game.

After all, Belgium has a midfield duo of De Bruyne, Hazard, Witsel and Fellaini. In terms of the luxury of the midfield, Belgium is probably second only to Spain. It is one of the teams with the most gorgeous midfield lineup in this European Cup.

However, it is destined to be gorgeous, not powerful.

Belgium's responsibilities are unclear when attacking. De Bruyne and Hazard have overlapping roles on the field. Both of them can serve as the offensive core in the frontcourt. Choosing one of them as the main one and the other as the auxiliary is Manchester City's configuration.

However, if the responsibilities of the two are not clear and the core of the team's frontcourt is not determined, the two will be at a loss on the court, resulting in neither of them playing to their greatest strength.

On the other hand, the experienced Conte knew that Italy's midfield configuration was not good, so he simply reduced the tasks in the midfield and strengthened the two flanks, especially the left side.

When switching from defense to offense, let the midfielder pass the ball directly to the wing and let the wingers attack.

In this game, Italy played in a 352 formation, which greatly enhanced the threat of flank attacks.

In Italy's offensive rounds, the wingers can also get penetration and overlapping support from Giaccherini and Parolo in the midfield close to the wing when attacking.

In the 32nd minute of the first half, taking advantage of the gap exposed by the Belgian wing defense, Italian midfielder Giaccherini decisively inserted and shot a long shot into the Belgian goal.

Courtois once again made a cool flying save, but it was still a lonely save! When the Italians took the lead, the whole world knew what they were going to do next! That's right, shrink the defense! As a loyal believer in 1:0ism, plus he himself attaches great importance to defense.

The Italians really put a lot of effort into defense! After Giaccherini scored, Conte decisively signaled the team to shrink the defense line, make the distance between the three lines closer, and retreat on the two sides to form a numerical advantage in the local area and further curb the opponent's attack.

In addition, Conte also requires the forwards to constantly harass and press the opponent in the frontcourt to increase the difficulty for the opponent to pass the ball.

Especially the pressing against De Bruyne made it difficult for him to find opportunities to perform his deadly passes.

In this game, Belgium had nearly 70% ball possession and 18 shots, but its offensive efficiency was ridiculously low.

In this situation, Lukaku betrayed Belgium and defected to the enemy. In the 59th minute of the second half, he used his body to block De Bruyne's long shot in front of the goal, which made the situation even worse for Belgium.

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In the injury time, Italy scored another goal, setting the score at 2:0. This red and blue battle ended with the Italians' victory.

As one of the favorites to win this European Championship, the Belgians performed very poorly in the first game.

Judging from the strength on paper alone, this team's configuration can be described as luxurious.

But judging from their actual performance on the field, they are still far from being fully formed.

How to make good use of the two superstars, Hazard and De Bruyne, is the most headache for the Belgian head coach at the moment.

After the game, Lin Quan was the first to send a message of condolences to De Bruyne. De Bruyne played very depressed in this game.

In addition to having a goal blocked by his teammates, the feeling of being unable to use his strength on the court also made him very uncomfortable.

Didn’t the outside world comment that Hazard is the player most like Messi and Lin Quan?

But why is there no chemistry between him and me?

After the match between Belgium and Italy, the four favorites to win the European Cup have all finished their matches.

What? You ask why there is no uncrowned champion Netherlands? Haha, the Netherlands team lost again and again in the qualifiers. First, they were defeated twice by Iceland, which has a population of only 300,000, then by the Czech Republic, and then they were completely defeated by Turkey. They only won four games in 10 games, and they won against the weakest Kazakhstan and Latvia.

It is normal for such a team not to make it to the European Cup.

After all, European teams are generally strong, and it is common for them to upset established strong teams. It's just that it's relatively rare for them to be repeatedly beaten by weak teams like the Netherlands has been!

In fact, after the match in Group E ended, Portugal's match in Group F had not yet started.

Although Portugal has superstars like Ronaldo, the outside world is not optimistic that Portugal can win the championship.

Portugal did start off badly, drawing 1:1 with Iceland in the first game!

Although Iceland had defeated the Netherlands twice in the qualifying stage, the outside world did not think highly of this team and still regarded it as a weak team.

This is not surprising. How can a country with a population of only 300,000 produce a top team? The difference in the value of the starting lineups of the two teams is also very large. In the Icelandic team, the most valuable player is midfielder No. 10 Gylfi Sigurdsson, who is worth 10 million euros and currently plays for Swansea.

The market value of his teammates is generally within 3 million euros, and there are even some players worth less than 300,000 euros.

Such a lineup is definitely the most civilian and cheapest lineup in this European Cup.

The total value of the entire Icelandic team is less than one-fifth of Ronaldo's.

However, they used their tenacious fighting spirit, exquisite cooperation and deep tacit understanding to make up for the huge gap in their value.

After getting a point from Portugal with great difficulty, Iceland's qualifying situation seemed to have a glimmer of hope.

As long as they win one more of the next two games, they will be able to ensure their qualification.

Of course, with their strength, they may not be able to defeat the remaining two opponents.

Lin Quan also watched the match between Portugal and Iceland. In history, the final champion of this European Cup was the underdog Portugal.

It was indeed a miraculous thing that Portugal could make it to the end! If Lin Quan's memory was correct, he remembered that Portugal was tied by Austria, the weakest team in the group, in the next game, and was tied by Hungary in the last game.

In the end, they got 3 points with three consecutive draws, and advanced as the third in the group together with Northern Ireland in Group C with 3 points and 0 goal difference.

Although Albania in Group A and Türkiye in Group D also got 3 points, they were unfortunately eliminated due to the disadvantage of goal difference.

In the history of this European Cup, Portugal played 6 draws in the regular time of 7 games, which can be called the king of draws! But Portugal's resilience is indeed quite impressive. In the quarter-finals against Croatia and the final against France, Portugal dragged the opponent into overtime and defeated the opponent.

But this time, Lin Quan feels that it may be difficult for Portugal to create a miracle.

Because if Spain gets first place in the group, its opponent in the quarter-finals will be Portugal.

(End of this chapter)