Chapter 549: Time is running out for the Portuguese team
The Portuguese dressing room was filled with gloom. Head coach Fernando Santos sensed the heavy atmosphere in the dressing room and was thinking hard about how to boost morale.
Their performance in the first half was actually not particularly bad. The difference between the two sides in terms of statistics was not big. Spain only had a higher ball possession rate than Portugal. The number of shots between the two sides was not much different. Portugal even attacked the 30-meter dangerous area more times.
Spain's goal was more like a coincidence, not a goal scored by penetrating their defense in a positional battle.
But being behind is being behind, no matter how the opponent scored, the opponent scored anyway.
This was a real headache! Playing the second half with a disadvantage was not what he had expected.
"In the second half, we have to change our tactics!"
Fernando clapped his hands, attracted the attention of all the players, and then spoke slowly.
…
In the Spanish locker room, Bosque was also arranging tactics for the second half.
"In the second half, we will mainly rely on defensive counterattacks. Portugal will definitely attack, and their backcourt will be very empty. As long as we can seize the opportunity to switch from defense to offense at the right time and get the ball to the striker's feet, we will have a chance to score!"
Portugal's defensive intensity was very high in the first half, and Spain did not gain much advantage in the positional battle.
However, once the opponent attacked in the second half, it would be impossible for them to maintain such strong defensive capabilities.
In this situation, it was even easier for Spain to score than in the first half.
Of course, this is also risky. When the opponent increases their offensive strength, the probability of Spain losing the ball will also increase. If they fail to withstand the pressure and the opponent equalizes the score before they can counterattack, the situation will be unpredictable.
So Bosque made some adjustments to Spain's formation. He planned to replace Fabregas with Martinez, and then let Martinez move back and change to a five-defender formation.
However, Fabregas is an important passing point for the Spanish team in counterattacks. Once Lin Quan also joins the counterattack, he may even be the only passing point.
In this situation, if he is substituted, the responsibility of passing the ball in the counterattack will fall entirely on Lin Quan.
Bosque did not doubt that Lin Quan did not have such ability. In fact, with Lin Quan's organizational and passing level, he was fully capable of doing this job.
But Lin Quan is not only an important member of the Spanish midfield, but also an indispensable attacker on the front line and the most stable scorer in the Spanish team.
If he is placed at the back, and Morata, Pedro and others are relied upon on the front line, Bosque always feels that it is a little unreliable.
It's not that these people's level is not good. They are definitely first-class or even top players in the world, but if you compare them with Lin Quanyi, the gap is like the Mariana Trench! So, he looked at Iniesta and Thiago on the bench again and again.
Both of them have good organizational and passing abilities. If they can be substituted on the court, there won't be such concerns.
However, the defensive abilities of these two are a bit worrying.
If they are substituted, Busquets will have to come off the field, but Busquets is very important to the defense of the Spanish midfield and he cannot be easily allowed to leave the field.
Spain will face great defensive pressure in the second half, and Busquets cannot be replaced in this situation.
So Bosque was very conflicted and couldn't make up his mind.
…
The fifteen-minute break passed in a flash, and players from both sides returned to the field to start the second half of the game.
As Bosque expected, after the start of the second half, Portugal immediately accelerated the tempo of the game. Without wasting time on passing the ball, pulling and testing, they directly launched a fierce attack on the Spanish goal.
They tried to attack from the middle at first, but the Spanish players were densely packed in the middle and their formation was tight.
The Portuguese players' footwork is not as delicate as that of the Spanish players, and they cannot play out the exquisite coordination of the two teams. After several unsuccessful attacks, the Portuguese decisively changed their tactics and began to focus on attacking from the flanks.
Nani was very active, frequently creating threats on the wing and even sent a very threatening cross to Ronaldo in the penalty area. Unfortunately, Ronaldo failed to seize the opportunity. His header was too focused on the angle and was slightly higher than the crossbar, and he missed this excellent opportunity.
When Ronaldo saw that his shot missed, he held his head in frustration. The Portuguese fans in the stands were even more upset than him. They beat their chests and stamped their feet, wishing they could take Ronaldo's place and head the ball into the goal.
Of course, this is impossible. Ronaldo is already the player with the best heading ability among active players. Anyone else may not be able to do better than him.
Although the ball did not go in, the Portuguese seemed to see an opportunity.
In the next few attacks, they frequently passed the ball from the bottom, trying to replicate the previous attack.
Ronaldo fought very hard in this game. As long as his teammates passed the ball to him, he would fight for it regardless of whether he could receive it or not, even if it meant getting injured.
For Ronaldo, this may be the closest he has ever been to the championship in his entire national team career.
If I fail to seize this opportunity, I may never have another chance to win the championship in the future.
So, if we don’t fight now, when will we fight? Sometimes fighting doesn’t guarantee success. Ronaldo’s headers are so threatening that Spain can’t be unprepared.
As Ronaldo's teammate in the club, Ramos is very clear about Ronaldo's heading ability.
So after Ronaldo entered the penalty area, he followed him closely, trying every way to interfere with and destroy his chances of heading the ball.
He is always unable to get to the ball's spot in the first place, and has to use physical confrontation or even some covert little moves to prevent Ronaldo from exerting force, or at least not give him the chance to jump comfortably to compete for the header.
Ronaldo was very helpless about this and protested to the referee several times, but the referee remained indifferent.
This level of pulling by Ramos is still within the scope of reasonable physical confrontation, and both players are in the penalty area, so he cannot blow the whistle easily.
In such a crucial game, human intervention in the game should be minimized.
Unless the opponent committed a very obvious foul, if he easily awarded Portugal a penalty, wouldn't he be criticized by fans all over the world? Seeing that Ronaldo was alone in the penalty area, Portugal immediately made a substitution, replacing the 190cm tall Eder with the left midfielder Sanches.
The intention of this substitution was very clear, which was to increase Portugal's impact in the penalty area and better seize the opportunity of passing from the wing to break the deadlock.
Ed played a significant role after he came on the court. At least he shared the pressure on Ronaldo and prevented him from being sandwiched from both sides.
Moreover, in positional warfare, he can pass the ball to Ronaldo with his back to the goal, giving Ronaldo a better chance to shoot.
After Portugal replaced Ede, their attack improved significantly and the threat to the Spanish goal suddenly increased.
In the 65th minute of the second half, Ronaldo received a pass from Eder and suddenly kicked a long shot from the top of the penalty area, almost penetrating the Spanish goal.
If Casillas had not been so highly focused and had not worked with Ronaldo for many years and was very familiar with Ronaldo's shooting habits, the ball might have really gone in!
Seeing that the team was in a passive position, the situation in front of the goal became tense.
Bosque immediately made a substitution, replacing Fabregas with Martinez.
Martinez is 1.92 meters tall, and when he was at Bayern, he was transformed into a central defender by Guardiola, which allows him to adapt to both the position of defensive midfielder and the position of central defender.
Bosque's purpose of bringing him on was to strengthen the defense, but when attacking, his position should move forward and return to the position of defensive midfielder to serve as a passing and receiving point.
After Martinez came on the pitch, Spain's defensive intensity was greatly improved, and the five-back position also compressed the opponent's offensive space from the flanks.
The Portuguese team still wanted to attack the flanks as before, but found that the effect was not ideal, so Nani began to try to make changes, choosing to cut inside more often when attacking instead of passing the ball.
But this makes Ronaldo and Ed a bit embarrassed.
Ronaldo is not a standing striker. He lacks the back-to-the-basket ability of a traditional center. When no teammates pass the ball to him, he takes the initiative to retreat to his comfort zone in the ribs, intending to complete the attack from here.
This choice cannot be said to be wrong. After all, after returning to this position, Ronaldo made several very beautiful shots.
But when the opponent's defense is tight, it is not easy to score from this position.
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It will be very difficult for Ronaldo to replicate his club success in Portugal because Portugal's midfield is far inferior to that of Real Madrid.
While Portugal was launching a massive attack, Spain was also not idle.
They seized the opportunity and launched several counterattacks. Morata even scored a one-on-one goal, but it was offside and the referee disallowed it.
Morata felt that he was in very good shape today, especially when not many people were marking him. He felt that he might really be able to score a goal in the final.
Spain's counterattack was effective. After feeling threatened, Portugal did not dare to attack as recklessly as before.
But after Fabregas was substituted, they realized that as long as they could curb Lin Quan's passing point, they could completely stifle Spain's counterattack.
As a result, several midfielders of the Portuguese team took turns to use various means to interfere with and obstruct Lin Quan's passes, denying the Spanish team a chance to launch a quick counterattack.
On the field, the best chance to score is when the opponent switches from offense to defense. At this time, a large number of players are participating in the attack in the frontcourt, and the back defense is extremely empty. As long as someone can pass the ball in the first time, passing the opponent's densely populated midfield and passing it to the empty back, it can directly threaten the opponent's goal.
However, it is not easy to complete this passing task, because the person holding the ball must not only have a broad vision and accurate passing, but also have a strong ability to get rid of the interception and complete the forward pass when the defensive player pounces on him.
Those who possess all these abilities at the same time are all world-class midfielders, such as De Bruyne of Manchester City and Modric of Real Madrid.
The Chinese national football team lacks such key players, which results in every counterattack being ineffective. If they are slightly blocked by the opponent, they will either lose the ball or be forced to pass the ball back, which then turns into a positional battle.
Once forced into a positional battle, with the opponent ready to fight, it would be even more difficult for the Chinese national team with its weak forward force to score. Therefore, it is not surprising that they scored no goals in three games of the Asian Cup.
In the Chinese national team's frontcourt, no one could hold the ball at all. The five-defender formation could only defend but not counterattack. They could only passively take the beating. If they were lucky, they could not lose the ball and get a draw and one point. If they were unlucky, they could not defend and would lose.
The Portuguese were lucky because Lin Quan just happened to meet these conditions.
He has a very broad vision and can keenly capture opportunities and spaces.
He even knows the position and movements of every player on the court. He has very delicate footwork and outstanding passing ability. He can often send the ball to his teammates in the most comfortable way, allowing them to complete the shot comfortably.
More importantly, Lin Quan has top-notch escaping ability.
When a defensive player faces him one-on-one, it is easy for him to be passed by, especially when he is in a hurry and pounces to intercept, being passed by is almost inevitable.
Therefore, the best way to deal with him is to double-team him, but how could there be so many people to double-team him in such a hurry?
So the Portuguese chose another way - foul! In the 69th minute of the second half, Spain had a chance to counterattack. Lin Quan had just got the ball and was about to pass it when he was knocked to the ground by Adrian who rushed over from the side.
Beep! With a whistle, the referee immediately stopped the game and took out a yellow card to warn the Portuguese midfielder.
Adrian neither reached out to pull Lin Quan nor protested to the referee. He just lowered his head and left without saying a word.
There is nothing to protest about this foul. His foul action was very obvious and he couldn't deny it even if he wanted to.
If he had not been the last defensive player, it might not have been just a yellow card.
Adrian was not the only Portuguese player to receive a card for fouling Lin Quan. Sanches, who was substituted earlier, was given a yellow card in the first half for fouling Lin Quan.
Including Cedric who received a yellow card at the beginning of the game, Portugal received a total of five yellow cards in this game, three of which were caused by Lin Quan.
This shows how much price Portugal paid to restrict Lin Quan.
Seeing midfielder Adrian get a card, Portugal coach Fernando could no longer sit still.
He called Moutinho from the bench, gave him some instructions, and prepared to send him on the field.
The midfield position is very critical. If a player is afraid to commit a foul because he has a yellow card, the team may lose the ball.
Therefore, it is necessary to replace him with someone who can commit tactical fouls.
Portugal did commit too many fouls, and with so many yellow cards, it was a bit difficult to play.
But it is strange that while all his teammates received cards, Pepe, who is known as the monk, has not received a yellow card so far. This is really an amazing thing.
Pepe actually felt very lucky. Lin Quan was not particularly active on the wing in this game, and his main targets to defend were Morata and Pedro.
It is not particularly difficult to defend these two people. With Pepe's own ability, he can handle it, so there is no need to foul.
Many times, Pepe's fouls were retaliatory fouls after he became angry and humiliated.
The nature of this foul is quite serious, which is the main reason why he often receives red cards or even additional suspensions.
It was a good thing that Pepe did not receive a card, but as the game time passed and Portugal failed to score a goal, the Portuguese fans at the scene became anxious.
Now you don't care about getting a card or not, just score a goal quickly! There is not much time left in the regular time of the game! The Portuguese team doesn't have much time left!
(End of this chapter)