After being given a warning by the Spanish team at the start of the game, Croatia became a little restrained.
They had anticipated before the game that this would be a situation where the enemy was strong and we were weak, and the enemy would attack and we would defend.
But they didn't expect Spain's attack to be so strong. In the first minute of the game, when most of the Croatian players had not yet entered the game state, they almost scored.
It seems that the opponent's attack power is not just stronger, it is ridiculously strong.
But Croatia's tactics today were very targeted. Including striker Mandzukic, the six players in the midfield and frontcourt are all capable of both offense and defense.
They were very active in intercepting and fighting in their own half, using active running and fierce physical confrontation to limit the opponent's passing and control tactics.
"Why does this move look familiar?"
On the sidelines, the Spanish coaching staff all widened their eyes when they discovered the opponent's tactics.
The Croatians' tactics gave them a sense of déjà vu.
"Isn't this what Atletico Madrid did to Barcelona in the league?"
Assistant coach Tony blurted out, and everyone suddenly realized.
No wonder it looks so familiar, it turns out they learned the tactics from Atletico Madrid?
"There are some differences. Atletico Madrid used high pressure, while Croatia did not push out its formation very aggressively. Even their forwards only moved around the center circle and never went deep alone."
Bosque has watched many Atletico Madrid games. Simeone has been doing well throughout Europe in recent years thanks to his coaching experience at Atletico Madrid.
After he achieved success in Atletico Madrid, more and more people began to study him.
Bosque has also watched many Atletico Madrid games in person and is very familiar with Simeone's tactics.
The tactics Simeone uses at Atletico Madrid are still defensive counterattacks, but his defense is an oppressive defense.
By actively running and stealing the ball, emphasizing physical confrontation, the opponent will not be able to get the ball or pass it comfortably, which will increase the opponent's forced errors.
Nine out of ten goals on the field come when the opponent makes mistakes. The more mistakes the opponent makes, the more scoring opportunities Atletico will naturally have.
What's more, a lot of Atletico's defense is high-pressure pressing, and the position is very forward. Once they get the ball, they don't need to spend a lot of effort to pass it from the backcourt to the frontcourt. They can often complete the shot in the first time by relying on the cooperation between several offensive players in the frontcourt.
As a result, Atletico Madrid's counterattack speed and quality are greatly improved, which greatly increases the difficulty of opponent's defense and further improves their own scoring efficiency.
Simeone's tactics are always effective in La Liga. Not to mention ordinary teams, even Barcelona and Real Madrid find it difficult to adapt when facing them.
Originally, La Liga was dominated by two giants, but in recent years Simeone has forcibly transformed it into a three-way competition.
Compared to the star-studded Barcelona and Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, whose lineup is far inferior to theirs, can achieve such outstanding results in the league, which shows the power of their tactics.
It is precisely because of this that the trend of high-pressure pressing is sweeping across European football, and many mid- and lower-level teams have begun to learn Atletico Madrid's style of play.
It's just that this is the first time I've seen someone use this trick in the World Cup.
Guardiola in the stands had a different opinion. He had also watched Atletico's games and even led his team to play against Atletico.
To be honest, Croatia's style is really not Atletico Madrid's.
Not only is the position different, but the playing style is also different.
They are not aggressive in their tackles and are very careful to protect their backs, never leaving any gaps easily.
The players were not playing man-to-man defense, but more like controlling the zone.
Especially Modric in the midfield, he is like a fire captain, rushing to provide reinforcement wherever there is danger.
Guardiola has seen a technical statistic of the World Cup, which shows that Modric's average running distance per game in this World Cup is more than 11 kilometers.
This is a very exaggerated statistic. You know, Modric is 33 years old this year and is an "elderly" veteran.
Compared with him, Iniesta, who is one year older than him, has far less running data in this World Cup. Many times, Bosque even had to put Iniesta on the bench because his condition no longer supported him to play continuously.
So after watching for more than ten minutes, Guardiola summed up the characteristics of this Croatian team:
The team has strong tactical execution capabilities, high morale among the players, good defensive enthusiasm, and good tacit understanding.
The shortcomings are also obvious. This team has relatively few top players, only a few such as Modric and Rakitic.
If the standards are stricter, Modric might be the only one left.
Rakitic is a piece of the puzzle for a strong team, but he cannot act as the core of the midfield. He is more suitable to be a wingman. If there is a top midfield master in the team, he will be a good choice.
But if he is asked to serve as the brain of the team, his organizational and command abilities are not enough to handle this task.
This role is played by Modric in the Croatian team, and by Iniesta and Messi in Barcelona.
Relying on tenacious fighting spirit, the Croatians blocked the Spanish attacks time and time again.
They can even launch a counterattack occasionally, proving that they are still capable of fighting back and are not just passively taking a beating.
But this did not change the passive situation on the field at all. Spain's offensive was very fierce during this period.
The main reason why Spain attacked so fiercely was that they did not want the suspense of the game to drag on.
Although the average age of the opposing team is not low, the average age of Spain is older.
Among the 11 starting players, except Lin Quan, De Gea, Isco and Nacho, the rest are all veterans over 30 years old.
De Gea, Nacho and others were all born in 1990 and are already 28 years old this year.
If Lin Quan had not drastically lowered the average age of the Spanish team, their average age would probably be over 31 years old.
Why has Spain's dominance in football declined in recent years? With such an aging squad, it would be strange if it didn't decline.
For veterans, physical condition is their biggest bottleneck.
And the older you get, the harder it is to concentrate, and the longer the delay becomes, the more obvious it becomes.
Therefore, the Spanish team must end the game as soon as possible and must not drag the game into overtime or even a penalty shootout.
If the game is really dragged into overtime, the old players of the Spanish team won't be able to run, so how can they fight against their opponents?
The opponent was obviously aware of this, so Croatia focused all its attention on defense in the first half.
As for attacking, you just have to try your best. It doesn't matter if you fail to score. At least you can deter the opponent and slightly relieve the pressure on your own defense.
But if they are lucky enough to get in, they will make a lot of money, and they can keep it with peace of mind.
After 20 minutes of ineffective attack, Lin Quan realized that it would be disadvantageous for them if they continued to play at this pace.
In addition, after attacking for so long, the players’ physical strength is a bit exhausted, and they need to slow down the pace a bit to give everyone a break.
So after getting the ball, he didn't continue to attack, but started to control the rhythm.
Seeing that the opponent had suspended the attack, Croatia also breathed a sigh of relief.
Although they managed to hold on, the fierce attack just now really made them breathless.
The Spanish team's attack is not the kind of loud thunder but little rain. Their cooperation in the frontcourt is very sharp, especially the passing and cutting cooperation between Lin Quan and Iniesta, Isco and David Silva in a small area, which is even more difficult to defend against.
At the most dangerous moment, there was panic in front of Croatia's goal, as if a goal could be scored at any time.
If it weren't for the goalkeeper's strong performance and the whole team's perseverance and tenacious willpower, they would have fallen behind by now.
More than 80,000 spectators at the scene shared the same feelings as the Croatian players.
Although the score was still 0:0, the first 20 minutes of the game were definitely exciting and not boring at all.
One side attacks brilliantly, the other side defends beautifully.
Being able to watch such a wonderful game live is totally worth the ticket price.
"Whoever said that the Spanish team's game was hypnotic and made people sleepy, that's nonsense!"
"That's right, I was so nervous watching this game that I almost suffocated. I didn't feel sleepy at all!"
"Today's Spain played very un-Spanish!"
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"It's a bit like a combination of Germany and Brazil, aggressive but disciplined."
"Yes, coupled with Spain's unique and delicate technology, to be honest, just watching the first 20 minutes, I felt that the peak bullfighting team was completely back!"
Taking advantage of the slowdown in the pace of the game, fans started a crazy discussion online.
The most discussed issue is the abnormal performance of the Spanish team.
Old fans all know how the Spanish team plays, but new fans don’t understand that and many of them are just following the trend to join in the fun.
So after watching the first 20 minutes of the game, the new fans were still shouting "Spain is awesome" and "this is the strength of the defending champions".
The old fans frowned and began to analyze seriously:
"The Spanish team played very abnormally today!"
"Yes, it feels like they are in a hurry to attack."
"Even a veteran like Xiaobai had seven dribbling attempts in the first 20 minutes, which is really abnormal."
"They are attacking the opponent with all their strength, and they are not going to stop until the goal is scored. Maybe they don't want to drag the game on, right?"
"I think they know they have a lot of veteran players and they don't dare to drag it out. Besides, the resilience of the Croatian team is obvious to all. In addition, the penalty shootout against Denmark in the last game was too outrageous. I'm afraid no team would want to have a penalty shootout with them."
"So the suspense of this game won't last too long. Either Spain will fail to score and be ambushed by their opponents, or the game will go into overtime and then lose.
Either Croatia can't withstand the opponent's onslaught, concedes too many goals and is eliminated. There are only two possible outcomes."
…
While controlling the ball, Lin Quan glanced at the game time.
Only 20 minutes had passed in the first half, so there was still plenty of time left for the Spanish team.
Their offensive task is indeed heavy, but as long as they can score a goal in the first half, everything will be fine.
But if no goal was scored in the first half, the outcome of the game would be hard to predict.
Seeing that the opponent stopped attacking, the Croatian team naturally began to push the defense line outwards.
They were previously pressed too tightly by the Spanish team's attack on three lines, and now they need to push out a little to restore the distance and elasticity between the three lines.
Moreover, since the opponent was passing the ball back and forth in front of them, they naturally couldn't just ignore it.
So when Lin Quan received the ball near the center circle again, Mandzukic rushed towards him aggressively.
When Mandzukic moved, the positions of several teammates behind him also moved.
But they are all very conservative and have not moved forward much.
Lin Quan saw all of this, and when Mandzukic was about to rush to him, he calmly passed the ball to Busquets next to him.
I would also like to praise Busquets' football IQ here. Although Lin Quan had not discussed it with him, he seemed to understand Lin Quan's intention, so when he received the pass from Lin Quan, he moved a few steps towards his own half.
Just a few steps, not obvious on the court, and it looked like Lin Quan's pass was too powerful, so Busquets had to retreat to receive the ball.
The Croatian players on the field did not suspect anything. Mandzukic trotted away from Lin Quan and moved towards Busquets.
Mandzukic actually didn't really want to snatch the ball from the opponent's feet, which can be seen from his running movements.
He just came up to do his job and showed his respect, not wanting to waste his energy on Busquets.
Before, his teammates had tried hard to steal the ball in their own half for so long but had not succeeded many times. Now it was even more impossible for him to snatch the ball away from the opponent alone.
Just do it for the sake of meaning, put a little pressure on the opponent, make them pass the ball back or sideways, don't let them organize calmly, just pass a good ball forward.
Busquets saw Mandzukic coming and took the initiative to retreat towards his own backcourt with the ball.
Seeing the opponent's move, Mandzukic hesitated a little.
I don’t know whether to continue following.
The opponent has his back to him. If he follows him and grabs the ball from his feet when he is not prepared, he will most likely get a chance to shoot.
If he doesn't follow, Busquets can create distance and pass the ball freely without interference.
Mandzukic is not an indecisive person. After just a moment of hesitation, he made a decision: Follow!
According to the coach's pre-match arrangement, the teammates must have been ready in the back.
Even without a striker like me, it won't have much impact on the defense.
But if he does steal the ball, the rewards are huge.
Thinking of this, Mandzukic, who was jogging, suddenly accelerated, and like a cheetah eyeing its prey, he pounced on Busquets quickly.
The Spanish fans in the stands saw the opponent's striker suddenly attack and their eyes widened. Some of them even shouted, trying to warn Busquets.
Busquets had his back to his opponent and seemed unaware of the danger that was approaching.
But just as Mandzukic rushed behind him and stretched out his foot to grab the ball, Busquets passed the ball.
Pique, his teammate in the national team and club, received the pass from Busquets. As soon as Pique received the ball, Mandzukic immediately abandoned Busquets and rushed over.
But Pique was facing him and had already noticed his move to steal the ball, so he took the initiative to retreat when receiving the ball, keeping a safe distance.
At this time, Pique ignored Mandzukic, looked up to observe the position of his teammates, and then passed the ball to the teammate wearing the No. 10 red jersey on the field! (End of this chapter)