Chapter 639 Lin Quan scored twice and ended the game!

During the halftime break, the English dressing room was filled with gloom.

Almost everyone, including the head coach and players, was struggling to figure out how to turn the disadvantage around.

Although they were only one goal behind their opponents, for them who mainly played defensive counterattacks, this one goal was the end of them.

With only three substitutions available, it is very difficult to make drastic adjustments to the team's existing personnel and tactics. After all, they had previously fielded five defenders in order to strengthen their defense.

The help these five defenders can provide in offense is quite limited. If you want to attack, you must replace some of them with offensive players.

There are actually quite a few good attacking players sitting on the England team's bench, such as Leicester City striker Vardy, Manchester United winger Rashford and others.

Substituting these people can effectively improve the England team's attacking power, but the number of substitutions is limited. If all the substitutions are used up too early, if something unexpected happens later, they will have no substitutions left.

And Southgate was also very worried. What if they attacked in the second half and the back line was empty, and the opponent took advantage of the situation to score again? The probability of this happening was quite high. After all, their defense in the first half was completed by piling up defensive players in the backcourt.

Once all the players are involved in the offense and the number of defenders decreases, their defense will definitely be greatly weakened.

Unless they can play the same extreme passing and control as the Spanish team and keep the ball firmly under their feet, otherwise, they will have to face the frequent and threatening counterattacks of the Spanish team.

Southgate hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to observe and see the situation first.

Substitutions were definitely necessary, but he didn't dare use up all three substitutions at once.

Instead, he only used one, replacing Ashley Young with Rashford.

As for the vacancy left by Ashley Young, Southgate chose to move Stones' position forward on the back line and let him cooperate with Henderson as a double defensive midfielder.

Stones and Lin Quan are teammates in the club, and he occasionally played as a defensive midfielder when he was at Manchester City. His understanding of this position and his teammate Lin Quan will help him achieve good performances.

This is Southgate's real idea behind this arrangement, but it is hard to say whether it will work.

Compared with the adjustments made by the England team, the Spanish team did not make any substitutions.

They still used the same lineup as in the first half, and even their playing style did not change.

After the start of the second half, fans soon noticed that England made more offensive attempts.

This change can be seen from their active stealing in the midfield and their active forward movement after successful steals.

The English were obviously well prepared. They must have practiced the Spanish midfield's sweeps and pressing before the game, so at the beginning of the second half, they took advantage of their opponents' carelessness and caught the Spanish team off guard.

The Spanish team was really a bit careless. They had warned that the opponent would intensify their attack in the second half, but they obviously underestimated the power of their opponent's youth storm.

The overall age of the England team on the field is very young. They are the team with the youngest average age in this World Cup, even younger than the French team.

After Ashley Young was substituted, the 11 English players on the field were all born in the 1990s! Harry Kane, who is less than 25 years old, Sterling, who is 23 years old, Jesse Lingard, who is 25 years old, Rashford, who is less than 19 years old, and Dele Alli, who is 22 years old...

This England team is too young, no wonder the outside world has such high expectations of them.

After they reached the World Cup semi-finals, they were dubbed the Super Platinum Generation.

Perhaps it will be difficult for them to go further in this World Cup, but in the next World Cup, after these young players grow up, it is hard to imagine how strong the England team will become.

Young players may not have as much game experience as old players, but their physical fitness and impact are obviously not comparable to those of the old antiques.

What's more, England's midfield and frontcourt also have tall and strong players like Kane and Ali, especially Ali, who has an absolute advantage in the physical confrontation with the Spanish midfielders.

Thanks to Ali's outstanding performance, the England team had many offensive opportunities during this period.

But due to the lack of a stable passer, England's offense lacked threat.

Neither Lingard nor Alli are the type of people who can deliver the decisive pass, and their intention to pass the ball forward to the strikers is too obvious, allowing the Spanish team to always intercept and defend first.

This left Sterling and Kane on the front line to return empty-handed time and time again.

The attack in the middle was fruitless, but the attack on the wing was improving.

After Rashford came on, England's threat on the left side increased sharply.

At this point in time, Rashford was not yet the Master Rashford of later generations, but his attitude towards the game on the field was still fine.

Moreover, Rashford is very fast, has good footwork and dribbling ability.

With his presence, England's attack on the left side was very successful.

Rashford tirelessly made crosses from the bottom time and time again, passing the ball selflessly to his teammates.

But his teammates on the front line were not very strong, and his "wonderful passes" were wasted time and time again.

Well, this wonderful pass was made up by Rashford himself in his mind.

In fact, Harry Kane and Sterling on the front line had a lot of opinions about his passing. The two thought that Rashford's passing was too formulaic, and he just took the ball to the bottom and hung it in the middle.

After a few times, the opponent's defenders were prepared, and Harry Kane was blocked so tightly that he could hardly get the ball.

Although Sterling was able to squeeze into any gaps because of his short stature, all the balls passed by Rashford were high. With a height of only 1.70 cm, he had no way of getting the ball to land and was completely reduced to a decoration in the penalty area.

Southgate on the sidelines was so angry that his nose was crooked. Rashford is really a guy that people both love and hate!

He can break through and cross the ball on the wing, which is very good, but you are a winger, not a full-back. Why do you always pursue crosses from the bottom? Can't you cut into the penalty area and cooperate with your teammates?

When you dribble the ball into the penalty area, even if you don't rush in, just outside the penalty area can distract the opponent's defender and reduce the pressure on your teammates in the penalty area.

What's more, the closer to the goal, the greater the threat of the ball. If you could pass the ball directly to Kane's feet, with Kane's strength, wouldn't he have scored long ago?

In fact, it’s not that Rashford doesn’t want to do this, but that he simply can’t do it.

Spain's defense was very targeted. When England attacked, Lin Quan would come over from the middle to assist and cooperate with David Silva on the wing to drive Rashford to the wing.

The Spanish right-back Carvajal is also very experienced. He blocked Rashford's route to the penalty area and gave the outside line to you.

You can dribble the ball down the field or pass it, it’s up to you, but if you want to cut inside, that’s not allowed!

Although Rashford has good breakthrough ability, it is still difficult for him to fight one against two. Facing the defense line set up by these two people, he did not dare to force a charge and was forced to dribble the ball to the bottom and then pass the ball according to the opponent's intention.

But in front of him, Carvajal's defense was not out of position, and with interference from others, the quality of his cross can be imagined.

England's offensive lasted for seven or eight minutes, and the Spanish team gradually adapted and began to take the initiative.

In the 57th minute of the second half, Koke made a steal in the backcourt and then passed the ball to David Silva on the wing.

David Silva dodged Sterling's attempt to steal the ball and then passed the ball diagonally to Lin Quan in the front left.

Lin Quan changed direction and dribbled the ball past Lingard who was blocking him. Then he looked up to observe the positions of his teammates and made a long pass to transfer the ball to the left side of the court.

Over there, Isco has already rushed forward.

The ball was passed a little in advance, and combined with his speed, Isco just caught up with the ball when it landed.

England's right-back Walker was sprinting, trying to compete with Isco in speed.

But seeing that the opponent had successfully taken the ball, he had to slow down and prepare to intercept Isco's breakthrough.

Seeing this, Isco took the ball to the middle, attracted Walker to follow up, and then passed the ball back to the wing.

A red figure rushed past. Alba, the left back of the Spanish team, had passed two people, received the ball on the wing and quickly sprinted towards the baseline.

Walker hurriedly chased back, but the opponent's speed had increased and he couldn't catch up for a while.

As soon as Walker left, Isco came back to life. He quickly accelerated and walked straight along the flank area, preparing to reach the front of the penalty area to cooperate with his teammates.

Alba's name is very similar to Bayern's Alaba, with only one letter difference.

But in fact, these two players are of different styles. Alba's offensive ability is greater than his defensive ability, which is very similar to Marcelo of Real Madrid.

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As the world's number one left-back, Alaba is a true all-around fighter who is good at both offense and defense. While he has outstanding offensive ability, he also has strong defensive ability.

In addition, Alaba has comprehensive skills and a good long-range shot. In the Austrian national team, which is short of talent, he is even used as the core of the midfield.

Guardiola has always wanted to sign him, but has never been able to do so because Bayern Munich refused to let him go.

Alba did not cross the ball like Rashford did, but passed the ball back to Isco, then cut inside and rushed into the penalty area.

Isco understood what he meant and immediately passed the ball to him again.

Spain has become very skilled in this set of passing and cutting tactics on the wing, coupled with Alba's distinctive personal characteristics, so the attack on this side was what Bosque emphasized before the game.

The continuous passing and cutting between the two was very tacit and fast.

Walker was running the whole time, but how could a human be faster than the ball?

Although he tried his best, it still had no effect and he could only watch Alba shoot.

England goalkeeper Pickford reacted quickly. When Alba shot, he immediately moved sideways and flew to save the ball, narrowly saving it from going over the crossbar.

Alba saw the ball being saved by the opponent's goalkeeper and shook his head helplessly.

With the shot just now, he felt that he had performed beyond his expectations, but it still didn't go in.

Spain got a corner kick opportunity, and Lin Quan discussed the corner kick tactics with David Silva.

They took a lot of corner kicks and set pieces in the first half, but as the opponent had a clear height advantage, these set pieces failed to pose a threat.

So Lin Quan tried to change his tactics and no longer kicked the ball directly into the penalty area.

"Let's play like this... first like this... then like this..."

After Lin Quan finished speaking, David Silva, Busquets and others nodded repeatedly.

“I think it’s feasible!”

David Silva had no objection.

"Don't worry, I will definitely deliver the ball accurately to your feet!"

Busquets patted his chest and said that he would complete the task assigned to him.

Seeing the two people express this, Lin Quan nodded and chose to believe them.

It doesn't matter even if this tactic doesn't succeed, it's just a waste of a corner kick.

So far in this game, Spain has won 9 corner kicks.

The previous eight attempts all failed, so it’s no big deal even if this one is wasted.

Of course, it would be best if it could succeed.

Seeing the opposing players discussing tactics and pointing fingers in the penalty area, the English players became suspicious, wondering what their opponents were up to.

But they all became more vigilant because they knew the other party definitely had bad intentions.

Soon, David Silva came to the corner area.

He took a few steps back, looked towards the penalty area, and made a gesture.

The England players didn't understand what the gesture meant, but when they saw Ramos, Pique and other Spanish players running back, they also moved back.

At this moment, David Silva kicked the ball to Busquets who was not far away from him.

Tactical corner kick?

When the England players saw that the opponent did not directly pass the ball into the penalty area, they were stunned for a moment, and then the players in the front field immediately rushed over, ready to interfere with and intercept Busquets.

Busquets was overjoyed to see that the opponent's formation was rushing outwards just as Lin Quan had expected. He continued to pass the ball calmly. This time he passed the ball to Lin Quan who was lying in ambush outside the penalty area.

When Lin Quan saw the ball coming, he shot it directly without hesitation, making a long shot.

Because he was quite far away from Busquets, most of the opposing players rushed in Busquets' direction, so no one came to interfere with him immediately.

This gave Lin Quan safe shooting space and allowed him to shoot from long range without any interference or threat.

After completing this long shot, Lin Quan felt that he had succeeded.

It turns out that the players' intuition was very accurate.

Lin Quan's long-range shot was a world-class goal. The football drew a beautiful arc in the air at an extremely fast speed and hit the blind corner of the goal.

England goalkeeper Pickford tried his best, but he was really helpless against this long shot that went straight into the blind corner.

The score became 2:0. Lin Quan scored twice and almost killed the England team single-handedly!

(End of this chapter)