Chapter 54 Top 8
1. The Chinese team upset the Brazilian team, creating the biggest upset of this World Cup so far, and also changed the atmosphere of the World Cup.
The World Cup without a host always feels weird.
Fans are also less enthusiastic about football.
In the next few World Cup quarter-finals, the number of fans attending the games decreased significantly.
However, FIFA should not be dissatisfied with this. Although they lack the support from the host Brazilian fans, they have received a large amount of attention and support from Chinese fans. China's population is about seven times that of Brazil. ...Gaining China's attention can completely make up for the loss of Brazilian fans for FIFA.
The Chinese team reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup, which indeed set off a wave of attention to the World Cup in China.
In fact, it was already very high, but now it is even higher.
There are more and more news about the Chinese team in the World Cup on TV, newspapers, radio stations and the Internet. At the same time, domestic travel agencies have launched tour groups to Brazil to watch the game. In fact, there were already such tour groups, but now they are equal to Added another wave. Coming to Brazil to watch football and travel at the same time is also a shot in the arm for Brazil’s economy.
FIFA's official website prominently reported the news that the Chinese team eliminated Brazil and reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup. It also reported various news about the World Cup in China.
The enthusiasm of Chinese fans has exceeded expectations, but has been ignored by FIFA officials. After all, there is nothing wrong with the Chinese team in every World Cup.
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After the match between the Chinese team and the Brazilian team, Colombia defeated Uruguay 2:0 and successfully advanced to the quarter-finals. They will meet the Chinese team in the quarter-finals. I believe that after seeing the performance of the Chinese team in eliminating the Brazilian team, Colombia will definitely not take the Chinese team lightly. This will be a close contest.
On the second day of the Chinese team's match, there were two quarter-finals. The Dutch team trailed Mexico by one goal for a long time. It was not until the 88th minute that Sneijder equalized the score. Just when everyone thought the game was going to go into overtime, in the 90th minute, Robben won a penalty for the Netherlands, and Huntelaar made the shot for the Netherlands to beat Mexico and advance to the quarterfinals. .
In a game later on the same day, Costa Rica took the lead with Greece in the 52nd minute. However, in the subsequent game, Costa Rica's Duarte tackled Greece's Holebas and was shown a second penalty. A yellow card and sent off. At the end of the game, Costa Rica, which had one less player,
The score was equalized by the Greek team. The goal for the Greek team was the center back Papastathopoulos who played for Dortmund. The two teams tied 1:1 during regular time, and the winner could only be determined by penalty kicks. This was the second penalty shootout of this World Cup. In the end, Costa Rica relied on the outstanding performance of goalkeeper Navas to eliminate Greece 5:3 and reach the quarterfinals.
This is the first time in the history of Costa Rica that they have reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The 1990 World Cup was their first time participating in the World Cup finals. The head coach at that time was the amazing coach Bora Milutinovic. That team even had jersey sponsorship. The team that did not have Shangdu finally succeeded in breaking through the group stage and entered the top 16, but lost to Czechoslovakia in the 16th round and missed the quarterfinals.
Later, this team reached the finals again in the 2002 World Cup and was placed in a group with the Chinese team. At that time, Chinese domestic media and fans still imagined that the Chinese team could defeat Costa Rica in the first game of the World Cup and win the first World Cup victory in the history of the Chinese men's football team... but of course they were slapped in the face by reality.
Now, after 24 years, Costa Rica has finally broken through the top 16 limit and created the history of their national football.
The two teams that were in the same group back then have now created new history, which is really touching.
In the match between France and Nigeria, the French team broke the deadlock in the 79th minute by Pogba. In the 92nd minute, when the game entered injury time, the French team expanded the score again and finally defeated Nigeria 2:0. , broke into the quarterfinals.
In another match on the same day, the match between the German team and Algeria, everyone thought that the German team would win easily. After all, it was quite unexpected that Algeria could reach the top 16 of the World Cup. There is a huge difference in strength between the two teams. But who would have thought that the German team would be unable to break through the Algerian team's goal. In the 90 minutes of the game, the two sides reached a 0:0 tie and could only go to overtime.
Schürrle gave the German team the lead at the beginning of overtime, and then at the end of overtime, Ozil scored to expand the German team's lead. But just a minute after Ozil scored, Algeria pulled a goal back, which immediately made the German fans nervous again. Fortunately, there was really not much time left for Algeria in the end. After scoring this goal, they no longer had the ability to equalize the score.
In the end, the German team narrowly defeated Algeria 2:1 and advanced to the quarterfinals.
In the last quarter-final day, Argentina and Switzerland played against each other. The strength gap between the two teams is also huge. Argentina, which has a group of world-class stars such as Messi, Di Maria, Higuain, and Aguero, is the favorite to win this World Cup. After all, the World Cup is held in South America, and Argentina still has a home field advantage. After Brazil was unexpectedly eliminated by the Chinese team, Argentina became the only way to defend the dignity of South American football.
But this game was very difficult. Argentina tried their best for ninety minutes, but they still couldn't break the Swiss goal. Overtime also failed to score a goal. It was not until the 117th minute that Messi dribbled the ball through the double-team of five people and then passed the ball to Di Maria. Di Maria Following a kick, the football flew into the far corner of the Swiss team's goal...
With this goal, Argentina defeated the Swiss team with difficulty and reached the quarterfinals.
The last quarter-final match was between Belgium and the United States. This game also went into overtime. Neither side scored in the first 90 minutes, and the game ended in a 0:0 draw. Just three minutes into overtime, Belgium broke the deadlock with De Bruyne and took the lead. In the 105th minute, Belgium scored another victory, pushing the US team to the edge of the cliff 2:0. However, not long after the second half of overtime started, the American team got a goal back. But then the American team never scored again. After 120 minutes of fierce battle, Belgium defeated the United States 2:1 and became the last top eight team.
In the quarter-finals of this World Cup, except for the three games between Colombia and Uruguay, the Netherlands and Mexico, and France and Nigeria, the other five games all lasted 120 minutes, and the score differences were all very small. , which fully illustrates the difficulty of this World Cup.
After the quarter-finals are all over, the World Cup has entered a one-day truce period. There will be no games on this day. Both players and fans can take a good rest and relax. For Chinese fans, they are indeed very tired after staying up for so many days in a row. This one-day truce is very precious and necessary for them.
After this day's rest, the first quarterfinal game will take place on the afternoon of the Fourth of July.
This game is a direct dialogue between the European giants, France and Germany. In this World Cup, both France and Germany performed very well, especially the French team. If only they were defeated by South Africa four years ago, the French team did not even qualify for the group stage, so they went home feeling very useless. Four years later, they performed extremely well, reaching the quarterfinals.
After the match between the French team and the German team, the match between the Chinese team and Colombia followed.
Needless to say, this game is the game that Chinese fans pay the most attention to.
If the Chinese team can get past Colombia, it will reach the semi-finals of the World Cup in history. This is a peak that has never been reached in the history of the Chinese men's football team.
Chinese fans also need to stay up late to watch this game. The game kicks off at four o'clock in the morning on July 5th, Beijing time. However, I believe that no matter what time it is, it will not stop Chinese fans from watching this game. There will even be many fans who are so excited and nervous that they cannot sleep at all and wait directly in front of the TV or computer until the game starts.
There are only two games on this day. After these two games, there are two other quarter-finals the next day, Argentina versus Belgium, and the Netherlands versus Costa Rica.
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Although the World Cup gives everyone a day off, the Chinese team does not have a day off because the game is tomorrow and they must seize the time to train.
The training content on the last day was mainly based on set-piece tactics, and penalty kicks were of course also a link that cannot be ignored.
This day's training was not open to the public. No reporters or fans were allowed to approach the Chinese team's training ground. They could only wait outside until they were allowed to enter before they could go in for interviews.
No Chinese media has complained about this arrangement, and everyone supports and understands Lippi's approach.
At this time, the interests of the national team are supreme, and everyone and everything must make way for the national team.
The Chinese team has never enjoyed such treatment. In this World Cup, they have changed many people's inherent impression of Chinese football with their outstanding efforts and results. No matter how Chinese football has been in the past, at least this time, they deserve the support of 1.4 billion people.