Chapter 614 World Cup Debut

On June 14, the World Cup kicked off. The host country Russia played against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium. This was the opening match of this World Cup. In the end, the host country beat their opponents 5:0 and got a good start.

The next day, the Portuguese national team ushered in their first game.

The Portuguese national team's match is the evening match of the second match day at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi.

On the afternoon of June 15, the Portuguese national team went from the hotel where they stayed to the Fisht Olympic Stadium to adapt to the competition venue. Their first group match opponent was Spain.

This team was the European Cup champion in 2008 and 2012, and was also the champion of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Although they failed to win the championship in 2014 and 2016, and their current world ranking is only tenth, this team is still very strong.

Playing against such a powerful opponent in the first game puts a lot of pressure on the Portuguese national team.

Everyone always has high hopes for the first game. No matter where they are, there is a saying of "a good start", so the result of the first game has a great impact on the team.

Especially when Portugal was eliminated from the World Cup group four years ago, many players of the Portuguese national team had many bad memories and the players also felt nervous.

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The game is about to start soon. The Portuguese national team has the right to kick off. Players from both sides have stood on the field according to their respective formations. The game is about to start.

For this game, Santos arranged a starting lineup of 442. The goalkeeper is Patricio, and the four defenders are Cedric, Pepe, Font and Guerrero; Bruno, Moutinho, William Carvalho, Bernard Do Silva partners in a parallel position in the midfield, Bruno appears in the right midfield position; the striker is a combination of Ronaldo and Guedes.

Bruno knew what he was doing, and what he had to do was harder than climbing to the sky, but he wanted to give it a try.

He didn't know whether his teammates had this confidence in himself, or in themselves, so this first game was particularly important.

"The match between Portugal and Spain is about to start. This is their first match in this World Cup. For Bruno, this is also his first World Cup."

The referee stood outside the center circle, checked his watch, and blew the whistle to start the game.

Ronaldo passed the football to Bruno, who caught the ball. He did not kick the football out immediately, but turned around and ran behind with the football, and then passed the football out.

After passing the ball, he quickly ran to the next place and asked his teammates for the ball.

At the same time, Spanish players quickly appeared around him.

The Spaniards also know Bruno's role in this Portuguese team. As long as Bruno is frozen, Portugal's threat will be reduced by half.

But keeping an eye on Bruno... this is really difficult!

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A teammate passed the football over. Bruno pretended to pass the football to the left, turned around and walked away, causing the opponent's player to move a step ahead. Bruno only stepped aside, passed the football to his right, and turned around at the same time. Then the football moved forward and passed the opponent's players so easily.

Bruno, who carried the football directly to the Spanish half, faced the opponent's player who came up to press him. Instead of passing the ball, he directly gave the football to Moutinho next to him. After passing the ball, he quickly ran forward and signaled Moutinho to pass the football.

In fact, Moutinho was once the core midfielder of the Portuguese national team, but that was before Bruno emerged.

Seeing Bruno asking for the ball, Moutinho passed the ball directly to him without hesitation.

After completing the one-two, Bruno continued to dribble forward, and he had already reached the front of the Spanish penalty area!

"The game just started, Bruno launched a very threatening offensive!" the commentator shouted.

Everyone knew how powerful Bruno was, and the Spanish players did not dare to neglect him. As soon as Bruno reached the edge of the penalty area, two people immediately rushed up to stop his shot.

Bruno feels particularly good about shooting this season and has a strong desire to shoot. If he does not strengthen his defense in this position, his long shot may break your goal.

Bruno was waiting for this moment. When the opponent player pounced on him, he immediately poked the ball with the toe of his right foot and passed the ball between the two Spanish players, rolling directly to the feet of forward Ronaldo in the penalty area!

Cristiano Ronaldo didn't even expect that the football would roll to his feet so smoothly. He turned around and hit the goal in a hurry. His shot was too straight and hit Spanish goalkeeper De Gea.

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Although there was no goal in this attack, Bruno has used this pass to tell those World Cup opponents who are staring closely at him: Guard me, that is a world-wide problem!

In this way, the Portuguese national team, led by Bruno, launched wave after wave of attacks against Spain. The Spaniards themselves did not expect that their opponents would be so difficult to deal with.

Soon, the Portuguese team's offensive came back. Bruno caught the ball, beat the football beautifully, then turned around while pulling the ball, and sent the football to the left wing.

There, Bernardo Silva was already plugging in at high speed.

In the club, the two are tit-for-tat rivals; but in the national team, the two are the best partners and have a perfect understanding of each other.

Nacho did not rush blindly. He signaled Koke to interfere with Bernardo Silva, while he stared at Guerrero who was rushing forward at high speed.

The two had only played against each other in the Champions League last season. Nacho knew that the Dortmund left-back was very fast.

Sure enough, when Bernardo Silva saw Koke coming to press, he pushed the ball out, and the target was Guerrero who was rushing forward at high speed from his side.

As expected, Nacho pressed forward and prepared to force Guerrero.

However, the experienced Nacho did not rush too fiercely. He was still quite afraid of Guerrero's speed and skills.

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Guerrero rushed straight to Nacho with the ball.

Waiting for this moment, just before the two people were about to touch, Nacho suddenly kicked.

However, Guerrero did not intend to pass the opponent. He suddenly stopped and dunked!

Nacho was prepared for this and moved sideways to block it, but he did not wait for Guerrero's next breakthrough. Guerrero knocked the ball back to Moutinho who came to receive it. The latter did not let the ball stay at his feet, but directly made a diagonal long pass. The ball went directly from the side close to the left to the right side, where Bruno was.

"Precise pass! Moutinho!" the Portuguese commentator shouted.

"This is Moutinho, our number four, who sent a beautiful long pass." The Portuguese commentator could not help but praise.

Moutinho was originally the core of Portugal's midfield organization, but with Bruno's rise in recent seasons, he once lost his position in the Portuguese national team, but this does not mean that his ability is poor. As the core of Monaco's midfield, Moutinho is a key figure in Monaco's outstanding performance in recent seasons.

He lost his main position in the Portuguese team in recent years, which can only be said to be Bruno's outstanding performance.

Because Moutinho has performed very well in Monaco in the past two seasons, Santos even changed Portugal's formation for him, giving Moutinho a chance to start in a strong dialogue with Spain.

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Bruno was very fast, he caught up with the football, and then faced Alba who rushed over, and he dribbled the ball.

Alba was experienced, he immediately changed his action, stretched out his foot and poked the football away, and then, before Alba was happy, he saw Bruno's second reaction was very fast, he touched the football with his right foot, and the football was hooked back by him.

However, after such a delay, Alba moved his steps again and blocked Bruno's way forward.

"Beautiful! In front of the experienced Alba, Rob Bruno is still very immature." The Spanish commentator said happily.

Before the Spanish commentator finished speaking, Rob Bruno dribbled the football to his left foot with his right foot, held Alba with his body, and swept the football into the penalty area with his left foot.

In the penalty area, Spanish captain Ramos held off Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo, not allowing the opponent to take a shot.

At this moment, a figure in a red jersey appeared on the ball's path and swept the ball back diagonally - the goal was the top of the penalty area.

Spanish midfielder Busquets fell to the ground and slid, trying to clear the ball. But before his feet touched the ball, a figure rushed up and volleyed the ball with a powerful kick!

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The ball suddenly flew up and rushed straight to the goal. Spanish goalkeeper De Gea rushed in front of the door, and he planned to kick the ball out.

He successfully hit the ball, and the ball bounced to one side, and it happened to fall in front of Ronaldo and Ramos.

Both of them were stunned, and then they were about to make a move at almost the same time, but Ronaldo reacted faster. He stuck out his butt and blocked Ramos's outstretched leg with his buttocks, then he swept his right foot vigorously, and the football suddenly bounced up and rushed into the net, rolling up the snow-white net high...

The penalty area was very chaotic and it was not very clear. The Fisht Olympic Stadium, which can accommodate 40,000 people, was silent for a moment, and then the trembling of the net and the football in the net were seen:

Boom!

The whole stadium was like a volcanic eruption!

In the first round of the group stage of Group B in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Portugal played against Spain. One minute and thirty-three seconds into the game, Portugal attacked once, and their captain, the 33-year-old super shooter Cristiano Ronaldo, scored a goal in front of the goal. Portugal 1:0 Spain!

They made a dream start that no one expected.