Chapter 615: Counterattack

The Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, which can accommodate 40,000 people, obviously cannot meet the requirements of too many fans, especially the strong dialogue between the two giants Portugal and Spain. The tickets for this game were sold out as soon as the group stage schedule came out. So most Portuguese fans can only watch the game at home or in the bar.

"Volley! Beautiful! Cristiano! The ball is in! The Portuguese captain opened the scoring for Portugal! 1:0, Portugal got a dream start!"

The excited voice of the Portuguese commentator came from the hanging TV, which aroused huge cheers in the whole bar.

"Well done! Captain!"

"Good job!"

"Cheers to the goal!"

...

The fans were excited, and the golden beer spilled with the clinking of glasses, and everyone screamed.

In the stadium, the Portuguese players were celebrating the goal excitedly. They surrounded Ronaldo who scored the goal and threw him to the ground, and they were very happy.

On the sidelines, their head coach rushed out of the coaching seat, raised his arms vigorously, and vented his excitement.

The referee intervened, and finally stopped the extremely excited celebration of the Portuguese players.

The Spanish players had already placed the football at the midpoint, and were getting impatient.

Although the goal was lost early, and it could even be said to be very unexpected, the Spanish players did not care too much. They just felt that Portugal was indeed a country boy team, and that the celebration was like Christmas after scoring a goal against Spain.

………………

The game resumed, and Spain kicked off.

The game was lost less than two minutes after the start of the game, which was beyond Hierro's expectations. But Hierro did not care too much, and he believed that Spain would soon equalize the score.

However, soon, Hierro found out that he was wrong. Facing waves of Spanish offensives, although Portugal also strengthened its defense, this was not the kind of shrinking defense that gave up the attack. On the contrary, Portugal's formation pressed forward, and they started to fight with Spain in the midfield. Not only that, they always kept Guedes and Ronaldo as the two counterattack points in the frontcourt, and once they had the opportunity to move the football forward, they would press out to attack without hesitation.

Portugal's tactics are not conservative, but very aggressive. Today, Portugal showed a strong desire to attack, while Spain held high the banner of attack, so in the eyes of the audience, the first half of this game can be said to be wonderful.

In the 15th minute of the game, Iniesta sent a straight pass, and Isco sent a lateral pass after going down the wing. Diego Costa held Pepe and pushed the ball along. David Silva, who followed up, was about to complete the shot. A white figure rushed in front of him and shot directly, and the ball flew high to the stands.

"Wow-Koke, his shot flew away."

"Koke should have given this shooting opportunity to David Silva, who was in a better position." The Spanish commentator shook his head regretfully, but it was just a pity. He didn't care too much about missing this scoring opportunity. With Spain's offensive strength, scoring is not a problem.

Santos waved nervously on the sidelines, and then he silently gave Koke a thumbs up. He helped Portugal complete a beautiful defensive clearance.

………………

Five minutes later, Spain's attack came back.

Iniesta sent the ball to the front court, and Alba assisted in the middle. He passed the ball to David Silva. David Silva controlled his rhythm and deliberately slowed down to attract William Carvalho to defend. Then, when William Carvalho came up, he suddenly dribbled the ball and accelerated to get rid of it!

William Carvalho obviously didn't expect David Silva to move so fast and speed up so quickly. He was caught off guard and turned around hastily, but his feet slipped and fell to the ground!

"David Silva! Beautiful breakthrough!" The Spanish commentator shouted, "Another one!"

David Silva changed direction while dribbling at high speed, passed Cedric again, and then cut in horizontally.

"Shoot!" David Silva made an arc with his left foot and went straight to the upper right corner of the goal.

Portugal's goalkeeper Patricio did not react to the ball at all. Just when the Spaniards were ready to cheer for the goal, the ball slipped through the goal gate and flew out of the bottom line.

"What a pity! David Silva's shot was slightly off the goal..." the Spanish commentator said regretfully.

Spain was still regretting the missed shot. Iniesta gave David Silva a thumbs up, and Isco ran to David Silva and said with a smile: "It was just a few centimeters away, just a few centimeters lower."

No one even noticed that the Portuguese had started to counterattack.

………………

Portugal goalkeeper Patricio quickly kicked the ball out of the goal. He kicked the ball directly to the front court with a big foot. Near the midfield, Ronaldo headed the ball to the left. After Bernardo Silva got the ball, he immediately started to accelerate.

"Counterattack! Portugal's counterattack!"

Portugal's counterattack was very simple and fast. This time, it did not advance through the midfield, but directly launched an attack with a long pass.

Bernardo Silva dribbled the ball along the left side, and after attracting Nacho's interception, he pretended to repeat the trick and pass the ball to Guerrero who was making a run, but he feinted and passed the ball sideways.

Bruno got the ball in the middle, he knocked the ball with his right foot, turned around at the same time, and beautifully bypassed Busquets who was not well prepared.

Iniesta hurried to intercept.

Bruno's upper body swayed, deceiving Iniesta who came to move, and he poked the ball with his toes, and the ball passed through Iniesta's small door.

Then Bruno twisted his waist, plundered from Iniesta's side, and then faced Ramos who rushed up aggressively. When he was almost about to touch, he poked the ball with his toes again, and the ball passed through Ramos's small door.

Almost at the same time, Bruno turned on the spot, avoided Ramos, and was about to complete this man-ball separation. Ramos had no choice but to reach out and pull Bruno down.

There was a huge booing in the Portuguese team area in the stands. The Portuguese fans were enjoying Bruno's wonderful performance, and their hearts were surging. They were very dissatisfied with Ramos's destruction of the wonderful football.

Even the Spanish commentator praised Bruno: "Ramos had to stop Bruno's performance with a foul. The Portuguese's breakthrough just now was a visual enjoyment."

………………

The referee blew the whistle and showed a yellow card to Ramos for a tactical foul. Portugal got a free kick in the frontcourt.

Pepe, who is good at heading, came up to participate in the free kick attack, and William Carvalho stayed in the backcourt to make up for the defense.

The position of this free kick is a bit far and not suitable for direct attack, so Ronaldo did not ask for the penalty.

Bruno's free kick went into the penalty area. Spain's captain Ramos has a strong header ability. He rushed to Pepe and headed the ball out.

Spain tried to launch a quick counterattack. Busquets quickly passed the ball to Koke, and Bernardo Silva, who was closest to Koke, came up to intercept.

At this time, as long as Koke passes the ball, Spain's counterattack may be successful, but Koke sticks to the ball and doesn't pass it. He pretends to knock down Bernardo Silva, but Bernardo Silva doesn't fall for it and takes this opportunity to stick to him.

The two people are entangled in tugs and pulls, and finally the referee can't stand it anymore. The whistle sounded, and Bernardo Silva fouled, but he didn't take out a card.

Santos applauded on the sidelines, cheering for the team's performance on both ends of the offense and defense. Bruno caused Ramos to get a card. Don't underestimate this yellow card. A central defender carrying a yellow card is equivalent to carrying a landmine hidden danger, which may explode at some point.

And Bernardo Silva's active counter-grabbing and desperate attitude in the game also made Santos very satisfied.

………………

"Seeing Bernardo Silva desperately counter-robbed and finally blocked Spain's counterattack, I remembered that during the attack when Portugal scored, Koke let the opponent pass through." The Spanish commentator said, "Of course, if Koke went up to intercept and interfere, or even committed a tactical foul, Portugal would not have that goal... From this detail, I still want to pay tribute to Portugal and their head coach."

Spain's previous goal was counterattacked by Portugal, but this did not affect Spain's established offensive tactics. They have strong confidence in their offense and continue to put pressure on Portugal's goal.

This is understandable. Spain will definitely use offense and goals to crush its opponents when facing Portugal.

And if Bernardo Silva hadn't desperately counter-robbed and interfered, Spain might have been able to make a counterattack just now, but Portugal did not shrink its defense, but continued to seize every possible offensive opportunity to press out.

So in the subsequent live broadcast of the game, both sides seemed to be defenseless, the offensive sparks were flying, and the commentators were very busy and happy.

"Isco dribbled past Cedric, beautiful... He broke into the penalty area! Shot! Blocked by Pepe! What a close call!"

"Iniesta dribbled sideways, beautiful, he and Isco collided against the wall, shot! High!"

"Portugal's counterattack! Bruno dribbled sideways, Busquets followed him... Foul! Portugal got a free kick in front of the penalty area. This position is very good, Ronaldo came up to take the penalty... Ah, what a pity, it hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line!"

"Beautiful! Beautiful! Bruno, he got rid of Busquets and Alba in a small space, turned around, and shot! Slightly higher than the crossbar!"