Chapter 622: Continuous Killings

During the halftime break, Santos was concerned about Bruno's health, and Bruno told him that he had no problems. The opponent's dirty hands and feet only left some bruises on his body at most, and did not hurt his bones.

Santos was still not at ease, and told Bruno to be careful in the second half. If this was not a knockout match but a group match, Santos would even want to replace Bruno directly.

In the second half, Russia's actions became more intense, and the players of the Portuguese national team were angry with them, and the game became increasingly tense.

Four Portuguese players received yellow cards one after another. Bruno was not among them. He always kept in mind what his mission was. He did not come here to fight with the Russians, but to defeat them.

In the 63rd minute, Bruno's forbearance finally paid off.

His sharp pass like a scalpel helped Ronaldo find an opportunity in the penalty area and hit the far bottom corner of the goal, and Portugal led 1:0!

The bench and coaching seats of the Portuguese team cheered, and the Portuguese fans in the stands also jumped up and shouted "Come on Portugal".

The Luzhniki Stadium, which was full of boos before, was temporarily filled with the shouts of Portuguese fans. Soon, the crazy home fans fought back, and they made all kinds of noises to cover up the cheers of the Portuguese.

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After scoring, Ronaldo roared at the Russians in the stands, and finally let out a sigh of relief. He knew very well what role Bruno played in the improvement of Portugal's performance in major competitions in recent years. Although Bruno's rise has impacted his position in Portugal and even in the world football, Ronaldo feels that it is no longer important in the face of the honor of the national team.

So, in Ronaldo's eyes, Bruno is not only an opponent, but also his brother.

Seeing his brother being bullied by the opponent, he had been holding back a lot of anger for a long time, and now he finally vented it.

Seeing that the team was leading, Santos quickly replaced Bruno without caring about the remaining minutes of the game.

Bruno knew that this was to protect him, and it was well-intentioned, so he couldn't complain. Although he thought that Russia's small moves were like mosquito bites, there was nothing to be afraid of.

When he walked off the court, it was definitely not just Santos who breathed a sigh of relief, but also the Portuguese fans in front of the TV. They also knew how important Bruno's role in the national team was. Portugal won the world championship in the first two years, not only because of the outstanding performance of captain C Ronaldo, but also because of Bruno's rise.

If Bruno was injured, everyone knew that the Portuguese national team was finished. They didn't want to see such a bloody drama that Bruno led the Portuguese national team into the World Cup finals with a closed battle.

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After Bruno left the field, the performance of the Portuguese national team was obviously not as good as before. One prominent performance was that there was no direction when attacking.

Before, with Bruno, everyone just gave the football to him, and then he organized the attack. Now? To whom? Only to Moutinho, but Moutinho's strength is still far behind Bruno.

Later, Santos simply signaled the whole team to retreat, just to hold on to the one-goal advantage and win.

He didn't care that the game was ugly. The Portuguese national team had played many uglier games than this one, and they lost both the ball and the face. Although the scene was ugly now, it was not shameful.

In the end, under the united defense of the Portuguese, the score of 2:1 was maintained until the end of the game. They eliminated the host Russia and advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

According to the World Cup matchup situation, the remaining two teams in the quarter-finals where Portugal is located are Croatia and Denmark. This game was played in the evening of July 1, and the whistle time was 4 hours later than the game between Portugal and Russia.

According to Bruno's memory, the final winner of the game between Croatia and Denmark should be Croatia. After all, at the original time, Croatia reached the final this year.

And the result was just as Bruno remembered. Croatia and Denmark fought for 120 minutes on the field, and finally Croatia won 3:2 through a brutal penalty shootout.

As a result, Portugal's opponent in the quarter-finals is Croatia led by Modric.

The other three quarter-finals are Uruguay vs. France, Brazil vs. Belgium, and Sweden vs. England.

If Portugal can successfully survive Croatia, their opponent in the semi-finals will be the winner between Sweden and England.

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For Croatia, all parties are optimistic about Portugal. After all, as the champion of the 2016 European Cup and the 2017 Confederations Cup, Portugal has achieved excellent results in recent years and ranks third in the world. There are also two of the three giants of world football today, Ronaldo and Bruno, in the team. Whether in terms of fame or strength, they seem to be higher than Croatia, which ranks 20th in the world.

The Portuguese team is also optimistic about defeating Croatia. On the one hand, it is because Modric, the core player of Croatia, is a player that the Portuguese team is very familiar with, especially Ronaldo and Pepe. On the other hand, Portugal has won consecutive victories in the World Cup and has shown an invincible posture all the way, which has made the Portuguese players a little floating.

But Bruno didn't get carried away. As a time traveler, he knew how good this Croatian team was. With Modric as the core, this Croatian team had players of the top five European leagues in all fronts, and the players were in the best condition in all aspects. This is why they once reached the finals of this World Cup and performed very well in the following tournaments.

Therefore, Bruno warned his teammates very seriously not to underestimate Croatia, otherwise Portugal is likely to capsize in the gutter.

After all, Croatia also won three consecutive games in the group stage, scoring 7 goals in three games but only conceding one goal, and also won a 3:0 victory over Argentina led by Yosi, showing its fighting power.

Most of the Portuguese players didn't take Bruno's warning too seriously, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe, two of Modric's teammates, took Bruno's words to heart. This is also because they have been teammates with Modric for a long time and know how strong this Croatian midfielder is.

If Bruno is the top midfielder in the world today, then Modric is definitely the second midfielder in the world today, and can even be compared with Bruno.

Real Madrid has been able to reach the Champions League final four times in the past five years and won the Champions League three times. Modric has definitely made great contributions. His influence in Real Madrid is not much worse than that of Ronaldo.

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For Portugal and Croatia, there is plenty of rest time before the start of this quarter-final.

The quarter-final between Portugal and Russia is on the afternoon of July 1, the match between Croatia and Denmark is on the evening of July 1, and the quarter-final between the two teams is on the evening of July 7. Both sides have almost a week of rest time.

In terms of rest time, the two teams are similar; Portugal also has an advantage, that is, the venue of this game, Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, is the venue for Portugal and Spain, and Portugal is relatively familiar with it.

July 7, 9 pm local time in Sochi, Fisht Olympic Stadium.

The last game of the quarter-finals of the Russian World Cup, Portugal vs. Croatia. In recent years, the two teams have not had many opportunities to play against each other. Since 1996, there have been only three times, and Portugal has won three consecutive games. In the 1996 European Cup, Portugal defeated Croatia 3:0, and in the 2005 friendly match, Portugal won 2:0. The most recent match was in the 2013 friendly match, where Portugal won 1:0.

Having entered the quarterfinals, both teams obviously don't want to stop there.

For Croatia, goalkeeper Subasic, and the back line are Strinic, Lovren, Vida and Vrsaljko.

The double defensive midfielders are Modric and Rakitic, and the front court is Kramaric, Rebic and Perisic. Mandzukic continues to play as a single striker, which is also the focus of everyone before the game.

Many people think that Mandzukic is in too bad a state and should be withdrawn from the starting lineup, but Dalic still puts Mandzukic in the starting lineup, and obviously still has high hopes for him.

Not only Mandzukic, but also Kramaric, Modric, Perisic, Rakitic and Lovren, all entered the starting lineup. Dalic obviously had already arranged the strongest lineup he could.

Portugal also used the 4-5-1 style again, but the personnel and positions were adjusted.

The goalkeeper is Patricio, the back line is Guerrero, Pepe, Fonte and Cancelo, the midfielders from left to right are Bernardo Silva, William Carvalho, Joao Mario, Moutinho and Bruno, and Ronaldo is the lone striker.

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From the moment the game whistle sounded, the two sides directly entered the fast-paced hand-to-hand combat.

Croatia came with great momentum, showing its determination to fight to the death and defeat the opponent in one fell swoop. But Portugal was also unambiguous, even in the fast-paced offense and defense, it still took the lead in seizing an opportunity.

In the second minute of the game, after the midfielder intercepted the ball, Ronaldo pulled to the empty space to receive the ball, turned around and shook off the defender, and passed the ball straight to Bernardo Silva.

This was a very good opportunity, but Bernardo Silva was a little sloppy when stopping the ball, and failed to play the speed directly. Vida caught up with him, and his body was suppressed after getting close, and the ball was intercepted.

Croatia quickly organized a counterattack.

After intercepting Bernardo Silva's ball, Rakitic quickly passed to the right, Kramaric made a cross, and Mandzukic headed the ball seven meters in front of the goal, but the ball hit Patricio's arms.

Then, Modric made a long shot from the left side of the penalty area, but failed to hit the goal.

Portugal also launched an attack in the fifth minute. After Ronaldo pulled to the left rib and got the ball, he passed it directly to Bruno who was in the back row, but Lovren was prepared and poked the ball away first, and Bernardo Silva's long shot missed.

Being on the court, Bruno clearly felt that the Croatian players were indeed fighting, and their condition was also good.

In the tenth minute of the game, the Portuguese midfielder made a mistake in passing the ball, and Croatia launched a quick counterattack. Mandzukic took the ball and started quickly, driving straight into the goal.

However, Portugal's defense was very stable and did not let Croatia's attack threaten the goal.

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The game continues.

When the game reached the 29th minute, the Portuguese midfielder intercepted the ball, and William Carvalho sent a straight pass to Ronaldo's feet.

Ronaldo dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the right rib. When facing Lovren, he suddenly pulled the ball horizontally, intending to shoot with his left foot, but Vida came to assist at the same time, making Ronaldo's shooting idea fail.

As a last resort, Ronaldo made a diagonal pass to the left rib with his left foot.

Bruno quickly inserted and calmly pushed the ball with his right foot, scoring the first goal for Portugal.

1:0!

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When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the whole Fisht Olympic Stadium was filled with deafening cheers.

More than 20,000 Portuguese fans rushed out of their seats, singing, shouting and celebrating crazily.

The big red scoreboard showed the final score of this game.

Portugal relied on Bruno's goal in the first half to finally beat Croatia 1:0.

There is no doubt that the best and most threatening player in this game is Bruno.

After the game, Bruno was also selected as the best player of the game.

He is the most threatening Portuguese player in this game and the player who brought the greatest test to Croatia's defense. In addition to that goal, he also made wonderful assists for Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva and Moutinho. It's a pity that several teammates didn't grasp it in the end.

But even so, it still couldn't change the fact that Bruno performed well. He also became the player who was shouted the most by Portuguese fans in the stands after the game.

The eyes of the crowd are sharp, and they can see clearly who has contributed the most to Portugal.

In the current Portuguese team, only two players are indispensable.

One is the captain Cristiano Ronaldo who attacks the front court and leads his teammates in the locker room. The other is Bruno who works diligently in the midfield, often passes a wonderful ball, and has the ability to score from behind.

Moutinho and Bernardo Silva's performances this year are indeed amazing, with eye-catching contributions on both offense and defense, but he is still not as important as Bruno and Ronaldo.