Chapter 627: Kante Can't Get Over It

After landing, Bruno took a look at the French team's goal. He saw the football wrapped in the net was falling down, and the goalkeeper Lori, who had just jumped to save the ball, also fell to the ground.

He was sure that the ball had gone in!

Turning his head again, he saw the ecstatic captain Cristiano Ronaldo. He wanted to hug him, but Bruno didn't rush over. He opened his arms and ran to the Portuguese fans' stand behind the French team's goal. There was a billboard blocking the way in front of him. He jumped over the billboard, then ran to the bottom of the stand and waved his arms vigorously to the fans above.

His actions were cheered loudly by the fans.

Soon, Bruno was surrounded by excited teammates, who patted his head and shoulders and screamed in his ears.

"Well done! Brother! Well done!"

"Champion! Champion! Oh oh oh! Champion champion!"

The head coach Santos, who was sitting in the coaching seat, didn't expect the team to score so quickly. When Bruno headed the football into the French team's goal, he was stunned for a moment, and then jumped up from his seat.

The assistant coach beside him, Ilidio Val, was even more excited and almost rushed into the field. He ran around the coach's command area with his arms raised high, and when he came back, he saw Santos and shouted, "Did you see it?"

Santos smiled brightly and replied, "Yes, I saw it!"

The two clapped their hands to celebrate.

………………

Bruno and his teammates waved to the Portuguese fans in the stands, and then ran back together. On the court, the French players had already stood up again, waiting for the kick-off.

They were not mentally prepared for losing the ball so early. But for them, losing the ball too early may not be a bad thing, which means that they will have the whole game to tie the score or even overtake.

The Portuguese players ran back to the court, and the emotions of all parties calmed down at this time. Only the Portuguese fans were still singing the song written for Bruno.

After the game resumed, the Portuguese players seemed to be still immersed in the previous excitement and joy, and were a little absent-minded. The pass from midfielder William Carvalho to central defender Fonte was almost intercepted by the French players, which scared him.

The French team is also very strong, and the game has just started, so they still have plenty of time to change the game, so Portugal's goal did not defeat them, but further stimulated their fighting spirit.

France's head coach Deschamps stood on the sidelines and gestured to his players, signaling them to be more active and show some color to the complacent Portugal!

After Bruno scored the goal, he quickly became the focus of the French team. Nowadays, all players who play in major European leagues know Bruno's strength and that he is the core of the Portuguese national team's midfield.

Before the game, Deschamps also asked the players to pay special attention to this Portuguese and make sure to freeze him in the game.

"As long as he is frozen, it is equivalent to freezing Portugal! Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva can only fight alone, and their three lines will completely lose contact, so they must follow him closely!"

………………

The goal was scored too early, making the Portuguese players think that they can easily win the game, or that the French team is nothing special.

But when they passed the ball to Bruno continuously, they found that things were not as simple as they imagined.

Bruno was closely guarded by the French team on the court, and he was not defended by one person.

When he retreated to receive the pass, Giroud or Griezmann would come up to him and press him closely, forcing him to pass back and unable to turn around and deliver the shells forward.

When he entered the French team's half, the people defending him became two defensive midfielders Kante or Pogba. When he received the ball on the wing, one of the two defensive midfielders would definitely follow him and prevent him from receiving and passing the ball easily.

This caused a lot of trouble for Bruno.

You know, Kante is the best defensive midfielder in the world today. The saying "There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome, only Kante who cannot be overcome" in the world football is not a joke.

In the past, Kante always appeared behind Bruno as his teammate, escorting him and allowing him to organize the attack without any scruples.

At that time, Bruno knew that Kante's defense was very strong, but he didn't have much personal experience.

Now that Kante is an opponent, Bruno really understands the helplessness of the organizing core and offensive core of those Manchester United opponents in the past when facing Kante.

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In addition to Kante, Pogba is also a world-class midfielder with good offense and defense.

In this time and space, although Pogba did not join Manchester United, but has been playing for Juventus, he is still recognized as one of the top midfielders in the world today. It is rumored that Real Madrid has intended to introduce Pogba as Modric's successor after several failed attempts to introduce Bruno.

There were several times when he just received the ball and was disturbed by the opponent from behind.

Even if the ball was still at his feet, his pass lost its accuracy due to the opponent's close pressure.

Once Bruno failed to perform at his best, Portugal's attack suddenly lost its direction and rhythm. No one knew how to attack, nor how to control the rhythm.

C Ronaldo could only run around in the frontcourt again and again, or simply fight alone, and only choose to pass the ball back when he couldn't break through. And Bernardo Silva looked like he was isolated from the entire Portuguese team because he couldn't receive the ball.

Portugal's front trident suddenly lost its fire after taking the lead.

When the game reached the tenth minute, the French team had completely taken the initiative. They stole the ball from Bruno's feet and launched an attack.

Bruno lost his inspiration in the attack and looked more like a defensive midfielder.

The starting point of all this was that Portugal scored a goal in the first two minutes, which made them underestimate the difficulty of this final.

The French fans in the stands became active, shouting slogans and cheering for their team. Those slogans completely suppressed the singing and shouting of the Portuguese fans, and now they can get rid of the bad temper of being scored at the beginning of the game.

………………

Bruno knew that the root of the team's current problems was himself, because he did not play at his normal level and was embarrassed by the French team's ubiquitous close defense.

He was trying hard to find his own rhythm. Only when he performed normally could he make the team normal.

This is the responsibility of a team core.

It's just that the close defense of the French players is really strict, especially Kante, Bruno's teammate at Manchester United, who knows Bruno's habits very well and defends him perfectly.

As for Pogba, this guy completely regards Bruno as his mortal enemy, and he does everything he can to deal with Bruno.

Under the joint care of Kante and Pogba, Bruno has a hard time controlling the ball. Every time he receives the ball, he can only pass the ball quickly and then run to find a chance to receive the ball.

And the French players will not let him go. When Bruno runs, they will chase him. Unless the Portuguese players pass the ball to others, they are not afraid, because the person responsible for directing the team's offense is Bruno, not others.

Bruno tried to have Bernardo Silva retreat a little to organize the attack, but the effect was not very good.

Fifteen minutes later, France's possession rate had reached 57%, surpassing Portugal in other statistics. France had six shots, while Portugal had no shots except Bruno's header. France had three shots within the goal frame, while Portugal had one. France's pass success rate was also much higher than Portugal's, with Portugal's being 51% and France's being 77.3%.

From the pass success rate, it can be seen that after Bruno was contained, the impact on Portugal.

………………

"Deschamps obviously studied Portugal and Bruno, and his tactics were right. France completely contained Bruno. Now it seems that losing the ball less than two minutes after the start of the game was just an accident..."

Santos turned his head and glanced at Deschamps who was standing on the sidelines supervising the game. He had studied Bruno and Portugal's tactics thoroughly, and his close defense against Bruno was everywhere, and this arrangement did not make their own formation messy.

It's amazing that he did such a meticulous job under such great pressure...

Compared to him, his own preparations seemed to be a little insufficient... At least he didn't consider Plan B during training, such as letting Bernardo Silva or Moutinho replace Bruno as the team commander.

He originally thought that with Bruno's running ability, no one could freeze him. Now it seems that he was really arrogant.

It's true that no one can keep up with Bruno's running and freeze him, but that's because there is only one person defending Bruno. When the number of people defending Bruno becomes eleven, it's another matter.

If one person can't keep up, the whole team can always keep up, right?

………………

Santos turned his eyes to the court, looking at the embarrassed Portuguese players, and was silent.

He was thinking about whether there was any way to crack Deschamps's tactics.

In fact, this tactic was not Deschamps's original creation, he also borrowed from others-when he carefully studied some important game videos of Bruno before, he discovered this tactic.

In the Premier League, more than one team has used this tactic, combining zone defense and man-to-man defense to curb Bruno's performance.

Those teams did cause some trouble for Bruno, but unfortunately most teams were not strong enough and the players could not use this tactic to the fullest, so they failed in the end.

The French team is the same as those teams. They have high-level players. As long as this tactic is slightly modified to make it more suitable for the French team, maybe it can achieve better results?

So Deschamps designed such a tactic for Bruno in training, let the team practice it repeatedly, and finally used it in the final!