Chapter 631: Passing the Ball without Looking at the Person

The French players were stunned by Ronaldo's goal. Defender Umtiti and goalkeeper Lori even had a quarrel over it. Lori accused Umtiti of neglecting defense, not marking a threatening player like Ronaldo, and not rushing up to defend him in time after he received the ball.

He was right, but Umtiti was embarrassed by what he said. You know, he is a great contributor to the French team. In the semi-final against Belgium five days ago, if it weren't for his lore, it might not be the French team that advanced to the final.

It was precisely because of this lore that Umtiti became a hero of the French team and was very proud. Now he was criticized by Lori in public. Even if the other party was the captain of the French team, he still refuted a few words.

As the main goalkeeper of the French team for many years and the captain of the team, Lori's prestige in the team is naturally very high. Other players basically dare not refute his criticism. Now Umtiti actually refuted him in public, which naturally irritated him. He rushed up and scolded the entire defense line.

It was not until Umtiti was pulled away by other teammates that Lori's anger subsided a little, but he still chattered behind.

He is a goalkeeper and the captain of the team. He was naturally very depressed when the opponent broke the goal. Now Umtiti made such a move, which made him even more angry.

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After outputting Umtiti who made a mistake in defense, Lori found Pogba again and said: "After intercepting the ball, pass the ball as soon as possible, don't give him a chance to intercept."

Pogba nodded.

The loss of the ball came from his mistake. He may be the most depressed person besides goalkeeper Lori.

It was too easy to defend Bruno in the first half, so he thought that the boy was just so-so. Unexpectedly, the situation changed suddenly in the second half.

He underestimated Bruno's ability to counter-steal.

Generally speaking, the defense of the players who organize the offense is not very good. Even if the ball is intercepted, they rarely can counter-steal it. At most, they pretend to do it and give up.

More people choose to raise their arms to complain to the referee that the defending player just fouled.

Bruno is different. His superb physical fitness, excellent ability to steal the ball, and the spirit of never giving up make him very active to counter-steal on the spot after losing the ball. Even if he can't steal it, he can foul. In short, he doesn't let the opponent counterattack comfortably.

And this is one of the reasons why Bruno makes all coaches want to have him.

Many offensive organizers need protection from their teammates, but people like Bruno don't need protection because he is both offensive and defensive, and can attack and defend well.

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After the game resumed, the Portuguese players were deeply inspired by this goal. When attacking, they had a better understanding of Bruno's new tactics. The whole team was running at high speed with Bruno as the center.

This made the French team very uncomfortable.

Even many commentators noticed something was wrong.

British commentator Andy Gray said: "Portugal has obviously accelerated the rhythm and speed of the attack. I even saw them pass the ball four times in a row just now..."

Using this characteristic of fast passing, Portugal began to frequently threaten the French team's goal!

In the 74th minute, five minutes after the goal was scored. Bruno made a two-on-one pass with Bernardo Silva and Moutinho in the midfield, and suddenly passed the ball to Quaresma on the other side.

Quaresma did not choose to break through the bottom, but passed the ball directly.

Ronaldo jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball. The ball was slightly higher than the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line.

Ronaldo, who broke the two-game goal drought and scored in the World Cup final, was full of confidence. He dared to shoot at every opportunity and always threatened the opponent's goal. This is the performance of the state.

In the 74th minute, Bruno was knocked to the ground by Kante and Pogba while in control of the ball, and won a free kick for the team 29 meters away from the goal.

C Ronaldo took the penalty, and he kicked a high-quality elevator ball that went out of the goal, shocking the French fans into a cold sweat.

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In the 75th minute, Santos replaced Bernardo Silva with Guedes and continued to strengthen the attack.

The Portuguese coach hoped that the team could resolve the battle within 90 minutes.

After Guedes came on the court, he conveyed the coach's tactical intention to everyone: "Keep attacking, just play like this! We want to win!"

The situation is very simple for the Portuguese team: just attack, just score, just win.

They are in high spirits at this moment after equalizing the score. Substituting players to strengthen the offense is like boosting a rocket, allowing their high morale to continue to burn.

For the French team, the situation is complicated.

Should they first stabilize the defense and withstand Portugal's bombardment during this period? Or strengthen the offense and attack against attack?

Portugal's offensive is very strong these days, and they have no problem attacking, which makes the French team quite afraid. They have been stunned by Portugal's crazy offensive, and some don't know what to do.

At this time, the head coach is more needed to stabilize the morale of the team.

So Deschamps followed Santos and made his first substitution. He replaced Juventus midfielder Matuidi with Bayern midfielder Tolisso.

This substitution adjustment seems to be a matchup substitution, but Tolisso's offensive attributes are stronger, while Matuidi prefers defense. So this is actually a substitution to strengthen the offense.

After Tolisso came on the field, he also informed his teammates of the coach's intentions: "We can't always be beaten by them when we attack. This will cause problems."

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Deschamps' choice is theoretically correct. Because if you just strengthen the defense, it is equivalent to acknowledging that the Portuguese team can do whatever they want in their own half. This is a gesture of compromising and admitting defeat, which is a double blow to the morale of the players.

Football matches pay great attention to "momentum". Once you fall behind in momentum, it will be difficult to get it back.

So this tone should not be let out under any circumstances.

In the last fifteen minutes of the game, the two sides launched a fierce attack.

Fans from both sides in the stands were also cheering for their teams crazily. Even the neutral fans were encouraged by the atmosphere and stood up from their seats.

"Portugal's chance...Bruno's pass to Cristiano Ronaldo! He was hit hard and France adjusted his defense in time...but he didn't shoot! Instead he passed the ball! Quaresma The shot was saved by Lori, so thrilling!”

"Giroud got the ball in the frontcourt. He couldn't turn around and passed it to Tolisso. Tolisso passed it to Mbappe. Beautiful cooperation! Mbappe passed the ball! This time it was Kante who stepped in to attack the goal. ! Miss! The ball flew out of the bottom line..."

"Bruno got the ball in the midfield and he faced Kante again... and passed the ball with his back heel! So beautiful!"

"Quares was extraordinary! Breakthrough! Before Hernandez came forward, he passed the ball to Moutinho. Moutinho shot from a long distance... a fake move! He broke in and shot again! He was blocked by the attack. Holding Lori in his arms!"

"Both sides did not invest much in defense, but instead actively pursued offense. This made the scene very beautiful, because in the final time, they both got a lot of shooting opportunities."

…

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Bruno can feel that his defense is weakening, because the French team now does not have so much time to mark themselves all over the court. They are busy scoring goals at the last moment.

He looked at the time on the big screen. It was already eighty-four minutes, and there were only six minutes until the end of the ninety minutes.

Generally speaking, the second half went very smoothly, without any injuries or delays. It is estimated that the injury time was three minutes, which is nine minutes in total.

If the winner cannot be decided within these nine minutes, overtime will be the only option.

But Bruno felt unhappy at the thought of having to play for another thirty minutes before he could know who the champion was.

If the battle could end in ninety minutes, why should it be delayed to 120 minutes or even a penalty shootout?

He thought of what coach Santos said to him during the halftime break: "Try to shoot more when you have the chance."

Counting the header shortly after the opening, Bruno had three shots in this game, and only the header hit the goal frame.

Bruno considered whether to intentionally increase the number of shots, but he quickly rejected his idea.

Unless he has a good opportunity, he still won't shoot. He has to create opportunities for his teammates.

He will never ejaculate!

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Bruno retreated to catch the ball, because the French team, under the command of Deschamps, pressed Portugal in the frontcourt. If he did not go back, Moutinho alone would not be able to pass the football to his feet.

Anyway, the French team no longer presses him throughout the game, and he is much more calm.

Moutinho passed the ball to him and he was turning around. At this time, Kante ran up and did not press close to him, but crossed in front of him.

Bruno dribbled the ball diagonally to the left, seemingly passing the football to Gerdes on the left.

Guedes, who just came on the field not long ago, is in good physical condition and sprints back and forth very powerfully. He is also very active on the court during this period and is Portugal's main attack point on the offensive end.

Seeing that Bruno wanted to pass the ball to Guedes, the French team's defensive force naturally quickly tilted towards this section.

Just when the French team focused its defense on the left wing, Bruno suddenly started to pass the ball as soon as he ran through the center circle. The target is not Guedes, who is closer to him, but Quaresma, the right winger who is farthest from him!

Before passing the ball, Bruno had been running towards the left, and Guedes was also cooperating with him.

All this made the French team players think that the left wing would be the focus of Portugal's attack. Unexpectedly, Bruno suddenly twisted and passed the football to Quaresma in the opposite direction.