Chapter 432: Things Are Different Now
Brazil's 2:0 victory over Mexico in 90 minutes was an expected result, and naturally would not cause much sensation, unless Mexico unexpectedly defeated Brazil 2:0, but the possibility of this theory not appearing.
Since Brazil, which advanced to the quarterfinals, faced England in the quarter-finals, the sports media around the world went crazy.
England and Brazil have played 26 games in history, with England at an absolute disadvantage with 5 wins, 10 draws and 11 losses. In the four World Cups, England drew one and lost three, without a single victory.
The first time the two teams met in the World Cup was in the 1958 Sweden World Cup, where the two sides tied 0:0 in the group stage. The second meeting was in the quarter-finals of the Chilean World Cup four years later. With Garrincha's excellent performance, Brazil defeated England 3:1.
The third meeting was in the 1970 Mexico World Cup, which was the first World Cup broadcast live worldwide in history. Brazil beat England 1:0 with Jair Quinho's only goal of the game.
The most recent clash was the Korea-Japan World Cup sixteen years ago, still in the quarter-finals. Ronaldinho's amazing free kick tricked England's legendary goalkeeper Seaman, helping Brazil reverse England and advance to the semi-finals of the Korea-Japan World Cup, and finally won the championship.
The most recent clash was in the warm-up match in November last year. England defeated Brazil 2-0 at the new Wembley Stadium with two goals from Li Qing.
Although Brazil has an absolute advantage in the historical confrontation with England, these data can only represent that Brazil was too strong in the past, and cannot prove that Brazil can still beat England in the future quarter-finals.
The most important thing is that England is no longer what it used to be. As Li Qing's overall strength gradually improves, it gives people a sense of invincibility. England has now surpassed Brazil and become the biggest favorite to win the championship after France.
The Brazilian media certainly knows that England is strong now, but they can completely play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, and use fishing reels to put pressure on England, which will lead to England's poor performance in the quarter-finals and contribute to Brazil's advancement to the World Cup semi-finals.
England and Brazil met in the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in 16 years. England lost all three quarter-finals. The media and fans of England and China did not think that Brazil would win again, so the media and fans of both sides were competing fiercely on the Internet, so that the other quarter-final that started at 9 o'clock lacked enough attention.
In other words, the quarter-finals between Belgium and the Sun Country were clearly strong and weak, lacking in highlights.
But what about the reality?
The Sun Country burst out with amazing energy and almost overturned the European Red Devils Belgium, one of the favorites to win the championship.
Neither side made any progress in the first half, but the second half of the game had an unexpected result. Shibasaki Gaku sent a straight pass in the counterattack, Vertonghen made a mistake in interception, and Genki Haraguchi scored a low shot from the right side of the penalty area.
Four minutes later, the Sun Country expanded the score. Shinji Kagawa passed the ball back to Takashi Inui, who used a long-range arc shot from 25 meters away from the goal to break through Courtois' goal, helping the Sun Country lead Belgium unexpectedly 2:0.
Belgium, which was two goals behind, finally woke up from its dream. In the 69th minute, Vertonghen, who made a mistake, scored with a high-quality header from the left side of the penalty area, narrowing the score to 1:2.
Just like the Sun Country expanded the score, Belgium only took five minutes to equalize the score, that is, in the 74th minute of the game, Hazard made a cross from the left, and the 'fluffy-haired' Fellaini, who was over 1.9 meters tall, overpowered two Sun Country defenders at the edge of the small penalty area to complete a header.
2:2
The score became a tie, and the game time was getting shorter and shorter. Both sides played very carefully. At the end of the regular time of 90 minutes, the scoreboard showed that the score was still 2:2. Just when everyone thought that the second overtime of this World Cup would come, the Belgians completed the lore in the fourth minute of the overtime.
Courtois threw the ball to initiate a counterattack. De Bruyne, who got the ball, made a diagonal pass to the right from the middle. Munier passed the ball into the penalty area at a 45-degree angle on the right. Lukaku, who was at the front point, made a clever move, and Chadli, who followed up in the middle, made a shovel shot and killed the Sun Country in the last second.
The fans of the Sun Country at the Rostov Arena obviously did not expect the goal to be lost so badly. They were all dumbfounded. The reaction of the Belgian fans was in sharp contrast. They celebrated ecstatically and released the huge pressure brought by advancing to the quarterfinals.
Belgium was two goals behind the Sun Country at one point. As the favorite to win the championship, such a result was obviously unacceptable. Fortunately, the subsequent adjustments were timely and they scored three goals in a row...
The game that should have been easily won became a thrilling final. The 1/8 finals between Belgium and the Sun Country became the focus of media and fans. England and Brazil, who were preparing for the World Cup quarterfinals, were just happy to be idle and put all their attention on the quarterfinals starting three days later.
The last two 1/8 finals were held at 6 pm and 9 pm on July 3rd, local time in Russia. Sweden relied on midfield commander Forsberg to score the only goal of the game in the 68th minute to help the team beat Switzerland 1:0 at the Zenit Arena in St. Petersburg and advance to the World Cup quarterfinals again after 24 years.
The 1/8 final between Colombia and Croatia was the last match for the quarter-finals. The game was full of drama. Mandzukic's goal helped Croatia maintain the score until the third minute of injury time. As a result, Mina equalized with a header, helping Colombia to draw with Croatia 1:1 and dragging the game into overtime.
I thought Colombia, with its morale boosted, would score the winning goal, but they didn't score until the end of overtime. They scored three of five penalties in the penalty shootout, while Croatia scored four of five penalties, which means that Croatia eliminated Colombia with a total score of 5:4 and became the last team to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
The fans who watched the game were speechless, saying that Colombia's equalizer was unnecessary...
With the end of the last 1/8 final, the Russian World Cup ushered in a two-day break again.
According to the schedule, Uruguay vs. France is the first quarter-final, the time is 6 pm on July 6, local time in Russia, and the venue is Nizhny Novgorod Stadium. England vs. Brazil's quarter-final will be held at 9 pm later at Kazan Arena.
For fans, the two-day break is quite tormenting, and they can't wait for the quarter-finals to start immediately, but the participating coaches and players hope that 24 hours can be used as 48 hours or even 72 hours.
It can be seen that the tournament system leaves too little time for players to prepare.
However, what was more advantageous for England was that they defeated Denmark 3:0 without consuming much physical energy, and they had one more day to rest. Brazil did not decide to defeat Mexico until the end of the game. Their physical and mental consumption was more serious than that of the English players, but they had one day less to rest. This allowed fans who support England to see their team advance to the World Cup semi-finals again after 28 years.