Chapter 546 Desperate Croatians

Croatia captain Modric was very depressed. He had already defended Li Qing at the moment of switching from offense to defense, but England cheated and refused to pass the ball to Li Qing...

Head coach Dalic stood in the home team coach command area with his hands on his hips, shaking his head and sighing. His team had done its best, but England still scored a goal.

The broadcast screen was very interesting to Li Qing. German Sky commentator Marcel Reif smiled and said: "The Croatians are too concerned about Li's existence, which leads to Rasim Sterling's lack of defense. The next game will be a very difficult choice for them. Should they maintain a common focus on all England's forwards, or continue to restrict Li as always..."

"No matter how to make a choice, I believe it will be difficult for Croatia to beat England at home."

The next game was as Marcel Reif guessed. The home team Croatia didn't know how to choose.

Continue to defend Li Qing, and worry about Sterling, who is in excellent form, performing a hat trick. Harry Kane has comprehensive abilities and can pass, shoot and break through. It is very likely to score a goal, but defending England's offensive players together will also be afraid of Li Qing's sudden outbreak.

The restarted game had to change Croatia's defense. The threat created by Li Qing's ball was so high that Croatian players consciously focused their attention on Li Qing, so that the attention paid to other English players was greatly reduced.

Croatia's strengthening of defense against Li Qing can certainly suppress Li Qing's personal dribbling attack, but other English players are not in vain. Sterling and Harry Kane are the thigh-level players of their respective teams. In this crucial second round of group matches, they naturally want to take advantage of the opportunity won by Li Qing to perform well.

In the 29th and 34th minutes, Harry Kane and Henderson hit the goal post twice in a row, and Croatian head coach Dalic had to adjust the team's overall tactics.

The situation of defending Li Qing with multiple people gradually turned into regional defense. As time went on, there were fewer and fewer Croatian defensive players defending Li Qing. It seemed that the overall defense was much better, but in Dalic's view, the current defense was only superficial. Once Li Qing exerted his strength, it would inevitably cause local imbalance, thus causing huge problems for the overall defense line.

However, for Dalic, this was helpless. Who made Li Qing's personal ability strong enough to threaten teamwork?

Facing such a superstar player, one can only pray that his state will explode later.

Before the end of the first half, Li Qing took advantage of Arnold's forward insertion to receive the ball on the right side of the attack and faked a pass. He suddenly cut inside. Modric, who was defending, had no choice but to trip Li Qing from behind and complete the breakthrough. The referee Brüch blew the whistle and showed a yellow card while indicating Modric's foul.

"Fuck!"

Dalic cursed. Of course, he was not targeting Modric, but Li Qing. At first, he looked careless, but he was so fast that he couldn't be stopped. Fortunately, the captain Odrich stretched his foot to foul in time, otherwise Li Qing would have to go directly into the penalty area to face Vida one-on-one.

Compared with letting Li Qing enter the penalty area, fouling outside the penalty area is a very wise choice.

However, this idea was soon replaced by another idea-Li Qing's direct free kicks are the best in the world, and sending a free kick from this position seems to be no different from sending a penalty.

The broadcaster gave the straight-line distance from Modric's foul to the goal-24.5 meters.

The foul location is relatively to the right, which is just right for Li Qing to take a direct free kick with his left foot.

Tianchao 5 commentator He Wei smiled and said: "Modric had no choice but to commit a foul, but the location of his foul was too close to the goal. For a top free kick master like Li Qing, it is simply equivalent to giving away a penalty."

Li Qing bent down with the football in his arms and placed it at the foul location. Standing in place, he looked at the goal through the moving human wall, with a beautiful arc at the corner of his mouth.

The on-site director just gave Li Qing a close-up shot of his face. The fans sitting in front of the TV could clearly see the evil smile on Li Qing's mouth. Countless female fans were boiling, and they all made imaginative shouts.

Goalkeeper Rivakovic finally set up the human wall under the interference of the referee Brüch, waiting for Li Qing to take the penalty.

As a professional goalkeeper, he is very aware of Li Qing's super scoring ability, so he frowned and was worried. He stood in the far corner of the player, stomping his feet constantly in small steps, and nervously looked at the top of the human wall.

At this moment, the referee Brüch blew the whistle: "Beep~"

I don't know if it's an illusion, but Livakovic always felt that he heard a "click" in his heart, and that feeling of uneasiness quickly swept over his body.

The foul site was not very far from the football. Li Qing took two steps to run up, took a step forward with his left foot, and stood on his right foot about 30 centimeters to the right of the football. The center of gravity of his body tilted to the right, and his right arm naturally raised to maintain his body balance. He kicked the football with the inside of his left foot.

The speed of the football that rose from the ground was not particularly fast, but the height was just from the top of Kovacic's head, and it quickly slid to the sky, with an obvious arc from outside to inside, rushing to the upper right corner of the goal.

Livakovic is not a world-class goalkeeper, and he is not even as good as the second level in Europe. Facing Li Qing's high-quality direct free kick, he had no way to deal with it. He stood at the far end of the goal and looked at the fast-flying football without even reacting.

"Goooooooooooooooal——"

Andy Gray's signature elongated voice resounded throughout the live broadcast room.

"One arrow pierces the clouds, thousands of troops come to meet!"

Juli TV commentator Zhan Jun shouted excitedly: "Li Qing used a very wonderful direct free kick to help England expand the score to three goals before the end of the first half! The Three Lions are sure to win!"

"A world wave! An absolute world wave! England will win another hearty victory!"

Tianchao 5 commentator He Wei shouted: "With a three-goal lead in the first half, the home team Croatia almost lost any hope of scoring at home! Who would have thought that Croatia, the fourth place in this year's World Cup, would have no power to fight back at home?"

"Haha... Li Qing is still too capable, plus England's overall outstanding strength, it is a natural result to defeat Croatia, which has star players on both offense and defense."

Commentary guest Xu Yang laughed.

The English players were ecstatic, but Li Qing still looked indifferent, which made it easy for the opponent to have the urge to hit him...

Head coach Southgate was completely relieved. With a three-goal lead in the first half, the victory was almost certain.

However, out of caution, he decided to be extra careful in the second half to avoid the headlines of Croatia's desperate counterattack.

The broadcast screen showed Croatian captain Modric, Rakitic, Kovacic, Perisic and others one after another. There was only one expression on their faces, and that expression was called - despair.

They might have thought of this possibility before the game, but... what they never expected was that the plot would really happen. Losing 0:6 to Spain as a guest was fine, but they actually lost three goals to England at home in the first half.