Chapter 538 Defeated the German team 3:1
Shortly after the start of the second half, something happened on the field.
First, Khedira was injured while defending and came off the field, forcing the German team to passively make substitutions.
Then came the Spanish side. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had just been replaced, tackled Iniesta during a defense, forcing the Spanish side to make early substitutions.
Both of these surprises were not expected by both parties, but they caused a chain reaction.
Bastian Schweinsteiger is a hexagonal all-around fighter. When attacking, he can break through and steal. He can organize the offense and score goals himself.
When he was on defense, he ran all over the court, full of fighting spirit and full of energy.
After replacing him, Loew made some adjustments to the German team's formation.
When the German team is attacking, the team's formation moves forward as a whole, and the defense line boldly presses near the center circle. Neuer takes advantage of his goalkeeper and moves behind the top of the center circle to act as the team's sweeper.
The advantage of this is that more troops can be invested in the offense, better control of the ball, and increased offensive pressure.
The shortcomings are also obvious. The goalkeeper and the back line are too far forward, and the gap behind them is too large. Once the opponent's counterattack speeds up, the German team's goal will be very dangerous.
Therefore, this style of play requires the protection of a defensive midfielder, and the one who takes on this important task is Bastian Schweinsteiger, who just came on the field.
Bastian Schweinsteiger has abundant physical fitness and outstanding running ability. He once ran a terrifying 15 kilometers in an overtime game.
Although I am older now, my physical condition may not be as good as it was then.
But he was only replaced in the second half. If he only played half the game, Schweinsteiger's physical fitness would be enough to support him to keep running like this.
With such a tireless midfielder on the court, the German team can always have a numerical advantage whether it is attacking or defending.
Affected by this, the Spanish team's defensive pressure is very high.
Shortly after the start of the second half, the German team almost equalized the score.
This opportunity was created by Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Del Bosque's expression became serious. After Bastian Schweinsteiger came on, the German team's offense became sharper.
Especially after Bastian Schweinsteiger took on the defensive responsibility, Kroos and Royce's defensive pressure was suddenly reduced, and they could devote more energy to offense.
And Xiaozhu himself is also a person who is good at seizing opportunities and decisively attacking.
Spain's current defensive system is a little unable to cope with this kind of player who suddenly joins the attack from behind.
It’s not that this issue was not considered at all before the game, but this straight up and down way of playing requires extremely high physical fitness of the players. It is impossible for anyone to do this all the time, unless he is an iron man.
But Piggy, who only plays half-court, can do all of this.
In the 53rd minute of the second half, the German team once again launched a threatening attack.
Royce passed the ball to Gomez in the frontcourt. Gomez took the ball with his back and tacitly played the ball to Muller who was hiding behind him.
After receiving the ball, Muller accelerated into the penalty area and completed a shot before Ramos.
It's a pity that the ball was kicked and was easily confiscated by Casillas.
Although the goal was not scored, the opponent's offensive threat was already revealed.
This made Bosque unable to sit still. He called over Koke, who had just replaced him, and gave him face-to-face instructions, asking him to pay attention to Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Kirk nodded heavily and accepted the task.
But when Cork focused its defense on Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany's full-back Kimmich became active again.
Kroos has a wide field of vision. After seeing an opportunity on the right side, he frequently passes the ball to this place, and specifically plays behind Koke, forcing the Spanish team's back line to advance, allowing Mourinho to wander between the Spanish team's defender and midfielder. Le creates opportunities.
"Why does this style of play feel a bit familiar?"
In the stands, Guardiola looked more and more wrong.
He feels that Loew's style of play is very similar to the tactics he used when he coached Bayern.
There are a large number of players from Bayern in the German team's lineup.
There is still a high possibility that the opponent will copy your tactics!
But he was very confused:
"Don't German football keep saying that they want to restore the traditional glory of German football? Why do they still use something from a foreign coach like me?"
After the Germans lost the World Cup, they conducted a collective reflection.
The result of reflection is that German football must follow its own path and cannot blindly imitate others.
Then conflicts arose due to Guardiola's drastic reforms at Bayern, and the final result was naturally that Guardiola left Bayern.
Bayern is too important to German football, so it is not surprising that Guardiola was kicked out.
But after the opponent drove him away, he went around and used the tactics he had pioneered, which was a bit unethical.
"This tactic is not to say that there are no hidden dangers. The biggest hidden danger is Xiaozhu. It depends on whether Bosque can think of it!"
Guardiola felt that with Bosque's strength and experience, he should be able to react quickly.
Seeing that Xiaozhu revitalized the whole team after playing, Loew was overjoyed and decisively increased the pressure.
He replaced Hector and brought on Schürrle.
Xuerle has a nickname called Xu Sanduo. He creates many scoring opportunities, scores many long-range shots, and tries many people.
Of course, this is a statement of high emotional intelligence.
If you change it to low emotional intelligence, you will have more shots but less goals, more crosses, poor accuracy, more dribble attempts, and a low success rate.
His offensive efficiency is not very high, and he often misses his shots, which is no match for Evergrande forward Gao Lin.
But Schürrle has one outstanding advantage - fast!
Considering Schuerle's poor shooting and scoring ability, Loew obviously does not intend to let him cut inside and shoot.
He is not this material either!
The task given to him by Loew is to use his speed advantage to tear open the Spanish defense, and then find a way to hand the ball to his teammates.
Spain's defense intensity on the wing is not high. After the opponent increases the number of midfielders, it becomes more difficult to break through the center.
Therefore, trying from the side and looking for opportunities is the best option for the German team now.
Schürrle did not disappoint Loew's expectations. After coming on the field, he immediately used his strong fighting spirit and super speed to complete a breakthrough and cross from the wing.
His breakthrough is beautiful, but the quality of his cross is unsightly.
Gomez had already tried very hard to outflank the goal, but Schurrle passed the ball directly to the goalkeeper.
This makes people have to wonder, is this guy passing the ball, or is he trying to shoot the ball himself?
If it was a pass, was it too outrageous?
If you want to shoot by yourself, is this soft intensity serious?
Although, Gomez in the penalty area gave Schurrle a thumbs up.
Although it is not well spread, such attempts are always correct and should still be encouraged.
And the breakthrough he just made was indeed beautiful. This extraordinary way of using speed to eat opponents alive is full of visual impact. This is why so many fans like to watch Bell play.
When Bosque saw that the opponent had used his second card, he did not hesitate and quickly played his second card.
Surprisingly, he did not replace a defensive player, but an offensive player - Pedro!
Bosque's substitution aroused heated discussion among the fans and commentators at the scene:
"Bosque is going to get into trouble with the German team's bayonets!"
“The German team brought on Schürrle to strengthen their attack, and Del Bosque brought on Pedro to strengthen their attack. Moreover, both of them are fast wingers, and they happen to be on the same side. Now there is a good show! "
Loew obviously did not expect Del Bosque to be so aggressive and actually chose to play with the German team and blast each other.
However, with such a substitution, are you really not afraid that Spain's defense will be overwhelmed?
The German team's offense during this period was very fierce, and the Spanish defense was in danger. Ramos and Alba received yellow cards for fouls.
This makes the already precarious defense line even worse.
However, the German team is not much better here.
After Pedro came on the field, Spain also purposefully passed the ball to him, allowing him to use his speed to attack the opponent's defense.
Since the German team's overall formation is very high, every Spanish counterattack poses a great threat to them.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was in charge of defense, became the busiest person on the court, constantly running up and down the court.
In the 72nd minute of the second half, after Spain's defense succeeded, Casillas counterattacked with a hand-thrown ball.
This time instead of going right, they handed the ball to the left.
After Lin Quan received the ball, he strode along the wing towards the opponent's half. Schweinsteiger planned to stop him on the wing.
But he didn't expect that the opponent was running faster and faster, and was about to run out of his control.
As a last resort, he could only foul behind the back and push down Lin Quan.
The referee was not polite and came over and showed him a yellow card.
"Lin, are you okay?"
Xiaozhu politely asked about Lin Quan who fell to the ground, and after making sure he was not injured, he pulled him up.
That was a tactical foul just now. It would not be a loss for the German team to exchange a yellow card for a possible goal.
Including Xiaozhu himself and the German team coach Loew all think so!
However, they soon discovered that they were wrong!
After Schweinsteiger received a yellow card, Spain's offensive focus immediately changed - focusing exclusively on Schweinsteiger's side!
Starting from the 75th minute, every Spanish counterattack, whether launched from the left or not, will inevitably come to Lin Quan's feet. Sometimes Lin Quan will cross-change positions with Pedro, allowing Pedro to take advantage of it. Speed to wear down Bastian Schweinsteiger.
Aren't you good at running?
I just let you run away, you won’t die from exhaustion!
This trick worked quickly. Xiaozhu ran several sprints in a short period of time. His physical strength was exhausted very quickly. Less than 30 minutes after he was replaced, he was already panting from exhaustion and couldn't help it. I held my knees and gasped.
On the sidelines, Loew felt something was wrong after seeing this scene.
Bastian Schweinsteiger's physical fitness has always been excellent, so why can't he run so quickly?
The little pig is feeling miserable!
If you just defend, the physical consumption is not that great.
But he not only has to defend, he also has to participate in offense.
Every time he just finished an attack in the frontcourt, the opponent would launch a quick counterattack, forcing him to use all his strength to chase back.
Running from the opponent's penalty area to the front of your own penalty area, no matter how physically fit you are, you won't be able to handle it even if you do this several times!
And what's even worse is that although he defended very actively, because of the yellow card he received before, Xiaozhu was a little restrained when he returned to defense, fearing that he would be kicked out of the game for a foul.
The German team was already lagging behind. If there was one less player, it would be over.
As Xiaozhu's physical energy was rapidly depleted, his role on the court also declined rapidly, and the number of times he joined the attack from behind also began to decrease.
The German team's numerical advantage during the attack gradually disappeared.
Without the numerical advantage, it would be difficult for their offense to be effective.
After Bosque used the third substitution and replaced Ramos, who had received a yellow card, Spain's defense gradually stabilized.
Although Spain's current lineup is not as strong as in previous years, when they really defend with all their strength, even if they are as strong as the German team, it is not so easy to score.
As the game came to an end, the entire German team became more and more anxious. Even Neuer crossed the center line, eager to come to the frontcourt to join the attack.
The opponent's formation pressed so far forward, giving Spain an excellent opportunity to counterattack.
In the 88th minute, towards the end of the game, Spain launched a quick counterattack from the wing.
After Pedro broke through, he saw that Neuer was standing too far forward, so he tried a lob.
This lob shot was very far away, more than 40 meters from the goal.
After seeing the opponent's intention, Neuer quickly sprinted towards the goal, trying to block the ball.
But how can a person be as fast as a ball?
Before he could rush back, Pedro's lob shot had already gone into the goal, and the score was instantly rewritten to 3:1.
With Pedro's goal, the Spanish team almost sealed the victory.
After this goal was scored, the morale of the German team suffered a devastating blow and they could no longer organize an effective attack.
Seeing that neither side had the desire to continue attacking, the referee blew the whistle early to end the game before injury time ended.
In the end, with the goals of Ramos, Lin Quan and Pedro, the Spanish team defeated the German team 3:1 and advanced to the semi-finals.
This game was not easy to win. The German team even took the initiative for a long time in the middle of the game and suppressed the Spanish team.
If they had not failed to seize the opportunity and score more goals, this game might not have been lost.
Compared with the invincible Spanish team a few years ago, the overall strength of the current Bulldogs has dropped significantly.
But they are still the strongest team in the world right now!
