Chapter 640: Enter the World Cup finals and challenge for the championship!

Trailing by two goals, the game was essentially gone for England.

Although there is still a lot of time, it will not be easy for them to break through Spain's goal, and it will not help if they only score one goal. They have to score at least two goals.

This is a bit too difficult!

On the sidelines, Southgate could not sit still and replaced Sterling, who was not performing well, and replaced him with Vardy.

Sterling wasted several good scoring opportunities in this game. If he could seize even one of these opportunities, the current situation of the England team would not be so passive.

Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on Sterling, after all, they play happy football.

After Vardy came on, he had an immediate effect on the front line.

With his cooperation and firepower, Kane plays much easier.

Vardy is a late-blooming player, and his experience can be called an inspirational brother in football.

Vardy was abandoned by the professional team's youth training camp early because of his height, and later played part-time in the amateur league while working.

When he was 25 years old, Vardy was still playing for an unknown English second team.

League Two is the fourth tier of league in England and the lowest professional league in the UK. Below League Two is the National League, most of which are amateur teams.

A 25-year-old player who plays in such a low-level league would normally be lost in the crowd and spend his career in obscurity.

But Vardy was lucky. His talent was not buried. Instead, he was spotted by Leicester City, which was still in the English Championship at the time. He transferred to Fox City for 1 million pounds. In the following years, he helped the team The team successfully reached the Super League and almost created a miracle in the 15-16 season.

The most impressive thing about Vardy is his fighting spirit. He seems to be unaware of fatigue on the court, always attacking and fighting, and is extremely aggressive.

In the 72nd minute of the second half, England won an excellent opportunity thanks to Vardy's successful counterattack.

But unfortunately, Kane's single-handed goal was resolved by Spanish goalkeeper De Gea, and the England team missed the opportunity to get a goal back.

When De Gea was playing for Manchester United, he studied Kane a lot. After all, as a super striker who has become famous in the Premier League in recent years, Kane is very famous in the Premier League and poses a great threat to the goalkeepers of various teams, so it is natural. It's on the list of key goalskeepers.

Thanks to this, De Gea made predictions in advance based on Kane's playing habits when making the save, and thus successfully resolved the opponent's one-on-one attack.

Kane, who missed this opportunity to score a goal, blamed himself very much and made an apologetic gesture to Vardy.

But Vardy didn't care and devoted himself to pressing again.

When the game reached about 70 minutes, the physical fitness of these Spanish players, especially some veterans, began to have problems.

The England team is a group of young players, and the only one who is not born in the 1990s is Vardy, who has just come on the field, so there is no problem with their physical fitness.

Their abundant physical fitness allowed them to gradually gain an advantage in the midfield stranglehold. Vardy frequently used his physical advantage to forcefully engage in hand-to-hand combat with Spanish defensive players, further accelerating the opponent's physical consumption.

The advantage in physical confrontation, as well as the morale improvement brought by Vardy's constant fighting with opponents after coming on the field, made the situation on the field begin to tilt towards the England team during this period.

One obviously observable change is that England's ball possession rate has begun to increase, and even in certain periods of time, it has a tendency to overtake the Spanish team.

"It's a very clever tactic, and it's an unavoidable conspiracy, but it's a pity that there's not much time left for the British."

In the stands, the coach of the French team, who had already advanced to the final, came to the scene again.

Seeing the crazy counterattack launched by the England team, he couldn't help but sigh.

The time is almost past 75 minutes, and the England team is only gradually gaining momentum at this time, and it is too late for the state to pick up.

Moreover, the disadvantage of being two goals behind is too great, and it will be difficult for England to recover.

What's more, Spain on the opposite side was only temporarily suppressed, not that it was beaten without the ability to fight back.

What's more, Del Bosque is holding on to several substitutions to no avail!

Thinking of this, Deschamps turned his attention to the Spanish coaching bench.

Sure enough, on the Spanish bench, someone had already changed their jerseys and various equipment. They were standing on the sidelines listening to Del Bosque's instructions. They seemed to be ready to play.

In the 77th minute, Spain made its first substitution adjustment.

Thiago comes on, replacing David Silva.

This was not a matchup substitution. After Thiago came on, Lin Quan moved his position to the wing and gave him the central position. Spain's formation became 4231.

Although Thiago stands in the attacking midfielder position, his responsibility is not to attack, but to defend.

When defending, he acts as the first line of defense in front of the two defensive midfielders, blocking and interfering with the opponent's ball and advancement, buying defensive time for the teammates behind him.

Among Spain's two defensive midfielders, Busquets has a good sense of position and high football IQ. His defensive position selection is very reasonable. Koke has a large coverage area and strong running ability. The two can form a good complement to each other.

If the two of them are full of physical energy, it will be difficult for the opponent to break through their interception.

Even if his physical fitness has declined, he can still exert 70% to 80% of his strength, which is enough to intercept ordinary attacks.

After Thiago came on the field, Spain's defensive strategy changed significantly.

They began to consciously cut off the connection between the England team's forward and midfield. Kane and Vardy at the front could do whatever they wanted, as long as they cut off the connection between them and the midfield, preventing the football from being handed over to them smoothly. Just put it in your hands.

"Haha, the only disadvantage the England team suffers from is the lack of a core midfielder. If we give them De Bruyne of Belgium, they will be able to play better."

"What the hell are you thinking about? If De Bruyne gives it to the England team, then the England team will take off!"

The midfielder and striker combination of De Bruyne + Kane is scary enough, coupled with Vardy and the England team's young personnel structure.

They are starting a mobile war, who can withstand it?

After Thiago came on the field, the Spanish team's defense has improved a lot, but the initiative is still in the hands of the opponent.

Because Isco's physical fitness declined and he was not good at physical confrontation, Spain's offense on the left was misfired.

Defense alone is definitely not enough. Being constantly beaten by opponents is not a good thing for the Spanish team, which is in poor physical condition.

They still need to push the battle outward and not put so much defensive pressure on their own backcourt.

Thinking of this, Bosque used the second substitution.

The 34-year-old veteran Iniesta came on and replaced Isco.

When Iniesta came on the field, there was warm applause.

Spanish fans respect and love this team's meritorious veteran very much.

And judging from Iniesta's age and his performance in the league and the national team over the past year, this will definitely be his last World Cup.

He wears the Spanish jersey and plays for the national team in a game that can be said to be one less than one.

And this game is likely to be his penultimate game for the Spanish national team.

After Iniesta came on, the Spanish team's offense on the left quickly improved.

Both he and Lin Quan are players with balanced left and right feet, and can play on both left and right sides, so the two often cross-change positions and cooperate during the process of changing positions.

Although Iniesta is older, he has extremely rich experience accumulated over the years.

Lin Quan came over to seek cooperation with him. The two of them didn't even need to communicate. He was able to keenly sense Lin Quan's intentions and keep up with Lin Quan's rhythm, whether it was running, intervening, receiving, or making plays. , the cooperation between the two is perfect.

Under the god-level cooperation of these two people, the opponent's players were like rusty machines, completely unable to keep up with their rhythm.

In the 79th minute, Lin Quan received a pass from Iniesta and reached the right side of the penalty area.

The players of the England team have been numbed, and many of them have lost their defensive positions. At this time, seeing the ball at Lin Quan's feet, they almost subconsciously rushed towards Lin Quan.

Lin Quan saw an opportunity appearing in the middle and pretended to rush forward, but in fact he pushed the ball straight into the penalty area.

When Diego Costa saw the ball appearing in front of him, he thought he could continue his record of consecutive goals. In excitement, he failed to control his strength and fired an anti-aircraft gun.

He was in the middle of the penalty area, less than ten meters away from the goal. It was a bit outrageous to fire such an outrageous anti-aircraft cannon at such a close distance.

"My, my!"

Diego Costa blushed, cursing himself in his mind for wasting the opportunity, while hurriedly apologizing to the teammate who passed the ball.

In fact, Lin Quan could have shot the ball just now, but he chose to believe in himself and sent the ball into the stands with one kick.

I am guilty and I deserve to die!

Although Diego Costa's shot missed, the shot shocked the opponent's players.

I was lucky this time, but I may not have such good luck next time.

So they strengthened their defense against Lin Quan and Iniesta, but it turned out that it was too difficult to guard these two people at the same time.

With Iniesta's physical fitness intact, and Lin Quan consciously helping him attract firepower and reducing the defensive pressure he faced, Iniesta's condition seemed to have returned to its peak six or seven years ago!

Not only was the cooperation between the two not blocked by their opponents, but the more they fought, the better they felt. The cooperation became more tacit and exciting every time.

The fans in the stands and around the world who were sitting in front of the TV watching this game were stunned to see the dazzling and all kinds of incredible coordination between the two.

"This combination of communication and communication is a fortress!"

"Excuse me for being uneducated, but I can go all over the world with just one word!"

"Is this the combined strength of Xiao Bai and Emperor Lin? It's so terrifying!"

"Haha, this is not the novice at his peak. If he were replaced by the all-powerful novice from before, the scene would probably be even more explosive!"

"Well, seeing the cooperation between these two people, I can't help but think about the way Messi cooperated with Iniesta on the court in that Barcelona team!"

"Yeah, for Barcelona fans, those are really nostalgic days!"

Although Barcelona is still a strong team, it can no longer be regarded as the top team.

They face the same problem as the Spanish national team, which is that the lineup is aging and they cannot find replacements after a large number of core players wither.

"It would be great if Harvey was still on the court. Lin Huang, Xiaobai and Harvey would be the true replica of the original Cosmos team!"

Led by the two men, the Spanish team turned from defense to offense and once again gained the upper hand.

The English team's defense faced huge pressure and had to shrink its forces from the front and retreat to stabilize the defense.

And time was consumed little by little in this tug.

In the 85th minute of the game, the score on the field was still 2:0. At this time, there were almost no people who still believed that the England team could create miracles.

Although Vardy and others are still working hard to attack, what they are pursuing is just to score a face-saving goal.

But Spain's defense was very solid and did not give them such a chance.

In the end, the game ended with Spain 2:0, narrowly defeating their opponent and once again reaching the World Cup finals.

This is the Spanish team that has reached the finals of three consecutive World Cups. In the first two times, they finally won the championship trophy as they wished. I wonder if they can create a miracle this time and complete the first three consecutive championships in the history of the World Cup?

As for the England team, although they stopped in the semi-finals, their World Cup journey is not over.

Before the final begins, they will compete with the loser of another semi-final, the Belgian team, for third place.

After the game, Kane, Lingard and others ran to Lin Quan and wanted to exchange jerseys with him.

"Uh, how about you guys take a guess?"

Lin Quan took off his jersey, held it in his hand, and said to the awkward two people with a smile.

He only has one autumn coat, so he can't split it in half and exchange it for the other party, right?

"Forget it, no need. He was here first. Lin, just give it to him."

Harry Kane voluntarily withdrew from the competition and gave Lingard the opportunity to exchange jerseys.

Lingard happily completed the exchange with Lin Quan. He also borrowed a camera from somewhere and also borrowed a photographer to help the two of them take a group photo.

Lingard planned to take this jersey and this photo back as a souvenir. He had already thought of a name, so he just called it 'Two Lin Emperors'!

He is Lin Huang, and I am Lin Huang. There is nothing wrong with calling two Lin Huang!

Del Bosque waited until the referee blew the whistle, adjusted his clothes, walked to the England team's coaching bench with a glowing face, and shook hands with the opponent's coach Southgate.

"Congratulations on advancing to the finals, I hope you can achieve good results in the finals!"

Southgate felt a little bitter, but still sent his blessing.

Compared to letting the French team win the championship, the British are more accepting of the result of the Spanish team winning the championship.

And if Spain really wins the championship, it will create World Cup history, and they will be able to witness history.

"Thank you. Your players are also very good and very young. I believe our results will get better and better in the future."

Del Bosque's words are also sincere. He actually envies England's young lineup.

Eight years ago, when he led the team to participate in the World Cup in South Africa, the Spanish team's lineup was also so young.

It’s a pity that time is not forgiving!

The veterans of that Spanish team are now almost withered. (End of chapter)