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 being negligent in defense, not marking a threatening player like Ronaldo, and not rushing up to defend him in time after he received the ball.

What he said was all 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 winning goal, it might not be the French team that advanced to the final.

It was precisely because of this winning goal that Umtiti became the hero of the French team and was in high spirits. However, he was now criticized in public by Lori. Even though the opponent was the captain of the French team, he still refuted him with a few words.

As the main goalkeeper of the French team for many years and the team captain, Lori's prestige in the team is naturally very high. Other players basically dare not refute the criticism of him. Now Umtiti actually refuted him in public, which naturally made him angry. 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 kept chattering behind him.

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

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After attacking Umtiti who made a mistake in defense, Lori found Pogba and said, "Pass the ball as soon as possible after stealing it, don't give him a chance to steal it back."

Pogba nodded.

The goal was lost due to his mistake, and he might be the most depressed person except goalkeeper Lori.

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

He underestimated Bruno's ability to counter-steal.

Generally speaking, the players who organize the offense are not very good at defense. Even if the ball is intercepted, they are rarely able to steal it back. At most, they can just pretend to do it and then give up.

More people chose to raise their arms to complain to the referee about the defensive player's foul.

Bruno is different. His strong physical fitness, excellent ball-grabbing ability, and never-give-up spirit allow him to actively counterattack on the spot after losing the ball. Even if he fails to grab the ball, he can still commit a foul. In short, he will not let the opponent counterattack comfortably.

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

Many offensive organizing players need protection from their teammates, but people like Bruno do not need protection because he is good at both offense and defense.

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After the game resumed, the Portuguese players were deeply inspired by this goal, and their understanding of Bruno's new tactics became increasingly better when attacking. The whole team was operating at high speed with Bruno as the center.

This made the French team very uncomfortable.

Even many commentators noticed that 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..."

Taking advantage of this fast passing feature, 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, but passed the ball directly.

C Ronaldo jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball, but the ball went slightly over the crossbar and out of the bottom line.

Ronaldo, who broke a two-game goal drought and scored in the World Cup final, was full of confidence. He dared to shoot at every opportunity and was always able to threaten the opponent's goal. This was a sign of his good form.

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

C Ronaldo took the penalty kick and he sent a high-quality elevator shot which went out of the goal, making the French fans break out in a cold sweat.

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

The Portugal coach hopes his team can resolve the battle within ninety minutes.

After coming on the pitch, Guedes conveyed the head coach's tactical intentions to everyone: "Keep attacking, play like this! We want to win!"

The situation is simple for Portugal: just attack, just score goals, just win.

Having equalized the score, their morale is high at this moment. Substituting players to strengthen the offense is like giving a boost to a rocket, keeping their high morale burning.

But for the French team, the situation is more complicated.

Should we first stabilize our defense and withstand Portugal's heavy bombardment during this period? Or should we strengthen our offense and counterattack with offense?

Portugal's offensive has been very strong recently, and they have been able to attack in any way, which has made the French team quite afraid. They have been stunned by Portugal's crazy offensive and don't know what to do.

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

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

This substitution adjustment seems to be a positional substitution, but Tolisso is more offensive, while Matuidi is more defensive. So this is actually a substitution to strengthen the offense.

After Tolisso came on the pitch, he also told his teammates the coach's intention: "We should attack, we can't always be suppressed by them, otherwise there will be problems."

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Deschamps' choice was theoretically correct, because if he only strengthened the defense, it would be tantamount to acquiescing in allowing Portugal to do whatever it wanted in its own half, which was a gesture of compromise and defeat, and a double blow to the morale of the players.

Football matches are very about "momentum". Once you lose momentum, it will be difficult to make a comeback.

So this anger cannot be released no matter what.

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

The fans of both teams in the stands were cheering for their teams crazily. Even the neutral fans were inspired by the atmosphere and stood up from their seats.

"Portugal's chance... Bruno's pass, Cristiano Ronaldo! He was in a very tight position, and the French team adjusted his defense in time... But he didn't shoot! Instead, he passed the ball! Quaresma shot - and was saved by Lori, it was thrilling!"

"Giroud got the ball in the frontcourt. He couldn't turn around and passed it to Tolisso, who passed it to Mbappe. What a great match! Mbappe made a cross! This time it was Kante who made the shot! Just a hair's breadth away! The ball flew out of the bottom line..."

"Bruno got the ball in midfield and he was facing Kante again... a backheel pass! What a beautiful pass!"

"Quaresma dribbles past the defense! He breaks through! Before Hernandez can get close to him, he passes the ball to Moutinho, who shoots from a distance... a fake move! He breaks through and shoots again! Lori, who blocks the angle, hugs him in his arms!"

"Both sides didn't put much effort into defense, but instead actively sought to attack. This made the scene very interesting because in the final moments, they both had many opportunities to shoot."

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Bruno could feel that the defense against him was weakening because the French team now had less time to mark him throughout the field as they were busy trying to score goals in the final moments.

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

Overall the second half went very smoothly, with no injuries or delays. The estimated injury time was three minutes, which makes a total of nine minutes.

If the winner cannot be determined within these nine minutes, the game will have to go into overtime.

But Bruno felt unhappy when he thought that he would have to play for another 30 minutes before knowing who would win the championship.

If the battle can be ended in 90 minutes, why drag it to 120 minutes or even a penalty shootout?

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

Including the header shortly after the start of the game, 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 the idea.

Unless there is a good opportunity, he will not shoot, but create opportunities for his teammates.

He never shoots in vain!

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Bruno retreated to receive the ball because the French team, under the command of Deschamps, pressed Portugal in the frontcourt. If he didn't go back and Moutinho was alone, the football would not be able to reach his feet.

Anyway, the French team no longer pressed him throughout the entire court, so he felt much more relaxed.

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

Bruno dribbled the ball diagonally to the left, apparently intending to pass the ball to Guedes on the left.

Guedes, who had just come on the field for a short time, was in very good physical condition and his sprinting back and forth was very powerful. He was also very active on the field during this period and was the main attacking point for Portugal on the offensive end.

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

Just when the French team focused their defensive attention on the left side, Bruno suddenly passed the ball as soon as he ran through the center circle. The target was not Guedes who was closer to him, but Quaresma who was the farthest right winger from him!

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

All this made the French players think that the left side would be the focus of Portugal's attack this time, but they didn't expect Bruno to suddenly turn around and pass the ball to Quaresma in the opposite direction.