Chapter 115 World Cup: Heading to Berlin!

The second half of the overtime started immediately after both sides replenished their water. As expected, Klinsmann also made adjustments at the last moment, replacing two players at once, taking advantage of this last quarter to counterattack. Odonkor replaced Schneider who had cramps, and Neuville replaced Klose.

As expected, the German team launched an efficient counterattack in the first half of the last quarter of overtime, mainly because Italy was missing a defensive midfielder and its defense was slightly loose.

In the 107th minute, the German team launched a counterattack. Kyle passed the ball in front of the penalty area, but Li Qi failed to intercept it. Podolski received the ball and shot with his left foot from 13 meters away from the goal on the left. Fortunately, Buffon lifted the ball over the crossbar with one hand!

After the corner kick was taken, Lahm intercepted Materazzi's clearance at the front of the penalty area on the left side, and shot a curved ball with his right foot to the far corner. Li Qi flew to block and the ball eventually went wide of the far post.

In the 112th minute, Odonko, who came on as a substitute, launched an attack on the right side, relying on his personal ability to break through the Italian defense. Li Qi could only stick to this incredibly fast winger... and Odonko's final choice was to take a long shot with his right foot from 28 meters away from the goal, which posed no threat at all.

After this attack, the German team seemed to have lost power and was once again beaten by the Italian team in the half court. There were still 8 minutes left in the overtime.

In the 113th minute, Totti made a long pass from the center line, Camoranesi unloaded the ball on the right side of the penalty area and cleverly knocked it with his heel... Gilardino followed up and knocked the ball back, and Piero made a low shot with his right foot from 20 meters in front of the goal, and the ball just brushed the post and went wide of the left post!

When the game came to the last minute, Italy, with the cheers of the host fans, attacked the whole field and finally ushered in the turning point of the game!

In the 118th minute, Li Qi sent a straight pass through the crowd, and Pirlo's left-footed shot from 26 meters in front of the goal was blocked by Lehmann...

Ricardo's cousin Francis was also rarely seen watching the World Cup semi-final in the VIP box of the nightclub with his friends. The handsome guys at the scene didn't even pay any attention to the ragged and adorable KTV princesses around them. Instead, they held their beer glasses and stared at the TV broadcast on the giant screen.

Cousin Francis was still muttering: "Nephew, you have to do your best! You must advance. This time, your uncle has invested a lot of money..."

What echoed in the nightclub box was not the erotic music, but the passionate comments of the football commentator:

"Beautiful, Li Qi dribbled past the defense in the midfield... and made a straight pass..."

"Pirlo! Get rid of it, there's a chance in the middle!"

"Long shot! Beautiful. This long shot was of very high quality, but Lehmann jumped sideways and saved it from going out of the baseline..."

(My cousin patted the thigh of the beautiful woman next to him: Damn! What a pity, this didn’t even make it in…)

"Del Piero was responsible for handling Italy's 12th corner kick...in the middle...it was headed out!"

"Another chance! Pirlo intercepted the ball!"

"Opportunity! Pirlo dribbled sideways...no chance to kick...pass the ball!"

"Shoot! The ball goes in! No. 3 Grosso! Grosso!"

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Grosso received a pass from Pirlo and at the last moment, in the 118th minute of the game, he scored a world-class goal in the penalty area and sent the ball into the German team's goal! This goal came at the right time!"

(The moment the ball went into the net, my cousin jumped up excitedly: Yeah! We are rich! Long live the Italian team!)

In the slow-motion replay, Del Piero was responsible for the corner kick on the right side. Although the corner kick was headed out by Mertesacker near the small penalty area, it was intercepted by Pirlo in front of the penalty area. He then took two steps sideways to attract the German defender to block the long shot, but Pirlo cleverly passed the ball directly to the right side of the penalty area!

Without stopping the ball, Grosso shot with the inside of his left foot into the far corner from 11 meters in front of the goal. The tricky arc ball bypassed Ballack and Friedrich, as well as Lehmann's fingertips, and went straight into the far corner of the side net. It was undoubtedly a world wave!

This goal was so beautiful, worthy of being Wei Yi Zuo! After the penalty kick at the last minute of the round of 1, there was another famous scene, and a world wave goal was scored at the end of the extra time in the quarter-finals!

Italy finally broke the deadlock in the final moments of overtime! All the Italian players, coaching staff and substitutes rushed into the field to celebrate... Of course, the celebration action was the famous human pyramid...

But the game is not over yet, the German team still wants to use the last minute or so to fight to the death! However, similarly, the climax set off by Italy has not yet ended...

Uncle Francis finally relaxed and started celebrating with his friends. The scantily clad nightclub princesses also began to seek warmth from their sponsors. Their soft voices were so soft that it was hard to tell whether they were panting or congratulations. However, on the TV screen, the passionate commentator continued to explain:

"There is less than a minute left in the game, and the German team is going to attack with all their might... This reminds me a bit of the 1 World Cup..."

"Balak kicked the ball at a 45-degree angle on the left side, cross it!"

"Cannavaro! He headed the ball out before Mertesacker!"

"Podolski stopped the ball... Cannavaro! He rushed forward again! He intercepted the ball!"

"The German team's midfield and backcourt are now empty! Cannavaro directly instigated a counterattack!"

"Beautiful! Li Qi received Cannavaro's clearance and made a diagonal pass to Gilardino, the striker of the counterattack!"

"It's not offside. Gilardino has broken through to the front of the penalty area. Only Metzelder is defending him alone..."

"Gilardino is dribbling horizontally towards the middle... Opportunity! It's a fake shot and a real pass!"

"Gilardino made a hidden diagonal pass, sending the ball to the empty space to the side!"

"Del Piero! Piero! One on one!"

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Del Piero received the pass from Gilardino, faced Lehmann who was attacking in the corner of the small penalty area, and shot into the upper corner of the goal!"

"2-0! The Italians killed the game! The Italians secured the victory! The Italians can go to Berlin!"

(The TV broadcast in the nightclub box showed the tearful German fans, compared with the crazy celebration of the Italian players...

Uncle Francis was so happy that he was in a trance. It was a good deal! Fortunately, the bet was on Italy's promotion! "Today's bet is mine, and the princesses' tips will be doubled!"

This announcement won the screams of the graceful beauties! )

Through slow-motion replay, in the last minute of stoppage time, Cannavaro first headed out Ballack's cross in the penalty area, then stole the ball from Podolski, intercepted the ball in the backcourt and then launched a counterattack...

Li Qi received the pass from Cannavaro without hesitation and sent a straight pass. Gilardino received the ball and dribbled horizontally in front of the penalty area to attract the defense, waiting for Piero to come in before faking a shot and passing the ball, and then made a hidden diagonal pass with his right foot.

Completely unmarked, Piero broke into the area where he was most confident. At the corner of the small penalty area, facing the attacking Lehmann, he calmly pushed the ball into the upper right corner of the goal with his right foot from 7 meters away on the left side, 2-0!

This was Piero's 78th goal in 27 national team games, tying him with Roberto Baggio for fourth place on the Italian national team's goal list.

The Westfalenstadion is Piero's lucky place; 11 years ago, he scored in his European Champions League debut, helping Lippi's Juventus beat Dortmund 3-1 away.

However, there is no need to worry about the situation in the nightclub or any records. After Del Piero scored, the referee did not give any extra time and ended the game directly. The entire Italian team rushed into the stadium and celebrated wildly!

In this classic European battle, the Italians eliminated the host country and were the first to advance to the final of this World Cup!

After this game, Lippi's unbeaten record as coach of the national team has increased to 24 games.

The post-match press conference was absolutely a world of difference. The German side was gloomy and gloomy, while the Italian side was smiling.

Klinsmann, the German coach, expressed great regret for the last-minute collapse and loss of the chance to advance to Berlin: "You can imagine how disappointed we are, but I must praise the team. Although they are young, the spirit they showed is amazing and they can make the whole country proud."

Finally, he said gracefully: "I congratulate Lippi and wish him good luck in the final." He also said that he would lead the team to continue to give everyone a wonderful game in the battle for third and fourth place on Saturday.

Italy coach Lippi changed his usual stern style and his face was slightly red with excitement: "I am very satisfied with the performance of the players in this game. The Italian team performed very well from the beginning to the end. We controlled the whole game."

"The substitutes played a big role. These players are really great in my opinion. Now I am in a dream. It's great. It is a huge victory for the Italian team to beat the German team with the cheers of nearly 5 German fans at the scene. It embodies the spirit of Italian football."

Looking ahead to the final in Berlin, Lippi is full of confidence: "We will prepare for the next game. I will watch the match between Portugal and France tomorrow. In the final we will see another strong Italian team."

Reuters published an editorial for this game titled "The desperate team will win, sincere cooperation, defeat the strong opponent, well-deserved", believing that although the result of the game was created by dramatic scenes, it was a true reflection of the strength of both sides; Italy was more united, more focused, and had a more solid defense.

Ricardo, who had another day off, was not yet a media darling, so he was happy to have some free time. He simply copied the celebration schedule after the last round. In addition to replying to the congratulatory text messages from his family and girlfriends, he spent the whole day in the hotel with Sarafina, and then watched another World Cup semi-final together in the evening...

The day after Italy advanced, at 7 p.m. on July 5, the second semi-final of this World Cup kicked off at the Allianz Arena in Munich, with the French team in white shirts, white pants and white socks facing the Portuguese team in purple and red.

Both teams played with all their main players. Goalkeeper Barthes played 16 World Cup matches, setting a new record for French players. Portuguese midfielders Deco and Costinha ended their suspensions, and Figo and Ronaldinho, who had recently trained alone due to a minor thigh injury, also passed the physical examination.

France has won seven consecutive games against Portugal since 1975, eliminated them twice in the 7 and 1984 European Cups, and eventually won the championship. Portugal is the only team among the top four led by a foreign coach, and no foreign coach has won the championship in the history of the World Cup.

The key to the victory of this game happened in the 33rd minute of the first half. Henry broke into the penalty area and Carvalho was tripped. Zidane took the penalty kick and scored the first goal! This was also the only goal of the game.

In the previous match, Zidane assisted Henry to score, and this time Henry immediately returned the favor. This was Zidane's second goal in this tournament, and he also tied for fourth place on the French player scoring list with 2 goals, catching up with Dembele and Papin. This was also Portugal's second goal conceded in this tournament since being scored by Mexico in the group stage.

When Henry broke through and won a penalty, Ricardo, who was teaching the little princess serving skills, was so stimulated that he shuddered... So he watched the process of Portugal beating France for most of the rest of the game in sage time. Unfortunately, it was in vain. Portugal, with a ball possession rate of up to 60%, still couldn't beat the French team who were determined to defend.

So with Zidane's winning penalty, France eliminated Portugal with a score of 1-0 and will meet Italy in the final at the Berlin Olympic Stadium on July 7 to compete for the championship.

However, coincidentally, in the 2000 European Cup semi-finals, it was also Zidane's penalty that eliminated Portugal and helped the French team advance to the final to compete with Italy for the championship.

The experience of that European Cup was a wonderful one for the French team, because in the final, thanks to Trezeguet's volley, they defeated Italy with the Golden Ball in a sudden-death format and eventually won the second European Cup in the history of the French team.

This is also something that Ricardo has some impression of. He and his cousin Francis made a lot of money from the European Cup...

However, since becoming a professional player, Ricardo has not extended his evil hands to the bookmakers again. After all, this is suspected of being illegal, even betting on yourself to win is not allowed. Besides, Ricardo is not short of this little money. Wouldn't it be nice to earn securities capital gains legally in a larger legal casino?

As for your cousin, he is still privately asking for advice on his betting... Cardo won't give it, not even if you give him money. He even brings up his mother to talk about family affection. The only advice he can give is to believe that your eldest nephew will definitely win!

As for whether there will be a butterfly effect that will cause your eldest nephew to fail, Ricardo will not care. Anyway, with the betting limits of the bookmakers, it is impossible for your cousin to go bankrupt.

Ricardo really hopes to make his cousin fail once, at least to teach his cousin, who has been smooth sailing all the way, a lesson and stay away from gambling.

After the sage time was over, Ricardo continued to get on the horse. He had to hurry up. Tomorrow he would start preparing for the World Cup final. He didn't know if he would get a chance to play in the exciting final...

According to my understanding, Lippi must have been very conservative in the final, and except for Nesta, all the players in the team were present in the final. As a young player, I had little chance to play.

But then I thought, my performance in recent games has been very good. Maybe something unexpected happens, or a main player gets cramps and I need to step up to support him?

Hmm?! Thumbs up?!

Suddenly, I seemed to think of something extraordinary...

Ricardo pushed hard while watching Zidane being interviewed on TV. His big bald head was shiny and glossy...

……