Chapter 276: Team Destiny - England's Achilles' heel...

The England national team, nicknamed the Three Lions, is known as the Eastern Team of Europe. However, although it is a polite name, people with common sense will know that it is an extremely ironic insult to England.

Originally, sentences like "a certain place or a certain name" are generally used for praise, such as Cristiano Ronaldo in Haidian, Messi in Chigang, or Chen Haonan in Causeway Bay. However, when used to describe a certain Eastern country in the field of football, it is almost like an open insult.

It's like someone praising you for having the same surname as the emperor, being the eldest son of an elder family, being independent, having your own business, having a beautiful wife, and having a brother who is the police chief as your backer... These are all compliments when they are taken separately, but when they are put together, you will feel: This person is so vicious! He doesn't even use a dirty word when he curses!

And a certain B man who claims to have gotten rid of vulgar tastes will naturally not believe these sensational and meaningless talks that have no factual basis, okay?

It was not until the day before the game that this strange man with a B saw an article titled "England's Ten Wins and Croatia's Ten Losses" in the football special issue of a famous British newspaper:

"Croatia has ten defeats today and England has ten wins, so a place in the final is within reach.

1. Croatia is applying to join the European Union and they don’t want the UK to vote against it.

2. Winning the game will ruin the cooperation negotiations between the Croatian club and the Premier League Middlesbrough club.

3. Ranking first in the group means that Croatia will become the seeded team for the final and lose the opportunity to be grouped with the host Austria and Switzerland, which are not very strong.

4. After defeating England, Croatian clubs will soon face retaliation in the UEFA Cup. Bolton tied Dinamo Zagreb 0-0 in the first round of the knockout match.

5. Croatia is a tourist destination in Europe and they don’t want to lose a large number of British tourists.

6. Croatian coach Bilic wants to coach in the Premier League. If they win against England, he will definitely lose the opportunity to coach Birmingham.

7. The BBC is planning to film a TV series in Croatia. If England loses, they will move the filming base to Kosovo.

……

8. In the Alps, Croatians will have fewer opportunities to meet charming British women over 30.

9. No one doesn't want Beckham to reach the milestone of games for the national team.

10. No major competition wants to lose British audiences, especially football, which is the largest market.

After reading the column's serious nonsense, a certain B man who is familiar with Chinese culture was shocked. It was unbelievable: Is this the will of heaven? Huh? A certain European and East Asian national team! Old Li Qi is talking about you...

@

At 2007:11 on the evening of November 21, 20, local time in the UK, the life-and-death battle of Group E of the 08 European Championship qualifiers, which would determine whether the England national team could make it, kicked off.

McClaren, who was no longer trusted, lined up a very conservative 4-3-2-1 starting lineup:

The goalkeeper did not choose No. 1 goalkeeper Paul Robinson, but chose Carson, who made his debut in the warm-up match against Austria last week;

The back line from right to left is No. 2 Richards, No. 6 Campbell, No. 5 Lescott and No. 3 Bridge;

The three defensive midfielders are No. 4 Gerrard, No. 8 Lampard and No. 7 Barry;

The two attacking midfielders are No. 10 Wright-Phillips and No. 11 Joe Cole;

The lone striker is the tall No. 9 Crouch.

The legendary superstar Beckham, who has already gone to the Major League Soccer, was on the bench.

Croatia, which had already qualified, did not give up on this game. Ricardo saw the young Srna and Modric, as well as Joel Luka, Simic and Olic who were in their prime years in the standard parallel 4-4-2 starting lineup of the Checkered Army. He knew that this game was not just a formality as the English media believed.

This group of Croatian players urgently needs to prove themselves on a bigger stage and in front of more audiences; perhaps only very few people realize now that this talented Croatia team will shine starting from the European Cup next summer.

After the kick-off, England, playing at home, took the initiative, but the Christmas tree formation arranged by McLaren was somewhat awkward. But as we all know, this is not England's Achilles' heel, it is a problem of formation and coach. Although the scene and offense will be very weak, it really can't shake England's world-class defense, not to mention there are three bodyguards in front!

However, what worries football fans and fans the most is England's No.1 position. After all, if you ask who has the best butter hands, England's goalkeeper is definitely the best!

Since the 70s, England has become a country that produces many goalkeepers with butter hands. Even Barthes, who plays in the Premier League, has butter hands! (Barthes denied it three times: I am not, I don’t, don’t talk nonsense!)

Without mentioning the ones that happened too long ago, there are three that happened very recently: Seaman who was humiliated by Ronaldinho's magical overhead kick in the 02 World Cup, James who incredibly missed a long shot that was exactly what he wanted in the 06 World Cup qualifiers, and in the first round of this European Cup qualifiers against Croatia, Paul Robinson actually missed a kick in the face of Gary Neville's ordinary back pass, and the ball slowly rolled into the goal behind him...

Although Paul Robinson's dismissal was in line with public opinion, Carson's promotion was not a legitimate choice. You know, McLaren's impulsive choice was made just a week before this life-and-death battle, when he had just made his debut for the Three Lions.

In fact, it is unfair to push the young and inexperienced Carson to the front in such a tense and crucial game.

Scott Carson, born in 1985, is 1 meters tall and weighs 90 kilograms. He practiced rugby in his youth and was once praised by the media as a natural penalty area defender. He was a star player in the U86 national team and his 21 appearances once broke the appearance records of Carragher and Barry.

He also played against Ricardo in the European Youth Championship in the summer; however, in that match, the Italian U21 team led by Ricardo scored four goals through Carson's goal and won 4-4.

In this game, Carson lived up to expectations and made an incredible mistake in the 8th minute of the game!

In the 8th minute, Srna passed the ball from the wing, and Kranjcar received the ball from the left and cut inside slightly. Facing England's dense defensive line of midfielders and defenders, he decisively chose to shoot from 28 yards in front of the goal. But this long shot did not seem to be very threatening, because the angle of the long shot was not tricky, it was in the middle of the goal facing goalkeeper Carson, and the speed of the ball was not fast, and the distance of 28 yards was enough for the goalkeeper to make a save calmly...

But Carson still made a mistake! The ball bounced in front of the goal, and Carson's position did not completely block the ball's path. He also made a serious misjudgment in his choice of hand shape when saving the ball, and actually wanted to put the ball directly into his arms. So the second mistake combined with the first mistake and the ball bouncing in front of him, the ball bounced directly past Carson's hand and into the upper left corner of the England goal!

Everyone in the stadium was stunned. Even Kranjcar, who scored the goal, didn't even think of celebrating. How could he score a goal like this? A random long shot from nearly 30 yards?

Croatia scored a goal with their first shot of the game and their first shot on target, taking a 0-1 lead over the home team away from home. This was a nightmare start for the English.

Scott Carson, who like Paul Robinson also came from Leeds youth training, finally became the person he once laughed at...

As a result, the Three Lions were forced into a desperate situation. Originally, a slap in the face would allow them to advance, but they did not expect that the Achilles' heel of the Destiny Team was exposed at this time. They could only seize the time to counterattack and equalize the score as soon as possible.

However, England then missed three good chances to equalize the game.

In the 10th minute, Wright-Phillips' powerful shot from 10 yards in front of the goal was saved by goalkeeper Pletikosa.

In the 12th minute, Bridge made a cross from the left, and the tall Crouch's header from the edge of the small penalty area was miraculously blocked by defender Robert Kovac.

In the 13th minute, Richards made a low pass from the right side of the penalty area to the front of the goal, and Crouch's shot from 8 yards in front of the goal was miraculously off target...

England wasted chances continuously, so they were punished. Croatia kept calm and seized the opportunity to expand the score in the 14th minute. Da Silva broke through to the penalty area and calmly passed the ball to the defense of Lescott and Campbell. Bridge's delay allowed Olic to successfully counter-attack. After receiving the ball in the penalty area, the latter calmly dribbled past the panicked Carson and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.

The visiting team was leading 2-0. In a life-and-death battle, there could not be a worse situation than the one England faced.

In the subsequent games, the impatient English made more and more passing errors in the frontcourt and their attacks were frequently blocked, while the Croatian counterattacks were quite threatening and there were constant opportunities to score the third goal. Fortunately, it seemed that the England team had escaped many disasters in a row and the game did not completely lose suspense in the first half.

In the second half, Beckham and Defoe came on as substitutes, Wright-Phillips and Barry were substituted, and McClaren overturned the starting tactics, changed to a 4-4-2 parallel formation, and switched to playing on both wings.

After returning to the familiar formation and style of play, with the help of Beckham, the cross master, England's performance immediately improved, and they gradually regained the initiative on the field and created more threats.

England also managed to pull one back in the 56th minute. Joe Cole made a lob pass into the penalty area, and Simunić brought down Defoe in the penalty area. The referee awarded a penalty kick, and then Lampard scored a goal into the lower left corner of the goal. England scored one goal back, 1-2.

Afterwards, England defender Bridge's clearance hit the crossbar and almost resulted in an own goal, which again made the English break into a cold sweat.

Less than ten minutes after the last goal, England successfully equalized the score in the 65th minute! Richards passed the ball forward, Beckham made an accurate cross from the right, Crouch chested the ball in the penalty area and volleyed it from 8 yards out, which was his 14th goal for England.

2-2, both teams are back on the same starting line again! If this score remains until the end of the game, the English will get the qualification as they wish!

But it was clear that the journey of the team of destiny would not be so smooth. Croatia took the lead again in the 77th minute. Pradić, who replaced Kranjcar and scored the first goal, passed the ball to Petrich, who also came on as a substitute and cut in from the left and shot a powerful shot from 25 yards in front of the goal. This time, the ball hit the defender and bounced, and fell into the far corner of the goal again in the desperate eyes of the Englishman...

As the game was about to enter the last ten minutes, they fell behind again. Anxiety, confusion, panic, puzzlement, nervousness and many other negative emotions spread among the England team at the same time; except for a few experienced and determined players who were able to maintain normal performance, the entire England team no longer knew how to play football.

Therefore, in the final stage, England's offensive organization was completely chaotic and disorganized. They just kicked the ball wherever it came to them. Even if McLaren replaced the last striker, he did not pose any threat at all.

In the end, England lost 2-3 to Croatia at home, while in another qualifying match in the same group, Russia beat Andorra 1-0. Russia thus won the final qualification for the 08 European Cup, while England, the three-cat army, was eliminated.

@

At the press conference after the game, the leader of the Three Cats, McLaren, expressed his regret and apologized to the fans, but he still refused to resign: "I will not resign. Of course, I will take responsibility and I accept this. My job is to lead the team to advance, but I did not do it. I don't want to discuss my future at the moment. I need to recover from this defeat first..."

But obviously the English Football Association still has to save face, or it has to give an explanation to the angry fans and bad fans, and it has to throw out a scapegoat, even if it knows that this disgusting scapegoat just wants to extort severance pay.

距离英格兰队21日无缘欧锦赛决赛圈不到24小时，英足总就在比赛翌日的上午宣布了决定：英格兰队主帅麦克拉伦卷铺盖走人。从2006年8月1日正式上任到今天，麦克拉伦在英格兰帅位上只坐了1年零3个月的时间，是英格兰足球史上最短命的主帅。

The English Football Association has reached an agreement with McLaren's agent Gordon on compensation terms for early termination of the contract. Although both parties did not disclose the specific figures, public opinion generally believes that the compensation will exceed 200 million pounds.

@

The match ended on November 2007, 11, and the 21 European Cup qualifiers also came to an end!

Russia, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey got the last four tickets. The draw for the round of 4 will be held in Lucerne, Switzerland on December 16. The 12 teams participating in the draw are: host Switzerland and Austria, Poland and Portugal who qualified from Group A (the group leaders are in front), Italy and France who qualified from Group B, defending champions Greece and Turkey who qualified from Group C, the Czech Republic and Germany who qualified from Group D, Croatia and Russia who qualified from Group E, Spain and Sweden who qualified from Group F, Romania and the Netherlands who qualified from Group G.

It is regrettable and surprising that highly anticipated teams such as England, Belgium, Serbia and Denmark were also blocked from entering the finals.

In the draw for the final round, host Austria and Switzerland and defending champion Greece were directly listed as seeded teams, while other teams were divided into tiers according to their results in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and this European Cup qualifiers. The specific calculation method is to divide the total points of the two qualifiers by the number of games, and the teams are divided into four tiers.

Since the host and the defending champion occupy three seeded seats, the fourth seeded seat will definitely belong to the team with the highest score, but this is actually a very dangerous position because the seeded team will definitely draw a strong team in the second tier, and if it is ranked in the second tier, it is likely to draw a first tier team that seems to be weaker on paper, such as Austria, Switzerland and Greece.

Before the last round, only the Netherlands and Germany had a chance to compete for the seeded team seats, but after Germany drew with Wales, it fell directly to the third tier.

The draw is divided into the following categories:

Pot 1 (seeds): Switzerland, Austria, Greece and the Netherlands;

Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic and Sweden;

Pot 3: Romania, Germany, Portugal and Spain;

Pot 4: Poland, France, Türkiye and Russia.

Unlike in the past, the second and third pots are the strongest in this draw, and there is also a strong team in each of the other two pots, so there is a high possibility of a death group, such as the Netherlands, Italy, Germany or Portugal or Spain, plus France.

The final round of the competition will be held from June 2008 to June 6, 7, with a total of 6 games. The host cities are Geneva, Bern, Basel, Zurich in Switzerland and Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt in Austria. The opening game will be held in Basel and the final will be held at Happel Stadium in Vienna.

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