"The national team...did they underestimate the enemy?"
Before the second half of the game started, Xie Lan asked her husband and Li Ziqiang beside her.
Hu Lixin said nothing, but Li Ziqiang frowned and said: "Not just the national team, but the entire country has underestimated the enemy."
Xie Lan thought about the public opinion on the Internet before the game started and couldn't help but nodded.
This is really the case.
Leading up to this game, cyberspace was awash with optimism.
Everyone thinks that the Chinese team has been sent to the quarterfinals.
Burkina Faso?
Where?
Who are they?
Who is the head coach?
How did they come to the World Cup?
How many of them play in Europe?
What tactics are they accustomed to?
No one cares about these issues.
Even the names of the four Burkina Faso players who were injured against South Korea are basically hard to name.
As for the complex African names, most Chinese fans are not familiar with them, so it is normal that they cannot remember them.
But many people don’t even know the positions of these four players, which is a bit outrageous...
To put it bluntly, fans across the country basically don’t care about Burkina Faso as an opponent.
In everyone's mind, the Chinese team's next game is not the quarter-finals against Burkina Faso, but the quarter-finals.
No one regards Burkina Faso as a real opponent of the Chinese team.
It is precisely because of this mentality that when the game actually started, the performance of the Burkina Faso players surprised all Chinese fans.
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After both players returned to the pitch from the locker room, Burkina Faso's forward and captain Julien Salomon stood in the center circle with a football at his feet.
At the same time, the news of Burkina Faso's substitution was also printed on the TV screen.
He Feng exclaimed: "Didn't it mean that Salomon and O'Connell were both injured and unable to play in this game?"
Burkina Faso replaced two players at halftime, and the two players replaced were players who the team's head coach Lenormand claimed were injured and unable to make it to the game...
One is the main forward and captain Julian Salomon, and the other is the main offensive midfielder Austin Ocon.
Commentator Li Qingqing quickly reacted: "It should be the Burkina Faso coach's strategy... In the first half, we all guessed that Burkina Faso wanted to drag the game into a penalty shootout, but now we see, they
Maybe he wants to win directly!"
In the first half, Burkina Faso defended the whole line and set up a bus in front of the goal. When the Chinese team could not attack for a long time, both Li Qingqing and He Feng believed that Burkina Faso, which was obviously weaker than the Chinese team in this game, should hope to win.
The Chinese team kicked off a penalty shootout.
Because this is a strategy that weak teams will choose to defeat strong teams, it is not unusual.
A penalty shootout can forcefully even the strength gap between the two teams.
Now they realize that they too were deceived by Burkina Faso coach Maxime Lenormand.
The "unable to participate in the game due to injury" is just a smoke bomb to deceive the Chinese team. Lenormand reserved his offensive power until the second half to catch the Chinese team off guard!
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In the stands, Li Ziqiang and Hu Lixin saw Burkina Faso's substitution adjustment and both said in unison: "Oh, that's interesting..."
Xie Lan glanced at the two men who had a similar understanding: "What's so interesting?"
"It turns out that Burkina Faso is playing dirty tricks..." Hu Lixin explained to his wife, "They pretended to take penalty kicks with us in the first half, but they actually lied to us. Their real purpose is to
Beat us in regular time."
After being explained by her husband, Xie Lan also found it interesting: "It's a serial plan...then what should we do?"
After Hu Lixin and Li Ziqiang looked at each other, Hu Lixin explained to his wife: "I think... this may actually be better."
Xie Lan: "Better?"
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"I think Lenormand's adjustment is not necessarily a bad thing for the Chinese team."
Li Qingqing explained to the audience in front of the TV.
"Because this adjustment means that Burkina Faso will attack more in the second half, and they will not be able to continue to put the bus in front of the goal. In this way, the Chinese team will get more space and opportunities. It turns out that their front goal is monolithic.
, completely impossible to penetrate. Once there is an idea of attack, everyone cannot stay in the penalty area. As long as they are pulled out, there will be openings to be exploited."
He Feng also agreed, and added: "I just hope that the players of the Chinese team can recover from the state of the first half as soon as possible..."
Li Qingqing shook his head gently beside him:
"Actually, I think everyone has overlooked one thing... The situation in the first half may not have met the expectations of many fans, but it does not mean there is any problem... You must know that this is the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Regardless.
Why did everyone ignore Burkina Faso before the game? They are also among the top 16 teams in the World Cup. This is a quarter-final match in the World Cup. It is normal to encounter any situation.
"Just because we think we are stronger than Burkina Faso, we cannot think that we should suppress our opponents in terms of appearance and score. I think that is the real underestimation of the enemy. It is normal to encounter difficulties in the game, because our opponents
They must also want to win, and they will use various means and tactics, including deception...
"We did encounter some problems in the first half, but we can't draw a conclusion yet. It depends on how Coach Qin adjusts during the halftime break. In the end, it still depends on the result of the entire game. There is still half of the game, Burkina Fa
Suo has already made a move, it depends on how we respond."
As soon as she finished speaking, another substitution message for the Chinese team appeared on the TV screen.
Like Burkina Faso, the Chinese team also changed two players at halftime.
"Oh... Zhang Qinghuan was replaced."
He Feng was not surprised. This was actually a result that everyone could guess.
Because Zhang Qinghuan's performance in the first half was indeed not very good...
There is no need to say "incomprehensible". The state is inherently vague and difficult to explain clearly.
A good state in one game does not mean a good state in the next game.
Sometimes the poor state is due to oneself, and sometimes it is due to the opponent's targeted deployment, which is really not suitable for performance.
So He Feng actually doesn't care much about the impact that Zhang Qinghuan being replaced in the midfield will have on the players themselves.
At this time, he was still more concerned about the result of the Chinese team's game.
If Zhang Qinghuan needs to adjust his form, he must first advance to the team level before he has a chance to adjust his form.
Otherwise, if the Chinese team is eliminated, what's the use of him getting better in the next game?
Although Li Qingqing was still worried about Brother Huan, she also knew better what was more important.
So she didn't express any opinion on Brother Huan's fate, but continued to focus on the game.
she says:
"It seems that Director Qin has made adjustments during the halftime break. I wonder if he guessed Lenormand's plan... but I think the adjustment is definitely a good thing."
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Qin Lin and Ding Gaoyi both looked away from the coaching bench in Burkina Faso.
"Old Silver Coin..." Ding Gaoyi said with emotion, "So he is waiting for us here! But he is so bold, he made Salomon and Ocon not practice with the team..."
"The Burkina Faso national team, led by Lenormand, has been working together for many years. If we don't practice together for a few days, it actually has no impact." Qin Lin frowned, "I just didn't understand..."
"What don't you understand?"
"Why did he make such an adjustment when the situation was so good? Is he afraid that we would have no room to attack?"
Hearing what Qin Lin said, Ding Gaoyi also frowned and clicked his tongue, then fell into deep thought.
After pondering for a while, he shook his head: "I don't know either."
Burkina Faso's bus tactic was actually very successful in the first half. If they can continue to defend like this, and as the game time goes by and the Chinese team is unable to score, the players will definitely become more and more impatient.
The situation is only getting better for Burkina Faso.
"Forget it, don't think about it. Anyway, their adjustment is actually beneficial to us."
Qin Lin decided not to think about whether there were any traps or serial schemes hidden behind Lenormand's adjustment.
Anyway, if there is any, just figure it out yourself.
Just like the adjustments I made during halftime.
Although he somewhat underestimated the opponent before the game, he did not want to fall into "excessive inferiority" and be suspicious of everything, leading to missed opportunities.
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The fourth official was a little busy because both sides made substitutions during the halftime break, and each substitution was made by two people.
The player being substituted is already standing on the court, and the fourth official has to perform procedures and show everyone the number of the player who has been substituted.
So he first took two signs and held them up twice.
This is a substitution for Burkina Faso.
Then he set up the two signs and raised them twice.
This is a substitution for the Chinese team.
After completing this entire procedure.
The referee blew his whistle, and Julian Salomon kicked the football under his feet into the backcourt.
The second half of the match between Burkina Faso and China has begun!