David Miller in the stands held his head in his hands and looked at the court with a painful expression.
His son and companions beside him also had the same movements and expressions as him.
In fact, they have been like this for a long time - ever since Hu Lai scored twice to help the Chinese team lead 3:0, David Miller and his partners have been in mourning.
During the halftime break, they were still thinking about how England would counterattack in the second half.
In the history of the World Cup quarter-finals, is there any precedent for falling behind by two goals in the first half and then coming back to win?
Of course there is, and more than once.
So they are confident in their team's comeback in the second half.
Another strong evidence is that after the Chinese team took a two-goal lead in the first half, they were unable to continue to expand their results.
This shows that the Chinese players themselves have relaxed and may feel that a two-goal lead is enough for them to win the game.
This is a sign of underestimating the enemy!
Although being underestimated by the Chinese team seems to be an "insult" to England.
But David Miller and these England fans don't care at all.
They hoped that the Chinese team would underestimate the enemy, so that England would have the highest chance of coming back in the second half.
After the start of the second half, England's performance did give England fans confidence, and it seemed that a goal was really close at hand.
Get a goal back first to boost morale, and then keep up the good work to equalize the score.
As long as the score can be tied at 2:2, it will be considered a success.
Because this is a knockout round, there is overtime and a penalty shootout.
Although they were leading by two goals in the first half, if England dragged the game into overtime or a penalty shootout in the end, it would definitely be a heavy blow to the morale of the Chinese team players.
England will have a great chance of defeating the Chinese team.
This is the victory route that England fans have designed for their team.
But dreams are plump, but reality is skinny.
England was stunned for a moment.
Then Hulay scored...
This ball knocked England, who had just hardened up, down again.
Three goals behind, David Miller and the others knew in their hearts that England would never have another chance to come back and win.
Sure enough, the third goal was conceded just now, and the fourth goal was conceded in less than three minutes.
Now it's the fifth one.
The hemp rope is specially cut at the thinnest places...bad news comes one after another!
For England fans from Leeds, the mood now is the most complicated.
Their favorite player stabbed their home team three times.
They can't even send crazy curses to Hulay like other England fans.
Having emotions but not being able to express them is a feeling of frustration...
In the depressing atmosphere, someone murmured: "I don't know now whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that we beat Spain and ranked first in the group..."
Everyone became even more silent.
Yes, in the battle for first place in the group, England's entire team was in great shape, defeated Spain, won first place in the group, and was successfully placed in the same half zone as the Chinese team.
How excited everyone was at that time.
If I had known it would be like this, it would be better for Spain to finish first in the group.
In that case, now they should be laughing at the Spanish team at Bailong Lake Stadium.
And now, they can think with their buttocks that the Spanish fans must be laughing crazily at England!
At this moment, a close-up shot of the fans in the stands appeared on the big screen.
A group of fans are happily waving the Chinese flag.
It seemed so normal that it didn't seem worthy of a close-up on television.
But if you look closely, you will find that these fans who are cheering for the Chinese team's goal are not wearing Chinese team jerseys, but... the Spanish national team's home jersey!
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"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"
“The Chinese team is so awesome!!”
"England XA-VI!!"
"XA-VI! England is XA-VI!!"
"This is what happens if we defeat us! Let you be proud!"
Mantores Alvarez and his fellow Spanish fans were shouting, jumping and cheering in the stands. If you hadn't looked at their big nose bridges and the team emblems on their jerseys, you might have thought they were a group of native Chinese fans.
Woolen cloth.
"Hey! Guys! We're on TV!"
Someone was the first to spot the picture on the big screen, pointed there and shouted.
"Quick! Banner!"
At the reminder of Mantorez Alvarez, everyone hurriedly raised the slogan they had asked someone to make before the game. The red cloth strip said in yellow Chinese characters:
"Fuck England! Love comes from Spain"
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"Fuck England! Love comes from Spain"
Although this banner just appeared, the camera cut away.
But whether it was the audience in front of the TV or the fans at the scene, they still saw the content of this banner.
Li Qingliang couldn't help complaining: "Is this your idea?"
He knew that Han Shuyu knew those Spanish fans. At the World Cup four years ago, these people asked Han Shuyu to help them come up with the banners and slogans.
Han Shuyu rolled his eyes at his partner: "What! Don't accuse me wrongly. They didn't look for me this time! They are looking for me. Can you have this kind of "Chinese" translation style?"
"No...I mainly think the first sentence has your style..."
Han Shuyu grinned: "I'm a lady, I'm a lady!"
Li Qingliang: "Book title, Shu, space, female, book title."
Han Shuyu: "..."
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After Hulay completed his hat trick, the performance of the England players became more normal.
This may be because they have realized that no matter what, England cannot come back from 0:5.
After letting go of their obsession with promotion, they found a new goal:
At least we can't be eliminated and go home without scoring a goal, right?
No matter what, there have to be goals.
It doesn’t matter if you score one goal or two goals...
It is such a shame to lose the game 0:5!
England's poor performance before was because after conceding the third goal, they realized that it would be difficult to make a comeback and suddenly lost the goal.
Without a goal, there will naturally be no motivation to continue struggling.
A team that loses its fighting spirit and goals is confused, let alone combat effectiveness.
So the score went from 0:3 to 0:5.
Finally understanding "why they are fighting", England's performance quickly improved.
It even threatened the Chinese team’s goal!
England fans also cheered up again and cheered for their team in the stands.
It's just that their voices are often drowned in the cheers of Chinese fans...
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Darren Hunt doesn't drop as much anymore, having forgotten about manager Ryan Jackson's plans for him at half-time.
He used "the situation has changed, the boss should make adjustments, and the tactics during the halftime break are not suitable now" to justify what he is doing now.
Because he wants to score goals.
As a center forward, if he always retreats frequently, organizes connections, and is so far away from the goal, how can he score goals?
He wants to score goals, even though England have no hope of advancing, and although he is unlikely to catch up with Hulay in terms of goals scored.
But he still wants to score.
He just wanted to use his goals to earn some face for England.
And he believes he can do it.
He obviously scored a hat trick in the last game...
He was unwilling to leave without scoring a goal.
When he saw his teammates picking up the ball on the wing, he immediately raised his arms and signaled his teammates to pass the ball to him.
But when the football was really passed to the goal, Darren Hunter failed to grab it.
He was blocked from his landing point by Wang Guangwei and did not even jump.
The ball was easily confiscated by the Chinese goalkeeper Lin Zhiyuan.
Darren Hunter opened his arms and complained to the referee, thinking that Wang Guangwei committed a blocking foul...
This was a bit "out of his mind". The referee didn't even look at him or pay any attention to him.
England head coach Ryan Jackson, who saw this scene off the court, finally couldn't help it anymore and said to his assistant coach Gary Smith: "We have to replace Hunter."
Smith nodded in agreement. It was obvious that Darren Hunter, who only wanted to be at the front, had lost his due tactical role. Keeping him on the court would not only fail to help the team, but would also drag it down.
Team.
"Go get Jay."
Smith followed the order, ran to the bench, and hooked Jay Adams who was sitting on the bench: "Get ready to play, Jay!"
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When England got another chance to attack, Darren Hunt once again raised his hand to ask for the ball in the penalty area.
But Pete Williams, who had the ball, did not pass the ball to him this time, but chose to do it himself.
His long shot forced Lin Zhiyuan to save the football from the bottom line and gave England a corner kick, thus preserving England's hope of continuing to attack.
But Darren Hunter spread his hands in front of the goal again and complained that Williams would not pass the ball to him.
Williams ignored him because at this moment, the fourth official on the sidelines had already raised a substitution sign.
England's number nine is about to be replaced!
Darren Hunter cast his eyes to the sidelines. When he realized that he was about to be replaced, he was stunned at first, and then felt dissatisfied with it, as if he didn't want to end the game.
Soon enough, captain Scott Wilson came up, whispered a few words in his ear, and pushed him to the sidelines.
He had no choice but to lower his head and walk to the sidelines.
Darren Hunter's journey to this World Cup is over. As the latest generation of "Great Britain Star", he played five times in this World Cup and scored four goals.
Considering this is his first World Cup, this performance is very impressive.
But in the face of today's humiliating defeat, it still looks bleak and not worth mentioning.
Many years later, when people talk about this World Cup, they may not remember that he scored a hat trick and scored four goals in this World Cup. But they will definitely remember that he even had a decent shot in the quarter-finals against China.
No, he failed to score a goal and was replaced early, resulting in a huge defeat for the team...
