The Croatia vs. China team friendly match staged in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, received national attention before the game. In recent years, China has strengthened its cooperative relations with Croatia when promoting the "Belt and Road Initiative", and Croatia has not been influenced by the idea of ​​mainstream European powers to exclude China. In many local media polls, China is believed to be a reliable and trustworthy partner.

This has allowed the Chinese team to come to Croatia to play friendly matches and strengthened the relations between the two countries to a certain extent.

Situ Yunbing had a long talk with Croatian main midfielder Rakitic in the player channel before the game. The master and apprentice had actually not had a cooperative relationship for seven years since Hamburg. However, because Rakitic played for Barcelona afterwards, they had a chance to meet when Situ Yunbing coached Liverpool.

When Rakitic also became a veteran, Situ Yunbing had nothing to teach and guide him. At least in recent years, Rakitic has lived in Xavi and Iniesta in Barcelona, ​​and his peak has remained in Hamburg, unlike De Bruyne who was frustrated after leaving Hamburg, but he broke out of his cocoon and became the No. 1 offensive midfielder in Europe!

Rakitic's respect for Situ Yunbing comes from the heart. His peak in his career was still in Hamburg. Although he had only had a short year and a half of cooperation at that time, they experienced passionate years that they would never forget for each other.

Modric was not seen in this friendly match, he was not called up due to injury.

Situ Yunbing shook hands and greeted Croatian coach Dalic on the sidelines.

This World Cup runner-up coach is also famous in one major competition.

The starting lineup of the Chinese team today is no different from the starting lineup of the French team a month ago, while Croatia has formed a 433 formation.

Goalkeeper: Subacic.

Defenders: Fsarico, Vida, Lovren, and Yedvay.

Midfielders: Kovacic, Rakitic, Brozovic.

Forwards: Raybeic, Mandzukic, Perisic.

In fact, it may not be possible to say how strong Croatia's lineup is. It only depends on their performance in the World Cup, but it is actually not very stable.

If you look back at the 2018 World Cup, there will be a phenomenon where the collective strength of top teams will be downgraded.

No team is as strong as Brazil in 2002, Italy in 2006, Spain in 2010, and Germany in 2014.

Croatia won three consecutive games in the group stage, and it was a roller coaster in the knockout round. He played a 4:3 game with Denmark. He eliminated the host Russia through a penalty shootout, and even completed the reversal against England in overtime, and lost to France in the final.

It can only be said that 2018 happens to be the end of an era and the transition period that begins with the new era, resulting in the strong being not strong and the weak being not weak, and the distance between the ceiling and the floor is narrowed.

Perhaps a stronger new king will be born in the next World Cup.

Croatia is also facing renewal. As Modric gets old, it is unlikely to see him in the next World Cup. Rakitic will be nearly 35 years old and may only play the role of putting out the fire.

Croatia's good results as the runner-up in the 2018 World Cup are definitely inseparable from the contribution of these two midfielders to control the overall situation. Therefore, if these two are missing in the next World Cup, Croatia's strength will be greatly reduced.

The friendly match began, accompanied by cheers on the scene, Croatia restrained the attack on the Chinese team's defense line.

The Chinese team played defensive counterattack patiently, while the Croatian offensive was not radical. The threats that Perisic and Rebici could create on the wing were very limited compared to the two French wingers Dembele and Mbappe.

This prevented Abuduheimit and Li Lei from panicing on the court.

Croatia, who lacks Modric's creativity in the frontcourt, has also dropped sharply. Rakitic is more responsible for smoothing the transition from offense and defense to transition.

Croatia has a high ball possession rate, but it does not create an effective threat.

Their restraint also made the Chinese team's counterattack fail to pose much threat, and their performance on the defensive end was very tough.

The game is relatively dull, and this may be the friendly match that Situ Yunbing wants to see.

Although it is lively and exciting like fighting France, the overall training efficiency of the Chinese team's defensive counterattack itself is relatively low.

Today's friendly match can truly hone the Chinese team's defensive counterattack tactics.

In the 32nd minute of the game, Perisic cut across the middle from outside the penalty area and found an opportunity to shoot. The long shot was very threatening. The football flew straight to the corner of the goal. Shen Jingjie, who was fully focused, made a world-class save and lifted the ball up from the crossbar to win applause.

Seeing that the situation was too late, Croatia began to deliberately strengthen its offensive.

The threat of the Chinese team's counterattack is gradually increasing.

In the 38th minute of the game, when Zhang Zhibang assisted the defense on the side and forced Perisic to dribble and speed up the ball and break through, Abuduheimiti immediately stepped forward to form a joint defense steal.

The Chinese team launched a fast counterattack from the backcourt. Zhao Fenghua pulled the side to respond, led the ball and pushed forward. When the Croatian midfielders moved to his side to form an encirclement, Zhao Fenghua passed the ball away and passed it to the middle.

Huang Bozhou followed up and passed the ball straight ahead.

Wu Lei hit the ball with a cross from the front of the penalty area and sent the ball to the side. Luo Xin quickly cut inside and got rid of the defense. He dribbled the ball and accelerated into the hinterland of the right rib of the penalty area. Luo Furen returned to the defense and blocked his cross and shot line, but Luo Xin knocked the ball back to the triangle position.

Luo Cheng, who followed up with the inward cut, stopped the ball and adjusted it and kicked the ball decisively!

Football flies straight to the upper right corner of the goal!

Goalkeeper Subasic flew to save but failed to touch the football!

The Chinese team led 1:0 away!

Dalichi looked solemn. He didn't know anything about the Chinese team and did not study his opponents before a friendly match.

Croatia is just fighting at its own pace, but unexpectedly, the Chinese team is more mature and tenacious than he imagined!

After all, it is a team trained by Situ Yunbing, so it should not be underestimated!

Situ Yunbing was very satisfied with the Chinese team's lead, mainly because the team's overall defense has become a square and has a certain level of mentality.

Croatia strengthened its offensive after conceding the ball, but it was more aggressive in counter-attacking and interception.

Before the end of the first half, Mandzukic received Rakitic's straight pass in the penalty area and turned around and shot with a half-stepping shot. Fortunately, Cheng Renjun made a timely tackle to block the ball from the baseline.

After the first half, Situ Yun's training was asked to further strengthen defense in the second half during the break.

He expects the team to despair Croatia through tight defense and then gain more opportunities to counterattack.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and then fought again. Croatia obviously made adjustments during the break. They changed their tactics and played relatively simple and roughly.

Want to fully utilize the threat of Mandzukic.

Situ Yunbing realized the crisis on the sidelines. In fact, the Chinese team's defensive tactics to compress defensive space are specifically targeted at Europe's popular pass-cut and penetration style, but if they encounter the rough long pass-and-run and rush-style style of England in the past, it would be a bit uncomfortable, because as long as the opponent's high center forward can have an advantage in confrontation, the Chinese team's regional defensive control will not be of much significance.

Therefore, there is basically no tactical relationship between who is more advanced and who is behind, and there is more mutual restraint between them.

In the 58th minute of the game, when Perisic made a precise cross from the side, Mandzukic beat Bai Yuanfan in front of the goal and headed the ball!

This ball is so powerful that it is hard to turn the world back!

Although Bai Yuanfan and Cheng Renjun successfully cleared the ball repeatedly in the second half, they could not withstand such repeated attacks from their opponents.

The Chinese team's lead has been wiped out!

Situ Yunbing showed a little helpless look on his face, but he accepted it calmly.

This is the situation of a weak country in football, and it is difficult to fully integrate everything!

The Chinese team's idea has been shattered. Situ Yunbing has no idea of ​​struggling and directly makes substitutions, substituting many main players in the team, allowing the substitutes to come up and feel the atmosphere of the game.

The last game of France's 90-minute substitutions was already a failure to exercise. If the substitute players were not allowed to appear on the court today when playing Croatia, Situ Yunbing would also doubt whether the substitute players were recruited to fill in the gaps.

Moreover, the European League is approaching its end, and the main players of some clubs in the team cannot be over-expendable on the Fifa match day, because they must play for 90 minutes every game as long as they are not injured.

After the Chinese team substitution, Dalic also chose to make substitutions. Croatia also needs to take care of the players' emotions and avoid excessive consumption of players. Compared with the Chinese team's players playing for European clubs, many of the stars in Croatia play for European giants!

After both teams replaced the game, the quality of the game began to decline. The dangers in front of each side were much more. As a result, the dangers were resolved again and again in the performances of Subasic and Shen Jingjie.

Kovacic beat him in a bizarre opportunity in the penalty area. Zhang Yuning flicked in front of the goal. Situ Yunbing and Dalic smiled bitterly on the sidelines. The two accidentally touched each other and suddenly felt helpless.

When the referee blew the whistle and blew the whistle to the end of the game, the fans on the scene still greeted the players of the two teams with applause.

Chinese fans must feel that the team is performing well.

Losing to France 4:6 last month, this month tied with Croatia 1:1.

The Chinese team is still in a trend of progress and improvement.

Situ Yunbing and Dalic shook hands after the game, and then the two had a happy conversation.

The players of the two teams also exchanged jerseys friendly after the game.

The Chinese players regretted that they failed to win the game, but they themselves did not realize that they had gradually adapted to such a game!
Chapter completed!