Chapter 473 The most desperate thing is to take a penalty kick with the Germans

Author: Ant who watches football ruthlessly

Chapter 473 The most desperate thing is to take a penalty kick with the Germans

When the British referee Webb blew the whistle to end the game, all the fans outside the Bordeaux Stadium, which can accommodate 42,000 people, stood up from their seats in unison, raised their arms and shouted loudly.

.

Whether it is German fans or Swedish fans, they are all cheering for their teams.

The scoreboard at the Stade de Bordeaux shows the time and score between the two teams in that game.

The number in the name of the German team on the left is 0, and the number in the name of the Swedish team on the right is... 0!

And the time in the East shows... 120+1 minutes!

That means that in the much-anticipated quarter-finals of the European Cup between the Swedish team and the German team, there was no winner until the end of overtime!

It turns out that this is actually not beyond the expectations of many people.

Before the game, obviously most people believed that the powerful world champion German team would win over Sweden and successfully enter the semi-finals.

The two teams met once in a world series, in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup, when Germany easily defeated Sweden 2:0.

But during tomorrow's game, the Swedish team caused a lot of trouble for the German team.

Pan Yi set up a -2 formation with three midfielders, and strangled the German team's double midfielder combination of Khedira + Kroos, which made the German team's offensive organization a bit chaotic.

Moreover, the Swedish team's back line can also focus on defense and not easily provide assists in front, which means that the Swedish team's defense line will be tightened at the edge of its own penalty area for a long time.

That also made the defense in front of the Swedish goal very dense. As soon as the German team's ball entered that area, it was like a mud cow entering the sea, making no sound.

Even those who thought the German team could easily win before the game would change their minds after halftime.

Because Sweden's defense is really good!

At that time, they would have thought that the German team's offense would really be unable to break through the Swedish team's defense, and the game would probably enter overtime or even a penalty shootout.

But when the game reached the east half, they felt that the Swedish team had more hope of winning?

Because at that time, Sweden's two-forward tactic began to show its power.

Lindelof began to frequently launch long passes from the backcourt to find Ibrahimovic or Isak in front, and Forsberg also used through balls from the midfield to threaten the German defense from time to time.

Ibrahimovic and Isak, two strong centers with comprehensive skills, often play with each other to find the space between Hummels and Boateng.

Including the two wings, Sweden's strikers will also intersperse on both sides to attack Hector and Kimmich.

At that time, one of the shortcomings of the Swedish team's three-back midfielder strategy was also reflected, that is, the support provided to the frontcourt was too little.

Except for Ibrahimovic and Isaac, it is basically unclear whether Forsberg will join the team, while Ekdal, Weinblum, and Larsson are mainly tasked with sweeping the team and do not often participate in the attack;

And if the two fullbacks didn't have Pan Yi's instructions, they would definitely not be in front!

This results in the Swedish team basically being able to play more with less in the frontcourt.

Isaac's powerful impact and Ibrahimovic's unparalleled shooting skills gave the Swedish team a lot of shooting opportunities.

Even German goalkeeper Neuer was not a vegetarian, saving the balls one by one and trying to keep the goal.

When the game reached about 65 minutes, Loew made a substitution.

He replaced Khedira with the tougher Bastian Schweinsteiger, and replaced him with the young player Draxler.

At the same time, Loew also changed his tactics, began to slow down the pace, and began to pursue fast, slow, orderly and stable performance. The German team would even take the initiative to withdraw the defense line, release the Swedish team, and then counterattack.

After the substitutions, the German team's offense began to show its power.

With the transition in the middle of the midfield, the breakthrough from the wing, and the support and cooperation in the middle of the frontcourt, the entire offense began to show a more three-dimensional coordination routine, fully blossoming, and much more effective than the previous monotonous and dense defense, especially when pulling and looking.

The loophole is.

After that, the German team launched several offensive climaxes and created several good shooting opportunities.

But like the past few games, the Swedish team's defense performed well in that game as always.

Although the defense line composed of Olsson, Lindelof, Granqvist, and Lustig lacked offensive capabilities, they played more and more tacitly in defense, making the defense very solid.

Moreover, there are three strong defensive midfielders, Ekdahl, Weinblum, and Larsson, protecting them in front, allowing the Swedish team's defense to avoid being directly exposed to the enemy's artillery fire, which is also a big deal.

Reduces the risk of Isaksson directly facing the wrong German striker.

And even if Gomez gets the ball sometimes, he will immediately encounter the double insurance blockade of Lindelof and Granqvist, which makes it difficult for him to shoot comfortably, let alone score.

That actually goes against Pan Yi’s strategy.

Then we should focus on defense outside the 90 minutes and drag the game into overtime!

Since Sweden got sufficient rest in the last round of the group stage, and also avoided fatigue in the round of 16, the Swedish team's physical strength will have an advantage over Germany.

If it can be postponed to overtime, the balance of victory will naturally tilt towards Sweden.

Just then, when the game went into overtime as Pan Yi wanted, Pan Yi discovered that it was really difficult for the German team to be beaten down.

They have inherited the traditional German spirit of perseverance and have been gritting their teeth and persevering, and their technical level has not dropped too much!

No wonder they can win the World Cup, and it’s no wonder that there is a saying that “a football match is a game where 22 people from both sides play for 120 minutes and the Germans win in the end.”

It is indeed difficult to defeat the Germans based on their will and quality.

Of course, there is a very important reason for that. The Swedish team's offense was really not very good in that game.

Since he always wanted to carefully prevent the German team from attacking, Pan Yi never changed his formation to attack aggressively.

The basis of the three-back midfielder system is that even if Sweden wants to attack, the route is too single. Most of the time, long passes from the center are the main ones, which is inefficient.

There are likely to be problems with the transition between offense and defense and the control of rhythm.

Speaking of which, I have to mention Ekdal.

His position today is in the middle of the three defensive midfielders, which is the key to the Swedish team's offensive and defensive transitions, but he can obviously complete the "defensive" task.

His strength actually lies not in his strengths, but in his average. He can play in any midfielder, left, center, right, front, center and back, and in any midfielder.

He can play, and he can play a role in everything. There is almost nothing he can't do.

But the problem is exactly that. When it comes to the overall situation and the ability to control the rhythm of the game, he is not as good as Kjellström. When it comes to passing precision, he is not as good as Forsberg, but he has those

The defensive ability, excellent physical ability and running ability that the player does not have.

His type of midfielder is actually very interesting. If he plays well, he can play at any time, but once he encounters a problem or needs a flash of inspiration to break the deadlock, he can

It won't work if it's very cocoa.

Playing against Germany actually exposed the gap in his ability to control the game situation and the rhythm of the game.

At least in the overtime, the Swedish team seemed to be gradually taking advantage of its physical advantage to take the initiative, but it was unable to create an obvious winning opportunity. Maybe it was because of problems with the rhythm and the lack of forward personnel.

It is difficult to get threatening passes.

In fact, at that time, experienced and capable organizers would often adjust the rhythm according to the situation on the court. They would disrupt the German team by dividing the ball from left to right, by appropriately retracting, by deliberately slowing down the rhythm, etc.

The defensive pace makes the defense of the wrong leg lose its predictability.

Everyone knows that once the defense loses its predictability, it is too slow to wait until the moment the wrong leg is attacked to react!

But throughout the half, Ekdal was obviously caught up in the overall rhythm of the team instead of controlling the team's rhythm!

Pan Yi is not aware of the problem, but whether he can maintain the toughness of defense can allow him to continue playing in that position.

There's no one on the bench! Hiermark? Levitsky? It's almost boring.

You can't let Forsberg play as a defensive midfielder, right? He doesn't deny Pirlo...

And even if Pirlo is not included, in the current defensive-oriented three-midfielder system, it is actually not very easy to use.

After all, he himself needs more protection, which will weaken the sweeping power in the midfield.

In short, with the two sides in such a tug of war, the game time gradually moved towards the first 120 minutes.

And that time also means...

The two teams are about to enter a brutal penalty shootout!——

If we say that a football match is played by 22 people from both sides for 120 minutes, it is a game in which the Germans initially won;

So, taking a penalty kick against the Germans seems to be the most desperate moment in football.

The Germans are clearly better at penalty kicks than any other national team in the world.

Before this campaign, in the international competitions of the World Cup and European Cup, Germany participated in penalty shootouts 6 times and achieved 5 wins and 1 loss. The only time it lost was in the distant 1976 European Cup final.

At that time, the current Bayern Sich Weiss missed a penalty kick, but the Czech team made all five free throws. Panenka scored the first penalty kick in history, causing the German team to lose.

Since then, Germany has continued its 40-year unbeaten record in penalty shootouts in international competitions.

It is worth emphasizing that Germany only missed 2 of the 28 penalty kicks they took in international competitions!

This fully illustrates the iron will of the German tank. After all, penalty kicks depend more on mentality and who can withstand pressure and remain calm than on foot skills.

Therefore, the penalty shootout was not what Pan Yi expected.

But now that it has really reached that point, Pan Yi can go and face his mistakes.
To be continued...