Chapter 677: The perfect first half

"Lennon broke through Grosso! His speed was as fast as lightning. Grosso, who shined in the World Cup, seemed to have no power to fight back! Foul! Foul, Grosso pulled Lennon backhand, and there was no doubt a foul!"

Amid the booing of the English fans, the referee ran over and warned Grosso, who was still defending, and Grosso had to retreat obediently. The referee did not mean to show him a yellow card. If he continues to hang on and eat a card, it will be a loss.

Xiao Ming stood up and made a pressing gesture. All two central defenders in England ran up, leaving only two full-backs and Barry defending at a little behind. All the others were ready to participate in the offense in the opponent's half.

Terry, Ferdinand, Gerald squeezed in the back point, Rooney wandered in the back point, Lampard was also preparing to respond at the front point, and Lennon was preparing to respond by Beckham. Donadoni looked at his penalty area and found that there seemed to be a little insufficient people...

This Italian national team is not particularly outstanding in height. Although Panucci is getting older, he can score a header, but his height is not enough after all. Chiellini is alone. If Grosso had not had some advantage in height, he would be able to be defeated by England immediately. All three midfielders returned to the penalty area to participate in the defense. The advantage of the number increased, and Donadoni felt relieved.

The location of this free kick is on the right side of the penalty area, almost parallel to the penalty area line and close to the sideline. Free kicks at this angle are much better than corner kicks, so it's no wonder the Italians are so nervous.

England's offensive players were basically concentrated in the back point, while Italy's defensive players were also concentrated in the back point. The only players on both sides of the middle were Lampard and De Rossi. Beckham put the ball in the position and looked up at the situation in the penalty area.

The referee blew a whistle that could take the penalty, Beckham started running, England's players at the back point scattered, Gerald and Rooney ran to the middle of the penalty area, and others rushed to the goal.

De Rossi's attention was attracted by Gerald who was running over, and Lampard, who was originally responsible for defense, had already run out of the penalty area.

Beckham ran close to the ball, but did not pass it, but directly swept the ball towards the front of the penalty area!

Lampard took a step back and made way out of the ball, then immediately took a step forward, kept swinging the ball in the air, and then pulled the rolling ball hard!

The ball drew a strange arc, bypassing the numerous figures in the penalty area, and flew straight to the goal close to the goal!

Even if Buffon's reaction was very sensitive, it seemed too late to see the ball coming out of the crowd!

The ball flew past Buffon's hand and then plunged into the goal!

"Frank-Lampard!"

Motson's long shouts swept the entire live broadcast seat, and then the crazy shouts of more than 10,000 English fans swept the entire stadium!

In the thirteenth minute, England scored the first record!

A beautiful free kick!

Lampard rushed to the side of the field with his fists, waved his fists into the stands, and rushed directly to the coach's seat, and then hugged Xiao Ming tightly!

The reason why he still believed that Xiao Ming was not perfunctory to him when he did not get a starting opportunity in the group stage was that this free kick cooperation that had been practicing for a long time was also a credential! If it weren't for the idea of ​​using him, how could Xiao Ming spend the precious training time for him and the English national team on him? He endured the entire group stage and finally got a reward!

"Okay, Frank, you can let go!" Xiao Ming patted Lampard's back, then snorted: "No one in Leiden East dares to hug me after scoring the goal. Things like this have become very common in England!"

Lampard smiled embarrassedly and let go of his hand embarrassedly. Xiao Ming glanced at him, suddenly hugged him, and then patted him hard on his back a few times: "Photo beautifully, Frank!"

Donadoni wiped his sweat. England's fierce and fast attack before made him feel something bad. Then, with the help of a set piece, England gained a leading advantage. Since Xiao Ming took office, he has become an extremely effective scoring method for England. The variety of free kick cooperation makes every coach look tight. Just dealing with various possible free kick cooperation will make them feel that Labor is hurt...

Qian Dingling Wan told him that England still scored the first goal with a set piece. The next game would probably be a bit difficult to play.

Launch a counterattack? But the speed of this lineup in England in the counterattack cannot be underestimated. Lennon's speed alone is enough to make Grosso drink a pot...

Donadoni fell into contemplation.

It has to be said that Donadoni has made great contributions to the renewal of the Italian national team, but he has great flaws in on-the-spot tactical command. After all, before he became the head coach of the Italian national team, he did not have rich experience in coaching in the first team! He had less than one season of Serie A command experience, and even Italian coaches had excellent command skills, but what Donadoni lacked is still experience!

In this regard, Xiao Ming was lucky. In the few important games after taking office, his opponents were young coaches with inexperienced. Domeneck, including Van Basten and Donadoni, had rich enough experience, but he also had a huge flaw, that is, he trusted too much veterans and did not trust newcomers. In Xiao Ming's view, these strong teams commanded by Van Basten and others were not as difficult as Croatia commanded by Bilic.

Just when Donadoni was a little at a loss, England continued to launch a fierce attack.

Italy's lineup is more tactical to put it bluntly or is more suitable for their traditional defensive counterattack. Just looking at their forward combination, you can tell. However, the reason why Italy's defensive counterattack is excellent is based on their always strong defense. However, Italy is now at the weakest time on the defense line in decades. When the most critical defense of the entire tactic begins to crack, no matter how top-notch tactics are, it will become easy to break.

So although the Italian midfielders were intercepting wildly and the Italian defenders were still trying their best to defend, their defense was still being torn apart by England.

Take a look at the current defense line in Italy. Chiellini, a rookie who has only become famous in the past two years. His original position was left back, Panucci, the more demon the more he got older, and his original position was right back; Zambrota, a versatile player who played from a full-back to a full-back, became the world's top versatile player, but after the 2006 World Cup, Grosso, a left back who became a late-stage player and made a big splash in the World Cup, was the front midfielder when he debuted...

After all, none of Italy's defense line is dedicated to playing from childhood to adulthood. Although it is normal for players to change positions, they did not change positions since their youth, but gradually reached their current position after their careers. In other words, the position they play now is definitely not the position they are best at.

It would be fine if there was one. The four players in the entire defense line all became monks halfway through. This is a rare thing in the history of Italian football and also reflects the embarrassing phenomenon of the Italian national team now.

Gerald's impact, Rooney's breakthrough, Lennon's breakthrough on the flank, Lampard's long shot from the middle, the two-wing full-backs' turn, Barry and Beckham's accurate pass in the backcourt...

Lampard, who had been holding back three games, performed even more eye-catching. He sprinted back and forth in the frontcourt and fully demonstrated his characteristics. He could return to the front of the penalty area to help defend, rush to the front of the opponent's penalty area and shoot long shots, and rushed to the opponent's penalty area from time to time to act as a forward. Even the left side often has his shadow...

Lampard's form is already very good this season, not to mention that such a player in excellent form has been held in three games in the group stage? It's all a less humane thing to think about...

Originally, if the Italian defense line was not such a hasty combination of defense line, no matter how smooth the attack in England's frontcourt was, it would be difficult to break through their defense line. However, the arrangement before the game was all behind, and his strength was not particularly strong, the Italian defense line immediately seemed full of flaws in front of England's attack.

Buffon gritted his teeth and saved Gerald's long shot with great force at the front of the penalty area, then immediately got up and took the ball off with one hand before Rooney grabbed the point. Then he pressed the ball tightly under him. After a while, he looked up and stood up slowly.

He made at least three wonderful saves during this period. At the same time, the momentum of England's offensive made him concentrate and also made Buffon feel a little difficult. However, if it weren't for his continuous saves, England might have expanded its lead long ago.

Buffon is perhaps the most trusted player on the Italian defense line now, and he deserves the captain's armband on his arm.

"Observe, hit them back!" Buffon threw the ball out and shouted.

Since Juventus was relegated, Buffon hasn't enjoyed the feeling of having an extremely trustworthy defense line around him for a long time. Juventus's defense line is in disarray, and the Italian national team's defense line is in disarray. Now Buffon's current situation of conceding goals often occurs. The title of "the world's number one goalkeeper" seems to have begun to become a past...

Italy launched a counterattack. Pirlo was quite quiet during this period because every time when Italy attacked, Gerald would entice him. Gerald, who was extremely familiar with Pirlo, used his physical advantages to physically entice the core of the Italian national team. Even if De Rossi and Gattuso kept coming to meet Pirlo, Gerald ignored the others and just stared at Pirlo to death, and cut the Italian midfield brain from other people.

"Steven, why are you always following me?" Pirlo said helplessly.

"You should know, the boss's instructions." Gerald said with a stern face. Although the two had a good personal relationship, Gerald obviously didn't want to give Pirlo too much face at this time.

Italy's rapid counterattack has always been very famous. The midfielder directly looks for the shadow striker and powerful center in the frontcourt, so that they can seize the flaws on the opponent's defense line as soon as possible to complete the counterattack. This is the essence of Italian football. Accurate long passes in the midfield are a very important part. In the entire Italian midfield, who has the ability to pass directly and long passes as good as Pirlo? How many of Italy's attacks have been initiated by Pirlo's long passes? Staring at Pirlo is equivalent to cutting off nearly half of Italy's offensive!

Although Pirlo's condition seems not very good recently, Gerald still will not relax. His task in this game is not to score goals, interfering with the opponent's defense during offense, and breaking the connection between Pirlo and others during defense. This is his biggest task.

Gerald did not complain about Xiao Ming's decision to put the heavy responsibility of scoring goals on Lampard, Rooney and others, and to allow himself to participate more in defense. In the group stage, he was equivalent to England's offensive core, and he had already won the glory. Now, for the overall team's victory, he would rather sacrifice.

Pirlo took a big step back and received a cross pass from Grosso. Gerald immediately rushed up. He didn't play with Pirlo, so he immediately posted it and relied on his physical advantage to force it over.

In desperation, Pirlo could only pass the ball across to De Rossi next to him, and then planned to run away to get rid of Gerald's defense, but Gerald still followed him tightly. Seeing this scene, De Rossi drove the ball forward and passed the ball to Casano who was pulling the ball under the interference of Lampard who was returning to defense.

The bad boy drove the ball forward, and Daniel pressed it tightly. Casano chose to pass back when he couldn't get rid of Daniel for a few strokes, but Beckham broke the ball in the middle.

The midfield intercepted the ball and counterattacked directly!

Beckham didn't waste any time. After receiving the ball, he immediately sent out a beautiful diagonal pass!

Now in the back position, Beckham is becoming more and more skillful in playing. In this position, he can fully utilize his advantages of accurate long passes and strong running ability, basically covering up his shortcomings of slow speed and average personal breakthrough ability. If he was a little unhappy in the back position at the beginning, then Beckham has completely fallen in love with this position now.

Lennon is the one who takes the ball again!

Grosso was shocked and ran back desperately. Pirlo, who was a little behind, also started to fill the ball on the right, but after Lennon caught up with the ball, he did not dribble the ball, but passed it directly across and passed the ball to the middle!

Rooney ran past like a wind, passed Lennon's crossover forward, and then rushed to the Italian penalty area!

Chiellini's adventure steal was directly passed by Rooney. Although Chiellini is the best in the new generation of Italian central defenders, his shortcomings of not being stable enough and occasionally making mistakes have caused bad consequences at this time!

His adventure tackle did not break the ball, but instead gave up the gap in the blockbuster behind him. Although Panucci was filling in that position, Panucci, whose speed had dropped a lot because he was older, had consumed a lot of physical fitness, and it was impossible to stop Rooney from facing Buffon directly.

Facing Buffon who was attacking, Rooney suddenly kicked and shot a far corner while running!

But Buffon was Buffon. He still reacted subconsciously when he was so close. He fell to the ground and stretched his legs to block the ball!

However, the ball rolled to Rooney again. After the shot, Rooney did not stop running and moved the ball forward. After dodging the angle, he pushed the ball to the empty goal again with his left foot!

The ball flew into the goal without any suspense!

Two to zero, England expanded the score!

With a set piece obtained after a fierce attack and a quick counterattack after a midfield steal, England actually scored a two-goal lead!

This is also Rooney's third goal in this European Championship. This goal makes him the number one scorer in England. England has scored nine goals in the European Championship so far, ranking among all teams. Only Spain, which also scored seven goals in the group stage, may catch up with their goals.

What is even more unfavorable for Italy is that this goal happened in the 41st minute of the first half. If they cannot recover a goal for the rest of the time, then Xiao Ming can easily arrange his tactics during the break.

"Tell the players, let's save some effort when we reclaim the defense. Leo stared at their Tony... It will be enough to hold on for these few minutes." Xiao Ming said to Venables lightly.

Venables nodded and immediately conveyed Xiao Ming's intention.

After the re-telection, England launched a defense, and Italy launched several attacks in the remaining minutes, but their attacks seemed a bit messy. England had a good protection for the front of the penalty area, Lampard also returned to the front of the penalty area to defend, while Tony in the penalty area was entangled by Ferdinand, and the header was interfered with and topped high.

When the referee blew the whistle to the end of the first half, England walked into the locker room with a two-goal lead with his head held high.

"Perfect first half! Two clean and neat goals! The game process that takes the advantage most of the time! Italy is no longer the Italy that won the World Cup, and England is now many times stronger than England two years ago!"

Motson shouted excitedly, England did play very well in the first half. Except for suppressing Italy for most of the time, they did not give Italy many opportunities in defense. More importantly, they seized the opportunity, and the advantage of leading two goals was real!
Chapter completed!