Argentina in 2014 can be said to be the strongest Argentine team led by Messi, who is at the peak of his career. As the true core and leader of the Argentine team.
Although Argentina finally won the Hercules Cup in Qatar in 2022, if there were not some wrong substitutions in the final and Gotze's failure to score the goal that cost him the second half of his career, maybe Mei West can be on top of the world 8 years ahead of schedule.
"Leo! Against Croatia, I think we need at least five defenders!"
In the hotel where Argentina stayed, although it was almost early in the morning, in the head coach's room, the entire Argentina coaching staff and Messi were not sleepy at all.
There is no way. Facing Croatia, even a team as strong as Argentina doesn't know how to deal with it.
As early as 4 years ago in the World Cup in South Africa, Argentina was defeated 3:0 by Croatia, no, to be precise, it should be by that pervert Su Qin. Nowadays, Argentina has not grown much, but the Croatian team has. It has grown to a height that astonishes the whole world!
"Um!"
Messi is a man of few words. Originally, he had no intention of participating in the coaching staff's tactical arrangements, but who made the old guy Savilia insist on calling him over!
The reason why Salvador called Messi over is actually because Salvador respects Messi more!
"I see!"
Seeing that Messi had no objection, Lao Sa nodded and began to discuss detailed tactical arrangements with his team.
When Messi saw that he had nothing to do, he said something and returned to his room.
"Hey! Leo, what did the old man call you for?"
As soon as he entered the room, Aguero approached him with a gossipy look on his face.
"Fou'er said we have to play five defenders and asked me if I had any objections!"
"What? Five at the back? God, there's no hope for five at the back!"
As soon as Messi said that his team would play five defenders, Aguero suddenly became anxious.
Aguero, who has been teammates with Su Qin for two years, knows exactly what kind of perverted guy Su Qin is now.
Although he loves Messi very much, Lao Gui has to admit that even Messi can no longer keep up with Su Qin.
With that kind of super and comprehensive personal ability, even the top central defenders in the Premier League can't guard against them, let alone those in Argentina.
Garay, who has excellent physical fitness, outstanding frontal defensive ability, excellent foot skills and footwork but is slow and prone to injury, and Federico Fernandez, who is tall, has excellent confrontation ability but lacks assist ability, although they have played in previous games. They performed very well, but that's because the two of them didn't meet Su Qin!
Lao Gui knew very well that even if someone were added to these two foreigners, they would not be Su Qin's opponent!
Argentina couldn't guard against Su Qin's head alone.
"If there is no hope for the five defenders, I..."
Seeing Aguero's anxious look, Messi didn't know what to say.
Although Messi is now at his peak, his tactical concepts and leadership skills have not yet been formally polished. When encountering this kind of thing, he was a little overwhelmed for a while!
"Leo, let's play against each other, just like we did with Dortmund at that time. Fighting against each other is the only way out!"
After that, Lao Gui didn't care what Messi thought, he got up in a hurry and rushed to the head coach's room.
However, after a long time, Lao Gui came back with a sad face!
Looking at that, Messi also knew that the old man did not adopt Aguero's opinion, but there was nothing he could do. Who made Croatia really have too much momentum now.
Play against Croatia?
It is estimated that none of the other teams in the World Cup would really dare to attack Majin Soda!
July 6, 2014!
The much-anticipated quarter-finals of the World Cup have finally officially begun.
After the German team successfully eliminated the French team 1:0 in the first game, the second game between Argentina and Croatia also officially entered the countdown!
6pm!
After finishing their recuperation at the hotel, the Croatian team finally got on the bus to the Castellan Stadium under the leadership of the staff!
Although it was only a quarter-final game, countless Croatian fans gathered outside the hotel.
Winning the European Cup has made all Croatian fans look forward to the World Cup for a long time.
Therefore, in order to better support their team, the whole country of Croatia went on a long vacation.
Even the Croatian boss called on all citizens to rush to Brazil to cheer for his team.
"Subrachi!"
"Subrachi!"
"Subrachi!"
As Croatia's captain and ace star, wherever Su Qin appears, the sky-wide shouts will definitely be standard!
The short 5 kilometers from the hotel to the stadium was almost occupied by Croatian fans.
Even the square outside the stadium was full of Croatian fans.
Although Croatian fans are too poor to afford hotels and are setting up tents, this does not hinder their enthusiasm for football!
finally!
Amidst the endless calls, the bus slowly stopped at the entrance of the stadium.
Lao Bi got off the car first, followed closely by Su Qin!
As soon as Su Qin appeared, the scene naturally went crazy again.
Looking at the fans who were holding their photos high and shouting wildly, Su Qin was moved and raised his hands to interact with them.
To be honest, Su Qin was actually envious of these Croatian fans at this moment.
After all, even though they are poor, they still have football for which they can devote everything!
"Mr. Bilic, how do you predict this game? From the beginning of the World Cup to now, Croatia has reached the quarterfinals with a big victory. Facing Argentina, do you also think Croatia will continue to win big?" Shenglai enters the semi-finals!"
The scene of the pre-match press conference!
As soon as Lao Bi sat down, the reporter who took the microphone to ask questions gave Lao Bi a bang!
Big win?
A big win all the way?
Still want a big win over Argentina?
Oh shit!
Old Bi was angry. Although he was speaking from his heart, how could he, the top tactician in world football, say such arrogant words in front of so many reporters?
After all, his opponent is Pampas Eagles 2-star Argentina!
"Ahem, to be able to go all the way to this day, I think we are very lucky. At least before this game, Croatia has not encountered any strong opponents, but now it is different, we have met Argentina! "
"Of course, anything is possible in football, we just will try our best to fight every minute and every opportunity!"
Lao Bi talked a lot of nonsense. Seeing that Lao Bi couldn't get any good information from him, the reporters could only turn the blame to Lao Sa.
"Croatia is a strong team, especially since they have Su who is as good as Messi! This will be a difficult game!"
have to!
Bilic was cunning enough, and the reporters didn't expect that Savilia, who was looking at him honestly from the sidelines, was even oilier than Bilic.
Just like that, a press conference without breaking news ended.
The two old fritters praised each other in front of the reporters for almost twenty minutes, but nothing substantial came out.
Not even the smell of gunpowder!
This made the reporters very angry.
However, what the reporters didn't know was that when the two returned to the locker room, their friendly faces had completely disappeared!
"Although it's only the quarter-finals, do you know what this game means?"
"Everyone is talking about Croatia's strength, but they forget who Croatia's opponent is today!"
"We are the Eagles of the Pampas, we are the proud Argentina!"
“Right in Brazil!”
"Right where our mortal enemy is!"
"Let us use a gorgeous game to tell the world that Argentina is still the invincible Argentina!"
The old man roared so hard that his face turned red.
And his disciples seemed to start screaming under Lao Sa's hysterical chicken blood meal.
the other side!
In the Croatian locker room!
Bilic is not idle either. Bilic knows that Argentina will definitely play their best defensive counterattack.
So in just twenty minutes, Lao Bi has been carefully explaining the defensive strategies of each line to his backcourt players!
It wasn't until the competition staff came to urge him that Lao Bi reluctantly ended his tactical explanation.
"庒贴儿台!"
"庒贴儿台!"
"Here is the 2014 Brazil World Cup Argentina VS Croatia being broadcast live for you!"
"The two teams actually met once before at the World Cup in South Africa four years ago."
"In that game, Su Qin played brilliantly and successfully helped Croatia defeat Argentina 3:0!"
"Four years later, the two teams unexpectedly appeared in the quarter-finals again."
In the commentary box, Huang began to introduce the historical results of the two teams.
At this time, at the Castellan Stadium.
An interesting scene appeared.
As the captains of the two teams, Su Qin and Messi were pulled together by the referee.
As soon as I saw these two in the same frame.
The entire stadium immediately burst into crazy shouts.
"You go first, Leo!"
"First of all, Su!"
The referee asked the two to guess, but after waiting for a while, they found that the two guys actually gave in to each other.
The referee couldn't help but laugh as the time approached and pointed directly at the smaller Messi to pick him.
In this way, Messi chose the ball, but Su Qin could only choose the venue!
"Okay, Argentina's ball!"
"The members of both teams also stood back in their respective halves!"
"The referee is also looking at his watch!"
"Beep!!!"
"With the referee's whistle, the game officially begins!"
"First is the starting lineup of both sides!"
"Argentina's starting goalkeeper wearing the traditional blue and white jersey attacking from left to right: Romero!"
“Defense line: Zabaleta, Gary Mascherano, Otamendi, Federico Fernandez, Rojo!
Midfield position: Maxi Rodriguez, Javier Mascherano, Angel Di Maria!
Striker combination: Messi, Aguero! "
"As many people expected, facing Croatia, which has the world's best offensive power, even a country as strong as Argentina deployed a 5-back defensive counterattack formation!"
"Croatia's starting goalkeeper on the other side wearing a black jersey and attacking from right to left: Pletikosa!"
"."
The game officially begins.
Although Argentina deployed a five-back defensive formation, when the whistle sounded, Argentina did not stabilize the rhythm as everyone expected.
From the moment Messi returned the ball to Marco Polo behind him, Argentina immediately launched a full-scale attack on the Croatian backcourt!
Su Qin immediately rushed towards Ma Ma, but Ma Ma, who had been taught countless times by Su Qin in Barcelona, did not give Su Qin any chance to get close to him. Before Su Qin could get close to Ma Ma, he immediately turned sideways and handed the ball to him. At the feet of Di Maria on the left.
The moment the Angel caught the ball, he started sprinting crazily along the left wing!
"Di Maria's speed is still as unstoppable as ever!"
"Perisic was crushed behind by Di Maria after just one face-to-face meeting."
"Maxi Rodriguez and Javier Mascherano in the middle are already following up quickly!"
"Rakitic covered up the defense and did not continue to break through. Di Maria stopped with her feet and sent the ball out again!"
'It's Mascherano in the middle! '
At the Castellan Stadium!
When Argentina's offense officially broke into the Croatian half, all the Argentine fans began to stand up and cheer crazily for their team.
And under such a loud shout!
Messi, who was still walking on the right, started to play the moment Ma Mao received the ball.
That kind of extreme starting speed immediately threw away Eduardo, who was still following him.
At the same time, Ma Mao, who received the ball in the middle, seemed to have been waiting for Messi to start. He just moved the ball with the arch of his foot without stopping the ball!
Croatia's midfield heartland!
Messi, who had already started at high speed, steadily unloaded the football with his right foot. At the same time, his left shoulder sank slightly. This slight sinking movement directly shook Modric, who was already in position, to lose his center of gravity.
Don't wait for Modric to turn around!
Messi just brought the ball sideways.
"Ouch, it's dangerous!"
"Messi!!!"
"Messi is still walking sideways!"
"Joelluca is out!"
"Messi kicks off!!!"
"No!"
"I didn't hit the door, it was just a fake move!"
"Through the ball!"
"Messi!!!"
"A great through ball into the Croatian penalty area!"
"Aguero!!!"
"One kick!!!"
"oops!"
"The ball is in!"
"The game just started 16 seconds ago!"
"Argentina scored!"
"Dream start!"
"Absolutely a dream start!"
Castellan Stadium!
The referee watched the football go into the Croatian goal net and blew his whistle!
At the same time, along with the whistle!
The entire Castellan Stadium was completely boiling.
More than 30,000 Argentine fans jumped up and roared like crazy.
And Aguero, who scored the goal in a daze, was directly crushed to the turf by Di Maria who came from behind before he could start the celebration mode!
1:0!
Just ten seconds into the game, Argentina unexpectedly directly scored Croatia's goal!
Near the middle circle, Su Qin was a little confused.
this.
This rhythm is wrong!
Isn't it my script to score a goal at the beginning?
Why did Argentina score a goal instead?
However, the game has just begun. There are still ninety minutes left, so Su Qin has nothing to worry about.
certainly!
At this time, Lao Bi, who was standing by the court with the same cool expression, naturally had no reaction.
In Lao Bi's view, not to mention conceding one, even if his team conceded three in the first half.
As long as his Su is there, his Croatia will be invincible!
(End of chapter)
