Trailing 0-1 in a decisive knockout match, Venezuela knew that Argentina would counterattack if they attacked, but they had no choice but to press forward and attack.
If you don't attack, you'll die; if you attack, there's still a chance.
But it turns out that after the difference in strength between the two sides is too huge, there is not even a one-in-10,000 possibility.
More than ten minutes later, Venezuela's offense had not achieved any results. In the 28th minute, Argentina quickly counterattacked and passed from Velarde from the left. Higuain successfully competed for the top in the middle and headed the ball in. goal.
Argentina extended the score to 2-0 and easily took a two-goal lead, which was already a huge advantage in the knockout rounds. If Venezuela cannot come up with an effective offensive strategy, I am afraid it will have no choice but to surrender.
But no one in the team that has reached the knockout round doesn't want to go further, even if it faces Argentina, the defending champion ranked first in FIFA points in the world.
Therefore, the next game became a situation where Venezuela kept trying to attack, but instead was constantly hit by Argentina's quick counterattacks.
The first half was not over yet. In the 40th minute, Villard intercepted the ball in the backcourt and sent a precise long pass. After Messi got the ball, he passed two people and was about to reach the front of the opponent's penalty area and shoot when he was knocked down by the opponent's defender. , Argentina got a free kick opportunity from an excellent position at the front of the penalty area.
Velarde and Messi both stood on the left and right sides of the ball. Their dominant feet just allowed them to run and shoot from both sides, making it impossible to tell who was taking the kick.
After the referee blew the whistle to allow the penalty kick, Velarde and Messi ran together. Velarde was slightly faster than Messi. He ran to the ball first and shot the ball, but the Venezuelan wall and goalkeeper were indifferent. : They judged that Velard was a feint, and the real shot was Messi, the captain of Argentina and the successor to the world championship.
However, what they didn't expect was that Villard's foot was not a catch, but a real shot.
Willard took the ball out with one kick, flew into the air, flew over the top of the wall, and easily flew into the right goal.
In fact, the angle of this ball is not very tricky. If the goalkeeper predicts accurately, moves to the near corner in advance and makes a save, it is possible to save it.
However, goalkeeper Daniel Hernandez made a wrong prediction. He thought that the ball would be kicked by Messi who was slightly behind. Unexpectedly, Velard kicked the ball directly. By the time he saw the ball flying over the wall and tried to make a save, it was already too late. In the end, he could only stand on the goal line and watch the ball fly into the goal.
"Oh, the ball is in!"
"3-0, haha, Argentina leads Venezuela 3-0!"
"Villad and Messi stood behind the free-kick penalty spot at the same time, fooling both the Venezuelan wall and the goalkeeper."
"Venezuelans may have thought that Messi was the one who took the penalty and Velard was just faking it."
"It turned out that it was Willard who took the penalty, which caused the wall to fail to jump, the goalkeeper to not make a save, and just watched the ball fly into the goal."
"It's really hard to judge with two free kick masters standing in front of the penalty spot."
"Argentina took advantage of the opponent's difficult-to-judge mentality and scored, taking a three-goal lead and almost killing the suspense of the game."
In the stadium, the Argentine players, who felt that they were certain to win, also relaxed and celebrated for a while, not only for Velarde's goal, but also for Argentina's advancement to the semi-finals.
The three-goal lead indeed basically announced that the suspense of the outcome of this game was over. Although there is a precedent in history of being behind by three goals in the first half and reversing in the second half, it is almost impossible to achieve this with Argentina.
Velarde's physical fitness and injury resistance determine that even if Argentina makes substitutions in the second half, he will not be replaced. He can continue to fight until the end of the game.
Even if Messi, Aguero and others take a rest in the second half, as long as Velarde is on the court as a free agent, Argentina's strength will not be weakened too much in both offense and defense. Venezuela wants to score more than three goals against Argentina, and Not allowing Argentina to score again is nothing short of wishful thinking.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, after the first half, Argentina made substitutions during the intermission. The first person replaced was Messi, the successor to the world champion who was not in good physical condition, and then he was replaced by Horta. Mendy.
Gerardo Martino only made two substitutions, leaving one substitution spot for maneuver. If there is any emergency situation in the second half and a substitution is needed, there will be no quota at that time. After all, this is a knockout round, so we still have to leave some room.
After a 15-minute rest, the game changed sides in the second half. Venezuela, which was three goals behind, knew that it was bound to lose. Instead, it relaxed its mentality in the second half and let up its attack. Of course, we don’t completely ignore defense. When we lose the ball, everyone still actively defends.
But the main focus is on offense, trying to score goals to save some face.
However, even with such a small wish, Argentina did not allow them to achieve it. The first is Velarde. He wants to gain experience. Every time the opponent scores a goal, Argentina will lose a goal difference and lose 10 million in winning prizes. This is what he does not want to see, so Velarde defends. He is very hardworking and will not give up just because he has a big lead.
Followed by goalkeeper Elgio Romero, who did not concede a goal in the group stage, naturally does not want to concede again in the knockout rounds. His ideal is to go all the way to the finals, keep clean sheets against all opponents, and win the Golden Glove Award for the best goalkeeper.
Finally, there are the players. Inspired by Velarde's behavior of running, fighting, defending and attacking even though he was leading by a big score, everyone did not let go. As a result, Venezuela's offense never scored a goal. Instead, the defense failed again in the 62nd minute. was breached.
This was an on-the-spot counterattack launched by the Argentine midfielder after stealing the ball. After receiving the ball, Velard directly passed the ball and penetrated the Venezuelan defense in an instant. Higuain, who assisted the advance, succeeded in countering offside and dumped the ball. After coming down, he volleyed into the far corner and scored.
Argentina expanded the score to 4-0, completely killing all suspense.
At this moment, Venezuela had no hope at all. The players also lost the motivation to attack and began to pursue the goal of not conceding more goals and not stage a super disastrous defeat.
Seeing this, Gerardo Martino also used up the last substitution quota, and Banega was replaced to rest and prepare for the next game.
In the remaining time, although Willard was still chasing goals, he had poor luck in scoring and hit the goal post twice.
Finally, after 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game. Argentina defeated Venezuela 4-0 and advanced to the semi-finals of the 2016 America's Cup, where they will face the host United States in the semi-finals.
Then, in another quarter-final match, the Chilean team was like a demon possessed, massacring Mexico 7-0, shocking the world.
Chile will face Colombia in the semi-finals to compete for a ticket to the final. However, looking at the state in which the Chilean team slaughtered Mexico 7-0, I am afraid that Colombia is in danger!
