As Argentina advanced, the last quarter-finals came to an end, and all the top four were born, namely France, Belgium, Argentina, and England.
The semi-final matchups are France VS Belgium and Argentina VS England.
On July 10, the first semi-final started between France and Belgium. In the end, the French team relied on defender Umtiti's goal in the 51st minute to narrowly defeat Belgium 1-0 and advance to the final.
With Giroud, Griezmann, Mbappe, Pogba, Kante, and Varane, the Gallic Roosters have a strong team and are aiming for the championship.
Their target is naturally Argentina.
At 21:00 on the evening of July 11, with the whistle of Turkish referee Chaker, the 2018 World Cup semi-finals between Argentina and England officially began.
There is no doubt that this is the game between the two most hostile countries in this World Cup, and it is also the most heated. Fans began to clash before the game. If the Russian police had not suppressed them strongly, there might have been bloody clashes.
The reason is naturally due to the Falklands War, Maradona's Hand of God, five consecutive goals of the century, etc. It was because of that game that Maradona became a god and became the god of Argentine football.
For the Argentines, if they couldn't beat the English in the Falklands War, they would naturally have to win on the football field. There is absolutely no room for error in this game for the Argentines.
The mentality of the English people is naturally the same. Maradona blatantly scored a handball in the World Cup and was revered as the Hand of God by fans all over the world. He was beaten to death and worshiped as the king of the ball. This is undoubtedly for the English people. It's a shame.
Therefore, when they get the opportunity of such a World Cup semi-final, they naturally want to take revenge, not only to advance to the final and compete for the championship, but also to kill the possibility of Argentina winning the championship and Messi and Velarde becoming the champions.
For Willard personally, he had no feelings about the Falklands War, but he had an unforgettable hatred for the Opium War. Although the decline of modern China was due to the Qing Dynasty's isolation, the Opium War initiated by John Bull was still the most important reason. Being able to represent Argentina against England, Velarde is certainly more motivated than usual.
Therefore, the game was full of excitement from the beginning.
But the problem is that Argentina can boldly charge and steal, but the English do not dare because they do not have a free kick master like Velarde, and Argentina has Velarde.
The consequence was that in the 13th minute, Villard broke through Ali and Lingard from the center and reached the edge of the penalty area. Midfielder Henderson, who was Villard's captain at Liverpool, hesitated. For a moment, he didn't dare to use all his strength to pull down Velarde, but Velarde broke free and dribbled the ball into the penalty area.
Entering the penalty area, the English did not dare to foul even more, and Willard's skills were good. After getting past defender Kyle Walker, he shot hard and successfully scored the ball into the lower left corner.
Although goalkeeper Pickford made a save, it was too far away and he could only watch the ball go into the net.
Velarde opened the scoring for Argentina, which led England 1-0.
The Argentinian fans at the scene and in front of the TV cheered and shouted wildly, while the English fans in the stands booed loudly. Especially some Liverpool fans, they thought that Willard should have feelings for the Premier League. Unexpectedly, it was Willard's opening goal that caused England to fall behind 0-1.
This made many Liverpool fans angry, and some even thought that Willard should let go for the sake of his career in the Premier League.
But Willard would not care so much. Not only will he not let go, he will never let go of the opportunity to score.
After such a goal was scored by Willard, England increased the intensity of fouls in the subsequent games, trying to prevent the active Willard from breaking through.
However, when the time came to the 33rd minute, when defender Stones tackled Velarde with a flying tackle, not only did he fail to destroy Velarde's breakthrough with the ball, but he was shown a yellow card by the referee and ruled. Give Argentina a free kick opportunity from an excellent position.
Stones felt that something was wrong at this time and tried to explain to the referee, but the referee would not listen to him and insisted on his penalty.
And Willard did not disappoint, directly sending the ball into the dead center of the goal with a full-moon scimitar kick. 2-0, Velarde once again scored twice, and tied Fontaine's record of 13 goals in a single World Cup, and it also only took 6 games, which is already on par with Fontaine in terms of efficiency.
If Willard can score another goal, he will surpass Fontaine and create a new single World Cup scoring record and average goal efficiency record.
This is where opponents struggle when facing Velarde's team. If you increase defense and fouling, Velarde can score free kicks; if you relax a little, Velarde can use technical breakthroughs. Score a goal directly.
There's no way to find the balance because no one has that ability.
Today, Willard was more aggressive than usual, causing England to concede two goals in a row and fall behind 0-2. Although this score cannot be said to be a complete death sentence, the probability of losing is already quite high.
Therefore, England had to strengthen their attack in the following time. As for the counterattack by Messi and others, they can no longer care about that much.
In the 39th minute, England really played a good wing cooperation, and finally Ashley Young started to cross from the left to find Harry Kane.
Harry Kane is currently the second-leading scorer in this World Cup, and England has placed all its hopes of scoring goals on him.
Ashley Young looked for the right thing in this pass, and the landing point was directly in front of Harry Kane. As long as he jumped to the top, he might score.
It is a pity that Harry Kane is also the key target of Argentina, especially Velarde.
Although Willard was previously attracted to the wing by England's attack in the midfield, he had full awareness of England's offensive intentions. When a teammate went to intercept from the wing, he immediately retreated to the center and followed Harry. Kane rushed into the penalty area behind him, then leaped high with the right spot in mind, overpowered Harry Kane, and headed the ball over the baseline.
Harry Kane, who was diving for the top, was pushed to the ground by Willard. The England players excitedly told the referee that Willard crushed Kane during the header and should be given a foul and a penalty kick, but the referee ignored it. They were only given a corner kick.
The corner kick naturally had no effect.
In the following minutes, neither side scored again, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 2-0. Argentina temporarily led by two goals with Velarde's two goals, and had an absolute advantage.
