Lisbon, Stadium of Light.
In the first round of Group B of the European Cup, France played against England in the final stage of the second half. England temporarily led 1-0. Substitutions were being made on the field. England replaced the outstanding Rooney with forward Heskey.
When the eighteen-year-old Rooney came off the field, he won applause from the audience. Just now, the English teenager received Beckham's clearance, stopped the ball near the midfield and leaned on French defender Thuram, and then jumped the ball. Turning around and accelerating in one go, he ran dozens of meters to the French team's penalty area. He was eventually tackled by French defender Sylvester, winning a penalty kick for England.
If the penalty kick is scored, the French team will be sentenced to death. As a result, England captain Beckham's penalty kick was judged correctly by French goalkeeper Barthez and blocked the ball with both hands.
"Eriksson is too conservative. The Everton boy's physical fitness can fully support the whole game. There is no need to replace him." George Li in the stands could not understand this substitution.
"He wanted to preserve the 1-0 score and let Heskey be a fulcrum in the frontcourt to counterattack, while the others defended desperately." Chris Kasper next to him expressed his opinion.
"Do you think it looks like it?" George Li said sarcastically.
"Well......"
Heskey on the pitch did not stay in the frontcourt to press the French team's defense when England was defending. Instead, Vasseur, who came on as a substitute for Owen, came forward alone. Heskey has been participating in the defense in his own half. .
"Scholes also went down, and replacing Hargreaves was not of much use. The ball couldn't go out at all. The ball could only go to David's side. The Frenchman strangled David's side to death. , there is no way to counterattack." George Lee seemed to be quite critical of the England coach's formation.
"Well, is it true that Wayne Rooney can't be bought?" Jordi Cruyff is still thinking about the reinforcement of the team's frontcourt.
"Impossible, the old man is determined to win him."
"Wouldn't it be better to raise the offer a little more?"
"Not only the transfer offer, we also need higher weekly salary and higher signing fee to compete with those teams that can play in the Champions League and Europa League. However, if other players do this, should I give the team two Will all ten or thirty players receive a salary increase?"
"Okay..." Cruyff still felt it was a pity.
"Jordi, we are rebuilding, not reinforcing." George Lee comforted Cruyff Jr., "The unity in the locker room is more important than anything else. Only a united team can bring us back to the top."
"Oh, George, look here." Casper exclaimed.
The game reached the 89th minute and was about to enter injury time.
Before the French team attacked the English team's penalty area on the court, Makelele was kicked down by Heskey. The French team won a free kick on the right side of the front arc of the penalty area.
"Although they were in the lead, it was the French who took the initiative throughout the game. The only goal was assisted by David's set kick, which assisted Lampard's goal." George Lee saw England starting to form a wall, and then He spoke.
"Although France has a 442, Zidane will always move closer to the middle, leaving the left side to Henry. Most attacks are launched from Zidane and Pires on the right."
"When will Leeds United have a phenomenal player like Zidane and a World Footballer of the Year?" Kasper asked suddenly.
"There will come a day. If we can't buy it, we can cultivate one ourselves." George Li laughed.
"Lee Winter?" Casper knew about Vanessa.
"Of course, this is Vanessa's greatest wish."
"I want to say that Li Winter is now an Ajax player." Cruyff Jr. poured cold water on Li.
"Jordi, you...I...the ball went in..." Casper interrupted the conversation again.
France scored.
After Zidane took two steps, he took a curve ball with his right foot and went directly to the left side of the door.
England goalkeeper James commanded the wall for a long time, but could only watch the football fly into the net.
1 to 1, the French team equalized the score before the end.
"He's so good," Cruyff Jr. told Lee.
"What did you say......"
The cheers of the fans made it impossible for Lee George to hear what Cruyff was saying.
"I said, he's really awesome."
George Li did not respond to him, but waited for the audience to calm down.
Two minutes later, France's celebrations were over and the crowd sat down.
George Lee stopped when he saw the audience, and continued to talk to Cruyff about things on the court.
"Behind Zidane, there are Makelele and Vieira as his wingmen. Zidane can let go without any worries."
"Yes, I discovered it too. That's why you insisted on buying Davis and Gravesen." Cruyff Jr. replied.
"On the other hand, if you look at England, Gerrard and Lampard are placed in the midfield. Their ability to move forward is sufficient, but when it comes to defense, there is no order or priority, which completely exposes England's defense. In front of the French team, if Eriksen hadn't been shrinking, he would have collapsed in the face of the impact of Zidane, Pires, Henry and Trezeguet."
"I'm not asking Alan Smith to be like Zidane, but can he reach the heights of Gerrard and Lampard?"
"How will you know if you don't try? You never know when there will be a shortage of players in the defensive midfielder, and I will ask him to play as a defensive midfielder."
"What's going on! Here we go again..." Casper interrupted the conversation between the two again.
The entire audience that had just calmed down became excited again.
Penalty kick! France gets a penalty!
Only half a minute after the kick-off, Gerrard made a mistake in the back pass. When he passed a long distance to the goalkeeper, he passed the ball to Henry who was ambushing in the penalty area. England goalkeeper James made a mistake and let the ball pass. The French forward was knocked down and the referee decisively awarded a penalty kick.
"Don't go in, don't go in..." Casper muttered silently while staring at the field.
As an Englishman, Casper definitely supports the England team.
It was still Zidane who took the penalty kick. He swung the ball and retreated. With a flick of his right ankle, he successfully deceived James and hit the lower left corner steadily.
2 to 1!
The game ended immediately after the goal. The French team dramatically scored two goals in the last minute to turn the tide and complete the reversal.
"Let's go."
George Li stood up and patted Casper who was still in a daze.
^^^
A day later, it was also Lisbon, but at the Alvared Stadium.
The stadium is boiling with excitement again. This is the first time this has happened at Alvared Stadium today.
"The third one?" George Li put down the notebook and pen in his hand, raised his head and asked the young Cruyff next to him.
They were the only two people who came to the stadium to watch the game today. Chris Kasper went to Guimarães to watch the match between Denmark and Italy at the Enrique Stadium, so he did not appear with them at the Alvared Stadium. .
"The fourth one, George, are you watching the game seriously?"
On the court, Sweden's No. 10 is celebrating his goal. Ibrahimovic raised his arms high and his teammates gathered around him to celebrate.
Just now, Ljungberg, who played well in this game and scored a goal, broke into the penalty area and was fouled and fell to the ground. The referee whistled a penalty kick.
Ibrahimovic took the penalty kick and shot a low shot into the lower left corner. The opponent's goalkeeper judged the right direction but the ball was too fast and failed to save it.
4 to 0!
The Ajax striker scored Sweden's fourth goal of the game in a completely one-sided scene.
"What's the point of such a one-sided game?" Li George was completely uninterested in this game.
"We are here to inspect the players. What do you think of the Swedish team's forward?"
"Ljungberg will not be sold by Arsenal, and Larsson is said to be signing for Barcelona." George Lee continued to scribble in his notebook.
Morten Pedersen, Tromso
Daniel Bratten, Rosenberg
Ernest Derwig, Sarpsburg, Sparta
Cruyff Jr. took a look at George Lee's notebook and found that they were all about players he didn't know, and continued to ask him.
"No, I want to say that No. 10, the one who scored the goal just now, he was very active in this game, the Ajax striker you joked about last time that you wanted to pack with Van der Vaart and Sneijder... ..."
"We talked about it, 15 million. Ajax agreed." George Li interrupted Cruyff's introduction.
"Huh~, that's great." Cruyff Jr. breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, George Lee bought some players he liked in the transfer market.
"The club has reached an agreement, but the players don't agree." George Li continued writing in his notebook without raising his head.
"Ah~, what?" exclaimed.
"The Swede said he didn't want to join a club that didn't play in the Champions League."
"This~, okay." Cruyff's YY was shattered again.
George Li flipped forward a page in his notebook, and Cruyff saw a name crossed out.
Edur Gudjohnsen
The name of the Icelandic striker who plays for Chelsea was crossed out by several horizontal lines and changed to another name that Cruyff did not recognize.
Ori Oscarson, Tremso
Who are these people? Cruyff was grabbing his hair frantically.
In the end, Sweden defeated Bulgaria 5-0.
