Iron Man on the pitch

On June 1, Portugal ushered in a warm-up match with Cameroon.

The G Group in Portugal is also known as the Death Group. The teams in the same group include Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire and North Korea.

Although Brazil will assume a qualifying place by default, both Portugal and Ivory Coast have the ability to overturn Brazil. At the same time, Portugal and Côte d'Ivoire are also competitors to compete for another qualifying spot.

So the Portuguese Football Association contacted the Cameroon team, which is also an African powerhouse, to hold a warm-up match. In this regard, most countries will find teams with similar styles to their opponents in the group to practice football before the World Cup.

Cameroon's team is also full of talents. Etoo and Alexander Song are famous, Shubo Motin, Mbia and others are also well-known, and there are potential new stars like Matipu.

For Portugal, putting aside the fact that Cameroon is an African team with a similar style to Côte d'Ivoire, just about its own strength, it is also a good opponent.

The warm-up match ended with a 4-1 victory in Portugal.

Cameroon by "cheetah" Etoo scored a goal with his personal ability. Etoo, who just won the Champions League championship, was in a hot state and could not see any fatigue on him. However, Cameroon's lineup seems to have problems with its running-in level, and Etoo can only fight alone.

On the Portugal side, Li Ling and Cristiano Ronaldo assisted each other and scored one goal each other through more tacit cooperation; central defender Bruno Alves took advantage of the corner kick to score a header; Nani, who came on the bench, received Li Ling's He passed the ball directly, successfully offside, and scored a goal.

Through this game, Paul Bento discovered the flaw in his lineup, which is because there is no real center, and he will not be able to start the situation when facing teams with high defense intensity.

Although Li Ling has a certain ability to get the ball behind his back, Paul Bento cannot let Li Ling change to the center, and Li Ling himself has no such idea.

Because once you encounter a high-level opponent, compared to the defeat of the front line, the midfield needs Li Ling's organization and connection more. When Li Ling got the ball in the midfield, his ability to break through and get rid of key passes was much better than that he was at the center position.

When he was in Sporting Lisbon, he had no cards to play and asked Li Ling to make a guest appearance everywhere. When he came to the Portuguese national team, he also wanted Li Ling to be a firefighter. This looked down on other players too much, and it also seemed that the head coach was too incompetent.

So Paul Bento decided on the tactics of letting players on both sides cut into the penalty area more.

When attacking, wingers must not only bear the responsibility of traditional wingers to break through the bottom, but also cut into the penalty area and pull the opponent's defense line when they are out of the ball.

When defending, the responsibilities remain unchanged, and you still have to retreat to the position of the full-time forward or even the full-back to defend.

Later, during the team's training, Li Ling was asked to demonstrate.

The test result was that among the players on both sides, only Coentrand and Nani could barely keep up with this idea, but their physical fitness did not support the whole game playing like this.

But this tactical effect is good. When attacking, you can invest 4 players in the penalty area. Not to mention the opponent who is normal against the attack, even if the opponent sets up an iron barrel formation, it can cause a considerable threat.

However, such a way of playing is equivalent to directly consuming 2 substitutions. Although it is fine to return to normal play after replacing a substitute, if they fail to score before their physical energy is exhausted. Advantages: Portugal's attack power will be reduced a lot later.

We can only look forward to the performance of Ronaldo and Li Ling.

As for the defender, Pepe was seriously injured while playing for Real Madrid and was in a normal state. So we can only partner with Ricardo Carvalho and Bruno Alves. Originally, Paul Bento wanted Pepe to be the core of the defense.

Right back Paul Ferreira is a little unlucky and needs to face the impact of Joao Pereira because the gap between them is not big.

However, Paul Bento's approach to supporting Nani as the main right-hand striker through this game has been recognized by most players, after all, he will really replace his own people.

To put it bluntly, the Portuguese national team was still somewhat inconsistent at this time. Although it would not cause any rumor that "the Dutch three-stick guest" would be caused, it was not at ease.

After all, influenced by the Portuguese national derby between Porto and Benfica, the players of both teams were not convinced by each other, and in the end they could only hope that Sporting Lisbon would create a peerless strongman to suppress them.

Unlike the Golden Generation, we participated in the competition as a whole before we became famous since the World Youth Championship, and it was relatively united.

But now the golden generation has come to an end, and Ronaldo's prestige is not enough to subdue everyone. Some experienced players will inevitably have some ideas..

Fortunately, Li Ling, another strongest point this year, is also from Sporting Lisbon and is still a naturalized player. He also seems to have a good relationship with Ronaldo and has no idea of ​​fighting for power.

The former midfielder Deco has been in a frustrated season, and has been in a bad state, and has no way to compete for the team's core position.

Paul Bento's vigorous promotion of young players is also related to this. At least young players are willing to be obedient and fight.

In fact, many teams have had internal strife or disagreement during the World Cup, which seriously affects the team's performance. For example, France and Brazil can also be considered half of this World Cup.

After the warm-up match on June 1, the Portuguese team, which had a pretty good preparation effect, took a day off, and the players got a rare day off.

Ronaldo invited most of the players in the team to organize a dinner party.

However, the World Cup is close to you, and everyone’s chatting is also concentrated on football.

"Hi, I heard that Real Madrid's head coach was replaced by Mourinho?" In addition to the preparations for various national teams, this is the most popular football news at the moment.

"Oh, yes, but I haven't met him yet." Ronaldo responded to Deco's inquiry, and Pepe nodded.

"He's not easy to get along with," Deco seemed to recall the glorious years in Porto. "It's not that he would deliberately target anyone, but it would be a bit difficult to meet his request."

"You know, he is a coach who emphasizes defense in particular. Even an offensive player has to bear a lot of defensive responsibilities." Deco shrugged.

"Do you treat them equally? That's fine." Ronaldo patted his chest, "If I just return to defense, I'm fine. I'm afraid he prefers a certain player and gives him privileges."

"By the way, Li Ling," Ronaldo looked at Li Ling who was eating hard with a smile, "Do you have any intentions in your next family? I have heard Mendes complaining about you to me a lot."