Midfielder Ruler

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With Tang Zheng's goal in the last minute of injury time, the Chinese team beat Croatia at the Nizhny Novgorod Arena and became the fourth team to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

In the quarter-finals, the Chinese team will face Portugal, which defeated the host Russia.

The media had already speculated about this possible contest. Now that the speculation has become a reality, it has naturally become the focus of everyone's attention.

Tang Zheng, who was celebrating the victory with his teammates, was soon pestered by reporters in the mixed zone. As in the past, Tang Zheng gave priority to being interviewed by reporters from domestic media, and then only accepted interviews from media with relatively good connections or good reputations.

Although at Tang Zheng's level, there is nothing to be ashamed of, but after leading the team to the quarterfinals, the next preparations are particularly important. He does not want the media's public opinion to affect his teammates' preparations.

Especially when the next game is against Portugal led by Cristiano Ronaldo. In his heart, this game can only be won but not lost!

Face is important, but national glory is even more important!

Four years ago, they narrowly lost to the Netherlands on penalty kicks. Four years later, they faced Portugal, whose overall strength was not strong. We must go one step further!

The Nizhny Novgorod Arena has completely turned into a sea of ​​joy for Chinese fans, one wave after another.

Whether it was the Chinese fans inside the stadium or the Chinese fans in the fan square outside the stadium, they all celebrated wildly, venting the great excitement brought about by the national team once again advancing to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Croatia is not a team that is on par with the Chinese team, but a team whose overall strength is stronger than the Chinese team. In this case, it can still win the game, which somewhat shows that the Chinese team has a chance to win against a team stronger than itself. Team.

Facing Portugal in the quarter-finals, we have a high chance of winning!

Tang Zheng did not forget his lost friend Modric. After accepting the media interview, he took the initiative to walk towards Modric who was still slumped on the grass.

Modric looked up and saw Tang Zheng's familiar smiling face.

I don’t know why, Modric’s calm face subconsciously turned into a smile, and then he rolled his eyes.

"It seems... you don't need my comfort anymore, Luka." Tang Zheng said playfully.

Modric sensed Tang Zheng's teasing and did not continue. Instead, he followed Tang Zheng's outstretched right hand and stood up, then took the initiative to change the subject: "Congratulations, Tang, for getting your wish to meet Cristiano in the quarter-finals." .”

"Why do I feel that your words are a bit sour?"

Tang Zheng covered his nose and said.

"Go, go, go." Modric was speechless: "I wanted to beat Cristiano's Portugal, but you guy actually eliminated us!"

Speaking of this, Modric suddenly thought of something and asked curiously: "Tang, your teacher told me, have you seen the defensive weaknesses I saw long ago?"

Tang Zheng shrugged and spread his hands: "I don't know what you are talking about."

Modric smiled and said to himself: "Originally I was just guessing, but now I know the answer. You guys are really terrible! You actually used the openings I saw to take advantage of your plan! Fortunately, the club is teammate."

"Actually, you can give up your Croatian nationality and join our Chinese national team." Tang Zheng blinked: "Four years later, we can work together in Qatar to launch an attack on the Hercules Cup."

"I'm too lazy to pay attention to you." Modric smiled and punched Tang Zheng on the left chest, then took off his jersey and handed it to Tang Zheng: "Change the jersey. It's time for me to comfort my teammates."

"OK!"

※※※

The Chinese team defeated Croatia 2:1 and became the fourth team to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

It was a moderate upset, but considering that both of the Chinese team's goals were scored by Tang Zheng, there was not a lot of news about the Chinese team's upset.

In the perception of many media, as long as Tang Zheng performs well, any team can be defeated!

Croatia is at best a world-class team and cannot compete with the top teams. Otherwise, it would have been described by the media as one of the favorites to win the championship.

However, the Chinese team that defeated Croatia became the focus of global media, because Tang Zheng and Cristiano Ronaldo will compete for the first time in the World Cup as captains of their respective national teams.

At the club level, Tang Zheng defeated Cristiano Ronaldo, but... what about the national team level?

The global media are roughly divided into two types. One is optimistic that the Chinese team led by Tang Zheng will defeat Portugal and advance to the semi-finals, and the other is optimistic that Cristiano Ronaldo, who is in excellent form, will lead Portugal to defeat the Chinese team.

Although the Portuguese national team is not the favorite to win the championship, its overall strength is still considerable, obviously stronger than the Chinese team led by Tang Zheng.

Therefore, it is really difficult to say who will advance to the semi-finals of this World Cup. Coupled with the "old hatred" between Tang Zheng and Cristiano Ronaldo that was specially unearthed by the media, this game will definitely be full of highlights.

The Chinese team that defeated Croatia was still in a state of excitement after returning to the hotel, but head coach Lippi did not interfere with the players because he knew that deliberately suppressing the players' emotions would bring about rebellious psychology.

There are still five days left for the quarter-finals with Portugal, and the players still have enough time to prepare. If you go to bed later, go to bed later.

No impact at all!

At noon the next day, the entire Chinese team took a charter flight south from Nizhny Novgorod and flew to the southernmost Sochi.

The Chinese team and Chinese fans are no strangers to the city of Sochi, because the third group match between the Chinese team and Peru was held at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi.

That game ended in a 1:1 tie. However, the Chinese team had scored four points in the previous two games. The outcome of the last game was not particularly important. Even losing was acceptable, so head coach Lippi consciously let some players who had never played before World Cup players appear on stage.

This campaign faced Portugal at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi. The Chinese team was full of high morale, and the recovery training in the afternoon was full of enthusiasm. It was completely unlike a team that stayed high until midnight last night.

However, head coach Lippi considered that the players were too high last night, so the first training session after arriving in Sochi was very low-intensity and focused on recovery.

At 6 pm and 9 pm Russian time that day, there will be two 1/8 finals at Samara Stadium and Rostov-on-Don Stadium respectively, Brazil VS Mexico and Belgium VS Japan.

There was no suspense in the match between Brazil and Mexico. Firmino and Neymar scored two goals in the second half to defeat Mexico.

Logically speaking, there is no suspense in the 1/8 finals between Belgium and Japan. After all, Belgium's lineup is too luxurious. The Japanese team's ability to qualify in the group is more due to luck, but no one expected that the Japanese team would score two goals in a row at the beginning of the second half. , ahead of Belgium.

Fortunately, Vertonghen and Fellaini scored two goals within five minutes to equalize the score, and then Chadley, who came on as a substitute, scored the winning goal in stoppage time, thus advancing to the World Cup in a thrilling way. Quarterfinals.

The last two quarter-final places are Sweden and England, which means that the four quarter-final matches are Uruguay VS France, Brazil VS Belgium, Sweden VS England and Portugal VS China.

The quarter-finals are decided and the World Cup enters a two-point break.

Of course, this is for fans who follow the World Cup.

Players who represent their respective national teams in the quarterfinals must seize the time to prepare during the short gap period, so as to take a step further and reach the semifinals!

In fact, when the game reaches the quarter-finals, each team's tactical play has already taken shape. They will no longer adjust new tactics. They will be more familiar with and study the opponent's tactical play. Therefore, the Chinese team's preparations revolve around recovery, Familiarity and research.

※※※

The two games on the first match day of the 2018 Russia World Cup quarter-finals are Uruguay VS France and Brazil VS Belgium. The Chinese team’s preparations have also reached the final stage. Before the end of the game, as in the past few days, head coach Lippi Arranged players for penalty shootout training.

Four years ago, the Chinese team was eliminated by the Netherlands on penalty kicks in the quarter-finals. Four years later, if they enter a penalty shootout again, they cannot fall into the same pit.

The penalty shootout training is not a simple five rounds, but each player has to play three times in a cycle. The goalkeepers are Yan Junling, Zeng Cheng and Wang Xiaolei.

Football matches are ever-changing and any possibility may occur, so every player may appear on the list of penalty kick takers.

Naturally, training cannot be compared with a real game. After all, when the game reaches a penalty shootout, the pressure players feel cannot be described in words, so the penalty kick rate in training is very high.

However, as Dortmund's number one goalkeeper, Yan Junling performed very well. Excluding the two goalkeepers and his own 20 players, he saved a total of five penalty kicks, a quite impressive statistic!

You should know that under normal circumstances, a penalty shootout lasts for five rounds, unless there is still no winner after five rounds.

Saving five goals out of twenty is equivalent to saving one out of four. In the thrilling penalty shootout, saving one ball may help the team win the penalty shootout!

The Chinese team's coaching staff is very satisfied with the data delivered by Yan Junling.

The goalkeeper for the second cycle was Zeng Cheng. Compared with Yan Junling, his save success rate was much lower. He only saved three out of 20 goals, and two of them were teammates who took penalty kicks and missed the goal. .

Zeng Cheng's save success rate is lower than Yan Junling because Lippi and his coaching staff thought of it in advance. Besides, the position of goalkeeper is very special and will not be easily rotated.

The third round was taken by Wang Xiaolei. The player who took the penalty in the previous rounds was Lippi's ideal penalty taker, with an extremely high hit rate.

Because of the height restriction, the penalty-taking players knew Wang Xiaolei's shortcomings and chose to play the lower and upper corners. Therefore, they did not save a single ball until the fifteenth round. Wang Xiaolei was in a bad mood and psychologically suggested that he must To save Shi Ke's penalty kick.

Shi Ke plays the role of central defender and his foot skills are naturally not very good. In the past two cycles, he mainly focused on explosive shots, hitting one and missing one free throw.

"Beep~"

As Li Tie, who was guest referee, blew the whistle, Shi Ke raised his right thigh during the run-up.

Wang Xiaolei's eyes narrowed, and he felt like a shark smelling blood. He pushed hard with his left foot, but at this moment, he felt a sharp pain in his left calf, and his body, which was about to take off, fell down.

Shi Ke's penalty kick flew into the goal with devastating momentum, but no one paid attention to the goal, but looked at Wang Xiaolei, who was frowning and trying to use his left foot.

After a simple diagnosis by the team doctor, Wang Xiaolei confirmed that he had a soleus muscle strain, which meant he had to withdraw from this World Cup early.

However, the penalty kick training did not end because of this. Head coach Lippi turned to look at Yan Junling: "Yan, you continue to guard the goal."

At this time, Tang Zheng suddenly grabbed Yan Junling, who was about to walk towards the goal, and winked at head coach Lippi: "Hey, head, I want to feel what it's like to be a goalkeeper, okay?"

If it were any other player, Lippi would definitely refuse on the spot, but Tang Zheng was different.

On second thought, when players were injured during preparations, their mood must have been affected. In the intensive training, they would inevitably become the second Wang Xiaolei. As the captain, Tang Zheng took the initiative to apply to be the goalkeeper to complete the third round of penalty kick training. It has the effect of diverting the players' attention.

What is a captain?

This...is the captain!

So, Lippi nodded lightly: "No problem."

Media reporters and fans watching the Chinese team's training in the outfield of Fisht Olympic Stadium were surprised to see Tang Zheng take the glove handed over by Yan Junling and stand in front of the goal.

Is this... a goalkeeper?

A few seconds later, they confirmed that Tang Zheng would be the goalkeeper, completing the task that Wang Xiaolei, who had left the field injured, had not completed.

But reporters and fans who often follow Real Madrid's training are not surprised. Tang Zheng occasionally guest-stars as a goalkeeper in Real Madrid's team training. In addition to saving very difficult shots, Tang Zheng has outstanding height, excellent reflexes and predictions. The save success rate is also very impressive.

The last four players who took penalty kicks were Wu Xi, He Chao, Deng Hanwen and Liu Yiming.

Not to mention, Tang Zheng, who is 1.94 meters tall, stood in front of the goal with his arms open and gave people a very depressing feeling. Except for Wu Xi who hit the ball into the upper left corner of the goal, He Chao, Deng Hanwen and Liu Yiming were all pre-empted. Tang Zheng, who made a very accurate judgment, jumped out.

In terms of consecutive save success rate, Tang Zheng is even higher than goalkeeper Yan Junling.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the low level of the player who took the penalty kick in the end.

As the goalkeeper, Tang Zheng completed the Chinese team's last practice before the game, which became a hot topic among the media and fans online.

Many fans posted on Weibo and Twitter that Tang Zheng was a goalkeeper who was delayed by goals and assists. Otherwise, the Chinese team would have probably won the penalty shootout in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup against the Netherlands.

Tang Zheng was very satisfied to see that the fans' heated discussions had diverted the negative atmosphere from Wang Xiaolei's injury and absence from the rest of the World Cup.

At 5 pm local time in Russia, Uruguay faced the favorite French team at the Nizhny Novgorod Arena. The French team defeated Uruguay 2:0 with two goals from Varane and Griezmann in the first and second half and took the lead. Semifinals.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Brazil faced Belgium at the Kazan Stadium. Due to the ability to seize opportunities, luck and referee factors, the favorite Brazil lost to Belgium 1:2 and was unfortunately eliminated.

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