Midfielder

Liechtenstein is a small country with a land area of ​​less than 160 square kilometers. It is estimated that only the Vatican is smaller than it. Their total population is only more than 30,000 people.

How big is 160 square kilometers? To put it more intuitively, if you drive at a speed of about 80 kilometers, it will only take about half an hour to travel across its border.

Basically, if you want to complete the feat of crossing a mountainous country, then this is definitely the best choice. Even if you are 70 years old, as long as you can ride for five kilometers, you can complete the crossing.

In fact, these numbers are not enough to describe its small size. The tourism department of this country once launched a hypothetical tourism project, which is to rent the entire country for only 70,000 US dollars.

70,000! This is not a dream, but the most real idea of ​​the cabinet members of this country.

If nothing unexpected happens, this proposal will become a reality in a few years after the monarch's approval. At that time, whoever wants to experience the addiction of God can consider coming here.

It is estimated that even people who have never seen this country can know the general idea.

This is a country that is not even a big name in Europe, but it is such a country whose total population cannot even fill up half of the Luz Stadium, but it acted recklessly under the eyes of the Portuguese.

The total number of people playing football in Liechtenstein may not be as many as the reserve team of an average Portuguese Super League team, but they performed a great performance under the watchful eyes of the runner-up of the European Cup.

2:2, this is the performance of the Portuguese team against such a small country at the Luz Stadium. This is not the worst. The most terrible thing is that they were behind in the score for most of the second half.

And it was not behind by one goal. The score of zero to zero in the first half was embarrassing enough, but after the start of the second half, the Portuguese team was scored by the opponent in ten minutes.

This made Scolari throw the drink bottle to the ground angrily on the sidelines, but the Brazilian's anger did not bring courage to the players, and even his anger further disturbed the emotions of the players on the field.

Disorganized, clueless, a group of people are running around on the field like headless flies, this is the real performance of the Portuguese team, those big stars are just a group of idiots at this moment.

No one can stand up to organize the attack. Most of the time, the Portuguese team's attack is a mess. Almost everyone is fighting on their own, and there is no smooth cooperation at all.

Either the ball is passed aimlessly in the midfield or the defender often kicks the ball directly to Pauleta.

Do you expect Pauleta to hold the ball under the double attack of the opponent? Isn't that daydreaming?

Not to mention that Pauleta is still weak, even Deco, Simao, Ronaldo and other players who usually perform more steadily are entangled by the opponent, and no one can hold the ball calmly.

I don't know what medicine Liechtenstein took. Anyway, from the first minute after they came on the field, these guys seemed to be fighting with the Portuguese team, and every fight was fierce.

This caught the Portuguese, who had been planning to win by a large margin, off guard. Even the usually stable Deco was a little flustered this time. He was entangled by the opponent and could only keep retreating to get the ball.

Behind Pauleta, no one could come up, which made the Portuguese, who were already weak in the offensive line, lose the initiative to attack. Deco could not press forward, and the two wings began to wilt.

Ronaldo and Simao could only rely on their technical advantages to create opportunities as much as possible on the wing.

But what big waves can be made by just two people's assault? Under the opponent's tight defense, the crosses from the two wingers were all successfully cleared, and the only threat was also tightly held by the opponent.

The counterattack of the Liechtenstein people was very impressive, especially at the beginning of the second half. They even took the risk of pressing forward and scored two goals in a row with the help of Portugal's carelessness and luck.

One was a long shot that directly passed through Pepe, and the other was a refraction that hit Carvalho's back directly.

These two goals left Portugal's first choice goalkeeper Ricardo helpless. Not only was his sight blocked when the opponent shot, but also because of such a strange refraction, he felt like crying.

It's rare to see Ricardo get angry, but in this game, this goalkeeper with a strong personality shouted loudly at his back line more than once. It can be seen that he was very dissatisfied.

When a reporter was about to interview him after the game, Ricardo threw down a hard sentence, "I have nothing to say about the opponent scoring two goals. I can only say that this is a bad game."

It's not just the Portuguese defenders who are bad, almost the entire team's performance is very bad. They are lucky to equalize the score. If it weren't for the opponent's defender's untimely kick, Simao still doesn't know whether he can blow the horn of counterattack for the team. His goal was very lucky.

If Figo hadn't been ordered to play at the last moment, and two minutes before the end of the game, he equalized the damn score with a shot on the penalty area line, no one knows what kind of embarrassing scene it would be after the game.

Such offensive performance is simply not satisfactory, including to themselves.

Portuguese fans have always been very tolerant, especially when supporting the national team. They seem to be very united. Whether the team wins or loses, they will cheer for the team.

But at the moment when Figo equalized the score, no one cheered on the field. Even the applause seemed very messy. Instead of those cheers, the fans booed. Everyone was angry.

They can accept losing, and they can accept the team's unbeaten record being broken, but not this kind of failure, facing a team like Liechtenstein that has almost no winning record in the qualifiers.

Portugal actually has to rely on Figo's magical performance to save the team. What's wrong? Is this the football played by the runner-up of the European Cup! ? Can they win the championship even if they can't beat Liechtenstein?

What the hell is the World Cup? Go to hell. Even if they can enter the World Cup finals, they can only serve as a foil with such performance. Maybe they will be torn to pieces by those strong teams!

The fans at the scene even threw a pile of debris from the stands when the Portuguese players left the field.

Those fans who were waving their national flags and cheering for the team have now rolled up their flags and loudly vented their dissatisfaction to those who they regard as idols.

"Aren't you ashamed? You can't win such a game! Go to hell!"

Faced with such roars, the only choice for the Portuguese players was to hide in the locker room before the opponent threw some dangerous objects, otherwise, they really didn't know what would happen.

The anger of the fans was completely erupted. Even after the game, the angry fans shouted loudly outside the Stadium of Light, "Your poor performance really doesn't deserve the title of European runner-up!"

Even the media reporters who have always been tolerant did not give the team any face after the game. Some people even congratulated the Liechtenstein team for their perfect performance at the venue.

Many media pointed their spearheads at Scolari. Everyone expected to hear something different from the Brazilian, but the calm old man actually had time to play Tai Chi push hands.

"The game is over. The score of 2:2 is indeed beyond the expectations of many people, including myself, so now I have a lot of things to summarize and I don't want to give any reasons."

"A draw, a point, maybe it is much more positive than losing the game, but I still have to admit that this game was played very badly, but this result is not the end of the world."

"I can only say that the opponent performed better than us, so even if they won the game, it was right, and my team should review why they played so badly!"

Although Scolari did not point out any problems in his words when he spoke, it was obvious that he was very dissatisfied with such a result, and even a little angry.

Because his face was always gloomy, even when answering questions, it was very brief.

Everyone can see that this old Brazilian is very unhappy now. He is like a volcano about to erupt. As for who can be burned, it depends on who is the unlucky one. However, this is Portugal's home court after all, so the organizers of the game and the media did not seem so tit-for-tat.

After answering a few questions, Scolari also bluntly refused the subsequent interview. After staying for less than ten minutes, the old Brazilian obviously left the press conference with anger.

As for whether Scolari went back to the locker room to learn Ferguson's hair dryer, it is unknown.

Anyway, everyone knows that those who did not perform well in this game will definitely be in trouble this time.

Everyone knows what kind of temper Scolari has. It is obvious that the performance of the Portuguese team in this game is very problematic, so Scolari will definitely use his iron fist to deal with them.

Even if Scolari's questioning did not cause any waves at the scene, it began to gradually heat up after the game, especially about the team's performance in the last three games and the ranking in the group.

Not saying it does not mean that nothing is wrong. Maybe the first two games can be used as an accident to prevaricate, but at this time, such a statement is obviously not convincing. Three times, it is not an accident.

Moreover, they were tied by a team like Liechtenstein. Even if the media did not want to provoke Scolari, the angry fans would probably point the finger of blame at the old Brazilian.

If this draw happened a month ago, it might only bring some criticism, but the current schedule and the situation on the standings are definitely not so optimistic. Portugal was five and six points ahead of Slovakia and Russia, which were chasing behind, before the three rounds of games.

However, these three draws not only prevented them from continuing to consolidate their points advantage over their main competitors, but also caused them to fall into an unprecedented crisis because of the two draws with Estonia and Liechtenstein. They are now only one point ahead of Slovakia and Russia.

It's not just that bad. The two games between them and Slovakia have ended. The idea of ​​suppressing the opponent can only be placed in the subsequent games with other teams, but now Scolari's most worried opponent is the Russians who have been crazy since the second half of the qualifiers.

Especially since being beaten by Portugal, the Russians have won all the last five games, conceding only two goals but scoring thirteen goals. Such crazy attacking power makes all opponents feel scared, including Scolari who is also wary of the opponent's pursuit.

If they could win two of the three games, Portugal might not be in such an embarrassing situation now. You know, they will go to Russia to play away after two rounds of games. Scolari has experienced the troubles of playing on the artificial turf in Russia.

A team that has always pursued small-scale cooperation and interspersed running will be very uncomfortable once it is on that kind of artificial turf. Moreover, Russia has never lost in recent home games, and has only had one draw in the past two years. Such a terrifying home win rate is indeed a bit terrifying.

In fact, before the game started, many Portuguese media still had an idea that if they could keep leading, it would not matter even if they lost to the Russians away, but this idea is no longer realistic. If they lose the game, the opponent will complete the reversal.

With three rounds left in the group stage, if the opponent succeeds in overtaking, even Scolari knows what that means, play-offs? Or being eliminated directly, these two goals are not what Scolari wants, losing the top spot in the group is a disaster for everyone.

If Portugal still had enough loose conditions to allow them to make mistakes in the previous stage, then now it seems that they have no chance to enjoy their advantage in points. Whether they can hold the top spot in the group depends on the result when they play against the Russians away.

At this time, even the bigwigs of the Football Association who have always supported the national team and Scolari began to put pressure on the Brazilians indirectly. After the Greek team is likely to have a tragedy in the qualifiers, the Portuguese do not want such bad luck to happen to them.

If the champions and runners-up of the European Cup are both rejected by the World Cup, I don’t know if this is a joke, especially for the Portuguese. If they are successfully reversed by their opponents when they are leading all the way, then their hat of a pseudo-strong team will definitely be more firmly buckled, and no one can bear this crime.

Even Scolari felt a kind of pressure coming after the game. In the first three days after the game, the old Brazilian even let his assistants complete the daily training, while he stayed in the office alone, carefully looking through the videos of the last three games.

In fact, whether before or after the game, Scolari knew the team's performance. Except for the game against Liechtenstein, they were a little arrogant and caused an embarrassing situation. In the other two games, Portugal's offense had problems.

The most important thing is the organizer. Both Deco and Figo can only wander around the midfield. Especially when encountering obstacles, Deco is too stable and dare not press forward easily, and Figo no longer has the sharp feeling of his subversive period. Both of them have no good way to deal with dense defense.

The poor striker line is enough to give Scolari a headache. Now it seems that it is not only the striker line that has problems. Once the opponent puts all his energy on the midfield to fight with himself, it is difficult for the core players to make better organization when facing tight defense, and the striker line can get very little support.

If this situation continues, even if Portugal can get past Russia away from home, it will be difficult to achieve good results in the World Cup. Scolari is also considering it. In the silence of the past few days, the old Brazilian has thought of countless possibilities, but in the final analysis, it is difficult to make any changes with the current players.

Even if he has called to recruit Postiga, he is not sure whether the joining of a striker can solve such an urgent problem. Portugal's striker ability has always been like this, and Postiga himself is a player who is better at grabbing points in the penalty area than breaking through.

If there is no sufficient support from the midfield, even if he replaces Pauleta as the main player, it will not bring much change. The kid can only be a backup. The biggest problem left for Scolari now is who can inject vitality into the Portuguese team in the midfield. Although he already has a candidate in mind, looking at the newspapers piled on the table, the big news about the kid still makes Scolari unable to make up his mind.

The old Brazilian may not only care about his own face, he is also considering whether the kid can really bring the changes he wants to the team if he joins the team. If not, then this gamble will be completely lost, and it will also disrupt the tactical system he has carefully built.

Hesitation, this may be the most real state in Scolari's heart now. This old man who has never been soft with anyone even when he was in the Brazilian team also really feels the pressure from all sides.

He is very tough, no one doubts this, but toughness should also have a premise, that is, he can lead the team to win continuously, just like Mourinho, that guy is very tough, but he relies on his own record, otherwise don't expect a simple tough person to conquer others.

After thinking for a long time, Scolari still dialed Mendes's phone. No one knows what he said to the other party, but Mendes' secretary still saw his boss's smile on the corner of his mouth after hanging up the phone, the kind of satisfaction that will bloom after wrestling with others.

"Even the most stubborn people will bow down to pressure. There is no general who always wins in this world. You have won the World Cup, but that does not mean you can dominate everything."

No one could hear Mendes' whisper, but this famous agent now knew that he had won this round of wrestling, and the other party was showing weakness. Maybe the boy would accept such an invitation.

A battle between the open and the secret finally came to an end. . .