Seven Crowns

On the scene, it is true that Italy is playing against the Chinese team.

Italy is indeed qualified to be underestimated.

Even with many main players Wei and Lu Wenbin guarding the midfielder, Italy still played the Chinese team's goal in danger.

In the 7th minute, Montolivo made a diagonal pass from the side. Diamanti unloaded the ball before Wang Yongpo, and then kicked the goal in the penalty area.

Fortunately, Zhao Peng rushed over to block the hole and blocked the ball.

In the 14th minute, Shalawi made a pass from the bottom, and Gilardino had already occupied the first point and was about to head the goal.

Lu Wenbin rushed in from outside the penalty area and leaped high, pressing the ball on top of Gilardino's head and flying the ball over the crossbar to clear the siege.

In the 21st minute, Candreva dribbled the ball to face Lu Wenbin's defense without returning a pass, and wanted to break through Lu Wenbin.

As a result, Lu Wenbin made a precise tackle and directly intercepted the ball without fouling.

The overall strength of Italian players is indeed much stronger than that of the Chinese team, and their cooperation is also better than that of the Chinese team.

Even though Lu Wenbin was in the backcourt, he still played dangerously.

But there is a key problem, that is, the lack of hard work of the Italian players.

Some half-to-half chances for both sides to grab the ball will be grabbed by Chinese players most of the time, because Italian players are afraid of getting hurt and it is not worthwhile.

There are also some big passes, if you chase them desperately, it is possible to catch them back, but Italian players rarely chase them, just watch them go out of bounds or be caught by Chinese players.

Sometimes when crossing from the side, when it is necessary to compete for a header from the center, facing the aggressive Chinese team, Italian players rarely rush to the goal regardless of the risk of injury.

What all Italian players think in their hearts should be: "We are so strong, we can win with any kick, so we don't have to fight desperately with the Chinese."

Moreover, subconsciously, there should still be a mentality of "I'm not the champion anyway, I'm just competing for the third place, even if I get upset and lose, it doesn't matter".

The Chinese players, on the other hand, worked very hard.

In everyone's mind, this is not the final of the third or fourth place, but a championship match, even if you are injured, you will not hesitate.

Just to win.

If they can win the third place in the Confederations Cup, even if they quit the national team from then on, it will be enough for them to return to China and live on their laurels for a lifetime.

Therefore, although Italy is much stronger than the Chinese team, it is far inferior to the Chinese team in terms of fighting spirit.

The result of this is that although Italy has been pressing down on the Chinese team, it is difficult to hit threatening shots within the range of the goal frame.

On the one hand, Lu Wenbin sits in the middle lane and defuses most of Italy's middle lane attacks.

On the other hand, the Chinese team worked hard to continuously defuse Italy's offense.

Not only is it desperately defending, but in addition to defending, the Chinese team also thinks about attacking.

After all, their ideal is to win. To win, you have to score goals.

If you don't score, even if it is 0-0 to a penalty shootout, you will definitely lose.

Whether it is the level of the goalkeeper or the strength of the players who take penalty kicks, the Chinese team is at a disadvantage.

Only by defeating Italy within 90 minutes, up to 120 minutes, can the Chinese team win the third place.

However, Italy's defense is also too strong.

Although they are attacking, they can delay or even stop the Chinese team's attack by only relying on their position and tacit understanding of the zone defense.

Even if it can't be stopped, there is still a goalkeeper Buffon standing in the goal, isn't he?

In the 9th minute, the Chinese team counterattacked, and Lu Wenbin split the side to Hao Junmin. Hao Junmin crossed the middle, ready to find Wu Lei to shoot.

As a result, the ball was intercepted by Chiellini in the middle, but Wu Lei didn't touch the ball.

In the 18th minute, Lu Wenbin personally dribbled forward with the ball, hit the wall with Deng Zhuoxiang and cooperated to pass Candreva, and then swayed Chiellini at the top of the arc of the penalty area to get a shot angle and hit the goal.

The ball soared into the air and went straight to the right of the goal. It was about to brush the post and fly into the goal, but an opponent with gloves appeared on the path of the ball: Lu Wenbin's shot was saved by Buffon.

The two sides came and went, maintaining the score of 0-0 for half an hour.

Then, in the 32nd minute, the Chinese team finally got another chance.

This time it was Italy's side attack. Lu Wenbin commanded Zhang Linpeng to step forward to defend, forcing the opponent to kick a cross. Lu Wenbin, who had been prepared for a long time, gave the ball to Zhao Peng before Gilardino.

After landing, Lu Wenbin turned around and rushed forward, and ran out of the gap, turned his head while running, and motioned for Zhao Peng to pass the ball.

Zhao Peng understood and passed the ball to the position in front of Lu Wenbin without waiting for Gilardino, who wanted to counterattack, to approach him.

The pass was a little too big, and De Rossi who was nearby rushed up, trying to compete with Lu Wenbin.

But Lu Wenbin's acceleration was too fast, and he hit the ball first.

However, Lu Wenbin is also about to collide with De Rossi.

De Rossi can hit it if he wants to, as long as he can keep Lu Wenbin, it is better than him bringing the ball to his own half.

As a result, the two did not have a violent frontal collision. De Rossi was hit on the side of the shoulder, staggered for a while, and then fell to the ground with an unstable center of gravity.

De Rossi immediately raised his hand to signal Lu Wenbin to foul, but the referee ignored him: Lu Wenbin passed him with a beautiful Marseille maneuver, and there was no foul action.

Lu Wenbin, who didn't hear the referee's whistle, naturally ignored De Rossi's downfall, and rushed to the Italian penalty area with the ball at the fastest speed: he couldn't give the opponent a chance to return to defense.

Because of Italy's overall pressure on the offense, after passing De Rossi, Lu Wenbin now only has midfielder Candreva, defender Astori, and Chiellini in front of him.

Moreover, these three have to defend Deng Zhuoxiang and Wu Lei.

Chiellini followed Wu Lei, Astori defended Deng Zhuoxiang, and only Candreva retreated from the frontier, trying to wait for other teammates to return to the defense.

But Lu Wenbin's speed was too fast, and none of Montolivo, Macho, and De Sciglio's speed of returning to defense could catch up with him.

As the distance got closer and closer, it had already regressed to the line of the big penalty area. Candreva had no choice but to grab and try to grab.

At the same time, Chiellini also threw away Wu Lei and was about to rush over to help defend: Lu Wenbin's threat was much greater than Wu Lei's.

But Lu Wenbin did not give Chiellini a chance to approach.

He shook Candreva violently with a bull's tail, and then he didn't pass anyone at all, but after shaking Candreva away, he kicked the goal with his left foot outside the penalty area.

Lu Wenbin's left and right feet are well balanced, and his left foot shot does not affect the quality of this long shot at all.

The ball flew up with a swish, flew past Chiellini, crossed Buffon's ten fingers, slammed on the crossbar, and then landed in the goal, and Buffon picked it up and held it in his arms inside.

The players of the Chinese team immediately cheered, but the Italian players repeatedly signaled to the referee that the goal was missed, and Buffon saved them.

The referee also frowned, and instead of blowing his whistle, he asked the linesman.

This is a shot that looks like a pending case.

Did the ball cross the goal line as a whole?

Is it the goal of the Chinese team or the goal kick of Italy?

The referee was a little uncertain.

He had to turn to the linesman and the computerized goal-line technology that was only used in this Confederations Cup.