Chapter 544 European Nations League, Metronome
The entire England team arrived in the Croatian coastal city of Rijeka. The two teams will have a direct confrontation in the second round of the group stage of the fourth group of Class A. The venue of the game is the Rujevica Stadium, the home of the Rijeka Football Club in this city. It can accommodate 12,124 fans and is the most common small professional football stadium in Croatia.
Interestingly, the Rijeka Football Club was founded in Italy in 1925. At that time, it was called Fermana Sports Union and belonged to the second-level league team in Italy. It was not until 1942 that the club moved from Italy to Yugoslavia. The name was changed from Fermana Sports Union to Kvanja, and it was not until 1954 that it was renamed Rijeka Football Club.
Back to the point, small stadiums have their own advantages. The England team, which is good at using the width of the field, is likely to be restricted in the game at the Rujevica Stadium. It has a great advantage in the defensive counterattack against Croatia at home, but objective factors will have a lot of impact on both teams.
Because Croatia's previous home game in the French European Cup qualifiers had prohibited signs, UEFA's punishment was to clear Croatia's home field twice, which means that home and away fans could not go to Rujevica Stadium to watch the game.
If we have to talk about who has the greatest impact, it is naturally the home field Croatia. Without home fans cheering on the sidelines, the players' performance will be affected to some extent. However, as the saying goes, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. Rujevica Stadium is a recessed stadium with mountains on all sides, which is convenient for Croatian local fans to watch the game from a distance on the mountains.
When necessary, it can still burst out with huge cheers like a tsunami to support the home team.
In addition to the opponent Croatia, the focus of the English media is also the former Manchester City player Sancho who is doing well in the Bundesliga Dortmund. He was selected into Southgate's new national team list for his excellent performance in the Bundesliga and also came to Rijeka, Croatia with the team.
If Sancho can get a chance to play, he will become the second post-00 player in England's history and the first national team in the world football to send two post-00 players. At that time... it will definitely become a good story.
Time flies. On the day of England's guest challenge against Croatia, the Rujevica Stadium seemed a little deserted due to the clearing of the field, even though there were occasional cheers from the surrounding hills.
Li Qing and the England team members felt a little uncomfortable. They were used to the frenetic atmosphere of the game in the past, but now they suddenly came to an empty professional football field, which was somewhat uncomfortable.
After a while, the Croatian players also came to the field to warm up, feeling exactly the same as the English players, but because they lost to Spain 0:6 in the first round away, they came to the home court to face England in this game, and they were determined to win a victory.
The European Nations League adopts a relegation system. Croatia is the weakest team in the fourth group of Class A and is the most likely team to be relegated to Class B. If it cannot get enough points at home, it is very likely to be relegated after four rounds.
It was 8:45 p.m. local time in Croatia, which was 2:45 a.m. in the capital, a time suitable for watching the Champions League. Although this time was not suitable for the daily routine of Chinese fans, there were still tens of millions of fans waiting for the game to start in front of the TV or computer screen.
"Beep~"
Accompanied by the whistle of the referee Brüch, the second round of the fourth group of the 2018-2019 European Nations League A level was officially announced to start.
England, which had the advantage of kicking off, took the lead in launching the attack. After giving the iconic opening remarks, the commentator He Wei of China Channel 5 announced the starting lineups of both teams to the fans in front of the TV.
The official formation given by the home team Croatia was 4231, with goalkeeper Rivakovic, defenders Pivaric, Vida, Lovren and Jedvaj, double defensive midfielder Rakitic partnering Modric, three forwards Perisic, Kovacic and Kramaric, and Rebic at the front.
The away team England's formation has changed a lot compared to the World Cup, from the original three-center-back system to the current four-back system, which is 433, goalkeeper Pickford, defenders Chilwell, Maguire, Stones and Arnold, midfielders Henderson, Dale and Barkley, forwards Sterling, Harry Kane and Li Qing.
England is the champion of the Russian World Cup, and the players' value has risen sharply. In addition, the premium of English players themselves is very high, and the total value is crushing Croatia. Of course, the result of a football match cannot be determined by the value, but by the competition between the two players in 90 minutes.
The home team Croatia is not as valuable as the English players, but the overall strength is not much different. In addition, football is a team sport, and Croatia is a team with excellent overall combat. This is also the fundamental reason why Croatia, which advanced to the World Cup with a play-off spot, was able to advance to the World Cup semi-finals.
England's offensive is like a tide, and Croatia's defense is very good. Even if there is no pure defensive midfielder in the midfield, it can rely on overall tacit cooperation to complete the defense of English players.
Li Qing is the most threatening English player and receives the most defensive attention. However, Li Qing did not intend to exert any effort at the beginning of the game. He was more focused on driving England's overall offensive rhythm through running and transitions.
Modric and Rakitic play for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. They are famous metronomes and rhythm masters in the world football. However, in the first fifteen minutes of the game, they were no match for Li Qing. His retreat to the midfield to organize an attack that was very unique and relaxed, which made the Croatian players who were defending complain.
The small pitch can prevent England from making reasonable use of the width of the pitch and reduce the running distance of Croatian defenders, but it can't withstand Li Qing's occasional acceleration to test the Croatian players' ability to run back and forth, especially Pivaric and Perisic who were defending Li Qing and Modric who was defending.
Less than twenty minutes into the game, Pivaric, who was defending Li Qing, felt a sense of physical tightness.
In the 18th minute, Li Qing received a pass from Henderson in the attack and changed his previous ball-making posture. He suddenly cut inside with the ball. Pivaric and Perisic did not keep up, but the second reaction was very fast. However, at this moment, Li Qing, who had a wide field of vision, suddenly used the arch of his left foot to pass the ball to Arnold's forward route, who was inserting at high speed along the right sideline.
"Oops!"
Croatia coach Dalic realized something.
Li Qing's pass was very accurate, and Arnold didn't need to make any adjustments. He ran and sent a powerful low cross according to the pre-match offensive routine.
Harry Kane, who ran to the small penalty area, attracted the defensive attention of Vida and Lovren but was not on the passing route. Vida and Lovren, who ran too far, saw the ball rolling behind them and felt very uneasy.
Sterling ran to the right side of the penalty spot, kicked the ball and flew quickly to the upper left corner of the goal. Goalkeeper Rivakovic stood there without any reaction...
Tianchao 5 commentator He Wei's voice rose eight degrees: "The ball is in! The ball is in! England leads the home team Croatia 1:0 away in the 19th minute of the game."
The Croatian fans standing on the top of the mountain looked at the result in the binoculars and were very disappointed, even though they had thought of such a result before the game...