Full-Level Pass, Please Call Me The Boss Of The Three Lions - Chapter 121
The first time, the second time.
Chapter 121 A crucial battle, ushering in the starting lineup [4,000-word chapter]
Mendes’ call brought good news to Ling Feng and also brought him good luck.
A few days later, the day before the match against Costa Rica, England announced the starting lineup.
Ling Feng, who had an eye-catching performance as a substitute in two consecutive games, finally got the chance to start!
The starting player he squeezed out was Welbeck, who still had little performance in the last game.
Facing Costa Rica, which was the weakest on paper in the group but had suffered a series of upsets, Hodgson was also very cautious.
The starting lineup in the midfield and backcourt remained basically unchanged, only some changes were made to the frontcourt players:
Sturridge moved to the left, Rooney headed to the striker, Ling Feng served as the attacking midfielder, and Sterling still occupied the right.
Obviously, Hodgson still wanted to use the combination of the wing and the center, plus Ling Feng’s through pass to feed Rooney to the greatest extent, helping him score his first goal in the World Cup and help the team win.
After all, as England’s top player, it is really a bit unreasonable for Rooney not to score in eleven World Cup games.
For England, the current qualifying situation is very favorable.
As long as they beat Costa Rica, no matter what the results of the games between Italy and Uruguay are, they will qualify as the second place!
So, they have only one task in this game:
Victory!
To win, you must score!
And Ling Feng has used his excellent performance as a substitute in two games to tell everyone that he is the player who can create the most scoring opportunities in the current Three Lions!
No one else!
. . .
June 25th.
The Three Lions ushered in the most crucial battle of this World Cup.
Belo Horizonte, also known as the “Beautiful City”, is the fourth largest city in Brazil and the city with the highest quality of life in South America.
The Mineirão Stadium, which can accommodate 62,000 spectators, has already heard the loud singing of both English fans and Costa Rican fans.
This crucial game, which is related to whether England can qualify or not, attracted more than 40,000 English fans to watch.
Among them, there are also many celebrities and major stars.
What made the fans at the scene excited was that David Beckham, the former England captain who just retired last year and known as the “heartthrob”, also came to the scene with his family!
Facing the camera at the scene, the handsome Beckham, just smiled slightly, and he fell in love with countless female fans in front of the TV.
Because this game was held at the home of Atletico Mineiro.
Therefore, the former Ballon d’Or winner and “football wizard” Ronaldinho, who is currently playing for Atletico Mineiro, also came to the scene.
Before the game, Beckham and Ronaldinho exchanged friendly greetings.
After all, when they played in La Liga, one of them represented the Galacticos and the other represented the Barcelona Dream Team II, and they had played against each other many times.
Moreover, the two had been teammates in Milan, so they admired each other.
At the same time, in the player tunnel.
Ling Feng was a little nervous when he started for the Three Lions for the first time.
However, the nervousness was soon replaced by excitement and excitement.
You know, this is the World Cup!
It is a major stage that every professional player dreams of!
Standing in the queue of English players, Ling Feng turned his head and looked at his opponent.
It is worth mentioning that this final round of Group D is the first match between England and Costa Rica in an official match!
Therefore, the two sides can only make tactical arrangements based on the lineup and status of the opponent and other teams.
And Costa Rica’s performance in the first two rounds shocked all fans and football experts.
3-1 Uruguay!
1-0 Italy! !
It is no exaggeration to say that Costa Rica is the biggest dark horse of this World Cup!
In the Costa Rican team, the biggest contributor who helped the team break out of the “death group” in advance as a dark horse is the Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who averaged seven saves per game!
This season, Navas, who plays for Levante in La Liga, has played 37 games in the league, completed an amazing 17 zero seals, and the save success rate is as high as 80%!
Such performance allowed him to defeat Bravo and Courtois and won the La Liga best goalkeeper this season.
In the original history, it was the amazing performance in the league and the World Cup that made Navas transfer to Real Madrid after the World Cup.
Since then, he helped Real Madrid to win three consecutive Champions League titles and earned the reputation of “Navas Wall”!
Except for Navas, captain Ruiz who can’t even play as a starter in Fulham in the Premier League, and Campbell who was loaned to Greece by Arsenal, other Costa Rican players basically play in leagues far away from the top five leagues.
The total value of the Costa Rican team is less than 30 million euros.
The total value of the England team is more than 300 million euros!
The difference between the two teams is ten times!
Of course, the high value of players cannot determine the outcome of the game.
Otherwise, every football game would be enough to compare the value alone, so why play on the field.
Although the team has no stars.
However, the reason why Costa Rica was able to defeat Uruguay and shut out Italy was because of the united fighting spirit and the united defense!
As the weakest team on paper in the group, being able to enter the World Cup finals has already made all Costa Rican fans excited and excited.
As for how far they can go in this World Cup, they didn’t think too much.
No expectations, no pressure.
From the first game, the Costa Rican team had no pressure and could relax and play to their heart’s content on the field!
For Costa Rican players, the World Cup is a performance opportunity that they may only have once in their lives, and enjoying the game is the most important thing!
Therefore, most of them burst out with amazing energy!
Football has always been a team sport.
Both sides played on the field with eleven people.
There is a gap in strength, but factors such as fighting spirit, tactics, and spirit will affect the final result.
Until the last second of the game, no one can say who will win.
And this is the charm of football! ! !
. . .
“Welcome to the Mineirão Stadium. We are about to face a match in Group D.”
“England vs. Costa Rica.”
“Let’s take a look at the starting lineups of both teams first.”
Accompanied by the introduction of the stadium DJ, the players of both teams lined up to enter the stadium.
Holding the little ball boy, Ling Feng felt the enthusiasm of the fans of both sides as soon as he stepped into the stadium.
The cheers resounded throughout the stadium!
In this game, Costa Rica still played a 541 defensive formation to deal with England’s fierce offensive.
Due to the early victory of two games, it has already qualified as the group leader.
Therefore, Costa Rica’s head coach Pinto chose to make a certain range of rotations.
Including goalkeeper Navas, team captain Ruiz, striker Campbell and other five main players, the remaining six positions have made personnel adjustments.
This is definitely good news for England.
Compared with Italy and Uruguay, who have to fight hard to qualify, England can qualify together with Costa Rica as long as they win this game.
The Three Lions have already firmly grasped their own destiny in their own hands!
During the national anthem, the director’s camera in the stadium was aimed at every player of the Three Lions.
When seeing Ling Feng appear on the big screen of the stadium, the stands of the stadium suddenly burst into warm cheers.
This is Ling Feng’s first start for the Three Lions in the World Cup.
In the eyes of many English fans and football people, this 19-year-old British star will be the key figure in determining the outcome of this game!
With the referee’s long whistle, this key battle that attracted tens of millions of English people to watch officially started!
England took the lead in kicking off.
With Rooney’s back-kick, the ball came to Ling Feng’s feet.
Ling Feng stepped on the ball, but unexpectedly found that Costa Rica’s frontcourt players did not step forward to press or grab, but instead directly retreated to their own half and parked the bus!
Obviously, although Costa Rica had already qualified, they also rotated the lineup.
However, this does not mean that they intend to surrender and give England a victory.
Their attitude is very clear:
If you want to qualify, then show your true ability!
Of course, the Three Lions also expected Costa Rica’s strategy, and they were not polite. They launched a tentative attack at the beginning:
In the third minute, Ling Feng and Rooney played a wall-to-wall match in the middle, and the latter rushed to the outside of the penalty area and did not hesitate to make a powerful long shot!
The ball was very fast, but the angle was slightly right.
Navas did not dare to be careless, so he had to move sideways and hit the ball with both fists.
Then, the Costa Rican defender kicked the ball forward and it landed at the feet of England center back Cahill.
Although
There was no goal, but this long-range shot that shook the mountain and the tiger still received a round of cheers from the fans on the scene.
Rooney also did not forget to give Ling Feng the first praise of the day.
As the game progressed, as the commander of the England field, Ling Feng soon found that Costa Rica had accumulated enough troops in the middle.
The personnel in the middle were too dense, and there was not much space for Rooney to send a straight pass.
So he began to pass the ball to the sides, allowing the two wingers to break through and tear up the Costa Rican defense.
And he wandered in the rib space of the opponent’s defense line to coordinate.
In the eighth minute, Ling Feng came to the left and played a two-on-one cooperation with Sturridge.
The latter made a series of shakes outside the left penalty area, not a full-back, and after pulling out space, he directly kicked a low pass to the middle.
However, the quality of this pass was very average, very close to the small penalty area.
Moreover, Rooney was guarded by two central defenders like a sandwich, and he couldn’t catch the ball at all.
Navas made a small attack and easily confiscated the ball.
Five minutes later, England made a comeback on the left.
Seeing Sturridge reaching for the ball, Ling Feng in the middle again passed the ball to the left.
After Sturridge got the ball, he was very confident and immediately dribbled along the left and faced Gamboa, the right back of Costa Rica.
With two small bicycles under his feet, Sturridge cut inside and came to the penalty area line.
“Daniel!”
However, facing Ling Feng in the middle, Sturridge turned a deaf ear.
In his eyes, there was only the goal.
Under the interference of Gamboa’s right defense, he faked a shot with his right foot, shook off the central defender who came forward to block, and then fired a long shot with his left foot!
And this kick didn’t even hit the goal range, and flew directly out of the bottom line from the goal post.
Sturridge was a big hit in Liverpool this season, won the Premier League Silver Boot, and played the most brilliant season of his career.
Therefore, in the Three Lions, Sturridge was highly expected by Hodgson.
He naturally thought that he was the answer to the Three Lions’ striker.
Sturridge has speed, good footwork, and superb shooting skills. He is currently one of the best strikers in England.
But his playing style is a bit unique, and he has a strong desire for personal performance.
However, as a striker, it is normal to have a strong desire to shoot.
Moreover, when facing dense defense, long shots are also one of the effective offensive means.
However, in Ling Feng’s view, long shots are the last thing they should do in this game!
Unless it is a world wave or a fairy ball with a very tricky angle, it is still very difficult to use a long shot to penetrate Navas’s ten fingers.
If you can’t score, blind long shots will only give the ball to the opponent.
Of course, he would not tell Sturridge not to shoot from a distance and to pass as much as possible.
He did not have the qualifications and did not want to teach Sturridge how to play football.
What’s more, even if he said it, Sturridge might not listen.
So, after repeated consideration, Ling Feng, as the midfield commander, decided to reduce the number of attacks from the left.
Compared with Sturridge, who had a strong desire to shoot, Sterling had a stronger explosive ability and was more team-oriented.
It is worth mentioning that since his first substitute appearance against Italy, Ling Feng has completed a total of three World Cup-related achievements.
[World Cup debut] [World Cup first assist] [World Cup first goal]
These three achievements gave him three free attribute points.
After tasting the incomparable joy of making soup, Ling Feng did not hesitate to add all three points to [Speed]!
In this way, his [Speed] attribute also changed from 72 to 75!
The speed of 75 is enough for him to not be caught up by the chasing opponent so quickly after making soup.
With Ling Feng’s current [burst] and [speed], plus the “explosive expert” Sterling, it is entirely possible to form a speed advantage in a local area.
Soon, the two played a very threatening offensive cooperation on the right!
In the 18th minute of the game, Ling Feng came to the right side of the midfield and cooperated with Sterling in short passes.
“Rahim, let’s switch positions!”
Then, with Ling Feng’s shout, Sterling and Ling Feng made a cross run and completed the position change.
As Sterling ran to the middle and took away a midfielder, Ling Feng came to the right and got a precious opportunity to duel with Costa Rican left back Diaz.
Facing the serious left back in front of him, Ling Feng did not hesitate at all and showed a mysterious smile.
Just when Diaz was still wondering what the English player was laughing at, something strange happened:
Ling Feng kicked the ball with his right foot
Pushing forward, he made a soup and shook off his defense!
In the blink of an eye, Dias only felt a white shadow passing by, and Ling Feng, who was in front of him, disappeared from his sight!
“So fast!”
After the breakthrough, Ling Feng even had time to look up and observe Rooney’s running position, and directly kicked the ball to the middle!
(End of this chapter)
