From the man behind the football king to the football king

Bruno completely ignored the disturbances from the outside world, because his future had been decided as early as last summer. Now it is just the team of Udinese, Mendes and Jassim to discuss a final result. .

At this moment, he is already involved in preparations for the European Cup in France, which is about to start in June.

On May 18, just two days after Serie A ended, the Portuguese Football Association announced the final list of 23 players for the country's national team to compete in the European Cup in France. Real Madrid double star Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe, midfielder Bruno and other famous superstars are all selected; in addition, Renato Sanchez, who just joined the Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich for a high price of 35 million euros, will also travel with the team.

Starting from May 30, the Portuguese national team played three warm-up matches against Norway, England and Estonia.

Norway and Estonia are both considered weak teams. The purpose of these two warm-up matches is just to let the Portuguese team practice their skills. The real meaningful opponent is England.

After defeating Norway without any blood at 3:0, the Portuguese team headed north to London, England, preparing to challenge England.

When the names of the players of the England team were introduced on the radio, the cheers at the New Wembley Stadium were loud. When the names of the players of the Portuguese team were introduced, the boos on the scene could make people's ears ring.

Gary Neville, the Manchester United star who partnered with Lineker, also said: "Yes, the Portuguese team's defense against Ali was successful, especially Cancelo. His pressing against Ali was very successful. As long as Ali gets the ball, either Either he or Danilo Pereira will always press forward immediately, because the Portuguese team members know very well that if Ali is allowed to get the ball comfortably, the situation will become very difficult to deal with. Make sure there are enough people around Ali to defend him before he gets the ball, or at the moment he gets the ball, because once Ali picks up speed, it will be difficult to guard him.”

The Blue Fox forward controlled his rhythm and deliberately slowed down, attracting Delaney Pereira to defend. Then when Danilo Pereira came closer, he suddenly spiked the ball and accelerated away!

Danilo Pereira didn't expect Vardy to be so fast. He turned around urgently and wanted to chase him, but the big man turned slowly. By the time he turned around completely to chase, he was already two positions behind Vardy. .

Rooney tried to pass back to Milner, but he suddenly started. He first passed Bruno with a beautiful spike, and then continued forward, passing the football before Adrian and Joao Mario's double-teaming was completed. go out.

Portugal lineup (433): Patricio; Cancelo, Carvalho, Alves, Eliseu; Danilo, Adrian, Bruno; Nani, Rafa Silva, Joao Mario.

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At this time, it was already the 41st minute of the first half. Although the England team had the absolute initiative in the game and the ball possession rate was as high as 61%, they were never able to get too much success on the offensive end. opportunity, the score on the field is still 0:0.

"Perhaps Hodgson should try to change his tactics and instead of going through Ali for the time being, choose to seek an offensive line from Vardy or Harry Kane." BBC commentator Lineker said.

As the referee blew his whistle, the entire stadium was drowned in the huge cheers of the English fans.

Santos immediately picked up on England's changes.

The camera showed a close-up of England forward Vardy. This player who was very popular in the Premier League last season can be said to be a late bloomer. He helped the Blue Foxes defeat Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City and other powerful players, creating a world-famous "Layman". "Miracle", and he personally won applause from the media and fans with his outstanding performance.

This is the most important warm-up match for the Portuguese team before the start of the European Cup group stage.

Rooney got the ball, took a dip, and passed the ball to Vardy.

The second half of the game begins.

"He is naturally training. After all, this is just a warm-up match. The purpose of all of us is to train." Santos said, "And the England team is now taking the initiative. We are not a big threat on the offensive end, so Hodgson is not in a hurry. He is Practice tactics when Ali is heavily defended.”

"It's not just Ali, whether it's Vardy or Harry Kane or Rooney, it's very difficult to get the chance to get the ball and advance easily."

"Adrian, Danilo Pereira and Joao Mario, the Portuguese team will even change to a three-midfielder at the right time, and Bruno and Nani will also drop deep."

Harry Kane passed Vardy's kick back to Alli.

"Haha, let's see, logically speaking, 0:0 should be a situation that the Portuguese team can accept, but the England team is not satisfied with. After all, the England team firmly took the initiative in the first half of the game, but..." Lineker shouted, "Look, Santos looks angry and has a bad look on his face, while Hodgson is smiling."

Alli received the ball. Just as he was about to pull the ball and turn around, Danilo Pereira's flying tackle came. The Tottenham midfielder was startled and jumped up to avoid the flying tackle. The football went out of the sideline. , England's front line ball.

"Ali has been restricted by us, why doesn't Hodgson change his tactics?" the assistant coach asked in confusion.

Hodgson frowned. Although this was only the first offensive and defensive encounter since the start of the game, it still made him more vigilant and captured a glimmer of information.

"The Portuguese team's midfield and back line are very close, leaving almost no room for the English team to move," the Portuguese commentator said. "The Portuguese team's defense will try to press forward. If the defense is a little behind, then the team's midfielder will The field players will also sit a little further back, so there is very little space between their midfield and defensive lines.”

"Yes, that means it will be very difficult for Ali to receive the ball in this area."

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England lineup (433): Joe Hart; Walker, Smalling, Cahill, Danny Rose; Dier, Milner, Rooney; Vardy, Harry Kane, Alli.

At this time, the players on both sides lined up, shook hands, exchanged team flags, guessed coins, and picked sides, completing the routine before the start of the game.

"Ali! Danilo Pereira! This shovel is very fierce, but there is no foul. The shovel is very accurate." The Portuguese commentator shouted.

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It can be seen from the commentators' praise of the Portuguese team's tactics and performance that the Portuguese team was relatively successful on the defensive end, especially in its strategy of defending Ali. As a result, the Tottenham star was basically unable to play in this game. There was nothing good to do.

Ali was restricted and temporarily unable to operate, so Vardy took on the heavy responsibility of England's offense.

When the referee finally blew the whistle to end the first half, the score on the field did not change, there was no goal, and the score was 0:0 in the first half.

"Does Santos have to score and take the lead in the first half to be satisfied? It's really funny. 43% ball possession rate, two shots, thank God for 0:0, he also thought What to do?" Neville said sarcastically.

In the first half of the game, England took the initiative, while Portugal was relatively passive. This made the England commentator feel happy. The only regret was that England failed to score.

Facing the tall and tall Danilo Pereira, Vardy took advantage of his speed and made full use of the big man's shortcomings of inflexibility and slow turning, and began to play an offensive role.

Hodgson is not worried, because this method is very common. Nowadays, many teams use this method to restrict Ali when facing him. At most, they add one man-to-man marking, but the effect is very average.

England has only won 1 game against Portugal in the past 11 times, and has 8 draws and 2 losses in the remaining 10 games. England had won 11 of their previous 12 home games, losing only to the Netherlands in March. Tottenham's five players entered the starting lineup, Harry Kane and Vardy joined forces at the front, and Rooney led the way. Cristiano Ronaldo, who just won this season's Champions League with Real Madrid last week, continues to be absent, with Bruno taking the lead.

"A rough tackle, this is a flying tackle with the intention of hurting someone!" The British commentator obviously didn't think so, because Danilo Pereira's flying tackle did look very fierce, if not for it Ali took the initiative to jump up to avoid it, which might really cause Ali to be injured.

Is this a tough and fierce defense to deal with Ali?

Hodgson decided to continue to observe. If this simple method was used to defend Ali, it would disappoint Hodgson.

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This was about an hour into the game. As soon as Ali got the ball, Adrian came up to press for it. The Tottenham midfielder immediately passed the football.

Ali passed the football to Rooney behind him and ran forward. At this moment, Harry Kane and Vardy were already sprinting.

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"It's not surprising that this kind of performance happened to the Portuguese team. The team built by coach Santos is very disciplined. They run aggressively and fight aggressively. They are like a sophisticated machine. Every player can Complete the coach's deployment and this also made Ali very depressed during the game."

"The Portuguese team is also very focused on assisting each other. The Portuguese team has Adrian, Danilo Pereira, and Joao Mario. They always have two people watching Dele Alli, England's Other players are always looking for Ali during the game and want to pass the ball to him, so it makes it relatively easy for the Portuguese team to defend. They will always limit Ali and there will always be at least two players watching him.”

Today's starting lineups for both sides were announced on live television.

In the coin guessing session, Bruno, the captain of the Portuguese team, beat Rooney, the captain of the English team. Therefore, the Portuguese team won the right to pick the side and the English team kicked off first.

The broadcast camera captured such a scene, and the commentators were also amused, and they felt a little puzzled.

Players from both sides have already appeared.

Just as the British commentator loudly cheered Vardy's successful breakthrough, a figure rushed up, fell to the ground and shoveled the football out of the sideline.

"Carvalho! Precise tackle!" shouted the Portuguese commentator. "The tackle was very clean and the action was decisive. The 38-year-old Carvalho is trustworthy."