Football: The strongest post-zero generation

The England squad arrived in the Croatian coastal city of Rijeka for a direct meeting in the second round of Group A Group 4, played at the Rujevica Stadium, home of Rijeka FC in the city, which has a capacity of 12,124 fans and is the most common small professional football stadium in Croatia.

Interestingly, Rijeka FC was founded in Italy in 1925 as Femana Sports Federation, which belonged to the Italian second division until 1942, when the club moved from Italy to Yugoslavia, and the name was changed from Femana Sports Union to Kvannia, and then in 1954, it was renamed Rijeka Football Club.

To get back to the point, the small stadium has the advantage of a small court, and the England team, who are good at taking advantage of the width of the field, is likely to be limited in their game at the Rujevica Stadium, and has a great advantage in Croatia's defensive counterattack at home, but objective factors will have a lot of impact on both teams.

Due to the ban on Croatia's previous home matches in France's European Championship qualifiers, UEFA imposed a penalty of two home clearances for Croatia's home games, which means that home and away fans will not be able to go to the Rujevica Stadium to watch the matches.

If you have to talk about who has the greatest impact, it is naturally the home Croatia, the lack of home fans to cheer on the sidelines, how much the players will be affected, but as the saying goes, there are policies and countermeasures, Rujevica Stadium is a recessed stadium, with mountains on all sides, which is convenient for Croatian local fans to watch the game on the hills.

When necessary, a loud shout like a tsunami can erupt in solidarity with the home team.

In addition to the opponent Croatia, the focus of attention in the English media is also the former Manchester City player Jadon Sancho, who was selected for Southgate's new national team squad for his outstanding performance in the Bundesliga, and also came to Rijeka, Croatia.

If Sancho can get the opportunity to play, he will become the second post-00 player in England's history to play, and become the first national team in world football to send two post-00 players, when the time comes...... It's sure to make a great story.

Time flies, and on the day of England's away game against Croatia, the Roujevica stadium looked a little deserted due to the clearance, even if there was a burst of cheers from the surrounding hills from time to time.

Li Qing and the England team members all felt a little uncomfortable, they were used to the frenzied atmosphere of the game in the past, and now they suddenly came to an empty professional football stadium, which was somewhat unaccustomed.

After a while, the Croatian players also came to the field to warm up, feeling the same as the English players, but due to their 0-6 defeat to Spain in the first round, they came to the home game to face England, and they were desperate to win a victory.

The UEFA Nations League is a relegation system, and Croatia is the weakest team in Group A, the team most likely to be relegated to the B division, and if they can't get enough points at home, they are likely to be relegated after four rounds.

At 8:45 p.m. local time in Croatia, which is 2:45 a.m. imperial time, a time period suitable for watching Champions League matches, although this time is not suitable for the rest time of Celestial Empire fans, there are still tens of millions of fans waiting for the game to start in front of the TV or computer monitor.

"Beep~"

With the whistle of the referee on duty, Bruch, the second round of the 2018-2019 Saijia League Group A Group 4 was officially announced.

England, who had the advantage of kick-off, took the lead in attack, and Celestial Channel 5 commentator Victor Ho gave his trademark opening remarks to the fans in front of the TV to announce the starting line-up for the game.

The official formation given by the home team Croatia is 4231, the goalkeeper is Rivakovic, the defenders Pivaric, Vida, Lovren and Yedwai, the double back Rakitic partners Modric, the three forwards Perisic, Kovacic and Kramaric, and Rebic is at the front.

The visiting England formation has changed a lot from the original three central defenders system to the current four-back system at 433, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, defenders Ben Chilwell, Harry Maguire, John Stones and Trent Alexander-Arnold, midfielders Jordan Henderson, Dier and Ross Barkley, forwards Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane and Li Qing.

England is the champion of the World Cup in Russia, the value of the players has risen very sharply, and the English players themselves have a high premium, and the total value is to crush Croatia, of course, the result of the football game is not determined by the value, but according to the 90-minute competition between the players of both sides to decide the winner.

The home team Croatia is not as valuable as England players, but the overall strength is not much worse, plus football is a team sport, and Croatia is a team that is quite good overall, which is why Croatia, which qualified for the World Cup with a play-off place, can finally qualify for the World Cup semi-finals.

England's attack is booming, Croatia's defense is doing a very good job, even if there is no pure defensive midfielder in the midfield, they can complete the defense of England players with the overall tacit cooperation.

Li Qing is the most dangerous England player and receives the most defensive attention, but Li Qing has no intention of exerting force in the early stages of the game, and he is more likely to lead the overall attacking rhythm of England through running and transition.

Modric and Rakitic play for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, and are famous metronomes and rhythm masters in world football, but in the first fifteen minutes of the game, they are not as good as Li Qing.

The small pitch can not only prevent England from making reasonable use of the width of the pitch, but also reduce the running distance of Croatian defenders, but it cannot withstand Li Qing's ability to test the Croatian players' turnaround running ability by accelerating from time to time, especially Pivaric, Perisic who defends Li Qing and Modric who make up for the defense.

Less than 20 minutes into the game, Pivaric, who was defending Li Qing, had a feeling of physical tightness.

In the eighteenth minute, Li Qing received a pass from Henderson in the attack and changed his previous posture, and suddenly cut inside with the ball, Pivariic and Perisic did not follow, but the second reaction was very fast, but at this moment, Li Qing, who had a wide field of vision, suddenly used the arch of his left foot to pass the football to Arnold's forward route that was inserted at high speed against the right sideline.

"Oops!"

Croatia head coach Dalic realizes what.

Li Qing's pass was so good that Alexander-Arnold didn't need to make any adjustments, and he followed the pre-match attacking routine to deliver a powerful low cross on the run.

Harry Kane, who ran into the small penalty area, attracted the attention of Vida and Lovren's defense but was not in the passing route, and Vida and Lovren, who ran over, felt a strong uneasiness when they saw the football rolling behind them.

I saw Sterling run to the right side of the penalty spot, his feet fell and fell, the football flew quickly to the top left corner of the goal, and goalkeeper Livakovic stood still without any reaction......

He Wei, the commentator of Tianchao Channel 5, raised his voice an octave: "The goal is in, the goal is in! England led the home team Croatia 1:0 in the 19th minute of the game." "

The Croatian fans standing on the hill looked at the result in their glasses and were very disappointed, even if they had thought of such a result before the game......

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