Chapter 652: Crazy for you

Daniel wears the captain's armband and is shaking hands with the opponent's captain Nick Kovac.

Kovac is 36 years old this year, while Daniel is twenty-nine years old. It is not a strange thing to be the captain of the national team at this age, but it is a bit strange in the English national team. This is the first news announced by Xiao Ming as soon as he took office. Terry was not selected. Beckham was selected for the national team a year later. Xiao Ming wanted to find a good captain, and his only choice was Daniel.

After taking office, no one could object to the determination of Daniel's national team captain with the thunder. Terry was not there, Beckham was in Leiden East, and the captain of Leiden East was Daniel. This is the best reason.

At the same time, Daniel's qualifications in the national team are very old. In the 2000 European Cup, he is a member of the national team. Among the current national team members, only a few players such as Beckham and Ferdinand are older than him. In addition, Xiao Ming can almost confirm Daniel's main position after taking office, there are indeed few people who are more suitable for captains than him.

Before making this decision, Xiao Ming did not discuss it with anyone. He just used this measure to announce one thing - I will be the head coach of the national team for one day, and I have the final say in the English national team!

Of course, no one can say anything when the enemy is in front of him. This is enough to make Xiao Ming create a certain fact. Of course, if Daniel himself is not good, no one will be convinced even if he supports Daniel. However, Xiao Ming believes that Daniel can be the captain well. He can do well in Leiden East and also in the English national team.

The sky was drizzling, and the weather was not very good on the day, but it was not enough to affect the lawn.

Daniel lost to the opponent's captain Kovac in guessing the side, and England won the kick-off.

Like England, Croatia's starting lineup is also 442, goalkeeper Preticosa, four defenders Joel Luca, Simici, Robert Kovac and Simonic, midfielder Nick Kovac dragged behind, Serner on the right, Modric plays on the left, Kranica in the middle, and Eduardo and Olic on the front line are partners.

Just looking at this lineup, you should know that Croatia is indeed a strong team, with five players playing in the Premier League, Leiden Oriental's three musketeers, Eduardo of Arsenal, and Kranica of Portsmouth, Kovac's brothers and Simonic are both famous Bundesliga players, Serner plays as a miner and is one of the famous demons. Simici is also an old Serie A player, has played for Milan's two players, and goalkeeper Preticosa is also a member of the Russian strong team Spartak Moscow. Bilic has a good hand.

Amid the cheers of countless English fans, England, which took the lead in kicking off, immediately launched a fierce attack.

Regarding Croatia, Xiao Ming has been observing recently that their defense ability is not weak on the back line, but the defense ability of the midfield seems to be a little worse. Nick Kovac was an attacking player when he was young, Modric and Kranica were also attacking players. Although Serna is a versatile player on the right, his offense is stronger than defense. Therefore, the tactics Xiao Ming arranged is not particularly complicated, that is, to put pressure on the opponent from the midfield to suppress their defense!

The two Croatian strikers are not good at counterattacks. Although they are not tall, there will be no problems with bold pressure.

So after the game kickoff, two full-backs in England immediately passed the half in a whirlwind, leaving only two central defenders and midfielder Patton and Barry in the back.

Barry took the ball in the midfield, faced Modric and Kranica who came to defend themselves, and immediately reached out to pass the ball to Gerald who came back to pick him up.

Gerald took the ball with his back to Croatia in the first half, then raised his foot and distributed the ball directly to Cole who was inserted on the left.

Cole dribbled the ball forward, and Serner came to defend him. Cole knew that the opponent's speed was not slow, but he was more confident in his speed. After making a fake move of incision, Cole immediately rushed to the sideline, and then accelerated and rushed over Serner!

As Cole broke through Serner like a whirlwind, huge cheers immediately sounded over the stands!

However, although Cole got rid of Shrner, he immediately fell into the point of being attacked by Shrner and Joel Luka.

As a teammate in Leiden Oriental, Cole knew that although Joel Luca was very big, her reaction and turn were not slow at all. In addition, there was a Serner chasing him unremittingly. After hesitating for a little, the ball might be lost.

So after catching up with the ball, Cole did not continue to move forward, but stopped urgently and then passed the ball horizontally to Gerald who came to meet him.

Gerald passed back, Barry took the ball, and immediately transferred a large area, passing the ball to Beckham on the right.

Daniel inserted the ball from the side, attracting the attention of the opponent's defender and giving Beckham plenty of room to get the ball. The fans stopped the ball at their feet, then looked up at the frontcourt, immediately raised their right foot and passed it for a long time!

In this place that cannot be considered a forty-five degrees, and when it is still a long distance away from the opponent's penalty area, the "Baiss arc" still plays its huge role!

In the hazy drizzle, the ball drew a visible track and flew to the front of the penalty area in a curve. The Gao Lao Crouch, who had already run into the position, jumped up at the top of the penalty area, and then headed the ball!

Although Croatia's defense has an impressive average height, this is brought by the two full-backs - Joel Luca is more than 1.9 meters tall, and Simunic is also more than 1.9 meters tall - he is even two centimeters taller than Joel Luca, who is 1.93 meters tall - on the contrary, their two main central defenders, Simici and Robert Kovac are both only about 1.80 meters tall, which is also the focus of Xiao Ming.

That's why he reused Crouch and let veteran Beatty on the bench - in this game, the high center will be one of his biggest killer moves.

Because of his huge height advantage, although Crouch has always been not very good at heading, he still easily grabbed the first landing point and accurately swung the ball to Rooney who was inserted.

The calf Rooney lifted his foot and removed Crouch's header, thrust across the board, then immediately took his right foot and shot hard at the front of the penalty area!

The shot was quite powerful. Although the angle was slightly straight, Preticosa did not dare to neglect it. She flew to the ground and hit the ball with her two fists. Kovac immediately cleared the ball and the ball went out of the sideline.

Daniel ran over to serve the outside ball, and he threw the ball directly to Gerald who came to pick up the ball. Gerald passed it back to Beckham. Beckham made a move to make a cross, but directly passed it to a little behind the middle of the penalty area.

After receiving the ball, Barry kept taking the ball and taking advantage of the situation, he shot again with a long shot. The quality of this long shot was still very high, but it was a little biased and flew directly out of the baseline.

Although there was no goal, England had two shots at the beginning of the game, which still made the English fans in the stands very excited. This imposing offense is also something they like very much.

"Well, at the beginning of the game, England played quite proactively. Rooney shot and Barry shot... Alan, I don't know if you noticed that Barry is the left forward, but his shot was completed after being inserted in the middle, a bit like what Lampard often does at Chelsea." Motson told Hiller.

"It's true." Hiller nodded: "David didn't get forward in the game. In the attack just now, he was at a little further back, so that he could get the ball without being disturbed and play the biggest feature of his accurate pass. Barry's position had to follow the back, and his first shot was dispatched by his passing. In this way, our two wing forwards were not actually responsible for charging, and the attack on the wing was completely handed over to Cole and Daniel who were inserted behind him."

"In other words, on the surface, the lineup sent by Xiao Ming seemed very weak on the side attack, but in fact, the forward insertion of Daniel and Cole made up for this flaw. At the same time, they could also cover Beckham and Barry in the midfield, so that they could cross and dispatch wholeheartedly." Motson said: "But if you do this, the defense on the side seems very weak? Although we have to attack in this game, the defense cannot be relaxed."

"Maybe this is why he chose Patton as the starting midfielder. Although Hargreaves's running ability is not worse than Patton, Patton's fierceness in defense makes him more deterrent. Moreover, Barry stays more in the rear to dispatch, and his defensive ability is not bad. With them, there will be no big problems on the left and right sides. Besides, what makes Croatia outstanding is their overall offense, not counterattack. Their midfielders are technical players, and the two forwards are not speed-type. However, in positional offense, Olic, an opportunist and Eduardo, a forward with excellent technical breakthrough ability, will be more troublesome." Hiller explained that no matter what, he has played for so many years, and when he was a commentator, he also plays a "professional" responsible for answering.

"Xiao Ming's choice probably proves that what he wants is to win this game, not just a draw."

Mortson's last sentence aroused the cheers of countless English fans who watched the game in front of TV. Although their pride had been defeated before, their confidence was rebuilt with Xiao Ming's appointment and Russia and Croatia's defeats - yes! England does not need to rely on a draw to advance! All we want is victory now! Under the leadership of Xiao Ming, the champion coach, how can we rely on a draw to advance?

In fact, Xiao Ming was not as optimistic as they thought.

Comparing the number of goals with the opponent is also his last choice. In addition to Xiao Ming's understanding that Croatia cannot play a friendly match with them, England's defense really makes him unable to maintain enough confidence - Robinson, James and Green are goalkeepers who always make low-level mistakes at any time. A goalkeeper who always makes mistakes is a disaster for a team! However, among all England goalkeepers, these three goalkeepers are the best, but for a long time, England goalkeepers give people the impression that there will always be low-level mistakes, even if it was Shiman back then... What's more fatal is that not only one person makes mistakes, but every English goalkeeper will make such fatal mistakes. It seems that standing in front of the England national team's goal is like a curse!

At the same time, the central defender's partner also made him unable to rest assured. Ferdinand's strength was beyond doubt. However, he was a central defender who needed a stable partner to perform better. Manchester United's defense line was also a mess before, not only because their goalkeeper was uneasy. It was not until the stable Vidic appeared in Manchester United's defense line became stronger again. In this game, Jin, who was partnered with him, was also a central defender who was brave and stable. In fact, Xiao Ming wanted to recruit Jin's partner Dawson in Tottenham into the national team at that time, but the central defender was injured, and the other defenders were even more useless.

In Xiao Ming's view, England's current defensive triangle is not as good as Leiden Oriental, not to mention that the opponent's forward combination is the opportunity-catching and technical forward combination that England defenders dislike the least. This is the biggest factor that Xiao Ming wants to compare goals with the opponent in this game.

You get one, I get two. Besides, goalkeepers like Green face more shots, but he plays better than the opponent's last-day shots.

Since he wants to score goals with the opponent, then the first goal is better than the later goal. Moreover, no matter how high his prestige is, he has only been coaching the England national team for more than a week. In addition to the three old men who have followed him for a long time, all players on the court will not shake their confidence in him, including Beckham, may believe Xiao Ming when it goes well, and will be panicked when it goes well. Being able to score goals first will also greatly improve the confidence of the players.

No matter what, Xiao Ming is not a god. His prestige in a team takes time to build, but Xiao Ming does not have this time.

On the court, Croatia organized a counterattack. Kranica and Modric made beautiful passes and cooperated continuously in the midfield and then passed directly to Eduardo at the front of the penalty area. Eduardo beautifully dodged King's interception, then shot at the front of the penalty area. Green flew to block the ball, and Kohl returned to defend to clear the ball with his feet.

The ball flew directly to the frontcourt. Crouch and Rooney ran towards the landing point at the same time, but were jumped first by Joel Luca, who moved to the middle, to head the ball to clear the ball. With the height advantage not that much, Crouch had no upper hand at all.

The ball flew to England again in the half. Kranica took off the ball, but Patton immediately rushed over from the side and broke the ball.

After intercepting the ball, Patton immediately passed the ball to Gerald. Gerald dribbled the ball forward. At this time, the Croatian players had basically returned to the midfield. Seeing that there was no chance, Gerald passed the ball back to Barry. Barry passed the ball again and passed the ball to Beckham.

Seeing Beckham getting the ball in his half, Modric immediately forced his way to the club's teammates. However, Beckham did not stop the ball more, but turned around and passed the ball halfway through Croatia's half!

This foot was not a cross, but a ground rolling ball. The ball rolled along the sideline in surprise and flew over from Simunic. Simunic turned around to catch up with the ball, but a figure rushed up from behind Beckham and rushed towards the ball at high speed!

Simonic was much closer to the ball than Daniel who was forward, but at this time the disadvantage of the defender who was the same year as Daniel was too high and turned slowly. You should know that in Hertha Berlin, he was a central defender. Besides, it was a bit embarrassing to let a tall man of 1.95 run faster than a player of 1.82. - The distance between him and Daniel was approaching quickly at a speed visible to the naked eye. At five meters away from the rolling ball, Daniel rushed past him!

Simonic wanted to use a foul to block the opponent's progress, but his impact was taken down by Daniel's face without changing his expression. Then, with an acceleration, he left the Bundesliga star behind.

After catching up with the ball, Daniel was already parallel to the penalty area line. Amid the crazy shouts of England fans throughout the game, he did not make a cross, but instead dunked the ball into the penalty area and then forced the ball into the penalty area!

His cutting immediately caused chaos in Croatia's defense line. Simonic was already far away by Daniel, and the other three defenders returned to defend in time. However, two England strikers, Rooney and Crouch, had also rushed into the penalty area.

Three to three!

This number is not a good thing for the defensive side, not to mention that Croatia's defense now looks so awkward - Rooney responded at the back point, defending him by Joel Luca, who is 1.93 meters tall, Crouch responded in the middle, defending him by Simici, who is 1.8 meters tall, and Robert Kovac rushed to the front point to block Daniel's route...

With the help of height, Crouch stopped Simici behind with a big stride. Simici, who didn't play many games in AC Milan, could not immediately knock Crouch away. At this moment, Daniel passed the ball!

The ball flew into the middle of the penalty area. Crouch, who leaned on Simic, stretched out his long leg and poked it. The ball changed direction, and then flew into the Croatian goal before Preticosa fell to the ground!

"boom!"

The moment the ball flew into the goal, Wembley Stadium immediately became a boiling ocean! Countless English fans were cheering, cheering for the arrival of this goal!

In the entire London, England, and bars of all sizes, countless English fans jumped up and let the cups in their hands splash golden wine.
Chapter completed!