"Can anyone tell me what is the most effective Italian offensive method?" In the locker room, Xiao Ming asked all the players a question.

"The impact from Tony in the penalty area."

“Casano’s breakthrough.”

"Drossi's long shot."

"Pirlo's tissue long shots and set pieces."

"Ass from Zambrota and Grosso."

The players gave their own answers in a verbal manner, and Xiao Ming nodded: "Yes, this is basically the case... Although Donadoni tried his best to make Italy's offense better, they were only good at these tactics. Therefore, we can save some effort in the second half and use defense to deal with their offense."

"Leo, follow Tony and compete with him for the first place. You don't need to control the first place every time, but you can't let him comfortably hit the ball. Other defenders, defend their own defensive areas, no matter how Casano breaks through, don't mess up the overall defense line. Gareth, David, defend the front of the penalty area, don't let them have the opportunity to take a long shot, Frank, return to defense, your next task is defense. Steven, entangle Pirlo, so that he can't organize the attack smoothly... Control their attack and use counterattack to deal with them, so we can save some effort."

Xiao Ming announced the tactics of the second half. The first half was very smooth, but it also consumed a lot of the team's physical fitness. This kind of mad dog-style offense consumed a lot of physical energy. Although using this tactic to play a complete game is not a problem - after all, most of the frontcourt players who started in this game were rotated in the last game of the group stage - but considering the next game, it is naturally not a good idea to consume too much in this game.

Players cannot consider the issue of retaining their strength on the court, as it will affect their performance, but the head coach cannot ignore how to allow players to perform their abilities and preserve their physical fitness without any worries. This is also a proof of the coach's level.

Looking at the players who were still a little doubtful, Xiao Ming waved his hand: "I ask you, is the Netherlands' offense excellent or Italy's offense excellent?"

This question does not seem to need to be answered. Although the Italian national team's performance in the competition is far better than that of the Netherlands, in terms of offense, how many European teams can compete with the Netherlands?

"Is it because the Netherlands has many offensive methods, or Italy has many offensive methods?" Xiao Ming then asked the second question.

This question doesn't need to be answered. The Netherlands has always had many offensive methods, otherwise they would not be able to gain a foothold in European football. Although Donadoni's transformation of Italy was very successful after taking office, no matter where he looked, Italy's offensive methods were still a bit weak.

"Since we can use defense to make the Netherlands not score a goal in a full ninety minutes, why can't we use defense to make Italy unable to score a goal in forty-five minutes? Since we can use counterattack to score three goals in the Netherlands, why can't we use counterattack to expand the score again in the second half? Believe in our defensive ability, and don't take Italy's offense too much... In the second half, defend and counterattack, kill them!"

"In the previous two quarterfinals, the two groups were killed, so let's tell everyone that our group is the first, and no team can beat us!"

Xiao Ming shouted with his fists, and his words immediately confused the players - although they all understood one truth, that is, football matches must not be simple conversions, we cannot say that if I am stronger than you, we will definitely win a few goals, let alone that if I can defend this opponent's offense, we will definitely be able to defend another team whose offense is not as good as this team's offense - but the players will not suddenly think so. Sometimes they deliberately make themselves more trustworthy during the game.

"Start and let the Italians see how excellent our defense is!" Seeing that the players' emotions had been mobilized, Xiao Ming immediately waved his hand vigorously and then drove the players out of the locker room.

"In the first half, England played a beautiful game in the half. Their front court attack was simply pleasing to the eye. Italy had no ability to resist! Italy is indeed a lot worse than two years ago. Cannavaro, Totti, Nesta and others withdrew from the national team, which reduced the strength of the Italian national team a lot. At the same time, many of their main players have also begun to decline, such as Zambrota, Tony, Gattuso... However, it is absolutely not easy to force Italy to this extent. In the group stage, Spain once completely suppressed Italy with offense. However, it was a group stage after all. Now England can do this in the knockout match. In addition to Xiao's tactical changes that caught the opponent off guard, it also proved that Xiao's transformation of England was quite successful... Now, let's see if England will continue to perform well in the first half in the second half, and see what changes will happen in Italy..."

Neither side substitution was replaced during the intermission. The espn commentator said enthusiastically that the game was much more exciting than the previous two games in terms of the excitement of the offense. Although the score and suddenness of the first two knockout matches were of high standards, the viewing level of the game seemed to be worse than this game.

However, Xiao Ming's tactical changes disappointed the commentator...

England, who kicked off in the second half, first stepped back and forth in the backcourt, then launched a threatening attack, and then... then launched a shrinking defense technique...

Italy, who was preparing to go all out at the beginning, was frightened by England's approach. He thought there was a conspiracy. It was not until he tentatively attacked twice that he found out that the opponent had really started to defend. However, they did not dare to over-press. After all, Rooney and Lennon had also had excellent speed in the counterattack. Lennon had already suffered a lot in the first half, not to mention that this little guy had no physical problems.

A long-distance run to Lennon after an interception in the backcourt almost made the Italian defense line open again. Donadoni tragically discovered another thing - that is, the Italian defense line now lacks speed, and even the two full-backs do not have the ability to quickly catch up. Lennon's breakthrough just now, Gattuso and Chiellini, who were chasing back wildly, joined forces to cut Lennon's ball, which also made Gattuso run quite difficult - no matter how good his physical fitness is, such explosive defense is also a great burden on physical fitness.

At the same time, Italy's offense began to hit a solid wall.

As the English players discussed during the break, Italy's offensive methods are nothing more than those - Tony's response in the middle, Casano's personal breakthrough disrupted the defense, Drossi and others from the middle, Pirlo's organization, and two full-backs' assists...

However, Tony was stared by Ferdinand, and Ferdinand was not much different in height. Casano's personal breakthrough could only play a role in harassment against England's strict and orderly defensive system. After Lampard returned to defense, three England's midfielders blocked the front of the penalty area so tightly that it was not airtight. Pirlo was entangled by Gerald. The two full-backs did not dare to press too much due to the counterattack on the English side...

More importantly, Italy's condition was not particularly good in this game.

After the first game, the Italian players almost achieved their best in the remaining two games to win two games. Donadoni ignored the ups and downs of the players' state. In fact, he could not risk letting the players suppress their state to keep their best in the knockout match - the best coach is to look at the overall situation, and ordinary coaches only look at the front of them.

Italy played its best against Sweden, and their form inevitably began to decline a bit in this game.

Some of England's players were rotated in the last game of the group stage, and the other players did not fight fiercely - after all, they played a little ease in that game, and the good weather and situation were even on their side.

After ten minutes of attack, Italy created almost no good opportunities and few shots. Seeing this situation, Donadoni made a substitution. Perotta, who had a mediocre performance, was substituted and Camoranesi came on the court. Donadoni hoped to create opportunities through his breakthrough on the wing.

However, Camoranesi's appearance became a failure. Italy's right-hand attack was pretty good. After all, Lennon was more accustomed to swimming on the right, suppressing Grosso on the left, and Rooney also moved more in the middle. Zambrota's forward-surge assist was also threatening, but after Camoranesi came on the court, his existence suppressed Zambrota's assist, and at the same time, it also reduced a forward-surge fulcrum in the middle, so England was more at ease in defense.

With sufficient attacking on the right, Casano began to move more on the left, and then he immediately hit a wall.

Daniel blocked Casano like a moving mountain.

This mountain is not tall, but Casano can't find any room for breakthrough.

After three midfielders made up for the gap between the full-back and the central defender, Daniel had no worries. Now this active guy is the most likely variable. Daniel knows what the boss is thinking - even if the threat of scoring does not exist completely, at least the accident will be minimized!

Daniel did not want to block the opponent's breakthrough as soon as possible, but he could entangle the opponent so that no matter how hard the opponent broke through, he could not break through to dangerous places. He could use his body to slowly push the opponent away, so that he could drive the ball around but he could not break through...

Just as Italy was pressing the entire line, England's counterattack worked again.

De Rossi made a pass mistake and was interrupted by Lampard in the middle. After making a fake move to pass the ball to Beckham, Lampard decisively dribbled the ball forward, and then sent a beautiful straight pass. Rooney used his speed and body to force the Panucci's defense and went straight in, and then calmly shot and scored twice in the attack!

Rooney scored his fourth goal in the European Cup, tied with Villa, who ranked first in the scorer list before!

"Haha, good boy, maybe I can win the best scorer of the European Cup!" Xiao Ming was completely relieved at this time. If Italy could turn around with three goals, Xiao Ming felt that he could eat the football...

"Another three to zero... England's performance was too surprising. In fact, they did not show any outstanding ability and overwhelming advantage. In fact, they did not have much advantage on the court in this European Championship. Perhaps only the last round of the group stage was against France and the first half of this game. However, when facing the Netherlands, France and Italy, the three teams that have won the European Championship, had never won the European Championship, but they won three three to zero consecutive victories... Although the game has not ended yet, it is almost done. Italy will not have any chance... From the process of the game, it cannot be said that England can win overwhelming victory in the process.

In other words, the final score gap does not prove that the process of the game is one-sided. Why can England have such earth-shaking changes? Perhaps the answer lies with their head coach Xiao Ming. I believe that no matter how England plays next, Xiao’s tactical arrangements and pre-game preparations are enough to be a classic case of targeted arrangements. In the game against the Netherlands, Husky, who was ignored by everyone before, became the key to the victory and loss of the game. In the game against France, they suppressed the opponent from beginning to end, and in the game against Italy, they played three substitutes in the group stage, and Lampard, who was almost forgotten, made a key figure with one pass and one shot... This method was really exciting."

With the commentator of the espn commentator, the camera turned to Xiao Ming's face at the right time. At this time, Xiao Ming was smiling on his face and gave his thumbs up to the players cheering and celebrating on the court.

This goal occurred in the 86th minute of the game. Seven minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to the end of the game, and another three-to-zero. England defeated Italy and advanced to the semi-finals with his head held high!
Chapter completed!