Chapter 720 World Cup Elimination Tournament

Stuttgart, Ecuador, World Cup training ground.

After successfully qualifying in the group stage and winning the first place in the group by drawing lots, the Chinese team quickly moved from Kaiserslautern to Stuttgart.

After arriving in Stuttgart, Alihan immediately led the team to the training ground to prepare for the upcoming World Cup knockout round.

Advance in the knockout round with the first group, did not completely lose the Chinese team's sanity. In the subsequent group stage summary, Yin Jun was the first to point out the team's defensive problems when speaking as the captain, and he believed that this would become the biggest obstacle for the team to continue to go further.

In the three group matches, the Chinese team only had no goals in the first game against Sweden, and conceded two goals in the following two games, including Paraguay, which had the most group!

The opponent of the Chinese team in the quarterfinals is a team with very strong offensive firepower. They scored 5 goals in three group matches, second only to Ecuador, Argentina and Spain, and Brazil, which scored 7 goals, tied with China, England, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal, Italy, Australia and Ukraine.

Although this Ecuador is one of the lowest-ranked teams among the top 32 World Cup, it only ranked 39 before the World Cup and there are no well-known stars in the team, but their integrity is very strong.

If the Chinese team does not pay attention to defense in the game, don’t look at the moment, everyone is optimistic that the Chinese team will advance to the quarterfinals, but the possibility of being upset by Ecuador is very high.

So after arriving in Stuttgart, Alihan conducted closed training on the Chinese team and specialized in defense.

The end of the training is how the Chinese team will defeat the enemy. The strategy given by Alihan is to control the midfield and give full play to Yin Jun's advantages on the offensive end.

Gao Lin's performance in the first three group matches has been recognized by everyone in the team, including Yin Jun. Although he seems to have a weak goal-scoring ability, as a high center forward, his tactical role is quite obvious. He has gradually replaced Li Jinyu's starting position and become the starting forward of the Chinese team.

Dong Fengzhuo and Han Peng also performed very well on the two sides, especially Dong Fengzhuo, who is the most threatening point for the Chinese team to attack in addition to Yin Jun.

As for the most important midfield arrangement, Alihan decided to schedule a technical midfielder with stronger control.

It is not difficult to see from the pre-match drill that when Zhao Junzhe was seriously injured, the midfield combination of Yin Jun, Zhao Xuri and Hao Junmin is the most recognized by Alihan and is also the most controlled midfield combination that the Chinese team can line up so far.

Especially the young player Hao Junmin, it is the biggest discovery of the Chinese team in this World Cup. After experiencing a bad start to the World Cup, the 19-year-old player quickly showed good strength and performed better and better in the subsequent games.

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In a blink of an eye, it was the evening of June 25th in China, and in Ecuador it was the afternoon.

Stuttgart Gottlieb Delham Stadium.

In the Ecuador World Cup quarterfinals, China plays against Ecuador.

As expected, Ecuador did not take the initiative to attack, but actively and steadily tightened the defense line after the opening. Fierce pressing and steady overall defense have caused Ecuador to put the Chinese team in a tough battle from the beginning of the game, especially the offensive players in the frontcourt.

"Long before the game, Ecuadorian head coach Suarez said that the attack power shown by the Chinese team in the group stage is worthy of vigilance, so it is not surprising that he will use defensive counterattack tactics to deal with the Chinese team."

"Ecuador obviously has made sufficient preparations for Yin Jun's defense. Judging from the three group matches, defense has always been the advantage of Ecuador. Although they conceded three goals in three rounds, they actually completed two clean sheets and only conceded the goal in the game against Germany."

"Relatively speaking, the Chinese team can qualify from the group stage by offense, or to be precise, rely on Yin Jun's super personal ability."

...

The commentary from the national television station that was broadcast live in China was not transmitted to Gottlieb Dalem Stadium. However, there is no need for outside reminders that the Chinese team has a very clear understanding of this.

Ecuador's team adopted the four-four-two style, but took the initiative to shrink the three lines, and the intention was very clear, that is, to freeze Yin Jun.

Yin Jun also has a clear understanding of this.

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In this game, Alihan lined up a 433 formation, Gao Lin played as the center, Dong Fengzhu played as the right side, and Han Peng was still the left winger.

The midfielder is a combination of Yin Jun, Zhao Xuri and Hao Junmin. Yin Jun plays as the front midfielder, Zhao Xuri and Hao Junmin escort behind him, and wait for an opportunity to step forward and create a threat.

But in fact, Han Peng and Dong Fengzhuo both retreated a lot, which made the Chinese team's formation more 4231, and the purpose was to ensure the initiative in the midfield.

From the beginning of the game, the Chinese team successfully controlled the ball and had an advantage in ball control. Ecuador mainly set up defense in the middle line and did not retreat very far, but their pressing was very active, and the one-on-one defensive advantage was very obvious, which made it difficult for the Chinese team to organize effective cooperation.

On the other hand, Ecuador has no advantage in possession of the ball, but his physical confrontation is very advantageous. Once they are close, the ball will be easily cut off. Once the ball is cut off, he will immediately hit the back and fight back to give full play to the speed advantage of the forward players.

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At the beginning, both sides played a little confused. First, Yin Jun was very active on the left, but Ecuador quickly threw heavy troops on his right. As soon as Yin Jun got the ball, he was immediately closely guarded by Ecuador.

Yin Jun was also mentally prepared for this situation. Seeing that there was some difficulty in playing the ball in the midfield, he immediately took the initiative to retreat and responded to the midfield teammates who were applying the ball.

In the 19th minute, Yin Jun retreated to receive the midfield pass and suddenly turned around and got rid of it. He dribbled the ball along the left, shifting the entire Ecuadorian defensive attention to his side, and suddenly moved his big foot to the right.

Dong Fengzhuo had already been ready to go. After stopping the ball in his chest, he dribbled the ball down the right side and made a cross. Gao Lin, who was ambushed in the penalty area, grabbed the position in the middle, headed the ball and hit a far corner.

Ecuador's goalkeeper Mora flew to save the ball and gave it to the Chinese team a corner kick. But this wonderful flying save gave Mora a lot of cheers. The young Ecuadorian goalkeeper didn't care and directed his teammates to start corner kick defense, which looked quite like a general.
Chapter completed!