Champion’s Heart

It's been a really difficult time...

When Zhou Yi was lying in bed with such emotion, the match between Brazil and Croatia was being played on the TV. Only eleven minutes into the game, Brazilian left back Marcelo scored an own goal, giving Croatia the lead.

Host nation Brazil, watched by tens of thousands of fellow fans, were trailing.

The Brazilian commentator on the TV broadcast kept talking, but no one could understand it. Even though Spanish and Portuguese were similar, Portuguese spoke so fast that people like He Ying and Sun Pan couldn't understand it. It sounded laborious, so they had no intention of understanding what the narrator was saying.

Even when I was watching the game, I was distracted.

Because it doesn't matter how other people's games are. What matters is your own game.

Just before the opening game of the World Cup, the Chinese team internally announced the roster for tomorrow's game, and of course Zhou Yi was not included.

Tomorrow, in the first group match, the Chinese team will challenge the Chilean team at the Pantanal Arena in Cuiabá.

In the last warm-up match just a few days ago, the Chinese team's opponent was Costa Rica. The reason why we chose this team as our opponent is because they are all from Latin American countries, and perhaps there is a certain similarity in their playing styles. .

In that game, the Chinese team tied with Costa Rica 1:1.

It might be fine just looking at the result, but you have to know that Costa Rica was in the lead for most of the game. It was not until the 77th minute that the Chinese team launched a successful defensive counterattack, relying on He Ying's personal ability to equalize. score.

So from a process perspective, the performance of the Chinese team is not satisfactory.

This is just a warm-up match. The World Cup is about to start. In fact, Costa Rica's players are not giving their all, and they are not very strong when defending, because they are worried about injuries.

When it comes to the real World Cup match, the opponent will no longer have any reservations.

How will the Chinese team, without Zhou Yi controlling the rhythm, face opponents with fangs exposed?

Everyone gathered in Zhou Yi's room to watch the opening game, but they were probably not thinking about the game.

So naturally they talked about Zhou Yi's injury.

Zhou Yi, who always showed his smile and confidence in front of the media,

It was only in front of his friends that he revealed his true feelings and had the emotion he just said.

It's been really hard since he got injured.

In fact, the injury itself is not very serious. As long as you have enough time to recuperate, it is not a big deal at all.

But this time it happened to be the World Cup, and time was very tight. If Dortmund had not reached the Champions League final at all and Zhou Yi had suffered the same injury in the last round of the Bundesliga, it would not have caused such a big reaction. More than a month would have been enough for him to recover.

Just because of the World Cup, this minor injury became very difficult.

Doesn’t Zhou Yi himself hope to come back as soon as possible? Of course he wanted it too, more than anyone else.

Does Zhou Yi himself want to miss the first two group matches? Of course I don’t want to, no more than anyone else.

But there is no other way, he can only accept this result now.

Don't worry, we won't stop at the group stage... Nuan Nan, Yang Muge comforted softly.

I believe we will not stop at the group stage, but it is still quite unpleasant to watch you play in front of the TV like now.

Sun Pan smiled: Idiot! You can go and see it live!

Zhou Yi rolled his eyes at him.

On TV, after a series of indiscriminate bombardments, the Brazilian team finally equalized the score in the 29th minute by their core player Neymar.

Brazil has such a hard time playing at their home court... This World Cup must be really difficult... He Ying muttered while looking at the TV.

Brazil underestimated the enemy, right? They thought Croatia would be easy to control, but they didn't expect it to be a tough guy. Others also focused on the game, Guo Nu said. There are still many good Croatian players in this group...

I think the overall strength of this Brazilian team has declined. Zhou Yi said. There is a serious shortage of talent in Brazilian football now. It has been a long time since there has been any outstanding young talent. Look at this Brazilian team. Players like Fred who were difficult to get into the Brazilian team in the past can now be centers. Already...

In the end, the Brazilian team did not score a goal from Neymar until the 71st minute at their home court, taking the lead. In the 90th minute, Oscar completely sealed the victory for the team. 3:1, Brazil won the first game of this World Cup with some difficulty.

The first match day of the World Cup ended like this.

Brazil got the victory they needed to win, laying a good foundation for qualifying from the group.

The next day is the day when the World Cup begins in full swing.

At one o'clock at noon on the 13th, the second group match of Group A began, with Mexico playing against Cameroon. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the strong dialogue between Spain and the Netherlands in Group B kicked off. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the Chinese team and the Chilean team made their debut in the second group match of Group B.

The corresponding Beijing time for these three games is 0 am, 3 am and 6 am respectively.

The match between China and Chile will kick off at 6 am on June 14th. If you only watch the Chinese team's games, then you don't have to stay up late, just get up early.

However, before the match between the Chinese team and the Chilean team, the match between Spain and the Netherlands is also of great concern to everyone.

This is a repeat of the last World Cup final.

※※※

On June 14, the hotel where the Chinese team stayed had been crowded with media reporters and Chinese fans since the morning.

Although news spread yesterday that Zhou Yi would definitely not be able to participate in this game, everyone was still lucky and hoped that a miracle would happen at the last moment and Zhou Yi would miraculously recover and catch up with this game.

After lunch, the entire Chinese team took a lunch break as requested by the coaching staff.

At this time, the game between Mexico and Cameroon also started.

Maybe it was because they had just had lunch, maybe it was too early for the game, and the players from both teams were not very excited.

In the end, Mexico defeated Cameroon 1:0 with Peralta's goal. The points ranking of Group A has come out. Brazil, which defeated Croatia 3:1, is ranked first, Mexico is second, Cameroon is third, and Croatia is at the bottom because of the lowest goal difference.

Before the game between the Netherlands and Spain started, the players of the Chinese team all recovered from their nap. Then at the request of the coaching staff, he went to the conference room to watch the game between the Netherlands and Spain. Their purpose of watching the game is different from ordinary fans. As opponents in the same group, they must fully understand the current status of these two teams.

At the same time, many fans in China stayed up late to watch the game.

This game is the first heavyweight dialogue of this World Cup.

Before this game, the Spanish national team was the pinnacle of world football. They had monopolized the championships of the past three world series, including two European Cups and one World Cup. Although they lost to Brazil 0:3 in the final of last year's Confederations Cup, the Confederations Cup has always been used for training, which does not explain anything.

Before the game, everyone was looking back at the final four years ago, looking back at De Jong's kick on Xabi Alonso's chest, looking back at Iniesta's winning goal, and looking back at Casillas' wonderful save.

Before this game, Casillas had maintained a World Cup record of 433 minutes without conceding a goal. In the last World Cup in South Africa, Spain conceded only two goals in seven games, both of which came in the group stage. Casillas has kept clean sheets in all four knockout games. Facing the Netherlands in this game, as long as he keeps not conceding a goal in the first 85 minutes, he will set a new record and surpass the legendary Italian national goalkeeper Zenga who did not concede a goal in 517 consecutive minutes.

I'm not very optimistic about Casillas breaking Zenga's record. Zhou Yi said before waiting for the game to start. His current state is very bad, especially after losing the Champions League final. The Spanish domestic media have been criticizing him, believing that Real Madrid lost the tenth Champions League and he was the culprit. There are also voices saying that De Gea should be replaced. Replacing Casillas...these doubts have damaged Casillas' confidence. In addition, he is also under a lot of pressure, which is not conducive to his performance in the World Cup.

Zhou Yi is really not optimistic about Casillas. If Casillas was the world's top goalkeeper before, he has now been downgraded to Europe's top goalkeeper. Although he is still a very good goalkeeper, there is still a big gap between the magical and omnipotent St. Igor before.

As people get older and have not received good training in games at the club, it is inevitable that their condition will decline.

※※※

After the game started, both sides played very actively. All created some murderous intentions.

Casillas also saved Sneijder's solo shot.

It seemed like the loss in the Champions League final didn't affect him.

In the 26th minute, Silva sent a through ball. He had previously given up the opportunity to join the Brazilian national team and chose to join the Spanish team. Brazilian striker Diego Costa broke into the penalty area and tried to get rid of the Dutch player's defense but fell to the ground. The Italian referee Rizzoli blew the whistle decisively and gave Spain a penalty kick.

However, judging from the slow motion, Costa is suspected of diving.

However, the referee has already made the decision and it is useless to say anything.

Xavi Alonso came to take the penalty kick. He sent the football into the lower left corner of the goal. Spain led the Netherlands 1:0.

After four years between the two teams, nothing seems to have changed. Spain is still stronger than the Netherlands.

But in the next game, the Dutch team launched a fierce counterattack. They continued to attack until the end of the first half, when the Dutch team's Blind suddenly made a long diagonal pass near the left center line.

The football flew about fifty meters in the air and then flew into the Spanish penalty area.

The Dutch striker Robin van Persie, who rushed over quickly, jumped towards the top. From a very far distance, he chose to dive towards the top. This was a completely unexpected shooting method. The football flew past Casillas, who was standing in the front. Falling into the earth gate behind him! The Dutch team equalized the score!

Holy shit!

Seeing this goal, everyone in the conference room exclaimed. No one expected that Van Persie's goal could be scored.

This is so lucky! someone shouted.

No, Casillas is too far forward. He has a big problem in judging the high ball. The lack of games has made him lose the ability to accurately judge the placement of the football... Zhou Yi said on Casillas In the eyes of fans, he must be Casillas Black. But what he said is true, because he has proved it in the Champions League final.

The first half ended in a 1:1 draw.

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