Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

Not long after the third round of group matches in Group E, where Italy was located, ended, the third round of matches in Group F also started at 22:21 on the nd!

Ricardo's focus is on the match between Brazil and Japan at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.

Japanese striker Keisuke Tamada scored the first goal in the 33rd minute, which made Li Qi excited. There was a chance! At the same time, Croatia also scored against Australia. This was good news for the Japanese team. As long as the Japanese team could beat Brazil, they would have a chance to beat Croatia and advance...

另外，这个失球也是巴西队自去年10月被玻利维亚破门以来近7场比赛首粒失球，这个球也终结了巴西队连续4场世界杯不失球的历史，上次失球是在2002年世界杯1/4决赛对英格兰的比赛中，巴西因而无法追平意大利在1990年创造的连续5场世界杯不失球的纪录。

So, I don't know if the defending champions were a little angry and embarrassed, but they were interrupted by a little day in their record-breaking process. How could they tolerate this? The Brazilian team is also proud!

So the Brazilian team began to bombard the Japanese team's goal, and Ronaldo equalized the score in the injury time of the first half, and then scored three goals in a row in the second half, and finally defeated the Japanese team with a score of 4-1, sending the Japanese team home with only 1 point at the bottom of the group...

The victory in this game also allowed Brazil to break its own World Cup winning streak record. Since the first group match of the 2002 World Cup, Brazil has maintained ten consecutive wins.

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but Ricardo always felt that the players of the Japanese team were bullied and cried at the end of the game: “Wuwuwuwu… You promised not to get angry… Why did you turn your face against us after a goal…”

The other match in Group F will be held at the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart, with Australia facing Croatia. Before the game, Australia had 1 win and 1 loss with 3 points, while Croatia had 1 draw and 1 loss with 1 point, so Australia can qualify with a draw, but Croatia must fight for victory.

Croatia got off to a perfect start. In the second minute of the game, Srna scored directly from a free kick from 2 yards in the middle. This goal gave Croatia hope of advancing.

However, in the 38th minute of the game, Australia equalized the score through a penalty kick, kicking Croatia down from the second place in the group.

Then in the 56th minute of the second half, Croatia took the lead again and embraced the chance of advancing.

However, the tenacious Australians tied the score again in the 79th minute through a suspected offside goal by Kewell, once again extinguishing Croatia's hopes of advancing...

In the 90-minute match, the qualification changed hands four times, which was really exciting; this led to the referee making mistakes in a hurry.

In the last minute of regular time, Simunic fouled Kennedy, and referee Boll took out the second yellow card, but forgot to send him off with a red card. But after the game, Simunic pushed the referee Boll, who then took out the third yellow card and sent him off...

Simunić thus became the first magical person in the history of the World Cup to receive three yellow cards in one game!

So in the round of 16, Italy, the first in Group E, will face the tenacious Australia, while Brazil, the first in Group F, will face the challenge of Ghana, the second in Group E and the African newcomer.

On the last match day of the World Cup group stage, at 6:23 on the afternoon of June 16, the two final round matches of Group H were played first.

At the Fritz-Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern, Spain finally beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 and became the fourth team to qualify with a perfect record. Saudi Arabia was eliminated with one point at the bottom. The unbeaten record of Spanish coach Aragones since taking office has increased to 4 games.

In another match held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Ukraine also beat Tunisia 1-0 thanks to a penalty kick from Shevchenko, and advanced to the knockout stage as the second in the group.

However, at 21: later, the two final group matches of Group G, the last group of the World Cup, also kicked off at the same time, which will determine the last two places in the top of the World Cup.

At the Lower Saxony Stadium in Hannover, South Korea vs. Switzerland is the focus of Group G, because before the game, Switzerland was only leading South Korea by goal difference, and as long as there was a draw, they would definitely qualify. If South Korea could beat Switzerland, they would definitely win the top spot in the group.

However, South Korea lost to Switzerland 0-2 in the end and was eliminated as the third team in the group, so all four Asian teams were eliminated (Australia still represented Oceania this time). Switzerland, on the other hand, had 4 points and qualified as the group leader, and was the only team in the top 7 that did not concede a goal.

On the other side, at the RheinEnergy Stadium in Cologne, France narrowly defeated the African newcomer Togo, known as the French second team, 2-0 thanks to Vieira's assist and shot. In the end, France won 1 and drew 2, accumulating 5 points, and advanced as the second in the group.

Thus, all the seats for the round of 1 have been decided, and the matchups for the round of 8 have also become clear. Switzerland, first in Group G, will face Ukraine, second in Group H, while Spain, first in Group H, will face France, second in Group G, in a century-long battle!

However, the progress of the World Cup did not stop. On the second day after the group stage ended, which was also the second day after Ricardo received Chiara's visit to Germany again, the World Cup will usher in the knockout round of 1/8 finals.

On June 2006, 6, the 24th match day of the World Cup, at 16:17 in the evening, the first match of the World Cup quarter-finals kicked off at the Allianz Arena in Munich, with the host Germany team facing the Nordic Viking Sweden team. In this match, Swedish striker Ibrahimovic returned from a groin injury, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was present to watch the game.

Obviously, the effect of the Prime Minister's supervision was much greater than that of the striker. Within 12 minutes of the start, Podolski scored twice. In the 35th minute, Swedish central defender Lucic was sent off after accumulating two yellow cards, and in the second half, Larsson also took the penalty kick he created and missed it himself...

于是德国队以2比0的比分速胜淘汰了瑞典队，保持1954年以来每届世界杯至少进8强的纪录，并创造了1970年以来本队最佳开局(4连胜)，成为了本届世界杯第一支杀进8强的队伍。

Then at 21 p.m., the second match of the World Cup round of 1 kicked off at the Leipzig Central Stadium. After the training, Ricardo abandoned De Rossi, who might be suspended, and went into Chiara's room, holding the beauty and watching the Argentina vs. Mexico broadcast on TV leisurely!

The climax of the game was in the first 10 minutes. First, Mexican captain Marquez scored the first goal, but then Mexico's center forward Borgetti headed the ball into an own goal.

Then the two teams were tied in the 90-minute game. Ricardo, who had been playing with Chiara, did not notice that his club teammate Messi scored a fake and offside goal.

And when Ricardo was lying on the bed in a slump after the battle, he listened to the sound of Chiara's shower and saw Maxi Rodriguez's wonderful volley shot in overtime, helping Argentina to reverse the game 2-1 and defeat Mexico in overtime.

"I saw all three goals. It seems I didn't miss anything!" Ricardo thought contentedly that he was able to do two things at once without delaying either side.

Argentina will then compete with Germany for a place in the semi-finals in Berlin on June 6; Mexico cannot change its fate of not being able to advance to the top eight outside its home country.

The next day, the 17th match day of the World Cup, Sunday, at 17:1 in the evening, the third match of the World Cup quarter-finals kicked off at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium in Stuttgart. Ricardo, who had just finished training, was on his way to send Chiara to the airport and could only follow the England vs. Ecuador match on the radio.

After Ricardo saw Chiara off at the security checkpoint, he learned from the live text broadcast on his phone that Beckham's iconic free kick from 25 meters in front of the goal helped England break the deadlock. Beckham also became the first English player to score in three World Cups.

In the end, it was thanks to Beckham's fatal blow that England eliminated Ecuador 1-0 and advanced to the quarterfinals of this World Cup.

Next, I returned to the hotel room and watched with De Rossi the fourth match of the World Cup round of 21 at the Frankfurt Stadium in Nuremberg, which started at 1:8.

This match between Portugal and the Netherlands set a record!

In this game, due to the poor control of the referee Ivanov, the scene fell into chaos many times after the kick-off. Costinha, Bullaluz, Deco and Van Bronckhorst were sent off one after another.

The four red cards in one match set a new record for a single World Cup game, and the 4 yellow cards also tied the single-game yellow card record set by Germany against Cameroon in 16.

尽管还剩12场比赛，但本届世界杯红牌总数已经达到23张，刷新了1998年法国世界杯的纪录(22张)。黄牌总数则达到291张，同样改写了4年前韩日世界杯的纪录(272张)。

Ricardo, who had been watching the game, could not help but secretly glance at De Rossi, who was suspended for 4 games due to a red card, which meant he had to bid farewell to the World Cup in advance. He thought: This guy will not be upset by the scene, right?

De Rossi was a little scared by what he saw, but he managed to hold back from exploding because he had tried before and couldn't beat the Taekwondo black belt guy next to him.

最终凭借着葡萄牙后腰马尼切在上半时的进球，葡萄牙以1比0的比分淘汰荷兰闯进了8强，将在盖尔森基兴与英格兰争夺1/4决赛的席位。

The end of this game means that four games of the World Cup 1/8 finals have been played and the schedule is more than halfway through. Traditional powerhouses such as Germany, England and Argentina have all advanced to the quarterfinals without any trouble.

The day after this match, Italy will play against Australia in the round of 16! After this match, Sarafina will come to the World Cup to watch the game after the graduation ceremony.

Before going to bed at night, I chatted with Sarafina on the phone for a while, listening to her rambling about how boring the graduation party that just ended was, and how those big pigs and rich guys clumsily showed her their masculine charm, but the little princess didn't like any of them, her heart was all on Ricardo, and she made Ricardo swear to behave well in the future...

Ricardo was in a good mood, but it wasn't until he woke up the next day that he realized that he had been PUA'd by the little princess Sarafina last night.

However, the next morning, the entire Italian team that marched to Kaiserslautern had serious expressions, because four years ago, it was Hiddink, the current head coach of the Australian team, who led the South Korean team to an upset and sent the Italian team home.

The defeat in the Korea-Japan World Cup became a nightmare for the Azzurri. Italy, which has a somewhat desperate atmosphere due to the Calciopoli scandal, will definitely not underestimate its next opponent, Australia, as they will do their utmost to avoid the scene that happened four years ago.

After the afternoon training session at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion, the Italian team entered the final stages of preparation.

From the pre-match training, it can be seen that the Italian team will return to the 4-3-1-2 formation that the team is most familiar with before playing against the Czech team. Toni, who did not play in the last game, will return to the forward line.

But the biggest headache for Italy coach Lippi is Totti's problem. Since the start of the season, the Italian midfield engine's state has been criticized.

It is obvious that Totti has not fully recovered from the foot injury three months ago. Although the head coach and teammates have given full trust and support, Totti's performance is really unsatisfactory.

In addition, Italy is also preparing for overtime and penalty shootouts in pre-match training just in case; after training, Lippi has determined the list of penalty shootout players: Materazzi, Oddo, Pirlo, Totti, Gilardino, Toni, and Piero.

The referee for this game is Medina Cantalejo from Spain.

2006年6月26日傍晚17时，世界杯1/8决赛第5场角逐，身穿一身传统蓝色球衣的意大利队与身穿传统黄绿球衣的澳大利亚队的比赛一触即发。

This is the first time the two teams have met in history, but in the last World Cup, Italy was eliminated by the South Korean team led by Hiddink.

However, surprisingly, Totti, who was in poor form, was placed on the bench in this game. Lippi arranged a new trident combination. Italy's starting lineup was 4-3-1-2;

The goalkeeper is Buffon, and the defense line from left to right is No. 3 Grosso, No. 23 Materazzi, No. 5 Cannavaro and No. 19 Zambrotta;

The three midfielders are No. 8 Gattuso and No. 20 Perrotta, who are responsible for covering the core of the organization No. 21 Pirlo;

The starting attacking midfielder in this game is No. 7 Del Piero, and the double forwards are No. 11 Gilardino and No. 9 Toni.

Li Qi sat on the bench with Totti, Iaquinta, Inzaghi, Camoranesi, Barzagli and Oddo. In addition, Zaccardo was basically abandoned by Lippi because of his own goal before. Nesta was injured and De Rossi was suspended...

Australia played in a 3-4-3 all-out attack and defense formation, worthy of being a team coached by Guus Hiddink. However, Kewell, who scored the equalizer for Australia in the last game, was absent due to a groin injury. He came to cheer for his teammates on crutches...

A cool breeze blew by, and the blue and yellow teams on the field had already started their battles, waiting for the referee's whistle!

……