[Football] Crown of Thorns

The focus of Group F in the third round of the European group stage of the Brazil World Cup qualifiers was between Russia and Portugal. In the end, Portugal, who was a guest at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, won Russia 3-2 in an away game against Russia.

In the first half of the game, the Portuguese team was scored early by the Russian striker Korzakov in the 6th minute of the opening game, and then lost the defender Coentrao. Fortunately, Portisga recovered a goal with a header. The first half ended in a draw.In the second half, the Russian team played an Italian-style defensive routine. Although Portugal had a superior ball possession rate, they were still unable to score. Until the end, captain Ronaldo finally broke the deadlock and scored a goal.

In the end, the Portuguese team won three consecutive victories in the group stage, while Russia suffered its first defeat in this qualifier.

After the game, the Russian players left the field quickly, while the Portuguese players, mainly captain Ronaldo and Gama, were surrounded by reporters and blocked in the interview area.

The voice was so loud that Jia Ma felt that his ears were about to be deafened by the shouting. The various voices of the reporters who spoke together surrounded him and didn't know what to say, until everyone finally lowered their tone and consciously lined up to ask questions one by one. The problem is that Jia Ma has time to sort out his thoughts.

"As the seed team in the European region of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, it has won three consecutive victories in the group. Do you think Portugal is now the favorite to qualify?"

In previous interviews, Gama once said that "Although Portugal is a seeded team, it is not considered a big favorite. There will always be dark horses in the football world, and no one can tell which one" and so on. The reporter was obviously asking Gama about this topic.

Gama wiped the water stains on his face with a towel in his hand, the annoying raindrops were still falling, the reporters were all wearing overcoats and raincoats, the poor ones had just finished the game and their jerseys were wet and dirty, yet they still had to be stuck here Accept the 'torture'.

"It can only be said that there is great hope, but we can't relax. In the history of the World Cup, there has never been a lack of stories of winning consecutive games and being eliminated in the end. Therefore, we must take every next game seriously."

"What do you think of today's opponent, the Russian team?"

"They're a really good team..."

"What do you think of the referee's penalty today?"

"The referee is an excellent referee."

"……real?"

"What do you say?"

"What do you think of the next opponent, Israel?"

"Israel?"

"Yes!"

Gama glanced at the reporter who asked the question, "Isn't our next opponent Northern Ireland?"

"..."

"Our opponents in Group F are all excellent teams and excellent players. We dare not underestimate any team..."

"........."

…………

Gama, who finally escaped back to the locker room, took a shower and returned to Portugal overnight with his teammates.

On the plane, his teammates were falling asleep, Gama squinted for a while but couldn't fall asleep.

Even though they won three games in a row and had an advantage in qualifying, Gama dared not relax in the slightest.

Although the outside world said that except for Portugal in Group F, the Russian team had a chance, and the other three teams were basically destined to accompany the prince to study, but considering the tragedy of the Portuguese team in the World Cup qualifiers, it is really dare not be careless.

Perhaps the opponent is not to be feared, but Portugal's problem is not the opponent but itself.

Since the retirement of the golden generation such as Figo and Rui Costa, Portuguese football has always been in a new stage of restart. They may still be the first-line team in Europe, but the only international competition they can achieve is this year's European Championship. Champions, there is no outstanding performance in the previous World Cup to prove the strength of the new generation of teams, and they still lack a real breakthrough to complete the succession.

It should be said that the new-generation Portuguese team has not yet completed the sublimation of the team's temperament and the improvement of the level of the realm. This is also one of the reasons why they have repeatedly struggled in the qualifying rounds!

Thinking about these problems, Jia Ma couldn't help laughing at himself, he was really worrying about it, forget it, go to sleep!

Turning over and pulling the blanket over his head, Gama finally fell asleep.

Back in Portugal, they still have a qualifier to play next. Although the opponent is only the Northern Ireland team with average strength, as Gama said in the interview, they dare not relax when facing any opponent. There are more than one incidents where the ship capsized!

On October 10, the fourth round of the European World Preliminary Group F match between Portugal and Northern Ireland was held at the Dragon Stadium.

Before the game, the players already know who basically will start this game.

Due to Coentrao's injury in the game against Russia, coach Paulo Bento revealed that he would use Nelson, who played for Real Betis, at left back.

Bento said: Both Nelson and Miguel Lopez can play this position, but I think Nelson is more suitable.

The outside world has speculated a lot about the Portuguese team's starting lineup... Mikael's position may be replaced by Meireles when he made a mistake in the battle against Russia, and Portugal's striker trident is still Cristiano Ronaldo, Postiga and Nani ,etc.

But Gama had only one word to say after reading these reports: Liar!

Well, anyway, Portugal has won three games in a row in Group F, and today's opponent is not particularly difficult to deal with, so the players are very relaxed before the game, everyone is laughing and waiting for the game to start, of course , There is also a ceremony that will be held before the game.

"Congratulations!"

After the warm-up, everyone washed up and came out, shouting loudly around their captain Ronaldo.

Ronaldo smiled happily, "Thank you, thank you!"

Then everyone flocked to form a group on the pitch to watch Portuguese Football Federation officials present Ronaldo with a commemorative medal.

The brief ceremony held before the game was the Portuguese Football Association's recognition of Ronaldo's 100th appearance on behalf of the Portuguese national team today. At the same time, the officials of the Football Association also put on a hat with Portuguese national characteristics for Ronaldo. They all gave a standing ovation to congratulate their national team captain Cristiano Ronaldo on this iconic moment.

Touching the medal on his chest and wearing a round-brimmed hat on his head, Ronaldo grinned happily.

Since playing for the national team for the first time in 2003, Ronaldo has played 99 times for Portugal. This game against Northern Ireland is the 100th time that Real Madrid has represented Portugal.

Facing the interviewed reporters, Ronaldo was very emotional: On August 2003, 8 against Kazakhstan, I put on the Portuguese jersey for the first time. This was one of my proudest and most memorable moments, representing the national team. For the 20th time, I just want to dedicate the victory to our fans.

The coach Paul Bento, standing aside, said: There is no doubt that Ronaldo will create more records.

Gama caught by reporters: Ronaldo is of course the most dominant star, and he will create more records, there is no doubt about it.

But when the short ceremony was over and the game was about to start, it suddenly rained in the sky.

When Gama and the others returned to the locker room and came out again, the light rain had turned into heavy rain within 10 minutes. The icy cold rain made all the thinly dressed players shiver.

"It's really bad luck!"

Jia Ma muttered, he hates rain fights.

So he looked at the referee team with some hesitation. With such rain, it should be possible to postpone the start of the match!

As a result, the referee took the ball and carried out a water test on the court. In the end, the referee Juraj from the Czech Republic thought that the game could proceed normally without postponing the ball after selecting several locations for the experiment.

Gama, who smacked his lips and eyes and wanted to postpone the game, sighed, looked up at the sky, and then wiped his face, rain, rain, it's really not a face.

葡萄牙和北爱尔兰的比赛，从两队历史上来看双方一共交战过11场，葡萄牙队3胜6平2负稍占上风，进9球失10球。两队在世界杯预选赛中交战过8场，葡萄牙队2胜4平2负与对手平分秋色，进5球失7球；其中主场2胜2平保持不败战绩占据绝对优势，进4球失2球。

Generally speaking, it is true that the Portuguese team has the upper hand, but judging from the situation after the start of today's game, the Portuguese team did not play smoothly. Perhaps the rainy match three days ago caused the Portuguese team to be disturbed to some extent. The rainy battle made the players' mentality not very good, and the team made mistakes that shouldn't have happened one after another at the beginning of the game.

Veloso's strong attack failed, Postiga missed a long shot, gave the opponent consecutive corner kicks and many mistakes in interception, even including Nani's strange dribbling, which made coach Bento frown. In the first three and 10 minutes of the game, it can be said that the Portuguese team played like a bunch of SHI.Until the 31st minute of the first half, Northern Ireland scored the first goal, Rafferty passed through, and Maikin from Peterborough United in the British Championship scored a single-handed shot. Portugal 0-1 Northern Ireland.

The Portuguese team's conceded goal is exactly the same as the goal scored by Russia in the last round.

Well, this time it's a dog SHI.

Portugal beat Russia 2-1 in the last round of World Cup preliminaries. Back to the home game against Northern Ireland, coach Paul Bento said before the game: We need to avoid mistakes like the game against Russia, so we must improve , against Northern Ireland our goal was only three points...we have to learn from the last game.

hehe~~

Under the current situation that the opponent finally scored a goal, the players on the field seemed to wake up.

They glanced at the coach who couldn't see his expression clearly on the sidelines, and then quietly glanced at Gama, who had his hands on his waist near the center circle and his face was expressionless-his midfield commander must have gone crazy!

In the following time, Gama made a pass from the right, and the Northern Ireland defender made a clearance and hit the crossbar of his own goal, almost causing an own goal.

The Portuguese team stepped up their offense and scored consecutive corner kicks. However, Northern Ireland goalkeeper Carroll performed very well today and saved consecutive shots from the Portuguese.

In this way, until the end of the first half, the Portuguese team failed to score a goal. At the end of the first half, Northern Ireland temporarily led the Portuguese team.

During the intermission, Gama, who returned to the locker room, continued to hide in the corner facing the wall with his cold face.

The other teammates were scolded when coach Bento angrily threw the tactical lever.