Chapter 372 World Champion VS Uncrowned King, Another Grudge Match!

"Lin, pass the ball to me when you come on the court later. I have a feeling I'm going to score!"

Standing in the player tunnel and preparing to enter, Morata approached Lin Quan and said to him.

Lin Quan glanced at him and saw the begging look on his face, so he nodded and said:

"Watch your timing!"

Morata was placed in the starting position today. If he can score, he might be able to win Del Bosque's trust and his position in the national team will be secure in the future.

However, Lin Quan feels that with Diego Costa in charge, it may be difficult for him to become the starter.

Compared with Morata, Diego Costa's scoring efficiency is much higher.

After the World Cup, Spain's striker also saw a replacement of old and new players.

Torres and Villa both faded out of the national team, and Villa also left the five major leagues.

After hesitating for a long time between the Chinese Super League and the North American Major League, he finally chose to join New York FC.

Leaving the five major leagues means that he will no longer receive calls from the national team.

However, for Huluwa, who has won two European Cups, two World Cups, and one Confederations Cup with the team, it doesn't really matter whether he comes or not when the team has a successor.

At this time, Spain is not in a state where the dynasty is about to collapse.

Although the team is full of talents, Bosque's formation in this game is still relatively cautious.

He only arranged for a few young players such as Morata, Isco and Juanfran to play in order to win this key game steadily.

The reason why I do this is because I have learned painful lessons before.

In the European preliminaries on October 10 last year, Spain lost to Slovakia in an away game.

In that game, Del Bosque radically replaced a large number of newcomers and did not call on main players such as Lin Quan.

The mentality of the new players was unstable. After unexpectedly falling behind at the start, they became more and more anxious as they played. They clearly had the advantage in the game, but were unable to score. After attacking for most of the game, Paco finally scored a goal to equalize the score in the 82nd minute.

However, being inexperienced, they were caught by their opponents when their psychological defense was relaxed after scoring a goal. They scored another goal in the 87th minute of the game and defeated the Spanish team.

This defeat was Spain's first loss in an international match after four years after losing to Chile in the 2010 World Cup group stage.

Even counting friendly matches, it was the first defeat in three years.

This loss made the new players very scared. Even though the old players comforted them by saying that this was just an ordinary European Cup qualifying match, it was nothing if they lost. It would not affect their ranking first in the group.

However, because of their poor performance, the team's undefeated streak was broken, and the new players will inevitably feel panic and self-blame.

In view of this, Bosque feels that we should not act too hastily, but should proceed step by step and gradually increase the number of appearances and time for young players.

In this process, it is best to arrange more main players to lead them and help them regain their confidence.

During the period of replacement between the old and the new, the team will inevitably experience a period of pain. Del Bosque hopes that this period of pain will pass as soon as possible.

At present, a large number of players born after the 1985 generation are still in their prime period, but after the 2016 European Cup is over, these players will begin to decline.

At their age, it’s hard to say how good they will be when the 2018 World Cup comes.

Therefore, the time left for Del Bosque to adjust is only about three years.

I hope that in the past three years, more young and capable players will emerge in Spain!

It would be best if there are a few more players like Lin Quan!

Of course, this is wishful thinking!

…

The Ukrainian team is not strong. In Group C, they currently rank third in points, tied with Spain and 3 points behind Slovakia.

Therefore, this game is a key battle for both sides to compete for the right to qualify for the group.

But if Spain loses to Ukraine, their qualifying situation will take a turn for the worse, and they may not be able to qualify in the end.

For the double champion of the World Cup and European Cup, it is really embarrassing to spread the news about not being able to qualify for the European Cup. They cannot afford to lose this person no matter what.

So in this game, Bosque gave the team a death order and it must be won!

After the opening, Spain did not test the game and took advantage of the home court to launch a fierce attack on the Ukrainian team.

Ukraine knew that there was a huge gap between its own strength and the World Cup champions, so in this game, it honestly set up a bus in its own half, trying to use defensive counterattack tactics to try to steal one.

Even if they can't steal, it doesn't matter. They can get a point in the away game, which is a completely acceptable result for them.

The opponent's bus caused some obstacles to Spain's offense. In the first 20 minutes of the game, Spain had a high ball possession rate and firmly grasped the initiative on the field. However, their attacks failed many times. Chi was unable to penetrate the opponent's defense.

This made the Spanish fans who came to watch the game couldn't help but feel impatient and worried. They began to call the names of the players on the field, hoping that they would come forward.

As the biggest player on the field and the core of the national team, Lin Quan's name is called the most often and loudest.

As if he heard the fans' shouts, Lin Quan took action!

In the 28th minute, Lin Quan relied on his strong personal strength to pass two people and then sent a pass from the left side of the penalty area to assist Morata to complete the goal.

After scoring the goal, Morata excitedly jumped on Lin Quan's body, hugged Lin Quan's head, and kept kissing his hair.

"Good pass, the ball was passed so beautifully!"

Morata was full of praise for Lin Quan's pass just now. He felt that he had never scored such a comfortable goal.

If he had an awesome teammate like Lin Quan when he was at the club, his goalscoring number would definitely reach a higher level.

He feels that his current teammates, such as talented midfielder Pogba, simply cannot send such comfortable passes.

"Lin, I'll make a few more passes like this later. I feel like I'm in great shape. I can definitely score a hat trick in this game!"

Morata said confidently.

Lin Quan saw that the quality of the opponent's shot just now was indeed good, so he chose to believe him for the time being.

After falling behind, Ukraine's iron barrel formation could no longer stand, and they had to attack.

Once they attack, Spain's offensive problems will naturally be solved.

In the 32nd minute, Lin Quan once again sent a through ball to Morata, but Morata kicked the ball into the stands.

The scene was in an uproar. Countless fans held their heads with their hands raised to celebrate the goal, and were shocked by Morata's outrageous shot.

Morata himself was also surprised. He didn't expect that this ball could fire an anti-aircraft cannon?

"Lin, my left foot is my dominant foot. Next time you pass the ball to my left foot, I promise to score!"

Lin Quan frowned in confusion: Is this guy's dominant foot his left foot?

Why do I remember that he seemed to be able to arch both his left and right feet, and there was nothing wrong with his feet?

Forget it, since he said so, let’s just believe him for now!

In the 55th minute of the second half, Spain played a smooth cooperation. After continuously completing the wall coordination, Lin Quan once again sent a nanny ball to Morata.

Moreover, the ball was specially passed to Morata's left foot according to Morata's request.

When Lin Quan passed the ball, the goalkeeper had lost his defensive position, and Morata's shot almost faced an empty goal.

However, his shot into the far corner missed the far post and rolled off the baseline.

"Woo!"

"hiss!"

Spanish exclamations and gasps came from the scene, who is this guy?

Why do your feet smell so bad?

Can you not enter through empty doors?

What a waste of Lin Quan’s wonderful pass!

After wasting two wonderful passes in a row, Lin Quan learned his lesson and stopped passing the ball to this kid.

He suspected that this kid's first shot was blinded. How could he shoot such a high-quality shot with his footwork?

As it happened, Morata got consecutive shooting opportunities, which made the Ukrainian players pay close attention to him.

So, taking advantage of this opportunity, in the 72nd and 77th minutes of the game, Lin Quan assisted David Silva and Pedro to score consecutively.

After scoring two goals in a row, the score became 3:0, and the outcome of this game was decided.

In the 80th minute, Del Bosque began to make substitutions. He replaced Morata, who was gradually getting lost on the court, and replaced him with Diego Costa.

Two minutes later, Del Bosque replaced Lin Quan, the absolute hero of the team's victory, in advance, leaving him to accept the applause of the fans alone.

Tens of thousands of Spanish fans at the Pizjuan Stadium stood up and applauded Lin Quan.

After Lin Quan high-fived his teammates who came on the bench, he also applauded the surrounding stands in response.

The main color of Pizjuan Stadium is red, symbolizing fiery passion.

Judging from the behavior of the fans throughout the game, it truly lived up to its reputation.

Although the stadium is small and has a capacity of just over 45,000 people, Lin Quan and the other Spanish players love this home court.

Probably because the colors here are very close to the colors of the Spanish team uniforms, which gives them a sense of intimacy.

Plus the team won the game here, let them feel good!

In the end, Spain, playing at home, defeated Ukraine 3:0 without any blood, but on the other side, Slovakia also defeated Luxembourg 3:0. The difference between the two sides was still 3 points, and Spain temporarily ranked second in the group.

The next round of the group stage will not be until mid-June, when Spain will travel to Minsk to challenge the Belarus team away.

After the European preliminaries ended, the Spanish national team did not disband.

They took advantage of the international match day to invite an old rival for an international friendly match.

This old rival is none other than Spain's old enemy, the uncrowned king, the Netherlands.

On April 1, April Fool's Day, the Spanish team came to Amsterdam to challenge the Dutch team.

In this game, both sides had a tacit understanding and arranged for a large number of young players to play, but the Dutch team was obviously well prepared.

In the 13th minute of the game, the Dutch team took advantage of a corner kick to create chaos in the Spanish penalty area. In the end, center back De Vrij, who plays for Lazio, scored a goal to help the Dutch team temporarily take the lead.

Three minutes later, the Dutch team scored another goal, scored by Klassen who played for Ajax.

After conceding two goals in a short period of time, the Spanish players on the field were almost stunned.

They have always been known for their passing advantage, but they actually lag behind their opponents in terms of ball possession rate.

This made Bosque unable to sit still on the coaching bench.

These young people are a bit unreliable!

Why did he get kicked like this?

The main players, who were chatting and laughing on the bench, saw that the team was losing goals continuously and the players were beaten so much that they involuntarily stopped talking and their expressions became serious.

These young people from the Dutch team look a bit fierce!

Except for a few old players such as Vermeil, Huntelaar, Sneijder, and Janmatt, the remaining seven players are all born in the 1990s, and there are even two players born in 1994.

On the court, the Dutch fans who came to watch the game felt proud and proud when they saw their team beating Spain!

In the past two World Cups, Spain has caused countless hardships to the Dutch.

They lost to Spain in the final of the World Cup in South Africa and lost an excellent opportunity to take off the title of uncrowned king.

Last year's World Cup in Brazil, they met Spain in the first group match, and were beaten by Spain with an exaggerated score of 5:1.

After this huge defeat, the players of the Dutch team were hit hard and their confidence suffered a heavy blow. Although they barely made it out of the group stage, they fell in the top 16 and once again missed the championship.

Their World Cup dream was ruined by the Spanish twice in a row. You can imagine how much the Dutch hate the Spanish team.

However, while they were happy, they also felt that it had some flaws.

The opponent's main players, especially No. 10 player Lin Quan, were still sitting on the bench and did not play.

If he were on the court, it would be difficult for the Dutch team to gain such a huge advantage.

Although they were very pleased with the outstanding performance of the post-90s generation in their team, once they remembered Lin Quan's existence and his age, the Dutch fans were no longer happy.

Lin Quan, born in 1996, is younger than the youngest player on their field.

And there is no player in the Dutch team who can match Linquan!

In the second half, Bosque replaced all the main players in one go, with Lin Quan, Diego Costa, Iniesta, David Silva, Busquets and Ramos appearing one after another.

Not to be outdone, the Dutch team also substituted Robin van Persie, De Guzman and other main players on the field.

The full lineups of both sides played, turning a warm-up friendly match into a powerful showdown like a World Cup final.

However, in previous games, Spanish players have proven it with actual actions.

Their strength is stronger than the main force of the Dutch team!

After ninety minutes, with Lin Quan's brace and Ramos' header, Spain reversed the game 3:2 and defeated the Netherlands in the warm-up match.

The game developed into such a result that it seems that people have forgotten its original intention-this was supposed to be a warm-up friendly match.

Unexpectedly, it turned into a grudge match in the end!

However, winning with the main team cannot cover up the problems of Spain's young players.