Chapter 267 Successfully breaking through

Forty minutes before the game, Romania was surprisingly advantageous. They not only took the lead, but also had a pretty good advantage in the field. However, after giving the opponent a penalty kick and the defender Popescu was injured, they began to become confused.

Romania has many young talented players, such as Chivo, the youngest captain in the history of Ajax Club, who has joined Inter Milan. However, their backbone is Haji and Popescu, two veterans. They have been injured and withdrawn from the game. Romania will inevitably be distracted on the court.

After equalizing the score, England's morale began to rise - they pressed in the midfield, trying to disrupt Romania's midfield organization attack to launch a counterattack. Scholes and Beckham recovered the positions and put Tiger behind the two strikers alone, and this approach immediately achieved good results.

When the first half entered stoppage time, Ince stole the opponent's pass in the backcourt and handed it to Scholes. Scholes passed directly to Tiger. Tiger took the ball and turned around, and then immediately saw Irving being inserted at high speed...

He gently swung his calf, and then Tiger stuffed the ball directly into the Romanian penalty area!

Pass directly, insert it, single knife!

Irving beat Romania's penalty area in a sensation. After receiving the ball from Tiger, he faced the opponent's goalkeeper Stelea directly. After calmly drifting past Stelea, Irving raised his left foot while running and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal!

"Oh! Two goals in five minutes! Irving! Michael Irving also scored his second goal in this European Championship! This goal also came from Tiger's assist! England instantly reversed the situation on the court!"

Amid the excited cheers of the commentator, the English players hugged each other, and Tiger also let out a long sigh. With these two goals, there should be no problem in qualifying in the group...

Shortly after the re-telection, the referee blew the whistle to the end of the first half. The English players walked off the court with excitement, and their previous frustration was wiped out.

Although it seems embarrassing to be beaten by Romania for most of the time, it is always the lead now. As long as you don’t lose two goals in the second half, there will be no problem in qualifying in the group - since that is the case, what else can you worry about?

Keegan looked thoughtful when he walked into the player channel. Tiger scored two goals in the first game, one assist in the second game, and two assists this time. His performance is completely worthy of Keegan putting more treasures on him.

In terms of specific tactical arrangements, Keegan still has some of his own experience. Now England has good defense ability, but there is no good way to face the opponent's continuous ground attack - but when facing this kind of attack, intensive defense is the easiest way to achieve results. After all, it is not given too much opportunity to penetrate into the penalty area, and the opponent's attack can only be like scratching the surface. The only problem with this is that the efficiency of counterattack may not be too high, but as long as Tiger can get a few more balls, Keegan also sees the effect of counterattack - this tactic may be the most suitable tactic in England at this stage.

After figuring this out, Keegan made adjustments during the halftime break.

"David, Paul, you will retreat in the second half and protect Ince... We will focus more on defense in the second half. After getting the ball in the backcourt, pass it to Paul or David at the first time to get the ball. Paul and David, you will pass the ball to Tiger as soon as possible to counterattack... Tiger, the offense in the second half will be left to you. Pay attention to receiving the pass in the backcourt, and then organize the counterattack. Michael and Alan will catch you in the frontcourt... We will play defensive counterattack in the second half, but don't pass and rush, do you understand?"

"I understand!" England players shouted in unison. Philip Neville might have been a little dissatisfied with Tiger's roar, but Tiger's performance a few minutes before the end of the first half had already convinced him - he didn't say a big talk, and passed the ball to him, and he would have a chance to surprise England!

With the team being passive, Tiger can always solve some problems of the team - status, which is gradually established. There are many good players in England, but they lack the kind of players who can lead the team out of difficulties, so when they are in trouble, they will unconsciously rely on a strong man. Now Tiger shows his ability as a strong man!

Why did Irving quickly become famous after the 1998 World Cup and establish his own status in the English national team? It was because he scored a goal full of personal abilities in the World Cup, which made people trust him to have the ability to lead the team to win! Although Tiger did not score in the second half of the first half, his real two assists have proved his role in the team, which made the players of the England national team, who are accustomed to seniority, also began to admit that he has the strength to make the entire team's offense leap and improve!

More importantly, England is now in a period when veterans are gradually fading out and the Middle Ages are scrambling to seize power. In this case, if you can show the strength to convince everyone, you can establish your position in the national team in one fell swoop!

For this group of English Mesozoic players, those who are capable of achieving such status are nothing more than Tiger and Beckham. Beckham is also a top player, but his role on the court is more of an assist, and he is far less radiant than Tiger on the court.

Tiger nodded hard to Keegan - this style of play at least made him feel familiar and allowed him to play his greatest characteristics - in Valencia, when playing defensive counterattacks, Cooper did this, as long as he got the ball, he could create the greatest threat.

Keegan has no choice now. If England wants to qualify, they must defend. The situation where they almost got overturned by Portugal in the first game is right in front of them. In the last game, he decisively launched the defense after leading and achieved the best results. However, Gerrard, who performed well in defense in the last game, was injured during training before the game. He lacked a defensive player, Keegan could only increase the number of defenders. As for the reduction of the offensive threat caused by this, he could only pin his hopes on Tiger.

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The second half begins.

After the adjustment of the intermission, Romania began to eliminate the impact of the absence of two core veterans and began a fierce attack - Mutu and Monteyanu began to show their technical advantages in the midfield. Fortunately, England retreated very well and had enough protection at the front of the penalty area. They did not suppress the counterattack, which was a good protection for the front of the penalty area. They allowed Romania to pass around in the frontcourt and fought back.

Seeing that it was impossible to break England's defense, Romania's two full-backs Zivo and Contra began to assist more, hoping to tear away England's defense from the wing, while the Neville brothers followed a principle, that is, you can cross from the bottom, and if you want to break through, then there is no talk - in the penalty area, England still has a high-altitude advantage.

Tiger was waiting in the frontcourt, waiting for his teammates to pass the ball. He didn't want to retreat. His defensive awareness was not helpful to the team. When Romania was pressing and attacking fiercely, as long as he could get the ball, he was confident of completing a beautiful counterattack to expand his leading advantage!

Now it is Romania's turn to start to get a little impatient. If they want to qualify, they must score at least two goals. Even if it is a draw, England will be able to qualify in the end.

Tiger, who was waiting patiently, finally waited for a chance.

In the 61st minute, Beckham got the ball in the backcourt and looked up and saw that Tiger had already run to the right to respond. He immediately passed the ball with a straight pass!

The ball rolled quickly on the lawn. Ziwo, who was back to defend, wanted to go around the front to defend and intercept the ball, but Tiger got the ball first and then began to force a breakthrough along the side!

Ziwo chased back hard, but his speed was not very fast. When he was in Ajax, he was more of a central defender and a midfielder because he didn't have too fast speed.

However, he was entangled very tightly, and Tiger could not get rid of him for a while. Seeing Hiller retreating to respond, Tiger immediately passed the ball to Hiller and then began to insert into the middle.

Hiller took the ball with his back and passed the ball back to Tiger. Irving on the other side began to quickly forward. Felipescu hurriedly took a step back, afraid that the extremely fast forward would make a single shot again. As for Tiger, Petrascu had come from the side to defend him. There was also a defender in Romania in the penalty area. Even if Tiger broke through, it would not be too threatening.

Tiger looked up and looked in the penalty area, then took a step forward. Before Petrascu could even stick it up, he suddenly swung his right foot and then shot a long time!

The ball suddenly flew out, flew into the penalty area, and rushed straight to the upper left corner of the goal!

Stelea jumped up and stretched his hand in the air as much as possible, but the ball flew past his hand and then flew directly into the goal!

"gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Powerful long shot! After receiving Hiller's return pass, Tiger used a long shot from the front of the penalty area to expand the lead advantage for England! Three-to-one! England scored three goals in a row with one goal first! And these three goals are all related to Tiger. He created a penalty kick, assisted Irving to score, and then scored himself to set the victory! It was only half an hour before the end of the game. Unless Romania scored three goals in the next time, England's group qualifying was a foregone conclusion! Now perhaps Keegan should consider whether to score a few more goals to win the first place in the group..."

Seeing the ball flying into the goal, Tiger waved his fist violently - shouldn't a core do this? At the critical moment, it's a final decision!

This is his third goal in this European Championship, which also makes him the player with the most goals in the English national team in this European Championship. Behind him are Hiller and Irving - they each scored two goals.

"Tiger continued his good form in Valencia! This attacking midfielder has always been a player with strong scoring ability. He has won the Premier League's top scorer and the Champions League's top scorer. Now he may still have a chance to attack the European Cup... This long shot was so beautiful. He suddenly shot in the run and accurately controlled the angle of the shot. It was almost a theoretical blind spot... England's overall performance since the start of this European Championship has been somewhat average. Their lack of midfield skills has easily been suppressed by Portugal and Romania. However, Tiger changed all this. Although he cannot use his personal strength to allow England's midfielder to compete with the opponent's midfielder, he can use his breakthrough, passes and shots to solve the problem when the team is in a disadvantage... There are fewer and fewer young players with this trait. Although Tiger is no longer young, he seems to be able to maintain an excellent state for a long time!"

The commentators praised Tiger's performance in various languages ​​when they started the game, and in England, countless English fans began to cheer for this national team member who did not play in the Premier League!

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The third goal was a serious blow to Romania.

Behind one goal, they can also expect to tie the score quickly and then find the winning goal in the next game. However, in this situation, they have to score three more goals - this task is not impossible, but it is difficult, especially when England shrinks its defense.

After having enough goal difference, England's defense began to be implemented more resolutely. Soon after, Keegan replaced Irving with Southgate to strengthen his defense. Although Irving's fate made England's counterattack lack speed to a certain extent, it made the defensive formation in the backcourt more thick. Romania, both forwards, seemed to be helpless when facing intensive defense, and the backward situation also made them lack patience to turn back and forth.

As the end of the game approached, the Romanian players began to lose their desire to attack - although they were still running and attacking, they lacked the momentum of giving up, and England was more at ease to deal with it.

Tiger instigated a counterattack in the 75th minute, but unfortunately Hiller's shot was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper. This was also Tiger's final contribution to England in this game. After this counterattack, Keegan replaced Tiger with Bambi and gave Tiger a good rest - four days later, it will be the quarterfinals of the European Championship. Tiger is very important to England now, and giving him a good rest is also what Keegan should do now.

The English fans at the scene welcomed Tiger's end with extremely warm applause. Tiger also raised his hands high and greeted the stands.

"Play beautifully, Tiger." Keegan took the initiative to come up and patted her shoulder: "Get a good rest, your performance will depend on your performance in the knockout stage."

Tiger nodded. He knew that at this time he had begun to establish his position in the national team - nothing can improve a player's position in the team better than a key goal in a key game, especially since his position in the national team is awkward, and his characteristics and style are somewhat out of place with England. In this case, it is obviously more beneficial for him to establish his position in the national team - the head coach also has to consider attacking around him! In this way, Tiger's performance in the national team will become better and better!

After taking the water handed over by the assistant coach, Tiger took two big sips, then sat on the bench and watched the game. In the stands behind him, there were constant shouts from England fans, many of which were shouting his name.

"Go and greet the fans, they like you." Keegan smiled slightly and said to Tiger.

At this time, in Tiger's eyes, Keegan began to become cute. Tiger nodded to Keegan, then stood up, walked to the sidelines, and slapped the stands.

The fans of England cheered, but at this time they did not pay attention to the game - there were less than ten minutes left before the game. No matter how much Romania broke out, it was impossible to score three goals in such a short time - if they could really create such a miracle, it would be better for England's defenders to stop playing the game...

Tiger applauded the stands while patrolling the stands. Suddenly, a figure fell into his eyes - it was Kelly! She sat among the group of people, not standing up and cheering at Tiger, but Tiger vaguely saw that Kelly was showing a sweet smile to him...

He waved to the stands again, Tiger reluctantly withdrew his eyes, and then returned to the bench.

"We are qualifying in the group. Although our knockout round will be our next four days, it seems to be a bit easier for the players tonight." The assistant coach suggested to Keegan.

Keegan thought for a while, then nodded: "Okay, I will announce after the game is over, I will be free tonight... I think these guys have been holding back for a long time."

Several coaches laughed at the same time, but England came to the Netherlands on June 6, and then to Belgium. Since then, Keegan has announced martial law for the national team, including not drinking or being with his girlfriend and wife. It has been half a month since the energetic athletes of the national team, this approach has simply killed them. Now that they have qualified in the group, it is a human move to relax for a night.

Tiger heard Keegan's conversation with the assistant coach, and he couldn't help laughing, exchanged ambiguous glances with the other players on the bench, and then collectively made low cheers.

"Hey, the game is not over yet!"

Keegan, who was startled by the cheers, roared in a low voice: "If you want to be happy, you have to wait until the game is over!"

"Head, the game is almost over!" McManaman said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the referee's whistle came from the court. Two shorts and one long, the game ended!

England defeated Romania and successfully entered the knockout stage of this European Championship!
Chapter completed!