Unlike group stages, the knockout stage is a fierce battleground, and the losing side will be eliminated directly, so both teams will make the best efforts and do their best to win.

The European Cup is in the knockout stage and only one game is played every day.

All media are paying attention to the fight between Italy and England, and this is also a game. The final four will be released at the end of the game.

England and Italy are both strong teams. Relatively speaking, Italy has performed better in international competitions in recent years. They won the German World Cup championship in 2O6, while the English team faces the embarrassment of not having a championship for a long time, and even saying that they are unable to achieve good results for a long time.

The two teams are also historical rivals.

As soon as the game began, fans of both sides began to cheer for their respective teams, and the audience was already hot.

Media cameras have also begun to frequently point to the highly-watched stars.

The biggest highlight of the Italian team is nothing more than Balotelli, who is also the most popular in the game, because relatively speaking, Morris' performance is more stable, and other outstanding stars in the England team can also be said to be veterans. Many people believe that Balotelli's performance can determine the outcome of both sides.

Many people are looking forward to Balotelli's performance. Even if he doesn't get the ball, the TV screen will play his movements, confront the defensive players, etc.

Balotelli's performance was pretty good.

He is now at his peak, and his strong body makes him very calm in the game.

Wan Sheng is also very concerned about Balotelli. This strong player is indeed a rare and outstanding striker, but Wan Sheng is not very worried. He has made detailed arrangements for Balotelli's defense. Balotelli is not a player who is very inspiring in the game like Pirlo. It is difficult to have any particularly surprising performance, so there should be no major problems.

Wan Sheng pays more attention to the team's performance.

The most important point in this game is the competition for the midfield.

England and Italy have similar styles, both of which have tougher defenses and relatively weaker offensive skills. If you want to get out of the situation, you must have the initiative in the midfield so that you can suppress your opponent.

England has little advantage in the midfield competition.

Although he is confident that Morris is stronger than Pirlo, players like Gerald, Ashley Young are not so strong in terms of technology. Wan Sheng emphasizes more on using his physical advantages to fight against the opponent and fight hard to achieve the effect of suppressing the opponent.

If you want to achieve real results, it depends on the performance of the players on the court.

Ten minutes before the game, both sides played relatively conservatively.

England is fighting fiercely in the midfield, but the frontcourt offense still pays great attention to the formation, the defenders and midfielders, and do not rush to insert. It is more important to stabilize the defense line.

This is what Wansheng emphasized in particular.

Italy is a team that is good at defensive counterattacking. Giving them a chance to counterattack will make the English goal very dangerous.

The same goes for Italy.

In this game, Italy returned to the traditional style of four defenders, Abat, Barzali, Bonucci and Barzareti, four defenders were in the backcourt, plus three midfielders De Rossi, Pirlo and Marcisio, which shows how stable Italy's defense is.

This line of defense is not easy to break through.

Italy is not so proactive in attacking. There are always two people in the back of the three midfielders. De Rossi is more involved, while Pirlo is relatively less. Another midfielder, Balzareti, did not even go to the frontcourt in the first ten minutes.

This stable style of play also makes the game ugly.

But no media or fans are dissatisfied with the game because they have been mentally prepared for a long time. No team will play against Italy, even Spain will be the same. If the opponent is replaced by England, then you must be mentally prepared to "the whole game is not good-looking".

The game lasted fifteen minutes, and neither side had yet to let go of the offense. In terms of data, both sides were similar. England had two shots, but both were long shots on the outside. Italy had one shot, and Pirlo hung the ball into the penalty area, but Balotelli's header was too far away from the goal. He wanted to use the top of his head for about ten meters, and hoped to score a goal with a long shot.

The media commentator's summary of past games was: "Both sides played very steadily, there was little chance of attacking, and shooting was a bit based on luck."

"Gerard and Ashley Young had a long shot each, but only Ashley Young hit the ball in the frame, but unfortunately he didn't have the force and was easily taken into his arms by Buffon."

"Ballotelli completed the only shot from Italy, but it is difficult for him to break through the English defense line and find any good opportunities..."

That was the only chance.

Many fans watched the game and saw Balotelli's running and fighting was pretty good, but as long as Balotelli was near the penalty area, he almost had no chance.

This is caused by England's strict defense.

England defended against Balotelli, and continued to use their bodies to fight Balotelli head-on with the players who were close to Balotelli.

In the eyes of many fans, this is unwise because Balotelli is very strong, but Balotelli himself is suffering now.

He is indeed strong.

But even the strongest person can't help but constantly colliding with his opponents.

The England defensive player on the opposite side had a physical collision with him and was not at all inferior. The one who brought him the biggest trouble was Lescott.

The win allowed Lescott to focus on defending Balotelli.

The reason for handing over this task to Lescott is very simple. One is that Lescott has excellent personal abilities and rich game experience. He is already the world's top central defender. The other is that Lescott knows Balotelli very well and the two play together at Manchester City.

Lescott is definitely experienced in defending Balotelli.

If England has Lescott, it would be too difficult for Balotelli to perform well.

Balotelli was very depressed. After being intercepted, he said to Lescott, "You can't change someone to defend? Discuss it and put some water?"

Lescott smiled.

"By the way, I feel weird, why are you more difficult than being in a club?" Balotelli continued.

If it weren't for knowing that these two were club teammates, the referee would have been chattering when he saw Balotelli and even wanted to give him a card to warn him not to "provoke".

In fact, Balotelli said his heart.

At Manchester City club, Lescott is also the main central defender. The two often fight in training, but relatively speaking, he still has a chance to break through Lescott, and he doesn't feel that Lescott's defense is so tough, but when it comes to England and Italy, why is this guy so difficult to deal with?

“Because our coach is Wansheng.”

Lescott said something that Balotelli didn't understand very much.

Lescott really thought so. His respect for Wan Sheng has exceeded '1oo', which is the boundary of absolute trust. When Wan Sheng is the head coach of the team, he feels full of fighting spirit and confidence, and he is more motivated in training and competition.

If Lescott had to explain it himself, he would definitely think it was caused by the "mental motivation", but in fact, that was the most real feeling.

Lescott is a member of the Players Union's 'elder level'.

Even though Wan Sheng is not Manchester City's head coach, Lescott can still enjoy the attribute bonus of the Player Union, but the coach's skill bonus is gone. After Wan Sheng becomes the head coach, the skill bonus of the football training master system has improved some, especially in the official game, the coach's skill bonus has increased, and the strength has been improved, so he will naturally get better.

Lescott himself didn't know it, and Balotelli didn't understand it.

But Lescott had already shot a higher level, and Balotelli could only feel depressed with doubts. He thought to himself, "That Chinese really has such great ability, but Lescott trusts this way?"

Balotelli's swing was restricted, and the Italian team's overall offense was also restricted, but the two sides still played an equally good match because there was no progress in England's offense.

By this time, the performance of both sides' core performance has become particularly critical.

Pirlo and Morris...

Before the game, many media hyped the comparison between the two. Pirlo is the absolute core of Italy and is also called the "king of Italian football" by the Italian media. The Spanish World Sports called him "the Leonardo da Vinci on the football field" and was considered the most convincing genius in Italian football since Roberto Baggio.

Pirlo's technology is very comprehensive, with a scalpel-like ability to shoot from a long time, proficient in organization, scoring ability, and set-piece ability. This comprehensiveness is amazing.

Many fans criticized Pirlo for his soft style of playing and is not suitable for the midfielder position, but the progress of Erlo's defensive technology is obvious to all. "What is even more commendable is that Pirlo has an excellent leadership temperament, and the bumpy and displaced early in his career made his will extremely strong."

Morris is also very good.

Compared to Pirlo, Morris' football is more practical, which is a recognized evaluation by many media.

Morris's overall performance is not inferior to Pirlo. He has set pieces, accurate straight passes, and excellent organizational skills. What makes him better than Pirlo lies in his data: whether in the club or the national team, Morris has more assists and goals, and Morris has also made great contributions in defense.

The Italian media are unwilling to admit that Morris is better, but the real data cannot be concealed. Take the goal as an example. Morris scored a goal for Atletico Madrid in all competitions last season, while Pirlo only had a pitiful 5. Morris' goal number is almost a top scorer, and his assist number is 2 more than Pirlo.

So when the outside world evaluated the two, they used the description of "Morris' football is more practical, and Pirlo's football is more gorgeous."

In the real game, it is a confrontation between "practical" and "gorgeous".

This description has certain accuracy.

When Pirlo got the ball, many neutral fans also shouted, because many of the Italians' moves were very eye-catching, and Morris played whenever he got the ball, most of the time, like other teammates, he directly passed the ball. Whether it was accurate straight passes or ordinary passes, it was difficult for Morris to find the "gorgeous" kind of Pirlo, but the final result of the two getting the ball was basically the same.

If Pirlo's game statistics are the same as Morris, then Pirlo will undoubtedly be more popular.

pity……

Morris's "practical football" effect has been slowly reflected. With Morris as the core, England's rhythm has been constantly accelerating. Morris will not slow down even for a second, while Pirlo is different. His slow-paced football makes the whole of Italy unable to get up.

The rhythms of both sides began to differ.

England is definitely not a high-end team. It is even more fantastic for them to adjust the rhythm to win control of the situation.

Many wealthy clubs cannot do this, let alone the English team, which is generally recognized as "hard-tech". The entire team is not good at using the style of changing rhythms, but now there is no need to take the initiative to do the game. As long as you go to the game normally, the Italians themselves are a little uncomfortable.

When football is at the feet of England, it is a direct and fast attack.

On the contrary, when it reaches Italy's feet, it becomes slow and seems that the attack is not in a hurry.

The ball rights change with the pace, which makes the "slower" side gradually faster. This is a subconscious behavior of the player, just like everyone around him is running fast, even if he can't keep up, he must be faster. Head coach Plandley does not have guidance in this regard, and Italian players do not care, but just do it subconsciously.

But they are not accustomed to the fast pace overall!

It is very noteworthy that Pirlo is a very skilled player and a very confident player. He likes to play at his own pace. Although England's pace is very fast, as long as the football reaches his feet, the pace will immediately slow down.

Pirlo played no problem, and other Italian players began to get uncomfortable.

The forward Casano was a little impatient. When he was about to insert it again, he looked back and found that the football was still in the midfield.

"Hurry up, pass it over!" Casano raised his hand to ask for the ball.

This action has no result. Pirlo cannot directly start his foot from the center line, and the advancement can only be done step by step, otherwise it will be easily intercepted by the opponent.

But Pirlo's football is not that stable.
To be continued...