PS1: This is the update on Saturday, a little late. I hope that all book friends don’t care too much about the update time. I’ll guarantee that I won’t stop updating...

PS2: Let me talk about the book friends group here. The group numbers are three, seven, zero, five, four, nine, nine, one, nine, and the verification answer is NTR Knight, well, that's it.

PS3: I hate to cut off the Internet...

After Pirlo and Ronaldo, who were the first to take the penalty on both sides, hit the penalty kicks one after another, the atmosphere in Alvarad's stadium became increasingly tense. Whether it was Portugal or Italian fans, they were secretly praying in their hearts, hoping that their players could show their might in the next penalty shootout and never miss the 12-yard point.

While praying that the next penalty kicks will be hit, these fans also sent their "blessings" to their opponents in their hearts. Of course, the meaning of these blessings is obviously the exact opposite of those given to "one of our own people".

The second Italian side to take the penalty kick was Antonio Casano. Just like Tordo replaced Buffon before, Trapatoni's arrangement was beyond the expectations of many media and fans - they thought Trapatoni would let more experienced players take the penalty.

After all, in the event of every goal being extremely critical in penalty shootouts, most head coaches tend to let more confident players take the penalty. However, Trapatoni sent Casano in this game, which really scared many people.

Zhuang Mingge did not object to Trapatoni's arrangement. After all, Casano has done so many funny things over the years, and has been criticized and criticized by many other parties from the media and fans, and he has not shown any sign of reform. On the one hand, this situation shows that Casano is indeed difficult to change his nature, and it also proves from another perspective that the psychological quality of this bad boy of Bari is indeed quite strong. If a player with a poor psychological quality is so condemned by the media and fans, he would probably have been mistaken or changed his nature long ago. How could he continue to be poor like Casano?

What's more, even if Trapatoni doesn't use Casano, he doesn't have many better choices. Because among Italy's midfielders and frontcourt players now, Diego Milito and De Rossi also lack experience in the competition, so there is basically no difference between letting them take the penalty and letting Casano play; Ambrosini and Camoranesi have good psychological qualities, but their penalty scores are quite average when training in the team, which is not as sure as Casano; Toti and Deco have good star appearances in penalty shots, but one of them was substituted and the other sat on the bench for a full 120 minutes, and they were not qualified to participate in the penalty shootout!

As it turns out, although Casano makes trouble from time to time, he is still a big boy for the person who is willing to give him trust and support, not the troublemaker later, and he will still give the other party corresponding rewards. Faced with the deafening booing from tens of thousands of Portuguese fans in the stands, Casano gave the penalty kick steadily without changing his face, helping Italy take the lead in the penalty shootout again!

Compared with Casano, Portugal's second appearance and penalty was quite disappointing. This majestic forward in Ligue 1 continued his poor form in this game into a penalty shootout. He pursued the angle too much when shooting, resulting in slow ball speed, and was blocked by Tordo, who was tall and long, with one hand!

Next, in the third round of penalty shooters, De Rossi scored a powerful shot and hit the ball into the middle of the goal. Ricardo, who judged the wrong direction, had no choice but to do anything about it; while Figo withstood the heavy pressure and deceived Toldo and sent the ball into the lower right corner of the goal, avoiding the host's unfavorable situation of falling behind one to three after the first three rounds.

In the fourth round, Italy sent Zambrota to take the penalty, but the penalty shot by the full-back was blocked by Ricardo, leaving a first-line opportunity for Portugal, which was temporarily behind. However, Rui Costa, who was the fourth player to play for Portugal, failed to seize the opportunity created by his goalkeeper. After the opening game of the European Cup, the midfielder once again failed people's expectations. The penalty shot he kicked flew directly above the crossbar, and did not bring any benefits to Portugal except for a big surprise to the fans sitting in the stands behind the goal.

"It's so damn!" Seeing Costa actually kicking the penalty kick away, Scolari angrily threw the tactical board in his hand to the ground. "I told him that when playing a penalty kick, the ball should be kept close to the ground. Why is he so stubborn and has to hit a high ball?"

Scolari was completely speechless about these stars in the Golden Generation. Perhaps the clubs they played in each of them were all good at fighting and even offensive cores. However, in the Portuguese national team, none of these old men over 30 years old had stable performance except Figo, and they were all thirty-something, as if they could not play anymore after leaving them. Isn’t this a scam?!

To be honest, it is not so much that Scolari is expressing his dissatisfaction with the Golden Generation members led by Costa and Figo, but rather that this Brazilian coach, who has always valued defense, is deliberately targeting Rui Costa's relatively scattered defensive attitude, and his strength is no longer among the top players, wanting to establish his prestige in him.

You should know that when Scolari was coaching the Brazilian national team, Rivaldo and Ronaldo in the 3R were both privileged classes of the team. They did not participate in defense much, and they did not see him getting angry at these two. Instead, Romario, a veteran who had become a balloon star, was innocently shot. Because of his previous bad record, Scolari was rejected and unfortunately missed the Korean and Japanese World Cup.

Similarly, Rui Costa is facing a situation that is similar to that of Romario in the past. Scolari wants to establish enough prestige in the Portuguese national team and take the right to speak in his own hands. Then a star like Costa, who is very famous and old, has a decline in strength and status due to age, is the best target for the operation.

The talk is too far, and now it's back to the point. After Zambrota and Rui Costa missed penalty kicks one after another, Italy temporarily led Portugal three to two in the penalty shootout, and the next one was the Blues' top scorer list in this European Cup, Diego Milito!

Seeing that Milito came forward, Ricciardo couldn't help but tense his body nervously. After all, the Italian striker had already penetrated the goal he guarded twice in this game, and the penalty he took would be directly the fate of Portugal. If Ricciardo still doesn't feel nervous under this situation, that would be a real ghost.

He looked at Ricciardo, who was guarding the goal and was extremely nervous, and Milito, who placed the ball on the penalty spot, wiped his sweat and slowly retreated, waiting for the referee to blew the whistle.

Not long after, a short and powerful whistle sounded throughout the audience, and Milito began his running assist with the booing of more than 40,000 Portuguese fans at the scene.

After 120 minutes of hard fighting, Milito, who was already in average physical fitness, was already sweating profusely, and his legs were trembling due to long running and short rest before. However, when assisting, Milito overcame this difficulty well and found the rhythm of the shooting and felt.

Milito, who had completed the run-up, first used a brief pause in the moment before touching the ball, tricked Ricardo into moving the center of gravity ahead of time, then swung his right foot and shot it, kicking the ball in the completely opposite direction!

Although Ricardo tried his best to intercept the ball, he had already judged the wrong direction and was out of reach for this shot, so he could only watch the ball flew into the gate behind him.
Chapter completed!