PS1: This is the update on Friday, 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.

As Italian players further strengthened their defensive strength and paid more attention to protecting their own defense lines during the offense, Greek players sadly discovered that even if they destroyed the Italian offensive, it would be difficult for them to find a suitable passer on the court if they got the ball, because almost all the pass routes that could pose a threat were blocked by their opponents in advance.

In such a situation, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult for Greek players to make the fast counterattack they imagined. Because the Italians' defense is too tight, no matter which direction they pass the ball, they may be intercepted by the opponent in the middle and make a fast counterattack. Therefore, Greek players can only rely more on their own personal abilities to launch attacks, rather than counterattacking through continuous rapid transmission and no-ball running like before.

The move of Greek players can be said to be exactly what Italian players want. You should know that the reason why Greece was able to become the biggest dark horse in this European Cup was mainly due to their extremely tough overall defense and rapid counterattack, as well as various set-piece tactics, which allowed them to kill multiple strong enemies in succession and enter the European Cup final for the first time in history.

It is precisely because Greece encounters Italy with stronger and more stringent defense and lower morale limits, their tricks seem to be a bit insufficient. Because Italians don't care how the opponent plays football, they will only deal with all games in the safest way.

Italy's move made Greek players who are also used to playing opponents' defensive counterattacks feel extremely uncomfortable - they have never seen a strong team who will play defensive counterattacks when they face head-on with "weak brigades" like them. So, when they find that Italy is also using defensive counterattack tactics to deal with them, and continues to increase the difficulty of the challenge over time, these Greek players will naturally feel extremely uncomfortable with this.

This is different from what we agreed! Shouldn’t the rhythm of this game be the opponent with superior strength take the initiative to attack, and then we rely on tenacious defense to resist the opponent’s offense, and score through quick counterattacks and set pieces tactics to score, thus creating a dark horse myth? Why did it suddenly turn into a defensive battle!

Therefore, in the following time, Greek players had almost no way to push their attack line within twenty meters of the opponent's goal, and could only frequently fire guns outside the penalty area to try to threaten Italy's goal. Of course, under the interference of Pirlo, De Rossi and others, Greek players' long-range shots that were blocked by them halfway or missed out of the goal range. Occasionally, a few shots hit the goal frame and were directly confiscated by Buffon, which did not pose much threat to Italy's goal.

Seeing that the long-range shot could not achieve the desired effect, Greece began to change its mind, intending to kick the ball from both wings through Sitaridis and others to deliver shells to Charlesteyas on the front line. However, it became extremely difficult to achieve this goal. Because Charlesteyas and Frizas were entangled with Matrazi and Nesta at this time, and could not get out of their way to receive their passes.

In the 69th minute, Zagolakis hit the middle, and Basinas, who followed, shot directly from 30 meters away. The ball hit De Rossi and then bounced to Deco's feet. The latter immediately reacted and took advantage of the opportunity that the Greek players had not set up their defense line and passed the ball directly to Diego Milito, who had just withdrawn from the frontcourt to the center circle!

Seeing this, Delas immediately rushed over and held Milito's back, preventing him from completing the turn as soon as possible. The central defender who played for Roma was very afraid of this super shooter who had already locked in the European Cup Golden Boot in advance, for fear that the opponent would successfully break through if he was not careful.

After all, if he is broken through by Milito, the latter can drive the ball straight into the single shot - Delas is not interested, and he dare not bet on the result of Milito's single-handed fight with his goalkeeper. Because Delas is very clear that once a striker of Milito's level gets such a single shot opportunity, the probability of the opponent's miss is almost negligible.

However, something beyond Delas' expectations happened. Milito, who received Deco's pass through ball, tried Delas's defense twice and did not choose to turn around and break through forcibly. Instead, he made a fake move to turn left and break through. After shaking a gap, he passed the ball to Casano who was running forward from the left!

Milito knew that in terms of physical fitness alone, it would be difficult for him to defeat the opponent in such close-knit battles, and it would be easy for Delas to break the ball with his physical and strength advantages. Therefore, he chose to use a way to help the team, that is, pass the ball to his teammates with better position and let them complete this counterattack!

After receiving the ball from Milito, Casano immediately dribbled the ball and changed direction. Sitaridis, who had been chasing him, was thrown out without stopping. Casano took the opportunity to accelerate and dribbled into the Greek penalty area before the others returned to the position. He used a Ronaldo's iconic pendulum-style transgressor to deceive Nicopolidis who was attacking and shot the ball into the goal that was no longer defended!

One to zero! In the 69th minute of the game, Italy successfully broke the deadlock with Casano's goal and took a goal lead!

Casano's goal was also the only goal in the final of the European Cup. In the following time, although Greek players who were unwilling to end the European Cup journey risked further expansion of the score by their opponents, unfortunately, their offensive basically died halfway, and there were even two times that almost made Casano seize the opportunity to win another goal, completely killing the suspense of the game.

In this way, when the whole game ended with the whistle of Merck's two short and one long, Italian players who could no longer suppress their excitement hugged with their teammates closest to them to celebrate the championship trophy that they had already won!
Chapter completed!