Chapter 312 Defeat Argentina and advance to the World Cup finals!

"Lin Quan, it's him again. When the game reached a deadlock, he stood up again and saved the team!"

"The Spanish fans at the scene were caught up in the carnival. They shouted Lin Quan's name loudly and regarded him as the hero of the team!"

In the commentary booths of various countries, after Lin Quan scored his second goal, the commentators sent out all kinds of compliments at 360 degrees.

In the semi-finals of the World Cup, he stood up twice to help the team stabilize its morale and take the lead.

Lin Quan's role on the court cannot be overstated.

After Lin Quan completed the goal, he pointed his finger at Mata who passed the ball to him.

He jumped up high, rode on the horse's body, and celebrated excitedly.

"Well done!"

"Lin, good shot!"

After seeing Lin Quan score, the Spanish teammates frantically chased him, surrounded him and Mata, and joined in the celebration of the two.

Even goalkeeper Casillas performed a somersault in front of Spain's goal to celebrate.

This ball came at the perfect time!

The Argentinian had just started to gain momentum, but was extinguished by Lin Quan's goal.

If this goal had come a little later, the Argentinians might have used this momentum to launch a crazy counterattack.

If they really score another goal, Spain will be very dangerous!

Now, Spain, which has regained a one-goal lead, can play more calmly.

Messi silently fished the ball out of his own goal, walked back to the center circle with the ball in his arms, placed the ball at the kick-off point, looked at the Spanish players who were celebrating the goal, and quietly waited for the kick-off.

The offensive attack that the Spanish team just played was something he often performed with his teammates when he was at Barcelona.

In fact, many of the opposing lineups were teammates who played alongside him in the club.

It's a pity that at this time, these teammates all stood on the opposite side of him and became his opponents.

To be honest, Messi is not comfortable playing in the Argentina team.

Argentina's midfield is far less powerful than Barcelona, ​​so he has to be both a father and a mother in the Argentine team.

However, before completing the transformation, Messi was not very adaptable to such a job.

Let him be a blaster and goal-scoring machine, and he can easily do the job, but let him be a playmaker, which is a bit demanding for Messi at this time.

Messi's transformation was forced to be completed in the following years after the national team and club suffered defeats.

There has always been a question in football, which one is better, 91 Messi or 19 Messi?

91 Messi refers to Messi who scored 91 goals in the natural year of 2012.

19 Messi refers to Messi after completing the transformation in 2019.

Which of the two is better is a matter of opinion, but one thing is obvious. After Messi's transformation, Argentina's strength has improved.

This can be seen from the fact that Argentina has successively won two gold-rich championship trophies, the Copa America and the World Cup!

Prior to this, Messi's performance in the national team had been lackluster.

Now, Messi has not been able to complete the transformation. Although he has certain organizational skills, it is still very difficult for Messi to complete the core organizational work as effortlessly as he will in a few years.

Therefore, Messi now still needs to rely on Xavi, Xiaofa, Xiaobai and others to assist him behind him and pass the ball for him.

But in Argentina, he had no such support.

So, after the restart, although Messi was very active and tried very hard to tie the score.

But his efforts were not rewarded, and Argentina's attacks failed again and again.

After most of the game, Spain has found a way to limit Argentina's offense - keep an eye on Messi and keep him as far away from the goal as possible!

Messi's finishing ability is obvious to all, but his organizational ability is far from being as strong as his finishing ability.

Therefore, by letting him hand the ball to other teammates to complete the offense and not giving him a chance to directly attack the goal, Argentina's offensive threat can be greatly reduced.

After Martinez came on the court, he did this kind of work.

Facing Martinez, who is 1.92 meters tall, a small player like Messi could have used his extremely fast pace and flexible movement to get rid of the opponent.

But this trick failed when facing Martinez!

On the sidelines, Del Bosque and defensive coach Puyol saw Martinez once again intercepted Messi's attack. They were relieved and smiled on their faces.

"Haha, Lin is really a treasure for us. Not only can he make unparalleled contributions on the offensive end, but also on the defensive end, his contribution to the team is not small!"

"yes!"

Puyol nodded in agreement.

Most people may be confused by what the two said. Everyone can see Lin Quan's performance on the offensive end. He is indeed unstoppable.

But don't you see how strong his performance is on the defensive end?

Although Lin Quan's defensive attitude is very positive, his defensive ability can only be said to be average. Compared with professional defensive players, the gap is obvious.

Outsiders can't see Lin Quan's value on the defensive end because they don't know the Spanish team's special training methods before the game.

Before the game, Lin Quan served as a training partner for the defensive players in the team to help them adapt to the feeling of defending Messi in advance.

After having such a sparring partner, Spain's defensive players have a certain understanding of how to defend Messi.

Although Martinez was abused thousands of times by Lin Quan in team training, he grew and improved every time he was abused.

The accumulated experience comes in handy when defending Messi.

Moreover, the game has reached the 70th minute.

Messi's physical fitness has dropped a lot. He already had physical problems, but under such intense consumption, the remaining physical fitness no longer supports him to complete a series of extraordinary moves.

Therefore, on one side is Martinez whose defensive ability has been strengthened, and on the other side is Messi whose breakthrough ability has been severely reduced due to limited physical fitness.

After the two met, it didn't seem so surprising that Martinez could successfully defend Messi.

Moreover, Martinez is not fighting alone.

As long as Messi dribbles the ball, nearby Spanish players will immediately help defend and double-team him, further consuming Messi's physical energy.

This attrition tactic caused Messi's physical fitness to decline very quickly.

Every pass and reception puts a huge burden on Messi.

In the 78th minute, due to a serious decline in physical fitness, Messi even made a rare mistake and gave the ball directly to his opponent.

Seizing the opportunity of Messi's mistake, Spain took the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Mata sent a through ball, but Lin Quan on the passing route chose not to catch the ball and deliberately missed it to David Silva.

David Silva shot directly, but Romero reacted quickly and saved the ball.

Martinez on the outside controlled the landing point of the football and tried a long shot.

His shot itself was not a big threat, but the ball was refracted by the defensive player and bounced towards the goal.

Seeing that the ball was about to fly into Argentina's goal, it completely killed the suspense of the game.

The Argentine fans at the scene and the Argentine players on the field were almost desperate!

However, at this critical moment, Zabaleta stood up.

He completed a thrilling block near the goal line, using a sliding tackle to block the ball with his body.

When he scooped the ball out of the goal, the football had already touched the goal line. If he had been a few tenths of a second slower, the score would have been 3:1!

call!

Seeing Zabaleta destroy the ball, Argentina's fans and players breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Martinez was a little upset. When he shot the ball, he originally had the idea of ​​​​covering the goal and didn't have much hope.

But that moment of refraction raised his hopes again.

As a result, hopes were raised and then dashed.

"It doesn't matter. You go grab some points in the penalty area later and I'll pass the ball to you!"

Seeing Martinez's face full of frustration, Lin Quan patted him on the shoulder and comforted him.

"good!"

Hearing Lin Quan's words, Hama immediately turned from worry to joy and happily ran into the penalty area to prepare for the top spot.

After Hama came on the field, Spain had three high points on the field.

Ramos, Pique and Javi Martinez.

Among these three, Ramos is definitely the most capable heading ball.

So Lin Quan gave Ramos exactly what he had just said to Hama.

"Really? You will really pass it on to me and won't lie to me?"

Ramos had long been looking for an opportunity to show off his header power. When he heard Lin Quan's words, he was extremely excited.

"Of course, when have I ever lied to you?"

Lin Quan blinked, looking harmless.

Ramos decisively fell for the trick and ran into the penalty area, struggling to get a good starting position despite the interference of Demichelis and Garay.

As for Pique, Lin Quan didn't trust his heading ability very much, so he didn't give him face-to-face instructions.

He held the football and placed it in the corner area. After taking a few steps back, he looked towards the penalty area.

Ramos is at the back, while Pique and Martinez are at the front.

Lin Quan then made a gesture to pass the ball to the back point, signaling his teammates to start running.

When Ramos saw Lin Quan's gesture, he immediately felt relieved and pretended to run forward. When the opponent's defender followed suit, he suddenly turned back.

This move is his trump card for getting rid of defenders. If he wants to comfortably complete the header, he needs to get rid of the interference of defensive players as much as possible.

Otherwise, if he competes with the opponent for the top and his body collides in the air, it will easily affect his power. In that case, even if he grabs the landing point, it will be difficult to hit a high-quality header.

However, what Ramos didn't expect was that Lin Quan had already used this gesture once in the first half. After seeing it, the Argentine players naturally understood where the opponent was going to throw the ball.

Therefore, when Ramos struggled to create space, he found that not only did he fail to create space, but he attracted more defensive players.

There were Argentine defenders in front and behind Ramos, and he was squeezed in the middle and unable to move.

What kind of plane?

Why are they all rushing towards me?

Don't you want to keep an eye on the two big guys who are so tall in front of you?

In Ramos's shocked eyes, he saw Lin Quan's free throw fly to the front point instead of the back point.

Damn, even this kid joined forces to lie to me!

At this time, Ramos had realized that he had become cannon fodder to attract the enemy's firepower, but before he could complain, he saw Martinez leap high like a rocket, and with a bang, a lion shook his head and topped the ball. Towards the goal.

Well done!

With the eyes of Ramos, a header expert, it was immediately obvious that Hama's header was of extremely high quality.

Martinez is known for his versatility and he once played center under Del Bosque.

Under Guardiola, he was often sent to the opponent's penalty area to fight for headers.

It can be said that in the Spanish team, when it comes to who has the strongest heading ability, Ramos is undoubtedly the first.

Martinez is firmly in second place.

Hama's header was in a very tricky position and very fast. Romero had no way to do anything about the ball. Although he reacted, he did not touch the ball at all.

The football missed the lower edge of the crossbar and flew into the goal!

3:1!

The Spanish team expanded its lead in the 80th minute!

If Lin Quan's previous goal sealed the victory, then Hama's header can be said to have completely killed the suspense of the game.

Even including injury time, there are only ten minutes left in the game, and we have to score 2 goals in the last ten minutes!

It is very difficult, especially when Messi, the core of Argentina's team, is exhausted.

Therefore, after scoring this goal, everyone in Spain went crazy!

Martinez rushed to Lin Quan excitedly and gave Lin Quan a bear hug.

"Thank you Lin!"

When the opponent said he would pass the ball to him, he actually passed the ball to him, and the position, angle and speed of the pass were just right.

If Lin Quan hadn't passed the ball very well, Martinez wouldn't have been able to hit such a high-quality header.

Therefore, he must thank Lin Quan!

"Haha, you're welcome. It's mainly because of you that you hit the ball well!"

Lin Quan's pass was indeed good, but if Martinez's own heading skills are too poor, it will be useless no matter how good he passes.

Therefore, most of the credit for this goal must be attributed to Hama himself.

"Hey, hey, you two, stop being humble here. Lin, you agreed to pass the ball to me, why did you let me go?"

Ramos also wants to score, even more than Hama.

Although he is a defender, he has the heart of a forward!

"Sergio, you are the strategic weapon of our team, how could you be exposed so easily?"

Faced with Ramos's accusation, Lin Quan said seriously.

"Really? Am I really that important?"

Ramos was hesitant about Lin Quan's words, but the other party's praise of strategic weapons made him feel very useful.

"Of course, your heading ability is the strongest in our team. In this case, you must save this ability for the most important occasions!"

"And isn't the final a few days later more important than this semi-final?"

"Don't you want to use your superb heading skills to complete an earth-shattering goal in front of hundreds of millions of fans around the world?"

Wear it a thousand times, but flattery never wears it.

Lin Quan's affirmation made Ramos feel that he was being taken seriously, and it seemed that his status in the team had suddenly improved a lot!

The pie painted by Lin Quan made Ramos feel that he had a heavy sense of responsibility and mission on his shoulders.

He nodded repeatedly and said:

"Well, what you said makes sense, so let's save this header for the finals!"

After saying that, he quickly returned to his defensive position with a serious look on his face, diligently preparing to perform his duties as a defensive player.

Ramos is now extremely looking forward to the final four days later, looking forward to showing off his header ability in front of fans all over the world!

It's best to score a decisive blow and score a header that will be remembered by all fans for a lifetime!

Martinez's goal had a great impact on the morale of the Argentine players. Savilla on the sidelines made hasty substitutions.

But he didn't dare to replace Messi, who had exhausted his physical fitness. Even if Messi didn't have much physical fitness at this time, he couldn't replace him.

Because he is still on the court, it means that Argentina still has a glimmer of hope.

But once he leaves the field, it means that Argentina will give up the game, and the fighting spirit of the remaining players will probably be even lower!

However, Messi, who does not have much physical fitness, cannot even exert half of his own strength.

Facing Spain's increasingly tight defense, Argentina's offensive seemed powerful, but had no effect at all.

In the 88th minute, Di Maria suddenly fell to the ground after breaking into the penalty area.

The Argentine players rushed to the referee excitedly and asked for a penalty kick.

The location of the foul this time was undoubtedly in the penalty area. The key now is whether the Spanish defensive player committed a foul.

The slow motion of the scene showed that Pique's hand seemed to touch Di Maria, but this was more like an unintentional move and not an intentional pushing foul.

But Di Maria didn't care about this. He fell to the ground immediately after feeling someone touching him. This was a great opportunity to ask for a penalty kick.

Pique excitedly explained to the referee what happened in the penalty area and protested Di Maria's diving.

After discussing with the assistant referee, the chief referee finally awarded a penalty kick.

This penalty made the Spanish fans at the scene very dissatisfied!

Black whistles, flops and other protests are endless!

"Angel's performance is a bit exaggerated!"

"Really, just touch it and it will fall!"

"Pique looked like he accidentally touched him when he turned around. There was no subjective foul intention!"

"That's right, Di Maria's breakthrough space and shooting angle are blocked. Who would be stupid enough to commit a foul at this time?"

The views of Spanish fans were naturally scorned by Argentine fans.

"If it's a foul, it's a foul. If you can, don't touch Di Maria!"

"That is, if you make a mistake, you must admit it, and if you are beaten, you must stand at attention!"

"Haha, Messi went to the penalty spot and scored this goal. Argentina will definitely seize the opportunity to tie the score and beat Spain!"

Amid the cheers of Argentinian fans and the boos of Spanish fans, Messi stepped up to the penalty spot.

He took a few steps back and looked towards the Spanish goal.

Messi closed his eyes and tried to calm down, then took a deep breath and started running!

Casillas closely followed Messi's every move, judged the direction of the opponent's shot, and was ready to save at any time.

left!

He made the right decision, but failed to save the ball!

Because Messi's penalty kick went into the upper left corner!

In such a crucial game, Messi actually chose to take a penalty kick in such a risky way.

This is reminiscent of the previous game between Spain and Mexico, where Lin Quan also hit a similar penalty kick.

These two people seem to have big hearts!

After scoring the penalty kick, Messi quickly rushed into the goal, picked up the ball, and ran towards the center circle.

There was not much time left in the game and they were one goal behind.

If they want to tie the score and drag the game into overtime, they must attack against the clock!

Spain on the opposite side also knew this very well, so after Argentina used a penalty kick to recover a point, they retreated across the board in the next few minutes.

The restrictions on Messi have reached an even tighter level, and Messi can hardly get the ball at this time.

As long as you get the ball and pass it out immediately, you will be double-teamed or even kicked down immediately.

After Messi was restricted, Di Maria became the most active person on the field.

However, Di Maria likes to play in a diving style, which is a bad thing for Argentina at this time.

Spain's trick to deal with Di Maria is simpler - fouling.

And every foul will disrupt Argentina's offensive rhythm.

Di Maria would fall to the ground and scream every time he was violated, which wasted Argentina's own offensive time.

This greatly reduced Argentina's offensive threat and they were unable to score the third goal.

In the 4th minute of injury time, there were only the last ten seconds left before the end of the game.

Argentina's last offensive opportunity, the ball was handed to Messi's feet.

He mustered up his courage and, under the double-teaming of many Spanish players, he passed by and opened up a little space, and reluctantly completed a long shot.

Unfortunately, the ball failed to pose a threat and was saved by Casillas.

The referee looked at the time and blew the whistle to end the game.

After more than 90 minutes of hard work, Spain finally defeated Argentina with a score of 3:2, winning the last ticket to advance to the final and joining the German team.

They are only one game away from defending the World Cup title!