The Prince of Inter Milan starts with Brother Xiaosa

Chapter 199 Advance to the semi-finals!

After the game started, Italy did a very good job defensively and basically did not give Spain any good opportunities.

On the contrary, their several counterattacks were quite threatening, but unfortunately they were still a little short of scoring.

Leo knew that what they had to do now was not to be impatient or impatient, and not to make any unnecessary mistakes.

But this was almost impossible. In the 16th minute, Italy made a mistake in passing the ball in the backcourt, and Spain successfully stole it!

However, Torres did not receive the ball after Iniesta got rid of it.

In the season that just ended, Torres scored 18 league goals for Liverpool.

This data alone cannot reflect the outstanding performance of the "Spanish Golden Boy".

However, when it comes to the Spanish national team, to be honest, not to mention comparing with Messi, even his own performance in the club is inferior.

Torres did not integrate particularly well into the Matador Legion's tactical system.

Despite possessing outstanding speed and superb shooting skills, Torres's performance in the national team was far inferior to that of his strike partner Villa today.

Spain continued their offensive, Xavi Alonso passed the ball, and Xavi's turned shot missed the crossbar!

Ramos made a pass from the right, and Torres' header from the center of the penalty area was deflected due to interference from the Italian defender.

Harvey distributed the ball in the frontcourt. Villa made a beautiful pass from the left and tried to pass into the penalty area. David Thornton made up for it and cleared the ball out of the baseline in time!
  In the 24th minute, Capdevila passed the ball from the wing. Harvey stopped the ball and jumped up. Then he reacted quickly and quickly volleyed with his right foot without waiting for the defensive player to step forward!
  Buffon failed to make a save and the ball went slightly over the crossbar.

Facing Spain's tidal offensive, the Italian team retreated to their own half.

Iniesta dribbled the ball from the right and was brought down by Criscito, and Spain got a free kick on the right.

After discussion, they played a very fancy free kick.

Iniesta made a slight move, Xavi stopped, and Capdevila followed up with a powerful left-footed volley that was blocked by the Italian team's wall and then slowed down greatly. Buffon easily saved the ball in his arms. .

Torres passed the ball from the right and successfully got rid of the Italian full-back's defense, but the subsequent cross went directly out of the baseline.

In the 36th minute, Villa received a direct pass from Harvey on the left side of the penalty area and shot a low shot with his right foot that missed the near corner.

If you waste opportunities many times, you will be punished.

Pirlo sent a diagonal pass from the left, and Balotelli and Iaquinta hit the goal in the middle!

But unfortunately, both of them were just a little bit away from the ball, and Pique made a big save.

Marchisio made a direct pass, and Leo received the pass from his teammate outside the penalty area.

Xavi Alonso and Busquets double-teamed him!

Deftly controlling the ball at his feet, Leo calculated the gap between the two defenders.

enough!
  Accelerating in an instant, Leo broke through the two Spanish defenders with a fried ball!
  Busquets stumbled and fell down.

Leo completely ignored Professor Bu's embarrassment behind him and took advantage of the situation to dribble the ball to the edge of the penalty area.

The two Italian strikers Balotelli and Iaquinta drew the attention of the Spanish defender in the penalty area.

Li Aoyi was so bold that he dunked the ball forward to the right and adjusted it to follow up with a powerful and heavy volley!

Casillas leapt to make the save!
  But Leo's shot still passed the Spanish goalkeeper's fingertips and went into the upper right corner of the goal!
  One to zero!

Italy seized a counterattack opportunity at the end of the first half to break the deadlock!

Spain, which has been in control of the ball and has twice as many shots as Italy, has never been able to score.

At the end of the first half, Italy temporarily leads Spain 1-0!
  Although the coach of the Azzurri had no expression on his face, he was actually very happy in his heart.

As long as the Spanish difficulty is overcome, Italy's probability of successfully defending its title will immediately be greatly improved.

Lippi won the World Cup once, but there are many head coaches who have won the World Cup, one every four years.

If he wins two consecutive World Cups, he will really go down in history.

There has never been one before, and there may not be anyone in the future.

Back in the locker room, Silver Fox Lippi gave an impassioned speech to encourage the team.

"Continuing our performance in the first half and maintaining this score until the end of the game, we have eliminated the most difficult opponent on the road to defending the title!"

At the beginning of the second half, Spain took the lead in making substitutions.

Del Bosque replaced Busquets with Fabregas.

"Hey, it's an old acquaintance again."

Leo smiled very "friendly" at Xiaofa.

Fabregas, who had just warmed up and came on as a substitute, felt a chill in his back.

In the 46th minute, the Italian team, which was expected to defend with all its strength, struck first!

Leo scored the ball and David Thornton made a breakthrough pass from the right!
  Iaquinta received a cross from the right and scored from close range!

But before he could start celebrating the goal, the linesman raised the flag to indicate offside and the goal was invalid!
  Judging from the slow motion, Iaquinta was not offside at the time, but Balotelli, who was trying to header the ball in front of him, did seem to be offside.

But in fact, it was just a matter of seconds. Italy did not protest excitedly and silently returned to its defensive position.

Then Alonso made a long pass from the backcourt, and Italian defender Chiellini actually stepped forward!

Torres gets a chance to stand alone! But he stopped the ball in his hands.

Torres looked a little frustrated after missing a great opportunity. Cesc Fabregas took the ball in the middle and pushed forward, and Leo looked as if he was going to meet him from a distance.

Fabregas was shocked and his feet were in disarray. De Rossi easily intercepted the ball.

"Hahaha, it seems that the psychological shadow I left on him is still lingering. It's really interesting."

Ignoring Fabregas, who was in despair after losing the ball, Leo quickly moved forward.

De Rossi didn't pass the ball and took a long shot from outside the penalty area!
  Puyol used his body to block the ball out of the baseline.

Italy's corner kick, Leo passed to the back post.

Pique tightly grabbed the opponent's left hand when defending Balotelli, causing him to fail to grab the point. The referee Carlos Bartres decisively awarded a penalty kick and showed a yellow card!
  Who will take the penalty kick?
  In such an important game, taking such a penalty kick requires facing great psychological pressure.

If scored, Italy will expand its lead and have a greater chance of winning the game.

But if you fail to score and then lose the game, you will really become a criminal of the country.

Originally, Pirlo said that he would take the penalty kick if he couldn't, but Leo stopped him.

"Leave it to me, I'm sure of it!"

Pirlo saw Leo's firm gaze, smiled and nodded.

Standing on the penalty spot, huge pressure came instantly.

The feeling of taking penalty kicks in normal times is completely different from taking penalty kicks in the World Cup knockout matches.

Casillas made some moves in front of the goal to try to interfere with Leo, and the Spanish fans in the stands also tried to influence him in various ways.

Taking a deep breath and swinging his legs during the run-up, Casillas had already moved ahead of time before Leo's right foot touched the ball.

The Spanish goalkeeper bet that Leo would kick to the right side of the goal, so Casillas flew to his left to save!

With a "pop!", Leo kicked the ball and the ball flew into the air!

Leo scored a spoon penalty!
  Cassie saw the path of the ball clearly and realized that he had thrown it in the wrong direction.

Leo's penalty kick is slowly flying towards the center of the goal!
  Casillas turned around to save the ball after already rushing to the left, maximizing his reaction speed!

However, the "Santa Cassie" who made a brave save still missed the ball by a hair. Leo's penalty hit the lower edge of the crossbar and fell into the net!
  Two to zero!
  Italy leads by two goals!

Leo scored his second goal of the game! This is also his ninth goal since this World Cup!
  This number of goals not only puts him far ahead in the South African World Cup scorer list, but is also quite conspicuous in the record of the Golden Boot Award in previous World Cups.

In the last nine World Cups, Ronaldo's eight goals in 2002 are already the most.

And Leo had only reached the quarter-finals and already had nine goals in hand.

Under such circumstances, as long as Italy can successfully reach the final, surpassing Gerd Muller's ten goals should not be a big problem.

Even breaking the 13-goal record of legendary French star Fontaine is not completely impossible!

After scoring the goal, Leo ran all the way. He waved his arms to signal the Italian fans at the scene to give more support to the players on the field.

Supporters of the Azzurri responded one after another, standing up and shouting loudly to cheer for Italy.

The game situation has become increasingly unfavorable for Spain, and Del Bosque is ready to continue making adjustments.

Pedro came on as a substitute, replacing Torres who had a rather average performance today.

The Spanish team launched a quick counterattack, Xavi sent a precise through ball from the frontcourt, Villa got the ball and broke through to form a single!

At an extremely critical moment, Italian defender Bonucci kicked his opponent down from behind!

The referee gave the Spanish team another penalty kick.

Alonso's penalty kick hit the lower right corner of the goal. Buffon fell sideways and struggled to save the ball with one palm!

Fabregas, who wanted to make a follow-up shot, was knocked down by Buffon. Ramos's shot again was blocked by Bonucci who made up the shot!

After the crisis was temporarily resolved, Buffon stood up and roared to the sky!

He waved his right fist vigorously to vent the pressure from the penalty kick just now.

Buffon then bumped his chest with Bonucci, who had committed a foul, and comforted his little brother.

"There is no need to foul for this kind of ball from now on, I'm behind you!"

Unexpectedly, there was no penalty kick, and the goalkeepers of the two teams had a penalty kick contest from a distance. It was obvious that Buffon was slightly better.

Harvey's corner kick from the right was cleared by Bonucci's aggressive header.

It was still a corner kick from Spain. This time Harvey passed the ball directly to the outside of the penalty area. There was really no chance of a header inside the penalty area.

After receiving the ball, Alonso took a long shot, but the ball was not very fast and was easily picked off by Buffon.

Xavi passed the ball in the midfield, Iniesta broke through in the middle to attract the defense and then distributed the ball. Pedro, who came on the bench, broke through to the small penalty area and pushed with his right foot. The ball hit the left post and bounced out!

The Spanish team, which was two goals behind, gave it a try. Llorente came on as a substitute and replaced Puyol!
  Unfortunately, this adjustment cannot provide much help to Spain.

In the 91st minute, Pedro made a breakthrough pass from the right. After receiving the ball, Villa directly faced the goalkeeper, but his shot was saved by Buffon!

At the end of the game, Italy defeated Spain 2-0!

Although Spain accounted for nearly 70% of the ball possession, they took 27 shots and even got a penalty kick.

But in the end, they still failed to penetrate Italy's defense, and failed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time in history.

The Italian team led by Lippi successfully advanced to the semi-finals, and they are one step closer to defending their title!
  (End of this chapter)