Chapter 2101 "Group of Death"
"Merry! Merry!"
Amid the cheers of the commentator, Melli pulled the football sideways in front of him with his right foot, allowing Serbian player Milos Vukovic to scoop it up...
He then continued to dribble laterally, and Serbian players moved closer to him, trying to block him in front of Serbia's penalty area.
Faced with this heavy siege, Melly did not rush to pass the football or try to force a breakthrough.
He was in the center of the storm, but he remained remarkably calm.
Then he waited until the encirclement was almost closed before suddenly passing the football!
The football slipped through the gap between the two Serbian players!
The diagonal line rolled towards the left rib of the Serbian penalty area.
There, an Argentinian player crossed in from the wing and received the ball completely unmarked!
"Farias!!"
Seeing this, Serbian goalkeeper Vladimir Ukacasinovic quickly abandoned the goal and rushed towards Farias.
Farias didn't hesitate and shot directly!
He fired a ground ball straight to the back corner of the goal!
Although Ukasinovic fell to the ground to save, but faced with such a decisive shot from Farias, his attack did not completely block the angle, so the football still slipped past him and into the back corner!
"Farias!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!"
The Argentinian commentator looked up to the sky and screamed.
"GOOOOOOOOOOL!! GOL! GOL! GOL! GOLGOLGOLGOLGOLGOLGOL!!! Farias! Nestor Farias!! This is the goal that seals the victory! We are back on the surface and can breathe again!"
After losing to Saudi Arabia, the entire Argentine team is under tremendous pressure, and Argentine commentators are also uneasy about the future of the team. He was always nervous during the commentary of today's game.
Even after Melli scored to give Argentina the lead in the 60th minute, the tension did not dissipate.
Because it is only a one-goal lead, if Serbia scores an equalizer, who knows how the game will eventually develop.
Argentina is now walking a tightrope at a height of 100 feet, with no room for error and no room for maneuver.
Nothing short of victory is acceptable.
They must win to keep the possibility of qualifying from the group.
It wasn't until he saw Farias' goal in the 89th minute that the Argentine commentator's heart dropped.
There are less than ten minutes left before the end of the game, and Serbia will never be able to chase two goals in a row!
The Argentine commentator took a deep breath, took another breath and continued to shout excitedly:
"This is Farias's first goal in the World Cup! An assist from Melli! Melli handled the ball so well! He brought it all the way from the right, passed several people, and even got stuck in the end. Heavy siege! But he can still pass the football into the space accurately! There, he also passed the football! This is the ability of Argentina's leader Melly Banega! He can score goals by himself, assist his teammates to score goals, and can also instigate and organize attacks. It is so comprehensive that it is by no means pure. Shooters can compare!”
Although it was Farias who scored the goal, the commentator was praising Melly.
Because this goal is indeed more due to Melli.
The best thing about this ball is not that Melli passed several people before, but his last pass.
While praising Melly, the Argentinian commentator also did not forget the yin and yang of Hu Lai.
This is mainly because after Argentina lost 1:2 to Saudi Arabia, the most excited were the Hulay fans. They mocked Melli to the fullest, making all Melli supporters angry.
Now, of course, we must seize every opportunity to sing praises for Melli, and at the same time reiterate that "playing well" is an important factor in determining a player's historical status. In the eyes of the Argentinians, Melli can score goals and assists. The key is that he also plays well and has historical skills. His historical status is of course much higher than that of his competitor who can only score goals.
Farias was so excited after scoring that he turned around and ran to the corner flag area to celebrate.
Behind him, the Argentine players followed suit.
Mellie was among them.
But he was hugged from the side by Ramon Cantero.
The two of them hugged each other and ran side by side towards their teammates.
They were smiling brightly in the broadcast footage, completely different from the dejected look they had after losing to Saudi Arabia.
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"The god Melly came down to earth and dominated Argentina's life-and-death battle with one goal and one assist!"
"Mature Merry is even scarier!"
"Don't push Argentina to the edge, otherwise you will witness a historic performance in the World Cup!"
"It turns out that Argentina's loss to Saudi Arabia was just a pure accident. This team is still the favorite to win the championship!"
"Such a comprehensive Melli will become a key figure in Argentina's championship!"
……
Xie Lan couldn't help complaining: "A bunch of idiots! Argentina looked arrogant after losing, and now they are arrogant again. I'm even ashamed of them!"
Hu Lixin doesn’t care much about the flattery and praise for Melli on the Internet: “Football is like this. If you perform well, you will be praised to the sky. If you perform poorly, you will be stepped into the mud immediately. There is no middle state. And yesterday Melli The performance is indeed very good and worthy of those praises.”
"That's why I'm even more unhappy!" Xie Lan pouted.
She regards Melli as her son's number one enemy, and she is one of those who want Argentina to return home after finishing the group stage.
If Melly behaves badly, she will definitely clap her hands and laugh, which will put her in a good mood for the day.
And if Mellie performs well and receives a lot of praise, she will be in a bad mood and feel depressed.
Hu Lixin once said that his wife is his son's "fascination".
Xie Lan never denied this, and even admitted it generously - if a mother does not support her son, it will be a thunderbolt!
These words made Hu Lixin speechless for a long time.
Fortunately, Xie Lan does not engage in social networking. He does not have a Weibo account, and he never speaks on the Internet. He even tries to avoid media interviews.
Otherwise, with her style... she might become the "source of all evil" in the mouths of countless Hu Lai Sunspots. She would cause countless unnecessary troubles to her son.
But Hu Lai actually doesn't care. It doesn't matter what his mother wants to say. Everyone is a mature individual, able to think independently and have his own ideas. Does he still need to be taught by him?
And the most important thing is that Hu Lai is actually not very afraid of criticism from the outside world.
Let him be strong and let him be strong, and the breeze blows on the hills.
I just like it when you look at me and think I can’t do anything about it!
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Argentina defeated Serbia 2:0 and regained hope of qualifying for the group stage.
But it doesn't mean that they will definitely qualify.
The situation in Group D is actually quite complicated.
After Serbia lost to Argentina, Tunisia defeated Saudi Arabia 1:0.
This leads to a particularly bizarre situation:
After all the teams in Group D, after two rounds of group matches, they all have one win and one loss, with three points.
They can only determine the ranking based on factors such as goal difference and total goals, as well as the relationship between victory and defeat.
Argentina has three points, scored three goals, conceded two goals, and has a goal difference of 1, ranking first.
Saudi Arabia has three points, scored two goals, conceded two goals, and has a goal difference of 0, ranking second.
Tunisia has three points, scored one goal, conceded one goal, and has a goal difference of 0, but because the total number of goals is one less than Saudi Arabia, it ranks third.
Serbia also has three points, scored one goal, conceded two goals, and has a goal difference of -1, so it can only rank at the bottom.
In the final round, Serbia faced Saudi Arabia and Argentina faced Tunisia.
Any team may qualify or be eliminated.
The reason why everyone thinks Argentina still has hope of qualifying is because in the last round, they only need to defeat Tunisia to qualify.
The same goes for the other three teams, whoever wins will advance.
If they all tie, Argentina will definitely advance, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia will have to compare the total number of goals scored, and Serbia will definitely be eliminated.
When the draw results came out, no one thought Argentina's Group D was a "death group." Argentina will definitely qualify in this group, there is no suspense, and not only that, it will definitely be first in the group.
The remaining three teams can only compete for the second place in a group.
The result was a mess, and everyone was beaten into a "death group."
None of the other groups are this messy.
The United States in Group E lost to the Czech Republic 1:2 in the first round, but in the second round they met New Zealand, the weakest team in the group, and also the lowest FIFA ranking team in this World Cup - 77th .
If the United States still wants to qualify, they must beat New Zealand.
New Zealand qualified for the World Cup this time by defeating Australia in the play-offs.
For New Zealand, they have no ambition to achieve anything in the World Cup. Being able to defeat Australia, which "defected" to the Asian division, in the final play-offs and kicked Australia out of the World Cup may be the team's most glorious moment.
Moreover, against France in the first round of the group stage, they tenaciously pulled back a goal and were not shaved off by the French team. This performance is also remarkable.
They also had a very relaxed mentality when they played against the US team, and they didn't have the burden of going home early if they lost the game.
So the performance is good.
It took until the 70th minute to concede a goal.
However, after conceding the goal, the team's mentality still fluctuated greatly, and they conceded another goal within three minutes.
In the end, they lost to the United States 0:2 and were eliminated early.
With these three points, the United States retained its hope of advancing to the knockout rounds. Although the hope is slim - they have to beat France in the final round...
The Czech Republic's opponent in this round of the group stage was France. They lost 2:3 and sent France to qualify early.
But Czech fans don’t have to worry too much about the team not qualifying, because the Czech opponent in the last round is New Zealand, which is the weakest and has no desires. As long as they can defeat this team, the Czech Republic, which has six points, still has a chance to qualify - as long as the French team does not lose to the United States by a large score.
Iran in Group F became the first Asian team to be eliminated from the World Cup and the fifth team to be eliminated from the group. They lost to Uruguay 1:3 in the second round of the group stage and were eliminated with two consecutive losses.
Italy then defeated Nigeria 1:0, winning two games and accumulating six points to qualify early.
After two rounds of group matches, Italy scored three goals and failed to concede a single goal. Their main goalkeeper Mauro Albertazzi takes the greatest credit and is the biggest contributor to the team's ability to advance one round ahead of schedule.
With only one point, Nigeria has only a theoretical possibility of qualifying in the final round.
The situation of this group has become relatively clear. If nothing else, Italy and Uruguay will qualify. The two teams may even play a tacit understanding of each other in the final round...
Group G.
Defending champions Brazil showed they are far superior to the other opponents in this group.
Facing Denmark in the second round of the group stage, they also defeated their opponent 2:1, scoring six points and qualifying early.
Also qualifying early was Belgium, who swept Canada 6:1.
Not only did he score six points and qualify early, he also defeated Brazil by virtue of his goal difference and became first in the group!
The Brazilians were filled with regret - when they faced Canada, why didn't they continue to chase after scoring three goals? It happened to be rough, but Canada got one, and 3:0 became 3:1...
Look at Belgium, they caught the sheep of Canada and plowed it hard, scoring six goals and five goal differentials in one breath.
Now if Brazil wants to get first place in the group, it must beat Belgium in the final round.
Group H.
Japan faces Germany.
This game is very crucial. If they lose to Germany and Switzerland beat South Africa, they will have an advantage in the final round.
Germany and Switzerland only need a draw to advance together, while Japan and South Africa will be eliminated no matter how they play.
A total of five Asian teams are participating in this World Cup.
One of them is determined to qualify.
One team was eliminated early.
The remaining three teams all have a chance to qualify.
Whether the Japanese team will be the one to qualify or the one to be eliminated... it may become clearer after this game. (End of chapter)