Chapter 236 Advance to the Top 8
"Xia Qi suddenly turned the ball over and then broke through!"
"Ah! It's a fake! Shoot! The ball goes in!"
"The ball goes in! The ball goes in! England is three goals ahead, and Greece's hope of advancing is slim..."
Torosidis, who was defending Xia Qi, had no time to make any defensive moves. The only thing he could do was to turn his head and watch the football fly.
At that time, he wished there was a Sterling on the goal line.
Sterling is Greece's best player.
Greek goalkeeper Karnezis also had no time to make a save. The only thing he could do now was to defend with his mind.
So he imagined himself waving his hands to hold the ball, and as his mind wandered, his body unconsciously leaned back.
Finally, he fell into the net along with the football.
He wasn't knocked out by the football.
He was just devastated by the goal!
0: 3!
The three-goal difference was like a heavy mountain that completely crushed him. At this moment, lying in the net, he just wanted to be quiet!
Karnezis is not the only one who wants to be quiet, all the Greek players want to be quiet!
We have thought about losing, losing to England, the favorite to win the championship, is a sign of being inferior to them, and it is not shameful!
However, this process is really unbearable!
That damn guy Xia Qi, the ball thief!
The dignified Mr. Golden Ball turned out to be a cunning Old Six!
With such a contrast, not only the players want to be quiet, but the fans also want to be quiet!
The Pernambuco Stadium seemed to have entered an endless night. Everyone in the stadium was like a statue. There was no booing, no cheering, and if it weren't for the slight breathing sounds that could be heard, one would really think that time had stopped!
For about three or four seconds, cheers of "Xia Qi, awesome!" rang out from the stands of Chinese fans, giving this frozen stadium the look that football should be.
On the field, Xia Qi did not cheer after scoring the goal. He walked slowly back to the center circle as if he had just done something ordinary.
The Greek fans wanted to boo him with hatred, but they couldn't.
"Perhaps defeating us is not something that will excite Xia Qi!" As this thought spread through his mind, the Greek became deflated.
The score has already shown that the two teams have a huge gap in strength, and Xia Qi's attitude of "waving his sleeves without taking away a cloud" shows that he did not exert any effort.
This is really despairing.
A rather strange scene appeared on the court.
England, which was leading in the score, was waiting for the kick-off early, while Greece, which was behind in the score, wasted time.
"Greece is broken, they have no will to fight anymore."
"Xia Qi's goal completely crushed them."
"If Greece wants to advance, they have to score at least three goals in the remaining 26 minutes and drag the game into overtime and penalty shootouts, which is almost an impossible task..."
After the game resumed, the Greek players obviously had not yet recovered from the blow of conceding the third goal, and their performance on the field was like sleepwalking.
Their head coach Santos was not in a better mood either. He did not immediately cheer up the players or make any personnel adjustments.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you can understand that it is difficult to score three goals in just 26 minutes, and he has already used up two substitutions.
How exactly are the Greek players sleepwalking?
Not long after the kick-off, with no one pressing him, Maniatis actually sent the ball directly to Rooney's feet.
This shows how absent-minded they are!
Fortunately, Rooney was the king of errant shots tonight and failed to take advantage of the Greek team's mistakes to expand the score.
Hodgson was really fed up with Rooney and replaced him with Sturridge.
In the 78th minute of the second half, Karagounis was called for a foul while defending Xia Qi and received a yellow card. Two yellow cards turned into one red card and he was sent off.
Trailing by three goals, with one player less on the field and just 12 minutes left.
All of this combined made the Greek players sad and angry, and they began to launch a somewhat tragic counterattack towards the England goal.
The reason why it is tragic is that such an attack is very likely to be counterattacked by England, and such a scenario has already happened three times tonight.
Knowing that they would be counterattacked, they still attacked without hesitation.
However, they met the emotionless Xia Qi!
Their tragic deeds did not evoke Xia Qi's sympathy.
Thirty meters away from the England goal, Xia Qi did not hesitate to use a fierce tackle to disrupt the Greek striker Christodoulopoulos's breakthrough with the ball.
Xia Qi's partner Gerrard seized the opportunity and launched an attack on the Greek goal.
After the ball was passed through the front court, Sturridge, who had just come on the field, headed the ball to Xia Qi at the top of the arc.
Xia Qi did not disappoint him. When Sturridge was trying to score five meters in front of the goal, the pass arrived as expected.
Sturridge leaped high in the crowd and headed the ball into the goal, scoring his first goal of this World Cup.
0: 4!
Greece has lost even more spirit!
Three minutes later, England came back.
Xia Qi, Sturridge and Walcott played a wonderful short pass combination on the right, and when the Greek defense was fully defending their left side,
Xia Qi picked up the ball and transferred it to the left post of the goal. Sterling once again took advantage of the opportunity in the far corner of the goal, changing the score to 5:0.
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game.
The final score was 7:0. No matter how hard the Greek players tried, they were unable to score a goal.
After the whistle, several Greek players looked for Xia Qi to exchange jerseys.
"The game is over! England advanced to the quarterfinals without any surprises, and will compete with the Netherlands for a place in the semifinals."
"England played very well tonight and controlled the game from the beginning to the end. It was a complete victory without any waves."
In the post-match press conference:
England coach Hodgson said with a big smile: "Our players performed perfectly tonight.
The children were fully focused from the beginning of the game and tried their best to control the rhythm of the game.
Every player played to his best, their cooperation was seamless and their offense was smooth.
Xia Qi's performance was phenomenal, and I am at a loss for words to praise him.
The quarterfinals are not our goal, we are trying our best to bring the World Cup home."
Greece's head coach Santos seemed a little frustrated, and he said slowly: "This game is a heavy blow to us.
Xia Qi's quick free kick was a severe blow to us.
We will learn from this game and work hard to improve our strength. Although we failed tonight, we will not give up and we will be ready for the next challenge. "
(There will be another update later)