At 23:00 on June 24, Moscow time, as Colombia defeated Poland 3-0 in Group H, the second round of the World Cup group stage ended.
After two rounds of group matches, five teams have already qualified ahead of schedule, including Russia, Uruguay, Croatia, Belgium and England.
The seven eliminated teams are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Costa Rica, Panama, Tunisia, and Poland.
This round of group matches can be said to be a series of upsets.
Especially the match between Croatia and Argentina can be said to be earth-shattering.
In addition, the last World Cup champions Germany and Sweden also almost suffered an upset in the match.
Fortunately, Kroos completed his redemption at the last moment and scored a beautiful free kick himself, leading Germany to a 2-1 victory over Sweden and temporarily escaping the curse of being eliminated from the last championship group.
These upsets also revealed that the championship and runner-up teams of the last World Cup, as well as the teams that were the favorites to win the championship, were not as strong as the media described.
For example, France, which had an all-star lineup, was tied by Peru, and Spain, which was also not as strong as it looked on paper, also had an extremely difficult match against Yin Lang.
The next day, at 17:00 Moscow time, the third round of the group quickly kicked off.
Group A matches between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Russia and Uruguay started at the same time.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt have already been eliminated. The two teams in this game are purely fighting for national honor.
The match between Russia and Uruguay, which both advanced in advance, may be to avoid the first half of the division, which may be filled with strong teams. The host Russia, which performed extremely strongly in the first two rounds, rotated many people in this game, and the performance was judged.
If there are two teams, one person will be sent off with a red card early.
As a result, Uruguay's Suarez and Cavani started a happy attack mode, and Cavanica's big left also performed happy football for the fans. In the end, Uruguay defeated Russia 3-0.
It also made Uruguay the first team since Argentina in the 1998 World Cup to win all three group matches without conceding a goal.
After Group A, four hours later, Group B's two matches against Portugal, Spain and Morocco were frightening.
As a result, many fans in the country cried out after watching these two games.
Although Spain and Portugal are tied for first place in Group B with 4 points, they can advance as long as they draw with Morocco and Yin Lang.
But these two games still shocked fans from both sides into cold sweats.
In the match between Spain and Morocco, Spain fell behind twice to tie.
One of the two goals conceded was that Ramos failed to pick up Iniesta's return and sent Monaco a one-on-one goal. The other was the defender's marking error and gave Monaco a header from close range.
If it weren't for Vazquez's back-heeled ball in stoppage time that was ruled valid by var and tied Monaco 2-2, Spain would probably have returned home.
The game between Portugal with 4 points and Yin Lang with 3 points was even more exciting. The suspense of the game was not revealed until the last second.
The process of this game was thrilling.
Although Portugal took control of the situation at the beginning of the game, Portugal, with Cristiano Ronaldo, was always unable to break through the iron-blooded Persian defense.
It wasn't until the 44th minute of the game that the 35-year-old veteran Quaresma unexpectedly scored Yin Lang's goal with an out-of-foot shot from far away.
In the second half, Ronaldo, who was being watched by Yin Lang and did nothing, had a chance to end the suspense of the game.
Unfortunately, he missed the penalty kick that was changed by VAR, which also led to Portugal almost losing to Yin Lang in stoppage time in the second half.
Within a few minutes of injury time, Yin Lang not only equalized the score with a penalty kick, but even scored a one-on-one goal in the penalty area.
Unfortunately, Yin Lang failed to grasp it and hit the side netting with a single shot.
In the end, the two sides drew 1-1, and although Yin Lang was eliminated, he also let the whole world see what the Persians' iron-blooded defense is.
…
June 26, BJ time is 21:00.
There is still an hour before the final group match between China and Peru, but Sports Channel 5 has already launched the live broadcast in advance.
At the same time, countless families were already sitting in front of the TV together, or gathering friends and plunging into bars with a strong atmosphere of watching football.
According to the ratings forecast released by CCTV before the game, tonight's game, which determines whether the Chinese team can create a historic moment again, is likely to reach the highest ratings in domestic history, and the number of people watching this event may exceed 800 million.
This shows the influence of the World Cup.
The live broadcast screen has always been an overhead shot, and it is clearly visible that fans from all over the world are constantly gathering around the Fisht Olympic Stadium in the center of the Olympic Park in Sochi, Russia.
Not long after, the live broadcast screen suddenly jumped, showing the red bus of the Chinese team parked in front of the hotel where they were staying, followed by Mo Yang and others wearing red national team uniforms also appeared in the camera.
"What you are watching now is the live broadcast of the World Cup match brought to you by CCTV Sports Channel 5. We can now see that the players have boarded the bus to Fisht Olympic Stadium."
For today's match between China and Peru, CCTV's on-site commentary lineup is luxurious.
In the Chinese commentary seats in the blue commentary stand area, four people, He Wei, Zhang Lu, Zhan Jun, and Fan Zhiyi, will participate in the live commentary of this game.
As fans continue to pour in, Fisht Stadium becomes more and more noisy.
At the same time, He Wei and the others once again felt the exciting atmosphere of the World Cup.
In front of the fixed camera behind the commentary box, He Wei and Zhang Lu were talking loudly. Everyone was shouting at the top of their lungs, otherwise they would not be heard clearly.
"Zhang pointed out that in the previous two games, Lippi adopted more conservative defensive counterattack tactics, which brought us an excellent record of one win and one loss. Do you think Lippi will continue to insist on defensive counterattacks in this game?
?”
"Hehe!" Zhang Hehe laughed, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly: "Lippi said in the interview before the game that he will continue to use anti-counterattack tactics, but I don't think it is that simple. Lippi's nickname
But Silver Fox!"
"Ha ha……"
Zhan Jun and Fan Zhiyi nearby heard Zhang Lu's words and burst into laughter.
"Director Zhan, come and analyze the advantages and disadvantages between us and Peru for the fans!" He Wei shouted to Zhan Jun again.
"Okay! Hello everyone, I am Zhan Jun!"
"As for the Peruvian team, they have only entered the World Cup again after 36 years. Like us, we are actually new to the World Cup."
"But this team has not been a weak team in the Americas in recent years. Today's Peru plays very smoothly and concisely on the offensive end, defends tenaciously, and has equally good defensive counterattacks. They often break the opponent's defense by controlling the ball on the ground!
"
"But their weaknesses are also very obvious, such as their forward line!"
"Peru's two main forwards, Farfan and Guerrero, are 33 and 34 years old this year. They are both troubled by age. Judging from the first two rounds of the group stage, the state of these two veterans is very average."
"This is why Peru's offensive performance in the first two rounds was very gorgeous but only one goal was scored. The forward line was weak!"
"On the defensive line, they also face the problem of aging players. Peru's absolute main center back Rodriguez is 33 years old this year, and his competitive status has declined significantly."
"Peru's midfield attack group may be their most stable link..."
Amid the shouts from He Wei and others, the game time came quietly.