Before leading the team to the European Championship, the head coach of the Italian national team, Lippi, gave an interview to television. In the interview, the elegant "Silver Fox" chatted with a cigar from "Paradise" Tuscany and said goodbye to the all-Italian television audience - "This is my last time in charge of the national team, and after the end of Europe, no matter what the result, I will leave." Of course, I want to win the championship and Italy is a team with championship quality. It's just that I can't say much until it happens......"

In fact, Italy does not have high hopes for this team, and they believe that hosts Spain and France, who are unbeaten in qualifying, have a better chance of winning the title than Italy. If Italy had met these teams before the final, it would have been hard to say whether they would have won or lost.

The pessimism of the Italians stems from the World Cup in Brazil two years ago. In that cup, the Italian team, which was considered the favorite to win the championship before the game, was eliminated in the group stage, and the group in which Italy was not in the "group of death" was not a big upset at the time.

The defeat at that World Cup caused many people to leave the national team, including 35-year-old Andrea Pirlo, 32-year-old Cassano, 32-year-old Dosena and 36-year-old Buffon...... The current national team has been re-established, and they have nothing to do with the Italian team that won the World Cup in Germany ten years ago.

But Italian football is so strange, every time the whole world doesn't think of them, they always get impressive results. For example, in the 1982 World Cup and the 2006 World Cup, they were both champions.

Now, they have also made it all the way to the final and have hopes of winning the European title. As a four-time world champion, the continent's top tournament has only been won once, which is really inconsistent with their status as a world powerhouse. The Italians want to write their name in the history of the Championship for the second time. Although it was generally not optimistic before the game, now that they have reached the final, it is natural that there is a lot of talk in Italy at this time, believing that the blue warriors led by Lippi can defeat England and regain their reach to the top of Europe.

In order to cheer up the team and cheer them up, the Italian media took out the games from six years ago as examples. In the World Cup in South Africa six years ago, Fabio Capello's England performed well and reached the semi-finals, but they met Lippi's Italian team, and in the duel between the two Italian managers, Lippi had the last laugh. The Italian media now comes up with it and says - "Look, we have a psychological advantage against England. ”

It's a far-fetched statement, but today's Italians just like to hear it.

There is a deliberate atmosphere of optimism in Italy, but Lippi doesn't think there is anything to be optimistic about this game. As a seasoned manager, he's seen a wide range of opponents, he's played countless games without repeating them, and he has a wealth of experience and he knows this England side is tough to play against.

Although at the beginning of the European Championships, Donne's team gave a bad impression and even almost failed to qualify at one point. But since the start of the game against Germany, they have been getting better and better. defeated Germany 2:1, ended the 48-year winless victory against Sweden 2:0, defeated the favorite France 4:0, and eliminated the host Spain 3:1. This is impressive enough. You must know that they have eliminated basically the top teams in Europe along the way. Italy, on the other hand, have a much easier path to qualify.

The good news now is that England have been battling the big teams all the way, and they must be better than Italy in terms of physical exertion, and the English players are more tired mentally. Although Italy had one less day of rest than England, they played very easily in the semi-finals, which can be said to be "bloodless".

Lippi's tactics are simple, and it's not hard to guess, before emphasizing offense, emphasize defense first, and no matter what you do, defense is the most important thing. England showed their strong attacking strength in the European Championships, only the game against Wales did not score, and this game is what Lippi needs to focus on, those games that lost to England are not of much value, only Wales' victory over England is worth studying, from which you can find the code to win against England.

Lippi has already studied this game, Wales used the method of defending the counterattack, deliberately showing weakness, and then waiting for England's pride to underestimate the enemy, and then use their ability on set-pieces to decide the winner by one goal. The tactics are simple, but they are very effective. Wales manager Tosak took advantage of England's high-spirited but proud performance of the recent big win over Portugal and devised a tactic that paid off. Their only win at this European Championship sent them to the round of 16.

Against Italy, Wales did not continue to use rigid tactics. Maybe it was because they had already achieved their pre-match goals, so it was a relaxed game, or maybe it was Toshak's desire to show a different side of the team, as they started aggressively attacking and hoping to break the Italian goal. It's just a pity that they hit an iron plate - even against a weak Wales, Lippi insisted on defending and counterattacking. The impregnable defence made Wales' attack useless and exposed holes in their backline, which Italy seized on to counter-attack and win comfortably against Wales.

In retrospect, Lippi may want Wales to use the same tactics against them as England in the game, so that he has a chance to test how much the team can do against such a stubborn defense.

He is also uncertain what tactics Donn will use against Italy.

※※※ "Lippi will definitely stick to the defensive counterattack. Donn said this in a meeting with the coaching staff. He led the team to play a lot of games, and whenever he tried to raise the banner of attack, he would always die a miserable death. Personally, I think there is a game that is very useful for us. I don't know how many people still remember this game - in the group stage of the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, Brazil beat Italy 3-0. ”

As soon as he said this, several well-informed coaches immediately showed a sudden expression. Everyone remembers that game.

'Lippi had the best squad he could have at the time, and he wanted to play against Brazil because he needed to score goals and win to get out of the group. The 433 was the Italian formation at the time, with Pirlo and Montolivo being the duo and a De Rossi. But the performance of such a lineup is miserable. Because Pirlo is old, Montolivo lacks speed and is not good at defending, and there is only one De Rossi in midfield to fight against Brazil's Kaka, Robinho, McConn, Melo and others. In that game, Italy not only lost in terms of score, but also did not take advantage of the field at all. This match gave Lippi a big shock and made him completely abandon his illusions. Since then, he's back to the old way of defending and counter-attacking......" Don said as if that game didn't happen seven years ago, but just yesterday.

"In this final, we can't expect Lippi to make the same mistakes as he did back then. I think Lippi will continue to play with the counter-attacking tactics, they have players up front who can solve problems on their own, and as long as they can hold on to the draw, they are likely to win. We had two options: first, try to score as soon as possible in the game and force Italy to press out and play against us, so that we would have more chances. He held out two fingers, "Second, we also retracted to focus on defense, avoid conceding the ball first, and drag them to the penalty shootout, to gamble on luck." ”

"Which one do you choose?" He asked.

The coaches were lost in thought.

Generally speaking, World Series finals are usually boring, as most people choose to be more conservative and make sure they don't concede a goal before thinking about scoring. If both coaches think so, then this final must be boring, if there are no surprises.

The oldest coach, Tony, a sixty-six-year-old man? Karl was the first to express his opinion: "I think it's better to be cautious, Tony. Defence comes first and we have to make sure it's not us who concedes first before we can think about beating Italy. In a final like this, the side that concedes first can be passive, especially when we are playing against a team that is known for their defensive solidity......"

Don didn't respond, he didn't nod his head in agreement or shake his head in no, he just looked at the others, hoping to hear more from them.

"I don't agree with you, Carl Sr." Steve? Wigley disagreed, "I think we should be a little bit more positive. Lippi would never have thought we'd attack in the final, he thought we'd be like you think we would be, and I think that's what we can take advantage of. Take the initiative to attack and strive for the first goal. We have the strength. He even clenched his fists.

Hearing that someone objected to his suggestion, Carl didn't immediately refute it, just smiled and shook his head.

"I think it's better to be conservative. This is the final, we can't make mistakes, at least we can't make mistakes first...... "It's another coach Steve?" "The final is not about who performs better, it's about who makes fewer mistakes. Even if it goes to penalties, we have a chance to win. It's just a matter of stepping up penalty training these days. ”

It's now 2:1 and the conservatives have the upper hand for the time being.

Donn turned his gaze to Des? Walker. As an assistant coach, he also has to have a voice.

"I'm in favor of Wigley." Walker's opinion is simple.

Now everyone is looking at Don again. The score of conservative or offensive is 2:2, which is comparable.

Don didn't give an answer right away, he was clearly hesitating. Conservatives have their reasons, and they are very convincing, such a final is won by a team that makes fewer mistakes or even no mistakes, and conservative defense is the way to go.

It stands to reason that Don is the kind of person who can do anything for the sake of victory, and is not afraid to sacrifice the scene. He is not afraid of the stigma of negative football, as long as he can lift the championship trophy, he can trample all those who have scolded him in the quagmire under his feet.

But today, Donn wasn't really going to do that. Or rather, it's not just about that.

"What you said makes sense, it really makes me embarrassed......" he deliberately made a grimace.

※※※ George who just took a bath? Wood picked up Gareth? Bell's call.

"Guess where I am! George! As soon as I got on the phone, I heard Bell's energetic voice.

"At home." Wood didn't bother to play such childish games with Bell, and he casually gave the place its name.

"Tsk, you're so boring! I'm in the Maldives! The white sand beach with palm trees is 10 million times better than the broken weather in the UK! I love it here! It's good to be out early......" Bell exclaimed, exaggeratedly.

Mitchel pushed the door in, saw Wood on the phone, and casually asked, "Is your mother?" ”

Wood shook his head: "A noisy little monkey." ”

Mitchel laughed, he knew who had called.

"Hey, George!" Bell heard Wood's words and was not happy. "I kindly called you, did you treat me like that?"

"What's the matter?" Wood ignored him and asked directly.

"Congratulations on making it to the finals." This sentence Bell said very sourly. Although he said before that it would be good to be eliminated early, in fact he would rather stay in Spain at this time.

"Thank you."

"I've heard that your opponent is Italy, and I have something to tell you, maybe it will help you a little."

Wood raised an eyebrow: "Oh? ”

"Oh what do you mean!" Bell knew Wood was interested, and he finally got a grip on Wood.

"Well, thanks. Please tell me. ”

Bale cleared his throat and fully enjoyed the respect Wood had given him before continuing: "If you can tell the boss, tell him that it's best to play a more conservative defensive counter-attack against Italy......

"Italy will do the same."

"I know! But this is the final, not the group stage, there is no draw, even if everyone defensive, there will be a winner! Penalty kick! I think that's the best way to decide who wins the championship. When we played against Italy, we were a little dizzy in the round of 16, and everyone from the coach and ourselves thought we could challenge Italy. So we tried to take the initiative, and the result? We lost all our panties. Lippi was cunning, he waited for others to attack, and then waited for an opportunity to fight back. It's really similar to the boss, so I suggest the boss do the same. It's okay if it's ugly, it's okay if it's dull, you're not playing for the TV audience, and that gives you a very good chance of winning. I'm sure with you, England's defence won't be a problem. To be honest, if we had continued with the same tactics that we had against you, maybe we could have dragged them into extra-time or even a penalty shoot-out. It's a pity ......"

Bale was silent for a moment, clearly haunted by his elimination.

"If we win against Italy, maybe we will meet you in the final! When the time comes, we'll have a mental advantage against you! Ha ha! In a moment, his voice was full of life again.

Bale then told Wood about the players in the Italian squad who needed special attention, reminding him to be extra careful with them during the game. These are the first-hand things Bale has learned since the match against Italy, and of course he knows that the boss is always used to studying his opponents thoroughly, but there should be something new in the information gathered from the player's point of view, even if it is just a little bit, and he hopes to help the leader.

Finally, after showing off the scenery and weather of the Maldives, it was time to close the line.

"George." He suddenly called again.

"Huh?" Wood, who was about to put down his phone, stopped.

"Gotta win! You have to win the championship! ”

"Of course. We're not here to compete for runner-up. ”

"Hey, that's good, that's good......," Bale smirked, "and then I'll be able to say — 'Look, we're the only team that hasn't won the European championship!'" ’”

The windows were raining heavily, and the wind was raging in the distance, and the waves were struck at the embankment on the shore, and the poor palm trees seemed to be in danger of breaking at any moment. There was a white mist on the shore, and nothing could be seen from afar.

The loud roar could not be stopped, even if the windows were closed, and it continued to burrow into the dimly lit room.

It's rare to see this kind of weather in the Maldives, but that doesn't mean it never will. May to November is the rainy season in the Maldives, with heavy rainfall from the southwest monsoon as to counter the dryness brought by the northeast monsoon. At this time, travelers can only hide in their hotel rooms and sigh.

Unlucky ghost Gareth? Bell dropped his phone and lay on the bed, staring boredly at the ceiling. His girlfriend was in the shower before he had time to call Wood.

"What the hell! I finally came to the Maldives, but I encountered this kind of ghost weather...... Ah, it's better to be in Spain......"

(To be continued)