Thank you for the reward of "Thief Death" and "Qingqing Little Wolf"! ――

Oita Stadium.

The 1/8 final between England and Senegal has been played for 40 minutes, and the score is still 0:0.

It was at this point in time that England's attack changed.

Budding full-back Ashley Cole has come up with an assist, and he has tended to play on this side before, or McManaman has been on the inside to shoot from the outside.

But this time, McManaman, the curly-haired dog, was in control of the ball on the wing, and he was still 40 yards from the baseline, he was slow and looked like he had no desire to attack, while the crowd clearly saw that two Senegalese players rushed over to encircle McManaman, and behind McManaman, Ashley Cole scurried in.

Just as those three points were about to converge, McManaman flicked the ball in front of the wing, and then, he moved, and raced to the inside line.

Ashley Cole kept pace and rushed up to receive the ball and hit the baseline directly.

Two seconds later, Ashley Cole was positioned parallel to the line of the penalty area and his cross was a cross that sent the ball back to McManaman, who had suddenly started and shook off defenders.

McManaman picked up the ball on the left side of the box, and then, under the frightened gaze of the Senegalese defenders, dribbled sideways, and no one knew when he would suddenly change direction and enter the box!

McManaman was also observing. Approximately coldly observed. His dribbling footwork is very delicate. Similar to Henry, it is not by relying on fancy skill dribbling to break through, but by changing the rhythm, stopping and changing to some basic skills to a certain level.

With Scholes's running involvement, McManaman's lateral inward dribble in front of the penalty area, no Senegalese player dared to grab it at the first time.

Until, the left centre-back Tiata took a step forward!

McManaman's eyes froze, as Tiatta took a step. The arch of the foot kicks the ball behind Tiata!

Tiata didn't even make an outstretched foot, the rhythm of the pass was so poor that the defender would be too late to intercept even if he stretched out!

When Tiata turned her head to look behind her, her heart was as cold as ice!

A figure came out, and the central defender Cisse followed closely but was obviously half a beat slower.

Thiata was praying in his heart that England's number one star would waste this opportunity, or he would become a sinner!

If he doesn't move, there's no room for Owen to run diagonally!

However, he moved, and there was an empty space in the right area of the penalty area. Owen ran towards the ball, and Cisse was a position away from him. It is impossible to defend him, unless there is a foul, or, Owen stops the ball and makes other options, which will give Cisse a chance.

Owen, however, did not give the Senegalese defender any chance.

Even, he didn't give goalkeeper Selva a chance.

Meet the ball, half-turn and push the shot!

As the ball rolled towards goal, Cisse's long legs were slowed down for perhaps less than half a second, and Cisse looked in horror in the direction of the goal, and his wide eyes saw that Selva was caught off guard and pounced on the right side, obviously, slowly, before his saving hand could touch the turf, the ball had rolled over.

It rolls into the net from the far post and lands in the side-netting, stopping the rotation.

Owen kept looking in the direction of the goal after the shot, in fact, in less than a second, he saw that the goal was going to be scored, and then Yan Sù's face bloomed with crazy joy, and he ran towards the sideline with open arms, and at the same time, a huge wave of England fans was set off in the stands.

"Owen! Michael Owen! Owen's clever push gave England the lead, 1-0, and we finally scored! England are now ahead! We hadn't had a shot from inside the box before, but this time, it was a surprise to find the back of the net with the first shot, and McManaman was the most dangerous knife in attack, disrupting Senegal's defence with a dribble before delivering an impeccable assist! ”

"Martin, Andy, I think that's why a year and a half ago, when people predicted that McManaman would be dropped by Hall, but in the end McManaman stayed in the England team and was entrusted with the task by Hall! It's just the role of dribbling, breaking through, disrupting the opponent's defense, I think, apart from McManaman, England has no second player who can do it, that's why Hall needs him, trusts him, values him, and in this World Cup, McManaman's third game, like his first two games, played an extremely important role against Sweden and Argentina! It is impossible to imagine how much less power this England team would have been in attack without McManaman! ”

This is a phenomenon that not only England, but fans around the world did not expect.

The top stars in the England squad were Becky and Owen, but when it came to playing an important role in the game and changing the shape of the game, McManaman was the first to take the lead, and he became the best player.

Owen ran to the sideline after scoring a goal, he went around in a big circle, and finally rushed to Aldridge in front of his teammates in the chase and interception, jumped up directly, hugged Aldridge at the same time, and almost knocked Aldridge to the ground, fortunately Aldridge was behind the coaches and players who rushed out of the coach's bench, and England's coaches and players gathered together, cheering for the goal and celebrating the goal.

No one knew that Owen had spoken in Aldrich's ear in an undetectable voice that only Aldrich could hear.

"Coach, I'm sorry, thank you."

A "I'm sorry" is from the bottom of my heart, but also full of regret and remorse.

Perhaps Owen still can't let go of his rude behavior of turning Aldridge out of the club back then, and regrets that he missed the mentorship with Aldridge at the club.

A "thank you" is equally sincere.

During the group stage of the World Cup, Owen was questioned, and even though he scored a goal in the big win over Argentina, he still wasted a lot of chances, and it was Aldridge who stood up for him unwaveringly.

Whether or not it's because England don't have any strikers to count on other than Owen, Owen feels it's time to say thank you to Aldridge.

Aldridge just smiled, touched the top of Owen's head, cheered the players on, and shouted to them: "Don't give them any chance!" Senegal, the Lions of Teranga, we have to sue them, they can't stop us from going to the quarterfinals! ”

England also took the opportunity to explain their attitude towards each other in the final stages of the first half.

Southgate led the defense, told everyone to be steady, let the front field also close, focus on counterattacks, there is not much time left in the first half, if the opponent attacks, England's counterattack may have a miraculous effect.

The African fans in the stands were a little disappointed, and it looked like the team couldn't hold back the Three Lions.

This game looks at the eyes of the fans, and sees the huge gap between the two teams, which is reflected in the overall strength of the skills and tactics, rather than the individual players.

It's a matter of experience, just like Senegal won't play after going 3-0 up to Uruguay, and in turn, they're under a huge threat and can't keep up with the constant bombardment.

Tiata's rash grabbing, a kind of Cheng dù is the collapse of the psychological defense line, otherwise, reason will tell him, stand still, block the area, McManaman does not break through, don't care about the other party, even if the England team plays a long shot on the periphery, hit it, did you still play less before?

Failing to block the pressure and rushing to stifle the opposition's threat, he lost his position, giving Owen the space to run, and causing a flaw in the defense of the most dangerous area in the box.

Mechu motivates his players on the sidelines, and he also knows that in a game with less than half time, the difference in technical and tactical strength between the two teams is already obvious.

Although 21 of Senegal's 23 internationals play in the French league, their style of play has a Latin romance in them, with players daring to play, daring to make moves, and their technical abilities are not clumsy, but fluid.

However, in the face of England's tight and orderly defense, their attack is too dependent on individuals, and it is difficult to have room to play, and at the same time, the England team relies on the whole, and even except for McManaman, you will not feel that the England team has any advantage in terms of ball skills, but better integrity, better teamwork, so that the England team has created a huge advantage on the field, which is the team sublimation effect of the individual players cohesion.

In terms of tactics, Mechu expected England to make changes in the closing stages of the first half.

Before, don't look at McManaman left and right, the running position is erratic, and the coordination of other players interspersed with short passes in the running position is also a little irregular, but in fact, the routine is one, which is to create opportunities for midfielders to shoot from a distance.

It's like in the past, no matter how England attacked, the main attacking method was the wide cross.

The same routine, if you don't change it, you will fall into rigidity, and at the same time, let the opponent defend more and more experienced.

But Senegal is not a particularly mature team after all, England's long-range shooting routine has not only stiffened themselves, on the contrary, paralyzed Senegal, McManaman horizontal dribbling in front of the penalty area, midfielders back to defend the closest person to him, Syaf went to keep an eye on Scholes, Faye went to follow Xiaobei, if someone can unswervingly defend McManaman, I am afraid he will not be so easy to send an assist to Owen.

There is still time in the game, Mechu will not admit defeat now, but he really can't be optimistic, he is constantly mobilizing the enthusiasm of the players and motivating them.

It was the only thing he could do.

How to crack England, tactically, he is at a loss.

However, it is not uncommon for football to turn things around in a short period of time by relying only on one passion, so Senegal fights for African football!

Maybe you can only pin all your hopes on passion! (To be continued......)