Will the World Cup, which has been upset since the group stage, remain cold until the knockout stage?
Early this morning in Beijing time, with the end of the Qatar World Cup group stage, South Korea and Switzerland won the last two tickets for advancement, and the round of 16 knockout matches were all settled. Starting tomorrow morning tonight, the World Cup knockout stage will officially kick off, and the top 16 will fight for the top 8 seats.
At 23:00 on December 3, Beijing time, the Netherlands took the lead in playing against the US team who qualified for the second identity in Group B. At 3 a.m. on December 4, Messi led Argentina to attack the second Australian team in Group D.
From paper, the strengths and weaknesses of the two games are clearly distinguished, but the reality of the constant upset of this World Cup also reminds the two strong teams that there is no chance of making mistakes in the knockout stage. As Brazilian star Richarlison said: "This (an upset) is a wake-up call. You have to work hard to play every game and make sure you are 'online' within 100 minutes because you don't have time to regret it."
This morning, the World Cup round of 16 knockout match was released.
The upper half of the
is full of "dark horses". Except for the Netherlands and Argentina against the United States and Australia, Brazil will play against South Korea, and Japan will face Croatia . This is also the first time that three teams in Asia have entered the top 16 and created history. The lower half of
gathered European powers and became the dead half. The four matches are: France faces Poland , England faces Senegal , Spain faces Morocco , and Portugal plays Switzerland.
In the first knockout round tonight, the Netherlands will play the United States team, who qualifies as the second in Group B. At present, many players of the Dutch team have a cold. Dutch coach van Gaal revealed before the game that he is worried that the virus will spread within the team and affect the game. "I don't know much about the US team, but I know that this team has been improving in recent years. They have strong momentum, full of vitality, and there are many young and excellent players who play in Europe. This game will definitely be very fierce, and the Dutch team will do their best to defeat their opponents."
Van Gaal also said that no matter how the outside world evaluates it, the Dutch team's performance in the group stage is constantly improving, which is a good signal. "The first game is the hardest to play. Some players were not ready at that time, but after three group matches, everyone was in their best condition." Van Gaal believes that the true strength of the Dutch team will be reflected in the knockout round.
enters the knockout round, which means the game may enter a penalty shootout. In the last training session before yesterday's game, the Dutch team conducted a key drill for penalty kicks. "Punishment is very important, we didn't reach the final in 2014. But when facing Argentina, we are the better team. I'm particularly focused on the penalty shootout, and the penalty kickers and goalkeepers will have more confidence to face the challenges," Van Gaal said.
In addition, Van Gaal also responded to the speculation that "Spain lost to Japan to control the group points." "This is simply nonsense. Every team is fighting for victory. I don't believe Spain is willing to rank low."
At 3 am on December 4, Beijing time, Argentina will face the Australian team that broke through Group D.
After defeating Poland in the last game of the group stage, Argentina has been undergoing recovery training these two days. Judging from the schedule, after experiencing the life-and-death battle in the group stage, the Argentina team only has three days off, and the veterans in the team will definitely be affected to a certain extent. "We need not only look at Di Maria's situation, but also consider the recovery of all players," Scaloni said. "I don't know Di Maria is overloaded. You media know more than me. After playing against Poland, we fell asleep at 4 am. Yesterday we recovered, and today we want to see the situation of the players. Akuña has no problem, and I hope Di Maria has no problem either. We will look at Di Maria's situation today or tomorrow. If he has no problem, then he will play."
Yesterday, the Argentine coaching team analyzed the Australian team. “The Australian team is a team that focuses very much on the overall situation,” Scaloni said. “They have very experienced players in the midfield and frontcourt and counterattacks very quickly, so we have to be very careful.”
When predicting the game, Scaloni said: “This game will be tough and the opponent is very good. Next is the knockout round, and I hope Argentina can do it well. ”
When talking about the topic of "the destruction of the VAR technology on the level of excitement of the World Cup", Scaloni said, "I have the same views as Enrique and other coaches. The images are clear, but when you see that it can be defined in millimeters, it is new for us, especially since it all happened at the World Cup, which shocked me even more. (New Technology) is the same for all teams. ”
