Chapter 56: Great harvest

While Simon Grayson was busy, England and Ukraine, the host of this European Cup, began their first group match on June 11.

In this game, the "Three Lions" continued to use the lineup tactics practiced a while ago. Wang Tiezhu won his first appearance on behalf of England in the official game as a catalyst between the two Germans. Jonny Hausen was not so lucky. Hodgson still voted for Leighton Bynes at a critical moment.

Wang Tiezhu did not disappoint Hodgson's high expectations. Just 13 minutes into the start of the game, he took advantage of the corner kick to push Bynes' corner kick into the host Ukrainian goal, and England took a 1:0 lead.

The lagging host was not discouraged in front of Ukrainian fans. Taking advantage of the England team's breathing, they launched a fierce counterattack. In the 22 minutes, their leader Shevchenko attracted Terry and Ferdinand and sent the ball to the feet of another 23-year-old striker Almorenko. The latter shot a low shot and sent the ball into the England team's goal. Johart fell to the ground to save the ball and even failed to touch the side of the ball.

After scoring the goal, Yarmolianko ran all over the court excitedly. The striker from Dynamo Kiev will enter the English Premier League next season and was bought by Tottenham Hotspur for 13.5 million pounds. His outstanding form in the European Cup will surely allow him to win a more favorable position after he reaches Tottenham.

After the score became 1:1, the English team began to become stable. The Ukrainian team is a very emotional team. Even the Ukrainians are a very emotional nation. As long as they are interested, they can sing and dance happily on the streets, and strangers will definitely join in and enjoy themselves.

After the players' emotions stabilized, England's performance on the court began to stabilize, especially Wang Tiezhu, Lampard, Gerrard and Leiden Bynes, all four of them are players with strong defensive abilities. When they defended together, the midfield of England really became impoverished. Apart from playing long passes, the Ukrainians had no way to send the ball to Shevchenko and Yarmolenko in the front.

After all, the English team is much stronger than the Ukrainian team. In addition, the players' mentality is becoming more and more stable, so they are patiently looking for opportunities on the court. The situation on the court is gradually controlled by them. When the game is 40 minutes old, the English team gets another corner kick opportunity.

"Bang!"

Leiden Bynes' corner kick was fast and low, and the ball fell rapidly in the small penalty area, and then... Wang Tiezhu appeared!

"Dong!"

Still on the forehead!

Still very formally jumping on the spot!

Whether it was Bynes' corner kick or Wang Tiezhu's top score in the middle, it was like England's first goal, and the ball was pushed into the Ukrainian goal with a "whirlwind", and the result was exactly the same!

"GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

This time, Wang Tiezhu was really excited. He had no sense of belonging to the English team, but he valued the bonus skill points of the teammates rewarded by the "Black Feet" system very much, which would affect his teammates at Leeds United!

Wang Tiezhu was happy, and his teammates were even more happy. The people around him were all real British people. Rooney, Darren Bent, Lampard, Gerard, Terry and others all ran to him to celebrate the goal.

At this time, Wang Tiezhu was completely accepted by his teammates. Wang Tiezhu performed very well in the friendly match, but only when he proved himself in the official game can he really make his teammates trust.

In the first half, England led by 2:1. In the second half, England scored a goal with Ferdinand and Gerrard on the basis of stability. Ukrainian team's "nuclear warhead" Shevchenko was still strong and won another game for Ukrainian team before the end of the game. The score was finally frozen at 4:2. England ushered in the first victory of this European Cup.

After the game, Wang Tiezhu, who scored twice and was named the best on the spot, became famous. His performance made England cheer and the media even gave countless praises, deciding that he would be the real midfield leader of the "Three Lions" after Gerard.

Wang Tiezhu's performance is indeed worthy of such praise. In the whole game, he not only scored two goals, but also completed 45 passes 54 times, completed 11 steals, won 4 headers, and also provided Ferdinand with an assist, running 12 kilometers in ninety minutes. Moreover, Wang Tiezhu's running was mostly done in a short-distance sprint, and gained such a comprehensive midfield rookie. How could English fans not be happy?

After winning the first game of the group, England seemed a little relaxed because their opponent in the second game would be 2:1 to defeat Portugal's Belgium. Judging from the strength of England, it is not difficult to defeat Belgium.

However, this time, even the old coach Hodgson made a mistake. His mentality during football matches is very important. Although Hodgson kept saying that his players were nervous and he could not underestimate the Belgian team, even he himself really didn't look down on his opponents.

So five days later, in the match between England and Belgium, although Lampard received a cross from Wang Tiezhu in 34 minutes and kicked the ball into the Belgian goal with a powerful long shot, the "Three Lions" that completely used the previous game against Ukrainian team was completely seen through by the opponent. At the 41st minute of the game, the Belgian equalized the score.

In the second half, Belgium completely launched their defense, and the iron barrel formation made England unable to find any way to attack. Hodgson replaced Walcott and Ashley Young, but with little success.

In the end, the "Three Lions" who completed 18 shots in the whole game could only shake hands with the Belgian who had only completed 7 shots with regret, but the host Ukraine relied on Yarmolenko's double score and Shevchenko's goal, and finally defeated the Portuguese team, which has world's number one star Cristiano Ronaldo, 3-0.

After two rounds of group stage, England ranked first in Group A, Belgium also ranked second with 4 points, and the host Ukraine ranked third with 3 points. However, Portugal was highly favored in advance and became the first team to be eliminated. The situation in Group A was still a little chaotic. Even England could not ensure that they qualify. If they lost to Portugal in the third round and Belgium and Ukraine were shaking hands and making peace, then England would be eliminated due to the goal difference.

After this game, Hodgson's conservative platoon was also criticized. The English media did not show any mercy to the old coach who was highly praised a few days ago, believing that his caution in facing the host Ukraine is worthy of recognition, but when facing a team like Belgium, he should be bolder, and the team's offensive should be tougher, otherwise the English team should now win both games to ensure the team qualifying.

Fortunately, three days later, Hodgson finally made an adjustment. He replaced Darren Bent with Walcott, replaced Leiden Bynes with Jonny Hausen, and replaced the "magic lamp" with veteran Gareth Barry. After all, Lampard is already 34 years old. In major competitions like the European Cup, even if his health can withstand it, his condition will be discounted.

This time the change of the formation has benefited a lot from the "Three Lions". Faced with the Portuguese who just verbally said that they wanted to "maintain dignity", England once again scored 18 shots in the game, and Jonny Hausen and Walcott scored two goals in the first half and finally won with a score of 2:0.

Jonny Hausen not only scored a goal in this game, but also made 11 crazy raids on the left, which was simply unstoppable. After this game, he was even named the best on the spot. Of course, this is because Wang Tiezhu used 13 points of teammate bonus on him. It is justified to help more people around him. After the game, Wang Tiezhu's teammate bonus skill points reached 16 points. He is confident that if Jonny Hausen has another chance to play, his good brother will be in a hotter state.

But Wang Tiezhu is not Hodgson. When England qualified into the quarterfinals in the group, Hodgson's conservatism once again played a negative role. When facing the Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was not very strong, he arranged the midfielder of Wang Tiezhu, Lampard, Gerrard, and Leiden Bynes, and the forward line also sent a combination of Rooney and Darren Bent. Only in the central defender position was replaced by Cahill because Ferdinand once again had a back muscle strain.

So... England was tragedy!

Darren Bent received a cross from Gerald just 11 minutes into the game and sent the ball into the Bosnia and Herzegovina goal four meters in front of the goal.

After that, England's conservatism gave the Bosnians the opportunity to counterattack. Dzeko kicked the ball over his head in the first half and scored two goals in 31 minutes and 2 minutes of stoppage time. Bosnia and Herzegovina led by 2:1.

During the break, Hodgson's conservative thinking made him make another mistake. He replaced Leiden Bynes with Ashley Young, but Bosnia and Herzegovina was already crazy. After Dzeko restrained Terry, their other scorer, Ibisevic, became active, and once again broke the England goal with a lob shot in the 71st minute, and the score was also locked at 3:1.

At this point, the "Three Lions" European Cup trip came to an end. Although the England team, which was highly anticipated, started very well this time, it once again followed their "tradition" of poor performance in the competition, and was blocked from the semi-finals by Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was obviously inferior to their own.

After this defeat in the European Cup, the new coach of the "Three Lions" was criticized. Although he had discovered the two stars Wang Tiezhu and Jonny Hausen, his platoon and command ability in the front line were still criticized. Even the players of England had a vague feeling of distrust of Hodgson.

Relatively speaking, Wang Tiezhu is quite satisfied with this European Cup trip. After four games, he got 9 teammate bonus skill points. Now there are 17 teammate bonus skill points. I believe that after using these skill points next season, he will be able to enable his teammates at Leeds United to play a stronger abilities.

But before that... it's time to take a vacation!
Chapter completed!