Don't cry for group C.
"Argentine, don't cry for me", Reuters slightly modified this famous song and used it as the title of the commentary of this lucky draw. Indeed, when Bailey took out the "Holland" note from the jar, the whole audience was shocked. Coupled with the technical flow of African powerhouses C? te d 'Ivoire and Eastern Europe, it is understandable that this group of teams were eliminated.
Judging from the status of teams in recent warm-up matches, C? te d 'Ivoire has a great advantage in Africa, but the confrontation with the European team is ups and downs. You can lose 3-0 to France and beat Romania away. In a favorable situation, Italy's "second team" was drawn. Although it is not strong enough to compete with Argentina, it is also strong enough to "spoil the game." C? te d 'Ivoire and Argentina have only played once in history, 0-4.
Both the Netherlands and Argentina maintained excellent momentum in the qualifiers. From the personnel point of view, the young Dutch team is definitely not as good as Argentina, but Basten can maximize the potential of existing personnel. After taking office, he only lost to Italy in a friendly match and never lost again. Basten's most successful transformation of the Dutch team lies in the defense line. After abandoning the nominal Ma Bao, the team's defense has reached a higher level.
There are still some problems in the Argentine team's lineup, such as Crespo's partner, the choice of defense line, and the style of play developed around Riquelme after Peckerman took office, which has achieved excellent results, but also brought limitations. What should I do if Riquelme gets hurt? Judging from previous competitions, neither aimar nor Dali Sandro can replace Romi.
In the past 1978 World Cup finals, Argentina defeated the Netherlands, but it was also the only victory. Generally speaking, Argentina's record against Holland 1, 2 draws and 4 losses is really not so good. The orange army has absolute psychological advantage.
The Netherlands also has an advantage over Serbia and Montenegro in communication records. Especially in the recent confrontation between the two sides, the Netherlands beat Serbia and Montenegro 6-/Kloc-0-0 in the European Cup in 2000, which won a psychological advantage for itself. From this group, the Netherlands is the best, followed by Argentina, but both Serbia and Montenegro and C? te d 'Ivoire have the possibility of making surprises. Every game in this group is a final.
Italy missed the quarter-finals three times in a row?
In the 2002 World Cup and the 2004 European Cup, Italy failed to enter the quarter-finals once and qualify for the group once, so trapattoni resigned. This time, the road ahead of Lippi is not easy.
Official website, the Italian Football Association, said that it was a good draw. With the Italian team's style of play, the biggest headache for them is not the strong teams, but the middle and quasi-strong teams. Although Lippi is a more radical coach in Italy, Italian football as a whole is still inseparable from the concept of defense first. At the same time, Italy has never lacked excellent strikers to fight back with quality, so Italians are the best at defending and fighting back, which is why they can repeatedly make the Dutch suffer, while teams like Croatia, South Korea and Denmark have no good way.
Therefore, putting Italy in Group C may not be impossible to break through, but it will be the pain of Group E.
Since the 1980s, Italy has played against the Czech Republic eight times, with 1 winning, 4 draws and 3 losses. One of the draws became negative in the penalty shootout, and the record was terrible. However, it is worth noting that in the four encounters since 1984, Italy has drawn twice and scored only one goal twice, which is not easy.
In fact, this grouping coincides with the summer in Italy in 1990. At that time, Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States were also in a group, but the other team in the group changed from Austria to the mysterious Ghana team, and the United States was not the time when football just started, and Italy lost its local advantage. On the contrary, judging from the war record, the Czech team is stronger. It not only had an advantage over Italy for nearly 25 years, but also had the only confrontation with the United States, that is, it won the opponent with 5- 1 in the summer of 1990.
In terms of strength, Italy still has an advantage, but the performance of two consecutive games has always made this team less reassuring. Every team in the Czech Republic, the United States and Ghana has the strength to advance.
Can the 37-year spell be broken?
How much did Sweden "beat" England? The last time England beat Sweden was in a friendly match at 1968. The score was 3- 1. In the following 37 years, the English did not win Sweden. Is it because of this that the Football Association has a soft spot for Swedish coach Eriksson? We don't know.
In terms of strength, England is absolutely dominant in the group, but the Swedes' fierce psychological advantage over the years is their capital. With Ibrahimovic growing into a world-class star, Swedish football is at its best, and the English people are facing great resistance.
Judging from the four rivals, England and Sweden are better. Trinidad and Tobago can't even win Bahrain at home, and it is destined to be the role of accompanying the prince to study. Paraguay is a variable. This team has been in the top 0/6 of Kloc for two consecutive years, and it has rich experience. But in the history of England, there were two times when Paraguay had absolute psychological advantages, one was 3-0 and the other was 4-0. As long as it is slow and steady, there should be no problem. If the variable Paraguay does not "explode", then the theme of the group is that England and Sweden compete for the first place in the group. It is worth noting that the second group is likely to collide with Germany (the first in Group A). Considering the advantages of the host, no one wants to play this role.