PS1: This is the update on Sunday, a little late. I hope that all book friends don’t care too much about the update time. I’ll guarantee that I will not stop updating...

PS2: Let me talk about the book friends group here. The group numbers are three, seven, zero, five, four, nine, nine, one, nine, and the verification answer is NTR Knight, well, that's it.

The defending champion Italy successfully advanced, and the host Portugal hated a penalty kick. The day after the game, all fans who followed the European Cup received the news through the media.

Italian fans were naturally very happy about this result. Although the team's road to promotion in this European Cup is a bit difficult, for Italian fans, they will not care how ugly the process is. A good result is always much more important than the process.

However, although the game has ended with the referee's whistle, the storm it caused obviously will not pass so easily. In other words, from the moment the game ended, the storm that swept the entire Portuguese football world had just begun.

After all, the Portuguese Football Association has high expectations for this European Cup held in the local area. Or it can be said that from the beginning, the Portuguese Football Association set its goal at the final championship trophy. In order to achieve this goal, from the selection of the national team training location to the top 16 and then to the schedule, they have set countless convenient conditions for Portugal in order to increase the chances of the national team winning the championship in the local area.

What surprised the Portuguese Football Association even more was that this European Cup was unpopular from the beginning. Although Portugal's unexpected defeat to Greece in the opening game made them very depressed, the team then successfully qualified as the top group, which made them quickly forget this. At the same time, the fall of the favorites in the championship in Spain, England, France, the Netherlands and other favorites also made the Portuguese Football Association's confidence in the team's victory in the local area.

However, it was such a team that had the advantage of time and place and had physical advantages, but was led twice by their opponents in the fight with defending champion Italy. However, they could only survive by relying on the two saviors of young player Ronaldo, and eventually lost to the Blues 2-4 in the penalty shootout. This process still had an ending, which really made it difficult for Portuguese fans who were determined to win the championship.

It has to be said that the Portuguese Football Association is really whimsical. Although holding the European Cup in the local area does have a certain bonus to the host, this makes it impossible for Portugal, which can only barely be considered first-class in Europe to win the Delaunay Cup, which is obviously too whimsical.

Even in Zhuang Mingge's previous life, Portugal was able to reach the final due to the outrageous elimination of the strong teams and luck. However, in this way, they finally lost to Greece, the largest dark horse in the 2004 European Cup, which is enough to show a lot of problems.

Rui Costa can be said to be the player who has been most affected by this loss. Countless Portuguese fans and media are accusing the midfielder of the master, believing that he should bear the main responsibility for the team to be eliminated in the European Cup semi-finals.

It has to be said that fans are always the most forgetful group, and the media are always the group who are best at fanning the flames. At this time, these people seem to have chosen to forget that Rui Costa has made great contributions to the Portuguese national team in the past ten years. I don’t remember that it was him and Figo that made Portugal from a team between second and third ranks to a European powerhouse, and led the team to achieve good results second only to the Eusebio era.

To be fair, this Portuguese midfielder performed very well in this semi-final. Under his organization and dispatch, Portugal once controlled the entire midfield situation in the game, suppressing Italy within the half-court range and almost couldn't play the defensive counterattack they were best at, and also created countless scoring opportunities for Pauletta ahead. Unfortunately, Portugal lacks a top striker like Shevchenko or Rebrov who can turn these passes into goals one by one, and only second-rate players like Pauletta, Gomez and Postiga keep wasting opportunities.

However, compared with the highly condemned Rui Costa, the Portuguese forward group, which has been wasting opportunities since the start of the European Cup, has been much better. In other words, Portuguese fans have never had much expectations for their scam forward from the beginning, so they naturally have less accusations against Pauletta.

Rui Costa’s response to the overwhelming accusations from Portugal fans and media was also very direct. Shortly after the team was eliminated from the European Cup, the midfielder announced his retirement from the national team and agreed that the European Cup semi-final in Italy also became Rui Costa’s curtain call for the Portugal national team. This is a later story, so I will not go into details here.

After the host Portugal was eliminated and bid farewell to the Delaune Cup, the showdown between the Czech Republic and Greece also scored the victory or defeat at the Fire Dragon Stadium in Porto. Greece, the biggest dark horse in this European Cup, created a super upset again under the leadership of Rehger. They rely on tenacious overall defense and a silver ball in the last minute of the first half of the first half, will eliminate the Czech Republic, which has one vote of famous players such as Nedved, Rosici, Poboski, and entered the European Cup final for the first time in history!

Eight years ago, he died in the last minute of the European Cup final, which was implemented in an international competition for the first time. Eight years later, he fell on the last minute of the game and was likely to be the last silver ball in football history. It has to be said that the Czechs are really unlucky. This also puts them on the cloak of a tragic hero.

Although the Czech Republic's exit seems extremely tragic, it always makes a perfect shot by the opponent in the final stage. It also shows another problem from another perspective, that is, they are prone to insufficient concentration when they have the advantage. Otherwise, just being lucky can't explain this strange situation.

Of course, after Nedved's talented golden generation withdrew from the national team one after another, the Czech Republic, whose overall strength has declined significantly, has no chance to compete for the last minute of the game. In the final stage, there is naturally no room for performance.
Chapter completed!