Neil became more and more satisfied as he watched Thapa on the field. With Thapa in the midfield, the Indian National Youth Team's defense was better, but they were always suppressed by the Croatian team on the offensive end.
Fortunately, Neil gave tactical guidance before the game. The core of the Croatian team is Falleta. Neil specifically asked Thapa to defend Falleta as much as possible. As long as Falleta is suppressed, the Croatian team's offense will be greatly reduced.
The game had been going on for 20 minutes without us noticing. Although the Croatian team had the advantage, they actually did not have any good opportunities.
In the 26th minute, Croatia launched an attack and Bashić passed the ball to Falleta, but Thapa was always nearby because he was responsible for marking Falleta.
Of course Thapa would not let Falleta get the ball. After seeing Bashichi pass the ball, Thapa quickly stepped forward to intercept and successfully intercepted the football.
"Thapa made a steal! The Indian National Youth Team launched a counterattack!" Sanjay Banerjee explained excitedly.
After Thapa intercepted the ball, he passed it to Gomez in the frontcourt, and at the same time Thapa accelerated and sprinted forward.
After Gomez stopped the ball, Croatia's central defender Lucic came over to defend. Although Gomez had good physical fitness, he did not have the ability to excel, so Gomez could only pass the ball to Danny Meitei on the left.
Meitei sprinted forward from the left with the ball at high speed, but the Croatian team had five defenders. After seeing the defensive players coming towards him, Meitei made a long through pass and passed the ball to Thapa in the middle.
If you look down at the field at this time, you will find that seven players of the Croatian team have retreated to defend, and the Indian team has lost the opportunity for a defensive counterattack.
Thapa had no choice but to pass the ball back to MD Arbash. Neil shook his head in disappointment when he saw that his team's counterattack had failed.
At present, the efficiency of India's counterattack is not very high. The reason for this is that the team does not have a fast point. Meitei and Rohan Singh on the two sides cannot hold the ball even if they have a little speed.
There are only two players in the front field who can hold the ball, one is the four-star fancy Thapa, and the other is Gomez who has excellent physical fitness.
But both of them have a speed of 76 points, which is not very fast. Currently the team lacks a winger who is fast enough to hold the ball and preferably has the ability to break through.
After the ball was passed back to MD Arbash, the Indian National Youth Team began to reorganize the attack.
The football was soon passed to Thapa. After taking the ball, he moved forward. Smonchi came up to him. Thapa suddenly kicked the football to his right side with his left foot.
After Thapa easily passed Smonchi with a dunk, he took two steps to the right side of the arc outside the penalty area. Croatia's left-back Grabovac saw that Smonchi was passed, so he gave up defending Rohan Singh and ran to defend Thapa.
There was also a central defender. Although Thapa passed Smonchi, he fell into a defensive trap. So Thapa used the outside of his right foot to pass the ball to Rohan Singh on the right.
Because Grabovac went to defend Thapa, Rohan Singh currently had no defensive player to defend him. After Rohan Singh stopped the ball, he observed the positions of all his teammates.
At this time, Rohan had two choices. The first was to kick a high ball to find center forward Gomez, and the second was to pass it low and horizontally to Thapa.
There were many defensive players around Gomez, so Rohan passed the ball horizontally to Thapa to be on the safe side.
Thapa saw Rohan passing the ball and accelerated into the opponent's penalty area. Thapa faced the football and shot directly with his right foot.
"A beautiful through ball! Thapa cuts in and shoots!" Sanjay saw that the Indian National Youth Team finally made a shot and shouted excitedly.
Unfortunately, the quality of Thapa's shot was too mediocre. Not only was it kicked too straight but the speed of the ball was also very slow. Goalkeeper Klich easily caught Thapa's shot.
"What a pity! It seems that Thapa didn't kick the right spot. Oh! It's such a pity that this ball missed!" Sanjay explained with regret when he saw that the ball did not go in.
Neil saw that Thapa's shot missed the target and spread his arms in regret. Such a good opportunity was wasted.
Thapa's shot was only 53 points. Neil knew that this was the main reason why Thapa wasted this opportunity. It seemed that he had to practice Thapa's shooting ability next.
Thapa, who missed the shot, seemed to have used up all his strength and lay on the grass in disappointment. Soon his teammates came forward, pulled Thapa up, and comforted him.
Although the attack by the Indian National Youth Team did not succeed in the end, it gave the Indian team confidence and also warned the Croatian team that the Indian National Youth Team was definitely not a pushover.
After this attack, the Indian National Youth Team seemed to have regained its offensive rhythm, and Thapa played a big role in this.
On the contrary, Gomez's performance in this game was a little invisible. Of course, the main reason was that his teammates had no way to support him.
Gomez is a forward who needs teammates, but the Indian team had too few offensive opportunities, so Gomez didn't have many shots.
As the India National Youth Team regained its offensive form, Gomez also began to appear in the spotlight. Gomez had a very threatening header, and the football hit the post hard.
The Indian National Youth Team had a bit of bad luck today and has wasted two excellent opportunities so far.
It's not just the Indian National Youth Team, the Croatian National Youth Team also has no offensive feeling, especially Croatia's core player Falleta, who was completely sleepwalking in this game.
Falleta has been shadowed by Thapa, and every time Falleta gets the ball, he can always see Thapa.
Sometimes, when Falleta saw his teammate Dolek, he couldn't help but feel nervous. The reason for this was that Dolek, like Thapa, wore the No. 8 jersey.
In the end, the first half of the game ended in a 0-0 draw, and neither side scored in the first half.
At the beginning of the game, the Croatian National Youth Team completely suppressed the Indian National Youth Team. In the second half, the Indian National Youth Team slowly recovered and the situation began to balance.
During the half-time break, Neil did not blame the players because overall their performance was good. The main reason for this situation was that Croatia was indeed strong.
Neil guessed that Croatia would definitely change its tactics in the second half. Croatia's first game was against Brazil, and the two sides ended in a draw.
Therefore, Croatia must be aiming for victory in this game. If nothing unexpected happens, Brazil will most likely win the match between Brazil and New Zealand.
Then New Zealand has 0 wins and 2 losses, while Brazil has 1 win and 1 tie, so if Croatia draws again, it will be 0 wins and 2 draws.
Therefore, Croatia will definitely strengthen its attack in the second half. Neil is determined to win this game. As long as he defeats Croatia, the worst result of this Evolution Cup will be the runner-up.
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