For the World Cup in Qatar, the biggest headache for defending champions France is injury, and six important players, including Benzema, are absent due to injury, which makes the "Gallic Rooster" not even fit into the 26-man squad. This morning, the "injury curse" continues - in the group stage match against Australia, Lucas, who was replaced by his brother Te'o due to injury, bid farewell to the World Cup early, and his World Cup dream can only be fulfilled by his brother.
Substitution
A tragic relay showed the depth of brotherhood
After beating Australia 4-1, French boss Deschamps is still frowning, and despite the big scenes, the successive injury blows have left French boss Deschamps a little overwhelmed. The "Kangaroos" scored just nine minutes into the game, with Lucas Hernandez injured while defending Leckie and replaced by his younger brother Teo Hernandez four minutes later.
Deschamps had the worst premonition at the time, "In my opinion, he (Lucas) was badly injured. We need to confirm his injury and that is undoubtedly the worst thing about tonight. On the morning of November 23, Beijing time, the French team officially announced that Lucas was diagnosed with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and had to bid farewell to the World Cup in advance, becoming the seventh French international to bid farewell to the World Cup due to injury.
Under the announcement released by the French team on social platforms, Te'o replied to his brother with a series of loving expressions. This is undoubtedly a difficult time for the brothers, they are the second pair of brothers in the history of the French team to play in the World Cup together, the last pair to represent France in the World Cup was the Laurent brothers 92 years ago, but the Hernandez brothers left a "frame picture" in the Qatar World Cup, only the moment when the younger brother replaced the injured brother.
Older brother Lucas (pictured above) was injured, younger brother Teo was on top, and the French brother staged the relay. Photo/IC photo
Lucas
The older brother who set a record for Bayern's recruitment costs
Te'o provided an assist shortly after his arrival to help the team equalise, but this forced substitution changed the situation for France, and the "Gallic Roosters" immediately sounded the big counter-attacking horn. Lucas was France's main left-back in the last World Cup, Te'o's position is also left-back, and Deschamps said before the start of the World Cup that the brothers will compete for the main left-back position. Now Lucas is injured, and Te'o is the only left-back left in the French team.
The Hernandez brothers, who are more than a year apart in age, are both from Atletico's academy, but the two have not had the same path to fame. Lucas made his first appearance for Atletico in 2014 and has progressed from a substitute to a regular in the following seasons. Lucas made his debut for the French national team in March 2018, and before that, there was speculation about whether he would choose France or Spain when he grew up in Spain, and finally a phone call from Deschamps dispelled Lucas's concerns, and he later described to the outside world the scene when he first received Deschamps' call, "When I said I was ready to play for Spain, I didn't hear anything from France, but when Deschamps called to ask about my situation, I didn't hesitate for 1 minute, not even 30 seconds." ”
The football community knows Lucas's next journey, representing France in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and becoming a member of the World Cup winners; In March 2019, Atletico Madrid joined Bayern, and the German giants paid a transfer fee of 80 million euros for the then 23-year-old young defender, remembering that the most expensive signing in Bayern's history was 41.5 million euros.
Special Olympics
Younger brother who succeeded in the Apennine Peninsula
Te'o's career has been a bit bumpier than his brother's, and he was loaned to Alaves by Atletico Madrid in 2016. It's a pity that he didn't play alongside Lucas for Atletico, but Alavés has a new storyscript waiting for him. Te'o's wing breakthrough became a powerful tool for Alaves, helping the team reach the final of the Copa del Rey and becoming the hero of the team's 9th place in the league. The fledgling youngster quickly entered Real Madrid's radar, and despite Te'o's more offensive talent at the time, and defensive moves were often described as "aggressive" or "reckless", Real Madrid paid €24 million in liquidated damages in the summer of 2017 to buy him from Atletico.
After donning the white shirt, Te'o spent an obscure time at Real Madrid, his teammates are world-class stars, he has lifted the Champions League, Club World Cup and many other trophies with the team, but he himself can only sit on the bench.
In the summer of 2018, when his brother Lucas lifted the Hercules Cup with France, Te'o, who had refused to be called up by the French national youth team, was loaned to Real Sociedad by Real Madrid. With an unsuccessful season on loan, Te'o began to seriously consider leaving Real Madrid. A twist of fate came at this time, when the youngster was close to joining Bayer Leverkusen, Maldini appeared in front of him and eventually took him to Italy, to the Rossoneri AC Milan.
Milan have welcomed another outstanding left-back, and Te'o has put away the unruliness of the past. Milan fans have found that the new young man's technical style and behavior are becoming more and more "Maldini", and Maldini, as the club's sporting director, is extremely fond of this junior, and repeatedly hugs after the game as encouragement, which makes Te'o nicknamed "Teo Maldini". Last season, in Serie A, Special Olympics helped AC Milan win the league title after an 11-year absence. In the 37th round of the league at home to Atalanta, Te'o scored a long-running goal, which was named the league's best goal.
Fast and furious are the changes that Special Olympics has brought to AC Milan, and the reused Special Olympics has begun to deliver more and more brilliant results, and finally in August 2021, he was called up to the French national team. Perhaps it was the UEFA Nations League semi-final victory over Belgium and the assist Mbappe in the UEFA Nations League final to beat Spain that cemented Deschamps' idea of bringing him to Qatar.
The brothers competing for the same starting position would have been a good story, and Lucas was happy about it: "It's incredible to play in the World Cup with my brother and it's a pleasure to compete for the same position with him. No matter which of us plays, we will be proud of each other. Injuries put an end to the brothers' previous visions of competition, but Te'o may be inspired to fight harder — carrying the expectations of his brother in the way he became a hero at the San Siro.
Belgium's Eden Hazard brothers are coming to the World Cup in Qatar. Photo/IC photo
Band of Brothers
Five pairs of brothers fight Qatar, and the Hazard brothers are the most famous
In addition to France's Hernandez brothers, there are four other pairs of brothers at the Qatar World Cup. Among them, the most famous is Belgium's Eden Hazard brothers, who helped Belgium finish third in the 2018 World Cup. The Belgian squad is now led by number one star Kevin De Bruyne, and his brother Eden Hazard has had a difficult time at Real Madrid in recent years, but he and his younger brother Hazard are still important members of the team. At 3 o'clock on November 24, Belgium will welcome Canada, their first opponent in the group stage, and it will be interesting to see whether the Belgian brothers can play together.
Serbia's Milinković brothers are also in the spotlight, with older brother Sergei Milinković playing as midfielder and younger brother Vanja Milinković as goalkeeper. In an interview with FIFA, according to Sergei, he was born in Spain and later lived in Austria for a long time, "my mother is Serb and my father is Bosnian. For some reason, we always put all our holidays in Serbia, which is why I decided to play for the Serbian national team. Serbia's opening rival is the mighty five-star Brazil, which is now led by Juventus star Vlahovic, although foreign media predict that the Serbian brothers will be expected to be in the starting line-up.
The most special sibling combination of this World Cup is the Williams brothers of Ghana and Spain, who are their striker partners in Bilbao, with older brother Iniaki scoring five goals and one assist in La Liga this season, and younger brother Nico Williams scoring three goals and three assists. However, there is a precedent for them to represent different countries. At the 2014 World Cup, the Boateng brothers, who represented Ghana and Germany, were half-brothers. In that World Cup group stage, the final winner Germany drew 2-2 with Ghana, brother Boateng the elder is Ghana's main midfielder, younger brother Boateng Jr. is Germany's main defender, the two brothers hugged each other after the game became a classic scene.
In today's Ghanaian team, Inyaki is the main centre-forward, starting in Ghana's 2-0 warm-up win over Switzerland on November 18. Also in the World Cup warm-up match, Nico came off the bench for Spain and scored his first goal for Spain as they beat Jordan 3-1. At 00:00 on 24 November, his younger brother Nico had the opportunity to make his debut, playing for Spain against Costa Rica.
In addition to having the older brother of the Williams brothers, Garner also has a pair of "brothers" Ayu brothers, brother Andre and younger brother Jordan are both strikers and only one year apart, and the brothers also participated in the 2014 World Cup together. Ghana will challenge Portugal on 25 November, and in addition to the star group led by Cristiano Ronaldo, the Inyaki and Ayow brothers will be another highlight of the match.
Qatar World Cup five brother pairs
France
Lucas Hernandez (26, left-back)
Teo Hernandez (25, left-back)
Belgium
Eden Hazard (31, striker)
Sölgen Hazard (29, midfielder)
The brothers will play tonight
Serbia
Sergey Milinkovich (27, midfielder)
Vanja Milinković (25, goalkeeper)
Ghana
Andrea Ayu (32, striker)
Jordan Ayu (31, forward)
Ghana, Spain
Inyaki Williams (28, forward)
Nico Williams (20, striker)
Beijing News reporter Zhou Xiao
Edited by Wang Chunqiu
Proofreading Li Lijun