This is the 60th article in the World Cup review series in Germany. The quarter-finals of the World Cup in Germany were full of strong conversations, and the match between Brazil and France in Frankfurt at 21:00 on July 1, 2006 was just as interesting.
The defeat in the final of the 98 World Cup made many Brazilian fans resentful, and this time against the French team, many people felt that it was time for the strong Brazilian team to complete revenge.
Pereira's line-up was a bit of a surprise in this game, as he dismantled the "magic quartet", put Adriano on the bench and added Juninho Jr. in midfield. Emerson was replaced by Gilberto Silva as he did not recover from his injury. The rest of the positions are unchanged, with Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Juan, Carlos, Ze Roberto, Kaka, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo.
The French team's starting line-up was as solid as ever, with Barthez and Sagnol still in the eleventh, 15-Thuram, Galla, Abidal, Vieira, Claude Makelele, Franck Ribery, Zinedine Zidane, Malouda and Thierry Henry.
Unlike the game between Germany and Argentina, many of the players in these two teams were teammates and old acquaintances, so the atmosphere before the game was relatively harmonious, with Ronaldo and Zidane still talking and laughing.
After the start of the game, Brazil continued to threaten the French goal with set-piece opportunities, but the effect was not optimal. In the 11th minute of the game, Ronaldo's free kick from the right side crossed diagonally to the back point, and although Ronaldo earned the ball, his header went over the crossbar under the interference of Sagnol.
Four minutes later, Brazil played again in the front, and Ronaldo coordinated with his teammates in the middle and passed the ball to Ronaldo on the right. Ronaldo's cross from the right baseline was met but he couldn't touch the ball, and Brazil missed a chance.
Seeing that the French team was at a disadvantage, the fans of the Brazilian team couldn't help but rejoice. But who knew that the game did not go according to their expectations, the French team gradually increased, and the Brazilian team itself tended to be conservative. In the 24th minute of the game, Cafu fouled Abidale and received the first yellow card of the game.
In the 27th minute of the game, the French team got a free kick opportunity on the left side, but the quality of Zidane's penalty was not too ideal, and it went straight above the crossbar.
Perhaps because he felt that Zizou had a bad sense of foot, the Brazilian team generously sent a lot of set-piece opportunities in the following time, so the cooperation between Zidane and his teammates became more and more tacit. In the 38th minute of the game, Zidane took a free kick in front of the left penalty area to the penalty area, and Malouda's header hit the crossbar.
In fact, not only are the French team's free-kick combinations becoming more and more threatening, but also the ground coordination is gradually gaining momentum. On the other hand, the Brazilian team began to try two full-backs to instigate the attack, but the effect was not ideal.
In the 44th minute of the game, Cafu inserted an assist and was cleared, and the ball came to the feet of Zidane. Zinedine Zidane dribbled all the way to midfield, and the Brazilian tried to intercept but to no avail. Zidane then fed the ball to Vieira, who began to accelerate and almost made a single shot. Juan had no choice but to tackle him from behind, but only to be shown a yellow card by Spanish referee Cantalejo.
This time the free-kick was taken by Thierry Henry, but the ball hit Ronaldo's hand, Ronaldo received a yellow card, and the French team continued to take the free-kick. The following free-kick was taken by Zidane, but it was still blocked by the wall, and the two sides also went into the break with a score of 0:0.
In the rematch, Brazil still didn't seem to have learned their lesson, and less than a minute into the second half, they generously sent a free-kick from the right. This time, Patrick Vieira headed a header from Zinedine Zidane's pass, which went just wide of the left post.
In the 49th minute of the game, Henry made a breakthrough on the left side, but unfortunately the last pass was destroyed by Juan out of the bottom line.
At this time, the Brazilian team has completely fallen into a passive situation, but Pereira is still indifferent. In the 54th minute of the game, the French team once again won a free kick on the right side. This time it was Malouda who headed past Patrick Vieira and found it in front of Henry, who chested the ball over and slotted it home from the edge of the six-yard box. However, the goal was disallowed due to an offside position, and Brazil narrowly escaped.
Anyone with a discerning eye has already found that the quality of the French team's free kicks is getting higher and higher, and if it continues like this, it will not be far from scoring. But the Brazilian players just don't believe in evil, in the 56th minute of the game, Malouda left side of the back to protect the ball waiting for a breakthrough or pass time to protect, but Cafu directly chose to foul and generously sent a free kick again.
I don't know if I think this free kick is far away and doesn't pose a threat or for some other reason, the Brazilian team's defensive attitude is very loose, especially Carlos at the back point is more leisurely bent down to tie his shoes. Zinedine Zidane's pass came exactly at this point, and the unguarded Henry cut in front of the goal and easily sent the ball into the net with an easy right-footed volley to give France a 1-0 lead.
Four minutes later, France almost doubled the score, Ribery turned away from Lucio's defense on the left side of the baseline and burst into the penalty area to cross in front of the goal, Juan hurriedly stretched out his foot to clear, almost put himself on own, but fortunately, the ball finally went off the right post, and Brazil escaped again.
In the 63rd minute of the game, Pereira finally made personnel adjustments and replaced Juninho Jr. with Ade, negating the tactics he had arranged before the game.
However, Brazil's attack did not improve much, but the French team took advantage of the impact of Ribery and Henry to launch frequent attacks, threatening Dida's goal.
In the 74th minute of the game, Sagnol received a yellow card for a foul on Kaka. One minute later, Lucio also received a yellow card for tackling Henry from behind.
Soon after, Cafu was replaced by Sicinho due to injury. Domenech also replaced the physically exhausted Ribery with Govu at the same time, and continued to keep the impact on the Brazilian team. Within three minutes, Pereira replaced Kaka with Robinho and used up his substitutions for a last-ditch effort.
In the 81st minute of the game, Robinho received a header from 10 meters in front of the goal and fired a left-footed volley, but the ball was ridiculously high. France then made another change, replacing Malouda with Wiltord. In the 85th minute of the game, Ronaldo's rare shot on goal came when he received a pass from Ze Roberto 25 meters in front of the goal and volleyed with his left foot, but the ball went wide of the right post.
In the 85th minute, Domenech replaced Henry with Saha. Saha was also powerful after his debut, and in less than 2 minutes, he insisted on kicking the ball away from the referee's whistle and received a yellow card.
Seeing that time was running out, Brazil made a desperate attack. Ronaldo's dribbling drive caused a foul on Thuram and earned the team a free-kick opportunity in a good position.
Unfortunately, Ronaldo didn't take advantage of this opportunity, and the ball went slightly over the crossbar.
In the 90th minute of the game, the French team almost completely killed the game. Saha received Zidane's ball on the left side of the penalty area and shot with his feet, but Dida fell to the ground and confiscated the ball.
Ronaldo then unleashed another long-range shot, this time saved by Barthez and the ball was cleared by the French player.
Brazil were still looking for an opportunity before the end of the game when Ciciño's cross from the right was met by Ze Roberto's left-footed shot wide of the left post.
In the end, France defeated Brazil 1-0 to win the game, maintaining the World Cup winning streak against their opponents, while advancing to the semi-finals with their heads held high, and also turning the remaining matches of the World Cup into the European Championship.
This is the end of the World Cup tour of the luxury division Brazil, although they are star-studded, but there are still huge problems, but the strength of the previous opponents is not enough for them to find the problem. Who would have thought that this goodbye would become the swan song of the World Cup for Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Adriano and others.