Chapter 882: I'm Sorry I Couldn't Take You to the Final

Hot topic No.1: Chinese national team loses to France.

No.2: China 2:4 France.

No.3: Chinese national team will face Argentina or Portugal in the third-place match.

No.4: Argentina vs Portugal.

No.5: Chinese national team suffers first defeat in Qatar World Cup.

Before the semifinals, France and China were the only two undefeated teams in this World Cup, having won every match from the group stage through to the semifinal.

When two undefeated teams meet in the knockout stage, one of them must lose their unbeaten record.

Unfortunately, that team was China.

As the biggest underdog of this World Cup, China was believed capable of creating “infinite” miracles, having repeatedly silenced their critics.

But the underdog could not remain undefeated forever.

France not only had superior overall strength, but their players’ characteristics also clearly countered China’s style.

“Do you know what the Chinese team fears most?”

Immediately after the match, Li Laoba’s assistant posted a video on Bilibili.

“The Chinese team fears players who rely purely on speed—like Mbappé, Dembélé, or Bale. Why did China win against Wales in the group stage? Wasn’t it because Bale was out of form? Otherwise, just Bale alone would’ve been enough to give us nightmares!”

“Then in the semifinal against France, you’ve got one fast winger—fine—but France has three, plus that Theo Hernández guy, who’s another speedster.”

“So what do you do? Some fans still asked on Li Laoba’s WeChat official account: What about Escrivá? What can Escrivá do? Even if you replaced him with Ten Hag or Klopp, what’s the point? The other side has nothing but speedsters.”

He’d eaten something strange and let out a burp after speaking a few sentences.

“Don’t blame Escrivá—he can’t do anything. China has Tang Ye, but only one Tang Ye. I’ve said this many times.”

【Late but Here: What Li Laoba Thinks About the Third-Place Match】

【Will the third-place match be against Portugal?】

Comments scrolled across the top of the video.

And Li Laoba, as if he knew exactly what his fans would type, actually mentioned the third-place match later in the video.

Feng Xuejuan walked over: “So are we playing Portugal in the third-place match? Will Tang Ye face Ronaldo?”

“Play Portugal? We won’t play Portugal in the third-place match. You clearly don’t understand football,” Li Laoba scolded.

“With Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes in that form, how could Argentina possibly beat Portugal?”

“Let me tell you—I’ve already written the script: Portugal shuts out Argentina 2-0 in regular time, then faces Mbappé’s France in the final.”

“Then Tang Ye scores twice against Messi and becomes the King of Football.”

At this moment, Feng Xuejuan had something to say.

“What if there’s no double kill? Everyone says Argentina lost in the group stage because they were careless.”

“Who says that?”

“Online says that.”

“You believe what’s online?”

“Honestly, Argentina is just average—they’re done. Even if they played China again, they’d still lose. I’ve never really believed in China’s chances, you know that—but I still thought China could beat Argentina. Even if their players were completely drained from the semifinal, I still backed them.”

He’d promised not to watch the CSL or the national team, but now Li Laoba was about to play the national anthem in his livestream.

Part of this came from Li Laoba’s hatred toward Argentina—or rather, Messi—but mostly it came from his recognition of China’s team.

Three group stage matches, seven points, top of the group. Then they fought their way through the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals.

To achieve this, China’s team had exhausted every ounce of energy.

“That Jiang Guangtai really sucked. He played so well in the first few games, then against France he completely collapsed.”

“The assistant can show the post-match ratings—look at my Guangtai: in the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals, he was rated 7.0+ each time, I remember one was even 7.5. Then against France? Down to 4.5. What can you do?”

“Let me tell you, Escrivá shouldn’t have subbed Jiang Guangtai in during the second half. He should’ve rested him. Skip him entirely in the semifinal—save everything for Argentina! I don’t know why Escrivá thought scoring a penalty meant we could still turn it around.”

【Li Laoba predicted everything wrong—fans who believe him are doomed for life】

【Honestly, I still felt we could turn it around—just find free kicks. If they don’t give us free kicks, what can we do? Wei Shihao and Wu Lei aren’t good at tricking refs—can’t we get more free kicks?】

【Even if you got free kicks, Griezmann’s red card totally broke Tang Ye’s mindset. I broke too.】

…

Match Preview: The Bottom Half Semifinal—Messi vs Ronaldo: Who Advances to the Final?

From China’s perspective, everyone naturally hoped Portugal would advance.

The reason was simple: China had more experience playing Argentina than Portugal.

They’d already beaten them once in the group stage!

Whether they could win again was uncertain, but given China’s tactical style, handling Messi was definitely easier than handling Ronaldo—Lewandowski’s presence would create massive defensive problems for China.

The Manchester Evening News Editor: Argentina defeats Portugal 2-1 to advance to the final.

Mundo Deportivo—Predicts Argentina 1-1 Portugal, wins on penalties.

The Daily Mail—Favors Portugal eliminating Argentina.

Experts favoring Argentina and those favoring Portugal were roughly evenly split; if forced to choose, slightly more experts favored Argentina.

Experts also gave their reasons: they believed Argentina’s group stage loss shouldn’t be used to judge their true strength.

Argentina lost their first group match to China—maybe they just weren’t ready?

…

Time moved to the day of the Argentina vs Portugal match—the day after China vs France.

Today, Escrivá gave the players no training tasks; everyone mostly rested in the hotel.

Rather than a post-match review, it was better to let the players relax and clear their minds.

“Where’s Tom?”

Escrivá met Ma Di in the hallway.

“I—I don’t know? Didn’t see him. You said we were dismissed.”

“...”

Escrivá shook his head: “I need to speak with him.”

“Then you can call him.”

“Hmm… I think calling would be too awkward. And this kind of thing isn’t good to discuss over the phone.”