68,000 witnesses! The birth of another 1 master in the European Cup: top 8 + double champion, golden ball-level performance

Ye Qing Football World

2024-06-30 03:04Creators in the field of sports

The first game of the 1/8 finals of the European Cup surprised the fans:

Switzerland, ranked 19th in the world, eliminated the defending champion Italy 2-0 and advanced to the top 8!

Is this unpopular? At first glance, it seems to be. However, judging from the performance of the past 6 competitions, it is really not a lot. Since the 2014 World Cup, Switzerland has reached the knockout stage in six consecutive tournaments. France is the only country in Europe that can surpass Switzerland.

Swiss football has taught Italy a lesson: precise passing, sharp counter-attacks, smooth transitions, and Jakin's team has a more heroic style. Especially in the midfield PK, the 31-year-old Swiss captain Xhaka perfectly controlled the overall situation, dwarfing Italy's Barella, Faggioli, and Cristante.

UEFA's official MVP is Vargas with one goal and one assist, and many media reporters have given praise to the 31-year-old Xhaka.

How good was Xhaka's performance in this 2-0 run? Absolute master, golden ball. Take a look at this dazzling statistic:

A game-high 94 accurate passes, a game-high 3 dangerous passes, the highest pass completion rate (96 per cent) from starters, and 100 per cent successful aerial duels with four recoveries......

What's more, Xhaka's passing is not "safe". OPTA noted Xhaka had 25 line breaking passes, which was more than twice as many as any player on the pitch; 37 passes in the third zone, also the most in the game. Xhaka, as the captain of Switzerland, connected the whole team with passes, and Ndoye, Vargas and Embolo were all beneficiaries.

Switzerland advanced to the quarterfinals of the European Cup, Xhaka led the whole team and celebrated with the fans! The 68,000 spectators at Berlin's Olympic Stadium witnessed Xhaka's masterful performance. Among them, more than 20,000 Swiss fans even sang praises to Xhaka and unfurled banners to pay tribute to their captain.

B/R football sighs, this is the master Xhaka. In the past 1 year, Xhaka has achieved fantastic results:

Xhaka left Arsenal last summer to join Bayer Leverkusen for a fee of €25 million. In the past year at Bayer Leverkusen and the Swiss national team, Xhaka has only lost 2 games. Pharmaceutical companies won the 2023-24 Bundesliga and German Cup championships, and Switzerland reached the top 8 of the European Cup.

Under Alonso, Xhaka has truly become a world-class midfielder, and the more he plays, the more he plays, the more he becomes a master. The Swiss national team is naturally the biggest beneficiary: Xhaka played all four games and 360 minutes in this European Championship, and can be called the number one model worker. The Telegraph's Sam Dean pointed out that after the age of 30, Xhaka ushered in a metamorphosis. It is an indisputable fact that Xhaka has been one of the best midfielders in the world for the past 1-2 years.

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