Chapter 255 Ancelotti came to spy on the military situation in person, and Real Madrid paid attention to him!

Seeing Manchester City counterattack again, Lin Quan rushed to Barcelona's penalty area like a wild horse in the frontcourt.

Messi was a little helpless. Guy, why are you everywhere?

I can see you on offense and defense, and you can even block my free kick. Are you my nemesis? He felt it was right after he finished shooting the ball, but he didn't expect it to be blocked by Lin Quan instead of Joe Hart.

This made Messi feel extremely depressed. The opponent's offensive ability was not inferior to his, but his defensive contribution was much greater than his.

The most important thing is that this guy seems to have better physical fitness than himself. Running back and forth between the front and back courts did not exhaust him, which made Messi very envious.

If he had such abundant physical strength, he wouldn't walk around the court so often.

Barcelona's defense was very tight and successfully blocked Manchester City's counterattack.

Although he finally stopped the opponent's counterattack, Martino became more and more worried.

He felt that Manchester City's tactics seemed retro, but they seemed to have hit Barcelona's soft spot.

Barcelona's passing and controlling football focuses on pressure and control. To achieve this effect, they need to invest a large number of players in the offense.

Sometimes the team's back line even has to cross the center line, and the goalkeeper needs to leave the goal and move around the center circle, acting as both a rear-positioned passing point and an interceptor at the back of the defense line.

With the defense pressing forward so hard, the space in the backcourt must be enormous.

Once the opponent bypasses the midfield and kicks the ball directly to Barcelona's backcourt, Barcelona's defense line will not have time to get into position.

In the last game, Manchester City defeated Barcelona with quick and concise passes and extreme counterattack speed.

And this time, they took it to the extreme: the people may not arrive first, but the ball must arrive first!

In these counterattacks, Manchester City's passes seemed to be random. They didn't look for players in the frontcourt at all, but just kicked the ball to the frontcourt to clear the ball.

The key is that doing so can not only clear the ball, but also pose a threat to Barcelona's goal, which is very uncomfortable.

The success rate of long pass tactics is not high, and it is easy to be offside.

Secondly, the longer the distance, the lower the success rate of the pass, and the defensive players also have enough time to get into position and defend while the football is flying.

And it is very difficult to catch such a long pass from teammates, especially when there are people defending, it will be intercepted and destroyed if you are not careful.

Therefore, the long passes of most teams are just giving the ball to the opponent, which not only has no effect, but also increases the opponent's offensive opportunities.

It is also because of this that the long pass tactics have gradually declined.

However, these two problems do not seem to be a problem for Manchester City.

In terms of passing the ball, Manchester City attacked from behind Barcelona, ​​allowing their own forwards to compete with Barcelona's defenders in speed.

So even if the information is not transmitted accurately, it doesn’t matter.

If the pass was made by Kroos or De Bruyne, it wouldn't be a problem.

As long as they can find Lin Quan, with his ability to stop the ball, he can easily catch the long pass.

If it doesn't work, you can let Negredo pass the ball to him.

Moreover, most of the players in Manchester City are stars, and their passing ability is far better than that of the players in the mid- and lower-level teams.

The long passes of players from ordinary teams are likely to go astray in foreign countries, but Manchester City's long passes are much more accurate.

Even if it is not as accurate as the precision-guided shots of Kroos and De Bruyne, it is basically heading towards the area where the players are, and the deviation will not be too big.

If you are lucky and the pass is completed by a passing master such as Kroos or De Bruyne, the success rate will be further improved and the threat of counterattack will suddenly increase.

As for the consequences of the failure of the long pass tactics, that is even less of a problem.

Anyway, Barcelona's ball possession rate is much higher than Manchester City, and the football is under their control most of the time.

As long as Manchester City's defense is as solid as a rock and does not give the opponent any chances, it will not be of much use even if Barcelona intercepts Manchester City's long passes.

It's nothing more than giving the ball to the opponent in the opponent's half.

Moreover, compared with the threat of being forced to intercept the ball by the opponent in one's own half, losing the ball in the opponent's half poses a much smaller threat to the goal.

Therefore, Manchester City's tactics are actually the same as Barcelona's passing and controlling. It seems to be an attack, but it is actually a defense. However, if it is successful, it can become a deadly threat.

This tactic is very good, but it is a bit exhausting for the forwards.

So Pellegrini prepared two wingers and a forward on the bench as backup, and when the players in the frontcourt could no longer run in the second half, he started to make substitutions.

He wants to see if Barcelona still has so many defenders to keep up with him! After the opening, Manchester City has been using this method to deal with Barcelona.

Although they haven't scored any goals yet, Barcelona is still very angry.

As soon as the opponent got the ball, they made a long pass, forcing Barcelona's defenders to compete with the opponent's wingers for the ball.

The first half wasn't even over yet and Barcelona's defenders were already exhausted.

What’s even more infuriating is that with the opponent’s repeated long passes, their defense line was passively moved back a lot.

As a result, their support for the front court decreased, and without investment in the back line, relying only on the players in the front court, the pressure and control of Barcelona's passing and controlling tactics showed a significant decline.

Damn it!

Martino cursed inwardly! He finally realized that Manchester City's long pass was actually a cover.

The purpose was not to attack, but to consume Barcelona's physical strength and disrupt their attack.

We can't fall into the opponent's rhythm! Thinking of this, Martino quickly waved Alves over and asked him to pass his words to the players on the field.

Barcelona's tactics changed immediately. They became more patient in passing the ball in the frontcourt and were determined not to give the opponent a chance to counterattack.

Even if you want to make a long pass, you have to have the ball at your feet. If you don't have the ball, there's no point in passing it.

As long as Barcelona can further increase its ball possession rate and eliminate the opponent's chances of counterattack from the source, Manchester City's tactics will naturally collapse.

This decision soon worked. As Barcelona's passing and ball control became more cautious, Manchester City's possession rate further decreased and their chances of counterattack also decreased.

However, after Barcelona became more cautious in passing, except for the ball possession rate which soared rapidly, other data including the number of shots, the number of attacks within 30 meters, the number of set pieces and corner kicks in the frontcourt all declined.

Pellegrini saw this scene, returned to his seat with satisfaction and sat down peacefully.

He knew that he had the upper hand in the competition with his fellow South American Martino.

The opponent's adjustments all fell into Manchester City's trap. The reason why Barcelona's passing and controlling tactics are so scary is not because of their exaggerated ball possession rate, but the pressure they bring to the opponent when they control the ball.

Even if Barcelona passes the ball back 10,000 times in the backcourt, the threat posed by passing the ball forward once is still not as great.

As for ball possession rate, it's just for viewing, it doesn't make much sense. After all, you're passing the ball back and forth in the backcourt and I'm not trying to steal the ball, so you can naturally get a high ball possession rate.

It's just that passing the ball back and forth in the backcourt was considered in the 1960s and 1970s as a passive way for weak teams to avoid a draw when facing strong teams.

Barcelona is willing to play like this, and Manchester City is very happy because it is Manchester City that is leading now.

Even if the home game ended in a 0:0 draw with Barcelona, ​​Pellegrini could totally accept it. After all, it was Manchester City that advanced in the end, so what was there for him not to accept?

But he felt that Martino was not that stupid and he would discover these things quickly and make adjustments.

Martino did not notice anything unusual for the time being. After seeing that Manchester City's counterattacks decreased, he felt relieved.

However, he did not notice that in order to ensure that the ball was not lost, Barcelona players passed the ball back more and more frequently, while the number of forward passes gradually decreased.

On the field, the first person to discover this was Xavi.

Because he himself realized that under the pressure of Manchester City players, in order to ensure that he would not lose the ball, he would subconsciously choose a safer passing direction.

And passing it backwards is definitely safer than passing it forwards.

So in Xavi's past four passes, three were passed backwards and only one was passed forwards.

However, as a result, the threat to Manchester City's goal became less and less, and their pressing intensity became more and more intense.

The situation has reversed a bit, and now it is the Barcelona players' turn to feel nervous.

Seeing the opponent's forwards eyeing them near the center line, they understood that once they lost the ball, the opponent's annoying long pass counterattack would come again.

This can't go on! Realizing that the rhythm of the game was a little off, Xavi once again received the ball from his teammate, but instead of passing it back immediately, he chose to turn around and get rid of the Manchester City player's rush.

Yaya Toure was a little surprised by Xavi's choice. Xavi had passed the ball back many times under his pressure before, so Yaya Toure subconsciously thought that the opponent would do the same this time.

Unexpectedly, Harvey saw through his thoughts and used the magic of love to circle around and pass him by.

Yaya Toure was once a teammate of Xavi and he is well aware of Xavi's strength.

Can't let Xavi pass! Yaya Toure almost didn't think about it and went straight to the foul.

Xavi seemed to have guessed the opponent's intention, and passed the ball forward to Messi before Yaya Toure pulled him down!

Go, Messi! As if he had heard Xavi's voice, Messi especially cherished this hard-won opportunity created by his teammates.

After receiving the ball, he quickly got rid of Kroos's interception, picked up speed, passed Lescott, and slipped away from between Demichelis and Zabaleta before they could complete the double-team.

Joe Hart felt a little nervous. The opponent's dribbling was simply unreasonable. Including Kroos, Messi broke through four people in total.

Is this Messi's ability? Can he save the opponent's shot? He quickly adjusted his center of gravity, staring at Messi's every move, ready to save.

However, the moment Messi's shot was completed, Joe Hart surrendered.

The ball was out of his range and he could only pray that Messi would miss.

Unfortunately, Joe Hart's prayer did not work. The football hit the angle between the far post and the crossbar and bounced into the net.

This is an absolute blind spot. Even if Joe Hart had just completed the save, it would have been impossible for him to save the ball.

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"Messi! Messi! Leo Messi! He stood up and saved Barcelona from the brink!"

"Barcelona is now leading Manchester City 1:0, and the total score is 4:4 with Manchester City, but they are still at a disadvantage in away goals, and they need to continue to score goals!"

On Spanish TV, after seeing Messi's goal, several commentators were very excited.

Finally we scored a goal. If we hadn’t scored again, Barcelona would have been eliminated!

"The first half isn't over yet, Barcelona still has enough time to extend their lead!"

Compared to the excited Spaniards, the British commentator was much more depressed.

Martin Taylor shook his head and sighed: "Messi handled this ball so beautifully. His dribbling and passing were really amazing."

Andy Gray nodded in agreement and said:

"Even as opponents, we have to admit that being able to enjoy Messi's wonderful performance on the football field is definitely a great blessing in life!"

As a professional player, he knew how difficult it was to complete such a breakthrough and shot in the narrow space of the penalty area under the double-teaming and pressing of the opponents! At least he himself was definitely unable to do it!

If nothing unexpected happens, Messi's goal should be selected as the best goal of this round of the Champions League.

"Manchester City needs to be careful and not let Messi receive the ball so comfortably. If they can't limit Messi, it's probably only a matter of time before Barcelona scores the second goal."

Martin Taylor sternly warned Manchester City. In another match, Manchester United, playing away, was already 0:2 behind Bayern. If Manchester City lost this game again, the last spark of the Premier League would be extinguished.

After scoring the goal, Messi was very excited. While running towards the stands where the Barcelona fans were, he couldn't help kissing the team logo on his jersey.

Messi was too suppressed for two consecutive games, and this goal finally released his suppressed emotions.

In the stands, the more than 5,000 Barcelona fans who traveled with the team were also very excited.

Both inside and outside the field, Barcelona's players and coaches were very excited.

Messi's goal helped Barcelona equalize the score and gave them hope of advancing.

But this is not enough. They are still at a disadvantage in away goals. They need to score one more goal. As long as they score one more goal, Barcelona will create a historical record of reaching the Champions League semi-finals for seven consecutive seasons!

Through Messi's goal, Martino firmly believed that his adjustments had achieved results.

Sure enough, as long as Manchester City’s counterattack can be limited, victory will belong to Barcelona.

Seeing Messi score a goal, Pellegrini couldn't help but shook his head.

This is the role of superstars. They can change the situation of the game with an occasional flash of inspiration.

There was nothing that could be done about this ball, the players had tried their best and he couldn't blame his players.

Fortunately, Manchester City still has the advantage of away goals. As long as they don't concede another goal, they will still be able to advance to the semi-finals.

Continue to implement the tactics of the first half. As long as we are not defeated 2:0 in the first half, everything is acceptable.

Pellegrini's ultimate move will only work in the second half! Moreover, it's not just Barcelona that has superstars, we have them too!

Thinking of this, Pellegrini looked at Lin Quan.

With Lin Quan around, he felt much more at ease, even if he fell behind temporarily.

Manchester City's players had the same idea as their coach. When they saw Lin Quan on the court, their emotions were very stable. They did not panic or even lose their composure because of Barcelona's goal.

Messi's goal was indeed brilliant, and they had seen such goals before.

After becoming teammates with Lin Quan, they have seen such almost impossible goals several times.

Lin has even scored more exciting goals in previous games, such as the winning goal against Chelsea!

After the goal, Barcelona became more motivated and took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack on Manchester City in an attempt to expand their lead.

However, Manchester City's players were very focused and defended extremely tenaciously. Although they were a little passive, they did not give the opponent any chance to take advantage.

The score remained at 1:0 until the halftime whistle! Manchester City's players returned to their own locker room calmly, and Barcelona's players also returned to the visiting team's locker room with laughter and chatter.

Judging from the expressions on the faces of the players on both sides, they seemed to be satisfied with the current result. In the stands of the Etihad Stadium, a fat middle-aged man was chewing gum while observing the expressions on the faces of the players of both teams.

After looking at it for a while, he turned around and said to his assistant:

"Paul, Manchester City is stronger than we thought."

Real Madrid assistant coach Paul Clement nodded: "You are right, Carlo, the fact that they can beat Barcelona away from home is enough to prove that their strength is beyond the expectations of the outside world."

Ancelotti shook his head: "I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the mentality of the players."

"Have you noticed that when the score was behind, there was no anxiety or restlessness on the faces of Manchester City players. They did not look like a team that had reached the quarterfinals for the first time. Instead, they looked like a team with rich knockout experience and a very mature mentality."

“It’s very difficult to beat a team like this on the field!”

"After the match with Paris Saint-Germain, we have to prepare seriously, otherwise, if we encounter them, we are likely to be defeated!"

As the number one favorite in this season's Champions League, Ancelotti and Real Madrid's goal is naturally to win the Champions League trophy.

Therefore, they did a lot of research on several other possible opponents before the game.

Among them, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are their league rivals. They know each other well and there is no need to get to know them specifically.

Bayern has always been one of the top teams in Europe. Real Madrid has played against them many times and attaches great importance to them, so they have a relatively deep understanding of Bayern's strength.

The only thing they don't know much about is Manchester City, the new team in the Champions League.

This is also the reason why Ancelotti personally came to the Etihad Stadium with his assistant coaches to watch the game.

Although they will face Paris Saint-Germain at home tomorrow, in Ancelotti's view, Paris Saint-Germain are just a bunch of rookies who are at the mercy of others!

Once they reach the semi-finals, Real Madrid will face a truly formidable opponent.

In Ancelotti's mind, he obviously already regards Manchester City as a strong opponent that can be ranked on the same level as Bayern and Barcelona.

"But Barcelona is the one leading now? If Manchester City wants to get into the semi-finals, they have to get past Barcelona first!"

Clement's evaluation of Manchester City is far less high than Ancelotti's. He thinks Manchester City is just so-so.

How strong can a team that uses long pass tactics in the knockout stage of the Champions League be?

Ancelotti looked at his assistant coach, who had originally planned to leave him this summer and start his own business.

But now Ancelotti thinks that it is better to train him for a year before letting him go!

Otherwise, if we release him like this, it will bring disaster to other teams.

"Barcelona is only leading temporarily, Manchester City has not used their real killer move. The decisive battle of this game will be in the second half!"

Ancelotti looked at the field, his eyes finally fell on Manchester City's No. 10 player, and his tone was particularly firm.

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(End of this chapter)