Chapter 375 Pirlo is retiring, the French have found a treasure!

On April 15, in the Juventus Arena, the Champions League quarter-final match between Juventus and Manchester City is about to take place.

During the pre-match entrance session, some old acquaintances from Juventus took the initiative to come forward to greet Lin Quan.

Buffon said, "Lin, let's have a meal together after the game. The winner will pay. How about that?"

Lin Quan shrugged: "If you want me to treat you to a meal, just tell me, why are you beating around the bush!"

"Haha, that's not necessarily true. This is the Juventus Arena. You can't beat us!"

Buffon originally wanted to make a bold statement that he would shut out Lin Quan, but after thinking about it, he decided not to.

Because he was a little nervous about shutting out Lin Quan and felt unsure.

After Buffon, Pirlo also came up and talked to Lin Quan for a while.

This should be his last season in the top five leagues. Pirlo, who is about to turn 36, will most likely leave Europe after this season.

Therefore, these two confrontations may very well be the last encounters between him and Lin Quan.

"If old guys like us were to go out and look for gold, where do you think would be a good place to go?"

Recently, several East Asian clubs have extended olive branches to Pirlo, inviting him to join with a high salary.

These include the Chinese Super League and the Japanese J League. Pirlo felt that Lin Quan was a Chinese player and might know more about the situation in East Asia, so he consulted him.

"If you want to go overseas to seek your fortune, New York City in the Major League Baseball is a good choice!"

Knowing that Pirlo would leave the top five leagues this summer, Lin Quan sincerely suggested to him that he should not go to East Asia! The level of the Chinese Super League is low, and there are still problems of unpaid wages. There are too many match-fixing in the Japanese J League. It is easy to ruin your reputation if you go there.

Compared with these hidden dangers, the situation in Major League Baseball is much better.

"New York City, the one Villa went to?"

Pirlo asked thoughtfully. Last summer, the news that World Cup champion striker Villa left Europe and joined New York City caused a sensation in European football.

"Yes, this is the one!"

“Are they reliable?”

When going out to seek gold, the most feared thing is to be maliciously owed wages like Drogba. If you waste time but don't get the money, wouldn't that be a huge loss?

"Don't worry about this, they are very reliable!"

New York City, like Manchester City, is a club under the City Group, and the two teams have a close cooperative relationship.

If he joins New York City, he will have the opportunity to be loaned to Manchester City in the future, just like Lampard in Manchester City.

He also went to the North American Major League Soccer to seek gold from the five major leagues, but he only joined New York City in name. After some operations, he came directly to Manchester City.

In this way, Lampard and his family do not need to leave the UK to live abroad. They can get the high salary offered by New York City and continue to play in the top five leagues.

For Manchester City, they only need to bear a small part of the salary and can loan very practical players from New York City, which greatly reduces the club's financial expenses.

The larger the football empire of the City Group, the more operations like this there will be.

By then, as long as the Abu Dhabi consortium is willing, it can make Manchester City’s financial reports look very good.

Although there is a financial fair play law in Europe, the clubs below also have ways to deal with it.

Pirlo nodded and prepared to talk to Lin Quan in detail after the game.

As soon as he left, Juventus striker Morata ran over slyly, put his arm around Lin Quan's shoulders and said:

"Hey, Boss, don't blame me for not reminding you. Our vice-captain has said that he will freeze you in this game and won't let you score any goals!"

Deputy team leader?

Is Morata talking about Chiellini?

Lin Quan glanced in the direction of Chiellini and found that the other party was indeed staring at him with hostile eyes.

Chiellini is a world-class defender and is very strong in defense.

Lin Quan would not look down on him, so he nodded to Morata.

In addition to Chiellini, there is another person who is hostile to Lin Quan, and that is Tevez, who wears the No. 10 jersey of Juventus.

Tevez transferred from Manchester City to the Old Lady, and this transfer was closely related to Lin Quan.

If Lin Quan had not joined Manchester City, Manchester City would probably not have been so determined to expel the Argentine and completely break off with him.

Therefore, in Tevez's view, it was Lin Quan who took away his main position, which made him full of hatred for Lin Quan.

So, after the game started, Tevez was particularly active, tirelessly rushing towards Manchester City players who had the ball again and again.

It can be seen that he wanted to prove his strength in the game and let the Manchester City club executives see how wrong their original decision was! However, before Juventus's overall formation pressed forward, all his efforts were in vain.

It's too unrealistic for one person to want to snatch the ball from Manchester City.

Seeing that Tevez was fighting hard for the ball, the Manchester City players passed the ball back and put it at the defender's feet.

The defender spreads out his position to attract the opponent to press, and then passes the ball to his teammates.

As a result, Tevez's aggressive pressing quickly turned into a dog-walking game for Manchester City.

Originally, Juventus fans responded with applause to Tevez's positive attitude, but after seeing that the other side was treating him like a dog, they couldn't laugh anymore.

"What is Tevez doing? His teammates haven't caught up yet, and he's the only one here grabbing the ball. This makes no sense at all!"

"Why don't Morata and the others come up to grab the ball? Don't let Tevez do useless work here alone!"

The Old Lady's fans had different opinions. Some thought that they should press forward like Tevez did and press Manchester City high.

Some people are afraid of Manchester City's counterattack ability and think that they should not take such risks. Tevez should stop his meaningless behavior.

Morata symbolically tried to grab the ball from Tevez a few times, but when he couldn't get the ball, he ignored Tevez.

If this idiot wants to rob, just go ahead and rob it. I don’t want to be treated like a dog by others!

Morata himself is a Spanish international, so he certainly knows how difficult it is to snatch the ball from Guardiola's passing and controlling football, so he doesn't want to waste his energy on such a meaningless thing.

After the opening, the pace of the game was not fast, and both sides did not invest much manpower in the offense.

Manchester City tried to launch several attacks but failed to threaten Juventus' goal.

Juventus's several counterattacks had similar effects. Under Manchester City's active counterattacks, it was difficult for them to even pass through the midfield.

Juventus head coach Allegri was very patient and did not let the players speed up the pace and attack Manchester City at the beginning of the game.

He knew that the opponent was very strong and losing a goal at home would be fatal for Juventus.

So he planned to control the pace of the game, test Manchester City's weaknesses bit by bit, and after finding the opponent's weaknesses, use a thunderous blow to deliver a fatal blow.

Allegri's tactical ability is absolutely top-notch, which is also the tradition of Italian coaches.

He has just taken over as coach this season and has not had time to complete a thorough transformation of Juventus.

Take the tactics currently used by Juventus as an example. Allegri is good at 4312, while Juventus played 352 during Conte's time. At the beginning of his tenure, Allegri did not make drastic reforms to the team's tactical play in a rush for quick success, but let Juventus stick to the 352 style of play.

The advantage of doing this is that Juventus' overall record can remain stable at all times, without major ups and downs that would affect the club and fans' trust in them.

Of course, continuing with the previous tactics is not an option, because the 352 formation is okay in the league, but it has been proven to be difficult to achieve results in the Champions League.

Therefore, in the middle of the season, especially in the last few rounds of the Champions League group stage, Allegri began to try to change the formation to the 4312 he was familiar with.

Just like in this game, he chose to let Vidal play as a defensive midfielder in front, taking advantage of the good physical fitness and strong running ability of players such as Vidal, Pogba and Marchisio.

It enhances the interception and clearance in the middle and front fields, and expands the defense range to cover both flanks, solving the problems existing in flank defense during the 352 tactical period.

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In addition, Pirlo is protected in front, behind, and on both sides, so his weaknesses such as old age, weak physical confrontation ability, and decreased running ability can be best protected.

Although Pirlo is 36 years old, his skills are getting better with age. Juventus still needs him to use his broad vision and overall view in the backcourt, as well as his precise footwork to deliver deadly passes.

Although it seems that Juventus has not gained any advantage in the current situation, Allegri is not worried.

It is not yet time for Juventus to make a move. When they really launch an attack, Manchester City will be able to feel their terror!

On the other hand, Guardiola is not in a hurry either.

It would be best if Manchester City can win this game, but if not, a draw would be acceptable.

At worst, as long as he can get an away goal, he can accept a small defeat to the opponent.

It is Juventus that should be anxious, after all, this is their home ground.

If they miss the chance to beat Manchester City at home, it will not be easy to beat them away from home!

Therefore, in the first half, neither side made any major adjustments to their respective team's tactical play, and the game remained balanced.

Judging from the scene, Manchester City has the advantage.

In the first half, Manchester City completed a total of 358 passes, while Juventus only completed 220 passes, only two-thirds of Manchester City.

In terms of ball possession, Manchester City's possession rate reached 58%, while Juventus's was only over 40, which is almost two-thirds.

However, there is a big gap between the two teams in terms of the number of shots.

Manchester City completed a total of 7 shots in the first half, 3 of which were on target.

Juventus only completed 2 shots, 0 on target.

Obviously, Juventus' offensive threat was not realized.

The main reason for this phenomenon is that Manchester City is far ahead in the number of steals! In the first half, Manchester City completed a total of 11 steals, while Juventus only had 6.

Of these 11 steals, Kanter contributed 7 alone, more than the entire opposing team.

"Who is this No. 13 on the opponent's team? He's so good at stealing, isn't he?!"

"If it weren't for his key steals on Pogba, once Pogba passed the ball, our attack would have been successful!"

"It's not just Pogba. This guy has a wide range of movement. Even Pirlo, who was under heavy protection, was intercepted by him twice!"

"Who is this person? I've never heard of his name before?"

Juventus fans have a deep memory of the guy wearing the No. 13 jersey in Manchester City. If he hadn't intercepted and stolen the ball again and again in the first half, Juventus wouldn't have had so few shots.

But they were also very puzzled because they knew very little about this man and had no idea who he was.

"This guy was brought in by Manchester City from a relegation team in Ligue 1 during the winter break. He played in the last Manchester derby. According to British media reports, this guy is very good at stealing the ball. He can be called the stealing king!"

People who often follow Premier League games quickly provided accurate information about Kante, but this information aroused suspicion among other Juventus fans.

“Is a player from a French Ligue 1 relegation team really that good?”

"If he is really that good, why isn't he selected for the French national team?"

…

In a corner that no one noticed, the French national team's head coach Deschamps also came to the Juventus Arena and watched the game attentively.

It is obvious that Deschamps came to observe the players' condition and prepare for the 2016 European Cup.

Next year's European Cup will be held in France. As the host country, the French team does not have to play in the qualifiers and can directly enter the finals.

This saves them a lot of time, allowing them to prepare for the exam without the pressure of performance.

Therefore, Deschamps has been selecting talented young players in recent times and training them through friendly matches to see if there are any talented players among these young players.

After two consecutive World Cup defeats, the French team needs to be rebuilt.

And talented young players will be the first choice of the French team in the future.

Currently, among the young generation of French players, Pogba and Griezmann are among the best.

Pogba has excellent physical fitness, delicate footwork, and is capable of both offense and defense. He can be regarded as the team's midfield core.

Griezmann has outstanding offensive ability and he will definitely be the core of the French team's frontcourt offense in the future.

As the two absolute main players that Deschamps values ​​the most, Deschamps is very concerned about Pogba's condition.

Not long ago in the Champions League round of 16, Pogba was accidentally injured and missed the second round.

This made Deschamps very worried, so he came to check his condition in person to see if his injury was serious.

However, after watching the first half of the game, Deschamps' attention was not paid much attention to Pogba, but was attracted by another French player.

After watching Kante's performance in the first half, Deschamps was shaking with excitement.

We in France actually have such a defensive genius?

I found a treasure! (End of this chapter)