Chapter 381 Peak Battle, Manchester City VS Bayern
On the day of the match, the Etihad Stadium was packed, and most of the stands were filled with Manchester City fans wearing sky blue jerseys.
There are actually quite a few Bayern fans traveling with the team, but the Etihad Stadium is much smaller than the Allianz Arena and has fewer seats, so tickets are not easy to get.
The away team fans were only allocated 3,000 away team tickets, and the remaining fans could not get tickets at all and could only watch the game outside the stadium.
In addition to the fans of the two teams who came to watch the game, the game also attracted hundreds of millions of fans to watch the live broadcast in Europe and around the world.
Looking at the soaring ratings backstage, UEFA officials were grinning from ear to ear.
The high ratings for the Champions League broadcast this season mean that their revenue from broadcasting rights will also increase next season.
Higher income means more generous prize money. At that time, teams from major leagues will surely try their best in the Champions League to compete for prize money, making the Champions League more attractive.
UEFA is very ambitious. They have always been unwilling to be suppressed by FIFA. They want to use their strong financial resources and influence to break free from FIFA's control and be on an equal footing with the other party.
To achieve this goal, UEFA needs to further increase its influence and let more people know about their existence.
"Haha, it seems like everyone is looking forward to these two teams joining forces to present a wonderful performance for everyone!"
"Yes, both Manchester City and Bayern are good at attacking. The clash between these two teams will definitely be very exciting. Just thinking about it makes me very excited!"
In the CCTV live broadcast room, the two commentators became excited when they saw so many viewers coming to the scene.
They quickly introduced the starting lineups of both sides, and then started chatting before the game started.
"Guardiola has used the wing-back tactic in the league before. This tactic showed a terrifying offensive strength, but it is rarely seen in the Champions League. I wonder if Guardiola will use this tactic in this game!?"
"It's hard to say. People outside have analyzed that this tactic will weaken the defensive ability on the wing, and Bayern happens to have two top wingers. Flying on both wings is Bayern's forte. If Guardiola really uses this tactic against Bayern, it might play into Bayern's hands."
"Yes, what you said makes sense. If Bayern Munich scores too many away goals in this game, it will definitely not be a good thing for Manchester City. After all, Bayern Munich's fighting power at the Allianz Arena is obvious to all!"
…
Since the result of this game is likely to determine who will advance to the finals, the two teams in the other half of the zone also sent people to the scene to watch the game.
Real Madrid sent the French legend Zidane, who is currently the assistant coach of Real Madrid.
Zidane learned from Ancelotti for a year and has started coaching Real Madrid B team this year.
He is the focus of training for Real Madrid Club and is a candidate to take over the Real Madrid coaching position after Ancelotti leaves in the future.
Such an important match as the Champions League semi-final is a learning opportunity that cannot be missed for Zidane, who urgently needs to improve his coaching knowledge and experience.
"Heynckes' tactics are very open and closed. When attacking, the speed of advancement is very fast. When defending, there are layers of interception and everyone retreats.
Coupled with Bayern's abnormal physical strength, full-court pressing and active running, as well as extremely fast attack and defense transitions after successful interceptions, once the opponent can't keep up with their rhythm, they are likely to be beaten by them with very exaggerated scores and be slaughtered, just like the 8:1 defeat by Porto before. "
Zidane summed up the characteristics of Bayern under Heynckes, and couldn't help but feel awe for the old man.
"As for Guardiola, his team has implemented the tactics to the extreme. The position of each player on the field, how to stand when attacking, how to pass the ball, how to run, how to intercept when defending, how to assist in defense, how to protect, etc., are all arranged in detail.
Guardiola has built the entire team into a sophisticated machine, running at a high speed and steadily according to his intentions.
The coaching styles and characteristics of these two people are very different, but each of them has its own unique and desirable points. I can learn useful points from them to improve my own tactical play. "
Just as Zidane was thinking about these things in his heart, the referee blew the whistle to start the game.
As soon as the game started, Bayern players began to rush towards Manchester City's half.
They came to prepare for the game three days in advance. The players were in full physical condition and started pressing Manchester City in the frontcourt right from the start.
Bayern's pressing is not the individual behavior of a certain player, but the collective behavior of the entire team.
After the Manchester City players received the ball, if they delayed for a moment, they would immediately be surrounded and snatched by several Bayern players.
These people have clear division of labor. Some cut off the passing routes of Manchester City players, some press forward, some cooperate in double-teaming, and they are ready to counterattack immediately if the pressing is successful.
Pressing in the frontcourt and quickly switching between offense and defense are the specialties of Bayern under Heynckes.
Guardiola originally planned to control the tempo of the game at the beginning, use a few attacks to test the opponent's strength and find the weak points in the opponent's defense.
But he didn't expect that the opponent would play so aggressively away from home, which caught Manchester City off guard.
In the first ten minutes of the game, Manchester City played very passively. The players were not used to Bayern's pressing style of play and made several mistakes when passing the ball.
Fortunately, Guardiola focused on defense before the game. Manchester City players immediately counterattacked on the spot after losing the ball. If they couldn't get the ball, they would commit fouls immediately, not giving Bayern too many good opportunities.
Ten minutes later, Manchester City players gradually adapted to the opponent's rhythm and began to speed up passing, receiving and running.
Seeing that the opponent speeded up the passing, Heynckes immediately perked up and stared at the court with lightning-like eyes.
He expected Manchester City to speed up the game because Bayern's tactics were designed to force their opponents to speed up.
Once the opponent speeds up, the error rate will inevitably increase greatly. Bayern will then be able to seize the opportunity of the opponent's mistakes to launch a fierce attack and then create scoring opportunities.
Bayern has played this kind of fast-paced game many times and the players are very accustomed to it.
Two years ago, they used this tactic to defeat the cosmic team Barcelona and achieved a shocking score of 7:0!
Barcelona is the pinnacle of passing and controlling football, but even they were defeated by Bayern. Heynckes does not believe that Guardiola's Manchester City can hold on, after all, Guardiola has not been in Manchester City for long.
His transformation of Manchester City has not been completely completed. Manchester City at this time may not be stronger than Barcelona two years ago.
In Manchester City's coaching booth, Guardiola couldn't help but stand up after seeing the pace of the game suddenly speed up.
He has coached Bayern, so of course he knows how powerful Bayern's style of play is.
Therefore, letting the players speed up the pace of the game was actually his arrangement.
Most of the teams that were slaughtered by Bayern were defeated because they could not keep up with the opponent's game rhythm, especially the extreme offense and defense transition rhythm.
But as long as the opponent can keep up with Bayern's rhythm, the effectiveness of Bayern's tactics will naturally be greatly reduced.
There are teams that can withstand Bayern's offensive, including Dortmund.
The Dortmund team a few years ago, under the leadership of Klopp, played a youthful storm. Their game pace was also very fast, and the players also ran all over the field and ran at full speed.
Therefore, Bayern's trick did not work against Dortmund. Both sides played fast and it depended on who could kill whom first.
Dortmund, with a younger and more aggressive lineup, took advantage more often.
The average age of Manchester City's lineup is around 25.5 years old. Although not as young as that Dortmund team, it is definitely not old.
Moreover, their players are all top players in each position, and they are far superior to ordinary players in terms of personal strength and competition experience.
Therefore, they may not be unable to keep up with Bayern's pace.
Guardiola's judgment was correct. After Manchester City took the initiative to speed up, although the players' error rate increased a lot, they were not dragged down.
After adapting to the faster pace of the game, Manchester City's error rate immediately dropped.
"It's true that they are quite capable. It seems that it is unlikely that we can easily defeat Manchester City in this way!"
Seeing that the opponent had caught up with his own rhythm, Heynckes' eyes were full of approval.
If Manchester City is too weak and is defeated so easily by Bayern, it may not be a good thing for Bayern.
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Barcelona and Real Madrid are both top teams in football, and the winner between them will definitely not be easy to deal with.
If Bayern wins too easily in the semi-finals and fails to improve their condition to their best, they may not win when facing the winner of the two teams in the final.
But if they have a tough battle with Manchester City, the players find their best form in the game, and they also find the weak links of their team through the whetstone of Manchester City.
Then by the final, Bayern will undoubtedly become stronger!
This is just like building up momentum, climbing up little by little from the bottom, and when you reach the top, you're ready for the final battle.
Simply speeding up the pace of the game doesn't work, so what about adding this trick?
Heynckes stood up from the coaching seat, walked to the sidelines, and made tactical gestures to the Bayern players on the field.
Bayern is about to start using its killer moves!
After seeing Heynckes' gesture, Bayern players immediately began to make adjustments.
In the following games, it can be clearly seen that Bayern's attack is more concentrated on the two flanks.
Bayern's two flanks are undoubtedly the most threatening flanks in Europe, and their two wingers are extremely strong individually.
Full-backs like Alaba and Lahm are very good at assisting from the flanks.
The whole of Europe knows that Bayern’s wing attack is very powerful, but knowing it is useless because it is impossible to defend against it!
In the 33rd minute, Ribery dribbled past the defense line and passed the ball to Lahm, who attracted the defense of the Manchester City full-back and then sent a cross.
The quality of this pass was extremely high. Despite the confrontation with Kompany, Lewandowski was able to stretch out his long legs and complete a lob shot.
Fortunately, Manchester City goalkeeper Navas was focused and saved his shot, thus defusing the crisis.
The Bayern fans who came to watch the game couldn't help but sigh, and then applauded Lahm who passed the ball and Lewandowski who shot the goal.
On the other hand, Manchester City fans breathed a sigh of relief.
The opponent's forward is quite strong. His physique, positioning and footwork all look very good.
I don’t know what’s going on with Dortmund. How could they allow such a player to join Bayern for free?
Why not renew the contract in advance? Even if the other party is unwilling to renew the contract, it is okay to sell him in advance? If a striker of this strength is sold, the minimum amount should be 30 million euros, right?
Besides, it would be better to sell him to a team in another league than to keep him in the league's rival team and disgust him, right? The head coaches of both teams were applauding, and Heynckes was applauding the team's attack.
Although no goal was scored, the attack was effective.
After this extremely threatening attack, Manchester City's right side will definitely be more wary of their attack in the next period of time and will not dare to press too forward.
Guardiola's applause obviously praised the players for completing this defense. Although the defense was not perfect, it was a success because it prevented the opponent from scoring.
Bayern has two top wingers. After Ribery completed an attack, Robben also put on a wonderful individual performance on the other side.
In the 41st minute of the game, Robben broke through and cut inside.
This guy is quite independent and doesn't like to pass the ball. Once he reaches this position in front of the penalty area, he usually likes to shoot by himself.
So Manchester City's full-backs and center backs were defending Robben, ready to interfere with his shot.
However, surprisingly, the Maverick Robben did not shoot, but passed the ball to his teammate.
Bayern's full-back Alaba rushed over from the midfield at some point and quickly knocked the ball back to the middle before Kolarov rushed up to defend.
However, the ball was not passed to Robben. Robben was just a cover. The real killer was the shadow striker Thomas Muller who followed behind Robben!
Muller received the ball and rushed into the penalty area, passing the ball to Lewandowski before Van Dijk rushed up.
Lewandowski started quickly. After shaking off the defender, he was the first to receive the ball in the crowd and shot at the far corner of the goal.
Navas quickly fell to the ground to save the ball, but the angle of the ball was very tricky and he did not touch it.
Just when Navas and Manchester City fans were almost in despair, a collision sound like heavenly music rang out.
The football hit the post with a bang and bounced out of the bottom line.
Manchester City escaped! Lewandowski couldn't help scratching his head when he saw the ball didn't go in.
But Manchester City fans patted their chests and breathed a sigh of relief.
However, anyone could see that Manchester City was suppressed by Bayern on the field!
(End of this chapter)