Chapter 496 Zidane was shocked: Lin’s performance reminded me of Figo!

"Manchester City's counterattack, should we pass to Kroos?"

"There was no pass, Zabaleta gave the ball directly to Lin Quan!"

"Lin Quan broke through on the wing and passed Griezmann who came forward to intercept!"

"The whole Atletico team was retreating, Koke stepped forward to block him, and Griezmann also chased after him."

"Lin Quan passed the ball. Who did he give it to?"

"Kante received the ball and passed it back to Lin Quan. Manchester City had three against four in the frontcourt!"

"Atletico is retreating as a team!"

"Lin Quan made a through pass, Aguero!"

When Lin Quan passed the ball, there were defenders on both sides of Aguero, so it was difficult for the ball to reach his feet directly. However, Lin Quan's pass bypassed the defender on the right side in a strange arc and accurately delivered the ball to Aguero's feet! Off the court, De Bruyne, who was sitting on the bench, saw Lin Quan's pass and couldn't help but applaud.

He also uses this trick often. This kind of pass seems easy, but only those who can really master it know how difficult it is.

Aguero was still worried about not being able to receive the pass from his teammate, but the next second, the ball was at his feet.

Aguero was overjoyed, and in one step, he shook off the two defensive players who were double-teaming him, and rushed towards Atletico's goal! Seeing that the situation was not good, Atletico's goalkeeper immediately abandoned the goal and attacked.

Aguero didn't wait for the opponent to block his shooting angle and shot directly near the penalty area line.

The shot was so powerful and fast that Oblak only felt a gust of wind passing by his ears, and then heard the sound of the net hitting the ground behind him.

The ball went in! The score became 2:0. Aguero's goal helped Manchester City further expand their lead!

The Etihad Stadium was boiling again. Aguero, who scored the goal, was so excited that he rushed to the sidelines and glided on the ground to celebrate.

The teammates following behind followed suit, and blue figures turned into dive bombers and glided across the lawn.

On the sidelines, Guardiola became even more excited!

It's only the first half and Manchester City is already two goals ahead! Isn't this advantage too big?

Even he himself did not expect that the tactics he formulated for this game would be so effective!

If the score of 2:0 is maintained until the end, then the probability of Manchester City advancing to the final is probably more than 80%! Atletico Madrid is not a team with excellent offense like Bayern and Real Madrid. They have not scored many goals in the Champions League and La Liga. In the previous round of 16 match with Eindhoven, Atletico Madrid did not score a goal in two games and finally eliminated the opponent by penalty shootout.

In La Liga, Atletico Madrid has only scored 59 goals, nearly half as many as Barcelona and Real Madrid! With Manchester City's defensive ability, it is still very difficult to lose two goals away from home against a team that is not good at attacking!

Of course, nothing should be taken lightly, and popping champagne at halftime will not end well.

Although they had a huge lead in the first half, no one knew how the course of the game would change in the following period.

Since the team is currently in a good momentum, let's keep it up, and try to score a few more goals to completely kill the game! In the Atletico Madrid coaching booth, Simeone was almost going crazy.

It's Lin Quan again. Why is he always the one scoring goals? Aguero's shot was very beautiful, but Atletico's players did not make any mistakes when defending.

But Lin Quan's performance was so good! Who would have thought that when Aguero was surrounded by two Atletico players, Lin Quan could still pass the ball accurately to his feet?

If they had known this earlier, they would not have been caught off guard! Simeone was also reflecting in his heart. When he saw Manchester City's starting lineup, he was relieved.

De Bruyne's absence means that Manchester City's offensive threat in the frontcourt will be much smaller.

De Bruyne's creativity and ability to pass threatening balls will impress any team that has played against Manchester City.

Especially when De Bruyne is paired with a striker like Lin Quan, the two of them have an effect of 1+1>2, making it hard to defend against.

Atletico Madrid had suffered a great loss at the hands of this combination of Manchester City in the past, so Simeone was very happy when he saw Guardiola destroy his own Great Wall and put De Bruyne on the bench.

However, he was surprised by the course of the game. Although De Bruyne was not on the field, Lin Quan perfectly replaced his role.

De Bruyne has a broad vision, a good overall view, and excellent passing skills, and Lin Quan has all of these attributes.

He even has other abilities that De Bruyne doesn't have: top-notch ball protection, top-notch breakthrough ability, and superb shooting skills that make all goalkeepers tremble.

These abilities combined make Lin Quan a far greater threat than De Bruyne. It is much more difficult to completely defend him than to restrict De Bruyne! "Wide midfielder!"

In the stands of the stadium, Zidane saw Lin Quan’s performance in the first half and couldn’t help but think of someone - the Portuguese superstar Figo who once played for Real Madrid!

Zidane has been teammates with Figo for several years in Real Madrid, and he is well aware of Figo's strength.

Although Figo is a winger, he has excellent organizational skills, which earned him the title of wing midfielder at the time.

Looking at Lin Quan who is now active on the field, Zidane feels like he is dreaming back to ten years ago.

He seemed to see the shadow of Figo at his peak in Lin Quan. No, this little guy was more comprehensive and stronger than Figo back then.

The winger position was originally intended to assist the center forward, but now that wing players frequently cut inside to shoot, the importance of the wing even exceeds that of the traditional center forward.

This can be reflected in the player values ​​and transfer fees in today's football world. The three superstars in football are all wingers.

Even Pogba, who transferred to Manchester City for a whopping 100 million euros, is a midfielder who is more like a winger.

A better winger can greatly benefit the team. It can even be said that in today's football, whoever has better wing players has a greater chance of winning.

In such a competitive environment, Manchester City has produced a monster like Lin Quan.

This is undoubtedly a fatal threat to other teams! "We must collect all the information about this kid as soon as possible after we go back. If we can get past Bayern, then this kid will be the biggest obstacle on our way to winning the championship!"

Zidane instructed his assistant with a serious expression, as Real Madrid's biggest rival on the road to winning the championship, and also its former victim.

Real Madrid's research on Manchester City can be said to be thorough, and Lin Quan, as the core of Manchester City, has naturally been studied for the longest time and has received the most effort.

Zidane originally thought he knew Lin Quan well enough, but after watching this game, he found out he was wrong.

…

Aguero's goal boosted Manchester City's morale. In the final period of the first half, they maintained the initiative on the field and continuously launched attacks on Atletico.

However, due to Atletico's tenacious defense, Manchester City failed to score any more goals and the score of 2:0 remained until the end of the halftime.

Although they failed to further expand the lead, the two-goal lead was already big enough, so when Manchester City players left the field, they were all talking and laughing, looking relaxed.

When some players passed through the player tunnel, they saw the autograph boards handed out by fans in the stands on both sides. In a good mood, they would even stay for a moment to give their autographs to the fans.

Lin Quan didn't do that. It's not that he doesn't love his fans, but he's a little short. It's funny to think about him standing on tiptoe to receive the autographed copy from a fan, so forget it...

When the players returned to the locker room, Guardiola was already waiting there.

It can be seen that Guardiola was in a good mood. He did not criticize the players for their poor performance in the first half or for not implementing his tactics as he did in the past.

Fortunately, Guardiola has a strong coaching record, otherwise, his style may not be able to subdue those arrogant and powerful generals.

Guardiola cleared his throat and said:

"You guys did an amazing job, I can't think of any better words to praise you!"

"I think even if God came, he would give you a perfect score of 100!"

Guardiola's words made the players laugh. Although they had expected the head coach to praise them, they did not expect Guardiola to praise them so nicely.

Some players couldn't help but feel satisfied, and their tails were almost raised.

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Seeing the satisfied expressions on his teammates' faces, Lin Quan smiled secretly in his heart. Based on his understanding of Guardiola, the better the performance, the higher the requirements.

I have said the good things first, and what comes next won’t be so good!

Sure enough, after praising the players, Guardiola changed the subject and said:

"but!"

“I think we can do better!”

Lin Quan had an expression that said, "As expected, I knew it!" The players didn't know whether they were impressed by Guardiola's superb tactical arrangement in the first half, or because they had just eaten Guardiola's sugar-coated bullets.

When everyone heard Guardiola's words, not only did they not show any dissatisfaction, but they all pricked up their ears and listened carefully to what Guardiola was going to say next.

Even the veterans in the team, such as Zabaleta, Kolarov and even Aguero, are like this.

Obviously, after working with Guardiola for a year and a half, these Manchester City players, both new and old, have completely surrendered to the young coach.

"Do you remember our tactical arrangements before the game?"

Guardiola was satisfied with the players' high concentration, so he mentioned the pre-match tactics again.

"Remember!"

The players nodded one after another. Although the results in the first half were better than expected, they did not forget to carry out what Guardiola instructed before the game.

If the game had followed the normal script, the turning point should have come after Manchester City made the first substitution in the 65th minute of the second half.

Although things are a little different from the script now, it does not prevent them from continuing to implement the established tactics.

"Very good, in that case, we can play more aggressively in the second half and speed up our plan!"

…

In the visiting team's locker room, Simeone was also adjusting the team's tactics.

The situation of falling behind 0:2 is naturally terrible for Atletico Madrid!

If this was a decisive game, they would definitely make drastic adjustments now, replacing forwards to strengthen their offensive capabilities.

However, the knockout rounds of the Champions League are a two-round system, and after this game, there will be another one to play at home.

If you choose an aggressive strategy at this time, but your attack is fruitless and your opponent continues to score goals because of your weakened defense, then you will end up losing more than you gain.

So Simeone was actually quite conflicted! Should he launch a massive attack in the second half?

We have to attack. We can't just sit there and wait for death, right?

However, it is very difficult to attack without weakening the team's defensive ability and not giving the opponent any opportunity to take advantage.

In fact, Atletico's defense was not bad in the first half, and the score of 0:2 seemed to be beaten by Manchester City.

However, in reality, all of Manchester City's frontal attacks were blocked by them. Even in the midfield stalemate between the two sides, Atletico Madrid did not suffer any loss facing Manchester City's three defensive midfielder formation.

It’s a pity that Lin Quan’s two flashes made all Atletico’s efforts come to naught.

Especially for the first goal scored by Manchester City, Guardiola, the old number six, not only arranged Fernandinho to protect Kroos, but also let Kroos run to the position of full-back to complete the pass.

In such a deep position, with someone protecting him in front, and the attack was so sudden, no matter how good Atletico's defense was, they couldn't stop the opponent's attack.

Of course, this method can only be used once. After the first use, Atletico Madrid will be alert and will not give Manchester City any chances again.

However, with just this one chance, Manchester City scored a goal. How can this be justified?

Simeone felt that his luck was really bad. It was bad enough that he drew Manchester City, the strongest team among the four semi-finalists, but the opponent was also lucky enough to use the only chance to score, putting Atletico Madrid into a passive position shortly after the start of the game.

The game was actually already in a disadvantageous position when Manchester City scored the first goal.

Aguero's second goal was just another nail in Atletico's coffin.

After trying hard to get rid of the negative emotions in his heart and forcing himself to calm down, Simeone emphasized to the players that they should continue to increase their running and pressing.

If you don’t have enough strength, you can make up for it with sweat! In terms of fame and personal strength, they may not be as good as Manchester City, but their desire for victory, their dedication to the game and their fighting spirit will never lose to the other side!

"Don't lose heart. Falling behind doesn't mean the end of the world. We have defeated top teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona many times. This time, we can also overcome Manchester City. Go ahead, guys, and crush them hard on the field!"

Maybe the coach's chicken soup for the soul worked, or maybe he was unwilling to surrender so early.

When Atletico Madrid players came out of the locker room, they were full of fighting spirit!

(End of this chapter)