Chapter 559: Tottenham's rise, Spain's key battle
In Celtic Park, after Manchester City made a series of substitutions, the home team faced unprecedented defensive pressure.
Due to excessive defensive pressure, their formation was completely flattened. Dembele, who had been hanging around the center circle, had to come back to participate in the defense.
Although if he stays in the frontcourt he can create a certain threat to Manchester City through counterattacks and make Manchester City cautious when attacking.
But when Manchester City pressed forward, the Celtics couldn't even get the ball, let alone launch a counterattack.
From the 50th minute of the second half, the football kept flying in front of Celtic's goal.
Manchester City's attack was getting stronger and stronger. In just 20 minutes, they had completed 12 shots.
If the Celtics hadn't used such a tragic defensive method as blocking and dribbling, their goal would have been breached long ago.
However, no matter how strong the defense is, it will eventually be breached.
In the 73rd minute, Lin Quan's breakthrough caused chaos in the Celtics' penalty area. Although the Celtics goalkeeper blocked Lin Quan's shot, the ball flew out of the penalty area and fell at the feet of the Manchester City players outside the penalty area.
Without waiting for the Celtic players in the penalty area to rush out to press, the Manchester City player with the ball took a long shot directly.
Celtics goalkeeper Gordon had not yet fully stood up from the ground, and barely reached out to flick the football in mid-air.
The football fell into the penalty area. Aguero was quick-eyed and quick-footed. He kicked the ball into the goal.
The score became 3:3, and Manchester City finally equalized the score.
Although the opponent was not particularly strong, when the opponent was focused on defending, it would be difficult for a team as strong as Manchester City to break through the opponent's goal.
Just like this goal, they had been attacking the opponent's goal for more than 25 minutes.
As long as the opponent does not harbor any lucky ideas, unites their thoughts and defends tightly, it will be much more difficult for them to score goals.
Manchester City's equalizing goal just extinguished the Celtics' last glimmer of hope.
The opposing coach made decisive substitutions, and Dembele, the goal scorer, was replaced. All three substitutions were players on the defensive line.
Obviously, the other party is determined to defend to the end.
Although it is cowardly and shameful to use this kind of tactics in your own home court, when the opponent is shameless, there is really nothing you can do about it.
Although Manchester City tried very hard, they were unable to score a goal in the following period.
Although the Celtics were beaten badly, they successfully held on to this hard-earned draw and got a point from Manchester City.
This is not an easy task. Many top clubs find it difficult to score points when facing Manchester City, and may even be defeated by Manchester City if they are not careful.
When Manchester City's game ended, Barcelona's game was also coming to an end.
The score on the field is 1:2, with the home team in front and the visiting team behind.
Although the victory was very embarrassing and even a bit lucky, Barcelona still won after all.
After winning this hard-fought victory, Barcelona's players and coaching team learned the result of another game and immediately cheered.
Their win and Manchester City's draw means that Barcelona has already grabbed first place in the group.
Their morale was boosted while the other team's morale was dampened. The next game will be a strong showdown between them and Manchester City, and the venue will be at Barcelona's home stadium.
With the combination of multiple factors, everyone in Barcelona became optimistic.
Perhaps, the next game will be their revenge against Manchester City! …
Manchester City's morale was affected to a certain extent by the failure to win the game away from home and the fact that the team was physically exhausted.
In the seventh round of the Premier League, at White Hart Lane, the home of Tottenham, the entire Manchester City team was in a slump, and the players felt heavy-footed and listless.
To make matters worse, in the 9th minute of the game, the field was slippery due to rain. Kolarov accidentally kicked the ball into his own goal at the end, giving Tottenham a big gift at the start of the game.
This was not the end. In the 33rd minute of the first half, a Tottenham player fell in the penalty area. The referee awarded a penalty without hesitation, allowing Tottenham to expand their lead to 2 goals! After losing two goals in a row, Manchester City players seemed to be awakened a little, and their state recovered a little. They took advantage of the opponent's massive pressure and seized the opportunity to launch an attack on Tottenham, and Son Heung-min finally scored a goal.
However, this state did not last long. In addition, Tottenham was in hot form, especially Kane and Eriksen. They frequently created threats in front of Manchester City's goal, which greatly distracted Manchester City's energy and made it impossible for Manchester City to devote heavy troops to the attack.
In the end, at the end of the game, with a penalty kick and an own goal, Tottenham defeated Manchester City 2:1 at home, ending their opponent's six-game winning streak.
For Tottenham, this was a victory they had been waiting for for a long time.
After Manchester City's rise in the past few years, Tottenham almost became Manchester City's experience bag. Every time they met, they would inevitably be beaten by Manchester City, and often scored very exaggerated scores, making Tottenham lose face.
After Kane grew up, Tottenham has been planning to take revenge on Manchester City.
Last season, they once saw hope of winning at home, but ultimately fell short.
This season they finally got their revenge, and for Tottenham, this joy is comparable to defeating their city rivals Arsenal! Manchester City's unexpected defeat is a good thing for other competitors to celebrate.
With this victory, Tottenham quietly moved up to second place in the league, with league points only 1 point less than the defending champion.
Below Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool, who won this round of games, are ranked third and fourth respectively. The two teams have the same points, both 16 points.
As for Manchester United and Chelsea, who were in strong momentum at the beginning of the season, they have 13 points and are currently ranked sixth and seventh.
After the unexpected loss to Tottenham, Manchester City, which had not won in two rounds in the league and the Champions League, was unsurprisingly criticized by the media.
Some analysts believe that without Kroos, Manchester City's offensive threat has decreased, their tactics have become monotonous, and they have lost the dominance they had in previous seasons.
"This may be good news for other Premier League teams. This year's Premier League champion may be a new face!"
Manchester City's consecutive titles in the Premier League have made many fans tired of the aesthetics, and they are eager to see new faces ascend the throne.
The current momentum of the Premier League makes them very happy.
A league dominated by one team is definitely not a normal league.
A league where many top teams compete fiercely and chase each other is the league they want to see most.
This season's Premier League clearly meets their psychological expectations.
After the seventh round of matches, FIFA's match day has arrived again.
It is less than two years away from the 2018 World Cup. For those countries aiming to qualify for the World Cup, the most important task for the national team at this stage is the World Cup qualifiers.
As the Spanish national team will have a crucial match within the group this weekend, all the main players of the national team, including Lin Quan, received calls from the national team after the league game, and each of them reported to the national team's training base as quickly as possible.
For European countries, the World Cup qualifiers not only depend on strength but also on appearance.
Although they were allocated a lot of places in the World Cup finals, up to 13! However, due to the large number of strong teams in Europe, these 13 places were not enough.
Therefore, for the teams participating in the European World Cup qualifiers, they must try their best in every game, win all the points they can, and not relax at all.
Because only the first in the group can secure the qualification for the World Cup.
If we don’t get first place in the group, it will be very troublesome.
They need to fight for a place in the play-offs, and then fight with other opponents in the brutal play-offs for the last four qualifying places.
Therefore, if two or more strong teams are placed in the same group, they would be very unlucky.
Because some people are destined not to advance directly!
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Unfortunately, Group G where Spain is located happens to have two such strong teams - Spain and Italy!
Apart from these two teams, the remaining four teams are more like accompanying the prince to study. Their own strength is very weak, and it is basically impossible for them to compete with these two strong teams for the qualification.
This means that the direct confrontation between these two strong teams will directly determine who will be the first in the group! Because this game is so important, Bosque and the Spanish coaching staff dare not slack off. They summoned all the main players, and after the players recovered a little, they immediately took the time to conduct targeted training.
Although Spain and Italy just faced each other in the European Cup, defeating the opponent before does not mean that they can easily defeat them in the future.
What's more, Italy is not a weak team. They will learn lessons from their failure, sum up their experience and find ways to defeat Spain.
"This game is at the opponent's home ground. Italy is likely to use the advantage of home ground to launch a fierce attack on us, so we have to play more steadily, do a good job of defense first, don't lose the ball, and then think about scoring goals."
Bosque is more stable. In such a crucial game, neither side can afford to lose, so they don't intend to give the other side any chance.
He could accept even a draw in this game. At worst, he could just take care of Italy in the next round when he returned home.
Moreover, Spain's tactical style of play is very restraining to weak teams. When facing the other four teams in the group, the probability of Spain losing or even drawing is very low, which means that their tolerance rate is very high.
On the other hand, Italy, which focuses on defense, may not be able to score points as steadily as they do when facing weaker teams.
Just one mistake by Italy in any of the other matches would have been enough to ensure Spain topped the group.
Therefore, there is no need for Spain to be anxious. It is Italy that should be anxious.
I have to say that Bosque is really experienced. He saw through the Italian's weakness at a glance and found a way to restrain them.
On October 7, at the San Siro Stadium, there was a drizzle in the sky.
Fortunately, the stadium's drainage system works well and there is no obvious accumulation of water on the field. This is good news for the Spanish team, which focuses on footwork.
Just as Bosque had expected before the game, after the start of the game, the Italian team took advantage of their home court and launched a fierce attack on the Spanish team.
The two teams currently have the same points, but Spain has a goal difference of 9, while Italy has only 2, so Spain is currently ranked first in the group and Italy is ranked second.
The Italians are well aware of the Spanish team's formidable strength. Among the remaining four opponents in the group, Liechtenstein is just a gift-giving kid and will not pose any threat to the two teams.
North Macedonia has limited strength and is unlikely to pose any obstacle to Spain.
As for Israel, there is no need to mention it, their strength has always been insignificant.
The only team that can be counted on is Albania. This team is considered a second-rate team in Europe, but it has also unexpectedly defeated strong teams such as France.
If Spain was careless and underestimated the enemy, it might suffer a setback at their hands.
But it is certainly not advisable to pin your hopes on others.
Rather than relying on others, Italians prefer to take control of their own destiny.
And defeating Spain at home is the key to taking the initiative.
The morale of the Italian team, playing at home, was very high and their offensive tactics had obviously been well-researched, targeting the weaknesses of the Spanish team.
Spain's midfield lineup is not as luxurious as before, and the Italians obviously want to make use of this point. In this way, they can not only curb Spain's attack, but also wait for an opportunity to launch a counterattack.
However, Bosque had already seen through the opponent's intentions, so he was very careful in arranging the starting lineup for this game.
He put Fabregas on the bench and let Koke start.
Iniesta was also placed on the bench, with Lin Quan replacing him and serving as the team's offensive midfielder.
In the forward position, he let Morata act as a shadow striker and Diego Costa was at the front.
With this reliance, Morata can participate in the midfield defense and further enhance the Spanish team's control over the midfield.
Thus, the Italians' plan failed.
They wanted to take advantage of the weakness of Spain's midfield, but found themselves hitting a wall.
The Spanish midfield is not weak, but strong and tough.
What's even more frightening is that this midfielder has strong offensive power. When the Italians launch a large-scale attack, they can frequently launch high-quality counterattacks that threaten their goal.
In the 35th minute of the first half, Spain seized the opportunity of the Italians' massive attack and completed a textbook quick counterattack.
From the Spanish player's steal in the backcourt to Diego Costa's scoring the ball into the opponent's goal, the entire counterattack took only three passes and took eight seconds.
Even Italy, a country known for its defense, was unable to react to such a rapid counterattack!
(End of this chapter)