Chapter 577: Champions League final begins, Zidane's calculations

Compared to last year's match, when Manchester City players met Real Madrid again this year, they all had a feeling in their hearts - Real Madrid has become stronger!

This Real Madrid has sharp offense, solid defense, and a wide variety of playing styles.

He can both blast through from the wing and penetrate through the middle with short passes.

And thanks to the improvement in midfield strength, they can even play passing and controlling like Manchester City.

More importantly, Real Madrid's signature skill - quick counterattack - was not lost, but was further enhanced.

No wonder they were able to make it to the finals. It is not surprising that they can make it to the finals with such strength.

At the beginning of the game, both teams played very cautiously and did not launch an attack rashly.

After all, after a year, the two teams' lineups and technical and tactical play are different, and the inherent impressions of the past may not be reliable.

However, as time went on, the offensives of both sides gradually increased.

Since Real Madrid has a top offensive combination like BBC, they have many offensive firepower points. Until the last moment, it is difficult to predict who among the BBC will make the final shot.

But judging from the beginning of the first half, Real Madrid clearly hoped to find opportunities from the flanks.

First of all, Bale is in good form on the wing and has always been a sharp knife in Real Madrid.

As long as he is given opportunities, he will not disappoint.

Moreover, in the last game between Manchester City and Juventus, most of Juventus' goals and dangerous attacks came from the flanks.

Since Juventus has helped Real Madrid verify that there are problems with Manchester City's wing defense, there is no reason for Real Madrid not to seize this weakness and pursue it relentlessly.

Guardiola was not unprepared for Bale's threat before the game.

But after arriving at the competition venue, he found that his preparation seemed to be insufficient.

With the arrival of Kroos, Real Madrid's midfield lineup has been fully formed, and Modric has been freed up to participate more in the offense.

Once Modric dribbled the ball across the half court, the threat faced by Manchester City's defense increased sharply.

After the opening, Modric's several passes almost created threats.

Especially in the 8th minute, Modric made a straight pass, and Bale took the ball and rushed along the sidelines. After shaking off the Manchester City defenders on the sidelines, he did not choose to cross the ball, but cut inside and took a long shot.

The shot was of high quality, forcing Manchester City's goalkeeper to fly and save the ball.

Ronaldo had already rushed up from behind and was about to run into the open space, but Bale chose to shoot himself, which made Ronaldo spread his hands, somewhat dissatisfied.

However, Zidane, who was standing on the sidelines, was not angry. Instead, he applauded Bale.

Bale's finishing ability is not weak. If he is regarded as a tool who can only pass the ball from the bottom, it would be a waste of talent.

Moreover, from a defensive perspective, the more options Bale has, the more difficult it will be for the opponent to defend. If you want to completely plug the loopholes in Bale's line, you must draw reinforcements from other places.

There are only so many players on the field, and each has his own position. If players are withdrawn from one side, the defense of that side will be weakened. This is an opportunity for Real Madrid players in this direction.

Real Madrid, which has multiple offensive cores, does not worry at all about its players being targeted by the opponent, because the opponent has no way of targeting them all!

Guardiola did not act rashly. Although Bale's attack posed a considerable threat, Manchester City's defense did not cause too many problems.

If I have to say, it was probably because the full-back was a little careless and tried to steal the ball, but failed, giving Bale the chance to pass him! Fortunately, the two central defenders were very reliable, especially Van Dijk, who blocked the ball immediately, forcing Bale to give up the idea of ​​​​continuing dribbling and was forced to shoot from outside the penalty area.

If the goalkeeper's vision is not blocked and there is no major mistake in positioning, this kind of long shot is difficult to score unless the angle is extremely tricky and the speed of the ball is very fast.

So, he decided to wait and see the quality of Manchester City's counterattack.

In the stands, Real Madrid fans felt proud when they saw their team launch a threatening attack. They grinned at the Manchester City fans and shouted loudly.

The organizers of the event separated the areas where the fans of the two teams were located early on. Not only did they install iron fences in the middle, they also arranged a large number of guards to be stationed there to prevent radical fans from both sides from climbing over the fences and running to the middle to fight.

This kind of thing has happened before. British football hooligans are very famous. If the team wins, they will provoke a fight. If the team loses, they will vent their anger and pick a fight.

Before Manchester City fans had time to launch a counterattack, Manchester City players on the field had already taken care of the matter for them.

In the 10th minute, Manchester City also launched a quick counterattack on the wing. The passes of Lin Quan, De Bruyne and David Silva broke through Real Madrid's defense on the wing. Lin Quan dribbled the ball to the front of the penalty area. Facing Ramos's steal, he seized the opportunity to penetrate the opponent's crotch and passed the ball to Aguero behind.

The pass was quite beautiful, but Real Madrid's other central defender Varane also made an excellent defense.

He held Aguero tightly and did not give Aguero any chance to shoot directly.

Aguero was almost squeezed away by the opponent and could only force a half turn and take a hook shot.

The quality of this hook shot can only be described as average. The speed of the ball is not fast and the angle is not tricky.

But the goalkeeper did not see Aguero's shooting action at the first time, and by the time he reacted, it was already too late.

However, just as the goalkeeper surrendered, Aguero's shot went over the crossbar...

Now, it was the Manchester City fans in the stands who were sighing, while the Real Madrid fans next door were gasping.

This ball is really dangerous. The opponent's forward is really good. He can complete the shot in such a situation.

As for the opponent's number 10, he was able to calmly find the exact time to penetrate the crotch and pass the ball when facing Ramos. It was really amazing!

It seems that even if Manchester City's strength has been weakened, it has not been weakened much. At least from this attack, Manchester City is fully capable of breaking Real Madrid's goal.

Thinking of this, fans of both sides felt obviously nervous and watched the game with trepidation.

After each side launched a threatening attack, the mutual testing between the two sides officially ended, and the offensive rhythm suddenly accelerated. After getting the ball, both sides tried every means to pass the ball to the opponent's half, hoping to defeat the opponent with a quick game.

In the 12th minute, Modric dribbled the ball in the frontcourt and saw Benzema running out of the open space, so he quickly sent a straight pass.

Benzema shot the ball directly into the goal without stopping.

Benzema was so excited after scoring the goal that he rushed to the sidelines and slid on his knees to celebrate. The Real Madrid fans in the stands also applauded and cheered.

But when Benzema received the ball, Manchester City's defenders had already raised their hands to indicate that he was offside. The linesman hesitated and did not raise the flag at the first time, but after Benzema scored, he still raised the flag.

So the goal was ruled invalid! Benzema was overjoyed for nothing, he was unbelievable and couldn't accept the result.

However, the slow-motion replay on the big screen at the scene showed that Benzema's offside was quite obvious.

Before Modric passed the ball, Stones, who was lagging behind, moved forward a step, creating an offside trap, putting Benzema, who was originally not offside, in an offside position.

Although it was a false alarm in the end, Benzema's offside goal still served as a reminder to Manchester City's defense that they cannot just focus on defending the flanks but also need to be extra careful in the middle.

Although Benzema is not as famous as the other two in the BBC, this guy is one of the top five strikers in today's football world. Don't underestimate him! Real Madrid seemed to have found the right way to attack. After that, they tried several more times in the middle, but unfortunately, these attacks failed.

On the one hand, Kante targeted Modric, making it difficult for Modric to deliver wonderful passes as he did before.

Secondly, Van Dijk and Stones also strengthened their care for Benzema. Under the care of Manchester City's two iron guards, Benzema was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, turned into a Benzema cat, and temporarily lost his threat.

The game was almost 20 minutes old and the score was still 0:0. Both teams had made quite a few shots. Manchester City had completed 5 shots, while Real Madrid had more than them, with 7 shots.

Read the error-free version on 6Ⅹ9Ⅹ bookⅩ bar! 6Ⅹ9 book bar first publishes a novel.

But unfortunately, apart from Benzema's offside goal, no one was able to score against the opponent.

However, in the 20th minute, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

Real Madrid intercepted the ball in the midfield, and Kroos accurately passed the ball to the right, finding Calhaeva who was running in from behind.

Carvajal made a move to cross the ball from the bottom, but instead completed an inverted triangle pass halfway, passing the ball to Ronaldo at the edge of the penalty area.

There were obvious problems with Manchester City's defense. The defenders were only concerned with retreating and no one was keeping an eye on the opponent's forward, resulting in no one within two meters around Ronaldo when he received the ball on the penalty area line.

Ronaldo's shooting skills are already top-notch. With no interference, the quality of his shot was incredibly high. The goalkeeper could only fall to the ground to save the ball symbolically but couldn't touch the ball at all.

The ball went into the net and the score became 1:0, Real Madrid took the lead! Unlike Benzema's shot, when Ronaldo shot, there were at least three or four Manchester City players in front of him, so it was impossible for him to be offside.

The referee quickly confirmed this and pointed to the center circle, indicating that the goal was valid.

After scoring the goal, Ronaldo was very excited. He ran to the sidelines, jumped up, turned his back to the audience, faced the court, and made his signature celebration move.

The Real Madrid fans in the stands were very considerate and made uniform "siu" sounds, while the Manchester City fans booed in response.

Although they booed the opponent, Real Madrid scored first, which made Manchester City's situation passive.

Faced with the boos from the opposing fans, Ronaldo didn't care much because he was in a good mood.

Although after the transformation, Ronaldo was called a pie striker, he was not worthy of being listed as one of the three superstars together with Lin Quan and Messi.

But there are so many forwards in the world, how many of them can score as many goals as Ronaldo?

What's more, this was a goal scored in the Champions League final, which is worth a fortune!

Maybe I'm not as good as the other two in dribbling and passing, but as long as I can score goals and help the team win, that's enough!

After the opponent scored the first goal, Guardiola called several defenders over and gave them some instructions.

Real Madrid is very good at counterattacking the opponent, which is a big test for the defense at this time.

Don't just retreat to your own defensive position. Always keep an eye on the people in front and behind you. Don't focus entirely on the football. Don't have a group of people running after the ball, otherwise you will miss the people you should defend.

Of course, Real Madrid's attack just now was indeed very beautiful, especially Carvajal's pass, the timing and accuracy of the pass were very good.

Manchester City was previously focused on Bale, who was the loudest and most threatening, but ignored the opponent's full-back who was making assists. This was indeed a point they did not remind enough.

It seems like Zidane is playing some psychological tactics on himself!

Guardiola even suspected that when he let Bale attack Manchester City's wing at the beginning of the game, was he deliberately setting a trap for himself, so that his attention would be drawn to Bale and he would ignore the threats from others?

If this is true, then Zidane is a bit scary! Guardiola's speculation is not groundless, Zidane is indeed a bit of a character.

After all, anyone who can have a good ending in Real Madrid is definitely not an ordinary person!

After leading Real Madrid to win three consecutive Champions League titles, he saw the problems in the team and retired at the right time, without being greedy for the power in his hands at all. This is something that many people cannot do.

When Zidane saw Ronaldo score a goal, he was even more excited than Ronaldo.

Although he designed a series of tactics, when these tactics really worked and Real Madrid really took the lead, he still felt a little unreal!

The opponent is Manchester City! This is the only team in the history of the Champions League to win three consecutive titles, and it is also the team that has entered the Champions League for four consecutive years.

Facing such an opponent, Real Madrid is actually under great pressure from top to bottom, especially him as the head coach.

Although Real Madrid won the long-awaited La Liga championship this season, a mere La Liga championship is not enough to quench the thirst of a top club like Real Madrid.

What the club wants is the tenth Champions League trophy in team history.

This is the most important task for Real Madrid head coach! But Mourinho, Ancelotti and Zidane have tried many times, but all failed.

Last year he even led the team to the final, but still lost miserably to Manchester City.

This year, they met the same opponent again. Although Real Madrid's strength has improved compared to last season, Zidane still felt unsure.

The father-son duo of Guardiola and Lin Quan are so famous. One is a talented coach and the other is a talented player. Coupled with Manchester City's glorious past record, anyone who meets them would probably feel scared.

Although Zidane was very successful as a player, he is still a newcomer in the coaching field and his resume is far less impressive than Guardiola's! (End of this chapter)