Chapter 168 Champions League: Chelsea (Part 1)
When Zidane heard Guti say that Eggsy was like him, he immediately shook his head.
He smiled and looked at Guti and said, "He is not like me."
Guti looked at Zidane in surprise, and Zidane explained: "I am 1.186 meters tall and I have a big frame. Eggsy is about the same height as me, but his frame is a little smaller than mine."
At this point, Zidane smiled and said, "How does he look like me?"
Guti also crossed his arms like Zidane did, then leaned against the door frame, looking at Zidane across the corridor and said: "He is only 4 centimeters taller than you, and he is still growing. Maybe he will be almost the same height as you in the future."
"There aren't many midfielders as big as you on the table, and Eggsy is very similar to you in many ways."
"For example?"
"Your understanding of the situation on the court, your understanding of the tactics of both sides, your exquisite sense of the ball, your broad vision, your stopping, controlling, dribbling, breaking through, passing, organization and dispatching in the midfield area, all of them are very similar to your past, right?"
Guti was smiling when he said these words, then he tilted his head and looked at Zidane and said, "Don't deny it. You insist on saying it's not like that. Don't you just want me to say all this?"
Zidane laughed disapprovingly at this time, looking at the direction where Eggsy left and said: "He plays too methodically, not as relaxed as I do. He is too obsessed with technique."
Guti smiled and looked at Zidane and said, "Well, I'll tell Eggsy later, what about after he changes these?"
"The mental quality is still not good enough. When I came on the court, I was only thinking about how to score a goal, but he was still panicking and nervous."
"He's still young," Guti said, not worrying about these shortcomings at all. "After playing 50 games, he will definitely be stable."
Zidane raised his head proudly and looked at Guti and said, "Why do you always speak for him?"
Guti smiled and said: "I am just stating the facts."
However, whether it is true or not, we will have to wait and see the game tonight to find out.
"Tonight's Stamford Bridge is packed. Chelsea and Real Madrid don't have much grudges against each other, but Real Madrid's new youngster Ignacio Eggesie and Chelsea's new defender Kante and forward Vardy were once good brothers who were well-known in the Premier League."
The host's passionate voice rang out over the stadium. Many fans, regardless of the hot weather, held their newly bought iced soda and beer and shouted towards the stadium!
"After Mr. Ranieri left the Blue Foxes championship team, they were sold separately and fell apart. Eggsy and Vardy each found a new club. Today the two will stand on the opposite side of each other as opponents." The host seemed to have done some research on the players of both sides of the game.
The director immediately cut the screen to the big sign on the stadium. At this time, the starting lineups of both teams came out, and the list on Real Madrid's side was quite strange.
The forwards are: Bale, Benzema,
Midfielders: Eggesie, Kroos, Modric
Defenders: Marcelo, Varane, Carvajal, Pepe, Danilo
Substitutes: Defenders (Albiol, Ramos) Midfielder (Casemiro)
"Real Madrid's captain Ramos is not in the starting lineup? What kind of lineup does Real Madrid have? Are they planning to give up on the back line?" The host really didn't understand. Since Zidane took charge of Real Madrid, Ramos has appeared in every one of his big battles.
Ramos has not started since the last game. Why? Injured?
Real Madrid has a lot of fans, including in the UK. When everyone saw that captain Ramos was not in the starting lineup but on the bench, they had all kinds of thoughts in their minds.
Even the Chelsea coaching staff next to them were mumbling, and it seemed that Real Madrid must be plotting something.
The host was still guessing when the big screen below showed Chelsea's lineup. As soon as the starting lineup was revealed, Chelsea fans frowned and talked about it.
Forwards: Vardy, Pedro, Costa
Midfielders: Pedro, Hazard, Fabregas
Defenders: Ivanovic, Azpilicueta, Kante, Terry
In the attached formation diagram, Kante's position was actually forward, almost behind the midfield. This tactical arrangement immediately caused the Real Madrid rest area to whisper.
There is a saying in tactics that the back line should be pushed forward, which is Chelsea's clear statement that they intend to play a defensive game. Intend to play defense in the first half? This is strange in itself. The core of Real Madrid and Chelsea is offense, both in the first half.
If there is no conspiracy behind Chelsea's current defensive play, the Real Madrid players will be laughed to death.
However, after the list of names was released, the director immediately switched the camera to the player tunnel. As the host, the entire Chelsea team was wearing blue jerseys and standing there waiting for the ball boys.
Soon the Real Madrid players arrived, but starting with Ramos, Ronaldo and Kroos at the front, they all began to pull their collars a little unnaturally.
To be honest, they are not used to the lapels on their jerseys this time. Although they are pretty, God knows how annoying it is when they have lapels fluttering in the wind and tickling their necks during the game.
Not to mention that when this thing is soaked with sweat, it will really strangle you!
Now that they have changed into purple jerseys for the away game, the damn stand-up collar is finally gone! All the Real Madrid players, without exception, pulled their collars and felt that they could finally breathe more smoothly.
Because they can breathe easily, they have no complaints about the gay purple away jersey.
At this time, several Chelsea players were standing together in the player tunnel, talking about something. Of course, when these people were Vardy, Fabregas, and Kante, you didn't have to guess that they were probably talking about Eggsy.
Speaking of Eggsy, Eggsy came. He just happened to come out with Modric. Although the captain and Ronaldo were walking in front, Eggsy didn't hide when he saw Kante, Vardy, and even Fabregas. He went up to greet them one by one.
Fabregas patted Eggsy on the shoulder, which was considered subtle, but Vardy and Kante behind him gave Eggsy a hug without any hesitation.
"Hey! Hey! Stop hugging me, it's so hot!"
"You little brat! Hahaha!"
"Long time no see!"
The director did not cut out the scene of Eggsy, Vardy and Kante hugging each other. After all, as the core of the team that won the last Premier League championship, the three of them now have their own new clubs, but it is rare for them to maintain such a good relationship.
There is never a shortage of friends becoming enemies in the football world.
After Eggsy hugged Kante, Vardy and Fabregas, they all smiled. After they agreed to never let the game go, they didn't have time to say anything more since the caddies had already come up.
After players from both teams came on the field, Chelsea won the coin toss so they took the lead in launching the attack.
Vardy greeted his midfielder Hazard and forward Pedro, so when Hazard received the ball, Vardy and Pedro quickly started charging and fighting for position.
As Chelsea's core midfielder, Hazard is the undisputed core of Chelsea, so almost all the balls start from him.
So during this wave of Chelsea's attack, Eggsy did not do anything special, and the others just followed the tactics originally arranged by Zidane.
"Eggsy, be careful of their long passes."
English teams are good at passing and dribbling, and so was Eggsy before coming to Real Madrid.
Modric reminded him, and Eggsy nodded. The next second, Fabregas of Chelsea made a long pass, and Hazard broke through the center line of Real Madrid and tried to break through.
But at this time, Modric and Kroos were already on the left and right lines. Fabregas and Kroos were fighting for position. Eggsy was still in the midfield and found Hazard directly. Hazard was trying to break through with the ball.
And Eggsy's goal is simple - intercept!
Eggsy didn't hesitate at all, he rushed forward directly. Just as Hazard was about to break through, Eggsy came up and entangled him.
In fact, before Eggsy transferred, Hazard had a head-on confrontation with Eggsy, but compared to before, the current Eggsy can simply be described as terrifying.
In fact, Hazard did not want to entangle with Eggsy near the midfield, so he chose to use his body to force a breakthrough, or simply speed up to bypass Eggsy.
But without exception, all of these thoughts were seen through by Eggsy. Compared to before when Eggsy liked to distance himself from the target to defend, now the distance between him and himself can only be said to be closer.
This means that Eggsy's reaction time is shortened, and many defensive actions need to be predicted. However, such predictions did not cause any trouble to Eggsy, and Eggsy's defensive ability against him increased!
In fact, Eggsy's attack on Hazard was targeted. The first was to test Chelsea's midfield reaction, and then to see Chelsea's offensive approach.
Under Eggsy's high-pressure attack, Chelsea's offensive reaction was what Eggsy was eager to know. After seeing Eggsy's actions, the other forwards and defenders immediately started their own actions as if they had received Eggsy's command signal.
For a moment, Real Madrid's entire body was affected by every move they made. They switched between attack and defense freely, and failed to make Chelsea's attack work.
The Real Madrid coaching staff was a little surprised when they saw that the man-marking strategy of Eggesie, Modric and Kroos actually blocked Chelsea's attack.
But if we analyze it carefully, it is not difficult to find that the position where Eggsy arranged the interception was just past the midfield line.
Chelsea's original tactic was to use their own Hazard and Kong's 434 formation system, holding on to the three people on the central axis as the offensive attacking group.
The deep meaning is that Hazard does not need to retreat to a deep position to defend, let alone sprint back to defend. Hazard is always in a position where it is easier to receive the ball and can launch an attack at any time.
But this requires the midfield to be able to break through the midfield blockade, and Eggsy just used three midfielders including himself to strangle Chelsea's offensive artery.
Eggsy can only block Hazard but cannot block Chelsea. However, with Modric and Kroos, they can design a plan to block this point where the player can receive the ball and disperse at any time.
This really strangled Chelsea's lifeline!
Hazard, who was trapped and could only pass back or risk losing the ball, was a little bit unbelievable. Eggsy was only 17 years old. Could he have such an ability to interpret the court?
And it’s only the first ten minutes!
Hazard did not continue to waste time in the midfield. He turned around and passed the ball back, trying to find an opportunity to break through to the penalty area, receive the ball and find an opportunity to try to score the first point.
"Watch out for the long pass!"
Eggsy had already understood Chelsea's idea at this time. He turned around and looked at Vardy and Costa who were trying to speed up or bypass the defense.
But Eggsy did not panic. Instead, he stared at the football that formed a beautiful arc in the air and ran back!
"Eggsy is running back! Is this an attempt at defense?"
"No, I don't think so. Look, he is still looking back at the long pass - he is not trying to force the ball after being so far behind!"
No one needed to guess whether he was going to force the ball or not. Eggsy was running back quickly at this time, and Vardy, who had run away before him, was also turning back to catch the ball.
However, he didn't expect that Eggsy, who was catching up quickly, was not going to intercept him when he was about to receive the ball, but rushed out directly. He did not break through Vardy's speed, but jumped up to surpass Vardy's height!
Eggsy jumped up and stopped the ball with his chest in mid-air. He didn't even wait for it to fall. After stopping the ball, he turned around and shot.
The ball flew quickly towards Chelsea's half. Benzema and Bale, who had already been greeted by Eggsy, were already running towards it!
The whole audience was shocked. Not only the host opened his mouth wide and couldn't make a sound, even Zidane on the sidelines was stunned. However, Guti on the side was laughing happily.
"High jump to catch the pass, you even taught this?"
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