Chapter 743 The friendship can be overturned at any time
If we say that in the first twenty minutes of the game, both Bayern and Barcelona were trying their best and wanted to make a big move, then after each side scored a goal, they both calmed down and sobered up.
Bayern is not a soft persimmon that can be easily bullied, and Barcelona's passing, ball control, advancement and penetration are also hard to defend against.
Even a team as strong as Bayern can only take a defensive stance when facing Barcelona who have the ball.
Bayern has a physical advantage, both in height and strength, so set pieces are also a very important scoring weapon.
But Mourinho has obviously strengthened his defenses in this regard. Bayern failed to take advantage of several free kicks and corner kicks in the first half. Sudon, Lucio, Pepe and others all faced close defense.
In the end, the two sides shook hands and made peace with a score of 1-1 in the first half and went into halftime.
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It took only two minutes from leading by one goal to being equalized by the opponent.
It has to be said that the goal conceded was a big blow to Bayern.
Heynckes was relatively satisfied with the team's performance in the first half, but there were also serious problems.
According to Bayern's pre-match plan, the team should start to press the opponent from the forward line, preventing the opponent from passing the ball to the midfield. When the pressure in the frontcourt fails, Bayern will immediately retreat and organize a solid defensive line.
This plan looks good, and given Bayern's tactical discipline, it is not difficult to execute. However, when it came to implementing it in the game, some deviations occurred.
Many of Mourinho's tactics involve direct long passes to Ibrahimovic, which forces Bayern to quickly get into position and organize their defense before they even start high-pressure pressing, and the pressing pressure in the frontcourt is basically gone.
Although Barcelona's long pass error rate was high and Ibrahimovic was unable to gain much advantage over Lucio and Pepe, Barcelona's frontcourt pressing ability was very strong and their midfield ball control ability was superb, which enabled them to form frontcourt pressing as soon as possible after a long pass failed.
In fact, Barcelona was pressing forward as a whole, while Bayern was retreating as a whole.
Especially after the 1-1 tie, Barcelona began to deploy troops in the frontcourt, which made Bayern's situation even more passive. Their ball possession rate was only 30%, while Barcelona had an overwhelming advantage.
This was originally a favorable situation for Bayern because they could counterattack.
However, Barcelona invested a lot of manpower in the counterattack after losing the ball. The key was that Bayern's two flanks, Ribery and Robben, did not perform well under the impact of Alves and Maxwell.
Alves was very active. In several forward attacks, Ribery was forced to retreat deep, but he still encountered several embarrassing scenes. Robben was not much better. Although Maxwell was not as sharp as Alves, he was the key to Barcelona's goal two minutes after losing the ball.
Robben was absent in that goal.
Maxwell and Iniesta were able to penetrate Lahm's side because Robben did not perform the task of defending Maxwell.
After the score was 1-1, Ribery and Robben began to pay more attention to the defense of the full-backs. After they became more reliable, Bayern's attack was also curbed, especially on the flanks.
In the first half, Ribery and Robben tried to dribble through fourteen times, but only succeeded twice, and neither of them created a threat.
Due to the absence of winger, Su Dong was closely guarded by Barcelona after scoring the goal, so Bayern's attack was naturally lackluster.
The offense wasn't very good, but the defense was pretty well organized.
Especially after the 1-1 tie, Barcelona had more control of the ball, but was never able to create a threatening attack. It was even difficult for them to control the tempo of the game. Instead, they were restrained by Bayern and felt very depressed.
When they wanted to go slow, Bayern would speed up and attack at a rapid pace, which made Barcelona play awkwardly.
During the half-time break, Heynckes focused on praising the team's overall defensive formation.
Throughout the first half, especially after the 1-1 draw, Bayern put a lot of energy into maintaining the overall formation, keeping the team's three lines compact and orderly, and not giving Barcelona players too much space to get the ball.
It can be said that Bayern has done a very good job in this regard.
"In the second half, we need to maintain this focus, continue to curb Barcelona's passing organization and penetration, stabilize the defense, and actively counterattack, with the focus on attacking Barcelona's two wings."
On the tactical board, Heynckes drew two circles on the two wings behind the Barcelona defense, reminding the players to attack these two areas when counterattacking.
Ribery and Robben both need to retreat appropriately and follow Alves and Maxwell, while the connecting point in the frontcourt is Su Dong.
Heynckes hopes that Su Dong can move to the wing more often during counterattacks.
"They built a hard iron cage for you in the middle. After getting the ball, it's easy for you to fall into the encirclement, so I think you should expand your range of activities, especially to the two wings."
Not only Su Dong is doing this, Messi does the same. In this game, he is the one behind Ibrahimovic in the 4411, with a large range of movement and freedom.
This change made by Heynckes was actually also aimed at liberating Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
Su Dong in the frontcourt was free, and players like Ribery and Robben who came from behind naturally followed Su Dong.
This actually further established the tactical core position of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
"Understood!" Su Dong nodded in agreement, "If possible, pass more to the right side."
Heynckes and everyone else were stunned, "Why?"
Everyone in the locker room was confused.
Isn't it? Is there any difference between the left side and the right side?
Su Dong pointed at Puyol on the tactical board and smiled slightly: "This guy has short legs!"
Everyone was stunned at first, and then burst into laughter.
This reason is absolutely amazing! But if you think about it carefully, Su Dong's words are not unreasonable.
Mourinho is a head coach who pays great attention to details. To what extent?
In the central defender combination of Puyol and Pique, their left and right positions are often switched, depending more on their responsibilities. For example, Pique is more reckless, so he is responsible for grabbing the ball, while Puyol is responsible for falling back and assisting in defense.
This is actually quite interesting, because Puyol used to be a center back who would rush forward, but now it was his turn to stay behind and clean up after Pique, and he surprisingly performed quite steadily.
But tonight Puyol was on the left, which was obviously not aimless, but because Puyol's chasing back speed was faster, defending Robben on the right side of Bayern, especially when Robben cut inside. Puyol was right-footed, which just blocked Robben's cut inside.
So the question is, Pique is also right-footed, and Ribery on the left side of Bayern is also good at cutting inside, what should we do? Although Yaya Toure was a midfielder in this game, he actually often returned to a position almost on par with the central defender.
This is just a little trick in the deployment of troops, but from the perspective of habitual foot, it is indeed helpful in curbing the opponent.
This is also what Su Dong said.
He is tall and has long legs. If he cuts inside with his left foot, Puyol's short legs will make it difficult for him to completely block Su Dong's shooting angle.
Of course, this is just theory and it is not so easy to put into practice.
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After the halftime break, the players from both teams left the locker rooms.
In the player tunnel, Su Dong met Barcelona players and felt that everyone's expression was very serious.
Before the game, they would take the initiative to greet Su Dong and talk and laugh with each other, but now they look like sworn enemies.
I have to say, it was at this time that the atmosphere of mortal enemies really began to emerge.
"What's going on? What did you experience during the halftime break?" Su Dong walked up to Messi and Iniesta jokingly and asked with a smile.
He is full of confidence in the second half and naturally won't worry too much.
Messi looked around and whispered to Su Dong: "Don't laugh, our friendship has capsized."
"Ah?" Su Dong was stunned.
Can this friendship be overturned at any time?
"The madman in our family said that we were too polite to you, especially to you." Iniesta added another stab.
Su Dong couldn't stand listening to this.
"We have to speak with conscience. Come on, come on, look, who kicked you?"
Su Dong pointed at the red scratch on the outside of his right calf, which was still bleeding.
Iniesta was immediately embarrassed. "I was a little anxious at the time. Who knew you wouldn't pull your legs back?"
"Bullshit, the ball is at my feet, I'm pulling my legs back? Why don't you just let me pass the ball to you?"
Not only Messi and Iniesta were amused, but even Puyol and Xavi couldn't help laughing.
"What are you laughing at, Carls? You used a lot of dirty tricks on me in the first half. I still remember them all." Su Dong complained.
Puyol smiled and waved his hands, "Okay, just come over here!"
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The second half of the game resumed.
Barcelona continued its ball possession advantage in the first half and suppressed Bayern from the very beginning.
Bayern continued its stable defense in the first half and continued to organize its defense steadily.
Bayern's traditional advantage is discipline. The players' tactical execution is very high and the overall defense is well organized. Even Ribery and Robben actively retreated to defend Alves and Maxwell.
The space in the frontcourt was basically left to Su Dong.
Bayern's possession rate remained at around 30%, and Barcelona controlled the ball for most of the game.
Su Dong ran actively and participated in the pressing on Barcelona's defense and Yaya Toure's position, and as soon as Bayern intercepted the ball, he would immediately run towards the nearest wing.
Barcelona was also on guard against this, after all, Bayern played the same way in the first half.
Su Dong looked for opportunities patiently.
When the game reached the 53rd minute, Bayern intercepted the ball in the backcourt, moved to the left and passed it to Marcelo.
Marcelo stopped the ball and moved forward, launching a counterattack.
After dribbling the ball across the center line, he was intercepted by Alves. Marcelo dribbled the ball towards the center line and looked ahead. Ribery and Schweinsteiger were moving forward quickly, but they were surrounded by Barcelona players.
Where is Su Dong? Marcelo didn't find Su Dong in the front or in the middle, so he glanced to the far right and saw the familiar red figure.
Su Dong ran to the open space and raised his hand to ask for the ball.
Marcelo acted decisively and sent a long diagonal pass with his left foot.
(End of this chapter)
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