Chapter 911: The decisive battle between "Barca" and Barcelona
When the game was in the tenth minute, after Barcelona intercepted the ball in their own half, Iniesta quickly passed the ball to Messi who was retreating in the middle, and the Argentine superstar immediately took the ball and launched a counterattack.
Messi first dribbled the ball diagonally to the right, as if he was going to cooperate with Pedro, but just after crossing the center line, he suddenly turned around and cut towards the middle, accelerated suddenly, and forced his way through David Silva who was returning to defense.
After the breakthrough, Messi continued to dribble the ball forward, and with a skillful feint, he dribbled past Busquets, then continued to dribble the ball to the outside of the penalty area arc, and with a straight pass, he passed the ball into the penalty area from between Kompany and Pepe.
Joe Hart's original position was at the front of the small penalty area, but after Kompany and Pepe retreated, he also retreated to the goal line. The moment he saw Messi pass the ball, he obviously wanted to attack, but hesitated for a moment. When he left the goal to attack, he was a little bit slow and was beaten to the punch by Villa.
Maybe it's just that difference of a few tenths of a second.
Just at this moment, Villa took the lead and dribbled the ball past Joe Hart, making the England goalkeeper's attack empty. He kicked the ball again and it went straight into the empty goal behind him, making it one to one!
The entire Stade Louis II erupted in cheers again.
Villa's goal successfully equalized the score for Barcelona and also helped Barcelona regain its morale.
From zero to one to one to one, the two teams adopted a tit-for-tat offensive strategy.
"In the first ten minutes, we saw that both Manchester City and Barcelona played quite aggressively."
“Neither team held back, but took the initiative, using their best high-pressure pressing, pressing and pressuring the opponent, and once they got the ball, they tried every means to push forward.”
“The game was very intense and exciting at the same time.”
"We can clearly see that Su Dong and Messi are the backbone of their respective teams and have played a key role, scoring goals and providing assists for their teams respectively."
"Now, the game is back to the same starting line, let's see how the two teams will play next."
…
The moment Villa scored a goal, Mourinho excitedly rushed out of the coaching area, jumped high, waved his right fist, and looked extremely excited and excited.
Obviously, this goal means a lot to him.
Because the player who intercepted the ball was Yaya Toure.
From defense to offense, Yaya Toure intercepted the ball and Messi drove straight in with the ball, breaking through two Manchester City players, especially the second player Busquets, who was directly broken through by Messi.
Thinking of this, Mourinho returned to the command area under the advice of the fourth official on the sidelines, but he did not forget to look at Vilanova in the coaching booth, as if asking this assistant, is Yaya Toure really a hidden danger? Why did I see his role and contribution just now? However, through the first ten minutes of the game, Mourinho also believed in Vilanova's judgment. Guardiola really did not intend to adopt a defensive tactic, but to play offense with Barcelona.
This is really interesting.
This group of Barcelona players, from Messi to Xavi to Iniesta, have been playing together for at least eight years. Pedro and Pique are both from the club's youth training, and Villa and Alves are also players who have played in La Liga for many years.
It can be said that this group of Barcelona players have very good tacit understanding.
What about Manchester City? They are just a mercenary team that has been established for a year. Guardiola can use his tactics to restrain them. They play a pass-and-control game, but do they really want to compete with Barcelona for possession? Are they qualified?
Mourinho turned his head and glanced at Guardiola next to him.
He is under a lot of pressure, and Guardiola is also under a lot of pressure.
Do you know that in the past few years, all the teams that played against Barcelona ended up dying miserably!
Manchester City will be no exception! …
Guardiola noticed Mourinho's provocative look, but he did not respond and walked back.
"If Joe Hart had stood a little further out and attacked more decisively, the ball would not have gone in at all."
Guardiola is really depressed.
Joe Hart has now become the weakest link in Manchester City's passing and possession system, and also the biggest hidden danger.
It felt as if Manchester City was attacking Yaya Toure, while Barcelona was attacking Joe Hart.
Every time the ball was passed back to the goalkeeper, the Barcelona trident would press Joe Hart.
The reason is self-evident, it is to force the England goalkeeper to make mistakes.
"Our team is like the chain on a bicycle, and every player is a link in the chain. Joe Hart's link is loose. When there is no pressure or the pressure is not great enough, he seems to be at ease and it seems that there is no problem. But once it comes to this kind of high-intensity and high-pressure game, it is like a loaded bicycle climbing a slope. No one knows when this link of the chain will come loose."
Guardiola said a metaphor that came to his mind on the spur of the moment, and regretted letting Joe Hart start.
This has been a feature of City's first few games this season.
Joe Hart and Courtois took turns starting to see who performed better.
The Community Shield and the European Super Cup are both single-match finals. Joe Hart has more experience, so the coaching staff wanted to let him play, hoping that he could stabilize himself, but unexpectedly, he still made mistakes.
"He's probably a little nervous and under a lot of pressure," Unsue analyzed.
There is actually no problem with Joe Hart's ability. If he is just a goalkeeper, he is good enough.
But in Guardiola's tactics, goalkeepers not only have to guard the goal, but also have to do more. Some tasks are beyond Joe Hart's ability. In addition, the competitive pressure brought by Courtois gradually made him nervous and even a little anxious.
Sometimes, people are just like that.
Last season, without the competitive pressure, Joe Hart completely indulged himself. Now that there is pressure, he has become nervous and anxious again.
…
After Barcelona successfully equalized the score, the two teams returned to the same starting line.
Both sides continued to use the tactics they had used since the opening and neither side gave in.
Barcelona also gradually felt the difference between Manchester City and all other teams they had encountered before.
The first is high-pressure pressing. Manchester City, like them, is very active in pressing in the midfield and frontcourt. Even a big name like Su Dong has launched active pressing on Barcelona's midfield and backcourt.
Di Maria and Sanchez were also very committed, which made Manchester City's pressing intensity in the midfield and frontcourt not only not inferior to Barcelona, but even better. These two players were more committed in counter-attacking than Pedro and Villa.
This is true for the two wing lanes and also for Su Dong in the middle.
In addition to facing Barcelona's two central defenders, Su Dong also actively retreated to harass Yaya Toure, which caused Barcelona's entire passing and controlling system to frequently get stuck at the defensive midfielder position.
This was reflected on the field. According to the statistics, Manchester City actually had a slight advantage in passing and controlling the ball.
Fifty-one to forty-nine, Manchester City is still leading by two percentage points.
This also reflects the role of Busquets.
The combination of Xavi and Iniesta of Barcelona is better than David Silva and Toni Kroos in terms of passing and controlling the ball as well as tacit understanding, but Manchester City has a slight advantage in ball possession, and Busquets deserves credit for this.
However, Yaya Toure also has his own advantages.
Another thing that makes Manchester City different from other teams is that they are always able to pass the ball quickly after intercepting it.
In the past, when facing other teams, Barcelona’s most core weapon was high-pressure pressing. After snatching the ball, they would pass the ball backwards and launch an attack. After losing the ball, they would immediately launch a counter-attack. It was always easy for the opponent to lose the ball under this kind of pressing and oppression.
But after meeting Manchester City, Barcelona players found that after Manchester City grabbed the ball, they were not afraid of them at all.
This was what shocked them the most.
They had a feeling that they were not facing a Premier League team, but another Barcelona.
What's even worse is that this "Barcelona" team may not have as good tacit understanding as theirs, but their passing and ball-control abilities are no less inferior, and their pressing and oppressive abilities are even slightly better, which makes them feel unbelievable.
…
The game was carried out with two "Barcelona" teams fighting each other.
Both sides created many opportunities, but none of them were great opportunities, and neither side was able to seize them.
The mood of the fans at the scene fluctuated as the game progressed, just like a roller coaster.
It was not until the 34th minute that Manchester City launched an attack on the left. David Silva made a lob pass and sent the ball to the bottom line. Di Maria was blocked by Alves and could not pass the ball to Su Dong in the penalty area. He was forced to stop the ball before it went out of the bottom line and passed it back to Marcelo who came in from behind.
Marcelo stopped the ball in the left corner of the penalty area. Facing Xavi who was returning to defense, he first made an abrupt stop, then suddenly started again, and after shaking off Xavi, he passed a low ball into the penalty area with his left foot.
In the left side of the penalty area, Su Dong understood what Pique meant and used his body to stop the ball.
Mascherano was behind the two of them, ready to assist Pique at any time and block Su Dong's shooting angle.
It can be said that in this situation, Su Dong basically has no possibility of taking any action.
After Su Dong stopped the ball, he took a look at the situation around him and knew this clearly, so he turned slightly to the right and passed the ball directly back to the top of the arc with his right foot.
I saw a sky blue figure quickly coming up, facing Su Dong's pass, and shooting without stopping the ball, and kicking the ball directly.
Valdes reacted quickly, changing his position immediately and quickly diving sideways.
The ball went in almost a straight line, sticking to the grass, and went into the lower right corner of the goal.
The Barcelona goalkeeper was ultimately out of reach.
At this time, everyone could see clearly that the person at the front of the penalty area was Manchester City's German midfielder, Toni Kroos.
Yaya Toure, who was supposed to stand in front of Toni Kroos, failed to get in position in time, resulting in an empty area in front of Barcelona's penalty area. This allowed Toni Kroos to successfully take a long shot and break Barcelona's goal.
Two to one!
Manchester City wins another game!
(End of this chapter)
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