Chapter 350 Chelsea's Attack (1)
On this day, almost all the English media gathered at Stamford Bridge, and there were also many foreign media who came to the scene to "spy on the situation" for the European Champions League. Chelsea and Manchester United are undoubtedly the teams that are likely to perform well in the Champions League. Before the start of the Champions League final, the direct collision between these two teams does have a very deep pre-war analysis reference significance for the collision between some top clubs and them.
All English media know that Chelsea has set its goal for this season on the 'quadruple crown', so it is almost impossible for them to give up the League Cup, and Manchester United will definitely strive for a useless championship like the League Cup if they have no hope of winning the league title.
Therefore, this game will almost certainly be as intense as a collision between Mars and the Earth.
Before the game, there was already enough news and information about the two teams, but as the game approached, all of this news, comments, and analysis almost disappeared. The focus of attention was no longer on gossip, but on the actual clash, such as what kind of lineups the two head coaches would arrange, whether all the main players of both teams would everyone be able to play, etc.
At the pre-match press conference, both Mourinho and Ferguson behaved very calmly. They only participated symbolically and officially, talked about their views on the game and the current situation of the team, and then returned to the locker room to do their work with their players. From this, we can also see that these two big-name head coaches are still a little nervous about the game. Their desire for victory is unquestionable. Although this is only the first round of confrontation, both teams are still doing it very seriously.
As the game approached, Stamford Bridge was already full, most of whom were fans of the Blues, and there were more than 3,000 fans of the Red Devils. Of course, compared with the number of Blues fans, the Red Devils fans were very scarce, and they were just arranged in a corner in the northeast direction.
At this time, outside the stadium, there are still many loyal fans waiting outside the stadium, looking for any possible opportunity to buy tickets. Some fans even hold up "Buy Tickets" signs, hoping to be lucky enough to meet scalpers who have not sold their tickets or fans who have something urgent to do and want to refund their tickets.
However, this waiting is doomed to be in vain.
Tickets for this game were in such short supply that many people were unable to buy tickets a week in advance, and those tickets that were reserved for sale before the game were sold out as soon as they were released.
At 4:25 pm, players from both teams had already entered the stadium. At this time, the official commentator of Stamford Bridge, Creed Pesvak, began to introduce the players of both teams:
"John Terry"
At this time, many Blues fans in the stands had not yet entered the state of watching the game, but when they heard the name of the Chelsea captain, they all cheered in unison. This shows that Terry's pure manly fighting spirit and strength in playing in the Premier League for Chelsea over the years have won him a great reputation among the fans.
"Alan Wang"
"Ah~~~Buzz~~~~~"
However, although Terry has been at Chelsea for many years and is still the team's captain, judging from the cheers from the Blues fans, he still has some gap compared to Wang Li, who has only played for Chelsea for half a season.
It's not the fans' fault for being a little paranoid. Forwards are naturally more likely to win more reputation and fame than defenders because they can always score goals. What's more, Wang Li has scored too many goals this season, making it very difficult for him not to shine. He even has a group of extremely loyal "Ai fans" now. These fans have a deep-rooted belief that as long as Wang Li plays, the team will definitely win.
I have to say, this seems a bit paranoid, but at least until now, Chelsea has no losing record.
After the players of both teams entered the field, Chelsea captain Terry and the opposing team captain Giggs went to flip a coin. Terry guessed correctly and chose the right to pick sides, so Manchester United had the right to kick off.
In fact, the styles of Manchester United and Chelsea are not much different. Both are teams that focus more on defense than offense. Since many of the English players are physical, the two teams have more or less English style. For these teams, it doesn't make much difference who kicks off first or later.
After the coin toss was over, the players from both teams took their positions and waited for the game to begin.
As the soul of the team, no matter where Wang Li stands, he can attract most people's attention.
This is the scene on the court now. When the players of both teams took their positions on the court waiting for the kick-off, all the Manchester United players turned their eyes to Wang Li who was standing at the back of the center circle. Their eyes contained envy, jealousy, fighting spirit, etc., but all of them were directed at Wang Li. Undoubtedly, as the media said, if Manchester United wants to beat Chelsea, they must limit Wang Li's performance - a striker player has received almost 'special care' from the entire Manchester United team and also received tactical defense from the opposing head coach. This can almost be said to be an honor.
No matter what Ferguson said to the Manchester United players, it can be seen from this point that Manchester United will definitely not give up easily.
As the offensive core of the team, Wang Li's position is behind the two forwards, but this does not mean that he must be a central midfielder who is mainly responsible for passing the fatal ball, or the core responsible for organizing the offense. In fact, in Mourinho's tactics, Wang Li has been given the largest free movement area.
In this game, Manchester United lined up in a 451 formation. As the winter games progressed, Manchester United's bench depth could hardly support such consumption. So the team's most valuable young player Rooney was arranged to play on the right winger in this game. He and Cristiano Ronaldo formed a double forward to attack Chelsea's defense.
The other players in the midfield are captain Roy Keane, Scholes and Fletcher. Saha, who has just returned from injury, is the lone striker at the front of the team. The defenders are Phil Neville, Brown, Sylvester and Heinze. The goalkeeper is still the 26-year-old Howard.
At this time, French striker Louis Saha and team captain Roy Keane were standing in the center circle. Saha was standing with the football under his feet, waiting for the referee's whistle.
However, the two men's eyes were fixed on the feet of the black-haired boy on the opposite side. Before the game, Ferguson emphasized to them that they must not easily choose to force past Wang Li's defense. The old Sir studied a lot of Chelsea's game videos and finally found that although Chelsea's No. 21 rarely participated in defense, his efficiency in stealing was very high. As an experienced head coach, he would pay more attention to this, but he could not understand why Wang Li had such defensive strength but rarely participated in the team's defense---
How could he know that the reason why Wang Li did this was more because he liked to attack.
Looking at Chelsea on the other hand, they arranged a 4231 formation, and Wang Li was placed in the middle of the '3', which is a somewhat ambiguous position between the shadow striker and the attacking midfielder.
Originally, Chelsea had two left-footed players on the wing, Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, and both of them were good at cutting inside. They cooperated very well with each other. In the eyes of many people, it would be better to change this formation to 4321. Wang Li's position was even a bit redundant, and it also caused the team's defensive strength to decline.
But in fact, although Wang Li was arranged in that awkward position, generally speaking, he would always choose to stand in the front of the center circle, so this formation can be said to be a 42121 formation. As the offensive core of the team, Wang Li was truly arranged at the core of the formation. In this way, with the protection of a "circle" of teammates in the offense, Wang Li would have many more choices and naturally less pressure. This is also an improvement of Mourinho's "zone offensive tactics."
In this game, Icelander Eidur Gudjohnsson was placed on the bench and Drogba returned to the pitch. Although Drogba was at a disadvantage in the competition with Gudjohnsson in the previous game, Mourinho still chose him for this important game, which shows that his position in Chelsea is still very stable.
The second goalkeeper Thomas Clarke also stood on the court. From this we can see that the competition for Thomas among various giants in the winter transfer window did play some role in his position in Mourinho's heart. Thomas, who was pre-purchased by so many giants, has unquestionable strength. Therefore, Mourinho must also observe through major competitions to determine whether to choose Thomas or Cech.
The double defensive midfielders are still Frank Lampard and Claude Makelele. Perhaps in Chelsea, only the main players in this position are the most stable. These two are almost irreplaceable. Even if there are other competitors, they can only play alongside them when the head coach arranges other tactics.
Finally, the defenders were Glen Johnson, John Terry, William Gallas and Paulo Ferreira.
Thiago Mendes, who was criticized by the media as the biggest "fake", still did not have a chance to play. He was not even included in the team's roster in this game. Ricardo Carvalho also missed such an important game due to injury. It has to be said that this is definitely a bit regrettable.
Just by looking at the lineups of the two teams, you can tell that both Manchester United and Chelsea are determined to win this game. Both teams have sent out their main players, hoping to establish an absolute advantage in the first round of competition.
The court television station of the ancient oriental country also broadcast this game live. In the far east, there are still many fans of Manchester United and Chelsea.
If we say that a year ago, due to Manchester United's China plan in recent years, the number of Manchester United fans was far higher than that of Chelsea fans, but now, due to the strong performance of Wang Li, who is half Chinese, and Chelsea's almost unstoppable performance, the number of fans supporting Chelsea has increased dramatically. Although this cannot increase the popularity and income of Chelsea club by much, it can also reflect an invisible popularity.
In the 20 minutes before the game, the TV screen had already switched to Stamford Bridge. The European-style fans' madness and "organized and disciplined" cheering performance really brought a lot of shock and longing to people. The on-site commentator and guest coach Zhang also analyzed the starting lineups of both sides.
Coach Zhang believes that Sir Alex Ferguson's intention of fielding five midfielders is obvious, which is to curb Wang Li's performance. Now Wang Li is Chelsea's offensive core and the player with the most goals. If they want to win the game and advance to the League Cup final, they must freeze Wang Li's performance. This is the consensus of all football professionals.
But saying it is one thing and doing it is another.
Wang Li's personal skills are beyond doubt. In addition, as the league progresses, his tactical perspective, game experience and other abilities have increased, and his cooperation with his teammates has become more and more tacit. It is indeed not easy to freeze such a player who is very good in all aspects and has first-class personal skills. Therefore, Manchester United can only increase the number of midfielders and use the number of these big-name stars to control the game area and blockade Wang Li like a sea of people to achieve the purpose of suppressing his performance. This is also a choice without choice.
However, whether it is effective or not still needs to be proven in real competitions.
When the referee blew the whistle to signal the start of the game, the commentator was still checking the recent relevant information of the two teams, but Coach Zhang had already fixed his eyes on the screen. As a rare football professional in an ancient oriental country, he knew that anything could happen in the game and he must not be careless just because it had just started, otherwise he might miss the wonderful scenes.
Zhang's choice is very correct.
After the kick-off, Louis Saha pushed the ball to captain Roy Keane next to him, who passed the ball to Fletcher with his heel.
As a rising star in Scotland, Fletcher joined Manchester United's youth team at the age of 15, and he also played in the match against Wolverhampton's youth team. In his impression, Chelsea's black-haired boy was just a player who could "juggle" and could not cooperate with his teammates. Fletcher has always been brooding over the defeat in that game and was very unwilling to accept it.
This Scottish rising star almost entered the Premier League at the same time as Wang Li, but now the value of both of them is almost incalculable.
This made Fletcher, who has always been hailed as a 'genius', very unwilling. Whenever he saw Wang Li, jealousy, disdain, unwillingness and other emotions filled his mind. Before the game, head coach Ferguson emphasized that 'facing Allen's defense, it is best to cooperate with teammates and don't force yourself', which made Fletcher have an urge to try it.
Now, he is just in his early 20s. Young people are impulsive, so it is not surprising that he has such thoughts, and this one-on-one opportunity is about to come.
After the game started, the forwards of the two teams ran to the opponent's front court alternately. Since the ball was controlled by Manchester United, Chelsea only had Wang Li and Drogba running slowly towards Manchester United's half, but this was enough. Wang Li's running route from the middle just passed Fletcher---
"Stephen Pass"
When Manchester United captain Roy Keane saw the black-haired boy on the other side was about to swim towards Fletcher, he immediately shouted to remind him to pass the ball.
However, Fletcher really wanted to try it, not only for a one-on-one challenge, but also as a way to build confidence for himself.
He first pulled the ball towards him very steadily, then quickly changed direction to the diagonal side of Wang Li's running direction, and at the same time twisted his body forcefully, trying to get past Wang Li's defense in this sudden way.
If the opponent is an ordinary player, he will basically not be able to react to this method of passing, but he used the wrong target.
Just now, hearing the shout of the opposing captain, Wang Li really thought that the kid in front of him would definitely pass the ball, so he just symbolically slowed down his movements, trying to scare him, and then ran to the front court, but he didn't expect that the opponent didn't obey the command and chose to force it.
Although he was a little surprised, when he saw the opportunity, Wang Li immediately used the "Shadow Kick" as if by reflex. This was almost a cheating stealing move on the football field. He stretched out his right leg to the left and kicked the ball under Fletcher's feet to the side. Then he ran forward twice on the spot with a somewhat unbalanced body.
Fletcher was stunned by the interception. He turned around and saw the big black man on the other side catch the ball. It took him a long time to realize that he had lost the ball. He didn't have time to regret himself for not listening to the head coach and making a mistake. He turned around and ran back to participate in the team's defense.
Yes, Drogba, who had just crossed the center line, just caught the ball.
Faced with this football falling from the sky, Drogba was a little bit unbelievable, but after reacting, he still passed the ball diagonally to Lampard behind him.
The situation on the field changed instantly, and Chelsea went from being the defensive side to the offensive side.
After Wang Li stole the ball, he did not ask his teammates for the ball, but continued to run slowly towards Manchester United's half, looking for a good position to receive the ball from time to time. Don't think that Chelsea is an offensive team because they have been bombarding in the previous game. In fact, Chelsea's offense is very stable.
This steadiness is different from the Spanish-style "dawdling" and Arsenal's all-out attack and defense. It is a slow advancement in the style of positional warfare. Although Chelsea's quick counterattack is the most sharp with Wang Li, no team would be stupid enough to give Chelsea such an opportunity now.
Soon, after the ball was passed several times in Chelsea's backcourt, seeing that the players in the frontcourt had all run to their positions, William Gallas suddenly made a diagonal pass, opening the curtain for Chelsea's attack.
At the same time, Wang Li, who had just touched the ball, stayed a little forward of the center line. He did not run back to ask for help from his teammates, but just stayed there, constantly competing for position with the players who were defending him closely. It felt like he was competing for a header, but in fact, the football had not crossed the center line yet.
When Damien Duff passed the ball to him diagonally on the wing, Wang Li immediately took some light steps and received the pass before Phil Neville next to him could react. He then dodged Phil's interception in a disguised manner, looked towards the penalty area, and made a gesture for a long shot, which scared the goalkeeper Howard into a nervous state.
However, Wang Li did not shoot. The point was too far from the goal and he was not sure he could shoot the ball in. So after using this move to shake off Sylvester's interception, he made a long pass to the left and immediately started running into the penalty area.
On the left, after receiving the ball, Robben ignored the Manchester United defenders and kicked the ball into the Manchester United penalty area.
Wang Li, who happened to be at the spot, jumped directly into the air and rubbed the ball with the back of his head, and the football fell accurately to the back point---
There is Didier Drogba ready to go
The Ivorian monster, facing the flying ball, chose to volley without hesitation. This action scared half of the thousands of Red Devils fans who came to Stamford Bridge and stood up from the stands. Ferguson on the sidelines could not sit still either. He stared at his own penalty area and stood up directly from the coaching seat. With such a clean and neat action, it was hard to tell that he was a man in his 60s.
"Drogba shoots?"
But the kick was not powerful enough, and Drogba kicked the ball a little low, but it still went straight to the left corner of the goal, and goalkeeper Howard was still standing on the right side.
Fortunately, Rio Ferdinand, the defender who had just renewed his contract, reacted quickly. He kicked the football reflexively, causing the ball to fly directly out of the baseline.
Ferguson on the sidelines took a long breath, sat down slowly with a sigh of relief, and the celebrations of the Blues fans in the stadium also stopped abruptly.
"Robben passed the ball, Wang Li headed it, and Drogba shot. Oops, the ball was kicked out of the baseline by Ferdinand." At the same time, Coach Zhang's voice was heard from the Chaoting Sports TV station. The commentator next to him raised his head from the information when he heard the voice. It was obvious that this commentator was a football blind man, and had reached a very unprofessional level.
"… Well… We can see that one minute into the game, Chelsea had already seized the ball, and then launched a steady offensive, which directly threatened Manchester United's goal. It can be said that Chelsea's players performed very well in the game, and Manchester United seemed to be in crisis…"
After reacting, the commentator finally started to nag non-stop, but in fact, he didn't see the shot at all.
Corner Kick
"Just over two minutes into the game, Chelsea had a very threatening shot and also got a corner kick opportunity. If the game continues like this, Manchester United will be in danger."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
