Chapter 385: Turtle Shell Tactics, Anger

In the last round, AC Milan was three goals behind Chelsea. If they want to beat Chelsea and advance to the semi-finals, they must attack.

Chelsea head coach Jose Mourinho knew very well that AC Milan, with their home advantage, would definitely launch a massive attack at San Rossi, and he felt that the opponent would launch a massive attack at the beginning, so before the game he repeatedly urged the players to pay attention to the defense at the beginning and get into the game state as soon as possible.

He guessed right.

As soon as the game started, AC Milan took advantage of its home advantage and launched a fierce attack towards Chelsea's heartland with the cheers of nearly 70,000 fans, with the momentum to break the goal in one fell swoop.

However, these were all within his expectations, so he was more confident in winning the game.

For AC Milan, their goal in this game is not to win, but to score goals, and they must score more than three goals to have a chance to advance. They have been forced to fight to the death. For one of the world's top giants, it is unacceptable to be eliminated in the quarterfinals, especially by a suddenly rising "upstart" team.

There is another point that ordinary fans don’t know. AC Milan chairman Berlusconi owns an Italian bookmaker. At the beginning of the season, they offered odds of 1 to 63 for Chelsea to win the European Champions League. This odds is almost the highest among all European bookmakers. Although few Italian fans bet on Chelsea to win the championship, there are still many gamblers who spend a lot of money to try their luck. If Chelsea really wins the championship, then this bookmaker will lose at least 70 million euros!

Although Berlusconi has a lot of assets, 70 million euros is not a small amount. Therefore, before the game, Berlusconi also promised Abramovich a lot of promotion bonuses.

Therefore, the current AC Milan team not only has the advantage of terrain, but also has the support of people. They are in high spirits, just to score goals as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Chelsea adopted a defensive counterattack posture right from the start!

Lampard, Makelele and Scott Parker intercepted the ball in front of the penalty area, forming an interception line in the midfield and backcourt. The five defenders behind them stood very far back, two on the wing and three in the penalty area. Such a formation made AC Milan players feel numb.

Although they believe that Serie A's defense is the most solid, Chelsea now has five defenders, and there may be some gap in coordination between them and Serie A, but AC Milan's offense is still difficult to penetrate.

…………From the beginning, Kaka has been running around the court, cooperating with his teammates, trying to find opportunities to attack.

Before playing against Chelsea, Kaka always thought that he was the best young player, but after the game, he found that this view was wrong. At least the black-haired boy named Alan Wang was far more efficient in scoring goals than him. It could even be said that the two were incomparable.

But Kaka was not convinced in his heart. He felt that his contribution to the team was greater than Wang Li's.

Whether it is dribbling, passing, speed or shooting, he is very good at it, and he feels that as a midfielder, the offensive core of the team, the most important thing is to create opportunities for his teammates.

Kaka felt that he should prove through his performance that he was no worse than Wang Li.

So, from the beginning, Kaka has been fighting hard on the court. His expression is extremely serious. After only 5 minutes, his face is already wet with sweat.

"Pass it over!"

Standing near the midline, Kaka reached out to his teammate for the ball again, and Gattuso passed it to him without hesitation. After receiving the ball, Kaka took the ball and launched an attack. After shaking off Lampard and Scott Parker, he made a high pass into the Chelsea penalty area, but John Terry headed the ball out of the sideline.

One minute later, Kaka received the ball again and after a few passes with his teammates, the ball had reached the penalty area line. Just as Kaka was about to shoot, he was knocked down by Gattuso with a beautiful tackle.

After the ball was intercepted, he immediately got up from the grass and ran back to join the team's defense.

...With such efforts, Kaka became the brightest person in the first 10 minutes of the game. Almost all AC Milan players in the audience were cheering for Kaka. What they admired most was this kind of fighter who never gave up.

“Kaka!! Kaka!! Kaka!!”

Such slogans have already been heard in the audience.

Unfortunately, despite Kaka's efforts, AC Milan has not been able to get any good opportunities from the beginning to now.

During this period of time, Wang Li had been standing near the center circle watching the situation in the team's backcourt. During the period of AC Milan's massive attack, he almost became the most idle person in the whole court. In 10 minutes, he only kicked the ball twice, and was surrounded by AC Milan players. He had to pass the ball or lost the ball before he could control it.

Although Wang Li had almost no performance, the AC Milan defenders did not dare to relax in their defense against him. Ancelotti had already reminded them of this before the game.

"No matter where he is, there must be at least two people following him all the time and not letting him get the ball easily!" Ancelotti emphasized.

Now AC Milan is also doing this. Although they are attacking aggressively, they have at least three players in the backcourt. In this way, it is too difficult for Wang Li to find opportunities. In fact, AC Milan did not dare to let go of the attack because of Wang Li. At least in the backcourt, captain Maldini did not step forward to assist.

This greatly eased Chelsea's defensive pressure.

It also meant that AC Milan's attack did not achieve any results at all!

…………“stronzo, vergogni!! (You are such a shameless bastard)”

Watching the game on the field, AC Milan's head coach Ancelotti couldn't help but curse angrily.

From the previous games, Chelsea's formation was not 4411, it was basically 811 tactics, all 8 players participated in defense, and the only attacking midfielder Geremi also acted as a defensive midfielder, and there was only one offensive player, Wang Li. Even in counterattacks, they controlled the formation, and few players crossed the center line to participate in the attack.

This is the naked human wave tactic!

From the previous games, Ancelotti had already seen through Chelsea's tactics. They wanted to use human wave tactics to defend the goal. This was like using a super luxury bus to block the goal. It was not easy for AC Milan to get past the car and shoot the ball into the goal.

That’s right, the actual situation was similar to Ancelotti’s idea. With a three-goal advantage, Mourinho played defense.

Logically speaking, in today's European football, Chelsea is at least considered a half-giant team. When two giant teams meet, the gap between them is not that big, and victory depends on performance, luck, etc. Therefore, when the giant teams meet, the scene will be very hot and the game will be quite exciting.

But the game started in a dull manner, and the scene almost turned into an offensive drill for AC Milan, or a defensive drill for Chelsea. This was largely due to Chelsea's human wave defense, which was too solid, and even if there was an opportunity, the backcourt players would not take the initiative to attack. This approach left AC Milan helpless, and they had no chance to launch a sneak attack when Chelsea's formation moved forward.

No tactical arrangement is more important than having more people in the backcourt.

In the minds of the Portuguese, they even wanted to use all 10 players to participate in the defense. In this way, the goal would be more stable, and Wang Li's deterrence in the frontcourt could better contain AC Milan players, so AC Milan did not dare to let go of the attack. This was more beneficial to Chelsea's defense. As long as they stick to defense, they can steadily enter the top four without worrying about any changes.

Mourinho likes to keep everything in his hands. Although this tactic is somewhat shameful and may even be despised by the media and fans, victory and advancement are the key. With results, he doesn't care about the opinions of others.

This tactic is indeed very effective. At least AC Milan has no way to deal with this impregnable defense. Facts have proved that when a top team defends with all its strength, the effect is terrifying.

AC Milan's defense is very solid because they inherited the Italian defensive style, and every defender in the team is a world-class veteran with rich experience. But experience and tactics are not as important as the number of people. As long as we have enough people, any tactics don't matter. Even if you are allowed to shoot at will, you may not be able to penetrate the wall and cross the goal, let alone a real game.

Besides, Chelsea's defensive players are also the best in the world.

In this situation, how easy is it for AC Milan to score a goal?

…………

The long period of no goals gradually made the AC Milan players a little impulsive.

In the 35th minute, AC Milan attacked again, and Maldini couldn't help but run forward in the backcourt. At this time, only the two central defenders Stam and Nesta followed Wang Li, while the other players of AC Milan had already stepped into the frontcourt.

AC Milan's attack was very good this time. Maldini, Kaka and Pirlo passed the ball several times in succession, and the ball entered the right side of Chelsea's penalty area. Winger Thomason made a cross and created a threatening ball. Then the Ukrainian Shevchenko jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball!

This is the best chance since the opening!!

Unfortunately, Thomas still accurately picked the ball up with both hands.

AC Milan failed again, but this time, they could not walk slowly and steadily back to the backcourt. Thomas picked up the ball and kicked it forward. Wang Li, who had been watching the situation in the backcourt, started immediately. The ball had a long trajectory, and Wang Li easily countered the offside and turned to meet the ball.

Unfortunately, Thomas's footwork was not very good and the pass was too crooked, which meant that when Stam and Nesta were chasing him, Wang Li only had time to step on the low end of the ball and complete a lob shot. The ball hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line, which made all the AC Milan fans breathe a sigh of relief.

"What a pity... Alan had a good shot. It was his first shot since the start of the game. If it hadn't been for the crossbar, Chelsea would have been ahead!"

The host of Chaoting TV, who had been unable to find a topic to praise Wang Li from the beginning till now, quickly commented on this shot.

Many fans had high hopes for this game, but the situation on the field was completely the opposite. Wang Li's performance was really pitiful and he failed to score a goal. Now, when the female host of the court TV station was commenting on the game, she consciously ignored Wang Li, which was completely different from the concentration on his every move at the beginning.

This kick also sounded the alarm for AC Milan. They realized that the opposing team was not completely powerless to counterattack. In the last match, Chelsea scored 5 goals against them with just simple long passes. Although there is only the black-haired boy in the frontcourt now, as long as the ball is passed, the backcourt will be in danger!

No one doubts Wang Li's strength now.

As long as Chelsea scores first, AC Milan will have no chance when they are four goals behind.

This idea made AC Milan players even more restrained in attacking, so their attack became slower and slower, which resulted in both teams not having a very good performance in the final stage of the first half.

Finally, with the referee's whistle, the two teams entered the halftime break with a score of 0:0.

…………For Chelsea, this score was completely acceptable. The players walked towards the locker room with confidence, talking and laughing.

The AC Milan players were completely the opposite, 0:0 meant that if they wanted to advance to the semi-finals they had to score 3 goals in the second half!!

That’s three balls!!

It is true that AC Milan is a top club, but they are better at defense. It is not easy for them to score three goals against Chelsea who used human wave tactics in 45 minutes. They did not score a single goal in the first half, so could they really score in the second half?

This kind of thinking made the players even more depressed, and some AC Milan players were even mentally prepared for failure.

During the halftime break, the commentator of the Imperial Court TV channel began to evaluate the tactics of the two teams in the first half. Regarding Chelsea's defensive tactics, she said: "... In this game, Chelsea's head coach Mourinho arranged a defensive tactic. Since they had a three-goal advantage in the last game, they can play a defensive tactic in this game, so they can easily advance."

Of course, all this is not the point at all for Chaoting TV and the vast majority of fans of the ancient oriental country. They are more concerned about Wang Li's performance. Before the game started, even the top management of Chaoting TV issued an order that they must comment more on Wang Li and say good things about him during the commentary.

Therefore, the beautiful host also began to praise with a guilty conscience: "In the first half, Wang Li's performance could have been scored more than 8 points. Although he failed to touch the ball, that was more of a problem with other teammates. In the few times he touched the ball, each time he threatened AC Milan's defense. This performance is world-class. From this we can also see that Wang Li's performance was indeed the best of the game."

At this time, Rita, who was in Shanghai, was also watching the game on TV. Her poor Chinese ability allowed her to roughly understand the meaning. Hearing such unfounded praise, and recalling the performance in the first half where Wang Li took almost every 5 minutes to touch the ball, the gap between the two was really too big.

However, after laughing, Rita's shrewdness came to light. She could see the big picture from the small details. From this, she could see that in this ancient country with a long history, anything could happen. Even the slogan of a sports brand is "Everything is possible". If you use the European way of doing things, you will definitely encounter a series of problems.

Therefore, Rita decided to find someone who knew the ancient country to investigate everything first, and then proceed with business negotiations and the acquisition of the basketball team.

The words of the hostess of the Imperial Court TV reminded Rita and reduced a lot of troubles in her work. It must be said that the Imperial Court TV helped Wang Li a lot in his personal development... Perhaps Wang Li should go to the door to express his gratitude.

…………During the half-time break, Mourinho didn't say much in the visiting team's locker room, nor did he adjust the team's tactics. For Chelsea, they just needed to play according to the tactics of the first half, and there was no need to make any adjustments.

In the home team's locker room, AC Milan head coach Ancelotti's performance was completely the opposite.

"Vergogni!! Shameless Portuguese!! Shameless Chelsea!!"

As soon as he entered the locker room, Ancelotti started to curse. Before the game, he thought a lot about Chelsea's tactics and thought Chelsea would focus on defense, but he didn't expect them to defend so desperately, almost completely giving up on offense.

But this is entirely within the rules of football.

The opponent defended with all their might and huddled in the penalty area, so AC Milan could only attack freely. However, they had Alan Wang in their half, which was almost a time bomb! !

If there was no Wang Li, Ancelotti would not be afraid of Chelsea's all-out defense, but with Wang Li, this defense is more like a poisonous scorpion in endurance. Not only does it have a hard shell, but it can also launch a fatal blow when you are not paying attention.

This situation gave Ancelotti a headache but he had no good solution, so he could only curse a few words.

"Attack!! When the second half begins, attack at all costs!!"

After thinking about it calmly, Ancelotti gritted his teeth and made this extremely difficult decision.

AC Milan has been forced into a corner, and they have no other options. Even if Wang Li's deterrence is strong, if they don't launch a full-scale attack, they can only watch Chelsea easily eliminate them and enter the semi-finals. This is also a helpless choice. Now Ancelotti can only pray that the team can score two goals first with an advantage, so that they will have hope of advancing again.

"Damn the Portuguese! Damn Alan Wang! Damn Chelsea!"

Although the tactics had been arranged, Ancelotti was still cursing in his heart. He was completely infuriated by Mourinho's "shameless" tactics.

Of course, I'm afraid the main reason is that the Italian couldn't see the hope of his team advancing, so he got angry.

(To be continued)