Chapter 402 Desperate Bayern
The game at Stamford Bridge was very unusual, it had even turned into a farce, the main reason being that everyone's attention was not focused on Bayern's attack in Chelsea's front, but on the 'track and field competition' in Bayern's backcourt.
At this moment, because all TV stations also "follow the public's wishes" and occasionally focus their cameras on Bayern's backcourt, many people around the world are watching this farce, and their minds have also turned from the game to the interesting things in Bayern's backcourt. Humans have great potential for gossip, especially in today's busy world. In a life full of rules and regulations, people always like to pay attention to things outside the rules, which is gossip. The "track and field competition" that appeared in the second round of the Champions League semi-final is something outside the rules.
This is indeed worthy of a lot of attention.
Among these spectators, there are some people who really pay close attention to the game, and they are the coaches and players of Liverpool.
In a small meeting room of the Liverpool Club, all 19 uninjured players of the team gathered together and watched the live broadcast on the big screen. This was the live broadcast of Sky Sports. In the whole of England, Sky Sports occupies at least 60 percent of the market share. Due to its professionalism and entertainment, these football clubs also like to watch this TV station when watching live broadcasts.
At this time, the host Graham is explaining the current situation of the game---
"... Dear fans, Bayern is now launching a fierce attack on Chelsea. Hargreaves has the ball, he is dribbling forward, Gallas comes to meet him, the two are fighting for the ball, he passes it beautifully to Guerrero in the middle..., Guerrero turns and shoots~~~~~~, the ball hits Scott Parker's thigh and bounces out of bounds, Salihamidzic runs to the sideline to serve, Frings fights for the ball..."
"...The two teams are in a stalemate, so let's take a look at the situation in the backcourt. Allen is still running, and he seems to be wandering around the center circle. Behind him are Lucio and Lizarazu. Let's see, R. Kovac seems to be exhausted. He is half squatting on the ground, with helplessness flashing on his face. It is obvious that he is really tired. I really don't know what these Germans are thinking. They want to compete with Allen in physical strength with only two defenders. It's really overestimating their own abilities."
"Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered that every time Allen started this season, even if he played the whole game, he didn't look tired after the game, and he even celebrated the victory with his teammates and fans. From this point of view, his physical fitness must be very good. These Germans actually want to compete with him in physical fitness. Have their brains turned into paste?..."
…
While Graham was chattering, in the small conference room, the Liverpool players had no expression on their faces. Their eyes were fixed on the black-haired boy who was performing freely on the TV screen, but their hearts were filled with envy, jealousy, resentment and helplessness. Almost everyone here had faced Wang Li head-on on the court, but no one had the confidence that they could defend him.
At this time, head coach Benítez was standing next to the TV screen. He listened to the host on TV chattering about Chelsea and Wang Li, and helplessly lowered his sunken forehead.
Ever since beating PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands yesterday, the Spaniard has been thinking about how to face the fierce Chelsea.
This season, Liverpool and Chelsea played against each other three times, two home and away league games, and one bloody battle in the League Cup final, but they lost all three times. Only one game was just passable, and the other two were heavy defeats. For this, they also lost a League Cup championship.
In the Chelsea team, the person who impressed them the most was, of course, Wang Li. Now in the match between Bayern and Chelsea, Wang Li was able to disrupt Bayern's backcourt even if he didn't get the ball. This made the players feel helpless. In fact, everyone in the conference room was not sure about the next final.
The head coach's ideas are different from those of the players. Benítez will not consider the previous failure record. He just watches the game on the screen, studies Chelsea's tactical strategies and the role of each of their players in the tactics.
Although from the situation it seems that Chelsea was beaten by Bayern Munich without any chance to fight back, but as a professional football player, it is obvious that Bayern's goal just now was just a bit of luck. Chelsea's defense is very tight. On the court, you may be able to score a goal by luck, but how easy is it to score the second or third goal?
The main reason for Chelsea's weakness now is that they have the advantage in goals and they don't want to fight with Bayern.
If the game goes into the second half, Bayern players will be at a disadvantage both physically and mentally. Chelsea only needs to make random counterattacks to pose a great threat to Bayern. Moreover, the physical fitness of Bayern's backcourt players seems to be a bit behind, and the extent to which their defense can be achieved remains to be tested.
"It wasn't luck that the Portuguese won the championship"
At this moment, watching the game on the TV screen, Benítez felt a little emotional.
People outside say that Chelsea’s success is inseparable from Wang Li’s goals, but as a top coach, Benítez knows that with Mourinho’s ability, coupled with Chelsea’s foundation and new players, even if Chelsea doesn’t have that black-haired boy, they can still get good results. Even if it’s not as glorious as it is now, winning 1 or 2 championships is not a problem.
Although the game was not over yet, Benítez and the Liverpool players already knew that their opponent in the final would definitely be Chelsea.
If Liverpool were facing Bayern Munich, they would still have some chance of winning, but even Benítez had no idea how to play against Chelsea.
However, inside the room, the Spaniard did not show his feelings on his face. He just looked confident, just in order to give the players a little more confidence.
If you lose confidence in the game and your strength is even weaker, it will be impossible to win.
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Back at Stamford Bridge, the game has entered the 42nd minute of the first half. The red words displayed on the scoreboard hanging in the center of the stadium are still "0:1". The home team is in front and the away team is behind, with Bayern leading by one goal.
But if the score of the previous round is included, the total score is 5:3. Chelsea still has an absolute advantage. Although the first half of the game is about to end, the situation on the field has changed a bit. Chelsea started a continuous counterattack in tight defense, while Bayern's backcourt was messed up by Wang Li, and their defense was very loose.
However, the ball was still in Bayern's hands at this time. Frings got the ball in the middle and kicked it to Ze Robert on the wing.
Before this game, German media reported that Ze Robert had private contact with Paris Saint-Germain of Ligue 1. The midfielder is likely to transfer to beautiful Paris on a free transfer in the summer. So, Ze Robert's heart may have already left Bayern, and in the remaining games of the team, it will become a bargaining chip for him to fight for better treatment.
So, he performed very well in this game. In the first half, his performance in passing and dribbling on the wing was acceptable, and the most important thing was his daring and fighting style, which was eye-catching. This time, after receiving the pass from Frings, he chose to break through with the ball.
As a midfielder, Ze Robert is better at defense than offense. Just like what Chelsea coach Mourinho said, Robert's dribbling ability is not strong. But this time, facing Frank Lampard's defense, Ze Robert made a strong effort and broke through directly.
"Beautiful, Ze Robert!" The German commentator immediately shouted upon seeing this clean breakthrough.
However, after breaking through Lampard, Ze Robert encountered trouble because Scott Parker was right behind Lampard. Robert had not taken two steps with the ball before he was tackled by the experienced Parker.
However, Ze Robert also aggressively rushed forward to grab the ball again. Parker didn't pay attention and almost let him snatch it back. But after reacting, Parker kicked the ball to Makelele in front of him, which put the ball firmly in Chelsea's hands.
After receiving the ball, the French man kicked it to Arkin Robben on the wing. After that, Robben rushed forward with the ball on the wing.
Before the game, Mourinho specifically told him to strengthen his breakthroughs on the flanks. Since Chelsea could not press forward in large numbers during counterattacks, there were not too many attacking players, and Robben's breakthrough became a very important means of attack.
In the first half, since Bayern had the ball most of the time, Robben only had two breakthroughs and one time the ball was directly intercepted. This made him lose confidence in his breakthroughs. Robben felt that as long as he found an opportunity, he would pass the ball to Wang Li. This was the only way to be foolproof. If they lost the ball again and were counterattacked by Bayern, that would be bad.
At this time, R. Kovac, who was on the wing, came over. Robben was much more focused. He didn't even look at Kovac's eyes, but just stared at the opponent's legs. Many defenders use this method to defend so as not to be deceived by the fake moves of the offensive players, but Robben did this to find an opportunity to speed up and dribble the ball. He didn't do too many fancy dribbling moves, and clean breakthroughs were what he was best at.
At the moment when R. Kovac and Robben's shapes intersected, Robben quickly touched the side of the ball with his right foot, and the football changed direction and went around Kovac's left side, and Robben also passed by Kovac.
"Robben has broken through," Sky Sports anchor Graham shouted.
However, Robben, who was dribbling the ball on the field, felt that this time it seemed too easy. This doubt made him turn his head slightly and glance at Kovac who was following behind him with the corner of his eye, feeling amused.
It turned out that Kovac didn't have much physical strength left. In the first half, he followed Wang Li for almost twenty minutes. This irregular running consumed a lot of his physical energy. At this time, Kovac's defense was just a show. What he hoped most was to enter the halftime break immediately so that he could go to the locker room to recover his energy.
At this time, he was jogging after Robben, but the distance between them was getting bigger and bigger.
Bayern's attack was too fierce just now, which left Robben with an empty space in front of him after he simply changed direction and passed Kovac. He glanced at Wang Li on the road, wondering whether to pass the ball to him.
Wang Li was followed by two defenders, Lucio and Lizarazu, and in the backcourt, besides R. Kovac, there was only one Sagnol. If Robben passed the ball at this time, then all the attacks would be on Wang Li. If he wanted to score, he would have to face the interceptions of two defenders and pass the goalkeeper Kahn. If he didn't pass the ball, Robben would have to shake off Sagnol and face Kahn alone, but this situation was impractical. As long as he broke through Sagnol who was slightly ahead, the two defenders defending Wang Li would definitely send one person to block him.
This is the best passing opportunity.
These thoughts only stayed in Robben's mind for a moment. After thinking about it, he had already dribbled the ball to Sagnol's side.
In fact, Sagnol is similar to R. Kovac, and he doesn't have much physical strength left. In the first half, he and Lucio had been defending Wang Li together, but his physical strength was average and not as good as Lucio, who was one year younger than him.
Normally, this amount of physical strength would be enough, and he could barely support the game for 120 minutes, but the 20 minutes of close running just now made him feel tired. This was not due to excessive exercise, but too much exercise in a short period of time.
This feeling made him look dazed when defending, and his body couldn't keep up with his brain's reaction in some movements.
So, this time Robben's breakthrough was very easy. Sagnol wanted to stretch his legs to intercept, but failed. Robben's speed was too fast.
After passing Sagnol, Robben dribbled the ball to the edge of the penalty area. Normally, he could shoot from this position, but now the situation was favorable and he didn't need to take such a long shot. Sure enough, Lizarazu, who was defending Wang Li, came over and ran to intercept Robben, but at this time, Robben passed the ball.
Lucio, who was standing next to Wang Li, had been staring at Robben. When he saw him pass the ball, Lucio accelerated and ran towards Robben without thinking. He wanted to kick the ball out of the danger zone before the black-haired boy next to him received the ball.
However, no matter how fast his startup speed was, it was not faster than Wang Li's.
Wang Li knew that Robben was going to pass the ball, and when Lizarazu just ran over to intercept, he had already started.
The speed of the Lingbo Weibu was definitely not something Lucio could match. At least in terms of starting speed, there was a huge difference between the two. Not to mention that Lucio was feeling tired and his physical strength was a little lacking at this time.
On the court, Wang Li almost stopped suddenly as if he had slammed on the brakes. Under the gazes of all the fans in the stadium and hundreds of millions of viewers around the world, he calmly turned 180 degrees in the direction of the ball, and then immediately touched the side of the ball with his right foot. The ball rolled to the left side of Lucio behind him, while Wang Li stepped over from the right side of Lucio.
Turn around and pass the ball
The move was so gorgeous and smooth that a few Bayern fans in the audience couldn't help but applaud. But after they realized what was happening, they immediately stopped the gesture and looked nervously in the direction of the Bayern goal.
There, there is only the last Kahn
Kahn has always been the pride of German football and the pride of Bayern Munich.
Whenever the team encounters a crisis, Kahn always stands up to defend the last barrier for the team. This time, Bayern fans hope that the veteran can stand up again and contribute to Bayern.
Kahn did exactly that. When he saw Lucio being easily dribbled past, he immediately roared and rushed out of the goal. The breeze blew his blond hair, making him look more like a lion. That ferocious look would definitely scare most players. Kahn stared at the football under Wang Li's feet with wide eyes. He didn't even look at Wang Li's movements, but just rushed straight towards the football.
As he saw himself getting closer and closer to the ball, Kahn became more and more confident. His years of experience as a goalkeeper told him that he had blocked all shooting angles with his body, and it would be impossible for the kid in front of him to score a goal if he wanted to shoot directly.
Yes, Wang Li also knew this, but he still didn't rush to shoot. When Kahn was about to make a save, he just knocked the ball slightly to the left.
"Lizarazu? Alan made a mistake?"
At this time, Lizarazu was following Wang Li on the left, but just as the ball was about to roll to Lizarazu, a blue figure suddenly inserted from the middle - Arkin Robben
Robben calmly kicked the bottom of the ball with force, and the ball flew into the goal without any suspense.
"Robben, Robben, Arjen Robben"
"The ball went in. It was a beautiful combination. Allen passed the ball to Robben at the last moment. Robben pushed the ball into the empty goal and changed the score to 6:3. If Bayern wants to advance to the final, they must score another 4 goals in the second half. We believe this is absolutely impossible. There is no doubt that Chelsea has advanced."
After seeing Robben's goal, Bayern was already in despair. Even Ballack and Kahn, who had been in high spirits, felt that the team had no hope.
Yes, they wanted to give up.
Originally, before the game, Bayern still had some hope of completing a comeback, but now after 45 minutes, the team is still 4 goals behind, this gap is really despairing, facing Chelsea's tight defense, how easy is it to score 4 goals in 45 minutes? What's more, the opponent also has a sharp black-haired boy, so it's good enough to prevent Chelsea from scoring in the second half.
This situation is truly desperate.
On the sidelines, head coach Felix Magath had a sullen look on his face. Even though there were still 45 minutes left in the game, what was the point of the second half?
He doesn't know either.
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