Chapter 517 Ultimate Defensive Tactics

"Benfica's players have already appeared. Oh my God, coach Koeman has arranged a strange formation. Gomez is the only striker. He is 30 years old this year, but his speed and efficiency are still very strong. I think Koeman hopes that Gomez can help Benfica score today."

"However, Benfica's formation is a bit strange. Let's take a look at their lineup. The striker is Gomez, the midfielders are No. 6 Petit, No. 16 Beto, No. 58 Karagounis, No. 14 Manuel Fernandez and No. 34 Robert. Koeman fielded a five-midfield combination today. Does he want to control the game through strong midfield control?"

"Okay, let me continue to introduce Benfica's lineup. Their defenders are No. 4 Luison, No. 3 Anderson and No. 5 Coman, No. 31 Osidides, and the goalkeeper is No. 1 Moreto."

"This starting lineup should be considered Benfica's main lineup, but it's a bit strange that Simao didn't play today. This style of play seems to be very suitable for defensive counterattacks. It seems that Koeman did a lot of work before the game. Real Madrid has strong offensive capabilities. It seems unrealistic to rely on Benfica's offense to play against them. Maybe Koeman is right."

Before the game started, the commentator began to chatter about Benfica's starting lineup.

Just like what the commentator said, this lineup is a bit strange. You know, Simao is Benfica's top scorer, and Benfica's standard lineup should be 433, but in this game, they became 451. It seems that they really want to control the midfield, but such a lineup for defensive counterattacks is a bit out of place, which is really confusing.

On the other hand, Real Madrid still used the standard 442 formation. Carlo did not make any major changes to the formation. The forwards were still the combination of Wang Li and Robinho, the midfielders were Zidane, Beckham, Baptista and Gravesen, the defenders were Roberto Carlos, Ramos, Ruben and Cicinho, and the goalkeeper was Casillas.

In this way, Wang Li became the captain on the field again.

Due to Pavon's injury, Wang Li has been wearing the captain's armband in recent games, and other players are convinced by this. In Real Madrid, Wang Li's reputation is much higher than Pavon's. Perhaps the reason why Pavon can still be the captain is that he came from the Real Madrid youth training camp.

After Florentino moved into Royal Club, his standard for team building was to use big-name stars from all over the world to drive the growth of local stars, and at the same time make the club a commercial combination that could make money for each director. Under this team building purpose, since 2001, the captain of Real Madrid has always been a local Spanish player, and even the vice-captain is the same.

However, Wang Li's price is too high and his reputation in the team is too high. For him to become the captain, other players and fans think it is natural. Real Madrid club or head coach Carlo is just going with the flow.

At this time, Carlo looked at Benfica's formation with a puzzled look on his face. He couldn't figure it out.

If an outsider saw Benfica's formation, he would just think that they changed their style of play, using a 451 formation to play defensive counterattacks, which is understandable. However, before the game, Carlo carefully studied the information of each Benfica player, and now seeing this lineup, he is a little confused, because in the current Benfica lineup, there are very few players like David Beckham who are good at long passes among the five midfielders, and if the Portuguese-style short pass penetration wants to break through Real Madrid's defense, there must be a striker to respond.

However, Benfica only had one striker, Gomez, on the field. Although this veteran is very fast, he is 30 years old after all, and his condition is definitely not as good as Simao. He is better at grabbing points and is a physical striker.

A striker like this going to play a defensive counterattack? It's really a strange move.

But Benfica fans don't see it that way.

As loyal fans, they always believe in Gomez's strength. Although Gomez has not scored as many goals as Simando in the past two seasons, his position in the hearts of Benfica fans is unquestionable. He has won the trust of all fans with his previous performance.

The Estadio da Luz was packed today. The Lisbon fans showed great enthusiasm for Benfica's first appearance in the semi-finals of the European Cup since 2000. Their hearts were already boiling with excitement before the game even started.

For this game, Benfica fans certainly hope that Benfica can win, and it would be best if they can score more goals, so that the team will have a better chance of reaching the final.

However, they are still a little worried about the game, and the focus is on Wang Li.

In the European Cup two years ago, the shadow of the black-haired boy on the field has long been deeply engraved in the hearts of these Lisbon fans. Although the England team did not achieve any good results, Wang Li was definitely one of the topics discussed by Lisbon fans, because his total playing time was less than 90 minutes, but in 90 minutes, he scored 4 goals! !

At that time, Lisbon fans felt that this black-haired boy would definitely grow into a great star.

And now this idea has come true. In just one year, he has scored countless goals and become the most valuable player in the world. His worth of 200 million euros is something that all stars can only dream of. Although there are a lot of commercial values ​​involved, it also shows the strength of this black-haired boy.

Without mentioning the previous point, Wang Li's performance this season is what worries Benfica fans the most, because this season, Wang Li's goal efficiency is higher.

For a big-name football star, performing a hat trick in the European Champions League may be remembered for a lifetime and is a great honor, but for this black-haired boy, it is almost commonplace.

How could they not worry about such a player?

Can we score 5 goals against Barcelona?!?

Thinking about this data, and then thinking about the situation where Benfica and Barcelona did not score a single goal in the home game, Benfica fans will be even more worried. The comparison is more convincing. If there was no game against Barcelona, ​​Benfica fans could still think that the other teams were not strong enough, but now, they know that the strength of this black-haired boy is indeed very strong, strong enough to affect the outcome of a game.

In this worried mood, after the game started, every time Wang Li got the ball, they booed in unison to influence Wang Li's performance, hoping to win a greater chance of winning for the team.

This situation also affected the performance of other Real Madrid players. This is the advantage of the home court. Both the commentators and the fans are for the home team. Today, there are only less than 5,000 Real Madrid fans entering the Luz Stadium. Facing a force ten times theirs, it is difficult for them to make any waves.

Back on the field, Wang Li won the coin toss and chose the kick-off right for the team, and Real Madrid's first attack ended with David Beckham being intercepted on the wing.

Afterwards, Benfica launched a counterattack.

From this wave of attack, it seems that Benfica players had a tacit understanding in their running positions and their performances were normal, especially Gomez who was at the front in the middle. After receiving the ball, he dribbled past two Real Madrid defenders in a row. Such performance did not show that he was already 30 years old.

However, the current formation has a huge impact on Benfica! When attacking, only Gomez stands relatively forward, which is the same as in the past. Even if Simao plays, Gomez will still be at the front. But in this game, the other players are too far back.

In the past, the combination of five midfielders was closer to a 433 formation, with only two wingers moving forward and the other two midfielders forming a 433 formation with three defensive midfielders and two forwards. However, in Benfica's attack, the two wingers did not move forward at all, and several players were all blocking the center line, which left the defenders behind them no room to attack.

This kind of movement made Benfica's attack impossible. After Gomez's amazing performance, the attack in the frontcourt was weak, which resulted in the ball being snatched back by Real Madrid before it was passed a few times.

What's even more strange is that seeing this performance, Benfica head coach Koeman on the sidelines didn't say anything. Instead, he looked relaxed, as if this was just what he had ordered.

This scene made Carlo a little worried. After all, although Real Madrid is very strong, Benfica's playing style on the field is too strange.

In fact, Koeman's tactics in this game was defense, yes, defense, not defensive counterattack.

Before the game, Koeman had racked his brains to study the match between his team and Real Madrid, because no matter from which angle he analyzed it, Benfica could not be the opponent of Real Madrid, which beat Barcelona 8:0.

However, the game was about to begin, and he had to devise a possible way for the team to win.

If Benfica plays in a normal way, it would be unrealistic for them to win at home, let alone maintain a draw. Many coaches' defensive strategies against Real Madrid have all failed. Koeman knows his own level very well. He knows that the tactics he formulated at the moment will not be able to defend the goal. The main reason is that the black-haired boy of Real Madrid has too strong personal ability. As long as he is given a little chance, the goal will not be defended.

Such players will give every coach a headache. After all, no matter how good the tactics are, they still need the players to perform, and it is impossible to not make a single mistake on the court.

So, when Koeman thought about the penalty shootout, an idea suddenly occurred to him: "Why can't we defend with all our strength?"

Maybe this idea is a little unbelievable, but playing against a team like Real Madrid that is almost impossible to beat is a good way, isn't it?

At least, this will greatly increase Benfica's chances of winning. Although it is a bit embarrassing to play like this at home, football in the 21st century is utilitarian football. A group of people ridicule Mourinho's defense, but Mourinho can still be the most popular coach. This is the reason.

So, Koeman decided to let the team focus on defense.

If Benfica can draw 0:0 with Real Madrid in two rounds, then they will have the opportunity to eliminate Real Madrid through a penalty shootout. This is the best conclusion Koeman came to after thinking about it for several nights, and he also told this tactic to everyone in the coaching staff. Although some people opposed it, considering the strength of Real Madrid, they finally unanimously passed it.

This is also a helpless move for Koeman and Benfica.

Although the fans will be dissatisfied with this style of play, as long as they win, everyone will be satisfied, and failure? ? Then Koeman will not be able to continue coaching Benfica this summer, and other things have nothing to do with him. It is meaningless to think about failure.

So the next task is how to maximize the effectiveness of Benfica's defense and give the team more chances to keep the goal.

This job is much easier than striving for victory because Koeman only needs to think about defense.

In fact, before the game, Koeman didn't even want to send Gomez to the field. However, if he didn't send a striker to the field, not to mention the fans would be dissatisfied, Real Madrid would even see through his tactics at a glance. In this way, they would attack without scruples, and Benfica would definitely fall into a passive position quickly.

So, Gomez had the opportunity to play, maybe he should thank Real Madrid

On the court, when Benfica was attacking, Wang Li did not participate in the defense, because Benfica's attack did not seem to be strong and their players rarely got involved. Wang Li observed this, so he was not too worried about the team's defense and just stayed in the frontcourt waiting for opportunities.

However, he didn't have many chances.

Whenever he was in the frontcourt, there were two Benfica players patrolling around him. When he got the ball, three players would rush up to grab it. At the beginning, Wang Li was not too worried because he felt that the Portuguese team was not strong. But after several attacks, he found that this idea was wrong.

Petit.

This player seems to be unknown, but he is a regular at the World Cup. In addition to his outstanding ability to break through the midfield and frontcourt and good awareness, his defense is also talked about by the coach. In the midfield, he will be an all-round player, and his intercepting ability in the midfield is very outstanding. However, perhaps because he never has a stunning performance, his fame is not prominent.

Louison.

In the summer of 2003, Anderson Luis da Silva Luisão transferred to Portugal's Benfica for 890,000 euros. Luisão had a very difficult first season in the Portuguese Super League. He played 15 times in the league and performed mediocrely. However, starting from the 2004-05 season, Luisão gradually adapted to the rhythm of the Portuguese Super League and soon became the team's main central defender. This season, he has played 37 times, almost all of Benfica's games, which shows his strength.

These two unknown players have excellent awareness and positioning. Under Koeman's guidance, they are specifically responsible for defending Wang Li.

As the one being defended, Wang Li felt very suffocated. If there were only these two people, it would be OK as he could just break through directly. However, every time he got the ball, other Benfica players would rush up to the wall accordingly, and Benfica's backcourt defense was very dense, so he didn't have much space to dribble the ball, which made it difficult for him to launch an attack.

As the offensive core of Real Madrid, his performance almost affects the performance of the entire Real Madrid.

Facing such a defense, Wang Li knew that he had to move more widely. If the range of his movement was widened, it would be very difficult for Benfica to defend himself, because this would also affect many other issues.

Once again Real Madrid's attack failed, and it was Benfica's turn to counterattack.

But this attack still ended with an interception midway. Of course, under Koeman's tactics, Benfica's players did not even join in. It was really a pipe dream to rely on one or two players to break Real Madrid's defense.

However, when Benfica was powerless in attack, Real Madrid was also powerless in attack, because their defense at the back was too dense, which made Real Madrid players feel like they had no idea where to start. They didn't know where to attack to break Benfica's defense and find scoring opportunities.

At this time, they placed their hopes on Wang Li, but Wang Li himself was in trouble now, and he still wanted to rely on the cooperation of other Real Madrid players.

This made the two teams seem to be in a stalemate.

The person who was most happy to see this situation was Coman. At least in the first 15 minutes, his defensive tactics were successful.

Yes, Real Madrid's offense was not very good in the first 15 minutes after the start of the game. Some of the reasons were that they did not know what Benfica was doing. If they attacked too forward and Benfica launched a surprise attack, the situation would be bad. The bigger reason was that Benfica's defense was really good.

Benfica was also weak in offense, and an attack often lasted less than half a minute before being intercepted by Real Madrid. However, their defense was very strong. Just after the start of the game, even Gomez returned to the penalty area line to participate in the defense. Such an iron bucket formation made the Real Madrid players at a loss and a little scared.

Perhaps, next, they will have to think of ways to deal with this tactic.

If the game continues like this, Koeman's tactics might really succeed.

Seeing this situation, Real Madrid coach Carlo couldn't help but give a thumbs up to Koeman on the other side. It must be said that Koeman made the best choice, but this choice requires great determination - "Isn't he afraid of the fans' opposition? Will Benfica agree to do this?"

With this tactic, even if Benfica defended the goal, Koeman would be blamed after the game, but he still did it for the team, which is why Carlo admired him.

At least after he took over as coach of Real Madrid, he did not dare to make changes to the team's playing style.

This is the inheritance of a wealthy team, but also the helplessness of the team coach.

"However, this style of play is really shameless," Carlo couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Now Real Madrid has no other choice but to attack in a big way, but facing Benfica's full defense, even Carlo has no confidence that Real Madrid can break through the goal.

(To be continued)