Starting with Real Madrid kicking the midfielder

Chapter 233 Oops, we became doubles [Please subscribe! 】

The battle between Chelsea and Manchester City is getting closer and closer. Not only the fans of the Premier League, but also fans of many other leagues seem to be very interested in the focus of this English league match.

After all, it is a duel between the teams coached by Guardiola and Mourinho.

Although the two are no longer in La Liga, their coaching style has not changed. The match between Chelsea and Manchester City is also regarded by many La Liga fans as a weakened version of the "national derby".

Coupled with the Premier League official's sparing no effort in publicity.

So before the start of the Premier League battle, many fans of the major leagues have already memorized the start date and time of the game, waiting to enjoy this audio-visual feast on time.

On February 2st, the 1th round of the Premier League officially started.

Newcastle and Sunderland completed the early opener of this round of the league.

In the next two days, all 18 Premier League teams appeared and played 9 games in this round of the league.

Among them, many teams in the middle and lower reaches of the league were upset. For example, Sunderland defeated the Magpies 3:0, and Tiger City drew strongly with Tottenham.Everton was drawn by Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion drew Liverpool at home...

The arrival of the FA Cup and the schedule that has become closer after the 23rd round of the Premier League have superimposed, and most of the top eight teams in the Premier League have been affected by their records.

However, this phenomenon did not panic the Chelsea players. On the contrary, everyone in Chelsea was delighted by the occurrence of such a game situation.

After all, they had voluntarily given up the FA Cup before, so while other Premier League teams were hampered by the recent tight schedule, Chelsea benefited from this.

Other teams were affected, but Chelsea was able to prepare and rest normally. In contrast, Chelsea's advantage in the league has naturally expanded further.

And their rivals Manchester City, who will face off in this round of the league, have also been affected by the FA Cup.

On January 1th, after Manchester City played the fourth round of the FA Cup against Watford with a semi-main lineup, on the night of January 25th, they played against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. war.

The two consecutive games consumed a lot of physical energy from the main players of Manchester City's first team and rotation players.

And the rest time they got was less than 5 days.

Therefore, even if they have the advantage of playing at home against Chelsea, Manchester City cannot easily make up for the physical disadvantage they have consumed.

Reflected on the fans of the two teams, their respective emotions and mentality are completely different.

Although the fans of Manchester City are also very confident because of their recent outstanding results, after watching the last round of soul-stirring 5:3 Tottenham battle, they are very worried about the physical condition of their players.

Chelsea fans are very confident about their main players.

After all, after the 22nd round of the league, all of Chelsea's main players did not consume any physical energy in the English League Cup and FA Cup.

The rest time between the 22nd and 23rd rounds of the Premier League is a full 10 days!
Chelsea's main players took 4 days of vacation. In the 23rd round, they played West Ham United again, and Chelsea won easily.

Compared with Manchester City's schedule, Chelsea's side cannot be described as easy.

The game against West Ham United seems to be just a warm-up match for Chelsea, a warm-up before the top battle against Manchester City.

So when the thousands of Chelsea fans arrived at the Etihad Stadium on game day, they looked very relaxed?

They are confident but not arrogant. It may be their calm and calm attitude that made the tens of thousands of Manchester City fans at the scene a little nervous.

When the players of the two teams were warming up in the stadium, Mourinho was still thinking about what Guardiola said at Manchester City's pre-match press conference yesterday:
"José and I are both old friends and old rivals. Before he came to La Liga, I had already played against him in the Champions League. When he came to La Liga, our duel was even more Countless.

So we know each other very well. It can even be said that we are the friends and opponents who know each other best.

It is an undeniable fact that we lost our first match against Chelsea this season, and of course we will be more prepared for the second leg.

Tactical trump card?No, there is no tactical trump card. As I said, He Sai and I know each other very well. There is no possibility that one of us can play a tactical trump card..."

Mourinho thought about it again, but muttered softly in his mouth.

"Crap..."

Guardiola has a saying that he agrees with, that is, they really know each other very well.

What tactics is he good at?They all know what Guardiola is good at, so when it comes to tactical trump cards, they probably don't exist.

Because they will make a lot of relevant tactical plans for each other, very detailed tactical plans.

But to say that the game will lose all tactical suspense, it means that Guardiola is deliberately misleading the reporters, and also deliberately misleading himself.

It's one thing not to have more novel tactics.

But among the tactics the two of them have played, choosing a set of tactics that surprised each other the most is another thing that will happen with a high probability.

Guardiola is like this, Mourinho is like this too.

After all, there were too many matches between them. In Mourinho's first season at Real Madrid, Real Madrid lost miserably, but after that, Guardiola's Barcelona was suppressed.

The two confronted each other, and they had played too many routines. There were wins and losses, and there were also some draws.

Mourinho has to admit that when he played against Guardiola for the first time in the Premier League this season, Li Ang's sudden outbreak brought him a great surprise.

It is precisely because of Li Ang's sudden explosive performance that Chelsea's easy victory far exceeded his pre-match expectations.

However, a player's personal outburst cannot be calculated into the design of tactics, so Mourinho was not as relaxed as he seemed before the game started.

The Manchester City team led by Guardiola is not easy to play.

Because now this Manchester City team is much stronger on the defensive end than the Barcelona he led in La Liga.

At the beginning, Mourinho could attack both wings, avoid Barcelona's extremely controlling midfield, and use high-altitude balls and Ronaldo's personal ability to defeat Barcelona.

That also takes advantage of Barcelona's inability to defend against high-altitude balls.

But now Manchester City, although the midfield control is far inferior to Barcelona in the previous two seasons, but on the defensive end, this Manchester City is neither afraid of ground balls nor high-altitude balls.

Their defense is strong and balanced, and Manchester City's defense is the strongest in the entire Premier League.Maybe like Arsenal, they are the top level second only to Chelsea.

The only thing that can be said to be flawed is Joe Hart.

Until now, most fans in the world may not be able to figure out why Joe Hart always likes to make small mistakes despite his excellent goal-line skills.

This flaw of his also makes him always miss the mark when defending long-range shots and unexpected shots.

However, with the lesson of losing to Li Ang's long-range shot in the last matchup, Mourinho does not believe that Guardiola will continue to suffer such losses.

It is conceivable that in this battle, Guardiola will definitely focus on protecting his own frontier of the penalty area.

Therefore, to be on the safe side, Mourinho basically has no hope of continuing to take advantage of Manchester City in long-range shots.

This is reflected in the tactics he deployed today, which are to defend the two wings, counterattack and push the center line, and then split the ball from the ribs to hit the Manchester City penalty area.

Li Ang then intervened and Ibrahimovic in the penalty area formed a double end point. It is safest to complete the scoring threat in the penalty area of ​​Manchester City.

Long shots can be an auxiliary means of attack, but it will not be Chelsea's main means of attack today.

Mourinho is still imagining whether there are any mistakes in the tactics arranged before today's game. As a result, the players on both sides soon finished their pre-match warm-up.

After entering the last mobilization link before the game, neither Mourinho nor Guardiola spent too much time on tactical explanations.

After all, all the pre-match preparations have been done, and now is the time to decompress and cheer the players.

Near [-]pm local time, players from Manchester City and Chelsea began to step onto the court following the pace of the referee team.

In the cold Manchester winter night, the fans of the two teams created an extremely hot atmosphere.

As soon as Li Ang, who was wearing Chelsea's white away jersey No. [-], made his appearance, Guardiola, who was sitting on the coach's bench, was in a trance.

The almost pure white jersey, pure white ball pants, socks and gloves, plus the black stripes on the shoulders, at first glance, Guardiola thought he saw the familiar Real Madrid lion again.

However, the big sponsor Samsung letters on the chest of Chelsea's away team jersey finally brought Guardiola back to his senses.

"Chelsea's visiting team jersey looks familiar today, and it looks particularly suitable for Li Ang~"

"I've been wearing it for two and a half years. How can it be inappropriate? Everyone looks familiar."

In the Sina Sports studio, Zhan Jun and Director Zhang once again partnered up to commentate live on this Premier League highlight battle for domestic fans.After the two joked, they quickly explained the recent points and results of Chelsea and Manchester City to the domestic audience.

In fact, Chelsea and Manchester City have already had relatively deep fan bases in China.

A large part of Chelsea's fans in China come from the iron-blooded Blues period when Mourinho first coached.

Not to mention Manchester City, the team played by the Chinese Suns was also a team that attracted the attention of domestic Premier League fans in that era.

The two teams already have relatively strong fan bases in China, and with the presence of Li Ang as an absolute viewing factor, Sina Sports in the early hours of this morning is destined to set off a frenzy of ratings.

In the late night of Huaguo, which was close to 4 o'clock in the morning, accompanied by Zhan Jun's familiar voice of introduction.

After the players of Chelsea and Manchester City finished the opening ceremony, they had already stood in their respective halfs, waiting for the official start of the game.

“Chelsea played 433 today, and the starting goalkeeper was Czech national goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Defensive line:

Bertrand at left back, Terry and David Luiz at center back and Azpilicueta at right back.

In the midfield, Matic serves as the single midfielder, and Li Ang and Lampard are on the left and right sides of the midfield.

Left winger Hazard, right winger De Bruyne, center Ibrahimovic. "

“Manchester City’s starting formation today was four-two-three-one.

The starting goalkeeper is England goalkeeper Joe Hart.

On the defensive line, left back Kolarov, center and back are Nastasic and Kompany, and right back Zabaleta.

In the midfield, Yaya Toure and Fernandinho will serve as double defensive midfielders, Cesc Fabregas will start as the midfielder today, and the left and right midfielders are David Silva and Jesús Navas respectively.

Center Dzeko. "

As soon as Zhan Jun finished speaking, today's referee on duty also blew his whistle.

The focus of the second half of the 2013~2014 Premier League season has officially started!

Manchester City, which kicked off first, was the same as usual.After Fabregas had the ball, he and Yaya Toure first sought stability in the backcourt.

In the past, this job was done by Fabregas and Fernandinho.

But after Rhea Toure had to bow to Guardiola recently, the Ivorian superstar midfielder also regained the opportunity to start.

In the previous few league and cup games, Yaya Toure played very well in the backcourt.

Both he and Cesc Fabregas were able to complete the tactical tasks assigned by Guardiola very well.

As long as Yaya Toure doesn't have convulsions, the midfield duo of him and Cesc Fabregas is one of the top midfield combinations in the Premier League.

The strongest midfield duo in the Premier League is of course Leon and Matic. In terms of offense alone, they may be slightly inferior to the duo of Cesc Fabregas and Yaya Toure.

But when it comes to offensive and defensive balance, in the entire Premier League, Leonga Matic is the absolute first level.

However, Manchester City played very patiently today, and did not rush to attack after the opening, which made the defensive net set up by Li Ang and Matic in the middle lose their usefulness.

At first, Mourinho thought Guardiola was just using his old pass-and-control style, pushing forward layer by layer from the back and penetrating layer by layer.

So Mourinho was also very patient, he did not signal his disciples to put pressure on Manchester City in a hurry.

Li Ang also made tactical gestures to ask Lampard to retreat first, and in his own half, he and Matic stuck Manchester City in a possible pass-and-control penetration route.

He himself went deep into the enemy's hinterland to test Manchester City's strength in possession of the ball today.

With Li Ang leading Hazard and De Bruyne to put pressure on Manchester City's backcourt organizers, according to common sense, Manchester City can usually try to pass the ball forward at this time.

But Manchester City did not do this today. Not only did David Silva and Navas fail to reach Chelsea's slightly empty wing to prepare to receive the ball and attack.

Instead, the two of them retreated to the rib area of ​​several halves to meet Fabregas and Yaya Toure, further strengthening their own half's control of the ball.

This kind of resolute possession made Mourinho frown.

He not only remembered what Guardiola said at the pre-match press conference.

"Do you really have any tactical cards?"

Mourinho didn't believe it. The game had only started for less than 5 minutes at the moment, so Mourinho could only continue watching patiently.

He wants to see what kind of medicine is sold in the gourd when Guardiola is so abnormally playing pass control in his own half today!

Li Ang is not in a hurry on the field, because now it is just him and two wingers, plus an Ibrahimovic at most, to jointly put pressure on Manchester City's half-court defense.

With this kind of pressure, even if the ball cannot be grabbed, there is no loss.

There is Matic Garalampard staring at the backcourt. No matter what tricks Manchester City is playing, his wing players will be attacked one-on-one by Matic or Lampard for the first time.

But now that the three players in Manchester City's center are all staying under his nose, Li Ang doesn't believe it. In terms of speed, can Yaya Toure and Cesc Fabregas be faster than him?
Li Ang still has such confidence.

But he never expected it.When Manchester City deliberately slowed down the passing speed and Chelsea's pressure also slowed down, Lampard suddenly appeared in his field of vision!

Li Ang felt bad, but before he could remind Lampard to retreat, Cesc Fabregas from Manchester City had already sent a diagonal through ball to the ground!
Fabregas did not pass a long pass directly forward, and handed the ball to Manchester City's high center forward Dzeko. His pass goal was the Manchester City left-back Kolarov who had the opportunity to advance resolutely!

When Lampard was guarding the right side of Chelsea's half, Kolarov was very honest, and there was no sign of going forward at all.

But just after Lampard pressed the center line and wanted to participate in the oppression of Manchester City.Kolarov immediately caught Chelsea by surprise with his decisive advance!
Kolarov passed by De Bruyne to receive the ball, but there was no Chelsea player in front of him to intercept him immediately.

Lampard lost his defensive position, and Matic had to be in the middle at this time, so he could only retreat with Terry and David Luiz to set up a defense line in front of the penalty area.

Azpilicueta had no choice but to press forward and intercept Kolarov, but at this moment, Kolarov sent a long pass forward!
The football drew a smooth trajectory in the air, and then fell straight into Dzeko's control range.

David Luiz immediately gave up the retracement and Dzeko's position.

His decisive defense prevented Dzeko from easily controlling the ball and then turning around. He could only continue to distribute the ball to Manchester City's right wing while holding the ball behind his back.

Jesús Navas has already plugged in at high speed. After receiving Dzeko's pass, he did not hesitate to overtake decisively and forcefully, trying to break through Bertrand to the bottom.

Bertrand had no choice but to stick to Navas immediately and force him to slow down.

But Navas's subsequent heel knock made Bertrand's defense fail!

Sabaletta, like Kolarov, was very resolute when he counterattacked. Navas's strong attack looked more like a feint. The real threat was Sabaletta who advanced!
This Manchester City wide player who played the title of the Premier League's first right back last season, raised his foot and sent a big slash pass!

The football draws a wonderful arc close to the turf, and neither Dzeko nor Terry in the front point can reach the football.

And at the latter point, seeing Kolarov rushing into Chelsea's penalty area, he was about to complete the goal!
As a result, a white figure almost fell to the ground before Kolarov and stabbed the ball, destroying it, and passed the ball directly to Cech in front of the Chelsea goal!

This time the defense was extremely bold.

If there is no tacit understanding between the player who fell to the ground and destroyed the football and Cech, it is likely to result in an own goal.

Fortunately, Cech's attention had been concentrated before, and the defensive player also yelled to get Cech's attention when he was doing defensive damage.

So the Czech national goal finally hugged the ball neatly in his arms!
Guardiola went from eagerly preparing to take off to kneeling and hugging his head in frustration at the end. During his mood ups and downs, he gave Li Ang, who had just got up from the turf, a fierce look.

Yes, it was Li Ang who just completed the pursuit tackle!
Lampard, who had been out of position before, let out a big sigh of relief. He quickly stepped forward and pulled Li Ang up from the turf, constantly apologizing and thanking him.

Li Ang just patted Lampard's arm and said nothing more.

After all, Lampard is not a serious defensive midfielder. He has tried his best to play as a defensive midfielder this season. It is normal to make some defensive mistakes occasionally.

However, Manchester City's performance today surprised Li Ang.

In the past, Mourinho's team fought back against Guardiola's team, but today Guardiola used his novel tactics to teach Mourinho a lesson!
And the Chelsea players who had just been threatened to counterattack all looked at each other in blank dismay.

"Come on, they're attacking us, we're stand-ins today!"

(End of this chapter)