Chapter 458 The Second Goal!

The 45-year-old Dutchman seems to be getting a little old as Barcelona coach Rijkaard's face is wrinkled as he sees football flying into his own goal.

The Dutch did not expect that Manchester City would actually play a defensive counterattack.

His impression of Manchester City has always been offensive football, and he also knows that when Manchester City plays, they occasionally change their tactics, but it is actually their 'OS-F' system football, and the difference is not that big.

But what he didn't expect was that Manchester City's tactics would change so much in this game!

The Chinese didn't even think about having a classic "offensive football battle" with Barcelona. Instead, he played a "botched" defensive counterattack!

Thinking of this, Rijkaard gritted his teeth.

It doesn't matter if Manchester City plays defensive counterattacks. At most, the game is a bit ugly, but what he didn't expect is that Manchester City's defense is still so solid and the counterattack is so sharp!

This is City's best chance since the start of the game.

When Messi was stole the ball just now, Rijkaard was still worried about Messi's performance. Messi is the core of the team and the star. If Messi's performance is not good, it will affect the entire team.

But now that he sees that the team has been affected, you start to worry about the outcome of the game.

Manchester City's defense is very solid, and it is not easy for the team to score goals, and Manchester City's counterattack is so sharp and efficient, which makes him even more worried.

Before the start of the game, Rijkaard knew that Manchester City was not easy to deal with, but in fact, he did not have much anxiety about the home game.

Manchester City are strong, winning the Premier League three years in a row, which also proves their consistency.

However, few teams can take away the victory at the Camp Nou.

Rijkaard firmly believes in this.

But now Barcelona is 0-1 behind. No matter what Rijkaard thought before, now he has to think about how to regain the advantage.

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For Barcelona, ​​conceding a goal is not the end of the game. After all, this is a two-leg knockout game, not a brutal battle to decide the outcome.

The outcome of a game is not so important, it is the goals scored and conceded.

The disadvantage of Barcelona is mainly because this is a home game. Home and away games are different. Generally, in two rounds, the home game can play better. If they lose to their opponents at home, then it will definitely be harder to play away.

So Barcelona's priority is to try to tie the game, so they began to attack City half-time.

Facts have proved that when the Barcelona team is dedicated to the attack, it can still launch a very terrible offensive.

After the game restarted, they attacked twice in a row, both putting the ball into the Manchester City penalty area.

The continuous crisis in the penalty area also forced Manchester City to shrink its lineup defense.

In the tense defense, the joy of scoring just now disappeared without a trace, and every Manchester City player wanted to keep the goal.

For Barcelona, ​​the focus becomes how to score Manchester City.

Messi is tightly limited by both Brumer and Morris.

Although Barcelona still has outstanding offensive players such as Deco, Iniesta, and Xavi, Messi is the key player in the middle. If Messi can't play, Barcelona's offensive is very limited.

After a long time, Barcelona still failed to score Manchester City's goal.

Looking at the team's solid defense, Wansheng felt very relieved.

Manchester City has prepared a lot for this game. The defensive counterattack is also specially prepared for Barcelona. In order to prepare for the game, they continue to train the defensive formation and defensive tactics. The details go into the game, how the players in each position run. Move, how each player defends against the opposing player.

With so many training effects, coupled with the bonuses of the two defensive functions 'Solid Barrier' and 'Resolute Interception', the team's defense must be very solid.

Wansheng is pleased that every player on the field performed well.

This kind of competition is an opportunity and a challenge for young players. Many players cannot bear the pressure of the competition and are nervous, and emotional tension can easily lead to a loss of control.

Wansheng didn't see a single player perform erratically.

Each of them was unaffected by the atmosphere of the competition or by the shouts of the Barcelona fans at Camp Nou.

This shows that the young players in the team have matured, and the whole team has matured.

On the field of play, the two sides continued to battle continuously.

Time was running out and Barcelona seemed to be hoping to go into half-time with a draw, so their attack was even harder.

They continued to use their cooperation to send the ball into Manchester City's penalty area. The two wing forwards, Iniesta and Eto'o, were quite active. They frequently inserted into the penalty area and made Manchester City's defense feel nervous for a while.

But because of Messi's restrictions, Barcelona's midway is not very active, and it is difficult to find opportunities in the first place with the insertion of two flanks.

This situation made Rijkaard frown. He looked at Messi who was severely restricted on the field and sighed.

No matter how talented a player Messi is, he is still too young. At 20 years old, his experience is limited, and it is difficult to exert his skills no matter how good he is.

The Dutch know what the most important job is to do in midfield.

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The first half ended with an outside shot from Xavi flying high over the crossbar.

This scene also proves that, at least on the scene, Barcelona made a lot of pressure on Manchester City, but because they did not score a goal, but Manchester City used a counterattack to score a goal, so in the score, Barcelona is the one behind. .

At halftime, Wan Sheng praised the team's performance and asked everyone to continue working hard in the second half.

He underscored a few things about possible adjustments his opponents might make.

The first focus is on the restrictions on Messi.

At present, Messi is the most important core of Barcelona. As long as Messi's point is sealed, Barcelona's offensive can be limited.

This is very clear, and it is almost the most work Manchester City does in preparation for the game.

In the game, what the fans see is that Blumer and Morris are constantly guarding Messi closely, but in fact, how can it be so simple to really block the performance of a star player?

Wansheng has made very strict arrangements for this.

First of all, targeted defense, that is, the defensive work on the surface, is handed over to Blumer and Morris. In addition, other surrounding players must also cooperate with running, making it difficult for Barcelona players to The ball is passed to Messi's position, and at the same time, it also makes it difficult for Messi who receives the pass to pass the ball to his teammates.

The former's requirements are not high. It depends entirely on the performance of Blumer and Morris. The latter's requirements are very high. It took a long time for defensive training before the game.

Messi did not perform at all in the first half, and Barcelona will definitely make adjustments.

Rijkaard has two options. One is to give Messi some guidance, and the position is to let Messi retreat. In this way, Messi's playing space becomes larger, and it seems that it is difficult to limit it. live.

However, Wansheng doesn’t care about this. Even if Messi retreats, he will definitely participate in the offense, so the team will definitely be able to restrict him by playing according to the original targeted defense.

The other is to replace Messi and let Ronaldinho play.

Ronaldinho is what Wansheng is most worried about. The Brazilian has experienced a nightmare this season. At the beginning of the season, his private life was exposed by the media. The Barcelona club was very dissatisfied with the indulgence of the Brazilian off the field. Even teammate Edmilson referred to it as the "Black Goat."

In the days that followed, Barcelona had gradually become accustomed to the lack of Ronaldinho's team, and the bench and the stands became the places where the former world footballer made more appearances.

The Clasico (Barcelona vs Real Madrid) in December 2007 was Ronaldinho's last chance to prove himself to the club, as Barcelona lost 1-0 to defending champions Real Madrid, with Ronaldinho Neo was completely thrown into the "cold palace".

In January 2008, the Barcelona club announced that Ronaldinho would miss many games due to a left knee injury, and in April, after the rumor of a fraudulent injury, Barcelona officially announced that Ronaldonho, who had returned soon, was injured by a muscle in his right leg. Injury said goodbye to the season.

Although there are so many rumors, in this game against Manchester City, Ronaldonho still appeared on the bench.

This proves that Rijkaard attaches great importance to the game, and also proves that Ronaldinho still has a certain status in Barcelona.

If Rijkaard chooses to replace Ronaldinho, then the team's defense will definitely be difficult to play a big role against Ronaldinho, who is in a 'brilliant state'.

In this way, Wansheng can only let the team try their best to defend and keep the advantage score.

Wan Sheng is actually not too worried, because he knows that Ronaldo has passed his prime, and now is the worst season of the Brazilian's career. Erdinho?

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The second half came soon.

The Manchester City players felt that the game was playing out like a script set by Wan Sheng.

Barcelona did not make substitution adjustments, but after a few minutes of the game, they all saw that Messi's position had retreated a lot.

Many Manchester City players have more "reverence" for Wansheng, and at the same time, they have more confidence in the game.

Wan Sheng said that Rijkaard would choose to let Messi retreat. As a result, Messi’s position was adjusted backwards. The reaction of the opponent was all expected by Wan Sheng. Wan Sheng also specially arranged targeted defensive adjustments. Manchester City players just have to do it.

Manchester City players feel that the game is under the control of the coach. In this case, they have no reason to lose. Maybe even the result of the game is under the control of the coach?

Many players think so.

They have deified Wansheng in their hearts!

Wansheng doesn't know the players' thoughts. It is a head coach's job to predict the opponent's tactical adjustment. He is happy that the opponent's adjustment is not unexpected, so the game will not be out of control.

The second half of the game was still carried out with Barcelona attacking and Manchester City defending.

The Barcelona midfielder, the two wingers, and even the defenders frequently wanted to find an opportunity to send the ball into Manchester City's penalty area, but at this time, they knew why some British media believed that Manchester City's defense was strong.

In this game, Manchester City's central defender combination is Dunn and Lescott.

Dunn and Lescott, both standard England centre-backs, combined to make Manchester City's penalty area seem tight with their constant running.

In addition to the two central defenders, the defense of Manchester City flankers Carlos and Ziegler is also very annoying. Needless to say, Carlos is an old opponent of Barcelona, ​​but he is now playing on behalf of Manchester City. Ziegler He is not young, but he came to Manchester City from Derby County with Wansheng. The experience in the top league in the past four seasons has made the Belgian young man fully mature. His defense has caused headaches for both Eto'o and Xavi.

Manchester City still has a midfield defense in front of the penalty area. Needless to say, Maurice and Blumer, Ozil, Darren Bent, and Ivan Crewe have also done a good job in defense. Their personal defense The ability is actually not that strong, but the number of people is there, and it is not easy for Barcelona to jump over this line of defense.

A lot of people say 'crowd tactics are the best defense', and the Ozil trio are trying to show that with their overall performance.

Barcelona is still very troublesome in the face of Manchester City's strict defense, perhaps more mainly because their core Messi still has not been able to play his due role.

Rijkaard originally thought that after letting Messi retreat, Manchester City's targeted defense of Messi would not be so easy.

But after more than ten minutes in the second half, he realized that his thinking was wrong.

Obviously, Manchester City has done a lot of training for Messi's defense. Not only Brumer and Morris will pay attention to Messi's defense, but other Manchester City players will mainly run around Messi and will block his catches, Passing route.

It is not easy for Messi to receive the ball. Even if he receives the ball, it is very difficult to pass the ball out due to the interference of Brumer and the blocking of other Manchester City players.

This is the root cause of Messi's lack of performance so far.

Messi's poor performance directly affected the entire team's offense. Their frequent offenses did not yield anything. After repeated failures, Barcelona players were a little discouraged.

But they haven't realized the danger yet.

It is impossible for Manchester City to let Barcelona attack all the time. This is not a half-time offensive and defensive drill, but the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, a very significant game.

When Barcelona's attack slowed down, Manchester City began to counterattack continuously.

Sharp counterattack!

Wansheng chose to play Ozil and let Darren Bent play in midfield, the purpose is to counterattack speed!

Ozil and Darren Bent are both very fast players, and when they take off the ball, Barcelona can't even catch up.

Manchester City are very experienced in attacking fast.

Not only can they play fast counterattacks, but they can also play very wonderful cooperation when they counterattack.

So in the 73rd minute of the game, Darren Bent, Ozil and Morris cooperated, and it took only 7 seconds to send the ball to the front of Torres, which is not surprising. .

The next job is also very simple for the Spanish Golden Boy.

Get your feet up and shoot!

The football rushes directly into the door of Valdez's handle! (To be continued ~^~)