Chapter 910: Forced Attack (Part 1)

With the whistle of Hungarian referee Kasay, the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 knockout match between Inter Milan and Manchester United at home officially kicked off.

The first to kick off was the visiting team Manchester United.

Last season, Manchester United players lost to Inter Milan in the Champions League final, the club's top competition. They have been brooding about it and were waiting for a chance to take revenge. Unexpectedly, UEFA was so generous that the two teams lost in the quarter-finals. We met and went together.

Now Manchester United has poached Inter Milan's core Gao Xiaodong, who is in excellent condition. Even if he faces the defending champion who has defeated them in the away game, he is still confident and launches an attack on Inter Milan from the beginning.

Manchester United deployed a 433 attack formation today, with the sword pointed directly at Inter Milan center back Ranozia.

Ranocchia is a native Italian player who made a name for himself in Genoa. Because Inter Milan's main center back Samuel was seriously injured during the season and was almost reimbursed for the season, Inter Milan spent 15 million to buy him during the winter break. of Ranocchia.

Ranocchia is 1.95 meters tall and has no problem with air defense, but his speed is slow and his turns are slow, and he cannot have any tacit cooperation with Lucio. This is the key breakthrough for Manchester United in today's game.

The ball was passed back to the midfield from the center circle and then back to the back line. Because Inter Milan played a bit conservatively today, they arranged a 451 formation, and Inter Milan's focus was on Gao Xiaodong. Manchester United passed the ball from the back line again. It didn't take much effort to pass to the midfield. After three passes and two downs, the ball was passed to Scholes' feet.

Scholes tried to pass the ball to Berbatov, but Inter Milan also knew that its center back was a weakness, and paid great attention to protecting Ranozia when defending. Cambiasso was stuck in Berbatov's In front, cut off the connection between Berbatov and the midfielder, reducing Berbatov's direct impact on Ranokia.

If the opponent's air defense ability is poor, or his forward is an aerial bully, Scholes will directly pass the high ball, but Berbatov's header is incomparable with the Inter Milan defender, so Scholes chooses to go wide and pass the ball directly. The ball finds Nani on the side, allowing Nani to look for opportunities on the wing or pass from the wing to the center.

Nani was in good form today. He quickly moved forward when he got the ball, approaching Inter Milan left back Chivu.

Although Chivu was not the main player in the Triple Crown last season, that was because he was injured last season. In the defender position, his strength is not weak. Facing the menacing Nani, Chivu stepped back sideways to prevent Nani. Nee uses speed to break through himself.

Captain Zanetti, who played midfield today, did not let Chivu face Nani alone. He quickly approached Chivu and double-teamed Nani.

Manchester United's loss in the Champions League final last season was too painful.

The players all wanted revenge, and Nani was not as clinging to the ball as he was in the league. When he saw Zanetti pulling away, he suddenly stopped and turned around and passed the ball back to defender O'Shea who came up to assist.

If this was a normal game, O'Shea would have passed the ball back to Fletcher or center back Vidic, but today everyone was full of offensive desire. O'Shea directly passed the ball to his own center Berbatov. .

The 30-year-old O'Shea's passing ability cannot be compared with that of the midfielder, but at this moment, the midfielders of both sides are leaning towards the side, and there are relatively few people in the middle. O'Shea's passing is not difficult, and the ball accurately finds Berbatov.

Berbatov was also very active today. He did not stand still and wait for the ball, but quickly moved forward to meet the ball.

If Inter Milan's center back partner today was Lucio and Samuel, Lucio would step forward. But now Lucio is paired with Ranocchia. Lucio does not dare to step forward and can only let La Nokia. Nokia goes to the top.

Ranocchia was not fast and was half a step behind. He was unable to destroy the ball as soon as Berbatov received the ball. Berbatov cleverly passed the ball back to Gao Xiaodong who quickly intervened.

This is the essence of Manchester United's tactics today, which is to attack Inter Milan's shortcomings in the middle, allowing Berbatov to find opportunities to challenge Ranocchia, or pass back to find Scholes and Gao Xiaodong in the middle.

Berbatov, who is not very fast, is playing in the middle today to make use of Berbatov's passing ability. If Hernandez or Rooney is replaced, the flexibility may be better, but the passing ability is different from Berbatov's. There's no comparison.

Berbatov lived up to Ferguson's trust and gave Gao Xiaodong a ball in the first minute.

Gao Xiaodong was constantly being marked today. Inter Milan adopted the tightest defense against him today. Although it was not man-to-man marking throughout the game, Gao Xiaodong was followed by people in every area he went to, determined not to give Gao Xiaodong a chance to get the ball.

However, Berbatov's pass back to Gao Xiaodong gave Gao Xiaodong an opportunity. Gao Xiaodong started quickly and got rid of Sneijder who was marking him in an instant. Stankovic, who was assisting in defense, could not keep up and was snatched by Gao Xiaodong. Drop point.

30 meters, Gao Xiaodong saw that he had entered his shooting range, and without hesitation, he hit the ball with a long shot.

Bang!

The ball was hit by Gao Xiaodong's instep and flew quickly towards the goal. The dull sound was transmitted through the TV screen to the eardrums of every fan.

Inter Milan fans know Gao Xiaodong's long-range shooting ability very well, but even though he is still 30 meters away from the goal, from this distance, Gao Xiaodong has scored countless long-range shots with both hands raised. Cesar's current condition is very average. International Milan Milan fans were trembling when they saw Gao Xiaodong kicking off his feet.

Fortunately, Cesar was also very familiar with Gao Xiaodong. When he saw that Berbatov's ball was passed back to Gao Xiaodong, he worked up the spirit of 12 points and was ready to save.

Move sideways! Kick the ground! Flying and diving!

Cesar saved the long shot flying to the left side of the goal.

Lucio hurried over to help Cesar, patted his head and thanked him for the save just now.

Just now, Gao Xiaodong was able to get a chance to shoot, but the mistake was made by the central defender. If the ball goes in, Ranocchia will be the biggest blame, but as Ranocchia's partner, Lucio will certainly not be able to escape the blame.

Manchester United got a chance for a corner kick. Scholes came to the corner flag area to take the corner kick. Gao Xiaodong was waiting at the front of the penalty area.

Gao Xiaodong's position is very cunning. He is a bit far away from the penalty area line, which makes Cambiasso who is marking him a little uncomfortable. He is close to Gao Xiaodong. If Gao Xiaodong inserts into the penalty area, he cannot keep up. He is not close. By sticking to Gao Xiaodong, Gao Xiaodong will have a chance to shoot directly.

In the past, Gao Xiaodong's little cleverness benefited Inter Milan and made the opponents uncomfortable. Now it is Inter Milan's turn to feel this feeling.

With Gao Xiaodong's first shot, Cambiasso did not dare to let Gao Xiaodong go. He stayed close to Gao Xiaodong, holding Gao Xiaodong's jersey with his hand, trying to slow down Gao Xiaodong's start as much as possible.

Scholes took a look at the positions of Gao Xiaodong and Fletcher, and decisively passed the ball into the penalty area, giving the midfielder a chance to advance and shoot.

The moment Scholes took off, Gao Xiaodong immediately pushed Cambiasso and quickly penetrated into the penalty area.

Cambiasso was originally grabbing Gao Xiaodong's jersey. When Gao Xiaodong pushed him, he wanted to grab it hard, but he didn't expect that Gao Xiaodong's jersey was not an ordinary jersey. His hand slipped and he couldn't catch it. He could only watch helplessly. They watched Gao Xiaodong rush into the penalty area at high speed, jump high, and compete for the header.

There is a man-to-man defense in the penalty area. Inter Milan players are staring at their own players and the ball flying in the air. No one can defend Gao Xiaodong who is advancing. Inter Milan center back Lucio is preparing. For the header, Gao Xiaodong was one step ahead of him to grab the spot, and beat Lucio to head the ball towards the upper right corner of the goal from a long distance.

Cesar was also very focused this time, but the ball was hit at an extremely awkward angle. Cesar moved and flew to save, but was unable to touch the ball.

However, Gao Xiaodong was still a little short in height after all, so the ball was hit in the wrong place, and the ball flew close to the crossbar and flew out of the baseline.

There were screams in the stands, and many Inter Milan fans turned pale with fright. If this goal was scored, Inter Milan would be too passive. Even if they score two more goals later, they will not be able to talk about an advantage.

Leonardo's face changed drastically. In order to defend Gao Xiaodong, he changed his formation on the spot and vowed to the players that he had found a way to defend Gao Xiaodong. Unexpectedly, it was useless. Gao Xiaodong got two shooting opportunities at the beginning. , although no goals were scored, they all posed a huge threat. This is simply a slap in the face.