Chapter 88 Even Scared

In fact, it was also during the halftime break, when Klopp asked the team to start attacking in the second half, Mancini asked his team to be certain at the beginning of the second half. We must resist the desire to go all out, but solidly defend and fight Dortmund's counterattack.

His theory is the same as Klopp's - a one-goal lead is not a very safe score, so Klopp will definitely let his team score as early as possible in the second half, turning 1:0 into 2:0. At that time, it was Manchester City's opportunity. As long as Dortmund counterattacked, the chance of scoring would always be better than the positional battle with Dortmund, right?

So after the start of the second half, Manchester City, including Mancini, were waiting for Dortmund to attack.

But when the second half really started, the situation was different from what they expected.

In the second half of the game, Dortmund kicked off. Mancini believed that Dortmund would definitely take advantage of this kick-off opportunity to launch a fierce attack on Manchester City's goal. Then it would be a perfect opportunity for Manchester City to counterattack.

As a result, Dortmund's attack ended in a hurry and handed possession of the ball to Manchester City. But what about themselves?

Shrink back!

※※※

Off the field, Dortmund assistant coach Zeljko Buvac was surprised to see that Dortmund did not take advantage of the kick-off opportunity and put pressure on Manchester City's goal: "Why did the attack end so quickly? It was too hasty. ! This is inconsistent with our arrangements..."

Klopp next to him rubbed his chin and said nothing.

This is of course inconsistent with their arrangements, because this was not arranged by their coaching staff at all. He finally saw that Zhou Yi was "making his own decisions" again.

It stands to reason that if a player completely ignores the head coach's arrangements on the court and makes his own decisions, it is something that will make the head coach very angry. Because this is a challenge to the authority of the head coach.

But when it comes to Zhou Yi, Klopp doesn't think so.

This is not the first time Zhou Yi has adjusted his tactical arrangements during the game, but every time he made adjustments, the effect was better than he expected.

In this case, what reason do you have to blame him?

There is a famous saying in football: "Winning covers everything."

If you can win, there's no need to change anything.

Winning is everything.

So if Zhou Yi's temporary adjustments on the court can bring victory to the team, Klopp will be happy to see the results.

Moreover, Zhou Yi is a player. He is closer to the front line than Klopp is the head coach. He will know all the information immediately on the court. He has first-hand information and can make the most intuitive judgment. , he often makes decisions faster and more accurately than the head coach, which is normal.

Of course, not every decision made by the players on the front line is correct. In intense games, players actually don't have much time to use their brains to think about problems and analyze the situation. They often can only act on instinct...

But Zhou Yi is an exception. Klopp believes in the decisions he makes, so he gives him the greatest power.

You will be outside, so you don't have to accept your orders.

※※※

Because Manchester City hoped that Dortmund would attack, their formation was relatively deep.

Dortmund did not attack, and their formation also stopped.

This created a very strange situation on the court - both sides were in their own half and it was not easy to press.

After Dortmund ended the attack and returned possession of the ball to Manchester City, Manchester City, who was holding the ball, did not dare to invest too much force in the attack. They were afraid that if they pressed forward, they would give Dortmund a chance to counterattack.

Therefore, Manchester City's number of people involved in the attack was pitiful, and they had no intention of serious organization. After arriving in the frontcourt, the football fell at Aguero's feet. Seeing that there were no support people around him, the Argentine simply chose to do it himself.

He drove the ball directly towards Dortmund's goal. His lone heroic performance did not score a goal for Manchester City, but easily lost the ball under the defense of Dortmund players.

But there is no need for Manchester City to worry, because most of their players did not step forward at all, so there is no need to worry about Dortmund taking advantage of the space behind them after losing the ball.

After taking the ball, Dortmund quickly launched an attack and played the ball into Manchester City's half. Facing Manchester City's defense, they seemed to have no good solution. After a series of simple passes, Lewandowski finally shot a long shot from outside the penalty area, ending Dortmund's attack.

Dortmund's performance made Manchester City very happy that they did not press heavily, but were wary of Dortmund's onslaught from the beginning. Because they were well prepared, Dortmund's offensive could return without success.

If we had attacked aggressively just now, I'm afraid the goal would have been breached now...

But in the eyes of the fans, the period after the second half of the game was really... can be described as "ugly".

Both teams did not play very well in offense and showed little patience. There is often no wonderful tactical coordination, but a simple and crude long shot or a cross from the side to end the attack.

Who wants to watch such a game?

But it happened that both teams played like this.

The commentator also noticed it. He Ping said that both sides were surprisingly conservative after the start of the second half. The games during this period were not exciting enough, and it was really unfair to the Chinese fans who stayed up late to watch the game...

Marcel Leif believes that Manchester City's performance at their home court is abnormal. After all, they are lagging behind, but why don't they invest enough troops in the offense?

Mark Lawrenson also believes that Mancini's choice is not "brave" enough. Of course, there can be tactical arrangements, but as the home team, shouldn't it also consider the momentum it needs to have as the home team?

In fact, not only the audience doesn't like to watch such a game, but the players themselves also find it difficult to play.

Especially the players of the home team Manchester City. This is their home stadium and there are more fans supporting them. Is their shrinking performance worthy of the Manchester City fans who support them on the spot?

Some Manchester City fans in the stands were already booing to express their dissatisfaction with the team's performance - this is our home court, what are you afraid of!

The television broadcast gave Mancini a close-up shot of him standing on the sidelines, frowning.

At the beginning of the second half, Mancini still felt that his adjustment was correct and effective, because when Dortmund counterattacked, facing the dense Manchester City defense, it was obvious that there was no good way and they could only choose an offense with low technical content. Way.

But now he feels that the situation is not what he imagined - Dortmund may not be unable to attack against Manchester City's defense, but it may not be that they want to attack at all...

Dortmund was much more shameless than he thought, and they actually wanted to withstand the 1:0 lead!

Logically speaking, in this case, Manchester City should be allowed to take the initiative to create some threats to Dortmund and let them understand that they cannot stand the defense.

But Mancini didn't want to do that.

Because he knows who is more patient at this time.

He believes he should be more patient than his opponents.

But after another six minutes passed, Mancini let out a long sigh - he was sure that if he didn't take the initiative to put pressure on Dortmund, the opponent would really dare to stay in his own half to finish the game. They don't care whether the game is good to watch or not. They are the leader anyway, and they don't care about the boos in the stands because they are the visiting team and do not have the pressure from the stands that the home team faces.

Will Dortmund feel guilty for not playing well?

of course not!

This is not a team that pursues "beautiful football" as its purpose. Results are more important than anything else.

So if they can win against Manchester City just like that, why don't they do it?

But Manchester City couldn't accept this result, so in the end it was up to Manchester City to take the initiative to change the game.

So he waved his hand and Manchester City attacked.

In fact, Manchester City's players also wanted to attack. They were frustrated and had already become angry.

Now after seeing the referee's adjustment, they all pounced on Dortmund's goal like tigers descending from the mountain.

Seeing that Manchester City has obviously strengthened its offensive, more people are participating in the attack, and the momentum has increased. The Manchester City fans in the stands rejoiced and cheered loudly for their team.

For a moment, amidst the cheers of the home fans, Manchester City attacked quickly and the whole team was full of momentum. Looking at that posture, it seemed that they could break through Dortmund's goal at any time, equalize the score and then reverse the victory. The bright future is not far away. Got it! (To be continued.)