Chapter 366 Taking the Lead at the Start, Lin Huang’s Lightning Goal!

The match between Manchester City and Chelsea attracted a large number of news media to report on it. The pre-match press conference was packed with reporters from all over Europe, even Asia and North America.

Thanks to the inherent advantages of English, the Premier League is more convenient and easier than the other four major leagues in event promotion.

A large number of local British reports and explanations can be read and watched by fans around the world without the need for translation or retelling.

It is obviously difficult for other leagues to do this. After all, there are many people who can speak English, but there are relatively fewer people who can speak Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Because of this, in the Internet era, the Premier League's overseas attention has been increasing. The annual competition for the Premier League championship can not only affect the hearts of tens of millions of local Premier League fans, but even the hearts of hundreds of millions of overseas viewers.

"Coach Mourinho, I am a reporter from the Guardian. I want to ask you. You criticized Manchester City before, thinking that Manchester City can lose even to teams like Middlesbrough and cannot defeat the powerful Chelsea. So what do you think? How do you feel about your own team losing to a League One side in the FA Cup?”

The Guardian reporter’s question made Mourinho feel very embarrassed.

Two weeks ago, when Manchester City lost to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, Mourinho mercilessly criticized Manchester City and Guardiola, believing that Guardiola could not even manage a Championship team. , obviously overblown.

In other words, Guardiola's coaching style is simply not suitable for the Premier League.

However, a slap in the face happened.

The day after Mourinho made the harsh words, his Chelsea lost 2:4 to Bradford in the FA Cup.

Bradford are not even a Championship team, just a third-tier League One team.

Chelsea, a majestic Premier League giant, was beaten on the ground by a third-tier team and scored 4 goals. Isn't this more embarrassing than Manchester City's loss to Middlesbrough?

The Guardian reporter's question was very sharp. Mourinho's face changed immediately after hearing the other party's question.

"My team is the leader of the Premier League and we are on the right path, and people who don't see this always try to attack us from some minor shortcomings and try to deny everything we have done!"

"I want to tell them that I have led two teams to win the Champions League and four teams to win the league championship. My ability does not need to be judged by reporters like you!"

After Mourinho finished speaking, he walked away and would not accept further interviews.

There were boos at the scene, and the reporters were obviously very unhappy with Mourinho's behavior.

But they haven't known Mourinho for a day or two. This guy has always been like this.

Maybe he is in the locker room now, using the outside world to criticize him, question his affairs, instill in the players that the whole world rejects them, target them, and make them victims!

After Mourinho left, everyone looked at Guardiola.

Guardiola's temper is much better. In addition to refusing to comment directly on Mourinho, he patiently answered reporters' questions.

When reporters asked about Lin Quan, Guardiola's eyes were as gentle as water:

"For me, Lin Quan means everything!"

A reporter from World Sports News asked inappropriately:

"What about Messi?"

Guardiola's expression suddenly changed into Yao Ming's version of "囧"...

…

During the warm-up session before the game, Manchester City's players were in a very relaxed state, talking and laughing while performing various warm-up actions on the court.

After Lin Quan and De Bruyne completed a set of warm-up moves such as sliding steps, cross steps and small steps, the two stopped and looked towards the court.

"There seems to be someone holding a banner with your name over there. Are they welcoming you?"

De Bruyne is a former Chelsea player and this is his first return to Stamford Bridge since his move to Manchester City.

"Have it?"

After hearing Lin Quan's words, De Bruyne subconsciously looked in the direction he pointed.

Then I saw a banner: Chelsea traitors, get out of Stamford Bridge!

De Bruyne's face turned dark instantly!

Damn it, you shouldn't believe this guy's lies, he is indeed lying.

De Bruyne wanted to catch Lin Quan for revenge, but Lin Quan had anticipated it. As soon as De Bruyne stretched out his hand, he ran away with a smile.

"Haha, I made a mistake. I was talking about the other one. Look, it's over there!"

"Do you think I will still believe your lies?"

De Bruyne waved his fists, as if he was trying to loosen the skin for you.

Seeing that the players were so relaxed, Guardiola also breathed a sigh of relief.

Stamford Bridge is the home court of the Devils, so this game is not easy to play.

Coupled with the external hype and Mourinho's psychological warfare, what he was most worried about before the game was that the players would be under too much psychological pressure, which would affect their game state.

Now it seems that this worry is unnecessary.

Guardiola did not make any adjustments in this game, but arranged his troops according to the formation and play style that Manchester City players are most familiar with before.

Although he had many ideas in his mind, Guardiola still had to suppress his eagerness in such a crucial game.

Let’s talk about everything after this game is over!

However, although it cannot be completed, it does not mean that Guardiola cannot instill his own ideas into the players.

There are many opinions on the division of stadium areas in football, including the three horizontally divided offensive and defensive areas, and the vertically divided five areas of sides, ribs, and middle.

In addition, in recent years, football has further divided the areas of the pitch.

This is the very famous area 18 of the stadium!

According to the division theory of eighteen areas, the most critical thing in the offense is the use of the golden 14 areas.

In defense, the most important thing is the protection of zone 5.

However, Guardiola has different opinions. He feels that this division is still not detailed enough.

If he were to divide the stadium, Guardiola would divide the stadium into 20 areas.

Among these 20 areas, excluding the 12 areas on the side, the 8 areas in the middle will be divided into 2 horizontal areas and 6 vertical areas.

The two horizontal areas include two goals and the penalty area, and the six vertical areas have the center line as the axis of symmetry.

How to analyze and make good use of the space on the court and more scientific and reasonable offense and defense is what Guardiola believes is the direction of the development of modern football.

He believes that many people will study this work in the future.

It's just that everyone's understanding and ideas are different. Whoever can understand more deeply and make full use of the court space will be able to take the lead in the future.

This work obviously cannot be completed in a short time. Guardiola only has a preliminary idea in his mind. It may take time to gradually improve this idea into specific tactics.

Taking this opportunity, in the second half of the season, he can gradually test his tactics in some less critical games to verify his theory.

With Lin Quan in charge, there is a high probability that his experiments will not overturn...right?

…

At 19:00 sharp on the evening of February 1, Stamford Bridge was brightly lit, and the stadium, which can accommodate tens of thousands of people, was packed.

With the referee's whistle, the focus of the 23rd round of the Premier League officially began.

The formation of both teams in this game is 4231, and it can be seen that both teams have ideas about the game.

After the kick-off, Chelsea's players quickly crossed the half-court and rushed towards Manchester City's half-court.

They seemed to want to use their home advantage to catch Manchester City off guard at the start of the game.

However, to their disappointment, Manchester City had already been prepared for this. The players in the frontcourt immediately pressed the ball holder, making Chelsea's offense unable to pick up speed.

And once their ball cannot be passed out immediately, after the defensive players are in position, the Chelsea players who rush up from behind lose the chance to catch the ball.

On the sidelines, Mourinho couldn't help but frowned.

Guardiola's formation was a bit beyond his expectation.

Even if Manchester City arranged for Fernandinho to start, they actually hid Kroos and put Fernando on the starting list.

Are you not planning to engage in positional warfare?

Without Kroos' passing and organization, Manchester City's offense can only rely on the linkage and cooperation of the frontcourt players.

The lack of transition in the midfield means that the opponent can only rely on speed to counterattack quickly, passing the ball directly to the frontcourt without passing through the midfield.

But the problem is, Manchester City doesn't have the kind of center in the frontcourt who can stand in position and hold the ball!

How will Guardiola's offense proceed?

Mourinho shook his head and stopped thinking about the problem.

Guardiola is not in his right mind, who knows what he is thinking.

Instead of wasting time and energy trying to figure out what the opponent is thinking, it is better to spend energy on how to improve the team's offensive efficiency.

Yes, Mourinho is aiming to get all three points in this game!

If Manchester City can be defeated at home, Chelsea's championship situation this year will be very optimistic.

In the box at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich stared at the court with a serious expression.

Last season's failure in all four majors made him somewhat dissatisfied with Mourinho, and because of the club manager's affairs, his relationship with Mourinho was very tense.

If Mourinho can lead the team to enough honors, then Abramovich may be able to tolerate his misbehavior.

But unfortunately, Chelsea failed to gain anything on all fronts last year, especially being beaten home and away by Basel in the Champions League and being eliminated by Guardiola's Bayern, which made Abramovich even more worried.

After winning the Premier League championship, Abramovich's attention to the league has dropped a lot. What he cares about most now is Chelsea's performance in the Champions League.

However, since winning the Champions League, the Blues' record in the Champions League in the past two years has been simply disastrous.

This is obviously not worthy of their status as a giant, so Abramovich hopes that Mourinho can lead the team to a breakthrough in the Champions League.

Even if they can't win another Champions League, they must at least lead the team to the semi-finals or even the final to prove their strength.

It's a pity that Mourinho can't even do this little thing.

This made Abu's patience almost exhausted again.

If Chelsea fails to score again in all competitions this season, then he may fire the madman again and drive him out of Chelsea.

Moreover, after driving the madman away this time, Abramovich will no longer have any thoughts about him and will not allow the madman to return to Stamford Bridge.

"Mourinho, I hope you can seize the opportunity I give you and don't let me down!"

Looking at the madman standing on the sidelines with his suit open and his hands on his hips, Abu muttered silently in his heart.

After Chelsea's opening attack failed to produce results, the game quickly entered Manchester City's round.

In the 7th minute of the first half, Manchester City completed a steal in the frontcourt.

After Navas got the ball, he was blocked by Hazard and he chose to pass it to Lin Quan.

Oscar and Matic both almost predicted the other's choice and moved towards Lin Quan one after another.

If Lin Quan catches the ball, he is likely to be intercepted by the opponent. Once the ball stops, this quick counterattack will fail.

However, Lin Quan did not stop the ball, but directly passed the ball to Navas who successfully broke through.

After Navas completed the pass, he did not think that Lin Quan would pass the ball to him. He was just running forward according to the offensive tactics arranged by the coach.

Hazard next to him thought the same way, so after seeing Navas continue to go down, he handed the opponent to Chelsea's left back Azpilicueta and asked him to defend Navas.

He rushed towards the center of the court, hoping to counterattack as soon as his teammates finished stealing the ball.

Hazard's choice does not seem wrong, Navas has left his defensive area at this time.

As a winger, he can't follow the opponent and retreat to the bottom line, right?

However, Hazard didn't seem to notice that Chelsea's midfielder Matic had already stepped forward and had not yet returned to his defensive position.

Before Lin Quan passed the ball and Chelsea's full-back stepped up to intercept it, there was a momentary defensive gap at the front of Chelsea's penalty area.

Navas keenly caught this gap. Instead of taking the ball to the baseline, he immediately chose to cut inside.

"Stop him!"

Matic returned to defense and shouted anxiously to his teammates. Without him shouting, Ramirez and captain Terry had already noticed the danger.

The two of them rushed towards Navas who was holding the ball, trying to stifle Manchester City's attack at the front of the penalty area.

Navas did not have Lin Quan's superb dribbling skills. When he saw the opponent's two defensive generals rushing towards him, he did not dare to dribble more and quickly passed the ball to his own forward Aguero.

Chelsea's other central defender Zouma got stuck in the defensive position, preventing Aguero from turning around.

Aguero did not dare to stop the ball and passed the ball back to Lin Quan who followed up.

Under the interference of Ramirez, Lin Quan completed a powerful and heavy long-range shot from the top of the penalty area.

There was a loud bang and Courtois missed the ball, but the ball hit the crossbar.

However, unlike what was expected, the football was not ejected, but bounced along the lower edge of the crossbar into the goal line. After jumping on the lawn inside the goal line, it hit the net. Stop.

This loud noise was like a heavy hammer, hitting the hearts of Chelsea fans hard, causing their hearts to stop!

Only 7 minutes have passed since the game started!

In 7 minutes, the Blues fell behind at home?

This is too fast!

There was silence at Stamford Bridge, and countless Chelsea fans found it difficult to accept this result.

They clenched their fists and looked with hatred at the No. 10 player on the court who was running to celebrate!

It's this guy again!

On the last day of the month, I shamelessly ask everyone for some monthly tickets.