Chapter 275: The Best Premier League Matchup, a Battle Between Passing and Controlling and Running and Pressing Football

In the temporarily quiet Etihad Stadium, Li Ang excitedly jumped on Ibrahimovic's back and ran with him to the corner flag area of ​​Manchester City's half, raising one arm high and roaring in celebration!

Cross, who was following his teammates, was much calmer now. He even had time to touch his undeformed hairstyle.

But Li Ang would not let him continue to pretend to be cold, and after grabbing Cross into the celebrating army, a good-looking handsome guy with messy hair mingled with his teammates after a while.

"You could have turned around and advanced the ball just now. Fernandinho couldn't guard you. I watched all the games between Chelsea and Manchester City last season..."

After finally waiting for his teammates to calm down and hug each other and separate, Cross then arranged his hair and approached Li Ang to ask questions.

The exchange of questions between straight men was so direct that Li Ang didn't think much, patted Cross on the shoulder and gave his answer.

"Then I will definitely believe in you unconditionally. Don't I know your strength? Let's hit Manchester City hard and destroy their confidence as soon as possible!"

After Li Ang finished speaking, he trotted and accelerated back to his own half. He kept applauding on the way and loudly encouraged his teammates to keep up their efforts.

Cross looked at Li Ang's retreating back, his slightly narrowed eyes full of smiles, and then he quickened his pace to follow.

The first half of the game was almost half an hour old. Faced with the current situation that their side had already conceded two goals, Manchester City's players were somewhat frustrated.

More importantly, in the past, Chelsea basically put a lot of effort into defensive counterattacks when facing them.

In terms of tactical layout, Chelsea's tactics are more utilitarian, and their style of play is also very rough and tough.

So in the past, when Manchester City failed to achieve a favorable result against Chelsea, Manchester City players would always comfort themselves with the following similar thoughts:

Of course Chelsea's utilitarian style of play will be more conducive to winning the game. As long as they take the lead first, they will immediately shrink their formation and counterattack. Chelsea never dared to fight Manchester City openly to the end...

But today, Chelsea did what all Manchester City players and fans hoped for.

After taking the lead, they did not choose to recycle their formation to defend against counterattacks, but continued to fight against Manchester City!

Chelsea, who chose a radical style of play, was not equalized by Manchester City, but instead further expanded their lead.

This result is a slap in the face to all Manchester City players!

Guardiola stood on the sidelines and suppressed his dissatisfaction and doubts.

He also rejected the suggestion from his assistant to focus on defense for the time being and make tactical adjustments during the halftime break.

If Manchester City is leading by two goals at this moment, Guardiola may not mind using shrinking defense to disgust his old friend.

But now it is Manchester City that is lagging behind!

They were still stunned by Chelsea in front of tens of thousands of die-hard Manchester City fans at home!

In such a critical situation, even if Guardiola's on-the-spot adjustments were ordinary, he knew very well:

As long as he dares to ask the players on the field to shrink their formation and focus on defense, Manchester City's overall tactical tone will be completely messed up!

At this moment, Guardiola still showed his decisiveness and courage as the world's top coach.

"Being behind by two goals in our own home court is already a humiliating defeat! And if we don't think about attacking more actively when we are behind, then all Manchester City fans can spit on us after the game. !”

Guardiola made up his mind, and his decision was quickly communicated to every Manchester City player on the field by the assistant coach.

A desperate and tragic mood soon spread within the Manchester City team.

Li Ang quickly felt something was wrong with the momentum of the Manchester City players on the court.

It wasn't a desperate effort or a strong counterattack that made him feel uneasy.

It is a determination to defend your beliefs and fight to the end despite knowing that you may not be able to defeat your opponent.

This is what Li Ang saw in the eyes of Manchester City players.

The inexplicable anger of determination and unwillingness surprised Li Ang.

"If your team wants to fight for their lives, they will do this only when they have no retreat. Are you going to fight for your lives before the first half is over?"

Li Ang asked directly at Aguero, who was about to kick off, and naturally received a blank look from the opponent.

After the game restarted, Manchester City also responded to Chelsea with their aggressive forward pressing attack.

Even though they have conceded two goals, they still will not retreat. They will still fight Chelsea on the offensive end until the end!

Manchester City's strong response can be regarded as catching Chelsea's players off guard.

After all, according to common sense, even if the Manchester City team does not fall into a period of tactical chaos at this time, the players' morale will not be too high.

As long as Chelsea makes another effort and continues to attack Manchester City, if they are lucky, it is not impossible to score another goal.

So the confident Chelsea players collided with Manchester City who had already decided to fight back, and the situation quickly took a turn!

Manchester City, which has no worries about defense at all and is completely devoted to the crazy attack, has forcibly raised the offensive rhythm by another gear!

Li Ang was the first to feel that something was wrong, but before he could remind his teammates, he could only passively fall into Manchester City's stormy offensive rhythm.

The joy in Mourinho's eyes gradually faded. He looked at the situation on the field and his eyes became serious.

"Jose, there are still more than ten minutes left in the first half. Why don't we shrink the formation first, keep the advantage of two goals, and wait until the halftime break..."

At this moment, Holland, like Manchester City's assistant coach a few minutes ago, proposed that his team should strengthen defense first.

But after thinking for two minutes, Mourinho made the same decision as Guardiola.

"Maybe the players on the field will choose to understand our decision to switch to defense at this time, but I think it is more important to give them firm trust and support, even if we lose the ball because of it!"

Mourinho's tone was unusually firm.

He was indeed prepared to see the team lose the ball at the last moment of the first half.

Because Manchester City has already played their offensive state visibly.

Such an excellent game state is not played by chasing after the victory when they are ahead.

But it is stimulated by the adverse situation of falling behind!

Mourinho has led his team to play such games too many times, so he knows very well how difficult it is to deal with Manchester City, which is now overwhelmed!

But he still has to go all out on the offensive end.

So Chelsea's players on the field soon received tactical instructions from their own coaching staff.

"Don't shrink the formation, push forward! We must continue to exert our strength on the offensive end!!!"

Seeing this, Li Ang was the first to stand up and respond to Mourinho's call.

Although Chelsea has put more energy into counter-attacks, Li Ang has more free tactical power.

So he continued to run actively between the two halves without any effort!

When he exerted his strength on the defensive end, the rhythm of Manchester City's dominant offense was still the mainstream of the situation on the field at this moment.

But the difficulty of Manchester City delivering the ball from Chelsea's defensive third zone to Chelsea's defensive hinterland has also increased a lot!

The most important point is Li Ang's resolute defensive interference with Fabregas.

Rakitic is a very good midfielder, but he obviously can't compare with Fabregas in terms of threatening passes.

In desperation, David Silva could only actively retreat again and again to get and pass the ball.

In this way, he could try his best to maintain the ability of Manchester City's midfield to deliver threatening passes after Fabregas lost power.

After successfully interfering with Fabregas's performance, Li Ang also cooperated with his teammates to launch rapid attacks against Manchester City's hinterland many times.

In the 37th minute of the first half, Manchester City had Aguero receive Silva's straight pass and forced overtake Terry to complete a threatening shot.

The next second, Cech, who had confiscated Aguero's shot, directly threw the ball quickly, and then Li Ang, who received the ball, launched a rapid advance and attack!

Unfortunately, Hazard, who finally received the ball from Li Ang, was alone this time.

He did not pass the ball to De Bruyne who was advancing at the back point, but chose to cut inside and force a shot!

Valdés was still very confident in saving this kind of shot that was completely traceable.

After steadily saving Hazard's shot, he also quickly threw the ball to the side.

Manchester City and Chelsea used up the last few minutes of the first half in this crazy acceleration.

At the end of the first half, Manchester City actually fired nine shots, five of which were on target, which was better than Chelsea's eight shots and four shots on target.

In terms of ball possession, Manchester City took a slight lead with 53% of the ball possession.

Chelsea mainly lost control of the rhythm of the game in the last ten minutes of the first half, so Manchester City overtook them in ball possession.

However, Mourinho was very satisfied with the results of his players in the first half.

Seeing that the score did not change again in the end, Mourinho was relieved.

The players of both teams seized the time to replenish water and recover their physical strength in the short fifteen minutes.

Mourinho and Guardiola also made their last major tactical adjustment in this game.

At the beginning of the second half, commentators and fans from various countries were surprised to find that Manchester City had made substitutions first!

Navas, who had a speed advantage in the first half but performed mediocrely under the strong confrontation rhythm, was replaced by Guardiola.

He was replaced by Villa, the "calabash boy" who has not started since transferring to Manchester City this season!

However, Manchester City did not directly change to 442, but continued to play 433. Aguero gave up the center position and went to the left.

Guardiola's substitution adjustment was completely beyond Mourinho's expectations.

If it was Villa around 2010, Mourinho would naturally give him the most important tactical targeting.

But Villa is no longer at his peak now.

He played very well in Atletico last season, but in the Premier League, at least in the first few substitute appearances, Villa's ability to seize opportunities seemed very average.

Commentators from various countries also speculated at this moment, inferring whether Guardiola simply wanted to change an offensive combination to try the effect.

Otherwise, such a substitution is really hard to explain. Even though Navas did not perform well in the first half, he is younger after all, and his breakthrough power will be greater.

Substitute Villa and let Aguero pass the ball to him?

Such a tactical idea is really...

Just when the neutral fans and commentators were puzzled, Villa at the top of the Chelsea penalty area just received Silva's cross-cut pass.

Seeing Villa's first touch after coming on as a substitute, Manchester City fans also subconsciously looked forward to it.

But Villa did not make any wonderful dribbling moves, but held the ball steadily with his back to the goal, and quickly passed the ball back to Fabregas who was advancing.

Under Terry's defensive interference, Villa's pass did not deform or make mistakes.

Although he is not tall, his solid figure is enough for him to withstand the interference and confrontation of the defenders.

But his reasonable choice of passing back this time made the Manchester City fans at the scene feel anxious.

Now Manchester City fans don't want any tactical fulcrum, they want more reliable scorers!

Even some Manchester City fans have begun to question Guardiola's choice to sell Dzeko in the summer window.

After all, if a tactical fulcrum is needed, Dzeko is a more suitable candidate than the elderly Villa no matter how you look at it!

After acting as a fulcrum twice in a row, protecting the ball and taking it, and then smoothly transferring the ball, almost all neutral fans have no expectations for Villa.

But Guardiola off the field was very satisfied with Villa's successful help to the team in front of Chelsea's penalty area.

In the 58th minute of the second half, Villa took the initiative to retreat and approached Silva who was entangled by Matic.

At the moment of receiving Silva's pass, Villa changed his previous ball protection mode, took the ball and turned smoothly, and faced Chelsea's penalty area defense line!

Villa, who suddenly accelerated, instantly attracted the attention of Thiago Silva's defense!

Terry chose to retreat tacitly, but it was his retreat that prevented Aguero, who was advancing, from being in an offside position!

Villa sent his first forward pass after coming on the court.

Aguero, who had already rushed behind Thiago Silva, also smoothly connected the shooting action!

Between the unloading and the leading, Terry's defense seemed to be half a beat slower after all!

Aguero calmly pushed the ball into the near corner of the goal, and Cech quickly went to the ground to save it, but his reaction was no longer as good as his peak state!

The football crossed the Chelsea goal line and finally hit the net.

At this moment, Villa, who attracted the attention of countless fans, just calmly waved his right fist slightly, and then smiled and hugged Fabregas who came up.

"Guardiola used Villa to liberate Aguero! Even if he is no longer at his peak, Villa can still use his rich game experience to help the team open up the situation!

1-2! Manchester City scored a goal in the second half, they still have a chance!"

The commentator of Sky Sports excitedly explained in the studio.

And Li Ang looked at the stands of the Etihad Stadium, which had been holding back for most of the game and finally celebrated wildly at this moment.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind.

"The competition between the passing and controlling style of football and the running and pressing style of football should officially begin from today..."