Chapter 306: Attack and Defense Change Again and Again, Barcelona Is Stunned

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Another header!

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Barcelona fans can’t remember how many times they have been headed by Li Ang!

It seems that since Li Ang went to Milan for “further studies” and returned to Real Madrid, every time they meet him, Barcelona’s defense will suffer from high-altitude balls.

It’s not that Li Ang’s current header ability and his height advantage have made Barcelona’s defense unable to handle it.

In both aspects, he is not at the top level in football.

But he is the second header player who has made Barcelona’s defense feel palpitations in recent seasons.

The first is of course Cristiano Ronaldo.

And the one who has increased Li Ang’s ability to head the ball from behind to the point where it can intimidate Barcelona’s defense is, of course, Mourinho and his coaching team behind him.

When he was still in Real Madrid, Mourinho had already initially created this set of specific playing methods for Li Ang to head the ball from behind.

At the beginning, Mourinho also borrowed from the way Uncle Jon used Li Ang in Serie A.

He wanted Li Ang to disrupt the opponent's defense when he joined the attack from behind, so as to create more threatening opportunities for other attacking players on the Real Madrid front line.

As a result, he didn't expect - until now he still didn't understand - how Li Ang gave Ronaldo and Benzema a magic potion?

He made these two big thighs on the Real Madrid front line serve as tactical bait for him many times, and he himself turned into the main attacker who joined from behind!

There was a more threatening striker in front to attract more defensive pressure, and Li Ang used the advantage of rushing to find opportunities to attack the weak points of the opponent's defense.

This set of tactical design seems simple and crude, but it works!

Until now, Li Ang still likes to use the striker's ability to pull the opponent's defense and then wait for an opportunity to move forward to find a chance to shoot.

Ibrahimovic is of course a good target that naturally attracts defensive firepower.

If other people want to do this, Ibrahimovic will naturally be unwilling. When Wenger wanted Ibrahimovic to go to Arsenal for a trial, Ibrahimovic arrogantly refused.

He is old now, and his playing style has changed a lot compared to before, but he is still the arrogant Zlatan. It is not so easy to force him to be a tactical supporting role.

But if the person who needs him to make sacrifices is Leon... then Ibrahimovic will have no problem!

Zlatan will only laugh and scold at most, and then remind Leon to remember to pass the ball to him more often later.

For example, at this moment, after the collective celebration of his teammates, Ibrahimovic pulled Leon into his arms, and then rubbed his "lion head" angrily.

"Brother, you know me. I will definitely pass the ball to you more when I have the chance later. Are we still talking about this..."

Leon patted Ibrahimovic's butt and said with a smile, and Ibrahimovic also grinned when he heard it.

The two brothers hugged each other and walked back while chatting. This scene made the commentator of Italian Sky Sports sigh again and again.

After all, these two brothers, one is the present of Milan, and the other is regarded as the future of Milan.

Now they are still on the road to the top of football honors, but Milan has inevitably begun to sink.

The 11-year double championship was regarded by many Milan fans as the beginning of the revival of glory at the time, but it turned out to be the last afterglow of the dynasty.

The decline of the former giants and the thriving careers of its former players formed such a sharp contrast at this moment.

It can only be said that things are impermanent, things are impermanent...

Enrique took a deep breath, and then pretended to be calm and sat back in the coaching seat.

Subconsciously taking a bottle of water handed over by the assistant coach, Enrique's mind was running and thinking rapidly.

The current game situation is completely different from his pre-match expectations. In the first half, Barcelona squatted and played defense and counterattack in order to avoid an asymmetric decisive battle with Chelsea too early.

As long as Chelsea can't score first, Mourinho will always need to find a way to make adjustments on the offensive end.

With the temptation of away goals, he doesn't believe that Mourinho will put the decisive battle in the second round.

In this case, Barcelona, ​​who played counterattack, would always have the opportunity to exploit Chelsea's empty defense.

But now that Chelsea has scored this goal, his tactical design has been completely wasted.

Chelsea, who has an away goal, has no reason to take the risk of actively attacking Barcelona's defense.

Then Barcelona's counterattack is a fart, counterattack the air?

Barcelona, ​​who can't play defense, will eventually have to go back to the old way of controlling the ball and attacking.

Even if Enrique is reluctant and feels dangerous, he can only try to take risks.

After all, his tactical experiments at the beginning of the season have offended many old players of Barcelona and a large group of Barcelona fans.

His position as a coach is now stable because he can lead Barcelona to win and win continuously after making tactical changes.

But he is sure that if he is a turtle in this game and still relies on defense when he is behind, he will fall into a public opinion disadvantage again after the game!

There were too many local media and local fans in Catalonia who were dissatisfied with him at the beginning, and those people are waiting to bite back at him!

If he fails to get past Chelsea, even if he leads Barcelona to win the La Liga title this season, he will most likely be fired after the season ends.

So now he has to bite the bullet and play the offensive tactics that Barcelona fans are most proud of.

This is helpless and realistic.

When he thought of this, Enrique couldn't help but look at Li Ang who broke the balance of the game.

When Guardiola left Barcelona, ​​many Spanish media wrote news.

It said that Guardiola was at a disadvantage in the subsequent competition with Real Madrid because he couldn't deal with Li Ang at all.

From this point of view, Li Ang's outstanding performance at that time indirectly accelerated Guardiola's dismissal.

Enrique's predecessor, Martino, was basically defeated by Li Ang's outstanding performance in the two rounds of the Champions League quarter-finals.

"Is this kid really born to restrain Barcelona's head coach?"

Enrique suddenly had a bad idea in his mind.

But the game started again soon, and the urgent situation and the ever-elapsed game time made him have no time to think about it.

The Barcelona players on the field, who were also nervous, didn't wait too long this time and received tactical adjustment instructions from the coaching staff.

At the same time, Xavi started warming up early on the sidelines.

Neymar was delighted when he saw the tactical gestures Iniesta made to him.

He doesn't like the passive counterattack style of play. From the beginning of this game to now, he has too few opportunities to get the ball.

Although he can also adapt to playing without the ball, his effect is far less than that of holding the ball.

Barcelona's switch from defense to offense at this moment, the biggest beneficiaries are naturally him and Messi.

If you don't attack, where will there be more opportunities to hold the ball?

Neymar needs a lot of offensive rounds to try and show his ability.

Compared with other teammates who are a little worried now, Neymar is more confident.

Well, after all, he only played against Li Ang's team last season, and he didn't play against Li Ang much at that time.

Li Ang is definitely not easy to break through, but against other Chelsea defenders, Neymar feels that he still has a great chance to be a comeback hero.

Last season, Barcelona lost to Chelsea and was eliminated in the Champions League, but Neymar at that time had only adapted to European football for a short time.

He is at an age of high spirits, and this season has ushered in a big data explosion. It is of course normal to have overflowing self-confidence.

After Barcelona adjusted its tactics and began to press forward, the left side where Neymar was located soon became the main area for Barcelona's offensive resources.

Li Ang retreated to the defensive midfielder position shortly after the game resumed.

His vision was wider, and he could better observe the changes in the main ball holders after the Barcelona team changed their playing style.

In the previous quick counterattack, the connection between Barcelona's midfield and frontcourt was basically Iniesta-Messi.

As the main ball holder on the offensive line, Messi basically chose to attract Chelsea's defensive firepower before sending threatening passes.

His style of play can help Neymar and Sanchez get threatening forward opportunities more easily.

This counterattack routine is actually a bit deformed.

After all, normally speaking, setting a fulcrum ball holder in the middle to help the wingers on both wings to insert, the counterattack will be more efficient.

However, Enrique had no choice. His predecessor did not leave him a reliable center forward. He wanted to recruit players in the summer window last year, but he didn't like all the candidates provided by the transfer department.

Later, he took the initiative to hook up with Lewandowski, but was directly threatened by Bayern.

Bayern's top management directly revealed that Lewandowski could either stay in Bayern's first team and play well, or go to the second team until the end of the contract and leave for free.

This warning directly made the distracted Lewandowski quickly cut off communication with Barcelona.

So Enrique and Barcelona's transfer department's efforts for almost a month went down the drain. In the last bit of time for the transfer, Enrique tried to hook up with Suarez again.

As a result, Suarez had been persuaded by Gerrard and agreed to stay in Liverpool for at least another year.

So after all the busy work, Enrique couldn't get the two center forwards he wanted most.

It would be better to continue to let Sanchez play as a center forward.

So in the absence of a regular center forward, Enrique can only design such a tactic for Messi to hold the ball and counterattack.

This tactic is really stable to bully the weak, but it really has no effect when it hits Chelsea's iron wall today.

At least at this moment, after Neymar became the main ball holder in the frontcourt, Barcelona's offensive threat seems to be much greater than before!

Neymar is younger than Messi and has more physical strength. He is capable and dares to make strong moves.

In order to better "take care" of Messi today, Li Ang and Matic directly switched positions. Li Ang was on the left side of his own half, and Matic was on the right side.

In terms of positioning, Matic will never give Barcelona's offensive players too many opportunities to cut in.

But Neymar is mainly breaking through the side, and Matic seems to be a little bit struggling against him.

With his height and body shape, Matic has a good sense of position. It is difficult for him to limit Neymar one-on-one.

So Neymar successfully broke through Matic several times, which is equivalent to Barcelona successfully tearing open Chelsea's solid defense line in the eyes of fans.

Even if only this hole was torn open, it also gave many Barcelona fans hope.

What they are most worried about now is that Li Ang will switch positions with Matic again and come to defend Neymar alone.

But to their surprise, Leon remained unmoved and stayed at the left defensive midfielder position, staring at Messi and Iniesta who might make a move on the defensive end.

After the change of offense and defense, Chelsea returned to the defensive counterattack tactics, while Barcelona took the initiative to attack. This situation immediately matched the conflicting battle in the minds of the fans.

And Neymar's role in the breakthrough end was indeed very significant. Barcelona was about to enter the rhythm of the game they were best at.

Messi also successfully retained his physical strength, leaving a backhand for Barcelona's subsequent strong attack.

But just when the Barcelona team played the game feeling and pressed all the way in the 30th minute of the first half, Chelsea did not defend!

In other words, Chelsea changed its passive squatting defense posture at this time point.

It was like a spring rebounding after being compressed to the extreme, taking the initiative to attack and starting a crazy pressure sweep!

A few defensive players pressing forward alone may cause the local defense line to fail, and instead create better threatening passing opportunities for the attackers.

But Chelsea rebounded and pressed forward with three lines as a whole!

Ibrahimovic, who had previously returned to his own half, did not hesitate to run at this time, cooperating with Hazard and De Bruyne to continuously press the ball holder in the Barcelona midfield.

At the front of Chelsea's defensive third zone, the two teams are competing for the main battlefield at this moment.

Barcelona finally pushed the front line to Chelsea's hinterland, how could they give up the initiative so easily? !

Even if the pressure is great, Iniesta and Messi with the ball are still looking for opportunities to pass through Chelsea's defense.

But Li Ang dared to make a bold shovel at the critical moment!

This time, he directly rushed out from Iniesta's side and shoveled the ball to the left side of his own side!

Iniesta naturally fell to the ground, and Messi and Sanchez, who were closest to him, raised their hands together, indicating that the referee Li Ang had fouled.

But the referee was just behind Li Ang, so he saw Li Ang's shovel action very clearly this time.

Li Ang did bring Iniesta down, but he also shoveled the ball first!

In this case, Li Ang did not raise his foot after kicking, and there was no other accompanying defensive action.

So Li Ang's shovel this time did not constitute a foul, it was an extremely beautiful side shovel!

When Mourinho saw Li Ang's tackle, he was shocked.

Because this area is about to get close to Chelsea's penalty area line, it is too dangerous to give Barcelona a free kick in this place.

But when the referee signaled the game to continue, Mourinho suddenly lost his resentment. Instead, he wanted to rush onto the field to hug Li Ang's head and give him two kisses!

"Counterattack!!!"

Holland rushed to the sidelines before Mourinho and roared!

Bertrand, who had already received the ball, subconsciously led the ball and rushed out!

What tactical tips are needed at this time?

The gene of counterattack has been deeply imprinted on this Chelsea!

Bertrand ran along the sideline with the ball, and in front of him, Ibrahimovic retreated, and Hazard and De Bruyne had already tacitly moved forward!

Almost instantly, Chelsea's front trident had formed the best counterattack position.

Before Kroos reached the best receiving area, Bertrand had already taken the ball across the center line.

Without giving Rafinha a chance to intercept, Bertrand directly passed the ball to Ibrahimovic who came back to receive it!

And Ibrahimovic once again held Busquets, and before he wanted to make further fouls, he passed the ball to the right.

At this moment, Li Ang rushed in at full speed and just passed by Ibrahimovic!

And De Bruyne, who successfully received the ball, also stabbed into Barcelona's defensive hinterland like a sharp knife!

In just a few seconds, Chelsea switched from defense to offense, but Barcelona had to switch from the role of attacking hard to full retreat again!

But Barcelona's offense and defense conversion was too slow, the speed of retreat was slow, and the change of thinking was even slower!

De Bruyne's advancement speed is not the top in football, but he has a threatening cross ability that is unique in football.

It's okay if people can't reach the threatening area, as long as the ball can reach it, that's fine!

After a brief observation on the right, De Bruyne drew his bow and arrow, and then sent a long arc cross!

The football quickly rotated and flew over the Barcelona penalty area. Pique was fully prepared this time. He ran to the back point, and Li Ang also rushed to the same area as him at this moment!

However, the cross sent by De Bruyne fell very fast this time, and it was difficult for Pique to play his height advantage.

So facing Li Ang's header, Pique chose to carry the man first. He might not be able to control the football, but at the same time, Li Ang could not complete the shot!

The two jumped together in the entanglement, and Li Ang took the advantage of the header and slightly knocked Pique away.

But that was it, he certainly couldn't connect the action to complete the shot.

But the football was stopped by Li Ang under his intentional protection within his body control.

As soon as he landed, Li Ang picked the ball to the back point of Barcelona's penalty area!

Mascherano was double-teaming Li Ang, but Li Ang passed the ball and his defense was in vain!

At this moment, Ibrahimovic, who had caught up with him, did not stop the ball and directly completed a close-range push shot!

The football stuck to the grass, quickly passed Ter Stegen's fingertips when he went to the ground to save the ball, and went into the net in the lower right corner of Barcelona's goal!

At the critical moment when the Barcelona team worked together to counterattack, Chelsea used a classic quick counterattack to hit their confidence!

At this moment, Enrique felt dizzy!

After two consecutive offensive and defensive changes, in front of Chelsea, who was experienced in offensive and defensive transitions, his Barcelona was like an ordinary La Liga team and was defeated in the first half!

Li Ang threw himself on Ibrahimovic's back, and the two of them roared excitedly towards the southern stand of Barcelona!

"Don't be dizzy, Barcelona, ​​the fun has just begun!"