The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 571 Good luck, Ye Qiu!
Once upon a time, if those reporters or football commentators wanted to praise Tottenham Hotspur, it was very simple, they only need to praise the team's offense, and you can praise it, even if you praise its offense Flowers are fine.

But this time the situation has obviously changed, because everyone found that Tottenham Hotspur's best performance in the first leg against Barcelona turned out to be their defense. In fact, in the past season, Tottenham Tenham Hotspur's defense has always been quite stable.

Cruyff, the godfather of Barcelona football, commented in his post-match column that one of the most important reasons why Barcelona failed to perform well on the offensive end was the failure of advancing passes.

"We have nearly 60% possession rate in this game. At first glance, our possession time and pass success rate are better than Tottenham Hotspur, but if you pay attention to other statistics , We will find that we are not as good as our opponents in terms of the number of shots, the number of threatening passes, and even the number of times we enter the opponent's 30-meter area."

"An important reason for this huge gap is that our ball possession rate is more piled up by cross passes and return passes. We have faced other opponents in the past, and we have always been able to create threatening advance passes, such as Through balls, we did a very poor game and we couldn't penetrate the Tottenham defense effectively."

"Ye Qiu is very familiar with and understands Barcelona's tactics. Although in the first half of this game, Tottenham Hotspur were based on defense, they did not shrink the defense line, but compressed us by effectively retreating in the midfield. The space to hold the ball forces our players to often be in an embarrassing situation."

"During the game, I also noticed that Tottenham Hotspur's defense is highly variable and targeted, with blocking, pressing, and positioning. Fast speed, and full of tacit movement, effectively organized a set of targeted and flexible multi-level compound defensive system."

"This defensive system makes our players feel very uncomfortable, especially Van Persie. He can neither get an effective pass, and after finally getting the pass, he can't give a threatening pass. Our midfielder Ha Wei and Iniesta were also tightly contained by their opponents, which made it impossible for us to form an effective offensive threat in the game."

"I noticed that there are a lot of people who will accuse Tottenham of being conservative, but what I want to say is that this is not a conservative and passive tactic. On the contrary, this should set us off. Has our excessive, useless possession of the ball been familiarized by our competitors and deciphered by them?"

"And we must also be clearly aware that in the past, we always said that Tottenham Hotspur is a team that is stronger in offense than defense, but this season, Tottenham Hotspur's offense is still extremely sharp, But their defense has grown and improved tremendously, which means this team is better than ever."

"It can be said that this defeat at White Hart Lane allowed us to clearly see the progress of Tottenham Hotspur, and also let us see that compared with the progress of our opponents, although we have made progress, our progress has not. Big, behind our opponents."

At the end of the column, Cruyff also advised Guardiola, "The second round of the game is only a week away, and we have every reason to believe that after a week, the Tottenham Hotspur we are facing will still be the same. A very difficult team, and when the time comes, will we have enough ability and enough methods to break through their defense?"

Regarding Cruyff's question, it is also a common question of many Spanish reporters and fans, and even football reporters and fans all over the world. Guardiola said in an interview that he firmly believes that the team can play at the Nou Camp Stadium. Beat your opponent.

After finishing the first round of the knockout round of the Champions League quarter-finals at White Hart Lane, several other matches have also been decided. Among them, Ye Qiu is most concerned about the match between Bayern Munich and Manchester United. Gall's team reversed Manchester United 2:1 at home at the Allianz Arena with goals from Robben and Olic.

The impressive performance of this game is that Manchester United broke through Bayern Munich's goal in less than 1 minute after the opening. , back to Old Trafford, plus an away goal, the possibility of promotion is still not small.

However, Ferguson's team ushered in Ancelotti's Chelsea, currently ranked second in the Premier League standings, in the weekend's Premier League.

Goalkeeper Van der Sar, defense Rafael, Vidic, Brown and O'Shea, midfielder Giggs, Scholes, Fletcher, Park Ji-sung and Valencia, lone striker Owen.

I believe that the first feeling of all those who got Manchester United's starting list is that Manchester United intends to use him to kill Chelsea?

On the other hand, Ancelotti, this game can be said to be the main force.

The goalkeeper is Cesar, the defense is Zhirkov, Alex, Terry and Ferreira, the midfielder is Malouda, Ballack, Essien and Asavin, and the double forwards are Drogba and Ane Alka.

Although it is an away game, the Blues can be said to be strong and strong, and recently, Ancelotti's team has been eliminated from the Champions League and can concentrate all their energy on playing in the Premier League. The team performed very well in the Premier League, frequently beating opponents with big scores, showing their good competitive state.

In fact, at the opening of Old Trafford, Manchester United was in a passive state of being beaten. Ferguson seemed to be psychologically prepared for this situation. Although he was actively making adjustments, he still failed to find an effective way. method, and in No. 20 minutes, Chelsea took the lead in breaking Manchester United's goal by Arshavin.

After that, the two sides changed sides and fought again, but Manchester United's performance still did not improve. On the other hand, Chelsea, Drogba made another victory, leading Manchester United 2-0 in the away game, and then Ferguson made a substitution adjustment, replacing Nani with Nani Scholes was replaced, and Park Ji-sung was replaced with Welbeck to further strengthen the offense.

Although Manchester United scored a goal, they were unable to break Chelsea's goal again in the end. They could only suffer a 1:2 defeat at Old Trafford, and this battle almost cost Manchester United the league title. contending rights.

Of course, although there was still the so-called right to compete for the league championship before, you must know that it was only a verbal and theoretical right, and it was more than ten points behind Tottenham Hotspur. Manchester United knew it well. The league title is hopeless.

It is precisely because he knows this very well that Ferguson gave up the league in this game, because he has to focus on the Champions League, which is his most persistent pursuit in recent years and his most realistic goal now.

In Ferguson's view, the most powerful contender for the Premier League title this season should be Tottenham Hotspur. After all, they are [-] points ahead of Chelsea. This advantage is still quite large, but their biggest problem is the devil's schedule. .

And if Tottenham accidentally capsized in the gutter, then Chelsea will be the biggest beneficiary. Ancelotti's team currently only has the league title to contend for, and because of this, they can concentrate all their energy Play every league game well, while Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur still need to be distracted by the Champions League.

At this point, Chelsea has a big advantage.

"How's the situation at the Stadium of Light?" After the whistle sounded for the end of the game, Ferguson walked back to the coach's bench with a bit of disinterest, and asked his assistant Perrin about the latest news.

"Tottenham Hotspur played very embarrassingly, did not score until 83 minutes, 1:0, won Sunderland!" Perrin felt that this must not be good news, because Tottenham Hotspur won , and Manchester United lost, which almost means that Manchester United can completely despair of the league championship.

After hearing this, Ferguson closed his eyes, but let out a heavy breath, as if he had completely let go of a stone in his heart.

If Tottenham Hotspur lose, maybe he will start to regret his choice, but now that Tottenham Hotspur wins, it means that his choice is right, no matter whether he wins or loses against Chelsea , Manchester United's league title hopes are slim.

With five rounds left in the Premier League, a [-]-point lead is not safe for Tottenham Hotspur.

In the second round of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final knockout match against Barcelona in the middle of the week, the North London Derby will be ushered in on the weekend, and then Chelsea will be ushered in after a week of rest. This battle is the decisive battle of life and death. If the Spurs can successfully eliminate Barcelona, ​​after three days of beating Chelsea, they will immediately usher in the first round of the semi-finals.

Ferguson hopes that in that game, Tottenham Hotspur's opponent will be Manchester United led by him, and this is very difficult, but he has absolute confidence, because the away score of 1:2 is definitely not a nightmare for Manchester United.

He gave up this game against Chelsea, just to play well in this home game against Bayern Munich!
"Ye Qiu, Ye Qiu, although you gave me a league championship back then, don't blame me for not remembering the kindness of that day!" As long as Ferguson thought of Ye Qiu and the Tottenham Hotspur schedule, his mood It becomes very good.

To be honest, playing so many games in a row in just one month is not a problem for top teams like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, but the real problem is that playing so many games It would be a nightmare if all the teams he met in one match were strong teams that were not inferior to him in strength.

Fortunately, the nightmare is not Ferguson and his Manchester United, but his opponent!

"Good luck, Ye Qiu!" Ferguson said with a gloating smile.

Wednesday, April [-]th, cloudy

Ye Qiu should be regarded as one of the more unpopular head coaches at Camp Nou. After all, Barcelona fans' hatred for him is far from Mourinho's level, but they are still in Tottenham Hotspur. The moment they entered the stadium, they were booed overwhelmingly, especially in the stands, where words humiliating Ye Qiu were posted everywhere.

It's nothing more than that many fans think that Tottenham Hotspur played too conservatively and softly in the first round.

It’s not easy to be a head coach these days, not only to win, but also to win beautifully. It’s best to be able to win so that your opponents will admire you, otherwise they will definitely not be convinced, but is this possible?
In this game, Tottenham Hotspur still adopted the defensive and counterattack tactics in the first round, because Ye Qiu could feel that the team's state was really not very good, whether it was the main players Messi and Ribery, or others , the state is very average, in this case, a guest at the Nou Camp Stadium, TODA will only make themselves stupid.

And Ye Qiu didn't dare to be careless at all, at least he knew very well that in the past week, how to crack Tottenham Hotspur's defense has become an important topic for the Barcelona coaching staff and even all Barcelona people.

In fact, Guardiola still gave the answer.

There are two very interesting changes in Barcelona's game. One is that Van Persie was pulled to the right side, replacing Alexis Sanchez. For Van Persie, he has not played in this position for a long time, but he will not Very strange.

Another obvious change is that Henry returned to the starting lineup, and he still played the center position.

But there is a saying that is right, tactical formations are dead, but people are alive.

Don't look at Henry playing in the middle, Van Persie playing on the right, and Pedro playing on the left, but in fact, in the game, everyone will be surprised to find that their positions are often exchanged, and Pedro often cuts inside To the center, while Henry frequently shifted from the center to the left side he is familiar with to get the ball, and then hit the center in turn.

Although Van Persie played on the right, in fact he almost always moved on the right rib of Tottenham Hotspur.

At the beginning of the game, Barcelona pulled Tottenham Hotspur's defense line through this kind of fast transposition movement, and soon used Henry to pull to the left rib, and then suddenly slanted into the penalty area, attracting Thiago ? Silva's attention, and then Van Persie suddenly rushed into the penalty area from the right rib, received a pass from Pedro, and hit the goal with a precise stop and almost pierced Tottenham Hotspur goal.

Fortunately, Cech reacted very quickly and lifted the ball directly over the crossbar.

Although this kick failed to score a goal, it made Tottenham Hotspur break out in a cold sweat.

But 1 minute later, Barcelona's offensive made a comeback again, still the same old routine, still creating a gap through the position change between Henry, Pedro and Van Persie, but this time Iniesta was holding the ball. , was interfered by Yaya Toure and failed to play the ball in time, which caused Pedro, who had already run into the gap, to waste a good scoring opportunity.

Two consecutive waves of attacks have achieved quite good results.

In addition to the pulling and transposition of the frontcourt trio, Barcelona also has a very obvious change, which is to strengthen the pressing force against Tottenham Hotspur, and in order to achieve a better pressing effect, Barcelona's defense line went straight forward and pressed very high.

In fact, Guardiola's strategy is also very smart.

After falling behind 0:2 in the first round, Barcelona has only one way to go in the second round at home, and that is a desperate offense. It can even be said that defense is secondary to the current Barcelona. It's useless, so Guardiola will attack desperately after the opening.

Of course, the purpose of strengthening the counterattack on the spot is to ensure the defense, because Barcelona also have to consider another situation, that is, if they are scored by Tottenham Hotspur, even if they only score one goal, even if they score three goals All lose.

In fact, the interesting thing about the two rounds of the Champions League knockout round is that no matter what the score of the first round is, the second round will become very complicated, so if it is common sense, Tottenham Hotspur should play robbing. Attacking is just right, because as long as Tottenham score one more goal, Barcelona will need to score four goals to advance.

Therefore, Guardiola's offensive tactics can be said to have multiple strategic purposes.

Ye Qiu is also very aware of the current situation. An away goal is the greatest initiative Tottenham Hotspur holds, and it is also a magic weapon for winning. As long as one goal is away, Barcelona will be finished, but you know, Guardiola also I know, so he judged before the game that the opening game will not be easy, because Barcelona will desperately grab the initiative.

There is a saying that is good, the soft is afraid of the hard, the hard is afraid of the horizontal, the horizontal is afraid of the dumb, and the dumb is afraid of death!
The most difficult opponent in the world is the kind of guy who desperately wants to fight with you, so when Barcelona desperately launched an attack, desperately pressed the defense line up and sealed Tottenham Hotspur When blocking and pressing, Tottenham Hotspur inevitably fell into a passive position.

Especially when the game progressed to No. 15 minutes, Barcelona finally seized a chance after crazy attack and pressing. Iniesta swayed past Thiago Silva, who was on the attack, and went straight behind him. Van Persie followed up and pushed with one foot, piercing Petr Cech's goal.

1: 0!

The entire Camp Nou stadium became completely boiling, and all Barcelona fans celebrated the goal wildly.

The total score has caught up to 1:2, which means that Barcelona still has a chance. As long as they score another goal, they will be able to equalize the total score, and the two sides will be able to return to the same starting line.

As if seeing this layer of hope, after scoring the goal, Barcelona continued to attack desperately, and even almost tied the total score once. Puyol made a cross from the right, and Van Persie stopped the ball and returned. Iniesta volleyed from the front of the penalty area, but the ball brushed the crossbar and went out of the bottom line.

For a while, Barcelona's offensive was like a storm, while Tottenham Hotspur's front door was jittery and crumbling.

(End of this chapter)