Football Feast, Starting From the Acquisition of European Clubs - Chapter 428
Guardiola’s Barcelona, the Champions League runner-up last season, unexpectedly lost 0-1 away to CSKA Moscow.
Guardiola clearly underestimated the impact of Moscow’s severe February weather on Barcelona players in southern Europe.
CSKA Moscow set up a bus at home to deal with Barcelona, but Barcelona could not attack for a long time, and the physical consumption of the players was much higher than usual.
When the game came to an end, CSKA Moscow, who was accustomed to playing in this weather, succeeded in a counterattack and sneak attack, and in the end he could only return to Spain in hatred.
Fortunately, the UEFA Champions League has 16 goals and 8 goals and is now a two-round home and away game system. Guardiola still has a chance to come back when he returns to home.
Just two days apart, on February 20, Crystal Palace ushered in the twenty-seventh round of the Premier League. This time, they are going away to Aston Villa.
Because he had just fought against Fiorentina, Chen Ran made a big rotation in this game.
Fortunately, Crystal Palace’s bench players are also very promising. With the goals of Suarez and Vardy, Crystal Palace defeated Aston Villa 2:1 away.
At the same time that he got three points, Chen Ran also got a “Level 1 Health Card” from the system.
However, in this game, Yaya Toure, who was fighting continuously, suffered a thigh muscle strain, which cast a shadow over the victory of this game.
After Vieira left, Yaya Toure was Chen Ran’s candidate to replace Vieira, which was also an important reason why Chen Ran was willing to let Vieira go.
So in many games, players in other positions can be rotated, but Chen Ran rarely rotates Yaya Toure.
Now Yaya Toure’s injury has brought a lot of hidden dangers to Crystal Palace’s next game.
In the other matches of this round of the Premier League, there is also a strong dialogue that is very fascinating.
Manchester City and Liverpool, two clubs that have just changed their local tycoon owners, played head-to-head, and everyone wanted to see who was more powerful.
However, the results were somewhat unexpected.
Liverpool, with a significantly stronger heritage, was not able to win Manchester City. The two teams were not divided, and the home game at Manchester City became 0:0.
In addition, Chelsea easily defeated Wolves 2:0 away, Manchester United also won 3:1 away from Everton, and Arsenal defeated Sunderland 2:0 at Highbury Stadium.
After all the games in this round were played, Crystal Palace still failed to get rid of Chelsea, and only ranked at the top of the standings with a narrow three-point lead.
ended this stage of the devil’s schedule, and Crystal Palace finally ushered in a one-week break.
On February 27th, in the twenty-eighth round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace will face Portsmouth at the Emirates Stadium this time.
With the goals of Tony and Ronaldo, Crystal Palace, who played in the main force, defeated Portsmouth 2-0 without any suspense.
In other matches in this round of the Premier League, there was an upset that could affect the title of the Premier League this season. Chelsea unexpectedly lost 2:4 to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
In the case of Crystal Palace winning, the gap between them and Crystal Palace was suddenly widened to six points.
Not only that, after Manchester United beat West Ham United 3-0 at Old Trafford, they also surpassed Chelsea and ranked second in the standings.
…
In addition, Liverpool beat Blackburn 2:1 at Anfield, and Arsenal won Stoke City 3:1 away.
After all the games in this round, Crystal Palace topped the standings, Manchester United were in second place with four points behind, and Chelsea fell to third place with six points behind.
A week later, Chen Ran saw the magical schedule of the FA again.
On March 6th, in the twenty-ninth round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace will go away to challenge Arsenal;
On March 7th, in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, Crystal Palace will face Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium again;
On March 10th, in the second round of the Champions League quarter-finals, Crystal Palace will fly to Italy to challenge Florence;
On March 13th, in the 30th round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace will rush back to face Wolves at home.
There are four games in seven days, with an average of less than one game in two days.
Especially in the first two games next to each other, there was not even a day’s rest in between, and the FA was not afraid of sudden death of players.
“It seems that the FA does not want Crystal Palace to eat alone, forcing itself to give up the FA Cup voluntarily.”
After seeing this schedule, Chen Ran immediately had this realization.
Chen Ran, who didn’t pay much attention to the FA Cup in the first place, has always dispatched substitute squads to participate in the FA Cup and League Cup matches.
However, giving up voluntarily and being forced to give up is completely different.
For a moment, Chen Ran wanted to give the FA some color.
However, considering that he will step down as the head coach of Crystal Palace after the end of this season, and then the unlucky one will be Guardiola who will succeed him, Chen Ran finally gave up his plan to compete with the FA.
Guardiola will definitely experience a period of shock when he takes over Crystal Palace, so don’t make it more difficult for him.
On March 6th, in the twenty-ninth round of the Premier League, Chen Ran took Crystal Palace to their familiar Highbury Stadium.
Wenger, who has completely lost his mind for the Premier League title, has become more free and easy now. Even in the face of a strong enemy like Crystal Palace, he still sent a starting lineup that focuses on attacking.
striker Van Persie, striker Bendtner
MF Nasri, MF Arshavin, MF Rosicky
Alexander Song
Left-back Clichy, center-back William Gallas, center-back Vermaelen, right-back Sagna
Goalkeeper Almunia
On the Crystal Palace side, since he has decided to give up the FA Cup, Chen Ran naturally used all his main force in this game.
striker Ronaldo, striker Tony
Left midfielder Ribery, center midfielder Mascherano, center midfielder Modric, right midfielder Messi
Left-back Chiellini, center-back Thiago Silva, center-back Vidic, right-back Maicon
Goalkeeper Cech
Arsenal continued their usual tactical style. From the first minute of the game, they fought against Crystal Palace.
The open game, coupled with the fact that both teams are taking a technical route, made the game very exciting, and also made the fans who bought the most expensive tickets in the Premier League to watch the game feel that the money was worth it.
…
When the game reached the 23rd minute, Van Persie received a long pass from Alexander Song from the backcourt, and he volleyed directly without stopping the ball while running at high speed.
Cech, who was caught off guard, couldn’t react in time. When he made a save, the ball had already flown from his hand into the net, and Crystal Palace fell behind Arsenal 0:1.
However, the Arsenal fans who were boiling in the audience were not happy for long.
Just under ten minutes after Van Persie scored, Ronaldo received a header from Toni, and a volley side hook helped Crystal Palace tie the score to 1:1, and the score remained until the end of the first half of the game.
At halftime, Chen Ran was not in a hurry about the current score. He did not make any substitution adjustments except to give the players blood as usual.
On Arsenal’s side, Wenger was also very satisfied with the team’s performance in the first half. In addition to encouraging the players to make persistent efforts, he also did not make substitution adjustments.
At the beginning of the second half of the game, the two teams continued to fight against each other.
When the game reached the 61st minute, Messi broke through the defense of Clichy on the right and entered Arsenal’s penalty area.
After attracting everyone’s attention, he passed the ball into an inverted triangle.
Outside the penalty area, Modric, who had been waiting there for a long time, volleyed the ball.
“boom!”
At this time, Arsenal’s midfielder Alexander Song arrived in time to stretch his foot to block Modric’s shot, but the ball hit Alexander Song’s leg and refracted.
The goalkeeper Almunia, who had already moved ahead of time, wanted to turn around to make a save, but it was too late. He could only watch the ball bounce into the net from his face.
“goal!
”
With Modric’s somewhat lucky goal, Crystal Palace overtook Arsenal 2:1.
However, Van Persie was in surprisingly good form this game.
Also less than ten minutes after Modric scored, he received a header from Bendtner, and Van Persie jumped to the top and pushed the ball into the Crystal Palace goal guarded by Cech again to tie the score. 2:2.
The two teams scored goals one after another, and the fans present were hooked. But on the Crystal Palace side, some people couldn’t hold their breath.
“Boss, this Van Persie’s state today is a bit too exaggerated. Thiago seems to have a hard time defending him. Should we change a defender to guard against Persie?”
Southgate couldn’t help but come to Chen Ran’s side to give advice.
Crystal Palace’s defensive line division today is by Thiago Silva to be responsible for marking and guarding Pesci, while Vidic is responsible for marking the high center Bendtner.
But now Van Persie has scored two goals in a row under the defense of Thiago Silva, which makes Southgate rarely lose confidence in his own central defender.
It’s not that Chen Ran hasn’t considered Southgate’s proposal, but he thinks more as a head coach.
Van Persie was able to score two goals in a row, not because Thiago Silva made some low-level mistakes, but simply because he was in a particularly good state today.
In this case, whether it is Vidic or Kompany and Pepe on the bench to watch and guard against Pesci, I am afraid that the result will not make much difference.
…
And once you do this, it is equivalent to telling everyone that the coach has lost trust in him, which will also have some bad effects on Thiago Silva.
After all, Thiago Silva is the current team captain of Crystal Palace.
After weighing it over and over again, Chen Ran felt that even if he could not win Arsenal today, Crystal Palace could still afford the price.
So, Chen Ran reached out and patted Southgate’s shoulder.
“Gareth, you have to have confidence in Thiago. Besides, isn’t it just equalized, there is more than enough time for the rest of the game.”
“With the offensive strength of our Crystal Palace, it is not difficult to score another goal. You go and tell the players on the field, and then press the whole line, and you must win the game.”
“Understood, boss.”
Chen Ran’s latest order was quickly passed on to the field.
Crystal Palace’s formation, visible to the naked eye, began to press forward.
On the Arsenal side, even though Wenger kept asking the players to press forward on the sidelines to push Crystal Palace back.
But the game has now come to an end, the players’ physical fitness has generally declined, and they can no longer make up for the gap between themselves and their opponents through more active fighting and running.
Seeing that the Crystal Palace players had successfully compressed Arsenal’s formation into the half, Chen Ran called Southgate to his side again.
“Gareth, you tell Dzeko to warm up now and replace Maicon with him later. The team’s formation has changed from 442 to 343. Let Dzeko, Ronaldo and Tony go to Arsenal’s penalty area to fight point.”
“Arsenal’s two central defenders, Vermaelen and William Gallas, are of average height, allowing Ribery and Messi to pass the ball to the striker. The high-altitude bombing tactics that have been useless for a long time are now just used to deal with Arsenal.”
“Okay, boss.”
Soon, Wenger saw the substitutions on the Crystal Palace side. He knew in his heart that Chen Ran was going to launch a general attack.
Although Wenger knows that Arsenal’s strength is not as good as Crystal Palace, but now he has the opportunity to score points from Crystal Palace, he will never give up easily.
So, Wenger immediately called up Welsh midfielder Ramsey from the Arsenal bench. After a simple warm-up, he replaced striker Ben Turner with Ramsey.
Ramsey and Alexander Song served as Arsenal’s double midfielder, leaving Van Persie alone to fight back in front, and the team’s formation also changed from 442 to 4231.
As the two teams completed the tactical adjustment, the game also entered a white-hot stage.
Tony and Dzeko are both 193cm tall, and even Ronaldo is 187cm tall. On the Arsenal side, the two central defenders Vermaelen and William Gallas are only 182cm tall.
According to Chen Ran’s instructions, the **** were sent into Arsenal’s penalty area one by one, blowing up Arsenal’s backline, as if they were going to lose the ball at any time.
Seeing this situation, Wenger had to quickly replace Arshavin with the 192cm-tall central defender Zhulu to strengthen the defense.
However, although Zhu Lu is tall, he is still too immature for a central defender who is only 23 years old this year.
When Ribery once again sent the ball into the Arsenal penalty area, Dzeko, who had just come on the field, grabbed in front of Zhulu, who was in charge of marking him, and headed the ball into the goal guarded by Almunia.
“goal!
”
With Dzeko’s lore goal, Crystal Palace narrowly beat Arsenal 3:2 away.
At the same time that he got three points, Chen Ran also got a “Level 1 Health Card” from the system.
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Football feast, starting from the acquisition of European clubs