Football Feast, Starting From the Acquisition of European Clubs - Chapter 479

Chapter 479 Hitting a snake and hitting seven inches

As soon as the second half started, Spain launched a crazy attack on Belgium’s defense.

David Silva, Pedro, Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and others continue to cooperate with short passes in an attempt to penetrate into the Belgian penalty area.

However, although the ball was passed in, as Spain’s only offensive bridgehead, Morata was watched by Kompany, Alderweireld and others, and could not play its due role at all.

Not to mention scoring a goal, Morata even has very few chances to get the ball.

On the sidelines, seeing this situation, Bosque jumped up in a hurry.

But he has no other choice but to continue to trust Morata.

Because in the Spanish lineup participating in this European Cup, apart from Morata, Bosque only brought Aduriz, who played for Athletic Bilbao, as a substitute center.

“Replace Morata with Aduriz?”

Bosque asked himself, and immediately dismissed this idea that just popped up.

The situation on the field fell into an embarrassing situation where Spain stormed around Belgium, but it only blossomed and failed to bear fruit.

“Good guy, Spain’s possession rate is almost 70% now, and the score is still behind?”

“Upstairs, the era of superstitious high ball possession rate has long since ended. Modern football pays attention to simplicity and efficiency.”

“Hahahaha, if you only look at the ball possession rate, Belgium and Spain are not at the same level of team at all.”

“That’s right. Spanish football is considered to be the leader of pass-and-control play, but now this method is no longer feasible.”

“Yeah, no matter how high the ball possession rate is, what’s the use if it can’t be converted into a goal?”

“Actually, the main reason is that the Spanish center Morata is not good. If you change to a strong center, the situation will be completely different.”

“Hehe, do you think Chen Ran is an idiot? If Spain really has a strong center, then Belgium must have other ways to deal with it.”

When the game reached the 70th minute, seeing that his team still failed to break through the Belgian goal, Bosque finally couldn’t help it.

He called Aduriz from the bench, and then replaced Busquets, the only defensive midfielder in Spain, with Aduriz.

Bosque arranged Aduriz and Morata as double center forwards, Pedro played left winger, and David Silva played right winger.

Alba moved to the left midfielder first, and Juanfran also changed from a right back to a right midfielder.

In this way, the formation on the Spanish field changed from 433 to an even crazier 244.

That’s right, except for the two central defenders Ramos and Pique, and the goalkeeper De Gea, all the other Spanish players overwhelmed the half-court and went into the attack.

“Fuck! Is Bosque crazy? There are only two central defenders behind. Isn’t he afraid of Belgium’s counterattack?”

“Hahahaha, it’s not that Bosque is not afraid of Belgium’s counterattack, but that he has no time.”

“That’s right, counting injury time, Spain only has a total of more than 20 minutes left. If they don’t score again, they will pack their bags and go on vacation.”

“Now we have to see if Belgium’s defense line can withstand Spain’s counterattack.”

“Hehe, I think that Spain has so much space in the backcourt now, don’t fail to equalize the score, but get another counterattack by Belgium.”

“What the upstairs said makes sense. The team coached by Chen Ran has always been good at defensive counterattacks. Maybe this is the result.”

On the sidelines, seeing Bosque’s substitution adjustment, Chen Ran immediately called Vermaelen from the bench.

Since Vermaelen left Arsenal to join Barcelona, ​​he has been plagued by injuries. In the past two seasons, he played very few games, which is the main reason why Chen Ran put him on the bench.

After a simple warm-up, Chen Ran called Vermaelen to his side.

“Thomas, your task after you come on the field is to mark Spain’s new striker Aduriz.”

“I will replace Lukaku with you. Go tell Hazard and De Bruyne, and then let them move forward to play forward.”

“After you got the ball in the back, pass the ball directly to the two of them to fight back. Do you understand?”

“Understood, boss.”

Also playing in La Liga, Vermaelen is quite familiar with Athletic Bilbao’s main striker Aduriz.

From the former absolute main central defender of the Belgian team to the current substitute, Vermaelen is also suffocating.

However, because when he played for the Arsenal club in the past, he had already deeply realized how powerful Chen Ran is. So Vermaelen didn’t dare lose his temper, he just wanted to prove to Chen Ran that he still had the strength to be the main force.

Soon, Bosque saw that Chen Ran had replaced striker Lukaku with central defender Vermaelen, and his eyes suddenly went dark.

Good guy, just as I added a striker, the Chinese added a central defender, which clearly meant to abolish my substitution adjustment.

However, Spain’s offensive players who can play now have all been sent to the field. Bosque can only pray that these players can hold their breath and equalize the score as soon as possible.

The next game continued the previous situation.

The ability of the newly replaced Aduriz is not as good as that of Morata, coupled with Chen Ran’s targeted replacement of Vermaelen, Spain still failed to change the result of thunder and rain.

As time goes by, Spain’s ball possession rate has exceeded 70%, but most of the ball can only be passed around the perimeter of Belgium’s penalty area.

Any pass sent into the Belgian penalty area was either destroyed by the defender or confiscated by the goalkeeper. So much so that Spanish players had to frequently rely on long shots to threaten the goal guarded by Courtois.

In the end, with De Bruyne’s penalty kick, Belgium defeated the defending champion Spain 1:0 and eliminated their opponents home.

While successfully advancing to the quarterfinals, Chen Ran also got a “Level 1 Blood Recovery Card” from the system.

In the other eighth-finals, Germany defeated Slovakia 3:0. In this way, Belgium’s opponent in the quarter-finals became the German team.

After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Chen Ran once again met the German team coached by Loew in the competition.

To everyone’s surprise, at the press conference after the game, Bosque directly announced that he would no longer serve as the head coach of the Spanish national team.

“I’ll go, Chen Ran has dismissed another coach.”

“Which number is this? Chen Ran won’t become a coach killer, right?”

“Hahahaha, then Chen Ran’s popularity in the coaching circle may not be very good.”

“Belgium’s next opponent in the quarter-finals is the German team. At least I can be sure that Loew must not like Chen Ran.”

“The German team’s World Cup championship was taken away by the Brazilian team. What does it have to do with Belgium?”

“Fuck! What you said upstairs makes sense, but I don’t know how to refute it.”

“Hahahaha, who made the current Belgium and the previous Brazil have the same head coach?”

“You said, if the German team is eliminated by Belgium again this time, will the Germans hate Chen Ran?”

“Hahahaha, I don’t know what other Germans think, but I can guarantee that Loew will hate Chen Ran to death.”

After four days of rest, on July 2, Lille, France, Pierre Mauroy Stadium, where Belgium and Germany competed for a place in the semi-finals of this European Cup.

As the fans guessed, because the Brazil team coached by Chen Ran snatched the World Cup championship trophy, the German team tried their best to avenge this.

The Belgian team, because of their head coach Chen Ran, reluctantly became the target of the German team’s revenge.

Compared with the World Cup in Brazil two years ago, Loew has recruited many new players this time. Now the average age of the entire German team is only a little over 25 years old, full of vigor.

Forward Gomez, Forward Muller

Left Midfield Ozil, Central Midfielder Toni Kroos, Central Midfielder Khedira, Right Midfielder Kimmich

Left back Hector, center back Hummels, center back Boateng, right back Hewedes

Goalkeeper Neuer

On the Belgian side, Chen Ran paid more attention to this match than defending champion Spain.

Because of the high-altitude bombing tactics that the Belgian team is playing now, it may not be so effective against the German team. The German team has never lacked tall players.

For this reason, Chen Ran made substantial adjustments to the Belgian team’s starting lineup and tactics.

Left winger Hazard, center forward Mertens, right winger De Bruyne

Central midfielder Witsel, Central midfielder Fellaini, Central midfielder Dembele

Left back Vertonghen, center back Kompany, center back Alderweireld, right back Carrasco

Goalkeeper Courtois

Since Lahm withdrew from the German national team, the German team’s defense has become all tall players.

Boateng is 192cm tall and Hummels is 191cm tall. Even the two full-backs Hewedes and Hector have reached 188CM and 185CM in height respectively.

Obviously, Loew has long been prepared for the high-altitude bombing tactics that Belgium is now focusing on.

However, Chen Ran was able to achieve today’s results, never prepared only one set of tactics.

When he first joined the Crystal Palace club, he also practiced three sets of tactics for the Crystal Palace, which was only the British Championship team at the time, and almost made those players schizophrenic.

As the head coach of the Belgian national team this time, Chen Ran also continued his style.

Although during the game, the Belgian team has always adopted high-altitude bombing tactics.

But in the usual training, Chen Ran has also been practicing how to deal with a team like Germany that does not lack tall players.

When Belgium announced the starting lineup against Germany, it immediately shocked many people.

“Fuck! Belgium replaced Lukaku with Mertens as a center forward? If I remember correctly, Mertens is less than 1.7 meters tall?”

“You remember correctly upstairs, Mertens is only 169cm tall.”

“What is Chen Ran thinking? Using such a short player as a center forward, can he get a header?”

“Perhaps, Chen Ran didn’t intend to let Mertens fight for the header at all.”

“Huh? What do you mean upstairs?”

“I guess, Chen Ran changed his tactics in this game and is no longer going to fight high-altitude bombing.”

“You mean, Chen Ran plans to let Belgium play the ground instead?”

“That’s right. Otherwise, it can’t be explained. He didn’t use the powerful center Lukaku, but arranged three small players on the forward line.”

“What you said above makes sense. Whether it’s Hazard, De Bruyne or Mertens, they are all players with fast speed, good technique, and strong breakthrough ability. It seems that Chen Ran really wants to change his tactics in this game gone.”

“I checked just now. Among the defensive players in the German team’s starting lineup, Hector, who is the shortest, is 185 cm. It turns out that Chen Ran made special arrangements for the characteristics of the German team.”

“I’ll go, it’s really like this. Chen Ran’s formation must have been beyond the expectations of the German coaching staff, it’s amazing!”

“Hahahaha, I just want to know what kind of expression Loew will have when he sees Belgium’s starting lineup.”

“Hey, you don’t need to guess. It must be ugly.”

…

When the assistant coach Hans Flick handed the Belgian team’s starting list to Loew with a heavy face, Loew’s face soon became as ugly as him.

“Why did Lukaku become Mertens?”

No one can answer Love’s question.

Holding the Belgian team’s starting list tightly in his hand, Loew frowned.

“Hans, do you think that Chinese man is planning to change his tactics in this game?”

Looking up at his assistant, Love seemed to be asking for support.

“Joachim, it’s probably what you judged. Otherwise, the Chinese man wouldn’t use Lukaku as the main center forward.”

Received the support of Hans Flick, but Loew was not happy at all.

For the Belgian team coached by Chen Ran, Loew has already studied it many times. The technical characteristics of the players in the team can be said to be well known.

Now that Chen Ran replaces Lukaku with Mertens, it is obvious that he wants to use his characteristics of being smaller, more flexible, fast and capable of breaking through to deal with the tall defenders of the German team.

At this moment, Loew missed Ram very much.

Since Lahm withdrew from the national team, he has never found a successor similar to Lahm, and can only use those tall traditional German players as full-backs.

This problem is not obvious in normal times.

After all, with the overall strength of the German team, there are not many teams that can pose a threat to them.

But today, after meeting Chen Ran, he immediately became a weak threat for the opponent’s key attack.

Loew and Hans Flick looked at each other, speechless.

Although they discovered Chen Ran’s intentions, they couldn’t come up with an effective solution.

Because among the players of the German team, there is really no defensive player who can restrain Mertens.

…

(end of this chapter)