Green Journey

"Throughout the first half, Chelsea didn't have too many decent chances. They were pinned down by Manchester City in their own half, exhausted."

Hearing Zhan Jun's words, Zhang Lu nodded, seeming to agree, and said: "From the point of view of the formation, Chelsea is playing a 3511. On the surface, there are as many as seven players in Chelsea's defense. To some extent It can be said that Chelsea almost gave up on offense and devoted most of its forces to defense."

"Manchester City's formation is more balanced. Delph, Stones, Kompany, and Kyle Walker form a back four. Fernandinho acts as a single midfielder. In front of him are Chu Zheng and others. Gabriel Jesus Advance."

"Manchester City has 5 main defensive players, and 5 main offensive players. The investment of troops is more balanced."

"And the actual process of the game also reflected the choice of lineups of the two sides. In the first half, Manchester City almost pressed Chelsea in the half-court siege. Chu Zheng and De Bruyne kept changing positions, using passes and Gabriel Jesus , Sane, Sterling link up and form a threat in Chelsea's ribs."

"Especially on Sterling's side, he used speed and dribbling on the right ribs to attack many times. The space between Azpilicueta, Cahill and the central defender was well used by Manchester City."

"Yes." Zhan Jun said, "After this season, everyone also knows that Guardiola's back four is the three central backs."

"In the actual game, Manchester City's defense maintained a 3-2 rotation to target Chelsea's double forwards. The two full-backs Walker and Delph took turns to push into the midfielder position to ensure the stability of the ball and the level of defense."

"The two wide midfielders pressed Chelsea's wings, making it impossible for Chelsea to use the width of the pitch to attack."

"In games, we can often see Manchester City's retreat through Chu Zheng and De Bruyne, forcing the defense line of Kante and Matic to advance to suppress the attack of Manchester City's wing-backs in the midfielder position."

"At this time, there will be a disconnect between Chelsea's midfield and defense. Sterling and Jesus will go forward into the ribs and cooperate to find goals."

"After Guardiola took charge of Manchester City, the biggest problem for a long time was the end of the offense. In the first half of this season, Manchester City often completely suppressed the opponent in the game, but the opponent counterattacked every time. The problem is that It’s because they can create opportunities, but they can’t take them.”

"The arrival of Jesus made Manchester City's striker no longer dominated by Aguero's family. After the introduction of the competition mechanism and the integration of players into the new tactical system, Manchester City has significantly improved in terms of finishing efficiency."

"It's true. Manchester City's offensive finishing ability in the upper and lower halves can be said to be very different." Zhan Jun said.

After a while, players from both sides returned to the field.

As soon as the whistle blew, Chelsea took the initiative to seek an attack as soon as the ball was kicked out.

This change boosted the morale of countless Blues fans in the stands. They believed that Conte had finally woken up, and that their team was not without offensive capabilities.

Seeing that Chelsea's formation moved forward significantly after the start of the game, increasing the frontcourt pressing to limit Manchester City, the Blues fans clamored wildly in the stands to cheer for the players.

As for Manchester City, Guardiola also changed his tactics.

Sane, who was originally on the left, was switched to the right, while Sterling came to the left and continued to attack Chelsea's defense.

In addition to changes in player positions, Manchester City has also seen changes in its offensive mode.

Compared with the first half, Manchester City began to seek more direct means of attack in the second half of the game.

The most intuitive manifestation is the increase in Manchester City's mid-range through balls.

Then use the pass and cut cooperation between dexterous players such as Chu Zheng and Sterling in the frontcourt to attack.

In the 48th minute of the game, Manchester City took a left corner kick, but it was cleared by Cahill, and Sterling took the ball in front of the upper corner of the left penalty area.

Fabregas is on the right side of him, Moses is in the upper corner of the penalty area in front of him, and Kanter is also guarding the rib on the left rib at the top of the arc.

Sterling feinted twice with the ball. Seeing that Moses and Fabregas were not fooled, he passed the ball across to Fernandinho who was receiving from the wing.

Fernandinho took the ball, Moses and Cesc Fabregas immediately switched defenses, one followed Sterling, and the other went straight up.

Seeing Fabregas rushing, Fernandinho slowly led back along the sidewalk, while looking up to the center to observe.

At the front of the arc in the middle, Chu Zheng saw Azpilicueta being led away from the sideline of the penalty area by Sterling to the side. He immediately saw the large space exposed behind Kanter's rib.

Chu Zheng immediately started running diagonally.

At this moment, Fernandinho saw Chu Zheng's running position, suddenly turned around and made a dunk pass, and the ball rolled past Fabregas.

Fernandinho's timing of this pass is quite subtle.

Fabregas just ran to Fernandinho's left back. He was caught off guard when facing the dunk pass, and he was a step too slow to intercept with his feet.

In the next second, the ball rolled straight to the left behind Kanter at the top of the arc.

Chu Zheng arrived in time and got the ball on the end line of the penalty area in the ribs.

At this moment, Azpilicueta in the penalty area quickly went up to the top, and Kanter immediately turned around. The two had a tacit understanding and wanted to clamp Chu Zheng back and forth.

But how could Chu Zheng stay where he was and wait to be flanked back and forth.

After Chu Zheng got the ball, he entered the penalty area. After a quick adjustment, the center of gravity of his body tilted significantly to the right.

It was this action that fooled Azpilicueta.

Azpilicueta thought that Chu Zheng was going to dribble the ball in the middle.

He knew Chu Zheng's technique very well, so he immediately became vigilant.

Unexpectedly, the next second, Chu Zheng tilted his center of gravity to the right and suddenly thrust the ball forward with his left foot.

At the same time, Sterling outside the penalty area on the left had already started and rushed up, leaving Moses behind.

Before the bottom line in the penalty area, Sterling arrived in time before the ball went out of bounds, and passed the ball back to the front point without stopping the inverted triangle.

On the end line of the small penalty area, Kompany saw the ball coming. He knew that Jesus was behind him, so he used his body to block Luis in front of him.

With the cover of Kompany, Jesus quickly adjusted and hit the ball.

Approaching the goal post, although Courtois' vision was somewhat blocked, he still saw Jesus' shooting action.

Courtois judged the situation in front of the goal extremely accurately, and Matic and Alonso stood on the side of the far corner.

As long as Jesus dares to choose the far corner, it will inevitably be blocked by Matic and the others.

So he guessed that Jesus would have a high probability of hitting the close corner.

So he subconsciously sat down on the ground.

As a result, he sat just right, and the ball hit his calf lying on the ground, bounced upward, and was headed out of the baseline by Louis in front of him.

"Bluff!!!!!!!!!!!!" The Blues fans in the stands were frightened again.

Conte isn't much better either.

Seeing that the ball was cleared by Louis, he let out a long breath.

If Manchester City scored another goal and extended the score to [-]-[-], the player's confidence might really collapse instantly.

Letv Live.

"One of the biggest changes Conte has brought to Chelsea this season has been the back three."

"And his three-back system places great emphasis on the passing of the ball between the three defenders. The three defenders continuously drop their feet to pull the opponent's formation and then pass long passes or quickly pass through the midfield. But today Costa was a little out of shape, which led to Chelsea's Long balls rarely create good chances."

"Among Chelsea's central defenders, only David Luiz has a precise through pass from the midfielder position, but today Manchester City's midfielder is very tight on this line, so David Luiz didn't do much."

"Yes." Zhang Lu giggled, "And Chelsea's pressure on Manchester City in the midfield is not enough."

"Chu Zheng and De Bruyne are currently the top attacking midfield combination in the world. If you can't do the task of pressing well, let them play the ball and run at will. Don't talk about winning, whether you can defend or not is very important." Hard to say."

"Although Matic has a large defensive coverage and defensive hardness on the field, even if he stood still at the midfielder position today and provided a certain amount of defense, in the face of Manchester City's strong running ability and frequent position changes , he's not doing well."

Zhan Jun nodded, and then said: "Actually, it is understandable. After all, Matic has just returned from injury and has not recovered his form."

"Well, it is precisely because of his sluggish state that the task on Kanter is too heavy."

"Today, Conte arranged for Kanter to stand on the right side of the center. Part of his energy was on Sane when defending. Once Chu Zheng also came to the flank, he would allocate a large part of his energy to Chu Zheng. body."

"This led to his insufficient help to Matic. In most cases, he had to rely on his extraordinary physical strength to forcefully cover some defensive areas."

"But at the same time, Kanter also undertakes the task of counterattacking on the spot after stealing, and advancing with the ball in the midfield."

"Although Kanter's goals have increased significantly this season, I still think that Conte is letting him do too much now. This kind of burden may limit Kanter's performance."

"..."

In the next ten minutes or so, Chelsea and Manchester City played back-and-forth. At this point in the game, the championship battle began to get intense.

However, with the passage of time, Chelsea's always thunderous and rainy offense gradually made the Blues fans start to worry.

If Chelsea want to win the championship, they must win this game.

Otherwise, even if they tie the score, Manchester City will eventually win the championship relying on that huge goal difference advantage.

Finally, in the 69th minute of the game, the eager Blues fans waited for the goal.

Outside the Manchester City penalty area, Chelsea once again successfully caught Delph's rib space behind him.

Hazard quickly cut inside after taking the ball from the wing.

Fernandinho immediately moved across to cover the space in the half.

But Hazard, who was also somewhat sluggish today, suddenly broke out, and easily lost Fernandinho's focus.

Seeing that Hazard was about to break into the penalty area from the ribs, Fernandinho fell to the ground and tackled Hazard in desperation, stretching out his foot and tripping Hazard.

The referee Atkinson quickly whistled and gave Fernandinho a yellow card, but the penalty made the Blues fans extremely dissatisfied.

For a while, Stamford Bridge was full of abuse.

"This is a red card action, he did it on purpose!!"

"Sir, you need to calm down." The fourth official, Marina, took a step back, frowning and looking at Conte, who was snarling and glaring at him, as if he wanted to eat someone.

"I was calm, their foul cost us a goal, do you understand?" Conte yelled.

Feeling the spittle sprayed on his face, the fourth official turned around immediately, too lazy to talk to Conte.

On the field, Chelsea and others are also besieging Atkinson.

But Atkinson was unmoved, and quickly shook his head and retreated from the siege of players from both sides.

Seeing this, Chu Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Kompany dragged it to the end this time, otherwise Fernandinho would really be in tragedy.

In the blink of an eye, Manchester City lined up a four-man wall on the end line of the penalty area on the left side of the arc.

This free kick is about 28 meters away from the goal.

At the same time, Chelsea players also lurked in Manchester City's defense.

In front of the goal, Ederson saw David Luiz standing behind the ball, and he instantly became alert. This Brazilian defender has excellent free kick skills.

In a blink of an eye, Atkinson whistled.

Louis immediately ran up the left back of the ball.

Bang!
The wall takes off.

But the ball went around the right side of the wall.

After the ball entered the penalty area, it began to fall, like a rainbow across the sky, and the other end fell straight to the left of the goal.

In front of the goal line, Edson was startled, moved quickly to the right, and then jumped out, flying sideways.

However, David Luiz's free kick was too good. The ball directly hit the inside of the post and bounced into the goal!
"Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In an instant, Stamford Bridge ushered in the largest wave of cheers today.

The fans outside the stadium also cheered, and two waves of sound intertwined in the air.

On the sidelines, seeing the team pull back a goal, Conte instantly turned back, threw an uppercut, then spread his arms and ran towards the coaching bench while shouting.

Next to him, Guardiola held his head in his hands, still in shock.

On the field, seeing the Chelsea players celebrating as if they had won, Chu Zheng also felt a little helpless.David Luiz's free kick was brilliant.

Even if Edson grows to two meters, he probably won't be able to catch it.

Chelsea's celebrations came to an end quickly and it was clear they knew their time was running out.

In the next five or six minutes, Chelsea's offense suppressed Manchester City.

In the 76th minute of the game, Kanter successfully intercepted the left rib in the middle of his own half, and then quickly passed the ball to Costa in front of him.

The moment Costa took the ball on the center line, Fernandinho and Walker quickly caught it from the left and right sides.

Although Costa is in good shape, his speed is average.

As soon as he took the ball and ran two meters, Fernandinho tackled the ball on the right side. In an instant, Costa threw the ball down and howled again and again.

Referee Atkinson looked on coldly.

Atkinson saw the ball very clearly. Fernandinho's tackle was very clean. He felt that Costa was pretending, so he ignored it.

Behind Walker, Hazard got the ball and quickly took it horizontally to the middle circle.

After coming to the center circle arc, he immediately passed the ball across the ribs of the center circle on the other side, narrowly avoiding the pinching of Fernandinho and Chu Zheng.

Fabregas comes up the ribs to get the ball and rush.

Entering the 30-meter area of ​​the ribs, he saw Moses pulling to the wing in front of him. He immediately distributed the ball and then went straight forward.

Outside the penalty area, Delph was passed one-two, and he could only watch as Fabregas made an inverted triangle pass along the penalty area line to the ribs of the penalty area.

On the right side of the penalty spot, the ball arrives.

Hazard shoots at the ball.

Before approaching the goal post, Edson was already prepared, jumped to the right, and hit the ball with both hands with precision.

Kompany relayed the ball to the midfield to make a clearance.

Seeing this scene on the sidelines, Conte jumped his feet angrily.

He felt that Hazard was a little anxious to handle the ball.

Obviously there is no one around to watch, so he should not hit directly with his right foot, but should stop and switch to his left foot to push the far lower corner of the goal.

At this moment, Atkinson blew his whistle and stopped the game directly, indicating that someone on the field was injured.

Conte looked towards the middle circle and saw Costa fell to the ground, his heart skipped a beat.