Legendary Broker

Entering the year 2000, we have already entered the 21st century.The development of European football is also becoming more and more obvious.If it is said that European football in the late 90s and early 21st century can still have an era when strong teams such as Valencia, Deportivo, Lazio, Rome, Leverkusen, and Dortmund were rampant for a while.Then after entering the 21st century, these strong teams will slowly decline.Because the Bosman Act first searched for good players in the small leagues such as the Eredivisie and Ligue [-], and then the giants began to bully those European teams that were fighting against them.

European football in the 21st century is an era in which the gap between the rich and the poor is truly widening.The strength of the giants is getting stronger and stronger, they will divide most of the resources of European football, and they will gather good players into their clubs.And those strong teams that were able to compete with the giants before were all in trouble due to economic reasons.Unless they have the support of the oil consortium, many strong teams are about to go bankrupt and cannot sustain it at all.

The future of European football is the era of giants.But for the current Rist, that is still a relatively distant day.During this period of time, nothing happened, so Rist was able to catch his breath.Rist took advantage of this time to sort out his nearly six-year career as an agent.Also see how it develops later.So I have been too lazy to move and stayed in Prague for a while.

But today is different.Rist finally got himself moving again and came to Spain.Because there is an important game waiting for Rist.

"Jaime, how is Raphael?"

"It's far better than we thought it would be."

Otti looked at Benitez below, and remembered the matter of choosing Benitez.At that time, Otti was thinking of inviting Cooper as a coach.Later, the choice of Benitez was completely a mistake, the product of compromise between all parties.But this season, Benitez's strength is not too bad.

At present, Valencia is still ranked No.3 in La Liga, only one point less than No.2 Barcelona, ​​and seven points less than La Coruña, which is ranked first.Recently, Barcelona's state is not very good, and they often lose points against underdogs.Judging from the current situation, many people think that Barcelona can't even keep the No.2 position.

And now Valencia has passed the second round of the Champions League group stage and entered the quarterfinals of the Champions League.The opponent I encountered was Lazio from Italy.Today is the first game of the Champions League quarter-finals. Valencia will face Lazio at home.

Cortes is the chairman of Valencia and Llorente is the general manager of Valencia, but they usually don't appear on the scene.Every time the scene is Otti watching the game on behalf of Valencia.It's like Otti is the chairman of Valencia.But it is true.Otti as Valencia's sporting director.The right is no different from the chairman of the club.

"Mr. Ottie, hello."

While the two were chatting, Craniotti walked in.Because Lopez's negotiations were relatively smooth, Craniotti was very friendly to Otti.

"Rist. You're here too."

See Craniotti come in.Both Rist and Otti stood up to say hello.Craniotti doesn't care about people.One thing is undeniable.This buddy has money and can spend money.For example, if Lopez is sold to other clubs, even if it is sold to Inter Milan, it may not necessarily exceed 3000 million euros.But sold to Lazio.The sale to Craniotti cost more than 3000 million euros.

"Today is an important game, of course I will come and see."

…………

"Dududu-"

"The Champions League quarter-finals have begun. The two sides are Valencia in La Liga and Lazio in Serie A. Today is the first match of the knockout round at Valencia's home stadium, the Mestalla Stadium."

"Look at the starting lineups of both sides. Starting from the away team, the goalkeeper is Marchegiani, the defense is Favalli, Nesta, Mihajlovic, Negro, the midfielder is Nedved, Veron, Simeone, Conceicao, Salas and Simeone Inzaghi up front."

"Look at Valencia's starting lineup. Canizares in goal, Caboni, Pellegrino, Ayala, Angloma in defense, Makelele, Alberto in midfield. Da, Gerard, Mendieta, Lopez, the striker is Jan Koller. Since defeating Bayern in the fifth game of the first round of the group stage, coach Benitez has been using this style of play in the Champions League."

After nearly a season of play, Benitez has begun to slowly explore the best way to play in Valencia.Angulo, who was still the main force at the beginning of the season, was taken down by Benitez, and Gerard began to be reused in the midfield.

Now Valencia's style of play is 4-5-1, using Makelele and Albelda as a double midfielder, and Herald has become an all-around midfielder.Gerald can go up and down, up can ambush behind Jan Koller and shoot, back can protect the back line with Makelele and Albelda.The original Valencia frontcourt core Mendieta was squeezed to the right midfielder position by Gerard, and Lopez also started to play the left midfielder and left forward position.

At the beginning, Benitez's style of play was ugly.But with the training these days, Benitez has slowly figured out a style of play.Way to win.More importantly, as everyone gets familiar with this style of play, everyone's tacit understanding is getting better and better.

Playing cup games is definitely Benitez's strength.Before the game against Lazio, he had already arranged a series of targeted plays against Lazio.And you can think of Benitez as a conservative coach, but he is definitely not the kind of coach who doesn't know how to adapt.After the start of the game, Valencia suddenly stepped up their offense at home.

Moreover, Valencia's offense is not as conventional as before.Instead, he hit Lazio's left all of a sudden, and not with Mendieta.Although Mendieta played well as a right midfielder, he is not a real winger after all.He has breakthroughs and crosses on the wing, but lacks speed.Therefore, it cannot be regarded as a real wing attack player.

So Benitez chose another style of play.The breakthrough point chosen was the right, but he took advantage of Jan Koller's sudden pull to the right.Then he used the high-altitude ball to suddenly hit Favalli.Favalli was stunned at once.

"Albelda, pass the ball to Gerard. Gerard, pass the ball... Jan Koller, head back!"

Valencia had never played this tactic.This is the first time Benitez has used it against Lazio. Gerald has become the core of the midfield in the hands of Benitez.The degree of reuse exceeds that of Mendieta and Albelda.

It is really because Herald's defense, ball control and passing are excellent, and he is a very comprehensive midfielder.As the season progresses, Herald's role is getting bigger and bigger.In this game, they stood in front of Makelele and Albelda in the midfield, completely dominating Valencia's offense and defense.

When Albelda handed the ball to Gerard, Gerard directly transferred the ball to the right with a long pass.According to the original style of play, the ball should have been given to Mendieta on the right.But at this time it was Jan Koller who came to the right, and Jan Koller leaned against Favalli.Favalli is 1.8 meters tall, and there is no way to be pushed behind by Jan Koller.Jan Koller saw Herald's high-altitude ball and calmly headed it back.

When Jan Koller came to the right to help, Mendieta was already running along the right, and just received Jan Koller's header while running.This is a very simple cooperation, but because Jan Koller rarely runs to the side, Favalli didn't think of it at all.Before the game, Eriksson always emphasized how Nesta and Mikhailovich defended Jan Koller's header. He never studied the situation of Jan Koller running to the wing.

But because Jan Koller suddenly went to the right to support, he penetrated Favalli's defensive left.When Mendieta got the ball, there was no one around him.Mendieta's speed was not fast, but because it was too sudden this time, no one came to defend him at all.Favalli was completely left behind.

"Mendieta, Mendieta is in the past. Nesta, Nesta is out. Mendieta, cross!!!"

Lazio's defensive strength is very good.Nesta saw that Favalli had lost his position, so he hurried out to make up for it.Mendieta cannot be allowed to continue to advance, and Mendieta saw Nesta come out and it was a cross directly.Nesta is a very good defender, but Mendieta is not bad either.But Mendieta didn't want to get entangled with Nesta because he didn't want to waste time.So immediately it was a cross.

At this time, we can see Valencia's current tactical play.Lopez appears to be a left midfielder, but whenever he gets the chance, he will go straight into the penalty area.He looks like a left-winger because he plays on the left, but he plays more like a left-winger.This time Jan Koller ran to the right, and Lopez inserted into the penalty area.

It stands to reason that it is Negro's responsibility to defend Lopez, but unfortunately, because Lopez's insertion was too sudden, Negro did not keep up.Therefore, Mikhailovich can only follow Lopez.

It's a pity that Mendieta's cross did not reach the penalty area, but took an arc to the vicinity of the penalty area.Mendieta is not an authentic winger, but he was able to squeeze out Angulo because of his excellent technique and crossing ability.

"Herald, this is Herald. Simeone was on the side but couldn't keep up with Herald. Herald shook his head and attacked the goal!"

"gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Only 6 minutes into the game, Valencia had already led Lazio 6-[-] at home in [-] minutes. This attack was very simple, but it broke through the strong Lazio defense. Herald is already his Champions League game. The fifth goal." (To be continued...)