Chapter 381 The pinnacle battle, Manchester City VS Bayern

On the day of the game, the Etihad Stadium was packed with seats, and most of the stands in the stadium were filled by Manchester City fans wearing sky blue jerseys.

There are actually a lot of Bayern fans traveling with the team, but the Etihad Stadium is much smaller than the Allianz Arena and has fewer seats, so tickets are not easy to grab.

Fans of the away team were only allocated 3,000 tickets for the away team. The remaining fans could not get tickets at all and could only watch the game outside the stadium.

In addition to the fans of the two teams who came to watch the game, the game also attracted hundreds of millions of fans in Europe and around the world to watch the live broadcast.

Looking at the soaring ratings backstage, UEFA officials were all smiles.

This season's Champions League broadcast ratings are so high, which means that their income from broadcast rights will also increase next season.

Higher income means more generous game bonuses. When the time comes, teams in major leagues will try their best to compete in the Champions League in order to compete for bonuses, and the appeal of the Champions League will become even stronger.

UEFA is very ambitious. They have never been willing to be suppressed by FIFA. They want to use their strong financial resources and influence to get rid of FIFA's control and be on an equal footing with the other party.

To achieve this goal, it is necessary to further increase the influence of UEFA and let more people know about their existence.

"Haha, it seems that everyone is looking forward to these two teams joining forces to give everyone a wonderful performance!"

"Yes, both Manchester City and Bayern are good at attacking. The collision between these two teams will definitely be very exciting. Just thinking about it is very exciting!"

In the CCTV live broadcast room, seeing so many viewers coming to the scene, the two commentators became excited.

They quickly introduced the starting lineups of both sides, and then started chatting before the game started.

"Guardiola has used the midfielder tactic in the league before. This tactic showed terrifying offensive strength. However, it is rare for him to use it in the Champions League. I don't know about this game. Guardiola Will you use this tactic!?"

"It's hard to say. The outside world has analyzed that this tactic will weaken the defensive ability of the wing, and Bayern happens to have the two top wingers. Flying together on both wings is Bayern's specialty. If Guardiola really uses this tactic to If you deal with Bayern, you might play into Bayern's hands."

"Yes, what you said makes sense. If Bayern scores too many away goals in this game, it will definitely not be a good thing for Manchester City. After all, Bayern's combat effectiveness at the Allianz Arena is obvious to all!"

…

Since the result of this game is likely to determine who will advance to the finals, the two teams in the other half also sent people to watch the game.

Real Madrid sent French legend Zidane, who is now Real Madrid's assistant coach.

Zidane studied under Ancelotti for a year and this year has begun to take charge of the Real Madrid B team.

He is the focus of Real Madrid's training and is a candidate who plans to take over Real Madrid's coaching position after Ancelotti leaves.

An important game like the Champions League semi-finals is a learning opportunity not to be missed for Zidane, who urgently needs to improve his coaching knowledge and experience.

"Heynckes' tactics are very open and combined. When attacking, he advances very quickly. When defending, he intercepts layer by layer and retreats with all players.

Coupled with Bayern's full-court press and active running with the help of abnormal physical strength, as well as the extremely fast offensive and defensive transition after a successful interception, once the opponent cannot keep up with their rhythm, they will easily score a very exaggerated score and be massacred. Just like Porto who was beaten 8:1 before. "

Zidane summarized the characteristics of Bayern under Heynckes, and he couldn't help but feel awe of Mr. Hai.

"As for Guardiola, his team has implemented tactics to the extreme. The position of each player on the field, how to stand when attacking, how to pass the ball, how to run, how to intercept when defending, how to help defend, how to Protection, etc., are all arranged in detail.

The entire team has been built into a sophisticated machine by Guardiola, running at high speed and stability according to his intentions.

The coaching styles and characteristics of these two people are very different, but each has its own uniqueness and merits. I can learn useful things from them to improve my own tactical play. "

Just as Qida was thinking about these things in his heart, the referee sounded the whistle to start the game.

As soon as the game started, Bayern's players began to rush towards Manchester City's half.

They came three days in advance to prepare for the game. The players were very physically fit and started pressing Manchester City in the frontcourt as soon as they came up.

Bayern's pressing is not the individual behavior of a certain player, but the collective behavior of the entire team.

After a Manchester City player receives the ball, as long as he delays for a moment, he will immediately be surrounded by several Bayern players.

These people have a clear division of labor. Some cut off the passing routes of Manchester City players, some step forward to press, some cooperate with double-teaming, and are ready to counterattack immediately once the press is successful.

Frontcourt pressing and quick transition between offense and defense are the specialty of Bayern under Heynckes.

Guardiola originally planned to control the rhythm of the game at the beginning of the game, test the opponent's strength with several attacks, and find the weaknesses of the opponent's defense.

But he didn't expect that the opponent would be so proactive in the away game, which caught Manchester City off guard.

In the first ten minutes of the game, Manchester City played very passively. The players were not used to Bayern's pressing style and made several mistakes when passing the ball.

Fortunately, Guardiola made key defensive arrangements before the game. Manchester City's players immediately counterattacked after losing the ball. If they couldn't steal it, they immediately fouled, which did not give Bayern a good chance.

Ten minutes later, Manchester City's players gradually adapted to the opponent's rhythm, and they began to speed up passing, receiving and running.

Seeing the opponent speeding up the pass, Heynckes immediately cheered up and stared at the court with lightning eyes.

Manchester City speeded up the tempo of the game, which was within his expectation, because Bayern's tactics originally forced their opponents to speed up.

Once the opponent speeds up, the turnover rate will inevitably increase greatly. At that time, Bayern will be able to seize the opportunity of the opponent's mistakes to launch a fierce attack, and then create scoring opportunities.

Bayern has played this kind of fast-paced game a lot, and the players are very adaptable to it.

Two years ago, they used this tactic to defeat the Cosmos team Barcelona and scored a 7:0 score that shocked the world!

Barcelona is the pinnacle of passing football, and even they were defeated by Bayern. Heynckes does not believe that Guardiola's Manchester City can persist. After all, Guardiola has not been in Manchester City for a long time.

His transformation of Manchester City has not yet been completely completed. Manchester City at this time may not be better than Barcelona 2 years ago.

On the Manchester City coaching bench, Guardiola couldn't help but stand up after seeing the pace of the game suddenly speeding up.

He has coached Bayern, and of course he knows how powerful Bayern's style of play is.

Therefore, it is actually his arrangement to let the players speed up the pace of the game.

Most of the teams that were slaughtered by Bayern were defeated because they could not keep up with the opponent's game rhythm, especially the extreme offensive and defensive transition rhythm.

But as long as the opponent can keep up with Bayern's rhythm, the power of Bayern's tactics will naturally be greatly reduced.

There are not no teams that can withstand Bayern's offensive. Dortmund has done it before.

The Dortmund team a few years ago, under the leadership of Klopp, played a youth storm. Their game rhythm was also very fast, and the players were also flying all over the field and running with all their strength.

Therefore, Bayern's move did not work against Dortmund. The two sides fought quickly to see who could stab the other first.

Dortmund, whose lineup is younger and more impactful, has taken advantage more often.

The average age of Manchester City's lineup is around 25.5 years old. Although it is not as young as Dortmund's team, it is definitely not old.

Moreover, their players are all top players in various positions. Both in terms of personal strength and game experience, they are much better than ordinary players.

Therefore, they may not be unable to keep up with Bayern's pace.

Guardiola's judgment was correct. After Manchester City took the initiative to speed up, although the players' turnover rate increased a lot, they were not dragged down.

After adapting to the accelerated pace of the game, Manchester City's turnover rate immediately dropped.

"Sure enough, there are two brushes. It seems that it is impossible to easily defeat Manchester City with this method!"

Seeing his opponent keeping up with his own rhythm, Heynckes' eyes were filled with approval.

If Manchester City is too weak and is defeated so easily by Bayern, it may not be a good thing for Bayern.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are both the top teams in football, and the winner between them is definitely not that easy to deal with.

If Bayern wins too easily in the semi-finals and fails to improve their condition to the best, they may not be able to win when they encounter the winner between these two teams in the final.

But if they go through a hard battle with Manchester City, the players find their best form in the game, and they also find the weak links of their team through the grindstone of Manchester City.

Then in the final, Bayern will undoubtedly become stronger!

This is like building up momentum, rising from the trough little by little, and when you reach the top, you will face the final battle.

Simply speeding up the pace of the game has no effect, so what about adding this trick?

Heynckes stood up from the coaching bench, walked to the sidelines, and made tactical gestures to the Bayern players on the court.

Bayern is about to use its ultimate move!

After Bayern's players saw Heynckes' gesture, they immediately began to make adjustments.

In the following games, it was obvious that Bayern's offense was more concentrated on the two wings.

Bayern's two wings are undoubtedly the most threatening wings in Europe, and their two wingers are extremely strong individually.

And full-backs like Alaba and Lahm are very good at setting up assists.

The whole of Europe knows that Bayern's wing attack is very powerful, but just knowing it is useless because it is impossible to prevent it!

In the 33rd minute, Ribery broke through with the ball and passed the ball to Lahm. Lahm attracted the Manchester City full-back to defend and then sent a cross.

The quality of this pass was extremely high. Despite Kompany's confrontation, Lewandowski was able to stretch out his long legs and complete a kick.

Fortunately, Manchester City goalkeeper Navas was focused and saved his shot, resolving a crisis.

The Bayern fans who came to watch the game couldn't help but let out a sigh, and then applauded Lahm for passing the ball and Lewandowski for shooting.

On the other hand, Manchester City fans breathed a sigh of relief.

The opponent's forward is a bit strong. His body, his movement, and his skills with his feet all look pretty good.

I don’t know what’s going on with Dortmund. How can such a player be allowed to join Bayern for free?

Why not renew in advance?

Even if the other party is unwilling to renew the contract, is it okay to sell it in advance?

If a striker of this caliber is sold, the minimum guarantee must be 30 million euros, right?

And selling him to a team in another league is better than keeping him to disgust himself with his arch-rivals in the league, right?

The head coaches of both teams were applauding, and Heynckes was applauding the team's attack.

Although no goal was scored, the effect of this attack was achieved.

After this extremely threatening attack, Manchester City's right wing will definitely be more wary of their attack in the next period of time and will not dare to press too far forward.

Guardiola's applause obviously praised the players for completing this defense. Although the defense was not perfect, it was considered a success if it could prevent the opponent from scoring.

Bayern has two top wingers. After Ribery completed an attack, Robben also performed a wonderful personal performance on the other side.

In the 41st minute of the game, Robben broke through and cut inside.

This guy is relatively independent and doesn't like passing the ball very much. Once he reaches this position in front of the penalty area, he usually likes to shoot by himself.

Therefore, Manchester City's full-backs and central defenders are guarding Robben, preparing to interfere with his shot.

However, surprisingly, the lone ranger Robben did not shoot, but passed the ball to his teammates.

Bayern's full-back Alaba didn't know when he rushed over from the midfield. He quickly knocked the ball back to the center before Kolarov rushed to defend.

However, the ball was not passed to Robben. Robben was just a cover. The real killer was the shadow striker Thomas Muller who followed behind Robben!

After receiving the ball, Muller ran into the penalty area and passed the ball to Lewandowski before Van Dijk rushed up.

Lewandowski started quickly. After throwing away the defender, he took the first step to receive the ball in the crowd and aimed at the far corner of the goal to complete a shot.

Navas quickly fell to the ground to save, but the angle of the ball was very tricky and he did not touch the ball.

Just when Navas and the Manchester City fans were about to despair, a collision sound like a fairy sound sounded.

The football hit the post with a thud and bounced off the baseline.

Manchester City escaped!

Lewandowski couldn't help scratching his head when he saw that the ball didn't go in.

But Manchester City fans slapped their chests and breathed a sigh of relief.

However, anyone can see that Manchester City was suppressed by Bayern on the scene!