Chapter 499: 41 wins over Atletico Madrid, Manchester City aims to win three consecutive Champions L

Simeone, like the fans in the stands, was also confused by Guardiola's arrangement.

He had never seen this type of play before.

However, the more unfamiliar things he saw, the more worried he was.

So, after Fernando came on the field, he stared at the opponent, wanting to see what kind of medicine Guardiola was selling in the gourd.

Fernando is tall and strong. Although it is a bit unbelievable to use a defensive midfielder as a forward, with his physique, it might be possible.

With his height alone, he is more threatening than the players in Manchester City's frontcourt when fighting for headers in the penalty area.

Manchester City lacks high center forwards. Aguero, Lin Quan, David Silva, De Bruyne, Kante, Son Heung-min and others are not very tall, or even a little short.

The height disadvantage means that Manchester City rarely cooperates with the ball when attacking in the frontcourt, and will not allow forwards to compete for headers in the penalty area.

But with Fernando's height, he has every chance to compete.

Could it be that Guardiola saw that our Atletico Madrid defense was impregnable and planned to change his mind?

Although he was not sure if this was true, he had to be on guard.

So Simeone called Juanfran over and whispered in his ear, telling him to pass on to his teammates after he came on the field, telling them to be careful of Manchester City's header.

However, what disappointed Simeone was that although Fernando stood in the forward position, he did not perform the duties of a forward at all.

On the contrary, he still performs his duties as a defensive midfielder, which is to sweep and intercept in a large area.

The only difference is that he seems to be sweeping and intercepting in the wrong areas.

Fernando did not show off his power in Manchester City's half, but instead ran into Atletico Madrid's half and went crazy.

At Atletico Madrid, whoever has the ball, he goes up to grab it, regardless of whether he can grab it or not, he chases the ball everywhere like a mad dog.

Under normal circumstances, Atletico Madrid players could keep passing the ball and walk him like a dog until he vomits blood.

However, the game time is now close to eighty minutes. After fighting hard for a whole game, their physical fitness has reached a bottleneck.

What's more, Fernando is not fighting alone. When he was frantically pressing his opponent, other Manchester City players also joined in.

Unknowingly, Atletico Madrid was suppressed in their own half and unable to get out.

As for Manchester City's players, almost all of them entered Atletico Madrid's half. Even the goalkeeper appeared near the center circle, and his role has changed from goalkeeper to sweeper.

If the opponent only has a few people in the frontcourt pressing crazily, Atletico Madrid players can still cope with it.

But when the entire opponent's team rushed forward and pressed hard, they really couldn't handle it.

In theory, when the opponent presses hard, it is a perfect opportunity for Atletico to launch a counterattack.

However, at this time, Atletico Madrid's players simply couldn't attack.

Firstly, they no longer have the strength to run, and secondly, those who were robbed by the opponent are numb.

They have always pressed others from a high position, but now they are being pressed harder by others from a high position. Atletico Madrid's players seem very uncomfortable.

It turns out that this is how our opponents feel when facing our high-position press!

This feeling is really unpleasant!

Atletico Madrid's players were exhausted and could not withstand Manchester City's crazy pressing. Since Manchester City's players were all in the opponent's half, they could immediately pose a threat to Atletico Madrid's goal after stealing the ball.

For a time, there was a tremor in front of Atletico Madrid, and Oblak had already made several thrilling saves in a row.

But even so, the danger in front of Atletico Madrid has not been resolved, but is getting worse.

On the sidelines, Simeone was stunned!

He felt that he had been stolen from Guardiola. Wasn't the opponent using the tactics he was good at?

Even if you use this trick to deal with yourself, you have also upgraded this tactic to make it even crazier and more terrifying!

Guardiola is truly terrifying.

"We didn't understand Guardiola's substitutions, but Manchester City seemed to be completely dominant on the court. Atletico Madrid's goal was in turmoil and in danger of being breached at any time!"

Eighty minutes into the game, Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Oblak became the busiest person on the court.

Although he was in excellent form, he blocked Manchester City's attacks with high passes.

But if you hold on for too long, you will lose. What is supposed to come will come.

In the 85th minute, Son Heung-min sent a cross from the wing. Atletico Madrid's defensive player in the penalty area grabbed the first shot and pushed the ball out.

But unfortunately, there were Manchester City players on the outside, and the ball fell to Kroos.

Cross glanced at the goal and took a long shot.

Oblak once again made a divine save and lifted the ball over the crossbar with one palm.

The shocked Atletico Madrid defenders stepped forward to hug their goalkeeper and praise him for the wonderful save that saved the day.

However, this round of attack by Manchester City was not over yet. Lin Quan personally took the corner kick.

He glanced at the positions of the players on both sides in the penalty area and made a gesture to point forward.

Son Heung-min, who was standing on the line of the penalty area, understood this and took advantage of the opportunity when the opponent's players focused their attention on the tall Manchester City players in the penalty area. He suddenly moved forward and ran to the left side of the penalty area.

And just as he was running, Lin Quan's ball arrived as expected, completing the relay in the air, and then Sun Xingmin gently touched it, changing the flight path of the ball, and bounced into the net along the lower right corner of the goal. (Refer to the second goal of the National Football Team VS South Korea)

Oblak had nothing to do about this header. He stood at the near end, but the opponent hit the far corner. No matter how brave he was, he couldn't reach it.

The score became 3:1, and Manchester City's lead was re-expanded to two goals.

However, compared with the score of 2:0, the advantage of 3:1 is relatively small. The opponent's away goal is very crucial.

Therefore, after re-expanding their lead, Manchester City was not satisfied.

Instead, after tasting the sweetness, they continued or even strengthened the previous tactics and pressed Atletico Madrid even more crazily.

The tens of thousands of Blue Moon fans at the Etihad Stadium also gave out deafening cheers to build momentum for their team!

Facing Manchester City's crazy attack, Atletico Madrid's players felt like they were living like a year in the final moments of the game.

They felt as if time had been stretched infinitely, and the last five minutes were as long as several hours!

Finally got through the last five minutes of regular time, but when the fourth official raised the injury time card and announced that the game would go into five minutes of injury time, the spirit of Atletico Madrid's players was really Going to collapse!

Why is five minutes of added time so long?

If they could only make up for two or three minutes, they could grit their teeth and persevere a little longer.

But how can they persist in five minutes?

Home whistle, this must be the home whistle given by Manchester City after they bribed the referee!

However, this is not the case. The main reason why the referee gave such a long injury time was because the two teams committed too many fouls and wasted too much time.

The two teams received a total of 7 yellow cards in this game. In the first half, Atletico Madrid committed more fouls, and in the second half, Manchester City committed more fouls.

With so many yellow cards and so many fouls, it was reasonable to give him five minutes of injury time. He even felt that it was less!

Atletico Madrid's defense is very strong, this is something everyone knows.

But another thing that is overlooked is that Atletico Madrid's strong defense is based on running without hesitation.

However, what is sown is what bears fruit.

The end result of not sparing no effort in pressing high is physical problems at the end of the game.

And the longer it goes on, the more serious the problem becomes.

Obviously, the physical fitness of Atletico Madrid players is on the verge of collapse at this time.

Starting from the 75th minute of the second half, Atletico Madrid players began to have cramps and lay down on the grass.

Eighty minutes later, this situation became more frequent.

Firstly, they were really tired and cramped, and secondly, they were using the lying-on-grass tactic to delay time.

But no matter what, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Atletico Madrid's players can't run anymore.

Compared with them, Manchester City, which only exerted its strength in the second half and was well prepared, is in a much better situation.

Their defensive players were also very tired, but most of the offensive players were replaced only in the second half. At this time, they were full of energy and high in fighting spirit.

Therefore, they took advantage of the opportunity when Atletico Madrid's players could no longer run and their defensive quality plummeted.

Manchester City frantically attacked the opponent's goal in stoppage time. In the end, De Bruyne, who came on as a substitute, made another contribution in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, using a world wave to help the team fix the score at 4:1!

This score has basically announced that Manchester City has entered the final!

In the history of the Champions League, after being behind by three goals in the first round, there has only been one situation where the second round came back and advanced, and that was Super Deportivo - La Luconia in the Champions League quarter-finals in the 2003-2004 season. , after losing 1:4 in the first round, they returned to home court in the second round and beat AC Milan 4:0 cleanly, completing an epic comeback!

Some other teams also encountered this kind of score, but without exception they all failed!

The most recent examples are Real Madrid and Barcelona. In the 2012-2013 Champions League semi-finals, both teams lost more than three goals in the first leg of their away games.

As a result, Real Madrid almost succeeded in a comeback in the second round, while Barcelona was directly humiliated by Bayern 7:0!

Strong players like Real Madrid and Barcelona have failed to create miracles, which shows how difficult it is to break this curse!

What's more, for a team like Atletico Madrid that is stronger in defense than offense, allowing them to score more than three goals in a game is simply difficult for them!

The players of Atletico Madrid obviously knew what this score represented. When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, Atletico Madrid's No. 7 Griezmann's eyes turned red involuntarily.

The taste of failure was so bitter that he couldn't control his tear ducts.

His performance in this game was not good, although he contributed a very threatening long shot in the first half.

But when Manchester City used Kanter to target him, his performance was greatly restricted and he rarely performed well.

This is obviously sorry for his worth and his core position in the team!

I'm afraid of comparison in everything. He is also the core of the team. Lin Quan's performance in this game can be said to be three ways ahead of him.

And as an Atletico Madrid player, he knew very well how many targeted arrangements Atletico Madrid had made to limit Lin Quan's performance.

But even under such severe restrictions, Lin Quan still performed well with one shot and two passes.

This is what hit Griezmann the most!

Just as Griezmann lowered his head to wipe away tears, he felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

Turning around, he was shocked to find that the person behind him was Lin Quan.

Lin Quan smiled and said, "Want to exchange jerseys?"

Griezmann was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect that the other party would take the initiative to exchange jerseys with him.

But he quickly realized that the opportunity was too good to miss and would never come back.

I don’t know when it will be until the next time I fight Lin Quan again.

"OK, all right!"

Griezmann quickly took off his jersey and handed it to Lin Quan.

"You performed well, go back and keep working hard, and look forward to the next fight!"

"I will, I will never lose to you next time!"

Griezmann clenched his fists. He would not show weakness easily in front of his idol!

After the two completed the exchange, Lin Quan nodded to Griezmann and was about to leave, but suddenly thought of something, turned back and said solemnly:

"If Barcelona wants to buy you, think carefully!"

After saying that, Lin Quan turned around and left.

It's enough to remind him that his relationship with Griezmann is not deep, so I won't go into it in depth.

I believe Griezmann is also a smart man and knows that his position and role on the court overlap with players like Messi. Under such circumstances, joining Barcelona rashly will definitely not be a good thing for him.

After all, as long as Messi himself does not retire or leave Barcelona, ​​it will be difficult for anyone to replace his tactical position in Barcelona.

As a result, Griezmann, who is in the same position, can only sacrifice himself.

…

After Manchester City defeated Atletico Madrid at home, major media outlets rushed to report on it, and fans were also discussing it enthusiastically on forums and social media.

"I thought Manchester City would win, but I never thought it would be with this score!"

"Yeah, that's Atletico Madrid, the best defensive team in La Liga and even the five major leagues. Bayern had nothing in front of them, but in this game, Manchester City gave up 4 goals. This group of Manchester City players What kind of monsters are they?"

"Just looking at the first 75 minutes, it was actually not bad, but at the end of the game, Manchester City took advantage of Atletico Madrid's team's reduced physical fitness to strike hard and directly KO Atletico Madrid!"

"Alas, Guardiola still holds a grudge. The last time he led Bayern to a clean sheet by Atletico Madrid, this time he not only succeeded in revenge, but also tortured Atletico Madrid so miserably. In the last ten minutes of the game, Manchester City simply pressed Atletico Madrid to the ground and rubbed them. , that scene was simply not too brutal, I feel sorry for Atletico Madrid!"

"Poor Griezmann was beaten to tears by Manchester City!"

"I feel sorry for Gezi for a second!"

"With this score, it will be difficult for Atletico Madrid to play the next game!"

As soon as the 4:1 result came out, the outside world naturally looked down upon Atletico Madrid.

Some optimistic Manchester City fans have even opened the champagne in advance:

"Haha, I announce that the semi-finals are over and Manchester City is about to win three consecutive Champions League titles!"