Chapter 142
Players from both teams entered the stadium.
Fans in the stands of the Etihad Stadium cheered for their team.
They were eager for the Blue Moon Army to win the league title again after a major change this season. They were even more eager to go one step further in the Champions League.
This game was undoubtedly a key one to test Manchester City's quality.
Chelsea, this team has had very ups and downs in performance.
They can complete the reconstruction in just two years, winning the league championship and the Champions League, and they can also quickly slide down in a year, and even miss the top four.
But at least now they are the defending champions. They are the strongest defensive team in the Premier League.
If they can beat Chelsea, it will be a huge encouragement for Manchester City players and Manchester City fans. It will also allow Guardiola to gain the support of Manchester City fans.
In the stands, there were already fans shouting Manchester City's slogans in unison.
"The pride of war".
Soon, the whole stands rang out Manchester City's team song.
"Blue Moon".
The song was shocking and full of passion.
The live broadcast of Xinxing Sports officially began.
Zhan Lu introduced the starting lineups of both teams.
"Chelsea still uses the 4231 formation. This formation can deploy a large number of players in a short period of time on the offensive end, and the defensive position is very fast and stable.
There are almost no shortcomings, and it is very popular with some top coaches.
At the forefront is the familiar and handsome Costa.
Costa is a very fierce player, and he has some fine traditions of South American players. He likes to use some small actions to irritate the opponent.
Standing behind him are Hazard, William, and Ramires."
At this time, Hazard is a rising star.
Known as the King of London, he is a brother of Burger King who later joined Real Madrid.
(I seriously suspect that someone's soul has traveled through Hazard, and the system has not been activated, causing Burger King's condition to seriously decline)
"The double defensive midfielders are Mathis and Fabregas."
Fabregas, Messi's best friend and former captain of Arsenal, nicknamed"loyalty and justice", is one of the four gentlemen of the Gunners, and is different from Nasri who is currently playing for Manchester City.
Nasri only cares about money, but Fabregas is different. From his nickname, we can see that Fabregas attaches the most importance to the word"loyalty and justice" in his life. He regards money as dirt. In order to meet Messi and play football together, he paid Arsenal's money and transferred to Barcelona.
In the end, he was also kicked out of Barcelona. Many years later, his good brother Messi was also kicked out of Barcelona.
At the beginning, a large number of Messi fans mocked Ronaldo for being kicked out of Real Madrid by Florentino, but they didn't expect that they would suffer retribution a few years later and Messi was also kicked out.
The difference is that Ronaldo didn't cry, but Messi cried miserably.
Just like Ronaldo fans laughed at Argentina losing to Germany and Messi won the World Cup runner-up. Many years later, Portugal encountered Morocco in the World Cup. Ronaldo fans were overjoyed to loan to the semi-finals, but they were eliminated by Morocco as if it was a game.
Ronaldo cried like Messi who was kicked out by Barcelona. It was so miserable.
Ronaldo has never touched the grass of the World Cup final in his life, let alone won the runner-up
"On the defensive line, captain Terry and Cahill are the double central defenders, with Azpilicueta and Ivanovic on both sides.
Goalkeeper Begovic!"
"Manchester City's starting lineup... Guardiola... sent out a very strange formation!
It's a 3241!
3421 is a relatively mature system, and everyone should have heard of it, but the 3241 formation... really... seems to have an impression, but I have never seen it in a formal game!
Guardiola is really brave!
In such a crucial game with Chelsea, he actually changed the formation to form such a strange lineup!
At the forefront is Manchester City's No. 10 Aguero!
The four offensive frontcourt players behind are De Bruyne, David Silva, Zhao Yi, and Sterling!
Zhao Yi can indeed play this position in Wolves, and today we can also take a good look at Zhao Yi's performance in this position.
The double defensive midfielder is still Fernandinho and Gundogan.
The three central defenders in the back are Kolarov, Kompany, and Otamendi.
The goalkeeper is Joe Hart.
This formation is undoubtedly a huge test for the back line.
Kompany should be able to adapt to the three-center-back system, but Otamendi and Kolarov... It's really a bit suspenseful!"
Manchester City picked the side and Chelsea got the ball.
As the referee blew the whistle, the game between the two sides officially began.
Fabregas received the ball and organized the attack.
No matter how Arsenal fans scolded Fabregas, no fan had ever questioned his organization and passing ability as a midfielder.
Manchester City quickly organized the frontcourt press.
In their home court, Manchester City played very actively.
Zhao Yi quickened his pace and pressed forward.
Fabregas still had some ideas of competing with Zhao Yi, the super rookie, and directly pulled the ball to start.
Using the change of center of gravity, he successfully broke through from the front.
However, David Silva's defense was very fast, and Fabregas did not continue to break through. He kicked the ball to Matic.
Matic stopped the ball with his left foot, looked up and observed the front. There was an English player in front. The king of men, Hazard.
This wing is Chelsea's strong point.
Hazard was running, and Fabregas was shouting to remind him.
Matic saw from the corner of his eye that Zhao Yi had rushed towards him, and at the same time, Gundogan in front of him was also pressing forward.
Matic could only half turn around to protect the ball, and all forward passing routes were instantly strangled by Zhao Yi and Gundogan.
He could only keep his head down, forcefully turn around, and kick Azpilicueta who was waiting behind him.
Zhao Yi used all his strength to chase back.
His defense was not good, but Chelsea's players didn't know that.
Azpilicueta held the ball with his back, and seeing Zhao Yi chasing him at all costs, he could only quickly push the ball to the goalkeeper who was waiting.
Immediately, Aguero rushed towards goalkeeper Begovic.
Begovic didn't have time to observe his teammates' positions.���, kicked the ball towards Manchester City's half.
At this time, there was a burst of applause in the stands of the Etihad Stadium.
These fans were obviously very positive about the active pressing of Zhao Yi, Silva and Aguero.
Manchester City's pressing in the front court made it difficult for Chelsea to organize people to attack.
And Manchester City's offense also fell into Chelsea's dense defense.
Chelsea is not only the back line, but also Costa in front will return to the backcourt to defend.
The defense of the whole team is as solid as a rock, making it difficult for Manchester City to find opportunities.
So Manchester City looked very fierce, which made Chelsea's rhythm very chaotic.
But the real substantial threat did not arise.
Twelve minutes into the game, Chelsea did not have a single shot.
And Manchester City's five frontcourt players, plus Gundogan and Kompany who often inserted, only Aguero had a not very decent shot.
Zhao Yi and Silva often have problems with their positioning and running positions.
Obviously, this is the first time this formation is used, and the cooperation between the players is not tacit.
"Chelsea's attack this time! Fabregas! Zhao Yi still has some difficulty defending Fabregas!"
Fabregas got the ball in the backcourt and suddenly started. The previous few breakthroughs with the ball had allowed him to understand the general defensive thinking of Manchester City's frontcourt players.
This time Fabregas rushed directly from the right to the left.
He passed Zhao Yi and Gundogan in succession.
Then he passed the ball to Matic.
The two-on-one cooperation between him and Matic was very perfect to pass Fernandinho who was defending.
"Chelsea's counterattack was very well planned!"Fabregas made a straight pass before Zhao Yi caught up and William got the ball.
Manchester City's defense was not solid.
Costa, Hazard and Ramires were all running and pulling, which made Manchester City's defense a little stretched.
When Gundogan wanted to force William to make a mistake, William's ball was already at Hazard's feet.
Hazard is not tall, has a low chassis, and dribbles very frequently.
It is very difficult for Otamendi to defend him.
Hazard dribbled forward, broke through continuously, and then suddenly cut in laterally..
This forced Kompany to fill in the position.
Then Hazard suddenly made a detent and kicked the ball out.
Instead of shooting, he stuffed the ball into the penalty area!
Costa, who has a very strong ability to fight, stopped the ball and held Kolarov tightly.
At this time, Costa got a chance to shoot, just like Ultraman, and it was absolutely impossible to be pushed down.
He turned half-way and didn't even need to look at the goal, and shot directly!
Joe Hart's reaction was okay, but he was short and couldn't touch the ball when he jumped out.
The football hit the bottom right corner of the goal!
1:0!
Chelsea, who played away, shot the first goal of the game and the first shot on target.
A goal was scored!
