Chapter 80: Building a Wall

Capello was not satisfied with Roma's lineup. He did not hide this in front of the coaching staff and the club president Sensi.

Totti was alone in the midfield. He finally brought in Emerson, but he was seriously injured as soon as he arrived. Although there were two strikers with different styles, Batistuta and Montella, the problem was that the means of advancement were too dependent on Totti and Cafu, and the latter was a winger, so once it came to the offensive, Totti could be easily strangled.

In this case, if there was a player with excellent personal ability on the front line, he could share the pressure faced by Batistuta, and could also provide support when Totti was in trouble. With the addition of Emerson, Roma would be truly powerful at that time.

The league is different from the cup. There are 38 games in the league. If you lose one or two games, or even seven or eight games, it is not a big problem. The key is whether you can get more league points than your opponent in the end. Therefore, in the league, the difference between strong and weak teams often depends on the strength gap to affect the ranking.

But cup competitions are different. What matters most in cup competitions is the head coach's tactical and coordination abilities, as well as the team's adjustments before the game, because the key to winning a cup competition is still strength, but this strength is constrained by multiple factors such as luck, on-the-spot performance, and the head coach's tactical targeting.

Just like in this game, Roma's strength must be ahead of Ajax, but the problem is that Ajax's tactics restrict Roma, preventing Roma from taking the way they are best at to attack and play, so how much power can Roma exert?

This is why a large part of the cup champions often do not belong to the popular teams.

For example, Real Madrid, the 2000 Champions League champion, had a terrible performance in the league, and even asked Bosque to serve as a fire-fighting coach again halfway through. However, Bosque adjusted the team's tactics as soon as he came up. Although the performance in the league improved, it was also very average. Instead, it made great strides in the cup competition, eliminating many strong teams including Manchester United along the way.

"Fabio!" Assistant coach Italo Gabiati looked at Capello, who was frowning like a mountain, and reminded him: "Be careful of the opponent's two flanks!"

Capello did not turn back to look at his most capable assistant, but just nodded, walked to the sidelines, gestured and shouted to the players, asking them to pay more attention to the two flanks of Ajax. After all, Robben and Van der Meyde on the left and right sides are players with excellent attack and counterattack abilities, and they are very fast.

Turning is a major weakness of Roma's defense. For this reason, Capello specially tailored the defensive position of Samuel dragging back and Zago and Zebina forming a corner. This is to maximize the prevention of Roma's defense from being broken through by the opponent all at once.

But in this way, the weakness of the three defenders' own lack of flank defense has become even greater.

Therefore, Capello has always been pursuing a balanced strategy of suppressing the right-wing attack, and Candela and Delvecchio focusing on defense on the left. However, Ajax now obviously does not play according to the card. They press the defense line very high, and even close to the center circle in many cases.

Perhaps from the scene, there are many gaps behind Ajax, but the problem is that Roma cannot use them.

First of all, Roma lacks players with excellent speed and personal ability. Whether it is Batistuta or Montella, they are both center forwards. Their most threatening place is in the penalty area. Once they are far away from the penalty area, their role is very embarrassing. This is why Roma's positional warfare offense is always very tragic.

And lacking this type of player, Ajax adopts high-position defense. Batistuta now has to stay away from the goal, and the offensive threat can be imagined.

Another big problem is the interception strength of Ajax's midfield, especially after fully compressing the distance between the three lines, each line is kept very close to each other. Once the distance is slightly wider, Ye Qiu immediately gives reminders on the sidelines and asks the players to keep compact.

The distance was shortened, and Roma's players were obviously not used to this style of play, especially when they were suppressed by Ajax. There were many errors in passing and receiving the ball, and these errors all occurred in their own half, which was too dangerous.

Capello's final strategy was to let the midfield and backcourt pass more long passes.

This was a helpless solution, because many long passes basically fell into the hands of Ajax.

However, after all, it was Capello and Roma. When they wanted to defend, Roma's top defense line, which ranked second in Serie A defense, was not something that Ajax's young players could easily break through.

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"When you really see the defense of the top Serie A teams, you will find that your actions are so redundant, and the skills you are most proud of are completely useless!"

Ibrahimovic remembered that this was a sentence Van Basten said to him, and he didn't believe it at first.

But in this game, he believed it.

Because of his position, Ibrahimovic faced more Samuel and Zago in this game. The former is not tall and his air defense is a weakness, but his positional sense and stealing ability are excellent. As long as there is even a little bit of redundancy and delay in your technical movements when facing him, he will steal the ball without hesitation.

Ibrahimovic has already passed the ball to his opponent several times when facing Samuel. He feels that the short central defender he is facing is much more difficult than all the tall central defenders he has encountered in the past, and the two central defenders of PSV Eindhoven are no match for Samuel!

Originally, he thought that Brazilian central defender Zago should be easier to deal with, because he heard that Brazilian defensive players are more impatient, the most typical one is Lucio, who is very impatient, but when Ibrahimovic approached Zago and was closely guarded by the Brazilian central defender, he completely collapsed.

Many small movements are the typical style of Brazilian players, but his defense is very stable and experienced.

Could it be that all Italian defensive players are so powerful?

Ibrahimovic did not have extra time to think about this problem, because he had to consider how to break through this famous defense line of Serie A and score the ball into the opponent's goal.

Just when Ibrahimovic failed several times, Ye Qiu made adjustments on the sidelines.

"You come to be the wall, attack the left wing!" Ye Qiu gestured and lip-synced.

Ibrahimovic's first reaction after hearing this was unwillingness, because this kind of playing style that makes wedding clothes for others is not his habit, but when he saw Ye Qiu's serious expression on the sidelines, and thought about the importance of this game, he nodded to the head coach.

For some reason, he was still a little afraid of Ye Qiu!

On the right side of Roma, Cafu's position was very high. He looked more like a winger, and his role was a bit similar to Alves on the right side of Barcelona around 2010. His position was even forward than Alves, and there was a big loophole behind him.

Ye Qiu obviously wanted to use this to make a fuss.

The ball was at Sneijder's feet. As soon as the latter stopped the ball, he saw Ibrahimovic retreating from the front and raised his hand towards him.

Without thinking much, Sneijder passed the ball to Ibrahimovic's feet.

The Swede, with his back to Roma's goal, stopped the ball as it came in, and leaned back to hold Samuel who was behind him to stop him from turning. The Argentine central defender was short and was suppressed by Ibrahimovic. Even if his legs were longer, could he be longer than Ibrahimovic?

After Ibrahimovic caught the ball, he observed the situation and tried to turn around, but Samuel knew the threat of Ibrahimovic. The opponent was about 20 meters away from the goal. How big a threat would it be if he turned around?

Therefore, the Argentine central defender could not steal the ball, but he used his body to hold Ibrahimovic tightly to prevent him from turning around.

Zanetti and Tommasi in the midfield were both retreating, ready to help Samuel double-team Ibrahimovic. There was no other way. The Swede was tall and had long legs, and he had a large control area. If he was allowed to lean on Samuel like this, the Argentine central defender would have a hard time stealing the ball in his lifetime.

But just as they were approaching, Ibrahimovic gently sent the ball forward with his right foot.

The ball was passed back to the left, and Keita suddenly came up from behind. At this time, Cafu's attention was on Robben, and Zebina was assisting behind Samuel, which directly led to Keita's forward movement and getting the ball, advancing to the front of the penalty area, and there was no one defending around.

Keita naturally would not be polite to the Romans, and directly swung his left foot and made a powerful volley at the front of the penalty area.

The ball drew an arc like a cannonball and went straight to the goal.

Roma goalkeeper Antonioli flew to make a save and steadily saved the ball from the bottom line, a corner kick.

But Keita's sudden long shot made the Romans sweat.

"This should be the most threatening shot of Ajax in the first half after half an hour of the game. It came from their Mali midfielder, Seydou Keita's long shot at the front of the penalty area, which was very threatening!" The commentator on the scene said loudly.

"Now the situation of the game has shown signs of tilting towards Ajax. Capello's team must make adjustments as soon as possible, especially the defense against Swedish center forward Ibrahimovic. This tall center forward has a thorough understanding of Samuel. He does not choose to confront head-on, but retreats to act as a wall and serves as the team's frontcourt tactical fulcrum."

While the on-site commentator was analyzing, Sneijder slowly ran to the corner area, put the ball down, and stepped back.

Looking at the crowd in the penalty area, he took a deep breath. Even now, he still couldn't believe that he was facing Roma, but he quickly slapped his cheeks with both hands to wake himself up.

Scanning towards the penalty area, he noticed some situations in the penalty area, and at the same time raised his right hand high, clenched his fist, and showed his index finger!

This is a secret code!

Everyone, including the Roma players, knows it, but the question is, what does this secret code mean?

"The ball is coming, everyone be careful!" Captain Totti shouted loudly.

Although in Capello's tactical arrangement, Totti and Batistuta do not need to retreat to participate in defense, and they do not even have any defensive tasks, and their existence is to attack, but this time Totti still retreats to participate in the corner kick defense, because he can see that the current situation of the team is relatively passive.

Sneijder heard Totti's shout, but he was unmoved and rushed forward quickly, with steps, speed, force, touch surface, angle... After repeated practice, he already has a feeling that when this corner kick is sent out, he will know whether it is what he wants.

Everyone in the penalty area immediately became a mess after the corner kick was taken, and completely turned into a meat grinder. Everyone was scrambling to run, press, and squeeze, especially the Roma players in the front point, who worked hard. Pushing the Ajax players behind them.

Curve ball, very fast!

When everyone reacted, Sneijder's corner kick landed in the middle and back area.

As soon as Zago, who was standing at the front guarding Gilberto Silva, saw the ball flying over his head, he immediately turned his head to look behind him, and then he saw a scene that frightened him.

Lucio didn't know when he was ambushing the big penalty area. At this moment, like a heavy tank, he rushed into the small penalty area and got ahead of Samuel. He jumped up high, like pulling onions on dry land, and greeted him. Following Sneijder's pass, the Lion shook his head.

The ball hit his somewhat ferocious forehead, turned in a direction, and entered the upper right corner of the goal guarded by Antonioli, a nearly blind spot.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"

"It was Ajax who scored first!"

"From Sneijder's corner kick, Lucio scored the Roma goal with a header, 1:0!"

Scoring from set pieces, this has always been one of Roma's scoring methods, but now, Samuel watched Lucio swing his head in front of him and hit the goal, and then thought of facing Ibrahimovic just now. Qi's incompetence made the Argentinian central defender almost ashamed.

The moment Capello missed the ball, Capello, who was standing on the sidelines, held his right hand high and cursed angrily, "Fuck", and then walked back to the coaching bench with an expression on his face. Unspeakable disappointment and indignation.

On the other side, Ye Qiu raised his hands high and high-fived the surrounding assistants such as Bobby Harms and Rick Link. For them, this goal also meant a lot. It is also full of surprises, unexpected, but reasonable.

Except for the first 20 minutes, in the rest of the time, Ajax almost always attacked Roma in a high defensive state, but they were never able to create effective scoring opportunities. What they didn't expect was that a corner kick... But Ajax scored a goal. Is this a kind of compensation?

The players celebrated near the flagpole in the corner of the stadium, and tens of thousands of Roma fans in the stadium responded with boos. But at this moment, this kind of boos sounded very pleasant to the ears of the Ajax players, because they were more I would like to regard this as recognition and reward from Roma fans for their performance in this game.

"Now Roma are in a very unfavorable situation. They were unable to attack for a long time and had no effective way to defeat Ajax's defense. But now they have been scored by Ajax. Capello is Isn't there any way to reverse this situation?" The on-site commentator was also worried about Rome's situation.

"I believe that most Roma fans would not have predicted this before the game. They all thought that the home game against Ajax would be an easy victory, but what they did not expect was that Ajax would be bold in the away game. The pressure to attack Roma will indeed surprise many people, but at the same time, they also admire Ajax’s courage!”

The live TV camera swept over Ye Qiu, who was shouting at the players at this moment. Judging from his gestures, he should be asking the players to continue to strengthen the attack, not giving Roma a chance to breathe and adjust, and kill the opponent in one go.

"It seems that Ajax's courage comes directly from their head coach. This 26-year-old Chinese coach is coaching a professional team for the first time this season, and his starting point is also very high. Eredivisie giant Ajax, this is the dream position for countless professional coaches.”

"But Ye Qiu's ability to become the head coach of Ajax relies on a record he set in the Eredivisie last season, which is the first time in the history of Dutch football to lead a youth team to win the Dutch Cup. The championship coach has made him go down in the history of Dutch football, and his performance with the Ajax second team also won the recognition of Ajax chairman Van Praag, so he took charge of Ajax. The first team is not about luck and connections."

The match between Ajax and Roma is one of the key live broadcast events arranged by UEFA. This match is today's key event. It is scheduled to kick off during prime time and will be broadcast live to the whole world. In such a live event, Ye Qiu's popularity will be greatly enhanced by being introduced like this by the on-site commentator and frequently appearing in front of the camera.

This is the attraction of European competitions to players and coaches.

This is the first time Ye Qiu has appeared in a game that is broadcast around the world. The previous two knockout rounds were basically broadcast in the Netherlands, Greece and Russia, but this game against Roma is different. The Serie A team is broadcast globally. It is indispensable.

However, for Ye Qiu, appearing in a global live broadcast is not as interesting as defeating Capello.

So after taking a 1:0 lead, Ye Qiu knew that the tactics he arranged worked. Ibrahimovic acted as a fulcrum in the frontcourt, suppressed Samuel, and disrupted Roma's defense. This could create a good foundation for Ajax's defense. The offense brings more space and opportunities.

Because of this understanding, Ye Qiu asked the players not to relax at all after taking the lead, and to continue to attack Roma and strike while the iron is hot. Otherwise, with Capello's strength, he will soon make up for the problems caused by Ajax's attack. At that time, it will not be easy to get another chance to score.

The players of Ajax were convinced by Ye Qiu's on-the-spot command. As soon as they heard the head coach say that they should continue to strengthen the attack, they rushed to Roma's position like wolves and tigers as soon as Roma kicked off. They pressed directly and continued to adopt high-position defense to continue to suppress Roma in their half.

Facing the strong pressure and pressing of Ajax players like a tiger coming down the mountain, Roma once again revealed a flaw.