Football's No. 1 Prodigal Son

The first match of the season was held on February 28, 2004.

Stamford Bridge Stadium.

This is a focus battle. If Chelsea wins, they can overtake Manchester City and return to third place. If Manchester City wins, they can expand their lead in third place.

Although the third and fourth place can enter the Champions League, the third place does not need to play in the play-offs, so it is still worth fighting for.

In this game, Eto'o appeared in the starting lineup, and Stam on the back line was suspended, so Uifalusi appeared in the starting lineup.

As for Chelsea, their signings last year were not successful, especially Crespo's failure to adapt to the rhythm and life of the Premier League, which has always caused problems for their forward line.

Moreover, the failure to take down Makelele made their midfield lack toughness, which made them very uncomfortable when they met a team with a strong midfield.

And it just so happened that Manchester City was such a team.

Chelsea coach Ranieri also understood this, and he chose to pile up people in the middle of the road in this game.

He arranged a 4141 formation in this game, with the all-purpose Gremi in the defensive midfielder position, and the midfield line was Gronkjaer, Veron, Lampard and Duff, which was ready to fight Manchester City in the midfield.

Van Gaal was also tough. No matter what formation the opponent was in, he was just one word, attack!

So at the beginning of the game, Manchester City took the initiative and began to attack Chelsea's goal.

And Chelsea seemed to have received Ranieri's deployment-playing defensive counterattacks, so they were not in a hurry, but shrank back and held their positions.

Yang Luoke in front of the TV knew that Ranieri's defensive counterattacks were powerful, and he couldn't help but sweat for Van Gaal.

Sure enough, in the 31st minute of the game, midfielder Geremi intercepted Ronaldinho's pass and passed the ball to Veron.

After Veron got the ball, he observed it for a while. One second before Essien came to press, he decisively kicked a long pass to Hasselbaink on the front line.

The Dutch striker has strong individual combat ability. After resisting Distin's harassment, he protected the ball.

At this time, Grunshall, Duff and Lampard all ran towards the front court at a very fast speed!

This is the counterattack opportunity they have been waiting for!

Duff was the fastest. He rushed to the 30-meter area first, and Hasselbaink handed the ball to him without hesitation.

After the Irishman got the ball, he ran with the ball. Sun Jihai chased back desperately, but he was still half a body away from him!

And Duff took the opportunity to take a look at the penalty area, and then kicked the ball directly!

Since Hasselbaink is only 1.78 meters tall, he has no advantage in heading.

Duff is also very aware of this, so he chose a very flat arc and a very fast cross.

After the ball came to the penalty area, Van der Sar hit it, but the ball just hit Uifalusi's back and bounced high.

At this time, a dark blue figure appeared at the landing point of the ball and volleyed it directly!

It was Lampard!

Van der Sar had no way to deal with this ball, and the football hit the net without any suspense!

Chelsea led one to zero!

This ball immediately ignited the enthusiasm of Chelsea fans. They didn't expect the team to score first in such a passive situation!

Van Gaal shook his head a little depressed.

Unexpectedly, the opponent bit him first!

He waved his hand: "Keep pressing!"

With his personality, he must find his place in the offense.

But once Ranieri stole the lead, he would immediately defend in a more abnormal way, which made Van Gaal a little helpless.

And Eto'o could hardly play his role in this battle to break the dense defense, which made him very depressed.

Van Gaal also discovered this problem, so he cast his eyes on Tony on the bench more than once.

But he also knew that if Eto'o was replaced in the first half, Eto'o would explode.

So he resisted his impulse and prepared to wait until halftime.

Sure enough, Manchester City did not score in the rest of the first half, and Chelsea maintained a 1-0 lead at home.

But looking at the data of the entire first half, it was really scary.

Shots 2 to 9, ball possession rate 33% to 67%, but the score was 1 to 0.

Lineker shook his head: "It seems that the Italian coach is determined to defend to the end. He didn't care about the face of the home court,

Instead, they faced Manchester City in the most cost-effective way, but the effect was good. "

Alan Hansen also sighed: "When it comes to defense, we still have to look at the Italian coach!"

After a while, the second half of the game began.

Van Gaal made personnel adjustments, and Teacher Toni came on the court to replace Eto'o.

Eto'o was sitting on the bench at this time, not knowing what he was thinking.

The broadcast camera deliberately gave him a close-up, a typical example of watching the excitement.

With Teacher Toni as the axis in the frontcourt, Manchester City's offense suddenly improved a lot.

In fact, it is not that Eto'o is not as good as Teacher Toni, but Manchester City now needs a battering ram.

In the 55th minute, Ronaldinho passed Geremi in the middle and passed the ball into the penalty area.

Luca Toni stopped the ball against Terry, Then he gently pushed the ball.

Ronaldo rushed in from outside the penalty area and kicked the ball!

But Cudicini reacted very quickly and quickly got down to save the ball from going out of the baseline.

Manchester City got a valuable corner kick opportunity.

Set-pieces are also a good opportunity to break through dense defenses, so both of Manchester City's central defenders came to the penalty area, ready to grab the ball at any time.

Ronaldinho took the corner kick, and the ball drew a beautiful arc and was sent into the penalty area.

But Terry jumped high and headed the ball out before Tony!

And the landing point of the football was exactly the position of the fast winger Madav!

After he got the ball, he immediately started He started to spur his horse and whip it!

Lampard, Hasselbaink and others also started to start quickly, running madly towards Manchester City's backcourt!

At this time, Manchester City's backcourt only had Makelele, Sun Jihai and Evra, and the situation was very critical!

Sun Jihai gritted his teeth and prepared to meet them and directly disrupt their attack with a foul!

But Duff had already seen through his intentions, and directly handed the ball to Lampard, then bypassed Sun Jihai's grab and continued to move forward!

Essien and the two central defenders were still running back quickly, but Chelsea's frontcourt group was faster than them, and Lampard quickly passed the ball to Glenshall who was inserted on the right!

The Danish winger is also very fast. He strode forward and soon reached the 30-meter area!

Evra was retreating to the middle to defend Hasselbaink, which gave him a lot of space!

Fortunately, Makelele also returned to the penalty area at this time and stuck to Hasselbaink. Seeing this, Evra rushed out and prepared to block Grunchard.

Grunchard smiled slightly and kicked the ball directly to the middle!

The arc of the ball was very large, but it found the back point of the penalty area!

And there, Duff had already rushed over!

He pushed the ball and the ball went into the net!

2-0, Chelsea scored another goal with a counterattack!