Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

On February 19th, the first round of the Champions League 1/8 knockout round continued to burn.

Following yesterday's debut of Manchester City, Barcelona and Chelsea.

AC Milan, Arsenal and Bayern Munich also embarked on the brutal Champions League knockout battlefield today.

Compared with the leagues they are familiar with, the teams participating today still played relatively conservatively.

In last night's game, Manchester City ended up losing to Barcelona 1:2.

The proportion of games like Chelsea's 4-0 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the knockout rounds of the Champions League is still too small.

Tonight, the two teams Milan and Atletico Madrid basically fought a pure defensive battle.

If it weren't for Atletico Madrid center Costa seizing the opportunity in the 88th minute of the second half and beating Bonera to score the winning goal, the two teams would basically have ended in a draw.

The game between Arsenal and Bayern was also very fierce in defense and midfield confrontation, but when it comes to radical offense, neither team actually performed well.

You must know that these two teams also have a smooth and fast offensive style in their respective leagues, but in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds, they still played more conservatively.

However, Bayern's advantage in the midfield is still unmatched by Arsenal.

Bayern dominated the midfield, had more offensive rounds, and the defense was more solid. In the end, Bayern defeated Arsenal with a 1-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium.

During the game that night, the live camera captured Leon and De Bruyne appearing in the stands of the Emirates Stadium.

This made countless fans in front of the TV feel "surprised".

After the game, Muller and Kroos released social media photos of themselves, Leon and De Bruyne dining at an Italian restaurant in London.

Only then did the fans understand why Li Ang came to the Emirates Stadium to watch the game today.

But what’s funny is that when fans left messages on Muller’s social media account asking him if it was Li Ang who invited them to dinner, Muller replied:

"Yes, the little lion wants to inquire about our military situation, but don't worry, I won't betray my team just because of a meal!"

However, when fans went to Li Ang's social media account for verification, Li Ang's rhetoric took on a different tone.

"Ah? He (Mueller) said that as long as I invited him to dinner today, he would give me information about the Bayern team, didn't he?"

After answering the fans' questions, Li Ang also tweeted Mueller's social media account.

Later, the two insisted on calling each other a liar on social media.

As a result, another half hour later, Cross updated a picture on his personal social media account. It did not contain himself, but a scene of Leon and Muller sitting side by side in the game room playing FIFA.

Well, fans of Bayern and Chelsea were happy now, saying that Kroos was the most honest among the three.

Mueller is still the funny guy, and once Li Ang plays with him, he has become a funny guy now.

Bayern and Chelsea fans were very happy on this night.

However, these two days have been difficult for Manchester City and Arsenal fans.

Losing in the first round of the Champions League knockout round is one thing.

At the moment when the Premier League war is about to resume, fans of the two teams are reminded of the situation where Chelsea won in the last round of the league, but they were both tied by their opponents.

The melancholy in my heart became a little stronger.

Some time ago, they were thinking of waiting for Chelsea to make a mistake so they could chase points.

As a result, Chelsea continues to advance in the league and Champions League, but they themselves fell off the chain first.

After the 26th round of the Premier League, Chelsea has 66 points, 8 points ahead of Manchester City, which is second in the Premier League, and 9 points ahead of Arsenal, who is third in the Premier League.

As for Liverpool, which is currently overtaking Tottenham and ranking fourth in the Premier League, they have only accumulated 53 points, and Chelsea has opened up a gap of 4 wins!

This lead is enough to put Chelsea firmly at the top of the Premier League.

On February 21st, at the pre-match press conference for the 27th round of the Premier League.

Faced with reporters' questions about the current Premier League structure, Guardiola also spread his hands and joked.

"Well, actually I don't think the gap between Manchester City and Chelsea is that big now. Maybe Chelsea's performance will be more stable?

But I have to point out that you need to take a good look at the last Premier League game, Chelsea's comeback against Everton.

You have to go and see what Li Ang did in that game.

God bless, Chelsea injured one of their main central defenders before the game, and another main central defender during the game, but they still had Li Ang, so they made a smooth comeback!

We were watching that game at the time. After watching it, I said to my assistants, okay, don't let me hear Li Ang's name in the past few days, he will make me sleep hard.

…”

Guardiola did not shy away from reporters comparing the current Manchester City and Chelsea. He also generously admitted that he was very troubled by the performance of Li Ang and Chelsea.

His frankness won him another wave of goodwill from reporters and fans.

But at the same time, his words also pushed Chelsea, who had finally kept a low profile recently, to the forefront of public opinion again.

Mourinho and Guardiola attended the pre-match press conference at about the same time.

Therefore, reporters could not use what Guardiola said to ask Mourinho relevant questions.

What they are more interested in is actually this round of the Premier League. Will Mourinho continue to let Li Ang start as a central defender and partner with Gary Cahill.

Mourinho smiled and changed the subject.

It was not until an hour before the start of the next day's game that Chelsea released the starting eleven and revealed this mystery.

Karas's name is included in this starting eleven, and with his addition, Chelsea's starting lineup of defenders will also be full of four, so Liang will not play as a central defender in this game.

In addition to Karas, Van Ginkel also got another chance to start.

With Van Ginkel and Matic providing deep protection, Li Ang is bound to put more energy into offense in this game.

Thinking back to what has been hyped by the media recently, Li Ang is only short of the last two assists to reach the double 20 statistical achievement of the season.

The fans reacted quickly. Mourinho was going to help Li Ang improve his personal data!

Chelsea's match in this round of the league happened to be another team currently in the relegation zone, West Bromwich Albion.

Therefore, even if it is an away game, Chelsea can directly control the rhythm of this game with its strong strength.

Neutral fans are really not optimistic that West Bromwich Albion can withstand Chelsea's attack.

Don't look at Chelsea's rotation from front to back in this game, but even after the rotation, Chelsea's offensive trident is Oscar, Lukaku, and De Bruyne.

This kind of offensive firepower is far beyond what a Premier League relegation team can withstand.

Li Ang still has a normal heart, but like Lukaku and Oscar, their self-confidence is completely over the top.

At three o'clock that afternoon, facing the rare winter sunshine in recent days, the referee on duty blew his whistle, and Chelsea took the lead at the Hawthorn Stadium to kick off.

Lukaku gave the ball to Oscar, who immediately passed the ball back. Li Ang stood at the top of his own center circle and received the ball steadily, and then moved the ball laterally to the left half.

Although after playing in the Champions League, the Chelsea team only rested for three and a half days.

But after using a physical recovery potion, Li Ang has recovered 90% of his physical condition, so he still looks very energetic on the court today.

More than 20,000 fans at West Bromwich Albion's home court booed loudly in an attempt to interfere with Li Ang's organization.

However, when facing West Bromwich Albion forward Bissouma's pressing, Li Ang calmly protected the ball and turned around.

After turning around 360 degrees, Bisuma fainted, but Li Ang quickly started to move forward!

Seeing Li Ang's protection and deft turn this time, West Bromwich Albion head coach Steve Clark's eyes twitched slightly.

"This kid can actually imitate Harvey's ball-protecting turn?"

At this moment, many fans in front of the TV can also see that Li Ang's familiar turning and getting rid of the action really has some shadow of Harvey!

Speaking of which, Harvey's long-famous ability to stably protect the ball and get rid of it has always been ridiculed by fans as a 360-degree circle with no blind spots.

But in fact, his move is quite useful on the court.

And there are many midfielders who imitate him, but none of them can be as smooth, bold and silky as him.

Now Li Ang has done a good job of protecting the ball and getting rid of it, although the opponent pressing him is only a forward.

But his turn after protecting the ball was extremely smooth and agile, and he completely left his opponent behind.

When other West Bromwich Albion frontcourt players reacted and wanted to double-team Li Ang, Li Ang had already quickly passed the ball to Oscar on the left side in front of him.

Li Ang's clear-minded breakaway gave Oscar a one-on-one opportunity with the opponent's full-back Reed on the left wing.

Oscar did not restrain his hands, but after dribbling the ball rhythmically from the wing, he quickly changed the direction of the ball and directly shook away Reed who wanted to stop him head-on!

West Bromwich Albion's right center back Macaulay quickly pressed out of the penalty area, trying to force Oscar to return to the wing.

However, Li Ang, who had quietly intervened at this time, shouted, and Oscar's eyes lit up, and he quickly passed the ball back in an inverted triangle to the left rib area of ​​West Bromwich Albion's half!

Li Ang adjusted his steps slightly in response to this quick ball to the ground, and then directly sent a forward pass without stopping the ball!

Lukaku reacted quickly. The moment Li Ang passed the ball, he had overtaken West Bromwich Albion's other central defender Craig Dawson.

Then he unloaded the pass from Li Ang while running, and pushed the far corner of West Bromwich Albion's goal with his left foot!

West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster failed to save the ball.

But when the football hit the inside of the post and bounced into the net, the linesman's flag was already raised high!

"Oh, Lukaku started a little too fast, he was offside!"

In the Sina Sports studio, Zhan Jun's words of celebration were almost spit out from his mouth.

As a result, when he saw the linesman raising the flag, Zhan Jun immediately lamented and almost blurted out words he shouldn't have said to Lukaku.

Fortunately, Director Zhang's commentary voice was also loud at the moment, and Zhan Jun also suppressed his excitement and quickly adjusted.

At the side of the court at this moment, Mourinho lowered his head and touched his eyes, and cursed in a low voice.

On the other side of him, Steve Clark held his chest and let out a long sigh of relief, and then yelled in shock, signaling his defensive players to cheer up.

"My, my..."

After knowing that he was offside, Lukaku touched the back of his head angrily, and then he raised his thumb high at Li Ang.

However, Li Ang didn't say anything. He stretched out his index finger and nodded Lukaku with a smile, and then asked Oscar to retreat with him.

"Oh my God! Li Ang's wonderful silky instigation and final pass this time were all wasted by Lukaku. Is this guy born to play in the middle and missing such a muscle?!"

"What a pity! I just didn't see it...Lukaku, Lukaku, please be more careful!"

"Yell this kid more, Li Ang's temper is too good on the court, don't smile at him, stare at him more!"

Countless Chelsea fans complained about Lukaku's forward penetration at this moment.

In fact, if the kick was played from the side, Lukaku's ball might not have been offside.

He always makes some small mistakes when playing in the middle.

Either you can't find the landing point of the golf ball, or you start too fast, or you take a beat too slowly.

Anyway, Chelsea fans now smile when they see Lukaku playing on the wing, and they frown when they see him playing in the middle.

But fortunately, their opponents today are really weak.

After the first 26 rounds of the Premier League, West Bromwich Albion only scored 19 goals, ranking last in the Premier League in terms of offensive ability.

If their defense hadn't been passable, it would have been a big deal for them to be ranked third from the bottom.

So although Lukaku in front will waste some opportunities, in the midfield and backfield, Chelsea's defense is impregnable and has never allowed West Bromwich Albion to successfully counterattack.

This rhythm has basically become the offensive and defensive tone of Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion in this game.

Chelsea's offense was very smooth and there were many opportunities, but except for Oscar's goal after Lukaku's return shot in the first half, Chelsea failed to further expand their lead.

Because Lukaku directly wasted three excellent threatening shooting opportunities!

Among them, Li Ang stepped in from the middle and gave him a single and a semi-single opportunity.

One of his shots was too straight and was confiscated by the opposite goalkeeper, and one of his shots hit the door frame.

Li Ang won't talk about this, but seeing Lukaku deflecting De Bruyne's cross when almost no one was marking him, Li Ang couldn't help it!

No need for Mourinho to take action at halftime.

At the end of the first half, Li Ang directly called Lukaku over with a hook, and then touched his big round head like a braised egg and squirted!

Lukaku, who seemed to be much bigger than Li Ang, was also very aggrieved.

His big head was drooped, not daring to say a word. After being sprayed by Li Ang for more than a minute, he followed Li Ang into the player tunnel.

Chelsea fans who had been complaining about Li Ang being too gentle towards Lukaku suddenly felt that Lukaku looked a little pitiful.

But after returning to the locker room, Lukaku was not scolded again.

Because Li Ang had already taught him a lesson under the live camera, Mourinho also saw it, so he naturally put on a red face at this moment, lightly criticizing Lukaku and let it go.

Before the start of the second half, Mourinho also chose to make substitutions, replacing De Bruyne with Torres, allowing De Bruyne to rest early.

After Torres came on the field, he naturally stood at the center position, Oscar still played on the left, and Lukaku went to the right.

After such a change of position, Chelsea no longer has an offensive mode of passing from left to right, but directly turns into flying from both wings.

Oscar occasionally plays as a winger, and he faces a team in the relegation zone, so his ability is naturally no problem.

Lukaku's backside is even more of a killer weapon.

Throughout the second half, Li Ang also intentionally transferred the ball to the right wing where Lukaku was.

West Bromwich Albion's left-back Ridgewell is not a good choice.

His height and weight are 1.88 meters tall and 82 kilograms tall. He is already considered a supermodel among full-backs.

But even if his confrontation ability is very good, he is still only defeated by Lukaku's acceleration.

If Lukaku played in the middle and was restricted by West Bromwich Albion's two central defenders in the first half, then in the second half he completely defeated his opponent after pulling wide.

Chelsea's entire frontcourt attack also exploded with Lukaku's matchup, and quickly opened a large gap on the left side of West Bromwich Albion.

In the 62nd minute of the second half, Li Ang received a sudden return pass from Lukaku on the right edge of West Bromwich Albion's penalty area.

Then he kicked off and sent a powerful cross, assisting Torres to score Chelsea's second goal of the game from the back of the West Brom penalty area!

Torres happily hugged Li Ang to celebrate after scoring the goal.

Countless Chinese fans are anxiously waiting for Li Ang's next assist.

This is Li Ang’s 19th assist this season!

But I don’t know if the West Bromwich Albion players are also aware of this.

In the subsequent games, they still defended with the same intensity against other Chelsea offensive players, but it was completely different against Li Ang.

It is difficult for Li Ang to get the ball close to West Bromwich Albion's penalty area, let alone pass the ball.

For this reason, West Bromwich Albion's defensive players even took a very decisive tactical foul on Li Ang.

This made Li Ang feel very helpless.

Because first of all, his free kick ability is not developed yet.

Secondly, it is difficult for him to handle free kick opportunities like this on both sides of the penalty area, because his passing ability is still average.

However, several other Chelsea offensive players gained more offensive space because of West Bromwich Albion's extra attention to Li Ang.

In the 79th minute of the second half, Oscar used Li Ang's cover to score the ball and successfully penetrated into the West Brom penalty area.

Later, his timely return pass also helped Lukaku score a goal and successfully scored in this game.

Only Li Ang, except for assisting Torres to score, did not gain any more personal data by the end of the game.

After the game, a Sky Sports reporter who had a good relationship with Li Ang joked that Li Ang might have to adapt to the feeling of becoming a common enemy of other Premier League teams in the future.

Defensive players from other teams behind him will definitely pay extra attention to him.

But Li Ang was not worried about this.

“I know now I’m just one assist away from reaching double 20 for the season.

This kind of data is actually very meaningful, because I took a look and found that there were very few players in the four major leagues who could achieve this kind of data before.

Messi has accomplished such an achievement in two seasons since 2010, but there has been no such player in the Premier League in recent years. The last one who came close was Cesc Fabregas.

Therefore, it is really not easy to do this. Maybe I need a little preparation...

What do you think of achieving this achievement in the next game? "

After Li Ang finished speaking, he left the interview scene with a smile.

The reporter who interviewed him lit up.

Because Chelsea's next game happens to be the EFL Cup final!

I just forgot to mention it. Sorry guys, there is still another chapter.