Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

In the Champions League 1/8 finals that ended in the past two days, Chelsea's 8-1 result against Paris Saint-Germain in the two rounds seemed so unexpected among the 3-2 and 4-3 total scores.

Paris has made a sensation in Europe this season in another way.

It can be said that last season, Ibrahimovic led Paris to a reversal and eliminated Barcelona and entered the semi-finals of the Champions League, helping Paris build a good reputation.

After the eighth knockout round of this season, he collapsed directly amid the questions and ridicule from the media and countless fans.

And Chelsea, who massacred Paris Saint-Germain with eight goals, also successfully stepped on the corpses of last season's top four teams in the Champions League and rebuilt the team's past reputation in European competitions!

Their current defense is very strong, just like the iron-blooded Blue Army in the past, but it is more than just defense.

Quick counterattacks and positional warfare are the strengths of this current Chelsea team.

However, even if the opponent wants to forcefully compete with their skills, Chelsea's midfielder and frontcourt are not afraid at all.

Of course, when they are provoked, they prefer to use almost crazy midfield strangulation and high-position counterattack tactics to suppress their opponents and stab their opponents at their doorstep!

This style of play undoubtedly reminds the major European giants of their fear of being dominated by Real Madrid in the Champions League in the past two seasons.

Originally, after Ancelotti took office this season, he made some fine-tuning and modifications to Real Madrid's tactics. Real Madrid rarely uses such aggressive full-court pressure anymore.

As a result, before they could take a breath, Mourinho successfully trained another team of saboteurs at Chelsea!

Just after reaching the knockout rounds of the Champions League, Chelsea declared their restraint against technical teams with two bloody victories.

Atletico Madrid, who have a similar style to them, also beat Milan in the second leg of the first round of the knockout round.

This kind of result is not good news for European giants who are more technical-oriented.

And Li Ang, who seems to have not lost any ability to fight tough battles even though he left Real Madrid in a transfer, is causing headaches for the top two Bundesliga players and the new top three players in La Liga.

Bayern, Dortmund, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, each of these teams has suffered from Li Ang.

Not to mention Real Madrid's first-team players, they understand Li Ang's characteristics even more, and this level of understanding is far superior to Li Ang's current Chelsea teammates.

On the other hand, Li Ang knows each of them very well.

So they don't want to be enemies with Li Ang's team.

To put it simply, when Mourinho asks Li Ang to blast and restrict Alonso, how will they break it?

Without Alonso's long pass, can Real Madrid still maintain an efficient offensive operation with Modric and Casemiro alone?

Thinking further, Li Ang led Chelsea's frontcourt wolf pack to successfully steal the ball and faced Real Madrid's defense.

How should Pepe and Ramos divide their labor to deal with Li Ang's long-range shots and Ibrahimovic's huge threat in the penalty area?

Some problems are easy to talk about when you don't think about them, but when you think about them, they become a headache one after another.

Judging from UEFA's performance in recent seasons, the probability of Real Madrid and Chelsea meeting in advance in the next knockout round is not small at all.

Arsenal's lesson is right in front of them. If UEFA wants to cause trouble, it will be useless no matter how fiercely the fans scold them.

Therefore, Real Madrid's huge fans were provoked by the media, and they immediately imagined the subsequent quarter-finals with Chelsea.

Fans on both sides were somewhat nervous due to the news reports.

After all, Chelsea fans don't want to encounter the Champions League devil so early.

Well, looking at Real Madrid's third-tier record this season, their title of "big devil" may have to be added with the word "former".

But this still cannot cover up Real Madrid's dazzling aura.

If there is a choice, even if they fail to win the big gift package, Chelsea fans would prefer to draw Dortmund and Manchester United in the next knockout round, or even Barcelona!

No team wants to face top European teams like Real Madrid and Bayern so early.

Although they have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League this season, most Chelsea fans are relatively satisfied.

But if we can advance to the semi-finals, our record will be even better.

With this Champions League semi-finals that can prove that Chelsea has indeed re-emerged, as fans, they are more confident and can look forward to the team's further performance in the Champions League next season.

With such expectations and anxiety, Chelsea fans have been discussing topics related to the draw for several days.

However, it is still early before the draw date for the Champions League quarter-finals, and the remaining four games of the Champions League quarter-finals have not been played yet.

Even though the form of the breakout is already very clear, fans still have to wait patiently.

During this waiting period, the four major leagues have also reignited the war, sounding the clarion call for the final sprint in the second half of the season.

Chelsea will face Aston Villa away from home in the 30th round of the Premier League.

Villa are currently ranked fourth from the bottom in the Premier League, only two points away from the relegation zone.

But Mourinho and the players in the Chelsea team did not dare to despise Villa in the slightest.

Because the Premier League's relegation teams are completely different at the beginning of the season and at the end of the season.

In the first half of the season, the teams at the top of the Premier League were eager to play against the relegation teams a few more times.

But in the sprint stage at the end of the season, for championship teams like Chelsea and Manchester City.

They might rather play a few more mid-table teams that seem to be good, rather than touch the tough guys fighting for relegation.

In recent seasons, Wigan Athletic in the 11-12 season perfectly embodies the difficulty of relegation teams in the final stages of the league.

In the 2011-2012 season, before the start of the 30th round of the Premier League, Wigan Athletic had only accumulated 22 points, ranking second from the bottom in the Premier League.

But starting from the 30th round of the Premier League, Wigan Athletic got rid of the decline and directly scored a final record of seven wins and two losses in the league!

You must know that in the previous 29 rounds of the league, Wigan Athletic only won four games.

But in the final sprint of the league, they won 7 wins and a total of 21 league points!

And these 7 victories are extremely valuable, including defeats against Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle and the current season champion Manchester United!

Yes, this is the huge energy that a relegation team unleashed that season in order to successfully stay in the Premier League.

Aston Villa is not Wigan Athletic, and it may be difficult for them to replicate the relegation miracle like Wigan Athletic.

But it is undeniable that they also have a firm determination to avoid relegation.

Chelsea, who do not want to overturn, must be more vigilant in dealing with these difficult relegation teams in the league championship stage.

Terry, Matic and Ibrahimovic, who were rested in the last round of the Champions League, all started in this league game.

Mourinho also chose to set up a safe starting lineup of 4,231.

No way, in the early game, Manchester City, which was eliminated from the Champions League by Barcelona, ​​had already won Hull City 2-0.

Subsequently, Manchester City did not have the drag of the Champions League competition, and they were also eliminated in the last round of the FA Cup.

So now Guardiola only needs to focus on the league, which is extremely beneficial to Manchester City.

However, the psychological pressure on the Chelsea team immediately increased a lot.

As long as Manchester City achieves a complete winning record in the remaining league games, Chelsea will have no right to slack off.

If Manchester City wins, they must win too!

An eight-point difference seems safe.

But to be honest, if the mentality is not tight and the breath is released, the gap of three wins may be wiped out by competitors in just half a month.

So now Chelsea doesn’t want to lose but can’t afford to lose.

Unless the point difference with Manchester City can be maintained until the final five rounds of the league.

In that case, Mourinho may have more confidence to continue to rotate the main veterans.

But at this critical moment of sustaining morale, veterans basically cannot take too much rest.

And Li Ang, who is already known as the "New Iron Man" in European football, naturally cannot fall behind in every game.

The third day after playing the Champions League knockout match against Paris Saint-Germain, it was the evening of March 15th.

The 30th round of the Premier League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa officially begins at Villa Park.

Compared to Chelsea's slightly conservative 4,231 starting formation, Aston Villa directly adopted a more offensive 4,33 formation at home.

This season, the number of appearances has dropped a lot due to injuries, and his statistics are not as good as last season's amazing Villa center Benteke. He seems to have no health problems recently.

Before the game started, Mourinho also emphasized to his players many times that Benteke's performance must be restricted today.

This young Belgian high center forward only played a full Premier League season for Aston Villa last season.

The answer he handed over was 37 starts throughout the season, scoring 23 goals and assisting 6 times.

He eventually ranked fourth among the Premier League scorers last season with 19 league goals.

Such data is already quite gorgeous for a young high center forward.

Even now, many media reporters think so.

If Benteke hadn't missed too many games due to injuries this season, Aston Villa would not have been reduced to relegation at the end of the season.

In this game, Benteke also showed his ability, helping Aston Villa to stand firm in the first half, and playing back and forth with Chelsea in attack.

Although Villa's counterattack and passing tactics are a bit rough, Benteke can always get something if he can't stand it.

Terry's reaction speed seemed to be half a beat slower when facing him. If Cech hadn't performed very well today, Chelsea might have conceded the ball first in the first half.

Li Ang felt that there were some problems with this tactic of showing weakness to the enemy, but he still didn't put forward many opinions in the first half and still honestly put more energy into defense.

At the end of halftime, he jogged back to the locker room, briefly communicated with Mourinho and expressed his thoughts.

If Hazard is still Hazard's starting attacker standing on the left side of Chelsea today, then it would be okay for Mourinho to play more conservatively.

Because Hazard has this ability, he can effectively tear apart Villa's defense in a small number of offensive rounds, creating enough opportunities for Ibrahimovic and Ramirez who come in from behind.

But today Hazard takes a rest, and Oscar is the guest star starting on the left midfielder.

His counterattack moves tend to be more in the middle, occupying a lot of Ramirez's forward space, and he also takes more offensive ball rights.

So as long as his performance is not good enough, he is not the only one who will be affected.

Both Ibrahimovic and Ramirez will be greatly reduced on the offensive end because they cannot get enough ball rights.

However, Li Ang is not asking Mourinho to "rectify the chaos" and replace Oscar.

He just suggested to Mourinho that instead of letting Oscar start on the wing but always habitually do the work in the middle, it is better to let him return to the middle.

Ramirez can play on the right, and De Bruyne going to the left will not affect his passing.

By changing the formation and slightly adjusting the tactics, Chelsea's style of play will definitely be much more flexible.

But Li Ang only provided Mourinho with a suggestion and an idea. Whether he should adopt it or not depends on Mourinho himself.

After making the suggestion, Li Ang quickly returned to his seat, wiped his sweat, rested, and put on clean jerseys and socks.

After Mourinho thought briefly, he pulled Holland over for some urgent tactical discussions.

Then he simply announced to the players in the locker room that the formation would be changed in the second half.

Li Ang didn't say anything, but he was very satisfied and relieved.

In the second half, Chelsea decisively changed their formation and played 4-4-2. Oscar was put up front by Mourinho and directly partnered with Ibrahimovic to play as a double forward.

Ramirez played on the right, and De Bruyne, who started as a right midfielder, went to the left.

Li Ang's position was slightly further back than in the first half, sticking to the center line with Matic.

After this change of formation, Chelsea's defensive strength in the midfield has not decreased, but its efficiency on the counterattack has been visibly improved.

Aston Villa also wanted to take advantage of the home court and increase their offense. However, Chelsea seized the opportunity to counterattack twice in the second half and immediately declared that the city gate was lost!

In the second counterattack in the second half, Oscar, who switched to playing in the middle, cooperated with Li Ang and easily tore apart Villa's slightly thin middle defense.

In the end, Oscar made a cross pass from the left side of Villa's penalty area and assisted Ibrahimovic to score!

As soon as Chelsea scored the goal, Aston Villa, who had been trying to take the initiative, immediately suffered a serious blow to their morale.

Facing Chelsea, who were shrinking their formation and fighting counter-attacks, Aston Villa, who had psychological baggage, could no longer attack with all their strength as before.

Mourinho was also very lucky at this moment. Li Ang gave him timely tactical advice during the halftime break.

With the advantage of this ball in hand, the initiative is completely in Chelsea's hands.

Whether it is offense or defense, Chelsea can fine-tune their tactics according to the rhythm of the game that is most beneficial to their side.

For example, now, Aston Villa is in a difficult situation. It wants to continue attacking, but is also afraid of being counterattacked by Chelsea. The efficiency of the attack has been reduced a lot.

Mourinho was not in a hurry when he saw this, and signaled his disciples to calm down, defend first, and wait for Aston Villa to take action.

Sure enough, after only ten minutes, Aston Villa unified the team's tactical thinking. It seemed that they were going to make a desperate move in advance and put all their strength in attack.

At this time, Mourinho calmly made his own tactical adjustment gestures on the sidelines.

Leon and Matic understood the situation, and Ramirez and De Bruyne further moved in.

Chelsea's midfield 4 looks to further plug the defensive holes in the midfield.

In the next moment, they changed from passive to active and launched a fierce counter-pressure in the face of Aston Villa's forward pressing attack!

This time it was Matic and Ramirez who intercepted the football at Agbonlahor's feet.

At the moment when Aston Villa turned around and returned to defense, Li Ang took a moment to observe after receiving Matic's pass.

Then he directly sent a bold overhead through ball across half the court!

Ibrahimovic immediately retreated and pretended to take away Aston Villa's main defender Vlaar.

Nathan Baker, Villa's other slightly slower centre-back, only hesitated for half a beat before being thrown away by Oscar who started accelerating!

The long pass sent by Li Ang across the half-court was accurately placed.

Just one step inside Aston Villa's penalty area.

This not only made it easier for Oscar to sprint and unload the ball, but also made Aston Villa goalkeeper Guzan afraid to attack easily.

So under the desperate gaze of nearly 40,000 Villa fans at the scene, Oscar calmly unloaded the ball and adjusted, and then shot the football low into the near corner of the Villa goal!

More than 5,000 Chelsea fans who were traveling away from home started a carnival celebration.

Mourinho also gave enthusiastic praise and applause to Li Ang for this bold and outstanding long pass assist from the sidelines.

The entire Aston Villa team seemed to be demoralized by this goal.

At least in the following game time, Villa failed to set off a more threatening offensive wave.

By the end of the game, Aston Villa's head coach Lambert was still at the post-match press conference, extremely concerned about the second goal of the game scored by Li Ang assisting Oscar.

"Originally, there was no problem with our performance today. Even after the first goal was conceded, my players were still confident that they could continue to fight.

But Li Ang assisted Oscar with a guided and precise long pass to score the devastating second goal.

The only thing I said to my assistant on the sidelines was, 'This sucks! ’ Yes, it was a terrible goal for us!

But this is the role of stars, this is football, and we can only accept this bitter pill..."

Lambert did not praise Leon explicitly, but his praise for Leon and envy of Mourinho were everywhere in his words.

Mourinho, who was in a good mood, naturally said a few good words about Aston Villa after the game.

After this round of league play, Chelsea will have another seven days of rest, so Mourinho felt relieved and gave all the players in the first team two days off with a wave of his hand.

When all Chelsea players finish their vacation and return to the team to gather for training and prepare for the second league match against Arsenal this season.

The remaining four games of the Champions League 1/8 knockout rounds have also started.

Real Madrid, Manchester United and Dortmund, the three European giants that have attracted much attention from fans, are the last to appear.

The result was pretty much what the fans expected before the game, and there was no upset.

Real Madrid defeated Zenit St. Petersburg with a total score of 6-0 in two rounds, Manchester United beat Schalke 04 4-1 in two rounds, and Dortmund won Galatasaray 6:2 in two rounds.

Only the games between Leverkusen and Olympiacos had some twists and turns, eventually reaching overtime.

However, thanks to Kiesling's outstanding performance in overtime, Leverkusen defeated Olympiacos 3-2 in the final two rounds and advanced to the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League!

Leverkusen's victory sparked a stir in South Korea's sports world.

Because their country's young winger Son Heung-min also performed very well in overtime.

It was the beautiful cross he sent after the breakthrough that accurately found Kiessling, helping Kiessling make the final decision and beat Olympiacos.

And Son Heung-min's performance in passing and shooting in these two knockout rounds was also impressive enough.

The South Korean sports world can be forgiven for being agitated.

After the first round of the Champions League knockout rounds came to an end, just two days later, the draw ceremony for the quarter-finals was held as scheduled in Switzerland.

Real Madrid drew Dortmund and Atletico Madrid drew Manchester United. These four teams were divided into the top half.

Bayern, on the other hand, was extremely lucky to win Leverkusen, which is recognized by fans as the weakest among the quarterfinals of this year's Champions League.

Chelsea faced their old enemy Barcelona in the Champions League!

These four teams were divided into the lower half.

As soon as the draw ceremony ended, fans of each team immediately started discussing enthusiastically.

Chelsea fans are thankful that they were not directly drawn into the Champions League eight teams, Real Madrid and Bayern.

Barcelona is not a good signing, but Chelsea really has nothing to fear from Barcelona.

The most outrageous thing is that on the night after the lottery ceremony ended, Li Ang posted a picture of him looking sideways at the camera with an ambiguous expression and a smile.

The caption was very simple, but it instantly gripped the hearts of Barcelona fans.

"Long time no see, did you miss me? Barcelona~"