Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

Since the end of the 10-11 season, when he returned to Real Madrid and took the main position, Li Ang has maintained a record of playing against Barcelona at least twice every year.

Unlike the Real Madrid players who were suppressed by Barcelona for several seasons, Li Ang has never experienced losing in a game with Barcelona.

So when he revealed to the media that he was looking forward to returning to the Nou Camp to play again, it was really difficult for Barcelona fans to feel the least bit "friendly" in him.

Li Ang had actually expected that it would cause a stir of public opinion before the game, but he just wanted to stir up the emotions of Barcelona fans.

To be honest, it has been so many years since his professional debut, and Li Ang doesn't feel that there is anything unique about playing against other clubs.

Only in the game against Barcelona, ​​he became energetic as soon as he played.

Only when he is facing off against Barcelona fans does he find it interesting~

On February 16, amid the "friendly" greetings from Barcelona fans online, Li Ang flew to Barcelona with the team.

Although the game time has changed compared with last year, the preparation process is still the same. The Chelsea team still came to the Espanyol training base to warm up and maintain their condition.

As one of the first teams to appear in the Champions League 1/8 finals this season, Chelsea's current residence and training venue were directly surrounded by reporters.

On the morning of February 17, the Chelsea team completed the last practice before the game.

At the same time, Harvey also expressed his determination to win the game in the interview with reporters before the game!

Harvey is now naturally qualified to express such determination.

Because before the start of this round of Champions League 1/8 finals, Barcelona had already won 11 consecutive victories in La Liga and the Copa del Rey!

The game is in such a hot state that many Western media are now standing up to claim that Barcelona has successfully returned to the top.

Previously, Barcelona doubled Atletico Madrid in the two legs of the Copa del Rey quarter-finals, which also gave many sports media in Catalonia confidence.

Barcelona is still top of La Liga.

Although it is only one point ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, no matter what, the momentum of the top brother must be shown.

So compared to the Barcelona fans who were still a little worried, the media in Catalonia seemed much tougher.

Before the game, he generously issued a challenge to Chelsea, and also claimed with certainty that now is the best time to break Li Ang's unbeaten record against Barcelona!

Naturally, the British media were not to be outdone and fought back directly, listing the dazzling statistics of the two teams' encounter in the Champions League last year.

The media from both sides came and went, and after the fans came to the end, the smell of gunpowder couldn't stop getting stronger.

Of course, compared to the verbal battle between the media and fan groups, the players and head coaches of the two teams did not have many additional ideas.

No matter how strong the tension among fans is, Chelsea will definitely not take the initiative to use too many confrontational moves in the first round match against Barcelona.

After all, they are playing away from home, and no one can predict the scale of the referee's call on the day of the game.

Furthermore, Barcelona's strength has indeed declined a lot in recent years, but they are still one of the most successful giant clubs in European football.

UEFA will not give less of the home whistle that should be given. At this point, all major participating giants basically enjoy basic rights.

Don't win the game away from home, but have important players in the team get yellow cards.

This Champions League knockout round has just begun. If Chelsea's core players accumulate yellow cards and are suspended in the quarter-finals, then the gain will really outweigh the losses.

Mourinho is still quite cautious, but he certainly didn't expect that his opponent would be more cautious than him today.

Enrique got his wish to become Barcelona's head coach this season.

When he took office at the beginning of the season, he wanted to establish his authority and take back power, and made many mistakes, which even reached the point where he was opposed by many senior players in the Barcelona team.

Fortunately, he adjusted his tactics and communication attitude towards the players in a timely manner.

After firmly establishing Messi as the core of the offense and reusing Neymar, Barcelona's record is finally back on track.

The current wave of eleven consecutive victories can be regarded as completely consolidating Enrique's coaching position.

But Enrique's mind is very clear. He knows that there is a powerful bomb hidden under his seemingly impregnable position.

This season he led Barcelona to regain at least one heavyweight championship trophy, and his coaching position can truly be stabilized.

Before that, all the beautiful visions promised to him by Barcelona's top brass were just illusions.

He knows better than anyone the fact that Barcelona's midfield control has dropped significantly.

In order not to be eliminated early in the Champions League, Enrique has no other choice but to gain a fuller understanding of Chelsea in the limited time and choose game tactics more carefully.

And with the "lessons learned from past mistakes" made by predecessor Martino who coached Barcelona last year, he was ultimately defeated by Chelsea.

Enrique never considered from the beginning that Messi would drop back into the midfield to enhance ball control.

Because that is completely a helpless choice to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

If Barcelona wants to win against a powerful opponent like Chelsea, it must let Messi fully display his abilities.

Guardiola's original style of play cannot be used either.

Because neither Iniesta nor Xavi can run like they did four or five seasons ago.

Why has Meng San Barcelona achieved such great success?

Groundbreaking tactics and advanced passing and control play are important reasons.

However, many people tend to ignore the huge protective effect of Barcelona's high-position pressing tactics, which led the football world, on Barcelona's midfield and backcourt defense at that time.

At that time, Barcelona fought on multiple fronts throughout the season and conceded a horrifyingly small number of goals.

But this does not mean how top-notch Barcelona's backcourt defense and goalkeeper are.

Barcelona's active counterattack after losing the ball in the midfield and frontcourt is the fundamental reason for Barcelona's efficient defensive performance!

The goals that were lost were basically recovered by Barcelona's midfield and frontcourt players. Barcelona's midfield and backfield defense were not tested several times in one game. Can the defense be bad? !

Back then, Barcelona could do this, and the guys in the backcourt really had to line up to thank their teammates in the midfield and frontcourt.

Now, Xavi and Iniesta can no longer run around like they did before.

Messi and Neymar also cannot consume a lot of physical energy to defend in a game.

If you force yourself to continue using the previous tactics, wouldn't that be forcing your own team to collapse?

If the midfielder and frontcourt cannot grab the ball, the defensive pressure in the backcourt will naturally be greater.

Enrique does not want to seek death. On the contrary, he wants to win, and winning against Mourinho will further prove his coaching level!

So in the first round of the home game, he chose the tactics that are most suitable for Barcelona now...

On the evening of February 17, amid cheers and loud boos at Camp Nou, players from Chelsea and Barcelona completed their final warm-up before the game.

The starting 11 rosters of the two teams were basically disclosed by the media in advance.

Chelsea's main players are all out, but for Barcelona, ​​Enrique chose to start with Raphinha today, while Xavi sat on the bench.

Barcelona's starting players at other positions are exactly the same as the media's pre-game speculation.

After arriving at the point, the players from the two teams quickly walked through the opening ceremony. Except for the captain who guessed, the other players jogged back to their own half and waited for the game to start.

Li Ang appeared in the central midfield position today. He basically will not face Messi in the opening stage of the game.

But his eyes were still directed to Messi, who has returned to the right wing this season.

Under his butterfly effect, Suarez did not bite Chiellini due to illness in the 2014 World Cup, so Liverpool did not give up on him.

Coupled with Gerrard's true love to stay, Suarez is still playing in Liverpool and has not gone to Catalonia.

Barcelona is missing a key link in the middle arrow and does not form the MSN attack line combination. For Li Ang, it is now a "strange" team.

Messi and Neymar have performed very well this season, and they have now led Barcelona back to the top of La Liga.

But their current team performance and strength are still not enough to compete with Chelsea.

So Li Ang is very curious, in this realistic dilemma, what kind of tactics will Enrique use to compete with Chelsea?

"Keep playing pass and control. If you don't play pass and control anymore, then I will be really disappointed..."

Li Ang muttered something in his heart, and the referee directly blew the whistle to start the game at this time!

Barcelona, ​​who took the first kick off, quickly rolled out a three-midfield formation.

Busquets, who received a back pass from his teammate, avoided Ibrahimovic's attack and quickly distributed the ball to the right to Raphinha.

As soon as Rafinha got the ball, he passed the ball directly to Messi's feet without hesitation.

After gradually getting rid of injuries this season, Messi's personal performance can be said to have been greatly improved compared to last season.

Although in terms of goals, because he has to give up the right to fire to Neymar, Messi's total goals so far this season has only reached 20.

But his assist numbers have skyrocketed.

After last season, Messi's assists reached 14. So far this season, Messi's assists have risen to 13!

Messi has retreated from the frontline to the core of the frontcourt attack, but Messi has adapted well to his new role in the team.

Barcelona seems to need to rely more on Neymar on the front line now, but internally, their dependence on Messi is even more serious.

Faster transition of organization and conduction in the midfield, with Messi instigating and dealing cards in the frontcourt. This style of play has already explained a lot of problems.

Barcelona's first attack after the opening ended with Messi holding the ball from the right and cutting in diagonally to the left, and then Neymar quickly started and barely shot past Azpilicueta.

Li Ang took note of the passing connection between Messi and Neymar.

But he didn't say much. After receiving the pass from Kroos, he personally held the ball and launched Chelsea's first counterattack.

Neither team put their full effort into the opening attempts.

In the back-and-forth offensive and defensive battle between the two teams, the fans in front of the TV quickly discovered that the current Barcelona is very different from the previous one.

"Barcelona doesn't pursue possession anymore? What about their rib penetration and through balls? Why do I feel like Barcelona today is more of a counterattack team than Chelsea?!"

"Enrique originally wanted to play like this. He almost destroyed Barcelona at the beginning of this season. Don't you know?"

"Looking at it now, Enrique has obviously succeeded. Barcelona's record is very good, and I think they are not inferior to Chelsea today."

"This feeling is so strange. Chelsea pursues a more delicate offensive coordination, but Barcelona chooses to quickly transition the midfield to strengthen the counterattack on the wings? Mourinho and Enrique didn't use the script to counter the tactics of today's game, did they?!"

…

Many fans discussed it enthusiastically on the Internet.

On the sidelines, Mourinho, who saw Enrique's tactical thinking at this moment, also scratched his head.

"This guy is interesting! If Josep were watching today's game, would he feel angry?"

Mourinho inexplicably thought of Guardiola.

No way, after Guardiola left, Barcelona's two consecutive head coaches basically continued his tactics and continued to coach Barcelona.

Enrique was very courageous. Not only did he not lead Barcelona to continue playing pass-and-control football, but he also launched a "deviant" defensive counterattack? !

Mourinho was instantly interested in Enrique.

He knew that this guy was probably a practical person like him.

And to deal with this kind of head coach who doesn't care about public opinion or even what his own fans think, there is no need to use too many tactical traps.

Because the opponent, like him, was completely focused on scoring points in the game.

So be practical and use whatever tricks you have, but hiding them will only create obstacles for your own tactical adjustments.

Thinking of this, Mourinho shouted to attract Kroos's attention, and then he made a tactical adjustment gesture!

At this moment, less than 5 minutes have passed since the game officially started.

But Mourinho decisively made the first tactical adjustment of the game!

Cross did not hesitate and quickly conveyed Lao Mu's adjustment ideas to his teammates on the court.

Li Ang, who rushed back to his own half, nodded after confirming to Cross, and then retreated slightly.

Chelsea changed the starting formation of 4231 at the beginning and directly changed the formation to play 433!

After Barcelona gave up more midfield transmission and chose a counterattack style, Chelsea also went against the norm and took over the initiative in midfield control and played pass-and-control football at the Camp Nou!

For a moment, the fans from all over the world who were watching the game were also silenced by the scene.

Barcelona counterattack at home against Chelsea who have possession of the ball?

This world is so crazy!

There is one more chapter, it may be past midnight. Those who can’t wait can read it tomorrow morning.