Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

The time between the two games in the first round of the Champions League knockout rounds is quite long.

After Chelsea and Paris competed in the first round, they had to wait for a month before the second round of life and death came.

So after Li Ang said that he would wait for Paris to challenge, he put aside the Champions League for the time being.

The whole Chelsea team is going to sprint and grab points in the league!

At a critical time in the second half of the season, Chelsea, without the burden of more games, can grab points ahead of other powerful teams.

In comparison, their rest time and tactical adjustment time are also more abundant.

For example, after this round of Champions League knockout rounds, other Champions League teams in the Premier League will face the challenge of the FA Cup, but the Chelsea team can enjoy a comfortable holiday first.

Manchester City and Arsenal need to play two games in the next ten days, one in the league and one in the FA Cup, but Chelsea only needs to play one league game.

The difference here is huge.

At least at the player level, Chelsea's players are undoubtedly more rested.

After enjoying the three-day holiday, they were in a much more energetic state when they resumed training, which was in sharp contrast to the more serious photos of training preparations released by other teams.

While Manchester City and Arsenal are fighting to advance to the next round of the FA Cup, Chelsea's players are lying at home watching their rivals' games.

And when the players from these two teams finally defeated their FA Cup opponents, neither of them got any decent chance to rest.

Chelsea, who are well-rested, have just finished their preparations and are full of energy to face their opponents in the league.

On the afternoon of February 27, Mourinho led his team to face the challenge of Sky City at home.

Compared with the first time the two teams met this season, Sky City's league ranking has risen a lot.

They have now climbed to tenth place in the league, and are about to break into the top of the league rankings, and even have a great chance to enter the European theater.

However, the completeness of their lineup cannot be compared with before. The main central defenders Shawcross and Wilson have both entered the injured list. The attacker Bo Yang has just returned from injury and has to save some use.

It can only be said that Stoke City's head coach Mark Hughes is really good at coordinating the team's strength. He led the remaining team to not retreat but advance in the competition with other mid-to-lower teams, and has always been able to tenaciously score points.

But today they met Chelsea. No matter how tenacious Stoke City is, it will be difficult to make up for the huge gap in physical strength between the two teams.

Originally, Mark Hughes was counting on Chelsea to continue to rest, thinking of using as little overall consumption as possible to win against a weak opponent.

But in Mourinho's view, Stoke City, which is not considered a strong team now, is one of the few hard-rock teams that can pose a threat to Chelsea in the subsequent schedule.

Not being strong doesn't mean that it won't cause a lot of trouble, and the last thing Chelsea wants to encounter now is trouble on the way to scoring points!

Therefore, Mourinho not only decided to face Stoke City with all the main players, but also emphasized to his players many times not to be careless and stop early.

To play against such a small and strong team, you need to defeat them in one go and establish a large enough lead!

Later we will talk about whether to change tactics to save energy.

Chelsea's coaching staff prepared a huge tactical surprise for Mark Hughes.

And when it comes to the playing field, it's a complete shock to the Stoke City players!

The well-rested Chelsea launched a strong attack on them from the beginning of the game!

This was an unabashedly aggressive attack, with high pressure and rapid advancement. Stoke City could only huddle in the half court with their heads in their hands and take the beating.

In the past, they could still put up a resilient counterattack performance when faced with the siege of strong teams, but why are all their main central defenders injured now?

The defense was really unstable, and the two defensive midfielders had no choice but to be tied up on the defensive end, unable to do anything else.

Mark Hughes looked a little anxious from the sidelines, but it was really difficult for him to make any tactical adjustments at the moment.

After all, it was an embarrassing game scene caused by a lack of strength. He wanted to make his substitute defender tougher, but his chicken soup had already been defeated and it didn't work now!

The counterattack failed, and Shaqiri, who had been unable to get the ball in the front, had to retreat first to help his teammates on the wing defend.

But this time he withdrew, Stoke City had fewer points in front to get the ball.

Often the players in Stoke's midfield and backcourt start to clear the ball, and the only one in front who is qualified to fight for the ball is Arnautovic.

As for his strike partner Mamoud Diouf, he was completely unable to play a fulcrum role and was looked down upon by Thiago Silva.

In this case, Stoke City's offensive and defensive ends seemed to be tightly clamped by Chelsea's two steel vices.

The defensive players have strength flaws, and their performance limit is just that. The offense is purely hindered by the defensive end, unable to produce any decent counterattacks, and it cannot threaten Chelsea's goal.

Under the huge defensive pressure exerted by Chelsea, it is difficult for Stoke City's defenders to make no mistakes.

Especially their two substitute central defenders. Due to their position, any mistake they make will be a fatal mistake. Li Ang likes to exploit the shortcomings of the opponent's central defenders to make a fuss.

As a result, Stoke City's goal fell earlier than many fans expected.

Just after the 20th minute of the first half, Li Ang pushed forward from the midfield with the ball, and finally made a direct pass in the rib area on the right side of Stoke City's half to help De Bruyne successfully break into the hinterland of Stoke City's penalty area!

This time it was a defensive error caused by Stoke City's left center back Muniesa standing too far forward. It was very easy for De Bruyne to get the ball forward!

After that, the work that Chelsea's forward combination has to do is very simple.

De Bruyne swept the pass in front of the goal from the right side of the penalty area, and Suarez moved forward from the center to complete the goal!

Stoke City goalkeeper Butland was left speechless by his two substitute central defenders at this moment.

One person had a problem with his positioning and was easily beaten behind him, while the other person defended but was lonely. The opponent just overtook the defense and overtook the point to complete the point!

With teammates like this, how can he complete the save? !

At any rate, the interference is in place to make the opponent's forward feel uncomfortable when kicking. Don't complete the stab at such a close distance!

But he was depressed, and in the end, Bartra did not yell and vent to his two central defender teammates.

The season is still going on, and it's not like they won't have to play the rest of the game after Chelsea scored.

No matter how angry he is, these two people will be the ones standing in front of him to provide him with defensive protection in the next few or even dozen games.

It could be considered that he had predicted in advance that such a game situation would occur. Butland muttered a few words and said nothing more.

Mark Hughes off the field had the same idea and was angry, but the strength of this pair of substitute central defenders is already the same, and there is no way to temporarily improve it, so just make do with it!

Many players on the Stoke City field were helpless and relieved at the moment when they lost the ball.

After that, they focused more on the offensive end and no longer protected their defense as carefully as before.

As a result, after changing their thinking, they performed much better than before.

At least I can counterattack smoothly and get a few shots, so that Chelsea goalkeeper Oblak won't be bored to the point of playing with the number of steps...

But for Stoke City, the slight improvement in the game situation was not enough to stop Chelsea from continuing to score goals.

Li Ang took advantage of Stoke City's substitute central defender Muniesa once and got a taste of it. After that, he continued to make fuss about the short Spanish central defender.

In the 34th minute of the first half, Li Ang once again took the ball and launched an attack in Stoke City's half, but this time he did not directly target Muniesa and pass the ball behind him.

Instead, he first moved the ball to Hazard's feet on the other side.

After passing the ball, he moved forward decisively, and at the same time kept raising his hands to signal Hazard to pass the ball from high altitude!

Azar saw Li Ang's raised gesture and understood instantly.

He aimed at the back of the penalty area where Li Ang moved and directly took the ball and passed!

Hazard's passing choice relieved Stoke City full-back Peters, who was carefully marking him.

But at this moment, the two Stoke City defenders in the penalty area are facing a formidable enemy!

The football passed through the high-altitude area in front of the penalty area. Walscheid, one of Stoke City's starting central defenders today, subconsciously looked towards the back point.

His partner Muniesa has already taken a key defensive position, but Walscheid feels even more worried at this moment!

Because there are no other Stoke City teammates around Muniesa to assist him defensively.

At only 1.79 meters tall, he will soon have a one-on-one contest with the strong Li Ang in the air!

Walscheid, who had already imagined the "tragic" scene that followed, even turned his head slightly and closed his eyes.

And in the next moment, when he turned his eyes again, what he saw was Muniesa's figure that was almost flipped over in the air, Li Ang completing the action of shaking his head to attack the goal, and the football flying towards the goal quickly!

Butland definitely reacted quickly and made the save this time!

He no longer blames Muniesa. At least this time, his brave Spanish central defender teammate used his own overthrow to buy him enough time to save!

His fingertips touched the football, and at least at this moment, his heart was still full of hope.

But then, the huge power transmitted by the football through his fingertips made his mood plummet to the bottom!

The speed of the ball was too fast, and Li Ang's movement of shaking his head to attack the goal was also too stretched. He tried his best to deflect the football a little bit. This was already the limit of his save!

After completing his saving duties, Butland quickly looked back at the moment he fell to the ground. Unfortunately, what finally caught his eye was the scene of the football crossing the goal line and hitting the net!

He still failed.

Li Ang, who scored the goal in this game, kicked Stoke City, which was clinging to the edge of the cliff, into the abyss!

Chelsea's players on the field began a relaxed and happy collective celebration.

But Mourinho on the sidelines was not satisfied yet. He was still making tactical gestures, asking his disciples to maintain the current offensive rhythm.

He is going to knock Stoke City to death with one stick after another!

Knocked until there was no strength left to fight back!

Looking at Mourinho who was still signaling the team to continue attacking in the live broadcast footage, many Stoke City fans were so angry that they yelled!

But their emotional catharsis cannot change any game situation at this moment.

Chelsea are still applying offensive pressure.

Even in the last minute of the first half, Stoke City stubbornly pushed through.

But in the 61st minute of the second half, Stoke City was still knocked on the goal by Chelsea for the third time in the game!

It's Suarez again!

The Uruguayan forward maintained his high scoring rate this season. In the second half, he took Hazard's diagonal pass and ran out of a single chance, and decisively volleyed into the far corner!

This goal is also his 28th league goal this season!

With Chelsea having one game less, Suarez was able to score 28 goals in 26 league rounds. His performance can be said to be extremely amazing!

If Suarez can stay healthy in the subsequent schedule and feel no problem shooting.

He may even hit the Premier League record of 40 league goals in a single season!

In terms of shock level, it may indeed not be as good as the record of Messi and Ronaldo scoring 50 goals in a single season in the league.

But just talking about difficulty, being able to score 40 league goals in a single season in the Premier League is no less than scoring 50 league goals in a single season in La Liga.

Such a statement will definitely cause great controversy when put on the Internet, but there is nothing wrong with saying that it is harder to score goals in the Premier League than in La Liga.

Li Ang's number of goals this season is destined to be unable to compare with Suarez, but he has now quietly increased his number of league goals to 19.

Coupled with the 13 league assists he sent previously, there is no problem for Li Ang to reach double 20 plus league statistics this season.

However, Mourinho did not continue to give Li Ang and Suarez more time to collect data in this league.

After successfully achieving the goal of a three-goal lead, Lao Mu began to deploy his troops and make substitutions.

Li Ang and Suarez, the two goal scorers, were replaced one after another, and then Hazard was also replaced by Salah.

Stoke City did not struggle to counterattack in the rest of the game, so the final score of the game was fixed at 3-0.

Chelsea took the lead in the point-grabbing battle, and after completing the early game, they also transferred the pressure to the entire Manchester City team.

After making their debut the day after, Manchester City, who challenged Newcastle away from home, really couldn't withstand the pressure and were forced to a draw by Newcastle at home!

At this point, Chelsea, with 23 wins and 3 draws, successfully overtook Manchester City, which had 23 wins, 1 loss and 3 draws, with one game in hand and relied on their goal difference advantage to regain the top spot in the Premier League standings!

The long season game between the two teams also saw an important change after the end of this league round!

It's not that there's any big problem with Manchester City's coaching staff, nor is it that Guardiola's reorganization has affected the team's record.

Simply because they have played too many games, they have lost sight of one thing at the critical stage of the competition!

Maybe it's also because they didn't win any decent championship trophies in the previous few seasons.

Therefore, after seeing Chelsea decisively give up two domestic cup competitions in England, the Manchester City team became more ambitious to win the championship.

Until now, they have actually done well, reaching the final of the English League Cup and the final eight of the FA Cup.

But being dragged down by more cup competitions, they are now finally reaping the bitter fruit in the league.

Chelsea, who was traveling lightly, benefited from the wisdom of their head coach's choices, and they have already started to surge on the road to the final points!

Damn it, most of the stored data was lost, so I had to re-record the game data in the afternoon before typing. The second chapter is still being updated. There must be one, but it will be after midnight. I am definitely not a foodie. I can't wait. You can watch it tomorrow morning.