Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

Of course, there is a reason why Li Ang is so confident that the team will defeat Atletico Madrid next.

As the best-performing La Liga team in the Champions League in recent seasons, Atletico Madrid, which has reached two Champions League finals, has naturally aroused the vigilance of many European powers.

Chelsea regards Bayern as their biggest competitor in the Champions League this season, and their second priority is Atletico Madrid, who caused them a lot of trouble in the Champions League final last year.

Facts have proved that Mourinho and his coaching team were right to study and attach importance to Atletico Madrid in advance.

Now leading the team to face Atletico Madrid again, Chelsea's coaching staff at least has multiple plans in terms of tactical reserves and tactical targeting.

Mourinho dare not say that he is the coach in Europe who knows Atletico Madrid's tactics best except Simeone, but when it comes to studying Atletico Madrid's tactics, he thinks that there is no problem in ranking among the top three.

Without him, Atletico Madrid is a big enough threat to Chelsea in the Champions League, and he himself is very interested in Atletico Madrid's technical and tactical play.

After all, it is a tough team that is also based on defense and has very sharp counterattacks. Nowadays, Atletico Madrid's tough style is too much for Mourinho's appetite.

He can see many familiar styles in Simeone's tactics, including his, Capello's, and the styles of many well-known coaches in Serie A football.

There is no doubt that Simeone is a master of learning, and his rich experience in Serie A has also laid a solid foundation for his current coaching style.

Mourinho likes this junior in the coaching world very much. In addition to recognizing his strength, he also has a great interest in deciphering Simeone's tactical play.

It is precisely because the Chelsea coaching staff's full preparation gave Li Ang and other Chelsea main players great confidence.

Regardless of whether Atletico Madrid expected in advance that they would continue to meet Chelsea this season, they began to make targeted preparations in advance.

Anyway, on Chelsea's side, Mourinho has used Atletico Madrid as his imaginary enemy at least two months ago, and has made sufficient tactical responses and game-breaking plans in coaching meetings.

Therefore, as soon as the draw ceremony for the Champions League semi-finals ended, Chelsea's preparations for the match against Atletico Madrid quickly evolved from the tactical theory stage to actual drills.

It is also easier for the Chelsea team to imitate Atletico Madrid's current style of play.

Who makes them have too many similarities between the two teams?

Full of aggressive defensive pressure, heavy defensive forces in the middle of the midfield, rapid counterattacks from both wings, and timely and decisive tactical foul strategies...

It is not difficult for Chelsea's substitute players to achieve such a tactical effect. The only troublesome thing is that they need to form a 4-4-2 formation many times when playing against the main players.

This formation is indeed a bit "outdated" for today's powerful teams in mainstream European leagues.

Breaking down the teams that have made it to the top 16 of the Champions League this season, only one Atletico Madrid is still playing their specialty 442, and the rest of the teams are basically playing 433 or 4231.

But that's just the trend of the times, and Atletico still uses their excellent results in recent seasons to justify their tactical play.

Their "reverse version" of 442 still made it to the top four of this season's Champions League, which in itself is a symbol of success.

Chelsea's coaching staff can only overcome some difficulties and try to replicate Atletico Madrid's formation on the training ground.

Due to the tight schedule of the Premier League and limited time, Chelsea's preparation training for Atletico Madrid ended up missing a few training games to review the effect.

But compared to the quality of preparations for the Champions League semi-finals in the previous two seasons, Chelsea's preparations this year are already very, very complete.

The whole team has understood the logic of Atletico Madrid's play style, and has basically been exposed to Atletico Madrid's tactical system. They have empathy and practice on the training ground.

To be able to achieve this, Chelsea's coaching staff has performed extremely well. Anyway, Li Ang does not believe that Simeone can lead the team to prepare for this stage.

The tactical drills are in place, morale is high, and the team has no injury problems. In addition, Chelsea will play at home in the first round.

No matter how you look at it, Li Ang feels that I have the advantage in this match against Atletico Madrid!

He successfully completed the final preparations with his teammates with full confidence.

On April 26, the day before the battle between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, the Champions League semi-finals also officially kicked off, with Real Madrid and Juventus taking the lead!

Real Madrid, who challenged Juventus in an away game, took the initiative and changed their strategy of playing pig and eating tiger in the last knockout round against Manchester City, and became very proactive in their tactics.

Juventus also rarely showed weakness at home and decisively handed over control of the midfield. The team first concentrated on shrinking the defense.

Li Ang and his teammates gathered at the training base restaurant that night to watch the match between the two teams. When he saw this scene, he expressed emotion. If Pirlo was still at Juventus, Uncle James would definitely fight for control of the midfield with Real Madrid today.

In fact, Master Pi can still play high-intensity games, but he quit in the summer window last year and went directly to the American League to enjoy football for retirement, regardless of the wishes of Juventus management and Uncle Jon.

Now that Juventus has been poached by Barcelona to take away Vidal and without Pirlo, the control of the midfield and the intensity of confrontation have dropped a lot.

Fortunately, Khedira, the young man they introduced from Paris last summer, has had a second career. Together with Marchisio, the double midfielder combination once again supported Juventus' midfield system.

Coupled with Pogba's career-high performance on the left side of the midfield, Juventus has now mastered the counterattack.

Allegri is also a master in terms of tactical adaptability. With two core generals removed from the midfield, he changed formations to create another midfield system.

This year he once again led the team to the semi-finals of the Champions League. The media from various European countries who had previously questioned his coaching ability were speechless. Now who dares to say that he is unsuccessful?

Facing Real Madrid who took the initiative today, Uncle James was very decisive and adopted a wretched squatting tactic. This is very suitable for his tactical play and is also very suitable for Juventus' current starting configuration.

Originally, other Chelsea players thought that Li Ang would continue to decisively support Real Madrid.

As a result, only in the 20th minute of the first half, Li Ang shook his head and concluded that Real Madrid would be uncomfortable in the second half.

Other Chelsea players were doubtful. After all, Real Madrid still controlled the initiative on TV, playing vigorously on the offensive end and frequently creating dangers.

This doesn't look like you're going to suffer a serious blow, does it?

As a result, Juventus relied on the team's united defense to withstand Real Madrid's ferocious impact in the first half, dragging the 0-0 score into the halftime period.

At the beginning of the second half, Uncle James replaced Mandzukic, one of the starting two centers, with Dybala, who had just returned from injury in the Serie A league, and let Dybala partner with Morata, the other starting center.

At first glance, Juventus' starting lineup has not changed much. It is still the 442 that Uncle Jon unexpectedly arranged today.

But with Dybala coming on, Juventus's counterattack strategy is no longer the simple and direct long pass to find Mandzukic in the first half.

Pogba's positioning follows the conditions, and the passing relationship between him and Dybala becomes more delicate and frequent.

The physical energy saved by the Juventus team in the first half played a huge role in the second half.

The pressing force in the midfield and backcourt forced Juventus to push the front line back to near the midline.

At this time, if Real Madrid still wants to invade Juventus' defensive hinterland and create an offensive threat like it did in the first half, then it must press forward further.

Ancelotti didn't hesitate much. Real Madrid already had an offensive feel in the first half, and he couldn't give up halfway at this time.

As Real Madrid took over and exposed more and more defensive gaps in the backcourt, Juventus directly launched a deadly quick counterattack in the 63rd minute of the second half!

Facing his former teammate Modric, Khedira used his physical advantage to steal the ball. Then he quickly transferred the ball to Pogba. Pogba's diagonal mid-range pass to the ground was also accurately found. It's Morata who starts to push forward at a high speed!

The former Real Madrid striker gave full play to his speed advantage and foot skills at this moment.

After first using his speed to beat Casemiro, facing Ramos who boldly attacked, Morata once again burst into speed and successfully passed the former big brother with just a simple smash and change of direction!

In the end, facing the aggressively pressing Pepe, Morata selflessly distributed the football to Dybala who raised his hand and advanced before the opponent fell to the ground to tackle.

In order to avoid Pepe's tackle, Morata took off a little embarrassed and fell to the turf.

But his eyes were fixed on Dybala, who was already facing Navas with the ball!

The Argentine forward dribbled the ball into the left side of Real Madrid's penalty area. Generally speaking, forwards who get such an opportunity will choose to hit the far corner of the goal.

But Dybala hit a shot from a close corner very confidently!

This greatly exceeded Navas' expectations. Dybala also used his smooth foot to hit a wonderful shot, successfully sending the football into Real Madrid's goal!

Seeing this goal happen, the Chelsea players in the training base were really impressed with Li Ang.

However, Li Ang did not show a proud or happy expression at this moment. On the contrary, his eyes were a little helpless.

Compared to Juventus, he certainly hopes that Real Madrid can gain the upper hand in this round of competition and eventually successfully reach the Champions League final.

But now it seems that Real Madrid, which took the lead in attacking, is destined to suffer a big setback at Juventus' home court and lose the initiative to advance to the final...

Sure enough, after the team took the lead, Uncle James once again directed the Juventus players on the field to retreat with all their strength.

The old lady of Serie A reappeared in 1-0 doctrine. Juventus, who played defensive football, not only tortured its own fans, but also tortured countless neutral fans watching this battle tonight.

In the end, Juventus also won a small victory by one goal and won the first game against Real Madrid.

In the second round, they only need to score one goal at the Bernabeu, and Real Madrid must score three goals to eliminate them and make a comeback.

It can be said that Juventus has already taken a huge advantage in promotion!

This is naturally gratifying for Juventus fans, but for more neutral fans, watching such a Champions League semi-final is a disaster.

They are even more worried about whether tomorrow's game between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid will be another iron-blooded defensive battle.

With 30% of expectations and 70% of anxiety, fans around the world finally waited for another match in this season's Champions League on April 27 or early morning of 28th.

Chelsea, with all their main players at Stamford Bridge, also faced the challenge of Atletico Madrid!

Compared with last season's loss of troops before the Champions League final, Atletico Madrid's lineup health this season is much better.

Before the game, Li Ang also saw Griezmann, who was once familiar but now slightly unfamiliar, in the player tunnel.

The two of them hadn't contacted each other for a long time, so a polite smile and nod at each other was their way of greeting each other.

It is true that the two were familiar with each other in the past, and it is also true that they are not familiar with each other now. After all, not all friendly relationships can be maintained forever.

For Li Ang, this is not a regrettable thing. Now it is a good result to meet Griezmann as an opponent on the court.

Of course, he will continue to "teach a lesson" to Griezmann on the court, just as he once did to Griezmann in La Liga.

Griezmann has evolved a lot and is now very strong, but there is only one winner today, and that is Li Ang!

…

After the pre-match ceremony, Li Ang, wearing the captain's armband, greeted his teammates to do the final pre-match mobilization in his own half.

As the referee's whistle sounded, the Stamford Bridge scene also burst into strong cheers!

The game started on time, and Chelsea, who took the first kick, also launched a long pass directly from the backcourt to test the offense.

Suarez ran to the receiving position in advance, but his national team teammate behind him and now Atletico Madrid's center back Jimenez unceremoniously pushed the football back to the midfield.

Gabi ran towards the first landing point of the football, but this time it was Li Ang's turn to jump first and head the ball to the wing.

Chelsea and Atletico Madrid completed the first round of offensive and defensive testing in the first minute.

De Bruyne, who regained control of the ball on Chelsea's side, simply passed the ball back. After taking the ball, Cross directed his surrounding teammates to distance themselves.

Seeing that Chelsea wanted to calmly organize the ball and organize the attack, Atletico Madrid also quickly launched the high-position pressure they are good at.

But Chelsea seemed to have predicted in advance that Atletico Madrid would use the team's high-pressure tactic in the opening stage, and decisively adopted a tactical plan of controlling the ball in the backcourt.

Seeing Hazard and De Bruyne follow the retreat position to participate in the transfer of the ball, Simeone's mouth on the sidelines subconsciously twitched.

Mourinho, on the other hand, sat firmly on the coaching bench, feeling reassured when he saw that the game was not out of control.

The media who predicted before the game that Chelsea and Atletico Madrid would struggle on the defensive end today were destined to be disappointed.

Chelsea and Atletico Madrid are indeed very typical "reckless" teams in this era of football.

They pay more attention to running, pressure, pressing and counterattack efficiency, and often do not pursue gorgeous and beautiful offense in the game.

Even though they are actually capable of playing smooth and beautiful offensive football, fans still habitually label them as a defensive team.

But no matter what these fans with stereotypes about Chelsea think of today's game.

Chelsea have already responded to them with a delicate tactical variation in the opening game:

These days, if you want to be the strongest "reckless" team, you must have some wisdom!