Super Marshal

Xavi could not imagine what it would be like for Barcelona to lose possession of the ball.

He felt that Barcelona at that time would be like the piece of fat on the chopping board that was ready to be slaughtered.

But that rarely happens, especially in recent years.

After Rijkaard coached Barcelona, ​​the passing trend set off by Gao Han at Atletico Madrid profoundly affected Barcelona. It was also under this situation that Xavi gradually gained a foothold and became the team's main midfielder. .

Slowly, he has become accustomed to controlling the ball, and is used to using passing and ball control to toy opponents with applause.

This brought him and the team an unprecedented sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Especially since the season under Guardiola, Barcelona's pursuit of possession has reached the extreme.

Iniesta, who has stronger ball control skills and better understands the essence of Barcelona's heritage, replaced Deco and became the team's main midfielder. Partnering with Xavi, plus Busquets in the deep position, Barcelona's The ball possession tactics were invincible and swept across the entire European football world.

There wasn't a game where Barcelona didn't have the advantage in possession.

Fifty percent?

No, the safe point should be 55%, or even 60%.

How to pass the ball after the opening, how to control the ball, and how to deal with the opponent's fierce pressing, Harvey and his teammates already have a complete set of mature execution plans.

But tonight, in this game, when facing Bayern Munich, Xavi suddenly discovered that the team's scheme seemed to be unworkable. Barcelona was unable to seize possession of the ball from Bayern Munich.

Even in the first ten minutes of the opening, Barcelona was relatively passive on the scene. The opponent broke into the penalty area several times and formed a shot, especially Lucio's corner kick in the opening three minutes. After the Brazilian central defender ran out of the gap, The header almost missed the post and went out of the baseline.

If Lucio had been a little more upright at that time, the ball would have been lost.

After that, Bayern Munich launched successive attacks, which made Barcelona a little tired of dealing with it and could only struggle to hold on.

Fortunately, after ten minutes, Bayern Munich slowed down their attack, and Barcelona took this opportunity to start fighting for possession of the ball.

But Harvey realized it was going to be very difficult.

Arturo Vidal!

He is not tall, not fast, and his movements are not too fierce, but he is very hardworking, very hard.

This Chilean player, who is not well-known, is said to have played as a defender before, but Gao Han took a fancy to his hard work and promoted him to the midfielder. In this game, his position was even more forward, which made it clear It is aimed at Busquets.

But he has a wide range of activities. Not only Busquets, but also Xavi and Iniesta frequently enter his defensive area.

He was like a desperate Saburo, running, chasing, and grabbing without stopping for a moment, as if he would never get tired.

If Vidal is in front, destroying and blocking unscrupulously, then Bastian Schweinsteiger and Modric are trailing behind, forming a defensive barrier for Bayern Munich's midfield.

When Barcelona's pass finally avoids Vidal and reaches Bayern Munich's midfield, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Modric are often able to block the loopholes immediately and destroy Barcelona's pass. .

This happens not once or twice, but frequently.

There was even a time when after losing the ball, Modric passed the ball directly to the feet of Robben. The latter cooperated with Aguero in a one-two and almost broke into the penalty area. Fortunately, Abidal was stuck. The position makes it difficult for Robben with his left foot to attack the goal.

Zone defense combined with man-to-man defense?

Xavi soon noticed Bayern Munich's targeted tactics, which gave him a headache.

Generally speaking, Italian teams are best at using this style of play to restrain Spain's passing and control.

Harvey couldn't help but turn his head and glanced at the Chinese man in a black suit standing in front of the visiting team's coaching bench on the sidelines. It was obvious that all this was arranged by him.

Barcelona's midfield is an inverted triangle, with Xavi and Iniesta up front and Busquets behind. Gao Han obviously made adjustments to Bayern Munich's midfield in this game, pushing Modric's position behind. Vidal stepped forward and formed a right triangle.

Three on three, Gao Han needs this kind of targeted defense to disrupt Barcelona's midfield passing and control.

In fact, this trick is not new.

For Barcelona, ​​such a situation has not happened before. Many teams, including Atletico Madrid, and in the Champions League last season, many teams used this tactic to restrain Barcelona's passing control.

But do you think that this will make it difficult for us to defeat you?

Harvey snorted secretly in his heart, glanced at Gao Han unconvincingly, and then winked at Iniesta, who immediately understood Harvey's intention tacitly.

The middle road is no longer feasible, so we switch to the side road.

Last season, Barcelona had Messi and Ronaldinho on both wings. No matter which side the ball was passed to, it could be passed to either side. However, not long ago, Ronaldinho transferred to AC Milan. Now Barcelona can only Trust Messi.

Pass to Messi!

…………

…………

Marcelo feels the pressure is mounting.

From the 15th minute onwards, Barcelona continued to increase their attacks on the right, and Messi began to get opportunities to get the ball. Every time the Argentinian player got the ball, Marcelo dealt with it carefully as if he was facing a formidable enemy. .

This made him tense up all the time, and he didn't dare to slack off at all.

But just like that, it's still not enough.

Messi's performance is simply incredible. Every time he moves, he seems to see through Bayern Munich's defense and can always move into the gap. And every time he receives the ball, no matter whether the opponent's pass is good or bad, he can always Stop the ball firmly.

Every time he touches the ball, every step he takes, the frequency of his steps, and the length of his strides, all seem to have been carefully calculated. At first, Marcelo always reminded himself not to be impulsive or take a step easily, but gradually he gradually , he found that he was thinking too much.

It's hard to even keep up, but you're still kicking?

Facing Messi with the ball, Marcelo even suspected that he had no choice. Apart from fouling, there was no effective way to stop him. He could only barely keep up with him again and again, blocking him and the goal, forcing He passes the ball.

Want to steal the ball?

dream!

Marcelo can now finally understand the collapse of Real Madrid youth training player Miguel Torres when he faced Messi in the Derby of the Century.

He still clearly remembered that it was the twenty-sixth round of La Liga, when Real Madrid visited Camp Nou to challenge Barcelona. The start went smoothly. Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring for Real Madrid in just four minutes, and after that In the game, they took the lead three times and were equalized by Messi's goals three times.

In that game, the Argentinian scored a hat-trick. After Barcelona received a red card at half-time and had one player missing, they managed to draw Real Madrid 3-3 at home.

At that time, it was youngster Miguel Torres who was responsible for defending Messi.

After this game, Torres was under tremendous psychological pressure, and he even couldn't get out of the shadows for a while.

At that time, Marcelo was not very impressed with Messi, but now, he finally experienced first-hand the feeling of weakness that Miguel Torres felt when facing Messi.

What's more, Messi is obviously stronger and more mature one year later than he was then.

Marcelo never dared to be careless and followed Messi step by step.

The Argentinian has a wide range of activities. When Barcelona's offense tends to the left, he frequently moves closer to the center. Marcelo also moves to the center, standing on the line at the front of the penalty area, always ready to step forward. Defensively.

The ball passed through Iniesta's dribbling from the left to Messi's feet on the right side of the top of the arc in the penalty area.

As soon as the Argentinian received the ball, Marcelo immediately moved forward.

But he was fast, and Messi was faster than him. He dunked the ball directly into the penalty area. His short body turned around very flexibly, faced the direction of the attack directly, and dribbled the ball forward into the penalty area.

Marcelo was surprised. He didn't expect Messi to turn around so quickly, but he immediately reacted and got stuck on the inside of Messi, preventing him from facing the goal directly.

But Messi suddenly accelerated and sprinted forward with the ball. Marcelo followed suit immediately, but what he didn't expect was that when Messi caught up with the ball, he kicked the ball forward again. Accelerate once and get faster.

This frightened Marcelo and he tried his best to catch up.

But even if Marcelo chased after him as quickly as possible, he was still thrown away by Messi. The Argentine swept the ball with his right foot in front of the small penalty area and passed it into the penalty area.

Eto'o in the middle was like a black whirlwind. With lightning speed, he quickly inserted from behind. Before Neuer could attack, he stabbed the ball directly into the goal guarded by Neuer. .

The whole process happens in the blink of an eye.

Marcelo doubted his eyes. He couldn't even imagine that Messi could speed up again in the middle of the sprint. In other words, he still had some energy left when he started.

Oh my god, is this Messi?

Marcelo couldn't accept it, he felt like he was being played by Messi.

But there was a burst of crazy cheers from the entire Louis II Stadium. All the Barcelona fans who came to the scene were exclaiming Eto'o's goal and also marveling at Messi's personal strength.

One on one, Messi killed Marcelo.

Barcelona's players celebrated loudly, and coach Guardiola raised his arms high on the sidelines and clapped vigorously.

This is definitely a wonderful manifestation of Messi's personal strength. Only a player like him can have such an amazing performance. From the big penalty area to the small penalty area, he was able to turn around and sprint and then there was an obvious speed increase in the middle. This It is definitely not something that ordinary people can do.

Guardiola walked to the sidelines with a smile, high-fived the celebrating players, and congratulated Eto'o, the hero of the goal, and Messi, who performed well.

When he returned to the coaching area, he did not forget to turn his head and glance at Gao Han.

At this moment, Gao Han was regretting the lost goal, covering his forehead with an expression like "I have a headache", and he seemed to feel Guardiola's eyes and looked over.

The two looked at each other, and Guardiola smiled slightly.

I scored first, you take your time.

Gao Han also smiled back, it was only one ball, it was no big deal.

Guardiola knew very well that this was not an exaggeration at all, so he quickly walked to the court again, clapped his hands vigorously to signal the players not to get too excited and pay attention to Bayern Munich's counterattack.

The period after a goal is often the most vulnerable moment for defense. Players can easily become slack due to the surprise brought by a goal, so it must be taken seriously.

Gao Han walked to the sidelines and kept calling on the players on the court to be patient and not to rush.