When Matthew Cox shouted this, he put his head in his hands in the commentary box.
All the Leeds City fans in the Flanders Stadium stands, like Cox, looked at Ferenc's goal with their hands on their heads.
This is the 77th minute of the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals between Leeds City and Ferenc.
The scoreboard at this moment is displayed on the big screen:
0:0
Taking pride in their offense, Leeds City, playing at home, had nothing to do with Ferenc!
Just now, Pete Williams suddenly shot a cold arrow from outside the penalty area.
The football flew against the turf toward the lower left corner of the goal.
This was a very high-quality shot, but it was knocked down by Ferenc's goalkeeper Mauro Albertazzi and was scooped directly into his arms. Leeds City didn't even get a corner kick...
This offense and defense is a microcosm of the confrontation between the two teams in this game:
As soon as the game started, Ferenc, who was playing away from home, took a stance, shrinking the defense and building a wall in front of the goal.
They didn't think about counterattacks or sneak attacks at all, they just defended the thirty-meter area.
Giving up all the space outside the thirty-meter area, Leeds City can control the ball and pass it down at will without worrying about being intercepted.
But this kind of game is not what Leeds City wants.
It's not like they haven't played against teams that value defense. As Leeds City's reputation for being good at offense has spread, it's natural for those teams that are not strong enough to choose defense when facing Leeds City.
It's just that Leeds City has never encountered a team that attaches such importance to defense as Ferenc.
Even for an Italian team that always attaches great importance to defense, this is really rare.
In fact, Ferenc is also a team with a very different style in Italian football.
They seemed to shrink to a thirty-meter area to defend, but they didn't simply pack people into this area and call it a day.
The defense within the 30-meter area is also divided into different levels to ensure a certain degree of depth and will not give Leeds City a chance to penetrate their defense with a single through ball.
This kind of outright intensive defense is very unsightly on the scene.
However, Ferenc's players don't care about that illusory face issue at all. They are like a sophisticated machine. Everyone does their job well in their own position and meticulously implements the instructions of head coach Federico Broli.
tactics.
Due to tactical needs, Ferenc's starting forwards are not the kind who are particularly good at scoring goals, but are "engineer-type forwards" who have good physical strength, strong running ability, and are willing to devote their energy to contribute to the team - Hu Lai.
People, in Ferenc, they can’t play at all because their defensive ability is so poor...
Ferenc's defense starts from the forwards, they are the first line of defense.
Then the midfielder, then the defender.
Finally, there is goalkeeper Albertazzi.
Even if Leeds City's offensive can break through the first three layers of defense and reach Albertazzi, it will be difficult to overcome this "iceberg".
Albertazzi got up from the ground after catching Williams' long shot, with no expression of joy or excitement on his face.
It's completely different from some goalkeepers who yell and pump their fists every time they make a wonderful save. On the one hand, they vent their emotions, and on the other hand, they also cheer up their teammates.
Albertazzi would not do this at all.
"Mauro Albertazzi has a nickname called 'Iceberg'." Shen Lang, the commentator of Tengfei Video, introduced it to domestic fans.
CCTV did not purchase the live broadcast rights for the Europa League, so Chinese fans who want to see Hu Lai's wonderful performance in the Europa League can only use the online platform. Fortunately, Tengfei Video originally won the qualification to broadcast the Europa League in China.
But when they bought the broadcasting rights, it was two years ago. At that time, Hu Lai had just gone to Leeds City. No one knew that he would represent Leeds City in the Europa League two years later. This wave of Tengfei Video was an accident.
The joy - without Hu Lai, the Europa League would never have received so much attention in China.
"Everyone can guess his style from this nickname. A very calm goalkeeper, with maturity and calmness that is completely inconsistent with his age. He is like a thirty-five-year-old veteran on the court... Although there are also criticisms
He lacks passion and spends most of his time in the small penalty area, which is not in line with the current popular trend of 'goalkeepers'. But with his incredible goal-line skills and amazing physical fitness, Albertazzi does not have to follow the trend.
If you insist on being yourself, you can become one of the top goalkeepers on the planet..."
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Laski sat on the bench, breathing heavily, looking at Ferenc's goal.
He was replaced five minutes earlier by captain Lorenzo Esposito.
Leeds City plans to use a simpler and more direct way to deal with Ferenc.
Also being replaced was Charlie Potter, and at the same time Kamara moved back, from winger to full midfielder.
The entire Leeds City team kept trying to pass the football from the wing to the goal, to Lorenzo's head, who would complete the challenge for the top, create chaos in front of Ferenc's goal, and create opportunities for Hulay.
But judging from these few minutes of competition, little effect was achieved.
Is there anything unique about Ferenc’s tactics?
No, it's just a bus. It's mainly through the players running without hesitation to ensure that there are no loopholes.
However, manpower is exhausted. In the last ten minutes of the game, Ferenc's physical strength has dropped a lot even after substitutions and adjustments.
Leeds City will always seize the opportunity to play some offense.
But these attacks are without exception, and when they reach the final stage, they will face Mauro Albertazzi.
According to the latest statistics, Leeds City has had a total of 38 shots in this game so far in the 80th minute, 17 of which hit the goal frame.
In the face of such astonishing data, the score is indeed 0:0.
Albertazzi played the most important role here.
Of Leeds City's seventeen shots on target, except for two that were blocked by Ferenc's players, the remaining fifteen shots were all saved by Albertazzi.
Whether it was forwards like Hulay, Kamara, and Lasky, or midfielders like Pete Williams and Jay Adams, none of their shots could pass through Albertazzi's fingers!
Matthew Cox was helpless: "As calm as ice, as insurmountable as a mountain... This is the 'Iceberg' Albertazzi! The game is not over yet, but he has already created a single-game save in the history of the Europa League.
The record for the number of times... Of course, this save record is also half of the credit of Leeds City, because it was their indiscriminate bombing that created the most perfect performance stage for Albertazzi..."
How to break dense defense is a worldwide problem. It can be said that Leeds City has done everything they can, whether it is long shots or set pieces, or using the players' personal abilities to break through and create chaos...
Clark had used all the tricks he could.
Hulay completely fell into the trap of Ferenc's defense in this game.
A total of five shots were completed, three of which hit the goal frame, but were all resolved by Albertazzi.
There were two remaining shots, one of which was interfered by the opponent's defender in the penalty area and missed.
The other shot was a long shot from outside the penalty area, which went over the crossbar.
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At the last moment of the game, Leeds City was still besieging Ferenc - they were besieging him like this thirty minutes ago. At that time, Leeds City fans were still worried that Ferenc would seize the opportunity to sneak attack.
Now they are not worried at all, because Ferenc didn't go too far. Ferenc shot three times in the whole game, and they were all in the first 60 minutes of the game...
All the Leeds City fans in the stands stopped playing and stared blankly at the stadium with their hands on their heads.
The Flanders Stadium, which had been noisy for ninety-four minutes, quickly calmed down.
Leeds City, always known for its powerful offensive firepower, hit a high mountain this time.
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One of the weapons to break dense defense is long-range shooting.
At the end of the game, Leeds City's number of shots soared to 42, more than half of which were long-range shots.
At the last moment of the game, no one was in the mood to slowly organize to find loopholes in Ferenc's defense. The simplest and most direct way to attack was to shoot from long range.
So Jay Adams took another long shot from outside the penalty area.
However, due to the interference of Ferenc players, his shot was slightly deflected and not very powerful. It flew into the penalty area and hit the body of Ferenc center back Nicolo Serafini, which deflected.
Bounce to the other side!
"Hulai opportunity!!"
Shen Lang, the commentator of Tengfei video, saw Hu Lai there when the football flew past, and he shouted excitedly.
Although Hulay is surrounded by Ferenc midfielder Samuel Corente, it is still an opportunity!
Hu Lai opened his arms, tried hard to block Corrente behind him, raised his feet and shot!
He knew he couldn't miss the opportunity, because Albertazzi's shot from Adams had already deflected to the other side...
But after he kicked the football out, he found Albertazzi flying across and slapped the football he shot toward the goal with one palm!
Damn it, right?!
Hu Lai stared at Albertazzi who was hanging in the air with wide eyes.
How did he come back?!
"Albertazzi——! The eighteenth successful save in the game!"
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PS, I'm sorry, after I came back from playing outside, I caught a cold again, my head was groggy, I was living in a muddle, and I forgot to set automatic updates...
