Chapter 358 Xiao Ming, who can hold his face off

"Bang!"

A dull sound rang in the stadium, and the huge sighs of Valencia fans sounded over the Mestalia Stadium, but their heart, which was almost desperate, rekindled the flame of hope!

Just two minutes into the second half, Valencia found an opportunity in the midfield's back and forth. Sanchez took the ball at the front of the penalty area, but he didn't seem to see the dense defensive crowd in front of him. He suddenly took a long shot at 25 meters away from the goal!

The ball quickly passed through the seemingly indestructible line of defense in Leiden East, and then hit the post heavily and bounced out of the baseline. I don't know if it was because the ball was too fast or because it was not focused enough, Yasquelenen did not react to the long shot.

Although the ball did not score, and although they still needed at least three goals to reach the final, this attack rekindled the fire of hope for Valencia fans.

Because in the whole first half, Valencia's offense has never been so close to scoring a goal!

Even back to the first leg, Valencia never posed a substantial threat to Leiden East's gate!

It has to be said that Cooper's conservatism has put him in such a passive situation. On the away game, what he pursues is not to lose the ball. Even after falling behind, what he pursues is to suspend the two main players of Leiden East. Although he finally achieved his goal, he did not achieve the corresponding effect.

On the contrary, at the moment when he was forced to a dead end, Cooper finally abandoned all his conservatism and stubbornness and began to order the team to attack desperately. The starting lineup he sent today was a lineup that was more focused on offense. After really taking everything to start the attack, Valencia's personnel composition began to show great power.

Cooper himself is a coach who is good at playing cups. The team he leads has always performed well in the cup games, but has never won a championship. This is also related to his lack of courage to rush to the critical moment. In fact, with Valencia's current personnel composition, he can fight tough battles and strong attacks. If he had played like this, the pressure on Leiden East would be much greater.

Leiden East launched a counterattack, but was stubbornly resisted by the opponent in the midfield. Djokav finally managed to successfully control the ball on the spot, but Alberda used a nearly foul action to intercept the ball. Perhaps considering that Valencia's score is at an extremely disadvantage, the referee did not call for this controversial action.

After Alberda intercepted the ball, he immediately passed the ball to Aimal. Aimal dribbled the ball forward, but he still did not lose his center of gravity and balance under Tovdin's close press and constant pull. During the run, he suddenly made a subtle pass and stuffed the ball to Angulo who entered the penalty area with a diagonal line.

"Beautiful diagonal pass! Angulo broke into the ribs of Leiden East penalty area, and the young left-back Ashley Cole returned to defense a little slow... Ah, it's a pity. Faced with such an excellent opportunity, Angulo made a bigger move when dribbling, and Jasquelinen made a precise attack and held the ball in his arms. Valencia lost another excellent opportunity!"

Xiao Ming let out a long sigh. Fortunately, Anguluo is not a player with strong scoring ability, and his handling of this offense seemed a little too hasty. If the opponent scored a goal back at the beginning of the second half, there might be a turmoil in the next game.

During the halftime break, Xiao Ming asked the players to carry out intensive defense, but at the beginning of the second half, the opponent made two extremely threatening attacks in a row. How could Xiao Ming not be angry?

He stood up with a flaw, then stood on the side of the court without moving, staring firmly at the court - he wanted to see who dared to slack off at this time, and dared to think that the second half was really garbage time!

The players on the court at Leiden Oriental are indeed a little lazy. The previous three consecutive wins against Valencia made them unknowingly underestimate this team that was struggling to qualify for the Champions League in La Liga, and forget that the opponent is like himself, and is also one of the semi-finals of the European Champions League.

When I saw the boss standing on the sidelines with a gloomy face, everyone realized that now is indeed not the time to slack off...

"Counterattack! Reduce the pressure on the defense!" Jasquelinen shouted, then threw the ball with his hand to Ashley Cole on the left.

Ashley Cole took the ball, and he ignored Angulo's insertion just now. After all, he was still young and sometimes he was too relaxed. Fortunately, the opponent made a mistake, otherwise if the opponent scored a goal just now, he would be the culprit for the goal being lost.

Seeing Angulo pushing towards him, Ashley Cole, who was full of anger, did not give Angulo any face. After pretending to pass the ball to Jinklaze in front, Ashley Cole drove the ball to the right and then forced a breakthrough!

Ashley Cole instantly threw Angulo behind him. He did not pass the ball, but boldly drove the ball forward!

Ashley Cole broke through near the center circle in one breath before passing the ball to Jinklaze, and then continued to break to the baseline. His running attracted Anguema's attention. Jinklaze took the opportunity to dribble the ball and start breaking into the middle. Alberda could only fight and retreat when he couldn't find the gap in the foot. When he retreated several steps, he found that Jinklaze had dribbleed into the dangerous area. Just as he was about to step forward to block it, Jinklaze suddenly kicked the ball in the top of the penalty area. Canisares barely blocked the ball, and Ayala immediately cleared the ball with a big foot.

"This is almost the same." Xiao Ming said in his heart, then clapped his hands and shouted at the venue: "Just hit me like this! Don't be suppressed by them!"

This counterattack stabilized the morale of Leiden East and poured a basin of cold water on Valencia, who had just risen. Although Valencia still launched a tide attack, Leiden East began to defend calmly. The entire defense line was guarding in the penalty area without a gap. Two low-level midfielders with strong running ability set up a net at the front of the penalty area. Valencia, who could not enter the penalty area, could only frequently find opportunities through long shots outside the penalty area, but was blocked one by one by one by Jasqueline, who was tall, long and stable.

Aimal planned to use his breakthrough to find opportunities, but was stared at by Tovdin, who suddenly turned youthful. Although Aimal was talented, he only had a few months of experience in European competitions, and the intensity of the Argentine League was still not comparable to that of the European League. Under the guidance of Tovdin, who had the nickname of "lawmower", the Joker still could not achieve good results despite all his skills.

"Stig's performance today was a real surprise."

Seeing that the situation stabilized, Xiao Ming also sat back on the coaching seat. Looking at the thick bald position who was following Aimal who could drive the ball from the middle to create murderous intent, making the young clown unable to display his strengths at all, Xiao Ming said to MacDonald with a smile.

McDonald nodded: "This veteran is indeed trustworthy... He may be a little worse for playing the main player, but it is also a good choice to substitute when there are insufficient staff... It is a very wise decision to win such a substitute at a low price."

"Yes, these veterans always have something they are worthy of trust, especially veterans who have not won any decent honors." Xiao Ming looked at the court: "Stig, Yuri... This season, besides Louis, buying them is worth the money. I hope they can still maintain their own form next season. After all, for the substitute, it is not enough to be too young, and it is not enough to play too much. The former may be aborted on the bench, and the latter may be a conflict."

"How long has the second half been?" After a while, Xiao Ming couldn't help asking MacDonald. Although he had a performance, he never watched it in the game. He just asked MacDonald, which was also a superstitious habit of Xiao Ming.

"Fifteen minutes, half an hour left." MacDonald replied quickly.

"Stay for another ten minutes and we can help Valencia erect the tombstone." Xiao Ming smiled.

"goooooooal-Miguel-Angulo! There is no sign of this goal! One to one, the total score is one to two, Valencia finally saw a glimmer of hope!"

Looking at Angulo picking up the ball and running back, McDonald turned his head blankly and looked at Xiao Ming, and then said, "Boss, I think you'd better stop talking in the future..."

"Fuck it!" Xiao Ming cursed depressedly. Less than five minutes after he said he was about to erect the tombstone by Valencia, Valencia scored a goal!

Leiden East did not make any mistakes in this defense, but Angulo scored a goal in an unpredictable attack - at that time, he suddenly kicked the ball close to thirty meters away from the goal. The shot was fast and accurate, and it was straight at the corner of the goal, making Yasquelenen, who had made several wonderful saves before, had no temper at all.

And when he picked up Angulo's statistics this season, this depressed mood reached its peak.

Angulo has made 28 appearances in La Liga this season and nine appearances in the Champions League, with a zero goal number - the goal just now is his only goal so far this season.

"Damn it, let an iron tree bloom on us..." Xiao Ming threw the statistics to MacDonald depressedly.

This goal, which happened in the 20th minute of the second half, really gave Valencia a shot of heart. It was very harmful to not be able to capture it for a long time. This timely goal finally rekindled Valencia's hope. After all, scoring two goals in nearly half an hour is not particularly difficult.

Seeing Valencia starting to bombard his goal on the court, Xiao Ming's eyes swept across the bench. He did not want to replace the defender to strengthen his defense. Adding a defender under a mature defensive system may not be a good thing, but it will easily cause the entire defensive system to have gaps that should not be available.

"Ed, can I trust you?" Xiao Ming's eyes fell on Edmunddo: "I need a player who is fast and can get the ball and can break through, and can complete the attack by one person in the counterattack. Tell me, can you play such a role after you come on the court?"

Edmund was stunned for a moment. After being replaced in the middle of the last game, he originally thought that he would not have a chance to play next. After all, the next game is very important. No coach would use a player who is obviously not in shape. Even if he appeared on the bench today, he would not think he had a chance to play.

But it is obvious that Xiao Ming asked him to the bench because when this situation occurs, he needs a forward with individual combat capabilities. For such a forward, there is only Edmundor in the entire Leiden East.

Xiao Ming's team building idea has always been based on the overall cooperation of the team, including Figo, who bought at a high price, is also a player with strong team capabilities. So far, he wants to find a player who can do it alone, but he can only find Edmunddo, a temporary firefighter...

Edmunddo did not directly answer Xiao Ming's question. Maybe he was the only one in the team who would answer Xiao Ming's question in this way. He looked at the sunny sky and looked at Xiao Ming: "The weather is very good today, so I think I am in good condition."

Xiao Ming smiled.

A minute later, Edmunddo, who was sorting out his jersey after warming up, listened to Xiao Ming's words in his ear: "If you have the chance to get the ball after you come on the court, use your expertise in taking the ball, get more balls in the opponent's half, and control the ball more even if you can't attack smoothly. It will burn the fire to the opponent's half and let their offense stagnate. I heard that you Brazilian players have excellent ball control skills. Let me see it today."

Edmundor grinned: "As you wish, boss."

Xiao Ming replaced Djokkaf with Edmundor. The intention of this substitution was exactly the opposite of the previous game. Djokkaf was replaced in the last game to make the offense smoother, but this time, the replacement of Edmundor was completely aimed at killing time...

Cooper was right. Xiao Ming was indeed a head coach who was shameless for victory... Perhaps because of his half-way success, he only considered real profit and did not care about the situation - it was also a blessing that he was in England. If he were in Spain, fans would probably protest his tactics every few days.

After Edmunddo came on the court, he had a chance to get the ball. He first rushed from the middle with the ball. While Ayala and Pellegrino were on the verge, he dribbled the ball directly to the side, and then hid near the corner kick area and stopped coming out. Valencia had been dispatching three people to cut the ball from under his feet. At this time, except for Jin Clarze and Van Nie to come to pick up, the other players from Leiden East did not support them in their half.

When Leiden East did this for the third time, even the commentators couldn't help but start complaining: "Leden East is too... This is completely killing football for victory! Constantly killing time and constantly interrupting the rhythm of the game... Although we can understand, even Leiden East, which has always used oppressive offensive style, uses this method to ensure victory, so what is the charm of football?"

What is the charm of football? It lies in adapting to the situation! Even though you know that the opponent's morale has improved, you still have to play against the opponent in a stupid way. At that time, Valencia, who was really out of character, scored two goals in a row, and Leiden East will become a laughing stock for everyone and become one of the cases of capsizing in the gutter under a huge advantage!

In order to enter the Champions League final twice in a row, Xiao Ming didn't mind using some unconventional methods.

The next game was completed with frequent fouls and constant killing time. After Leiden Oriental got the ball, he sent the ball to several players with excellent ball control skills in the front court, and then used their excellent ball control skills to kill time. Valencia returned to defense and could not steal the ball from their feet. Once there were more players returning to defense, he would have to spend more time if he wanted to press on...

Although Cooper used up three substitutions later, he still could not solve the rogue-like style of Leiden Oriental. Cooper had to admire Xiao Ming's courage to use this method of excellent results but destined to cause huge controversy. After all, even if he advanced with this method, it would have some negative impact on Leiden Oriental.

Xiao Ming dared because he knew that after entering the Champions League final for two consecutive years, or after having the chance to defend the Champions League title, even if there were some dissatisfaction voices at that time, they would definitely disappear under the halo of the champion.

He remembers that in his previous life, AC Milan and Juventus were once criticized after playing the ugliest Champions League final, but disappeared after a while. After all, what people remember is who was the second place in the World Cup, and they would not remember how disappointing the process of the game was.

Similarly, just as many head coaches regarded the dull final as a classic of defensive competition and psychological warfare afterwards, Xiao Ming believed that his approach would also bring considerable inspiration to many head coaches.

When the referee blew the whistle to the end of the game, there was no garbage time game that the broadcaster was worried about in the second half of the game, but the game was interrupted by constant fouls and time-tripping, and finally came to an end.

Leveraging the advantage accumulated by defeating his opponent with a small goal at home, Leiden Oriental laughed to the end and became another team that reached the finals of the Champions League for two consecutive years after Juventus!

Thousands of Leiden Oriental fans who came with the team were not disappointed by the ugly second half. They gave a huge cheer to celebrate their team's second consecutive year of entry into the Champions League!

"We can wait for our opponents in Milan first! Whether it is Real Madrid or Bayern Munich!"
Chapter completed!