Chapter 47 Porto

"Last year I thought they were just an occasional decision-making mistake, but this year I really realized that these guys are definitely in the brain!"

"Okay, my dear, don't be angry. I'm fine, just focus on the game, don't worry about me."

"I'm so sorry, Maria, this is the case every year..."

"It's okay, my dear, I can understand."

......

"well......"

After hanging up the phone, Li Yun sighed.

Just like last year, today's French Open was once again arranged in a time of conflict with the Champions League final. The Champions League final was held on May 26, while the French Open started on the 24th and happened to hit the car again.

The result of this is that Li Yun was once again unable to cheer for Sharapova in time. Moreover, this year, due to the European Cup, Li Yun even had no time to see Sharapova in one day.

After the Champions League final, if nothing unexpected happens, Inter Milan will certainly win the Big Ear Cup, and then the entire Inter Milan team will return to Milan City to have a championship trophy tour similar to Auxerre last season, and carry out some celebrations.

When these celebrations ended, although the French Open was not over, Li Yun could not go to Paris to watch the game again, because he would immediately report to the national team.

The European Cup will kick off in mid-June. If it were normal, Li Yun should have gone to the Swedish national team to report after the league ended, because there is not much time left for the Swedish team to prepare for the European Cup. They have to play a few warm-up games and go to Portugal to adapt to the venue, and time is very tight.

However, due to the Champions League final, Li Yun had to postpone his return to the national team, which made his time even more urgent and he could not arrange his personal space at all.

This made Li Yun's wish to cheer for Sharaba on the French Open to the end again, but even if Li Yun went, he would probably not be able to watch Sharaba stick to the end, because although Sharaba is more powerful than in history, the French Open is her weakness after all. With her current strength and experience, it is impossible for her to achieve too much on the French Open.

Perhaps, when Li Yun has the chance to win Roland and Garros cheer for Sharapova, Sharapova will bring Li Yun a big surprise and take down the French Open crown and present it to Li Yun as a gift.

Those are all later stories. Li Yun’s most urgent task at the moment is this Champions League final. Now there are only three days left before the final starts. The entire Inter Milan team arrived at Gelsenkirchen in Germany early and came to Schalke 04’s home court to adapt to the venue in advance.

Inter Milan certainly attaches great importance to this final. The club knows the importance of this game from top to bottom and understands the importance of this championship to Inter Milan, so naturally they dare not be negligent.

Unlike the outside world, although Inter Milan has very full confidence in this game, he does not think Porto is so easy to deal with. Through his previous performance against Porto in the Champions League, we can see that this team is definitely not as simple as imagined.

"This team is very balanced overall. Although there are no too outstanding players in the team except Deco, they also have no fatal shortcomings and are very stable, and there will be no ups and downs."

"Especially their defense has always been very good. Their head coach Mourinho is obviously a coach who is very good at this. Therefore, in the final, we will definitely face the test of the opponent's solid defense. How to break the defense will become the key to this game!"

"As long as we can seize the opportunity and quickly break through the opponent's goal, the game will be much easier and will be completely included in our rhythm. But if we can't start the situation for a long time, the game may be difficult. At that time, we may fall into a hard battle."

"So, our main task now is to try our best to score goals, and it is best to score goals as soon as possible. The tone of our game is of course - offense!"

For this game, after analysis, Inter Milan's coaching staff concluded that in order to deal with Porto, they must use a more fierce offensive than usual to tear open the team's defense line and score a goal as soon as possible so that Inter Milan has no suspense to establish a victory.

Zacheroni also demands his players in this way. He requires Inter Milan players to attack with all their strength from the beginning, and the earlier they score the better.

Inter Milan players are naturally very happy about this. They are used to offensive football and are used to always pressing the opponent to play. If it suddenly becomes a defensive trend, they will not be used to it.

Inter Milan set their attack tone like this. They will use their extremely oppressive play to completely tear Porto's defense line in this Champions League final.

For many years, in the Champions League final, no team dares to use the full-strength attack style. No matter which team reaches the Champions League final, they usually choose a more stable style of play, either mainly defense or defensive counterattack tactics. The best thing is to put more strength in the offense, and no one will just use crazy offense tactics so boldly.

But Inter Milan is different. They have this strength and are qualified to choose such a style of play. They will also contribute to people an unusual final in this game.

Three days didn't take long, and it passed quickly, and the final battle of the 2003-2004 Champions League finally kicked off at Offschalke.

As always, Inter Milan has arranged their strongest formation and lineup today. Since everyone's physical condition has been very good during this period and no more injuries, Inter Milan can take out all the main players except Cannavaro (format 4-1-3-1-1): goalkeeper Toldo, four defenders, Macon, Sanetti, Cordoba, Matrazi, midfielder Zanetti, two full-backs Van der Mede, Kili Gonzalez, central forward Li Yun, shadow striker Ibrahimovic, center forward Adriano.

This lineup has been fully confirmed in the second half of the league, and it is the strongest combination of Inter Milan. Although Zanetti's position still cannot be too reassuring, with Li Yun's support, it can still ensure that there is basically no problem.

In Porto, the main players were basically the main players in this game (4-3-1-2): goalkeeper No. 99 Baia, right back No. 22 Paul Ferreira, left back No. 8 Valente, center back No. 2 Joje Costa, No. 4 Carvalho, midfielder No. 23 Mendes, No. 6 Costina, No. 18 Maniche, front midfielder No. 10 Deco, forward No. 11 Delle, and No. 19 Alberto.

Obviously, Mourinho has lined up a defensive lineup, which is the same as the Inter Milan coaching staff predicted before the game. Therefore, the task that Inter Milan faces today is really how to break the defense.

At the end of the guessing side, Porto chose to serve. Obviously, in Mourinho's heart, Li Yun's sneak attack ability at the beginning also made him very worried.

There are indeed no big-name stars in this Porto, but it is a strong enemy that can be called a civilian team. Deco and Carvalho were later famous, but now it can be called a little famous. If Porto had not reached the final of the Champions League and had such a glorious performance, these players would probably not be able to reach the level they would later in their lifetime.

But even so, the combat effectiveness of this team is very amazing, allowing opponents who seem to be stronger than them to fall in front of them, and with their stable performance, they defeated all the opponents and got here step by step.

"If you look down on this team, you will definitely suffer bitter consequences!"

Li Yun also knew very well that this Porto team is powerful. The players on the court are very average and very stable. There are no good loopholes to be caught. Moreover, their tactics are very appropriate, so that everyone's effectiveness is fully reflected and they can fully exert their strength.

So, the most powerful thing about Porto is actually not the players on their field, but the coach on their field. This Magic Bird is definitely a magical coach. In his hands, a group of players can be combined into a team that can win the Champions League, which is really true!

However, on the court, no matter how strong Mourinho's ability is, he will not be able to interfere with the performance of Porto and Inter Milan. As long as Inter Milan has the overwhelming strength, even if Porto is very powerful and Mourinho's tactics are correct, he still cannot withstand Inter Milan's powerful energy.

"Go on, Zlatan! Go and defeat your opponent and win the final championship!"

With the whistle of referee Nelson, the Champions League final finally began. Seeing the Porto player passing the ball out of the middle circle, Li Yun immediately called Ibrahimovic and stepped forward to fight together.

Inter Milan's biggest task in this game is to score goals quickly, so it is very important to compete for the ball rights. From the beginning, they will strive to make it desperately and not miss any opportunities.

"These guys are really impatient!"

As soon as Maniche got the ball, he saw Li Yun rushing towards him and couldn't help but complain to his opponent in his heart. Now that the game has just started, no one has entered the state, and Inter Milan players have started to snatch it up, which will inevitably cause problems with Porto's pass.

In desperation, Maniche had to pass the ball back to right back Ferreira.

Ferreira is a player Mourinho likes very much. His own abilities are not bad, and he performed very well in Porto. Although he didn't have a happy life at Chelsea later, at least now, his condition is still very good.

After receiving the ball, Ferreira was at the back of the team and was not pressed by the opponent, so he had room to drive the ball forward. However, as soon as he took a few steps to drive the ball, he encountered Keelli's press.

"It's been like this from the beginning, aren't you tired?"

Ferreira also cursed in his heart. He had seen such crazy pressing before, but he had never seen Inter Milan who had been desperately snatching the ball from the beginning, which made it a little difficult for him to adapt. But Ferreira did not dare to be careless. Although he wanted to break through his opponent, this was his own defense and could not play with fire at will, so he passed the ball to the middle and passed it to Costigna.

Costini linen immediately encountered the same situation, and then passed the ball to Carvalho's feet.

"Something is wrong!"

The continuous pressing by Inter Milan has caused the movable space of our side to become smaller and smaller, which makes Carvalho feel bad. If the opponent continues to compress the space like this, it will probably be difficult to deal with. Therefore, Carvalho no longer hesitated and immediately passed the ball forward with one kick to find the striker Delray.

Brazilian Delle has skills and speed. If he can receive Carvalho's pass, he will control the ball and cause some trouble to Inter Milan's defense and force Inter to take it back. In that case, Porto will not be in danger of being compressed by his opponent.

However, Inter Milan's midfield is not so easy to cross. Before the ball reaches Delle, Zanetti, who predicted the ball in advance, jumped up and intercepted the ball in the air.

"Strike back!"

The ball stayed at Kili who turned around and returned. Kili, who got the ball, would naturally not miss this kind of counterattack opportunity, and immediately drove the ball towards the opponent's half.

"receive!"

Seeing Inter Milan start their habitual counterattack, Porto immediately retreated to his defense line together, ignoring Kili who was dribbling the ball, and soon caused the players to shrink back within 30 meters of their area.

"This is?"

Inter Milan has never seen such a defensive method before. It is really rare to see that it can give up control of the midfield and directly retract most people to defend.

In addition to the two forwards, Porto's players were taken back and formed a defensive formation like an iron barrel formation, with Deco heading in front as a role that would interfere with Li Yun at any time.

This targeted defensive method was specially developed by Mourinho to deal with Inter Milan. Because Inter Milan's attack power is too strong, to curb the opponent's strength, some special methods must be adopted. It is not realistic to use conventional defensive methods to defend Inter Milan's attack. Therefore, Mourinho designed such a contraction defensive formation.

The characteristic of this move is to give up the midfield directly, concentrate all your hands within the 30-meter area in the shortest time, and focus the defense entirely on protecting the goal.

The advantage of this defense is that due to the concentration of personnel, it is difficult for Inter Milan to run the ball smoothly when attacking this area. At the same time, even if Li Yun dribbled the ball at this time, he would not be able to rush to the opponent's goal within such a dense defense.

This has made Inter Milan's major offensive features lose their effectiveness. Even if they can finally pass the ball into the penalty area, the number of players is not superior, and the opponent's defense is very good in this regard, so it is basically impossible to score. Li Yun was unable to drive straight in at this time, and rushing into the penalty area to grab points is not what he is good at. It is even more difficult to use a kill in a densely populated area.

Although this kind of defense also has a great hidden danger, it is that it easily gave up the midfield competition and directly handed over the initiative to Inter Milan. At the same time, it also focused its main defensive energy within the 30-meter area. If Inter Milan uses long-range shots, it will still be threatening again.

However, these threats are insignificant compared to other powerful attack methods of Inter Milan. Moreover, although Li Yun's long-range shots are very powerful, especially the tornado shooting, this kind of straight-line ball is easily blocked by concentrated Porto players, and the power of the gliding impulse shooting may not be guaranteed to break the opponent's goal from such a distance, so this is very cost-effective.

So, Mourinho's move is really useful, which has greatly restricted Inter Milan's offense and made Inter Milan players at a loss for a moment.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Stephen!"

There is no way to hand over the ball to Li Yun. This is a major consensus among Inter Milan players. But this time, when they really have no choice but to see Li Yun’s defense, they can only see whether it is OK.

Kili passed the ball to Li Yun. Without anyone defending, Li Yun got the ball and then looked at Porto's defensive formation.

"The Magic Bird is really courageous! He dares to do such a thing! However, he really made the right bet. This trick is really good for Inter Milan..."

After a sneak peek at Mourinho on the coach's seat, Li Yun said in his heart. He didn't expect the other party to use such means to deal with Inter Milan, and this is probably something that no one expected, so he didn't know how to crack this defense for a while.

"Anyway, try it first!"

Anyway, there is no good way for the time being, so Li Yun can only try some of the existing tricks first to see if he can knock on the opponent's goal. At this time, the most important thing to use is naturally the gliding impulse shooting.

As mentioned earlier, because the distance is a little far, the gliding impulse shooting may not play a very good role, but Li Yun can't take care of that much at this time. After all, Baiya is not a super goalkeeper. Although this old guy is also a fairy-level figure, it is worth his try.

He pushed the ball toward his right side, Li Yun put on a pose, thought silently in his mind, and then kicked it out with a sudden kick.

"Go and score, and slid and rush shot!"
Chapter completed!