Less than ten seconds into the game, Howard Webber blew the foul whistle.
Naples midfielder Rakitic, when Iniesta stopped the ball and was about to turn around, he stepped forward and "pressured" Iniesta with his body, causing the Barcelona midfielder to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
After Rakitic heard the whistle, he innocently spread his hands towards Weber, saying that I didn't do anything, I just got closer, and he fell. What can I do?
Could it be said that he cannot be touched during the entire game?
The referee called a foul, but did not give a card or even a verbal warning. He directly waved his hand and signaled Rakitic to retreat, while also rejecting the Barcelona players' protest.
This is the first foul in the game!
After watching from the sidelines, Gao Shen turned his head and smiled at Zidane and Carlo.
After all, he is a referee from the Premier League, and his enforcement is very fair.
Regardless of whether he is a head coach or a fan, Gao Shen supports the protection of players. It goes without saying that Gao Shen supports things like tackle reform from the bottom of his heart, even though the requirements for defensive players are more stringent.
Even Gao Shen is thinking that from now on, in the next few years, the defensive players criticized by many fans will become less and less able to defend. In fact, it has something to do with the reform of tackles.
But overall, this is a good thing.
But in terms of physical confrontation, overprotecting players is not a good thing.
Oh, Barcelona’s players have good skills, so they should be protected?
So should all teams and players whose skills are inferior to theirs commit suicide to apologize?
Gao Shen always felt that this path was a little off track.
Even later, Barcelona collectively studied Stanislavsky's theory, which may not have freed them from the mentality of being under such protection. This seems to be a bit too much.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, the two biggest superstars in the world, represent two different directions.
Messi has great talent, but he is more like a flower in a greenhouse. He was injured in his early years and has been protected since then, but his adaptability is relatively poor; Cristiano Ronaldo is flamboyant and proud and likes to show off, but he has a stubborn stubbornness in his bones.
Let him continue to change and improve himself. No matter what hardships he encounters, it will only make him stronger.
From this point of view, Gao Shen actually prefers Ronaldo, although he also appreciates Messi's talent very much.
As he has known himself very early on, he is not an intellectual and entangled emperor like Guardiola, and he does not have so much idealism.
He will appreciate Barcelona's artistic football, but he doesn't think it should be overprotected.
This is unfair to the vast majority of teams like Gao Shen and Naples.
The Olympic spirit is: faster, higher, stronger and more united.
This proves that technology is of course important, but the body is equally important.
Sometimes, Gao Shen can't help but wonder, why is it that after Guardiola left Barcelona, he was a favorite every time, but it was always difficult to win the Champions League?
Once or twice it was a coincidence, but there must be a reason for this.
…………
…………
As soon as the game started, Harvey realized something was wrong.
In their impression, Cavani, as a high center forward, should be at the front to compete with Yaya Toure and Pique. However, in the actual game, Naples almost gave up on Pique and Yaya.
·Under Toure's pressure, Cavani retreated to pinch Busquets.
The whole world knows that Busquets is tall, but a bit slow. Although his skills are good, his movement frequency is slow. Cavani is like a heavy hammer. No matter what you do, I just swing it hard anyway.
It feels like a miracle can happen with great force.
Napoli's entire midfield and frontcourt are not pressing forward like before, launching a fierce press against Barcelona's defense line, and building a defense line more along the midline. As soon as Barcelona's pass enters this area, it will immediately fall into the trap.
Naples' strangulation range was exceeded, and the pressure on passing and receiving increased sharply.
At first, Barcelona thought this was Naples' strategy to seek stability at the start.
Xavi began to frequently retreat and pull back to receive passes from his teammates, but every time he tried to pass to the midline, he was interfered with. Naples players frequently followed up and marked him at close range.
If it's just getting close, that's it. Naples players always use their bodies to squeeze and press whenever they get close.
At the beginning of the game, Iniesta fell to the ground once, and Weber punished Rakitic for a foul. But then, when Messi tried to break through Thiago Motta with the ball, he was approached by the opponent and used his physical advantage.
After forcefully squeezing away and falling to the ground, Weber didn't even whistle and directly signaled for the game to continue.
Harvey also once fell to the ground due to close entanglement by Di Maria, but Webber only called a foul.
It is obvious that tonight the referee from the Premier League has a soft standard of enforcement.
Xavi and Iniesta helped Barcelona control the ball, but it was difficult to cross the center line after several attempts.
Naples seemed to have built a wall there, making it difficult for Barcelona's passing and receiving to penetrate.
The most critical thing is that one of Cavani and Rakitic always keeps an eye on Busquets, which disrupts the operating mechanism of Barcelona's midfield and forces more passes back to the defense.
This resulted in Pique and Yaya Toure having more chances to get the ball than Busquets.
Fortunately, Naples didn't press the central defender very hard.
Xavi speculated that this should be Naples' strategy.
After all, if Napoli really wants to force the central defender, the running and consumption required by Napoli will be much greater.
As now, concentrating the troops near the center line will not consume much.
Facing Naples' opening style of play, Barcelona didn't have many options but to keep passing the ball back and playing in the backcourt.
Xavi himself frequently dropped deep to receive the ball and organize.
…
"Napoli's tactical discipline without the ball is really strong!"
In the stands, Wenger praised him repeatedly after seeing the game on the court.
More than five minutes into the game, Barcelona didn't even pass a ball into the Naples penalty area, let alone a shot. It only crossed near the center line once and entered the 30-meter area, but Naples quickly got into position.
The defense forced Barcelona to strike back again.
"The defense is very layered and flexible. If you look at the movement and positioning of their players, Gao Shen's hard work over the past three years has not been in vain." Ferguson also greatly appreciated Naples' stability after the start.
Barcelona had almost no chance.
Serie A itself attaches great importance to defense. After three years of experience in Serie A, Gao Shen can be said to have learned the essence of it. However, at the same time, he did not play conservatively in this game and concentrated his forces near the midline to confront Barcelona.
Barcelona tried to infiltrate again and again, but failed every time.
Players are basically participating in the Champions League for the first time. They lack experience and want a stable start. This is also normal.
"After Barcelona started the game, they had a lot of possession of the ball, but when it came to Naples' half, they had very few opportunities to organize an effective attack. Obviously, this is a sophisticated defensive strategy." Wenger analyzed.
At this time, in the stadium and in the game, Barcelona finally passed the ball back and forth across the center line. Xavi retreated, Iniesta retreated, and even Messi in front also retreated.
When Messi got the ball, Biglia immediately attached himself to his teammates from the Argentina national team, forcing Messi to dribble the ball laterally. However, Thiago Motta also came up before he took two steps.
The two midfielders of Naples are following Messi. There is a common saying: If you lead me again, we will pinch you!
Sure enough, Messi immediately knocked the ball back and reorganized.
Naples also patiently reorganized its defensive formation.
It is difficult to tell who is more beneficial to the two sides if they maintain such a confrontation.
"Tonight, the whole world is looking forward to seeing how Gao Shen breaks Barcelona's passing, controlling and high-position pressing, but I didn't expect that he actually chose to play like this, neither willing to defend nor attack." Wenger smiled bitterly.
Shaking his head.
how to say?
It's really surprising, but it makes sense.
"It is easy to expose deficiencies in defense when attacking. For a pass-and-control team like Barcelona, Gao Shen probably doesn't have much confidence. It's not good to be too conservative. With Napoli's age and experience, for Barcelona, being conservative is slow suicide.
"
Ferguson shook his head helplessly. In fact, if it were his Manchester United, he would not be conservative.
Because with Manchester United's lineup configuration, if we are conservative, we may die faster and more miserably.
"And have you noticed that the confrontation is from the center line to the 30-meter area of our own side. It is easy for Naples to position, but Barcelona has a huge gap behind it."
Wenger nodded and was about to say something when he saw Barcelona's Alves suddenly dribbling the ball along the right side of the pitch. After being targeted by Vargas, he tried to pass the ball to find him.
Messi, but Biglia rushed out first and intercepted the ball.
As soon as the Argentine midfielder grabbed the ball, he immediately took two steps forward and sent a diagonal kick to the left wing.
Sanchez moved forward as quickly as possible and caught up with Biglia's pass in Alves' defense zone, but at this time Alves was still in the Napoli half.
I saw the Chilean winger slowing down, catching up with the ball, and dribbling diagonally into the penalty area, ready to cut inside at any time.
Yaya Toure retreated in time, but stared at Sanchez as if he was in danger, wary of his inward kick.
As soon as the two sides came into contact, Sanchez made a feint and passed the ball back to the left baseline.
I saw Vargas move forward quickly, catch up with Sanchez's ball before Alves, cross with his left foot, and send the ball to the center of the penalty area.
Cavani rushed up quickly, got ahead of Pique, and headed the ball towards the goal.
The entire stadium was shocked into a cold sweat.
But unfortunately, Cavani's header was too high.
Guardiola was so angry on the sidelines that he almost went crazy and kept shouting at the players.
"Did you see that? The first shot in the game came from Naples." Ferguson chuckled.
The current situation is that Barcelona has the advantage, but Naples' defense is very well organized, making it difficult for Barcelona to get a chance.
Instead, it was Napoli's quick counterattack that penetrated Barcelona's defense.
"If Cavani, who just connected in the middle, had been better at seizing opportunities, this goal would have been ahead." Wenger also felt a little regretful.
In the Champions League final, scoring the first goal is the start that all teams want.
