In the stands of the Intihad Stadium, Zidane and Valdano led the team and were entertained by Manchester City.
Everyone knows that the two of them are good friends and are Real Madrid's presidential advisor and technical director.
Valdano frowned involuntarily after seeing Real Madrid's tactics after the start.
In fact, he has never liked Mourinho, neither his personality nor football is his cup of tea.
But there was no way. After being rejected by Gao Shen, Ancelotti coached Chelsea again. Among the coaches who met Real Madrid's requirements, Mourinho was the closest, and he was appointed by Florentino. Who could refuse?
?
"I guess he also feels the pressure." Zidane smiled bitterly.
The goddess Bai Yueguang in the eyes of Real Madrid fans is Gao Shen. No matter who is coaching, she will be compared with Gao Shen.
But this is a huge headache for all head coaches.
From 2006 to now, in four years, he has won three top league championships and two Champions Leagues.
Not to mention anything else, just this report card, looking at the world of football, who can compare?
"The pressure is certain, Florentino made the call himself, but he still wants to defeat Gao Shen, which makes him a little anxious." Valdano frowned deeply and shook his head, "Gao Shen said
It’s really not wrong at all, look at this game on the court..."
Real Madrid's players are very active in running, whether it is Adebayor, Cristiano Ronaldo or Di Maria, even No. 23 is very active, but Manchester City is still able to pass the ball skillfully.
Gao Shen's passing and ball control is obviously different from Barcelona's, for example, he has a lot of deep passes.
At the beginning of the game, Kompany used a long pass, which almost caused an offside.
This kind of ball is basically hard to see in the Barcelona team.
"Our players worked hard, but they were still beaten by their opponents. Looking at the movement of Manchester City players, their players are obviously mobile, while our players stick to their positions..."
The most obvious one is the midfielder.
Javi Martinez, David Silva and Rakitic are basically running all the time. Sometimes they can press very high, but sometimes they can retreat very deep and their positions are not the same.
Not fixed.
There are also David Luiz and Kompany, two central defenders who often carry the ball forward.
As soon as the central defender moves forward, Javi Martinez must be behind him.
Even sometimes, after the two full-backs press up, the Spanish midfielder will return to the back line, forming a three-back situation.
This is what Gao Shen has been doing since his time in Naples. Thiago Motta also became famous because of this and was favored and bought back by Barcelona.
"You know what? I have a feeling that we and Manchester City are not playing football from the same era at all."
Valdano looked worried.
No one knows the significance of this game better than him.
Is this a Champions League group stage match?
Yes, but also no!
This is not just a contest between Mourinho and Gao Shen, but on a deeper level, it is a contest between Gao Shen and Florentino.
Gao Shen said at the beginning that the introduction of attacking midfielders like Kaka and No. 23 is no longer in line with the current trend of European football.
But in the end, Florentino didn't listen to the advice and still chose Kaka.
Facts have proved that Real Madrid failed to break through to the top 16 of the Champions League last season, and Kaká returned from a serious injury after the World Cup in South Africa, which even shocked Valdano and Zidane.
Gao Shen was right!
And Florentino and Real Madrid were so wrong!
But the question is, can the Real Madrid president admit that he was wrong?
If Gao Shen joined Real Madrid this summer, Florentino Perez would probably listen to his opinion, but Gao Shen did not.
Therefore, Real Madrid introduced No. 23 and Khedira, and there was a tendency to go further and further on the road to compete with Gao Shen, and even vaguely proved to Gao Shen that Real Madrid's path could also work.
.
Who would have thought that Real Madrid and Manchester City would be drawn together in the Champions League group stage.
Professional football is a reality, who loses and who wins, let’s see the real results on the field.
And the whole world knows that against teams like Manchester City and Barcelona, the best way is to keep the formation compact and meticulous, and respond with defensive counterattacks.
But Mourinho chose to press high and press!
It's hard to say whether this was caused by Florentino's phone call or Mourinho's own decision.
But obviously, this is a very uneasy and radical choice.
Just as he was talking, he saw that Real Madrid finally took a chance.
After stealing the ball in the midfield, Real Madrid quickly counterattacked. No. 23 passed the ball to the right. Ronaldo took the ball and faced Felipe. He made continuous fake moves, suddenly accelerated towards the baseline, and passed the ball in.
Large restricted area.
Neuer decisively abandoned the goal and made an extremely stretched saving action to grab the ball before Adebayor.
The Togo center didn't know whether he couldn't hold back or did it on purpose. Anyway, he bumped into the fallen Neuer, leaving the German goalkeeper lying in the penalty area and unable to get up.
The entire Intihad stadium was booed, but the referee did not give the card.
"We still have a chance to score. As long as we grab the goal and take the lead, the game will be much easier." Zidane said with a regretful smile. If this goal could be scored, the situation would be completely different.
Valdano nodded, "I hope so."
He was still a little worried.
No one understands advanced coaching abilities better than he does.
…
As the game progressed, the time quickly approached ten minutes.
Neither side created good scoring opportunities.
At this level of competition between two teams, as long as an opportunity is exposed, it is very likely to be a fatal blow.
Gao Shen noticed Real Madrid's loophole, that is, No. 23 was quite active in running, but did not defend hard.
What does that mean?
Like this time in the ninth minute.
When Javi Martinez dropped back to catch the ball, Cristiano Ronaldo and Adebayor surrounded him, and No. 23 also came over to double-team. The three of them surrounded the Manchester City midfielder.
But when Javi Martinez turned to the right, No. 23 made no move. He neither stepped forward nor blocked the ball. He just stood there.
So, Javi Martinez passed the ball to Kompany in the space on the right.
This is what Gao Shen said, why he doesn't trust player No. 23.
Even if he actively moves into position, his defensive attitude is still very perfunctory.
"Yin Wan, tell David, when you get the ball, you move a little further to the side and try to stretch their defense as far as possible. We will plan the attack from the side. Do you understand?"
Taking advantage of a throw-in opportunity, Gao Shen called Rakitic in front of him and gave him some instructions.
Rakitic nodded to express his understanding and quickly ran back to the court.
The game restarts.
The reason why Gao Shen made such an arrangement was because he saw the activity area of Real Madrid players.
Cristiano Ronaldo often runs to the middle to bring activity.
In fact, we can't really blame him, because after seeing that Ronaldo and Di Maria were both smooth at the beginning, Gao Shen asked the two full-backs to shrink inward appropriately, especially Felipe, who basically stuck to the inside, allowing C
Luo Xia Di.
Why?
Because Gao Shen knows very well that Ronaldo will never be willing to be an assister.
Sure enough, after trying several breakthroughs from the wing, Ronaldo consciously moved closer to the ribs and center to catch the ball.
Just in the 16th minute, Javi Martinez's unguarded long pass tried to pass Real Madrid's defense, but Ramos grabbed the first shot and headed it out.
Xabi Alonso headed the ball again, and it was passed to the feet of Ronaldo, who was unguarded in front.
After the Portuguese stopped the ball, he immediately started and rushed forward with the ball. Adebayor pulled to the right and raised his hand to ask for the ball.
Cristiano Ronaldo spotted the opportunity and tried to pass the ball behind him, but Felipe accurately caught the ball and intercepted it.
As soon as Real Madrid lost the ball, all players quickly switched to defensive mode and took up positions one after another.
David Silva advanced with the ball and tried to create an offensive channel on the left.
After Robinho received the ball on the left sideline, he wanted to dribble past Arbeloa, but Real Madrid's right back defended well, forcing the Brazilian to stop suddenly, turn around to protect the ball, and knocked back for the back row to come forward.
of Felipe.
Pass to David Silva, pass back to Javi Martinez, and reorganize.
Rakitic ran back to ask for the ball, turned around and passed it to Sabalata on the right. He quickly ran forward to get into space, received Sabalaita's return pass, and passed it directly to Robben's feet.
But Robben received the ball with his back, and Marcelo was behind him. He had no chance, so he had to take it back and pass it back to Rakitic again.
Di Maria pounced on Rakitic immediately, but the Croatian midfielder didn't wait for Di Maria to get close. He kicked the ball and passed it to Sabaleta on the right sideline, and pointed forward.
, shouted, "Twelve o'clock!"
Zabaleta's position is already close to Real Madrid's defense. Marcelo has to stand in front of him, guarding against Zabaleta directly hitting the bottom after receiving the ball. However, in this way, Marcelo's back is also
A gap appeared.
Before Zabaleta could receive the ball, he heard Rakitic's shout. He glanced ahead and saw Robben starting up. The Argentine right back pushed the ball forward without thinking.
The ball barely went over Marcelo's head and fell into the right corner of the penalty area behind him.
As soon as Sabaleta passed the ball, Robben sprinted as fast as he could. He instantly got rid of Xabi Alonso and went straight behind Marcelo to meet Sabaleta's pass.
After receiving the ball, he stopped and rushed into the right side of the penalty area.
No offside!
Almost as soon as Robben rushed into the penalty area, he saw that Casillas had abandoned the goal.
Real Madrid's goalkeeper also reacted very quickly.
But as soon as Robben took control of the ball, he suddenly stopped, stepped on the brakes abruptly, raised his left foot, and shot a half-high ball.
The ball went over Casillas' head and slowly fell towards the unguarded goal behind him.
Robben, who had just finished a shot, turned around and rushed out before the ball even hit the goal.
Real Madrid's defenders have been outside the penalty area recently. Who can stop them?
As Robben expected, the ball landed within Real Madrid's goal line.
At this time, Robben had already rushed to the sidelines, opened his arms, and roared at the fans. He was so excited!
