On the evening of September 29th, Veltins-Arena Gelsenkirchen.
When the referee Rocchi from Italy blew the whistle for the start of the game, Schalke 04, who was playing at home, took the lead in launching a fierce attack on Manchester City. In only about thirty seconds of the opening, the young midfielder
The young player Baumjohn shot furiously from outside the penalty area, but Neuer saved him steadily.
The German goalkeeper comes from Schalke 04, and he was also very excited when facing his old club this time.
But the Schalke fans at the scene still booed Neuer, obviously dissatisfied with the former player who had transferred and left the team, because they were their opponents on the court tonight.
The first attack resulted in a shot. Although it was a non-threatening long shot, it still boosted Schalke 04's confidence.
They began to actively apply pressure on Manchester City and were also actively looking for opportunities to counterattack.
But Gao Shen didn't understand this very well.
…
"Where does Magath get his confidence?"
Gao Shen looked at the home team's coaching bench. Magath was sitting in it. He couldn't see it at all. Naturally, he didn't know what Magath was thinking at this moment, but he felt very puzzled.
"With the current defensive quality of Schalke 04, can they defend our counterattack?"
This is really not a boast, Manchester City is one of the most powerful attacking teams in European football today.
Schalke 04's performance in the Bundesliga this season is really stretched, but at this moment, Magath chose to press out and attack, which made Gao Shen very puzzled.
"Maybe he wants to use offense instead of defense, grab a wave and disrupt our rhythm." Sarri guessed with a smile.
Gao Shen thought for a while and shook his head, "Then he is looking for death."
Facts have proved that Manchester City was only in chaos for less than two minutes. They immediately organized a quick counterattack and scored in Schalke's penalty area. Gareth Bale's long shot from the left was slightly higher.
out.
This is like a warning.
But what puzzled Gao Shen was that Schalke 04 was fearless and continued to attack. There was a feeling that they would never give up until they fought Manchester City to the end.
Tonight, Magath adopted a 4-4-2 tactic, with Raul and Huntelaar forming a double forward, and the midfielder positioned in a diamond shape.
Judging from the formation of troops, Schalke 04's tactics were quite radical.
"Could it be related to his recent pressure?" Carlo guessed.
Everyone knows that Schalke 04 is in a worrying situation in the Bundesliga. It has even fallen to 17th place. It even suffered four consecutive defeats and is at the bottom of the standings. The pressure on Magath is really great.
Under such tremendous pressure, it is entirely possible that Magath wants to give it a try and make some unusual decisions.
For example, the fight with Manchester City.
It cannot be said that Schalke 04 is very weak.
If it was really weak, this Bundesliga team would not have been able to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League in its previous life.
But Magath's choice was somewhat risky.
Everyone knows that what Manchester City is least afraid of are the teams that come out.
Magath now gave Gao Shen a feeling, as if he was saying to Gao Shen: Others say you are very strong, but labor and management don't believe you, so I have to fight you to see if you are really that powerful.
!
Not to mention, with Magath’s personality, it’s really possible that he has this kind of mentality.
Gao Shen really admires such a famous European coach with such a personality. He also knows that Magath's current situation is indeed very difficult and the pressure is overwhelming. Therefore, he is happy to be the last straw that breaks Magath's head.
.
It would be best to let him and his Schalke 04 collapse directly!
…
Facing the pressing pressure of Schalke 04, Gao Shen did not adjust.
He believes his players can handle it all.
Manchester City's players quickly stabilized their position and launched a counterattack, but Schalke 04 still showed great tenacity and were unwilling to give in. In the 14th minute, Schalke 04's pass from Farfan from the right was scored.
Got a corner kick opportunity.
The Bundesliga team quickly took a corner kick and it fell into Manchester City's penalty area, but it was cleared by David Luiz's header.
Javi Martinez grabbed the spot again and headed the ball to the left again.
Gareth Bale made a quick start after stopping the ball.
I saw the Welshman striding forward and dribbling the ball all the way.
On the right wing of Schalke 04 is Japanese international Atsuhito Uchida, who retreats again and again in the face of Gareth Bale's approaching step by step.
But when entering Schalke's 0430-meter area, Gareth Bale suddenly changed his direction and crossed into the penalty area and passed the ball across to David Silva.
The Spanish midfielder caught up all the way and just stopped the ball. Without waiting for the defensive player to get closer, he sent a through ball directly behind the defense line on the left side of the penalty area.
Suarez succeeded in countering offside and crossed into the left side of the penalty area. After stopping the ball, he shot low with his left foot before the goalkeeper could attack and sent the ball into the lower left corner of Schalke's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the fourteenth minute, Suarez broke Schalke's goal!"
"This was a quick counterattack from Manchester City. Gareth Bale's counterattack was very fast. Manchester City's counterattack cooperation was also very sharp. Schalke 04's defensive players simply could not stop the wolf-like Manchester City.
.”
…
Gao Shen stood on the sidelines and applauded vigorously to celebrate Suarez's goal.
He turned his head again and glanced at the home team's coaching bench, only to find that Magath was still nowhere to be seen.
I wonder what the Germans are feeling at this moment?
No matter what, keep attacking!
If you dare to play against me, even on your home court, you are still seeking death!
Do you really think that we at Manchester City are those weak-legged Champions League players who can only show off?
Yes, I’m talking about you, stop hiding, Ibrahimovic!
When the players finished their goal celebration and were about to return to the court, Gao Shen walked to the sidelines and signaled the players to continue pressing and attacking, and they must strive for another goal.
Just three minutes later, Zabaleta made a pass from the right wing. Suarez headed the ball towards the goal, but it missed the target.
Two minutes later, with a pass from Rakitic, Robben inserted into the right side of the penalty area and used his right foot, which he was not good at, to hit the goal from a small angle. The result was that it hit the side netting directly and still missed.
In the 22nd minute, Suarez actively fought back and successfully snatched the ball from Matip, then quickly passed it diagonally to Robben on the right. When the Dutchman broke into the penalty area to receive the ball, he made an emergency stop and dunked over
Metzelder hit a far corner with his left foot, which was beyond the goalkeeper's reach.
Two to zero!
The entire Veltins Stadium was booed.
Obviously, Schalke fans are not only targeting Manchester City, but also blaming the team, thinking that Magath's team's performance is really poor.
In less than thirty minutes, two goals were conceded in a row.
…
Just after Manchester City scored the second goal, Gao Shen finally saw that Magath walked out of the home team's coaching bench and came to the sidelines to direct the game. Looking at him like that, he looked very depressed and lonely, and his gestures seemed to be demanding.
Players hold on.
"Okay, now I'm finally honest." Gao Shen then burst into laughter, which was particularly magical.
He really wanted to ask Magath if it was Liang Jingru who gave you the courage to fight to the death in front of me?
What? Don’t you know Liang Jingru?
You deserve to take the risk and fail!
Magath is a very individual and very rigid head coach. He is probably most familiar to fans for the extremely boring pre-season training he arranged while coaching Bayern.
How boring is it?
To use a joke, he only says one thing to the players every day, "Let's climb the mountain together."
Then, it really climbed.
There was a joke circulating within the Bayern Munich team back then.
If Magath had been on the Titanic when it was about to hit an iceberg, everyone would have been able to swim back to Southampton.
This is of course a ridicule, even sarcasm, but it also intuitively reflects Magath's characteristics.
He is very iron-blooded, very proud, and very stubborn.
At the same time, he is also very addicted to gambling!
All of this resulted in him being fired by Bayern and taking over the reins of creditor Schalke in the summer of 2009.
If it were a famous coach, he would stay away from teams like Schalke 04.
But Magath obviously planned to take a big gamble to take his coaching career to the next level, so he chose to coach Schalke 04 as manager and head coach.
Last season's league runner-up gave him a taste of the sweetness, so he had enough confidence to let Kuranyi and others go and reorganize the team. As a result, this season's performance plummeted, let alone the goal of the top ten in the league. Now look
Come on, it's good to be able to avoid relegation.
As a result, when he faced Manchester City, he gambled again.
Many people say that Magath is very stubborn and not an adventurous person.
That's because he doesn't take risks easily, and when he takes risks, he will gamble his wealth with you!
This is a great adventurer!
…
Magath's adjustments were somewhat effective, and Schalke 04 barely stabilized their position.
But Manchester City took the initiative to control the situation and began to frequently create scoring opportunities.
Especially after gaining possession of the ball and controlling the situation, Manchester City's players began to act more active.
Whether it was Gareth Bale or Suarez on the left, or Robben on the right, even David Silva and Rakitic in the midfield frequently stepped forward to create threats.
Before the end of the first half, there was an offensive cooperation from Manchester City on the left.
After David Silva first completed a one-two with Gareth Bale, the Welshman passed the ball to Suarez. The latter took the ball with his back. As soon as he caught the ball, he stopped towards his own goal.
beside.
I saw David Silva move forward quickly. After receiving the pass from Suarez, he rushed into the penalty area and formed a beautiful back move. He kicked the ball from the left side of the penalty area and hit the goal.
Once again, it was sent into the Schalke 04 goal.
Three to zero!
Gao Shen is also extremely satisfied with this result.
He originally thought that playing Schalke 04 away from home would be very difficult, but he didn't expect that Magath would give him such a gift.
It doesn’t matter if he is forced by the situation or he has a strong gambling habit, anyway, he is locked in a fight with Manchester City.
Not only in the first half, but at the beginning of the second half when trailing 3-0, he still chose to press out.
Gao Shen was really confused, was he really not afraid of death?
