Marseille finished second in Ligue 1 last season. Although they were fifteen points behind PSG, they still had a certain advantage over the third or fourth place.
What's rare is that they didn't lose any of their main players this summer, and they also recruited powerful players like forward Tovan and midfielder Payet. Their strength has improved a lot, so even though they are in this death group,
It's not like they don't have enough confidence.
"The core of Marseille's midfield is Balbuena. This small midfielder has very good skills and excellent breakthroughs. He can also drive the whole team's offense with his passing after breakthroughs. Most of Marseille's threatening offenses last season were made by him.
It was initiated. As for the other players, there is nothing to say. The French Ligue 1 players are all in good health, have good skills, and can run well. We just focus on dealing with them. Carlos, you should keep an eye on Balbuena.
, you don’t need to be too involved in overall defense and organization of offense, leave it to your teammates.”
After hearing Ji Ya's arrangement, Casemiro nodded. Although he is a very comprehensive defensive midfielder, he is not incapable of guarding an attacker in such a situation.
With his size and agility, Balbuena was in trouble.
Even though it is an away game, Southampton still has to strive for victory.
After all, compared with the other two opponents, Marseille may be the best to deal with. Now the overall level of Ligue 1 has actually dropped quite significantly. The other four major leagues are also poaching Ligue 1 very aggressively. Basically, all players with some performance have been poached.
After leaving, this also makes the competitiveness of the French Ligue 1 teams except for Paris Saint-Germain very average.
Even if Marseille is the runner-up in Ligue 1, they are no exception.
Of course, a team like Marseille with a glorious history and tradition will certainly give its best performance in the Champions League.
At the Velodrome Stadium, the Marseille fans showed their great enthusiasm and used their shouts to suppress the shouts of more than a thousand Southampton fans who came from afar.
"What's the point of loud fans? The key is to see the performance of the players."
Noriya pumped his fist in the locker room and then patted Suarez on the shoulder.
"Louis, are you excited?" Ji Ya asked.
Suarez grinned, showing off his trademark teeth.
"Of course I'm excited, boss, I haven't participated in a formal game for a long time, and now I'm eager to score goals!" Suarez said.
"Very good, focus on scoring goals and you will be the strongest." Ji Ya said.
When the players from both sides came on the field, Southampton fans cheered, but they were quickly suppressed by the cheers of the home fans...
The fans' cheers were suppressed, but there was no problem with the performance of Southampton players.
From the beginning of the game, they based themselves in the midfield, constantly taking the ball, controlling the ball, and then looking for opportunities to attack.
It's not like Marseille didn't observe Southampton's previous games. They know that Southampton's counterattack is very sharp, so even at home, they are more defensive and then wait for opportunities to launch counterattacks.
However, they ignored two points.
First of all, they are not a Premier League team. Even if Premier League teams are technically rough, their overall defensive line is quite rigorous. Even if a strong team beats them, it will be difficult to find too many opportunities when they defend. Ligue 1 teams are different.
Yes, the personnel changes too quickly, leaving some gaps in their overall structure.
Another point is that Southampton's center in this game is not the center Vardy who only has the ability to grab points and play the ball, but the forward Suarez who also has the ability to break through and one-on-one!
Noriya can indeed ask others to assist Suarez and help him solve other things, so that he only needs to score goals, but the premise is that the opponent knows that Southampton's offense cannot be defended!
In this way, they will have more space on offense and play more smoothly.
Make a breakthrough where your opponent thinks you can't do anything, so that you can avoid trouble later.
This principle is the same as many principles in life.
Therefore, facing Marseille's defense, Southampton did not rush. Instead, they patiently launched attacks, passed passes, and looked for opportunities to score.
One change in Southampton's offense now is that in the midfield, they have an additional point to hold the ball and organize, and on the wings, their two full-backs can move forward at high speed to assist in the attack.
Klein can take the ball and break through. Luke Shaw's foot skills are not that good, but his speed and impact, as well as the ability to directly penetrate into the penalty area, are something Klein does not possess.
In this way, Southampton's two wings have truly begun to fly together.
Although when the opponent is intensively defending, the attack on both wings must be careful when the opponent counterattacks, but their threat also forces Marseille to focus part of its attention on the two wings.
In this way, the defense in the middle will be weakened invisibly.
Southampton launched two attacks from the left. Ronaldo passed the ball twice to Luke Shaw. Luke Shaw made a pass. Lukaku rushed from the wing to the center to grab the point. His height and
His weight posed a great threat in such a situation, but Marseille's central defender still tried his best to interfere with him. Lukaku's two shots failed to have a good effect.
The next game fell into a stalemate. Arsenal had the advantage of possession, but Marseille defended its penalty area. It is indeed difficult to break into such a defense.
Suarez is constantly running, and his running range is wider than Vardy. Vardy can basically only move in the penalty area, while he can withdraw from the penalty area to respond.
However, every time he receives the ball, the opponent's players will come up from behind, forcing him to pass back, or at least not allowing him to turn around smoothly.
When the game reached the 30th minute, De Bruyne took the ball in the midfield and passed it straight. Suarez retreated to receive the ball.
The opponent's defender also came up from behind, but Suarez's action to catch the ball was a feint. Instead of catching the ball, he turned around and went around him...
Unexpectedly, the opponent's defender was stunned. Suarez, who successfully bypassed him, received the ball behind him and passed the ball beautifully!
After completing this action, Suarez dribbled the ball forward and quickly entered the penalty area. Before the remaining defender of the opponent rushed up to defend, he had already completed the shot!
This was a rather sudden shot. He seemed to have completed the shot in a very awkward way while dribbling the ball. The ball, which was poked by his toe, flew to the lower right corner of the goal. Marseille goalkeeper Mandan
Da didn't expect that he would shoot at this time. By the time he reacted, the ball had already flown into the dead center of the goal!
