There is still a league game before the Champions League quarter-finals with AC Milan.
In the league, Valencia continued to use 442 from the previous game, except that Canizares entered the injured list and Palop temporarily secured his position as the main goalkeeper.
In this game, in order to ensure that the Champions League can pass smoothly in the middle of the week, Chang Sheng carried out rotations and rested a lot of main players. The lineup that was already tense due to the red card suspension became even more tense.
Chang Sheng even promoted a few players from the B team to step up.
With such a patchwork team, coupled with an interim head coach who doesn't even have a coaching certificate, the final result can be imagined.
Valencia lost 1:2 away to Valladolid, their second defeat of the season.
After this defeat, Real Sociedad caught up. The point difference between the two teams was originally five points, but now it has become two points.
There are still eight rounds left before the end of the league, and the top four teams in the league currently have a chance to win the championship.
Valencia has 68 points, Real Sociedad has 66 points, Deportivo has 61 points, and Real Madrid has 59 points.
The competition became increasingly fierce, but at this time, Valencia had to look around.
They are leaving for Milan.
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AC Milan's defense is very good, and they mainly play defensive counterattack tactics.
In response to this situation, Chang Sheng decided to use mad dog tactics to control the ball, delay time, and consume the opponent's fighting spirit.
As long as you don't give the opponent a chance to counterattack, that's fine.
Anyway, it is Valencia, not AC Milan, who leads the total score.
As long as they can ensure that they don't concede a goal in the first half, AC Milan will definitely become more and more impatient in the second half.
Then it's Valencia's chance.
There is no problem with the winning tactics. Use possession of the ball to defend and stifle AC Milan.
This trick often works in La Liga.
But this is the Champions League.
The passing speed in the Champions League is much faster than that in La Liga. Is it comparable?
And Chang Sheng ignored an important factor, that is... the role of superstars.
He thought that as long as he firmly controlled the football on his side, the opponent's few attacks would not be able to threaten the goal guarded by Palop.
Theoretically this is the case.
But this is not the case.
Only eleven minutes into the game, Valencia's goal lost the ball.
AC Milan's world-class star Filippo Inzaghi appeared in a place no one expected, then received a pass from Rui Costa and scored.
Facing his ghostly blow, Palop had no choice but to watch the football fly past him into the back corner of the goal.
This conceded goal disrupted the winning plan and also shook the players' confidence.
Originally, Valencia was very unlucky during this period. They were suspended, injured, and various situations attacked them.
Now that they have conceded the goal only eleven minutes into the game, it seems to have confirmed the fact that they are "bad luck". This makes many players feel powerless - no matter how hard we try, we are unlucky anyway.
Nothing works.
In the 43rd minute before the end of the first half, another world-class forward Andrei Shevchenko expanded the score for AC Milan. They took a 2:0 lead at home!
Chang Sheng's face looked very ugly, but he did not give up. He clenched his fists.
The total score is 2:1. As long as Valencia can score one goal, they can eliminate AC Milan with the advantage of away goals.
During the halftime break, Chang Sheng issued a mobilization order to the players.
"We only need one goal to advance! So there is nothing to be frustrated about. Never give up before the half-time whistle blows! Never!"
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After the start of the second half, Valencia gradually took control of the situation of the game. They used tactics to firmly control the football at their feet, and slowly dealt with AC Milan, looking for opportunities to score.
The head coach is right, they only need to score one goal to advance, there is really nothing to be anxious or frustrated about.
Their efforts paid off in the 63rd minute.
Reyes did not pass the ball on the left, but chose to break through, which surprised the AC Milan players.
After breaking through AC Milan's defense, he sent a cross.
Ibrahimovic attracted AC Milan's defensive firepower at the front point. Angulo then inserted a header and pushed the football into AC Milan's goal!
"Valencia came back to life! They equalized the total score! And there was an away goal!! If this score is maintained until the end, it will be Valencia advancing to the semi-finals!"
Chang Sheng waved his fist vigorously, looking very excited.
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But the Valencians were not happy for long, because two minutes later, in the 65th minute, Shevchenko stepped forward again and fired a long shot from outside the penalty area, extending AC Milan's lead!
"The total score is 3:2, AC Milan regains the lead!"
"Damn it!" Chang Sheng looked very angry when he saw AC Milan scoring a goal so quickly.
But he didn't know who to vent his anger to.
Is your team not doing well?
No, they have done a good enough job.
This goal was a complete reminder of Shevchenko's personal ability. After relying on his speed to break through, he suddenly shot. Goalkeeper Palop was caught off guard and the football flew into the goal.
It's that simple.
AC Milan was completely restrained by itself on the scene and tactics.
But AC Milan has Shevchenko, but they don’t...
Chang Sheng saw the AC Milan players cheering and celebrating, and he remembered a sentence he often saw in game reports.
"XXXX performed better than XXX. Logically speaking, XXXX should win, but unfortunately, XXX has XX, but XXXX does not. This is the difference between victory and defeat..."
Now, I have experienced this feeling for a while...
We performed better than AC Milan and we deserved to win, but AC Milan has Shevchenko and Valencia does not...
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Valencia was still very tenacious in this game. In the 78th minute, they equalized the total score again. This time the scorer was Ibrahimovic.
The total score is 3:3, Valencia has two away goals.
The initiative to advance is back in their hands.
AC Milan then launched a furious attack, while Valencia continued to use ball possession tactics to deal with them.
Time passed minute by minute and it looked like Valencia was about to succeed.
Chang Sheng's nervous palms were full of sweat, and his heartbeat was at a high speed.
But at the last minute, Inzaghi appeared in a fatal position that no one expected...
"Philippe Inzaghi - no one can stop him! He shot - the ball went in! The ball went in! The ball went in!! 4:3! The total score, AC Milan took the lead again! This is in the fourth
Lead at 90 minutes! Valencia can't make a comeback!"
In the 90th minute, AC Milan relied on Inzaghi's brace to beat Valencia.
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On the plane returning to Valencia from Milan, the Valencia players were busy with their own affairs. Some were chatting, some were listening to music, some were watching movies, some were playing games, and some were catching up on their morning meal because they got up too early.
Sleep.
The atmosphere was normal and there was no hint that this was a team that had been eliminated.
Yesterday, the atmosphere in this team was so oppressive and suffocating.
After one night, many people have returned to normal. As a professional player, perhaps the most important thing is this kind of self-psychological adjustment, otherwise it is easy to be overwhelmed by pressure.
Losing is what every professional player must face. Even if you lose the final, you must accept and adapt as soon as possible and start a new life.
Many people didn't think there was anything unacceptable about losing in the Champions League quarter-finals.
After all, this is their first time participating in the Champions League under the leadership of Chang Sheng.
In the contest with AC Milan, they fought until the last moment, but their luck was really bad...
He was actually defeated by his opponent at the last minute.
Chang Sheng was alone and lost in thought.
Although this game was a failure, as a head coach, you have to learn from the experience and lessons learned from the failure. You can't not even know how you lost. Then you will definitely lose again in the same situation next time.
This game had a big impact on Chang Sheng.
He has always believed that football tactics and overall football are more important than anything else.
Even before his rebirth, he thought so. When playing games, he rarely chooses to buy big-name players. His fun is to dig out the Mavericks, then train them, and watch them become talents under his hands. After they become talents, he will
Sell to maintain the club's operations, then dig out the calves, cultivate talents, and repeat the process.
He believes that this is what a real head coach should do.
He disdains those practices of piling up superstars because they are too superficial.
So he sneered at Real Madrid's superstar policy.
Even if there was no personal grudge between him and Real Madrid, with his temper, he would say that Zidane and Pavin's policies are rubbish.
When he was reborn and had the opportunity to become a head coach, he has always adhered to his coaching philosophy - less superstars, more overall players. There are few stars in the team, which makes it easier for him, a grassroots loser with little experience and qualifications, to manage. More
Relying on the whole is the future development direction of football.
So whether he was in Getafe or Valencia, he didn't do much to dig up those superstars. Even if he had some in the team, he sold them all.
What he buys are players who will be famous in the future but are not famous yet.
Then use tactics to knead them into a whole.
Rely on a strong ensemble to defeat teams that rely on stars.
In these two seasons, Valencia has not lost against Real Madrid, which is the best proof of his coaching philosophy.
He has always been proud of this.
I feel that what I admire can be successful not only in games, but also in reality.
But being eliminated from the European competition for two consecutive seasons forced him to start to reflect.
When playing against Inter Milan, his team could be said to have been defeated by Vieri. His own tactics restrained Cooper's tactics, but he could not restrain Vieri.
The same goes for playing against AC Milan. His tactics were fine, but he ignored the explosion of the stars.
Inzaghi and Shevchenko each scored two goals and defeated themselves just like that.
If it was just once, he could say it was bad luck.
But what about twice in a row?
Can you still say you have bad luck with your eyes closed?
In fact, it’s okay, after all, it’s not past three yet…
But Chang Sheng doesn’t want to deceive himself and others.
He was deeply introspecting and felt that he had gone too far.
It is good to pay attention to the overall situation, but there is no need to completely deny the role of stars.
Just like when he opens up a bad situation, he will also think of relying on Ibrahimovic's personal ability...
And there's another point. He can rely on tactical advantages to win the championship in the league. That's because the opponents in the league are of varying levels.
But if he wants to make a breakthrough in the European war, he can't just rely on the whole team.
First of all, the Champions League is a knockout system. The winner will be decided in one or two games. The possibility of accidents in this kind of game is higher. Maybe an accident will determine the final result. If it is a league and there is an accident, you can also play in other games.
Come back from the rescue.
This is why winning teams perform well in the group stage, but fail once they reach the knockout stages.
Secondly, the Champions League is a higher level and a higher level. The teams participating here are stronger and have more stars. If you want to improve the team's strength and compete with it, you have to buy stars. The stars have the final say.
, when they couldn’t solve the problem, they just flashed their lights and solved it.
Football is an overall confrontation, but it is also a stage for stars.
Florentino only valued superstars, but ignored the overall role of tactics, and went to an extreme.
And if you look down on him, why don't you go to the other extreme?
Chang Sheng smiled bitterly and shook his head.
After thinking about this, he made a decision.
Next season, if you want to achieve results in the European war, you must improve the strength of the team. To improve the strength... buy world-class stars! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Gone with the Wind
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