Entering the year 2000, we have already entered the 21st century. The development of European football is becoming more and more obvious. If Valencia and Deportivo Deportivo can still appear in European football in the late 1990s and the early 21st century
In the era when strong teams such as Asia, Lazio, Roma, Leverkusen and Dortmund were rampant, after entering the 21st century, these strong teams will slowly decline. Because the Bosman Act first eliminated the Eredivisie and Ligue 1.
After the search for good players from these small leagues was completed, the giants began to bully the strong European teams that competed with them.
European football in the 21st century is an era where the gap between the rich and the poor is truly growing. The giants are becoming more and more powerful. They will divide most of the resources in European football and gather good players into their own clubs.
Among them, those strong teams that were able to compete with the giants before are all in trouble due to economic reasons. Unless they have the support of the oil consortium, many strong teams are about to go bankrupt and cannot survive at all.
The future of European football will be an era of giants. But for List now, that is still a relatively distant day. This period of time has been relatively stable and nothing happened, so List can also take a breath. List also uses this time to
I carefully sorted out my almost six-year career as an agent and saw how it would develop later. So I was too lazy to move and stayed in Prague for a while.
But today was different. Riester finally allowed himself to move again and came to Spain. Because there was an important game waiting for Riester.
"Jaime, how is Raphael?"
“Much better than we originally imagined.”
Oti looked at Benitez below and remembered the choice of Benitez. At that time, Oti was obsessed with inviting Cooper as coach. Later, the selection of Benitez was completely made by mistake.
The product of compromise between the two sides. But judging from this season, Benitez's strength is not too bad.
Currently Valencia is still ranked third in La Liga, only one point less than second-place Barcelona and seven points less than top-ranked Deportivo La Coruna. However, Barcelona's recent state has not been good.
It is considered very good and often loses points to the underdogs. Judging from the current situation, many people think that Barcelona cannot even maintain its second place.
And now Valencia has passed the second round of the Champions League group stage and entered the Champions League quarter-finals. The opponent they encountered is Lazio from Italy. Today is the first game of the Champions League quarter-finals. Valencia faces Lazio at home.
.
Cortes is the chairman of Valencia and Llorente is the general manager of Valencia, but they usually do not appear at the scene. Every time Oti is watching the game on behalf of Valencia. It is like Otti.
Otti is just like the president of Valencia. But that's really the case. As Valencia's sporting director, Oti's rights are no different from those of the club president.
"Hello, Mr. Oti."
While the two were chatting, Cragnotti walked in. Because Lopez's negotiations were relatively smooth, Cragnotti was very friendly to Otti.
"Rister, you are here too."
Seeing Cragnotti come in, both Riester and Oti stood up to say hello. Cragnotti doesn't care what he is like. One thing is undeniable. This guy is rich and can spend money. If Lopez is like
If it is sold to other clubs, even if it is sold to Inter Milan, it may not be more than 30 million euros. But if it is sold to Lazio or Cragnotti, it will be more than 30 million euros.
"Today is an important game, of course I'll come over and take a look."
…………
"Dududu——"
"The quarterfinals of the Champions League have begun. The two teams facing each other are Valencia of La Liga and Lazio of Serie A. Today is the first match of the knockout round at Valencia's home stadium, Mestalla Stadium."
"Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both sides. Starting from the visiting team, the goalkeeper is Macergiani. The defense is Favalli, Nesta, Mihajlovic, Negro, and the midfielder is Nedved.
Veron, Simeone, Conceição, with Salas and Simeone Inzaghi up front.”
"Look at Valencia's starting lineup again. The goalkeeper is Canizares, the defense is Carboni, Pellegrino, Ayala, Angeloma, and the midfielder is Makelele and Alber.
Da, Hérard, Mendieta, Lopez. The striker is Jan Koler. Since defeating Bayern in the fifth game of the first round of the group stage, coach Benitez has been using this style of play in the Champions League."
After almost a season of play, Benitez has slowly begun to figure out Valencia's best play style. Angulo, who was still the main player at the beginning of the season, was taken over by Benitez, and the midfielder began to be reused.
Herard.
Valencia's current playing style is 4-5-1, using Makelele and Albelda as double midfielders, Herrard has become an all-round midfielder. Herrard can go up and down, and can ambush Young in the midfield.
Kohler's shot from behind was able to protect the defense with Makelele and Albelda. Mendieta, the original core of Valencia's frontcourt, was squeezed into the right midfielder position by Herard, and Lopez also began to play.
Left midfielder, left winger position.
At the beginning, Benitez's style of play was ugly. But with these days of training, Benitez has slowly figured out a style of play. A way to win. More importantly, it is easy to
As everyone becomes familiar with this style of play, everyone's tacit understanding is getting better and better.
Playing in cup matches is definitely Benitez's forte. Before the game against Lazio, he had already arranged a series of targeted playing methods for Lazio. And you can think of Benitez as a conservative coach, but he
He is definitely not the kind of coach who doesn't know how to adapt. After the game started, Valencia suddenly stepped up its attack at home.
Moreover, Valencia's offense did not follow the conventional style of play before. Instead, it suddenly hit Lazio's left wing, and it was not played by Mendieta. Although Mendieta played well as a right midfielder,
But after all, he is not a true winger. He can make breakthroughs and crosses on the wing, but he lacks speed. Therefore, he cannot be regarded as a true wing offensive player.
So Benitez chose another style of play. The breakthrough point he chose was the right, but he used Jankoler to suddenly pull over to the right. Then he used a high-altitude ball to suddenly hit Favalli.
Favali was stunned.
"Albelda, passed the ball to Herard. Herard, passed the ball... Jankoler, headed the ball and then hit it!"
Valencia has never used this tactic before. This is the first time Benitez has used it against Lazio. Herrard has become the core of the midfield in Benitez's hands. He is highly used.
The level exceeds that of Mendieta, Alberda and others.
It's really because Herard is excellent in defense, ball control, and passing. He is a very comprehensive midfielder. As the season progresses, Herard's role is getting bigger and bigger. In this game, he is the midfielder.
In front of Makelele and Albelda, he completely dominated Valencia's offense and defense.
When Albelda handed the ball to Herard, Herard directly passed the ball to the right with a long pass. According to the original play style, the ball should have been passed to Mendieta on the right.
But at this time it was Jankoler who came to the right, and Jankoler leaned on Favali. Favali was 1.82 meters tall, and there was nothing he could do if Jankoler was behind him. Jankoler saw Herard's high altitude
The ball was headed back very calmly.
When Jankoler came to the right to help, Mendieta was already running forward along the right, and he just happened to catch Jankoler's header while running. This was a very simple cooperation, but because Jankoler rarely ran
To the wing, Favalli didn't think about it at all. Before the game, Eriksen had always emphasized how Nesta and Mihajlovic defended Jankoler's header, and never studied how Jankoler ran to the side.
road conditions.
But because Jankoler suddenly came to the right to support, he penetrated Favalli's defensive left. When Mendieta got the ball, there was no one around him. Mendieta's speed was not fast, but because
This time it was so sudden that no one came to defend. Favalli was completely left behind.
"Mendieta, Mendieta is in the past. Nesta, Nesta is out. Mendieta, cross!!!"
Lazio's defense is very strong. Nesta saw that Favalli had lost his position, so he quickly came out to fill the position. Mendieta could not be allowed to continue to advance, and Mendieta directly passed the ball when he saw Nesta coming out.
Center. Nesta is an excellent defender, but Mendieta is not bad either. But Mendieta doesn't want to get into trouble with Nesta because he doesn't want to waste time. So he immediately makes a cross.
At this time, you can see Valencia's current tactical play. Lopez seems to be a left midfielder, but whenever he has the opportunity, he will directly insert into the penalty area. Because he moves on the left, he looks like a left midfielder.
Midfielder, but he plays more like a left winger. This time Jankoler ran to the right, and Lopez inserted into the penalty area.
Logically speaking, it is Negro's responsibility to defend Lopez. Unfortunately, because Lopez's intervention was too sudden, Negro did not follow up. Therefore, Mihajlovic could only follow Lopez.
It's a pity that Mendieta's cross did not reach the penalty area, but took an arc and came to the vicinity of the penalty area. Mendieta is not an authentic full-back, but he was able to squeeze out Angulo because of his excellent skills and passing skills.
Medium ability.
"Herad, this is Gerard. Simeone was next to him but couldn't keep up with Herard. Herard shook his head and hit the goal!"
"It was only six minutes into the game, and within six minutes Valencia was already leading Lazio 1-0 at home. This attack was very simple, but it broke the strong Lazio defense. Herrard was already his best in the Champions League.
