Millwall is the main attacker and Aston Villa is the main defender. The situation is clear at a glance.
The cheers in the stands were deafening, and the final at Wembley Stadium seemed a bit one-sided.
But Aldridge couldn't be optimistic. Millwall's offense only blossomed but failed to bear fruit. He asked the two full-backs to come back first to ensure the stability of the defense. Aldridge wanted to lure the snake out of the hole and see what Aston Villa could do when the defensive pressure was reduced.
Will more offensive forces be invested?
However, Brian Little's tactical arrangement for the team today disappointed Aldrich. Aston Villa was united and marched in unison. Even if there was room in the center and front for their three midfielders to step forward and organize the attack, they could not
They still play long passes, with the midfielders mostly moving around the center circle, and the full-backs almost always staying parallel to the back line.
As a result, it was Millwall who couldn't stand it anymore. They only relied on five people in the frontcourt vs. eight people to attack. You can imagine how powerless it would be.
Players are always being double-teamed and unable to form a threatening offensive.
So Thuram and Neal assisted again, but they couldn't make a big difference on the wing.
Aldridge felt a little anxious. Aston Villa's targeted defense felt like a match-up. Even if the full-backs defended and let Millwall's offensive players cover the sides, they would definitely seal the interior.
cut line.
After Schneider and Thuram cooperated, he took the ball to the baseline and passed Staunton with his skills. However, as soon as he passed Staunton, the ball was cleared by Wright with a prepared big foot.
Three minutes later, after Pires cooperated with Neal on the other side, Neal took the ball away from Nelson. Pires took the ball and cut inside. As soon as he took the ball, Draper pressed up and Pires pretended to pass.
The latter pass was passed to Nedved in the middle, but Nedved took the initiative to get the ball, but Taylor fell to the ground and kicked the ball away.
A minute and a half later, Pires repeated his old trick, but he passed the ball to Neal. Neal did not choose to pass, but made a pass, which was blocked by Nelson with his body.
Schneider passed the ball into the penalty area, Larsson turned around and passed Wright with a beautiful stop and pass move, but the ball was directly destroyed by the trailing center back Simeka.
Attack, destroy, attack, destroy...
The main theme of this game was too obvious. Millwall no longer tried to penetrate. Larsson withdrew. Pires, Schneider, and Nedvěd began to try long shots from the outside to break the dense defense.
way, they played well.
But several long-range shots were too hard to watch. They were either blocked by Aston Villa with their bodies, or they were forced to take off at ridiculous angles.
Thirty-seven minutes into the first half, Millwall had only one shot on goal.
But Aston Villa didn't even have a shot.
Aldridge was pacing back and forth on the sidelines. He had calculated everything and studied Aston Villa's tactics for half a month. He just didn't expect Brian Little to play such a trick.
In fact, if he could walk into Aston Villa's tactical meeting room, he would know that Brian Little was referring to the game between Millwall and Newcastle United in the first half of the season, where the three midfielders were horizontal.
Strengthen the protection of the front edge of the penalty area, the defense line has a layered front-to-back defense, and the central defenders have a reasonable division of labor in interception and destruction. Leeteuk did it more thoroughly. He did not change the tasks of the two central defenders, but added a deep-lying central defender to disrupt the opponent's penetration attack.
Newcastle United had an invincible posture in the first half of the season, but came back humiliated at the Lion's Den. This gave Little some ideas, because Millwall's offensive firepower was no less than that of Newcastle United.
Aldridge miscalculated. He placed 442 for the purpose of balancing offense and defense. But judging from the effect of the pairs on the field, Aston Villa seemed to be able to defend with ease.
He could see that the core of the problem was that the deep-lying central defenders Simeka, Larsson and Trezeguet were being guarded by two central defenders in the penalty area.
Meka's role was immediately apparent, killing the offensive at the last moment.
Aston Villa's several counterattacks were resolved by Millwall with high balls, but this was not a good sign.
When Aldrich was thinking about changing his move, Cosic stole the ball from Pires' feet. Pires tried to break through the defense individually, but in the limited space, he deceived Nelson, but Cosic successfully intercepted the ball.
.
Kosic looked up at the front court and passed a ground ball to the right.
Neal just ran up and chased back. When Millwall attacked, the two wide spaces in their backcourt were the biggest.
Milosevic was at the forefront, pressing down on the defense composed of Southgate and Stam. Yorke was like a free man, wandering back and forth in the frontcourt. This time, he was waiting to receive the ball on the right wing.
Makelele did not rush forward, but retreated first, and then observed the situation on the field. He found that no one in the Aston Villa backcourt was joining the attack at high speed, so Makelele purposefully helped defend the wing.
Compressing York's dribbling space.
Milosevic first rushed forward, and then suddenly braked and retreated. York, who cooperated with him very well, did not intend to break through Makelele from the front. He just waited for his partner to run into the space. This was the opportunity.
, a ground ball was passed.
Almost 40 yards outside the penalty area, Milosevic received the ball and moved laterally, adjusting his angle and footwork without giving Southgate a chance to press him, and fired furiously.
Seeing this long shot, Aldrich was stunned and said in shock: Damn it! Did Aston Villa and Lady Luck have sex?
That long-range shot was so beautiful. Judging from the trajectory, it was heading towards the upper right corner of the goal. It was very fast.
Keller has done a great job!
Because of the long distance and wide field of vision, he had sufficient preparation time. This impeccable long-range shot did not make him lose his position. When the ball flew towards the upper right corner of the goal, he jumped up hard and saved the ball with both hands.
Bottom line.
"Wow! Milosevic's long shot almost opened the scoring for Aston Villa. It was their first shot since the start of the game and it hit the target. Keller made a world-class save, but if Milosevic
If Vic had scored within 25 to 30 yards from the goal, I'm afraid Keller wouldn't have been able to make a comeback. Aston Villa got a chance to attack from a corner kick."
When the corner kick attack opportunity came, Aldridge found that Aston Villa's midfielders and backfielders finally began to move forward, and they were moving at high speed, like sprinting.
This startled Aldrich, and he immediately shouted on the court: "Go back and defend!"
Millwall's players also ran back at full speed. The scene was very strange. It was obviously a corner kick. According to the normal rhythm of the game, the two teams should be defensive and offensive at this time, but this opportunity was for the opponent to counterattack.
Come on, Yorke is running towards the corner flag at full speed, and it looks like he is going to take the corner kick quickly.
Midfielder three Draper Taylor Kosic also rushed forward immediately after the ball came out of the baseline, which did not allow the Millwall players to react.
There were too many loopholes in the hasty deployment of defenses.
Aldrich couldn't help shouting: "Foul! Delay them with a foul!"
But the players didn't make the most correct reaction for a while. They were more like good kids on the court. When someone hit me, I would protect my vital points first. So the players rushed back and only knew to stand in the defensive position first, but they were beaten.
A golden opportunity for Aston Villa.
After York placed the ball in the corner, he bent down and kicked the ball to Draper who was coming from the side. Neal returned to defense and rushed to defend Draper. York smartly retreated and ran to the defensive line.
In front, Draper then kicked the ball back to Yorke with a direct pass. Yorke dribbled the ball down and was ahead of the entire Millwall defense.
He quickly kicked the ball toward the goal with a nearly volleyed cross. Millwall's defensive players tried to block the cross with their bodies. Southgate made a tackle without touching the ball. Stam was beaten by Mi
Losevich used physical confrontation to entangle him, but neither of them touched the ball. Makelele used his hands to pull Taylor down outside the penalty area, but someone still managed to kill him at the back of the penalty area.
Kosic!
He ran up from the backcourt before the corner kick was taken. In the penalty area, Thuram bumped into him. Kosic staggered and seemed to be about to fall. Thuram immediately raised his hand to indicate that he had not fouled.
But he distanced himself from Cosic.
Stumbling and almost falling, Kosic nodded behind the goal and hit the ball with his head only half a meter above the ground.
By the time Keller swooped away, it was already too late.
The ball flew into Millwall's goal. Kosic seemed to have scored and celebrated in one go, sliding directly with his chest close to the ground and stopping at Millwall's goal line.
The noise at Wembley Stadium immediately dropped to a lower level. Millwall fans were shocked and looked at this scene on the field in disbelief.
Are we falling behind?
The Aston Villa fans burst into enthusiastic cheers.
This goal made them feel like they had touched the championship trophy.
"The ball went in! Aston Villa used a jaw-dropping quick counterattack to tear apart Millwall's defense. This counterattack was not an attack. Yorke took the ball from the wing and passed it to Milosevi.
Oddly, the latter took a long shot and created a corner kick. Then, Aspen
Dunvilla's corner kick attack was also a counterattack and fast break. It can be clearly seen from the replay that two of their three midfielders entered the penalty area at high speed, while Draper responded to York's quick corner kick and used
A simple one-two, York got the ball in response to offside
It reached the bottom line, and then crossed it with a strong kick. The ball's rolling trajectory was between the goalkeeper and the defender. This was the most troublesome cross. Aston Villa had three people impacting the penalty area, and finally the ball was inserted from behind.
Kosic finished the goal, I think, as
If Kosic didn't score, maybe the referee would award them a penalty kick, because we saw that when Thuram collided with Kosic, the referee put the whistle in his mouth. Now, Aston Villa
Having taken the lead, the game will definitely be more exciting next time!”
This conceded goal left Millwall's players a little confused.
Aldrich, who had been excited before, now stood on the sidelines with a calm face, waving calmly for the players to go to the center circle for the kickoff.
