In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. The team's lead did not let Aldridge's spirit relax at all. He stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets and continued to supervise the battle with a serious face.
PSV was only one goal behind, so of course there was plenty of time to catch up.
After the game restarted, PSV accelerated their counterattacks when switching from defense to offense, which directly led to a decrease in their passing success rate, especially the success rate of forward penetrating through balls.
Zambrotta won full applause after successfully intercepting the opponent's direct pass from the left twice in a row. Maybe his team's offensive ability is not as good as Capdevila's, but his defensive ability seems to be that of a general.
Advocaat frowned when he saw his opponent's defense was tight. Eindhoven's strongest winger Zenden was completely frozen today. There was no bright spot in the offense. Cocu was also restricted by Makelele in the midfield and frontcourt.
Come on, these Millwall players may really be unknown in terms of reputation.
Schneider and Ballack were only called up by the national team for friendly matches and sat on the bench. Makelele did not have a chance to play in the French national team. Zambrotta could not even enter the national team and could only play at a low level.
The national-level teams play games. It is such a group of people who come together to form a strong fighting force.
The game reached seventy minutes, and Advocaat couldn't sit still. Anyway, the loss was zero points. If we really wanted to compete for rankings based on home and away results, not to mention how low the probability was, if there was a draw with Eindhoven
Or losing the game after scoring a goal would be better than finishing the game 1:0 now.
Therefore, under the coach's on-the-spot adjustments, PSV began to invest more troops in the offense. The three midfielders took turns to intervene, and when the offense and defense transitioned, they completed the role change according to the position.
Only then did Aldridge see a hint of Total Attack in Dutch football.
The center moves forward and becomes a winger, the winger cuts inside and becomes a center forward, the defensive midfielder moves in and becomes an attacking midfielder, and when he is beaten on a counterattack, the midfielder retreats and becomes a defensive midfielder...
There must be a tacit understanding between the players on a single line in a small area, and it is not difficult for the Dutch team to have this kind of dazzling coordination of changing positions and roles between a few players.
And these are not unfamiliar to Millwall, because they have this routine in training, and the players' thinking is no longer about "loyalty" to a certain player.
In response to PSV's offensive, which relies on changing positions, Millwall is like a big mountain. No matter how wind blows from east to west, north or south, I remain unmoved.
Just after another PSV attack was ended by Southgate in front of the penalty area, Millwall launched a devastating counterattack.
In Millwall's defense, except for Trezeguet, who was roaming in the front center circle, other players shrank back to the second half. After Southgate successfully defended, he directly handed the ball to left winger Larsson.
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Larsson took the ball and crossed to Nedved in the middle, and then Larsson started to run forward, attracting the attention of the PSV full-back.
Nedvěd kept passing the ball and passed it straight to the left wing. Seeing that the ball was passed too big, it was impossible for Larsson and the opponent's full-back to catch up. But just when the ball was about to go out of the sideline, Zang's explosive speed was amazing.
Brotta poked the ball forward and then ran forward at full speed.
This ball shocked the Eindhoven defense. A simple through ball was counterattacked, and the defense was completely destroyed.
Gianluca Zambrotta walked quickly with a ball in his hand from the left wing, seemingly walking straight ahead without any intention of cutting inside. He just rushed towards the baseline with the ball.
The distance between the PSV defenders and Millwall's two forwards became wider and wider as they returned to defense. Although Trezeguet was in the highest position during the counterattack, he attracted the attention of the central defender. And when he rushed forward, he was
In order to harass, he also slowed down the opponent's central defender. Instead, Larson and Shevchenko on the other side rushed towards the opponent's penalty area like wild horses.
When he was forty yards away from the goal, Zambrotta was already two meters ahead of the entire opponent's defense. When he reached the thirty-yard area, the audience stood up and watched the attack attentively.
Millwall, including Zambrotta, had three people approaching the opponent's goal, and there were no defensive players around them!
This scene is more exciting than a single shot.
Zambrotta made a powerful ground ball pass from a position parallel to the penalty area line.
Larsson flew out from the front and wanted to use his toes to tip the ball into the goal, but he was a step slower because before Zambrotta passed the ball, he paused for fear of being offside.
After all, he can run faster without the ball than Zambrotta with the ball.
The audience let out a sigh, but the sigh was not over yet. The ball missed by Larson rolled in front of Shevchenko. He was on the other side, farther away, and the speed and footwork when passing the ball were just right.
The Ukrainian nuclear warhead chose to hit the door directly without hesitation. In order to ensure accuracy, he chose to push the shot with the arch of his foot.
Even if he pushed with the arch of his feet, the speed of the ball was still too fast. It was almost as if he was hitting the goal with all his strength from the spot. The ball flew into the goal like a meteor. The PSV goalkeeper was shot by Larsson.
His movements were confusing, and there seemed to be no interference with the angle of Shevchenko's shot.
"2:0! Millwall leads by two goals! Shevchenko, Shevchenko, Shevchenko! The Ukrainian scored his first goal in the Champions League. This wave of counterattack Millwall completely destroyed the opponent.
The audience must also be excited to watch it. It is simple, efficient, and fatal with one hit. Dutch football is good at playing
Fast, but they encountered a faster opponent today. From the start to the end of this attack, it was probably about 10 seconds. Millwall played impressively today. It was fast when it should be fast and slow when it should be slow.
No chance was given to PSV, and they dominated the game!"
After Shevchenko scored, he stood there with a smile on his face. He still looked like the shy young man. If he had been at the Lion's Den Stadium, he would have celebrated wildly, but in this game with more than 80,000 people watching,
He became shy again.
After getting up from the ground, Larson was the first to rush to Shevchenko and congratulate him on his goal. Otherwise, Larson would definitely blame himself for missing the previous point and wasting such a good opportunity.
The Lions fans in the stands were delighted.
With a two-goal lead, we were sure to win.
This will lay a very good foundation for the group to qualify.
Aldrich was overjoyed. But after the celebration, he still made a hand signal to the players. There were still twenty minutes in the game including stoppage time. You must not give your opponent a chance to come back because of your carelessness.
This game is so important!
The result will directly affect the next five games, and Aldridge must win.
If the Champions League expands to 32 teams and plays in the group stage, then the top two teams in the group stage can theoretically qualify with 12 points. In the 15 years since the expansion, only Napoli has stood out and eliminated with 12 points in the group stage.
of.
But under the current group qualifying rules, can we definitely qualify with 12 points? The suspense is huge!
In other words, 4 wins are not enough to ensure qualifying.
If Millwall loses or only gets a draw in this game, then the further the game goes, the greater the pressure will be, and the opponent will not play conservatively because Millwall strives to qualify, and will be more targeted in their tactical arrangements.
On the contrary, if Millwall wins the first victory, the other teams in the same group will be passive. In the following games, Millwall will be more advantageous in terms of mentality and tactical choices.
Advocaat suddenly felt powerless when he saw the team conceded the second goal.
PSV had no chance at all. Millwall's calmness and calmness in controlling the rhythm of the game was chilling!
The PSV soldiers on the field were unwilling to give in. They also understood that if they wanted to qualify for the group, they had to fight for every point. There was still time in the game, and the gap between the two goals was not enough to make people despair!
PSV continued to attack after the game restarted. And they attacked more and more fiercely. For a few minutes, Millwall's entire formation was compressed in the second half. Even if Millwall switched from defense to attack to launch a counterattack, they still used
The most ferocious and precise interception and then regaining the ball.
Aldridge looked a little anxious on the sidelines, and the players were too calm and a little rigid. Counterattacks required a few passes and transitions to penetrate the opponent's defense.
Damn it! Damn it!
Aldrich kept gesturing to the players on the sidelines, asking them to look farther when passing the ball.
After the players came to their senses, Eindhoven was once again approaching the city. Zenden cut in from the wing and shot from an angle, but Helguera blocked it with his body. The ball bounced to Ballack's feet, and he dribbled the ball horizontally.
One step, and then a big kick that seemed to be a clearance kicked the ball towards the opponent's half.
But when the audience looked at the area where the ball landed, they suddenly burst into cheers.
Shevchenko used his speed to get rid of the entire opponent's defense. The opponent's defender had been pressing closely before, just to intercept the ball from Millwall's counterattack.
But this time, Ballack played the ball directly behind him instead of passing and cutting. Shevchenko unreasonably threw away his opponent and used his speed to rush forward and go to the meeting alone!
The Eindhoven goalkeeper immediately abandoned the goal. Shevchenko dribbled the ball and moved the ball to the side in order to pass the opponent's goalkeeper. This time, the ball went a bit wide, and the opponent's goalkeeper lost his center of gravity and immediately chased back.
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Shevchenko had almost reached the baseline when he caught up with the ball. He didn't have much of a shooting angle, so he kicked the ball directly in front of the goal.
The Swede rushed over, but despite the interference from the opponent's defender, he still chose to fall to the ground and shoot, and rushed into the goal with the ball.
"Larsson scored twice! Millwall defeated their opponents! They will usher in the first Champions League victory in the club's history. PSV was beaten without any power to fight back. They should not give their opponents too much pressure.
There is space behind them, but if they don’t accumulate the number of attackers in the frontcourt and keep the three lines closely connected, they will not be able to get decent offensive opportunities. There is no doubt that this reflects the gap in strength between the two teams!”
Larson stood up from the goal and jogged to find Shevchenko, laughing and pointing at him.
Aldrich breathed a sigh of relief.
Well, in that case, simple and rude solutions can solve the problem, so don't try to use softness to overcome toughness.
He was really afraid that these players would forget Millwall's self-made counterattack style.
The sprint attack known as the "Millwall Athletics Team" has proven successful under the right circumstances.
We are forwards who can run faster than your defenders. We can run thirty meters and still be able to catch our breath before passing the ball. Who is dissatisfied? You are not convinced that you can run faster than me!
Aldridge laughed, thinking that it was probably because Millwall had been playing positional warfare in the past season. In the second Premier League season, opponents would probably not give Millwall more than 30 meters of sprint space, so
These players have probably forgotten: as long as there is a large space in the frontcourt, the offense can actually be played in the simplest and most violent way. A long pass, the forward catches the ball first, the attack is over, and Millwall celebrates the goal.
Advocaat quietly sat back on the coaching bench amid the raucous cheers at Wembley.
