While Zhang Sheng and others were chatting happily, the players returned to the locker room one after another under the leadership of the assistant coach.
After everyone arrived, Zhang Sheng started the final arrangements before the game. He clapped his hands and focused the attention of the players: "The game is about to start. Are you nervous?"
"Not nervous."
Zhang Sheng's question was met with mixed responses with different tones.
"Lies." Zhang Sheng curled his lips and said, "I just talked with Team Leader Yu and Team Leader Xing. They all said they were nervous. How many days have you eaten rice? How can you beat these old people?"
Hearing Zhang Sheng's words, the players below didn't take it seriously and all laughed.
"Okay, okay." Zhang Sheng clapped his hands again to calm everyone down, "The AFC Champions League final is the first time again. It's impossible not to be nervous. It's better to be nervous, which proves that you are serious. This
But in the AFC Champions League final, I hope everyone will show their greatest enthusiasm."
"We have been preparing the tactics for a long time, so I won't repeat them. Avoiding arrogance and impetuosity is the only thing we have to do in this game." At this time, Zhang Sheng's attitude changed from chatting with his coaching staff to
Serious teaching mode.
"The last thing I want to say is that today we are here not only to represent ourselves, but also to represent the entire Chinese Super League and even the country." Zhang Sheng said seriously, "I think everyone has also represented these days.
I saw it. Many Chinese fans who came to watch the game were not fans of our Longteng team, or even fans. They came to cheer us on just because we are a Chinese Super League team and a Chinese team."
"From the first day we came here, the local Chinese and the country's consulate here have given us the greatest possible help. We have to give feedback to them in this game." Zhang Sheng raised his game to another level.
Big cut.
Then Zhang Sheng calmed down the atmosphere and said: "Of course, if you can turn those who are not fans into our fans, it will be considered a win for the club."
Finally, Zhang Sheng announced another news: "Before the game, the group provided a new AFC Champions League reward system - as long as the game is won, for every additional goal difference, the group will be rewarded an additional three million!"
Previously, Zhang Sheng made the competition so high-end that it was just about talking about ideals and life. Everyone was just vaguely excited, but now as soon as the news of the prize money was announced, the scene immediately exploded.
All the domestic players cheered like a mountain and a tsunami. After hearing what the translator said, several foreign players raised their hands and shouted "YOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Zhang Sheng could only shake his head in his heart. It seemed that he didn't have the money to do anything.
When everyone's energy was obviously rising, Zhang Sheng looked at his watch and shouted loudly: "Let's go!"
At this time, for Al-Ahli in Dubai, head coach Olaroyu was still telling his players: "This is our home court. As long as we keep a close eye on a few of their key figures, Pato,
Ben Alpha and Lin Feng, victory must belong to us."
When the players from both sides were standing neatly in the tunnel, He Wei and Xu Yang, the strongest CCTV team responsible for commentating the game, were introducing the starting lineups of both sides.
When talking about the Longteng team's lineup, they seemed very confident. He Weihe introduced it carefully: "In this game, the Longteng team fielded their strongest lineup. The center is Zou Weijia at the front, and there are several players in the frontcourt.
The players are Pato, Ben Arfa, and Tao Wentao. The two defensive midfielders are Lin Feng and Roque Gill. Of course, Lin Feng may be more involved in organizing the offense. The four defenders are still Zhou Zhou, Lu Zhihui, and Ma Yongli.
With Xiao Yunfan, the goalkeeper is Zhou Wei. Judging from the fact that Zhou Zhou is up, coach Zhang Sheng still focuses on stability, otherwise Wei Zhimin, who has stronger attack power, will start."
"This lineup should be the best in Asia. With domestic players of the national football level and three outstanding foreign players, and a team that plays a holistic approach, it is real that they can easily win the Chinese Super League championship."
It is well deserved, and this lineup was formed despite the absence of absolute main players like Nie Jiang and Huang Dawei." Xu Yang said with certainty, "As long as there are no special circumstances, I am more optimistic about the Longteng team.
"
"However, Ahli will not give in easily." He Wei reminded, "This is the first time in ten years that the UAE team has entered the AFC Champions League finals. They will take it extremely seriously. Before the game,
According to local media reports in Dubai, Mohammed Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, and Hamdan, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Al Ahli Club, will all be present to watch. For this game, the United Arab Emirates, which has always had a very close relationship
The relationship between the Football Association and the Saudi Football Association is also very tense. You must know that at the beginning of the year, before the start of the Asian Cup, the Saudi team fired its former coach Carlo. Due to time constraints and no time to find a new coach, the Saudi Football Association also asked Al Ahli in Dubai for help.
And moved Olaroyu on a temporary loan to "put out the fire" and led the team to compete in the Asian Cup. However, this time the Al-Ahli team filed a lawsuit with the Saudi club and went to FIFA for a spot in the AFC Champions League final.
Moreover, this is Ahly’s home court. They have not lost at home in the AFC Champions League for 18 consecutive years. If we also take into account the factors of the home referee, our players must be careful about their actions on the field.”
In the commentary of He Wei and Xu Yang, the players from both sides officially entered the stadium. After the national anthems of both sides were played, the game began.
After guessing the side, Al-Ahli Dubai chose the kick-off.
But only five minutes into the game, Al-Ahli Dubai's head coach Olaroyu stood on the sidelines from the coaching bench, because the original idea of organizing an offense by getting the kick-off rights failed.
In this game, the Ahli team was in a standard 4-4-2 position. As the "brain" of the team, Ribeiro was responsible for organizing and dispatching on the left near the midfielder. However, from the first five minutes of this game,
Come on, he can't pass the ball well at all.
The Longteng team played a typical zone defense. They did not send anyone to specifically defend Ribeiro as Olaroyu thought. Instead, they treated him as an ordinary opponent. However, all Ribeiro's passes were ignored.
The ball's path was stuck.
After passing the ball back to the backcourt at the beginning, Al-Ahli midfielder Majid Hassan handed the ball to Ribeiro and sought cooperation, but Tao Wentao followed him closely and did not give him any chance to connect with Ribeiro.
Opportunities, as for the other players, forwards Lima and Khalil, one is at the front, sandwiched by the Longteng team's center back and midfielder. Ribeiro has no passing route, and the other forward
Khalil was guarded very hard by Roque Gil, and the two wide players were flanked by Pato and Ben Arfa, who were ready to block the passing line at any time.
As for Ribeiro himself, he was in Lin Feng's defensive area. He retreated all the way under Lin Feng's pressing. Ribeiro saw Lin Feng pressing hard on him. After looking around and finding no opportunity to pass the ball, Ribeiro only
Another defensive midfielder, Fardan, could choose to pass the ball back to himself.
The Ahli team's opportunity to organize a positional attack was completely lost.
In fact, this is the tactic that Zhang Sheng has been preparing before the game. That is, since Ribeiro wants to organize an offense, there are only two ways. One is to start the offense by passing people one by one, and the other is to pass the ball to himself.
teammates to cooperate.
But Ribeiro himself is not the kind of player with very strong impact. His style is roughly equivalent to that of the previous King of Celestial Bodies, Conca. He is only 1.74 meters tall and wants to crush the opponent. It is really
It can't be done, so once he is unable to mobilize the ball, Ahli's offense poses no threat at all.
At the eighth minute of the first half, Ribeiro once again had the ball and was forced to pass the ball nowhere. He chose to forcefully pass the ball to Lima in front. As a result, this pass with too obvious intention was noticed.
Rock Gill, who was responsible for controlling Lima's receiving line, and Ma Yongli, who was up for grabs, teamed up to intercept the ball.
Al-Ahli in Dubai also imitated the Longteng team in siege, trying to carve out the passing line between the Longteng players, but the Longteng team was extremely skilled in short passing between two or three players.
After running for a while, the Al Ahli players in Dubai were almost ready to give up when they realized that they couldn't even touch the hair on the ball.
Seeing that the opponent's pressing force relaxed slightly, the Longteng team's offense accelerated. The point of acceleration was one of the foreign aids they had talked about countless times before the game - Pato.
In the 12th minute of the first half, Pato on the right saw that Fardan, who was defending him, was a little far away from him. After receiving Lin Feng's pass, he did not give the ball to his teammate and chose to
to accelerate breakthroughs.
Pato's sudden change of speed caught Al Ahli Dubai off guard, especially when Fardan, who was responsible for defending Pato, chose to come over and attack in order to make up for his poor defense.
It's just that Fardan overestimated his own strength, and Pato easily broke through his attack.
When Pato succeeded in making a breakthrough, a loophole appeared in Al-Ahli Dubai's solid defense, and it was the team's left defense that was directly threatened.
In this game, Al-Ahli Dubai's starting left back was Sankur. He was not the team's previous main player Walid Abbas, but whether it was Sankur or Walid Abbas, they were both on the right side.
Football players, that is to say, they are not orthodox left backs.
As a right-footed player playing on the left, in addition to cutting inside during offense, both the base of the ball during offense and the placement of the body's center of gravity during defense are very unfavorable.
This is exactly the case this time. Pato dribbles the ball at high speed. Sankul does not dare to attack for fear of being passed. He can only step back from the side to Pato step by step. Such a backward defense is used to deal with a speed master like Pato.
It's extremely passive.
Pato also saw the opportunity, suddenly dribbling the ball and cutting inside laterally.
Seeing that he was about to be passed, Sankul used a lateral interception with his legs to block Pato's forward path. It should be said that this action was an obvious foul, and the location of the foul was very dangerous, just in the penalty area.
The distance between the first two and three meters is very good for the Longteng team, which has shooting masters like Ben Alpha and Pato.
But just when Zhang Sheng was about to arrange the next free kick in the excellent position, the referee Jin Jonghyuk did not make any sign. He pointed forward with the hand holding the whistle to signal that the game should continue.
Pato, who had been brought down to the ground by Sankul, thought the free kick was a sure one, but he didn't expect that he didn't even get a piece of wool.
Pato is a seasoned veteran. He has never encountered such an outrageous penalty. After reacting, Pato angrily slapped his hand on the ground to express his dissatisfaction, while the Dubai Al-Ahli team
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Dragons players wanted to argue with the referee, they launched a quick counterattack.
Because Pato is still in the opponent's frontcourt and has not returned, there is a big gap on the right side of the Longteng team. Fardan, who just got the ball from the Dubai Ahli team, took the ball and headed towards the right side of the Longteng team.
The road starts to hit.
Concerned that his right wing was completely in a vacuum, Tao Wentao, as the attacking midfielder, immediately chose to foul Fardan - he pulled the opponent's jersey from behind Fardan to let the opponent dribble the ball faster.
It came down.
As soon as Tao Wentao made the foul, the referee Jin Jonghyuk decisively blew the whistle and ran over to give Tao Wentao a yellow card.
Tao Wentao, who received a yellow card, was so angry that the veins on his face were about to burst, because Sankul's foul just now was more serious than his own. After all, he committed a foul in the opponent's frontcourt, and there was no harmful action.
Kuhl's action just now could easily hurt Pato's calf, and he ended the opponent's offensive foul from a backcourt position, but the referee did not give any indication.
Seeing that Tao Wentao wanted to rush to the referee, Lin Feng, the captain, was much calmer. He hugged Tao Wentao with both hands, blocked him with his body between Tao Wentao and the referee, and pushed him back, trying to
Knowing that Tao Wentao has already received a yellow card, once the referee feels that you are challenging his authority, he will give you another yellow card, and you will not be able to refute.
Another person who was furious was Zhang Sheng on the sidelines. He yelled at the court and kicked a bottle of water away from the sidelines.
The fourth official of this game rushed over and started to warn Zhang Sheng.
How could Zhang Sheng, who had been completely blinded by anger, calm down? He argued with the fourth official without giving up an inch: "The foul committed by the opponent before was so bad that even a person who doesn't understand football can see it. Could it be?"
Is the referee blind?"
The fourth official didn't say anything more to Zhang Sheng at this time. He directly called the head referee over the intercom. This purpose was obvious. The best result was to have the head coach warn Zhang Sheng, and the worst result was to directly punish Zhang Sheng.
Off the field.
Seeing the referee coming with a straight face, the Longteng team's coaching staff quickly grabbed Zhang Sheng. As the team's assistant coach, He Lijun also knew that it was time to step up and block the head coach's thunder.
