The Dragons' goal completely disrupted Al Ahli Dubai's pre-match plans.
The Dubai media's praise of the Dragons before the game and Olaroyu's praise of the Dragons were not lies. They really believed that the Dragons were stronger than them. After all, in their eyes, players like Pato and Ben Arfa
He is a wealthy player, so it would be unwise to challenge him against the Dragons.
Their thoughts are actually the same as when they faced Guangzhou Evergrande in history. At their home court, the 4-4-2 formation is stable, but it is difficult to launch a strong offense. At the same time, they are afraid of Evergrande.
Due to the impact of Elkeson and Goulart on their side, they played a completely defensive counterattack tactic at their home court.
In a two-leg game like the AFC Champions League, if they dare not attack at their home court, it only means that they are afraid.
This time in the game against the Longteng team, they were still like this. Defensive counterattack was a tactic they had planned before the game. Their goal was to not concede the ball. Of course it would be best if they could steal one, but now they conceded first.
The ball is up!
Falling behind in the game also made Olaroyu give up the idea of keeping the tie and winning. The top priority now is to get the score back first. Under his gesture, the players of Al Ahli in Dubai completely suppressed the formation.
Ahli, who was fully attacking, still posed a certain threat, especially the player Lima who played a big role. After this period of testing, he observed that the right back Xiao Yunfan of the Longteng team was slightly weaker in defensive strength.
, launched an impact on his position.
Although Ribeiro sounds like he is more famous, in fact, this Lima player is more suitable to play in Asia, because he has stronger impact than Ribeiro, and he is also one of the few players in the Ahli team.
Not afraid of the Dragons players.
Historically, another Chinese Super League team, Beijing Guoan, wanted to introduce him at the beginning of this season, but Lima and his club Benfica, who looked down on the Chinese Super League, ignored Guoan at all. Later, Guoan waited for two days.
Kleiber was brought in without getting a chance to contact Lima.
After coming to Ahli, his performance was also very good. He actually didn't take it seriously for the overly cautious attitude of head coach Olaroyu before the game, including this time when he was scored by the Longteng team.
The opponent stole a ball - after all, the Longteng team did score the goal with a quick counterattack.
Lima felt very unhappy about being attacked by a surprise attack. Now he is ready to use his own strength to tell the opponent that I am the most dazzling star in this game.
In the 32nd minute of the first half, Ribeiro got the ball near the center arc. After observing for a circle, he found that his teammates were all very close to each other and the pass was missed.
After the ball was in danger, he thought about passing the ball to his teammate midfielder Majid Hassan who came from behind, but Lima, who was standing very close to the sideline, insisted on raising his hands and asking Ribeiro to pass the ball over.
Seeing how confident his teammate was, Ribeiro chose to believe in him and passed the ball.
Lima's choice is actually very dangerous. On the passing line from Ribeiro to him, Pato on the right can rush to the passing line and intercept the ball. Xiao Yunfan is right behind Lima and gets the ball.
It's not easy to half-turn around and attack.
In order to avoid the pass being intercepted by Pato, Ribeiro passed the ball farther away from Pato's position. The power was also very strong. At the same time, the ball passed was still a certain distance away from Lima.
But even with such a bad pass, Lima still got it, and he got the ball very steadily.
Xiao Yunfan saw Lima catching the ball so reluctantly, so he wanted to take the opportunity to lean in from behind and poke the ball away from him. Moreover, Xiao Yunfan also overestimated his physical resistance. He thought that his height of 1.8 meters was less than 1.8 meters tall.
Miba immediately became stronger. As a result, Xiao Yunfan missed the impact and poke from behind, and his center of gravity was a little unstable because he used too much force.
Lima also took advantage of Xiao Yunfan's aggressive advance. After catching the ball, he withstood Xiao Yunfan's impact. When Xiao Yunfan took a shot, he made a beautiful pull of the ball and turned around, completely getting rid of Xiao Yunfan's defense.
Seeing Xiao Yunfan's reckless attempt to grab the ball and failing, Roque Gil had to come over to help him fill his position. His departure also gave Ribeiro room to catch the ball.
Lima was not greedy for credit after the successful breakthrough. When he saw Roque Gil coming, he very smartly returned the ball to Ribeiro. This time the two of them passed the ball and formed a beautiful one-two match. This
This kind of cooperation is exactly the offensive routine Olaroyu dreams of.
After getting the ball, Ribeiro was no longer confused as before, because the Longteng team's defense was still being adjusted at this time, and there were many gaps. He had time to observe his teammates while running with the ball.
After adjusting his center of gravity, he saw Khalil pulling out of the penalty area to play the ball.
As the captain of the UAE national team, Khalil won the Silver Boot in the Asian Cup at the beginning of the year. This player's shooting is top-notch in Asia, and his ball-making ability is also very good. This time he received the ball
After Bello passed the ball, he made a beautiful move to pretend to turn around. In fact, halfway through the turn, he sent the ball directly to Fardan who was on the wing. The latter swayed slightly while accelerating.
After opening a little passing angle, he passed the ball directly into the penalty area.
At this time, Lima had already moved to the penalty area. Facing Fardan's pass, Lima jumped impulsively in the penalty area.
As a center forward, Lima is only 1.79 meters tall, but in the season when he won the Portuguese Super League bronze boots, he scored seven headers, accounting for 3/19 of his total goals.
More than one percent.
Being able to score so many headers in the Portuguese Super League, where there are many defensive masters, shows that his header ability is very strong. In the first round of the AFC Champions League semi-finals in Al Ahli in Dubai, Lima's goal came in
During the take-off of the set kick, he scored the ball while being double-teamed by two defensive players. It can be said that he is not tall, but his jumping ability is very amazing.
This time Lima's header was still very threatening, because Ma Yongli had gone out to defend Khalil before, and the Longteng team left another central defender Lu Zhihui in the defense of the header.
Lu Zhihui, who is famous for his header ability in the entire Chinese Super League, even though he is 1.85 meters tall, he did not overtake Lima, allowing the latter to successfully header the ball. Fortunately, Lu Zhihui's reputation is not for nothing.
Although he did not grab the header in defense this time, in terms of physical confrontation, the gap between the two men was too big.
Although Lima grabbed the point, he was deflected by Lu Zhihui during the physical confrontation in the air. After the ball rubbed Lima's head, it slightly went over the crossbar and flew out of the baseline.
It can be said that without Lu Zhihui's interference in the air, Lima's header this time would have been 100% headed into the goal, because Zhou Wei's save just now was still a long way from the ball.
"Lima's header." He Wei also exclaimed, "It's too dangerous. We can't give the opponent such a chance. The center forward is facing our central defender alone, and there is too much choice in attacking the goal."
“The main reason is that the defense on the left was a little too aggressive just now.” Xu Yang analyzed, “In this game, we saw that the Longteng team’s tactics were very clear, which was to not give Ribeiro too many opportunities to organize.
However, the aggressive advance from the left just now caused a loophole in the defensive system, forcing the midfielder to come over to fill the position. This is the reason why Ribeiro was able to launch a series of organized attacks later."
Zhang Sheng also discovered a small problem with his tactics this time. As a defensive midfielder, Lin Feng had to rush forward sometimes when he wanted to organize the attack. In addition, the Longteng team, which had just scored a goal, was now very powerful.
When the offense is strong, Lin Feng has more opportunities to run into the frontcourt, and his return to defense is not that fast. If the B2B midfielder loses a B, the team's middle defense will definitely have problems.
It's time for the team to recycle its formation, Zhang Sheng thought.
He quickly made arrangements and asked Lin Feng to retract his position appropriately, and the Longteng team's overall formation also retracted accordingly.
When the Longteng team's formation retracted, Al-Ahli in Dubai found that its offense became difficult again. Ribeiro, the playmaker, often passed the ball around in the midfield. When he found that there was no chance, he had to hand the ball over.
The two defensive midfielders allowed the Longteng team to stretch out their formation.
As the Longteng team played more cautiously, the rhythm slowed down, and the two sides exchanged the ball more often in the midfield. The fans from both sides cheered enthusiastically on the sidelines, but the game was very boring.
Zhang Sheng, who now holds a one-goal lead, also looks very relaxed. Before, he was standing on the sidelines giving instructions, but now he is sitting comfortably in the coach's seat.
"Football matches are like this. Since ancient times, red and blue have been the best. Oh no, there has been no good game in the finals since ancient times." Zhang Sheng and Xuerle beside him said, "A one-goal lead is not safe. Such entanglement in the midfield is very difficult for us.
favorable."
Zhang Sheng's words are correct. When two teams decide to rely on positional warfare to advance their offense, it depends on whose tactical details are arranged more perfectly, who handles the details better in passing and receiving, and who has more good players.
, whoever is more patient will win in the end.
The Longteng team is now one goal ahead and has a more stable mentality than the opponent. At the same time, as a team famous for passing and controlling, their advantage in the midfield is also more obvious.
Now on the field, Al-Ahli Dubai can hold off the Dragons in the midfield, and it is the referee who takes the greatest credit.
Every time Dubai Al-Ahli made small moves and fouls closer to the 30-meter area, the referee basically turned a blind eye and did not give the Longteng team a chance to take a free kick in the frontcourt. Instead, it was in the Longteng team's half.
Hurley's player committed a foul, but he blew the whistle in a timely manner, acting like I was being fair.
However, a free kick in the backcourt really doesn't help the offense much. The Longteng team will not invest a lot of troops in the offense just for a free kick in the backcourt. Wouldn't it be a big loss if they were counterattacked?
Even the commentator He Wei said: "I can understand the pressure on both teams in the final. It is human nature to have a slower pace, but the referee should also control such frequent fouls. Once both sides cannot suppress their anger, the game will be over.
It’s going to turn into a farce.”
As time passed in the first half, the referee's penalties began to become more and more "severe". The Longteng team was frequently called for fouls by the referee for many normal physical confrontations in their own half.
In just ten minutes, the referee gave Al-Ahli in Dubai three free kicks in the frontcourt. However, the quality of Al-Ahli's first two free kicks was not high and the ball could not be bypassed.
The human wall was a little further away for the last time, and he was hoisted into the penalty area to find Lima, but was destroyed by Lu Zhihui, who was watching eagerly from the side.
Until the end of the first half, Al-Ahli Dubai, with the help of the referee, got a lot of set-piece opportunities in the frontcourt, but failed to grasp any of them, which made their head coach Olaroyu very anxious.
Zhang Sheng, who was on the sidelines, looked at the situation on the court with cold eyes and said with contempt in his heart: "Defense of set pieces is the focus of our drills before the game. You are of average height and do not have an advantage. You want to score goals with headers."
, I think too much."
Sure enough, after consecutive free kicks and corner kicks without even a successful shot, Dubai Al-Ahli's free kick in the first half overtime flew directly into the stands.
Zhang Sheng was also overjoyed and clapped vigorously on the court, and the sarcasm was self-evident.
When the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, the Longteng team returned to the locker room with a one-goal lead.
The Longteng team players walking off the field were chatting and laughing, with relaxed expressions on their faces, while the home team's players had extremely solemn faces. The embarrassing situation of being behind at home and unable to attack effectively made them really worried.
During the halftime break, Zhang Sheng praised the players' performance: "You played very well in the first half. The opponent had the referee to help, but you all calmed down. And it was us who controlled the ball in the midfield, running
They are the ones grabbing the ball. As long as everyone protects themselves, they will be in great trouble later in the game, and by then they may not have the energy to commit a foul."
"We must always remember that possession of the ball does not mean victory, but it can mean victory." Zhang Sheng continued to encourage everyone, "We are in the lead now. If we control the ball for one more minute on the court, the opponent will be more impatient.
In one minute, this dual psychological and physical pressure is likely to lead to collapse. In the second half, everyone continues to work hard to let them know that in the face of absolute strength, some small actions are of no avail."
At this time, Olaroyu could only encourage the players over and over again, and even vaguely mentioned the scale of penalties: "Everyone knows the importance of this game. Our boss, and our boss's father all
They are paying attention to us. They have created the best environment for us. The 'advantage' of the home court is so obvious. Don't waste this opportunity. We must play more aggressively and interrupt their passing.
Rhythm. The attack by Lima and Ribeiro in the first half was the effect we should have. Only by running more can we have a chance."
