With the whistle of Turkish referee Cakir, the first leg of this world-famous Champions League semi-final match officially started at Camp Nou, and the scene was filled with overwhelming boos from Barcelona fans.
The first person to kick off the ball was Manchester City center Su Dong standing in the center circle.
Barcelona fans have always had a very divided opinion of Su Dong. They miss the good times when he played for Barcelona, but also hate him for repeatedly leading the team to massacre Barcelona after leaving Barcelona. This makes Barcelona fans love and hate him.
, quite contradictory.
In the past, Barcelona hated him more than they loved him, but after the relaxation last season, especially after Barcelona won the Champions League, their attitude towards Su Dong has improved a lot.
But now, they started to feel jealous again.
There is no way, Su Dong is too strong.
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As soon as the game started, Manchester City was aware of the changes in Barcelona's formation.
This looks a bit like a traditional Barcelona play, but a bit like a three-back formation.
Puyol, Pique and Mascherano, these three players are lined up in the back line from left to right.
Alves, who was originally expected to appear in the defense, actually appeared on the right side of the midfield.
As a result, Barcelona's midfielder became a combination of Seydou Keita, Yaya Toure, Xavi and Alves from left to right.
Iniesta and Fabregas in front of midfield, behind Messi.
The Argentinian superstar serves as the lone striker.
This lineup is a bit strange.
I have never seen Barcelona adopt such a style of play before.
It looked like 3421, but when Manchester City's Sanchez broke through with the ball on the right and wanted to open the defense from the right, Seydou Keita retreated to the defense.
This proves that Barcelona does not have no full-backs, but just pushes the full-backs forward to the midfield.
Seydou Keita and Alves are said to be full midfielders, but when defending, they can retreat to the back line at any time to protect the side defense, which will turn Barcelona's back line into a five-back line.
Press out when attacking and retreat when defending. This requires high tactical execution and physical fitness of the players. It also requires defensive ability, but Seydo Keita and Alves are basically capable of it.
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The purpose of this is actually very simple, which is to exert strong enough pressure on Manchester City in the midfield.
Especially Fabregas and Iniesta, the two players are almost staring at Busquets.
Everyone knows that Busquets is Manchester City's midfield passing hub. He can sort out and deliver the ball steadily under high-pressure situations. He looks very low-key and inconspicuous, but in fact, his
The effect is very obvious, and the personal ability is also very strong.
Mourinho used two players, Iniesta and Fabregas, to pinch Busquets. In addition to defending, the purpose was to ensure that after successfully stealing the ball, the two players could immediately engage in counterattacks and
Messi forms a partnership.
In terms of overall tactics, Mourinho indeed adopted a more prudent tactic. He did not show an aggressive momentum from the beginning. Instead, he actively gave up possession of the ball and tried to use the numerical advantage in the midfield to form pressure and pressure on Manchester City.
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It has to be said that Mourinho's strategy still has a certain effect.
When Manchester City was in possession of the ball in the midfield, Fabregas and Iniesta retreated, and Seydou Keita and Alves moved forward, allowing Barcelona to have six players in the midfield. Manchester City usually only has three.
Even if Su Dong retreats, there will only be four, which is completely at a disadvantage.
Through this kind of pressing pressure from the midfield, Barcelona players quickly succeeded in stealing the ball.
Under the interference of Iniesta, the ball passed by Busquets to David Silva was intercepted by Xavi. Although David Silva immediately launched a counterattack, Xavi was faster and directly
A kick was passed to Messi who was retreating in front.
Messi pulled out of the Manchester City center back's defense, received the ball and rushed forward. When he was approaching Pepe, he made a feint and deceived Pepe. Although he failed to break through with the ball, he still sent a precise kick.
A direct pass passed behind the Manchester City defense.
Fabregas moved forward quickly, and Kompany chased back all the way, rushing into the penalty area. Before Fabregas took a kick, he fell to the ground and tackled, blocking the Barcelona player's shot from the baseline, turning it into a one-timer.
Corner kick.
Subsequently, Barcelona's corner kick was cleared out of the penalty area. Yaya Toure grabbed the second spot. After stopping the ball, he fired a long shot nearly 30 meters away from the goal. It went high.
Two consecutive shots, both from Barcelona.
Manchester City controls the situation and the ball, but has not been able to organize a decent attack so far.
Guardiola kept calling on the players to be patient on the sidelines, and Su Dong, wearing the captain's armband, also told his teammates on the court to try to control the ball and try to slow down the pace.
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Benitez said that football is about space and the struggle for the ball.
Manchester City has the ball, but Mourinho wants Barcelona to seize space.
So he took advantage of his numerical advantage and established a very solid steel defense line in the midfield.
Even at first glance, it seems that he has placed the defense directly in the midfield.
As soon as Manchester City players brought the ball into the midfield, they were immediately chased and intercepted by Barcelona players.
Even if Sudong retreats and forms a diamond-shaped ball-controlling formation with David Silva, Toni Kroos and Busquets, it will still be difficult to penetrate Barcelona's defense.
Mourinho is really excellent at building defense.
Especially now, when Sudong retreats and two wingers rush forward, they are imprisoned by Barcelona's three central defenders.
You know, Puyol and Mascherano are both very fast, and both of them can keep up with Di Maria and Sanchez's dribbling breakthroughs, not to mention Pique who is lagging behind at the end.
After Su Dong withdrew, Yaya Toure kept pestering him.
The Ivory Coast midfielder has always had mixed reputations in Barcelona, but Mourinho trusts and uses him very much.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As long as Su Dong retreats, he and Harvey will never advance forward.
Manchester City also quickly realized the difficulties in the midfield. Marcelo and Zabaleta began to actively move forward and participate in passing and controlling the ball in the midfield, hoping to open up the situation from the wing. At this time, the game was almost over.
It's been ten minutes.
In the first ten minutes, Manchester City didn't even have a shot.
It can be seen how tightly Barcelona restricted Manchester City's midfield and frontcourt in this game.
Low defense, strangulation in the midfield, three central defenders, and only Messi in the frontcourt. This seems to be a solid defensive counterattack.
"I still remember that at the beginning of the season, after losing to Manchester City in the European Super Cup, Mourinho once said that he actually preferred to play defensive counterattack because he believed this was the most effective tactic against Manchester City."
"Now, he finally got his wish and used the tactics he wanted to play most, but it seems that the fans at the scene still have some opinions. After all, Barcelona has always been tyrannical at Camp Nou, but now they are forced by Manchester City.
We had to retreat and counterattack, which somewhat embarrassed Barcelona fans."
"But Mourinho's creed has never been to win beautifully, but to win!"
…
The ball in the game is in Manchester City's hands, but it is difficult to create a threatening offense.
Even after fifteen minutes, Manchester City still didn't even kick a shot, which made the situation on the field a bit impatient.
Until the 19th minute, when Sudong saw Di Maria following Alves who was advancing with the ball and returning to defense, he immediately ran to the left.
Marcelo and Di Maria teamed up on the left wing to intercept Alves' ball and handed it to David Silva.
The Spanish midfielder sent a through ball directly behind the defense.
Su Dong crossed from the center to the left, got ahead of everyone, and stopped the ball.
Puyol also immediately blocked Su Dong's passage to the penalty area.
He knew Su Dong too well.
One-on-one, Su Dong showed no fear and made a fake move to hit the ball to the baseline, trying to force a breakthrough, but Puyol reacted quickly enough and immediately followed up.
I saw that Su Dong was slightly more explosive, half a body ahead, and poked the ball into the penalty area. He rushed outside the court, avoided Puyol, suddenly accelerated, and rushed out before the ball left the baseline.
He blocked the ball inside the line with his foot and passed the ball back to the penalty spot before Pique came to clear the ball.
It was only then that Sanchez rushed over and met Su Dong's back pass, which was Manchester City's first shot of the game.
This was originally a very good opportunity, but due to the interference of Mascherano, Sanchez's kick went a bit wide and went directly out of the baseline, failing to pose a threat.
The whole Camp Nou breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he failed to score a goal, Su Dong's speed and technique when facing Puyol and Pique on the left side were really frightening.
As long as he is still on the court, no one can rest assured.
Sure enough, just four minutes had passed since the last attack, and Manchester City stole the ball in midfield again.
This time Toni Kroos passed a long pass behind the defense. Sudong quickly stepped in and got ahead of Pique. With a header, he pushed the ball from Pique's left side to Pique's right side and accelerated to catch up.
He went up and got ahead of Pique. He stopped suddenly and spiked the ball to the left. He passed Pique directly and dribbled the ball to the left.
Puyol immediately stepped forward to cover, but Sudong sent a ball to the baseline.
When Di Maria was unguarded, he diagonally inserted into the left rib of the penalty area. After catching up with Su Dong's pass, he shot directly into the far corner with his left foot.
As a result, the shot that was destined to win hit the lower edge of the right post, bounced out, and failed to score.
Di Maria clutched her head in pain and fell into Barcelona's penalty area.
This was already a one-on-one goal. The opportunity was so good, but it actually hit the post.
"Manchester City's offense has improved during this period and has become more and more threatening. Sudong has created opportunities continuously, but even in the final kick, it is still lacking."
"Neither Di Maria nor Sanchez is the kind of player who scores very efficiently."
"But the problem is that only Su Dong in Manchester City can hold the ball in the frontcourt and create opportunities."
"Guardiola is still calling on the players to be patient, hold their ground and wait for the opportunity."
"It's clear that both sides are waiting for their opponents to make mistakes."