On the evening of March 24th, I went to the Schalke Stadium.
In the German Cup semi-finals, Schalke 04 faced Bayern at home.
Schalke 04 took advantage of the home court advantage at the beginning to launch a fierce attack on Bayern and created a very good opportunity in the sixth minute. Kuranyi passed the ball in a quick counterattack and Baumjohn kicked the ball low.
He shot, but Neuer flew to catch him.
Facing his old club, Bayern's goalkeeper showed no mercy at all. He quickly threw the ball to Lahm and instigated a counterattack.
Lahm dribbled the ball along the right and quickly passed the ball to Robben in front.
When the Dutch stopped the ball, facing Westerman's defense, he made a fake move and forced a breakthrough with the ball. He used his speed to bring the ball along the right wing to the 30-meter area of Schalke 04 before being blocked.
catch up.
After an emergency stop, Robben glanced at the center, deftly caught the ball with his left foot, changed direction and cut inside, sent a diagonal pass from the inside of his left foot, and passed the ball directly to the edge of the penalty area.
I saw Su Dong sprinting forward quickly, getting ahead of Schalke 04 central defender Hewedes, and heading the ball forward into the penalty area. He accelerated to catch up and rebounded when it landed.
of football, a direct and furious shot.
The ball went straight to the bottom of the goal net with thunderous momentum, beyond the reach of the goalkeeper.
…
After Su Dong opened the scoring, the two teams still played very unrestrainedly.
Schalke 04 aims to score goals, and although Bayern seeks stability in the away game, it is not far behind.
The two teams went back and forth, the ball changed hands back and forth, the game was very intense and the pace was fast.
In the tenth minute, Su Dong blocked the defensive player with his body in front of the penalty area, received a long pass from the backcourt, stopped the ball, turned around and sent a kick from behind.
Robben made a diagonal pass from the right rib, and after receiving the ball, he formed a single shot, but the shot was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper and missed the opportunity to score.
The Dutch looked very depressed.
In fact, he did not get many opportunities, but there was a very obvious gap between his shooting efficiency and Su Dong's.
…
After that, the two sides went back and forth in a stalemate, and no one was able to create any good opportunities.
Until the 20th minute, after receiving Schweinsteiger's diagonal pass from the left, Ribery suddenly cut inside, passed the defensive players one after another, rushed directly to the bottom line of the penalty area, and passed the ball to
In front of the door.
Su Dong knocked away Hewedes with his body, rushed to the goal, overwhelmed all the defensive players, and headed the goal from close range.
The ball was directly headed into the goal by Su Dong, two to zero!
…
After taking a two-goal lead, Bayern continued to play steadily.
Schalke tried to counterattack, but was afraid of Bayern's counterattack.
After changing sides and fighting again in the second half, Schalke 04 kicked off a ten-minute attack. Rakitic, Kuranyi and other players also got opportunities to kick, but failed to score.
Bayern then used a counterattack. After Su Dong retreated to receive the ball, he advanced with the ball to initiate the attack and passed it diagonally to Robben.
The Dutch dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the right, passed it across to the back point, and Ribery followed up with a shot that hit the side net.
Although this counterattack did not score a goal, it shocked Schalke 04.
Until the game came to a close, there was another quick counterattack by Bayern. Su Dong promptly distributed the ball to Robben on the right, attracting the attention of the defensive player in the middle.
Robben dribbled the ball all the way along the right wing, passed two Schalke players, broke into the right side of the penalty area, dunked past Moritz, and hit the far corner with his left foot, sealing the victory for Bayern.
Than zero!
In the end, with Su Dong's brace and Robben's goal, Bayern defeated Schalke 3-0 and successfully advanced to the German Cup final.
In another game, Werder Bremen defeated Augsburg with goals from Pizarro and Marin, and joined Bayern in the final.
…………
…………
On March 27, in the 28th round of the Bundesliga, Bayern faced Stuttgart at home.
The first half was stalemate for nearly half an hour, until the 28th minute, when Pepe made a long pass and found Su Dong.
Sudong distributed the ball to the left, handed it to Toni Kroos, then turned around and moved forward quickly.
Toni Kroos got the ball and sent a diagonal pass, which accurately found Su Dong who advanced into the penalty area.
Su Dong fired a volley from close range and broke Stuttgart's goal, one to zero!
Just four minutes later, Bayern distributed the ball from the center to the left. Contento, who replaced Marcelo, made a direct pass and found Toni Kroos in front. The latter sent another pass from the left side of the penalty area.
In the penalty area, Su Dong volleyed and broke through Stuttgart's goal again, further expanding Bayern's score to 2-0!
…
Since they are about to go to Manchester to challenge Manchester United in midweek, Bayern has almost lined up most of its substitute lineup for this game.
With a 2-0 lead in the first half, Sudong and Pepe were substituted at halftime.
Unexpectedly, in the second half, the team changed sides and fought again. In the 46th and 50th minutes, Stuttgart took advantage of Bayern's unsteady foothold and scored two goals in a row to successfully equalize the score.
This seriously disrupted Heynckes' plan. Although Robben and Franck Ribery subsequently came on as substitutes, Bayern was still tied 2-2 at home by Stuttgart and failed to take all three points.
After the game, Heynckes publicly admitted that he had made mistakes in controlling the game, but he believed that this would not affect the overall situation of the team. He believed that Bayern could win the Champions League in midweek at Old Trafford.
, and got a satisfactory result.
…………
…………
"That bad old man Heynckes is really bad!"
On a flight back to the UK from Germany, Ferguson complained to his brother Martin Ferguson, who was sitting next to him.
As Bayern's performance improved, Heynckes, whose career had been plunged into darkness, came back from the dead and became the most popular coach in European football. Many people even began to rush to praise him.
Ferguson's evaluation of Heynckes is not low, but it is not as high as the outside world has rumored.
Heynckes has his own advantages, but he also has shortcomings, and his most obvious advantage is stability.
Really as steady as an old dog!
No matter what the game is, he can arrange his troops smoothly without making any obvious mistakes.
For a team like Bayern, especially with a top attacker like Su Dong, as long as the team itself does not make mistakes, the possibility of the opponent making mistakes is very high, and Bayern winning is a high probability event.
This is the biggest advantage of having a top scorer like Su Dong.
Watertight, this is Heynckes's label.
Even before the game, he seemed to have guessed that Ferguson would come to spy on the military situation, so he deliberately dispersed the Trident and some players to prevent Ferguson from seeing Su Dong, Ribery and Robben playing together.
scene.
"Humph, this old guy thinks I can't guess what he's thinking because of this trick?" Ferguson laughed smugly.
"Since the beginning of this season, Ferdinand and Vidic's condition has declined significantly, and Bayern's wings Ribery and Robben are both very sharp. With Sudong in the mix, our defense will probably be very difficult." Martin
Ferguson said with concern.
Ferguson looked at his younger brother who looked very much like him and smiled.
"No matter how strong the wing is, you are still a winger. After all, you still have to go to the center to score goals. So you see that Stuttgart completely lost power on the wing in the second half, but did Bayern score a goal?"
Martin Ferguson had a moment of enlightenment.
"Bayern's offensive core is only Su Dong. No matter how strong Ribery and Robben are on the wing, without a center, their threat will be greatly reduced. In terms of scoring ability, they are not strong."
Ferguson's reference standard is obviously the world's top level of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. Otherwise, Ribery and Robben's offensive power can be regarded as world-class stars.
"But this is also the most troublesome. When they were at their peak before, neither Ferdinand nor Vidic could guard Su Dong, but now they can?" Martin Ferguson was still a little anxious.
Ferguson chewed gum and still had a smile on his face, "So, when facing Bayern, you can't always think about defense. You can't defend. Heynckes' tactics are too stable. If you compete with them, your defense will be weakened sooner or later."
They will all be defeated by Su Dong."
"So..." Martin Ferguson vaguely guessed something.
Ferguson narrowed his eyes and said, "So, don't compete with Bayern, but win by surprise."
This is also some of Ferguson's insights after losing several games.
Facing a stable team like Bayern, if you seek stability like him, the game will fall into a stalemate and become a war of attrition. Su Dong's super personal ability will often work wonders in this stalemate.
Therefore, facing Bayern, being conservative is tantamount to committing suicide slowly.
Of course, attacking blindly will lead to a more tragic death. This has been confirmed by countless precedents.
But Manchester United is different. The Red Devils not only have strength, but they are not blind.
Bayern has a natural flaw, and it has been for several years, and that is Marcelo on the left.
This Brazilian defender is famous for his strong offense and weak defense. Even in one-on-one defense, he is not very reliable, not to mention that he often goes forward to participate in the attack, and even uses himself as a winger.
It can be said that playing behind Marcelo is an offensive strategy that all teams will consider when facing Bayern.
The difference is that some teams will take advantage of it, and some teams will use this to create smoke.
Ferguson also played this side, so he knows the effect.
If we want to talk about Bayern's defense, the most obvious weakness is the left wing. This is also the area where Ferguson is most confident of making a breakthrough. However, Manchester United did not use it very well in the past few times.
But this time, Ferguson felt that this would be a critical point.
After coaching for many years, Ferguson has become more and more aware that there is no fixed pattern for the head coach's formation.
Sometimes conventional play and surprise victory are two sides of the same coin. The key lies in seizing favorable opportunities and how to expand the results.
Against a team like Bayern, it is basically impossible to have a long-term stalemate. Players such as Sudong, Ribery and Robben may change the situation at any time and reverse the situation. Therefore, Manchester United must seize it from the beginning.
Fighters expand the advantage and tilt the balance of victory.
