Football feast, starting from the acquisition of European clubs

Chapter 116

Thousands of miles away in China, with the Crystal Palace winning one game after another, the popularity of the Crystal Palace post bar is increasing every day, and it has now become one of the most popular post bars.

"Haha, Crystal Palace has won again, eleven consecutive victories. There is no one before, and it will probably be very difficult to come later."

"Don't rush to conclusions, Crystal Palace can continue to win, and the [-]-game winning streak is not the end."

"Yes. I think Crystal Palace can challenge Arsenal's unbeaten championship record last season."

"Ahem, remind everyone. I checked the Premier League schedule. Crystal Palace's opponent in the next round is Arsenal, which is currently ranked second."

"Damn it! Head-to-head, is it so exciting?"

"It's not easy for Crystal Palace. After all, Arsenal were the champions of the Premier League last season, and they are now closely behind Crystal Palace. It's really hard to say who will win and who will lose."

"What happened to Arsenal, didn't Crystal Palace just beat Arsenal to win the League Cup final last season?"

"That's right. Princes and generals, would you rather be kind? The champions will take turns, and this year they will come to my house."

"No matter who wins in the end, this game must be very fierce."

"That's for sure. This game must be watched, and it may be the key to determining the title of the Premier League champion this season."

"Needless to say? If we can get rid of Arsenal, then Crystal Palace will be able to win the Premier League title this season."

Just like the fans are worried, Chen Ran is also having a headache for the upcoming schedule.

The situation is more dangerous than fans realize.

Once it's done, everything will be fine.

If they don't play well, then Crystal Palace might have a streak of invincibility.

On November 11th, the second game of the UEFA Cup group stage will start again. Crystal Palace will face the Italian giants Lazio at home.

On November 11th, just one day later, in the No. 7 round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace will face Arsenal directly at Selhurst Park.

On November 11, in the fourth round of the League Cup, Crystal Palace will go to Old Trafford to challenge Manchester United away.

If last week's schedule was considered a devil's schedule, then this one should be called a hell's schedule.

Three games in six days, and the opponents were all strong teams, which made Chen Ran's scalp tingle after watching it.

It would be great if the game time between Crystal Palace and Arsenal could be swapped with Manchester United's League Cup match, Chen Ran was daydreaming in his heart.

After all, it was in his plan to give up the League Cup, so that he can concentrate on playing the other two games that must be won.

In this situation, against Lazio, Chen Ran must go all out to win the opponent.

Then, just one day later, in the league match against Arsenal, how much of the Crystal Palace players could still play, Chen Ran was not sure.

Although Arsenal will also participate in the Champions League, their group match of this round, at home against Panathinaikos in Greece, will be held on November 11.

In other words, Arsenal has two days more rest time than Crystal Palace.

Chen Ran is very suspicious, at least in terms of the schedule, Crystal Palace has been treated unfairly.

For a moment, Chen Ran had the idea of ​​venting his dissatisfaction with the FA through the media.

But then, his rationality stopped this idea.

Because Chen Ran is not just a simple head coach, he is also the owner of the Crystal Palace Club.

It is definitely not good for the Crystal Palace club to publicly tear up the face with the FA.

In other people's territory, when one's own strength is not strong enough, it is best to hide one's strength and bide one's time.

It is not unreasonable why the "gou" Tao was prosperous in the previous life.

Since he couldn't change the schedule, Chen Ran had no choice but to start with himself.

So, he called Guardiola, Southgate and Simeone over.

"Guys, I think you all know the schedule for the next week."

Chen Ran looked around at the three of them, saw that they were all listening to him attentively, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Although it is very difficult, our goal is still to strive for victory."

"I'm here to give you the bottom line: in the League Cup match against Manchester United, I have no requirements for results, and it can be used to train substitute players and young people."

"But the UEFA Cup game against Lazio and the Premier League game against Arsenal, those two have to be won."

Guardiola, Southgate and Simeone looked at each other, and finally Guardiola bit the bullet and stood up.

"Boss, after the match against Lazio, there is only one day of rest. We are really not sure about the physical condition of the players at that time."

"Yes, boss. After all, Lazio is an old and strong team. Although it encountered an economic crisis before and sold many stars. But after changing to a new owner this summer, the team has regained its stability. We can't take it lightly."

Simeone, a former Lazio player, still knows his old club quite well, so he also stood up to remind Chen Ran at this time.

"Don't worry, I won't underestimate the enemy." After speaking, Chen Ran turned to look at Simeone, "Diego, you have played in Serie A for many years, and you are most familiar with the football style there. You can introduce it to everyone later."

"Okay, boss."

After explaining to Simeone, Chen Ran looked at Guardiola again.

"Josep, after you go back, edit the video of Arsenal's games this season. I will use it in the pre-match preparation meeting."

"Understood, boss."

Finally, Chen Ran explained to Southgate again.

"Gareth, you are the captain of the team. The next week's game is very important to us. You must pay more attention to the physical and mental conditions of the players. If there is anything abnormal, report to me immediately, understand?"

"Boss, don't worry, the locker room will be handed over to me."

Southgate slapped his chest with a "bang bang" and assured Chen Ran.

The current Lazio is not the Lazio in its heyday.

Because the former boss spent money lavishly, the team fell into a serious economic crisis, and even entered a state of trusteeship for a while.

Just this summer, after the new boss Claudio Lotito acquired Lazio, he changed his predecessor's business style and strictly controlled unnecessary expenditures.

While letting Lazio recover, it also caused the team's strength to decline sharply, becoming a mid-range team in Serie A.

Stars such as Stam, Nesta, Nedved, Vieri, Veron, Crespo, Stankovic, Mihajlovic and other stars have now left the team one after another.

One of the things that made Claudio Lotito famous was that on the last day before the end of the summer transfer period, he used 130 million euros to introduce nine players in one go.

The 130 million euros were spent on half of the ownership of forward Rocky, and none of the other eight people spent money.

Yes, you heard that right, this is Lazio now.

However, even so, because it was the first time to play against a veteran team outside of England, Chen Ran still sent out the entire main lineup for safety reasons, and still adopted Southgate's twin tower tactics.

Because Chen Ran has carefully studied Lazio's current lineup, their main central defenders Negro and Cotto, one is 182cm tall and the other is 184cm tall.

On the Crystal Palace side, Tony is 193cm and Crouch is 201cm. Wouldn't it be a pity not to make good use of such obvious height advantages?
Chen Ran's idea is very simple, try to hit Lazio with a header directly.

Forward Tony, Forward Crouch
Left midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo, central midfielder Modric, central midfielder Simeone, right midfielder Ribery

Left back Chiellini, centre-back Southgate, centre-back Vidic, right-back Maicon
goalkeeper cech
Lazio's current head coach is Delio Rossi. He never left Italy when he was a player or a coach.

But he has heard about Crystal Palace's [-]-game winning streak at the start of the Premier League.

In order to prepare for this game, Delio Rossi also specially found the Crystal Palace game video and studied it carefully.

Then, he realized that with Lazio's current strength, it might be very difficult to compete with Crystal Palace.

However, Delio Rossi did not shrink back to defend, and he still gave Lazio the usual 442 formation.

Forward Di Canio, Forward Inzaghi Jr.

Left Midfielder Cesar, Central Midfielder Gianni Keida, Central Midfielder Liverani, Right Midfielder Zauli

Left-back Seric, Center-back Cotto, Center-back Negro, Right-back Oddo

goalkeeper peruzzi

On the day of the match, Selhurst Park was once again overcrowded.

Even fans who didn't buy tickets ran outside the stadium to cheer.

Once upon a time, when did Crystal Palace have the opportunity to play against these well-known European giants?
Even for a declining giant like Lazio, it is the first time for fans of Crystal Palace to have such close contact.

The warm atmosphere at Selhurst Park also surprised the Lazio players.

Frankly speaking, as Lazio players who play in Rome's Olympic Stadium, which can accommodate more than 8 people, they look down on Selhurst Park Stadium, which can only accommodate more than 6000 people.

However, the full attendance and the uninterrupted singing inside and outside the stadium made the Lazio players who have suffered turmoil in recent years envious.

With the whistle of the referee, the match between Crystal Palace and Lazio officially began.

Lazio's two wingers, whether it is left-back Seric or right-back Odo, faced Ribery and Ronaldo, and were quickly suppressed to death.

According to Chen Ran's request, one ball after another was sent into Lazio's penalty area from both sides.

Once the ball was passed into the penalty area, the height advantages of Tony and Crouch were immediately revealed.

Whether it's Negro or Cotto, they can't hold these two big and tall guys at all, especially Tony.The two of them can only rely on their rich defensive experience and use some small moves and tricks to barely support them.

The goal guarded by Peruzzi suddenly fell into indiscriminate bombardment.

This time, not only the Lazio players on the field, but even the head coach Delio Rossi standing on the sidelines was also surprised.

Is this Crystal Palace's tactics so simple and rude?
Worthy of being an England team.

Delio Rossi on the sidelines also knew that the situation was not good, and adjustments needed to be made at this time.

However, he no longer has any good players in his hands.

Stam, the mainstay of the team's defense, also went to AC Milan this summer.

Negro and Cotto on the field are already the best defenders in Delio Rossi's hands.The strength of the others is too different from the two of them, and Delio Rossi is afraid that it will be a bad thing if they are replaced.

On the Crystal Palace bench, Chen Ran glanced at Lazio's bench from time to time while observing the game.

However, Lazio's head coach Delio Rossi has been silent.

what happened?

Could it be that the Crystal Palace's offensive is not fierce enough?

Looking back, Chen Ran saw the group of substitute players sitting on the Lazio bench.

Except for Pandev, Rocky and Manfredini among the offensive players who are somewhat famous, the others are unknown.

Taking another look at Delio Rossi, Chen Ran now probably knows why he didn't make any adjustments.

This Delio Rossi, he really has no one in his hands.

After discovering this secret, Chen Ran can be regarded as confident.

This also strengthened his confidence in continuing to adopt the twin-tower tactics. After all, there are more than two big men, Tony and Crouch, at Crystal Palace.

Throughout the first half, the two teams that also adopted the 442 formation played completely different styles of football.

If Lazio is still penetrating in the middle and combining the sides, then Crystal Palace is a typical British style of play, one after another long pass is thrown from the wing into Lazio's penalty area.

When the game progressed to No. 403 minutes, it may be that after the high-intensity offensive and defensive confrontation in the first half, the Lazio players were a little tired.

When Ribery on the right passed the ball into the penalty area again, Lazio's right back Odo was a little distracted and was grabbed by Ronaldo from behind.

"boom!"

With a heavy Tomahawk header, Ronaldo smashed the ball into the Lazio goal guarded by Peruzzi.

"Goal"

Chen Ran's header tactics finally paid off, and Crystal Palace led Lazio 1-0.

Seeing the scene where the Crystal Palace players embraced and celebrated, Delio Rossi shook his head, turned and walked towards the player tunnel.

At the same time, the referee also blew the whistle for the end of the first half.

During the halftime break, Chen Ran didn't make any adjustments other than playing chicken blood.

On the Lazio side, Delio Rossi replaced the 21-year-old veteran Di Canio with the 36-year-old Pandev, and replaced Inzaghi with Rocchi.

Others may not know Pandev and Rocky at this time, but Chen Ran is very clear that these are two very capable players, and they are also two evergreens in football.

Perhaps the strength of the two of them cannot be compared with those of the top superstars, but their fighting spirit and hard work can make up for many of their shortcomings, which is what many coaches like.

After all, Di Canio was old in the first half and didn't run much.And Inzaghi's talent as a player is obviously not as good as a coach.

Therefore, the defense of Crystal Palace in the entire first half was not really tested.

As soon as Pandev and Rocky played, Southgate and Vidic immediately felt the difference.

These two guys are running around like two small steel cannons, running without hesitation, fighting with all their strength, and fighting for every ball.

Lazio's offense immediately came to life.

(End of this chapter)