Grass roots glory

Chapter 377 Champions League: Both sides are the same
In the No.20 fifth round of the league, Schalke defeated Freiburg 1:0 at home. Zhou Tiancheng won the game with a set kick in the second half of the game and scored the No.16 goal of the season.Schalke won five consecutive victories in the second half.Continue to maintain the pressure on Dortmund.

This is the situation that can make the media excited. The difference between the two heroes in the Ruhr area is four points, and Bayern is also chasing after them. The blood of the football reporters is running high, and this kind of championship situation really feels a bit like the Premier League.

The Chinese media used their powerful analysis and deduction ability trained from the Chinese team in the past, and came up with the probability of winning the championship of the three teams: Schalke still has a good chance.In the remaining nine rounds, Schalke still has five home games, and the strongest opponent in the other four away games is Bayern.But in the eyes of the media, this is not a big problem.Schalke should be the best way to deal with Bayern now.They even boldly predicted: As long as there are no major fluctuations within the team, Schalke's remaining nine unbeaten rounds can be achieved.Next, it's up to Dortmund.They also had a confrontation with Bayern, but before this season, they almost lost once against Bayern.

But from another perspective, the Dortmund media also has sufficient sources of confidence.They can concentrate on the league championship, Schalke and Bayern will be distracted by the Champions League at this juncture, unless Magath and Van Gaal strategically give up the Champions League...

When the team fell behind by seven points, it is not that the Gelsenkirchen media did not make such a trade-off suggestion.Compared with the Champions League, they care more about not losing to Dortmund-the hostility between the two clubs is consistent, even if Schalke is already a top European giant in the eyes of some media, the attitude towards Dortmund has never changed.

However, what the media thought was a well-intentioned suggestion was directly ridiculed by Magath: "Give up the Champions League? I heard the worst joke!"

This attitude is clear enough, not to mention that Schalke's opponent in the round of [-] is the La Liga team Valencia.

Ten years ago, this was the top giants in Europe, winning the Europa League twice and reaching the Champions League final twice, but now judging by the strength of Schalke, Valencia does not pose much threat .Although the German media has been complaining after the knockout draw, Schalke's luck is really bad.Happened to run into a very strong group second.

But this is because the emperor was not in a hurry (the eunuch) was in a hurry, and it was quite easy when Schalke set off for Valencia.

On the contrary, on the other side, Valencia, who was waiting for work at home in the first round, seemed not at all easy.

……

In the weekend's La Liga, Emery boldly rotated the four main players, including the team's top striker Soldado, who did not start.Emery prepares for this game wholeheartedly. The team is now firmly in third place. There is no hope of catching up to Barcelona and Real Madrid, and they will not fall out of the Champions League qualification zone. The league level has completed the season goals ahead of schedule.

Valencia has put a lot of effort into the Champions League. Valencia reporters inevitably have more expectations for the game. It seems that Emery really has ideas.Although Valencia has a serious defensive problem, conceding nearly two goals per game in La Liga, but at the same time, its offensive ability also ranks among the top three in La Liga.While conceding 2.8 goals per game, they also scored [-] goals per game.

If Valencia can really attack desperately, maybe there is a chance, the offensive firepower is not much worse than Schalke!
However, Emery performed very low-key, claiming that he had no choice but to do so: "Rotating the main players does not mean that we will fight against Schalke. Our opponent is a strong defending champion. Let the main players get A fuller rest doesn't explain anything, does it?"

What's interesting is that Magath also said that he would not be aggressive: "The game at the Mestalla Stadium will be the biggest difficulty the team has encountered so far. Valencia is a very strong offensive team. Hand to hand, any rush to attack is foolish."

This wave of business bragging between the two sides is really meaningless to the media, and even feels a little disgusted: If both sides are so conservative, how boring will this game be?
Many media subconsciously think that Magath is casting a smoke bomb. Will the Champions League champion be so conservative?
The Gelsenkirchen media also joked that Magath's smoke bomb level is too low, which can't even fool his own people.

But those things that seem outrageous often happen to be the truth.

The opening of this game was not tense at all. Valencia took more initiative in possession of the ball, but they were very cautious in speeding up the attack. The ball was more moved to the side. Before Zhou Tiancheng was fully mobilized, No one dares to go up.Similarly, Magath also asked Schalke to stabilize the defense first and not rush to press.In the first round of the away game, Schalke had a lot of patience. Magath asked everyone to wait for the opportunity to seize the loopholes in the opponent's backcourt when the Valencia formation began to press upwards. In the hand is victory.Now Schalke has to deal with the league and the Champions League. This is the most energy-efficient tactic.

Both head coaches thought of going together.In the first 15 minutes of the game, apart from a few tentative long-pass attacks, the most frequent shots were that the two sides kept throwing free throws from different positions.

Some of the reporters in the media booth were a little impatient. The Champions League knockout match abruptly made the two sides kick out of an internal teaching match.

Marcel Leif said interestingly: "It's really rare to see such a scene in Schalke's game. But they can pull up the rhythm a little bit, like this kind of meaningless backcourt. Feet, I'm not sure I'm going to fall asleep lol!"

The commentator of the Spanish TV station was unexpected and hoped that Schalke would take the lead in attacking: "Has Schalke been shocked by the atmosphere of Mestalla? Their performance is not like a team that wants to hit the championship... ..."

The Spanish commentary made it very clear that what Emery pursues is a balance of offense and defense, and it is absolutely impossible for him to rush into a strong attack, so if he wants to make the scene lively, he can only pin his hopes on Schalke.

Moreover, Schalke speeds up the pace, which may be more beneficial to Valencia. Long passes are their best counterattack weapon.

However, both sides are obviously very patient, but the reporters in the stands feel very disappointed, especially the German reporters.They didn't expect Magath to be telling the truth this time.

It is rare for the two sides to be on the same page this time.

But they really couldn't complain at this time, because they thought before the game that this might be the most entertaining matchup in the top sixteen.

(End of this chapter)