Football No. 10: God's Perspective

Chapter 32 Semifinals

The Portuguese Cup, the domestic championship second only to the league championship.

The Benfica team, which has reached the semi-finals, is going to attack this event strongly. Their opponent in the semi-finals is the Guimarez team, whose performance has always been in the upper reaches.

Throughout the history of the Portuguese Super League, there are three so-called giants.

Benfica, Porto, and Sporting Lisbon, the three major clubs have almost won all the honors in the cup and league.

In contrast, Guimares is not worth mentioning, but in recent years, the club's investment status has been good and its record has been stable. The ranking in the league has been fluctuating between four and six, and it has also reached consecutive cup finals.

It can be regarded as the touchstone of the first group of teams.

The league has entered the sprint period. Guimares is in exceptional condition. He has won five consecutive victories and is close to the No.3 Sporting Lisbon team in the standings. This is going to the Europa League next season. His strength should not be underestimated.

Judging from the information before the game, Guimaraes is a team with very distinctive characteristics.

Most of the players are tall and powerful.

Most of the offensive methods are known for high-altitude balls. The center forward Baal reached 1 meters. Among his 95 goals this season, headers accounted for 21%.

The central midfielder Helen is also 1 meters tall, and he is good at getting in the middle of the back row to grab points.

The two central defenders in the backcourt are 1 meters tall and the other is 91 meters tall.

With such a terrifying height, the Guimarez team's set-pieces are extremely lethal. Their unique height talent and ghostly and changeable set-piece tactics are hard to guard against. If these high points fight in the penalty area, that is the no-fly zone, and the defense of any team will have to tremble.

Height is an advantage in competing for high-altitude balls, but the awareness of grabbing points and the judgment of landing points are equally important.

Otherwise, Cannavaro, who is only 175 tall, will not win the Golden Globe Award as a defender. Although he does not have the talent in height, the grabbing point and the judgment of the landing point are historical.

At the preparatory meeting, Mano emphasized the advantage of the opponent.

"The first point is to try to interfere with the opponent, even if you can't grab it, it doesn't matter, but the second point is absolutely not to let, and you can't give the opponent too many second penalties."

"Also, the opponent's bottom cross is the main offensive routine, and it is also the starting point of the source of the attack. We must strangle the opponent from the root. The defense of the side is the most important thing, and we must not take it lightly..."

The single-match knockout system is very contingent, and there will often be some upsets where the weak beat the strong. Therefore, one must not take it lightly and must be cautious. The entire meeting lasted for 3 hours. It can be seen that for this game, the head coach Mano has done a lot of preparation work.

After drawing lots, Benfica got the home team, and they will sit at the Stadium of Light to face their opponents.

Game day, fans' festival.

A large number of fans walked into the stadium happily and cheered for the team.

Although he has long been used to such scenes, Wang Po still feels inexplicable excitement every time he enters the stadium. Perhaps this is the charm of football.

Changing from the previous start of the cup match, Mano put Wang Po on the bench in the face of the distinctive Guimares team in this game.

Indeed, Wang Po, who is only 1 meters tall, has a big disadvantage in the competition for high-altitude balls.

If it is targeted by the opponent, it is not good for the team.

Amid the cheering and singing of more than 6 fans, the semi-finals of the Portuguese Cup began.

As soon as they came up, the two sides faced a bayonet confrontation. The Benfica team's height and strength disadvantages made them suffer.

Every time the central defender confronts the center forward Guimares, he feels as if he has been hit by a car once, and his whole body is sore.

Unsurprisingly, in the competition for the high point, the Benfica team was at a disadvantage, and the team's defense had already sounded the air defense alarm.

The scene was like watching a volleyball match, the ball was basically floating in the air all the time.

After watching the 10-minute game, Guimarez's performance was similar to what Mano said. The midfielder was more involved in defense and advancing into the penalty area to grab points. In terms of ball organization, he was at a mid-range level.

The real strength is the two wingers of the Guimarez team. They are fast, dribbling well, and have a tacit understanding of tactics. Almost every pass to the penalty area is robbed by their players, which is the real offensive engine of Guimarez.

"Strangle, strangle."

Seeing the left and right wingers of the Guimarez team tearing up the defense line of the Benfica team again and again, Mano anxiously yelled at the midfielder frantically.

Although it sounds old-fashioned to hold high and fight high, there is no such thing on a purely tactical level.

As long as it works, it's a good tactic.

Although the tactics of the Guimaraes team are simple, they make full use of the unique advantages of their own team. However, some opponents still have no choice but to use their own strengths to attack others' weaknesses. This is the core concept of tactics.

After holding on for 65 minutes, the Benfica team still couldn't withstand the high-altitude bombing of the Guimares team.

Facing a cross from his teammate, Baal jumped up high with two central defenders of the Benfica team hanging on his body, and pushed the ball into the dead corner.

0:1.

Benfica, who are playing at home, are already behind.

Everywhere passive, must make a change.

Mano's thoughts on the sidelines changed sharply. He was thinking about the countermeasures for the game. After about 2 minutes, he finally made a decision.

With a wave of the command flag, a substitution decision was made, and at the same time, a strange tactical arrangement was issued to the players.

Mano replaced the starting right wing back with Wang Po, and replaced the starting left wing back with a central defender.

As for the arrangement of the positions on the field, Gomez was required to be in the position of central midfielder, and Wang Po was pushed to the position of No. 9, which is the position of Zhengyin center forward.

As for the newly replaced central defender, he fell in the middle of the defense line.

This is to play back five.

The formation becomes a strange 5311, or 541.

The formation of five backs protects the defense line to the greatest extent and restricts the opponent's forward Baal, but what kind of operation is it to let center Gomez retreat to the midfield?It is incomprehensible.

Mano handed the puzzled Gomez to the sidelines, whispered a few words quickly, and solved the doubts in his heart.

Looking at the whole game, Guimarez did not have anything to do with the high-altitude ball. Gomez did not take advantage of the opponent's two 1+ central defenders in the penalty area, and brought him to the midfield. Maybe he could gain some advantage against the opponent's Helen.

As for Guimarez's defense, high-altitude balls have proved impractical, so it is better to simply go on the ground and use Wang Po, who is fast, excellent in dribbling, and has a strong ability to read the game, to challenge those big central defenders. It may not be an offensive choice.

(End of this chapter)