Array football

Chapter 163 Cruel Football Game

The game against Sporting Lisbon is destined to be a difficult game.

As a well-known black shop, Sporting Lisbon is also a frequent visitor to the European arena.

As the cup champion of the Portuguese League last season, Sporting Lisbon is very good at playing cup games.

At Manchester City's home court, they didn't have the domineering and self-consciousness of the "Portuguese giants". They put up a 541 iron bucket formation as soon as they came up.

The visiting team's conservative tactics caused waves of boos from the home fans.

The head coach of Sporting Lisbon smiled, showing no signs of anger.

Winner and loser, only the winner is king on the football field!
"Friends from the audience, welcome to watch the first round of the UEFA Cup knockout match this season, the second round of Sporting Lisbon's match against Manchester City. Since Manchester City lost 1:3 away to Sporting Lisbon in the first round. So in this game , Manchester City can only advance if they have a goal difference of two goals and Sporting Lisbon does not score!"

"If Sporting Lisbon score one goal, then Manchester City will have to score four goals to guarantee promotion. So, the situation is not good for Manchester City!"

The scene shot was given to Duncan.

"The one with the sunglasses in the camera is Duncan, the head coach of Manchester City. Although a large amount of money has been injected, Duncan's coaching ability is also the biggest guarantee for Manchester City to achieve such results!"

Duncan in the camera looks very confident.

The head coach of Sporting Lisbon curled his lips. He thought Duncan was just posturing, and he must have panicked.

1:3 behind in the away game, how could you not be nervous?
Even he himself couldn't think of any strategy to defeat the enemy.

At the beginning of the game, Sporting Lisbon kicked off the ball. The thin forward, who scored twice in the previous game, took the ball forward a few steps, harassed him, and then retreated.

Hargreaves intercepted the ball, but found that no one from the other side had passed the half-court. Sporting Lisbon didn't even bother to harass the ball as soon as the ball kicked off, so they flinched.

Duncan was a little dumbfounded. These guys don't even bother to act?

Duncan was also polite, and waved for everyone to press on.

Except for two central defenders and a goalkeeper who stayed in the backcourt, everyone else overwhelmed the half.

In the Sporting Lisbon team, 11 people shrank within 30 meters of the backcourt.They formed a dense defensive formation, waiting for Manchester City to attack.

They are very confident in their defense. At Manchester United's home court, they only conceded one goal.

The coach of Sporting Lisbon is very confident. For this game, they even gave up a midweek league game.Over the past week, the team has practiced defensive formations every day, and the positions and responsibilities of each player have been clearly assigned.

Even he himself couldn't find the characteristics of this formation.

"Even if it's a fly, it can't fly in from the outside!" said the head coach of Sporting Lisbon.

Duncan obviously guessed the opponent's tactics.

If it is a positional battle, the five-element formation is more suitable.But if it is a tough battle, it is obvious that the four-element formation is more suitable, so Duncan is in the frontcourt and arranges the four-element formation.

Silva, Samaras, Shevchenko, and Martin Petrov were constantly interspersed in the opponent's penalty area, alternating positions with each other, trying to open up Sporting Lisbon's defense.

But the opponent's defense is very predictable, basically they all stand in position and don't lose their position easily.

Often a few people run in vain, and the vacancy they just made is immediately filled by the other party's search personnel.

Too crowded!

The work in the peripheral organization was handed over to Miduo.

This game will definitely break the bus, so Mido, who is good at long-range shots, got the chance to start.

Mido distributed the ball to Martin Petrov on the left. Martin Petrov faced the defense of the opponent's right back and made a breakthrough to the side. Then he pushed the ball with his right foot to Silva who came to meet him. Erva passed back and Martin Petrov swept the ball directly into the middle.

Mido had been preparing for a long time, and raising his foot was a long shot.

The defensive player is well positioned and blocks the ball with his thigh.

Then other players kicked the ball out.

A few minutes later, Manchester City made a comeback. After a series of cooperation between Silva and Trabelsi on the right to attract the opponent's firepower, the football was finally picked out again and reached the feet of Mido at the front of the penalty area.

But this time Mido didn't have a chance to kick, and Moutinho kept sticking to him to defend.

Sporting Lisbon head coach Enron sat there, satisfied with the team's performance.

Manchester City's long-range shooter Mido, they have focused on research.In this game, the players in the middle of the midfield also "focused on" Mido to prevent him from getting a chance to kick.

The three magic weapons of bus-breaking tactics are generally long-range free kicks. Portugal itself is a European Latin football style, with delicate skills and good personal skills. Manchester City's frontcourt set-piece opportunity.

In the case of intensive defense, the cooperation of Manchester City's Xiaokuailing couldn't fight.

Manchester City's only option is to shoot from a distance.

Not only Mido, Silva also occasionally wandered to the middle to cooperate with Mido, and then he or Mido made long shots.

However, after many long-range shots, there were very few opportunities to form a real shot, and the goalkeeper of Sporting Lisbon was very focused and made two wonderful saves.

In order to give Mido space for long-range shots, the offensive four-man team needs to constantly run, catch, and pass the ball, which consumes a lot of energy for them.

In the last few games, Manchester City's four midfielders have played the full court.

Especially Silva, he has a wide range of activities, and the opponent marks him closely, causing his physical exertion to be particularly high.

Because of falling to the ground many times, the blue jersey on his body has turned into blue and green.

Before the end of the first half, Silva made a fake move from the left, but due to excessive physical exertion, he stepped on the football with his left foot and accidentally slipped and fell.

Sporting Lisbon's thin forward saw that most of Manchester City's players were in the frontcourt due to offense, so he took the ball and ran forward.

However, Sporting Lisbon shrunk their defense and no players were involved in the attack.

In the end, because of too little investment in his own offense, he was squeezed into the corner by Manchester City's Joel Luka and lost the ball.

Not only Silva, but even Shevchenko and Samaras lacked physical strength. When the ball was dead, they stood there holding the cover with both hands, panting heavily.

At the end of the first half, Manchester City's offensive strength dropped sharply due to excessive physical consumption, and the pressure on Sporting Lisbon was not enough. Sporting Lisbon took a breather.

Manchester City did not attack, Sporting Lisbon was still shrinking, the two sides were in a stalemate, and finally the draw entered the end of the first half.

The head coach of Sporting Lisbon was very happy and walked into the player channel with his head held high.The same goes for the Sporting Lisbon players, who were proud of their performance in the first half.

A football game is a cruel arena, only look at the result and not the process.Sporting Lisbon did play negatively, with conservative tactics and no aggressiveness at all, but after nine or 10 minutes, everyone will only remember the winners.

Winners and losers, the game is so cruel!

When the fans talked about this game, they would not say how many chances Manchester City won, and how conservative Sporting Lisbon was. They would only remember that the final victory was Sporting Lisbon.

And Manchester City is just a loser.

(End of this chapter)