[Football] King Of Europe

On April 4, the Dragon Stadium was full of seats.

This modern stadium is overcrowded, and the stands are full of dragon supporters and Spanish fans from afar. At this time, there are crowds of people, and some spectators who have just entered the stadium are looking for seats.Outside the stadium, there are many fans wandering around. They are looking forward to buying second-hand tickets at the last moment, even if the price is high.

From time to time, someone reached an agreement with the second-hand dealer and walked into the stadium with a smile on his chest, but as time passed, hope became more and more elusive.

At 20:45 local time, the referee Markus Merk from Germany blew the whistle in his mouth, and the game officially started.

In Spain and Portugal, the same picture appeared in front of the televisions of countless families.

The voice of the commentator came from the TV broadcast: "The game has officially begun! The Dragon Stadium in Porto is in full swing, but for others, this semi-final may just be a carnival on the Iberian Peninsula, and the Pyrenees beyond. North’s world has nothing to do with it... According to statistics, this semi-final lost about 61% of revenue and 56% of box office revenue. Many fans outside the two countries said in interviews that they would not choose Watch this game."

The commentator seemed meaningful: "After all, this is a confrontation between two civilian teams."

The Spanish and Portuguese fans in front of the TV reached a consensus for the first time: Is this commentator a funny comparison invited by a monkey? , blast him away quickly!The more impatient fans directly turned the TV to silent in a rage, so the TV was as funny as a silent movie without sound.

And the two coaches sitting in the dragon stadium would not know what the broadcast commentary was talking about, they were both engrossed in the situation on the court.

The commentator is dutifully introducing the history of the two sides to the fans: "Compared to Deportivo, Porto has not won nothing in the Champions League. They once won the Big Ears Cup, but it was 1987. .Previously, their record against La Liga teams was not good, maybe it can be called bad, only 27 wins after 9 games, and 13 out of 8 home games have not won."

Now, it's the Porto fans' turn to get angry: won't this commentator say something nice!Even if you won less before, that's just history!

On the field, Depor launched a wave of offense just at the beginning of the game. Mauro Silva made a long pass, which was cleared by Porto defender Valente with a direct header.Paul Ferreira also chose to pass McCarthy a long pass after getting the ball, but it was directly intercepted by Naibet.

This pass without considering the midfielder was a bit unexpected. Irueta looked at Mourinho, a little confused about what the other party was thinking.

Nebett launched a counterattack after intercepting the ball, but a direct pass from Victor was slightly stronger, and was intercepted by Porto's defense.After that, Porto, which occupies the advantage of the home court, launched a wave of offensive, but the two forwards McCarthy and Alberto both fell into the offside trap one after another, and were terminated by the linesman raising the flag.

On the sidelines, Mourinho was always expressionless. Irueta saw it and snorted coldly in his heart.

After getting the roster, Irueta found that Porto's starting lineup for this game was exactly the same as the one that defeated Milan in the previous game. Irueta, who had studied that game no less than five times, turned Porto's personnel over and over again. Come out, four defenders Costa, Valente, Ferreira, Carvalho, four midfielders Alenichev, Costinha, Maniche, Deco, two forwards Alberto and McCarthy, as for the goalkeeper, Baia remains the same for thousands of years.

He has eaten this lineup countless times. The 4-4-2 formation is far less powerful than the 4-3-3 formation. Only when Porto's two midfielders Deco and Sebastian play at the same time Their attacking midfield was at its peak.But now that little rookie is still on the bench, Irueta can guarantee that Mourinho will wait for the half of the game on time and then put the kid up to attack Deportivo's defense, just like they challenged Manchester United away like that.

But, after all, they are not Manchester United!

Irueta also carefully studied the two games between Porto and Manchester United, and can be quite sure that the situation of the two teams is completely different.The group of Manchester United players are still under pressure to win the championship. Before the game, they played hard in the Premier League, but what about them?For this Champions League, he has long given up the last few league games.

Irueta is well versed in the trade-offs and vowed to use his best form to face Porto. His proposal has also been acquiesced by the chairman Londoro, so the players who can play now are all the main players who have recharged their batteries.

And look at the lineup he has lined up-how can such a team that focuses on defense with all its strength not let those Porto people suffer?

As the game progressed, many people saw Deportivo's attitude and defended desperately.

"Irueta chose 4-2-3-1. The whole team has only one striker, Pandiani. The midfielders Belleron and Victor are not very keen on attacking forward. They are doing their best. Do a good job of defending... This time, Porto hit the iron plate!"

No one would have imagined that Irueta would actually hold high the banner of "defensive counterattack" at the Dragon Stadium. Coruña’s choice was shocking, even the commentator shouted: “Oh! God, where’s our Depor knives? They went all out to defend and counterattack... Am I still dreaming? ?”

"Wake up." His partner kept a calm tone, "If we don't raise the banner of anti-rebellion, maybe in the group stage, the tragedy of 3:8 Monaco will reappear...Porto's attack is not weak at all. "

Irueta can be said to have completely lost his face. Sitting on a midfielder like Belleron, he made the entire team compress the formation.From Silva, Sergio, to Belleron and Victor, all are retreating consciously as a whole. I have always been good at handling the ball to consume time.

"Both the Spaniards and the Portuguese are famous for their Latin-style technical flow. I thought we would see a gorgeous confrontation, but it turned out to be boring." The commentator was disappointed. Not two Latin teams, but Italians... Could it be that Irueta and AC Milan played two games, went back and secretly learned from Ancelotti, and learned chain defense?"

The audience in front of the TV almost spit out a mouthful of water, especially those who belonged to the Rossoneri in the city of Milan, coughing earth-shatteringly.

The two teams fell into a stalemate. Deportivo has been completely out of breath since the first wave of offense, and seems to be determined to retreat.Facing the eyes of many fans, Irueta is very calm. They are here to win, or to score points, not to support the scene. Why are they playing so fancy?

A few minutes later, Deco made a direct pass.Porto striker Alberto received the ball near the baseline and was fouled by Romero, who was forced to stop the attack.

Markus Merck awards a free kick.

This position is already quite close to the bottom line, but it is not really close to it, and it is still outside the restricted area.Porto hopes that Alberto can rush into the penalty area and be brought down, so that he will get a penalty, but why hasn't Alberto rushed in yet?

Irueta took a look. Porto is in that position, and there is no one who can directly score the goal!

Oh, maybe there was one, but it's still sitting on the bench.

Sure enough, Porto took a tactical free kick and Deco shot over the bar from 20 yards on the right.

After this free kick, the field fell into calm again.

The narrator wailed in pain: "Oh! Give it back to me! The Latin style of my dream!"

Who wants to watch the Italian defense here?Doesn't the passion of football come from attacking, attacking, attacking? !

Porto's central and frontcourt personnel fell into the crowd tactics, and the opponent's highly compressed formation did not give them much room to play. Although they were still ahead in terms of ball possession time, they were all invalid ball possession for them.

Finally, in the 24th minute, Deco relied on his personal ability to win a free kick for Porto, but this time as the kicker, he hit the wall with a direct free kick 24 yards from the left.Naibert, who fouled him, was warned by the referee, and maybe he will be given a card next time he commits a foul.

This is not a good sign, Irueta thought, if the card is taken, the next defense will be at a loss.

He signaled Naibert to be more careful, but before Naibert took the card, another player got caught first.

In the 30th minute of the game, Carvalho shoveled Pablo and applied for a yellow card for himself. Deportivo's Silva expressed dissatisfaction with this and protested to the referee, demanding that it be changed to a red card.But probably his expression was a little too fierce, and his language talent was a little too worrying. The besieged referee Merck retreated back and forth from the crowd and immediately issued him a yellow card.

Silva looked unbelievable, but was pulled back by the captain. Merck's face was not very good, and they didn't want to provoke him at this time.

"Silva received a yellow card for his aggressive behavior! This is really not good news. In the next round of the game, he will be absent due to accumulating two yellow cards. Depor will directly lack a defender in the next round. Anti general!"

Since then, the scene has been hot, and the two sides launched a fierce physical confrontation.The Latin-style technical flow seems to have been completely abandoned, and both sides chose to fight hand-to-hand. The referee Merck's whistle sounded like it never stopped. Later, he sent three yellow cards in a row to slightly control the situation of the game. .

"Oh? Did Mourinho use the tricks he learned from Manchester United again? Now it's not a war between Italian defenses, but a war between physical confrontations in the Premier League?"

Finally, the physical confrontation was temporarily separated. In the first half, it was relieved in stoppage time. Deportivo's Luke accidentally sprained his ankle in the entanglement with Ferreira on the left baseline.The player from Deportivo originally wanted to flop, but the referee ignored him at all and blew the whistle to signify the end of the first half.

The two sides exchanged a goalless draw.

For Irueta, except for Silva's yellow card, all are acceptable results.I just don't know that his opponent, Mourinho, who didn't play any decent offense in the whole first half, what kind of changes will he make in the second half?

Facts have proved that as long as a team doesn't care about face and evaluation, it just puts its face down and defends. If their opponent doesn't have firepower strong enough to ignore the defense line, or is a genius who can't be defended by a flash of inspiration, facing such a tortoise shell , most likely there is no way.

Irueta admired Mourinho's face and walked back to the visiting team's locker room with ease.