The Young Lion

9000 votes plus updates.

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

Millwall is the main attacker and Aston Villa is the main defender. The situation is clear at a glance.

The cheers from the stands were deafening, and the final at Wembley Stadium seemed a bit one-sided.

But Aldridge is not optimistic. Millwall's offense is only blooming but not fruitful. Let the two full-backs come back first to ensure the stability of the defense. Aldridge wants to lure the snake out of the hole and see how Aston Villa's defensive pressure is reduced. Will more offensive forces be invested.

However, Aldridge was disappointed with Brian Little’s tactical arrangement for the team today. Aston Villa are united in one step, even if there is space in the midfield for their three midfielders to step forward to organize the attack, but They are still playing long passes, the midfielders are mostly active near the center circle, and the full backs are almost always parallel to the back line.

In this way, it is Millwall who can't stand it anymore. Only relying on five players VS eight players in the frontcourt to attack, one can imagine how powerless it will be.

Players are always double-teamed and pressed, unable to form a threatening offensive.

So Thuram and Neil assisted again, but they failed to make a big fuss on the wing.

Aldridge was a little anxious. Aston Villa's targeted defense had a feeling of matching the opponent. Even if the full-back defended, let go of the wing and let Millwall's offensive players cover the bottom, but it would definitely seal the inside. cut lines.

After Schneider cooperated with Thuram, he took the ball to the bottom line and passed Staunton with his foot skills, but just after passing Staunton, the ball was cleared by Wright with a big foot in preparation.

After three minutes, after Pires cooperated with Neil on the other side, Neil went down to drive away Nelson, Pires dribbled the ball in and cut in, just took a step with the ball, Draper pressed up, and Pires feinted The latter crossed to Nedved in the middle, but Nedved took the initiative to get the ball, but Taylor fell to the ground and shoveled the ball away.

One and a half minutes later, Pires repeated his tricks, but he passed the ball to Neil. Neil did not choose to dribble, but made a cross, which was blocked by Nelson with his body.

Schneider picked a pass from the penalty area, and Larson turned around and wiped Wright with a beautiful stoppage movement, but was dragged back by central defender Simeka and directly destroyed the ball.

Attack, destroy, attack, destroy...

The main theme of this game is too obvious, Millwall no longer tries to penetrate, Larson withdraws, Pires, Schneider, plus Nedved, they start to try long-range shots from the outside, breaking the dense defensive attack way, they played handily.

However, several long-range shots were shot so that it was impossible to look directly at them. They were either blocked by Aston Villa with their bodies, or they were forced to kick at an outrageous angle.

Thirty-seven minutes into the first half, Millwall had only one shot on target.

And Aston Villa didn't even have a shot.

Aldridge was pacing back and forth on the sidelines. He had calculated everything and studied Aston Villa's tactics for half a month, but he just didn't expect Brian Little to play such a trick.

In fact, if he could walk into Aston Villa's tactical conference room, he would know that Bryan Little was referring to the game that Millwall played Newcastle United in the first half of the season. Strengthen the front protection of the restricted area, the back line has a layered front and back defense, and the division of labor between the center back interception and destruction is reasonable, but Lite has done it more thoroughly. He has not changed the task of the double center back, and specially added a dragging center back to destroy the opponent's penetrating attack.

Newcastle United had an invincible posture in the first half of the season, but they returned home in disgrace at the Lion's Den. This gave Lite an idea, because Millwall's offensive firepower is no less than that of Newcastle United.

Aldridge made a miscalculation. He played 442 for the balance of offense and defense, but judging from the pairing effect on the field, Aston Villa seemed to be able to defend with ease.

He can see that the core of the problem is the lagging central defender Simeca in the penalty area. The role of Meka was immediately manifested, killing the offensive at the last moment.

Aston Villa's several counterattacks were resolved by Millwall in the high ball, but this is not a good sign.

When Aldridge was thinking about changing moves, Kosic broke the ball under Pires' feet. Pires tried to break through and tear the defense, but in the limited space, he tricked Nelson, but was successfully intercepted by Kosic .

Kosic looked up at the field in front of him, and rolled the ball to the right.

Neil had just run up, but at this time he chased back, and when Millwall was attacking, the two sides with the most space in their backcourt.

Milosevic was at the top, pressing Southgate and Stam's defense line. Yorke was like a free man, wandering back and forth in the frontcourt. This time, he was waiting to receive the ball on the right.

Makelele did not attack rashly, but retreated first, and then observed the situation on the field. He found that no one in Aston Villa's backcourt advanced at high speed to participate in the attack. Makelele then purposefully assisted in the defense. Compress York's ball space.

Milosevic first rushed forward, then suddenly slammed on the brakes and retreated. York, who cooperated with him very well, did not intend to break through Makelele from the front. He waited for his partner to run out of space, and this was the right time. , and passed the ball with one kick.

About 40 yards away from the penalty area, Milosevic made a horizontal move after receiving the ball, adjusted the angle and step point according to the situation, and did not give Southgate a chance to press up, and shot angrily.

Seeing this long-range shot, Aldrich was dumbfounded and said in shock: Fuck him! Are Aston Villa and Lady Luck having sex?

That long-range shot is so beautiful, looking at the trajectory, it is heading for the dead corner of the upper right corner of the goal, and the speed is fast.

Keller made a contribution!

Because of the long distance and wide field of view, he has plenty of time to prepare. This impeccable long shot did not make him lose his size. When the ball flew to the upper right corner of the goal, he jumped up vigorously and saved the ball with both palms. bottom line.

WOW! Milosevic almost opened the scoring for Aston Villa from long distance, their first shot since the start of the game, and it was on target, Keller made a world-class save, but if Milosevic If Vitch hits the goal from 25 to 30 yards away, Keller may not be able to recover. Aston Villa won a corner kick.

When the corner kick opportunity came, Aldridge found that Aston Villa's midfielders finally started to move forward, and they moved at a high speed, sprinting.

This made Aldridge startled, and he immediately shouted to the field: Go back and defend!

The Millwall players also ran back at full speed. The scene was very strange. It was obviously a corner kick. According to the usual rhythm of the game, at this time, one of the two teams should be doing a good job of defending and the other should be doing a good job of attacking. Come on, York is running at full speed to the corner flag, and it seems that he is going to take the corner kick quickly.

The three midfielders Draper Taylor-Kosic also rushed forward immediately after the ball passed the baseline, which made the Millwall players unable to react.

There are too many loopholes in the hasty deployment.

Aldridge couldn't help shouting: Foul! Use a foul to delay them!

But the players didn’t react the most rightly for a while. They were more like good kids on the court. When someone hit me, I would protect my vitals first. So the players ran back and only knew to stand in the defensive position first, but they were given A golden opportunity for Aston Villa.

After York put the ball in the corner position, he bent over and kicked the ball to Draper who came over from the edge. Neil returned to the defense and hurried to defend Draper. York smartly retreated and ran to the defensive line. Up ahead, Draper kicked the ball back to Yorke with a straight pass, and Yorke dribbled the ball down, leading the entire Millwall defense in position.

He kicked the ball quickly towards the goal with a nearly volleyed cross. Millwall's defenders tried to block the cross with their bodies. Southgate put in a shovel and missed the ball. Losevich entangled with physical confrontation, and neither of them touched the ball. Makelele used his hands to pull Taylor down from outside the penalty area, but someone still killed him at the back of the penalty area.

Kosic!

He ran all the way up from the backcourt before the corner kick was taken. In the penalty area, Thuram bumped into him. Kosic staggered and seemed to fall, and Thuram immediately raised his hand to indicate that he did not foul. But opened the distance with Kosic.

Stumbling almost in a falling posture, Kosic hit the ball behind the goal with his head only half a meter above the ground.

It was too late when Keller swooped away.

The ball flew into Millwall's goal, and Kosic seemed to have scored and celebrated in one go, sliding directly to the chest and stopping on Millwall's goal line.

The hustle and bustle of Wembley Stadium immediately dropped a level, and the fans of Millwall watched the scene on the field in disbelief like a bolt from the blue.

Are we behind?

The Aston Villa fans erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

This goal made them feel that they had touched the championship trophy.

Goal in! Aston Villa tore through the Millwall defence with a jaw-droppingly quick counter-attack. And this counter-attack wasn't an attack, Yorke took the ball wide to Milosevic Oddly, the latter took a long shot to create a corner kick, and then Aston Villa's corner kick attack was also a fast counterattack. From the replay, it can be clearly seen that two of their three midfielders rushed into the penalty area at high speed. Rapper went to respond to York's quick corner kick. With a simple two-to-one, York took the ball to the baseline and then crossed it vigorously. The rolling track of the ball was between the goalkeeper and the defender. A troublesome cross, Aston Villa had three people attacking the penalty area, and finally Kosic scored from the back point. I think if Kosic didn't score, maybe the referee would award a penalty. They, because we saw that when Thuram collided with Kosic, the referee had the whistle in his mouth. Now, Aston Villa have the lead, and the next game will definitely be more exciting!

This conceded goal made the Millwall players a little confused.

Aldridge, who was previously excited, stood calmly on the sidelines, waving calmly to let the players go to the middle circle to kick-off.