The Young Lion

Although a football game is a competitive sport in which two teams strive for victory within 90 minutes, if one side has no way out of a draw, then this is obviously disadvantageous.

In the UEFA Champions League group stage, Aldridge put in a lot of energy in each game in the first three rounds, because once he lost, the situation would immediately take a turn for the worse.

Fortunately, Millwall won all three games and Barcelona won three games. Now, all fools know that Barcelona is in a situation where they have to win when they are a guest in London.

In this way, whether it is from the mentality of the team or the formation of the head coach, Millwall can be more calm than the opponent.

In addition to Van Gaal injecting offensive football into this team, Barcelona can't do without offense, even if it is an away game, they must attack wildly.

With all eyes on Wembley, players from both sides began to shake hands on the pitch, and Barcelona's starting XI was the same as it was two weeks ago.

On Millwall's side, the midfielder changed individuals. Pirlo, who returned from injury, ushered in his Champions League debut today.

Ballack has played successively in the new season, and he has also reached the peak limit of a fiery state. In the league ten days ago, he showed a downturn after Zen Jing's exhaustion, which directly caused Millwall's midfield organization in that league. Chaos, frequent mistakes, and finally only a draw.

Fortunately, Pirlo returned from injury at the right time. He showed a very good competitive state after only playing 70 minutes in the last round of the league, helping Millwall to secure the victory early. Passionate.

Playing Barcelona, ​​how can I miss Pirlo?

Without Pirlo, Millwall's offense would be at least 20% less powerful!

Pirlo is so confident now. Aldridge put him up there two years ago. Although he played less than Ballack. But his tactical status in the team is higher. Everyone knows that Pirlo is firmly in the top spot in the role of the team's brain.

When the pre-match ceremony ended, the two teams opened up and there was a loud noise in the stands.

Millwall, come on!

The pre-match singing of the fans also ended, and finally turned into a roar of unison. Encourage the fighting spirit of the team, but also make the visiting team feel great pressure.

With the whistle of the referee, the game officially started. Millwall kicked off the ball first. When Ruud van Nistelrooy passed the ball back to Pirlo, Millwall's formation quickly pressed forward.

Looks like they're going to have a blitzkrieg!

Barcelona must score, must win!

They also thought that Millwall would play the same conservative defensive counterattack as they did in the last match.

There is basically nothing wrong with thinking this way.

Under normal circumstances, Millwall has 9 points in hand. It can also be guessed that the opponent will attack wildly, shrinking the defense line and counterattack can give full play to their speed advantage.

Ever since. The Barcelona players went to fight for the ball immediately after the start of the game, and did not pay attention to the defensive formation. Most of them thought that even if Millwall played forward, it was just a small-scale cooperation between three or two players.

This is a directional error they made when they were preparing for the game, and the consequences were disastrous!

Pirlo controlled the ball and cooperated with the wide players, the full-backs quickly put in the assists, and between the three passes of the ball and two downs, Millwall's formation quickly advanced.

Only 18 seconds after the kick-off, Pirlo came to the front of the Barcelona penalty area in a pass and cut. All the way was unimpeded. All the opponents who grabbed the ball were left behind by him. Nedved was surprised to find that Pirlo had attacked in front of the penalty area, which annoyed him.

After the start of the game, the strikers pressed up, and the midfielders failed to intercept and did not retreat to follow up in a wide range. What is this for? !

Guardiola gave up Nedved to mark Pirlo, the latter easily picked a pass from the side, Sergi pressed Shevchenko closely, the ball passed over their heads, Schneider slammed from behind, At the same time, Nedved and Shevchenko cut forward and ran forward, and Ruud van Nistelrooy moved to the rear left to meet at the back point. These three alone messed up Barcelona's defense line upside down.

Schneider caught the ball and swept across the goal. Larsson, who came out from behind Van Nistelrooy, blocked the ball with his foot like a ghost, and the ball bounced obliquely into the net.

In the first half minute, Millwall scored! Larsson! Ballon d'Or contender Larsson! He scored again! He was running and pointing to the sky, imagine how happy he is, in such a team Among them, he is the happiest when he scores goals! Oh, Schneider hugged him, and Larson knelt on one knee to signal for Schneider to wipe his boots to celebrate. This super shooter understands very well, His excellence also stems from the excellence of his teammates! Van Gaal has been emphasizing that Millwall's playing style is ugly, but Hall has shown the world Millwall's unique style. They will not rigidly play only one kind of football. They can use different tactics flexibly, and when they want to play beautiful football, who can play more smoothly than them?

Terrible start to Barcelona!

Their determination to make a comeback that was brewing before the game was suddenly hit hard.

Van Gaal still sat motionless on the coaching bench, but his expression looked far less calm and calm than half a month ago, more like a kind of numbness and death.

How strong was Barcelona at the start of the season with him in charge? !

In the first nine rounds of the league, they achieved 8 wins and 1 draw. Just before they played against Millwall half a month ago, they even beat Real Madrid away at the Bernabeu!

But after playing against Millwall half a month ago, the disastrous 0:5 defeat at home suddenly broke the team's invincible momentum. After losing two consecutive rounds, the state suddenly changed from the performance of the first nine rounds. huge difference.

Today's game mispredicted the situation again, and it was hit head-on as soon as it came up, and Barcelona lost an inch all of a sudden.

Aldridge stood on the sidelines and applauded the team's goal with a calm smile.

He rarely celebrates wildly now, really rarely, but the young marshal standing on the sidelines is a unique landscape, and he is still the focus of the TV cameras.

Especially in a game like this, the less he celebrates. It seems to be silently declaring: play Barcelona. Lao Tzu's team scored goals for granted. Need to get extra excited?

In the Wembley game, Millwall does not have the ultimate home advantage. Therefore, we must not lose control of the game. This is the case when we play against Eindhoven. No, it's not necessary.

In terms of game control alone, Millwall's overall pass and control ability must be stronger than Barcelona, ​​just like half a year ago. In terms of star fame and personal ability, Millwall is definitely not as good as the opponent, but in terms of team chemistry, Millwall is definitely better than Barcelona. Er must be better.

The outside world can't figure out what kind of style Millwall is. Is it synonymous with offensive football? Unlike, at least the first three Champions League games. They didn't show excessive attacking football shadows.

In Aldridge's view, overemphasizing style is not conducive to the team.

A strong team. It is only rare that the unique school can reach the pinnacle, and this kind of team with obvious style is difficult to continue its glory. Only the team that can keep pace with the times, be flexible and change from time to time can continue to be brilliant.

He believes that there are many teams that fall under the style restraint. For example, Arsenal ten years later, Wenger put too much emphasis on beautiful football, but he has forgotten what kind of football Arsenal started from scratch under his command in this era. Yes, Cruyff's dream-Barcelona completely crumbled under his obsession with beautiful football.

It's not uncommon for a team to stick to one style and eventually achieve success, but the cycle time of this kind of success is too long, and the continuation of success after success has become extremely difficult.

What kind of pursuits do other coaches have? Aldridge has no control and does not comment.

But he does not have the great ideal of starting a school. He only wants to make the team successful, to succeed continuously, and to shorten the period between the peak and the trough to the shortest. Therefore, his team must diversify in style and cannot The ultimate route, using the best talents and the most suitable tactics, leads the team differently from person to person.

He doesn't mind the outside world criticizing Millwall as an athletics team, and he doesn't mind being criticized as ugly when he uses defensive counterattacks to win away games.

He won the victory, and the victory and defeat are clear at a glance. He really doesn't mind what other people say. Living under the influence of other people's public opinion, it is estimated that he will not be happy for a minute in his life.

Barcelona did not recover quickly after conceding a goal, they became restrained, both afraid of conceding the ball and wanting to equalize.

This kind of mentality made their front and back courts out of touch, and the midfield fell into a complete passivity!

In the 11th minute, Guardiola couldn't find the ball in midfield, so he took the risk of playing a through ball, trying to tear the Millwall defense with a scalpel pass directly from the midfield. .

This is too contemptuous!

Makelele refused the chance to give Guardiola a through assist. He intercepted the ball accurately and passed it to Shevchenko. Opened Giovanni's press, and then responded to Barcelona with a scalpel-like through ball.

The ball passed between Abelardo and Sergi, and Nedved unexpectedly hit the opponent's defense. After receiving the ball, he turned around and made a high pass to find the back point.

The ball flew near the back post, and at a very small angle, Larson scrambled to catch it, jumped high and easily headed the ball into the goal guarded by Baia.

Larson scored twice, he responded to Nedved's cross and scored with a header! Millwall is playing crazy rhythm, Barcelona is like losing its soul, the defense is full of loopholes! It's also strange that Barcelona's defense was criticized before they met Millwall, but their average conceded goals were only close to one goal per game. Since they were bloodbathed by Millwall with 5 goals half a month ago, their recent games The average conceded goals per game has directly exceeded 2.5, and the defense seems to have become vulnerable all of a sudden!

The team-mates rushed to Larsson to congratulate him on his goal. At this critical moment in the Ballon d'Or selection, both Larsson and Nedved are in good form, which is very important for them to be on the list, like Barcelona Their opponents serve as a foil, and it also shows how outstanding their abilities are.

The soldiers of Barcelona were completely woken up after this conceded goal.

They are free!

Yes, behind by two goals in the away game, what psychological burden can there be?

Don't think about whether you can win the favor of the goddess of luck after defeating your opponent, forget about the significance of points behind the game, and forget about whether you can qualify for the group stage.

Just play the rest of the game!

The state of Barcelona is a bit strange. At 0:0 and 1:0, they felt that they would not play football, and their morale fell to the bottom.

But after 2:0, they cheered up instead. From their offensive, they couldn't see the momentum of desperate counterattack.

Instead, they seem to be starting to play normally in a draw situation. (to be continued..) ()