novelhk Chapter 221
Chapter 221
In fact, Li Shiguang's intention is really simple.
On the one hand, he hopes to help Rivaldo solve this little regret.
On the other hand, after watching 5 or 6 Barcelona game videos, Li Shiguang really didn't find their obvious weaknesses.
After the draw results for the round of 16 came out, the outside world generally believed that Leeds United had drawn the worst lot for a reason.
Although the tiki-taka tactical concept began to gradually dominate European and even world football after Guardiola became Barcelona's head coach, in fact, there are still many contributions from Cruyff, Van Gaal, and Rijkaard, three famous Dutch coaches, and at this time, the "Dream Team II" led by Rijkaard was also terrifyingly strong!
It is true that Ronaldinho is the core of Barcelona's offense, but in fact, the real starting point of their offensive is still in the midfield, to be precise, in the two front midfielders Xavi and Deco.
Or it is not entirely accurate to define their positions as attacking midfielders, because since Rijkaard took over Barcelona, his lineup has always had three forwards with a wide range of activities, especially Ronaldinho now, who often runs from the left to the attacking midfielder position to find midfielders for cooperation, in this way to tear the opponent's defense line.
So after a lot of entanglement, taking advantage of Rivaldo's small request that day, Li Shiguang decided to do it once and for all, and simply decided on today's starting lineup that was obviously prepared to compete with Rijkaard for the midfield.
Don't you want to play passing and controlling? Then I'll play with you!
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After lining up on the sidelines, the Barcelona players, as the host, lined up and began to shake hands with the Leeds United players one by one to welcome them. As the only one in Leeds United who can be related to Barcelona, Rivaldo is naturally the focus of attention.
However, this care is not the kind of care from fans. Most excellent players are sympathetic to each other, especially Ronaldinho, who won the World Cup with Rivaldo.
When he walked in front of Rivaldo, Ronaldinho smiled and showed his iconic big front teeth. Even though the boos in the stands were even louder, he took the initiative to hug Rivaldo before walking away.
Then.
Kompany and Puyol, the two captains, came to the referee and started to choose sides. The big bald man was not lucky today. After the coin thrown by the referee landed, he regretfully lost the right to choose sides. Puyol, who won the right to choose sides, turned his head and looked, and chose the half on the north stand side.
All this was seen by Li Shiguang. He rolled his eyes and a bold idea suddenly emerged from his heart.
Before the game, he reminded everyone that they must pay attention to defense after the opening, and beware of Barcelona taking the initiative with their home advantage, but now that Leeds United has won the right to kick off, can we be the one to take the initiative?
So while Kompany and Puyol were still completing the pre-match ceremony of exchanging team flags, Li Shiguang waved to Rivaldo who was already standing in the front court waiting for the kick-off: "Ferreira, come here!"
Hearing Li Shiguang's shout, Rivaldo ran over with a suspicious look on his face: "Boss? What's the matter?"
"Don't go to kick off. Tell Kevin to let him and Fernando go to kick off. After the kick-off, pass the ball back to you as soon as possible!" Li Shiguang said in a hurry, "Then tell Fernando to run at full speed into Barcelona's penalty area after the kick-off, but remember to look back to see where the ball is when he rushes past their back line!"
Hearing Li Shiguang's Rivaldo's eyes lit up. With his experience, how could he not know what Li Shiguang meant? But the opponent was Barcelona after all, so he leaned close to Li Shiguang's ear and asked, "Is this okay? Boss, why do I feel like this is giving the ball directly to the opponent?"
Seeing that Rivaldo seemed to think that his idea was not very reliable, Li Shiguang glared at him and said, "It's up to you whether it works or not. Let's try it first. After the kick-off, I think Barcelona will definitely rush over to grab the ball soon. What if it succeeds?"
"Okay! Let's try it!"
After agreeing, Rivaldo also turned around and ran to the field, then grabbed De Bruyne to Torres and talked about Li Shiguang's arrangement just now.
But the plot did not seem to develop as Li Shiguang imagined.
After all, Barcelona's defense line still has their mainstay, Puyol!
When Torres passed the ball to De Blair and rushed towards him without looking back, Puyol noticed this problem at the first time, so he did not follow his teammates to press the formation forward, butInstead, he fell to the back and followed Torres closely, not giving him any chance to counter-offside!
Rivaldo, who received the pass from De Bruyne, naturally saw it. If he still kicked the long pass as Li Shiguang said, he would undoubtedly hand over the ball to Barcelona directly, so he had no choice but to pass the ball back to right back Alves.
Alves originally wanted to take the ball himself. Facing Saviola who rushed up to defend him, he took a step to the right. Seeing that Messi seemed to be ready to grab the ball, Alves quickly passed the ball to Modric who was in front of him.
But at this time, Deco was closely behind Modric, and he did not dare to be careless. As soon as the football rolled to his feet, he passed the ball back to Schmeichel in the penalty area.
At this time in the frontcourt, Torres saw that Rivaldo's plan before the kick-off did not succeed, so he followed Barcelona's forward defense line and slowly returned to the vicinity of the center circle.
After receiving the return pass, Schmeichel looked up at his teammates and found that everyone was followed by Barcelona players. There was no good passing target, so he had to push the ball to the right. Before Messi ran to him, he kicked the ball directly to the center circle.
Schmeichel kicked the ball a little to the right, so Sneijder and Zambrotta got entangled with each other at the first time, trying to compete for the first landing point, but the two pulled and tugged. Under Sneijder's interference, Zambrotta did not head the ball far, but only headed a half-high ball, and it bounced back to Rivaldo's feet who was running towards this side.
In a hurry, Rivaldo did not control the ball. After hitting his thigh, the ball bounced to the center circle, so he quickly ran two steps, stopped the ball from Xavi's feet who rushed over to grab the ball, and then used the outside of his left foot to pass the ball to Torres, who had returned to the center circle and was unguarded.
Then, Torres completed Li Shiguang's deployment before the kick-off in another way...