Football’s First Defender

In this FA Cup final, for the two teams, there will be no drag from other competitions in the future, so they can give it a go.

Chelsea's Champions League final will not start until two weeks later. Now the match against Liverpool can be seen as a "warm-up match" for the team to prepare for the Champions League final, adjust the team's game state, and improve its own style of play.

Chelsea's ability to reach the last step in the Champions League is inseparable from the outstanding performance of the defensive players in the midfield.

In the league, perhaps Chelsea's somewhat "weak" offensive line caused the team to lose a lot of points due to offensive problems.

But in the UEFA Champions League, against a group of strong teams that took the initiative to attack, Chelsea's defensive counterattack style has been brought into full play.

Thanks to the efforts of a group of Chelsea veterans, the Portuguese super giants Benfica, known for their offense, and the Spanish super team Barcelona, ​​​​were defeated by Chelsea in the knockout round.

And Chelsea's opponent in the Champions League final is Bayern Munich at the "home court". Not surprisingly, it will be a classic battle suitable for Chelsea's defensive counterattack.

In order to cope with the subsequent Champions League final, in this FA Cup final, although Chelsea tried to play a few offenses at the beginning, but after that, it directly changed to a defensive counterattack and practiced its own defense.

Defense is Chelsea's unique skill. The defense line is full of veterans. Although the athletic ability of these players has declined due to the influence of age, the defensive experience and the degree of tacit understanding between them are all with age. Increase, and the older the more demon.

As for the midfielder, Essien and Ramirez's midfielder combination of an old and a young midfielder, but they are both typical black and hard players. Task.

Essien this season, although he has paddling performances in many games, but in the focus of the strong duel, he is not soft-footed.

In the previous FA Cup, Chelsea eliminated the Premier League giants all the way, and advanced all the way in the Champions League. Essien made an absolutely world-class defensive performance on the defensive end.

Therefore, in this FA Cup final, which is related to the final championship honor, Essien's performance was also outstanding as always.

"Chelsea's defense is still the best in the world!"

"I have to admit that although Chelsea gave up Yang Feng, the team lacked one of the most critical players when defending the opponent's counterattack. But in the orthodox positional defense, Chelsea still has the best defensive strength in the world .”

"Two players in the midfield, strong sweeping ability, provide enough support for Chelsea's defense."

"And the four strong players on the back line who have worked together for many seasons have formed a very tacit last line of defense."

"Liverpool's offense really cannot form a comprehensive penetration in a short time."

In the opening stage of the game, when both teams performed well on the offensive end, it was actually the best opportunity for Liverpool to launch an attack. At that time, Suarez had actually created an excellent chance to hit the goal in a counterattack, but it was a pity. Under the defense of Chelsea's defensive players, Suarez's shot did not play very well.

And when Chelsea began to shrink back in an all-round way and put on a defensive counterattack posture, Liverpool's offense was no longer too threatening and could pose enough threats to Chelsea.

The choice for Liverpool is very simple. Facing Chelsea, which are both world-class in defense and counterattack, would Liverpool dare to go all out and continue to leave the pressure of the defense line to Yang Feng alone?

As it turned out, Liverpool's selection made the entire first half dull.

Liverpool still frequently uses the two wingers, but Liverpool is indeed cautious in the offensive selection of players in the center.

In this game, Henderson will hardly appear in the midfield to participate in the attack, except for scheduling in the backcourt. It is guaranteed that there will always be a midfielder in front of Yang Feng to help him do some proper work. blocking work.

With the targeted counter-attack arrangement of the major clubs for Liverpool's defense, the so-called big-footed pass from the backcourt during the counter-attack was obviously given up by the clubs when facing Liverpool. Everyone tried their best Advance on the ground to limit Yang Feng's own defensive characteristics.

Lost Yang Feng's destructive ability at the first point, although Yang Feng can still use his defensive ability to limit the opponent's counterattack in one direction.

However, the opponents used the pass very shrewdly to avoid Yang Feng's defense along the way, and beat Liverpool's defense in other directions to a panic.

In order to deal with other teams' counterattacks against Yang Feng's ability, Liverpool had to sacrifice a little bit of offensive strength for the safety of their own defense. stage of human blocking.

As a wealthy team, it is not only strong in the personal ability of the players, but also strong in the team's tactical quality.

Especially for Chelsea, no matter how many coaches have been changed, Chelsea players have played together for many years and have formed a team model that is integrated into the bones.

Regarding Liverpool's weaknesses, Chelsea will definitely not sit idly by.

Even if Liverpool keeps a player like Henderson in the middle, as the season progresses, based on the overall defensive situation, a midfielder with long-term improvement will defend.

However, in terms of the counterattack appearances of Chelsea's many powerful players, Henderson's defense alone can play a role, but it is impossible to guarantee that it can completely limit the opponent's performance.

Therefore, in the frontcourt, Liverpool's attack was not too smooth. Instead, it was Chelsea's several counterattacks, relying on the ground to advance and made some progress.

It's just a pity for Chelsea that Torres and Drogba are well known by Skrtel and Yang Feng.

When defensive players are familiar with offensive players' routines, they can achieve the best pertinence in defense and avoid making some mistakes, so that they can make the best choices when making decisions on the spot.

Thanks to the excellent on-the-spot performance of the team's defense Yang Feng and Skrtel, Chelsea made two dangerous counterattacks in the first half. Torres and Drogba each had a chance to hit the goal, but they did not form enough in the end. threat of knocking.

The game was 0-0 at halftime. Both teams were obviously strengthening their defense in the second half of the first half. They dared not make mistakes and concede the ball first in the final.

In this stalemate situation, the interference of some unexpected factors may be needed, and this time, the goddess of luck is once again on Liverpool's side.

In the second half of the game, Liverpool launched attacks many times, hoping to turn their possession initiative into goals and win the final victory.

However, the attack after several complex tactical cooperations did not have much effect. Instead, they used a simple throw-in cooperation to achieve unexpected gains.

After receiving the throw from Jose Enrique, Gerrard directly took a step horizontally, close to 30 meters from the goal, and completed a long shot.

The defensive players on Chelsea's defense line were ill-prepared this time because of Liverpool's quick boundary kick. They failed to keep up with Gerrard, and Gerrard completed a wonderful long-range shot.

Cech's reaction is not unpleasant, but Gerrard's shot is too tricky, even though Cech's save action has been extremely stretched, but the goal is too big.

"GOAL!!!"

"Gerrard! When the game was deadlocked, he kicked the world wave and scored the first goal for Liverpool!"

"This is Liverpool captain, absolute big-time player, Steven Gerrard!"

"This battle between red and blue determines the final of the FA Cup championship this season. Will the balance of victory be completely tilted towards Liverpool because of Gerrard's goal?"

…………

"Gerald!"

"Gerald!"

"Gerald!"

The Liverpool fans at the scene shouted in unison, completely suppressing the voices of the Blues fans.

Although a goal will not completely lose suspense in this final, it is undeniable that Liverpool now definitely has a greater initiative.

Because after taking the lead, the Liverpool team does not need to be too obsessed with offensive suppression, but can reduce the number of players in the offense and ensure the participation of the necessary offensive players. Other personnel can contribute more on the defensive end. Let the team become more balanced.

What I have to say is that with Gerrard's long-range goal, when the heavy responsibility of offense was handed over to Chelsea, Chelsea's offensive tactics, although they had a certain tactical system and tactical rearrangement, were In the game, it is not an easy task to easily find an attacking opportunity.

Different from the excellent cooperation on the defensive end, Chelsea's offense, wanting to have a smooth offense is definitely a luxury.

Not to mention that there is no good passer, there is no good pure wing attacker.

Malouda is indeed an excellent wide player, but in the case of increasing age, it is still difficult for a Malouda to rely solely on his own energy to defeat Liverpool's one-sided defense.

This also makes Chelsea's wing attack actually need to rely on two full-backs to advance forward.

Chelsea, which lacks a good passer, can only rely on the accumulation of offensive numbers on the wing in the end to carry out a simple and practical offensive method such as crossing.

In order to ensure the success rate of the pass, and the team's offense can create threats and create continuous offensive suppression, the extent to which Chelsea's two full-backs participated in the offense began to gradually increase.

Relying on the full-backs to participate in the attack makes Chelsea's threat of crossing from the wing stronger. However, everything has a double-edged sword. Absolute opportunity to take advantage.

Veteran Drogba, I have to say that he has contributed his best in this game, and Drogba is also very active in running.

But under Yang Feng's marking, Drogba couldn't show his ability to grab points at all. It was really Yang Feng's follow-up and passing judgment that was so good that he locked Drogba completely. , which also reduced the defensive pressure on other Liverpool players.

Drogba now wants to rely on physical confrontation, and it is not easy to gain an advantage over Yang Feng.

After all, Drogba's increasing age will naturally lead to a decline in his competitive state, while on the other hand, Yang Feng's hard training in confrontation ability has made his physical fitness increase sharply every day.

The direct confrontation between Drogba and Yang Feng after a long time, after all, the young Yang Feng has the advantage. Drogba has no easy chance to hit the goal. Hitting the goal is destined to fail to complete the most threatening offense.

While Liverpool's players are doing their best to defend, they are also looking for opportunities, preparing to rely on defense to counterattack and give their opponents a "surprise".

When the game lasted to 60 minutes, the two sides had entered a heated stage.

The two teams come and go, offense and counterattack complement each other, the number of shots, both teams are gradually rising, but in the eyes of discerning people, Liverpool's performance is even better.

And the source is Liverpool's lead, a one-goal lead, gives Liverpool more options, players can also dare to make moves, and show their full strength.

"Chelsea's offensive position is still a big problem."

"Although they have Drogba and Torres, two world-class shooters, Chelsea's weak midfield ability is still a chronic disease."

"The tactic of attacking the wing in turn did not pose enough offensive threats when the opponent has already figured it out."

"It was Ivanovic's cross from the side again, which was well placed, but was cleared by Yang Feng's header first."

"Henderson near the penalty area, after receiving Yang Feng's header to clear the siege, directly dribbled the ball forward and launched a counterattack."

Since Chelsea's main offensive methods are on the side, the center is only for long-range shots and transfer of the ball, so Henderson's dribbling advance, for a while, there are really no players near Chelsea to form an effective defense.

"Liverpool's counterattack opportunity, Henderson dribbled the ball far enough alone, and then under the pressure of Chelsea's defensive players, he chose a through ball and passed it forward."

Henderson's own dribbling forward reduced a certain passing distance, so that at the last moment, Henderson could use a long-distance through ball to send the most suitable through ball pass.

"Suarez, catches the long through ball from Henderson, can keep going without stopping, Suarez!"

"GOAL!!!"

"Wonderful counterattack! Wonderful goal! Suarez's volley near the penalty area made Paulo Ferreira who defended him return without success and extended Liverpool's lead to two goals!"

"Liverpool are closer to winning the FA Cup this year!"