Chapter 191 The two coaches fought fiercely, Lin Feng VS Pirlo! “goal!!!” "Figo! The 34-year-old veteran scored a goal as valuable as gold in this crucial Milan derby!" "When the outside world was still questioning why Portugal would bring such an old veteran to the World Cup, Figo responded to all the doubts from the outside world with his performance!" The moment Figo scored the goal, commentators from all over the world who were broadcasting the game gave him all kinds of compliments as if they were free, praising the Portuguese to the skies! "Lian Po is old, can he still eat?" "The answer is yes, and he is still as good as ever. I think after seeing Figo's form at Inter Milan, Portugal's head coach should be relieved. With Figo, Portugal doesn't have to worry about attacking from the right!" In the CCTV studio, the two commentators were also praising Figo. But after praising him, the two did not forget to praise Lin Feng: "Besides Figo's good sense of smell and shooting skills, the one who should be most thankful for the goal just now is his teammate Lin Feng!" "That's right, if Lin Feng hadn't brought the ball out from the crowd and found the empty space on the right, Figo would never have had this shooting opportunity!" "Now it's AC Milan's turn to be anxious. They may have to worry about how to break through Inter Milan's defense!"
Inter Milan is affected by the intensive schedule and is not as physically fit as its opponents, but now that they are leading by one goal, they can retreat and play a defensive counterattack with peace of mind. Their retreat made AC Milan's attack more difficult. After Inter Milan scored, AC Milan tried everything, set pieces, long shots, headers... Despite trying every possible means, it was still difficult to break through the opponent's goal, and the 45 minutes of the first half were wasted. In the stands, Berlusconi, who was originally chatting and laughing with the people watching the game around him, can no longer laugh. He was excited to witness a victory, but now his team is lagging behind. If we can't improve the situation in the second half, we might even lose the game. Once AC Milan lost the Milan derby, he who was parading in the stands would become a complete clown. Berlusconi suddenly felt a little regretful. He should have known he shouldn't have been so high-profile. If he chose to watch the game in the box, even if he lost in the end, it wouldn't be too embarrassing because not many people would know he had been there. But he chose to appear in the most eye-catching way and made himself the focus of the game. If you win, you will naturally gain both fame and fortune, but if you lose, you will of course lose all face. …… In the locker rooms of both teams, the players were taking the time to recover their strength. The head coaches of both teams were also explaining the tactics for the second half and summarizing the experience of the first half. “You did a good job in the first half, but you need to pay attention to one thing. When clearing the ball in the penalty area, don’t just kick it too far or kick it out of the baseline. If you are sure, you can try to carry the ball a little more and see if you can pass it out. Take advantage of the opponent’s large forward pressure to try to counterattack!” Although the team is temporarily in the lead, the one-goal advantage is a bit too vague. AC Milan's forward line is very fierce. Just because Inter Milan was able to withstand the opponent's offensive pressure in the first half does not mean they can do so in the second half. Especially after 70 minutes, when the physical strength of the players on the field begins to decline, Inter Milan may face the biggest test.
Ancelotti is an excellent coach and is very good at gathering intelligence on opponents. Mancini believes that he must have studied Inter Milan's past few rounds of games and knows that physical fitness and injuries are Inter Milan's biggest weaknesses at present. Lack of physical fitness limited the performance of Inter Milan players, preventing them from maintaining their best condition throughout the game. Injuries limit Inter Milan's personnel adjustments. Once someone on the field is exhausted and needs to be replaced, Inter Milan may not have a suitable candidate on the bench. Therefore, Mancini really hopes that the players can seize the opportunity and score a few more goals before their physical strength declines to expand their lead. Of course, this kind of thing can only be encountered by chance. AC Milan's defense is not made of paper. Ancelotti must have been prepared for Inter Milan's counterattack. It will not be easy to score a goal easily by counterattack tactics. The 15-minute halftime break ended quickly, and the players from both sides returned to the field. After changing venues, the game continued. After the second half of the game started, the head coaches of both teams did not sit in the coaching seats, but chose to stand on the sidelines and watch everything on the court closely. Ancelotti obviously adjusted AC Milan's offensive tactics during the half-time break, and Mancini soon noticed that the opposing players increased their attempts to penetrate and penetrate the half-space. For any team, the flank is the weakest link in their defense. Although in terms of position, the middle is closest to the goal, the opponent's attack from the middle theoretically poses the greatest threat to the goal. However, in actual games, the defending side will accumulate a large number of troops in the middle, resulting in too much personnel in the middle, making it difficult for offensive players to find offensive space, and they may even lose the ball and be counterattacked by the opponent. A long time ago, someone realized this problem, and thus the tactic of flying on both wings was developed. Since the middle cannot be penetrated, why not use the opportunities on both sides of the wing to cross the ball, bypass the front defense line of the middle, and attack from the wing with more space, right? But in fact, attacking from the flanks is not very effective either. If the attacking team moves to one side, the defending team will also tighten its formation to one side accordingly, using a tight formation to cover the space on one side, making it difficult for the attacking team to break through directly or pass the ball into the penalty area. At the same time, the overall defensive formation will continue to put pressure on the ball holder on the wing, compressing the opponent's space to get the ball and turning the wing into another center. Since neither the center nor the side works, what should the attacking side do? At this time, the importance of the ribs becomes apparent. When the attacker attacks from the flank, they have a lot of options and can go either through the middle or through the wing. The defensive formation will be relatively passive. If the troops are stationed in the middle, the gaps on the flanks will be exposed and the opponent will launch an attack from the flanks. On the contrary, if the defense strengthens the wing defense, the space in the middle will be exposed. It’s just like the dilemma Inter Milan is facing right now. The opponent has the ball in the flank area and Inter Milan’s players are a little at a loss. The originally contracted formation had to be pushed forward to put pressure on the opponent's player with the ball. But the consequence of doing so is that the defensive space in the backcourt becomes larger, the formation is not compact enough, and this gives the opponent room to penetrate and exploit. In the 51st minute of the second half, Kaka dribbled the ball on the right side, and AC Milan's full-back rushed towards the bottom line almost at the same time. Inter Milan's full-back was disturbed, and Kaka seized the opportunity and quickly dribbled the ball to the middle. At the same time, the two AC Milan players at the top of the arc and in the penalty area also moved to the right at almost the same time. Inter Milan's defensive midfielder and central defender were also disturbed, and there was a brief disagreement in their thinking, resulting in a gap at the top of the arc. If facing an ordinary team or an ordinary player, such a gap may not be fatal, because the opponent may not be able to seize this fleeting opportunity. But Inter Milan faced AC Milan, and the one with the ball was Kaka, the son of God! He had already adjusted his steps when he dribbled the ball inside, and he decisively kicked the ball and completed the shot the moment the space appeared.
The ball was hit very suddenly and of extremely high quality, with both the speed and angle being impeccable. Although Cesar has made countless great saves this season, he is hailed as the Saint of Cesar by Inter Milan fans. But there was nothing he could do in the face of such a shot. The football fell into the net and the score became 1:1! Just 6 minutes into the second half, AC Milan equalized the score with a long-range shot from Kaka. The San Siro Stadium was in a frenzy, and the Son of God who scored the goal pointed to the sky to celebrate. On the Inter Milan side, everyone was stunned. The players looked at each other in bewilderment. The opponent's attacking method was so unexpected that they lost the ball before they could even react! "Well done!" Ancelotti clenched his fists and was as happy as a child. Mancini frowned, and his hands in his trouser pockets began to tremble uncontrollably. He couldn't even think of a way to resolve the opponent's offensive tactics! Ancelotti, is this the killer move you prepared for me? Mancini smiled bitterly: You have this secret weapon, but instead of using it against Barcelona, you use it on me. You really think highly of me! Mancini was unwilling to admit defeat. He put his hand on his chin and began to think hard. On the field, AC Milan did not celebrate for too long. They wanted to seize the opportunity to score a few more goals before the opponent could react and completely kill the suspense of the game. The emergence of the flank attack tactic put the initiative back into the hands of the attacker. Mancini stared closely at AC Milan's formation and the players' passing, movement and offensive coordination, thinking about how to crack it. He soon discovered some clues. Although Kaka seemed very active in the frontcourt, he was the one who scored the goal just now. But in the opponent's offensive tactics, there is only one person who is truly irreplaceable, and that is Pirlo! In these attacks, AC Milan spread out its formation and used its forwards to suppress Inter Milan's defense. Use two full-backs and attacking midfielders to suppress Inter Milan's midfield, while their two defensive midfielders only need to face Inter Milan's forward line. As luck would have it, Inter Milan had only one striker in this game and had little pressure on AC Milan's midfielder. In this situation, Pirlo has almost no danger when holding the ball. He can calmly observe the actions of the players on both sides of the field. Once he finds an opportunity, he can use his precise long pass to launch an attack. No, we can’t let this guy get the ball so comfortably! Mancini took advantage of a dead ball opportunity, waved over a nearby player, gave him some instructions, and asked him to go to the field to convey his latest instructions. Soon, the player who passed the message conveyed Mancini's instructions to the entire team. When the game resumed, Ancelotti found that his old friend had also made a move. He immediately perked up and observed Inter Milan's adjustments attentively, wanting to see how Mancini would break the trick! The flank attack tactic only gradually became popular after 2010. At this time point in 2006, not many people thought about and started to try this tactic. Therefore, Ancelotti's tactics are still imperfect and need to be adjusted and improved little by little through actual combat. Mancini's adjustment is simple and crude. Since Pirlo is the most critical link in the opponent's offense, he just needs to limit Pirlo's performance.
After the game resumed, fans of both sides noticed that Lin Feng moved forward and targeted Pirlo. If Cambiasso was present, Mancini would arrange Cambiasso to mark Pirlo. But unfortunately, Commander Kan is injured and is still resting. It is already very difficult for the substitute midfielder to deal with the attack of the opponent's frontcourt players. If they are taken away, the defense of our midfield will be greatly reduced. So Lin Feng could only move his position forward to restrict Pirlo. For offensive players, they are actually unwilling to take on the dirty work of defense. The status of many big-name stars in the team is reflected in the fact that they do not need to participate in defense. But there are not many people who have such privileges, and only those with incredible offensive strength can enjoy this privilege, such as Messi and Ronaldo. Lin Feng has not yet reached the status of the two greatest players, and Serie A itself advocates defense. If defense can help the team, he will not refuse to do so. Lin Feng’s defensive ability is not particularly strong, and although Pirlo looks like he has not woken up yet, he is actually not that easy to deal with. If he was really that easily restricted, he would never be able to become a top midfield master! Seeing Lin Feng rushing up, Pirlo protected the ball, turned around and passed it back to Gattuso who was waiting behind him. Under Gattuso's cover, he shook off Lin Feng, changed position and received the ball again. But just as he was about to observe the situation in the frontcourt and act as AC Milan's midfield dealer, Lin Feng caught up with him and entangled him again. Why is this kid so difficult to deal with? Pirlo frowned, suddenly accelerated, dribbled the ball across the center line, and headed towards the opponent's half. But after running only two steps, Pirlo found that Lin Feng had caught up with him and was about to surpass him. Damn, I almost forgot, this guy is as fast as Kaka! Pirlo didn't dare to dribble anymore and quickly passed the ball to his teammate Rui Costa. Rui Costa's situation was not as good as Pirlo's. As soon as he received the ball, several Inter Milan players suddenly pressed towards him. Master Rui Costa did not dare to dribble the ball and quickly passed the ball back to his own central defender. Inter Milan successfully restricted AC Milan's attack this time! This time, it was Ancelotti's turn to frown. He glanced at Mancini next to him with some confusion: How could this guy see the weakness of his tactics so quickly? (End of this chapter)