Chapter 408: Calm

Generally speaking, defense needs to have depth, so the defensive formation pays attention to several lines. m

A certain distance must be maintained between each line, so that when the opponent crosses a line of defense, they can continue to organize defense and delay the attacking party.

Not only in football games, but also in wars.

Depth is very important for the defending party.

And what Lazio has to do now is to compress Manchester United's defense line and eliminate their strategic defensive depth.

When the three lines are compressed into one line, Lazio only needs one straight pass to completely penetrate their defense line.

So when advancing the attack, Lazio has no intention of stopping at all. They are approaching step by step, not fast, but constantly compressing Manchester United's space.

At the beginning, Manchester United fought and retreated, intending to delay Lazio at the front of the penalty area and deal with Lazio.

But they found that the situation was not right.

When they began to shrink their defense, they couldn't stop their pace!

They were compressed into a pancake bit by bit!

At this time, Lazio suddenly passed the ball!

The rhythm suddenly changed!

In front of the defense line organized by Manchester United, Ballack, who had the ball, suddenly made a light lob pass!

This lob pass was completely unexpected by Manchester United players. No one expected that the German tough guy could make such a wonderful lob pass in the game!

Manchester United's defenders were not prepared for this.

However, David Silva did not handle this ball well.

After he entered the penalty area at high speed, he wanted to shoot directly, but when he shot, the football was a little high. His foot swung from bottom to top, and the football kicked out naturally flew from bottom to top - in other words. It was shot high.

"Balak... beautiful lob pass! David Silva! Oh! What a pity! It's too high!"

The Italian commentator was very regretful.

However, Changsheng still had a blank expression on the sidelines.

He neither held his head with his hands nor sighed to the sky.

He sat in the coach's seat without even lifting his butt, which formed a sharp contrast with the excited people around him.

There is nothing to regret about David Silva not scoring, because sooner or later everyone will realize that this is just one of the countless opportunities Lazio had in this game.

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After David Silva missed this wonderful opportunity, the commentators were glad that Manchester United had escaped death.

Even Manchester United fans themselves thought they were lucky.

Lazio's attack was very sudden, and it can be said that it caught Manchester United off guard.

If Manchester United really lost the ball in Lazio's attack, then there is really nothing to say.

But now they didn't lose the ball. They have a feeling of "surviving a disaster will bring good luck later."

Manchester United fans firmly believe that their team will beat Lazio at home and eliminate Lazio, which is currently a headache for the whole of Europe!

So when Lazio soon came back, Manchester United fans were still quite confident in their defense.

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This time Lazio still compressed all three lines of Manchester United into one line.

The distance between Manchester United's central defenders and defensive midfielders is very close, almost like a line.

And Modric, who has the ball, is in front of their line.

Manchester United players' defensive attention is all on Modric, who has the ball.

At this moment, Modric suddenly passed the ball. He did not pass it directly to Klose who was waiting in the middle, but passed the ball to the left.

Left-back Balzaretti rushed in at high speed and penetrated Manchester United's defense.

He received Modric's pass behind Manchester United's defense.

He did not immediately sweep across the front of the goal, but knocked the ball to the inside with his left foot, cutting in!

This kind of cutting in is what Manchester United fears the most when defending.

If Balzaretti just made a normal cross, they believed that with Vidic and Rio Ferdinand's air defense ability, the ball would be handled well.

But when Balzaretti cut in, they panicked.

Because they were not sure what Balzaretti would do.

He could cross, dribble the ball himself, and shoot.

If it is a cross, there are high and low passes. Is it a pass to the front point or the back point...

There are many possibilities, which will give Manchester United too many choices when defending, causing them to hesitate.

After Balzaretti cut inside, he did not continue to dribble the ball. Instead, he chose to pass the ball.

But it was not the kind of high ball that was directly passed to the back point, but a diagonal pass at the ground!

When Manchester United's players hurriedly returned to defense. When they all ran towards the goal, the football passed by Balzaretti crossed the entire defense line of Manchester United diagonally, passed by them at the front point, and finally fell behind them!

Before, Manchester United's defense line was over-compressed by Lazio, and when returning to defense, they still maintained a straight line, so Balzaretti's current diagonal back pass completely hit an area where no Manchester United players were defending.

Lazio midfielder Ledesma, who came in from the back, ran towards the ball!

"Lazio... look at this ball! Ledesma——"

Amid the commentator's shouts, Ledesma won the ball and swung his right leg.

At the same time, the Manchester United players who reacted also turned around to intercept Ledesma.

Carrick almost gave up the center of gravity of his entire body, flying sideways, trying to block Ledesma's shot with his body.

Ledesma's foot hit the lower middle part of the football firmly, and the football flew into the air, passed Carrick who had already fallen to the ground, and continued to rush up!

Then it passed everyone in the penalty area and hit the bottom edge of the crossbar hard!

Van der Sar made a save action in the air, waving his hands to hit the ball, but he just hit a gust of wind!

The football hit the bottom edge of the crossbar and bounced down.

When the football landed, it was already inside the goal line...

"The ball... is in!!! Ledesma's world wave--!!"

The Italian commentator stood up from his chair and cheered.

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When the football whizzed towards Manchester United's goal, many Manchester United fans still couldn't believe that the ball would threaten their goal and score a goal.

So when the football really bounced into the goal. These people reacted half a beat slower.

When the ball bounced off the ground, they even thought it would bounce out.

As a result, when the ball bounced again, they found that the ball was blocked by the net - it really went in!

There was a sudden chaos at Old Trafford.

Some people were still booing Lazio, some people were silent because of the loss, and some people were cheering for Manchester United out of inertia...

It was hard to tell what the atmosphere in the stadium was for a while.

But it didn't matter. What mattered was that Manchester United fell behind again!

In this game, Lazio and Manchester United tied 1:1, but in the total score, Lazio led 2:1!

The advantage returned to Lazio!

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"Lazio's goal came at the right time! Manchester United was only ahead for ten minutes. They caught up! If it was longer, it would be in Manchester United's favor. Because Manchester United's players will be more confident the more they defend..."

"Powerful Lazio... Ledesma's world wave changed the situation! Before Ledesma scored, the situation was actually more favorable to Manchester United... But now, I believe Lazio has regained the initiative!"

The commentators were so quick to change their minds. When Manchester United scored, they all cheered for Manchester United.

Now Lazio scored. Everyone is optimistic about Lazio.

Amid their cheers, Ledesma, who scored, opened his arms and ran all the way to the corner flag area.

Behind him, the Lazio players were chasing him.

The few Lazio fans cheered in the stands, even temporarily overwhelmed the boos of Manchester United fans.

The TV broadcast quickly cut to the coaching seats of both teams on the sidelines.

In the Lazio coaching seat, seeing his team score a goal, Changsheng still acted very calm. He didn't even get up. He just sat on the chair in the coach's seat and clapped his hands, which was considered a celebration of the goal.

The people next to him were more excited than him, and they were still high-fiving each other.

"Lazio equalized the score! They also regained the lead in the total score. But Chang seemed very calm... Think about it, after Rooney scored, he still had this expression. It seems that he is still very confident in his team..."

The commentator said so.

The screen cut to the Manchester United coach's seat again.

Ferguson stood on the sidelines, and there was no change in his movements or expressions for the loss of the ball. His mouth just kept chewing gum. It was like a conditioned reflex.

Both coaches looked quite calm.

But it only looked that way.

If someone carefully observes, they will find that Ferguson's frequency of chewing gum has increased.

This action fully reflects his inner tension.

In fact, for Ferguson. Manchester United's loss of the ball is a big blow.

Manchester United is still behind in the total score, so Rooney's goal seems to be of little significance.

In addition, Lazio scored an away goal.

Now, Manchester United can't score another goal. They must score two more goals, otherwise they will be eliminated because of the small number of away goals.

Although it is at home, it is not so easy to break Lazio's goal.

Not to mention scoring two goals in a row...

Ferguson was anxious and nervous, but he couldn't let his players see it, so he pretended well.

If you don't observe the frequency of his chewing gum carefully, you really don't know what he feels in his heart...

This is the pressure a head coach needs to bear.

So without a strong enough heart, you really can't be a qualified head coach, just like the ever-victorious assistant coach Rudy Gonzalez. In terms of ability, he has a higher professional level than many head coaches, but why can he only be an assistant coach?

Just because his psychological quality can't pass the test...