Chapter 262 Chelsea Still Needs to Strengthen Its Midfield and Defense!

Li Ang did not invite Muller and Kroos to catch up before the big game.

After the game, they had a meal together and chatted for a while.

But the atmosphere before the game was too solemn, for both Bayern and Chelsea.

Bayern wanted to complete their revenge in one go this season.

It would be best if they could reach the final and play Real Madrid again, and then personally take the Champions League title they dreamed of from Real Madrid.

Chelsea has been running wildly on the road to rise until now, and they don’t feel tired, and they feel that they still have strength to spare.

After all, they have already passed the Barcelona level before, and the confidence of Chelsea’s young players has been raised.

Even if they are now challenging Bayern with a weaker status, most of the players in Chelsea are still more excited than nervous.

Li Ang is very satisfied with his teammates’ confidence.

However, some opponents, after all, have to be played in person to know how strong they are.

Now this Chelsea has experienced less baptism of hard battles.

Li Ang only hopes that his young teammates can withstand the pressure and continue to maintain their fighting spirit in the face of a disadvantageous situation.

Although the experience of the veterans is good, it is Li Ang and his younger teammates who can represent the upper limit of Chelsea.

Mourinho's considerations are actually similar to Li Ang's.

However, during the preparation period, he has said too many words to the young players in the team, such as "stay calm" and "hold the pressure".

Now it is the eve of the game, and there is no point in repeating these instructions too much.

And in the end, it is necessary to let the young players face strong enemies by themselves and experience the pressure brought by the top European teams.

Now Chelsea's group of young guys are relatively lucky.

With the veterans leading, the tactics arranged by the head coach will basically not make big mistakes.

Being able to make it all the way to the top four of the Champions League, regardless of the final result, at least they can gain enough experience from this season's Champions League games.

Mourinho's mentality is much better than before.

With the Champions League at this point, it would be too extravagant to use the semi-finals to train the troops.

Mourinho will not make any groundbreaking experiments in tactics.

The players will try their best to win on the field, and he will naturally do his best on the sidelines to ensure that Chelsea will not lag behind Bayern Munich in tactics.

But, before talking about victory, talk about defeat first.

While Mourinho was fully preparing for the team, he was also mentally prepared to face the team's failure.

This is not because he was timid, just like Li Ang would also be cautious about the results of this duel before the game.

Their understanding of Bayern Munich does not come only from cold tactical analysis or one game after another video review.

But because they have really played against Bayern Munich and fought.

Heynckes has stepped on all the tactical traps set by Mourinho.

The experience of losing to Real Madrid twice in the Champions League has made this Bayern Munich more mature and tough.

Mourinho once had a high evaluation of Bayern Munich's team building and tactics.

In terms of the personnel composition of the lineup, Hai's Bayern and Mourinho's Real Madrid are almost flawless.

If you have to say where the difference between the two teams is.

It should be that Mourinho's Real Madrid had Ronaldo, a superstar who could change the situation on the offensive end, and Li Ang, a single defensive pioneer who could limit Bayern's midfield power on the defensive end.

In the past two seasons, Real Madrid was able to beat Bayern twice in the Champions League, and the performance of Li Ang and Ronaldo was indeed crucial.

And you have to know that at that time in Real Madrid, Li Ang and Ronaldo's teammates were all top stars in football.

Mourinho's Real Madrid, which almost perfectly integrated personal ability and team strength, overturned Bayern Munich.

Now that Real Madrid has lost Li Ang, its midfield defense has dropped from the top level in Europe to the tail of the top in Europe.

Real Madrid still has no shortage of offensive capabilities. But once the hardness of the midfield defense decreases, if it fights with Bayern again, this Real Madrid will have too many unstable factors.

Chelsea with Li Ang can be comparable to Bayern Munich in terms of midfield defense hardness.

The double defensive midfielder combination of Li Ang and Matic may be better than Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez in terms of defensive ability alone.

But Lampard can no longer support Chelsea's midfield offense.

So the embarrassing thing is that Chelsea can put together a combination comparable to Bayern Munich's midfield defense strength, but it can't do it easily.

Because if Li Ang retreats, Chelsea's midfield offensive ability will drop significantly.

Stabilizing defense is very important for Mourinho, but the first game starts at home. If he doesn't strive for the initiative in offense, he can only be beaten passively.

Being forced to shoot at the goal by Bayern for the entire game at home was not a scene Mourinho wanted to see.

And if they don't have the initiative to attack at home, then they can only defend for 90 minutes in the next round away game?

So no matter what, in this match at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea must strive for more offensive initiative.

As long as Chelsea still wants to win.

Li Ang can't put all his energy into defense, just like the game against Barcelona, ​​he can defend, and then talk about defense after scoring.

As for the problem that Chelsea's entire midfield is too dependent on Li Ang on both offense and defense.

Mourinho can only wait until the end of this season to solve it through signings.

In this Champions League battle with Bayern Munich, Matic and Lampard must hold up the defense. If they can't, Lampard will inevitably give way...

※※※

On the evening of April 23, the second Champions League semi-final of this season, which was highly anticipated by fans, started on time at Stamford Bridge!

Chelsea and Bayern Munich, who also lined up a 4231 starting formation, started a fierce fight for midfield control from the beginning of the game.

Li Ang looked over and saw three old friends, Muller, Javi Martinez and Schweinsteiger.

In terms of confrontation and fighting strength, he was not afraid of his old opponents, but no matter how confident he was, he was alone in fighting with the three midfielders of Bayern Munich.

Without Essien, Modric, and Matuidi's help.

Lampard's athletic ability has declined too much after all.

Usually playing in the Premier League, and even in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona before, Lampard's confrontation and running seemed to be good.

But at this moment, against Bayern, Chelsea only had Li Ang who could fight hard with the opponent in the midfield.

Lampard's speed and confrontation were a little bit behind the rhythm of this game.

Matic didn't have this problem, but he had to drag at the end of the midfield and act as the safety rope of the defense line. He couldn't lose his position.

So Li Ang soon tasted the taste of being isolated and helpless.

Bayern seemed to have transformed into the Real Madrid of the previous two seasons.

Even without considering the comparison of strength, their players were enough to drag down their opponents through huge amounts of running and frequent midfield confrontations.

This move was very familiar to Li Ang.

Mourinho further improved Real Madrid's two-wing attack by learning from Heynckes' tactics.

As a result, Heynckes has been constantly learning.

Bayern has always attached great importance to the physical fitness of the whole team since Heynckes took over as coach.

With the successful case of Real Madrid in the past, Heynckes has further focused on physical fitness in the past two seasons, and now Bayern is almost the same as the track and field team.

The first half of today's game lasted less than 20 minutes, and countless fans in front of the TV began to feel deep sympathy for Chelsea.

Let's not talk about technical confrontation, except for Li Ang, Chelsea really can't outrun Bayern!

It was also the first time that Li Ang felt annoyed by the butterfly effect he caused in the game.

"Guardiola really needs to go to Bayern! The style of play of the coach is simply crazy. Mandzukic and Robben are following the whole court to press. Is this the rhythm of copying Klopp's Liverpool in advance?"

Li Ang began to miss the technical Bayern in his memory.

Schweinsteiger, Ram and Kroos, what a good midfield, he can directly break through this midfield line with a small burst!

He can also increase the strength of the Bayern captain.

Your double defensive midfielder combination of Schweinsteiger and Martinez is so hard that Li Ang has no appetite at all.

It's good to have helpers to pull the defense line. Li Ang can deal with them one by one. Martinez's speed is a breakthrough point that can be used after all.

But Lampard is almost tortured by Muller's running position and broken, and Li Ang really can't count on him.

In desperation, Li Ang can only signal Hazard and De Bruyne to retreat early to help him organize the attack.

Ibrahimovic can't do what Mandzukic did and follow him all the way back to the midfield line.

As one side grows, the other side loses. The offensive and defensive forces that Li Ang can mobilize in the midfield are becoming increasingly scarce.

But to be honest, this is not the fault of Chelsea's veterans. If you want to blame someone, you can only blame Bayern Munich for being too tactically advanced by Real Madrid in the past few seasons.

All players participate in the fight for ball possession and quick counterattacks. There will be more and more teams that can do this in the next few years, but at present, only Bayern can do it.

Li Ang felt the hard work of Hazard and De Bruyne, and he also knew that Lampard was trying his best to limit Muller's performance.

But the initiative of the game was still tightly grasped by Bayern bit by bit.

The game situation was more dangerous than Li Ang and Mourinho expected before the game.

In this case, let alone fighting for the initiative to attack, Li Ang even felt that Chelsea would sooner or later be beaten by a big score tragedy if they forced to fight with Bayern.

Don't forget that Chelsea has a nervous David Luiz on the back line. If he explodes again today, Terry and Cech will have to doubt their lives.

Li Ang didn't know what tactical plan Mourinho had at the moment, but he made a decisive choice to switch positions with Lampard.

After playing back as a defensive midfielder, Li Ang didn't think about whether to seize the opportunity of attack and defense transition to counterattack Bayern. He just wanted to help the team stabilize the defense first.

Lampard breathed a sigh of relief. Muller looked at Li Ang who was in the upper position with him, curled his lips, and began to play around Li Ang.

Mourinho saw this scene off the court and did not choose to let Li Ang return to the front midfielder position to guide the attack. He just sighed helplessly.

"As expected, as expected..."

Holland sat beside Mourinho and opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't know what to say.

Because of this game, ordinary fans can now see it very clearly.

Chelsea's forward line is still fine. When they can get the ball, they can still threaten Bayern's defense.

The key is still in the midfield. Chelsea can't take the initiative. Leon moved forward, Lampard couldn't support him, and his defensive contribution was insufficient.

Now Leon retreats, and Chelsea's attack from the middle is almost gone.

After all, Leon can't break through Bayern's double defensive midfielder combination, and an old Lampard can only watch.

The Blues' midfield trio, which has dominated the Premier League, suddenly hit a bottleneck in this game.

If time can go back, not to mention Lampard in his peak state, even if it's just two years ago.

The 34-year-old genie can still keep up with the pace of this level of competition.

But the power of time is ruthless after all.

In today's game, no matter what the final result is, everyone knows it, and Lampard himself knows it.

He is about to turn 36 in two months and he has really reached the end of his career.

It was frustrating to see such a scene on the court. Lampard, who was replaced by Ramirez in the first half, was also in a low mood.

But this is professional football, and this is also the strict requirement of the Champions League for all professional players.

Bayern Munich still scored first at the beginning of the second half of the game.

Chelsea, who was passively beaten, was ultimately inferior in defensive mobility.

Mandzukic attracted Terry and David Luiz's defensive double-teaming, but he successfully passed Ribery's cross to the back point before losing his offensive position.

It was too late for Terry to make defensive interference with Muller who had the ball.

Muller swept the ball into the net below the far corner of Chelsea's goal.

This is a very good offensive routine for Bayern.

After the game lost its balance, Chelsea could only helplessly embark on the risky offensive road again.

Unfortunately, Ramirez failed to withstand the defensive pressure and was cleared by Ribery in the 76th minute of the second half.

The French winger broke into the Chelsea penalty area and shot the ball into the goal, which basically established Bayern's victory.

However, Chelsea did not give up the hope of scoring.

In the last stoppage time of the game, Li Ang dribbled past Martinez and Lahm, but was pulled down by Boateng in the penalty area with a tactical foul before shooting.

After Lampard and Ibrahimovic had left the field one after another, Li Ang became Chelsea's first penalty shooter on the field.

Neuer knew his penalty style.

So the moment before Li Ang shot, Neuer made a very smart pre-judgment save.

However, this time Li Ang did not shoot at the two upper corners of the goal, but directly shot towards the middle of the goal.

Neuer failed to save Li Ang's penalty, but Bayern still left Stamford Bridge with victory and two away goals.

Mourinho was actually not dissatisfied with the process of the game.

He knew exactly where the team's problems were. After the game, he immediately approached the team's big boss Abramovich.

Abramovich now sees the ceiling of this Chelsea team.

If they really want to get their hands on the Champions League within three seasons, Abramovich will have to pay more!

Chelsea needs to strengthen its midfield and defense.

And it needs to be strengthened a lot!

Damn, when I got up this morning, my right eye was so painful that I couldn't open it. After washing up, I saw that the circle under my right eye was red and swollen. I was so scared that I quickly applied hot and cold compresses, but it didn't work.

I went to the clinic, and the doctor said it was edema. I had never encountered this situation before. The doctor said not to worry, prescribed some medicine, and let me go home directly.

Well, the swelling is gone now, but it took a whole day. Now I still feel pain in my right eye when I blink. I give up. It seriously affects my typing efficiency.

I'm still typing the second chapter now. I don't know if it can be sent out before midnight. Those who can't wait can see it tomorrow morning.