Chapter 257: The First Face-to-Face Confrontation with the King of Football
On the field, Paris players were a little surprised.
They know the reputation of the Copa Award. Last year, at the Chatelet Theater, Messi, Neymar, Ramos, Verratti and Donnarumma all attended the Golden Globe Awards ceremony and saw Chen Xiaoliang go on stage to receive the award.
They have more or less seen several videos of Chen Xiaoliang's long-range goals on their mobile phones. Not to mention the famous stars, even for the fans who have been watching football for a long time, who can't see a dozen exciting long-range shots outside the penalty area in a year?
The coaching staff also showed them Chen Xiaoliang's crosses from both sides, especially the crosses from the right side of his dominant foot, which has become one of Roma's main offensive tactics and is no secret to the Paris players.
But what about that speed when he got rid of Nuno Mendes just now?
After the cross, he immediately ran to the penalty area to prepare for the second attack, and then without stopping the ball, he took a long shot with his non-dominant foot and hit the dead corner. How happened?
Messi was both surprised and happy. He was surprised because he saw with his own eyes that the child for whom he had voted for the Copa Award had become such an excellent player on the court. He was happy because he knew that he had not cast a wrong vote, and he also had beautiful memories of meeting Chen Xiaoliang.
Galti couldn't help but look at João again, but the expression on João's face still told him that he was seeing these for the first time as well.
Galthie asked: "When you were in Rome, you didn't participate in the team training?"
Joao knew what Galthie meant: "I participated, not only participated, but also the training arrangements of the coaching staff's individual coaches and Jose's overall training plan were all compiled into complete training sessions in my hands, and then implemented one by one on the spot."
Galthie: "So this red countryman has never shown these in training?"
Joao: "No, he rarely shoots, very rarely, and he is fast, but never this fast."
Galthier: "You mean he learned all this in the six months since you left Rome?"
Joao knew that Galthie found it incredible, but he himself could not convince himself: "We first saw him in a graduation match of the Tottenham youth training academy, which was two years ago. At that time, he had already shown extremely strong tackling ability, but he could only tackling."
"His body hasn't grown yet, and his skills other than tackling are almost amateurish."
"By the way, what shocked Jose that day was his jumping ability. In the final minute of the final match, he jumped up and scored a header. He jumped so high that his knees went over the defender's head."
"Jose valued him very much at that time, but in the Premier League, he would not have the opportunity to play at the age of 16. It would be a waste of time to force him to stay in the team, so Jose loaned him to Glasgow Rangers and entrusted him to Gerrard."
“Then he became a Scottish Premier League champion, a tackles champion, a member of the Team of the Year, and when I reunited with him in Rome and saw him train in person, I had the same look on my face as I do now.”
"I really want to find Gerrard and ask him how he trained this kid so that he could make such great progress in just one year, as if it took others five years."
"And now it looks like he's going to be one of the best players in Europe very soon."
After hearing this, Galthie was speechless for a long time, but he was thinking in his heart that the club spent 41.5 million euros to buy Vitinha from Sporting CP this summer, and spent 23 million euros to buy Fabian Ruiz from Naples, and will spend 18 million euros to buy Soler from Valencia.
A total of 82.5 million euros were spent on the three midfielders in order to replace Herrera, Paredes and Wijnaldum, who were on loan, too old, or considered by the board to be insufficiently capable of winning the Champions League.
But if Galthie is allowed to choose now, he believes that Chairman Nasser will be willing to spend 100 million to bring Chen Xiaoliang, who will be much more effective than three people.
On the field, Paris Saint-Germain, who did not lose the ball thanks to Donnarumma's superb performance, strengthened their control over the midfield. They no longer easily tried to pass penetrating through balls, but tried to use the back and forth transfer of the ball between the left and right flanks, and the forward and backward running between the midfield and the frontcourt to pull Roma's defense and mobilize Roma's players to find gaps.
This kind of scene is not unfamiliar to Roma's players. The original purpose of the bus tactics is to prevent the opponent from breaking through the middle, so that they can only pass the ball to the wing, and then choose to make a high cross, and finally lose the ball, allowing the team to launch a quick counterattack.
But Paris Saint-Germain is not "those opponents". They have two superstars on the field, one of whom is respected by many as the King of Football.
In the 17th minute, Neymar received a cross from Verratti on the left side of the penalty area. Nuno Mendes was already in position behind him, ready to make a short pass on the wing and then go down to the bottom to try to find an opportunity to break into the penalty area.
Brazil's top star, facing Celik who was about 2 meters away from him and could either attack or defend, made a fake move to pass the ball to Nuno Mendes, causing Celik to subconsciously take a step back.
At that moment, Neymar immediately dribbled the ball diagonally into the penalty area. Matic stepped forward to block him, but Neymar lightly accelerated and pretended to break through to the left, then suddenly moved to the right to shift his center of gravity and ran towards the penalty spot.
Mancini immediately came over to fill Matic's position, and Matic, who had just been dazzled, and Celik on the wing also surrounded him from behind.
Neymar did not stick to the ball and passed it to Sarabia near the right side of the penalty spot.
The new striker did not hesitate because Messi had entered the penalty area from the middle amidst the chaos in the penalty area and Vitinha's forward run to attract Enzo's defensive attention.
Sarabia turned his back and pushed the ball towards Messi. Seeing that Messi could shoot without stopping the ball, Chen Xiaoliang who rushed back to defend and Malacia who moved into the penalty area to help his teammates defend stretched their legs at the same time to block and prevent Messi from shooting.
Who would have thought that when without the ball, Messi, who turned his head twice a second on average to observe the surrounding situation, did not use his dominant left foot, but instead used the outside of his right foot to send the ball to the front right. Then Ashraf, who had been lying in ambush in the penalty area for a long time, took a step forward and received the ball in an offside position, and shot directly from the right side of the penalty area at a small angle!
Although the angle is a little smaller, this ball is basically no different from a one-on-one shot!
Unfortunately, Ashraf chose to push the shot into the far corner, Patricio fell to the ground and dived to block the ball, and Ibanez immediately cleared the ball with a big kick and kicked it to the midfield.
Replays showed that in this ball Messi first moved to the wing, then prompted Vitinha to press forward, and after the latter entered Enzo's defense area and the two of them met head-on, he rushed into the penalty area from the junction of Enzo's back and Malaysia's front, completing the final through pass.
Mourinho, who was standing on the sidelines, saw all this, but he was thinking: Kid, watch and learn more! This is the best player on the planet.
The ball rolled into Paris Saint-Germain's half, Ramos controlled the ball, but he had no way to pass the ball forward. His teammates in the midfield and frontcourt all ran to the Roma penalty area to participate in the attack.
Ramos had to pass the ball back and forth with Marquinhos several times to observe the players' positions.
At this time, Messi, who had just completed a wonderful pass, took the initiative to retreat, and Ramos immediately passed the ball to him.
The former Real Madrid captain passed the ball to the former Barcelona captain. In football, nothing is impossible.
After receiving the ball, Messi used his signature left foot to pull the ball and turned around, but there was someone following him.
The two looked at each other without saying anything, but it was as if they had greeted each other silently.
"I finally waited for you."
"I will do everything in my power to stop you."
Seeing Messi and Chen Xiaoliang facing off, Ramos and Marquinhos immediately retreated, Verratti and Vitinha ran to the left and right front of Messi, Neymar began to move towards the side of the penalty area, Sarabia also retreated to the top of the penalty area, and the wingbacks Ashraf and Nuno Mendes on both sides pulled to the side and kept a certain distance from Roma's full-backs.
A set of supporting positions with Messi as the core of the organization was immediately in place. There were supporting points everywhere, including short passes, long passes, through passes, back passes, and side passes. Any kind of cooperation can be carried out in the first time.
This is the status of the king of football.
On the Roma side, Matic re-marked Neymar who was moving inwards. Although the two full-backs did not move up to meet the wing-backs of Paris Saint-Germain, they firmly occupied the defensive area.
Ibanez moved forward again, following the retreating Sarabia, while Enzo also moved forward slightly, guarding behind Chen Xiaoliang to prevent Messi's second attack or direct breakthrough.
The two wingers Pellegrini and Zaniolo stood on the inside of Paris Saint-Germain's wingbacks to cut off any side balls that might be passed from the middle.
Cesco moved closer to Messi and harassed him.
A defensive formation with Chen Xiaoliang as the core of the midfield was also activated accordingly. The three lines were ready to move inward to the middle at any time, forcing Paris Saint-Germain to transfer the ball to either side of the wing.
Galthie just sighed to Joao: "Mourinho is definitely a genius. Although some players in this team are not very talented, they will consciously adjust their defensive decisions according to the positions of their teammates in defense. This is obviously the result of the coach's continuous reinforcement in normal training."
Joao: "Jose has always said that the coach can only play a 6% role at most, helping players form muscle memory and habitual thinking. But to reach the 8th point, it is necessary to rely on the players themselves to make the fastest and most accurate judgments based on tactics in the ever-changing situation."
Galty: "What if it gets a perfect score of 10?"
Joao: "To get full marks, you need the full support of your teammates and constant stimulation from your opponents. When facing a 10-point opponent, you can either be stimulated to perform at 10 points or be completely destroyed. He said that when Inter Milan won the treble, defeating Barcelona and Bayern, the players were completely stimulated by their opponents to unleash their inner potential."
On the field, the atmosphere was so heated that even the fans in the stands were making noises to cheer.
However, Messi and Chen Xiaoliang were not disturbed by the outside world at all. At this moment, they only had the ball and each other in their eyes.
Messi suddenly dropped his shoulders!
Chen Xiaoliang has only watched Messi's dribbling highlights countless times, and he knows that this is the King of Football's preparatory move to launch an attack!
Then Messi stepped his left foot to the left side of the ball and his body tilted.
Chen Xiaoliang immediately turned to the right, but took half a step back instead of forward.
With his current 15% marking, he is already unable to predict the direction of his teammate Kva's dribbling, not to mention that his opponent is Messi, who is the world's best dribbler.
If he wants to steal the ball, he can only rely on the opportunity when the ball and the player separate in an instant to kick the ball. However, it is impossible to wait for Messi to make a mistake with the ball. It must be achieved through close harassment.
The worst thing to do when defending Messi alone is to press forward in an open area. In nine out of ten cases, you will be thrown away by his sudden start and dribbling.
Messi saw that Chen Xiaoliang was not affected by his first fake move of lowering his shoulders, but instead turned sideways to guard his left front. He immediately retracted his left foot and pushed it to the right, then pushed off with his right foot and broke through with the ball to the right.
Chen Xiaoliang immediately turned his body to the left, and just as he adjusted, Messi changed direction again and rushed to his right. Chen Xiaoliang accelerated backwards and opened his hands to assist in his blocking.
After taking two steps, Messi poked the ball and kicked it to Neymar who was moving inward from the wing. Then, when everyone's attention was attracted by the passed ball, he immediately made a high-speed forward move from Chen Xiaoliang's left side without the ball.
Chen Xiaoliang chased closely, but Neymar cut inwards horizontally towards the middle.
Chen Xiaoliang saw that Messi was running towards the left side of his own penalty area, and Neymar was about to reach the top of the penalty area, and Matic was left behind by Neymar in the first two steps. He had no choice but to assist Matic in double-teaming Neymar, who could shoot at any time near the top of the penalty area.
He is a central midfielder, and it is impossible for him to always play man-to-man defense and follow a player from the opposing team all over the field.
When Neymar saw Chen Xiaoliang coming, he kicked the ball immediately!
But he didn't shoot, but pushed it forward to the right with the arch of his foot!
Everyone around subconsciously looked towards the penalty area as the ball rolled. Sarabia, who had retreated from the penalty spot to the penalty area line, was making a move to receive the ball under the siege of Ibanez and Enzo.
When he saw Enzo, Chen Xiaoliang seemed to experience a moment of suffocation!
This ball is not passed to Sarabia!
Just as Chen Xiaoliang thought, Sarabia's feet slipped and the ball continued to roll back between his legs.
Messi, who had made a small circle by running without the ball, suddenly made an offside move and appeared in front of the ball!
He stopped the ball while running, and after stopping the ball, he leaned to the left, as if he was going to shoot into the far corner with his left foot.
Patricio, who was already in a one-on-one situation, had no choice but to attack, rushing out from the goal line and pounced on Messi!
Messi dribbled with his left foot, just like when he copied Maradona's stunt of dribbling past five players and finally getting past the goalkeeper against Getafe. When Patricio fell down and was about to pounce on him, he dribbled past him and pushed his right foot towards the near post near the baseline.
"Goal~~~~!!!"
The home broadcast and the cheers of the fans on the scene sounded at the same time!
No matter it is a warm-up match or a formal match, Messi's performance is always the most concerned issue for major football media and fans from all over the world the next day.
What’s more, it was such a wonderful goal!
The replay on the big screen at the top of the stands on one side of the stadium once again showed how Messi moved.
After getting rid of Chen Xiaoliang's defense and passing the ball, he took advantage of Neymar's strong cut in the middle and Sarabia's retreat to pretend to receive the ball, bypassed Malaysia on the right side of the penalty area, and waited for the moment Neymar passed the ball to get in and receive the ball in an offside position.
At this time, since the left half was the strong side, Malaysia, Ibanez, Enzo and others were all facing the strong side with their backs to the weak side, and no one paid attention to Messi's unpredictable off-ball running at all!
Not only were the players on the Paris Saint-Germain bench applauding Messi, but some players on the Roma bench were also whispering to each other. It was obvious that even though their team lost the ball, they were still excited about Messi's wonderful performance.
Galthie also stood up and applauded. Although he was humble and had never coached a top club and his past coaching record was not brilliant, he still proudly said to Joao: "Maybe I am not a genius like Mourinho, but we have the three best geniuses in the world."
In the 18th minute, Paris Saint-Germain scored the first goal at home and led Roma 1-0!
Chen Xiaoliang also took a look at what was happening on the big screen.
He couldn't help but sigh that he was both lucky and unfortunate to face the 35-year-old Messi.
Fortunately, if it was the 25-year-old Messi, he might have been like Boateng back then, being shaken by Boateng's short-distance changes of direction and shoulder-dropping bursts and falling on the spot.
Now, even if he is not sure of Messi's breakthrough route for a moment, he can still rely on his speed and physical fitness to hold his position.
But as a professional player, he really wanted to face off against Messi, who was at his peak age and scored 91 goals throughout the year, to see how great such a person was.
However, facing the early goal loss, Mourinho on the Roma bench was not at all panicked.
He stood up and waved to Chelik who was standing next to him, and then did the same to Chen Xiaoliang, and the two of them immediately ran to his side.
Mourinho approached them and said something in a mumble. The two nodded continuously, then returned to the field and conveyed the message to Malaysia and Enzo respectively.
But before Chen Xiaoliang turned around and prepared to leave, Mourinho pulled him aside and spoke to him alone.
The commentators on France 4, the largest sports TV station in France, are two meritorious players of the French national team. One is Malouda who has retired, and the other is Pogba, who returned to Juventus as a free agent after his contract with Manchester United ended this summer.
Just by looking at this commentary combination, you can tell that France 4 TV is going to "do something new".
But then again, when it comes to being good at what they do, media all over the world are the same. Who wouldn't want to seize such a good traffic opportunity?
The host asked the two Frenchmen what Mourinho would say.
The host first looked at Pogba, who sneered meaningfully with the corner of his mouth, but still stretched out his hand to signal the older Malouda to answer first.
Malouda said: "Jose must be planning a countermeasure. Messi has avoided Roma's frontal defense twice by running without the ball. Both goals were a collaboration between him and Neymar. The two did not enter the rhythm designed by Roma at all, but worked together to break through the Roma center that was guarded by layers of defense."
The host nodded, but it was obvious that this was not the answer he wanted.
Malouda, who was bought by Mourinho to Chelsea, has always respected and been grateful to his mentor. Although Mourinho was sacked from the Blues for the first time not long after, Malouda always believed that he was the best coach he had ever followed.
Pogba seemed not surprised by Malouda's answer, but he widened his eyes when the former spoke, and it was unclear whether he was expressing surprise or deliberately making a joke.
He said: "Some people are very good at brainwashing. It is obvious that this Roma team cannot defend Messi. It is not because their players are not good, but because some coaches who only know how to defend are outdated. But people always need a job to support their families and satisfy their vanity. After all, some people have not reached retirement age and have always claimed that they are the most special one."
The supporter was amused and immediately asked, "So how do you think the next game will develop?"
Pogba shook his head: "It was a one-sided game. Messi was in very good form today. Only by changing the coach can Roma have a chance."
“A-choo!”
Mourinho on the sidelines looked confidently at Chen Xiaoliang who returned to the field, and was slightly surprised.
Europe is generally hot this year. In mid-to-late July, Paris even saw the long-awaited temperature of 39 degrees Celsius. Today it was also 31 degrees Celsius during the day.
How could I sneeze when I was standing on the sidelines with the back of my clothes soaked with sweat?
