The game goes on.
Except for Abraham, the rest of Roma's players were particularly relaxed tonight. Of course, this relaxation was only psychological. They had no burden and fully enjoyed the process of the game.
For Chen Xiaoliang, as the game went on, due to the continuous retreat of Empoli's formation, his position moved forward involuntarily, and finally he "squeezed" the two attacking midfielders Dybala and Pellegrini to the position of shadow striker.
In the 30th minute, Spinazzola made an emergency stop and cut inside from the left, shook off the defense of the opponent's right wingback Haas, and passed the ball to the front of the penalty area. Chen Xiaoliang took advantage of the fact that the defensive players on the left half were originally looking towards the sideline. As Qiu passed the ball to the middle, he turned around and adjusted from left to right, and directly passed the ball to Pellegrini on the left side of the penalty area without stopping.
It’s a pity that Pellegrini’s low shot was too straight and the ball was directly confiscated by goalkeeper Vicario.
Just one minute later, Vicario's long kick was headed out by Cristante. Chen Xiaoliang received the ball and passed it to the right this time. Binia got the ball on the penalty area line and shot directly, but the ball was a little higher.
Within two minutes, two consecutive scoring opportunities were missed because of the players' final shot. The two players themselves felt very regretful. Although the result was not perfect, in terms of the process, the completion of each offensive routine was the result of tactical execution.
This is the scene that any head coach wants to see, which means that his inculcation of the team's philosophy and tactical arrangements have achieved clear results, and the fans can also see what the coach has brought to the team, rather than just kicking the ball around blindly on the field and finally scoring a goal by chance.
This kind of team that is treading on watermelon peels and sliding wherever it goes will sooner or later show its true colors.
The score of 2-0 remained until the 63rd minute. Empoli, playing at home, only got some sporadic attacking opportunities. The number of shots for both sides reached 6 to 18, and the number of shots on target was even more disparate - 1 to 11.
Mourinho replaced Dybala and Chen Xiaoliang with young players Zalewski and Volpato.
The frontcourt is toothless and the midfield is weak. Although the defense is supported by Gvardiol, defense is not like offense. Offense can be completed alone in a flash of inspiration, but defense still needs to rely on the support of the entire system.
The hard-working Empoli scored a goal in the 88th minute. Right-back Stojanovic made a cross at a 45-degree angle. The ball went straight across the middle, but bounced after landing at the back post. Captain Bandinet headed the ball into Roma's goal without jumping up while running.
Although the final score was 1 to 2, Roma still took away 3 points, but this goal was the best consolation for the Empoli players who did not give up all night.
At the last moment, Forti saw that Mourinho's expression changed and he had something in his mind, but he didn't say it.
Whether it is last season or this season, the team's performance is still too dependent on the performance of a few individual players. Despite the arrival of strong reinforcements such as Enzo and Dybala, the team's central axis can be said to be the strongest in Serie A, but the disadvantage is that once one of them is missing, the team's performance on the field will immediately drop to a level, especially once Chen Xiaoliang leaves the field, control of the midfield will easily be taken away by the opponent.
It's like Messi and Barcelona last season. One went to a new team and was somewhat unable to adapt to new teammates and new tactical concepts, while the other lost its core team of more than ten years and no longer knew how to attack. In the Champions League group stage, they were humiliated by Bayern and Benfica in succession, and finally ranked third in the group with 2 goals and 9 goals conceded in 6 games. They then played in the Europa League, where they lost to Frankfurt, ranked 11th in the Bundesliga, in two rounds and missed the semi-finals.
To put it bluntly, Roma is now a little overly dependent on Chen Xiaoliang.
When the midfield defense missed a man, they knew he would come to fill the position, and the team switched from defense to offense. The first reaction of the backcourt was to pass the ball to him, while the frontcourt players were busy running on their own, knowing that he would pass the ball to themselves as soon as he got the ball.
From a tactical point of view, this is a good performance of the team's overall tactical coordination. Everyone knows what they should do around the core of the team in a certain situation on the field. However, from the perspective of personnel rotation, this is a huge hidden danger.
What should we do if Chen Xiaoliang can't play? We originally hoped that Enzo would play as a defensive midfielder, Wijnaldum in the midfield, and Dybala in the frontcourt. Such a midfield and frontcourt combination would not lose to any opponent in Serie A. But now Wijnaldum is still in the hospital. Enzo and Dybala will have to start with Chen Xiaoliang when playing against strong teams.
Cesco's unexpected minor injury has made Mourinho aware of the crisis. He can only pray that the team will suffer fewer injuries and rotate players in less intense games as much as possible.
In the sixth round of the league, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Napoli all defeated their opponents with a one-goal advantage and won all three points, while Juventus and Atalanta both suffered upsets at home, with the former drawing 2-2 with Salernitana, who were one place away from relegation last season, and the latter tied 1-1 with newly promoted Macremonagna.
In the standings, Roma continues to rank first with 5 wins, 1 draw and 16 points;
Three teams with 4 wins and 2 draws, Napoli, Atalanta and AC Milan all have 14 points, ranking 2nd to 4th respectively based on goal difference;
Inter Milan ranks 5th with 4 wins, 2 losses and 12 points, while Juventus ranks only 9th with 2 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss and 9 points.
But Chen Xiaoliang still expressed his respect for Juventus when he was interviewed by the Champions League. In the past ten years, Serie A has been able to retain the fourth place in UEFA League and have four Champions League places despite its slow development. Juventus has made great contributions. All the strong Serie A teams should thank them for this.
In the past 11 seasons of the past 10 years, the top five leagues have reached the Champions League quarterfinals 27 times in La Liga, 18 times in the Premier League, 16 times in the Bundesliga, 10 times in Ligue 1 and 8 times in Serie A.
In the 8 times in Serie A, Juventus had 5 times, Milan had 1 time, Roma had 1 time, and Atalanta had 1 time.
The number of times they reached the semi-finals is 17 times in La Liga, 10 times in Premier League, 9 times in Bundesliga, 4 times in Ligue 1 and 3 times in Serie A. Among these 3 times, Juventus reached the semi-finals twice and Roma reached the semi-finals once.
The only two times they reached the finals were also contributed by Juventus.
In the league, they are rivals internally, but in the Champions League, we all represent Serie A externally. I hope the three giants can perform well in the Champions League.
When accepting this interview, Chen Xiaoliang and the whole team were already in Glasgow, preparing for the second round of the Champions League group stage against Rangers.
After flying 2,000 kilometers northwest, they came from Rome, where the maximum temperature was 26 degrees and the minimum temperature was 10 degrees in September, to Glasgow, where the maximum temperature was also 26 degrees and the minimum temperature was 10 degrees.
Although Glasgow's latitude exceeds that of the Greater Khingan Range in the northernmost part of the northeast of the Red Country, the British Isles are affected by the warm Atlantic current and have a standard marine climate. Even in January and February, when the temperature in the Greater Khingan Range is almost minus 30 degrees Celsius, the temperature in Glasgow remains around 0 degrees. It is actually much warmer than many inland places in France and Germany at lower latitudes.
There is no problem with the climate, and the two teams are relatively familiar with each other. Most of Roma's players are not unfamiliar with this place. When playing against Celtic in the Europa Cup last season, Rangers took the initiative to provide Roma with a training ground, and the two teams also organized a training match.
Although they have become opponents this time, the return of Chen Xiaoliang, who is still the club's cash cow more than a year after leaving the team, still made Rangers chairman Dave turn it into a heartwarming drama of returning home.
We took the initiative to invite Roma to arrive in Glasgow one day in advance and directly opened the Ibrox Stadium for the entire Roma team to train on the field. Of course, arranging for the young players from the Red Country Youth Training Camp established by Chen Xiaoliang at Rangers to watch the game was also an indispensable part.
Although these young players will never get a work permit, the best among them will join the Ibiza club bought by Chen Xiaoliang in Spain when they are 14-16 years old. According to FIFA regulations, these players will be counted as players produced by the Rangers Club's youth training. When they transfer in the future, they will receive a youth training compensation of 5% of the total transfer fee, which will be distributed proportionally according to the length of time the players have spent in youth training in different clubs.
Take Chen Xiaoliang for example. He only stayed in Tottenham for more than two months and was not considered a Tottenham youth training player at all. Instead, he became a Rangers youth training player. Although Chen Xiaoliang spent longer time in Rome, the proportion of time he could be allocated in the 18-23 years old youth training stage was lower than that in the under-18 stage.
In the transfer from Tottenham to Roma, they received 5%.
This means that even if Roma is included in the future, Rangers will be able to get 2.5% of the transfer fee of Chen Xiaoliang. If it is 100 million pounds, it will be 2.5 million pounds. Considering that the weekly salary paid by the club to Chen Xiaoliang when he was at Rangers was only 1,000 pounds, this money is like falling from the sky.
Dave would love for him to transfer every year and sell at a higher price...
Besides, as long as the coaches in the youth training camp teach hard, it is not Dave's concern whether the kids can play well or not.
With Chen Xiaoliang's current unstoppable competitive form and reputation in football, as long as this youth training camp exists, the club will continue to attract attention from the outside world, especially from the Red Country.
These days, attention means traffic, and traffic means that the club has a basis for monetization. This is the same principle as the Premier League reform that moved game times forward a lot.
Playing the game at noon in the local country means that Asian audiences can watch the game during prime time at night. Even if most of these games are free and broadcast free of charge, the persistence of ten or twenty years has brought traffic and attention that the other four major leagues cannot match.
As a result, broadcasting rights are becoming more and more expensive.
Broadcasters are also happy. Although most of the games are broadcast for free, the prices of the advertisements and sponsorships they sell also rise after the traffic is diverted.
For Premier League clubs, rentals for everything from jersey sponsors and stadium sponsors to billboards on the sidelines of the stadium have all risen sharply, because those companies know that their brands will be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world on match days and in post-match highlights, along with the players on the field.
In comparison, season ticket, admission ticket and jersey sales are only a small part of the revenue of the big clubs.
So Dave must seize every opportunity to hype up Chen Xiaoliang's elements.
At the end of the day, it's all business.
Rangers fans expressed great support for Dave's friendly behavior. Although they did not like Roma and Mourinho, they loved the boy who came from their hometown and became famous, so they had to give him a grand welcome.
The core reason behind this is that the two teams are not at similar levels of strength. If Lewandowski returns to Bayern, Bayern will welcome him for the sake of face, but they will still fight hard against Barcelona in the game.
I want to fuck you hard and curse you at the same time: I told you to run, I told you to run, you want to win the Ballon d’Or by running to Barcelona? I’ll kick you to the Europa League…
UEFA is certainly not a fool. When they were drawing the groups, they put Chen Xiaoliang's face against Rangers on a par with Lewandowski's match against Bayern and Haaland's match against Dortmund, which shows that they also wanted to hype up a passionate battle against their old club.
Before the game started, a reporter was specially sent to interview Chen Xiaoliang. This exclusive interview, like the press conferences before and after the game, is an obligation that the participating teams cannot refuse and must fulfill.
However, in order to protect players and clubs from being harassed all the time, there are strict restrictions on the number of interviews, questions asked and time.
After dealing with the interviews, the team's focus is still on the game.
Unlike in the past when Forti was the only one explaining the opponent's situation, this time Chen Xiaoliang was the one who spoke for a large part of the pre-match tactical meeting.
There is no way. No matter how professional the scouting report is, it cannot be as detailed as the former teammates who are with you day and night.
Compared to more than a year ago, the Rangers' main lineup has changed very little.
Aribo transferred to Premier League Southampton for 7.1 million pounds, Balogun joined Championship team Queens Park Rangers on a free transfer, 40-year-old veteran Defoe joined League One team Sunderland on a free transfer, and the most powerful one is Nathan Paterson. The 21-year-old full-back, who has a very good relationship with Chen Xiaoliang, went to Everton for 14 million pounds and has become Everton's main force this season.
Rangers bought two defenders, Yilmaz and Ben Davies, from Besiktas and Liverpool as reinforcements, and also spent 2.5 million euros to buy striker Colak from the Greek team PAOK, where Chen Xiaoliang had played against before.
He and "Big Black" Morelos are ranked 4th and 5th in the Scottish Premier League scorer list with 5 and 6 goals respectively, but are still behind the top scorer of the list, Kento Furuhashi, who has scored 11 goals.
The 170cm tall and 63kg Xiao Zi had a goal rate of 0.9 for Celtic, almost one goal per game. Without Chen Xiaoliang, there was really no one in the entire Scottish Premier League who could defend against him.
Nowadays, the trend of technical football has swept across Europe, and the Scottish Premier League has long stopped playing hard and physical games.
However, this young man is not having a good time. Japan national team coach Moriyasu Ichi took his teammate Maeda Dairan, who scored only one-third of his goals, to Qatar, but excluded him from the World Cup roster...
38-year-old Steve Davis and 41-year-old goalkeeper McGregor are still the team's main starters. Captain Tavernier still "monopolizes" the penalty kick right, 4 out of 4, and is the only defender in the top ten of the Scottish Premier League scorer list...
Chen Xiaoliang was holding a remote control pen and explaining to his teammates next to the screen. As he spoke, he felt as if he was recalling his own football beginnings.
This emotion has been spreading, whether it was inviting Shen Mengyu and Shen Menglu who played for Celtic Women's Football Team to watch the game, or going to the Rangers Club to meet with old friends. Until the moment he led his teammates into the stadium on September 14, facing the thunderous cheers of Ibrox Stadium, he had the illusion that he was still playing for this team.
Mourinho naturally knew his captain's mood. Although the opponent was not strong, he would not rotate Chen Xiaoliang in this game. He believed that his old teammates, although serious, would not kill Chen Xiaoliang and cause serious injuries.
The two teams stood side by side in the middle of the court under the lights. When the host announced the numbers and names of the players and read out Chen Xiaoliang, countless posters and slogans were raised along with cheers. The cheers were so loud that they completely masked the intensity of the cheers for any of their own players.
“Welcome Home”
“We are finally facing the monsters of our own creation”
"The Undefeated King of the Rangers"
But there were also some signs that expressed both welcome and encouragement to the homeless.
“You’d never lost at Ibrox until yesterday!”
"Old Davis is 38 years old, please treat him like a father"
This friendly atmosphere spread to every corner, and even the head coaches of both teams, Mourinho and Van Bronckhorst, chatted and laughed for a while on the sidelines.
Although Van Bronckhorst really didn't want this game to be turned into a friendly match, he had no ability to change anything except mobilizing his players.
But he also understood this feeling. The perfect cooperation between this red countryman and Gerrard led such a century-old giant to go from bankruptcy to promotion from the fourth-level league back to the Scottish Premier League. After five years of hard work, they once again overthrew their arch-rivals Celtic and achieved an unbeaten season and won the championship. This is enough for fans to remember for a lifetime.
Dave brought the Friedkin father and son who were invited to the room to the No. 33 box named after Chen Xiaoliang to watch the game while tasting wine.
It seems to be hinting to the Americans: Look, although my body is with you, my heart is still with me.
The Roma boss didn't care: If you have the ability, buy it back.
Gerrard, who had just led Aston Villa to a draw with the powerful Manchester City at home a few days ago, also appeared in the box. When the camera was pointed at him and he waved to the fans, he was once again cheered by the audience.
However, the on-site director was tactful enough to only give him one shot. Although he has had a hard time in the Premier League and has been at the top of the list of odds of being sacked so far this season, his achievements at Rangers are still enough to make the current head coach Van Bronckhorst feel the pressure.
On the court, when the two teams shook hands, every old teammate hugged Chen Xiaoliang. Even when he was on the side with Tavernier, they both told the referee that it didn't matter who could kick off first.
But what satisfied both head coaches was that after the referee blew the whistle to start the game, both sides immediately showed their all-out attitude and spirit, especially the Rangers players, who did not want to be looked down upon by the defending Serie A champions and Chen Xiaoliang on the court.
Roma changed back to 4-2-3-1, with Celik, Mancini, Ibanez and Malacia as the four defenders, and Gvardiol was rested;
Enzo and Matic are double defensive midfielders, Chen Xiaoliang is central midfielder;
Pellegrini was on the right wing, Kva was on the left wing, and Dybala was pushed to the center position, allowing the Argentine to use his agility and positioning to deal with Rangers' tall and strong three center backs.
For Rangers, Goldson, Sands and Ben Davies formed a three-man defense, with Barisic at left wingback and Tavernier at right wingback;
The three defensive midfielders are 30-year-old Ryan Jack, 38-year-old Davis and 34-year-old Arfield;
There are eight people in the backcourt, and only two people in the frontcourt, Morelos and Kent.
Among the starting 11, except for American central defender Sands and Ben Davies who transferred from Liverpool, the others are Chen Xiaoliang’s old teammates, and they are very familiar with each other.
Before the game, Van Bronckhorst also held a meeting with the players to discuss how to limit Chen Xiaoliang's performance in the midfield. What's more, Roma now has the elusive Dybala and Kvaratskhelia who can pass Arnold like crossing the road.
Everyone made different suggestions, such as adding a few more young players to compete with Chen Xiaoliang in terms of physical strength, using four defenders and five midfielders to increase the control of the midfield, and combining the wingers and the middle to play more on the wing to bypass Chen Xiaoliang. In the end, it was the usually taciturn old Davis who said something to put an end to these fantastic plans:
"Physical strength? Who among you can compete with that kid in physical strength? When he first came two years ago, he didn't have any skills, but he became a starter by relying on his steals and his endless stamina. Two years later, he can pass, control, and shoot, and his body is as strong as a bull. Even if you catch up with him, can you defend him?"
"You used five midfielders to control the ball, and pushed forward to force Roma to counterattack. Do you think you guys are fast enough, or do you think we are not dying fast enough?"
"A bunch of idiots, just talking nonsense."
Everyone knew that old Davis had a bad temper, but what he said did make sense.
In the end, Van Bronckhorst decided to play a defensive counterattack and use Mourinho's bus tactics to deal with Mourinho.
For this reason, he did not use the main striker Jolak, but instead used the faster Kent.
There is no need for a midfield either. Three veterans are stationed there and act as a screen in front of the penalty area. Then, when there is a chance to get the ball, they will shoot to the two flanks if possible. If not, they will just kick the ball and let the two forwards, who don't have to return to defense, rush forward.
This resulted in the current situation on the field where Roma, famous for its defensive counterattacks, surrounded Rangers.
But don't think that Roma has the upper hand and the situation will develop in their favor. Cesco's absence leaves Dybala without any support in the iron-clad penalty area, and the height disadvantage also makes it impossible for him to make high crosses from the wing. Roma go back and forth outside the penalty area, and in the end can only rely on Kva's breakthrough on the left and Chen Xiaoliang and Dybala's long shots outside the penalty area to create threats.
On the contrary, the Rangers, who gave their all and almost fought to the death, actually made some progress on Roma's two relatively weak flanks.
And the most active person was Barisic, who knew Chen Xiaoliang best back then.
In the 12th minute, he received a pass from Davis on the left and drove straight into the frontcourt. After passing it to Arfield in the middle, the Canadian veteran made a long shot that was fast and fierce, which tested Patricio's concentration. The Roma goalkeeper flew to save the ball.
In the 21st minute, it was Barisic again. He relied on his speed to overtake Celik on the left, then made a cross from the bottom. Captain Tavernier on the other side rushed over and headed the ball, but was hugged by Patricio.
But the stupid Morelos did not stop his sprint towards the goal and knocked down Patricio, and was shown a yellow card by the referee.
Despite the accident, no one from either team quarreled. Morelos apologized sincerely and Patricio, who looked a little painful after falling to the ground, also waved his hand to indicate that it was okay.
After conceding two threatening counterattacks, Roma's two full-backs, especially the slower Celik, consciously reduced the frequency of their pressing. The first half ended with Roma surrounding half the field but still failing to score, and the team only had 67% of the ball possession.
Apart from those two chances, Rangers failed to create any good counterattack opportunities afterwards.
During the half-time break, in the locker room, Mourinho did not say much to the players. Instead, he let everyone rest on their own, which was rare. He praised the players' performance and said that goals would definitely come.
But he called Chen Xiaoliang to a corner of the room away from others.
"Chen, you didn't play well today. This is the most conservative game you've played since I met you."
Chen Xiaoliang nodded.
Mourinho continued: "You have concerns in your heart. Your performance on the field seems to be mechanically executing tactics, dividing the sides, advancing, controlling the ball, defending, everything is done well, but this is compared with others. If you compare it with yourself, it is not good."
"I know that this club is a little different from other teams. As the spiritual sustenance of half of the people in this city, you helped them win their first championship trophy after they went bankrupt, relegated and returned to the Scottish Premier League, but this is not a reason for you to show mercy today."
"Just like I took you to the Meazza to play Inter Milan, I will not let you lose to Inter Milan just because Inter Milan fans are grateful to me for bringing them the treble."
"Because I am the head coach of Roma now, and you are the captain of Roma now. You can greet them before the game, you can walk around the field to thank them after the game, but you can't do that for the 90 minutes on the field."
"I know about you in Glasgow. Gerrard told me that it was your hard work in training and games that convinced all your teammates and made them recognize you as the captain. Now in Rome, it is the same."
"What do you think of people's behavior today? Are you letting them win out of pity?"
Chen Xiaoliang nodded again.
Even though Mourinho said a lot of things, which seemed to be correct, Chen Xiaoliang was not really prepared to let him go.
But since the head coach had already said it and pulled me aside to save face, I decided not to refute him.
He has his own plans in mind, and he knows the old guys on the field better than anyone else.
At the start of the second half, neither side made any substitutions.
After the game started, Roma had already moved back and forth around Rangers' iron bucket formation, and compared to the first half, Chen Xiaoliang played more conservatively, and even the few long shots disappeared.
Not only Mourinho was puzzled, but the players from both teams and the fans in the stands were also puzzled.
They have watched many of Chen Xiaoliang's games. Why is the usually energetic and bold Red Chinese player so quiet today?
Dybala, Kva, even Pellegrini and Enzo at the back have a much stronger presence than the Roma captain .
In the past, he would go to the wing to participate in the attack, but today he did not go there. Instead, he kept passing the ball to the two full-backs and kept gesturing to urge Celik, who wanted to retreat more safely, to press forward, which forced Barisic to make several quick advances to the wing. However, with Chen Xiaoliang and Enzo guarding the middle, Rangers did not create any more threats.
In a blink of an eye, it was 65 minutes. Two-thirds of the game had passed, and it was already in the reasonable range for making substitutions.
Mourinho couldn't help but ask Forti: "Chen's condition is not good today. Should we replace him and let Abraham rush forward?"
Forti couldn't help but smile slyly, then immediately calmed down: "No, no, no, I think Abraham can play, but it's better to replace Pellegrini."
Mourinho frowned: "What are you laughing at?"
Fudi quickly defended himself: "I...no...I just wanted to...this...even if he is a man, there will always be a few days when he is not in good condition. He is only 18 years old. Although he is already very strong, there are some things that he still has to experience to understand, right? Hehe."
Mourinho didn't say anything at first, but Forti couldn't help but urged again: "Then I'll go and replace Abraham."
Mourinho seemed to understand something, and turned his head again and squinted at Forti: "You kid...did you do something secretly with that kid?"
Forti quickly waved his hand: "No, I'm just an assistant coach and he's the captain. I have to listen to you about the team. It's my job to suggest substitutions, hehe."
Mourinho looked Forti up and down. At this time, the ball went out of bounds and it was a dead ball. Mourinho looked at the field and found that Chen Xiaoliang was staring at him. However, when he saw him looking at him, he immediately turned his head and pretended not to look at him and returned to the game.
Without even looking at Forti, Mourinho said, "Switch!"
But I thought to myself: Damn it... I want to see what you two are up to.
The fourth official raised the card, Pellegrini was replaced by Abraham.
Dybala originally wanted to return to the right side and let Abraham advance in the penalty area, but Chen Xiaoliang told him when making the substitution that he should partner with Abraham in the penalty area and he would go to the right side more often to launch attacks.
Starting from the 66th minute after the substitutions, the dull game suddenly changed.
The person who initiated this change was, of course, the absolute protagonist of this game, Chen Xiaoliang.
In the siege state with a highly forward-pressing formation, he kept appearing on the right side, allowing Matic to push forward to connect the middle, while Enzo moved slightly back to deal with the opponent's counterattack.
Celik naturally noticed the captain's change, and after getting the ball on the right, he immediately passed it to Chen Xiaoliang who was on the side.
Chen Xiaoliang looked up and saw Barisic coming up to him: "You're finally here, I thought you didn't miss me anymore."
Chen Xiaoliang chuckled: "You old man, you are still so disgusting, be careful!"
After saying that, the ball moved forward and rushed up like a gust of wind.
Although the two haven't played football for more than a year and their tacit understanding is long gone, the foundation of mutual understanding is still there.
However, after this confrontation, Barisic found himself naive.
How could this person in front of me be the same Red Country kid I was familiar with? !
But he is still the same person as then!
As soon as Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball, he knew that Barisic would habitually come up to him and stick to him. When he found that he couldn't stick to him, he would reach out to pull him. The two of them had seen these tricks countless times in training.
He stretched out his left hand and swung it backwards, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, and knocked away Barisic's right hand that had been stretched out but had not yet touched him, then he accelerated and shook off his old teammate.
Barisic shouldn't be that slow, but he followed Roma's back-and-forth defense for most of the court, and sprinted at full speed several times in the counterattack. He no longer had enough energy to catch up with the violent dribbling of Chen Xiaoliang, who had been playing leisurely for more than 60 minutes.
Sands, the left center back who once represented the United States in winning the CONCACAF Gold Cup, came on to fill in. He was one of the only two players on the field who had not been teammates with Chen Xiaoliang.
The young and energetic Sands did not take the red Chinese man who was younger than himself seriously. He came all the way from the United States to Europe, and the Scottish Premier League was just the first stop. If he could defeat this famous Roma captain, he would definitely become famous.
Sands lowered his head, bent over, and moved sideways to the left baseline, focusing on defending against Chen Xiaoliang's cross.
The coach said before the game that this guy is great at crossing the ball but rarely shoots in the penalty area.
Chen Xiaoliang then reversed the center of gravity of Sands, swung his right foot to the left to spike the ball, then turned his body and gently pushed the ball forward with his left foot, and then he moved to the right side of Sands!
The embarrassed Sanz turned around immediately, and seeing that Chen Xiaoliang was about to pass him, he immediately fell to the ground and stretched his legs to tackle the ball!
Under normal circumstances, Chen Xiaoliang would have dodged it with a simple jump, but where was this? In the restricted area!
He deliberately slowed down, then protected his right foot on the outside of the ball, and was hit hard by Sands's tackle.
“Beep!”
The referee who saw it clearly pointed to the penalty spot without hesitation and gave Sands a yellow card!
Mourinho seemed to understand Chen Xiaoliang's plan and asked Xiang Forti: "Is this his plan? Wait until the second half when his physical strength reaches the limit before exerting force?"
Forti is a very careful person: "Ah? What plan? There is no such plan before the game, but it seems that the opponent's players' physical strength has indeed decreased a lot. Chen's passing is really beautiful!"