Chapter 364: Commander Tu, the enemy’s army has arrived at the Allianz Arena in Munich!
Chen Xiaoliang put the ball on the penalty spot, picked it up again, then looked up at Kepa.
The Spanish goalkeeper had been standing on the penalty spot, with his hands on his hips, looking at the referee's decision "helplessly".
But the bumpy and sunken penalty spot in Chen Xiaoliang's eyes still exposed Kepa's little trick.
Facing Chen Xiaoliang's eyes, Kepa frowned and lowered his head pretending to adjust his gloves.
Chen Xiaoliang bent down, stomped the surrounding grass to make it firmer, and put the ball on it again.
According to the team's ranking, Rashford, B Fee and Chen Xiaoliang are the top three penalty takers, but B Fee has already left the field. Rashford saw that Chen Xiaoliang had a firm attitude, and that this was a penalty created by Chen Xiaoliang, and that he had also given him a lot of assists and passes this season, so Rashford patted Chen Xiaoliang on the back to encourage him, and stood outside the penalty area with his hands on his hips waiting.
Chen Xiaoliang placed the ball, took a step back, and gestured a few times with his right foot towards the ball and the left side of the goal.
Kepa certainly noticed this scene. He thought it was a psychological warfare by Chen Xiaoliang.
Even broadcasters in many countries thought so, aiming at the left side and making a fake kick, which was a deliberate signal to Kepa to disrupt his judgment.
Aiming to the left is the most obvious first judgment. This is a deliberate feint and the actual goal is to kick to the right.
To further understand the second level of judgment, it is to make the opponent's goalkeeper have the above idea and rush to the right, but in fact it is still kicking to the left.
To understand further, if you guess that the opponent's goalkeeper will think of the second layer, in fact, this wave is in the third layer and will be kicked to the right.
Kepa was undecided for a moment, but he had his own way, which was to do the opposite and point to the left side of the goal, which is his right side, with his right hand. This is similar to Chen Xiaoliang's behavior.
"Beep!" The referee Atwell blew the whistle, and Chen Xiaoliang, who had retreated several meters, began to run.
Zhan Jun: "Xiaoliang, run up!"
"You guessed the steps very well!"
"Hit the left!"
"Wow! This ball goes in!"
"Kepa guessed the direction correctly and reached out. The angle of Xiaoliang's shot was not tricky, but the speed of the ball was too fast."
"The only martial arts in the world that cannot be defeated is speed!"
After scoring the goal, Chen Xiaoliang rushed to the sidelines, jumped high and punched. After landing, he pointed at the number 7 behind him with his thumbs.
In fact, he was not engaging in psychological warfare just now. He was simply aiming at the left side of the goal with his foot.
Although 15's penalty kick ability is not weak, it is not too strong either. In addition, Kepa is by no means an ordinary goalkeeper, so there is no certainty of this ball.
But just like what Zhan Jun said, "speed is the only way to win", Chen Xiaoliang, who lacks accuracy but definitely has more than enough power, is ready to use a powerful shot to defeat his opponent.
3 to 2, leading the score again.
Zhan Jun: "This is Xiaoliang's 4th goal of the new season! Manchester City's away game against West Ham United has not started yet, so his current goal is tied with Haaland and tied for first place in the scorer list!"
"In addition, he has 3 assists, the same as De Bruyne, and is also tied for the top of the assist list!"
"Wow! A player ranked first in both rankings. Although the league has only played four rounds, it is enough to prove Xiaoliang's seamless connection and automatic adaptation to the Premier League!"
Zhang Lu: "We are in great form. Of course, today is also our first match against a strong team. Manchester United's opponents at the beginning of the new season are generally weak."
"It's only when we play against Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle and especially Manchester City that we can create bigger sparks."
Zhan Jun: "Don't forget, they will play away against the Bundesliga giant, Bayern Munich in three days!"
Coincidentally, just after the players' celebration, the camera turned to the stands, where a strange man wearing a sun hat was recording seriously.
Zhan Jun immediately showed off his profound knowledge of football: "Wow! Say Bayern, Bayern is here! The man in the picture is Tuchel's assistant coach, Arnold Michels, who is his right-hand man and confidant!"
"He has worked with Mainz, Dortmund, Chelsea and Bayern for more than ten years. He is here today. It is very likely that Tuchel sent him to inspect Manchester United's status on site."
"After all, for the coach of Bayern Munich, the league title is only a guarantee, and the performance in the Champions League is the reflection of the coaching level."
On the field, the game continues.
Without Leo, Mudrick, who has physical shortcomings, was replaced. Although his movement became more flexible and his defense became more active, the threat on the left side was still greatly reduced.
On the right side, after Tinbell gradually became familiar with Thuram, and because Thuram had attacked too aggressively in the first half, his physical strength obviously began to decline after 70 minutes, and his offensive threat was much less.
Enzo followed Chen Xiaoliang in the middle and kept running. Although he was mentally prepared and knew that this old teammate's endurance level was at the monster level, as Chen Xiaoliang kept running back and forth quickly without the ball, Enzo gradually began to fall behind.
Chen Xiaoliang became more energetic as he ran, and his physical strength had already recovered.
The fans at Old Trafford were very satisfied with the team being equalized twice and taking the lead again twice. The strong will that the team had lacked for a long time seemed to have returned, especially the close combat between Chen Xiaoliang and Leo.
Sometimes, even though fans know that certain behaviors are not allowed by the rules, looking back, behaviors like Cantona's flying kick on fans actually make fans feel a sense of satisfaction over time. To put it simply, it feels great.
Just as everyone knows that war is cruel and peace is precious, but when reading the history books and seeing that one general’s success was achieved at the cost of countless lives and “fire the cannon and blow his mother up”, it still arouses the ambitions in many people’s hearts.
If a shell really fell on the roof of your house, there would be no use for your ambitions.
The same goes for team leaders. Many people hope that players will be tough and even daring, but there is a prerequisite: don't get a red card or be suspended, otherwise it would be stupid.
In the remaining time of the game, Pochettino changed his tactics several times, but Chen Xiaoliang, who retreated to the defensive midfielder position, teamed up with Casemiro to not only block the middle road tightly, but also cooperated with the full-backs on both sides to block the flanks tightly.
Pochettino really had no idea what to do. In the 78th minute, he replaced Enzo with Lukaku, playing as a double center forward, and then kept sending high passes into the penalty area from both sides.
For a while, Chelsea's high-altitude shells kept hitting Manchester United's penalty area, and it really felt like "fire the cannon and blow him up".
Lukaku, who wanted to prove himself in the Premier League very much, tried his best with 200% effort, including heading, positioning and running, but his increasingly uncontrollable weight greatly affected his jumping ability. In addition, Ten Hag replaced Cesco with the team's "strategic weapon" - aircraft carrier Maguire, and the team played a pragmatic formation with five defenders.
When it comes to foot speed and turning speed, Maguire is really not good, but when it comes to high-altitude bombing without ground balls, he is really good.
Manchester United's captain and regular substitute relied on his anti-aircraft firepower time and time again to prevent Chelsea's high-altitude bombing from having any effect until the end of the game.
3 to 2, a goal-scoring battle. In the first match of the BIG7, Manchester United successfully defended their home court and also gave Chelsea, which had a strong recovery and three consecutive wins this season, its first defeat.
Manchester United, which has not been the big brother for many years, has won four consecutive games and ranked first in the standings with 12 points.
But behind them, Manchester City and Arsenal, who both had three wins and one draw, ranked second and third with 10 points. Liverpool and Chelsea, who beat newly promoted Sheffield United 6-0 in this round, ranked fourth and fifth.
Newcastle, who beat Tottenham 2-0 away, are ranked 6th with 2 wins and 2 draws. Although not at the top, they have played against two BIG7 teams, Manchester City and Tottenham, in the first four rounds, as well as Villa, a strong team outside the BIG7. To achieve such results, Eddie Howe's coaching ability has been unanimously recognized by the outside world.
The big battle made all the starting players except Chen Xiaoliang feel quite tired, but the team had no time to rest. They came to the Carrington base the day after the game. The players who played on the field conducted recovery training, while the players who did not play and the substitutes continued to prepare for the game, simulating Bayern's tactics and playing offensive and defensive drills.
Another day passed, and the team assembled in the morning and flew to Munich.
Unlike the hasty changes after taking over halfway last season, Tuchel, who has had a full summer to prepare, has already labeled himself as "Commander Tuchel" for Bayern.
Although in the summer they missed out on Osimhen because he was unwilling to bid against Chelsea, missed out on Kane because the player was unwilling to leave the Premier League, and missed out on Muani because he decided to follow the coach to Tottenham, the young striker Hojlund, who was bought from Atalanta, scored two goals after two games and kept Choupo-Moting, who was thought to be the main center forward, on the bench.
The 20-year-old Hojlund is already the main striker of the Danish national team. He has scored 5 goals in 2 games in the European qualifiers. He joined Atalanta in the summer of 2022. He was thought to be a future seedling. Unexpectedly, with nearly half of his playing opportunities coming as a substitute in the second half, he made 33 appearances in a season and scored 11 league goals. He scored a total of 16 goals in all seasons, scoring 1 goal every 160 minutes, which is already among the ranks of efficient strikers in Serie A.
With pure center forwards in short supply, such performance immediately made him a potential target for major clubs.
In the end, Bayern beat Inter Milan and bought him for 57 million euros. This season he also repaid Tuchel's trust with actions.
Compared to Sesco, who was stereotyped as the fulcrum of the penalty area fight in Rome, the 191cm tall Hojlender is beginning to be called the real little Haaland by more people. He is not only strong and fast, but also left-footed like Haaland. Although there is still a clear gap in shooting skills, his 20-year-old age and Tuchel's training have made the outside world full of expectations.
Chen Xiaoliang was also puzzled. Last season in Serie A, Hoilund didn't play much in the two rounds of the match . Unexpectedly, he has become the starting center of the Bundesliga giant in a blink of an eye.
Playing away from home and facing unfamiliar opponents was already full of challenges. Manchester United encountered an accident on the second day after arriving at Bayern. Lima felt discomfort in his feet during training and the training was terminated early. He was immediately protected and flew to London for examination.
He was ruled out for the season last season due to a metatarsal fracture. He finally recovered from the injury in the summer and was in good shape in the new season, but he did not expect to face the possibility of a recurrence of his old injury before the game.
Ten Hag had to change the tactical arrangement, letting Timber, who had not yet had much time to get used to the team, partner with Varane, who was rested in the previous game, as the central defender combination, and Luke Shaw, who was rested, served as the starting left-back.
In other positions, players such as Rashford and Casemiro who start almost every game, Ten Hag also promised to give them a rest, but only after the game against Bayern.
At the press conference the day before the game, Ten Hag said two things:
1. It feels great to be back in the Champions League. Manchester United will do their best to advance from the group of death.
Second, Bayern is very strong and is the favorite to win the championship. Moreover, Tuchel knows both the Bundesliga and the Premier League, so the game will definitely be very difficult.
On the other hand, Tuchel was more direct. He said that the biggest task against Manchester United was how to limit Chen Xiaoliang. If Chen Xiaoliang could be limited to less than 70%, then winning would be much easier.
At 18:00 on the evening of September 6, both sides arrived at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Half an hour later, the starting lineups of both teams were announced, and the 4-2-3-1 formation was chosen.
For Bayern, the starting goalkeeper is the 37-year-old captain Neuer;
Alphonso Davies is the left back, De Ligt and Pavard are the center backs, and Cancelo is the right back who was snatched from Chelsea;
The double defensive midfielders were Gravenberch and Goretzka. The only surprise was that the attacking midfielder was not Musiala, the favorite for the Golden Boy and Copa Awards after Pedri and Gavi this year, but Kimmich, who had been playing as a defensive midfielder before.
Left winger Sane, right winger Kingsley Coman, center forward Hoilund.
On the Manchester United side, goalkeeper De Gea;
Defenders: Dalot, Varane, Timber, Luke Shaw;
Defensive midfielders Eriksson and Casemiro, central midfielder Chen Xiaoliang;
Left winger Kwa, center forward Cesco, right winger Rashford.
There were no major surprises in the rosters of both teams, as all the main players played, with only some minor adjustments at most. However, when the players from both sides came on the court, not only did the outside world get a slight surprise, but even Chen Xiaoliang himself was happy.
What was surprising was that with Maguire and B Fee both sitting on the bench, Chen Xiaoliang "finally" put on the captain's armband and walked at the front of the team.
Why do I say he was slightly surprised? Because Ten Hag did not make it public before the game, but the fact that Chen Xiaoliang, who had a great success in Rome and received strong support from the locker room, also took over the captain's armband at Manchester United was actually expected by the outside world.
What made Chen Xiaoliang happy was that when the two sides shook hands with each other, not only did he smile, but the referee also smiled.
Emma, it's an old acquaintance. Osato from Italy is the referee on duty tonight. Although the list of names has been released long ago, when the "old friends" meet, the two couldn't help but smile knowingly.
In those two years of Serie A, Roma created many difficulties for Osato. Whenever Mourinho scolded the referee at the post-match press conference, the Italian Football Association would ask Osato to referee Roma's games to quell the controversy.
Bayern, who easily defeated the bottom team Augsburg in the last round of the league, had two more days of rest than Manchester United and was well rested at home. Although Ten Hag had done a lot of psychological preparation for the players, the pace after the start of the game still far exceeded their expectations, even including Chen Xiaoliang, who had won the treble and played for many top clubs.
Today Commander Tu's troops are fighting in their own fortress, and the battle plan is very clear and simple.
The reason why the technically sophisticated Musiala was not used in the midfield was because his physical fitness was too far behind that of Chen Xiaoliang.
The so-called attacking midfielder Kimmich is essentially a front defensive midfielder. With the two genuine defensive midfielders performing their respective duties, the experienced Kimmich, who is 28 years old and in his golden age, does nothing else but focus his energy on curbing Chen Xiaoliang.
With the assistance of Goretzka and Gravenberch, Bayern's three midfielders tonight were almost used to target Chen Xiaoliang, preventing him from getting the ball, passing the ball comfortably, and speeding up easily.
If the defense was left to the armored forces in the front, then the attack was entirely left to the mobile forces on both wings.
Tuchel, who relied heavily on the flanks when Chelsea played with three central defenders, has finally found his favorite team.
Among the four wingers, Alphonso Davies and Cancelo may be among the fastest left and right full-backs in the entire European football, while the two wingers Sane and Kingsley Coman are definitely not inferior to Leo and Marcus Thuram of Chelsea, whom Manchester United faced in the last game.
It was worth watching Arnold Michels' last game. The scene of how Leo and Thuram wreaked havoc on both flanks, forcing Chen Xiaoliang to play as a defensive midfielder, was fully utilized by the Bayern coaching staff.
Because of Pochettino's failure, they unexpectedly discovered a key that perhaps all the teams that faced Chen Xiaoliang before had not discovered.
Previous coaches had used all sorts of defensive methods to contain Chen Xiaoliang, but the Red Countryman's incredible speed, unbelievable strength, and doping could not produce such abnormal physical strength, which made all their efforts come to naught and led to repeated losses.
Although Leo left the field like a two-armed player, which led to the loss, he managed to use his own wing attack to force Ten Hag to put Chen Xiaoliang back to the defensive midfielder.
As a result, Chen Xiaoliang, who was unable to play a connecting role in the central midfielder position, changed his teammates' instigation from dribbling the ball from the midfield and then delivering a fatal pass to launching attacks with a large number of long passes in the backcourt.
It goes without saying which of these two methods is more efficient.
Therefore, today Tuchel simply brought out the characteristics of his players to the fullest.
It was repeatedly emphasized in the pre-match tactics that tonight as long as the ball is found in the middle, the team should pass it to the wing and focus on one side until the team is in a state of panic and sees enemies everywhere, so that Chen Xiaoliang can come to reinforce the defense. Then the team should attack the other side and make another switch when Chen Xiaoliang comes over. This cycle will continue, so that Chen Xiaoliang will run back and forth between the two wing lanes for assisting defense and consuming his energy in attacking.
To put it bluntly, Chelsea let Tuchel discover that Chen Xiaoliang’s biggest weakness is his teammates!
After the opening, Bayern was resolute in its execution and first attacked the left side.
This Alphonso Davies, 22 years old, Canadian, became famous at a young age. Naturally, Chen Xiaoliang had known him for a long time.
But meeting tonight still surprised Chen Xiaoliang.
If we talk about the fastest defender player I have ever played against, Achraf of Paris Saint-Germain is definitely one of them. Until today, Chen Xiaoliang still feels that on the football field, even if Achraf is slower than himself, it is only a millimeter slower.
But Alphonso Davies will definitely be on the list tonight.
At this speed... Theo would cry and Leo would be silent.
What's more, not only is he fast and strong, he is also very good at dribbling in a small area. In the first attack, he made a burst towards Rashford, and after Eriksen made a defensive move, he made a light fried meatball change of direction in front of the veteran, and finally his long-range shot missed the post.
If this goal is scored, it will be a one-stop attack from the backcourt.
It's okay for just one person, but there's also the man named Sane in front...
Although under Guardiola, the Spaniard felt that he did not play very smartly and would rather choose Grealish than sell him, Sane's characteristics are very prominent, and it can be summed up in one word: fast.
If Alphonso Davies can break forward, he will cut to the middle. If Alphonso Davies goes to the middle, he will stick to the wing and break through Dalot.
Poor Dalot didn't look like he was rested in the last game at all. He was made into a mess and out of breath by these two people after just a few rounds.
Chen Xiaoliang realized that if this continued, Dalot would be renamed Bartra, so he could only go to the left wing as soon as Bayern split the ball and help intercept.
Although Cancelo and Kingsley Coman on the right are not as fast as those on the left, they are not much behind.
Fortunately, Manchester United had the fast Luke Shaw on the left, and Casemiro assisted in defense, so they did not suffer too much damage after the start of the game.
But Manchester United's goal was soon breached.
Tuchel's indirect tactics to contain Chen Xiaoliang include the first tactic of using the armored forces in the midfield as a meat grinder, the second tactic of using the mobile forces on the wing to force Chen Xiaoliang to rush to the rescue, and the third tactic. Those three midfielders are not vegetarians. Once Chen Xiaoliang is forced to go to the wing to assist in defense, Kimmich and Gravenberch can wait for the opportunity to press forward and attack.
Armored troops can still kill the enemy and win by reloading ammunition.
In the 12th minute, Manchester United was in a positional battle. Kvart and Cancelo were entangled on the left. They finally created some space and made a cross. Cesco's header was interfered by De Ligt and became weak. After Neuer took the ball, he threw it to Alphonso Davies on the left without any delay.
At this time, Rashford was still participating in the attack in the penalty area, and Alphonso Davies started running wildly from the backcourt, with no one in front of him to interfere.
Chen Xiaoliang started at full speed from the top of the arc, chasing him diagonally, and ran all the way to his own half before catching up with this speedster with the ball.
Just as he got close, Alphonso Davies passed the ball to Sane who had been waiting in front for a long time. Sane advanced left and right for about 10 meters. Dalot was forced to retreat and did not dare to rush forward.
At this time, Alfonso Alves had already cut into the middle and brought Chen Xiaoliang over. Sane made a horizontal pass to Kimmich who was behind and had moved to the left side outside the penalty area.
After Kimmich received the ball, he made a lob pass. At this time, Sane had already moved inward and brought Dalot to the left side of the penalty area line. Alphonso Davies, who had made a circle in the middle, had returned to the left and received the pass from Kimmich.
Chen Xiaoliang got angry when he saw it. He had already run back to the wing from the penalty area, but the full-back Dalot was still looking at the inward winger Sane. He was a central midfielder, not a free man, and it was impossible for him to defend a player in the small penalty area.
After Alphonso Davies received the ball in an open space and broke into the penalty area along the baseline, Varane rushed up to defend, but it was too late. The Canadian prodigy raised his left foot and passed the ball to the back post. Hoylund and Goretzka were involved in the middle, Sane was involved on the left, and Kingsley Coman was involved on the right, but they missed Gravenberch who sneaked into the right side of the small penalty area.
De Gea, who had to guard the near post to defend against Alphonso Davies's sudden shot, was helpless.
This former favorite midfielder of Ten Hag at Ajax helped the new coach stab the old coach in the heart!
Among the crowd that rushed up to celebrate was another player trained by Ten Hag, De Ligt!
Gravenberch, ten Hag, De Gea, and De Ligt, the four "Hes" had different emotions at this time, with different joys and sorrows. Only Tuchel was laughing and waving his arms to celebrate.
Chen Xiaoliang realized clearly that he was being manipulated. While he and Casemiro emphasized to Dalot the priority of defending the flanks, he was quickly calculating in his mind.
He was thinking about how to break this obvious conspiracy against him.
