Chapter 366: Determination to Victory
Faced with Chen Xiaoliang's change of position to right winger, Tuchel immediately shouted for Sane to retreat and assist Alphonso Davies in defense, and asked Kimmich to move more to the wing, and later asked Goretzka to move more to the left, trying to form a defensive circle with four people to limit Chen Xiaoliang's receiving the ball.
But this did not have much effect on Chen Xiaoliang, who was like a fish in water on the wing at this time, because the two midfielders in the middle were leaning towards his side of the wing. Once he retreated to receive the ball, the defensive pressure on his team in the middle and on the left would be greatly reduced.
At this time, Chen Xiaoliang only needed to do one thing, which was to move forward, and when Kimmich and Goretzka came over to form a four-man double team, he would use passing coordination [good at passing the ball from one side of the court to the other] to kick the ball directly from the right to the left, and hand it over to Kva and others to attack.
And because of him and Wan-Bissaka's appearances, the defensive pressure on the right side was greatly reduced. Right defensive midfielder Eriksen was completely freed up and joined the midfield organization with McTominay who had just come on, coordinating with Kvart and Cesco.
Gradually, the situation on the field began to turn around. Manchester United, who had more defense than offense in the first half, began to press more into Bayern's half to organize.
But this change in the situation neither disappointed Tuchel nor made Ten Hag feel that things were moving in his favor.
In the 61st minute, Chen Xiaoliang got rid of Sane's harassment on the right near the center line, created space to receive Eriksen's cross pass and then moved forward. Alphonso Davies kept changing his steps following Chen Xiaoliang who changed direction slightly to the left and right, fighting and retreating.
Soon, with him distracted, Kimmich and Goretzka surrounded him again, Chen Xiaoliang made a long pass to the left, and the ball landed accurately at the feet of Kva who was slightly inward.
Facing the agile and fast Cancelo, Kva did not choose to attack alone this time. Instead, he cut inside and passed the ball diagonally to the retreating Cesco.
Sesco received the ball with his back against Pavard, and Bayern's other defensive midfielder Gravenberch came over to double-team him. Sesco kicked the ball towards the middle with a wall pass. Kva, who was without the ball, continued to run to the front right and received Sesco's return pass, then immediately passed the ball to Eriksen who was on the right.
After passing the ball, Kva continued to run to the front right and now he had reached the middle outside the arc. Cancelo, Bayern's right back, could no longer continue to defend Kva.
Gravenberch was just about to take over the task of defending Kva, but Eriksen dribbled forward with the ball. The 21-year-old Dutch midfielder had no choice but to leave Kva and watch Eriksen.
But as soon as he turned around, Eriksen passed the ball again to Kwa who had already run outside the penalty area line on the right side of the arc.
After continuous passing of the ball back and forth between the two players, Kwa appeared on the right side of the top of the penalty area with the ball in the blink of an eye.
Now Goretzka immediately returned to his position in front of Kva, otherwise there would be only De Ligt in front of Kva.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Goretzka came over, Kva received the ball and sent a straight pass to the front right. The players in the Bayern penalty area looked over in surprise. It turned out that Chen Xiaoliang, who had no ball, took advantage of a series of short passes from his teammates in the middle to cut into the penalty area and attract the attention of Bayern players. He suddenly started, ran wildly, shook off Alphonso Davies, and cut in from the right sideline of the penalty area!
Alphonso Davies followed closely, and De Ligt saw that he was unable to intercept the ball in time, so he could only step back a little to prevent Chen Xiaoliang from changing direction and accelerating after receiving the ball and leaving him behind.
Kva's straight pass sent the ball in front of Chen Xiaoliang. At this time, he was only about 1 meter away from the right sideline of the small penalty area. De Ligt blocked him and the goal. With his blocking, Neuer didn't have to move too far to the near post, and could prevent Chen Xiaoliang's inverted triangle pass from directly hitting the other post.
This defensive position alone made Chen Xiaoliang feel that Bayern was not simple and was worthy of being a top club. If it was like an ordinary team, with the goalkeeper blocking the near post and the central defender defending the supporting player, Chen Xiaoliang could find N ways to pass the ball to the far post.
However, there are ways to deal with congestion, and there are ways to deal with no congestion.
He faced De Ligt in the small penalty area and flicked the ball with his left foot. Like he was practicing in a snail shell, he suddenly changed direction in the narrow and densely populated penalty area and ran towards the penalty spot from the right side of the small penalty area!
The retreating Goretzka stretched his legs to intercept the ball kicked out by Chen Xiaoliang. At this time, Chen Xiaoliang, who was dribbling 20 meters, moved his left foot step by step, holding the ball firmly as if it was glued to his feet.
Goretzka missed the kick and quickly stretched his legs. If he encountered a diving athlete who could do this, he would deliberately hit Goretzka's foot with his dribbling foot, and then do a beautiful front flip of 90 degrees and a side turn of 360 degrees. The referee would most likely award a penalty.
Seeing that Chen Xiaoliang was about to shoot with his left foot into the far corner, De Ligt quickly came up from the small penalty area, and Neuer also lowered his center of gravity and was ready to make a sideways save at any time.
Chen Xiaoliang suddenly swung his left foot back!
Zhan Jun: "Derritt blocked it!"
"Xiaoliang, do it on your heels!"
"Pass it to Kwa who is coming in from the right!"
"The kva is empty!"
Zhang Lu: “Ouch!”
Zhan Jun: "I adjusted it! I didn't shoot!"
"Alfonso Davies makes up for it!"
Zhang Lu: “Ouch!”
Zhan Jun: "Kwa passed the ball to the far post!"
"Cesco shoots!"
Zhang Lu: “Oh!”
Zhan Jun: "Neuer's great save!"
Zhang Lu: “Roar!”
Zhan Jun: "The ball bounced to Xiaoliang's feet!"
"Xiao Liang, kick up and hit again!"
"It's still Neuer!"
Zhang Lu: “It’s amazing!”
Zhan Jun: "Gretzka clears the ball!"
"Not far! Outside the restricted area!"
“This ball…finally went in!!!”
"Erickson!!!"
" Xiaoliang broke into the penalty area from the right baseline and passed the ball to Kva. Kva didn't stop the ball well at first and lost the chance to shoot directly. He passed the ball to the far post with a strong sweep. Fortunately, Pavard learned from the lesson of losing the ball just now and blocked the far corner. Cesco pushed the ball to the middle, but it was saved by Neuer."
"The ball bounced at Xiaoliang's feet. There were three defenders around him. He volleyed the ball directly into the air, but Neuer blocked it again."
"Gretzka, he cleared the ball with his header but failed to head it far. Besides, all the defense in the penalty area focused on Xiao Liang. Even Kimmich retreated to the penalty area. No one was defending Eriksen on the right side of the top of the arc outside the penalty area."
"The 31-year-old Danish midfielder scored his first goal of the season, helping the team equalize the score in the first group match of the Champions League!"
Barrage:
[The goal was really exciting, and it made my heart almost jump out of my chest...]
[I can also give Zhang Lu’s commentary... um um ah hehe haha]
[I strongly suggest that you try Uncle Yu next time. They are all supporting roles. It would be better to find a professional one.]
…
Bayern made a substitution, and Tuchel finally realized that after Chen Xiaoliang moved to the side, he not only destroyed his attack on the left, but also tied up the defensive force in the middle, allowing Manchester United to form a situation of outnumbering the opponent on the left flank.
He replaced him with Croatian international Borna Sosa, who was bought from Stuttgart for 25 million euros in the summer window.
This not-so-famous left-back was rated as the third-best full-back in the Bundesliga's end-of-season review by the German authoritative media Kicker, second only to Alphonso Davies and Leverkusen's Frimpong, and ahead of Simakan, Mazraoui and other famous players.
He replaced the young Gravenberch and switched positions with Goretzka, playing as the nominal left defensive midfielder. In fact, he added a full-time left back next to Alphonso Davies to form a double back formation to deal with Chen Xiaoliang.
Kimmich retreated appropriately and filled in for Goretzka in the defensive midfielder position when he was restrained.
This change of personnel did have some impact on Chen Xiaoliang.
Sousa was responsible for close defense, while Alphonso Davies chose to fall back and provide backup defense most of the time. This combination made it completely impossible for Chen Xiaoliang to use his explosive dribbling tactics.
In the attack, with the energetic Sousa staying behind, Alphonso Davies can also re-join and continue to cooperate with Sane, which can also force Chen Xiaoliang to return to defense and pull him back away from his own half.
However, in the middle, Bayern chose to retreat, and retreat significantly.
As a result, Manchester United continued to press forward on the left and center, gradually overtaking Bayern in ball possession.
In the 65th minute, both sides began to make substitutions.
Manchester United replaced Eriksen, who had just scored a goal, with Bruno Fernandes. Although the Dane's physical signs were normal in all aspects, the pacemaker installation surgery had some impact on his physical fitness.
Bayern replaced Pavard with Lucas Hernandez. During the defense just now, Pavard felt some discomfort in his calf, so he replaced Sane with Musiala.
If the first substitution was a positional substitution, then the second one was very thoughtful.
The subsequent process of the game also confirmed this.
After coming on as a substitute, Musiala did not play on the left side, but appeared more in the attacking midfielder position. With Kimmich and Goretzka retreating significantly, he and Hoylund became the only two players who stayed in the frontcourt for a long time.
Bayern began to play a defensive counterattack at home.
How did Tuchel defeat Guardiola's Manchester City and win the Champions League?
The answer is the same as Roma last season, just four words - defensive counterattack.
At this moment, Kimmich on the field is Kante at that time, Goretzka is Jorginho at that time, Alphonso Davies and Cancelo are the enhanced versions of Chilwell and Reece James, not to mention Kingsley Coman in front of them.
Allianz Arena in Munich is not the Bernabeu, and Bayern's board of directors is not the board of directors of Real Madrid. In this stadium, if the Germans have to choose between dominating the opponent for 90 minutes and finally losing, or defending and counterattacking to finally defeat the strong enemy, they are completely willing to accept the latter.
As long as we win, the only thing people will remember in the end is the championship. Who will remember that year's runner-up Manchester City occupied 63% of the ball possession and the number of forward attacks was twice that of Chelsea.
After all, the former Bayern chairman Beckenbauer has a famous saying: It is not the strong who win, but the winners who become strong.
Soon the time came to the 70th minute, and Chen Xiaoliang began to attack intensively.
At this time, his physical strength has been fully restored, but the winger position attribute granted by Hazard's position card only has 5 minutes left, which means that after 5 minutes, if he sticks to the wing and plays as a full-time winger, his sense of position and space will be seriously deteriorated.
In the 72nd minute, he retreated to the center line to ask for the ball, and B Fee passed the ball to him reluctantly.
Chen Xiaoliang turned around, first blocking Musiala who was harassing him from behind, then changed direction to the right, making Sousa's steal miss.
Alphonso Davies retreated and blocked Chen Xiaoliang's route, buying Sousa time to catch up.
Chen Xiaoliang went straight to the inside line diagonally. Kimmich knew that Chen Xiaoliang was actively looking for him, but he had to catch up.
This Manchester United No. 7 has such a strong ability to move forward. If he is given a gap, he can penetrate all defenses. The degree of his proximity to the penalty area and the defensive pressure he puts on Bayern do not simply increase in direct proportion, but increase exponentially.
Chen Xiaoliang left the right side with Sousa behind, Alphonso Davies and Kimmich in front. When the distance was more than 5 meters, he pushed the ball to the right with the outside of his right foot. Suddenly, Wan-Bissaka, who had been hiding in the back, came in from behind to support the ball!
Sousa continued to pursue Chen Xiaoliang, and Alphonso Davies went to replace Wan-Bissaka.
Wan Bissaka didn't wait for him to come over and passed the ball forward.
Kimmich and Alphonso Davies were shocked, and their first reaction was to turn around and confirm Chen Xiaoliang's position.
That's not right! This person is clearly still here! So he passed it on to...
It’s B Fee!
Before he came on the court, Ten Hag told him many times on the sidelines how to cooperate with Chen Xiaoliang to launch the attack and to create a threat by inserting into the gaps created by Chen Xiaoliang's attraction of the defensive force.
Just now, when he saw Chen Xiaoliang walking towards the middle, he took the initiative to go around from behind the midfielder and came to the wing.
Alphonso Davies turned around and chased back, but B Fee did not have that amazing speed, so he kicked the ball directly to the middle, but the ball was a little high. Cesco could not head the ball directly and could only head the ball from the far post and pass it to Kwa on the left.
Kva and Cancelo have been dealing with each other for almost a whole game, and both of them have somewhat figured out each other's habits.
After a fake move, Cancelo went to the bottom of the outside line. Cancelo did not take a step, but followed him all the way, blocking the space for him to cut into the inside and letting him go to the bottom.
He knew that Kvar's dribbling with his left foot was delicate, but his crossing ability was not strong, and the threat of defending him from going down the flank was far less than that of defending him from cutting inside the middle.
Kva knew that Cancelo had seen his strengths and weaknesses, and he knew that Cancelo would definitely focus his defense on blocking him from cutting into the penalty area.
So he stopped suddenly and changed direction of the ball towards the penalty area, then immediately passed the ball back to his left foot and rushed to the baseline at full speed, trying to get into the penalty area from the baseline!
Cancelo also guessed this. He knew that if he blocked the penalty area and had the advantage in speed, Kva's best option would be to force his way to the baseline!
In an instant, the two of them had eight hundred thoughts in their minds and kept scheming against each other!
Seeing that he had no other options, Kva swept the ball with his left foot and hit Cancelo's leg, earning a corner kick.
B Fee came over to prepare to kick off, Chen Xiaoliang looked up, 73 minutes and 39 seconds.
The ball went towards the middle, Varane jumped high, and headed the ball towards the goal ahead of Lucas Hernandez, who had just come on and seemed not to have fully warmed up yet!
Neuer jumped sideways, stretched out his long arms, and blocked the ball with his right hand!
He is already 37 years old. Although he is still the nominal starting goalkeeper, his actual playing opportunities are less than those of 34-year-old second goalkeeper Sommer.
However, in such an important game tonight, Tuchel still chose to let him play, and he proved with his performance that he is still one of the best goalkeepers in Europe.
This time De Ligt cleared the ball directly to the front court with his foot. Musiala took the ball off the center line before Casemiro came over, then lightly picked it up and passed it to Hoylund in front.
Hojlender, who had few good chances throughout the game, started running with the ball.
Although he still has a lot of room for improvement in terms of football skills, the 20-year-old Dane has shown everyone without reservation that his physical talent is enough to gain a foothold in the Bundesliga giants.
Facing Luke Shaw who stayed behind, he dribbled the ball along the left outside line. His height of 191cm made it impossible for him to dribble the ball too fast, but his huge stride made every step seem to lift up a piece of grass.
He did not overtake Luke Shaw, but Luke Shaw who was sticking to him was unable to shake his pace.
Coming to the left side of the penalty area, Hojlender turned around and passed the ball back to Musiala who was in the middle. Facing Wan Bissaka's defense, Musiala passed the ball to the right. Kingsley Coman had already run up, and there was no one defending within 3 meters around him!
Casemiro retreated into the penalty area and immediately pounced on him. Kingsley Coman took a step forward, dribbled the ball into the penalty area, and shot directly!
The speed of this counterattack was so fast that even Chen Xiaoliang, who was chasing all the way back from the penalty area, didn't have time to catch up.
The ball flew to the upper left side of the goal, as if it was heading for the blind corner!
Zhan Jun: "This ball... De Gea made a great contribution!"
"Wow! Is the final stage of tonight the moment for the two goalkeepers to perform?"
"De Gea, who had made a mistake before, made up for it this time and saved Kingsley Coman's shot towards the blind corner!"
"Tuchel also held his head on the sidelines, unable to believe that the ball could be saved."
Zhang Lu: "Haha, when Neuer jumped out just now, Manchester United had the same reaction."
Casemiro came over and yelled at De Gea passionately, and De Gea himself breathed a sigh of relief, getting rid of the frustration of losing the ball.
The referee awarded Bayern a corner kick on the left side, and Chen Xiaoliang's position card time had expired.
Tuchel made another substitution, replacing Kingsley Coman with Gnabry. This was not a punishment for not scoring a goal. When Kingsley Coman walked to the sidelines, Tuchel hugged him and whispered to him, giving him great encouragement and respect.
Bayern took a corner kick, and Hojlender headed the ball at the front point, but it went wide of the post.
If we were to say who the stars on the field were for the rest of the game, it would definitely be the two goalkeepers on both sides.
Manchester United continued to use positional warfare to make crosses and long shots, but it seemed that Neuer had used up his share of goals conceded tonight. Whether it was Chen Xiaoliang's explosive shot or Kva's close-range shot, they were all resolved by the German goalkeeper.
Bayern continued to use its speed advantage and launched repeated quick counterattacks under the organization of Musiala in the frontcourt. Chen Xiaoliang had no position to play, so he simply retreated to the position of right midfielder, allowing McTominay to continue to sweep and intercept in front.
Gnabry and Hoylund shot several times in the counterattack, but they were all blocked by De Gea, who was back to his peak form, sometimes flying and sometimes with his feet.
If we were to say who played the most frustratingly, it would be Bruno Fernandes.
He just couldn't understand why Chen Xiaoliang didn't continue shooting from the wing when he was on the field, but always ran to the attacking midfielder's area, either taking long shots or passing the ball to the wing, occasionally moving to the wing or making a large move to the left.
As a result, he had to repeatedly go to the right side to assist, because before the game, Ten Hag repeatedly told him that if Chen Xiaoliang moved inward, he had to go to the side...
A good attacking midfielder turned into a winger...
In the end, after 94 minutes, both sides had used up five substitutions and each launched several threatening attacks before shaking hands and making peace with a 2-2 draw.
The best player of the match was given to 37-year-old Bayern captain Neuer.
In another match in the same group that was played later, PSV Eindhoven and Lazio drew 0-0. So after the first round, all four teams in Group D had 1 point. Manchester United temporarily ranked first in the group because both of their goals were away goals.
In an interview after the game, the head coaches of both teams said the same thing, praising their opponents' performance, but expressing regret for the draw. They both believed that their team actually had the opportunity to win, but just failed to seize the chance to score.
In Manchester United's locker room, the players generally seemed relaxed, thinking that drawing with Bayern at the Allianz Arena was a good result.
Bruno Fernandes, who likes to give speeches to the players after the game, also said that being able to equalize the game after falling behind by two goals tonight was something to be proud of.
Chen Xiaoliang didn't want to say it at first, his mind was still on a text message in his mobile phone.
But seeing some young players agreeing with Bruno Fernandes, he still stood up:
"If a draw with Bayern away from home is something we are content with, then we won't go far."
"It's good to equalize the score at the Allianz Arena, but the Champions League is a cup competition. We are not a team that comes here to participate in six group matches and then get a bonus. The result is the result, and the attitude is the attitude. If we want to make it to the end, we must have the determination to defeat every opponent."
B Fee turned around and looked at Chen Xiaoliang in shock and anger. Not only him, but everyone was surprised that Chen Xiaoliang stood up. After all, this was the first time he spoke to the whole team in the locker room since he joined the team.
Several young players including Ganacho, Zidane, Iqbal and Mengi did not dare to move for a moment. They stopped changing their clothes and looked at the two "big guys" of the team who stood up with a little nervousness.
B Fee was about to hit back: "What are you..."
Casemiro then said: "Chen is right. Even now, I feel that if we had fought harder today, we might have won."
"Of course today's result is acceptable, but when we see Bayern and Real Madrid in the future, will we go to their away games and think, 'Oh, God, I'm so lucky to draw with them'? Believe me, as long as we have this idea, we will definitely lose."
Casemiro did not stand up, as he did not want to add to the tense atmosphere, but his words undoubtedly made his statement clear.
As a top player who has won the Champions League five times, he knows clearly that the Real Madrid team he is in never thinks it is a blessing to draw with any team in the Champions League.
But he, who doesn't like high profile, didn't say things like "I've won the Champions League five times, I know it better than you."
There is no point in pretending to be cool. Instead, it will cause others to question your original intention and make them doubt whether you said that deliberately just to pretend to be cool.
B Fee couldn't help it, as if he wanted to vent all the frustrations that had been pent up recently. His position as a starter was unstable, and he had inexplicably played as a sideline midfielder for half the game tonight. He had long felt that he should express his attitude to Chen Xiaoliang: "So, this is the treble champion teaching us how to be a professional player?"
"Does everyone who wears the No. 7 jersey like to teach others how to play football?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was shocked and turned their eyes to B Fee!
