Chapter 37 Taste it carefully
Highbury Stadium was built in 1913. It only has two tiers of stands and the four corners are not enclosed. This means that on match days, it is difficult to contain the noise in the stadium and the atmosphere is greatly reduced.
Due to its age, especially since the British government issued an order to abolish all standing seats and convert the stadium into seats, Highbury Stadium can only accommodate 38,000 people, which is very small even for a top team, not to mention that it is in London, the most prosperous city in the UK, where tickets are even harder to come by.
Arsenal has also suffered from the obstacles of its home stadium, so it decided to build a new stadium with a capacity increased to 60,000 people . With the addition of various VIP boxes, this is bound to lead to a dramatic increase in Arsenal's match-day revenue.
The match between Real Madrid and Arsenal was called "the first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning" by British fans. It attracted the attention of media and fans all over the world and the Highbury Stadium was packed.
The referee is Rubes Michael from Slovenia, who has extensive experience in officiating matches.
Amid the roar of cheers from the audience, players from both teams walked onto the field under the leadership of the referee.
Afterwards, Gao Shen also walked out of the player tunnel.
Standing at the entrance of the player tunnel, he happened to see himself appear on the big screen at the stadium, and at this moment the live TV broadcast was giving him a close-up.
The match three days ago made him the youngest head coach in La Liga history.
And tonight, he made history again, becoming the youngest head coach in the history of the Champions League and even the European League.
At the age of 25, when many players are still considered rookies, he unexpectedly became the helmsman of Real Madrid. What an incredible legendary experience.
But everyone felt that his legend would come to an abrupt end tonight.
…
"Hello, young head coach."
When Gao Shen was standing at the entrance of the player tunnel and looking around, he heard a very unfamiliar baritone voice.
Following the sound, I saw Wenger coming towards me with a smile on his face.
The professor looked thinner than he did on TV, with more and deeper wrinkles on his face and gray hair.
Obviously, the long-term and stressful coaching work has brought him tremendous psychological pressure and burden.
Seeing Wenger extending his hand, Gao Shen quickly stretched out his hands.
"Hello, Professor, it's nice to meet you."
Wenger smiled kindly, looking harmless. "To be honest, you really gave me a big surprise."
"Really?" Gao Shen looked flattered. "In college, we often discussed you. It's my honor to be able to compete with you. It's something I never dared to imagine before."
Wenger didn't take it seriously. He probably had heard similar words countless times.
"I'm curious, how are you going to play tonight?" Wenger asked tentatively.
Gao Shen's smile suddenly faded, and then he said slyly: "Guess."
Wenger laughed out loud. The more he looked at Gao Shen, the more he liked him. This kid was very cunning, the kind of cunning that showed cleverness.
"I don't need to guess to know that you didn't use Ronaldo and Carlos. I guess it was to ensure the team's game rhythm. If these two people were there, it would indeed have some impact, so I guess you still want to attack."
Gao Shen really couldn't laugh anymore.
As soon as Wenger saw his expression, he knew he had guessed right.
"If I were you, I would consider attacking right from the start, trying to get a goal, and taking control of the game's tempo and initiative. As long as the score is tied, we would be the ones in the passive position."
I have to say, Wenger's guess was absolutely correct.
Gao Shen suddenly felt that Wenger's eyes hidden in the ravines revealed a kind of wisdom. It seemed that he had no secrets in front of these eyes. This feeling made him feel uncomfortable.
"Professor, then guess why I didn't arrange Woodgate to start?" Gao Shen didn't let Wenger continue.
Wenger is stagnant and Woodgate was on the bench tonight after performing very well in the derby last weekend.
Gao Shen arranged Elguera and Ramos as central defenders, which was somewhat beyond Wenger's expectations.
Logically speaking, Woodgate is in good form and is familiar with the Premier League and Arsenal, so he should start.
"I specifically rotated him so that he could be fully fit for the weekend match against Valencia."
After saying this, Gao Ming's expression seemed to be hinting to Wenger, "Please think about it carefully."
Wenger was speechless. He couldn't figure out whether it was true or not for the time being.
Could it be that this guy really has some hidden weapon? Is he so confident about the game?
Only Gao Shen himself knew clearly that he did not deliberately rotate Woodgate.
The truth is that the team doctor was not very sure whether Woodgate could play the whole game, and strongly suggested that Gao Shen not arrange him to start, so Elguera took over.
Otherwise, why would Gao Shen let Woodgate sit on the bench?
But he naturally wouldn't tell Wenger this, leaving the Arsenal coach to guess for himself.
…
Although they were playing away, Real Madrid still wore white jerseys, while Arsenal wore dark brown jerseys and white shorts.
Raul performed well this time. He beat Henry in guessing the side and won the right to kick off for Real Madrid.
When the players of both teams lined up, Gao Shen immediately saw through Arsenal's lineup.
A little unexpected.
In the last game against Fulham, Ljungberg played as a left midfielder, but in this game Wenger placed him as a front midfielder or shadow striker. Reyes played on the left, Hleb was still on the right, and Henry was the center forward.
After seeing this, Gao Shen walked to the sidelines and made a gesture to De La Red and Gravesen, indicating that they should pay attention to Ljungberg, as this guy has been in very good form recently.
And Beckham, he needs to pay attention to returning to defense in time to assist the back line and the double defensive midfielders.
After completing the arrangements, Gao Shen took another look at the home team's coaching bench and found that Wenger was sitting there calmly, as if he had everything under control.
At this moment, the referee Rubers blew the whistle to start the game.
…
Negredo kicked the ball to Raul, who passed it back to Zidane. At the same time, Henry, Ljungberg and Reyes rushed towards Real Madrid's half.
Zidane did not pass the ball back, but moved directly to the left and gave it to Felipe who was making a run. However, Hleb blocked Felipe in the first place, forcing Real Madrid's left-back to pass the ball back to Gravesen.
The defensive midfielder passed the ball again and Ramos stopped it.
At this time, Real Madrid's entire midfield and frontcourt had already quickly advanced.
Ramos passed the ball back and forth with Arbeloa and then gave it to Elguera.
When the Real Madrid center back stopped the ball, he was already close to the center circle.
After taking a look ahead, Elguera kicked the ball to the front court.
Zidane suppressed Fabregas with his body, stopped the ball with his chest, turned sideways, and lobbed the ball to the right side of the top of the penalty area.
Negredo took the lead and headed the ball into the penalty area.
At this time, Raul suddenly rushed forward, but goalkeeper Lehmann acted decisively and intercepted the ball in the air before Raul.
Although he failed to grab the ball, Raul still gave Negredo a thumbs up.
Highbury Stadium gave Lehmann a warm round of applause.
…
The first attack failed to work, and Arsenal quickly launched a counterattack with a thrown ball.
After Flamini stopped the ball, he passed it to Reyes who came back to receive it.
But just as Reyes was about to start dribbling the ball, Arbeloa suddenly fell to the ground and tackled the ball out of bounds.
Real Madrid's right back did not return to defense immediately, but followed Reyes and appeared near the 30-meter area of Arsenal. Especially when Arsenal was preparing to throw the ball out of bounds, Real Madrid's entire formation still maintained a forward pressure posture.
Negredo, Beckham, Zidane, De La Red and Arbeloa, these five players were all pressed in this area, causing Arsenal to quickly throw the ball out of bounds. Arbeloa took the lead and headed the ball back, and Beckham then headed it to Zidane.
After Zidane dribbled the ball sideways, he suddenly made a straight pass to Raul's feet.
The Real Madrid captain got rid of Kolo Toure and sent a straight pass into the penalty area again.
But this time, Negredo did not understand Raul's intention and missed a good opportunity.
But even so, Real Madrid did not retreat and continued to maintain high-pressure pressing.
Now everyone understood.
Real Madrid is going to attack at the start!
…
Even though he was mentally prepared, when Wenger saw Real Madrid pressing Arsenal in the half with such strong high-pressure defense, making it difficult for the Gunners to pass the ball across the center line, he appeared calm on the surface but was still very surprised in his heart.
On the one hand, he felt Gao Shen's determination and courage, especially in the absence of Ronaldo, Gao Shen dared to put so much pressure on Arsenal, which required great courage and guts.
On the other hand, he was also surprised by Gao Shen's skills, especially the ability to make superstars such as Zidane, Beckham and Raul run and cover so hard. With this ability, he was not surprised why Real Madrid was able to defeat Atletico Madrid.
Thinking of this, Wenger walked out of the coaching seat for the first time and came to the sidelines, signaling the team to regroup appropriately and stabilize the defense first.
Although Real Madrid does not have Ronaldo, the superstar lineup composed of Raul, Zidane and Beckham should not be underestimated. Wenger does not dare to be blindly overconfident, especially when Real Madrid shows such an aggressive momentum.
Real Madrid quickly intercepted the ball near the center line with Gravesen and quickly moved to the right side.
Arbeloa kicked the ball to the right side of the frontcourt. Zidane ran over and received the ball, but was blocked by Flamini. He failed to cross the ball, but knocked it back from the right side of the penalty area.
Beckham stopped, made some adjustments, and then sent a precise diagonal pass into the penalty area with his right foot, sending the ball directly to the back point.
Raul cleverly got in and headed the ball from close range before Kolo Toure could, hitting the bottom left corner.
This attack was extremely dangerous and sudden, especially Beckham's long-distance diagonal pass was quite accurate. Fortunately, Lehmann made a flying save at the critical moment and blocked the ball out of the baseline with one hand.
The ball just brushed the post and went out of bounds.
The entire Wembley Stadium exclaimed in surprise that they had survived the disaster, followed by applause for Lehmann.
This was the first shot of the game, a close-range header from Raul.
It's a pity that we missed the chance to score against Arsenal.
But this attack was enough to make Arsenal break out in a cold sweat.
Beckham, returning to the right, showed amazing strength, especially his crosses.
