Chapter 420: Some people say that the Manchester derby is not exciting, so Chen Xiaoliang scores a world wave
Manchester City corner kick, tactical corner kick, passed to the midfield, continuing the back and forth passing and steady control of the ball.
Why is it that despite Manchester United's explosive performance, they still cannot surpass Manchester City in terms of odds?
This is the reason, the control over the situation.
In the Premier League last season and this season, Manchester City's average ball possession rate was 65% and 66% respectively, both ranking first, and it has increased by 1% this season.
Last season, the league averaged 660 passes per game with a success rate of 88%. This season, the league averaged 672 passes per game with a success rate of 90%, also ranking first in both games.
In the two seasons of the Champions League, among all the teams that finally reached the knockout stage, Manchester City's ball possession rate of 60.7% and 59.8%, and pass success rate of 90% and 88% also ranked first.
In terms of league goals, Manchester City ranked first with 93 and 88 in the previous two seasons.
In terms of goals conceded, the two numbers are 33 and 19.
They have only conceded 19 goals this season, ranking second after Manchester United's 17, but this is also due to the fact that Manchester United played two fewer games.
As for the goals conceded in the Champions League
In contrast, Manchester United averaged 558 passes per game this season, ranking third after Liverpool, and had a ball possession rate of 57%, which was 4 percentage points higher than last season's 53%, ranking fifth in the league, lower than Manchester City, Liverpool, Brighton, Arsenal, and on par with Chelsea.
The pass success rate is 85%, ranking third, lower than Manchester City and Chelsea.
Therefore, from the perspective of ordinary fans, without analyzing the data, one can still draw the conclusion by watching the game that "Manchester City's games are basically controlled by Manchester City, while Manchester United's games are always played back and forth."
The same is true on the field at this time.
In the offense, the insertion and running of De Bruyne, B Silva, Rodri and others are still skillful and sharp. In defense, although from Guardiola's perspective, they have retreated relatively deep, the four defenders and five midfielders in the 4-5-1 formation are not all standing in a line in the backcourt. Once Manchester United wants to pass the ball into the attacking third zone, or hold the ball to create threats in the left and right flanks, they will still be double-teamed and pressed by Manchester City players.
Although this group of Manchester City players are no longer able to press throughout the court and press high up the pitch, they are still adept at pressing and double-teaming in the half court.
Including Haaland, he retreated to the center circle of his own half again and again, pressing Casemiro and Lima who were passing the ball.
In the 31st minute, seeing that the team was unable to enter the penalty area to create an effective threat, Chen Xiaoliang forced his way away from Bellingham who was defending him nearly 40 meters outside the penalty area and fired a violent long shot.
Although the ball was fast and had a curved arc, at this distance, for Ederson, who is worth 45 million euros and ranked second in the world, the possibility of missing the ball was still very low.
He moved his feet quickly and jumped upwards when in position, but the trajectory of the ball was too light and Cesco had already made it into the penalty area.
To be on the safe side, Ederson finally chose to drag the ball over the crossbar.
"Beep!" The referee Michael Oliver gave Manchester United a chance to take a corner kick on the right side.
Joe Hart, who was sitting in the back row of Manchester United's bench and was not on the squad, had a calm look on his face, but he couldn't help shaking his head when he saw the ball shot by Chen Xiaoliang.
This is not a shot, this is clearly a corner kick maker.
Kva was preparing to take the free throw, and Maguire, Varane, Casemiro and Wan-Bissaka all ran up.
In the backcourt, Lima, Luke Shaw and Chen Xiaoliang defended behind.
In order to prevent Chen Xiaoliang from making a long shot from behind, Guardiola specially arranged Haaland to stick to Chen Xiaoliang.
When Chen Xiaoliang saw this guy coming, he said to him before the ball was even kicked off, "Hey, you actually sent the big devil to guard me."
Haaland's original nickname was "Majin Buu" and he looked very similar to Buu in Dragon Ball. But after coming to Manchester City last season, he shocked the football world and his value surpassed Mbappe together with Chen Xiaoliang, ranking second in the world with 180 million euros. He has thus evolved from a demon to a big devil.
Harland grinned: "Be careful or I'll eat you."
The two of them joked with each other, but their eyes were always focused on the restricted area, and they turned around from time to time to observe other people around them.
As Kva was about to kick off, Haaland said, "By the way, did you eat hamburgers later?"
At this time, Kwa had already kicked the ball into the penalty area.
Chen Xiaoliang: "Eat! I feel like throwing up just thinking about it!"
Speaking of the word "spit", Kva's corner kick was headed out of the penalty area by Stones, and B Silva followed up with a long pass to the front court.
Haaland started running towards the front court in an instant. Lima, who was lagging behind, wanted to stop him, but when their bodies touched, Lima was knocked away by the high-speed Haaland like a paper man.
Chen Xiaoliang immediately chased up, stretched out his left hand and pointed to the penalty area towards Lima, indicating that he should retreat back to his position as soon as possible, and Haaland would defend on his own.
In terms of speed, Chen Xiaoliang is faster. In terms of balance ability during high-speed running, the two are equally matched. In terms of strength, they can be said to be the two strongest people in today's football. When they collided for the ball falling in front of them, Haaland still had a slight advantage by virtue of his height and weight.
“Good fellow!”
Chen Xiaoliang was shocked. Even last season when he was competing against the rhinoceros-like Lukaku, he had never been at a disadvantage.
He knew that it was not just a matter of weight, otherwise Maguire would be invincible. What was more important was the use of muscle explosiveness and the application of confrontational skills.
Haaland caught up with the ball on the inside right side, about 10 meters away from the penalty area line.
Chen Xiaoliang went around from his left side and came in front of him.
The Manchester City players in the backcourt are sprinting forward at full speed, ready to support Haaland, and Haaland is not going to engage in too much stalemate with Chen Xiaoliang here, as he also knows Chen Xiaoliang's defensive ability.
The longer it drags on, the greater the possibility of losing the ball.
Haaland, whose dribbling ability is not very good, chose the simplest and most direct method. He pushed the ball forward with his left foot and rushed forward.
Chen Xiaoliang caught up immediately.
Seeing Chen Xiaoliang approaching, Haaland raised his left hand and pushed Chen Xiaoliang again with the left side of his body.
This time Chen Xiaoliang was also prepared and pushed towards Haaland at the same time.
The two of them collided with each other, lost their balance and staggered a few steps, but they both adjusted themselves and did not fall.
Fans from both teams in the stands exclaimed "Wow!" On the bench, young players like Ganacho and Menou opened their mouths wide, amazed at the strength and fierceness of the two players' confrontation.
Haaland regained control of the ball and was already on the right near the edge of the penalty area.
Chen Xiaoliang was still blocking his way.
Haaland passed the ball back, Kyle Walker followed up and received the ball, then passed it back to Rodri who followed up in the middle, Rodri passed it to the left flank, De Bruyne who received the ball made a straight pass to the left, B Silva who successfully got offside received the ball and made a strong cross in front of the goal, Bellingham who followed up in the middle made a cross in front of the goal, the ball was blocked by Livakovic with his chest, and then Lima who retreated cleared the ball out of the penalty area.
Menou on the bench couldn't help but lean forward and asked De Gea: "Brother David, was the captain's defense successful just now?"
De Gea shrugged: "Half and half."
Menu asked again: "What is the specific explanation?"
De Gea: "He stopped Haaland from going directly to the goal from offside, avoiding a direct shooting opportunity, but he failed to disrupt Haaland's dribbling, allowing Haaland to successfully carry the ball into the deep area, creating a threatening opportunity for his teammates who came from behind."
Menu: “Oh, I see…”
Lindelof on the side said: "This is your brother Chen. Only he can take on Haaland while running. If it were someone else, he would have been knocked over by those two hits just now."
Despite this offensive spark, the head coaches and players on both sides of the game seemed afraid to let go.
The unbeaten record has become a huge psychological pressure. No one wants their unbeaten record to be broken by their biggest rival, or even their city rival, in a derby.
The first half ended quickly, with Manchester City having the ball possession advantage of 58% to 42%, and Manchester United having the advantage .
Compared to the 3-3 goal battle between the two teams at the Etihad Stadium in the first half of the season, the first half of this game can be said to be quite boring.
In the second half, the momentum of seeking stability and not losing the ball was still not broken. The offensive strength of both sides was always limited, and the speed of returning to defense was fast, which made it impossible for Manchester United's most proud counterattack to be launched.
In the 61st minute, Manchester United had a free kick on the left side of the frontcourt. Luke Shaw took an inward kick and Casemiro headed the ball at the back of the penalty area. The ball went straight to the right side of the goal, but was blocked by Ake who was guarding the goal line and went out of the bottom line.
In the 65th minute, De Bruyne quickly sent a free kick from the center circle. B Silva and Bellingham made a two-pass combination. The Portuguese star made a curved ball from 1 meter outside the penalty area. Livakovic failed to save it by leaning sideways, but fortunately the ball went wide of the post.
Chen Xiaoliang, who needed to fall back to fill in for Lima's defensive midfielder position, did not advance forward many times in this game. He was more focused on intercepting and pressing Manchester City's midfielder in the defensive midfielder position.
Starting from the 70th minute, Ten Hag made the first substitution, replacing the players on the field with Ganacho, McTominay, Dalot, Benzema and Luke Thomas.
Guardiola, who has never been fond of making large-scale substitutions on the Manchester City side, also sent Alvarez, Foden, Kovacic and Grealish into the game.
Although the substitute players were full of energy and fought fiercely after coming on the court, especially in the last 10 minutes of the game, the two teams launched a climax of offense as if it was a decisive battle, but the fiercer the attack, the more focused the defense was, and finally the score of 0-0 was maintained until the end.
In the rest of the 32nd round, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Newcastle, Chelsea missed a good opportunity to catch up and drew 2-2 with Brentford away, while Arsenal also won 4-0 against bottom-placed Burnley away.
In the standings, Manchester City is still ranked first with 82 points, Manchester United is ranked second with 80 points after two games less, Liverpool is still ranked third with 75 points after one game less, and Chelsea is ranked fourth with 70 points, but is only 3 points ahead of Arsenal, which is ranked sixth with one game less.
Newcastle is ranked fifth with 69 points, and the prospects for the championship and the top four are still grim.
No matter how many disappointed fans were unhappy with the 0-0 draw, thinking they were deceived, or even saying they wasted their time and effort watching a tacit match, the coaches of both teams began to summarize the tactical arrangements of both sides almost immediately after the game.
As it turns out, tonight's league match is indeed just an appetizer for the three-game series.
Three days later, on April 11, the two teams met again at Old Trafford and the main course was officially on the field.
Manchester United's starting formation did not make any adjustments, it still used 4-2-3-1 in offense and 5-2-3 in defense. The only difference was that the right winger was replaced by Dalot, the central defender combination of Varane and Maguire was replaced by Lindelof and Lima, and Timber and Casemiro were in the defensive midfielder position.
Manchester City still uses a 3-2-4-1 offensive formation, with Akanji, Dias and Ake as the three central defenders, Rodri as the defensive midfielder and Stones as the waist defender, but Grealish and B Silva returned to the starting left and right wingers, De Bruyne and Kovacic partnered as the starting central midfielders, and Haaland was still at the front.
Wow, same field, almost the same formation and starting lineup. The fans who claimed in the last game that they were "cheated and would never watch such ugly football again" probably never dreamed that the changes would come so quickly and so drastically.
This is the knockout stage of the Champions League. There is no home and away goal system in the two-round match. The competition is about who scores more goals and concedes fewer goals.
Unlike the league, a draw or maintaining an unbeaten record is acceptable for both teams' psychology, morale and goals.
Moreover, they haven't played against each other for more than half a year. Through the mutual testing in the last game, the coaching staff and players of the two teams have accumulated a lot of experience and made new targeted arrangements.
In these three days, plus the 3 training points from the previous game, Chen Xiaoliang gained a total of 15 training points (63→78), and he only needed 2 points to increase his attribute by 1 more point.
But considering that there would be a game almost every 1-2 days, although physical strength could recover automatically, the accumulated fatigue in muscles, joints and ligaments, as well as the psychological need for relaxation and rest, made Chen Xiaoliang not force himself to practice for another two hours to make up the 80 points.
As soon as the game started, the two teams, under the shouts of their coaches and the cheers of their fans, started an offensive battle that shocked the football world.
The only difference is that Ten Hag was standing on the sidelines, while Guardiola, who was sent to the stands in the previous game for angrily scolding the referee, was in the stands behind the bench, letting assistant coach Carlos Vicens use his lion roar to spur the players on instead of him.
In 27 seconds, Manchester United, who kicked off first, attacked the right side. Chen Xiaoliang received the ball and attracted two defenders, then passed the ball directly to the right side. Dalot received the ball at the bottom of the outside line and made a cross. Cesco headed the ball and hit the crossbar, causing at least 30,000 people in Old Trafford to hold their heads in regret.
Just over a minute later, Stones pressed forward, received a direct pass from De Bruyne on the left flank and passed the ball to the back of the penalty area. B Silva followed up with a volley, but was saved by Livakovic, who has been in good form recently.
Thanks to his recent outstanding performance, Livakovic's market value has increased from 12 million euros when he transferred to Manchester United to 22 million euros, which is enough to help him rank among the top 20 goalkeepers in the world.
Manchester City took a corner kick from the right side, De Bruyne took it, Haaland immediately rushed to the front point, and Lindelof followed closely.
However, De Bruyne's corner kick flew to the penalty spot, Stones jumped up and competed with Casemiro for the header. The ball hit Stones' forehead immediately hit Casemiro's head. The two fell to the ground at the same time due to the collision in the air.
Livakovic jumped forward, took the ball steadily, then shook off Haaland who was harassing him, and threw the ball to the left outside the penalty area!
Kva, seeing that the defense in the penalty area was no longer a problem, immediately started to move forward. At this moment, the ball just came over, and he immediately sped up after receiving it!
In order to ensure the penetration and attack on the right, Guardiola did not send out Kyle Walker, who has both speed and physique, today, which gave Kva a great boost of confidence.
Akanji rushed over and went to the inside immediately.
The military situation is ever-changing, and the shape of water is ever-changing. The attacking players can change positions at will according to the defensive positions. If the right center back goes to the left at will, who will fill the position of right center back?
It was because Kwa cut into the middle and took away Akanji that Chen Xiaoliang made a cross run and started running forward from the left rib.
The scene immediately formed a two-on-four situation between Chen Xiaoliang and Kwa facing Akanji, Dias, Ake and Rodri.
Kwa continued to advance towards the top of the penalty area, and Akanji approached him and dribbled to the right.
Diaz had no choice but to move over to fill the position when he saw Chen Xiaoliang approaching the left side of the penalty area.
At this time, Dalot had already cut in from the right, and Kwa took the ball to the right side of the top of the arc and pushed the ball to Dalot.
Ake, who wanted to close the door with Akanji, immediately turned and rushed towards Dalot.
Dalot made a straight pass to the front left and passed the ball back to Kva who was still moving forward, and also passed Ake who was blocking him with a two-pass pass.
Kwa was running towards the baseline at high speed, then he received the ball, turned around and swung his right leg back. Akanji, who had followed him all the way here, fell to the ground and tackled forward to intercept.
Kwa kicked the ball with his right foot, and the ball flew directly over Akanji's body who was sliding to intercept it and into the penalty area!
But the ball was passed a little small. Chen Xiaoliang, who was pushed towards the penalty area by Diaz, found that the ball was about at his waist and it was impossible for him to head it. It was too late to stop after he had pushed forward.
In a fleeting moment, he leaned his back against Diaz in the small penalty area to keep his balance, put his left foot on the ground, did a half turn, and then used the heel of his right foot to touch the cross from Kva!
The ball bounced on the ground and then rolled to the left side of the goal. Ederson fell to the ground immediately, but the shot was only 2 meters away and his quick reaction was still a step late.
The ball rolled into Manchester City's goal amid everyone's surprise!
Lou Yichen: "Beautiful!!!"
"Wow!!! No one expected that the last game was a shutout and boring, but in this game, both sides started to attack aggressively from the first minute!"
"A heel shot during a quick run forward scored! The 777 combination, which had already shown its prowess in the Champions League last season, shines again in the Champions League semi-finals!"
Liu Yue: "In the pre-match prediction vote, the focus was on Xiaoliang and Haaland as to who would score the most goals. The votes were divided into very detailed categories, including headers, long shots, scrambles, penalties, and even free kicks. But Xiaoliang unexpectedly gave the fans who stayed up late to watch the game a surprise by scoring with a back-heel shot that caught Manchester City's defense off guard."
Lou Yichen: "That's right! Diaz has defended very well. If it wasn't for this shooting action, Xiaoliang might not have the space to shoot if he kicked the ball from the front, or it might be blocked by Diaz in advance!"
"In 2 minutes, Manchester United 1-0! Now I believe that fans who didn't stay up late to watch the game will still question the passion and excitement of the Manchester derby!"
