Sixth watch!
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The first half of the first leg of the Champions League semi-final ended with Monaco and Ajax tied at 1: 1 in their offense.
This had something to do with Ajax's full retreat in the last five minutes of the first half. In terms of the overall situation, entering the locker room with a score of 1: 1 was more advantageous for Ajax. Therefore, after Comain and Deschamps made tactical adjustments at the same time, the situation on the field became a deadlock. In the end, the first half of the game ended in a draw.
Comain emphasized the team's defense during the halftime interval. The two players he reminded were Didier Drogba and Galasek.
In order to deal with the other side's romantic and unrestrained flanking and Ajax's two defensive midfielders, Drogba's game experience still needed to be strengthened. The fullback Heitinga's impetuousness could not be changed in a short period of time. Galasek's energy was also mostly focused on being ready to make up for Heitinga's flaws at any time. This made Ajax's defensive system dangerous at any time when the opponent attacked from both sides.
In terms of offense, Kerman wasn't worried; the firepower of the Jax Legion was just as strong. Right now, he needed to focus on defense; a better defense; a perfect defense. This wasn't only important for this match or the next match; defense was the most important thing for the Jax Legion.
It was a cliché: Attack to win the competition, defense to win the championship trophy!
In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again.
Monaco did not make any obvious changes in their offense. Their offensive routine was effective and not impossible to create opportunities.
Qin Xiong found that Monaco's defensive strategy had changed.
Cisse's position was further behind. Now it looked like he was a pure defensive midfielder.
He tried to start a quick attack from the backfield and the flank, but the effect was not as ideal as in the first half.
Because Qin Xiong would be the first to help defend against the inward cut route that Qin Xiong ran to the front field, the faster Bernardi would return in a straight line to defend, while Cisse would help defend the flank. Monaco's partial defensive adjustment looked to be tit-for-tat with Ajax's offense.
Counter every move!
This was a classic cat-and-mouse battle of offense and defense. It was a competition of who could react faster and who was more skilled in suppressing and counter-suppressing.
In the 52nd minute, Roten suddenly passed the ball behind him after he broke through from the side. Evra followed up and raised his leg to pass the ball at a 45-degree angle. Morientes was unable to grab the ball in the penalty area, but Escudo's clearance ball was received by Zekes outside the penalty area. Ajax's two defensive midfielders were too heavily restrained by the opponent's two wingers. At this moment, Qin Xiong had no choice but to make a tackle to interfere with Zekes's long shot or find Morientes to cooperate.
His slide tackle was not aimed at the player or the ball. His slide tackle was used to block Zekes's long shot and Morientes' passing route.
Perhaps it could only delay the opponent for a second or two. Zekes was not as calm as Qin Xiong expected. He forced himself to raise his leg for a long shot. The football hit Qin Xiong's body and bounced out before being controlled by Maxwell.
Qin Xiong immediately got up and ran forward again. Zekes immediately retreated after his shot was blocked. When Maxwell passed the ball to Qin Xiong, Zekes was slightly stunned.
Qin Xiong did not pull the flanks again!
Yes, when the opponent's midfield player's defensive strategy changed, Qin Xiong immediately returned to his normal attacking methods.
Perhaps Zekes's mind was hit by the accident. He was eager to intercept the ball at Qin Xiong's feet. He rushed up rashly, and Qin Xiong deftly pushed the ball from Zekes' left side. Then, he circled around Zekes' right side to get behind him and regain control of the ball.
He passed the ball!
He had a wide space to pass the ball.
Cisse was at the back. Bernardi also retreated in a straight line at the first opportunity. They were all wary of Ajax's swift counterattack. The focus of their defense was to guard against sudden attacks from the flanks. They did not expect this to give Qin Xiong a chance to show his skills in the middle.
Zekes was slow and he lost his center of gravity first. When he turned around to chase after Qin Xiong again, Qin Xiong had already left him far behind.
Qin Xiong strode past the midfield with the ball. Cisse and Bernardi were facing a formidable enemy. The two men did not need to help defend the flanks and did not dare to widen the distance between the two for a while.
They were afraid of being broken down one by one by Qin Xiong.
Qin Xiong also did not force it. When he faced Bernardi, he pretended to dribble to the right front to break through. Bernardi and Cisse strengthened the defense on that side at the same time. They were wary of Qin Xiong and Van Der Vaart's ingenious cooperation to break through the defense.
Qin Xiong's overall vision and ingenuity in his organizational talent suddenly blossomed. He led Monaco's two defensive midfielders to move to the right front, but he suddenly stopped and passed the ball to the middle in front of the penalty area.
Snede cut across the middle from the flank and received Qin Xiong's pass in a very loose environment.
Monaco's defense was in a hurry. Someone had to stop Snede!
Rodriguez had just moved forward a step when Snede immediately stuffed the ball behind him. Ibrahimovic ran diagonally and got a chance to shoot!
Monaco might have overly focused on Qin Xiong. In fact, the core of Ajax's offensive system was indeed Qin Xiong, but it did not mean that the other players were not creative.
Snede's organizational talent was also not to be underestimated.
It was in this cooperation of covering each other and restraining the opponent's defensive attention for each other's teammates that Ajax's attacking group had the effect of not lighting up in the east but lighting up in the west.
Unfortunately, Ibrahimovic was unable to follow his preferred foot. He had a good space to shoot. Giveway was clearly a step slower, but Ibrahimovic did not control his footwork well when he shot. The shot was too direct and the goalkeeper, Roma, directly held the ball in his arms!
The Monaco fans in the stands had a false alarm. They also began to talk about Qin Xiong in private. It was clear that the most threatening player in the area from their own penalty area to the opponent's penalty area was Qin Xiong!
Deschamps adjusted the defense in the midfield. He was not confident that he could absolutely restrain Qin Xiong. After all, Qin Xiong's improvisation in the first half had left a deep impression on him. But at the very least, he should be able to restrain Ajax, the core of the organization, for at least 20 minutes.
The reality was that his defensive adjustments did not seem to work.
Qin Xiong was also changing, which made his wishful thinking come to nothing.
The Dutch media praised Qin Xiong. After eliminating the London duo, Qin Xiong's name appeared in the sports section of The Times, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, and other media outlets on Fleet Street. He received a lot of praise and was regarded as a rising star of the new generation.
Of course, a player who could rank in the top 20 in the Champions League for goals and assists was so young. How could he not attract the attention of the outside media?
He had a lot of good points, but Deschamps thought that the reporters' praise did not completely see Qin Xiong's excellent characteristics.
After carefully studying the games between Ajax, Arsenal, and Chelsea, Deschamps praised Qin Xiong's game thinking and judgment.
He was a player who was fully self-aware and would never lose his mind!
If he was overly obsessed with or confident in his technical ability, then Ajax would probably not be able to beat Arsenal and Chelsea.
It was obvious that when Qin Xiong played one-on-one with Makelele at Vieira, his breakthrough success rate was not high, and the number of breakthroughs was not many!
The reason was not much because Qin Xiong would not repeatedly try to play one-on-one with his opponent. One-on-one was very impressive, but it was not necessarily absolutely beneficial to the team's offense.
But when Qin Xiong could be sure that he had enough confidence in a one-on-one, he would not hesitate to try. For example, in the second half, he suddenly bypassed Kierkes without warning.
The commander's calmness and judgment of the overall situation of the game had its own uniqueness.
He seemed to be able to see the changes in the situation that were happening and about to occur, which was what Deschamps feared the most.
This fear was reflected on the field and turned into reality. Monaco's three midfielders were no longer sure how to use their defensive methods to restrict Qin Xiong!
Press forward and press wildly?
Qin Xiong took the side.
He withdrew immediately.
Qin Xiong took the middle.
In this game of cat and mouse, Qin Xiong appeared to be more cunning, and in terms of offense and defense on the football field, the former was more active, while the latter was slightly more passive.
As a result, they could only improvise and pay more attention to Qin Xiong's movements. Then the three of them tacitly cooperated to choose the most correct defensive mode.
In this kind of constantly switching back and forth between offense and defense, Monaco could not guarantee that every change was correct and tacit. As a result, Ajax was trying to seize the opportunity when their defensive adjustments lost balance and exposed flaws!
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