"Hello, everyone in front of the TV. Welcome to the Oberschalke Stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. This season's Champions League final will be played here! I, Zhan Jun, will be the commentator for the live broadcast of the game!
The two teams that made it to the final this season were Ajax from the Netherlands and Porto from Portugal.
Ajax eliminated the Premier League powerhouses Arsenal and Chelsea on their way to the final and blocked Monaco from the final. Porto also surprisingly eliminated Manchester United, Lyon, and Deportivo La Coruña to advance to the final.
Perhaps no one would have thought of this result half a year ago. Now, two dark horses stood on the stage of the final and made their final effort to fight for the highest honor in European football!
As everyone knew, Ajax's influence and popularity among Chinese fans had greatly increased because there was a Chinese player in Ajax's team. He was Qin Xiong. As the main force and midfield brain of Ajax, he helped the team win the Eredivisie title and the Dutch Cup this season. His contribution to the team's championship was unimaginable. In his first season in Europe, Qin Xiong showed his amazing strength. He was widely praised by the European media, and now there were rumors that many European powerhouse clubs wanted to recruit him.
In the east stands of the Oberschalke Stadium, there were about 2,000 Chinese fans who came to watch the game. They collectively wore Ajax's jerseys with the number 28 on the back, which was Qin Xiong's jersey number. Some of them held China's national flag, and some pulled out banners with a close-up of Qin Xiong's heroic appearance in the game, as well as blessings for him. Now the Chinese fans proudly called Qin Xiong: China's hero!
Qin Xiong had written a new history of Chinese players in European football. There were too many new records to count. Now that he was standing on the stage of the Champions League final, this was definitely a historic moment! There must be many Qin Xiong supporters cheering for him in front of the TV! On this day, how many Chinese fans would unswervingly support Ajax?
In the pre-match report, it was discovered that in many cities in China where football culture prevailed, football fans organized groups to watch the game and shouted the slogan: Tonight, we are all Ajax fans!
Alright, let's focus on the arena. Eh?
The game was about to start, but Qin Xiong and Snede were doing something puzzling. It looked like they were encouraging each other. Haha, according to the media's tracking of Ajax's news, Qin Xiong's best friend in the Ajax Club was Snede. It seemed that the rumors were true. At this time, as the two youngest players on the field, they were cheering each other on.
Now, I will introduce the starting lineups of both teams.
Ajax manager Ronald Comain's starting lineup was 4-3-3.
Goalkeeper: Lobonte
Defenders: Grygera, Heitinga, Eskuder, Maxwell.
Midfielders: De Jong, Galasek, Qin Xiong.
Forwards: Van Der Vaart, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Snede.
FC Porto manager José Mourinho's starting lineup was 4-4-2.
Goalkeeper: Bayer.
Defenders: Ferreira, Costa, Carvalho, Valente.
Midfielders: Costinha, Mendes, Deco, Maniche.
Forwards: Del Rey, Alberto.
The players on both sides are in formation. Ajax will be the first to kick off! "
With the whistle of the referee, the European summit match at Estadio Schalke officially kicked off!
Zlatan Ibrahimovic kicked the ball to Van Der Vaart, who passed it back. Qin Xiong stopped the ball at the back and passed it back to Galasek without waiting for the opponent's striker to come up to press. The Czech veteran passed the ball to his compatriot Grygera on the flank, and Grygera passed it to Qin Xiong. Qin Xiong kicked the ball to Snede, who passed it back to Maxwell …
Ajax did not fall into Porto's frenzied press at the start of the match, but they took the initiative to make the football pass run quickly.
The formation did not press forward. The trident moved in the attacking midfield area. Everyone consciously passed the ball more and tried to get every teammate on the field to participate in the passing activities.
Ajax's goal was to get the whole team into the game quickly to avoid players who did not touch the ball for a long time and were distracted or unable to keep up with the team's overall rhythm.
After all, it was the final. The opening stage had to be steady and conservative, especially for a young team.
Now, with Qin Xiong as the core of the midfield, Ajax was working hard to activate the team's fighting power.
At the same time, Qin Xiong also carefully observed the defensive strategy of the Porto players in the passing and movement to support.
In fact, Porto's formation did not represent the tactical advancement of European football. They were a bit like England's traditional 4-4-2.
But on closer inspection, there was something different.
The opposing two strikers, Derlei and Alberto, never pressed Ajax's defenders in order to ensure a close connection between their activity area and the midfield.
If they rushed to the front line to press Ajax's defenders, it was obvious that they would be disconnected from the midfield line led by Deco!
When they attacked, they would be cut off by Ajax's double defensive midfielders defensive system. When they defended, they would not be able to form support for the midfield defense.
Therefore, the two energetic strikers would only press Ajax's midfielders and actively defend in the midfield area.
This was Mourinho's coaching ability. He could make the strikers obediently defend actively and do the dirty work that 99% of the strikers were not willing to do.
If there was no pressure from behind, Qin Xiong would decisively try to challenge the middle defensive line formed by Deco and Mendes. But compared to the past where he could crush the opponent's midfield with two defensive midfielders, or face the combination of two defensive midfielders and attacking midfielders with difficulty, today he was besieged by the opponent in the middle from all sides, which gave Deco and Mendes an innate advantage in defense.
If Alberto and Derlei could interfere and block Qin Xiong, then Deco and Mendes would seize the opportunity to form a joint defense to contain Qin Xiong.
If the two strikers could not harass Qin Xiong, Deco and Mendes would retreat and keep a close distance with the defensive line, so that Qin Xiong could not have the space to break through one by one!
A tight defensive system and a tacit understanding of the overall cooperation in defense.
Porto's rational defensive strategy was very similar to their young manager, Mourinho, who was standing on the sidelines. His cold face declared that Porto was as cold and unshakable as steel under his command.
However, this was relative to the independent defensive picture. The game was constantly moving. Porto could not defend every time and each of them should stand in the defensive area. After all, they also had to attack!
When the first 15 minutes of the game were relatively calm, Qin Xiong thought that Ajax had fully mobilized the game state as a whole.
They began to try to attack.
In the 17th minute of the game, after roughly figuring out the opponent's strategy to contain the midfield, Qin Xiong slowed down his dribbling footsteps just past the midfield area. He looked like he was preparing to break through Deco, and Deco also intended to have a defensive cooperation with the young player, Alberto.
He did not expect that Qin Xiong was only trying to lure Deco. After attracting Deco's attention, Qin Xiong immediately passed the ball to the front.
Ibrahimovic, who was still four meters away from the penalty area, received the ball and pretended to cross before pulling the ball away from Mendes. Just as Mendes was about to use his hand to pull at his jersey, Ibrahimovic completed a long shot in one go!
This shot had the effect of striking the mountain to intimidate the tiger, causing the goalkeeper, Bayer, to break out in a cold sweat.
He did not move and did not make a save. Ibrahimovic's shot was too sudden, and this guy's strength was really amazing. The shot traveled 30 yards in the blink of an eye. Fortunately, it was two meters away from the goal and flew out of the end line.
"Ajax has completed an attack. The Swedish striker, Ibrahimovic's long shot was shot at an astonishing speed. Unfortunately, it was off the goal. It looks like Ajax is beginning to use long shots to test Porto's defensive line! Ajax's team has many long shots experts. Snede, Van Der Vaart, Ibrahimovic, including Qin Xiong. Ajax's attacking players in the front field have been described by the Dutch media as: They can break the goal and score from anywhere in the front field! "
Mourinho maintained a calm and composed expression from beginning to end.
Even when Ajax started to attack, he had the same attitude as if Mt. Tai was collapsing in front of him.
In fact, he was looking forward to Ajax's attack.
Porto's main defense was to defend first and then counterattack. The prerequisite for defense was, of course, the opponent's offense!
The more Ajax attacked, the more Mourinho looked forward to it!
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