Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 756 Mourinho and Benitez

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to St. James' Park! Today is April 27, and the second match of the first leg of the Champions League semi-final will be played here! In yesterday's game, AC Milan of Italy The home team defeated Eindhoven in the Netherlands with a score of [-] to [-], and one foot has entered the final! Today's match against both sides is from England, namely Newcastle United from Newcastle and Chelsea from London This is the third time in the history of the Champions League that there will be an English derby, and it is also the first time that two English teams will meet in the semi-finals! But the irony is that there are a total of nineteen countries in the two teams Players and coaches, they are a veritable multinational team! In the European competition last season, Newcastle United's coach Mourinho and Chelsea's coach Benitez shared the European honors. Mourinho led Newcastle won the Champions League, while Benitez led Valencia to the UEFA Cup. After that, Benitez left Valencia and came to Chelsea to coach, losing his Barcelona Rencia lost to Newcastle in the Super Cup at the beginning of this season. The two teams had faced each other in the league. Newcastle drew with Chelsea [-]-[-] away. From this aspect, Newcastle has a psychological advantage. They reached the top of last year's Champions League and eliminated La Liga top Barcelona and Bundesliga top Bayern Munich in this year's knockout round. This brilliant result also makes them the favorites in the semi-finals."

"Different from last season, Newcastle did not rely on defense to reach the present in the Champions League this season. In the knockout rounds, they conceded seven goals in four games, and the average conceded goals per game is close to two. That's a far cry from their defense last season - last season Newcastle conceded just three goals in seven games in the knockout stages - but their offense was much stronger than last season, with four Ten goals have been scored in the game, and they only scored nine goals in the knockout stage last season... Judging from this number, Mourinho is changing himself, and Newcastle are also changing themselves. It seems that in the future No one will say that Newcastle's style of play is conservative, scoring [-] goals in four games, this rate of scoring is not achievable by a conservative team anyway."

"There are still about 10 minutes before the start of the game. The players from both sides have warmed up and returned to the locker room. The game will start in 10 minutes... Please don't walk away."

****************************************
Newcastle's dressing room.

Although they lost an important game in three days, the morale of the Newcastle players did not drop because of it. I got the chance to compete face to face with my opponent, which couldn't be better.

We have to teach them a lesson and let them know that no matter if it is the league or the Champions League, you are not our opponents-there can only be one king in England and Europe this season, and that is Newcastle!
"Okay, I think everyone is almost done, let me say a few words." Mourinho looked at his watch, clapped his hands, and let everyone's attention focus on him: "This game We are playing at home, so for us, failure to win is tantamount to failure. The reason why we were able to spend 10 minutes at the Allianz Arena in the last game was because we scored two goals at home. advantage. So in this game, our first goal is to win, and the second is to win more. Apart from that, I don’t accept any results.”

Mourinho turned his face and said that he is not convinced that Benitez has tied the league points, so he will use this victory to prove that he is better than Benitez-for Benitez, Although the relationship between the two is good, they still have a competitive mentality between them who are relatively close in age. Benitez came to Europe earlier than Mourinho, and also achieved results earlier than Mourinho, but Mourinho As soon as Neo arrived in Europe, he won the European Champions Cup, the highest honor of European clubs. From the current point of view, the achievements of the two are comparable.

But Mourinho is not just satisfied with this, there is nothing more convincing than defeating an opponent in a head-to-head contest.

This season, in England, the only head coach who can compete with him is Benitez. The proud Mourinho does not allow himself to fail.

"Chelsea's usual tactics this season are a bit similar to Barcelona's, they are all four-three-three, but in fact they are not exactly the same. Their midfield three are generally Lampard, Deco and Xavi. Alonso, on the surface, these three people are all focused on offense, but they also have strong defensive capabilities. Deco is the starting point of their offense, and Lampard is often the final blow The end, so we must pay attention to the attack of their midfielders. Robben's injury has healed, but he may not play. Duff and Joe Cole are the wings that Chelsea often use recently, and Joe Cole has excellent skills. And recently he is in very good condition and will definitely occupy a main position. Duff is said to be injured. If he cannot play, maybe Benitez will send Gudjohnsen to play this position. At that time, our defensive pressure on the right will be light. Many. Toni is their main center forward. He doesn't score many goals, but he plays a very important part in Chelsea's offensive system. Its importance is about equal to that of Drogba and Lucio , you are the defender who is most familiar with him, so you are responsible for defending him in this game."

"Offensively, Chelsea's defense is very good, but they have a weakness, that is their right back Johnson, compared with Terry, Carvalho and Garra, his physical fitness is not very good, this is A place we can take advantage of, and at the same time they lack the protection of an engineer's midfielder at the front of the penalty area, and the shot from the center will also be a place we can take advantage of... Chelsea is likely to use defensive tactics against us in this game, so we Take every opportunity on offense, get it?"

"Understood!" The players replied in unison.

"Okay, let's go now." Mourinho simply waved his hand.

Pei Wei sat in the corner of the locker room, watching Mourinho arrange tactics, but he felt a little worried in his heart.

When watching the Premier League in the previous life, Mourinho and Benitez had a very interesting phenomenon of rivals, that is, Mourinho had the upper hand in the league, and he was often able to double-kill the teams led by Benitez in one season. Liverpool, but in the knockout rounds, was always killed by Benitez, and now, Newcastle may not be much better than Chelsea in the previous life, but now Chelsea is much stronger than Liverpool at that time, and the level of players it has is not inferior at all After the team led by Mourinho, what can Benitez do?

Pei Wei didn't have a score in his heart, not at all.

**********************************************
St James' Park was packed today - as it has been for the past two years - and amidst their cheers, players from both sides entered the tunnel.

Newcastle's starting lineup: Cech, Maicon, Dawson, Lucio, Bernard, Essien, Makelele, Ribery, Nie Fei, Ibrahimovic, Drogba.

Chelsea's starting lineup: Reina, Johnson, Carvalho, Terry, Gallas, Alonso, Deco, Lampard, Gudjohnsen, Joe Cole, Tony.

These two starting lineups are nothing new, and they are all in line with media speculation. Shearer, who broke the club's scoring record a while ago, is sitting on the bench, and Robben, who has returned from injury, is also on the bench. What kind of Raiders exist.

A season is coming to an end, and any surprise soldier can only be a joke. After playing for so long, who still doesn't know how much they have?At this time, there are no surprises in terms of players. The only thing that can be a surprise is the tactical competition between the two coaches.

This is exactly what Pei Wei is worried about. Although Mourinho is amazing and brilliant, he is still inferior to Benitez in terms of on-the-spot tactical command. In the league, Mourinho may be able to overwhelm the Benitez, but in a face-to-face battle, he may not be Benitez's opponent.

It is estimated that Mourinho himself is aware of this, so in the first three league games, he has been hoping to offset Benitez's advantage in on-the-spot command from the side, but unfortunately, Ferguson inserted a cross in the middle foot, defeated Newcastle with an almost perfect game, while making the water more muddy, it also made Mourinho's carefully prepared plan for a long time come to naught. Unfavorable schedule, Mourinho is also forced to a dead end.

The home game must be won, even if you win only one goal, you can have a psychological advantage before the away game. This is what Mourinho thinks now.

Facts have proved that Pei Wei's worries were not groundless.

Benitez accurately judged Mourinho's idea that he must win, so although Chelsea's boss Abramovich dislikes ugly games the most, he still decisively adopted the most thorough defensive tactics in this game.

Just after the start of the game, Newcastle did not conduct any tentative attacks, and directly started a large-scale attack to create pressure, but the Chelsea players seemed to have known this for a long time. Except for Joe Cole who did not participate in the defense, even the center Tony returned. When it came to defending in their own half, facing such a dense defense, Newcastle's offense did not have any effect.

Mourinho couldn't help but glanced at the visiting coach's bench, and Benitez, who noticed his gaze, smiled slightly at him.

(End of this chapter)