God of Green

Van Gaal hoped to use Jiang Xiaolin's attractiveness to attract the opponent's defensive attention, and then provide other players of Alkmaar with gaps and shooting opportunities to defeat the opponent.

Of course, if it was a set-piece attack, or when Jiang Xiaolin himself had a very good chance, Van Gaal would not let Jiang Xiaolin deliberately not shoot.

In general, Jiang Xiaolin's tactical role in this game was greater than his offensive role.

But the opponent didn't know.

Even the outside media and fans didn't know.

Everyone thought that what Jiang Xiaolin said was true, and that Jiang Xiaolin really wanted to score at least 4 goals in these two rounds of the quarter-finals to create a new record for goals in a single season in the UEFA Cup.

It can be said that Zenit St. Petersburg was deceived by Van Gaal and Jiang Xiaolin, and was deceived badly, even the focus and tactical arrangements were in the wrong direction.

Soon, on March 12, with the arrival of the match day, some strong Russian men began to appear in the city of Alkmaar.

They unscrupulously waved the flags of Russia or Zenit St. Petersburg, and were not afraid of the dangers that might occur in away games.

Of course, as the former coachman of the sea, the Dutch are not afraid of trouble.

Faced with the provocation of the Russians, there were naturally die-hard fans of Alkmaar who fought back, and the two sides almost had a small-scale conflict before the game.

Fortunately, this game was very hot from the pre-match war of words between the two sides. The local police station in Alkmaar was well prepared. Once fans gathered, the police team rushed over to deal with it immediately.

There were also police from nearby cities to support Alkmaar.

Therefore, there was no excessive physical conflict between the two sides before the game, causing fans to be injured or something, and everyone just cursed and shouted a few words through the police.

Zenit St. Petersburg fans still shouted that their players would tackle Jiang Xiaolin's legs and make Alkmaar lose like Bayern Munich last season, while Alkmaar fans responded that Jiang Xiaolin would definitely lead Alkmaar to bloodbath Zenit, let Zenit St. Petersburg go home bitterly, and end the game in the first round.

When the stadium opened, fans from both sides entered from different channels, just to avoid physical conflicts between the two sides.

After entering the stadium, more than 2,000 away fans of Zenit St. Petersburg were also concentrated in a stand, and then surrounded by security guards and police to avoid conflicts with Dutch fans in other stands.

Of course, although polar bears are born to fight, they are not arrogant enough to break through security and confront more than 10,000 Dutch fans in the away game.

They just stayed in their own stand area, swearing at Dutch fans from a distance, and booed and cursed when Alkmaar took the lead, hoping to affect the state of Jiang Xiaolin and Alkmaar.

But these are just normal operations of the fans, and they don't matter to the players who are used to big scenes.

Jiang Xiaolin and others were concentrating on pre-match warm-ups.

When the Zenit St. Petersburg players came out to warm up, they were booed and cursed by more than 10,000 Alkmaar home fans. They did not do anything in return, and warmed up normally like Alkmaar, preparing for the game.

In the real game, it still depends on the performance of the players. The fans, who are known as the twelfth player of the team, can play some role, but in fact, it is not as big as the fans think.

The game still depends on the players of both sides to fight, grab and score goals on the court.

As the game time approaches, the AFAS stadium, which can accommodate 17,000 people, is full. There are still a large number of Alkmaar fans who have not been able to buy tickets in the square outside, but there is no way.

They can only watch the big screen in the square or in the bar outside.

Soon, the pre-match warm-ups of the players of both sides ended and the game was about to begin.

After the appearance ceremony and the side selection ceremony, before the game started, Jiang Xiaolin opened the system package and double-clicked the team aura to check Alkmaar's overall on-site status.

This game cannot afford to lose.

His original idea was that if the team's status was lower than 90%, he would spend 10 attribute points to increase the team's on-site status to more than 90% to ensure victory.

Unexpectedly, Alkmaar's overall on-site status in this game reached an astonishing 92%.

This was the first time Jiang Xiaolin saw his team's status exceed 90% without him adding the team aura. It seems that Alkmaar's teammates are also eager to win this game and are determined to win!

This situation made Jiang Xiaolin very happy.

In this state, according to Van Gaal's tactical arrangements before the game, the probability of other players successfully shooting and scoring should not be low.

AlkmaarThere should be no problem for Alkmaar to win at home, it just depends on how many goals they can win.

Anyway, Alkmaar's schedule is not favorable, so they must score as many goals as they can in the first round, and they must not be soft!

Since the team is in such a good state, Jiang Xiaolin did not spend any more attribute points to increase it.

Anyway, even if an accident happens, there is still a second round of games to save it, so there is no need to increase the overall state of the team to 100% in the first round.

Jiang Xiaolin's attribute points are also very precious, and there will definitely be many more times when they are needed in key matches such as the Asian Cup, World Cup, Champions League, etc. in the future.

Don't waste them easily.

With the confidence of winning, Jiang Xiaolin and his teammates are about to start the key match with the defending champion.

At 20:45 on the evening of March 12, 2009, amid the cheers of more than 17,000 home and away fans, the referee blew the whistle and the first round of the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup quarter-finals between Alkmaar and the defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg officially began at Alkmaar's home stadium, AFAS Stadium.

Despite the loud clamor before the game, Zenit St. Petersburg was able to win the UEFA Cup last season, not just because of strong limbs and simple minds.

Facing the top team in the Eredivisie away from home, and threatened by Jiang Xiaolin, the famous goal machine, Zenit St. Petersburg's goal in the first round was to maintain a draw and win, leaving the greater hope of promotion to the second round after returning to the home court to decide the outcome.

Therefore, they did not rush to attack after the start of this game, but took a defensive counterattack posture from the beginning.

This is a relatively normal tactical approach.

Because facing Alkmaar, which has Jiang Xiaolin, away from home, any team is not suitable to play a head-on battle with Alkmaar, that is courting death.

Zenit can calmly play defensive counterattacks away from home, proving that they have not been completely stimulated to the point of dizziness by the success of last season, and are still relatively calm.

However, in the defensive counterattack tactics, they have made a mistake in who to defend.

There is no doubt that Jiang Xiaolin is the most dazzling star and offensive core of Alkmaar.

Jiang Xiaolin's provocation and clamor before the game according to Van Gaal's instructions also made the players and coaches of Zenit St. Petersburg misjudge that Jiang Xiaolin is the end point of Alkmaar's attack in this game, so they carried out extremely strict defense against Jiang Xiaolin at the beginning of the game.

As long as Jiang Xiaolin enters Zenit's half, at least one person will start to follow him and defend him closely.

Once entering the dangerous area 30 meters away from the goal, it will become at least two people to defend.

Once entering the penalty area, it will become three people to defend.

Despite the loud shouting before the game, Jiang Xiaolin's threat was real.

Therefore, in defending Jiang Xiaolin, Zenit St. Petersburg was extremely cautious and careful, and was not as arrogant as they were when they shouted to defeat Bayern Munich.

It's just that their caution and carefulness were misplaced.

Jiang Xiaolin was not the offensive end point of Alkmaar in this game, but just a tactical center and offensive transit station.

Especially in the 6th minute of the opening, Jiang Xiaolin received a wonderful pass from Maarten Martens on the right side of the penalty area and dodge an angle through continuous changes of direction and dunks, and almost succeeded in shooting, which further deepened the misunderstanding of Jiang Xiaolin by Zenit St. Petersburg.

Whether it was Zenit's defenders or goalkeepers, they all focused on Jiang Xiaolin, guarding against Jiang Xiaolin's attack, breakthrough, running, grabbing points, and shooting.

As a result, they relaxed their defense against other players of Alkmaar.

Of course, it can't be said to be completely relaxed.

Zenit still has people to mark or assist key offensive players such as Hamdaoui, Maarten Martens, Moussa Dembele, Stein Schars, etc., and will not let them run out of space easily.

However, because there are too many people needed to mark Jiang Xiaolin, each team has only 10 fixed players besides the goalkeeper, so there will definitely be omissions in the marking of other players in the back row of Alkmaar.

For example, the occasional assists from the defensive midfielder David Mendes, the two full-backs Pocognoli and Yarians, Zenit St. Petersburg could not mark them so carefully.

In the 11th minute, Jiang Xiaolin attracted the attention of three defenders and the goalkeeper in the penalty area. As a result, Stein Schars, who was holding the ball, did not pass the ball to Jiang Xiaolin, who was facing the goal in the penalty area, nor did he pass it to other offensive players, but passed it to the gap outside the penalty area.

David Mendes, who was inserted in the back row, rushed upA long shot was fired, but unfortunately it was a cannon fired high and did not pose any threat.

Therefore, Alkmaar's attack did not attract the attention of Zenit St. Petersburg. Everyone still focused their attention on Jiang Xiaolin, thinking that as long as they kept an eye on Jiang Xiaolin, they could avoid being scored by Alkmaar.

Of course, as the defending champion, Zenit St. Petersburg also has its own aspirations.

They also want to win and eliminate Alkmaar to advance to the next round, and even successfully defend the title.

Therefore, they are not only defending, but also occasionally counterattacking. If they can score an away goal at the AFAS Stadium, it will undoubtedly be of great benefit to their strategic and tactical arrangements for the second round of the game after returning to their home court.

Therefore, while closely guarding Jiang Xiaolin and Alkmaar's frontcourt players to prevent Alkmaar from scoring, if Zenit players get the ball, they will also counterattack.

However, Zenit St. Petersburg, which plays a defensive counterattack, does not have many opportunities to counterattack.

In addition, Alkmaar also paid attention to the defense against Zenit's counterattack and did not give them many successful counterattack opportunities.

In the end, even if the counterattack reached the front court and successfully got the chance to shoot, the players of Zenit St. Petersburg did not have the shooting skills of Jiang Xiaolin to ensure that the shot hit the goal frame and scored by breaking through Sergio Romero's ten fingers.

From the beginning of the game until the 14th minute, Zenit St. Petersburg played a slightly threatening counterattack, which hit the attack to the front court, and finally their striker Deki shot from the right side of the top of the arc of Alkmaar's penalty area.

The quality of this shot was not bad, but it was slightly off the post in the end, but it was also good.

If you are lucky, if you hit it within the goal frame, you might really get a goal.

Therefore, Deki's shot received warm cheers from more than 2,000 Zenit away fans.

In contrast, Alkmaar, who took the initiative to attack from the beginning, seemed to be unable to open the situation.

Jiang Xiaolin, who was highly expected by countless fans at the scene and in front of the TV, only had one shot in the 6th minute within the first 15 minutes of the game, and he failed to score successfully.

The fans of Zenit St. Petersburg were very proud.

Jiang Xiaolin, the so-called top scorer in the UEFA Cup, was almost ineffective under the defense of their players, which made them very happy. They kept cheering for Zenit players in the stands.

As long as Jiang Xiaolin got the ball, the more than 2,000 Zenit fans would boo and curse at him.

In fact, this has already shown the importance of Jiang Xiaolin. Otherwise, they would not bother to boo and curse at an insignificant player!

The Zenit players also felt that their defense against Jiang Xiaolin was relatively successful. Everyone kept adjusting their defensive positions, trying to keep a closer watch on Jiang Xiaolin and not give Jiang Xiaolin any chance to shoot.

It was under such circumstances that the time came to the 21st minute.

In the opponent's tight defense, although Jiang Xiaolin stood in the penalty area, he never got a chance to face the goal. He could only use his strong physique to withstand the pull and push of the opponent's defenders and occupy the position with his back to the goal.

Of course, this is exactly the tactical purpose of Alkmaar, but the players and coaches of Zenit St. Petersburg did not know it at this time.

They just thought that they let go very successfully and did not let Jiang Xiaolin get the opportunity to turn around and face the goal.

As a result, at this time, Moussa Dembele, who broke through from the wing and cut inside, passed the ball to Jiang Xiaolin's feet.

Jiang Xiaolin received Dembele's pass on the left side of the penalty spot in the penalty area, but he was facing away from the goal and could not form a shot.