Chapter 183 The Italian team's defense

Before the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, England's new head coach Keegan held a press conference to announce the candidate for the new national team.

The next game for the England national team is March 27, with home matches against Poland - England only won one of the three games before, ranking third in this group, Sweden and Poland both won all the two games and tied for first place. If they are not won in this game, England may lose the chance of participating in the playoffs.

Because England had a bye in the two games on this international match day, which was also a good opportunity for Keegan. He recruited 30 players to join the team - a large number of young players joined the team, proving his statement that the next national team game will be mainly young players, and the number of veterans in the team will be gradually reduced.

As the best-performing Premier League team recently, Manchester United has been selected for a considerable number of international players. Beckham, Scholes, Bart, Cole, Neville brothers, Tiger's names are also listed. In fact, Tiger's selection is nothing strange. Manchester United has promoted the first team this season, and Wes Brown, who has not played many times, has also been selected for the national team's roster, which is enough to make people's eyes shatter.

Other young players selected include Aston Villa young players Gareth Barry and midfielder Hendry, Allen Smith, who made his mark at Leeds United this season, Frank Lampard, who became the absolute main player of West Ham United, Wayne Bridge, who played the main left versatile player in Southampton, forward Darren Huckby, Leeds midfielder Lee Bowyer, and marginal figures selected also include Tottenham's left versatile player Tim Sherwood. These players are basically players who have not been selected for the national team or have almost never played in the national team. Tiger has many competitors.

After receiving the call for the England national team, Tiger was very happy - his efforts finally paid off. He didn't know why the former head coach Hoddle looked down on him. Now, he changed to a new head coach and a head coach who announced that he would play offensive football and select young players. He was immediately selected into the national team roster, which is a good phenomenon.

Tiger believes that as long as he is a coach with vision, he can look at himself, know that he can play the main player, and know that he will have a great role in the team - just like Ferguson.

Manchester United players congratulated two newly selected national teammates on the training ground. Others have been selected for the national team more than once, including Bart, while Tiger and Brown have been selected for the national team for the first time. Even on the roster, it is a thing worth congratulations.

"Okay, guys, the celebration should stop... What we face next will be teams from Italy. Although their condition has begun to decline in recent years, we have to remember a shameful fact - in the history of the three major European Cups, we have never eliminated Italian teams in the knockout stage. When we encounter Italian teams, we are all eliminated! I don't want to maintain this shameful record... Now, please calm down and prepare for the next game!"

Ferguson waited until they had almost finished congratulations before speaking. As soon as he opened his mouth, he calmed everyone down. Although it was the first time Manchester United encountered Inter Milan in the European arena, the only ending they encountered Italian teams in the European arena before was to be eliminated - this is indeed a huge shame for Manchester United.

However, this game will be their best opportunity. Inter Milan's number one star Ronaldo has been playing and constantly hurting since the beginning of this season. He has not had many games in the league, and their performance in the league is also quite bad. He is now ranked in the middle of Serie A. Interestingly, with them, the Serie A champion Juventus, who fell along with them. The two championship-winning teams of last season's championship have declined at the same time this season, and the glorious team has become a newcomer like Fiorentina and Lazio. AC Milan has also begun to recover strongly after sinking for a few years.

Beckham's expression is very serious, and no one will forget that in the World Cup, it was precisely because of his unnecessary foul on Simeone that he was sent off by a red card. In this game, Inter Milan's main midfielder was Simeone, which was also a good opportunity for Beckham to take revenge.

Tiger was excited - after feeling the Italian defense when facing Chelsea, he was looking forward to playing against higher-level Serie A players. Although the Italian team's performance in the European arena has declined in recent years, they are still the well-deserved No. 1 and the most difficult league in the world. There are the highest level of defensive players. As an offensive player, Tiger is eager to play against these top players.

Manchester United fans are also looking forward to this game. Since the start of the Premier League, Manchester United has dominated the entire Premier League. For Manchester United fans, hitting the European arena is their goal. They hope that the team can achieve excellent results in the Champions League to prove Manchester United's position in the Premier League.

In this tense atmosphere, March 3rd arrived on time.

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"Observation, use offense to tear their defense! Inter Milan's middle defense is still very strong, but on the wing, they have great flaws. We have to suppress them from the midfield, so that we can create more shooting opportunities... Tiger, the task of connecting the midfield is handed over to you. After attracting them enough defensive power, hand the ball to the wing. Inter Milan's air defense ability is not very good. Bergomi is better at ground defense, while the Nigerian central defender West sometimes seems very rash... Bergomi is the most stable link on their defense line, but in this game, his position is right back. Colognese, who appears in the middle, is just stable, and their left back Simici is too young. This is all we can use! After the game, attack, suppress their midfield and score the first goal!"

Ferguson's words before the start of the game were quite inflammatory. The recent ten consecutive wins in the league also made Manchester United players full of confidence in their attacks - middle, side, penalty area, and back row... They have countless offensive methods, which is also the root of their confidence!

It is obvious that Inter Milan's head coach, firefighter, Englishman Roy Hodgson is not very confident in this game. After all, they lack the number one star Ronaldo. In this game, he sent a forward combination of Baggio and Zamorano, behind them is Frenchman Djokaf, Argentine Simeone is in the midfield, Italian Morero and Argentine Zanetti are on both sides, and behind is the patchwork of defense line.

The defensive tactics formulated by Hodgson seem to make good use of the Italian team's excellent defense ability, but the pieced together defense line obviously cannot take on such a responsibility. On the contrary, although it lacks Ronaldo, Inter Milan does not lack excellent attackers. Give up his offensive ability and trusting defense too much has become the root cause of Hodgson's failure.

When Tiger shook hands with the opponents one by one, he was looking at the opponents one by one. Most of the players in Inter Milan are famous, such as Zamorano, Baggio, Djokaf, Simeone, Bergomi... They were all famous people when Tiger was an unknown reserve player. Now he was able to compete with these top players. This is the charm of football and one of the reasons why Tiger was extremely eager to join the giants.

He competed on the same field with the stars who could only be seen on TV or newspapers - Tiger was very happy and proud - through his own efforts and these players he could only look up to before, playing football on the same field, this is the best proof of Tiger's efforts!

The only regret is that Ronaldo is absent - this player who is one year younger than him has already conquered almost everyone, including Tiger. The movements he made on the court are simply fascinating. Tiger has collected a lot of Ronaldo's extraordinary skills to torture and watch. Whether it is Marseille rotation, oxtail swing or Cruyff who Tiger used before, the bald rabbit-toothed guy has done it without any effort on the court. Tiger can observe that many moves that he cannot easily make can be done easily, although those movements combined with his speed have put Ronaldo's knee under a lot of pressure...

Slow speed sometimes also has the benefits of slow speed.

When shook hands with Baggio, Tiger stopped deliberately. After changing to play for the forward during this period, the English media kept saying that England finally had a top shadow striker, Robert Baggio, who belonged to the British Empire. Tiger also felt that his playing style was very similar to Baggio now...

Recognizing that the young man in front of him was enthusiastic but not malicious, Baggio smiled. His ponytail had just grown out of the past, but it still did not damage the charm of the man.

"Hello, Tiger, I heard many friends in England talk about your existence... I also heard that the English media said that you belong to Baggio of the British Empire. I really want to see this game."

"Actually, I don't like this title myself." Tiger also laughed: "Baggio is Baggio, unique, and I, Tiger, are unique."

Baggio was stunned for a moment, then laughed, he patted Tiger on the shoulder, then let go and walked towards the next opponent.

There was a confrontation with Tiger and Baggio, but it was more of a friendly handshake. When Simeone and Beckham shook hands, the confrontation emitted by the two people could be seen by individuals...

Both of them didn't touch each other much, just touched it for a moment, and then let it go. Beckham held back his energy and wanted to take revenge, while Simeone had no intention of continuing to anger Beckham. Now Inter Milan's performance is very average, and he has lost his mood.

The competition is about to begin!

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"Tiger, remember to pass the ball to me." Before scattering on the court, Beckham said to Tiger, and Tiger nodded - in the game, he will be more against him, Simeone, the Argentinian, both offense and defense, but he does not have many helpers around him. After attracting his attention, whether it is Scholes' insertion or passing the ball to both wings, it will be a good choice.

Before the game, Ferguson said that he should focus on the wing, so Tiger will become a supporting role in this game - Tiger is willing to do this. It is not particularly unbearable to be a supporting role in such a game. What's more, after attracting the opponent's attention in the middle, it is not the first time that Tiger has done this job.

In this game, Tiger and York were partnered with Tiger on the front line. With Tiger retreating more midfielders, Manchester United's midfielders were actually five, while Djokkaf from Inter Milan appeared more in the forward position. Inter Milan's midfielders were equivalent to only three, Morero and Sanetti were typical wing players. In the middle, Manchester United actually had the advantage.

Hodgson also believes that Manchester United will focus on attacking in the middle. After all, Simeone is the only one responsible for defense in the middle of Inter Milan. His strategy is to allow Sanetti to recover more in the middle. The four defenders on Inter Milan can actually play against the central defender. West tops up and two full-backs recover to defend in the penalty area. This is Inter Milan's defensive strategy.

Shortly after the game started, Tiger dribbled the ball and broke through the middle, and then he met Simeone.

"David, let me avenge you first."

Tiger thought to himself that the gap between him and Simeone was gradually narrowing. After approaching Simeone, Tiger stopped for a while, then turned halfway to control the ball. At this time, Scholes had already rushed up from behind.

Tiger swung his right foot and was about to pass the ball out. Simeone's center of gravity was offset. Then Tiger's right foot flew over the ball, then knocked back, and moved the ball back from the heel of his left foot, and then quickly turned around! While turning around, Tiger's support foot quickly changed, stepped on the ground with his right foot, and thrust the ball outward with his left foot, and then rushed past Simeone with a whistle!

Tiger's words are right. Such actions can be used anywhere, whether they are shooting later or doing it purely for breakthroughs!

Simeone was caught off guard and was freed by Tiger. Although he quickly chased him from the back, he could not stop Tiger from moving forward for the time being!

West, with green braids on his head, rushed up from the front to defend Tiger. After Tiger muttered in his heart, "Your hairstyle is so disgusting", he raised his foot and passed the ball directly to York, who was following the front of the penalty area, and then rushed forward.

Tiger blocked West from the outside. Although the Nigerian central defender kept hitting Tiger, he still failed to make the seemingly thin mixed-race lose its center of gravity. York passed the ball in time. Tiger swung his right foot while running and shot from a long shot!

Inter Milan's Italian goalkeeper Paliuca made a beautiful save and blocked the ball from the side.

The warm applause from Manchester United fans sounded in the stands. Although the ball did not go in, it had already ignited their passion!

Back in the penalty area, Bergomi cleared the ball with big feet, Tiger started playing as a striker, and Manchester United had relatively few players who made up the ball in the penalty area, which was also a loss that had to be suffered.

"Okay, just fight like this!" Ferguson shouted loudly from the sidelines.

"Middle! Pay attention to the defense in the middle!" Hodgson also shouted on the sidelines: "Javier! Pay attention to helping Diego defend the middle!"

Sanetti, who had a determined face, nodded to the off-field and then leaned his position towards the middle.

One minute later, Manchester United made a comeback, Tiger continued to dribble the ball forward from the middle, and Scholes followed him closely behind - the cooperation between the two in the middle can play many combinations, whether it is the two-way one-on-one between the two or Scholes' long shot after Tiger passed the ball, it is a great threat.

Simeone handed over the task of defending Tiger to Sanetti, and Simeone has great confidence in the national teammates - he himself started defending Scholes and reduced Tiger's pass route.

York at the front of the penalty area was also firmly stared at by West and Colognese and others, and Tiger began to fall into the dilemma of fighting alone.

"Isn't this guy a wing player? And he's an offensive."

Tiger did not take Sanetti seriously. In the 1998 World Cup, although Sanetti scored an extremely exciting free kick, the free kick was more of a result of team cooperation. Tiger also felt that there were very few offensive players who could keep an eye on him in addition to top defensive players.

After approaching Sanetti, Tiger immediately stopped, first made a breakthrough to the left, then dunked the ball back, accelerated immediately, and broke through from the right!

This offensive method that quickly changes the offensive rhythm can make the defensive player's center of gravity change without time to react, and finally breaking from his right side is to see that Sanetti is a right-footed player. If he breaks from his left side, he will be much more uncomfortable to defend.

Sanetti was also shook by Tiger's movements, but he quickly stabilized his center of gravity, then moved one step, stretched his foot to block Tiger's front!

Tiger inevitably hit Sanetti. Although he still controlled the ball quickly, he still failed to break through the Argentinian who was about the same height as him in front of him.

"This guy's center of gravity is so stable." Tiger turned around and passed the ball out, then thought to himself.

Tiger had never seen Sanetti's center of gravity before. Although his reaction did not seem to be very fast, he was able to make the second defense faster than others, just a little bit worse, Tiger failed to break through Sanetti.

"Sure enough... the Italian team's defense is very good!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to ***(***.***) to vote for recommendations. ***, your support is my greatest motivation.)
Chapter completed!