On the field, after the game started, both Leicester City and Manchester City played very cautiously in the first five minutes. They would rather pass back to reorganize the offense than risk passing forward to let the opponent gain the ball.
This fits the tone of a major cup final.
No one wants to lose, no one wants to fall behind, and everyone wants to win.
Therefore, both the head coach's tactics and the players' performance will be conservative, preferring to give up some opportunities rather than take risks.
For Leicester City, although Chu Zheng was moved to the left wing today, the performance of the defensive midfielder combination of Kante and Drinkwater was still extremely strong.
Needless to say, Kanter now firmly ranks first in all defensive statistics in the Premier League and is already recognized by the media and fans as a super midfielder.
Although Drinkwater is not as well-known as Kante, he is still relatively well-known. Not only is he defensively tough, but he can also deliver very good passes and has certain offensive organizational skills.
In the 7th minute of the game, Kante and Drinkwater relied on tacit understanding to take the ball away from the feet of the Manchester City players in the midfield, and then quickly moved to the wing.
On the right side of the 30-meter area in the front court, Shinji Okazaki retreated to get the ball.
Simpson also came up to support him on the right sideline, and in front of him were Manchester City midfielder Fernando and Sterling who actively retreated to participate in the defense.
Fernando is a defensive midfielder that Manchester City spent 15 million euros to introduce from Porto in 2014. He is known as a big spender among Manchester City and Fernandinho.
The two are both Brazilian players and have similar looks and skin color. Fans are often confused and can only tell them apart by their height and number.
It is a pity that Fernando has not performed well since coming to Manchester City and the fans are not satisfied with him.
Fernandinho, who had just finished a fierce Champions League quarter-final match today, was put on the bench by Pellegrino.
But Manchester City fans are skeptical about Fernando's appearance, and they are more willing to believe in Fernandinho.
Fernando saw Shinji Okazaki taking the ball sideways. He moved quickly and was very experienced. He immediately pressed up and compressed the space for Shinji Okazaki to turn around when he took the ball.
He hit the ball with great effect. Shinji Okazaki could not turn around to face the goal, so he had to push the ball horizontally to Simpson on the sideline.
Simpson retreated half a meter to get the ball. When he saw Sterling coming up along the sideline, he was about to rush forward. He didn't stop the ball and made a light pass.
Suddenly the ball flew from Sterling's head to Mahrez who was standing in front of the upper right corner of the penalty area.
When Mahrez saw the ball suddenly flying towards him, he immediately sank down from his horse, stretched out his hands behind his back, and used his back and hands to block Otamendi who was about to move behind him.
Waiting for the ball to get closer, Mahrez, who turned his back, used his lower abdomen to perfectly remove the ball, and at the same time completed a turn to the right, facing the top area of the key.
Otamendi behind Mahrez was a little anxious, but he didn't dare to use too much force.
Otamendi, who has rich game experience, knows the characteristics of Mahrez's type of player very well. As long as you dare to rush for it, he will immediately throw it to you naturally and get a free kick in an excellent position.
Therefore, Otamendi hesitated slightly and let Mahrez slip away from him.
Seeing Mahrez dribbling the ball laterally towards the top of the arc, the players in the area near Manchester City reacted quickly and immediately surrounded Mahrez.
After Mahrez entered the rib area at the top of the arc, there was Manchester City's old captain Kompany on the front right, the monster Yaya Toure on the left front, and the approaching Fernando on the back left.
At this moment, the polo king danced gracefully, moved his left foot to the left, and unexpectedly bent over and squeezed out of the encirclement.
His flexible dodging movements left the aging Yaya Toure helpless and could only watch as Mahrez slipped away from him.
After successfully breaking through, Mahrez immediately discovered that the other side of the penalty area was completely empty.
So he raised his left foot and swung it, and made a long pass with a half-high ball. The ball was immediately transferred to the weak side of Manchester City's defense.
At the top of the arc, Manchester City left back Sagna Sagna, who was marking Vardy from behind, saw the ball bounce from his side to the left side of the penalty area. He was so frightened that he immediately turned back and went straight to the left side of the penalty area.
At the same time, Sagna had started speeding ahead of Sagna in the right rib area at the top of the arc. The speed visible to the naked eye made the tens of thousands of Manchester City fans present scream.
In front of everyone, Chu Zheng was like a supercar. In the blink of an eye, he rushed to the area outside the upper left corner of the small penalty area one step ahead of Sania. He raised his left foot and swung the ball hard in front of him.
A dull loud bang!
In an instant, the ball was like a white lightning cracking through the air, heading straight for the lower left corner of the Manchester City goal.
In front of the left goal post, Joe Hart was already in place.
Although the media and fans will make fun of Joe Hart from time to time, this guy's goalkeeping skills are actually very good.
Facing Chu Zheng's powerful and heavy kick, Joe Hart quickly got down to the ground and used his calf to block the flying ball in time.
The ball hit Joe Hart's calf, jumped up, continued to move forward, and then hit the outside of the goalpost and bounced out of the baseline.
"fool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Witnessing this thrilling scene, the 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium collectively let out a deafening scream.
In the Manchester City penalty area, Chu Zheng looked regretful when he saw the ball being blocked, but soon he grinned with joy.
Because after seeing Joe Hart successfully save, he quickly started to do it, rubbing his right calf with both hands frantically, with a grin on his face.
While Qiao Hart was rubbing his calf, he looked at Chu Zheng with the eyes of a monster.
At the moment when his calf was hit, he felt as if his calf had been run over by a car. He even thought about whether his leg had been kicked off, which was really scary.
"This is Mahrez's role on the field!" Zhang Lu said with admiration in the studio. "Look at Leicester City's attack. The purpose is very clear."
"The cooperation between Mahrez, Shinji Okazaki and Simpson immediately attracted Manchester City's defensive players to this side, and then quickly completed it through Mahrez's ability to get the ball in the frontcourt and deliver the ball accurately.
Move to attack!"
"This is Ranieri's purpose!"
"Yes! Chu Zheng's shot was very powerful and heavy, but it was a pity that it was from the near corner, so Joe Hart saw through it in advance!" He Wei said with a smile.
At the scene, Pellegnelli had a headache at this time.
He planned to restrict Chu Zheng in the middle today, but now Chu Zheng went to the wing, making most of his arrangements in vain.
Next to him, Ranieri had a smile on his face after appreciating the team's attack.
In this game, Ranieri moved Chu Zheng to the wing not on a whim to test some of his ideas.
In fact, he guessed before the game that Pellegrini would definitely restrict Chu Zheng, so he simply put Chu Zheng on the wing.
As for whether Chu Zheng can adapt to playing on the wing, the answer is yes.
In his decades of coaching career, Ranieri has seen all-round players, but someone like Chu Zheng can not only play, but he can also play extremely well, making it difficult for people to tell that he is a guest player in a certain position. He is really
Never seen it.
Ranieri once carefully recalled his past coaching career.
But whether he was in a wealthy club or a civilian club, he had never seen a player with a football intelligence as high as Chu Zheng's, as if he was a born football player.
This is why when he first met Chu Zheng, he said he wanted to build Chu Zheng into a new generation of free people.
It's a pity that this season is almost over and he has not fulfilled his promise so far. Leicester City really does not have the soil.
But he was really trying his best to set Chu Zheng free.
In addition, he also wanted to liberate Chu Zheng today and let Chu Zheng fully display his offensive talents on the court.
In addition to these two points, Ranieri actually has another little thought.
That's what he needs to prepare for next season.
Ranieri knows very well that Leicester City will not be able to keep Chu Zheng after this season.
He couldn't keep a player with huge potential like Chu Zheng. Chu Zheng was destined not to belong to a civilian club.
But Kanter may keep him.
In Ranieri's expectation, although the partnership between Drinkwater and Kanter is not as perfect as Chu Zheng's partnership, it is still very good.
Of course, he will not go out of his way to reduce Chu Zheng's playing time, nor will he deprive Chu Zheng of his starting position.
However, in some games where there was no suspense anymore, he would choose to replace Chu Zheng and let Drinkwater come on to partner with Kanter.
However, just when Ranieri was distracted, an accident suddenly struck, directly shocking everyone present.