At 0:55 a.m. BJ time, with the whistle of the referee Madley, Manchester City's highly anticipated season opener officially started.
At the beginning of the game, Manchester City pressed their formation past half-time and launched a high-pressure press against Sunderland.
As for the positioning of the Manchester City players, as Zhang Lu said, Chu Zheng's position is not fixed at all.
Although Chu Zheng spends most of his time in the rib area, sometimes when David Silva comes up, he will move to David Silva's position and take over David Silva's backcourt organization.
, the task of sorting out the midfield and playing the ball forward to organize the attack.
As for Manchester City's formation, looking at the positioning of the players on the field, it is not a 4231 at all. The players' movements are very flexible.
Sunderland, on the other hand, did not behave cautiously as a guest at all. Instead, they went against the norm and advanced instead of retreating, using the same method in the midfield and front against Manchester City.
For a time, the two sides broke out in a fighting battle in the midfield area, making the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium particularly lively.
In the 3rd minute of the game, Sunderland used effective pressure from the frontcourt, forcing Fernandinho to fall to the ground and make a tackle foul in the front area of the top of the key, and got the set ball in the frontcourt.
Sunderland left back Van Aanholt took the penalty and hit it directly on the left side of the goal.
Chu Zheng, who was in the wall, jumped hard, but Van Aanholt's free kick had perfect height and power.
The ball flew past Chu Zheng's hair and fell to the left side of the goal.
On the goal line, Caballero quickly swooped to the right and blocked the ball, temporarily resolving the crisis.
From the left outside the penalty area, Lynden Gooch got the second penalty kick.
But Sania came out very quickly and quickly blocked in front of him.
Lyndon Gooch couldn't find a chance to pass the ball, so he pedaled on his bicycle and suddenly headed the ball toward the baseline.
Sagna was a little slower and followed the sideline of the penalty area to the bottom line but failed to block Lyndon Gooch's cross.
But although the ball passed smoothly into Manchester City's penalty area, it was completely inaccurate.
In front of the goal line, Caglievaro moved laterally to the back post and jumped in front of the goalpost. He grabbed the ball with both hands in front of Sunderland midfielder Watmore.
Sunderland's offensive climax at the start of the game came to an end.
The game soon entered Manchester City time, or Chu Zheng's performance time.
For the next five minutes, Manchester City continuously controlled the ball and continued to tear apart Sunderland's defensive formation and create offensive space through quick passes that were never seen last season.
Tried again and again, passed back to midfield and started all over again, playing extremely patiently, always keeping the game at a fast pace, not giving the Sunderland players any time to stop and breathe, which made countless Manchester City fans feel that the game was too late.
This Manchester City team is both strange and familiar.
In the 9th minute of the game, Manchester City changed the direction of attack to the right.
However, Sunderland, who could not get the ball at all, retreated with all their players during this period, and soon blocked the right side of the penalty area.
De Bruyne saw that there was little space to attack, so he directed the ball all the way back.
Before the penalty spot in the center circle, Kolarov received a cross from Sagna on the right, carried Defoe behind him a few steps forward to the left, and then suddenly took a risk and passed forward.
"Is this Kolarov?!" Zhan Jun looked at the TV screen in LeTV's live broadcast room, a little confused.
"Haha! It seems so!" Zhang Lu laughed and raised her voice, "I'm a little afraid to recognize it!"
Tonight's game made Zhang Lu and Zhan Jun feel very tired. Not only their eyes were tired from watching, but their minds were tired from thinking too.
In previous games, even if they couldn't see the player's number, they could guess which player was holding the ball based on the area they were in.
But that's not the case today at all. Manchester City's players have too much scope.
For example, Chu Zheng is sometimes in the rib area, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes in the midfielder position.
There is also De Bruyne, a free man in the frontcourt. From left to right, from right to left, he is everywhere.
On the court, after Kolarov took a risk and passed the ball between Watmore and Rodwell, the ball smoothly came to the feet of David Silva.
Manchester City also got an instant opportunity to attack because of Kolarov's pass.
Seeing David Silva at the front of the left rib area at the top of the arc, he took the ball and turned around, and there were three Sunderland players nearby. Chu Zheng quickly started to rush forward along the sideline to respond.
David Silva brought the ball to the upper left corner of the penalty area, and without saying a word, he stuffed the ball towards the left corner kick area.
Sunderland right back Donald Love quickly turned to chase.
But his speed couldn't be compared to Chu Zheng's, and he was reduced to ashes in an instant.
But it doesn't matter, this is not what Donald Love wants. He thinks that as long as he stays in the inside position and blocks Chu Zheng in the corner, he will be successful.
However, the next second, he couldn't believe what he saw.
Chu Zheng's speed slowed down slightly after he got the ball, but it was still very fast in the eyes of the audience.
More than 50,000 fans in the stands believed that once Chu Zheng's speed slowed down completely, he would be trapped in the corner by Donald Love.
However, the moment they had this idea, Chu Zheng gave the answer of taking the ball to a dead end.
In full view of everyone, when he came to the corner kick area and was approached by Donald Love, Chu Zheng raised his right foot and quickly pulled the ball back with his toes. Then he followed up with his left foot and also knocked it with the inside of the front part of his foot.
, the ball immediately changed direction and rolled quickly laterally from behind Donald Love towards the penalty area.
Chu Zheng took advantage of the situation and made a right-angle turn, overtaking from the outside and chasing the ball.
Seeing Chu Zheng pass the ball at a right angle at high speed, countless fans watching the game put their heads in their hands and widened their eyes.
On the sidelines, Guardiola saw Chu Zheng's superstar-level breakthrough performance. He seemed to have realized something. He suddenly stood up from the coaching bench, walked to the coaching area on the sidelines, and silently watched as he broke into the Sunderland Stadium.
Chu Zheng in the penalty area.
"Oh my God, this Chinese is a monster. He can do such delicate movements at such a fast speed!"
"Guys, he reminds me of Ronaldo!"
In the stands, more than 50,000 fans were shocked by Chu Zheng's breakthrough move. No matter which fan they were from, Chu Zheng showed off all of them at this moment.
On the field, Chu Zheng entered the Sunderland penalty area along the baseline and got the ball.
Facing Sunderland's right center back Lamine Cone and right midfielder Rodwell, who were the first to reach him and stood vertically parallel, Chu Zheng used his right foot to pass the ball forward to the right.
Then Chu Zheng suddenly rose up and forced his way through Lamin Cone and Rodwell before they closed the door.
The moment Chu Zheng was about to touch the ball, Sunderland's left midfielder O'Shea and left center back Kabul also came to him.
Chu Zheng's brain was running at high speed at this moment and he made a choice instantly.
So the moment he touched the ball, he suddenly flicked the ball to the back point.
When they found the ball flying over their heads, at that moment, O'Shea and Kaboul felt as if someone had hit their hearts hard.
At the back point, Sterling outflanked Van Aanholt with his speed, dived in front of the goal, and hammered Chu Zheng's ball into the goal against the inside of the back post.
"GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Unbelievable, Chu completed an incredible breakthrough on the wing!!!!!!!!!!"
In the Etihad commentary box, Manchester City's official commentators Martin and Smith stood up suddenly at the moment of the goal, raised their arms and followed the Manchester City fans below to cheer, their white faces turned as red as a monkey's butt due to excitement.
"The ball has been scored!!!!!!!!!!!!" Zhan Jun also shouted suddenly in the LeTV live broadcast room at the moment of scoring!
"Chu Zheng single-handedly defeated the entire defense line of the Black Cat Legion!!!!!"
"The momentum is overwhelming and unstoppable!!!"
“It’s so unreasonable!!!!!”
"After turning Sunderland's defense into a mess, he quickly passed the ball to Sterling and successfully broke through Sunderland's goal!!!"
"This is Chu Zheng's first Premier League game this season, and also his first Premier League assist in Manchester City!!"
Zhan Jun kept talking in excitement, making Zhang Lu next to him open his mouth several times but couldn't get a word in.
When Zhan Jun finished speaking, Zhang Lu, who had calmed down a little, said in an amazed tone: "Chu Zheng, this is a superstar-level performance!"
"Yes!" Zhan Jun nodded, "Chu Zheng's body is really amazing to be able to perform such flexible and delicate ball control movements under such high-speed movement!"
At this moment, a slow-motion replay of the entire scoring process appeared.
It was only then that countless fans saw Chu Zheng's actions clearly through the slow motion replays. Most of them didn't actually see clearly how the ball suddenly changed lines.
The frequency of Chu Zheng's movements was so fast that many people felt at that moment that the ball suddenly turned at a right angle, and then Chu Zheng broke into Sunderland's penalty area.
"Chu! Beautiful transmission!!!"
After Sterling made a good start to the season, he rushed over and hugged Chu Zheng to express his gratitude.
Chu Zheng's kick was just right for Sterling, both in terms of speed and height, it was extremely perfect.
Therefore, even if Sterling is not good at heading the ball, he can easily head the ball in.
On the sidelines, Moyes and Guardiola had completely opposite expressions.
Guardiola grinned extremely happily, while Moyes' face was serious and revealed a sense of helplessness.
The goal was so conceded that he couldn't find a player to blame.
It wasn't that there was a problem with their defense, but that Chu Zheng's personal ability was too strong, and he broke into the penalty area and disrupted their defense.
But what shocked Moyes the most was Chu Zheng’s choice.
If an ordinary player were in that position, he would probably only have eyes for shooting, and he would have already started to hit the goal.
However, Chu Zheng gave up the glorious moment of scoring a goal and chose to pick the ball to the back point. This shows that Chu Zheng also has a calm and unique brain.
Moyes, who glanced at Guardiola next to him, felt helpless thinking that he had been let go by the club's senior management.
This comparison between people is really irritating!
