In the blink of an eye, Ranieri completed the substitution. He replaced the goal hero Andy King with Drinkwater, who had just recovered from injury.
Compared with Andy King, Drinkwater is not only excellent defensively, but he is also very good at shooting the ball forward.
Ranieri hopes to use Drinkwater to strengthen the midfielder's ability to intercept and steal, while also maintaining the midfielder's ability to play the ball forward.
In addition, he also replaced Danny Simpson, who had a yellow card, with Ben Chilwell.
This youngster who came out of Leicester City's youth academy in 1996 is also strong offensively and defensively.
After Chilwell returned from Huddersfield on loan in January this year, Ranieri began to develop the young full-back.
In Ranieri's eyes, although Chilwell is young, he is very stable on the defensive end and has excellent speed and skills. He often performs well especially in one-on-one defense and can often take advantage of his understanding of tactics and physical skills.
to control the opponent.
With the debut of Chilwell and Drinkwater, they also brought Ranieri's new tactical instructions to the Leicester City players on the field.
So soon people saw that Leicester City's formation continued to retreat, seemingly determined to hold on until the last minute.
But anyone who knows Ranieri knows that the Italian coach is a cunning old fox and it is impossible to initiate counterattack tactics.
Only by retracting your fist can you hurt someone.
As for Manchester City, after the game restarted, it would be an understatement to say that their morale was high.
Although Leicester City's three super-efficient goals in the first half did not destroy their confidence, they were still quite frustrating and depressing.
Therefore, from the beginning until now, the Manchester City players have been feeling depressed.
Well now, this goal gave them hope. Chu Zheng proved with his goal that although Leicester City's defense is good, it is not watertight. As long as the passing quality is high enough, fast enough and unexpected enough, then
Can penetrate Leicester City's defense.
Soon, Manchester City's offensive resumed.
In the 65th minute of the game, Leicester City rarely pressed Manchester City from a high position in the frontcourt, but after scoring the goal, the Manchester City players seemed to be much more relaxed in passing and controlling the ball in the backcourt under the influence of morale and self-confidence.
After three passes and two leads, the ball turned to the top of the arc in the middle. Chu Zheng took the ball and turned around. Without saying a word, he passed the ball low and straight.
Manchester City's half-time circle was on the right side. De Bruyne stopped the ball with his right foot and quickly rushed forward.
In the blink of an eye, Manchester City hit the 30-meter area of Leicester City's penalty area.
At this time, Yaya Toure is also in the middle. De Bruyne in the ribs has David Silva on the left front, Zabaleta on the right front wing, and Ste on the other half wing.
Lin also followed up.
However, Leicester City's four-man back line was unhurried, closely connected with each other, and retreated in one fell swoop.
Bringing the ball into the right rib area at the top of the arc, De Bruyne could never find a route to the center.
Seeing Amartey approaching from the left, with Huth and Fox waiting for him to come forward, De Bruyne moved forward to the right without saying a word.
Zabaleta caught up to the right baseline and passed directly from outside the penalty area.
The ball is not high, but the ball speed is very fast.
On the right side of the penalty spot, Leicester City's defense retreated too deep, and there was no one around David Silva on the right side of the penalty spot.
Seeing the ball flying behind him, David Silva quickly stopped, turned his back to the goal, and raised his right foot to take the ball perfectly.
After stopping the ball at his feet, Drinkwater also blocked him behind him, preventing him from turning around to face the goal.
At this moment, De Bruyne rushed in from the upper right corner of the penalty area. There was no one around him to mark him, and David Silva raised his foot.
The Leicester City players nearby were not slow to respond and quickly surrounded De Bruyne from three sides.
But in the next second, De Bruyne used his left foot to pass the ball to the center of the penalty area very suddenly.
The ball rolled impartially from the middle of Drinkwater and Huth, who were standing vertically and front to back, towards the front of the small penalty area in the middle.
Yaya Toure quickly protected the ball with his back, stuck the tall Morgan behind him, and stretched out his right foot to stop the ball.
After stopping the ball, Yaya Toure knew very well that he had no chance to shoot, so he knocked the ball back to Chu Zheng at the top of the arc without saying a word.
At the top of the arc, Chu Zheng ran two steps before meeting the ball, quickly adjusted his steps and swung his legs sideways.
Suddenly the roar of heavy artillery raged over the King Power Stadium.
boom!
With a dull loud noise, the ball disappeared from everyone's sight. When people saw the ball again, it was already outside the baseline.
"fool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Immediately, there was a deafening exclamation from the stands on all sides of the scene, and everyone was frightened by Chu Zheng's heavy attack.
On the sidelines, when Guardiola saw that the ball had not been scored, he immediately put his head in his hands and threw away his hands, his face extremely regretful.
Chu Zheng was also annoyed and kicked the air on the spot.
But the Manchester City and Leicester City players next to them had a look of fear on their faces, because they saw that an LCD screen on the advertising wall on the left side of the goal had dimmed, and it was full of dense and irregular cracks.
This kind of billboard surrounding the field is not so easy to break.
Since players often damage these LCD billboards after scoring goals or venting dissatisfaction, the merchants specially installed special glass and plastic on them, but they didn't expect that they were all cracked now.
This shows how terrifying the power of Chu Zheng's heavy artillery kick was.
In front of the goal, goalkeeper Ziller, who was forced to start the starting lineup due to Schmeichel's finger injury, looked back and swallowed subconsciously. At the same time, he was glad that Chu Zheng's shot was not within the goal frame, otherwise he would have pounced. I'm sorry for his parents.
, if you don’t pounce, you’ll be sorry for the team.
Now Ziller knows why Schmeichel has a horrified expression when he mentions Chu Zheng's shot.
Anyone would be intimidated by a shot with this kind of force. Although you won't die if you get hit, you will definitely get a lot of bruises, which is worse than death.
"Chu Zheng wanted to hit the ball too hard! It just missed the outside of the post! It was just a little bit missed! What a pity!"
"Yes!" Zhan Jun's face was filled with pity, "If this goal were scored, it would be hard to say who would win this game."
As soon as he finished speaking, the broadcast camera zoomed in to take a look at the cracked billboard. Zhan Jun, Zhang Lu and the countless fans watching the game took a look at it and all took a breath of air at the same time.
On the sidelines, Ranieri had no time to care whether the billboard on the sidelines was broken or not. When he saw the rain stopped, he put down the hat of his down jacket, then gestured and yelled at the players on the field, signaling them not to grab it.
Defending well is the primary goal at the moment.
After receiving the instruction, the Leicester City players were very obedient and began to retreat, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.
Now it's good, Manchester City pressed like crazy.
In the next 5 minutes, Manchester City used the left and right halves of the flanks, or used the ground pass and penetration that they are good at, or directly passed the ball from the wing to find Yaya Toure, the high point in the penalty area.
But Leicester City's offense may only be counterattack, but defense is really their strength, and it did not allow Manchester City to get too many opportunities.
Most of the time, Manchester City uses Chu Zheng, who is behind, to move back and forth between the two halves and change the direction of attack.
When the game passed the 75th minute, Guardiola became increasingly anxious when he saw that his team was unable to score a second goal.
Ranieri next to him was expressionless.
Ranieri knows very well that if the game moves forward for one more minute, as the physical fitness of the players on the field declines, they will be safer.
Even though Manchester City is attacking fiercely now, the side effects are actually very serious. Maybe there will be a weak situation at some point.
Moreover, both sides fought in the rain for more than 60 minutes today. Fighting in such a bad environment, in addition to the physical exertion caused by various technical movements and running, the players' bodies also need to allocate a lot of physical energy to resist the invasion of the cold.
.
Therefore, physical energy consumption will be greater than usual.
Ranieri now hopes that Manchester City will weaken. Once they lose this energy, Manchester City will have nothing to fear.
On the field, taking advantage of a pass error in Manchester City's frontcourt, Leicester City finally got a chance to counterattack.
But as soon as Vardy got the ball, he was approached by Chu Zheng.
Chu Zheng might not be able to outrun Vardy in terms of top speed alone, but with Vardy running fast, Chu Zheng would have something to play with.
Chu Zheng started from the center and caught up with Vardy on Leicester City's left rib.
Chu Zheng did not steal the ball immediately, but worked step by step, forcing Vardy to move to the side.
Then Chu Zheng got stuck inside and followed the defense all the way. When the two of them ran to the outside of Manchester City's penalty area, Gundogan, Zabaleta and others all came back, dragging Leicester City's quick counterattack into a positional battle.
.
Seeing Chu Zheng's wise defensive move, Guardiola smiled on the sidelines.
What Guardiola admires most is that whether Chu Zheng is on the offensive or defensive end, he always makes the right choices.
That means Chu Zheng has a smart brain and an ability to read games that is different from ordinary people.
This is why he let Chu Zheng play as a defensive midfielder instead of Yaya Toure.
Although Yaya Toure is equally good, although this guy changed his attitude after being dealt with by him, he can't achieve Chu Zheng's level. He doesn't have Chu Zheng's brains.
Sometimes Guardiola even falls into a kind of happy trouble when choosing Chu Zheng's position.
Letting Chu Zheng play as a defensive midfielder can stabilize the defensive end, but it wastes Chu Zheng's talent on the offensive end, and vice versa.
On the field, Vardy stopped at the front of the left rib area at the top of the arc, and Chu Zheng got stuck behind him.
At this time, from the top of the arc to the end line of the penalty area on the left rib, Sagna, Stones, and Kolarov were already in position, lined up.
In front of the three of them, Chu Zheng was in the middle, and standing parallel to him on the left and right sides were Zabaleta and Gundogan.
The two defense lines were relatively close together, which did not give Leicester City much space to attack.
At this moment, Mahrez, who switched positions with Albrighton and came to the left, quickly ran horizontally and passed by Vardy, who was protecting the ball with his back. The two completed the possession of the ball face to face.
handover.
On Chu Zheng's side, after seeing Vardy handing over the ball, he turned to the right and drove forward towards the left rib at the top of the key.
Mahrez, on the other hand, held the ball and continued to run laterally towards the center from his left side.
Without saying a word, Chu Zheng turned around and quickly started to follow Mahrez.
At the same time, Gundogan also ran over, and together with Yaya Toure who was actively returning to defense, the three of them directly surrounded Mahrez.
At this moment, Mahrez wanted to beg Chu Zheng to stretch his legs to grab him, because then he would have space to break through, but Chu Zheng just stuck his body and blocked him.
Soon, Chu Zhengtu was in trouble. After Gundogan rushed over, he chopped with his feet and Mahrez lost the ball.
After Chu Zheng got the ball, he didn't hesitate for half a second, raised his left foot and shot the ball forward to the left.
Seven or eight meters away, De Bruyne let the ball turn around, followed up with a kick to the left rib and rushed up, quickly forming a counterattack.
In the middle, Yaya Toure, who is full of energy, followed up quickly.
But Leicester City's four defenders and two midfielders are not slow either, and the experienced Morgan is also very smart.
Seeing De Bruyne dribbling the ball along the ribs and across the center line, he quickly slowed down and broke away from the neat four-man back line.
As soon as he hit it, De Bruyne had to slow down.
The next second, Amartey chased back to De Bruyne's right side, and Manchester City's counterattack was immediately delayed.
After De Bruyne knew that the counterattack was impossible, he had no choice but to dribble to the left and then pass the ball to Sterling on the left.
Sterling took the ball and ran less than a meter before stopping.
Leicester City's six players took advantage of this opportunity to quickly settle down.
Sterling waited on the wing for a while. After Manchester City's second team came up, he directly passed the ball back to Gundogan in the ribs.
Gundogan stopped the ball and turned to face the center. Seeing Chu Zheng coming along the center, he continued to pass the ball across the ball.
Chu Zheng also didn't stick to the ball. He turned to the right after taking the ball and passed it directly to Zabaleta on the outside in the upper right corner of the penalty area.
Sabaret confronted Fox on the sideline of the penalty area. He slowly dribbled the ball and kept shaking left and right, but failed to shake Fox away. Instead, he shook Drinkwater over.
If the two of them defend together, Zabalet will have no chance.
After hanging out on the sideline for three or four seconds, Sabaret chose to pass back to David Silva who was coming along the sideline.
At this time, Chu Zheng was on the right side of the penalty area at the top of the arc, and next to him was Slimani, a forward who was actively returning to defense.
After receiving the ball, David Silva turned to face the other half, but failed to pass the ball. He suddenly turned around and knocked the ball back to Zabaleta.
At this time, Chu Zheng also retreated, and in front of him was Slimani, who was gradually moving away from him and was returning to the forward position.
At this moment, Chu Zheng realized that there was a huge problem with Leicester City's defensive change, and he quickly turned to face the goal.
At the moment when Chu Zheng completed his turn, Zabaleta on the wing suddenly moved forward to the left, and quickly passed his left foot across the top of the arc to Chu Zheng at the front of the right rib area.
After Chu Zheng got the ball, he glanced at the back of his head and suddenly dunked the ball to the left with his right foot, avoiding Amatai who grabbed the ball from her left back, and then dribbled the ball straight towards the arc.
top.
Seeing that Chu Zheng was unmarked, Hu Te, who was on the end line of the penalty area, quickly pushed out.
But it was too late.
Chu Zheng rushed to the right free throw arc, turned to the right, raised his left foot and shot a long shot without any interference.
The next second, in full view of everyone, the ball drew a C-shaped arc over the Leicester City penalty area and plunged into the upper left corner of the Leicester City goal.
In front of the goal, Ziller flew to make a save. He fully stretched his body in the air, but still couldn't reach the ball and watched helplessly as the ball went into the goal.
Suddenly the King Power Stadium burst into mourning!!!!!
"The ball is scored!!!!!!!!!" Zhan Jun suddenly shouted!
"At 79 minutes and 48 seconds of the game, Manchester City chased another goal!"
"3-2!!"
“This is Chu Zheng’s 10th goal in the Premier League this season!!!”
“And Chu Zheng’s number of assists in the Premier League is also 10!!!!!!!”
Seeing the goal in the coaching area on the sidelines, Guardiola jumped up on the spot, turned around and rushed back to the coaching bench.
On the field, after Chu Zheng scored a goal, he was not dazzled by joy. He did not make any celebration movements.
"Slimani is the fastest and most active player in Leicester City's forward line, and he went straight to Chu Zheng."
"But when Sabalete passed the ball back to David Silva, and Silva had the intention of moving to the left half, he quickly left Chu Zheng."
"At this time, he did not have any handover with his teammates at all, but quickly left Chu Zheng and ran forward, trying to return to his forward position."
"There were problems with the timing and process of returning, leaving Chu Zheng in an undefended vacuum."
Zhang Lu looked in amazement, "You see Chu Zheng turned around quickly after halfway back. Obviously he was the first person on the field to discover that there was a problem with Leicester City's defensive handover."
Hearing Zhang Lu's analysis, Zhan Jun laughed happily and said: "Amatai was the second one and rushed over directly, but Chu Zheng had an eye on the back of his head, so he dodged it with a light buckle, and then he kicked with a completely useless kick.
The world wave of solution!”
"Yes!" Zhang Lu nodded, "Slimani does bad things with good intentions. Either you have a clear explanation with your teammates, or you follow him to the end."
After a while, the game started again.
After chasing another goal, not only the morale of the Manchester City players was high, but the Manchester City fans in the stands were also extremely excited, with endless cheers.
In the eyes of Manchester City fans, the balance of the game has completely tilted towards them. If they continue to play like this, winning will not be mentioned for the time being. An equalizer should be no problem. Counting the few minutes of injury time, they still have time.
However, five minutes later, Manchester City fans collectively vomited blood and died.
In the 85th minute of the game, Kolarov received a cross from Stones in the center circle on the left and advanced with the ball.
But before he could run four meters, he was blocked by Shinji Okazaki and Mahrez, who replaced Slimani.
But the talented man is bold, so Kolarov forced a pass to De Bruyne in the ribs.
As a result, the ball touched Shinji Okazaki's feet, changed the line, and allowed Drinkwater to get it. He quickly distributed the ball to the right wing and launched another counterattack.
The game has reached the final period, and Mahrez has little physical fitness at this time.
Therefore, when he crossed the center line along the wing and ran less than three meters, he was caught up by Kolarov who was chasing back.
But Mahrez did not give up, but continued to stride towards the ball, trying to use his last physical strength to get rid of Kolarov.
As a result, the ball he took out with great force was picked up by Stones, whose ribs moved quickly laterally.
After getting the ball, seeing Mahrez reluctantly grabbing the ball, Stones directly headed back to the right wing of the penalty area.
At this time, Bravo has come to the bottom line on the left side of the penalty area to respond.
Seeing that Mahrez did not continue to fight, Stones came to the sideline and quickly passed back to Bravo.
As a result, the next second, the ball passed by Stones was not only soft, but also had an incorrect line. Vardy, who didn't know what fatigue was, picked it up.
At this moment, Leicester City fans were ecstatic and almost crazy.
The Manchester City fans collectively vomited blood and felt like they had been kicked 180 times in one second. They had headaches, face pain, internal organs, and even pain in the buttocks!
Inside the right sideline of the penalty area, Vardy poked the ball away in front of Bravo who was rushing over.
Before catching up to the bottom line, Vardy pushed the door directly.
The ball hit the inside of the far goal post along the goal line and rebounded.
At this moment, Sagna arrived, stretched out his right foot and kicked the ball out of the goal.
But it's already too late.
Referee Oliver raised his hand and pointed directly to the center circle, and then pointed to the device on his right wrist to indicate that the ball had crossed the goal line.
"It's indeed close. The goal line technology can clearly see that the ball has completely crossed the goal line before Sagna made the clearance!"
"Vardy, first hat-trick of the season!!!"
"Stones!" Zhang Lu was speechless. Now Manchester City's good situation was completely ruined.
On the sidelines, Guardiola's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot, and Arteta and Torrent on the coaching bench were also expressionless.
Next to him, Ranieri was really high, spinning around in circles and raising his fists in celebration.
On the court, Chu Zheng was so angry that he vomited blood. This was really a trick for a good father.
Soon, Manchester City kicked off again, but Stones' super low-level mistake had completely shattered the morale and will that Chu Zheng had finally gathered.
Although Kolarov scored a wonderful free kick in the 93rd minute of the game, Manchester City ultimately lost 4-3 at the King Power Stadium.