On Monday, Chelsea arrived in Rome and began preparations for the semi-finals.
They borrowed the Roma club's training base in Rome.
This was the initiative contacted by the Roma Club.
In fact, Chang Sheng is right. He never thinks that he represents Italian football, nor does he think that his Lazio is fighting for Italian football.
Almost all European countries lack a sense of unity.
This is true in Spain, and so is Italy.
The Northern Alliance has always looked down on the Capital Region and the South. The Capital Region looks down on the Northern Alliance and the poor people in the South. The poor people in the South look down on anything north of them.
Fighting for Italy? Stop kidding!
Italy's interests have nothing to do with us!
The waiter at the Naples hotel can say to the reporter wearing the Italian national team jersey: "Hey, brother! There is no Italy here, only Naples."
So even if objectively speaking, Lazio Club is indeed fighting for the interests of Italian football, Roma Club will not cheer them on or bless them.
They took the initiative to help Chelsea because they wanted to see their rivals in the same city collapse in the semi-finals.
When Roma were eliminated in the quarter-finals, they didn't want to see their city rivals fare better than they did.
This kind of thing happens often in European football, so no one made a fuss and blamed Roma.
Even in some cases, it's not out of hatred.
For example, if a team goes to Manchester to play against Manchester United, they naturally cannot use Manchester United's Carrington training base, so they can only use Manchester City's Carrington training base.
If a team plays against Manchester City, they can also use Manchester United's training base.
European football is very open to this kind of mutual help. Because who knows if your team may also need such help?
It is foolish to refuse someone else's request for help.
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Chelsea trained at Roma's training base for two days, and on Wednesday evening, at 7:45, they stepped onto the turf of Roma's Stadio Olimpico.
The Olympic Stadium was brightly lit and the stands were packed.
At a glance, everything is blue ocean.
The enthusiastic and fanatical Lazio fans have completely turned this stadium into their territory. Although there are three thousand Chelsea fans concentrated, they are not visible at all wearing yellow Chelsea away jerseys.
After reaching the Champions League semi-finals for the first time, Lazio fans burst out with great enthusiasm.
Before the players took the field, the live broadcast introduced Lazio's players one by one, and cheers continued from the stands.
Every time a person's name was announced, there was a burst of thunderous cheers.
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When the game started, Grant quickly stood on the sidelines.
Because the game had only started three minutes, Lazio committed two fouls, one of which directly overturned Lampard to the ground when he was holding the ball.
If you only watched the second leg of the quarter-finals, everyone would think that Lazio, which has always won, would insist on playing this kind of gorgeous offensive football in the Champions League.
But in fact, Lazio told everyone that they also have a very tough side.
Facing Lazio's tough attitude towards the game, Chelsea seemed uncomfortable.
As Chang Sheng analyzed, this Chelsea team lacks motivation.
They have already won the Champions League once, and the sense of urgency and hunger is not so obvious.
Unlike Lazio - no one in the Lazio team has won the Champions League. In the Champions League championship of Real Madrid's centenary celebration, Pavin lost his place in the first team because he was beaten by Valencia at the beginning of the season.
Opportunity to compete. He didn’t even play in the Champions League, so the Champions League championship that year had nothing to do with him. If you want to win the gold medal, you must at least be on the team’s roster for the Champions League, and Pavin only made it to the group stage that season.
roster, but as a result, they didn't play a single game. After entering the knockout stage, Real Madrid submitted the roster of participating players again and took down Pavin.
Later, Pavin played some Champions League games in Real Madrid, but never won the Champions League again.
Although such a team lacks experience in the Champions League, they are highly motivated and full of energy.
It's completely different from Chelsea.
In addition, Chang Sheng is a head coach with experience in winning the Champions League, and he can convey his experience to his players.
This can somewhat make up for the team's lack of experience.
After three winning seasons of training, Lazio's tactical execution ability ranks first in the world.
They played how Chang Sheng said they would play.
Chelsea hit the iron plate this time!
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Fifteen minutes into the game, Chelsea failed to gain any advantage.
They were suppressed by Lazio and could not hold their heads up.
Lazio's offense was always sharp, but now their defensive toughness is giving Chelsea a headache.
Chelsea's players didn't expect Lazio to play like this at home. They lacked mental preparation, and when they were forced by Lazio players, they were in a hurry and made various mistakes.
Lazio capitalized on their mistakes and scored the first goal in the game.
In the 22nd minute, Lazio stole the ball in the frontcourt and then directly launched a counterattack.
Modric fired a powerful long-range shot directly from outside the penalty area.
Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech let go when he was making a save, but Benzema who was ambushing in front of the goal caught the chance to make a follow-up shot and shot!
The football hits the net!
"Benzema! Karim Benzema! Beautiful follow-up shot! He appeared in the right place!"
When Benzema kicked the football into the goal, the Stadio Olimpico in Rome burst into loud cheers.
The cheers almost turned the entire stadium upside down!
"Lazio took a one-goal lead at home! They have an advantage on the way to the final!"
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After losing the ball, Chelsea tried to launch a counterattack. However, they were stubbornly blocked by the Lazio team in the midfield and in their own backcourt.
Chang Sheng emphasizes tough defense in order to prevent Chelsea from scoring away goals.
Generally speaking, away goals will boost the morale of the visiting team and allow the visiting team to play more calmly.
This is what Chang Sheng does not want to see.
He wants to demoralize Chelsea and throw them into complete panic.
When a team loses its composure, it is doomed.
When Chelsea attack, they are always blocked by two or three opponents and the ball is stolen.
Even if they pass the football out, it will be difficult to organize an effective offense.
Because their passing routes were blocked by Lazio.
As for Lazio, through constant pressing up front, it not only made Chelsea uncomfortable, but also created more shooting opportunities for itself. As the shooting opportunities increase, the goals will naturally increase.
This kind of high-position pressing is not yet mainstream in Rijkaard's Dream Team Two, but it was really developed in Guardiola's Dream Team Three.
But what Guardiola’s dream team is most afraid of is a tough team like Chelsea.
So why can Lazio, who uses the tactics of the Dream Team, restrain Chelsea?
It's simple, because Lazio is tougher and more iron-blooded than Chelsea.
Guardiola's dream third team lacks this tough iron-blooded style. They have always been criticized for being too soft, falling down at the first touch, flopping, relying on referees... etc. This has become Barcelona's label.
Whether they admit it or not, whether they want it or not, this is how the vast majority of fans view Barcelona.
In Lazio, you don't see people diving for profit, you don't see teammates falling to the ground, and a group of people rush to surround the referee, and you don't see people falling down at the first touch and then covering their faces with their hands and stealing from their fingers.
Watch "The Best Actor".
Lazio has Barcelona's tactics and absorbs Barcelona's strengths. At the same time, they have the same iron-blooded spirit as Chelsea.
This is close to invincibility.
So even someone like Pacheco has to admit that the only way to defeat Lazio is to dismantle them from within.
Or, they just wait for time, and after they reach the peak, they start to decline because they lose the motivation to move forward and the reason to continue fighting.
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Lazio, who was leading by one goal, played more skillfully, while Chelsea, who were lagging behind, played more and more impatiently.
Until the end of the first half, Chelsea failed to equalize the score.
If it weren't for Cech's outstanding performance, their goal might have been penetrated three times...
But it is difficult for one hand to defeat four punches, and it is difficult for a tiger to defeat a pack of wolves.
Cech probably won't last long like this.
If the situation still cannot improve in the second half, let Lazio beat Chelsea.
During the halftime break, Chang Sheng did not praise the players' performance, but asked them to work harder.
"We are only one goal ahead of Chelsea! This is totally unacceptable! If Chelsea only loses one goal from the away game, it will be their victory. So we must score more goals. Put more pressure on Cech!"
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Grant made adjustments in the second half. If Lazio were allowed to beat them wildly in the second half, Chelsea would be doomed.
Therefore, we must adjust our tactics, which is...defensive counterattack.
Reduce the kind of back-foot passing in the backcourt and midfield. Everyone huddles in the thirty-meter area, and when they have the ball, they directly go to the frontcourt to find "Warcraft" Drogba.
It doesn't matter if you can't score a goal with this kind of counterattack, as long as you can not concede the ball.
There is no shame in losing 0:1 away from home, it is even a win.
In this way, when you return to the home court, you will have room for maneuver.
This is the good thing about the schedule of first guest then home.
Lazio is not afraid of intensive defense. Their tactics determine that they will encounter this situation many times in the game.
Teams that are not as strong as them will choose to shrink their defense, and not many teams dare to attack them.
Facing a densely defensive team, Lazio has two methods. One is to use constant kicking to attract the opponent's defensive attention, open the defense line, adjust the opponent's defensive focus through constant passing, and then gradually increase the speed. Until the opponent can no longer keep up with the speed of adjusting their defensive focus, holes will naturally appear in their defense.
Another way is to use long shots and set kicks. These are conventional tactics that every team knows.
The first method is Lazio’s unique secret.
Of course, everyone can pass the ball, and it is not a problem to pass the ball back and forth. But if you have to pass the ball with a purpose and be able to quickly find the opponent's flaws in the pass, then not all teams can do it.
Not to mention this is all done with extremely fast delivery.
Sometimes when watching Lazio pass the ball, it's like the video has been sped up. The opponent gradually loses sight of one thing and loses sight of the other in this kind of exhaustion, and finally Lazio finds a flaw, and then...a fatal blow! (To be continued. Please search Gone with the Wind Astronomy, novels are better and updated faster!)
