Chapter 214 The rain keeps falling (thanks to aimarfs for the redness!)
The rain became heavier and heavier, quickly attracting everyone's attention.
"Ah... while the game was in progress, it started to rain over the playing field, and it was getting heavier and heavier!"
At the beginning, everyone could only know what was happening on the field through the commentator.
But soon, they no longer needed the help of a commentator to know what happened.
With just a random shot, in the dark background, the audience can see very clear lines of rain.
When the rain started falling, the Lazio players on the pitch were briefly distracted.
Many people will look up at the sky and let the raindrops hit their faces.
Only then will they believe it’s really raining!
They thought about the boss's arrangements yesterday and the sunny weather today... Who would have known that it would really rain today? Except the boss...
Yes, except the boss.
The boss guessed it!
He was right, it really will rain!
They all turned to look at the boss on the sidelines.
They saw the boss gesturing to them.
Second plan!
They realized that the second plan was the "what should we do if it rains" arrangement at yesterday's pre-game tactical meeting.
Because there was enough Takeuchi, Lazio's players quickly completed the adjustment.
If it rains, walk less on the ground when there is stagnant water, and try to play as concisely as possible. Shoot more from long range, and use set-piece opportunities to threaten the opponent's goal.
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Chang Sheng found the equipment manager and asked him to replace all the spare sneakers with long spikes and then take them out for emergencies.
If someone needs to change shoes, they no longer need to go to the locker room, but can quickly change shoes on the sidelines. Just like changing tires at an F1 stop, just do it as quickly as possible.
In this way, it can be done by taking advantage of various dead ball times.
In addition, all players on the bench were required to change into spiked SG sneakers.
The equipment manager felt that it had just rained, so it might not be a big deal.
But the winning coach is the head coach, and if he insists on something, he can only do it.
We have all been colleagues for three seasons. We are all familiar with each other's tempers. We all know what it means to win.
His words cannot be refuted. They cannot be doubted. All you have to do is act on them.
Anyway, no one has seen him say anything wrong yet.
The equipment manager doesn't understand the characteristics of this golf course, but he knows it very well.
Because he had watched that game.
Because the Luzhniki Stadium is an artificial turf stadium, artificial turf pitches and natural turf pitches have different drainage requirements. This is because the drainage performance of the Luzhniki Stadium is not as good as those natural turf pitches in Europe.
The drainage of this stadium is terrible.
If it rains heavily, it will easily form water on the court.
Coupled with the poor turf and soaking in water... it will be even worse.
The field will become slippery.
But it didn't take long before players from both sides fell down frequently.
Some players also find that current sneakers don't perform well on today's turf conditions.
So Lazio players began to take advantage of the dead ball time to come to the sidelines to change shoes.
The referee didn't urge him either.
It took about five or six minutes for all the Lazio players to take turns changing their shoes in this way.
At this time, the equipment administrator has to admire the foresight of winning.
The Lazio players who changed to long spikes performed significantly better than the Manchester United players who continued to use short spike SG sneakers. This is because the long spike sneakers have better grip, are less likely to slip, and are more explosive on muddy fields.
On the other hand, Manchester United is not as well prepared as Lazio in terms of sneaker preparations.
They had no long spikes to replace, so they had to continue wearing short spikes.
His performance on the court was not that great.
Not only does he often slip and fall, he is also more strenuous than before and feels tired more easily. He also lacks explosive power and is as fast as a Lazio player.
Manchester United could have tied with Lazio before. Even if they were equalized, they still had their own advantages in terms of performance on the court.
But this sudden attack put Manchester United completely passive.
When Ferguson saw the Lazio players taking turns to change their shoes on the sidelines, he frowned.
Although I also made preparations for rain games, I didn’t think about sneakers at that time...
This has something to do with the fact that he didn't expect the drainage system of the Luzhniki Stadium to be so bad, but the most important thing is that he made a plan. But he didn't really think that the game would rain.
Until the game was about to start, the hourly weather forecast did not say there would be any rain in the area near the Luzhniki Stadium.
But Chang Sheng seemed to know that it was going to rain from the beginning, and he was as familiar with the Luzhniki Stadium as if he had led the team to play here for several seasons.
This is really surprising...
What does it mean to be truly prepared for war?
Today, Ferguson finally saw it.
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Of course, Manchester United does not have no chance at all. After the ground is muddy, for their English team, they can do some things that traditional English teams do. For example...long passes and lobs.
Manchester United began to frequently pass long passes from the backcourt, looking for Rooney and others.
But they were resolutely blocked by Jose Passarella, Pavin and others.
These two Spanish central defenders have great height and are also good at heading the ball.
In addition, Handanovich has a huge range of activities.
Lazio's air defense did a good job.
Time passes by one second, and it has entered the eighty-minute mark.
Ferguson returned to the coaching bench and was preparing for overtime with his assistants.
But at this moment, two people stood up from the Lazio bench next door. They took off their blouses and came to Chang Sheng's side.
Ferguson noticed this and turned to look.
Chang Sheng said something to them, kept pointing at the court and slapping the tactical board in his hand.
The two people nodded in succession.
These two people are Belletti and Cazorla.
A right back and a winger.
But that's not important. His move of replacing two people at once worried Ferguson more than the other people he replaced.
Prior to this, Lazio had only made one substitution, replacing Inler with Ledesma.
And Ferguson still has one substitution left.
After seeing that the game was deadlocked for eighty minutes, Ferguson gave up the idea of using this substitution spot, and instead planned to save it for overtime. Maybe there would be a penalty kick in this game?
After the rain, Lazio completely took the upper hand. Ferguson began to consider this issue. Delaying the decision to a penalty kick is the best result for Manchester United today.
But Chang Sheng used up all the substitutions in one breath... What did he mean? Are you preparing in advance for overtime?
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Soon, Cazorla and Belletti appeared on the field at the same time, replacing Abate and Khedira.
Benzema was not substituted but remained on the pitch.
Cazorla went to play midfielder, but his position was as a right midfielder.
In this way, a corridor consisting of Benzema, Cazorla and Belletti is formed on the right.
This corridor is full of attack power!
The instructions given by Chang Sheng to Belletti and Cazorla were to let the two keep attacking on the right wing to help Benzema break down Manchester United's Evra defense!
He doesn't want to play overtime with Manchester United. He is even less interested in penalty kicks.
Since I want to change history, I must change it completely. Not only must I defeat Manchester United and win the championship, I must also resolve the battle within ninety minutes!
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When the game restarted, Evra quickly felt the pressure, and the pressure was increasing little by little!
Belletti's assists are very active. After he came up, he didn't look like a right back at all, but more like a right winger.
Plus Cazorla and Benzema.
Evra faced three offensive players at the same time. He couldn't bear it anymore...
The two men had just replaced three minutes later. In the 83rd minute, Cazorla played a one-two with Benzema on the right wing. After receiving Benzema's pass, he overtook the ball from the outside and passed.
He caught the staggering Evra and passed the ball into the penalty area.
Evra couldn't care about anything else at this time, and almost leaned on Cazorla's body.
How can Cazorla's small frame of 1.69 meters stand up to Evra's squeeze?
He fell down into the pond in the restricted area...
The whistle sounds!
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"Cazorla was pushed down by Evra when he broke through with the ball!" the commentator exclaimed.
"Cazorla... will it be a penalty? Penalty? Penalty! Yes. The referee whistled and pointed to the penalty spot! It's a penalty!!"
"The Manchester United players panicked, and they came up to the referee to argue. Evra even raised his hands to show that he was innocent... Yes, when he defended Cazorla, he raised his hands in the same way.
It's like surrendering... But Evra, you don't necessarily have to use your hands to push someone... You almost pressed your whole body on Cazorla, and finally pushed him to the ground. This is not a foul for pushing.
What?!"
"There is nothing wrong with this penalty kick. Evra did commit a foul!"
Seeing this scene, Ferguson rushed out from the coaching bench, followed by other coaches.
They are protesting this penalty kick.
Regardless of whether the penalty was indeed awarded correctly, as the coach of Manchester United, he absolutely cannot agree with a penalty that is not favorable to him. This has nothing to do with rules, facts, and truth, but only has to do with position.
As a member of the team, you must resolutely defend the interests of the team, even if the way of doing this is somewhat controversial, we can wait until the game is over.
But unfortunately their protests were of no use.
The evidence that Evra squeezed Cazorla from behind is conclusive. There is no problem and everyone can see it clearly. There is no second explanation.
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On the other side, Chang Sheng and his colleagues were hugging and celebrating.
A penalty kick was awarded at the end of the game, and everyone knows what it means!
The door to victory is right in front of Lazio. As long as this penalty kick is taken, Lazio's ball control ability can completely defend this goal advantage!
The key to the question now is this penalty kick...can it be scored in the end?
After the celebration, Chang Sheng and everyone around him stared at the court.
care about this issue.
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ps, thank you to the leader aimarfs for your support!
