Chapter 297 2014 Silver Ball Winner, Li Ang!

The Premier League has already finished the first half of the season ahead of the other three major leagues.

But unlike the other major leagues, which basically let the teams in the league take a break after the first half of the season.

The Bundesliga, which will end the first half of the season on December 20 and then stop the season until the end of January, has a fairy-tale schedule in the Premier League.

After the 19th round of the Premier League, the teams in the Premier League will only have three and a half days of rest, and then they will face the challenge of the 20th round of the league!

So the Chelsea team has not had time to relax and listen to the praises from the outside media.

They have to set off again on the journey to the away game in the wind and snow.

Chelsea has achieved a record of winning all the games in the first half of the season, and they have also broken the historical record.

So now, whether it is Mourinho or Chelsea's players, they no longer have the urgency and desire to continue to maintain the record of winning all the games in the league.

Of course, the lack of pressure and desire does not mean that they will give up the 20th round of the league.

It is not necessary to continue the winning streak, but Chelsea players do not want to lose.

Especially when their opponent in the 20th round of the league is still Tottenham, an old acquaintance.

The offensive battle with Southampton still consumed a lot of energy and physical reserves of Chelsea's main players.

Considering that they will go to White Hart Lane to fight with Tottenham soon, Mourinho directly gave the main players in the team who have consumed a lot of physical energy and are getting older a holiday in advance.

Li Ang is naturally one of the players who consume a lot of physical energy, but he still did not get the opportunity to rotate and take a vacation.

On January 1, after cooperating with the official publicity of the Premier League before the game and sending New Year's Day blessings to the fans and citizens in China, Li Ang devoted himself to the intense warm-up preparation.

For today's league, Li Ang did not feel too much pressure.

Even if he faced a Tottenham with a much more complete lineup than before at White Hart Lane.

But Li Ang still has the confidence to lead the team to take points from here.

There is no other reason. Although Dembele, the core of Tottenham's midfield, has been selected into the starting 18-man roster, his injury problem has not been completely solved.

Pochettino chose to bring him in this game, more to play a role in stabilizing the morale of the troops.

And another general in Tottenham's midfield, Dale, sprained his ankle in the bloody battle with Manchester United in the last round.

So the problem in Tottenham's midfield is still the same old one.

Their lineup is completely fine to play against the mid-level teams in the league, and the offensive firepower is absolutely sufficient.

But it won't work against Chelsea, because the midfield and backcourt can't withstand the pressure.

As long as Chelsea's offensive firepower on the two sides can be given, the center forward's role can be played, and Li Ang will start again.

Then the attack on Tottenham's midfield and backcourt will be accurate!

Although Ibrahimovic was rested in this game, Drogba, the Warcraft in good physical condition, can still support the tactical role of Chelsea's center forward position.

Lukaku and Salah's offensive firepower on both wings is not weak at all. It is not so easy for Tottenham to take advantage of Chelsea's rotation.

At 6:30 pm on January 1st, local time in London, it is 1:30 am on January 2nd, China time.

The focus of the first match in the second half of the Premier League this season started on time at White Hart Lane!

Compared with Chelsea, whose opening tactics were slightly conservative after a large rotation, Tottenham, who were at home today, obviously played more actively and aggressively.

Tottenham's starting lineup today is very different from the last time they challenged Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Their main defenders on both sides were unable to play due to injuries in the last round of the match with Chelsea.

In today's game, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose all started, greatly strengthening Tottenham's offensive capabilities on both sides.

Eriksen returned to the center, which is most suitable for him, and Tottenham's main left winger this season, Shazli, also returned from injury.

Although the absence of Lamela and Dier still prevented Tottenham from going all out.

But the die-hard fans of Tottenham at White Hart Lane are already quite satisfied.

They believe that their team can have a good fight with Chelsea today.

Well, it is definitely not easy to compete with Chelsea with a full lineup, but they think it should be no problem to fight with Chelsea with a weakened lineup.

At the beginning of the game, Tottenham did as their fans expected, using more active and proactive attacks to compress Chelsea's formation into the half court.

Li Ang and Mikel were in a relatively deep position, and Lampard basically retreated to the top of his own center circle.

Such a defensive posture allows Tottenham to easily carry the ball across the center line and further put pressure on Chelsea's midfield defense.

But after almost ten minutes of the opening, Tottenham always dawdled outside Chelsea's defensive third zone. The ball possession was very smooth, but it just couldn't get into Chelsea's defensive hinterland!

Old fans who understand football can actually see it easily at this moment.

Tottenham's midfielder pressed hard in the middle, but it was difficult for their wingers to get deep into Chelsea's weak side of the defense to get the ball.

The reason for this is that in addition to Chelsea's main squatting defensive tactics at the beginning of the game today, which is conducive to compressing the activity space of Tottenham's wing attacking players.

It is because of Mourinho's accurate selection of players.

Ashley Cole and Azpilicueta started today and sat on Chelsea's left and right sides.

This is basically the strongest defensive candidate for the left and right sides that Chelsea can now arrange.

Bertrand is younger and faster than the older Ashley Cole.

But when it comes to squatting defense, Bertrand can only be honestly ranked behind Ashley Cole.

Azpilicueta, needless to say, made it into the Premier League's best team of the season last season with his excellent defensive performance.

You can say that his offensive ability is still a little bit worse.

But now under Mourinho's training, Azpilicueta's defensive strength is definitely the top level on the right side of football now.

Lukaku and Salah made defensive interference at the front of the two flanks, Ashley Cole and Azpilicueta squatted to cover the bottom, and Leon and Mikel actively assisted and made up for the defense.

It can be said that Chelsea was aiming to limit Tottenham's flank attack today.

Under the alternating defense of Maguire and Thiago Silva, it was quite difficult for Kane to receive the ball from the ground or from the air.

In desperation, Eriksen could only look for opportunities to shoot more long shots.

In the crowded half full of Chelsea's defensive players, Tottenham's fast advancement characteristics were completely unshown.

When most of the fans in front of the TV thought that Chelsea would stick to the draw today.

However, when Leon played for nearly 30 minutes in the first half, he took the ball and pushed forward, causing chaos in Tottenham's midfield and backcourt defense!

Before the game, Pochettino gave Bentaleb a lot of chicken blood.

His requirements were not high, just asking Bentaleb to be as tough as possible when facing Leon today, and to commit a tactical foul if he couldn't stop him.

Bentaleb's reply to Pochettino at that time was very firm, he said he could do it!

But now it seems that he really can't...

Leon was tougher than him like crossing the main road in the morning.

His 1.87 meters tall, but only 76 kilograms body was not good enough.

Leon had already passed all kinds of beast waists in the Premier League last season. To be honest, Leon is not afraid of anyone in terms of confrontation now.

Out of the Premier League, the only opponents he needs to avoid in direct confrontation are those very few.

For example, his old friend, Javi Martinez, who is not suffering from injuries now.

For tall and thin defensive players like Bentaleb, Leon only needs to use the simplest way to break their confidence.

That is to force a breakthrough and rush hard!

Directly use the body to force them and confront them. After two or three times, their mentality will naturally explode.

The last time they met at Stamford Bridge, Li Ang used such a simple trick to directly break Bentaleb's mentality.

When they met again today, Bentaleb had made some progress and knew that he had to use tactical fouls to stop his advancement.

But for Li Ang, this little problem was not a big deal.

After all, there is no problem that can't be solved by elbowing once. If it is not solved once, then elbow again~

So the young unlucky Bentaleb was soon broken by Li Ang again.

Between giving up the close-range malicious foul trick and being elbowed by Li Ang, he quickly chose the former from his heart.

And Pochettino looked at Bentaleb's defensive action of just pulling Li Ang's jersey twice, and he was almost angry to death on the sidelines!

"What kind of tactical foul is pulling the jersey?! Does he understand the meaning of tactical fouls! God!!!"

Seeing that the defense in the midfield and backcourt was almost declared a failure after Li Ang's two fierce advances.

Pochettino could only give up the tactic of going all out to siege Chelsea.

There was no other way. Don't let the siege fail to work and Chelsea take the lead.

If this situation really happens again, Pochettino feels that he may be so upset that his mentality will explode!

Pochettino has had enough of the pain of easy kidney injuries and not being strong enough.

He finally understood why Guardiola had to establish his authority and completely correct Fernandinho's tactical position and abandon Yaya Toure's approach when he just took office in Manchester City.

Even if he advocates passing and controlling football and offensive football, Guardiola must make his team's backs strong.

Pochettino believes that his tactical ideas will not be more imaginative and radical than Guardiola's.

And he has been defeated by the team led by Mourinho for so many years.

He also deeply understands how important an excellent and strong midfielder is to building a top team...

Li Ang's ability to hold the ball and attack is equivalent to a nuclear deterrent, which directly dampened the offensive enthusiasm of the entire Tottenham team.

After Pochettino made on-the-spot adjustments and signaled the Tottenham players on the field to slow down the rhythm and pay more attention to the balance between offense and defense.

The game also completely entered a stalemate.

During the halftime break, all the Chelsea players were very relaxed in the locker room.

Mourinho did not make any major tactical adjustments, because the current game situation was what he wanted.

Of course, Chelsea will also increase the intensity of counterattacks in the second half of the game. After all, it is better to win.

However, today Mourinho encountered a steady Pochettino who also quickly recognized the reality in terms of tactical games.

If Tottenham invests a lot of manpower on the offensive end, then their midfield defense is naturally not good enough.

But when Tottenham focuses on the efficiency of returning to defense and can organize defensive players to arrive in place as soon as Chelsea launches a counterattack, it will not be so easy for Chelsea to score.

After the 70th minute of the game, Chelsea gradually shrank their formation, reduced the number of counterattacks, and focused on consolidating their defense.

Seeing this, the Tottenham players gradually lost the intention to continue to attack Chelsea's defense.

So in the final stage of the game, this so-called Premier League focus event did not set off a wave of attacks.

After a dull 0-0 ending, Tottenham became the first Premier League team this season to break Chelsea's winning streak.

But Tottenham's players and fans were not happy at all.

Because they all knew that Chelsea did not try their best to fight them.

And they were at home, but they once lost control of the rhythm of the game.

Such a game process and results can only make Tottenham's players feel that the gap between them and Chelsea is getting bigger and bigger!

This self-awareness is quite hurtful and frustrating.

Chelsea fans are quite satisfied with the result that they have successfully passed the devil's schedule, no players were injured, and the team is still unbeaten in the league.

After this league match, Li Ang finally got a long-awaited three-day holiday.

He also missed the third round of the FA Cup on January 4.

However, in this FA Cup match, Matic and Kroos, who had rested well before, all started.

Chelsea finally defeated Watford, the opponent from the English Championship, 3-0 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.

Since then, all Premier League teams have ushered in a 6-day rest period.

It was not until January 10 that the Premier League war was rekindled.

At 3 pm on the 10th, Chelsea welcomed the challenge of the Magpies Newcastle at home.

Chelsea, with all the main players, did not give Newcastle too much room for resistance.

In the 27th minute of the first half, Li Ang headed the ball back in the Newcastle penalty area, assisting Ibrahimovic to volley and score!

In the first half stoppage time, De Bruyne sent a long arc cross from the right, and Hazard passed the ball back to the middle from the back of the penalty area.

However, this time it was not Li Ang who followed up the shot, but Kroos who rarely got into the opponent's penalty area!

A steady and accurate near-angle shot broke Newcastle's goal again.

Kroos turned around and punched the ball to celebrate near the baseline.

And Chelsea basically took the victory of this game into their arms.

In the 71st minute of the second half, Torres, who came on as a substitute for Ibrahimovic, received a straight pass from Hazard's ribs and scored a goal in the far corner!

This goal completely killed the suspense of the game. Chelsea finally defeated the Magpies 3-0 at home and won the 20th league victory of the season!

After the game, Chelsea's first team players held a team dinner that night.

And the next afternoon, Li Ang took a flight to Zurich, Switzerland in advance.

Because he had known the ranking results of this year's Ballon d'Or in advance, Li Ang was relatively calm throughout the ceremony.

In this ceremony, only Li Ang and Ibrahimovic from the Chelsea team were selected for FIFA's annual eleven-man list.

Bayern Munich became the most dazzling club at this ceremony.

And Ribery also successfully reached the top of the football world and became the FIFA Ballon d'Or of 2014!

Li Ang and Messi ranked second and third in the Ballon d'Or ranking.

However, the number of votes between them was very close, and the number of votes between Messi and Ronaldo, who ranked fourth, was also very close.

Thanks to leading the Argentine national team to the World Cup final last summer, Messi has a considerable advantage in the Ballon d'Or ranking.

Otherwise, Ronaldo, who had better data last year and went further in the Champions League, should continue to break into the top three.

In general, this year's Ballon d'Or ownership and ranking are well deserved.

And Li Ang finally stepped onto the highest stage in football that he had always dreamed of.

Although he is still not the protagonist this time, compared to himself last winter, he has made great progress from the backstage to the stage!

Countless football legends and current stars who have watched Li Ang grow up all the way also gave him heartfelt congratulations and applause.

Li Ang looked at Ribery, who was so excited that he burst into tears holding the Golden Ball, and was also very emotional for a moment.

He also began to imagine what kind of acceptance speech he should make when he became the protagonist at this time next year.

After all.

The 2014 Silver Ball was just the beginning for him.

And he is determined to win the 2015 Golden Ball award!