Chapter 310: The Sword Is Not Unsheathed, the Deterrent Effect Is the Greatest

There is not much spring in London in March, and the daytime temperature is still very low. Fortunately, it did not rain on March 1st, which was a suitable weather for the game.

Before the arrival of daylight saving time, the time difference between England and China was still eight hours.

So the English League Cup final, which started at 4 pm in London, was broadcast live in China at midnight.

This time point for watching the game is barely friendly to Chinese fans.

The various live broadcast platforms with copyrights also started their promotion early.

PPTV even directly created a live broadcast gimmick.

Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu teamed up to broadcast the live broadcast, and General Fan even temporarily acted as a live reporter, preparing to interview Li Ang before and after the game.

This move naturally attracted most Chinese fans to choose to watch the live broadcast of the game on PPTV that night.

The FA and Chelsea officials would never refuse such an opportunity to show their faces.

After coordinating the time, Lao Fan first chatted with the FA officials and Chelsea's global business development officer for 20 minutes.

Afterwards, Li Ang, who had finished warming up some time in advance, appeared in the live broadcast camera.

General Fan and Li Ang have seen each other in China in recent years, and they are quite familiar with each other, so after smiling and hugging and greeting each other, the two went straight to the topic of the interview.

"Do you have the confidence to win this crucial battle today? As soon as I arrived in London, I felt the enthusiasm of Chelsea fans."

"Of course I have confidence! I have never lost to Tottenham since I transferred here. They give me the feeling of Atletico Madrid back then, very powerful, but they just can't win against our team~"

Li Ang started a group fight right away, not only against Tottenham, but also against Atletico Madrid. This answer made Old Fan secretly smack his lips.

"Well... it's good to have this confidence. We just got the starting eleven of the two teams today. Tottenham has all the main players. You have never encountered such a situation when you played against each other before.

So I would like to ask here, does the Chelsea coaching staff have any countermeasures?"

Old Fan also asked the question in the hearts of most Chinese fans at this moment.

Chelsea had a good chance against Tottenham before. They tied with Tottenham in the second league game because Chelsea rotated their main players, which meant strategic abandonment.

But now Tottenham's main players have recovered from injuries and have won three consecutive games in the league. They are in good shape and should not be underestimated.

Chinese fans are of course more confident that Chelsea will win, but after all, this Tottenham is very different from the previous one. They are still a little worried that Chelsea's coaching staff is not fully prepared.

Li Ang touched the back of his head at this time and gave a positive answer with a smile.

"Fans don't have to worry about the tactical level. Our coaching staff is well prepared. If the game doesn't go well today, it should be that our players on the field have problems.

Of course, this situation is rare. I think my teammates and I can continue to suppress Tottenham. We are sure and confident!"

Seeing that Li Ang had set a flag again, Lao Fan was afraid that he would say something like "must win" later. After blessing him, he decisively ended the pre-match interview.

However, Li Ang's confidence was fully felt by domestic fans.

This made them curious and wanted to quickly understand what kind of tactical play Mourinho had prepared today, which made Li Ang so sure that he could continue to control Tottenham.

Fortunately, the waiting time was not long. After another ten minutes, the players of both teams followed the referee team and stepped onto the court to start the pre-match formation ceremony.

Chelsea and Tottenham both played with their main players today, so the court was also star-studded for a while.

Even compared with the strong confrontation between Chelsea and Manchester City last season, Chelsea's opponent in today's final was slightly inferior in star configuration.

But it was better than the quality of the League Cup final most of the time.

After all, the past two seasons have been strong dialogues between the top teams in the Premier League, which can attract more fans to watch the game than teams like Villa and Birmingham.

There is no need to question the excitement of the game. After all, it is a London derby, and Tottenham is also eager for the championship trophy. No matter how you look at it, they will go all out to fight Chelsea to the end.

After the pre-match ceremony, the battle was about to begin. Pochettino walked to the sidelines and looked at the court with a serious face.

He really showed all his cards today!

In order to ensure the stability of the midfield defense, he directly sent out the double defensive midfielder combination of Dembele and Dell.

His favorite organizing midfielder Ryan Mason was on the bench today.

This is contrary to Pochettino's own coaching philosophy, but there is no way. The lessons learned from the previous match with Chelsea made him compromise with reality.

If you can't withstand Li Ang's back-up impact, then winning the game is just empty talk.

Pochettino has figured it out. When the cup competition reaches the final decisive battle, you have to be conservative. If you don't do well on the defensive end, you can't win the championship even if you play well on offense.

So today he also has to learn from Mourinho, tighten his own fence first, do a good job of defense, and then attack!

Every time Manchester City is tortured by Chelsea in the final stage of the game, there is no good way to break the deadlock, because they don't have a strong center forward to support tactics.

Tottenham Hotspurs don't have this lineup flaw.

Although Kane is no match for Chelsea's headers in the back line, his ability to get the ball and pass the ball to Chelsea's hinterland is still very good.

If it doesn't work, let Fazio go up to act as a tactical fulcrum, which can also have a tactical effect.

In short, Tottenham Hotspurs have no shortage of offensive means, and any offensive style can be used. The key is to see whether the midfield defense is strong today.

Pochettino was psychologically traumatized by Li Ang's performance.

It was not until the referee blew the whistle to officially start the game that he came back from the memories of the previous few matches with Chelsea.

The huge Wembley Stadium erupted with excited cheers from the fans of both teams.

At this moment, Li Ang, who had received a pass from his teammates, also began his routine full-court observation.

Today, his midfield teammates are Kroos and Matic, and their opponents are Eriksen, Dembele and Dier.

Li Ang simply ignored Eriksen's pressing strength.

After seeing that Dembele did not actively rush to the ball, but chose to stand still first, Li Ang had a plan in mind.

Several Tottenham's frontcourt offensive players were still very hard in pressing.

After all, they were all young people with abundant physical strength, and there were no big stars, so Pochettino could command them.

But their pressing system still had some problems.

In other words, when the two midfielders gave priority to standing in position instead of assisting them to rush together, their pressing level was almost non-existent.

After the front few offensive players finished a round of grabbing, they were easily resolved by Chelsea's midfield, and then repeated another round...

This kind of pressing method can only be said to have slightly delayed Chelsea's offensive process, but it actually did not have much effect.

In the game, it was a strong sense of separation.

Li Ang saw Pochettino's concerns and his tactical ideas.

He couldn't help but smile secretly in his heart.

"Sure enough, Pochettino is still a newcomer to Tottenham. Why is he still fantasizing? This tactical arrangement is too..."

Leon did not feel underestimated. After all, Pochettino did not go deep into Chelsea's tactical construction. He naturally did not understand Chelsea's strong control and transmission of the ball in the backcourt.

Guardiola understood this best, so he took the lead in making changes.

Pochettino has also made tactical changes now, but it is not enough, or in other words, he has not been beaten badly enough by Chelsea and still does not know Chelsea well enough.

Controlling the rhythm in the backcourt, making Tottenham's offensive players a little dizzy, Leon launched the first offensive attempt of the whole game.

His sudden forward run was like an offensive signal.

Kroos held the ball and quickly knocked the ball back to the middle. Leon took the ball and accelerated past Eriksson who wanted to interfere with him, and crossed the center line.

Dembele took the lead, but did not rush to grab it easily. He cleverly kept his distance from Leon and compressed Leon's forward space.

His defensive style is completely different from the silly Bentaleb that Li Ang met before.

He is responsible for stealing the ball, but not recklessly. There is also Dell behind him, which is a double insurance. No wonder Pochettino expressed his confidence in today's final before the game.

The defensive ability of such a double defensive midfielder combination is indeed quite impressive. Looking at the entire Premier League, it is not an exaggeration to say that the defensive strength ranks in the top three.

However, Dembele was thinking wrongly. Li Ang had no idea of ​​attacking their midfield defense line.

Chelsea's ability to attack from the middle is indeed the best in the Premier League, and even the best in Europe.

But in addition, Chelsea is also good at playing two-wing offensive tactics.

Li Ang can be the best midfielder in active football, but he can also be one of the top organizers in Europe.

Maybe this season Kroos has undertaken most of the midfield organization tasks in Chelsea.

So many fans subconsciously forget that Li Ang alone supported Chelsea's offensive system last season.

So when Li Ang advanced to the center line, he simply passed the ball to Hazard and De Bruyne, providing them with offensive ammunition.

Many fans felt that this scene was a little unfamiliar.

But in fact, this was the most common organizational work Li Ang did last season.

When Kroos also joined in and assisted Li Ang in controlling the rhythm of the midfield and participated in the task of distributing the ball, Chelsea's two-wing offensive quickly opened up the situation.

So much so that Danny Rose and Kyle Walker, who subconsciously wanted to participate in the attack at the beginning of the game, had to retreat and defend honestly at this time.

Without the ball-holding and advancement of these two full-backs, the offensive efficiency of Tottenham's two flanks would be greatly reduced.

Chelsea can be regarded as attacking instead of defending, using their own strong road to suppress Tottenham's strong road.

At this moment, Dembele and Dale, who are still sticking to the middle, have become the most embarrassed Tottenham players on the field.

Pulling to the side to assist teammates in defense, who will guard Li Ang in the middle?

If they don't go wide, the full-backs on both sides will be unable to withstand the mistakes.

Once the defense on this side is torn open, do you really think that Ibrahimovic, who is standing in the Tottenham penalty area, is not a threat?

Pochettino also had a headache watching the sudden change in the game situation.

Mourinho, who was not far from him, calmly drank a sip of water at this moment, and then continued to discuss with Holland the defensive weaknesses exposed by Tottenham on the field.

To put it bluntly, attack the place where it must be saved. At this time, as long as Tottenham's tactical layout is disrupted, it will be a mess in one place and everywhere!

Chelsea has the strength to choose to force a breakthrough from the wing or the middle.

But Tottenham does not have the ability to fill two holes at the same time.

In terms of defensive system construction, Tottenham is far behind Chelsea.

At Mourinho's order, Hazard and De Bruyne on the Chelsea wing can both return to their own defensive third zone at the same time.

And this kind of return defense is systematic and will not affect the performance of Bertrand and Azpilicueta.

But Tottenham can't do this.

Kyle Walker is very capable, but to be honest, he can't withstand Hazard's repeated one-on-one attacks.

At this time, if Pochettino wants to pull the back midfielder to assist in defending the wing, then Li Ang, who is standing on the center line, will have to move.

This is a sharp blade hanging over the heads of all Tottenham players. It may fall at any time and give them a hard blow!

Pochettino hesitated, but he finally chose to resist Chelsea's wing attack. In his heart, Li Ang is the most threatening.

Choose the lesser of two evils.

At this time, Chelsea's wing attack was a little uncomfortable for Tottenham's defensive players, but they could still withstand it.

But if Li Ang is active, it will not be as simple as defensive discomfort.

Most of the cup efforts of the season may be ruined in this game!

Pochettino felt that he did nothing wrong, and he felt that his players could understand such a tactical play.

But in fact, the Tottenham defenders on the field at this moment could not understand the delay of their head coach in tactical adjustment.

The back line was about to be pierced, and the midfielder was not allowed to assist in the defense?

Do you really think that Hazard and De Bruyne are vegetarians!

Kyle Walker was completely speechless at this moment.

He really tried his best to defend, but facing Hazard in his peak state, he really couldn't stand it!

In the 21st minute of the first half, Hazard took the ball again and advanced along the left sideline.

Facing Kyle Walker's cautious retreat, Hazard dribbled a little and suddenly exploded to accelerate to the bottom!

Kyle Walker quickly turned around to chase back, but Hazard stopped and dribbled the ball after he lost his defensive position, and then cut into Tottenham's penalty area!

Fazio and Vertonghen's first reaction at this time was not to intercept Hazard or keep an eye on Ibrahimovic.

Instead, they looked outside the penalty area to see if Li Ang had inserted at the same time.

This is also the key point of defense that Pochettino had repeatedly told before the game.

But at this moment, the two looked and found that Li Ang was still standing honestly at the top of the arc in the middle circle of Tottenham's half.

Hazard saw that Fazio did not press up at the first time, and he was happy in his heart. After a little adjustment, he directly shot a far corner shot!

The moment Lori saw Hazard kicking the ball, he secretly thought it was not good!

He pushed hard to save the ball, but his slightly awkward arm span became his fatal flaw at this moment!

Hazard's shot was at a very tricky angle and the ball was not slow. Lori stretched his fingertips with all his might, but in the end he still couldn't touch the ball!

When the ball spun and plunged into the upper right corner of Tottenham's goal, the whole Wembley Stadium shook and made a noise!

Li Ang smiled as he stood on the midline.

He, Kroos and Xiao Ma Ge who came over, high-fived and hugged each other, and then the three of them ran to the front court to join in the celebration.

Pochettino stood on the sidelines, his whole body in the wind.

Mourinho calmly completed the applause celebration at this time, then looked at Pochettino and shook his head.

In terms of tactical game, Pochettino still needs to study further...

The sword is the most intimidating when it is not unsheathed!