69novels Chapter 246
Chapter 246
The team finally won the championship.
Chapter 243 The unbeaten record at home is finally broken
In modern football matches, the midfield has always been a battleground.
For both teams, whoever can control the midfield controls the rhythm of the game to a large extent.
Whichever side controls the rhythm is equivalent to seeing the goddess of victory, and victory is within reach!
On the left, Mertens cuts in from time to time to the middle, and Higuain retreats, allowing Naples to form a local numerical advantage in the middle.
Under the repeated attacks, Andy King and Cambiasso were exhausted, and there was an obvious gap.
If Maguire hadn’t left the defense several times to intercept Hamsik’s through ball, Higuain would have had a chance to face the defender one-on-one!
Seeing the central defense being blown up, Ling Feng also realized the fierceness of the opponent’s attack and was ready to retreat to the midfield to help defend.
However, before he could retreat, Napoli broke the balance on the field first:
When the game reached the 32nd minute, Napoli suddenly changed the direction of attack and launched an offensive in the middle!
After receiving the pass from the back midfielder, Hamsik got rid of Andy King who was rushing to steal the ball with a very cool fried meatball on the spot.
Then he sent the ball forward with the outside of his foot, and played a wall match with Mertens who received it in the middle.
When he got the ball again, there was no Blue Fox player within three meters of him.
Looking up at the left and right sides, the captain of Napoli and Slovakia sent a diagonal pass with his left foot directly to the empty space on the right.
Even though Schlupp turned back immediately, he was unable to clear the ball before Callejon.
Callejon, dressed in white, seemed to have returned to his Real Madrid days. After overtaking Schlupp from the outside, he passed the ball directly to the back post without stopping.
Higuain was tightly doubled by Maguire and Huth and missed the chance to score.
But the ball passed through the narrow space between the defender and the goalkeeper at high speed and came to the empty space at the back post.
Foxes right back Simpson was about to step forward, but he didn’t expect that a white figure suddenly rushed out from behind him.
It was Mertens, who was less than 1.7 meters tall!
He pushed the ball with his legs before Simpson stretched out his foot to clear the ball.
The next second, the ball stuck to the inside of the goal post and went into the goal!
The attack was so fast that Schmeichel on the goal line had only moved to the goal line, and before he could stretch his foot to block it, the ball had already been entangled with the net.
“GOAL!!!”
“Napoli scored the first goal!”
“The goal was scored by No. 14, Dries Mertens!!!”
Instantly, all the home team fans at the King Power Stadium fell into silence.
Many people held their heads with their hands, looking very sad.
Although they knew that their team’s defense was not very reliable and they had lost a lot of goals this season.
However, they did not expect that the opponent’s attack would be so sharp and so smooth.
Looking at the Napoli players celebrating at the King Power Stadium, the home team fans finally understood why the media and bookmakers believed that Napoli was the favorite to win the Europa League with the highest odds!
Seeing the team score a goal, Benítez on the sidelines just clapped his hands calmly, without any excitement or excitement.
In his opinion, it was just a matter of converting the dominant situation into a goal.
Pearson on the other side frowned.
Compared with Wolfsburg, this Napoli’s offensive firepower is even stronger!
Moreover, compared with Wolfsburg’s extremely dependent on De Bruyne’s tactical play, Napoli’s front four players have been together for a longer time and have a better understanding.
Everyone has their own duties and can maximize their technical characteristics.
Leicester City was completely overwhelmed by the opponent’s attack.
Pearson was also very clear in his heart.
Even if “Drinking Water Brother” Drinkwater was on the court today and partnered with Cambiasso in the midfield, he might not be able to withstand Napoli’s swift and violent offensive.
With Ling Feng, the team’s offense has never been a problem that the team needs to consider.
On the contrary, defense is the project that the Blue Fox coaching team headed by Pearson has been working hard to improve.
Originally, after Huth was loaned in the winter window, the central defender partnership between Huth and Morgan allowed him to see the improvement of the defense.
However, the injuries of Morgan and Drinkwater directly caused the team’s defensive system in the midfield and backcourt to be very
Very big flaw.
And the tactic of attacking instead of defending is always just a stopgap measure.
Especially when encountering some opponents with equally strong offense, the two sides are caught in a war of offense.
At that time, defense is the real factor that determines the outcome.
After all, no matter how much you score in the front, you can’t stand more losses in the back!
They scored a goal in one offensive round, and you have to attack several times to catch up with one goal.
As one side loses the other, the opponent loses less balls, which is equivalent to more goals.
In terms of the score, the opponent still wins.
However, even if Pearson knows very well what the team’s weaknesses are, he doesn’t have many cards to play if he wants to strengthen the defense in the middle.
Midfielder Matty James, or Nick Powell on loan from Manchester United, can’t provide the tough defense and larger coverage area required for the back midfielder position.
The compromise is to withdraw Ling Feng’s position.
However, this trick only works under special circumstances.
Such changes have been tried in previous games, but the effect is not good, which will only weaken the team’s offensive threat.
Therefore, in Pearson’s view, it is better to have a vigorous offensive battle with the opponent rather than being pressed by the opponent in the half-court!
It depends on who is more offensive and who scores more goals!
This is also the offensive football that Leicester City relies on for survival!
So, after discussing with the assistant coach, while the opponent was celebrating, Pearson waved and called Ling Feng to the sidelines:
“You don’t have to retreat!”
“This is our home court, we have to suppress the opponent with offense!”
“Just like we have been doing in training and games!”
“We only need to score one more goal than them to win the game!”
Pearson’s expression and tone were full of determination.
And Ling Feng nodded.
“I understand, coach!”
In the past half hour, he has also understood.
Napoli’s front four players were in very good shape today, and all kinds of passing and cutting cooperation were very smooth.
If Leicester City’s defense line continues to face such high pressure, it will definitely not be able to defend.
Only by attacking can we find a glimmer of hope!
. . .
Soon, after the kick-off again, both the Napoli players on the field and the fans of both sides in the stands found that the eyes of the Blue Fox players in blue changed suddenly.
Became sharp and fierce!
Pressing and running, also more active and aggressive!
They were not hit by the first goal, but encouraged by the home fans, let them blow the horn of counterattack!
In the ten minutes after the goal was lost, Leicester City set off waves of attacks.
And Napoli also seized the limited opportunity of attack and defense conversion and played a very threatening quick counterattack.
The speed of the offensive and defensive rounds of both sides was simply dazzling.
In the last second, Napoli’s Mertens cut in from the left and his shot was blocked, and the ball bounced to the feet of the defensive midfielder Andy King;
In the next second, the latter made a straight pass to Ling Feng in front of him. Ling Feng changed direction and accelerated, and directly dribbled the ball forward for several meters. When Napoli’s defensive midfielder Lopez rushed to grab it, he sent a surgical pass.
Vardy ran to the empty space, slid the ball with his left foot, and after slightly opening the angle, he directly used his right foot to explode!
With a “bang”, the ball shot out like a cannonball and hit the upper right corner of the goal.
It forced Napoli goalkeeper Andujar to make a wonderful save, and he barely blocked the ball out of the baseline with his fingertips
The two sides went back and forth, and the play was very simple and fast.
There was no time wasted in the backcourt, and the ball was passed directly through the midfield and handed over to the frontcourt players to play.
Napoli chose to attack from the wing, using the speed and breakthrough of Mertens and Callejon to tear open the gap in the defense line on the wing, creating opportunities for crosses or cut-in shots;
Leicester City chose to advance from the middle, using Ling Feng’s personal ability to launch a quick counterattack, and repeatedly burned the war to Napoli’s half.
You sing and I come on the stage, the game rhythm is full!
Such a wonderful offense and defense also ignited the enthusiasm of the fans on the scene, and they shouted that it was exciting.
While the number of shots on both sides was steadily increasing, they were always a hair’s breadth away from scoring.
Until the first half entered the stoppage time, Leicester City finally used a set-piece opportunity to get back a goal.
Lingard was knocked down on the right, and then Ling Feng took the set-piece and accurately passed the ball to the crowd in the penalty area.
And Maguire, the “highest altitude” in the entire penalty area, under the cover of Huth, overwhelmed the opponent’s Spanish international Albi, who also reached 1.9 meters.
Orr headed the ball in from under the crossbar!
One to one!
After scoring the goal, Maguire rushed to the corner flag area excitedly, and then slid down to his knees!
Seeing this, Ling Feng couldn’t help but laugh and smiled brightly.
This move is called aircraft carrier landing!
After getting up, Maguire didn’t forget to give Ling Feng, who came to celebrate with him, a big hug.
Since seeing Maguire’s header in training, Pearson directly used Maguire’s head as the first landing point for passing in set-piece training.
Ling Feng, who passed wherever he pointed, coupled with Maguire, who was 1.94 meters tall and had first-class heading ability, Leicester City’s set-piece attack became more threatening!
Shortly after Maguire scored a header and equalized the score, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half.
Back in the locker room, in addition to approving the players’ performance in the first half, Pearson specifically praised Maguire’s performance.
In the first half of the game, if you want to vote for the best player among Leicester City’s starting eleven, not only Ling Feng, the commentator, and even most of the Blue Fox fans will choose Maguire!
Throughout the first half, his central defender combination with Huth was quite successful in restricting Higuain.
Several blocked shots and steals effectively blocked the opponent’s central attack.
Moreover, most of the high-altitude crosses on both sides were cleared by him in the first time.
In addition to his defensive job, he also helped the team equalize the score before the end of the first half.
The young central defender who replaced captain Morgan won the recognition of the coach and teammates with his outstanding offensive and defensive performance.
However, his outstanding performance does not mean that he has no weaknesses.
On the contrary, after observing the first half of the game, Napoli’s head coach Benitez has discovered his weaknesses!
“We did a good job in the first half! We created a lot of opportunities.”
“We need to make some changes in our offense to completely defeat them!”
“Especially the tall No. 28, who turns slowly, you can hit him more behind him!”
“Cross from both sides, and fewer high balls, just shoot the ball directly in front of the goal!”
The reason why Benítez is praised as the “King of Cups” is that since he coached Valencia in 2001, he has brought at least one cup championship to each team he joined!
And he was able to win the championship in more cruel and uncontrollable cup competitions, relying not only on luck!
In terms of on-the-spot command, Benítez can be said to be the world’s top!
. . .
In the second half, Leicester City continued to attack.
However, in this game, Vardy did not seem to wear shooting boots.
Although Ling Feng’s breakthroughs and advancements repeatedly attracted the opponent’s defensive attention and created several opportunities for him to shoot,
However, several shots were either too straight and saved by the opponent’s goalkeeper; or too strong and directly hit high.
Albrighton and Lingard, two wingers, have average footwork and their speed is not enough to tear through the defense.
Leicester City’s offense still depends on Ling Feng to a large extent.
In contrast, Napoli’s frontcourt offense is more dazzling and has a sense of design.
After Benítez’s tactical changes, every attack of Napoli made Leicester City’s defense line panic and closer to scoring.
In the 60th minute, Benítez decisively replaced Lopez, the defensive midfielder with a yellow card, with Insigne, who had just returned from injury.
Then Hamsik was withdrawn to play as a front midfielder, and through his clever personal breakthrough, he continued to attack the two defensive midfielders of Leicester City in the middle.
The effect of this substitution was immediate!
Just five minutes after Insigne came on the pitch, he broke through the middle and then sent a straight pass to the front of the penalty area.
Higuain turned around and received the ball and shot low to score, all in one go!
After overtaking the score again, Leicester City’s defense seemed to be in a state of disarray.
Just four minutes later, Napoli launched an attack on the right, Callejon broke through and was tripped by Schlupp, and the referee decisively sent a yellow card package!
Higuain completed it in one fell swoop, expanding the score advantage again!
In the remaining 20 minutes, Leicester City made a desperate bet and pressed forward in an all-round formation, trying to catch up with the score and keep the suspense for the second round of the game.
But all the attacks always missed the goal.
In the end, Ling Feng relied on his personal ability to kill a few long shots outside the penalty area, but they were slightly off the goal.
Finally, with the referee’s long whistle, Leicester City won the first game of the season at home.
The 19-game unbeaten streak was finally broken.
(End of this chapter)