Super Prophecy Master

Chapter 379 The Narrator's Irony
For the first round of the Champions League Group D, the home game against Millwall, Valencia coach Flores is full of confidence. When the game time is approaching, Flores remembered what the opposing young coach talked about after the draw ceremony 'Good sign', I think Millwall should be given a certain amount of shock first.

Three days before the game, Valencia finished the league and will face the Champions League next. In an interview, Flores said, "Valencia has a lot of experience in European games, while Millwall has no experience. This is also a home game and we have the confidence to win the game!"

Then Flores didn't forget to mention the 'junior', "The Champions League is different from the Premier League. Last season, Millwall was the champion of the Premier League, but the experience of the Premier League does not apply to the Champions League. This game may be able to Let him (Zhang Yang) have more awe and vigilance against his opponents in the Champions League."

When Flores said these words, there was a faint smile on his face, showing great confidence.

The Spanish media seemed to be infected by Flores. In one report after another, the confidence of Flores was depicted, and a wonderful scene was outlined for the Valencia fans——
"Millwall is the champion of the Premier League, but it has nothing to do with La Liga. They are just a rookie team in the Champions League!"

"Their head coach is too young. Any player Valencia can find will have more experience than him, and they will be better than him in leading the team, because they all have quite a lot of experience in European wars!"

"Flores' attitude is very positive. He said with full confidence that Valencia will definitely win!"

"Valencia is playing at home, and they are facing a rookie in the European war. The suspense of the game is just how big the advantage Valencia has to win..."

"..."

When Zhang Yang saw these reports, he pouted, not knowing what to say.

Why is Flores so confident?

Millwall has no European experience, but it was the league champion last season. In the past five rounds of this season, it has also achieved four wins and one draw. It also beat Chelsea to win the Community Shield, which is the best performance in the Premier League. Team.

Even if Millwall has no European experience, even if most players don't have European experience, even if he doesn't have European experience...but so what?

Millwall is the best team in the Premier League!

Now in terms of European football, the Premier League beats Serie A to rank first, which is the world's largest league, and the champion team of the world's largest league, is there no problem in terms of strength?

Valencia is also good, but only third in La Liga.

When the first in the Premier League meets the third in La Liga, even if the latter has rich experience, he should be humble, right?

Zhang Yang thought about it carefully for a long time, but he didn't think of the reason for Flores' self-confidence, which might be described as "mysterious self-confidence".

Zhang Yang didn't argue with Flores. The game was about to start. He didn't dare to say that he would definitely win, but his winning percentage was definitely higher than that of Valencia. He didn't need to argue with Flores before the game.

But Zhang Yang remembered it in his heart.

He deeply memorized every word Flores and the Spanish media said, and then he devoted himself to studying how to deal with Valencia.

After the end of last season, Valencia has undergone major changes. The root cause is that the star Caponi retired and became the new manager of the club.

After Capponi came to power, he changed the previous policy of introducing a large number of players. Instead, he cleaned up the team. Ivette and other players left one after another, and the Spanish media also believed that "Valencia's offensive strength will definitely be greatly reduced."

In the case of many core players leaving the team, Capponi's lack of signings is not going well.

Morientes returned to La Liga after a frustrated Premier League season. It is hard to say whether he will regain his status as a Real Madrid player. However, the striker Tavano introduced from Empoli must first break the curse of the bats on the Italians. , Corradi, Divayo, Fiore, etc. failed to stay in the club before, so they had to find a way out.

Emar's departure indicates that Valencia needs to find a new offensive core.After Aurelio moved to Liverpool in defense, Del Horno became the natural successor at left-back.

The winger Simaoque, whom Valencia desperately wanted, "fell away" at the moment of signing, which made Capponi's most failed moment this summer, but fortunately, before the transfer market closed, Valencia successfully signed the star Winger Joaquin, his addition is good news for Valencia.

Although the departure of a large group of players has caused Valencia's strength to decline compared to last season, judging by Zhang Yang who has previous life memories, Valencia's lineup is still too extravagant.

Their striker has 'Gourd Baby' David Villa. In the next few seasons, Silva will undoubtedly be the most efficient striker in Spain, and his scoring ability will crush the entire Barcelona striker.

There are newly introduced Joaquin on the wing, and David Silva who returned on loan.

Both of them are well-known players. In the summer, Millwall failed to chase Joaquin. The latter chose to join Valencia. David Silva, fans who follow European football are no strangers, he will be the future The core midfielder built by luxury Manchester City, of course, Silva is not very famous now, and he has just returned to Valencia. Whether he can appear in the game against Millwall is still a huge suspense.

In addition, there are famous stars such as Moretti, Edu, and Baraja in the Valencia team. The overall strength is undoubtedly very strong. In terms of lineup alone, it is much more gorgeous than Millwall. Both are not comparable.

But that's all.

There are many players in the Valencia team who will be very good in the future, but now players like David Silva have not really grown up, and players like Joaquin who have already played in Real Betis, The strength is definitely there, but it can only be compared with Quaresma. Compared with the really famous veterans, such as Pires, the content of being "touted" is relatively high.

What Millwall really needs to pay special attention to is David Villa, a very efficient striker. The name of 'Gourd Baby' is not just for talking, Villa is a natural goal killer.

Zhang Yang also told the players to strictly guard against Villa and not to give him a chance to play.

Then came Valencia's style of play.

In the 21st century, Valencia has become more and more defensive. They are also among the few Spanish teams that attach great importance to defense. They also regard "defensive counterattack" as the team's style, but Valencia is Spain's traditional team, focusing on defense does not mean not paying attention to offense, and their offense is also quite threatening.

Millwall has never faced an opponent with such skill and defense.

In the Premier League, there are many teams that focus on defense, and Chelsea is one of the best. However, Chelsea's offense is an 'English' style of play. In terms of technical style, it is difficult to compare with traditional Spanish teams. .

So this is also an opportunity.

Zhang Yang and Wilkinson joked, "Millwall's group stage is a place to gain experience."

It wasn't just a joke, he really thought so.

The opponents in the group stage include Valencia, Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk. The three teams have three styles. Millwall needs to adapt one by one. After that, in the knockout rounds, when you encounter opponents with different styles, you will know what to do. to fight.

Now facing the match against Valencia, Zhang Yang insisted on letting the team play 'dual core' tactics without hesitation.

The 'dual-core' tactic is considered to be more offensive and full of technology, which strengthens the overall coordination, but the disadvantage is that the defense is relatively weak.

Zhang Yang didn't care.

Zhang Yang hopes to see how the 'dual-core' tactics will perform in the European arena, especially the collision with Valencia, which will be very valuable for evaluation.

This will be a valuable experience.

Valencia, is a good touchstone.

Of course, the 'dual-core' tactic is just an overall style of play, and detailed planning still needs to be done. Long before the game against Charlton, the coaching staff had already started discussing the game against Valencia.

Several coaches analyzed the video of Valencia's game together, studied what to pay attention to in the game, and discussed the specific details of the game. In the targeted discussion, Zhang Yang only grasped the general direction, and the specific details should be discussed together .

In the end, the coaching staff came up with a set of tactics specifically for Valencia. The style of play can be summed up in a few words: tough, direct and targeted defense.

It's about style.

No matter what tactics they play, Millwall is a team that started in the lower leagues. England's lower league teams often have one characteristic: they are very focused on physical confrontation.

None of the old players in the team's middle class are afraid of physical confrontation. Even Simpson, who is slightly weaker, is only in the team, and in the whole of Europe, he is also among the strongest.

This is caused by the style of English football. No matter how good the skills of thin players are, it is impossible to play in English football.

Toughness is the overall style of English football, and it is also an important means for the English team to go abroad.

Millwall also needs to play to their strengths.

Direct, refers to cooperation, does not need fancy continuous passing, it is completely meaningless to compete with the Spanish team for ball control, because the players have average footwork, it is difficult to catch up with the opponent, and the style of play is more direct, which will help Reduce the turnover rate and increase the probability of effective attack.

Targeted defense, nothing to say.

For example, let David Livermore focus on taking care of David Villa. Both of their names are David. Maybe they can get closer to each other and deepen the relationship between Millwall and Valencia, who are both European clubs. intimacy.

----

Millwall was busy formulating tactics, the team was busy preparing for the training, and Zhang Yang did not respond to the war of words provoked by Flores, but the Spanish media seemed to regard Zhang Yang's silence as a sign of weakness. As the game approached, they clamored more cheerful.

Under the advocacy of the Spanish media, Valencia has been able to kill Millwall by a big score.

Valencia fans are very optimistic.

If you do a street interview, Valencia fans can say a hundred reasons for winning: Millwall coach has no experience, players have no experience, it is just a small club, the lineup is not as good as Valencia, the coaching ability is different, the players There is a difference in ability, playing at home, Valencia is more confident...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The same goes for the whole Valencia team.

At the pre-match press conference, Flores once again showed his confidence. He said that there will be no suspense in the game. Valencia can easily beat Millwall at the Mestalla Stadium.

Zhang Yang shrugged his shoulders indifferently, and the corners of his mouth curled up to show sarcasm, "I only know now that Valencia chooses the head coach based on the ability of tongue."

"Yeah, what he said was so contagious that even I almost believed it. But what if Valencia lose? Will he take the blame and resign?"

This sentence made Flores very angry. He said that he must teach Millwall a lesson in the game.

Then the game started.

----

In fact, Flores' thinking is fine. In terms of skills and cooperation, it is difficult for Millwall to catch up with Valencia, but one problem is that he overestimated his team and underestimated Millwall's. In addition, he ignored the fact that Millwall is an English team.

Millwall is playing a 'dual-core' tactic. The focus of the tactic is to increase the three-way coordination and to play technically and flexibly. But they also take into account the style of the English team-dare to fight, dare to grab, tough style.

As soon as the game started, Valencia was in trouble. They found that they were completely at a disadvantage in the confrontation.

The player with the most obvious feeling on the field is striker David Villa.

In Spanish football, Villa is already quite famous. He is considered to be one of the best strikers in Spain, but as the best striker, there is nothing he can do about the unreasonable defense.

Villa's skills are good, his speed is very fast, and his flexibility is also high. However, Livermore's one-on-one defensive ability is definitely not a joke. Under Livermore's strict defense, it is very difficult for Villa to catch the ball , Because Livermore is always stuck in position, if he wants to catch the ball smoothly, he must first fight with Livermore physically.

Of course the result was not very good.

Livermore's strength is already world-class. I dare not say that he is the strongest football player in the world, but there is no pressure at all to abuse a small body like Villa.

Just receiving the pass is very difficult, and it is even more difficult for Villa to rush up. He tried to pass Livermore several times but failed.

Villa also has experience.

He found that the tall man in front of him was defending unreasonably at all. The opponent didn't even look at his feet, and he was completely targeting his people. As long as he didn't let him rush over, he didn't care where the football went.

Everything is back to the original point: unless he can fight Livermore a few times to take advantage of his excellent foot skills, otherwise everything will be out of the question.

For a long time, Villa became a transparent person.

As the game progressed slowly, the two teams were in good shape, and the midfield competition began. For technical confrontation, it is very important to compete for the control of the midfield. With the control of the midfield, it is equal to fighting To more space, you can use cooperation to suppress the opponent, have more possession of the ball, and get more offensive opportunities.

Valencia's strong position is not in the middle of the midfield. The combination of Edu and Marchena is also good, but it is only good. Millwall's 'dual core' is Morris and Smicer. The technology and experience are not inferior to the former, coupled with the positioning and coordination advantages brought by the 'dual core', as time passed, Valencia soon found that they were at a disadvantage in the midfield competition.

The core striker players have become transparent, and the midfield competition is weaker than the opponent. Valencia's situation has gradually become passive.

After 10 minutes of the game, Millwall's ball possession time began to be equal to that of Valencia. Due to the directness of cooperation, the number of attacks was more than half that of Valencia.

At this point in the game, Valencia coach Flores finally realized that Millwall was not as easy to deal with as he imagined.

Valencia relies on home games, and the advantages they gained at the beginning are being consumed a little bit, and the situation is more favorable to Millwall.

"No way?"

"Shouldn't it be?"

Flores frowned, he didn't want to believe his own judgment, and decided to take a closer look.

Next, the situation in Valencia seemed to get better. They played three consecutive offensives, and their formation even advanced to the Millwall half. The way of counter-grabbing on the spot is to continue to maintain offensive suppression.

At this time, Morris, who took the ball in the midfield, sent a direct pass!
Valencia pressed too far forward, and their back line was almost at the center line, which also allowed Morris's pass to directly penetrate all Valencia's defense lines.

The ball was passed to Darren Bent!
Among Darren Bent's personal abilities, speed is an outstanding strength. He gave full play to his strengths and rushed out of Valencia's defense line like an arrow off the string.

"Bent! Bent! Look at this ball..."

In the exclamation of the commentator, Darren Bent ran at high speed and received the pass, leaving all Valencia's defensive players behind.

Then it's easy!

One-handed!

Facing the attacking Canizares, Darren Bent shot hard and completed the counterattack.

The football rushed into the goal in an instant.

"Goooooooooooooooal!!"

"Darren Bent—!"

"Away Millwall took the lead, Darren Bent scored the first goal!"

"The score became 0 to 1!"

"Darren Bent has also maintained high efficiency in the European arena! The first goal is very direct and decisive! Goalkeeper Canizares has nothing to do!"

After the British commentator shouted a set of goal rhetoric excitedly, he couldn't help adding sarcastically, "Perhaps Valencia fans will be surprised by the goal, because Valencia coach Flores is very sure With their performance, Valencia could win easily."

"Now that Valencia is behind, let us see how Valencia can easily win Millwall..."

(End of this chapter)