Chapter 399 Not sure who takes advantage

  May 28, Stadio Olimpico, Rome.

  The game has not yet started, and fans of Crystal Palace and Barcelona from all over the world have already surrounded the stadium.

   There are also a large number of Chinese fans.

   With the Crystal Palace dominating European football in recent years, let alone the Premier League champions, even the Champions League final has now become a reserved program and a box-sealing battle for Crystal Palace.

   There are more and more Crystal Palace fans in China, who take watching Crystal Palace’s Champions League final as part of their travel and vacation plans.

  Because Guardiola was Chen Ran’s assistant coach last season, he led the team to face off against his former club in the Champions League final a year later. Such a dramatic event has not unexpectedly aroused heated discussions among countless fans.

   Such a good hype theme, the media who are best at fanning the flames will naturally not let it go. Sensational headlines have appeared in major media one after another.

   “An employee’s counterattack! Guardiola is going to bring Barcelona to the Crystal Palace who taught his former boss a hard lesson.”

   “It took Chen Ran three years to help Crystal Palace win the Champions League. Now, it is very possible that Guardiola can achieve the achievements of his former boss in just one year.”

   “The battle between new and old talented coaches, can Guardiola replace Chen Ran as the strongest coach in football today?”

   “As the champions of the Premier League and La Liga, this game will also decide who is the No. 1 league in world football.”

   “According to the latest data from the gaming company, the funds that are optimistic about Barcelona winning the Champions League this season have now surpassed Crystal Palace and achieved a major reversal. So will this happen in this game? Let’s wait and see.”

   It is thousands of miles away in China. Although the Champions League final started in the early hours of the morning, the popularity of the Crystal Palace Post Bar has been high since dinner.

   Obviously, many Crystal Palace fans did not plan to sleep for a while, but prepared to stay up all night.

   “Crystal Palace’s situation in this game is a bit bad. Barcelona’s starting lineup came out, all of them are main players, and they have not been affected by any injuries.”

   “Fuck! You can still play with all the main players after playing for a season? This is too unfair, isn’t it?”

   “Cough, there is no way, who made them lucky. In the previous seasons, we at Crystal Palace had no major injuries all seasons. Now we can only admit that we are unlucky.”

   “I said you are all just worrying. Guardiola was just Chen Ran’s assistant before. I don’t believe he can do better than Chen Ran.”

   “Upstairs, now the key is that Chen Ran is unavailable. If the Crystal Palace is in a healthy state, no one will worry about this problem.”

   “That’s right. As the saying goes: ‘A clever woman can’t cook without rice’. No matter how powerful Chen Ran is, it is impossible for a player to recover from injury immediately.”

   “Oh, I hope Chicken Thief can continue to surprise us this time.”

   For this Champions League final, Chen Ran naturally made full preparations.

  Before the game, he specially called Suarez and Messi to his office.

“Leo, Luiz, in the next Champions League final, the two of you will be at your peak. So I will pair the two of you up front and give you ‘free fire’. You two have to take good care of it. This rare opportunity, you know?”

   “Okay, boss!”

   Suarez, who had already experienced what it was like to be at his peak, immediately agreed with excitement. As for the next three downturns, he didn’t care.

   To know that he has just returned to Crystal Palace Club during the winter transfer period, and now he can represent the team in the Champions League final, Suarez is very satisfied.

   “Boss, in peak form? I think I’ve been in good shape before.”

  Messi didn’t react for a while, scratching the back of his head and looking at Chen Ran puzzled.

   “Hey, Leo, when you experience the peak state that the boss said, you will know what a wonderful feeling it is.”

   Before Chen Ran could speak, Suarez answered Messi’s question for him as if he had come over.

   Since Crystal Palace is now full of wounded soldiers, Chen Ran is very pragmatic and does not adopt the previous offensive tactics.

   In this Champions League final, he let Crystal Palace regain its housekeeping skills – defensive counterattack tactics.

   striker Suarez, striker Messi

   Yaya Toure, Fabregas, Mascherano

   Left-back Evra, center-back Kompany, center-back Thiago Silva, center-back Vidic, right-back Maicon

   Goalkeeper Cech

   On the Barcelona side, Guardiola can be said to be strong now. In addition, he is known for being good at attacking, so he naturally sent a starting lineup with amazing attacking power.

  Left winger Henry, center Ibrahimovic, right winger Eto’o

   MF Iniesta, MF Busques, MF Xavi

   Left-back Abidal, center-back Marcos, center-back Pique, right-back Puyol

   Goalkeeper Valdes

   The Olympic Stadium in Rome, which can accommodate 100,000 people, is full today. As soon as Chen Ran walked out of the player tunnel, he felt the noisy and warm atmosphere in the stadium.

   “Boss, long time no see.”

   As a familiar voice came, Chen Ran saw Guardiola coming from the Barcelona bench.

   “Yeah, long time no see. Josep, you did a great job!”

  The two shook hands and greeted each other outside the player tunnel. The reporters present naturally would not miss this precious scene, and they kept taking pictures around them.

   “Boss, are you planning to play a defensive counterattack this game?”

   Guardiola has seen Crystal Palace’s starting roster, and he is very familiar with Chen Ran and Crystal Palace, and immediately guessed Chen Ran’s plan.

  Chen Ran also knew that he couldn’t hide it from Guardiola, and shook his head with a wry smile.

   “Josep, you must know the current injury situation of Crystal Palace. The offensive players are almost injured. What can I do if I don’t play defensive counterattacks?”

   “That’s true. Boss, then I’ll take advantage.”

   “Haha, this is the charm of football. There are times when you take advantage, and there are times when you lose, who can say for sure?”

   After a few simple chats, Chen Ran and Guardiola went back to their benches.

   Seeing Chen Ran approaching, Southgate immediately leaned over.

   “Boss, what did that guy Josep tell you?”

   “He asked me if I wanted Crystal Palace to use a counter-attack.”

   “What? How can you ask this before the game? Does this guy Josep understand the rules? Boss, you won’t tell him.”

   Southgate almost shouted in shock.

   “I said that Crystal Palace really used defensive counterattack tactics today.”

   “Huh? Boss, how can you tell Josep this? This is our tactical secret.”

   This time, Southgate’s eyes almost popped out.

   “Hehe, do you think that with Josep’s knowledge of Crystal Palace, after he saw our starting roster, he didn’t know what tactics we used?”

   “Well, that’s true. Alas, it’s a big trouble to meet an opponent who knows us so well.”

  Southgate was stunned at first, then heaved a sigh of relief.

   At this time, Chen Ran silently called out the system, and first activated a “Eagle Eye Guardian Card”.

   Then he used a “Level 1 Chicken Blood Card” for Messi and Suarez respectively.

   Immediately afterwards, he used a “Level 1 Healing Card” for Yaya Toure and Mascherano respectively.

   Finally, he used a “free-kick master card” for Cesc Fabregas.

   After doing these things, Chen Ran nodded in satisfaction.

   It’s time for Guardiola to experience what the real Crystal Palace is.

  When the referee blew the whistle for the start of the game, Barcelona immediately pressed on the whole line and launched a tidal offensive against the Crystal Palace backline.

   Fortunately, Chen Ran was well prepared and sent enough defensive players to Crystal Palace. With the exception of Suarez and Messi, the players all contracted to defend in their own half.

  So, despite Barcelona’s ferocious offensive, Crystal Palace did not lose ground and tenaciously withstood the indiscriminate bombardment of the opponent.

   On the sidelines, seeing the familiar faces of Crystal Palace players on the court, Guardiola also had the illusion that he was in a different world. He almost regarded the players of Crystal Palace as his own players several times.

   For this game, Guardiola has long been mentally prepared for difficulties.

   He is well aware, although Crystal Palace are now plagued by injuries and losses. However, it is still a very strong and very strong team.

   As long as Chen Ran is there, the team will have the backbone and there will be no chaos.

  If you want to beat this team, you must not be in a hurry.

  As Chen Ran’s assistant coach for three or four years, Guardiola knows Chen Ran’s coaching style very well.

   He knew that Chen Ran liked to attack after the attack the most. When the opponent’s physical strength declined in the second half of the game, he would attack the opponent with a fatal blow.

   Therefore, when he saw that Barcelona stormed the back line of Crystal Palace with no results for a long time, Guardiola immediately and decisively ordered the players on the field to slow down the attacking rhythm, shrink the formation to take a breath, and recover their physical fitness.

   On the other side, seeing that Barcelona did not launch the offensive in a row, but retreated to their own half, Chen Ran’s mouth twitched slightly.

   Special meow, there is an opponent who knows himself too well, which is really annoying.

   “Boss, why didn’t Barcelona attack? Is that kid Josep holding back some bad water?”

   Southgate murmured, he was very puzzled by Barcelona’s abnormal performance.

   “This guy is afraid of attacking too hard, and the Barcelona players’ physical strength is too fast. In the second half of the game, we seized the opportunity to kill.”

   “Boss, that kid Josep really understands you.”

  Southgate glanced at Chen Ran with a wry smile, he couldn’t do anything in this situation.

   Chen Ran has no opinion on the current situation on the field.

   Guardiola’s arrangement in this way can certainly reduce the physical consumption of the Barcelona players.

   But, in the same way, Crystal Palace’s defenders also got a chance to breathe.

   Who will take advantage in the end is not certain.

  The next game, Barcelona’s attack, showed a wave-like rhythm.

   Onslaught for a while, rest for a while, peaks and valleys, and the cycle goes back and forth.

   On the Crystal Palace side, the players strictly followed the plan made by Chen Ran before the game.

   Even when Barcelona shrank their formation and entered the trough, Crystal Palace did not have any intention of pressing up to attack.

   Except for Messi and Suarez, the other players are almost beyond the midline.

   Until the referee on duty blew the whistle at the end of the first half, Barcelona still failed to break Cech’s goal. The score on the field was still 0:0 without any change.

   During the halftime break, Chen Ran did not make any substitution adjustments except to give the players blood as usual.

   On the Barcelona side, despite failing to score in the first half, Guardiola was in no hurry.

   In addition to encouraging and motivating the players, he also did not make substitution adjustments.

   At the beginning of the second half, the trend of the first half continued.

   The game was tepid, and the spectators were drowsy.

   “Fuck! Is this still the Champions League final? What the **** are you playing!”

   “That’s right. It’s understandable that Crystal Palace was seriously injured and played a defensive counterattack, but Barcelona didn’t take advantage of this opportunity to attack, but they played nine shallow and one deep. What did Guardiola think?”

   “Mao’s nine are shallow and one is deep. All I see are shallow, how can it be deep? They can’t penetrate Crystal Palace’s back line at all.”

   “Hahahaha, the guy upstairs made me laugh. I guess Guardiola was too afraid of Chen Ran, so he kept kicking and didn’t dare to use his full strength.”

   “Indeed. Guardiola has been Chen Ran’s assistant coach for so long. Chen Ran is amazing. I guess no one knows better than him.”

   Just when the audience complained that the game was silent and boring, the situation changed suddenly on the field.

   After holding Ibrahimovic’s header firmly in his arms, Cech got up quickly and sent the ball to the front court with a big foot.

   Seeing Cech’s counterattack, Suarez and Messi started at the same time, one went to grab the ball, and the other started to charge forward to Barcelona’s penalty area at high speed.

   At this time, Barcelona’s midfielder Busques also rushed to the spot where the ball landed and was about to unload the high-altitude ball.

   Suddenly, a small man rushed over and intercepted the ball in front of him.

   is Messi!

   Messi, who intercepted the ball, immediately drove the ball along the right at a high speed.

   Barcelona’s avant-garde Iniesta can’t catch up with Messi at all.

   found that the situation was not good, left back Abidal had to rush up to intercept.

   Facing the tall and tall Abidal, Messi flicked the ball lightly, and the ball just passed between Abidal’s forked legs, playing a pass through the crotch.

   Leaving Abidal, who had no time to react, Messi continued to lead the ball towards Barcelona’s penalty area.