In the early morning of February 16, Beijing time, the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, Paris won 1-0 at home to Real Madrid. In the first half, Mbappe and Messi's shots were a fraction of a millimeter away from the goal. In the second half, Messi's penalty was saved by Courtois, and in injury time, Mbappe took the ball on the left side of the penalty area, pushed it out after being hit by two Real Madrid defenders, and the ball went through courtois' small goal and burrowed into the net, and Paris staged a wonderful kill. In the other match, City beat Sport of Portugal 5-0.
It turned out that Plan A could only go so far. Real Madrid defeated Paris, although they were unwilling to be killed, but the disadvantage of the scene matched the result, and they could not be unconvinced. Benzema endured for many days, only for this hard battle, but it was fruitless, and Casemiro and Ferran Mendy had to suspend the game to miss the next life-and-death battle. Can Ancelotti lead a "Bernabeu counterattack"? If Mbappe takes the Champions League by stepping on Real Madrid's body and doesn't change his mind, what can he do? The stakes are too big.
Half a day before the start of the match, Real Madrid's final mystery was automatically solved: Benzema and Mendy basically decided to start. The two have been absent for a long time, and the competitive state is unknown, but it has brought great encouragement to the fans: at least the team can play in full force. The starting 11 is not so much the strongest squad for Real Madrid as the safest choice in Ancelotti's eyes, especially the iconic "ceremonial midfielder". However, after the game began, everyone gradually realized that such an arrangement was actually inappropriate.
Ancelotti's tactical philosophy was very different from Zidane's previous ones. This season, Real Madrid basically changed the core thinking of relying on midfield control and guidance in previous years, taking the initiative to suppress the attack in most games, looking for local breakthroughs and depth, and then letting the midfield complete the shot. Vinicius can show excellent skill and explosiveness in areas closer to the opponent's penalty area, and the two wings of the defense can also withstand less pressure with attack and defense. However, this style of play has great loopholes in dealing with strong teams with aggressive play or sharp counterattacks, and the "ceremonial midfield" confrontation is not strong enough and too slow to suppress it.
Therefore, it can be understood that Ancelotti let the players defend their own half throughout the game, which is indeed jealous of the opponent's fast attack. Let Mbappe and Di Maria rush up with the ball, no one in Real Madrid can stop it. The problem is that relying on deep defense to find a chance to break the goal, under the premise that the midfield competition is at a disadvantage, there is not even a starting point. Real Madrid's overall defensive performance has been quite good, the problem is that after the ball is broken or released, it can only give the ball over the top to Vinicius near the center line, expecting him to complete a long run within a distance of about 40 meters, or form a combination with Benzema, but until the end, he did not see the ideal counterattack scene. Vinicius is not at his best, his goal drought has lasted for more than a month, and the physical confrontation and speed of the opponents Ashraf and Danilo Pereira have not taken advantage. Real Madrid's obvious "stealing chicken" strategy is difficult to work in theory, and can only hope that the opposing players will make mistakes.
If Ancelotti only hopes to withdraw from the whole body, it is understandable, after all, there is no "away goal" rule, and the away game is a good result of 0-0. But Carvajal simply put down Mbappe, and Courtois bravely saved Messi's penalty, in fact, it has reminded Real Madrid that sooner or later something will happen to them. Around the 80th minute of the game, Real Madrid resisted, once suppressing the front line to the front of the opponent's penalty area, which created a shot or two. Because Rodrigo, Valverde and Lucas Vazquez brought longitudinal speed, they broke the blockade of Paris at one point. Unfortunately, this positive momentum did not last long, so that before the game entered stoppage time, Paris regained control of the rhythm under Neymar.
One factor that cannot be ignored is that Vinicius had already shown that he was helpless, but he waited until the 82nd minute to replace Hazard, and Bale did not appear until the 87th minute. At that time, Real Madrid had lost the momentum of pushing down the other side in one breath, and it showed the lack of single defense ability in the hedge. Remember the Copa del Rey against Bilbao, Ancelotti held a few big cards in his hand but only waited for the extra time to play, but was killed by the other side and missed the fighter. In the last round of the league, Eden Hazard created a one-handed chance for Jovic shortly after his debut (the ball hit the crossbar), but there were only a few minutes left before the end of the game.
The second leg will have to be completed in the absence of Casemiro and Mendy, which is difficult to imagine. But Ancelotti remained optimistic and calm: "The squad is deep enough to make tactical adjustments. Our intention was not to play conservatively, but to attack from a further rear position, which required the team to play more aggressively. However, because of too many passing errors, the effect is not ideal, and it is difficult for forward players to get the ball. There's nothing wrong with Benzema's body, but the problem is that he doesn't get the ball very well. I'm optimistic, provided we have to play better in the next game. ”
"Mbappe is unstoppable!" Ancelotti sighed, "We wanted to control him, Militang did a good job, but he still created the killing machine at the last moment." Real Madrid and Paris executives have reportedly sidestepped Mbappe's topic at a lavish luncheon. However, after these two rounds, Mbappe must still be the core of the continued confrontation between the two giants.
Mbappe broke the game and killed Real Madrid before joining Real Madrid
How hard is it for Real Madrid to beat the thirteenth crown winner in the Champions League? The last time the Galactico lost in stoppage time was in March 2008, when Vucinic scored 92 minutes to help Roma beat Real Madrid 2-1. After 14 years, Ancelotti, who has always been associated with various strange records and scenes, has once again witnessed the team's late season, and this time it is Mbappe, who has been rumored with Real Madrid for five years and is about to make a final decision.
In the adversity of Messi's penalty loss, the "Emperor" who used the giant planet to transform the advantage of Paris into a winning trend, in this inspection battle that has attracted attention from all walks of life, came up with the best performance of this season's Champions League, and ended the strange circle of foreign wars against Real Madrid. Although there was no talk of where he went after the game, the pressure to reach a deal now clearly came to the side of Real Madrid.
Neymar did not make a start, replacing the former on the left side of Mbappe, before the start of this focus battle, the mentality is particularly calm. In the players' tunnel, in the face of Benzema, who took the initiative to greet him, Verati just smiled politely and greeted, while Mbappe talked a lot with Big Brother. However, in the meeting between the two sides in which Mbappe participated, Paris drew 1 and lost 2 of the first 2 games, C Rochampan was a Real Madrid player, and it was not until the latter left that Mbappe first broke through the city gate of the team that he had been thinking about since childhood. And Mbappe's low production is almost the epitome of Paris's performance against Real Madrid in recent seasons, and the team has always been poor in mood and concentration, even if the scene is smooth, it often inexplicably self-destructs the Great Wall.
Fortunately, Pochettino, who has been criticized for his so far this season, seems to have found the experience of foreign games when he was coaching Tottenham. Real Madrid, which has not experienced too many strong opponents in La Liga, is particularly uncomfortable in the face of the "upper strength" of Paris, and Carvajal, which has become more and more premature in recent years, is even more embarrassed in the face of Mbappe. Although the first half failed to break the goal, but the attack focused on the home team on the left side, with Mbappe alone to make the entire Real Madrid defense line restless, Paris No. 7 in the case of being closely guarded by the opponent, there are still 2 successful passes and 2 confrontation successes, 22 passes of his sense of existence is better than Messi, and even Paris's closest to the opportunity to break the goal, but also he sent first to overtake Carvajal, so that the latter of the wolf with his hand against the "M Huang" waist eye, so that the latter who failed to exert full strength missed this spelled quasi-single knife.
Mbappe failed to attack the attack, real Madrid "stuck" and then laughed to the end? In the familiar script, Mbappe "did not do more than four": entering the second half, Mbappe's desire to score was even stronger. Only five minutes after Yi Bian, he pulled the ball in the penalty area and turned to shoot, which was blocked by Courtois, who was also very helpful in this game. Then facing Carvajal again, Mbappe, who chose to force a breakthrough, forced the latter who had been thrown away to stumble and foul, but Messi missed the penalty created by Mbappe, which also made the "Turtles" still have 20 Champions League assists in the past 5 years, keeping pace with Neymar. Seeing that Carvajal was no longer able to do so, Ancelotti replaced him with the more athletic Vazquez, while Paris replaced Neymar, and the MMN trident continued to put pressure on the real Madrid hinterland.
After Neymar missed the opportunity to rewrite the score, Mbappe finally did not let his entire efforts be wasted, facing Vazquez, who was also trending on the outside line, and Militao, who had already fallen on the inside, Mbappe chose the only travel route in the two to erase, and shot low ahead of Valverde, leaving Thibaut Courtois helpless throughout the game. Real Madrid, accustomed to the superstar Carry's whole team, also tasted the taste of being sanctioned by the other side's super giant in this "system bureau" that almost escaped by chance. The match was set at 93 minutes and 14 seconds, the latest goal in the Champions League since 93 minutes and 44 seconds against Barca in April 2013.
Needless to say, despite the group stage and Messi's performances, Mbappe is more like a nuclear weapon in the Paris knockout stage: in the last three seasons of the Champions League knockout stage, Mbappe has scored seven goals, tied for the top of the Champions League with Levan. This season, Paris No. 7 has been involved in nine goals, five goals also tied Messi, the last 13 Champions League games, Kylian Mbappe has scored 13 goals, averaging 1 goal per game. In a Spanish-language interview with Movistar+ after the game, Mbappe said: "The focus of this game is definitely on me, but I have focused all my attention on my team Paris, giving my all for the club and working hard for the promotion. Will this game affect my future? No, I haven't made the final decision yet, I'll do my best for Paris and see what happens next season. ”
Wen | Wu Yifan Yang Jian
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