In the home team's locker room.
Coach Pearson's first words when he returned to the locker room were:
"Good first half, guys!"
This is encouragement and fact.
In the first half, Manchester City had a slight advantage in possession rate of both sides, reaching 60%.
The number of shots taken was six to four, and Manchester City had more shots.
Being able to play back and forth with the last Premier League champions at home is enough to prove that their tactics and playing style are effective.
Judging from the current record and league rankings, they are definitely on the right path as a newly promoted team that has returned to the Premier League after ten years!
"In this game, we did a good job on the defensive end and didn't give the opponent too many absolute chances."
"In the second half, we need to stay focused and take our chances."
"Jesse (Lingard), you can go forward more and help Jamie (Vardy) open up the defenders."
"Ling, you played well this time and restricted Yaya Toure's performance very well!"
Hearing this, Ling Feng, who was chewing a banana silently, suddenly raised his head, with a look of confusion and confusion on his face.
ah?
I restricted Yaya Toure?
Shouldn't it be him who limits me?
Ling Feng thought Pearson would say that he was praised, but instead he was praised?
However, after thinking about it carefully, Ling Feng understood what Pearson meant.
Indeed, in the first half, Ling Feng was completely suppressed by Yaya Toure. He had almost no chance to win the ball and did not create many opportunities for other teammates.
However, isn't this a kind of restraint? !
It is precisely because of Ling Feng's presence and erratic movement that Yaya Toure can only focus on defense and has no time to move forward and participate in the offense.
Even if he wants to advance with the ball, the faster Ling Feng will immediately stand in front of him and become the first barrier to Manchester City's advancement!
This also resulted in Manchester City's midfielder missing a very important point of advancement.
The other midfielder, Fernando, is basically a defensive midfielder with no ability to move forward at all.
It is precisely because there is no Yaya Toure who pushes forward like a bulldozer during the transition between offense and defense, Manchester City cannot advance as fast as it can from defense to attack!
In the frontcourt, Nasri, David Silva and Lampard are not players with good speed.
Once they are unable to counterattack quickly, Leicester City's defensive players will quickly retreat and position themselves, and a good counterattack will turn into a positional battle.
This is also the reason why Manchester City did not really threaten Leicester City's goal in the first half when they had the advantage in possession and shots!
In this way, he has indeed restricted the performance of Manchester City's core midfielder Yaya Toure to a great extent!
This game is equivalent to Manchester City using Yaya Toure's superior horse to exchange Leicester City's superior horse Ling Feng!
However, in this way, the key to winning or losing the game depends on the performance of other teammates.
In terms of the individual strength of the players alone, Manchester City is definitely a level higher than Leicester City as a whole!
Except for the forward, Manchester City basically won in almost every position!
Therefore, how to liberate Ling Feng in the second half has become a question for Pearson to think about.
He also considered whether to let Ling Feng and Mahrez or Lingard switch positions.
However, as soon as this idea came up, he rejected it!
Once Ling Feng leaves the center and moves to the wing, the wing can certainly play some coordination and offense.
However, neither Lingard nor Mahrez is so intimidating that Yaya Toure can stay in the midfield and not advance forward to attack.
Once Yaya Toure is allowed, Manchester City's offense will definitely become more threatening!
So, after much thought, Pearson decided to keep the status quo!
After all, judging from the current situation, Leicester City has not lost at all.
Both offense and defense are doing well, and there is no need to make changes for the time being.
There is no need to take the huge risk of liberating the core of the opponent's midfield to break the current balance of power on the field.
Because he is not sure whether this will allow Manchester City to score goals or his own team to score goals.
Even if the game ends in a goalless draw and the game ends in a draw, both he and Leicester City can accept it.
On the other hand, if Manchester City cannot get three points from newly promoted Leicester City, their good winning streak will be ended.
And there will be a slight pause in catching up with Chelsea.
Therefore, it is not them who should be anxious, but their opponents!
Besides, this head-to-head confrontation with the world's top midfielder Yaya Toure will definitely be helpful to Ling Feng's growth.
Only by playing against a midfielder of Yaya Toure's level can Ling Feng understand his current strength and how far he is from the truly top midfielder in the world.
Moreover, if he moves Ling Feng to the wing, he may send a wrong message to Ling Feng, that is, the head coach feels that he is not Yaya Toure's opponent!
And this information is likely to hit the self-confidence of this amazingly talented young man, causing him to waver even a little bit.
Winning or losing a game really doesn't matter.
Even if they lose to Manchester City, they can still remain in the top four.
However, if Ling Feng's confidence is affected because of a game, it will be too bad!
Therefore, at halftime, he did not ask Ling Feng to make any changes, but asked the players to maintain their performance in the first half
After a short intermission, players from both sides returned to the court again.
"Welcome back, let's continue watching the sixteenth round of the Premier League, the second half of Leicester City's home game against Manchester City."
"In the first half, both sides posed a threat to the goal. Manchester City, in particular, created many opportunities. But it was still a little short of a goal."
"Obviously, the absence of the team's top scorer Aguero has a huge impact on Manchester City."
After the start of the second half, Ling Feng continued to act as a "space reader" in the frontcourt, appearing in various spaces to support his teammates.
Manchester City also continued to adopt steady tactics, taking their time and playing small-scale passing and receiving cooperation on the wing.
Until the 60th minute of the game, seeing that there was still no good chance to score, Manchester City finally couldn't hold it anymore and took the lead in making changes:
Pellegrini replaced No. 78 teenager Pozo with No. 15 Jesus Navas!
Spanish teenager Pozo, who played for an hour, looked very out of place on the court.
He couldn't form a tacit understanding with other teammates at all, and could only keep moving to support his teammates.
Compared to Ling Feng, he was more like a headless fly running aimlessly on the court.
Therefore, Pellegrini finally understood the truth:
Not every 18-year-old youngster is Ling Feng who emerges from the sky!
After replacing right winger Navas, "Pergone" directly pushed Lampard to the front line, and then moved David Silva, who originally played on the right, to the center.
Silva's vision is wide, his passing is accurate, and his foot skills, especially his flicking and maneuvering within a small area, can better deliver cannonballs to his teammates.
And this change quickly bore fruit!
In the 67th minute of the game, Navas got the ball on the right side of the frontcourt.
Under Schlupp's defense, he stepped on a bicycle and then resolutely made soup from the outside.
However, what he didn't expect was that Schlupp was not slow either.
Seeing that he could not break through, he suddenly stopped at his feet and passed the ball directly across the middle!
And David Silva, who was connecting in the middle, suddenly came to the passing route like a slippery earthworm.
He stretched out his left foot and stopped, stopping the ball firmly. Just as he was about to handle the ball, he was tackled to the ground by Cambiasso who was following closely behind!
A sharp whistle sounded immediately.
The referee did not hesitate to show the Argentinian a Topaz God of War card.
Cambiasso did not defend himself. He just patted Silva on the shoulder and stood in front of the ball to prevent his opponent from taking a quick free kick.
At this moment, the former Argentinian superstar, who has won three consecutive Serie A championships and the Champions League, is just thinking in his heart:
If he were three years younger, he would definitely be able to scoop the ball away from Silva's feet without fouling!
It's a pity that time not only took away his hair, but also his speed and reaction.
Thanks to Cambiaso's timely foul, Silva was not allowed to dribble the ball into the penalty area or shoot directly.
However, the location of the foul was right at the front of the penalty area, about 22 meters away from the goal. The location was very good.
As for Manchester City, it was Yaya Toure who took the free kick at the front of the penalty area.
Four Leicester City players formed a wall.
As soon as the whistle sounded, Yaya Toure took two steps, then suddenly swung his right leg and hit a beautiful curve ball!
Yaya Toure's free kick bypassed the wall and flew straight into the upper right corner of the goal.
Leicester City goalkeeper Ben Hamer was stunned and had no time to react.
The next second, thousands of visiting team fans at the King Power Stadium suddenly burst into amazing cheers:
"What a fantastic free kick!"
"Yaya~~Ture!"
"This super midfielder who has four times African Footballer of the Year once again used his own goals to knock on the opponent's door for Manchester City!"
"The deadlock on the field has finally been broken. Let's see how Leicester City responds next."
At the same time, Ling Feng, who was standing not far away, had a solemn expression, but there was a hint of reverence in his eyes.
He is worthy of being the number one B2B midfielder in the world today!
In addition to being able to build a solid barrier in the midfield and complete the defensive tasks of steals and interceptions, he can also participate in the offense, either dribbling the ball in the midfield or scoring long shots from behind.
He had a dominant performance on both offense and defense, and even had a good free kick!
It can be said that reaching the pinnacle of Yaya Toure is the ultimate goal for which he strives!
For the Blue Fox generals, there is nothing they can do about this conceded goal.
It can be said that almost 70 minutes have passed, and Manchester City has obtained such an absolutely great opportunity.
Moreover, when the audience got the first free kick opportunity, Yaya Toure shot the ball into the dead center of the goal.
Such a goal cannot be prevented at all.
However, facing the last Premier League champions at home and persisting until almost 70 minutes before being penetrated through the goal is already considered very good.
After all, the huge gap in overall strength cannot be completely closed by active running or fighting spirit.
If Aguero and Dzeko hadn't been available, Manchester City might have taken the lead.
After taking the lead, Manchester City did not pursue the victory, but continued to shrink their formation and let Leicester City attack.
However, without Ling Feng's organization, Leicester City's offense did not improve much.
They could only rely on the two wingers and Vardy's frequent retreats to manage some coordination.
But it couldn't threaten Manchester City's goal.
In the 80th minute of the game, after unremitting running, Yaya Toure's physical fitness finally began to decline significantly.
In addition, the team was already ahead, and Yaya Toure's defensive attitude became lazy.
As for Ling Feng?
He had already started muttering in his heart:
Those British guys praised this boy No. 7 so much, why didn't I think he was so powerful?
Apart from being a little more physically energetic and a little faster than other players, there is nothing remarkable about him.
No, under his own defense, he didn't even dare to take the ball!
Ling Feng also noticed that the speed of this super beast's waist to defend him began to slow down.
Eighty minutes of "running around" finally made Yaya Toure numb and careless about him!
And then, it's time for him to perform.
A few minutes later, Leicester City attacked with the ball.
Cambiasso passed the ball to Mahrez on the right, and Manchester City left back Kolarov, who replaced Clichy, immediately took his position.
Mahrez's feet were directly touched, and there were several shoulder-sinking tests.
However, Kolarov did not stumble, but just stared at the ball at his feet.
As a result, Mahrez, whose physical fitness had also declined significantly, did not choose to continue to break through, but passed the ball to Ling Feng who came to respond.
Before Ling Feng caught the ball, he had already noticed that Yaya Toure was not following so closely.
Ever since, just when everyone thought he would pass the ball to his teammates again, he directly used a beautiful pull to call back and complete the turn!
"Nice turn!"
Under the commentator's praise, Yaya Toure finally reacted and crashed into him like an angry black rhinoceros!
However, in Ling Feng's opinion, his speed has slowed down a lot.
A long diagonal pass came out of his feet and hit directly behind Manchester City right back Zabaleta!
At the same time, Lingard, who didn't get much of the ball on the left, pushed forward resolutely!
Before Zabaleta turned around and chased back, Lingard used his chest to remove the ball, and then took the ball into the penalty area.
Then he directly passed a half-high ball with his left foot in an inverted triangle!
"Lingard has entered the penalty area!"
"Inverted triangle!"
Ling Feng, who immediately moved forward after passing the ball, appeared in the direction of the ball at the right time.
A half-high ball at the waist is quite embarrassing for professional players.
Because whether it is stopping or shooting, it is very uncomfortable.
However, for Ling Feng, whose [Volley] attribute is as high as 97, this is not a problem at all.
Seeing the ball in front of him, at that moment, all he could think of were Robin van Persie's major non-stop shooting scenes.
When he saw Joe Hart standing in front of the door again, Ling Feng made a quick decision!
Mud, I saw Hartmon kick him!
If you go in, go in, if you don’t go in, you’ll be knocked down!
Without any hesitation, he aimed directly at the ball's landing point, swung his right leg, and launched a sudden shot!
With a "bang" sound, the ball shot out and flew towards the center of the goal.
Faced with the sudden shot, Joe Hart reacted quickly and made an immediate move.
However, the ball suddenly dropped in the air, bounced off the ground, and went right into Joe Hart's arms.
Unprepared, the Great Britain goalkeeper subconsciously reached for the ball with both hands, trying to control the ball.
However, this move directly caused the ball, whose kinetic energy had not completely disappeared, to hit his chest, causing it to rebound.
Then it bounced to the ground, passed under his legs, and jumped over the goal line!
(End of chapter)
