"This Pan Yi is really a madman!"
At the training base of Roma Football Club, head coach Rudy Garcia couldn't help but sigh after watching the game between Crystal Palace and Chelsea.
Trailing by two goals in the away game, with one less player to fight, they were able to set up a four-forward formation to fight the opponent;
After equalizing the score, he didn't give up on the situation and even put all the troops in the backcourt just to get all three points;
Such a move really made Rudy Garcia can only describe Pan Yi as "crazy".
And Rudi Garcia can also see that this Chelsea team led by a "madman" and their players are also "crazy".
Even if there is one less player, even if they have already run for most of the game, when Pan Yi orders a mad attack, they can still run wildly until the final whistle blows.
His sharp attack power, abundant physical energy, and firm will really shocked even Rudy Garcia.
What a team this is!
Just this momentum of fighting all the way to death is so admirable.
"So, how should we deal with such a crazy team?" Assistant coach Bumpal also sighed, "Now it seems that our group is really too difficult. If we change to another group, our situation will be different. It won’t be that hard.”
Roma's strength has indeed improved a lot in the past two years, and it is a team that has a real chance to compete for the Serie A championship.
But after all, their European experience is insufficient, and they are a fourth-tier team that has led to them being assigned to this relatively strong group. In the first two rounds, they drew 1:1 with Sporting CP and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
Although they are ranked second in the group, they only have two points and have only played two rounds. This ranking is nothing.
After all, Chelsea, who are ranked first, have won two games and accumulated 6 points!
Yes, the situation in the first two rounds of Group G is that those who met Chelsea lost, and the others were tied.
Therefore, after only two rounds of play, this so-called "Group of Death" became a "Group of Death" in which the other three teams fought to the death for second place.
"But if we can score points against Chelsea, and Chelsea continues to be strong against other teams, our chances of qualifying will become even greater." Rudy Garcia narrowed his eyes.
From the perspective of Roma's coaching staff, it is now almost an impossible task to prevent Chelsea from winning the first place in the group.
But they don't need to compete for first place in the group.
As a "new team" that doesn't often play in the Champions League, as long as they can qualify for the group stage, it will be a great success.
As for whether it is first or second in the group, it is not considered for the time being.
If we can try to draw with Chelsea in the away game, and then try to win one or two games at Dortmund and Sporting CP, the probability of qualifying is still very high.
After all, Chelsea's performance is too stable now, and Rudy Garcia has already "decided" that they will almost win outright and qualify.
"So...how should we play?" Bumpal asked again.
"We were too aggressive when we played Juventus away from home in the sixth round of Serie A. We fought against them and ended up losing this crucial game." Rudy Garcia shook his head, and then his eyes became firm, "This Once again, we must not make the same mistake again.”
So far this season, the only game Roma has lost and the only game in which they have dropped points is a 2:3 away defeat to Juventus.
Before that game, Roma and Juventus had also won five consecutive games at the start of the game, and both showed their momentum to compete for the championship.
Therefore, Rudy Garcia wanted to give Juventus a try, win over his biggest competitor in one fell swoop, and establish his position at the top of Serie A in one fell swoop.
But unfortunately, Roma still lost at the last minute.
With Bonucci's goal in the 90th minute, Juventus defeated Roma and took the first place in the Serie A standings.
In this game, Allegri, who has just served as the head coach of Juventus in the new season, also arranged a 3 central defender formation.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not, but Allegri’s 3-center-back system is very similar to the 343 Pan Yi currently uses at Chelsea.
It also relies heavily on the two wing-backs Lichtsteiner and Asamoah to intervene, and the midfield also has a midfield master like Pirlo to dispatch and direct.
Unlike Chelsea, perhaps considering Pirlo's lack of defensive ability, Allegri arranged two "bodyguards" on both sides of Pirlo, Pogba and Marchisio to protect him.
Therefore, compared to Pan Yi's Chelsea, Allegri's Juventus has reduced one forward and added one midfielder, so it appears more often on the court in a 3-5-2 formation. superior.
Although it may not be as good as Chelsea in terms of offensive power, it seems that the offense and defense are more balanced.
But in any case, the core of the two three-back formations are very close.
At that time, Roma deployed a very aggressive 433 formation to fight against Juventus, even when the score was 2:2.
However, in the final stage of the game, Juventus scored the winning goal, causing the victory to fall short.
Therefore, since Rudy Garcia suffered a loss once with Juventus, he does not want to suffer another loss with Chelsea.
As a football coach who has been coaching for more than ten years, Rudy Garcia may have lost many games and may have made many mistakes, but he has always been good at learning from failures and avoiding making the same mistakes again.
This time too.
"You mean..." Bumpal understood a little bit.
"When we visit Stamford Bridge as a guest, we have to let them see what the real Italian team's defense is!" Rudy Garcia said firmly.
Defensive counterattack is undoubtedly the essence of Italian football.
The chain defense is also an important system carried forward by Italian football.
Although Rudy Garcia is French, and although he has always been famous in football for his firepower and highly entertaining style of play, he is also a very compatible coach.
He also started out leading a weak team, so he naturally knows how to play against a strong team away from home.
So when facing Chelsea this time, he decided to go back to his old business and temporarily let the Red Wolves of Rome put away their fangs, hide in their nests first, and then look for the opportunity to bite the opponent back!
It doesn't matter whether you play well or not, what matters is the score.
Both he and Roma need to continue to advance in the Champions League!
——
On the evening of October 22, Stamford Bridge Stadium, London, England.
The entire stadium was still packed, and the noise created by the fans was even greater than in any previous game.
They sang the team's anthem in the stands and encouraged the players in the stadium.
This is the only thing they can do now.
The scoreboard shows the score and time on the field at this moment——
65 minutes, 0:1!
Chelsea is still the laggard!
Although they were two goals behind against Crystal Palace four days ago, that was an unexpected situation after a player was sent off.
Moreover, today is at Stamford Bridge, the home ground of Chelsea!
Here, it's an extremely rare score.
How to put it, let’s list Chelsea’s home record this season:
4:0 Leicester City.
4:0 Swansea.
4:0 Aston Villa.
4:1 Arsenal.
There is also 3:0 Dortmund.
In other words, in so many games, Chelsea only conceded one goal at home!
And Arsenal's goal was just a face-saving penalty scored near the end of the game.
It can be said that Chelsea fans have basically never seen their goal scored at Stamford Bridge this season, let alone the opponent's goal lead!
It is precisely because everyone has long been accustomed to the script of the home team always scoring, taking the lead and then winning. Now that the team suddenly fell behind, they felt strange.
Even...a little scared.
After all, today’s opponent is not the Crystal Palace, but Rome!
Roma are currently second in Serie A.
Since Chelsea will face another crucial away game against Manchester United in four days, Pan Yi also made rotations in this game.
All the four Brazilian internationals who were hidden in the last round of the game are on the field. Today's defensive midfield combination is Mikel and Ramirez, while the forwards are Oscar, Lukaku and Willian.
Azpilicueta continues to start. Because he received a red card and was suspended in the next round of the Premier League, he was simply allowed to continue playing in this Champions League game.
The left wing-back is the young Cancelo, while the three central defenders are Terry, David Luiz and Zouma, and the goalkeeper is still Courtois.
Roma, on the other hand, has a completely different starting formation than it did in Serie A!
The first is in the midfield position. Rudy Garcia did not use Pjanic, who he has trusted this season, but used a three-back midfielder.
Nainggolan, De Rossi, and Thiago Motta lined up, with Florenzi and Gervinho on either side of them.
At the front is Wolf King Totti.
And he is not the kind of forward who rushes forward, but has the responsibility of a false nine, often dropping back to receive the ball.
On the back line, Rudy Garcia did not use two veterans, Maicon and Ashley Cole, but lined up a back line of Holebas, Douglas, Mbiwa, and Manolas.
Although these four people are not well-known, they have better speed and physical fitness, and they have better cooperation.
The goalkeeper is Skorupski from Poland.
This is actually a 4-5-1 formation, which is clearly based on defense and counterattack.
But Chelsea is naturally not afraid. There are many teams that counterattack against them, not even Roma.
After the game started, Chelsea performed well as always, taking control of the rhythm of the game and the ball early on, and played in a way they are good at and familiar with.
Roma, like almost all other visiting teams at Stamford Bridge, sought stability at the start and built the fence first.
It seems that everything is no different from previous games.
Chelsea fans are also looking forward to a victory, just like all previous games.
However, in the 44th minute of the game, when the first half was about to end;
Totti, who had been closely guarded by Chelsea players throughout the first half and had no chance, suddenly received a through ball from De Rossi at the edge of the penalty area.
The ball was given suddenly, but it was given just right.
After Totti stopped the ball, he turned around calmly, got rid of Mikel's defense with a shake, and fired a powerful volley!
Although Totti is 38 years old this year and his physical condition has declined significantly, his shooting skills, especially long-range shooting skills, are still there!
This is also one of Totti's signature long shots from outside the penalty area.
Courtois reacted very quickly and flew to make a save, but in the end it was beyond his reach.
In this way, a sudden and even unexpected goal conceded changed the situation of the game.
Pan Yi lectured the players at halftime, criticized everyone's loss of attention at the end of the first half, and asked the players to concentrate immediately and get the score back quickly!
After the start of the second half, Chelsea launched a mad attack.
But Roma coach Rudi Garcia also made plans at halftime.
That is, no matter how Chelsea attacks, they must always defend their own half, build an unbreakable iron wall in front of the penalty area, and defend their team's goal to the death!
And the situation on the field developed just as he expected.
At this time, Roma goalkeeper Skorupski also performed quite amazingly.
He connected high and low, like a spider web in front of the goal, repeatedly destroying Chelsea's shots and trying to keep the goal.
The game lasted for more than seventy minutes. Although Chelsea still had the initiative, they were still unable to change the score on the field.
This made the Blues fans in the stands even more nervous.
They sang louder to cover up their inner panic, and at the same time called on the team to find a way to break through Roma's defense as soon as possible.
But today, it seems more difficult than ever!
The defense of this Italian team is so tenacious! ——
This time as a guest at Stamford Bridge, Rudy Garcia dressed as usual.
He was wearing a black suit and tie, but the collar of the shirt was loose and the suit was unbuttoned.
This seemingly formal yet informal look reflects his personality: rigorous yet flexible.
Today's game so far is also a demonstration of his character on the court.
The Roma team no longer has the aggressiveness of its previous fierce attacks, but it still maintains tenacity and tenacity, which is why the current results are achieved.
And he is also very satisfied with his current formation.
According to normal thinking, if you want to play defensive counterattack, then you must put a fast "speed dog" on the forward line, such as Gervinho in Roma's formation, which is very suitable.
But Rudy Garcia doesn’t think so.
He knows how important Totti is to this Roma team.
With the Wolf King on the field, the wolves can exert their greatest power!
And although Gervinho is fast, this Chelsea team can maintain a good defensive formation even when attacking. It can quickly return to defense once the ball is lost. In fact, there is not much room for Gervinho to sprint. .
Although Totti is relatively slow now and has no physical confrontation ability, he is very experienced and knows when to retreat to receive the ball and when to take a shot.
Of course, the more important thing is that under the premise that Rudy Garcia is not prepared to invest too many troops in the attack, Totti's long-range shot is much more reliable than Gervinho!
You know, let’s not talk about whether Gervinho’s speed can break through Chelsea’s defense, even if he does break through...
He is also one of the famous representatives of "exceeding others like Messi and shooting Husky"!
When facing Chelsea, Roma's opportunity must be very precious and cannot be squandered.
Therefore, Rudi Garcia decided to let Totti play as the forward forward, and let Gervinho pull to the wing of the midfielder to use his speed to contain Chelsea's offensive line.
Facts also proved that Rudy Garcia’s decision was right.
Totti lived up to his expectations and took advantage of this powerful long-range shot from the front of the penalty area to knock on Chelsea's door!
And this was Roma's only shot on target in the first half.
"It's been seventy minutes, and he probably has to make adjustments." Assistant coach Bumpal reminded from the side.
Rudy Garcia nodded.
He knew Pan Yi's on-the-spot command, so he naturally didn't dare to underestimate it.
Not to mention anything else, just a few days ago when he played against Crystal Palace, Pan Yi showed the world what it means to survive from a desperate situation.
But now Rudy Garcia isn't panicking at all.
He crossed his arms and said confidently: "Pan Yi must be anxious now, but the more anxious he is, the more opportunities we have."
Roma's defense is now perfectly organized. Although Chelsea's offensive is fierce, there are not too many absolute chances.
The more the opponent wants to counterattack, the easier it is for them to reveal fatal flaws.
By then, not only Totti, but even speed dogs like Gervinho may also be able to find good opportunities.
If Roma can steal another one, then this game will be safe.
They are not Crystal Palace, the players have relatively strong personal abilities.
11 against 10, but the situation is completely unable to take advantage. This kind of thing is impossible to happen in Rome.
And it would be impossible for a two-goal lead to be equalized or even overtaken in the face of Roma's defensive counterattack formation today!
Thinking of this, Rudy Garcia couldn't help but glanced at the home team's coaching bench and said:
"Let's see, what other tricks does this young man, who is known as the strongest coach in the world, have now?"
——
"Their defense is really good."
At the home team’s coaching bench, Steve Holland frowned and sighed:
"Our front line was completely frozen. Lukaku was always closely marked by their two central defenders, and it was difficult to get the ball comfortably."
"It is also difficult for Oscar and Willian to find a breakthrough on the wing. The two midfielders Nainggolan and Motta often help defend and protect on both sides, almost cutting off all of our midfield and backfield passing routes to the forwards."
"At this time, even if Lukaku or the two wingers get the ball, they will always directly face the defense of multiple Roma players, and it is difficult to have the opportunity to fully display their strengths."
Scaloni also added:
"Including our two wing-backs, it is also difficult to advance. Roma's full-backs and central Ludrossi can often quickly recover to their own half. As soon as we attack, we fall into the opponent's defensive quagmire."
Pan Yi nodded and said nothing.
Of course, he also agrees with the analysis of the two assistants. This situation is the direct reason why Chelsea is currently lagging behind.
But what he is thinking about now is not the things in front of him, but how to break the situation.
"What do we do now?"
Seeing that Pan Yi didn't speak, Steve Holland asked worriedly.
There are only twenty minutes left in the game. If we continue like this, Chelsea will be finished.
Losing at home is even more unacceptable than losing the game with Crystal Palace!
Pan Yi smiled:
"Although Roma's defense was indeed very good today, it is also true that some players on our team are not in good condition, which makes it difficult for us to disrupt the opponent's wings and ribs."
"Why can Rome hold on? It's because we make them so comfortable. Their lines are not messy at all. They can steadily position their horses and wait for us to attack."
"What we have to do now is to replace some players who can move on the wing and in the middle, and then..."
Seeing Pan Yi's smile and hearing his explanation, Holland and Scaloni instantly felt confident.
It turns out that the boss already had an idea!
——
"Haha, let me just say, Roma now has a chance to beat Chelsea!" Gary Neville said with a smile in the Sky Sports studio.
Carragher on the side reminded: "Brother, you said the same thing when you watched the Crystal Palace last time..."
Neville waved his hand: "You don't understand this. What's the lineup of Crystal Palace and what's the lineup of Roma? They are not on the same level at all."
"Is there a star of Totti's level in Crystal Palace? Doesn't De Rossi also have one? And doesn't there have to be a fierce midfielder like Nainggolan?"
"Look at Ashley Cole and Maicon in Crystal Palace. They can definitely play as the main players. But Roma didn't let them play!"
"And looking at the game so far, I don't think Chelsea has any particularly good chances. Teams with good offense win fans, but only teams with good defense can win the final game!"
Lineker smiled and said: "Pan Yi started to make substitutions only after 70 minutes in the last game, and then turned the situation around. Now the game has reached 70 minutes, I think you should endure it for another 20 minutes." …”
"Now he still wants to make a comeback? It was just the last time he played Crystal Palace, and he wants to do it again today?" Neville shook his head.
"Do you really think he is the chosen one? Will every substitution be effective?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
At this moment, Lineker suddenly pointed at the screen: "Look, he is really going to start replacing people!"
Everyone also looked at the screen.
I saw several players standing next to the home team's coaching bench, listening to Pan Yi's instructions.
This scene was also seen by the Chelsea fans at the scene, and everyone couldn't help but get excited.
Cheers and applause resounded throughout Stamford Bridge even before the substitution officially started.
Because everyone knows what Pan Yi's substitution means.
Perhaps another magical script will be performed on the Stamford Bridge court again!
