Chapter 893 Taking the Initiative
The draw with Trapani at home gave Pop and the players of Marseille a good confidence. Pop's tactics for away games are relatively easy to guess. It's probably just to defend well away from home and see if there's an opportunity to counterattack.
Pop's confidence in promotion is not strong. After all, he is playing against Trapani, the champion for two consecutive years. This also makes him want to play a little bit away from home, because defense is not what Ligue 1 teams are good at, nor is it what Marseille is good at. Ligue 1 teams are very outstanding in technology and are also one of the Latin football styles.
Marseille's lineup tonight is not much different from the last round, 4231.
Goalkeeper: Mandanda
Defenders: Azpilicueta, N'Koulou, Diawara, Morel
Defensive midfielder: Alou Diarra, Mbia
Midfielders: Amafitano, Valbuena, Andre Ayew
Forward: Remy
Marseille's frontcourt is stocked with very fast and technically superior attacking players. When Trapani has the advantage, they will retreat, but when it comes to counterattacks, they can play with speed, and their individual breakthrough ability is also relatively strong. Trapani has experienced it in the last round.
Trapani's side is still 433.
Goalkeeper: Kameni
Defenders: Coleman, David Luiz, Boateng, Evra
Midfielders: Mascherano, Modric, Kaka
Forwards: El Shaarawy, Aguero, Messi
El Shaarawy has surpassed Di Maria to become the main winger in this crucial battle with his recent excellent form. Needless to say, Messi on the other side, as long as he is in good health, he must have such an important position in the game, not to mention that Wenger relies on him as a killer.
Marseille's president did not see Hugo at his home stadium in the last game. Today, he came to the Google Stadium away. This game also attracted UEFA President Platini to the scene. Hugo and Dassier accompanied Platini on the left and right.
Dassier is also a famous stingy president in Ligue 1. There was an interesting story about him last season: Marseille Club formulated a bonus policy at the beginning of the season that the winning bonus would be doubled if the winning team won 4 games in a row. However, between February and March last year, Marseille really won 4 consecutive games, and the players asked the club for double bonuses. However, Dassier regretted it. He refused to issue double bonuses on the pretext that "the policy is just an incentive." Not only that, Dassier also criticized the Marseille players for "why they are still fussing over such a small amount of money when they earn millions of dollars a year", which caused widespread dissatisfaction among the players. This episode is exactly the same as the story of King You of Zhou who played with the princes by setting fire to the beacon fire and led to the destruction of the country.
As a result, Marseille and Lille were competing for the league at that time. Dassier's actions caused the players to be somewhat passive in the direct dialogue after four consecutive wins. Marseille lost 1:2 in that game, which affected the final result of the season.
Before the game started, the two presidents talked a lot about UEFA with Platini. Platini is not satisfied with Italy now. Earlier, he persuaded many executive committee members to support Italy to continue hosting under Hugo's lobbying, but he knew that some stadiums in Italy were not ready recently.
Platini said that the Italian government did not contribute to hosting this event and felt that the support was too little. Hugo agreed with this. It is understandable that Dassier helped to smooth things over and said that the government's support was not strong enough. After all, Italy's ability to withstand pressure in the tide of economic crisis is far less than that of several powerful countries in the European Union.
The title of the four European pigs was given in 2008, and Italy is one of them. The economic situation has been bad for months. Hugo made a fortune and boosted Italy's Internet industry, but the driving force is limited because it is different from some hardworking countries.
At this point, no matter how dissatisfied Platini is, it is basically like this. The Italian government is not so bad. After all, they have not paid much. They can still hold this event with gritted teeth.
After chatting for a while, the game between the two sides also started.
Trapani, playing at home, was very imposing, and the attack was direct and fierce, giving Marseille no time to adapt. Just two minutes after the start, N'Koulou almost blocked El Shaarawy's pass into his own goal.
Marseille did not intend to defend at ease, which is not their strong point, but in defense, Pop deliberately arranged two defensive midfielders with the intention of clamping Trapani's midfield in the midfield. Diarra and Mbia are both players with relatively strong defense and a large defense area.
However, in the last round, Marseille used this combination, and Wenger and his team also studied it. Trapani played a bit badly in the last game, but the situation improved a lot after the start of this round. Mbia and Diarra are indeed good at defense, but they can't stand Messi and El Shaarawy on the wing. It's really a bit difficult.
In the 14th minute, Messi held the ball to organize the attack and made a wall-to-wall cooperation with Kaka. This kind of cooperation is an unreasonable breakthrough. Messi relied on his own start and dribbling rhythm frequency to disrupt Marseille's left defense. After passing the ball, El Shaarawy hit the crossbar. Aguero made a vigilant supplementary shot in front of the goal and sent the ball into the door of Marseille.
Google Stadium reached a climax in an instant. The fans blushed and shouted Aguero's name loudly. Thanks to Aguero's performance this season, the fans specially designed a unique cheer for him, "kun", and the long last syllable is quite interesting.
"Leo is indeed one of the best players in the world now!" Platini had to admire.
"With Messi, it feels like Trapani is cheating!" Dassier shrugged helplessly. He was not angry, but regretful. The football world is like this. Sometimes you say it is a team sport, but sometimes a super star is particularly useful.
Without Messi, who messed up Marseille's defense, how could this goal come about? Moreover, Messi's vision is quite good, and the pass accurately found Shalawi at the far end.
Regarding organization, Messi has improved a lot this season. The reason is that Kaka's organizational ability in the middle is average. Wenger reminded Messi to strengthen this ability. Although he has been absent for more than two months due to injury, Messi's assists are still the most in the team, and he has 10 assists in all competitions.
"What one of them? Now I bet that the best and most outstanding player in the world is Leo! He will definitely become the greatest player in football history in the future!" Hugo was "indignant".
Platini and Dassier both laughed.
…
Pop had studied Trapani in detail before. A team like Trapani actually has no obvious weaknesses. The previously recognized weakness was the air defense ability, which was indeed very bad, but with the change of dynasties in the back line, it has improved significantly. David Luiz and Boateng have good air control ability, not to mention the introduction of the air tyrant Mertesacker during the winter break.
Of course, Trapani also has a weakness in the right side defense. Messi is a waste of talent to defend, Maggio has average ability, and Coleman is strong in attack but weak in defense.
Many teams have tried to take advantage of this, and Wenger may have to thank other teams for thinking so. Compared with last season, Coleman is still strong in attack but weak in defense, but it is precisely because of their impact that Coleman has also been fully trained and his defensive ability has improved significantly. Moreover, whether Trapani is on the left or right, Wenger emphasizes hard-hitting suppression.
You want to use the wing to make a fuss, I will return it in its own way. The full-backs press forward actively and cooperate with the wingers to suppress well, so that the opponent can't raise his head.
During the opening period, Marseille's left and right defensive tasks were equally balanced, and the full-backs were out of position to varying degrees. On the right, Spaniard Azpilicueta was obviously out of position when defending El Shaarawy, and his performance was poor.