Chapter 172: The Father and Son Battle with Guardiola (Part I)
Pellegrini wasn't falling behind; naturally, he detected the team's defensive issues.
Seizing a lull in the game, he called Zabaleta over and gave him some instructions.
Manchester City's defensive formation underwent certain changes; their defenders dropped back a bit, making it harder for counterattacks from the opponent's midfield.
This adjustment soon bore fruit.
When AC Milan tried to replicate their previous tactics, either El Shaarawy couldn't receive the ball, or he barely did before being tackled by the approaching defenders.
If the pass was too strong, Manchester City's defenders could create an offside trap, leaving the player in an offside position even if he received the ball.
Moreover, Manchester City intensified their pressure upfront, preventing the opposing midfielders from launching good passes.
With this combination, AC Milan, which had been showing some promise in attacking through the flanks, soon ran out of options.
At the end of the first half, Manchester City returned to the locker room with a three-goal advantage.
Despite conceding two goals, the lead was still considerable, so the Manchester City players looked quite relaxed.
The Manchester City locker room was clearly divided:
Local players like Hart, Wright, Richards, among others, clustered together.
Foreign veteran players like Kompany, Yaya Touré, Kolarov formed another group.
South American players like Zabaleta, Agüero, Demichelis, Fernandinho, Fernández mingled.
While Spanish players like Navas, Silva, Negrado, were in another group.
Four groups in a single team!
Lin Quan was impressed!
Previously, at Werder Bremen, most of the team's players were German.
A few were foreigners from Austria and Eastern Europe, so the composition was quite homogeneous.
But in the top teams of the five major leagues, the situation was completely different.
The teams from the five major leagues had a very diverse composition, with players from Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and even from the major European footballing powers.
The only thing missing was the presence of Chinese players abroad.
Due to the decline in footballing level in China and the rise of commercial football, the once-prominent fever for playing abroad had been diminishing in recent years.
In the major European leagues and even across Europe, it was increasingly rare to see Chinese players.
Lin Quan chatted animatedly with David Silva while casting a sidelong glance at members of the other groups.
"The local players are the majority, but overall, they're not very strong. However, due to FA policies, clubs are required to have them," said Silva, belittling English players, except for a few, in his opinion, most were mediocre.
"Veteran players like Kompany and Yaya Touré are strong. Kompany is the current team captain and is quite sensible due to his captaincy role; he always thinks for the good of the team," hinting that it might be a good idea to approach Kompany; he should be someone easy to convince.
"And Touré?"
Lin Quan was intrigued to know how Silva evaluated Yaya Touré. Frankly, after seeing his performance in the team's training matches, Lin Quan had a fairly high opinion of Yaya Touré's ability.
But Guardiola preferred to promote a rookie instead of using him; he definitely had a good reason for it.
So, what was Yaya Touré's flaw that led Guardiola to choose Professor Busquets over him?
"Touré is very strong, but, how to say it? His position should be further forward, not in the defensive midfielder position."
"Eh? I thought he was strong in defense, with great coverage. Wouldn't he be suitable for the defensive midfielder position?" Lin Quan was a little surprised by Silva's evaluation; Yaya Touré resembled his national team teammate, Martínez.
Both were physically strong, had great endurance, great coverage, and could play both in defense and attack.
But Silva's evaluation didn't seem to be that high.
"Yaya Touré has technical skills, but he's not as threatening in dangerous passes. He specializes more in attack, and he's even better than some forwards. The problem is that he plays as a defensive midfielder; if he advances, and the opponent counterattacks, our defense is in danger."
Lin Quan recalled the first goal they conceded in the first half; apparently, AC Milan seized the opportunity when Yaya Touré advanced to attack and scored from his defensive flank.
In that case, did Yaya Touré have the qualifications of a frontline trench midfielder, but the heart of a forward?
"But the problem lies here: we don't lack power in attack. When he advances with the ball, he doesn't help us at all, but becomes a breaking point for the opponent's counterattack."
Silva shrugged.
Lin Quan nodded; an outstanding player must be aware of his own capabilities and find his proper position.
Yaya Touré's technique was unquestionable, but could he find his proper position and understand what to do to help the team?
Just as Lin Quan pondered this, Agüero approached and thanked him:
"Lin, welcome to the team. You're an amazing player, the most important thing is that you play very similarly to Leo (Messi)!"
Agüero and Messi were good friends; encountering a teammate who played similarly to Messi and also provided assists gave him a feeling of fighting side by side with Messi.
Agüero really enjoyed that feeling!
This drastically changed his attitude towards Lin Quan.
From worrying that Lin Quan would take his place in the team, he eagerly looked forward to playing with him in official matches.
"Thanks, Agüero, you've also been playing very well. Keep it up in the second half and try to score a hat-trick!"
Agüero sympathized with him, so Lin Quan naturally didn't reject his kindness.
If he could use Agüero to mobilize the South Americans, it would be of great help to his control of the locker room.
The halftime passed quickly, and the second half of the game began, with both teams returning to the field.
Manchester City made some changes in the lineup: Navas came on for Kolarov, and Fernandinho replaced Milner.
Fernandinho was a defensive midfielder, and his inclusion aimed to cover the defensive gaps in the team's back midfield after Yaya Touré's forays.
Once the game started, Manchester City attacked forcefully, again and again, against AC Milan's defensive line.
However, Allegri seemed to have adjusted his team's defense during the break; they shrunk defenses on the flanks, allowing Manchester City to send crosses from the sides.
But in the center of the field, they maintained a staunch defense, preventing any short-range penetration opportunities by Manchester City.
This tactic worked quite well; although Manchester City seemed to have a constant and repetitive attack, struggling to enter and exit AC Milan's area, they failed to convert those opportunities into goals.
Manchester City launched several dangerous attacks, but the team's defenders were alert, and Fernandinho defended very actively.
This made AC Milan's counterattacks end unsuccessfully, without managing to convert them into goals.
At the 75th minute of the second half, the score remained 5-2.
Both coaches continued to make changes in the team. Pellegrini took out Agüero and put in Negredo, hoping that the forward they had bought dearly in the summer would find his form.
After this change, Agüero seemed a little disheartened.
In the second half, Lin Quan passed him the ball several times, but the opposing defense in the penalty area was too tight.
This made Agüero feel a little embarrassed, but fortunately, Lin Quan didn't blame him.
When he saw a good opportunity, Lin Quan continued to pass him the ball.
After studying the position of the opposing defenders, Agüero felt he had found the key to breaking through the opponent's defensive line.
However, before he could demonstrate it, he was substituted.
With Agüero off the field, scoring a hat-trick was no longer possible.
Negredo, being Spanish, received special attention from Lin Quan and Silva.
So they began passing him the ball to help him create opportunities.
Negredo and Agüero were two different types of forwards. Compared to Agüero's height of only 173 cm, Negredo was 186 cm tall and had a great heading ability.
After studying the opponent's characteristics, Lin Quan changed strategy and started launching high balls for Negredo to fight in aerial play.
At first, this strategy didn't work, although Negredo was good at heading, the opposing defenders were also difficult to beat.
But when another tall player, Yaya Touré, also entered the penalty area and joined Negredo to cause problems for the opposing defense, Manchester City had their chance.
In the 87th minute of the match, Silva put in a cross from the side, Yaya Touré shook off the defenders, jumped high, and headed, once again breaking AC Milan's goal.
This goal demonstrated Yaya Touré's excellent offensive ability; he had the spirit of a forward.
Finally, Manchester City won 6-2 against AC Milan, thus advancing to the final thanks to goals from Lin Quan and four other players.
The Manchester City club was very pleased with the victory over one of the top Serie A teams in their first match of the new season.
In particular, Lin Quan's outstanding performance in this match excited the Manchester City fans who had traveled with the team.
They thought Lin Quan would need time to adapt to the team, but it turned out he integrated very quickly!
Seeing him effectively organize the team's game upfront, no one would believe that this was his first official match with the team.
Seeing how comfortable he looked on the field, people would prefer to believe that he had been playing on this team for many years. Otherwise, how to explain his such good coordination with his teammates? Scoring a goal and providing four assists in his debut, even if it was just a friendly match, drew a lot of attention.
After the match, the media in Germany, England, and Spain extensively reported on the game.
German media focused on Lin Quan, believing he had improved a lot this season.
The departure of such a talented player was a big loss for the Bundesliga.
Spanish media, on the other hand, focused on Lin Quan and Guardiola.
They began to speculate about the first official showdown between this father and son.
"One is a young talent, the other is a world-class coach, and most surprisingly, they are father and son. Such a matchup is extremely rare in the football world, so we have high expectations for the outcome of this match."
After publicizing this topic, Spanish media also organized a poll on social media for fans to choose whom to support.
"Lin Quan is very strong, but football is not an individual game. Compared to Manchester City, there is still a significant gap in terms of brute strength, so I bet on Guardiola and Bayern's victory."
"With this lineup and setup, how could the Bayern Munich players lose?"
"This Bayern, if there are no surprises, is still the favorite to win the Champions League this season. As for Manchester City, although they have Lin Quan, they are still far from competing for the title."
"It is true that Guardiola has evident coaching skills, and the Bayern team is so luxurious, they had just won the Champions League, the whole team has great pressure, they will definitely dominate Manchester City, and besides, they are playing at home, so it is almost impossible for Manchester City to win!"
"Although Bayern is strong, Guardiola has just arrived at the team, so it is not clear how much control he has over the team. On the other hand, Manchester City showed great power in this match, especially Lin Quan, who continues with his excellent performance in the Confederations Cup. So I bet on Manchester City's victory!"
"I have heard that some of Bayern's big players have big egos, even Guardiola cannot control the locker room, so Guardiola's arrival at Bayern may be more of a weakness than a strengthening for the team. But Lin Quan's arrival at Manchester City has had an immediate impact, so I also bet on Lin Quan!"
Online, there were more fans supporting Bayern, as in terms of team strength and prestige, Bayern had a clear advantage.
As for Manchester City, they still didn't have big achievements to boast about.
Although they had just beaten AC Milan, AC Milan was not a strong team at the moment.
They had many shortcomings in terms of their track record of achievements, so it was hard to believe they could beat Bayern Munich, such a dominant team.
Most of the fans supporting Manchester City did so mainly out of pride for Lin Quan.
To confirm this, two hours later, on the same field, Bayern easily defeated San Paulo by 3-0, also advancing to the final.
Thus, this year's Audi Cup champion would be decided between Manchester City and Bayern Munich.
However, the dominance shown by Bayern in this game made the hope of a Manchester City victory seem very distant.
Not many fans now believed in Manchester City's victory.
"Honestly, I don't see any hope for Manchester City, Bayern is too strong!"
"I'm a Manchester City fan, I hope we don't lose by more than three goals!"
"I hope we don't lose by more than three goals!"
(End of chapter)
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