Being able to buy Diego Costa is Guangzhou Evergrande's most exciting operation this year.

Taking advantage of the little contradiction between the player and the club, relying on the super high annual salary, the result is the purchase of a first-class European star like Diego Costa, which should really give Guangzhou Evergrande a thumbs up for the uniform group.

As a centre-forward, Diego Costa can't compete with Suya, and Lewandowski is a goal-scoring machine that can even be compared to an English striker like Harry Kane, but as long as the team is functioning, he can guarantee a competitive performance at the level of the league's Golden Boot – no matter what league it is.

Aside from his much-criticized style of play, he still has a lot of good characteristics.

The first is that his running position is very weird. In intense and sometimes deliberate physical confrontation with defenders, he is also able to run behind defenders when the ball arrives, and get the opportunity to shoot in front of the goalkeeper, which has to be said to be a rare ability for a top center forward.

Secondly, looking at his rugged face, strong body, and rough style of play, many people subconsciously think that he is a center forward who is not good at foot skills, which is very wrong. How can a Brazilian player with a background in street football be weak in dribbling? Many times people are just blinded by his most superficial things. Even in the top five leagues, Costa has the ability to open up the situation for the team with his individual skills.

Then there is the style of the ball, which also has pros and cons. Aggressive and ruthless, unscrupulous means are of course easy to be targeted by opponents and taken care of by the referee, but at the same time, it also shows his iron-blooded scene - never give up, as a striker, he has always been willing to defend desperately.

Once in La Liga, he hit the goalpost and hit a big bloody hole in his calf. While being treated by the team doctor in the locker room, Diego Costa even recorded the healing process with a camera with great interest, and while recording it, he said to the team doctor: "The nail gun is for me (for medical use), I see the (leg) bones, it's okay, I'll do it myself." ”

Later, the head coach who was familiar with him also joked: "I'm not worried about him. Instead, I'm worried that the goalpost will hurt even more. ”

Having such a Predator in the team is a huge boost to the team's mental power.

After the addition of Diego Costa, Guangzhou Evergrande not only increased its offense, but also conceded a lot fewer goals, which has nothing to do with him.

Scolari was also confident before the game: "We are ready for this AFC Champions League game. ”

Scolari's confidence corresponds to Zhang Sheng's headache.

Players like Diego Costa are very difficult to defend, he has the ability to play alone, but also has a very good ability to cooperate especially with the ball, he is not afraid of confrontation, and he likes to play cheap - of course, he is afraid to really hit him, the problem is that you can't really play him, he is a porcelain type and hob meat type striker. However, Zhang Sheng knows what the most correct attitude is to treat such a superclass player: don't be afraid, just do it, concentrate, be close to him at any time, cut off the connection between him and the offensive organizer, and interrupt the rhythm of his first touch of the ball.

After all, Diego Costa can only be regarded as a top striker when it comes to archery, and there are few imaginative shots like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo or even Ibrahimovic.

For this reason, Zhang Sheng specially arranged Du Zhenyu to be the villain.

Since the completion of Du's special training mission, his marking ability has been greatly strengthened, and it can be said that he is the best person to keep an eye on Diego Costa, if Du Zhenyu can overcome his sometimes inattention problems in the game. So at the same time, Zhang Sheng equipped Du Zhenyu with Ma Yongli, a backhand, who was often responsible for the ball in the backcourt in this game, and he will pay more attention to Du Zhenyu's defense.

From the overall tactical point of view, Zhang Sheng's purpose in this game is to speed up the pace of the game, give full play to the advantages of his young players, and strengthen the pressing of Zheng Zhi in a targeted manner.

Although Lin Feng slowly integrated into Guangzhou Evergrande this season, Scolari also consciously began to let Lin Feng take over part of Zheng Zhi's midfield metronome tasks, but Zhang Sheng and the coaching staff found that Zheng Zhi's midfield possession time was still much higher than Lin Feng's after analyzing all the data of Evergrande before this season.

In terms of strength alone, Evergrande's other defender Paulinho is certainly stronger than Zheng Zhi at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, but from Paulinho's average of 3 steals per game (the first in the team), 6 goals, and the situation of attacking the opponent's 30-meter area, his energy is more in addition to the defense of the midfield, more of it is to step forward into the penalty area, and the real scheduling and organization still rely on Zheng Zhi.

So as long as Zheng Zhi is restricted, Evergrande's operation will cost half.

In addition, Zhang Sheng's other trick in this game is to play on the side, Zou Zheng has just recovered from a big injury, and he will definitely not be able to play the whole game;

A few minutes before the race, it suddenly rained in Guangzhou, which had been sunny during the day, but the temperature of 23-32 degrees was suitable for the game.

Given that West Asia has not won the AFC Champions League for many years, this match is also known as the AFC Champions League final held in advance. Sports media throughout Asia have set their sights on this AFC Champions League "China Derby".

From the first second of the referee's whistle for the start of the game, the field entered a white heat, and the two teams, which were already very "familiar", did not try much and began to meet each other.

"Let's take a look at the starting line-ups for both sides. CCTV arranged the strongest partner He Wei and Xu Yang for this game, seeing the situation on the field, they slightly accelerated the necessary procedure for this commentary, but the intensity of the game was still much higher than they expected.

In the 30th second of the opening game, Gao Lin made a long pass to the penalty area from the right, Diego Costa grabbed the point under Du Zhenyu's close marking, his header rubbed the football to the middle, and the follow-up Goulart met the ball and volleyed, but under the interference of Ma Yongli, the ball was not kicked well and the anti-aircraft gun was released.

"Shot! Goulart's shot, almost. He Wei, who was still introducing the players, hurriedly introduced the situation on the field, "Guangzhou Evergrande played a beautiful attack at the beginning. Diego Costa is a very good and powerful centre-forward. ”

Zhang Sheng waved his hand vigorously on the sidelines and shouted to Du Zhenyu: "Focus!

Du Zhenyu also nodded hurriedly.

Evergrande's routine just now is very simple, a little find a little space to hit the ball in the penalty area to find opportunities, if it is other teams may be criticized, but Guangzhou Evergrande's several foreign aid strength is really strong, very simple tactics have played a good effect.

Evergrande played with momentum, and the Longteng team did not show weakness.

Less than a minute away from Evergrande's attack, De Paul's continuous rapid stop and turn on the left side of the Longteng team opened up Shu Jun's defensive distance, and then stuffed a direct pass into the penalty area of Guangzhou Evergrande, Tao Wentao quickly cut into the penalty area and received the ball and shot with his feet.

Zheng Zhi is very qualified as a midfielder, he followed when Tao Wentao started, and finally when Tao Wentao shot, there was basically no angle under Zheng Zhi's interference and blocking, and the football just hit the side net.

"Tao Wentao's shot! The attack of the Longteng team is also very sharp!" This attack of the Longteng team also made He Wei interrupt the introduction of substitute players, "The pace is too fast." I'm sorry, I'm going to hurry up when the substitutes are introduced. ”

When He Wei finished introducing the substitute players at a fast pace, Xu Yang also smiled: "I found that as long as it is a game between Longteng and Guangzhou Evergrande, this rhythm is very fast." ”

Now the form on the field is indeed the same as Xu Yang said, Guangzhou Evergrande, who got the ball, used skillful passing to avoid the pressure of the Longteng team in the front court, and advanced the front line to the midfield, this style of play is completely different from other teams in the Super League After getting the goal kick, the goalkeeper swings the ball for a long time, and then waves his hand to let his teammates press it, and as a result, a big foot drives to the front court and resigns himself to fate.

Of course, being able to use the technique of the foot to do so depends on Zheng Zhi, Paulinho Garinfeng, three midfielders with super technical ability.

After the football approached the 30-meter area of the Longteng team, the defensive formation of the Longteng team became more compact, although Diego Costa in front of him kept running, but Du Zhenyu followed very closely, unless the latter was far away from the penalty area and ran the defensive area of the back waist.

Guangzhou Evergrande was very patient after pouring his feet, taking advantage of the moment when Diego Costa brought Du Zhenyu out of the penalty area and suddenly sped up, Zheng Zhi stuffed the ball to Diego Costa, who held the ball very steadily under the interference of Du Zhenyu, and after quickly trying to shake his body and turn to no avail, he chose to knock the ball across the Goulart, and then turn around and run.

If it is an ordinary player, such a set of tactics is a commonplace basic operation, but Diego Costa is no one else, he grabbed the latter's jersey with his hand when he was fighting against Du Zhenyu before, and when he passed the ball out and turned around, he also grabbed the meat on Du Zhenyu and twisted it secretly, which caused Du Zhenyu to almost jump in pain.

Du Zhenyu didn't expect the other party to come to this trick at all, while suffering pain, the speed was a step slower, Diego Costa took advantage of this opportunity to run to the penalty area line, Goulart's pass just came at this time, this is a very beautiful two-over-one match at the top of the penalty area arc, seeing Ma Yongli and the Qi Ming of the return defense formed a closing trend on the penalty area line, and then Diego Costa chose to shoot by himself, and finally Huang Dawei struggled to save the football from the bottom line, and Guangzhou Evergrande got a corner kick opportunity.

As soon as the football reached a dead goal, Du Zhenyu began to complain to the Iraqi referee Casey about Diego Costa's behavior just now, and he lifted up his jersey to show the opponent the twisted red fill.

Maybe it was the language barrier, or because such things are rare for referees, he didn't pay much attention, but in the next corner kick defense, Diego Costa looked at Du Zhenyu with a playful expression, to be honest, if it wasn't on the field, Du Zhenyu would definitely punch him in the face.

He Wei also noticed the whole process, and he nodded a little vaguely: "Du Zhenyu seems to have suffered a small loss in the confrontation with Diego Costa, and the latter is not easy to guard." ”

Du Zhenyu, who was already burning in his chest in the penalty area, suddenly remembered what Zhang Sheng had told him before the game: "Diego Costa's small actions on the field are very dirty, and in addition, provoking others with expressions and eyes is also his most usual method." So, no matter what he does on the pitch, you have to stay calm, if he goes too far you go to the manager, as long as you don't let him score, when the game is over, you can despise him however you want. ”

Thinking of this, Du Zhenyu put aside his distracting thoughts, concentrated his attention, and stretched out his hand to wrap his arms around Diego Costa's waist, preventing him from running and jumping. Sure enough, in the end, Guangzhou Evergrande's corner kick was safely confiscated by Huang Dawei.

In less than three minutes, both teams had already completed three shots on goal, which shows how fast the pace of the game is.

The next race has been racing in the fast lane.

In the fifth minute, Huang He on the right side of the Longteng team bullied Zou Zheng and injured Gang Yu did not dare to use too much force, and insisted on eating the opponent with his body and speed on the side, and then he cut inside along the penalty area line, saw the opportunity in the process of dribbling the ball at high speed, and passed the ball to Chavez in the penalty area, who did not stop the ball and gave it to Tao Wentao inserted in the middle of the penalty area, and finally Tao Wentao's push shot was slightly off the post.

Whether it is the fans of Guangzhou Evergrande in the stands, or the Longteng expeditionary force from afar, they are also venting their love for the team, and the cheers of both sides come one after another.

"It was a lively game. It was less than 20 minutes after the game started, and He Wei didn't know how many times he had sighed like this, "Although both sides lost a few generals before the game, it is rare to be able to play such a high-level game now." ”

"There's a reason why both of them have been able to get this far. Xu Yang also said, "These two teams basically form the main framework of the national team, and this season they are all three-line and fourth-line battles. After Evergrande injured five left-backs in a row, there are still left-backs to use, and if you put other teams, the backline will collapse early. Not to mention the Dragons, their wing-backs on both sides have not stopped, but both the main players and the players who came on the bench have remained above the standard. And like Suning and SIPG, once someone in the main squad is injured, the strength of the team will drop very much. Therefore, if the teams participating in the AFC Champions League in the Chinese Super League next season want to get good results, it is necessary to strengthen the bench strength. ”

Xu Yang is still analyzing why the Longteng team and Guangzhou Evergrande can stand out in the AFC Champions League, there is another situation on the field, and it is Diego Costa who is the moth, this time his target is not Du Zhenyu, but Roque Gill.

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