From the decline of the West Asian club, Zhang Sheng deeply realized that the improvement of football level is really a systematic project.

China is now a world power, and it ensures that the country is not affected by the international environment, so the key is not to mess around.

Fortunately, Chinese football is now on the right path.

Zhang Sheng's confident attitude also infected his players.

As the captain, Lin Feng said very definitely in an interview with the media: "In this game, we are at home. From the first day back to Gangseong, all my friends and I believed that we would win the race in Gangseong. ”

In an interview with the official website of the AFC as a matter of practice for the players sent by the two teams, the players on both sides were even more at loggerheads and did not show weakness to each other.

When asked about the upcoming AFC Champions League final, Al Ahli expressed his desire for the team to complete the coronation ceremony of the AFC Champions League in Jiangcheng: "Because it was the first time we reached the AFC Champions League final, we played a little cautiously in the last game. If we had started a little more proactively, the result might not have been the same as it is now. So we're going to play this game and we're going to have a better performance. Falling behind by one goal is not the end of the world, and here we will win the AFC Champions League. ”

Ben Alfa, who was sent out for an interview by the Dragons, looked at the championship as if it was in the bag: "It's not easy to play away from home in any final, but in the end we still won. It's our home stadium now and the results are predictable. ”

As for saying that Karma Khamis would have performed better, Ben Alpha's unruly personality came out: "Impossible. They didn't do anything good in the last game except for that penalty and we were in control from start to finish. In the second leg of the match, if you want to have a better performance, it is difficult. ”

After the news was reported, Ben Alpha's answer made all the replies 666, after all, the penalty he said was the best performance, everyone knows what it means, this slap in the face is too beautiful.

These war of words before the game made the already high-profile game even more hot.

In the locker room before the start of the game, Zhang Sheng continued to release his confidence: "In the last game, we firmly grasped the situation on the field, and we predicted their tactics before the game, and we also limited them to death. In this game, if I didn't expect, the opponent's big tactical adjustment was only one move. We also have a corresponding walkthrough. And our tactics, from beginning to end, they didn't have a good way to deal with it. So as long as we stick to our own style of play, even if the opponent survives the first half, the second half will not be able to withstand it. ”

"Once it's the last twenty minutes of the game. I ask Xiao Yunfan, Wei Zhimin. Under Zhang Sheng's roll call, the two players also concentrated, and their four eyes were firmly fixed on Zhang Sheng, "You two rushed up on the side. And to rush even more fiercely than before. ”

Xiao Yunfan and Wei Zhimin also nodded hurriedly, indicating that they understood.

"I won't say much else. After emphasizing these two people, Zhang Sheng said calmly, "In the end, I will reiterate my request, in this game, we can score as many as we can." Don't show mercy, and the referee of the game, everyone can rest assured. ”

After the end of the last game, the Longteng club questioned the referee's penalty of the game, and appealed to cancel the penalty of He Lijun and Lao Xing, although according to the usual AFC did not agree to the request of the Longteng club, but in order to take into account China's face, and to give an explanation to the outside media, the AFC came up with its own killer weapon - Ilmatov.

Ilmatov's full name is Ravshan Ilmatov, an Uzbek coach. He comes from a family of football coaches, and his father was also a football referee.

He became an international referee at FIFA level in 2003 and until 2007 he officiated at three consecutive Under-17 World Cups and one Under-20 World Cup.

Ilmatov was named Asia's Referee of the Year for four consecutive years from 2008 to 2011 and again in 2014 as the referee for the 2008 and 2011 Club World Cup finals and the fourth official in the 2009 Club World Cup finals.

In the 2013 AFC Champions League final won by Guangzhou Evergrande, Ilmatov also enforced a game.

His most boastful record is that in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, he became the referee with nine officiating games in World Cup history.

Meanwhile, in 2010, Ilmatov finished second in the World's Best Referee poll with 128 votes, second only to the British referee Webb. He was the only referee to have received more than 100 votes other than Webb, who was in first place.

Ilmatov is active in law enforcement, decisive and confident in penalty decisions, good at using favorable principles to make the game flow smoothly, and has a strong ability to control the game. Other than that, the most rare thing about him is that every game is as impartial as possible.

Many people privately think that if he was a European referee, he would have blown the World Cup final.

In this game, the AFC sent him out was also the result of the communication between Longteng Club and the AFC through the Chinese Football Federation, in which the old rival of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, helped a lot.

In the away team's locker room at this time, Olaroyo was also desperately cheering up his players: "The biggest advantage of the two-legged game is that the team that was at a disadvantage in the first leg has a chance to turn the tables." Now we have to forget about the last game and put all our energy into this game. ”

"Playing away games. Sometimes it's even our strength. Olaroyo continued to encourage, "To be a home team, sometimes the opponent will be more nervous and sometimes more reckless in order to get a better performance, and this is our chance." ”

"It's not a big deal to be behind a ball. Olaroyo finally said firmly, "Give our best efforts, and the championship will be our best reward." ”

When the two teams were making the final mobilization before the game, the commentators and guests who were in charge of the game were also doing the final discussion before the game.

In order to reflect the importance of this game, CCTV sent a four-person luxury commentary lineup of He Wei, Xu Yang, Liu Jiayuan, and former international player Zhang Enhua.

These four people unanimously believe that in terms of strength, the Longteng team is stronger than their opponents, and they have a high probability of winning the AFC Champions League for the first time.

In addition to the championship competition, the Longteng team also has a player who will have a high probability of winning another honor - the AFC Champions League Golden Boot. This player is none other than Nie Jiang, who returned to the team for this game.

Because he wants to participate in the World Junior Championships, Nie Jiang failed to participate in the last round of the AFC Champions League, but he now ranks first in the AFC Champions League scorer list with 8 AFC Champions League goals.

Threatening Nie Jiang's top scorers are his two team-mates, Pato now with six goals, Ben Arfa with six goals, and Al Ahli Dubai's striker Khalil with six goals.

In the discussion of the four commentators, the game officially began.

When He Wei introduced the starting lineup of the Longteng team, he first paid attention to Pato: "In the last game, Pato was injured in the middle of the game, which made the fans worry a little, but later it turned out that everyone was too worried, and now Pato is on the field It also shows that he really has no problem." ”

But in this game, Coach Zhang Sheng discharged Xiao Yunfan and Wei Zhimin's double-assist fullbacks, what to say about this move. I think it's a bit risky. He Wei slightly questioned Zhang Sheng's start.

"It is estimated that Coach Zhang Sheng's idea is to replace defense with offense. Xu Yang said, "In the last game, the Longteng team's attack was completely helpless, and this game got off Zhou Zhou, went to Wei Zhimin, and pressed the opponent to his own half, which is also a good choice." ”

At this time, the players on the field of the Longteng team kept admiring Zhang Sheng's prediction in their hearts.

As early as after the first round of the game, when Zhang Sheng arranged the tactics for the team's players, he said very firmly: "I bet." Al Ahli Dubai will definitely change their line-up for this game, and it will change from 4-2-2-2 to 4-2-3-1 in the previous game. ”

As a result, after the start of the game, Dubai Al Ahli made adjustments as Zhang Sheng said, and the adjusted position was exactly the same as Zhang Sheng's guess.

In fact, this is the real level of an Asian manager like Olaroyo.

In the 2013 season, Guangzhou Evergrande's tactics were actually exactly the same as Dubai's Al Ahli, and Conca corresponded to Ribeiro's position, that is, the single core of the team.

In the two matches of the AFC Champions League final at that time, Conca's excellent performance for the first time made the opponent suffer, and in the second leg, Seoul FC strengthened the top defense of Conca and kept cutting down Conca, resulting in a bit of a difficult game.

It's just that the Guangzhou Evergrande head coach at that time, Lippi, played a very slippery tactic, and he had already planned it, so he changed the formation to 4-3-3 on the spot, and the players in the front court used the off-ball run to break the cutting tactics of Seoul FC.

In the last game, Dubai Al Ahli presented exactly the same tactics as Guangzhou Evergrande at that time, which was seen through by Zhang Sheng at a glance, so that Ribeiro basically had no good opportunity to organize an attack in the whole game.

After the game, Zhang Sheng guessed that Olaroyo would definitely adjust his tactics, because if the opponent can be so stupid that the core of the last game is completely frozen, and this time it is still played like this, it is really all luck for this team to reach the final.

Now it's Olaroyo's turn to make tactical adjustments, and the gap between him and Lippi is coming out all at once.

Because Al Ahly Dubai has always been accustomed to Ribeiro controlling all the matches, and when Ribeiro can't do that, the opponent can't be effective. So their possible tactical variations are very limited.

There was no real tactical change other than to convert Ribeiro from a wide midfielder to a full-fledged midfielder to the middle, shortening the distance between him and the rest of the backfield so that he could receive the ball.

Such a change of soup without changing the medicine can only say that the current level of Asian managers is generally very low.

Now that you have guessed the opponent's style of play in advance, Zhang Sheng's arrangement for this game is very targeted, that is, since your strongest point is in the middle lane, I will completely block your offensive ability in the middle lane.

First of all, the Longteng team without a striker can be seen as having no strikers, and it can also be seen that there are three strikers, so let these three strikers come back to participate in the defense of the middle no matter who changes to the center position, and Tao Wentao also swept more in the middle this time, and once again thickened the defense line in the midfield.

As for the back line, it is the overall forward movement, hoarding more personnel in the middle of the midfield to suppress the penetration of Ribeiro's central line.

Considering that after Ribeiro moved to the middle, the opponent's two defensive midfielders would inevitably provide protection behind him, Zhang Sheng unleashed the assist ability of the wing-backs on both sides in this game, giving the full-backs the requirement of deep pressing, and the two full-backs not only provided the necessary low crosses, but also allowed the entire backline of Dubai Al Ahli to be stretched out. The opponent's full-backs were forced to pull out the defense due to the fear of the Dragons' deep full-backs, and relaxed the central defense, so the ribs between the full-backs and the center-backs became the most critical point for the Dragons to score.

This is also why Zhang promoted fullback Zhou Zhou, who has a better defense, and Wei Zhimin, who has a stronger ability to assist. What he wants is his front insertion.

In the first few minutes of the game, Dubai Al Ahli fell into unprecedented passivity.

From the first second of the referee's whistle at the start of the game, the Dragons' lack of strikers and their usual full-court pressing tactics completely pushed Dubai Al Ahli's formation back into the half.

It has even developed to the point that even holding the ball steady in the backfield has become a luxury.

Because when the four defenders of Al Ahli in Dubai are dragging in the backfield and want to control the ball in the backfield, the Dragons will press three people to force their defenders, and if Al Ahly will leave three people in the midfield to control the ball, the Dragons will press two people.

In short, it is to force them to use high balls and long passes to kick forward as much as possible, so that the accuracy of the pass will be greatly reduced, forcing the opponent's back line to not control the ball.

When a team can't even control the ball at the back, it becomes a matter of course to play passively.

Seeing the situation on the field, He Wei kept praising the Longteng team for playing well after the opening of the game: "The Longteng team's pressing ability is too strong. The opponent has been emphasizing the turnaround before the game, emphasizing letting go of the burden, but from the opening minutes, it seems that if you want to let go of your hands and feet to kick the ball, you must also use the ability to let go of your hands and feet. ”

Just as he was praising the Longteng team, Zhang Sheng's wing attack tactics were activated, and after Ben Alpha on the left side made continuous passes and co-ordination with Xiao Yunfan and Tao Wentao, Xiao Yunfan's sudden acceleration made an impact on their right-back position.

Because Haeckel was sent off in the last game, Olaroyo used Sancur, who played as the main left wing-back in the previous game, to play right wing-back, and Waleed Abbas started to play left wing-back.

Then Sancur, who is not used to playing at right wing-back, has become the target of the attack.