Chapter 37: First defeat in the Champions League

Athletic Bilbao were the winner, but for Granada, they only had a temporary pass.

Next, they soon faced another difficulty. In three days' time, they will travel to England for a Champions League match. The opponent is the biggest opponent in this group - Chelsea.

The Granada team will have a bigger difficulty this time. Modric and others, who went to play in the national team, could not return in time. And they are still playing away. The difficulties are unprecedented.

On the day of the match, Stamford Bridge was packed with Chelsea fans. This is a Champions League match, coupled with the popularity brought to the Granada team by the arrival of the old horse this year, even if you know that the Granada team can only play the remnants, this game is still very attractive.

In fact, the last time we lost away to Granada, Chelsea were very unconvinced. They always think that they are more worthy of victory. Today for them, it is all about revenge. And it had to be slaughtered.

So, the Chelsea team, which almost filled the stands today, came to see that Granada were beaten by the home team. After all, the current strength of the Granada team is even inferior to the Karabakh team in the eyes of the outside world.

The Karabakh team was beaten by five goals, and the Granada team could not be less than that. That's the general perception among Chelsea fans.

In such an unfavorable situation, there was a situation that still made Yan Feng and the others very happy. That's when hundreds of fans came to cheer them on.

Some of these valuable fans came from Granada, but many more were not local Chinese fans in London. Those Chinese fans used to be Chelsea fans, but today they are Granada fans.

The presence of fans to cheer them on was a rare support for the worried Granada team, so they would not feel alone.

And for this game, to be honest, even Yan Feng felt a little lacking in confidence. His ideal view of this game is that it is better not to lose.

A draw, that's what Granada are aiming for this game. Don't feel like they're not motivated and don't want to make progress. This is a more pragmatic goal put forward by the coaching staff after comparing the advantages and disadvantages of various aspects.

Everyone knows they're going to be in a bad position this time, so the players are backing the coaching staff's claims. If the coaching staff said that the game should be won, it is estimated that the vast majority of people will say that the coaching staff is thinking too much.

Pragmatic goals naturally require pragmatic approaches. In this game, the Granada team decisively discharged the 451, which is now rarely used, but is more realistic.

As for the Chelsea team, it is natural that they still use the usual 343 formation.

When the game started, it was just as everyone expected before the game. Chelsea launched a furious onslaught at Granada at the start of the game, without even a half-point of testing.

Fortunately, the Granada team has long been mentally prepared for this, and the coaching staff has arranged countermeasures to deal with this situation before the game. Therefore, the Granada team, which had been prepared for a long time, did not panic. Instead, he defended with composure.

And that's when the benefits of the last league game against Athletic Bilbao came into play. That game made Granada see what they really were. That is, they have an excellent defense, and even if they are missing a few key players, their defense is still difficult for opponents to break.

Taking advantage of home advantage, Chelsea attacked aggressively and kept Granada at the back. But the Granada team led by Yan Feng and Lin Fan is still tenacious, and the Chelsea team has been attacking for nearly ten minutes, but they can't achieve the desired results.

Once they had gained a foothold, Granada also began to launch limited counter-attacks. Under the patient organization of Yan Feng and Lin Fan, the Granada team also got some opportunities to hit the goal. It's a pity that it was all wasted by Kravitz and others.

The collective absence of the attackers up front has really a big impact. Kravitz, on the other hand, didn't play much due to injuries last season. This season, Sandel has played so well that Kravitz has not played much. And in today's game, Kravitz looked really average.

That's pretty much how the first half went. The Chelsea team had an absolute advantage on the field, but under the tenacious defense of Yan Feng and others, they could only score points. And the Granada team failed to grasp the occasional counterattack opportunity when Kravitz and others were not in good shape.

In the end, the first half was a handshake between the two sides.

In the first half, not even a goal was scored. That's acceptable for Granada, but it's a big bad for Chelsea, who are desperate for revenge.

As a result, after the start of the second half, Chelsea launched a more aggressive attack and kept the tempo extremely high. This put the Granada team in a very difficult situation.

At the beginning, the Granada team, under the leadership of Yan Feng, was still able to keep the goal intact. And occasionally there is a chance to play a counterattack to contain it.

But on 54 minutes, Aslan was injured in a fight. Substitutions had to be made. With no one available, Pirlo brought on Mohd, who had just been promoted to the first team this year.

Mohd, who is playing in the Champions League for the first time, is extremely excited and plays very actively. It's just that it's getting a little overactive.

Originally, Mohd lacked a tacit understanding with the veteran players, and Pirlo asked him to come up because he wanted him to come and impact when he had a chance, and to participate in defense if he didn't have a chance.

But Mohhard was able to defend at first, slowly standing up more forward, apparently waiting for his teammates to defend the ball and then kick it on the counter-attack.

In fact, this is nothing, it's just that he only cares about showing off his skills whenever he has the opportunity. In the end, every time he quickly squandered the counterattack opportunities that his teammates had managed to prevent.

Counterattacks do not threaten to contain the opponent, allowing the opponent to attack with impunity. In turn, there was a chance not to attack, which also hit the morale of the Granada team.

In the 69th minute, it was Mohd who disregarded the overall situation and quickly lost possession. With the goal conceded so quickly, Chelsea could immediately strike again. The Granada team couldn't immediately stand up in a defensive formation for a while, and was forced by Arza.

Arza's excellent ability to break the defense caused chaos in the Granada team's defense, and Rao is Yan Feng desperately tried to make up for the leak, but in the end it was difficult to defeat the four punches with both hands. It was a clever combination by Chelsea who penetrated the defence and it was Alvaro Morata who scored the goal.

0:1, behind. This hit Grana hard at a time when he was barely holding on.

If you fall behind, you often need to attack, but the Granada team is now more than defensive, and the attack is insufficient. They simply couldn't afford to equalise the ball. This puts the Granada team in a difficult position.

For this reason, Yan Feng was angry. He was so angry that he scolded Mohard. But Mohard felt that Yan Feng was taking the opportunity to take revenge on him.

Of course, after being taught a lesson by Yan Feng, Mohd didn't dare to be like before in the future. But it was too late.

Chelsea, who took the lead, rose to the top. They took advantage of the situation to continue the onslaught, leaving the Granada team in a struggling support.

The demoralized Granada team struggled to defend and began to show up in danger. Under Yan Feng's left block and right branch, he did not concede the ball again for the time being. It can be seen that there is a possibility of widening the gap between backwardness at any time.

In this case, Yan Feng desperately wanted the team to launch a counterattack to relieve the pressure. Unfortunately, the attackers were unable to threaten the Chelsea defence. Especially after coming out, after Mohard wasted it with a non-threatening long-range shot, Yan Feng was desperate.

Teammates shot waves, and Yan Feng, who couldn't bear it, decided to come by himself. After working hard to defend against a wave of onslaught, Yan Feng himself followed Lin Fan to launch an attack.

Yan Feng and Lin Fan's tacit understanding and quick cooperation made them successfully assault the front of the forbidden area this time. Under the tough defense of the Chelsea team, Yan Feng carried it hard to complete the goal. Unfortunately, his shot went just wide of the goal.

Yan Feng's strike threatened the Chelsea goal for the first time in the second half. Conte, who had already planned for it, immediately asked the Chelsea team to make targeted adjustments.

Yan Feng and Lin Fan were quickly deployed by the Chelsea team after creating a threat. Although they remained stubborn and resolute in attacking when they had the chance, they were unable to pose any more threat after being besieged by heavy troops.

Yan Feng and Lin Fan still wanted to continue to insist on attacking, but after the defense was almost broken again, they had to retreat.

It's hard to score a goal and get the score back. But they can't let the defence go back again. In this way, one can only count on Kravitz and others. But these attackers on the field, when the team is at a disadvantage, have no ability to turn the tide.

In the end, the game was lost. Under the circumstance that Yan Feng could not advance or retreat, he and Lin Fan were also unable to turn the tide.

Defeated by England, Granada tasted their first defeat in the Champions League.

Losing the game, Yan Feng was very disappointed. And the Chelsea side who won the game were also a little disappointed. They couldn't get a big revenge on the Granada team, and they didn't feel good enough. But the Granada team defended well, and they also admitted that it was impossible to slaughter by a big score.

It's just that the Chelsea fans are really not that happy. They have been saying before the game that they must beat the Granada team by a big score. Now they have only won by one goal and they are disappointed.

The Granada team lost the game and was naturally in a somewhat low mood. However, the fans understand the small score of the away loss. For the Granada team, this period of difficulty is finally over.

In the absence of major generals, it is already very good to achieve one win and one loss. Next, Modric and others returned, and the Granada team returned to their strongest form.