Chapter 65: The FA Cup
"In this game, our goal is to win and qualify for the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info" said Stojkovic in the locker room to his players.
"Winning the FA Cup is our biggest goal this season. ”
That's right, Guangzhou R&F has set its sights on winning the FA Cup. Due to the Chinese Super League, Guangzhou Evergrande is fully ahead of them by as much as 9 points. In addition, Guangzhou R&F does not have the strength to call Guangzhou Evergrande in the league, so even Stojkovic has no confidence. But the FA Cup is worth it for.
"On the surface, it seems that Shanghai SIPG is stronger than us, but they are not without weaknesses. First of all, it is that their entire operation and attack are most dependent on the core Conca, as long as he is restricted, SIPG's attack will have to be paralyzed. ”
Yes, the entire Super League knows that Conca is the absolute core of SIPG. Without him, SIPG's overall strength would have to drop a notch. But the question is, who can limit Conca?
"Yan, your task today is to keep an eye on Conca, keep him at bay, restrain him so that he can't connect with the team. ”
"Yes. Yan Feng replied loudly.
I'll go, this is Conca, the former king of celestial bodies and led Evergrande to win the AFC Champions League. Yan Feng felt the pressure for the first time while being excited.
"Secondly, the SIPG team has a very dense schedule recently, and the physical strength of the whole team has been affected well. In the last round of the Chinese Super League, they were generally in poor form''''''"
'It's our home stadium and we have the advantage in terms of fitness and form. We're going to attack, we're going to beat them!" Stojkovic said with a final shout.
"Beat them!" the R&F players echoed with high morale.
After making sufficient preparations and analysis, the R&F team walked into the stadium with confidence.
Today is R&F's home field. Although this is only a FA Cup match, because the opponent is the Chinese Super League tycoon Shanghai SIPG, there are still many fans at the scene.
The number of fans who entered the stadium this time was no smaller than the number of fans who came to the stadium last time against Guoan. Under the cheers of the blue ocean, Yan Feng followed his teammates into the court slowly.
Listening to the cheers of the fans, Yan Feng felt very excited and excited. I just love it!
And another reason why Yan Feng was excited was from his opponent. Take a look at the names of players familiar to Chinese fans: Conca, Bear Elkeson, 'Wuqiu King' Wu Lei, Yu Hai, Sun Xiang, and Cai Huikang, who plays the same position as Yan Feng (Yan Feng cares about Cai Huikang because the two are of the same type and position, and Cai Huikang is an international player. If Yan Feng wants to realize his dream of entering the national team, then he has to step on him to make it possible).
One by one, the well-known and powerful players in Chinese football played against this layman opponent. Yan Feng felt that the blood in his body was boiling when he thought about it. Such an opponent is cool enough! Energetic!
You must know that in the 5th round of the Chinese Super League, Yan Feng watched these opponents finally defeat R&F from the stands. At that time, Yan Feng couldn't wait to rush up to compete with them.
Now that this is the opportunity, how can Yan Feng not be excited? Maybe because he was too excited, when Yan Feng laughed and shook hands with Kong Ka, he saw that Kong Ka was a little inexplicable.
After shaking hands, Yan Feng still thought in his heart: Kong Ka's body is very ordinary. However, if he can dominate the Super League with such physical conditions, it seems that his ability in other aspects must be very strong. It seems that when we wait for the next game, we need to pay more attention.
"Today, Lao Si gave me the task of seeing Conca to death, so how can I see him to death?" Yan Feng thought of the task on his body, and the pressure was not ordinary. Everyone knows that Conca's physical condition is very average, but how many people can restrain him in the Super League?
"Conca has average physique, but he is very strong at passing the ball, and the strongest thing is that he has a very high ball quotient. Yan Feng recalled the video of Conca's game and found that Conca had been playing very smartly. Conca rarely allows opponents to take advantage of his physical disadvantage, and opponents who try to grab the ball at his feet are usually turned around by his dribbling.
"The good thing is that I have a lot more body and speed than him. If I want to stop him, I can't think about breaking his ball. I should use my body and speed to keep up with him, constantly using physical contact to drain his stamina, so that he can't take the ball and pass the ball easily. Yan Feng kept thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of himself and Conca in his mind. After some thought, Yan Feng decided on a strategy to defend Conca.
"That's right. That's it, the anti-hole jam is good. ”
Today's PPTV commentary on this game is still Tang Hui and Qiu'er.
"It's going to be a game and my personal opinion about this game is going to be even. Qiu'er, who are you more optimistic about?" Tang Hui said.
"I think so too. However, I am a little conflicted about which team I am more optimistic about. R&F has Yan Feng, who is very man, and Shanghai Port Wu Lei and Elkeson are there, so it's not easy to choose. Qiu'er said with some difficulty.
"Hehe, in fact, I think Cai Huikang of Shanghai Port is more manly. Tang Hui said with a smile.
"Well, I'm not interested in big guys. Qiu'er said with a smile.
"Haha, in other words, Yan Feng and Cai Huikang really have a similar style, playing the same position, and they are also defensive backs. I don't know which of the two of them will perform better in today's game?" Tang Hui said.
"I think it must be Yan Feng. ”
"Why?"
"Because Yan Feng looks better. ”
"Haha, that doesn't seem to be wrong. ”
Could it be that Yan Feng is really just as good looking as Qiu'er said?
Of course not. Although Cai Huikang did a good job defensively after the start of the game. But Yan Feng did a better job, he really restrained Conca.
In fact, SIPG had long expected that Stojkovic might send Yan Feng to defend Conca. Because of his psychological preparation and research on Yan Feng's game, Conca didn't pay much attention to Yan Feng at first.
There are many people who specifically target Conca in the Chinese Super League game, which onion is Yan Feng? Conca thinks that Yan Feng is at most similar to his teammate Cai Huikang. In the simulation training, Conca was still as comfortable facing Cai Huikang.
After Kong Ka confronted Yan Feng, he realized that he was wrong. Yan Feng not only has the strength of his teammate Cai Huikang, but also has a lot of speed. This made it impossible for Conca to get rid of Yan Feng's defense at all. Even if he used his foot technique to get rid of Yan Feng for a while, but often before he could make further moves, Yan Feng would be entangled again.
Well, the opponent was watched to death with the ball, and Conca has not encountered it without encounters. What annoys him is that there is a ball, the opponent is entangled, there is no ball, and it is still entangled.
If you are still entangled without the ball, then I can't run? But the problem is that with Yan Feng's speed, no matter where Conca runs, he can follow Conca within one meter in time.
From the beginning of the game, Yan Feng stuck to Conca like kraft candy. This made Conca uncomfortable to death, and it was difficult for him to even turn around with a ball in the midfield position.
Twenty minutes into the first half, Conca struggled to even get the ball, let alone get the ball he was always good at. This made Conca so aggrieved that he wanted to curse.
Well, if you're so sticky in front, then I'll retreat.
In desperation, Conca began to retreat, and he retreated deeper and deeper, and finally retreated to midfield. What made Conca angry was that even if he retreated to the midfield, Yan Feng still followed inch by inch.
"Oh Maiga, you're going to follow me like this for the whole game?" Conca, who was really uncomfortable with him, was going crazy in the end. After being forced by Yan Feng from behind to only pass back, Conca couldn't help but say this to Yan Feng.
It's a pity that Yan Feng couldn't understand what Kong Ka was saying at all. Yan Feng couldn't understand it anyway, so he kept looking at Kong Ka with an expressionless face. Make up your mind, no matter what the opponent is thinking, all he needs to do is follow the opponent and follow the opponent until the end of the match.
Of course, as a recognized super foreign player, Conca could not have conceded defeat so easily. He started to think of ways to keep running and switching positions with his teammates. But no matter how Conca ran, Yan Feng still followed stubbornly, and squeezed the other party with his body from time to time.
That didn't work, so Conca had to find another way. Lure Yan Feng out of the foot and then find an opportunity to break through, or lure Yan Feng to foul. Yan Feng's foul is a foul, but he usually uses his body behind his back to directly knock down Conca.
In this way, Conca has been trying to find a way to fight with Yan Feng. Focusing on getting rid of close defence, Conca, who can't pass the ball freely, is equivalent to half of his skills. In the end, Conca didn't make any dangerous passes throughout the first half.
Conca was restrained, making the organization and the pace of the transition between attack and defense seem slow and chaotic. If Shanghai SIPG hadn't relied on Elkeson's individual ability, they would have struggled to even threaten R&F's goal.
Don't look at Shanghai SIPG and Wuqiu King Wu Lei is there, but in fact, Wu Lei is just a point-grabbing striker who relies on running. Without Conca to give him a steady stream of cannonballs, Wu Lei could only struggle in the muscles of the R&F defenders in addition to running blindly.
On the other hand, in terms of R&F, although Yan Feng hardly participates in the attack, because their offensive has never been initiated by Yan Feng, they have played well in the attack. If it weren't for the lack of players who could make a final decision in R&F's frontcourt, Shanghai SIPG would definitely not be able to get out of the first half.
"The first half was over and it was a draw. However, judging from the situation on the field in the first half, Guangzhou R&F still had a slight advantage. Tang Hui began to sum up the game in the first half.
"yes. It is indeed Guangzhou R&F that has the advantage. They surpass Shanghai SIPG, who have a possession master, with Conca, by 55 per cent to 45 per cent. Even though it's R&F's home stadium, I still can't believe it can get such a possession advantage. Qiu'er said.
'Speaking of Conca, he almost disappeared throughout the first half. I don't see him make a dangerous pass, it's not what we usually see like Conca. Tang Hui said with a sigh.
"It seems that Yan Feng didn't show any performance. Qiu'er also remembered that Yan Feng seemed to be invisible in the first half.
"Yan Feng didn't show nothing. It's that the performance is too good. ”
"How?"
"Didn't you see that Yan Feng was able to prevent Conca from being invisible?"
As Tang Hui said, Yan Feng, who was stealthy with Conca, performed very well. At least that's what Stojkovic thinks.
"Well done in the first half! You've done a good job of restricting the organizational core of SIPG. You did a great job of the task I gave you! In the second half, you still have to do it!"
When Yan Feng was praised by Lao Si, in the locker room of Shanghai SIPG, Conca was sitting with a depressed face.
'In the first half, we played really badly. I didn't see the fit I wanted, I just saw chaos. I need you to play fluidly and play as a team. 'Head coach Christian Eriksen was clearly unhappy with the first half.
Conca knew the manager was saying that he had failed to play a role in organising the whole team. He didn't want to do that, but he couldn't help it. The opposing defender's little-known defender just stalked himself like that.
Next, Eriksen continued to cheer up the players and arranged for his teammates to pick up Conca, hoping to free Conca in the next game.
But after the start of the second half, Eriksen's wish was still disappointed. Regardless of whether Conca ran his own position and wanted to drag down Yan Feng, or his teammates came to pick him up, he couldn't get Conca out of Yan Feng's entanglement.
Yan Feng is not the core of R&F's midfield, and without him, R&F's offense has not been affected too much. Without Conca's organization, Shanghai Port had no way to break through R&F's defense built by the back five by Elkeson, Wu Lei and others alone.
By the 70th minute, Conca, who had been able to play the whole game in other games, was out of breath. In the entanglement and counter-entanglement with Yan Feng, Kong Ka unconsciously exhausted his physical energy. Conca, who had already lost his physical strength without any performance today, looked at Yan Feng, who was also panting for breath next to him, but did not see much fatigue. For the first time, Conca felt frustrated. It is a kind of frustration that has no place to make it, and has the heart to serve the country but has no way.
At this time, Eriksen finally reluctantly sent someone to replace Conca. Seeing that he was about to be replaced, Conca felt a sense of relief. If it had been a different game and he had been substituted at this point in time, Conca would have been angry.
"SIPG finally replaced Conca, who was inactive on the pitch today. I wonder if this will improve the situation on the field?"
After replacing Conca, the situation on the field of SIPG is indeed better. Because the person who was replaced this time no longer needed Yan Feng's pair. After one more person came back at halftime, the organization of SIPG was at least a little more stable.
On the R&F side, because Yan Feng returned to his normal style of play, Svensson, as a defender, was dived down by Wang Song, and the formation became 451.
The formation is more balanced offensively and defensively, coupled with the return of Yan Feng's strong defense, which makes SIPG's better offense swept up again. In the end, Elkeson, who was forced to play as a central striker, had to retreat to get the ball near midfield.
Elkeson, who tried to organize his own attack, therefore faced Yan Feng. But under Yan Feng's tough and sticky defense, in addition to letting Yan Feng take a few more fouls, it failed to bring more threat to R&F's goal.
In the end, in the 83rd minute of this game, Giannou successfully grabbed a point in front of the goal and allowed R&F to beat SIPG by one goal.
Guangzhou R&F successfully advanced to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, although Yan Feng did not score or assist in this game, but he also contributed a lot.
After the game, Conca, who was interviewed, said helplessly: "The opponent's No. 44 has almost become my shadow. No, it should have been him who turned into a big rock on my body. I didn't play as well as I should. He's so tough!" )