I still remember that when Gao Han coached Inter Milan, when he was teaching many Italian coaches in Corvicciano, some students asked whether there was no other way to solve the problem in the face of Inter Milan's pass-and-control style of play, except to strictly guard against it.

It was a very popular topic at the time, because at that time there was no Barcelona Dream Three, and Inter Milan's pass-and-possession style of play was unique in European football, even worse than Rijkaard's Barcelona.

Gao Han still clearly remembers that Guardiola was also on the scene at that time.

To this question, Gao Han replied with certainty, no.

He believes that there is no perfect tactic in this world, the so-called tactics must have trade-offs, and no matter how meticulous the tactics are, there will definitely be problems with the lineup configuration of a team, so it is impossible to be unsolvable.

At best, the bar for solving the answer to this puzzle itself will be high.

At that time, Gao Han gave three requirements, first of all, the opponent must have a unified tactical idea and be good at pressing and pressing from a high position.

If you don't press from the top of the position, you are giving up possession to the opponent, only 30 percent, or maybe even less than 30 percent, and you are destined to have no other way but to defend it tightly.

Therefore, if you don't want to defend strictly, you can only force and oppress from a high position.

And everyone knows that football tactics have developed to the present, although high-level pressing is not new, but the requirements for a team are very high, especially the game ideas and tactical execution of front-court players are a very big test.

If you can't form a unified tactical idea and exert force in one direction at the same time, then the high-level pressing and pressing is doomed to be a plate of scattered sand, and the final result is often a worse death.

The second requirement brought about by the first point of high pressing is that you must have excellent physical fitness.

The physical exertion of a player in a soccer game is quite staggering, especially when the team adopts high pressing tactics, and the physical exertion of the whole team reaches a staggering level for one person.

Looking at the past season of European football, how many teams have resolutely adopted high-pressing tactics when facing Manchester City and Barcelona, but because of their physical strength, they couldn't hold on in the end, resulting in problems with tactical execution, and finally being bloodied by Manchester City and Barcelona?

Therefore, if you want to press out and play with Manchester City, you can't support the end of the game without excellent physical fitness, and with the attacking power of Manchester City and Barcelona, as long as the opponent's physical fitness is problematic, there is no problem at all to score two goals in ten minutes.

In fact, there are not many teams that can do the above two things, but there are not a few, such as Atletico Madrid, Arsenal and Real Madrid.

The Gunners played Barcelona in the first leg of this season's Champions League, which was obviously the same style of play, and the result was a 2-1 home defeat to Barcelona, which was called a miracle by countless people, but the Gunners' possession in that game was still very low, and in the second leg, Arsenal was completely disarmed.

Similarly, in the Copa del Rey final, Jose Mourinho played a three-man tactic, taking the initiative to press Barcelona, forcing Pep Guardiola's side to fail to score for 120 minutes, but Real Madrid finally scored a goal to win the Copa del Rey title.

This game has been called epic by countless media outlets.

So, can such a game be replicated?

The answer is no!

Arsenal took the initiative in the first leg, immediately contracted the defense in the second leg, and Real Madrid took the initiative to defeat Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final to win the title, but also paid great attention to shrinking the defense against Manchester City.

The reason is simple, they know the weakness of this style of play, and at the same time they know where their problems are.

That's what they lack the third element, possession.

Everyone knows that a defender who can only grab the ball is not a good midfielder, and a really good midfielder must not only be able to grab the ball, but also be able to protect the ball and pass the ball.

The reason is very simple, after grabbing the ball, you can't protect it, you can't pass it, and you lose it, which is not only a great drain on the player's physical fitness, but also a huge blow to the team's morale.

In the same way, it's true at the back, it's true for a team.

Relying only on pressing and running at the expense of physical strength is a lack of continuity, and if you can grab it, you must be able to control it.

In fact, many fans ignore one point, whether it is Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich or this Manchester City team coached by Gao Han, in addition to the characteristics of passing and possession, high pressing and excellent physical fitness are also the obvious labels of these teams, but passing and possession are more well-known.

The same goes for Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.

And everyone knows that the biggest problem with pass-and-possession is not in the tactics, but in the players.

Barcelona has Sergio Busquets, Manchester City's lag is Xavi Alonso, both of whom are the world's top midfielders, and midfielders Barcelona have Xavi and Iniesta, and Manchester City has David Silva and Modric, all of which are top possession midfield configurations.

Arguably, most of the best ball-handling players in all of Europe are in these two teams.

A big reason why many people in European football are optimistic about James Rodriguez is that the Colombian midfielder has shown excellent passing and ball control ability, and is very comprehensive.

It is not difficult to adopt high pressing tactics, and it is not difficult to have abundant physical fitness, but the real difficulty lies in how to achieve the first two points and then have excellent passing and possession ability.

This undoubtedly sets a very high bar for all teams.

And this game, the contest between Manchester City and Barcelona, has become particularly exciting.

Especially when they fought against each other, the scene was even more exciting, so that all the fans in the entire Wembley Stadium were so fascinated that they almost forgot the time.

…………

…………

Twenty minutes passed before the game was played, and the two teams on the pitch still maintained the balance of power since the opening, and neither of them could press the opponent on the field.

But such a game was not dull at all, with the two teams frequently producing skilful and fluid passes, frequent brilliant lethal passes, and every shot on goal was thrilling, making the fans in unison.

Everyone feels like they are on a roller coaster, extremely thrilling and enjoyable.

But the time to come has finally come.

When everyone thought that Barcelona's left side would be a weakness and Manchester City should open a breakthrough from their right side, in the 22nd minute, the blue moon opened a bloody road from the left side.

Benzemara went to the edge of the box on the left to receive a pass from David Silva, and the two skillfully played a one-two in the left corner of the box, David Silva got rid of Xavi, who was close to him, and passed the ball to the feet of Cristiano Ronaldo, who cut to the edge of the box, and the Portuguese stabbed the ball forward without thinking.

The ball passed diagonally from the middle of Puyol and Busquets to the left side of the penalty area, and Benzema, who had just pulled to the outside of the penalty area to respond, had already quickly inserted behind him at this time, blocked Alves with his body, and after receiving the pass from his teammates, he stopped the ball and buckled Puyol, and shot directly with his right foot.

Valdés couldn't help but watch as the ball crashed into the bottom right corner in the face of the close-range shot.

“GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL！！！！！”

"In the twenty-second minute, Manchester City took the lead in scoring against Barcelona!"

"One to zero!"

'It was a great team combination, Cristiano Ronaldo drew the attention of the defence at the edge of the box, Benzema was a wonderful combination with David Silva, but the most surprising thing was the final stab pass from Cristiano Ronaldo, which was very crucial and deadly. ”

"Benzema was very calm at the crucial moment, and after deducting Puyol, he took advantage of the situation to hit the goal, without the slightest drag. ”

"Barcelona look a little bit passive now. ”

…………

…………

Pep Guardiola was on the sidelines, and after seeing Benzema score, he opened his arms in frustration.

The Portuguese and Kaka attracted defensive attention at the edge of the penalty area, resulting in a hollow in the box, which gave Benzema the opportunity to counter-penetrate the penalty area.

"Gao Han is Gao Han in the end, he knows that our left side is a weakness, but after the opening he seems to have refused to play on the left side, but is attacking our right side, which is a bit surprising. ”

Assistant coach Villanova also nodded frequently, and Gao Han is very experienced in targeted tactics and always surprises.

"Tell Alves that he's going to be responsible for getting me back!" Guardiola said, pointing to the pitch with a sharp look in his eyes.

After the game restarted and conceded the goal, Barcelona quickly organized a counterattack, but Manchester City did not show weakness, still pressing from the high position, and did not mean to take half a step back.

The two sides fought in the vicinity of the center line, and neither side held back.

But soon, Barcelona saw an opportunity, after Messi got the ball on the right side, he suddenly started, forced a breakthrough through Kompany, cut to the middle with the ball, and after getting rid of Xavi Alonso, he failed to continue to break through Xavi Martinez, and was tackled to the ground by the latter.

Referee Kase signalled that it was a successful defence, not a foul.

Barcelona were slightly controversial about the decision, but soon returned to the game and City took the opportunity to launch a counter-attack and once again into the Barcelona penalty area.

But just when everyone thought that Manchester City was going to create another killing opportunity and create a threat, Barcelona suddenly completed a defense, Xavi successfully broke the ball in the middle, and quickly passed the ball diagonally to the right.

Alves strode forward with the ball down the right flank and Barcelona began to launch a counter-attack.

Messi leaned into the middle and ceded the entire right aisle to Alves, while Ibrahimovic was stuck in front, leaving City's defenders afraid to be careless.

Barcelona's counter-attack was very fast, and the likes of David Silva and Luka Modric were quick to come back to the defense, but they still fell behind.

Alves dribbled into the 30-metre area of Manchester City and cut inside decisively.

Kompany stepped forward to defend and Xavi Alonso was stuck in the middle, but Alves suddenly crossed with his right foot to the edge of the box.

Ibrahimovic turned his back to the goal, blocked Javi Martinez with his body, faced the incoming ball from Alves, and gently pushed forward, and saw Messi, who had been ambushed in the middle, facing the incoming ball, stopping the ball in front of him, picking up his left foot, and directly hitting the goal with a curling ball.

In the penalty area, Petr Cech had made all the preparations, but in the face of Messi's parabolic curling ball on goal, he could not do anything, and could only watch as the ball almost grazed the crossbar and crashed into the top left corner.

One-to-one!

Pep Guardiola watched the whole person jump on the sidelines, clenching his fists and cheering excitedly.

Barcelona has a problem, but Manchester City doesn't?

The three-four-three formation certainly makes Blue Moon's attack power amazing, but there are also a lot of weaknesses on the side.

Other teams may not be able to take advantage of this, but Barcelona definitely can!

Thinking of this, Guardiola turned his head and looked at Gao Han, as if to say, let's be half a pound and eight taels for each other.

Both of them smiled in unison, and their eyes were filled with inexplicable excitement.

(End of chapter)