Chapter 108: A Beautiful Start

"Come on, boys, for the fans!" Slomka finally yelled.

Led by captain Bolton, the Schalke 04 players gathered in a circle in the dressing room and shouted: "Come on!"

Walking out of the locker room to the players' tunnel, listening to the sound of the Champions League theme song outside, Zhang Yuan was nervous for no reason, this is the biggest stage, there is no bigger stage in the club competition, he is really excited and nervous.

However, the nervousness in his heart was not shown on his face, and he silently thought about the past few years, he remembered Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's stunner, which achieved Manchester United's treble, remembered Porto's miracle championship and made character coach Mourinho famous in football, remembered Liverpool's three-goal catch-up and created the Istanbul miracle, and remembered AC Milan's reunion with the Reds, and finally avenged the revenge.

"Come on!" Zhang Yuan was startled, and without looking back, it was Neuer's big hands that slapped him on the shoulder.

Immediately afterwards, Neuer pushed Zhang Yuan, and Zhang Yuan woke up, it was time to play!

The two teams came to the field, listened to the song, tossed a coin to choose a side, Schalke 04 chose a side, Porto kicked off, and the commentator who went to the Schalke Stadium began to broadcast the names of the starting players.

Zhang Yuan's name is one of the most popular, of course, the hottest must be Kuranyi and captain Bolton, but this also proves that Zhang Yuan has won the love of Schalke 04 fans in a relatively short period of time.

Zhang Yuan was watching the scene, and the fans finally found that many fans were holding posters made by them, on which was Zhang Yuan's sassy and heroic posture on the court, and the blank space said "Lightning Boy", this signboard has not appeared in front of Zhang Yuan's eyes for a long time.

He can't play at Inter Milan, so naturally there are no fans with this kind of sign, and when he comes to Schalke 04, the fans don't know his past, including his teammates, who don't know his nickname in Italy.

After the last game, "Bild" didn't know where to know Zhang Yuan's nickname, and used the nickname "Lightning Kid" in the comments, and the fans of Schalke 04 learned about it, so they used this nickname, which is what happened today.

Porto's old coach Jesualdo Ferreira also lined up today with a 433, which is Porto's usual formation. The starters are:

Goalkeeper: Elton

Defenders: Paulo, Alves, Emmanuel, Fuchile

Midfielders: Luis Gonzalez, Assunço, Meireles

Forwards: López, Quaresma, Farias

Porto's squad is quite aggressive, no worse than Schalke 04, and even higher in terms of player talent and creativity, Schalke 04 has a lot of defensive pressure.

A talented player like Quaresma, who experienced the defeat of Barcelona but returned to the Portuguese Super League, with the formation of Porto, this tactical system, he proved himself again.

Lisandro López has scored 14 goals in the Portuguese Super League so far and is Porto's top scorer.

Generally speaking, the overall situation of Porto is that they are creative and fast, but they also have weaknesses, that is, they are not as good as Schalke 04 in physical confrontation, and it is really difficult to say whether they can make a difference in the face of the tall Schalke 04 back line.

Slomka's tactics arranged today are to attack in the opening stage, to catch the opponent off guard, if you can score a goal is quite wonderful, if you don't have it, it doesn't matter, after ten minutes of attack, based on the defense, and then slowly try to it.

After Porto kick-off, Kulanyi, Zhang Yuan, Asamoah rushed up to force, Porto players had to put the ball in the backfield, their style is to play ground attack or long pass to find the opponent's defender behind, the main reason is that the front court attacking players are generally not tall, the header is not dominant at all, blindly pass the ball to the front, and easily lose possession, which is not cost-effective.

Finally, it was passed back to goalkeeper Elton, Kuranyi then rushed up to force, Elton had no choice but to kick forward, did not say, this kind of highball duel winner has no suspense is Schalke 04 player, Bolton pressed Lopez, gave the ball to Ernst, Ernst then passed to Rakitic, Rakitic controlled the ball, saw that Kuranyi was still in an offside state, and Jones made a wall-hitting cooperation, get rid of Mereles, optimistic about Kuranyi's position is a long pass, Kuranyi and Porto's central defender Alves ran to the landing point at the same time, but it was Kuranyi who pushed the ball to the top, and Kuranyi's goal was not to the goal, but to Zhang Yuan, who is not far from him, Zhang Yuan's side is Paul on the defense, Zhang Yuan moves faster than Paul, and directly volleys with the outside of his instep to meet the ball, this volley is outside the arc with fallen leaves, very beautiful, but this ball is almost lucky, "clang" hit the door beam of the Porto gate, although the volley distance is a bit far, about 30 meters, but Zhang Yuan's strength is also very strong now, and with an arc, Elton was stunned that he failed to touch the ball.

But fortunately, with the help of goalkeeper Liang Jun, the ball bounced back into the field and was cleared out of the touchline by Fuchley, and Schalke 04 got the throw-in.

"Zhang Yuan, shoot! Oops, hit the crossbar! What a pity! This kick is almost lucky!" He Wei explained.

"This ball is shot very beautifully, Kuranyi's fulcrum role in the front court is obvious, this should be the attack routine of Schalke 04 today, Kuranyi does it back, Zhang Yuan and Asamoah on both sides are waiting for the opportunity to shoot at the second landing point!" Tao Wei analyzed.

"It's only been 2 minutes into the game, Schalke 04 gave Porto a dismount, haha, is it telling them that this is our chassis?" He Wei joked.

The fans at the scene collectively let out an exclamation of "wow", and many fans held their heads in their hands to express regret for the ball!

Zhang Yuan himself is also very regretful, he feels good about this shot, but the distance is so far, whether he can score or not depends on the will of God, but the final result is to hit the crossbar, this result is more annoying than being saved by the goalkeeper, he kicked hard to express his dissatisfaction.

Schalke 04 sent the ball out on the touchline, and the Porto players had returned to their own half, forming a positional battle, and Rakitic continued to dispatch to try to draw gaps in the Porto defence, but with little success.

In the end, he passed the ball to Zhang Yuan's feet, and Zhang Yuan saw that Rakitic's dispatch in the middle still failed to find the empty crotch, and Zhang Yuan decided to break through by himself.

On the left side, Zhang Yuan took the ball and faced Paul, Gonzalez assisted in the defense nearby, and did not fight Zhang Yuan with Paul, Zhang Yuan just kept walking slowly to the bottom line, almost to the bottom line, the passing route was very small, Paul was facing Zhang Yuan, Gonzalez no longer assisted in defense at this time, because the more to the bottom line, the narrower the route of Zhang Yuan's pass, and he could only choose to pass back, but Gonzalez planned to come from the return route and Paul to wrap Zhang Yuan.

Paul also posted it slowly, instead of keeping a certain distance from Zhang Yuan as he did at the beginning, which happened to be what Zhang Yuan wanted to see, Zhang Yuan estimated the distance between himself and Paul and Gonzalez, and came up with a trick that he was prepared for.

Paul and Gonzalez's plan was to force Zhang Yuan to the corner kick area, but Zhang Yuan made a move, and in the face of Paul and Gonzalez's bag, Zhang Yuan used a heel to pass the ball, that is, when Turkey played against Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, Turkish international Ilhan passed Carlos's trick, and there is a beautiful name called Rainbow Pass.

Paul and Gonzalez couldn't reach it, the ball passed between the two of them, Zhang Yuan overtook Paul from outside the bottom line, Paul didn't have time to make foul moves, caught the ball, Zhang Yuan went to the penalty area, Emanuel and Asunsan were attracted over, and Zhang Yuan couldn't still break through like this!

This is Zhang Yuan's pass, cross, looking for Kulanyi's header, at this time Zhang Yuan's pass feels good, the ball is in place, Kuranyi once again pressed Alves' header to hit the goal.

Kulanyi chose to smash the ground with a header this time, the ball first hit the ground and then rebounded, this kind of ball goalkeeper is very difficult to keep, because the goalkeeper in the face of the opponent's high-altitude cross is generally used to maintain a spring posture, ready to jump or swoop sideways, squatting active consciousness is rare, in the face of such a ball, the goalkeeper just subconsciously reacts where to pounce, so the success rate of this top is much higher, but this top is more demanding for the players who attack the goal, and the head must be used to grasp the direction of strength, under the interference of the opposing defenders, it is difficult for the striker not to be out of shape, and the pass must be appropriate to use this trick, the power of the pass is largeIt's hard for a striker to make that kind of shot.

Kuranyi was not very good under the interference of Alves this time, the ball smashed to the goal line, Elton subconsciously stretched his leg and actually blocked the ball, but the story is not over, after the ball was blocked, a blue figure rushed to meet the ball to shoot, this time Elton really had no choice, the ball went in!

The blue figure was Asamoah, and in this tense state, Fuchilai failed to look at Asamoah.

Schalke 04, playing at home, led Porto 1-0, and the stadium suddenly became a sea of joy, and the cheers of the fans were deafening.

Asamoah, a Ghanaian who came to Germany at a very young age to play and eventually became a German citizen, rushed to the corner and danced an African dance. The genes of African people who can sing and dance still exist in the depths of Asamoah's body, and he was very, very happy that the goal was scored, so he actually danced, Schalke 04 other players didn't know this kind of dance, but they didn't mind learning it on the spot, and they all writhed their butts with Asamoah.

Zhang Yuan looked very funny, and he also went up to learn it, and He Wei and Tao Wei laughed.