Chapter 75: It's inevitable
On February 28, in the 26th round of the 2016-17 Premier League season, Blackburn Rovers will challenge Leicester as a guest, which will be a game full of highlights. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info?? Huo Ran Wen w?w?w?.?
This game will be the first game for the Foxes in the post-Ranieri era: Leicester FC announced the sacking of Ranieri on Thursday, and the decorated coach who led the Foxes to a miraculous Premier League runners-up finish last season was dismissed. Leicester assistant coach Shakespeare and first-team coach Stowell will take over the team on a temporary basis.
Leicester's home game against Blackburn Rovers will be the first game in the post-Ranieri era, and the Foxes will be hoping to achieve the same immediate effect as Swansea and Hull City by changing managers, with Crystal Palace taking all three points in this round, Leicester have fallen into the relegation zone and must fight for victory.
Blackburn Rovers will also be aiming for the three points, having beaten Tottenham 2-0 at home last time out to keep them one point behind leaders Chelsea in the table. With the Blues winning back-to-back games and making few mistakes, Klopp doesn't want his side to fall behind.
Jurgen Klopp revealed before the game that the team's vice-captain Phil Jones, who missed two games with a knee injury, has returned to training and is very, very close to returning. Neymar suffered a minor calf injury in training, but it should be fine. For Leicester, Slimani is injured and Shinji Okazaki could partner Jamie Vardy up front.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Coutinho said: "Leicester were runners-up last season and they have some very good players, so it's going to be a difficult game for sure. It's important for us to beat them and now we have to focus on the next game with conviction. ”
Jurgen Klopp said: "I don't know what Leicester's sacking of Ranieri will do in this game, but we should expect to see a better Leicester team who have scored in the Champions League and they can take confidence from that it will be a difficult game. ”
Blackburn lost to Leicester City last season, the only defeat of the Roses in the league last season, so they don't need to agitate to get revenge, they already have the belief to fight, and Arthur came back from the United States to supervise the away game, which made Blackburn's whole army aim to win.
Leicester City, on the other hand, opted for a mourning squad after the sacking of meritorious coach Ranieri this week, with caretaker coach Clegg Shakespeare putting Shinji Okazaki in the starting line-up.
Leicester City starting XI (4-4-2):
Goalkeeper: Kasper Schmeichel
Defenders: Simpson, Morgan, Hut, Fuchs
Midfielders: Gray, Drinkwater, Ndidi, Albrighton
Forwards: Shinji Okazaki, Jamie Vardy
Blackburn Rovers starting line-up (4-4-2):
Goalkeeper: Cech
Defenders: Alaba, Alderweireld, Varane, Bellerin
Midfielders: Bale, Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Neymar
Forwards: Antoine Griezmann, Harry Kane
At the start of the first half, Blackburn Rovers dominated the game and dominated possession.
Leicester City's dense defense in the middle at the beginning greatly limited the play of Harry Kane and Griezmann, although both of them are not bad at the foot of the dribbling skills, but neither of them is like Messi and Iniesta who can complete the inventory of several people in a very small space, so Leicester City's caretaker coach Shakespeare's defensive strategy still works at this point.
However, Leicester City kept Griezmann and Harry Kane on the side, and then Neymar and Bale, the two best wingers of the day, led the attack.
The ball passed to the feet of Neymar, and the confrontation ability of today's Brazilian king is no longer as vulnerable as when he first came to the Premier League, although he is not a muscular man like Ronaldo, but his core ability is not bad, and the first-class confrontation ability is vividly displayed at this time, Leicester City's Albrighton continues to use his body to carry Neymar, but Neymar is not scared, just relying on his body and using these small skills of dialing, pulling, and buckling, he protects the ball by his side, so that the opponent has never been able to break the ball.
Antoine Griezmann and Harry Kane were not idle, frantically looking for space to cut in and try to shake them off, but the Leicester players finally gave up on them and pounced on Neymar.
The opportunity is fleeting!
Neymar played a right-footed pass through to Griezmann, who took advantage of the time difference between the opposing players to return to the ball and distributed it to Bale, who followed up on the wing.
Harry Kane swooped into the Leicester penalty area, while Antoine Griezmann roamed the middle of the box, tearing up space for Bale from afar and being ready to pick it up.
In front of the defender, Bale flicked the outside of his instep, and then slammed into the breakaway, and the tall side of his body stuck the opponent at his side.
Fuchs slammed his body hard into Bell and fouled him in an attempt to intercept him.
Bale knew that his opponent's foul might not even be enough for a yellow card, so there was no need to end a good chance to attack, so he stopped the break, quickly passed the ball back to Pogba, and then cut forward to the baseline.
Pogba didn't stop the ball in the face of the opponent's front and back and forward, and directly pushed the ball to Harry Kane.
Morgan was the first to appear on Harry Kane's side, blocking his path to turn and break through.
But he didn't expect that Harry Kane suddenly split his legs and directly leaked the ball and rolled to the bottom line, and Morgan was caught off guard by Harry Kane turned and got rid of it.
The ball that Harry Kane missed was Bale, who went down early, and the unguarded Bale easily got up and crossed.
At the moment of Bale's pass, Harry Kane had just turned away from Morgan and Bale's cross was comfortably in front of him.
Harry Kane fired a crisp volley into the near corner of the net, and Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel made a sideways move to make a sideways move.
"Beautiful!"
Neymar, Antoine Griezmann, Gareth Bale, Paul Pogba and Harry Kane – the Blackburn front five hugged each other and yelled in unison in front of Leicester's goal.
This goal did not have too many individual standouts, but regardless of passing, running, getting rid of the ball, a flash of inspiration and the final shot in one go, Harry Kane only took ten seconds or so, relying on 6 passes and one shot to direct a wonderful combination goal, almost passing the football into the opponent's goal!
It was the combination of this set of punches that stunned Leicester City!
What is even more surprising is that after Blackburn's goal, there was a burst of cheers in Leicester City's King Power Stadium, not only Blackburn fans were celebrating, but nearly half of Leicester City fans were also frantically celebrating the goal.
And the betrayal of this group of applauding Leicester City, on the one hand, is indeed because of Blackburn's beautiful goal, and on the other hand, it is for the anger of the former coach Ranieri, who has just been sacked.
Compared with Shakespeare's rampage, Klopp on the other side smiled indifferently, applauded twice, and walked back to the bench with his hands behind his back.
Don't worry too much about the next game, Klopp can see that the boys on the field are in good shape, and if this trend continues, they will soon completely seal the victory.
The game started again in an eerie "joyful" atmosphere, with the cheers of the fans rumbling like a war drum in the hearts of the Blackburn front five, making them feel their blood boiling.
The excitement of the front five drove Blackburn's attacking rhythm, and Leicester quickly retreated to the penalty area after an unsuccessful attack, blocking Blackburn's first wave of impact.
Just when they thought that Blake would slow down the pace and slowly fall to the ground looking for an opportunity, Neymar faked a real pass, and Griezmann retreated to the vicinity of the penalty area, flicked the outside of his left foot with his back, and turned and volleyed.
Before the Leicester player could keep up with Griezmann, his shot hit the outside of the post and flew off the line.
"Whew!" The audience resounded with a cry of regret.
Leicester's players were shocked into a cold sweat, and Kasper Schmeichel slapped the post, thankful that God was on their side this time.
Two minutes later, N'Golo Kante whipped in a quick free-kick from the back, Bale broke through again, and the Leicester players were not going to make the same mistake as two of them quickly pounced on the Welsh king to block it.
Bale was unmoved, quickly slotted the ball at his feet, Griezmann once again pressed against the central defender behind him, and with a knock of his right foot, the ball passed between the three and fell again in front of Neymar, who was in front of him.
"Just in time!"
Neymar yelled with joy in his heart, and he had no intention of breaking into the penalty area, and directly hit the penalty area with a powerful volley.
The ball draws a high line in the air and flies extremely fast towards the back corner of the goal. Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel struggled to make a leap to save but couldn't touch the football.
"Huh!"
With a full moon scimitar with a huge arc, Neymar raised his hands in celebration without waiting for the football to enter the goal, and the next moment he was overwhelmed and covered by Harry Kane and others.
2:0!
Leicester City caretaker manager Shakespeare walked quickly to the sideline and shouted to his players: "Damn, all of them retreat, pay attention to protect the front of the penalty area, don't let them pass the ball too easily, and keep the middle high!" ”
It's just less than 30 minutes, Blake has already led 2:0, their successive attacks scared Leicester City, they immediately changed their tactics to stick to the penalty area, the loss is acceptable, but it must not be a big rout!
Leicester assistant coach William Shakespeare and first-team coach Stowell will take over the team for the time being, and the two are simply not qualified to take over the role of Premier League manager, but what can be done?
With the sacking of decorated manager Rajli, Leicester City have become the target of public criticism. The team's top management who doesn't talk about right and wrong is really unbearable. However, the team still needs to continue to play, so who will take over the Foxes' managership?
Previously, it was reported in the media that Leicester City intended to invite Hiddink to join the team, and of course they also invited several other coaches, such as Mancini, who was idle at home, and won a runner-up. Of course, Leicester were ruthlessly rejected by Mancini, and Hiddink also expressed no interest. There have been reports that Leicester City have also brought in Huddersfield Town coach Wagner and Nantes boss Conceição to coach, but the latter two have also refused.
Who doesn't want to take a job, but the coaches should be afraid of unloading the mill and killing the donkey and the like. Moreover, public opinion is unanimously negative for Leicester City's top management, and no one wants to jump into the fire pit at this time.
Before, when there was no coach in a team who was willing to take over, everyone would think of the replacement potmaker, and Lajili must have done a good job. However, now, the team that the tinkerers have fired is really no one to take over.
In short, in a country with a history of more than 100 years of professional football, there is no consortium to throw money at it, win a league championship, and just steal the fun. But Leicester's hierarchy were naïve, and sacking a decorated manager would be a precursor to the team's rapid decline from glory.
Leicester City changed tactics and began to defend after being two goals down at home, and it was less than 30 minutes into the first half, which caused even more dissatisfaction among the home fans.
Leicester City's stubborn defense also gave Blackburn more opportunities to attack, and in the rare case of Arthur's personal supervision this season, Blackburn are ready to sacrifice a slaughter to their boss.
On the field, Blackburn was in possession again, and after receiving Griezmann's pass, Neymar pretended to plug straight, but suddenly buckled his feet, twisted his body and cut inward, and began to dribble along the line of the big penalty area, and Leicester City's Morgan immediately put a shovel to block.
Neymar went down and Blackburn won a free-kick from the edge of the box.
Neymar chose to take the penalty himself, standing in front of the ball and watching Leicester City put up the wall, but Griezmann in the penalty area suddenly stretched out his left hand, circled his middle finger and thumb, and made a special gesture towards him.
Neymar blinked, waited for the referee to blow the whistle, and began to run, when it was a powerful direct free kick, but unexpectedly Neymar made a false shot, deceived Leicester City's human wall and jumped, and then passed the ball to Griezmann who ran to the left side of the penalty area.
Griezmann faced the football directly with a powerful left-footed volley, at this time there were many people in the penalty area, and when Leicester goalkeeper Schmeichel could not see the trajectory of the football clearly, Griezmann's heavy bombardment had already run into the net, and even spun on the net for a moment before falling back on the turf.
3:0!
Schmeichel knelt on the ground in a daze and looked at his teammates, his face full of innocence, grievance, helplessness, frustration, in short, a complicated expression.
Griezmann, on the other hand, stood still and flicked his arms outstretched, coupled with his stinky farts demeanor, as if to signal to the fans that the goal was nothing. At this time, a group of teammates who couldn't see it all rushed forward and knocked the handsome French guy to the ground and ravaged this stinky guy fiercely.
With just 32 minutes to go and Blackburn already leading Leicester City by three goals thanks to goals from Harry Kane, Neymar and Antoine Griezmann, a massacre seemed inevitable!