Chapter 68: Old Rivals
On May 19, the most important game in European football in the 2011-12 season started, Blackburn "visited" the Allianz Arena to challenge Bayern Munich, and the winner of a single game decided the Champions League championship this season!
If Blackburn can beat Bayern Munich to win the title, it will be their fifth ever Champions League, thus securing a permanent Champions League trophy and overtaking Liverpool to third place in Europe. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½?? Huo Ranwen?? ww?w?ļ¼
No team has been able to play in a final at home since the Champions League was restructured, and if Bayern can win this game, the Bundesliga giants will become the first club to win the Champions League at home.
Looking back at the history of the Champions League, only Real Madrid and Inter Milan managed to win the trophy at home in their most glorious period, and in addition, the Italian side also reached the final at the Stadio Oliver in Rome, but they unfortunately lost to Liverpool on penalties.
However, for Bayern Munich, they suffered a 5-2 defeat at the feet of Borussia Dortmund last week, and the old coach Heynckes lost his second trophy of the season. After losing the Bundesliga title by Borussia Dortmund home and away in the league, Bayern was once again beaten by Dortmund in the single-game cup competition. While watching their opponents celebrate the club's first domestic double in 103 years, they had to chew on the bitterness of the worst defeat in the German Cup final.
Losing is not the end of the world. For Heynckes and his proud Bayern Munich, the season is still not over. At the Allianz Arena on May 19, they had one last chance to prove themselves.
Is it the embarrassing "King of Sanya" after becoming Leverkusen, or is it to take advantage of the home field to win the trophy at home with the lack of major generals? Now the opportunities are in Heynckes' hands.
Heynckes' coaching career can be described as glamorous, especially in the Champions League, although the Italian eliminated the invincible Cosmos team with an iron bucket formation, and became the focus of all walks of life. But Heynckes was the one who led the team to lift the Big Ears Cup. In the 97-98 season, the old coach took charge of Real Madrid, and finally beat Juventus in the final and won the Champions League trophy after a 32-year absence.
If you don't consider the past, just looking at the obvious shortcomings of the lineup, Bayern broke through from the group of death early this season, and went all the way through the knockout rounds, you can see that Heynckes is by no means lacking in the improvisation and composure of the competition.
As long as Heynckes can rebuild the morale of his players, Bayern have every hope of winning the trophy at home thanks to home advantage and personal coaching experience.
With the tournament just around the corner, Heynckes' biggest concern is Bayern's poor backline. After the defeat to Borussia Dortmund, Heynckes admitted that his team's defence was full of holes, "Our defence was a disaster, from the third minute. Whoever is not concentrating has no reason to win. ā
However, due to the absence of Bad Stuber, Alaba, and Gustavo, the three absolute main players in the midfield, the old coach really looks like he is facing the dilemma of having no rice to cook.
Of course, Heynckes was not without a backhand. In the German Cup final, he replaced Alaba with Contento in the second half and was already preparing for the Champions League final. Contento has played the full game in the last four league games and the German Cup final, where he was almost certain to replace Alaba at left-back in the Champions League final.
In addition, the vacancy at centre-back is likely to be filled by Ukrainian captain Timoshchuk, while Belgium's Van Bitten, who has just recovered from injury and needs time to adapt to the high-tempo confrontation, will certainly be on the bench for the Champions League final.
Aside from personnel changes, Heynckes doesn't really have much to do defensively. Recently, some media bluntly said when analyzing the prospects of the final between the two teams, "Now Heynckes can only pray that his defensive players will not make low-level mistakes again." ā
Heynckes understands that the Champions League final is all about making fewer mistakes than any team: "We made five low-level mistakes and we were punished five times. These mistakes in the Champions League cannot be tolerated. In a game like the Champions League, it's about who makes fewer mistakes. ā
Compared with Bayern's nervousness, Blackburn is confident. Blackburn Rovers successfully defended their Premier League title by slaughtering Sunderland last Sunday, and the team's form and morale are at their peak!
Carlo Ancelotti said with confidence after watching Bayern's 5-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup final: "It was a good game, Dortmund impressed me a lot, it gave me some interesting ideas, but Bayern are a strong team. As for this final, I think it's a five-to-five game because both sides are big clubs. ā
With four days to go before the 2011/12 Champions League final, the referee for the finale of European football has been finalized, with the 41-year-old Portuguese player taking charge of Blackburn's clash against Bayern Munich.
Many Bayern fans believe that after the controversial second leg of the Champions League semi-final between Blackburn Rovers and Barcelona, UEFA has once again made arrangements in favour of the Roses.
Prior to this, Proenka had not officiated against Blackburn Rovers, but he had officiated against Bayern Munich twice, and Bayern had lost both games.
For this Champions League final, according to the latest odds announced by major bookmakers, Blackburn is also more optimistic. Since Bayern has just lost in the German Cup final, many bookmakers have raised Bayern's odds to win the championship to varying degrees, while Blackburn's odds have dropped slightly after winning the Premier League.
Bwin's odds for Bayern to win the tournament are 2.83 to 1 and Blackburn Rovers are 1.39 to 1. A draw within 90 minutes is also priced at 2.09 to 1.
William Hill's odds are broadly similar, with Bayern winning at 2.73 to 1, Blackburn Rovers at 1.50 and a draw at 2.40 to 1.
Ladbrokes offered Bayern 2.75 to 1 to win the championship, Blackburn was 1.33 to 1, and the draw was 2.40 to 1.
It is not difficult to see that no matter the score or the match situation, even if it is the advantage of the home field, Bayern Munich is not favored by the bookmaker. As for the odds of a draw, the result of 0:0 is 10 to 1, the result of 1:1 is 6.5 to 1, and the result of 2:2 is 16 to 1. Obviously, the bookmaker thinks that the maximum probability of a draw is a 1:1 scoreline.
"Hey, we're still so hot." Arthur will not miss his own team's Champions League final, but this time it will no longer be Emma Watson who will accompany him, but a Brazilian supermodel.
As for Emma Watson, she has already become one of Arthur's many ex-girlfriends.
On the 19th, the Champions League final went on as scheduled, and both teams lined up the best lineup without any questions:
Bayern Munich starting line-up (4-2-3-1):
Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer
Defenders: Kontento, Boateng, Tymoshchuk, Lahm
Defenders: Schweinsteiger, Kroos
Avant-garde: Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben
Forward: Gomez
Blackburn Rovers starting line-up (4-3-3):
Goalkeeper: Cech
Defenders: Ashley Cole, Kompany, Vermaelen, Ivanovic
Midfielders: Alonso, Frank Lampard, Mesut Ozil
Forwards: Bale, Torres, Suarez
Blackburn Rovers and Bayern Munich played each other two seasons ago, and the starting line-ups for both sides have not changed much, so there has been no such thing as a trial process.
In the second minute of the game, Blackburn launched an attack, Ozil's through ball found Torres accurately, but Neuer, nicknamed "The Goalkeeper", came out to get the ball.
3 minutes later, Gomez received Robben's ball and shot high from a distance, although Bayern Munich seemed to be attacking, but the field was still controlled by Blackburn, Bayern Munich was still a defensive counterattack tactic.
Mesut Ozil received a pass from Frank Lampard and walked along the right touchline of the penalty area, and when he saw that he could not escape the entanglement of his national team team-mate Kroos, he immediately made a decisive pass to Suarez, who has been in excellent form on the right flank.
Suarez's dribbling and passing are good, and he has a great chemistry with Torres, and his breakthroughs in the league can often surprise the team.
In the face of Bayern Munich's left-back Contento's defense, Suarez did not have a trace of fear at all, his feet shook rapidly, and Contento had stabilized his center of gravity, but as soon as he came out, the football ghostly moved from Suarez's right side to the left.
Contento's eyes shrank and he quickly retracted his center of gravity, trying to chase down and block Suarez's cross.
But Suarez didn't give him that chance, with an easy flick of the outside of his left foot, the ball was passed to Torres, who was waiting in the middle, and then flashed past Contento and quickly slotted in diagonally into the Bayern Munich penalty area.
Suarez shook off Contento and quickly cut into the heart of Bayern Munich's defence, and just as he was free to watch the situation, Torres' pass was just right in front of him.
Suarez stopped the ball with his right foot, the ball came to his left foot and Boateng didn't hesitate to step forward to disrupt it.
Suarez scrambled to shoot first, but Neuer waited in front of goal and steadily lifted the ball over the crossbar, and the young goalkeeper with a lot of range once again tried to keep the ball in the back of the net.
After that, Blackburn's corner was not pleasing to the more tall German man, and Kroos took the lead to push Ozil's corner out of the box, and Blackburn's attack was once again in vain.
In the face of Blackburn's wave after wave of attack, Bayern Munich's players are moving more and more, and they don't seem to care about the problem of winning cards, especially the excitement of Suarez one by one, and the Uruguayan shooter has long been provoked.
Forced, Suarez began to retreat frequently to receive passes from the midfield, also hoping that he could play better after staying away from the penalty area, and this quickly paid off. (To be continued.) )