Chapter 63: Van Bitten's Faith

However, Pep Guardiola does not think that the Chinese lad can threaten his team. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because the centre-back he is going to start with is Belgian veteran Daniel. Van Bitten. Li Qingshan, as a center forward who relies on headers as his main means of scoring, Van Bitten can be regarded as his nemesis to some extent.

At least that's what Guardiola thinks.

The Belgian centre-back, born in 1978, is 197 centimeters tall and weighs 96 kilograms! With outstanding physical advantages, it is a high-altitude barrier for Bayern and the Belgian national team.

And Li Qingshan does not have many advantages in terms of physical data, except that he is younger than Van Bitten. In Guardiola's view, the Bayern Munich backline with Van Bitten's presence does not have to worry much about Li Qingshan's header.

Instead, he is more concerned about Guangzhou Evergrande's central midfielder, Conca, a midfielder with excellent ball control and passing ability, who could find gaps in Bayern's defence, plus they have two players who are fast and fast. When dealing with the opponent's counterattack, the team's defense still needs to pay extra attention.

Although the opponent looks difficult to compare with Bayern Munich, Pep Guardiola as the head coach still makes meticulous arrangements.

For Bayern's stars, this game is probably about the same intensity as the pre-season warm-up game, and maybe even worse.

And Li Qingshan's words, of course, also reached their ears. But they didn't pay much attention to him, but used him as an after-dinner conversation.

After arriving in Morocco, Guardiola did not arrange too tight training intensity, mainly some training content of passing the ball to each other. For Bayern's players, this kind of training is really the most relaxing.

"Hey, did you hear that? Our next opponent, the striker, has played 48 games so far this season and scored 53 goals. As the Bayern players got together, Gotze said with his hands dancing.

Of course they know who "that striker" is.

"Averaged more than one goal per game, that sounds so cool!" Muller grinned and exclaimed, also as a striker, he certainly knows how difficult it can be to be efficient with more than one goal per game.

"It's just that I'm progressing at this level in Asia." Alaba said, spreading his hands.

"And the vast majority of them are headers!" Götze added, "I heard that he is very physical, and what he is best at is heading! ”

Ram pinched his chin and said, "Then we have nothing to worry about, with Daniel here, he has no chance to head the ball!" ”

Ram said as he looked at the usually low-key and reserved Belgian.

Van Bitten grinned when his teammates mentioned him. For him, there really is nothing to worry about. He is taller and stronger than his opponents, and his game experience is not comparable to Li Qingshan.

In this kind of frontal defense, Van Bitten is not afraid of anyone.

The Belgian veteran still has this confidence.

The time for the game came quickly, and on the evening of December 17 local time (Beijing time had already reached December 18), the atmosphere outside the Agadir Stadium began to feel before the start of the game.

The fans on both sides are wearing red jerseys, and from a distance, it is difficult to tell where the fans of both sides belong. But after walking in and looking at it, you can still tell it very clearly.

In terms of numbers, Bayern Munich naturally has more fans than Guangzhou Evergrande. Bayern Munich is a European giant, and their fans are all over the world. In Morocco, there are naturally a lot of Bayern Munich fans. Morocco is not too far away from Germany, and many local Bayern fans in Germany have also made a special trip to Morocco.

The fans of Guangzhou Evergrande are mainly local Chinese in Morocco and nearby countries, and it is easy to distinguish from their skin color that they are fans of Guangzhou Evergrande.

CCTV began to switch to the live broadcast signal of the game two hours before the start of the game. Outside the stadium, CCTV set up a camera to film the fans entering the stadium.

Bayern fans wearing Bayern Munich jerseys walked past the camera, noticed the camera, and the Bayern fans leaned over and shouted at the camera: "Southern Star!" Southern Star!! ”

Bavaria is located in the south of Germany, so Bayern is also known as the star of the south by the fans.

As soon as they walked by, a group of fans wearing Guangzhou Evergrande jerseys walked over.

They saw the CCTV camera, walked up to the camera, and shouted in unison: "Come on, Evergrande!!! ”

Many of them are not football fans, but in order to support the team from their home country, they have travelled from Morocco and North Africa to cheer on Guangzhou Evergrande.

For an hour, both teams were handed to the Adigal Stadium one after the other.

After the warm-up, players from both sides returned to the dressing room.

Guangzhou Evergrande drew the home team in this game, so they can use the more spacious and luxurious home team dressing room, while Bayern Munich's stars can only go to the away team's dressing room.

Lippi stood in front of his players. It's a routine before every game and as a manager you always have to say something.

Lippi is well aware of the gap with Bayern Munich, so he doesn't have much hope for this game.

But stepping on the football field, you have to do your best, and you can't just raise your hands and surrender just because the opponent is strong.

Although there is a big gap between the strength of his team and the opponent, Lippi still made targeted arrangements on the basis of the team's personnel structure.

There is no doubt that this game is the rhythm of Guangzhou Evergrande's main defense, and then waiting for an opportunity to counterattack. As Asian hegemons, they have always been able to dominate most of the time on the field in the Chinese Super League and AFC Champions League, tearing down the opponent's defense through patient attacking organization. But in this game, Guangzhou Evergrande obviously can't do this. In this case, Lippi made some changes to his starting lineup.

Lippi removed a man from the original 4231 formation, replaced him with a defensive midfielder, put Muric on the bench temporarily, and Zhao Xuri replaced him, turning the formation into 4321.

Three defensive midfielders were deployed in midfield. In fact, in the past few days, Guangzhou Evergrande has mainly been training to familiarize itself with this formation.

However, in the locker room at this time, the players of Guangzhou Evergrande seemed very quiet, and everyone's expressions looked very serious, without a trace of smile.

Lippi frowned slightly, Guangzhou Evergrande, as a dominant team in the league, still showed his fear when facing Bayern Munich.

Most of them came to Morocco on holiday, and all they had in mind was to make it past the first round of the Club World Cup. In front of the mighty Bayern Munich, none of them dared to show their minions.

Only Li Qingshan's face was as usual, he sat on a chair in the locker room like he usually played, waiting excitedly to play.

This is the mentality that a real overlord team player should have, Lippi nodded slightly.

But Lippi didn't say anything to reverse the nervousness of the players, but simply turned the tactical board around and began to emphasize some of the key points again.

It is the first time for Guangzhou Evergrande to put on such a defensive formation, but for Lippi, as an Italian coach, defense is his own caretaker.

How to stand in the three defensive midfielders and how to stand in the position of full-backs. When there is a chance to counterattack, how to run and cooperate with the three-person team in front.

The tension in the hearts of the players disappeared a lot as they watched Lippi write and draw on the tactical board, as if they were dealing with an ordinary Chinese Super League game.

After all, as a world champion coach, Lippi's aura is still enough to infect the players of Guangzhou Evergrande.

Lippi's style is like this, he rarely gets excited and morale-boosting, he acts like an engineer, getting the players on the pitch to stand and pass the ball as he intended.

When the players on both sides lined up and stood in the players' tunnel, the players of Guangzhou Evergrande looked a little restrained, while the Bayern Munich players standing on the other side of them were full of relaxation, and some were still covering their mouths and chatting with their teammates in front of and behind them.

Only Li Qingshan's face was as usual, he stood in the last row of the line, looking at the exit of the players' passage.

When the referee team at the front took a step, the players from both sides followed them and walked onto the court in turn.