Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Birmingham Derby

November. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

With just three league games and two Carabao Cup games this month, Aston Villa's one-a-week fixtures are a bit of good news for an injury-plagued Villa.

In the first week, in the 14th round of the Championship, Aston Villa hosted Fulham, who are 11th in the league.

Although the opponent is not strong, Villa is now missing two main players, if you don't count Wang Shuai, Villa's current strength is probably a little weaker than Fulham. Therefore, Wang Shuai no longer trains tactics in the game, and with the team going all out, although the score is not as disparity as before, Villa still won a comfortable 3-0 victory.

In the second week, in the fifteenth round of the Championship, Wang Shuai ushered in the first city derby after coming to England, Aston Villa vs Birmingham City.

Villa and Birmingham City are two teams with similar historical records and often compete against each other in the same league, and the match between them is also known as the Birmingham City Derby. As for the other Birmingham side West Bromwich Albion, West Brom Albion are not usually counted in Birmingham derbies due to their home stadium on the outskirts of Birmingham City and their team history is not as good as the other two teams. Ironically, however, the city's more important teams, Villa and Birmingham City, are now playing in the Championship, while West Bromwich Albion, an oft-forgotten side, are now staying in the Premier League.

However, it is indisputable that the match between Aston Villa and Birmingham City still attracts a large number of fans. Two days before the game, the streets of Birmingham were filled with information about the game.

"Lack of Major Generals, Aston Villa will be defeated again!" This is Birmingham City magazine, which supports Birmingham City.

Birmingham City will be the next Fulham! This is the Birmingham Sport, which supports Aston Villa.

"Birmingham City Derby, tickets sold out two days in advance! - This is the neutral Birmingham Journal.

And as the Birmingham Daily said, on major social networking sites, there is an endless stream of information from fans in Birmingham asking for tickets.

"If you want to buy Villa vs Birmingham City tickets, the price is not a problem!"

"£500 for two tickets!"

"£300 for a ticket! The location doesn't matter! ”

In addition, the streets of Birmingham are also filled with red and blue, red is the color of Aston Villa's jersey, and blue is naturally Birmingham City. Fortunately, UEFA has become more and more serious in recent years, so the two groups of fans in the city are only tense, and there are no violent conflicts, but the war of words between each other is definitely indispensable.

……

On November 12th, the 15th round of the Championship, the atmosphere in Birmingham also reached its peak on this day.

The game is home to Birmingham City and the St Andrews Stadium is packed. Located in the south-east of Birmingham's city centre, between railways, factories and homes, the stadium can only accommodate 30,000 spectators, which is why tickets sold out prematurely, as the stadium was too small. So on the day of the game, the surrounding stadium, the adjacent streets, and even the residential area next to the stadium were crowded with fans who came to watch the game, but did not buy tickets. They couldn't get into the stadium and had to stay next to the stadium and listen to the live commentary.

"Do you hear the shouting outside?" In the away dressing room at St Andrews Stadium, Wang Shuai was giving a pre-match speech, "Don't think it's in Birmingham, those crowds are supporting us, they are all fans of our opponents. What we have to do is let them know who is the real boss in Birmingham! ”

In fact, Wang Shuai doesn't need to say so passionately, although Birmingham City's standings are higher than Fulham's, but Wang Shuai, who has seen the strength of all teams in the league, knows that the strength of these two teams is actually about the same, and Aston Villa can also easily win. But this is a city derby after all, so Wang Shuai will not be satisfied with a 2:0 or 3:0 victory, he wants a big victory, a hearty victory. When the team is small, ending the derby with a big win will undoubtedly have a considerable effect on the morale of the team.

It wasn't so easy for Birmingham City, who knew exactly what was going on between them and their rivals Villa. Originally, after learning that Aston Villa's two main players were out due to injury, the whole Birmingham City team still had a little hope for this game, but the 3-0 victory over Fulham in the last round of the league Villa completely dashed their hopes. Despite being their home stadium today, Birmingham City know that even if their opponents lose two of their main players, it would be nice if they could keep them drawn.

"Toot ~!"

As the game got underway, Birmingham City quickly moved the ball to the back. Without the confidence to win, their desire to attack is naturally not too strong.

Seeing the opponent's state, Wang Shuai was also happy and relaxed, and did not give instructions to press in the front court. Now that two of the team's main players have been injured, Wang Shuai doesn't want other people's state to be affected, so he can save a little physical strength.

Although Birmingham City played conservatively, they couldn't really be at the back until half-time, they still had to attack, and the football slowly began to transition to midfield.

Seeing that their home team began to organize an attack, the crowd's cries instantly became louder. I have to say that most fans really don't know much about football tactics, they don't care if there will be defensive holes after the team attacks, they just want the team to attack, to score, to beat Aston Villa, to win this Birmingham City derby.

It's just that the hopes of these fans are doomed to be dashed.

Birmingham City had just shifted the ball across the halfway line, and before they could stabilize their formation, Wang Shuai used his speed to rush to the ball player and cut the ball away with ease. It's just that Birmingham City's offensive has not been fully launched after all, and their defense is still very dense, so Wang Shuai did not organize a quick counterattack, and after playing an arc gesture, let the team control the ball and advance.

It's just the tactics of the arc formation, Villa's players have long been familiar with it, even if there is one less striker now, the basic tactical play has not changed, in this nearly half a month of training, they have trained the 5-person arc formation to the previous 6-man tactical proficiency, so Villa's advance speed is not slow, and the formation was advanced to the front of the penalty area in less than two minutes.

"W" shaped formation, after the team's formation stabilized, Wang Shuai made a second tactical gesture.

If the previous ball-possession tactical arc formation was like an old scalper moving slowly, now this "W" shaped formation has turned Villa into a wolf, no, five wolves. Because all five attacking players have the ability to tear apart the opposition defence, and they are all looking for opportunities to score.

David and Laurie, after seeing Wang Shuai's tactical gestures, instantly accelerated their sprint. In this tactic, they have two tasks, one is to cross the bottom, and the other is to break through diagonally, and the specific way to do it depends on the change of the opponent's defensive line.

After two steps, David shifted his running path slightly to the left, and the player who was marking him did not have the slightest idea of this slight change, and continued to follow the original running route to chase back the defense. However, the next moment, he found that the David who was marking the defense had disappeared, and when he reacted, he found that David had already inserted diagonally into the penalty area.

David's sudden change of direction shook most people, including the Birmingham City goalkeeper, who didn't notice the sudden appearance of the wing-back, but these players did not include Wang Shuai, who was in possession.

Syllable!

The moment he saw David's change of direction, Wang Shuai stuffed the ball straight along the route pointed by the green arrow, and the strength was just enough to grasp the ball without changing speeds.

As for Wang Shuai's passing, David is full of confidence, or the whole team of Villa knows that as long as he runs in place, it can only be that Wang Shuai did not choose to pass, and there will never be a mistake in Wang Shuai's passing.

The same is true this time, after David saw Wang Shuai's pass, he just predicted his position to receive the ball, did not adjust his pace, did not change the running route, just continued to run forward, and then ......

Boom!

Without stopping the ball, he volleyed directly and vigorously, and the football hung in the far corner of the goal.

Brush!

1:0!