Champions League finals usually get off to a lacklustre start, but Schalke was the obvious exception. Mourinho's strategy against AC Milan is to suddenly shrink the space once the opponent enters the 30-meter area, cut off the passing line of Milan players in the depth as much as possible, and then speed up the pressing rhythm to strive for a quick counterattack after the break. Originally, Uncle Bird also formulated a set of precise plans for AC Milan's high school striker Tony and strong center Didier Drogba, who might play, but he didn't expect Jiang Qi's arrangement to make his design fall short.

AC Milan is-for-tat, as soon as there is an opportunity, they will use the breakthrough to tear apart Porto's defense, and once the breakthrough is successful, once it attracts the help and complement of Porto's other players, the breakthrough player will immediately transfer the pass to create a shot or a better attacking opportunity.

Fast and resolute! This is the strong momentum of the AC Milan players from the beginning!

Before the game, many media called the Champions League final staged in Schalke "the war of spear and shield", and these two teams also followed the path designed by the media very intimately, but the sharpness of the spear and the solidity of the shield surprised everyone, and the two sides did not have any scruples, as if they were a pair of old opponents who did not need to test the process, at this moment many people remembered that at the beginning of the season, in the Louis II stadium, the two teams had a meeting, At that time, AC Milan, who had just experienced a change of coach, and Porto, who was unknown from the Portuguese Super League, were not the focus of people's eyes.

However, for Mourinho, he can already smell the danger in Jiang Qi's unexpected 3-5-2 formation.

AC Milan opted for a low ball with two crosses in quick succession, and Porto's two centre-backs, Joao Costa and Carvalho, were excellent at heading but were more responsive than strikers like Shevchenko and Inzaghi...... This is a bully, especially since the veteran Joao Costa has to rely more on experience to make up for it, and although the opponents have not scored, Porto's defence is already a bit precarious.

What made Mourinho even more hesitant was the unexpected combination of Milan's strikers.

Last season, Carlo Ancelotti initially put Shevchenko and Inzaghi, two top strikers who shocked them by their names, but after a series of games, it gradually became apparent that the two men were somewhat suppressed by each other. Because both of them are accustomed to the role of attacking the terminator, there will be overlap in the run, and when one side is shining, the other side will "disappear", so in the end, the helpless Ancelotti transformed the formation into the later famous "Christmas tree", and the double arrow was slimmed into a single arrow, but the effect was doubled.

However, the situation seems to be completely different today, with Shevchenko and Inzaghi both deliberately watching each other's positions at all times, and pulling cover for each other at every opportunity. Anyone who can become a top star must be someone who knows his strengths very well, and when they can selflessly use their strengths to pave the way for their teammates, then the combination becomes terrifying.

Inzaghi looks like he can only run off the ball, but he can bring away at least one centre-back by himself, and Porto's shrinking defence in the 30-metre area is constantly being taken out of space by Pippo's classmates, which puts a lot of pressure on the laggard Costinha to fill the gap where the Milan player might stuff the pass.

Sheva is the other extreme, and the Ukrainian's all-round play is on full display in the stadium of Schalke, he can pass the ball quickly after breaking through, he can take advantage of the split gap created by Inzaghi's running position to suddenly hit the goal, and he can also be a transition point like Toney, creating opportunities for his team-mates in the second point......

Jose Mourinho's frowning brow and raised arms are all a sign that AC Milan are putting pressure on him like never before.

Also feeling the pressure is Deco on the field......

Deco is perhaps the most peculiar midfield core on the planet at the moment, as long as you turn over the data of each game, you will be surprised to find that the core foul data of the Porto midfield and the data of being fouled have actually reached the point of 1:1 in harmony, he is the best choice for the Porto team to instigate the attack and connect the whole team, and it is also a barrier to intercept the opponent's attack and cover the entire midfield with running.

Originally, in addition to taking care of the team's attack, Mourinho also left Deco with another important task, trying his best to limit the source of Milan's control of the rhythm - Pirlo.

However, when he got on the pitch, he found that Pirlo was still standing next to his Portuguese team-mate Rui Costa.

When it comes to Rui Costa, people's first reaction is to pass the ball, but as a representative of the classical forward midfield, Rui's ability to control the rhythm is undoubted, which is why Jiang Qi arranged the position of these two people, Deco alone can not limit the origin of Milan's attack, and the control of the situation will be firmly in the hands of Milan, dominate the situation and control the ball, Milan's attack can form a layer, no longer a wave, but a repeated impact, This has greatly increased the physical and energy consumption of Porto's defensive system.

And once Porto intercepts the ball and Deco instigates the attack, Pirlo and Rui Costa will pinch Deco, and Sleepy will even take the initiative to seek physical confrontation with Deco, and then Rui Costa will help defend, with a very high success rate. However, it was precisely because of Pirlo's initiative that people were surprised to find that Pirlo was not the organizer with the name of the back midfielder, and also had a good ability to block and intercept.

As the core of Porto, Deco in addition to the four basic skills of passing, control and shooting are very solid, offensive and defensive ability is very balanced, he also has a very good ball quotient, the understanding of the characteristics and habits of teammates allows Deco to be like a fish in water in Porto's system, but today's game Milan also did a lot of work in this regard.

To his left and right, Maniche is physically strong and has a long-range shot that comes in from behind, and Bosingwa is a wide player with good pace and can be transformed into a winger. However, the Swede Ljungberg against Maniche is also very physical, the Nordic never falls behind in the confrontation, and Bosingwa is pestered by Van der Vaart, who is also a speeder, and Van der Vaart is also a winger, so he is very experienced in defending players like Bosingva...... In this way, the important contact point around Deco loses more than half of its tactical role.

With both ends of the pitch on the back foot, Mourinho's biggest challenge now is how to make tactical adjustments to turn things around......