Crossing the English Channel, ascending to Europa, crossing most of Belgium and reaching the eastern city of Liege, Tottenham Hotspur was greeted by a torrential rain.

As Belgian football, which has created outstanding brilliance in European football, has gradually declined over the years, if it were not for the rise of the younger generation such as Kompany, Hazzard, and Fellaini in recent years, Belgian football may have been forgotten by the majority of fans.

And this can be seen from the Dufrassen Stadium, which is known as the top Belgian Standard Liège team in the first league, and I don't know if the road is due to heavy rain, or the original drainage system and various hardware facilities of this stadium are not very good, and the Dufrassen Stadium in this game looks as bad as a swamp.

The muddy and slippery turf is obviously very bad for Tottenham Hotspur, even if Ye Qiu has long considered the team's double-line operation in this game, as well as the rainy weather and away factors, so the lineup and tactics have been adjusted, but the players still made frequent mistakes in the game, and even exposed problems in defense a few times.

Fortunately, in front of his hometown Jiangdong fathers, Kompany showed great conscientiousness, and his partner with Thiago Silva also ensured that Tottenham Hotspur did not concede a goal, and as long as he held on, Tottenham Hotspur's attack would be effective sooner or later.

By the twenty-third minute of the first half, David Silva smashed the ball on the left side, picked up the back post, and the unguarded Cavani volleyed directly with his right foot on the right side of the post to give Tottenham Hotspur the first goal against Belgium's Standard Liege, 0

But after the goal, the game was still very difficult, Tottenham Hotspur still calmly controlled the situation of the game, slowly looking for heavy rain and slippery turf to ensure the success rate of passing and receiving, and then through this slow and effective control of the ball, slowly steer the situation to their advantage.

But in the second half, the situation turned around, Standard Liege began to press aggressively, and with crazy pressing, it was clear that Chema was going to use the start of the second half to catch Tottenham Hotspur off guard, especially considering that Tottenham Hotspur had already played on thin ice in the first half.

Away, away in the Champions League, every opponent is not a fuel-efficient lamp

If it weren't for Thiago Silva's thrilling interception in front of goal in the 49th minute, Tottenham Hotspur would have been pored of the net, but then Cesc Fabregas went off injured after making physical contact with the opposition.

"David" Ye Qiu's whole body was drenched like a chicken in soup, but he grabbed Beckham, who was about to play, on the sidelines, "Their physical condition is better than ours now, so we can't directly fight them now, retreat first, let them press up and attack, we will fight back, consume their physical strength."

Beckham nodded in agreement and ran quickly onto the pitch.

Tottenham Hotspur have been playing two games a week since the first round of the Premier League in mid-August, and in September, the players have been in a long two-week international break, and the physical condition of the players is indeed much worse than that of standard Liege.

As a former star, Romanian manager Laszló Bologni of Standard Liege is naturally well aware of Tottenham Hotspur's weakness, especially since this north London team has just had a stalwart with Manchester United in London, and will welcome Chelsea non-stop after returning to London at the weekend.

So, from the start, Standard Liege's aim was not to draw but to win at home, as they wanted to qualify from the group, so they took advantage of Tottenham's two-front battle and the fitness problems of the long-term double-game game to swallow the opponent in one go.

And Laszllo Bologni is also very smart, after the opening to play the attack, the effect is not very obvious, because at this time Tottenham Hotspur's physical fitness is still very good, and he has an absolute advantage in skill and strength, so he chose to arrange the attack at the beginning of the second half, at this time, after the consumption of the first half, Tottenham Hotspur's sharpness has been almost grinded.

It can be said that this heavy rain also helped Laszló Bologni a lot

Thinking of this, Ye Qiu looked at the front of the home team's coach's box, holding an umbrella and wearing a pair of rimless glasses, Laszlo Bologni, who was in his early fifties, this person was not simple

Over the years, Ye Qiu has also experienced a lot, and he also knows very well that European football can be described as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the real bulls may not all be familiar to everyone, and they may not even have the opportunity to appear in the five major leagues, so many times, second- and third-rate leagues may create a surprise for you at any time, whether it is the players here or the head coach here, there is no shortage of such strength.

Laszló Bologni may be one such person.

However, Ye Qiu was also unambiguous, after a little chaos after the start of the second half, he quickly stabilized the team's position through adjustments, especially under his targeted arrangement, the team as a whole appropriately retracted, maintained a compact formation, and let the standard Liege press out to play.

In order to suppress Tottenham Hotspur, Standard Liege must take a crazy scramble, and the physical consumption must be greater than that of Tottenham Hotspur, especially in this kind of heavy rainy weather, the consumption is many times more than usual, so this tactic of Standard Liege is also difficult to last, and the situation was quickly re-controlled by Tottenham Hotspur.

After more than 20 minutes of frantic scrambling in the second half, Standard Liege was basically no longer good, Tottenham Hotspur began to consciously play a counterattack, Beckham's long pass, accurately found Hazzard, who came on as a substitute, who quickly formed a breakthrough cross on the left side, Cavani scored with a header in front of the goal, and staged a brace, 0

It was the last goal of the game, and neither side was able to score again after that.

It was also until Cavani scored the second goal that Ye Qiu's heart really let go, because he knew that these three points were finally in hand, and there was no danger, but it fully reflected one thing, that is, there is no absolute overwhelming advantage on the football field.

According to the Chinese ancestors, the right time and place are right, and the lack of one of the three may lead to Waterloo.

In his post-match press conference, Standard Liege's manager, László Bologni, instead of being less than skilled, seemed to be resentful of the loss, believing that the rain had become the biggest obstacle to his victory over Tottenham Hotspur.

'Tottenham Hotspur are a really strong team and they made the most of our two mistakes, one of which was a lack of concentration in the defence and missed Edinson Cavani and the other was a counter-attack, and they took advantage of those two chances that were not chances and scored two goals, which I think is a shame.

"But it's always the case when you play against strong opponents, who are able to play well and keep the overall formation compact and tactically orderly, even in very difficult and complex situations and situations, and we are very young and lack experience in this area." ”

"Anyway, it was a great learning opportunity for us and he told us very clearly where the gap between us and the best teams in Europe is"

Ye Qiu himself also gave a high opinion of Standard Liege, Tottenham Hotspur has two Belgian players, he believes that Belgian football will usher in a revival, especially the new generation of players led by Kompany, will have the opportunity to show their strength in European football, Standard Liege's performance in this game proved this.

As for László Bologni, Ye Qiu also gave a high evaluation, thinking that he caused a lot of trouble for himself and the team in the game, and once made himself a little unable to sit still, but he was very happy that his players finally withstood the pressure from the home team, suppressed the home team's counterattack very well, and successfully got three points.

'We often say it's hard to get started, the first three points in the Champions League group stage and I think it's a huge part of our season and I'm sure it's going to be a very good start'

Otherwise, why do people always say that there are unpredictable storms in the sky?

Just across the English Channel, there is a majestic rain on that side, but the wind and sun are beautiful on this side.

Tottenham Hotspur returned to London from Belgium on the evening of the Standard Liege game, and the next morning's training session was cancelled, but everyone had to return to the training base in time for the crucial game against Chelsea two days later.

And every time he meets Chelsea, Drogba, the Ivorian elephant king, inevitably appears in front of Thiago Silva, and he can't forget how he was ridiculed and questioned by everyone in the outside world when he first landed in the Premier League.

Even if it has been a few years since the incident, Drogba seems to have shown signs of declining form in recent years, but Thiago Silva himself, with his strong strength and stable performance, has steadily jumped into the ranks of the world's top central defenders, but he still has not forgotten the shame he suffered on Drogba back then.

Driving on the way to Theobald's training base, the rare sunlight on the way did not make the Brazilian smile even a little smile, but only looked even more stiff, because he was about to welcome a monster that no one in the world could stop.

Didn't someone say it? If you want to prevent Drogba, there are generally only two situations, one is that Drogba himself is not in good shape, and the other is that you are in a bad state, and no matter which one it is, you can't control it.

Of course, this is a bit of a joke, and although Drogba is strong, he is not strong enough to do so.

After successfully passing the security check at the Theobold training base, Thiago Silva's BMW was soon parked in the parking lot of the first team's training building, and at this time the car of some other teammates was already parked in the parking lot, all BMWs.

I got out of the car, grabbed my handbag, and went straight to the locker room in the training building.

After changing clothes, the teammates had already arrived one by one, and a group of people were talking in twos and threes in the locker room.

"There's a notice posted outside, there's a meeting after the lunch break," Thiago Silva casually explained to his teammates

Yaya Toure is closest to him, and they have been teammates for many years when they were at Ajax, so he obviously guessed Thiago Silva's mind now, and patted Thiago Silva on the shoulder, "It's okay"

Although the morning training session was suspended, the lunch party and lunch break had to continue, so the players all arrived at the Theobold training base on time, and after having lunch together, they went back to their respective dormitories to rest, and they slept beautifully, and it was already afternoon when they got up.

Ye Qiu's meetings are generally not too long, because he doesn't like to have long meetings, and he feels that the players can't remember them, so he likes to hold shorter meetings, which are generally about ten to half an hour, and the time is generally arranged before the training session, and after the meeting, he goes directly to the training ground to practice, practice, and increase impression.

The same is true today.

When the teammates walked into the conference room one after another, Ye Qiu and the coaching staff had already arrived and were ready, drawing on the tactical board the set of 44 midfield diamond positions that Ancelotti had implemented at Chelsea this season.

The so-called tactical preparation meeting is actually to focus on some information about the opponent in the next game, as well as to do some targeted analysis, such as the opponent's strengths and weaknesses, our strengths and weaknesses, etc., as well as what to pay attention to in the game, what may appear, and so on.

In Ye Qiu's view, an important reason why Ancelotti implemented the 44 diamond position is that the Chelsea team lacks a strong attacker who can break the balance in strategic depth, because Arshavin, who appeared in the diamond midfield forward position this season, is mainly reflected in taking the ball and controlling and playing the ball in a narrow range, and assault is not his strong point.

'Chelsea are very strong, even now, this team is still one of the strongest teams in European football today, but his strength is strong in all-round, very, very comprehensive, and the tactical execution is very high, the running is very aggressive, and the coverage and running are among the best in European football today."

In internal meetings, Ye Qiu never hides his praise and praise for his opponents, because only by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of both the enemy and the enemy, can you ask the players to defeat the opponent, blind and careless, in the end, you will only make yourself suffer.

"In the past Mourinho period, Chelsea gave people the feeling that they were not sharp enough, in fact, an important reason was the lack of depth and depth in the midfield, Ancelotti had two solutions, one was Drogba to retreat and take the ball with his back, and the other was to advance with the ball at fullback, which is the same old routine"

A lot of things at the tactical level of football are actually the same things, but different cruxes are solved in different ways, which may lead to different effects, and that's it.

In other words, the depth of football is to put it bluntly, there are two ways, the striker retreats, the midfield advances, the full-back inserts, and is there any? Basically, it's gone, unless you want to try your hand at Beckenbauer's free man tactics

'It's old, but it's working, and Chelsea have had a great season so far, with the diamond midfielder activating Arshavin and Drogba and successfully activating the whole Chelsea midfield, especially Ballack, a very important player.

With the names Ye Qiu named above, the players sat below, and one by one they all remembered that they worked hard and worked hard.

"However, there is a natural disadvantage of the diamond midfield, that is, the coverage area is not large enough, because the team that adopts the diamond midfield position, the two wings of the midfield will be a weakness, so this is very high requirements for the full-backs, because they must not only be able to connect to the front, but also retreat to connect the defensive line, which is a covering distance of 80 meters"

Anyone who has ever played football knows how outrageous the demands on a player are to cover the entire 80-metre wide and run back and forth, almost without being able to achieve it.

'So, to play Chelsea, we need to do two key things on both the offensive and defensive levels'

"First, when attacking, we have to pay attention to the weakness and weakness of their midfield, as soon as the full-backs get the opportunity, they will decisively and boldly press forward, step forward to participate in the attack, and use the wings to suppress Chelsea's wings."

"The second is to defensively contain the opposition midfield, but more importantly, to target Drogba

Ye Qiu mentioned that he wanted to stare at Drogba, and everyone in the conference room naturally swept their eyes to the captain Thiago Silva.

Don't look at the relationship between him and Drogba, it doesn't seem to be a heavyweight class in terms of size and size, but in the past few years, there has been no less direct dialogue between them, Thiago Silva suffered a lot at first, but recently he has gradually pushed Drogba back.

But this season Drogba is in very good shape, and his physical fitness has not declined as rumored by the outside world, and in the face of such an Ivorian monster that almost all defenders in the world describe as a nightmare, everyone can't help but sweat for Thiago Silva in their hearts.

To know that almost the entire Premier League central defender has been ravaged by Drogba, and the saddest is Arsenal's Senderos, who was directly ravaged by Drogba and completely lost confidence, you can imagine how terrifying the strength of this giant elephant is.

"Thiago, Yaya, Dmytro" Ye Qiu named Yaya Toure, Thiago Silva and Dmytro Tsygrinsky, "no matter what, strangle Drogba for me"

"As long as you can freeze Drogba, you will be the first to do this game"

From this sentence, it is not difficult to hear Ye Qiu's attention to Drogba, and even he obviously regards whether or not Drogba can be frozen as a key part of whether he can win this game against Chelsea.

"Don't worry, head, leave it to me" Thiago Silva mustered up his courage and stood up to take on the task

At this moment, in the eyes of all the teammates in the conference room, the captain's eyes were somewhat windy and cold