On March 10, in the 3L round of the English Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Stoke City away with difficulty.

Although Tottenham Hotspur were solid throughout the game, they struggled to win, taking the lead in the first half thanks to Falco's goal, but then played poorly in the second half and were stubbornly equalised by Stoke City in the 65th minute.

Tottenham Hotspur struggled to find an effective way to break the opposition goal for a long time, until the 87th minute, Yaya Toure cut in at a crucial moment and fired a long-range shot past Sorensen to score the winning goal for Tottenham Hotspur and successfully get three points from the road.

Although the win was a thrilling win, it was rivals Manchester United, who were breached by Fernando Torres just five minutes after the opening kick-off at Old Trafford, but soon less than five minutes later, Wayne Rooney's goal helped United equalise, and then United firmly grasped the initiative of the game, threatening Liverpool's goal again and again.

In the end, with Benzema's goal in the second half, the home L reversed Liverpool.

The same is I, but the performance of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United has received two completely different evaluations, the former is questioned, and the latter is affirmed, after all, the strength of the Stoke City team is not as good as Tottenham Hotspur, and Manchester United has met Liverpool led by Benitez.

Tottenham's poor form continued into the first round of the Premier League a week later, this time Tottenham Hotspur played Pompeii Portsmouth at home, and throughout the first half, Tottenham Hotspur performed well, Falcao scored again, and Ramsey also scored a goal in the first half to give Tottenham Hotspur a 0 lead.

But in the second half, the situation turned around, and the Pompeii Army launched a wave of counterattacks against Tottenham Hotspur, while Tottenham Hotspur did not seem to have a very effective way, although in the end, with the team's defense, successfully defended 0 to the back, but was very embarrassed by the Pompeii Army.

After the game, although several football commentators also mentioned the reason for Tottenham's poor recent form, it may be that Ye Qiu and the coaching staff began to consciously adjust the fitness and condition of the players to prepare for the devil's schedule in April, but more media still blamed it, believing that Tottenham Hotspur's performance was not as satisfactory as other competitors at such an important juncture of attacking the league title.

To know that this round of Chelsea's big win over Aston Villa, Manchester United's 40 away win over Bolton, Liverpool, Manchester City are all three-goal victories, these competitors are satisfied, especially Chelsea and Manchester United, to the final stage of the season, the performance is very good.

Many people have said that although Tottenham Hotspur still firmly maintains a 12-point lead, the real test for Tottenham Hotspur is still in the three rounds of 34, 35 and 36, because these three rounds Tottenham Hotspur will encounter Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United successively, especially Arsenal and Chelsea in the first two games, will be the top priority.

But in the 33rd round, the away game against Black Cat Sunderland is not easy, you must know that although Sunderland is currently ranked outside the top ten, but Black Cat's home results have always been ideal, and there are many strong teams that fall at the home of Black Cat, including Arsenal and Liverpool, and Manchester United is not easy to win away from home, and the last is also a narrow victory.

As a result, there are plenty of league analysts who agree that the real test for Tottenham Hotspur is just beginning, and that the 12-point lead could be wiped out if the April game is not played well.

To put it bluntly, although 12 points is a huge advantage, but in such a dense, strong team gathering of devil schedules, as long as one is not careful, it may fail miserably anytime and anywhere, and many analysts believe that Tottenham Hotspur should adopt a prudent strategy and focus on the league, after all, the Premier League now has a 12-point advantage, and winning the championship is almost nine out of ten.

As long as you are not dragged down and affected by the Champions League competition, it is not a big problem to survive the devil's schedule in April.

"But judging from the game against Portsmouth, Ye Qiu still has no intention of giving up the Champions League"

Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur, the two teams that won last season's Champions League final, are undoubtedly the most eye-catching teams in European football this season, and they are also considered by everyone to be the strongest teams, even if Barcelona lost last season's final, no one doubts the quality of this team.

What's more, Barcelona has made a comeback this season, bringing in stars such as Van Persie and Alexis Sanchez to further strengthen their frontcourt attack, which has made Barcelona's attack very obvious this season.

But the Catalan side still maintained their signature style of play from last season, which was possession.

This season's Barcelona is almost invincible in the Champions League or in La Liga, especially with the addition of Van Persie, the young Pedro gradually assumed the responsibility of attacking on the left side of the front, and the addition of Alexis Sanchez has strengthened the right attack, making Xavi and Iniesta sit in the middle of the midfield, the team's possession tactics have been strengthened, and the attack and defense have become balanced and solid.

As early as the draw for the quarterfinals of the Champions League appeared, all the media believed that this matchup could be called an early advance of the Champions League final, because no matter who won the final promotion on both sides, there was a great hope of entering the final and eventually winning the championship, because both teams are the strongest teams in football today.

Because of this, as early as before the game, almost the world's media were paying attention to this game, and everyone was looking forward to seeing how Ye Qiu restrained Barcelona's ball-possession tactics and how Guardiola would limit Tottenham Hotspur's attack.

What is somewhat surprising is that as the game begins, it is not very clear how Guardiola's defense will be arranged, but Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very clear, and everyone can see that Tottenham Hotspur's opening tactic is to give up possession

"It's a very bold, but also very risky, and at the same time admirable decision," said Italian legend Sacchi, who was a guest commentator on live television, surprised when he saw Tottenham's tactics after the opening.

As Cruyff said, if the game is seen as a duel, then football is undoubtedly the only weapon on the duel, and now Tottenham Hotspur have the courage to send the weapon directly into the hands of the opponent, which really takes courage and can be said to be risky.

Barcelona will undoubtedly play the main force in this game, with Valdés in goal, Abidal, Mascherano, Pique and Puyol in defence, Iniesta, Busquets and Xavi in midfield, and Pedro, Van Persie and Alexis Sanchez in the front three.

Compared to Barcelona, which is fully staffed, Tottenham Hotspur has made a lot of changes.

Goalkeeper is Petr Cech, Marcelo, Zygrinski, Thiago Silva and Alves at the back, David Beckham, Yaya Toure and Cesc Fabregas in midfield, and Ribery, Cavani and Messi up front.

David Silva and Falcao were both put on the bench by Ye Qiu, because they both started and played the whole game in the league three days ago, and before the game, the media broke the inside information, it is said that when Ye Qiu announced the start of the Falcao, the Colombian center also communicated with Ye Qiu, because he preferred to play when he played Barcelona.

And as the game began, everyone noticed that even if it was a home game, Tottenham Hotspur did not take the initiative to attack, but took a retreat, which is understandable for Sacchi

"In fact, a large part of this knockout game is psychological warfare, the two sides guess each other's tactics, and make targeted arrangements, I believe that whether it is Barcelona or Guardiola, they must have made full preparations for Tottenham Hotspur's opening attack, Ye Qiu suddenly gave up this style of play, which will disrupt Barcelona's plans."

'Of course, there are good and bad things about this sudden change, because first of all this change can disrupt the opponent, but it can also disrupt yourself, so you need the manager to have absolute control over the team and you need the players to be able to adapt to this change of manager.

And as the game got underway, everyone began to discover a very strange thing, and that was that Tottenham Hotspur had a very low possession rate of just 39. This is completely different from what Ye Qiu emphasized in the past, Tottenham Hotspur is used to playing in the possession rate of about UU%, almost a kind of possession time in reverse.

But it is very strange that as the side with an absolute advantage in possession, Barcelona only had one shot on goal in the first ten minutes, and it was Alexis Sanchez who broke through the cross from the right, Ziglinski grabbed ahead of Van Persie, and the header went out of the bottom line, Barcelona's corner kick, Pique's header was crooked.

Apart from this one, Barcelona didn't have a second shot on goal, which has to be said to be a very unbelievable thing, because with Barcelona's possession and the attacking power of the La Liga team, this should not be the case at all.

The only explanation, and that is that Tottenham Hotspur have done a good job defensively.

"Tottenham didn't defy like other teams did against Barcelona and didn't retreat to the 30-metre zone," Sacchi mentioned how Tottenham's defensive tactics differed from other teams, when asked by the commentator about Tottenham's defensive success.

'Barcelona like to press and get their attacking players closer to the opposition box, but Tottenham Hotspur's defence didn't retreat, but they didn't press forward either, but if we look closely, we can see that David Beckham and Yaya Toure are at the back, and Cesc Fabregas is coming back frequently.

"In other words, Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very interesting, the back line does not retreat, but I retreat the front and midfield, in the case of the back line does not retreat, the midfield retreats, as long as the Barcelona players take the ball and attack head-on, it is often like falling into a sandwich cake, front and back attack."

"And we should note that Barcelona's offensive ability on the side is actually relatively limited, Puyol and Abidal as fullbacks, there is no problem with defensive ability, but the offensive ability is relatively weak, and the support for the two wingers in the front field is not enough, so all along, Barcelona has been more focused on the middle, relying on Van Persie's frontcourt to handle the ball, the only one who has more wing attack power is Alexis Sanchez, but Tottenham Hotspur has focused on the left side."

'The delay of Yaya Toure and David Beckham, as well as the drop back in midfield, effectively compressed the defensive zone and allowed Barcelona to penetrate the kind of small diagonal passes on the two ribs, which was problematic, so we saw that Pedro was almost unthreatening and Alexis Sanchez could only send in frequent low crosses.

At this time, Barcelona launched another attack, still Alexis Sanchez won the ball on the right side, Marcelo stood in a position, one-on-one on the right side of the mark, but at the same time, Tottenham Hotspur's David Beckham and Cesc Fabregas were both roaming around Van Persie, making it impossible for the Dutchman to effectively meet Sanchez.

But at the same time, Pedro cut from the left to the middle and was ready to cut into the box whenever the ball came out.

It should be said that Pedro is the typical player who runs without the ball to win, but this time Yaya Toure is always by his side, always between him and Van Persie, which makes even if Van Persie gets the ball and wants to find Pedro, he must go through the defensive zone of Cesc Fabregas and Yaya Toure.

Sure enough, Sanchez couldn't find an opportunity, so he could only pass back to Xavi, and Cesc Fabregas ran to Xavi for the first time, and Ribery was also retreating to defend, which made Xavi immediately fall into a state of front and back and had to pass back to Busquets, who slowed down Barcelona's attack as soon as he got the ball

As soon as Barcelona's attack slowed, Tottenham Hotspur's defense immediately regrouped, all players returned to their positions, and the entire defensive formation was adjusted back to the most reasonable position.

"Elastic, very elastic, whether it is a diagonal line or a parallel line, Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very elastic, this is the essence of a typical Italian chain defense, not to fight with you physically, not to compete with you in speed, just rely on delay, blocking, etc., forcing you to not form an effective breakthrough and penetration."

Sacchi laughed when he saw this, "I said in my column before that an important reason why Tottenham Hotspur's defense has become solid this season is that they have established this solid, stable, and effective elastic defensive mechanism, which can adjust their defense very quickly according to the situation and changes in the opponent's possession of the ball anytime and anywhere, especially in the details of the player formation, which is very tightly organized and well coordinated."

At this point, the narrator had to interject again and explain what formation is.

In general, fans have only heard of formations, such as 443L, etc., but rarely about formations.

The so-called formation can actually be regarded as the overall framework of a team, that is, the distribution of players' positions, but the specific details, or the use of tactical details in the game, depends on the formation, so the formation refers to the whole team, and the formation may only refer to the players in the local area, for example, whether the four people in the back line are parallel or shallow saucer positions, this is the formation.

"It should be Mauro Tasottti, he has a very unique understanding of defence, and he knows it well and knows the essence of Italian defence." Saki laughed and mentioned his compatriot, who can also be said to be a proud protégé of Saki during his time at AC Milan.

"Tottenham Hotspur's defense is very layered and very targeted, this elastic and layered defensive system, with a very strong flavor of Italian football"

"Barcelona is in trouble"

As it turned out, Saki was right in his judgment.

Barcelona have a high possession rate, and even increased the possession rate to about % at one point, which is already a very incredible possession time for Tottenham Hotspur, but the problem is that Barcelona has never been able to effectively penetrate the Tottenham Hotspur defensive system.

As Sacchi said, as long as they take the ball and launch a frontal attack, they feel like they are in a sandwich cookie, and they are caught everywhere in front of you, left and right, and what Tottenham Hotspur do best is slow you down, or rather, force you to slow down, and then they have plenty of time to adjust your attack to your characteristics and direction.

Incredibly, in the first half hour, Barcelona actually took the corner kick in the sixth minute after the opening, and there was no second shot on goal, so that Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola walked to the sidelines, obviously watching the game in disbelief, thinking hard about how to deal with it.

"Barcelona players are very uncomfortable with this type of defense, Ye Qiu obviously learned a lot of experience and ideas from Hiddink's Chelsea, as well as Italian football, and Dutch football, plus Mauro Tasottti, Tottenham Hotspur said this season to strengthen the defense, and now it shows the level"

Sacchi is clearly interested in and appreciates Tottenham's defensive system, but it's definitely not just because Mauro Tassoti is his former protégé, but also because he's interested in this tactical innovation himself.

"However, Tottenham Hotspur must also pay attention to the fact that blind defense is definitely not the way, defense cannot break through Barcelona's goal, and from the first half an hour, Tottenham Hotspur completely gave up their past penetration and advancement, but more diagonal long passes to launch an attack and open up Barcelona's formation."

"In general, Ye Qiu's ideas and ideas are very good, and the tactics are also very bold and courageous, but the defense works, and the offense does not pose much threat, which is also a problem."

Speaking of which, Saki glanced at the time, it was almost thirty-five minutes, and there were only ten minutes left before the end of the first half, is it possible to score?

As soon as Sacchi's idea came to mind, he saw the pitch cross an arc in mid-air, over most of the pitch, and land on the right side of the Barcelona penalty area.