Evening of April 6, 2005.

Stamford Bridge, star-studded!

The first and second places in the Premier League table are in the Champions League.

Just like Chelsea's visit to the Lion King Stadium, Millwall came here and suffered from the huge pressure of the grandstand atmosphere of Chelsea's home fans!

When Aldridge walked into the stadium, the noise inside the stadium was deafening, and the Lions fans who came to the away stadium tried to make as much noise as possible to compete with the home team.

He sat in the dugout and looked calm, still not shaking hands with Mourinho before the game.

Since Mourinho landed in the Premier League, all the "communication" between the two has been on the media platform, and the last time they met in the league at the Lion King Stadium, Mourinho was ejected by the referee in advance, and the two naturally did not have a chance to shake hands after the game.

Chelsea owner Abou Abou was in the stands.

Jose Mourinho's job has been generally satisfactory for him, but there are definitely flaws, the first being being falling behind Millwall in the league, including a heavy defeat on the road. The second is that despite Chelsea's dominance in the league, the team's technical and tactical style is very different from what he envisioned.

No fan in the world would say that Chelsea are playing beautiful football.

However, beauty is the high pursuit after survival, and Abu is not demanding perfection at this stage, and it is a wonderful start to bring honor to this team that has been built with a lot of money.

Mourinho's attitude on the pitch has a certain degree of aggression, to put it bluntly, it is a showmanship, bringing a certain pressure to the opponent, or provoking, making the opponent lose his psychological balance, and then bringing Chelsea opportunities on the field, which is not intuitively visible to the naked eye. But these will affect the game bit by bit.

The starters from both sides lined up. The Champions League theme song reverberates across Stamford Bridge.

"The highly anticipated first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals is about to begin. Surprisingly, in this year's Champions League quarterfinals, there are two pairs of derby opponents to fight each other, in the other half, AC Milan and Inter Milan staged the Champions League Milan derby, in this half, Millwall and Chelsea staged the London derby! If you only look at Millwall's head-to-head record with Chelsea in the past, then Millwall's victory and promotion look like no suspense. However, this season, Mourinho has taken charge of Chelsea, he has made a qualitative leap forward for this team, although Chelsea is still behind Millwall in the league, but has left the rivals behind them far away, and their table in the Champions League is also extremely eye-catching, we have reason to believe that today's game, and the next leg of the game to the Lion King Stadium, some unexpected things will happen, and Millwall and Chelsea are the main players today.

Chelsea starts: 433.

Goalkeeper: Cech.

Defender: Patrick Ferreira. Carvalho, Terry. Ashley Cole.

Midfielders: Essien, Makelele, Lampard.

Forwards: Duff, Drogba, Ribery.

Millwall started 433.

Goalkeeper: Bout.

Defenders: Schneider, Nesta, Silva, Lahm.

Midfielders: De Rossi, Nedved, Kaka.

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho. ”

Due to Alonso's minor injury, Millwall's midfield starters have changed today, before that, when Alonso was suspended due to a red card, Nedved played the position of central midfielder, played well, more than ten years of experience in the team, and the tacit understanding of working with Aldridge made him play in the midfield, almost all of them can do their best, just like he played in the Czech national team, playing in the midfield, taking a step back to play the midfield, Villa's burning energy in the 2/3 schedule of the season makes the second half of the state fluctuate greatly, With Thierry Henry's return and the season entering the sprint stage, Aldridge has higher requirements for the striker, and he will choose the starting line-up according to the form of the player, even Cristiano Ronaldo may be withdrawn from the starting list due to the ups and downs of form.

Aldridge, who was sitting in the coach's seat, bent over his cheeks and stared at the field with his eyes fixed.

His gesture is a good reflection of Millwall's attitude after the opening game!

The Champions Cup is not a league.

In fact, even if there is a loss to Chelsea in the league, or even a double kill, it will not be despairing.

However, in the two-legged cup match, if something goes wrong and mistakes are made, there is no room to make up for it, this truth was figured out a long time ago, and the caution of playing the cup knockout round has always been implemented and has never wavered.

Millwall controlled the ball steadily in the middle and back after the opening, ensuring that the Chelsea formation was compressed and retreated to the extreme before attacking, and on the road, they were not in a hurry, there was no need to rush at all!

Moreover, the Champions League has the rule of away goal advantage, as long as they do not concede goals, patiently look for opportunities, and can score, they can advance.

It's as simple as that.

Millwall had a newcomer at the beginning of the season, and after more than half a season of running-in and improvement, whether it was the technical ability, game experience, or team chemistry of the young players, they quickly improved to a new height.

This makes their team skills and tactics even more powerful!

Chelsea are very uncomfortable.

Sitting at home, because their core concept is to defend against the back, they can't take the initiative to attack!

Drogba's frantic pressing in midfield was just a waste of energy and was consumed by the opponent.

Ribery himself is ranked behind Joe Cole, but unexpectedly, when Robben has just recovered from injury recently but did not dare to be activated, Joe Cole lost to Ribery in the winger competition, he can be on the position, but also because of his obedience, like Joe Cole and Robben have always needed Mourinho to yell at them frantically on the sidelines, so that they can participate in the defense, Ribery is waiting for the opportunity to get on the position, and naturally understands how to satisfy Mourinho, so under the premise of investing a lot of energy in defense, Mourinho has improved Ribery's team rank.

However, when facing Millwall, Ribery, and Duff on the other side, did not dare to go up lightly, for fear of losing the space behind him, and Lampard was even more so, he knew what Millwall was up to.

With 20 minutes into the game, Millwall had excellent possession but didn't create many good chances.

Chelsea's formation was compressed to the extreme. On the contrary, it can't fight back better. Because their counter-attack starts too far back. Millwall's midfield interception ability is also top-notch, how can Nedved and De Rossi let their monotonous counter-attacking tactics penetrate the middle? Not to mention Nesta, who ate Drogba to death on the back line, is even more ruthless!

Silva has improved significantly this season and has become more solid defensively.

There is only one problem that plagues Aldridge at the back: by the time Silva is completely world-class, Nesta is unlikely to be able to last the whole season.

This question is not far away, but it is not close to it, and it is not unfounded. With a game of chess in his heart, he knows when to lay out, when to finish, when to break out and kill all sides, and when there is no external force to intervene, Aldridge has always taken one step and three steps for the construction of the team.

Aldridge, who maintained his cheek support and sat in the coach's seat to watch the game, did not have the slightest killing spirit, and he was convinced that he would win the first London derby in the Champions League. Chelsea are definitely not so strong as cold as ice!

What will shake them? Let them panic?

Time!

Jose Mourinho was standing on the sidelines directing the game, and the scene on the pitch now seemed familiar.

In last year's Champions League final. Millwall used this trick to consume Porto.

Although Mourinho himself did not admit that he lost to Aldridge and insisted that Millwall used the rules to score the first goal, in fact he knew in his heart that Millwall would break through Porto's goal, and the only question was time.

Now that he has a team that is a notch stronger than Porto, he is convinced that Chelsea can compete with Millwall, but the contrast on the pitch has left him at a loss.

The main defense relies on four defenders, two midfielders, and the all-round midfielder Frank Lampard's investment in the defensive end, the main strength is 7 people, and the wingers are to participate in the defense, but if the wingers retreat to the deep area of the second half, the counterattack threat will be much lower at the same time!

Because Millwall's defense is much stronger than that of the second-generation Wild Lions!

The key point is the main Alonso, now playing this position Nedved, is stronger than the second generation of the Lions main Pirlo's defensive ability and awareness, especially in terms of interception, and the consistency of the team's defense makes Chelsea's counterattack want to penetrate the opponent, it is too difficult and too difficult, Drogba is not the strongest Drogba, he can now use his physical advantage to abuse 70% of the defenders in the Premier League, but he can take less than half a point in front of Nesta, but the new leader of the Lions defense line is calm like a god, The season is already counting down, but there is almost no picture of Nesta's mistakes or mistakes on the field!

The game time came to 35 minutes, and the Chelsea players were extremely depressed!

This is Stamford Bridge!

It's their home turf.

But they were pressed and beaten by Millwall on the field!

The offense in the middle of the court will soon be terminated, in the opposing defense, their wingers do not seem to have obvious advantages one-on-one, Ribery is on the side of Schneider today, Duff is Turram, but this pair of German fullbacks are intercepted with defensive awareness and technology, rather than relying on the body to rush and crush the opponent, so Ribery and Duff's change of direction breakthrough has a high probability that Schneider and Ram will predict correctly, even if the prediction is wrong, they will not expose the absolute vacancy to the opponent, the main blocked line is still the inside line, heavy inside and light outside.

Chelsea must score if they want to step on Millwall's corpse and progress to the semi-finals of the Champions League!

And it has to be scored at Stamford Bridge!

That's the consensus within their squad.

Those players who have played for Millwall actually played a negative psychological role at this moment.

In their subconscious, they don't think that running to the Lion King Stadium will take away victory!

That's not a small probability, that's absolutely impossible in cognition!

Millwall at home in Europe and have never been defeated!

Even when Klinsmann was in charge, he never lost to an opponent at home in Europe!

Not to mention Aldrich?

How could the king, who was in charge of Millwall, capsize in the gutter at home?

The only chance to beat Millwall to the semi-finals is at home!

Beat their opponents at home and go away to stubbornly stop Millwall from crushing them!

It was under the influence of such psychological cues that the Chelsea generals had other thoughts when they saw that the team was not in a good position on the field.

With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, take advantage of this time period to quickly press up and beat Millwall?

In fact, Mourinho thought the same thing on the sidelines.

Millwall have been in possession for too long and haven't been tested too severely, is it okay to take a gamble? Towards the end of the first half, players may be less vigilant and take the opponent off guard?

Mourinho, who is well aware of his team, knows that his disciples can't hold back because of the players' on-field movements and activity trends.

So, he was ruthless in his heart, gestured to the players, and attacked Millwall!

At that moment, his expression showed a hideous color!

The last time he lost, he didn't gamble and missed the best time, this time, he gambled!

After seeing the Chelsea midfield line and full-backs start to press forward, Aldridge changed his movements, still bent over, with his hands on his thighs and his head down, so that no one could see his expression at the moment.

A sneer rose to the corner of his mouth. (To be continued......)