As Pan Yi expected, Chelsea dominated the game from the very beginning.

Benfica's lineup, strictly speaking, is only at the middle level of the Premier League at best.

The most important thing is that their style of play is also more typical of the European Latin school, which is more ground-based.

And this kind of play in front of Chelsea, it seems to be a small thing, and at most Gargamel.

Just one minute into the game, Chelsea had a great chance.

Marcos Alonso on the left, crossed to Hazard in front of him, and then formed a dazzling series of subtle links with the other side of the B side at the edge of Benfica's penalty area, and Hazard curled a ball that was saved by Cesar to the side.

The shot drew a burst of applause from the Stamford Bridge fans.

And in the midst of such cheers, Chelsea continued to launch an onslaught.

In the fifth minute, Hazard crossed the middle from the left side of the penalty area, and Lukaku headed the goal from close range in front of the goal, but was cleared by the opposing defender Luisson on the goal line.

One minute later, Hazard's right-footed shot from the left side of the box went wide.

In the 19th minute, Gaitan brought down the B seat and Chelsea were awarded a set-piece on the left side of the midfield, and Eden Hazard took a direct right-footed shot that went just wide.

In the 21st minute, Canterlot crossed from the right, Van Dijk cut in and headed the ball from the left side of the penalty area, Lukaku headed the ball from close range in front of the goal, and Cesar flew to shoot the ball out with one palm.

After the first 20 minutes of onslaught, Chelsea were still unable to get on the scoresheet.

It also made the fans in the stands at Stamford Bridge a little worried.

After all, if you continue to squander your opportunities like this, it's not going to be a good thing.

Some people are starting to feel that it is because Chelsea's form is still stuck in the first two games, and they still can't play at a high level......

Sure enough, Benfica also began to play their own counter-attacks after withstanding Chelsea's attack in the first 20 minutes.

In the 23rd minute, Turkish striker Mitrooğlu had a chance to shoot on a counter-attack, and a powerful shot from the edge of the box forced Courtois to make a good save.

And this time the shot obviously aroused the fighting spirit of the Benfica players, who seemed to be more confident and dared to press the formation up a little.

At this time, Pan Yi saw an opportunity.

He motioned to his disciples from the sidelines to step back a little and let the other side attack.

This is a move to "retreat to advance", as long as Benfica's formation is no longer so flat, then Chelsea's transmission space will also become larger.

However, Chelsea's retreat has also caused Benfica to have more attacking opportunities.

In the 28th minute, Van Dijk brought down Mitrooglu and was booked, Benfica won a free kick on the right side of the midfield, Gaitan took a direct left-footed shot into the far corner, Courtois flew to clear the ball.

In the 31st minute, Gaitan sent a wonderful pass with his heel in the penalty area, and Mitrooğlu single-handedly faced Courtois on the left side of the penalty area and pushed it with his right foot, and the ball was blocked by Courtois and hit the crossbar and popped up.

But Chelsea's patience was rewarded five minutes later.

Benfica's midfield was tackled by Chelsea's N'Golo Kante and, although immediately met with a rush, he quickly turned to defend it and passed the ball back to David Luiz.

David Luiz won the ball and crossed diagonally to the left quickly.

Hazard sent a precise through ball without stopping, and Bernardo Silva stopped the ball on the right side of the penalty area and adjusted it slightly before shooting with his left foot!

1：0！

Chelsea's attack only passed through the feet of three men before it broke through the door of the Benfica team!

It was a goal that sent the entire Stamford Bridge stadium into a complete boil.

The Chelsea fans cheered, and the heart that had just hung was finally let go.

Everyone began to understand that this was another attempt by Coach Pan Yi to indulge in the past.

As a native of the Dragon Kingdom, you must have been familiar with Sun Tzu's Art of War and the Thirty-six Strategies!

At this time, Benfica's head coach Vittoria also realized that he had been tricked.

He also immediately woke up to the fact that with Chelsea's strength, he would shrink his defense at home, isn't this just seducing them to attack?

This trick "please enter the urn" is really a slip.

He also felt a little confused, or rather a little carried away by Chelsea's recent performances and Pan Yi's low-key remarks.

Benfica have had a good run at home this season, staying firmly at the top of the Portuguese Super League standings, and it looks like it's only a matter of time before they win the title;

In the Champions League, Benfica also made it all the way to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, although they did not encounter any strong opponents, but this result is quite good for a Portuguese team.

So Vittoria's heart is a little inflated.

Coupled with Pan Yi's intentional or unintentional "show of weakness", and the fact that Chelsea drew with Villa, Vittoria is a little eager to do something at Stamford Bridge.

If he can really break Chelsea's record of winning all at home, won't he be able to make a name for himself?

When the time comes, you will be favored by the wealthy, and you will be able to reach the pinnacle of life......

But what he didn't expect was that this dream, he only had been doing it for more than half an hour, and it seemed to be about to be shattered.

Chelsea is definitely not easy to deal with, and Pan Yi is even more intrigued!

So, Vittoria, who came to his senses, immediately signaled the team not to be greedy for merit, and it was only right to stabilize the defense first.

After all, there's nothing to be ashamed of losing to Pan Yi's Chelsea on the road, but it's hard to say if you lose too much.

If you concede too many goals, the second leg back at home becomes meaningless, and you can't account for it in front of your own club fans.

However, now Chelsea have shown their true colors!

They took advantage of the fact that Benfica were a little flustered after conceding the goal and were unable to fully implement the manager's new instructions, and continued to launch onslaught.

Just three minutes after the first goal scored by seat B, in the 39th minute, Hazard dribbled the ball into the box on the left and crossed, Kante held the ball and pushed a left-footed shot that was blocked;

Bernardo Silva then scored a brace with an unmarked header from near the penalty spot!

Chelsea extend the score, 2-0!

With two goals in a row, Chelsea's morale was boosted, while the Benfica players were a bit dazed.

Thankfully, Benfica were able to hold their ground after a brief period of panic and did not allow Chelsea to extend their lead in the closing stages of the first half.

At half-time, Chelsea led Benfica 2-0 at home.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

Vittoria made some changes at half-time, changing the 4-2-3-1 to a 5-4-1 in an attempt to strengthen the midfield and interception.

However, Chelsea, who were two goals ahead, showed no sign of letting up and continued to attack from the opening stages of the second half.

In the 46th minute, Harry Kane knocked back on the left, and Kante hit the goal with his right foot in the middle of the periphery, and the ball hit the crossbar and popped up!

In the 55th minute, Benfica defender Jadel brought down Hazard and received a yellow card.

In the 62nd minute, Almeida was also yellow carded for shoveling the B seat. Subsequently, Benfica made the first substitution, with Samaris coming on to replace Mitrooglu, which replaced the main striker.

Chelsea's attack continues unabated.

In the 66th minute, Hazard broke through with the ball and was tripped by Eliseu and fell to the ground, and the referee showed a yellow card again to warn Eliseu and awarded a free kick on the left side of the matching front.

Eden Hazard lobs the ball into the box, Ake heads it off and the ball hits Eliseu's leg and refracts into the net!

This goal was counted as an own goal by Eliseu, and Chelsea rewrote the score again, 3:0!

This series of blows made Benfica a little helpless, and coach Vittoria had to focus more on the players to defend, otherwise they would be spent!

Chelsea, on the other hand, slowed down the pace of the game a bit, as even the Iron Man couldn't keep up the fastest pace to sprint the whole game.

With three goals in hand, the mentality of the Chelsea players is obviously much more relaxed, and they are more comfortable on the pitch, and there are still plenty of scoring opportunities.

In the 83rd minute, Harry Kane's right-footed shot from a small angle on the right side of the penalty area was defused by Cesar.

In the 84th minute, Romelu Lukaku was replaced by Tammy Abraham.

In the 89th minute, Mbappe came on to replace Harry Kane.

In stoppage time, Gaitan's midfield dribble was cut off and Chelsea counter-attacked quickly.

Seat B shared the ball, Mbappe received the ball and went straight to the penalty area, Abraham followed up with a single knife to face the attacking Cesar with his right foot and easily pushed the goal, Chelsea sealed the win, 4:0!

After the goal, the Chelsea players were all cuddled together.

They were celebrating the goal and the early victory.

In the words of the on-site commentator: 'Chelsea have secured a place in the last four ahead of schedule! ”

In the history of the Champions League, no team has been able to be reversed with a four-goal lead in the first leg!

(In addition to the future 2016-2017 season, Barcelona staged the miracle of Camp Nou, falling behind 0:4 in the first leg, and slaughtering Paris Saint-Germain 6:1 in the second leg)

Moreover, this time it is Chelsea who are leading, and it is Chelsea who have always been in stable form!

This Chelsea team, even if the level is a little up and down at times, the floor is still very high.

The unbeaten run so far this season is proof of that!

On the sidelines, Pan Yi and Arteta also high-fived each other.

"Their form is back." Arteta laughed, "Your hair dryer has worked." ”

Pan Yi nodded.

He could feel that the players were very involved in the game.

Especially in the second half, after taking a big lead, they all enjoyed the game, which is a good thing for the team.

"But we can't relax too much, after all, Benfica are not very strong. Regardless of which team they meet in the semi-finals, it should not be as easy as today. ”

Listening to Pan Yi say this, Arteta also agreed.

Chelsea played well today but were a little bit worse at taking their chances, and a lot of good shots were wasted.

When you meet a stronger opponent, you can't be as casual as you are today.

"So, do you want to keep banging?" Arteta asked.

"No, it's like this today, almost." Pan Yi smiled, "If you have won so much, don't hit their morale." ”

'That's the mentality of the players right now...... It's a little relaxing, but it's a little stressful, so it's just right to play at the level. ”

"Too loose or too tight, neither it is good for them."

Arteta nodded, and then silently took Pan Yi's words to heart.

Every day by Pan Yi's side is a step for him to grow into a world-class head coach in the future!

——

The first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals was played in two days, with the exception of Pan Yi's Chelsea 4-0 home win over Benfica, and the other three games were also played in succession.

Chelsea are playing Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the same domestic game.

The first leg between the two sides was Barcelona at home to the Camp Nou.

Luis Enrique's side conceded a goal after 25 minutes before returning to Atletico Madrid's "Holy Child" Torres opened the scoring.

But after the start of the second half, Barcelona began to exert their power, especially Suarez, who scored two goals in the 63rd and 74th minutes in a row to make the score 2-1.

It was also the final score of the game, with Barcelona taking the lead in this quarter-final.

The next day, there were two more quarter-finals matchups.

The first is an upset.

Wolfsburg beat Real Madrid 2:0 at home!

At the Volkswagen Arena, in the 18th minute, Wolfsburg scored first.

Casemiro fouled Schurrle when defending in the middle of the penalty area, the referee awarded a penalty, Ricardo Rodriguez took the penalty, the Swiss defender volleyed to the left side of the goal, Navas misjudged, 1:0.

Keylor Navas' record for not conceding a goal in the Champions League has been broken so far, and it is also the first time Real Madrid have fallen behind in the Champions League this season.

In the 25th minute, Wolfsburg expanded the score, Bruno Enrique sent a cross from the right rib of the penalty area, and Arnold outflanked the left-footed shovel in the middle and scored, 2:0.

These were the two goals of the game, and the two sides went back and forth for more than an hour to come, but neither could find the back of the net.

VfL Wolfsburg also scored a key victory!

And in the final match, Bayern Munich challenged Manchester City away.

Although Bayern Munich is in better shape, Manchester City is playing at home after all, and the outside world still looks better at Manuel Pellegrini's team.

And this game is a bit of a "divorced wife sees her husband's future wife" feeling, everyone thinks that Pellegrini will smash Bayern harder.

Manchester City, playing at home, did get off to a better start, breaking the deadlock with a goal from Kevin De Bruyne in the 10th minute.

And this goal also made the two sides, who were originally more cautious at the beginning, completely let go of their hands and feet.

There were plenty of chances for both sides, but a lot of shots were wasted.

It wasn't until just before the end of the first half that Bayern Munich had a corner kick opportunity, and Vidal scored with a powerful long-range shot after the ball was pushed out to equalize for Bayern Munich.

After the restart-up in the second half, City began to focus on Vidal and Thiago.

However, Costa, who started today, performed well, making frequent breakthroughs up front and delivering brilliant passes to the front court on several occasions.

After surviving the first ten minutes, Bayern Munich made another effort when Douglas Costa broke through and crossed, and Thomas Muller shot back to turn the score.

This goal dealt a heavy blow to Manchester City's morale.

Just five minutes later, Franck Ribery provided the assist and Robert Lewandowski scored to make it 3-1.

In the end, Bayern Munich won away at Manchester City.

——

"Pellegrini really doesn't seem to be a match for Pep Guardiola." Arteta said.

Manchester City vs Bayern Munich match, Chelsea's coaching staff also gathered in Pan Yi's office to watch.

As a professional football coach, not to mention the need to watch such games out of research on future opponents;

Even as an ordinary football fan, such a strong conversation is attractive enough in itself.

People who work in football are often avid fans themselves, otherwise it is difficult to invest enough enthusiasm and persevere.

For example, Pep Guardiola, he is a typical ball idiot; Bielsa, on the other hand, devotes almost all of his free time to football, watching 50,000 games over 25 years......

Of course, in the professional football circle, there are some people who actually just regard football as a profession, and they don't really like football, so they are not a fan.

Or rather, there are other sports in life that appeal to him more than football.

The most typical is Wales star Gareth Bale.

Bale loves to play football – or at least he likes to play for Wales, but he said in an interview with ESPN in 2018:

"I don't watch a lot of football and frankly I'd rather watch golf."

It is also known that Bell likes to please himself by looking for signs of extraterrestrial life.

There is another star, Ronaldo.

Watching Ronaldinho play always brings us great joy, even now.

But for him, watching others play doesn't seem to bring the same amount of joy.

In 2021, in an interview with a Spanish media outlet, Ronaldo said: "I've never been a person who can watch football. I like to watch highlights and great goals, but I don't like to watch a 90-minute game. ”

There are many more such examples, Ben White, Tevez, Ter Stegen......

Of course, in the current Chelsea coaching staff, Pan Yi has not found anyone like this.

After all, people like Bale are in the minority, and the vast majority of them are still selected because of their love for football, and gradually move towards the road of professional football.

When they watch Manchester City vs Bayern Munich, they are actually like ordinary fans many times, cheering for a wonderful goal and lamenting some missed opportunities.

It is only when there are some more professional tactical discussions interspersed with it that people realize that this group of people is also the most professional group in the football world.

"Manuel Pellegrini is too honest and Pep Guardiola is very good." Pan Yi smiled, "Otherwise, the Emirati will not choose to let Pep Guardiola take Pellegrini's place, but the other way around." ”

In this game, Manchester City itself occupies the advantage of the home field, and theoretically has an advantage against Bayern, and more people are optimistic that they can beat Bayern.

As a result, Manuel Pellegrini was confident in his attacking posture and did take the lead in the opening ten minutes.

But Pep Guardiola didn't panic and responded with the 4-1-4-1 formation he has been using more skillfully lately.

Alonso, the real "Dragon", deployed in the midfield position, and the four midfielders in front of him surrounded Thiago and Vidal, attacking in turn.

When Manuel Pellegrini spotted Bayern's eyes on Thiago and Vidal and began to intensify his targeting, Pep Guardiola waved the flag and allowed the two wings to step up their attack, and finally paid off, scoring in quick succession.

And the two-goal victory in this away game also allowed Bayern Munich to step into the semi-finals with one foot.

This also made Pan Yi a little emotional.

Because the 4-1-4-1 currently used by Guardiola is actually a bit similar to the 3-2-4-1 that Pan Yi sometimes uses this season.

In this Bayern team, Xavi Martinez is in the central defensive position, but when the team transitions between attack and defence, the versatile Spaniard will sometimes move to a central midfield position and form a back double with Alonso.

At this point, Lahm and Alaba on both sides will retract inwards to form a three-centre-back position.

In this way, Bayern also completed the transition from 4-1-4-1 to 3-2-4-1.

This is more attacking, because the two temporary full-backs Lahm and Alaba are very strong in attack.

There will be another more complicated variation of this formation.

That was for Alonso to retreat from the midfield position to centre-back, thus forming a three-centre-back position with the original two centre-backs, Xavi Martinez and Boateng.

At this point, the two full-backs, Lahm and Alaba, will receive the midfield position inside to form a double midfield.

This change will be more balanced, and it is also an advanced style of play for "adduction full-back", which also means that not all teams can play like this, after all, it is rare to see full-backs who can play in the back.

In a private chat with Pan Yi, Guardiola also revealed that he was inspired by Pan Yi's 3-2-4-1 to think of such a style of play.

As for why not use 3-2-4-1 directly, in fact, it is the same reason why Pan Yi did not use this formation as a regular formation, that is, the personnel composition of the team.

Bayern has full-backs like Lahm and Alaba who can go up and down, and it would be a bit of a waste of resources to let them play regular centre-backs or play as a two-man midfielder for a long time.

Not to mention anything else, Lahm is a "team short", and if he plays as a central defender, his ability to fight for the top will indeed be a little worse.

What makes Pan Yi a little "looking forward to" is that now due to the influence of his own crossing, the Champions League situation this season is a little different from the previous life.

In previous lives, Bayern drew Benfica in the quarter-finals and Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals.

As a result, Bayern lost 0:1 away and won 2:1 at home, and was finally eliminated by the disadvantage of away goals, stopping in the semi-finals for several consecutive years.

In the other semi-final, it was Manchester City against Real Madrid.

As a result, the two attacking teams scored only one goal in two legs, and it was Fernando's own goal......

Real Madrid eliminated Manchester City with an aggregate score of 1-0, and finally had another Madrid derby with Atletico Madrid, and finally won the championship again, thus opening the era of "Qi Xuanzong".

And now, history has clearly changed.

First of all, Pan Yi's Chelsea reached the quarterfinals, and then they also pulled Benfica away.

Bayern had a hard-fought battle with Manchester City in the quarterfinals and won one game first.

And Guardiola has combined the tricks he stole from Pan Yi in his tactics, which has obviously become more difficult to deal with - although these tricks are actually taken by Pan Yi from the future Gua Shuai first.

Therefore, what will be the final direction of this season's Champions League, Pan Yi is not easy to predict as a traverser.

Perhaps, it is really possible to have a final meeting with Guagua in the final?

(End of chapter)