Luka Modric felt a little lost, obviously the number of players on both sides on the field was equal, but why did he feel like he was surrounded all the time?

No matter where he receives the ball, there will be no fewer than two Manchester City players around him defending him!

Even once he came to the middle and approached the Manchester City penalty area, four or five big men would instantly emerge around him, trapping him in the middle and unable to move.

Rao Modric has gone through countless games, but he still can't understand Manchester City's defense.

How many midfielders did the opposition have?

On the surface, there seem to be only three people, such as David Silva, Lin Quan, and N'Golo Kante, but defending him in the middle is often people such as Stones and Fernandinho who should appear in the back line.

It's so weird!

Fernandinho is no different, after all, this man has played in the back of the field before, and his presence in this position is relatively unsurprising.

But Stones is a centre-back, what do you want to do when you keep leaving your defensive zone and running to the middle?

Manchester City has only two regular central defenders, and as soon as you leave, only Van Dijk is left, you must know that there is a BBC trio in front of Modric!

Can just one Van Dijk withstand the onslaught of so many people?

The problem that Modric can think of Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola naturally thinks about is that Real Madrid's forward trio is too strong to completely target them.

Therefore, instead of investing heavily in the BBC combination on the opposing frontline, it is better to completely strangle the connection between the opponent's midfield and the striker.

As long as Real Madrid's midfielders are prevented from putting the ball in the hands of the BBC trio, it can also have the effect of containing Real Madrid's attack.

And through the previous games, Guardiola has completely determined that the main battlefield of this game is in the middle.

Whoever masters the midfield controls the victory.

If you can't control the midfield, not only will the attack not be organized, but the defense will not be able to defend, the opponent can use the advantage of the midfield to attack from multiple directions in the middle of the wing, so that your defense line is exhausted.

On the other hand, if we control the midfield, it may be the other side who is struggling.

City's intentions were so obvious that Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane quickly understood Pep Guardiola's intentions.

He held his chin, frowned, and thought seriously:

Do you want to replace an attacking player in the forward line and replace it with a midfielder to further strengthen the midfield?

But doing so will definitely weaken Real Madrid's attacking strength, in the BBC trio, if you really want to change, Ronaldo will definitely not be able to move, Bale and Benzema, of the two, he prefers to keep Benzema and replace Bale.

Bale, who was too physically exhausted and lost his threat on the wing, was mainly responsible for the defensive work on the field at this time, and did not provide much help to the attack.

And he has a Carvajal behind him, even if he replaces Bale, Carvajal can still move forward to participate in the attack, and it will not have much impact on Real Madrid's pattern on the right wing.

But in this way, Real Madrid's defense on this side will definitely be weakened.

Once they find an opportunity, it's easy to take advantage of that to score, which is something Zidane doesn't want to see.

Therefore, Zidane was a little hesitant about whether to change people immediately.

Zidane glanced at the bench and his eyes swept over Isco, Alvaro Morata, Wirensen, Nacho, Kovacic and others.

If there is a substitution, only Mateo Kovacic can meet his demands.

Isco is stronger in attack than in defense, and he is a good player in attack, but defense is not of much help.

As for the other midfielder, Rodriguez, he has already been left out of Real Madrid's squad.

If nothing else, he will leave Real Madrid this summer.

The Colombian supernova, which was snatched from many giants at a high price back then, has not performed well in Real Madrid in the past few years, and it can even be called a deterioration.

Zidane has long lost patience with him, and he has not been given many opportunities to play this season, let alone arranged for him in such an important game as the Champions League final, so poor Ronaldo did not even make the 18-man squad.

Seeing the head coach's gaze swept over, the players sitting on the bench couldn't help but sit up straight, shouting in their hearts: choose me, choose me, let me play!

It's the stage for the Champions League final and there's no one who doesn't want to be in a game like this.

Especially the team is still in a leading position, not only can you be familiar with the face, but there is even a high probability that you can win the cup with the team.

In this way, there is both face and a championship game, and the substitutes are really eager to wear it!

Morata was very eager in his heart, but when he saw that the manager's eyes did not stay on him for even a second, his heart suddenly cooled.

Think about it, Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema are both present and in good shape, as a substitute for these two, how can he have a chance to play?

However, the team's performance on the wing is not very good, will the manager want to change a winger?

Thinking of this, Morata looked at his compatriot Marco Willenson Asensio, who was four years younger than him, with some jealousy.

Although this guy is young, he is very much valued by the president and head coach of the club.

I don't know if I really have a chance to be sent into play!

On the other hand, as long as the two mountains above him do not go, he has few opportunities, and in Real Madrid's forward selection, Morata can only rank third, and the first two are too strong, and he can't squeeze at all.

Thinking of the cold bench he has been on the bench for most of the season at Real Madrid this season, Morata feels very sad in his heart.

His performance at Real Madrid is actually not bad, throughout the 2016-17 season, Morata scored 20 goals in 43 appearances in all competitions, an average of nearly 0.5 goals per game, the efficiency is really not bad, especially many of them are substitute appearances, and when the playing time is seriously insufficient, he can still score so many goals, which is enough to show that he is hard enough and indeed has strong strength.

Especially in La Liga, Morata looks like he has 26 appearances on the surface, but 12 of those have been as a substitute.

In a total of 1,334 minutes played, he scored a total of 15 league goals, both in terms of goals and scoring efficiency, second only to Cristiano Ronaldo and higher than Benzema and Bale.

But helplessly, he just can't squeeze the above two bigwigs, he can't replace Bale's position, Benzema is indeed better than him in the center, and he has a more tacit understanding with his teammates, which Morata can't shake in a short time.

Thinking of this, Morata had the idea of going, although when he was wandering in Serie A, he thought about returning to Real Madrid.

But after Real Madrid sat on the bench for a year, he felt that Real Madrid was not so fragrant, and Morata wanted to play the main team more than sitting on the cold bench in his favorite team.

Just when Morata was thinking nonsense, Zidane really called Asensio's name.

But more than one was named: "Asensio, Kovacic, you two go warm up!" ”

Although Zidane can respond to all changes with the same, since Real Madrid is in the lead in the score, Zidane actually has the initiative.

But he didn't want to be too passive, so he prepared with both hands.

If Real Madrid's lead can be sustained and the opposition's attack does not threaten Real Madrid's goal for a short period of time, then he may replace Mateo Kovacic.

Kovacic is not a typical defensive midfielder, he also has good attacking ability and can take on part of the work of attacking organization, which can increase the hardness of Real Madrid's midfield while minimizing the weakening of the team's attacking strength after Bale is gone.

But if the situation on the pitch cannot be maintained and Manchester City quickly equalises, then Real Madrid will have to strengthen their attack, and sending Asensio on the pitch at this time is the best option.

After making all preparations, Zidane relaxed and stared at the arena seriously.

He wondered what form City's attack would take after Pep Guardiola made a major change.

……

Up front, Mbappe was a little uncomfortable in the forward position.

He always habitually runs to a familiar position on the wing, but his teammates and even the manager do not deliberately correct him.

This left Real Madrid's centre-backs a bit at a loss.

Has the other party become a frontless formation?

So who should you guard against?

Do you want to stare at the opponent's front waist?

Not only did the Real Madrid players on the pitch feel weird, but the players on both sides in the stands felt weird too.

Manchester City's formation is very strange, there is no forward in the middle, but there are wingers on both sides, resulting in Manchester City's formation on both sides protruding, and the middle is behind, like a concave edge.

Affected by the opponent's formation, Real Madrid's formation has also become a bit eccentric.

In order to support the strangulation in the middle, their central defenders were higher up than the full-backs, and the gaps in the middle were even bigger than those on the wings.

If the team is on the defensive, then it is good to say that the overall defensive formation can still be leveled.

But once the team is in an offensive state, the disconnect of the overall defense line is obvious, and the huge gap in the middle is too conspicuous, but every time the opponent breaks through the defense, Real Madrid has to pay a heavy price.

But the midfielders of both sides were going through a bitter strangulation battle at this time, and it was difficult for each other to hold the ball, let alone send dangerous passes.

In this case, Real Madrid's back line has not received much attention, especially when the opponent does not have a center forward, even if someone can penetrate Real Madrid's defense, there is no player in front of him!

From the 70th minute onwards, both sides were already red-eyed in midfield.

Steals and steals, forcing and counter-robbing are frequently staged, and the fight between the two sides is so fierce that even Lin Quan, who can be called the top in ball control and ball protection, can't hold the ball in this situation.

Take a little extra second, and you'll either be surrounded or fouled.

And it's not just Real Madrid who fouls, Manchester City is also using rough fouls against the opposing midfielder.

In the 73rd minute, N'Golo Kante tackled Kroos and received his seventh yellow card of the game.

Three minutes later, Casemiro was also yellow carded by the referee for fouling David Silva and Lin Quan in a short period of time.

The referee has already smelled the gunpowder and is trying to control the game and not let it get out of control.

But his yellow card doesn't seem to have much of a deterrent.

Just one minute after he showed Casemiro a yellow card, Fernandinho fouled Modric and received a yellow card.

Seeing that the referee was so busy, constantly taking out cards and records, some fans ridiculed the referee for simply changing his name to the dealer master.

Including this yellow card from Fernandinho, he has already shown nine yellow cards in this game.

On the field, the referee was busy taking out cards to warn the fouling players on both sides, and on the sidelines, the head coaches of both teams invariably protested and complained to the fourth official, asking the fourth official to remind the referee to take care of the opposing players.

"Look, what are the people of Real Madrid going to do? Are they playing football? This is clearly to kill! ”

Seeing that Lin Quan was put down again, and from behind, Guardiola jumped angrily, and once again rushed to the front of the fourth official, pouring bitter water on him.

Zidane was standing next to the fourth official, and he was immediately unhappy when he heard Guardiola's words:

"That's obviously a clean tackle, tackle the ball first before touching people, you figure it out, okay, sometimes find your own reasons, don't blame others for everything!"

Guardiola saw the referee take out the cards of the foul Real Madrid central defender Varane, glanced at Zidane, and sneered:

"I didn't expect Mr. Zidane's eyesight to be so good, standing on the sidelines can see more clearly than the referee on the field, it's really condescending that you don't want to be a referee!"

Zidane's face was very ugly, and being slapped in public made him a little annoyed.

However, only two minutes later, after seeing Ronaldo jump high like a scream and fall in the Manchester City penalty area, Zidane couldn't help but jump to his feet:

"Foul, penalty! It was definitely a foul and the referee should have given the opponent a red card for number 24, which is not playing at all, he is murdering! ”

Hearing Zidane's words, the fourth official had not yet spoken, and Guardiola on the side was not happy:

"Stones' tackle was very clean and the foul was committed outside the box, it wasn't your players who jumped into the box like they were diving, they must have been fouled in the box, and besides, did the referee say it was a foul?"

As soon as Guardiola finished speaking, the referee from Germany, Bruch, took out another yellow card and raised it high at Stones.

"Huh!"

Zidane sneered, although he did not open his mouth to mock, but this sneer alone was enough to make Guardiola feel embarrassed.

He also felt the taste of Zidane being slapped in the face just now!

The slap in the face came too fast like a tornado......

The referee showed a yellow card to Stones, but refused the Real Madrid player's request for a penalty.

He could see clearly that when Stones fouled, Ronaldo had not yet entered the box.

He jumped into the box in an exaggerated way the moment Stones fouled.

This caused the referee to hesitate at first, unsure if Stones had actually fouled or if someone had simply had an old illness and started diving again.

Not to mention anything else, if you really give Real Madrid a penalty, this penalty is scored, then the suspense of this game may be killed, and Real Madrid will win the Champions League trophy as they wish! (End of chapter)