In modern football, the midfield has always been a battleground.

Against both sides, who can control the midfield will largely control the pace of the game.

Whichever side controls the rhythm is equivalent to seeing the fat times of the goddess of victory, and victory is within reach!

And left winger Mertens cut inside to the middle from time to time, and Higuain's retreat, so that Napoli formed a local numerical advantage in the middle.

Under the impact of the alternation, Andy King and Cambiaso were exhausted, and there was an obvious vacancy.

If it weren't for Maguire's several scrambles from the defensive zone and intercepting Hamsik's through balls, Higuain would have been able to get a one-on-one chance with the defender!

Seeing that the defense in the middle was exploded, Ling Feng also realized the ferocity of the opponent's attack, and was also ready to retreat to the midfield to help the defense.

However, before he could retreat, Napoli took the lead in breaking the balance on the field:

When the game reached the thirty-second minute, Napoli suddenly changed the direction of attack and launched an attack in the middle!

After receiving a pass from the midfield, Hamsik used a very dashing croquette on the spot to get rid of Andy King.

Immediately the outside instep sent the ball forward, and it hit the wall with Mertens who received the middle of the field.

When he got the ball again, there was not a single Foxes player within three meters of him.

Looking up at the left and right sides, the Napoli and Slovakia captain sent a diagonal kick directly with his left foot to hit the gap on the right.

Even if Schlupp turned and chased back at the first time, he couldn't clear the ball before Callejon.

Callejon, dressed in white, seems to have returned to his self in Real Madrid, after overtaking Schlupp from the outside, he passed directly to the back point without stopping.

Higuain was firmly caught by Maguire and Hut, and missed the chance to grab the point.

But the ball passed through the tight space between the defender and the goalkeeper at high speed and into the space at the back post.

Blue Fox right-back Simpson was about to step forward, but before he could think of it, a white figure rushed out from behind him.

None other than a meter seven Mertens!

I saw him swing his leg and push before Simpson stretched out his foot to clear the siege.

In the next second, the ball stuck to the inside of the post and drilled into the goal!

The whole attack was played so fast that Schmeichel Jr. on the goal line even just moved in, and before he could reach out to block it, the ball was already entangled with the net.

“GOAL！！！”

"Napoli scored first!"

"The goal was scored by number 14, Dris. Mertens !! ”

Suddenly, all the home team fans at the King Power Stadium fell silent.

Many people are holding their heads in their hands, looking like blue thin mushrooms.

Although he knows that his team's defense is not very reliable, he has conceded a lot of goals this season.

However, they did not expect that the opponent's attack would be so sharp and so fluid.

Looking at the Napoli players celebrating at the King Power Stadium, the home fans finally understood why the media and spinach company would consider Napoli the favourites with the highest odds to win the Europa League!

Seeing that the team scored, Benitez on the sidelines just applauded on the ground, without being too excited or excited.

In his opinion, it was just a dominance that turned into a goal.

Pearson, on the other hand, frowned.

Compared with Wolfsburg, this Napoli offensive firepower is even stronger!

Moreover, compared to Wolfsburg's heavy reliance on De Bruyne's tactical play, Napoli's front four has been partnered for a longer time and has a better understanding.

Everyone has their own role to play and can make the most of their technical characteristics.

Leicester City, on the other hand, was completely overwhelmed by the opponent's attack.

Pearson knew it in his heart.

Even if "Brother Drinker" Drinkwater is on the field today, partnering Cambiaso in the midfield, he may not be able to withstand Napoli's swift attack.

The team's offense, with Ling Feng here, has never been a problem that the team needs to consider.

On the contrary, it is the defense, which is the project that the Blue Foxes coaching staff led by Pearson has been trying to improve.

Originally, after signing Hut on loan in the winter window, Hut's center-back partnership with Morgan allowed him to see the improvement of the defensive line.

However, the injuries of Morgan and Drinkwater directly caused a very big flaw in the team's defensive system in the midfield.

And the tactic of substituting offense for defense is always just a stopgap measure.

Especially when encountering some opponents who are equally strong in attack, the two sides are locked into a big battle of attack.

At that point, defense is the real deciding factor.

After all, no matter how much you enter in the front, you can't afford to lose more in the back!

People score goals in one offensive round, and you have to attack a few times to get a goal back.

In the case of one or the other, the opponent concedes fewer goals, which is equivalent to scoring more goals.

In terms of score, it is still the opponent who wins.

However, even if Pearson knew very well what the team's weaknesses were, and wanted to strengthen the defense in the middle, there were not many cards to play.

Neither Marty James in midfield nor Nick Powell, on loan from Manchester United, can provide the tough defence and more coverage required in the midfield position.

The compromise strategy is to retreat the Ling Feng position.

However, this trick only works in exceptional circumstances.

Such changes have been tried in previous matches, but they have not worked well and only weakened the team's attacking threat.

Therefore, in Pearson's view, instead of falling into a passive situation of being pressed by the opponent in the half of the court and frantically rubbing, it is better to have a vigorous offensive battle with the opponent!

It depends on who has the most attack and who has the most goals!

This is also the attacking football that Leicester City relies on to survive!

So, after discussing with the assistant coach, while the opponent was celebrating, Pearson waved Ling Feng to the sidelines:

"You don't have to retreat!"

"This is our home stadium and we have to press the opponent with attack!"

"It's like we've been doing in training and in games!"

'We just need to score one more goal than them to win the game!'

Pearson's expression and tone were full of certainty.

And Ling Feng also nodded.

"I see, Coach!"

In the past half hour, he can be considered to have understood.

Napoli's front four were in very good form today, with a fluid mix of crosses and cuts.

With Leicester City's backline, if it continues to face such high pressure, it will definitely be impossible to prevent it.

Only by attacking can we find a glimmer of life!

。。。

Soon, after kicking off again, both the Napoli players on the field and the fans on both sides in the stands noticed that the eyes of the Blue Foxes players in blue clothes changed suddenly.

It's sharp, it's fierce!

Pressing and running, also more aggressive and aggressive!

They were not hit by the first goal in the slightest, but were encouraged by the home fans, who let them blow the horn of the counterattack!

In the ten minutes since conceding the goal, Leicester City have launched wave after wave of attacks.

Napoli, on the other hand, also seized the limited opportunities to switch between attack and defence, and played a very dangerous and quick counter-attack.

The speed with which the offensive and defensive rounds of both sides switched was simply dizzying.

In the last second, Napoli's Mertens cut inside from the left, but his burst was blocked, and the ball bounced to the feet of midfielder Andy King;

In the next second, the latter made a direct pass, found Ling Feng in front, Ling Feng changed direction and accelerated, and after advancing a few meters directly with the ball, he sent a scalpel-like straight plug when Napoli defender Lopes grabbed it.

Vardy ran into the open space, smoothed the ball with his left foot, pulled the angle a little, and blasted the bar with his right foot!

With a "bang", the ball shot out like a cannonball and hit the upper right corner of the goal.

Forcing Napoli goalkeeper Andujar to make a wonderful save, he was able to block the ball off the line with his fingertips

The two sides go back and forth, and the style of play is very simple and fast.

Without wasting any time at the back, he quickly passed through the midfield and handed the ball to the front players to play.

Napoli opted to attack from the wings, using the speed and breakthrough of Mertens and Callejon to tear gaps in the defence on the flanks and create opportunities for crosses or in-cut shots;

Leicester City, on the other hand, chose to advance from the middle, using Ling Feng's personal ability to play quick counterattacks and repeatedly burn the fire to Napoli's half.

You sing and I will appear, and the rhythm of the game is full!

Such a wonderful offense and defense also ignited the enthusiasm of the fans on the scene and was addicted.

While the number of shots on goal was steadily increasing on both sides, it was always a fraction of a cent short of a goal.

It wasn't until stoppage time in the first half that Leicester finally took advantage of a set-piece opportunity to pull one back.

Jesse Lingard was brought down on the right before Ling Feng took a set-piece and slotted the ball into the air over the crowd in the box.

And Maguire, the "highest altitude" in the entire penalty area, under the cover of Hut, beat the opponent's Spanish international Albiol, who also reached 1.9 meters, and pushed the ball under the goal crossbar!

One-to-one!

After the goal, Maguire was very excited and rushed to the corner flag area, and then came straight to a sliding knee!

Seeing this, Ling Feng couldn't help but smile brightly.

This trick is called the aircraft carrier going to the ground!

After getting up, Maguire didn't forget to give Ling Feng, who came over to celebrate together, a big hug.

Since seeing Maguire's header in training, Pearson has directly used Maguire's head as the first landing point of the pass in set-piece training.

Ling Feng, who points to which pass, and Maguire, who is 1.94 meters tall and has first-class heading ability, Leicester City's set-piece attack has become more threatening!

Shortly after Harry Maguire headed home to equalise the scores, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half.

Back in the dressing room, Pearson not only recognized the performance of his players in the first half, but also praised Maguire's performance by name.

In the first half of the game, if you want to vote for the best player among the starting eleven of Leicester City, not only Ling Feng, but also the commentator, and even most Blue Fox fans, will choose Maguire!

Throughout the first half, he combined with Hut's central defenders, and the restriction of Higuain was quite successful.

Several blocked shots and tackles were effective in blocking the opponent's attack in the middle.

And most of the high-altitude ball crosses on both sides were cleared by him as soon as possible.

In addition to his defensive duties, he also helped the team equalise before half-time.

The young centre-back, who replaced captain Morgan, won the recognition of his coach and teammates with his excellent offensive and defensive performances.

However, just because he's done well doesn't mean he doesn't have weaknesses.

On the contrary, after observing the first half of the game, Napoli manager Benitez has already spotted his weaknesses!

"Well done in the first half! We've created a lot of opportunities. ”

"We need to make some changes in our attack to be able to defeat them completely!"

"Especially the tall No. 28 man, who turns around slowly, you can hit him behind him more!"

"Crosses on both sides, less high ball crosses, straight to the ball in front of the goal!"

Benitez is known as the "King of the Cup" because since he took charge of Valencia in 2001, he has won at least one cup with every team he has played!

And he was able to win the championship in the more brutal and uncontrollable cup competitions, and it was not just luck that he was able to win the championship!

In terms of on-the-spot command, Benitez can be said to be the best in the world!

。。。

In the second half, Leicester continued to attack on the back of the game.

However, in this game, Jamie Gundy did not appear to wear shooting boots.

Although Ling Feng's breakthrough and advancement repeatedly attracted the attention of the opponent's defense, creating several opportunities for him to kick off,

However, a few shots on goal either went too straight and were saved by the opponent's goalkeeper; Either it's too hard and hits high.

Albrighton and Lingard, on the other hand, have average skills at their feet and are not fast enough to tear apart the defense.

Leicester City's attack still depends on Ling Feng to a large extent.

In contrast, Napoli's frontcourt attack is more dazzling and designed.

And after Benitez's tactical change, every attack of Napoli has made Leicester City's backline more noisy and closer to scoring.

In the 60th minute, Benitez decisively replaced the defender López, who was carrying a yellow card, and replaced it with Insigne, who had just returned from injury.

Hamsik was then dropped back to Insigne up front and through his deft individual breakaway, he continued to attack Leicester's two midfielders down the middle.

The effect of this substitution is immediate!

Just five minutes after Insigne came on, he broke through the middle and then smashed a through ball to the edge of the box.

Higuain turned and received the ball and scored with a low shot, and the action was done in one go!

After putting the score back in the lead, Leicester's backline looked like they were in a state of despair.

Just four minutes later, Napoli launched an attack on the right, Callejon broke through and was tripped by Schlupp, and the referee decisively sent a yellow point package!

Higuain made it overnight and extended the score advantage again!

With just 20 minutes remaining, Leicester made a lone bet and pressed the formation in an all-round way to try to keep the score close and keep the suspense for the second leg.

But all offenses are always missed by goals.

In the end, Ling Feng relied on his personal ability to kill a few long shots outside the big penalty area, which were also slightly out of the goal.

In the end, with a long whistle from the referee, Leicester City's unbeaten streak of 19 games at home was finally broken.

(End of chapter)