Football Feast, Starting From the Acquisition of European Clubs

   Chapter 126 Love Song

   Such a good opportunity, how could Ronaldo miss it?

   Without any hesitation, C Luo rounded up and shot with one kick.

"boom!"

  The ball is fast and powerful, and it hits the bottom edge of the Newcastle United crossbar and bounces into the goal. Shay didn't even have time to stretch out his hand subconsciously, but he didn't even feel the hair of the ball.

   "Goal"

  Crystal Palace led Newcastle United 1-0.

   "Haha, what a beautiful match!"

  The players hugged each other on the pitch to celebrate, and Chen Ran also hugged Guardiola and Southgate on the bench.

   "Boss, the tactics we designed in training have come out."

   Seeing that their hard work paid off, Guardiola and Southgate, who had just become coaches, were also excited, even happier than scoring goals themselves.

   After breaking the deadlock, the initiative in the next game completely fell into the hands of Crystal Palace.

   However, this time Chen Ran did not immediately return to play a defensive counterattack.

   Because of Southgate's absence, Crystal Palace's defensive stability has dropped a lot.

   So Chen Ran is now adopting the method of attacking instead of defending to reduce the pressure on the back line.

   Souness is also a top iron. Since he has made an offensive tactical arrangement before the game, he has no plans to give up. Now conceding a ball first, it gave him the motivation to let go.

  Unfortunately, Newcastle United's end forcing the attack was just used by Crystal Palace in their eagerness to equalize the score, and Tony scored another goal and entered the half-time with a two-goal lead.

   "Guys, you played well in the first half. In the second half, the team has to use the twin towers tactics and try to score two more goals. Do you have any confidence?"

"Have!"

  In the dressing room, the response from the Crystal Palace players resounded loudly.

   At the beginning of the second half, Chen Ran replaced Modric with Crouch as usual. Crouch wasn't refrigerated just because he might want to go.

   The entire second half of the game was uneventful.

  Although Souness has replaced Kluivert and Bart and other new forces introduced this season, Alan Shearer also scored a goal for Newcastle United.

   But on the Crystal Palace side, Tony and Crouch each scored a goal, completely killing Newcastle United's hope of scoring.

  In the end, when the referee blew the whistle of the end of the game, Crystal Palace won 4-1 at home against Newcastle United with Tony's brace and goals from Ronaldo and Crouch.

   While winning the fourteenth round of the Premier League, it also brought Chen Ran a winning bonus of 2 million euros.

   In other Premier League matches in this round, Arsenal drew 1:1 at home by West Bromwich Albion, and Chelsea drew 2:2 at home by Bolton.

   This time, the two opponents who were closely chasing Crystal Palace did not win at the same time, allowing Crystal Palace to take the opportunity to continue to expand their lead.

  The other two strong teams Manchester United beat Charlton 2-0 at Old Trafford, while Liverpool lost 0-2 away to Middlesbrough.

   After the 14th round of the Premier League, Crystal Palace topped the standings with 14 consecutive victories and 42 points.

  Chelsea continued to rank second with 32 points from ten wins, two draws and two losses.

  Arsenal ranked third with nine wins, three draws, two losses and 30 points.

   It is thousands of miles away in China. With the continuous increase of Crystal Palace's winning streak, Crystal Palace's post bar is also becoming more and more lively.

   "Invincible, really invincible, Crystal Palace is now a bit sweeping the Premier League."

   "Hehe, you're too high-profile, it's easy to attract hackers."

   "That's right. Before we win the Premier League championship, it's better for us to grow up in a dreadful way."

   "That's right. Isn't it the old saying: 'Build walls high, store grain widely, and be king slowly'."

   "I'm going, what are you thinking about watching a ball? Just do it if you don't agree!"

   "No way. Crystal Palace is just a newly-promoted horse, and it can't compare with the old and strong teams of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. It is better to keep a low profile."

   "It's okay, with Chen Ran around, I believe that Crystal Palace will also become a giant club in the near future."

   "Hey, I agree with this."

   "Agree +1"

   "Agree +2"

  England's media has become a little numb as Crystal Palace continues to refresh their winning streak.

   In addition, there was no breaking point in this game, so that the attention of the reporters was attracted by another thing.

   That is the foul penalty that caused Cissé to fracture about Pepe in the last game.

   The FA believes that there is no evidence that Pepe has maliciously hurt others, and it is only suspended for one game in accordance with the normal red card penalty rules.

   This can make the media in England fry the pot. For a while, the discussion on whether the punishment of Pepe is fair this time has filled the pages of major media.

   Chen Ran is naturally very satisfied with this punishment from the FA, saying that the FA rarely finds conscience.

  After rejecting all media interview requests, Chen Ran turned his attention to the next opponent Crystal Palace will face, Villarreal from Spain.

   At this time, Villarreal was not an ordinary team.

   Just this season, Villarreal is only behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, and will get a good result in the third place in the Spanish League.

   In Villarreal's squad, there is also a group of talented players.

   Like the midfield core from Argentina, Riquelme, known as the last classical midfielder.

  The striker from Uruguay, Diego Forlan, who will win the La Liga Golden Boot this season.

   There are also powerful players such as Jose Mari, Figueroa, Cazorla, Marcos, Senna, Tazinadi, Sorin, Fonte and so on.

   It was these players that created the peak of Villarreal.

   The current head coach of Villarreal is also the famous Chilean engineer Pellegrini.

   With his outstanding performance in coaching Villarreal, Pellegrini became one of the first-line coaches in the world, and later he got the opportunity to coach Real Madrid.

   For this small Spanish team that is not very conspicuous now, the reborn Chen Ran will not have any contempt.

   In this away game, he was even more prepared for the most difficult situation.

   For this reason, Guardiola and Southgate and Simeone, etc., are very incomprehensible.

   Especially Guardiola, as a true Spaniard, his impression of Villarreal is still on the La Liga relegation team.

   It's not his fault. Guardiola, who was born in Barcelona, ​​has not worked hard in Spain in recent years.

  I usually pay attention to the situation of the old club Barcelona, ​​at most the old rival Real Madrid.

   For other Spanish teams, he doesn't care at all.

   That is, to prepare the information of Villarreal for Chen Ran, Guardiola specially collected the relevant information.

   When he saw Villarreal's La Liga standings in the previous three seasons, he thought that Crystal Palace would have no problem winning the opponent.

   Because Villarreal came close to being relegated in two of the previous three seasons.

  15th in the 2001-2002 season, 15th in the 2002-2003 season, and 8th in the 2003-2004 season.

   And Villarreal's qualification to participate in the UEFA Cup this season, or they won the Intertoto Cup championship last season.

   "Boss, is Villarreal worthy of your attention?"

   Guardiola asked in confusion.

   "Well, the current Villarreal is not the previous Villarreal. They now have a lot of good players and a good coach, we can't take it lightly."

   Seeing the expressions of the three assistants a little disapprovingly, Chen Ran's heart sank.

   This is not a good phenomenon, arrogant soldiers will lose.

  Thinking of this, Chen Ran's face changed, and his tone of voice increased.

   "I want to remind you, don't be fascinated by the results in front of your eyes. For opponents you don't know, there is no harm in being more careful, do you understand?"

   Chen Ran, who is usually in a good mood, rarely speaks in such a stern tone.

   Such a sudden change also made Guardiola, Southgate and Simeone stunned for a moment, and suddenly woke up.

   It seems that the boss doesn't pay much attention to Villarreal, a small Spanish team.

  Villarreal is a small town with a population of just over 50,000 in Valencia, Spain.

   Villarreal's home stadium, Ballad, can only accommodate more than 20,000 people.

   This UEFA Cup match against the top of the Premier League filled the entire Love Song Stadium.

   In other words, the entire city of Villarreal, nearly half of the residents, came to watch the game.

   For this game, Chen Ran sent a defensive counter-attack lineup.

   Center Tony

  Left midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo, right midfielder Ribery

   Midfielder Yaya Toure, Midfielder Modric, Midfielder Simeone

  Left-back Chiellini, center-back Thiago Silva, center-back Vidic, right-back Maicon

   Goalkeeper Cech

   Such a conservative line-up arrangement completely treats Villarreal as a strong team like Arsenal and Chelsea. It is no wonder that Guardiola and others are puzzled.

   And here in Villarreal, Pellegrini also sent all the main force.

  Diego Forlan and Figueroa partner up front, and Riquelme is responsible for organizing the attack as the attacking midfielder.

Tacinadi and Marcos Senna form a double midfielder. The former is an Italian international from Juventus with strong defensive ability. The latter not only has excellent defensive ability, but also has good organizational and offensive ability. Shooting is very good.

   Especially Marcos Senna, he was originally a Brazilian, but because of his excellent ability, he was favored by Spanish coach Aragones. After changing his nationality, he was recruited into the talented Spanish national team.

   There is also Argentina international Sorin, who is also a powerful character who can take the entire left wing. From left wing to left back, he can do it all.

   It can be said that if the configuration of the midfield and frontcourt is considered alone, Villarreal is already a strong team.

   This has been verified from the very beginning of the competition.

   Under the organization of Riquelme, Villarreal quickly took the initiative on the field.

The    offensive wave after wave made Crystal Palace's back line a little breathless.

   "Boss, I didn't expect Villarreal to be so strong now. I was negligent."

   Guardiola leaned over to Chen Ran and admitted his mistake in a low voice.

  Chen Ran glared at him angrily and said nothing.

  Who let Guardiola just start to take up the position of coach, and he is still relatively young?

   Actually, Chen Ran knew that this was because Guardiola had been playing for Barcelona since La Masia.

   In addition to Real Madrid, in fact, he despised other Spanish teams in his bones, so he made the mistake of underestimating the enemy.

   However, it seems that my own arrangement has no effect.

   Looking at the situation on the field, Chen Ran couldn't help frowning.

   Before the game, he specially arranged for Yaya Toure to mark Riquelme.

   But from the current effect, it is not ideal.

  Riquelme's technique is so good, Yaya Toure is like a tall and stupid wooden stake, being played around by Riquelme.

  No way, Yaya Toure is too tall, and the shortcoming of slow action frequency is not obvious at ordinary times.

   But now facing Riquelme, who has excellent skills, he can get rid of him in three or two moves, which makes Yaya Toure fall into a state of exhaustion.

   No, if Riquelme is allowed to play so freely, something will happen sooner or later, and Chen Ran feels that he must make some adjustments.

   "Diego, you go to replace Yaya Toure to mark Riquelme."

   Taking advantage of the dead ball, Chen Ran immediately called Simeone to the sidelines.

   "Got it, boss."

The effect of    adjustment is immediate.

  The old-fashioned Simone immediately made his fellow Riquelme feel very uncomfortable.

As soon as   Riquelme was restrained, Villarreal's offensive threat diminished a lot.

  Because the number of **** received by Diego Forlan and Figueroa has dropped significantly compared to the beginning.

   If they can't catch the ball, they naturally have no chance to shoot. At this time, Crystal Palace's defense line had a chance to breathe.

   Pellegrini on the other side did not respond.

   It's not that he didn't see Chen Ran's adjustment, but that he is very confident in Riquelme's ability and believes that he will definitely be able to create threatening shooting opportunities for the striker.

  Chen Ran replaced Yaya Toure with Simeone to mark Riquelme, but as time passed, another fatal problem was exposed.

  Because, Simone is almost thirty-five years old this year, and his physical fitness is not as good as before.

   Marking Riquelme in this way, wherever Riquelme goes, it consumes a lot of physical energy.

   Now that half-time is not over yet, Simeone's footsteps have begun to be a little out of step.

   "Boss, Diego's physical fitness seems to be a little out of step."

   Guardiola came up again at this time, and he also discovered this situation.

   "Well, now you let Mascherano warm up."

  Chen Ran did not look back, and gave Guardiola an order directly.

   "Are you going to make a substitution now? The first half is almost over, do you want to wait until halftime?"

   "Let's confuse Pellegrini first and make him mistakenly think that I will continue to strengthen the defense. I will change formations in midfield, so that at the beginning of the second half, we can beat Villarreal by surprise."

   "Boss, what tactics are you going to use?"

   "You'll know when the time comes."

   (end of this chapter)