Porto are good at defending and counter-attacking, just because they won't play positional battles.

It's just that the routines in positional warfare are not new.

When space becomes small, their attacking players don't look better in terms of movement than the Ajax attacking group.

Maniche on the left, Alenichev on the right, McCarthy on the front, and Deco behind them for offensive organization, a very common offensive configuration.

In the 85th minute, Alenichev's cross after breaking through on the right side was of average quality and was directly confiscated by Lobont.

Ajax continued their long-pass rush tactics and the attack did not improve much.

Qin Xiong seems to have lost his amazing aura, doing ordinary passing work, even if he is accurate in finding Ibrahimovic's pass in the front court, but because Ibrahimovic is caught in the bag, coupled with the long flight distance of the football and the slow speed of the ball, Porto can not only defuse Ajax's simple attack well, but also be able to immediately launch a fast attack.

Although Mourinho still maintained a calm expression on the sidelines, deep down he always felt that the shape of the game had become wrong!

It's a mystical feeling.

Ajax's substitutes are still warming up and Koeman doesn't know what to wait for, or is he ready to come on again after extra time?

I don't know!

On the field, Porto's defense line did not sound the alarm frequently, and Ajax seemed to take the initiative to retreat, which + should be beneficial to Porto.

At the very least, they can constantly challenge Ajax's defence with positional warfare without worrying about the backline.

But Mourinho just didn't think something was right!

In the 87th minute of the game, when Deco dribbled horizontally in front of Qin Xiong and blasted a long-range shot that hit the goal frame, the Ajax fans at the scene let out a burst of exclamations, but fortunately Lobonte was well prepared and concentrated. Hold on to the soccer ball steadily. Otherwise, maybe Deco will kill Ajax.

Even if you see this scene. Mourinho still frowned.

Porto can play positional battles, but the greatest power of attack comes from counterattacks!

If positional warfare were the main means of attack, they would not have made it to the final.

Now they are defending unchallenged and looking very safe, but again, they have lost room to counter-attack.

Jose Mourinho's equaliser for Ajax, the transformation that took place on the pitch was quickly recalled in my mind one by one, two or three times.

Mourinho was taken aback when the clock ran out of the 90 minutes on the big screen and the fourth official on the pitch held up an injury time sign on the sidelines. He walked quickly to the sidelines, his eyes showed a sharp light, and with a wave of his big hand, he ordered the team to retreat!

Even if it's striker McCarthy, you have to give Lao Tzu back to defend!

Gotta go back and drain the time!

Mourinho, who had been calm and composed in the 90 minutes, was now beating the drums and thundering in his heart.

As he repeatedly reviewed the changes in the shape of the game in the last 10 minutes, he was stunned to find that with the Porto defence comfortable and the midfielders able to instigate positional attacks, their overall formation was slowly pressing forward every minute. Perhaps not obviously, the change is also extremely slow.

Among them, Ajax retreated and dragged behind. The Porto position rushed forward, and at the same time, the attacking players found that they did not have to return to the defense, Ajax did not play any threatening offensive at all, and used that kind of long pass play, and the frontcourt players could not return to the defense at the first time.

This led their trident and midfield commander Deco to not retreat like a tide immediately after the attack was not completed.

Another point is that Ibrahimovic was initially at the front of the attack, and he was constantly retreating, but each time the retreat was not large, and little by little, he drove the Porto back line forward.

Porto's defensive problems were simple: to block Ibrahimovic and Ajax's offensive was wiped out.

If, on the contrary, left unchecked, the back line stays honestly in the box, Ibrahimovic drops back to respond, and with his technical ability, it is possible to get rid of a defender, then he shoots from distance in front of the penalty area, who can guarantee that he will not bury Porto's efforts with a world wave?

So there was nothing wrong with Porto's choice of players at the back.

It's just that in Mourinho's view, the choice of defenders is fine, the problem is that even if Ibrahimovic retreats to harass the players defending Ibrahimovic, it should not be the defenders, but the contraction of the midfielders.

This will ensure that Porto will always hold on to their own defensive zone, while at the same time compressing the space at the back and not giving the opposition the slightest chance.

The current shape is off track.

Porto's defence seems solid, and yes, they absolutely limit Ibrahimovic!

But there is a big premise: Ajax's midfield line did not press up at all!

Sneijder and Van der Vaart, who had withdrawn, did not attack either.

Porto's real defensive quality?

Not really tested at all in the last 10 minutes!

A calm storm is not enough to represent a solid defensive line.

Just as Mourinho was waving his arms slightly excitedly on the sidelines to get the players back down, Porto was on the attack, and the players' attention was simply not able to directly observe Mourinho's on-the-spot adjustments.

Maniche burst forward on the left flank and tried to cut inside past Grigra, but he failed.

After a successful steal, Grigera quickly passed the ball straight to Qin Xiong in the middle.

Qin Xiong was catching the ball with his back, and Deco, who was about to harass him next to him, failed to succeed, Qin Xiong kicked the ball, returned the ball to Galasek, and then turned around and ran forward!

As he ran, Deco turned around and chased again, obviously unable to keep up with the speed.

Porto were a little ill-prepared to deal with this defense, and they didn't have time to pay attention to Qin Xiong at all.

They put all their attention on Sneijder!

Galasek split the ball diagonally and it got to Sneijder's feet, where he slid the ball in decisively and after a brief respite he was able to build up enough energy to burst out.

Porto's defensive problems were clearly exposed at this moment, Alenichev behind Sneijder was far away from him, and he couldn't interfere with Sneijder behind him at all, and he couldn't delay Ajax's offensive speed!

As Sneijder drove forward with the ball on the wing, the Porto defenders realised they were unwittingly moving away from the box and dropped back in unison.

Sneijder crossed the halfway line and headed down the middle.

Ibrahimovic did not retreat immediately, but stayed in the middle of the penalty area and waited for his chance, and he was caught by Mendes and Costinha.

Sneijder didn't pass the ball to Ibrahimovic, but to compatriot Van der Vaart.

The Dutch golden boy may have exhausted his last of his stamina for a high-quality burst of speed, and he also rushed up from the right flank.

After Sneijder had the ball, he cut into the box quickly and created a running threat from a left winger to the goal, waiting for a pass from his team-mates.

His movement stunned the Porto backline, with Pacos Ferreira immediately returning into the box to try to set up a close marking on Sneijder's line.

Mendes saw Van der Vaart pause the moment he controlled the ball on the flank, and he moved decisively to press Van der Vaart.

Van der Vaart took the ball back at this point, dodged the angle and passed it straight to Ibrahimovic.

After the pass, Van der Vaart sped past Mendes and sprinted towards the right-hand side of the box, where the right winger should pose a threat to the goal.

Valente followed Van der Vaart again, but he was left out by Van der Vaart, which made it possible for Van der Vaart to intercept once he was able to get the ball at his feet.

Carvalho had to retreat to block a possible pass from Ibrahimovic to Van der Vaart, while Costa also had to prevent Ibrahimovic from feeding Sneijder a cannonball, and the two centre-backs slowly retreated, hoping that Costinha could press Ibrahimovic one-on-one!

Ibrahimovic was very secure on the ball, he used his body to block Costina's harassment, and after observing that the opposition back line was pinned down by Sneijder and Van der Vaart's advance, Ibrahimovic made a fake pass!

He feigned to kick the ball to Van der Vaart, causing Costinha to raise his leg to block, and then Ibrahimovic deftly squeezed the ball behind Costina's centre of gravity, he faced the Ajax penalty area head-on, his steps were not big and he didn't dare to dribble forward, he didn't dare to go big, he didn't dare to take his feet lightly, he knew that time was running out and he needed to make sure this attack was going to get the result they wanted! (To be continued......) R1292