Once upon a time, if a journalist or a football commentator wanted to praise Tottenham Hotspur, it was very simple, all they had to do was to praise the team's attack, and let you praise it, even if you praised its attack like a flower.

But this time the situation has changed significantly, because everyone has found that the best performance of Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg against Barcelona is their defence, and in fact, Tottenham Hotspur's defense has been quite solid in the past season.

Cruyff, the godfather of Barcelona's football, commented in his post-match column, believing that a very important reason why Barcelona failed to perform well on the offensive end was the failure of the propulsive pass

'We had almost UU% possession in this game, and at first glance we had better possession and pass success than Tottenham, but if you look at the other stats, we see that we are not as good as our opponents in terms of shots, in the number of dangerous passes, or even in the number of times we penetrate the opponent's 30-metre zone.

'A big reason for this huge gap is that we have more of a build-up of possession and back-passes, and we've been able to create dangerous push-through passes against other opponents in the past, like through balls, and we did a terrible job in this game and we couldn't penetrate effectively through the Tottenham defence.

"Ye Qiu is very familiar with and understands Barcelona's tactics, although in the first half of this game, Tottenham Hotspur was based on defense, but did not shrink the defensive line, but through effective midfield retreat to compress our space to get the ball, forcing our players to often be in a difficult situation of being attacked by the enemy."

"In the game, I also noticed that Tottenham Hotspur's defense has a strong variability and targeting, with blocking, pressing, and positioning, and they can effectively organize a set of multi-level composite defensive system full of pertinence and elasticity in a very short period of time, with extremely fast speed and full of tacit understanding."

'It's a very uncomfortable system for our players, especially Robin van Persie, who can't get an effective pass or make a dangerous pass, and our midfielders Xavi and Andres Iniesta are also tightly contained by the opposition, which makes it impossible for us to create an effective attacking threat in the game.

"I've noticed that there are a lot of people who would accuse Tottenham of being conservative, but what I want to say is that it's not a conservative and passive tactic, on the contrary, it should be a wake-up call for us to have too much, senseless possession, is it already familiar to our rivals and cracked by them?

"And we have to be aware that in the past, we used to say that Tottenham Hotspur was a team that was stronger in attack than in defense, and this season, Tottenham Hotspur are still very sharp in attack, but they have improved and improved defensively, which means that this team is better than ever."

"It can be said that the defeat at White Hart Lane has made us clearly see the progress of Tottenham Hotspur, and also let us see that compared to the progress of our opponents, although we have also improved, but the progress is not great, lagging behind our opponents."

At the end of the column, Cruyff also advised Pep Guardiola, "There is only one week to go before the second leg, and we have every reason to believe that after a week, we will still face Tottenham Hotspur as a very difficult team, and when the time comes, will we have enough ability and enough way to break down their defence?" ”

As for Cruyff's question, which is also shared by a considerable number of Spanish journalists and fans, and even football reporters and fans around the world, Guardiola said in an interview that he is confident that the team can beat their opponents at the Camp Nou.

After playing the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals at White Hart Lane, several other games have also been decided, among which Ye Qiu is most concerned about the match between Bayern Munich and Manchester United, while Van Gaal's team reversed Manchester United at home with goals from Robben and Olic at the Allianz Stadium.

The eye-catching performance of this game is that Manchester United broke through Bayern Munich's goal in less than a minute after the opening, and although it was finally reversed by Bayern Munich, Manchester United's overall performance is still quite good, and with the strength of Manchester United, back to Old Trafford, plus an away goal, the possibility of promotion is still not small.

However, Ferguson's side welcomed Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea in the Premier League at the weekend.

Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, Rafael, Nemanja Vidic, Brown and O'Shea at the back, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Fletcher, Park Ji-sung and Valencia in midfield, and Owen as the lone striker.

I believe that the first feeling of everyone who gets Manchester United's starting list is that Manchester United intends to use him to get rid of Chelsea?

On the other hand, Ancelotti can be said to be the main force in this game.

The goalkeeper is Cesar, with Zhirkov, Alex, Terry and Ferreira at the back, Malouda, Ballack, Essien and Arshavin in midfield, and Drogba and Anelka in the front.

Although they are playing away from home, the Blues are strong, and in recent times, Carlo Ancelotti's side have been eliminated from the Champions League and can concentrate all their energy on playing in the Premier League, making Carlo Ancelotti's team perform very well in the Premier League, frequently beating opponents by big scores, showing their good competitive form.

In fact, United were in a passive state of attack at Old Trafford at the opening moment, and Ferguson seemed to be mentally prepared for this situation, although he was also actively adjusting, but he was never able to find an effective solution, and in the twentieth minute, Chelsea opened the scoring through Arshavin to open the Manchester United goal.

After that, the two sides changed sides and fought again, but Manchester United's performance still did not improve, on the other hand, Chelsea, from Drogba to another city, 0 away temporarily ahead of Manchester United, and then Ferguson made substitution adjustments, replacing Scholes with Nani and Park Ji-sung with Welbeck to further strengthen the attack.

The Reds then scored a goal, but were unable to break through the Chelsea goal again and suffered a defeat at Old Trafford, which almost cost the Reds the title title title entirely.

Of course, although there was still the so-called right to compete for the league title before, but to know that it was only a verbal and theoretical right, a dozen points behind Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United knew that there was no hope of the league title.

It is precisely because he knows this very well that Ferguson will give up the league in this game, because he wants to focus on the Champions League, which is his most persistent pursuit in recent years, and it is also his most realistic goal now.

In Ferguson's view, Tottenham Hotspur should be the strongest contenders for the Premier League title this season, after all, they are 12 points ahead of Chelsea, which is still quite a big advantage, but their biggest problem is the devil's schedule.

And if Tottenham Hotspur accidentally flips in the gutter, then Chelsea will be the biggest beneficiary, with Carlo Ancelotti's side currently only left to fight for the league title, and because of this, they can focus on playing every league game, while Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur still need to be distracted by the Champions League.

At this point, Chelsea have taken advantage of it.

"How's the situation at the Stadium of Light?" As soon as the whistle blew at the end of the game, Ferguson walked back to the dugout with some excitement and asked his assistant Perrin about the latest news.

"Tottenham Hotspur played in a mess and didn't score until the 83rd minute, winning 0 against Sunderland" Perrin thinks this is certainly not good news, because Tottenham Hotspur won and Manchester United lost, which almost means that Manchester United can completely despair of the league title.

After hearing this, Ferguson closed his eyes, but exhaled heavily, as if he had completely let go of a stone in his heart.

If Tottenham Hotspur loses, he may start to regret his choice, but now that Tottenham have won, it means that he has made the right choice, and whether he wins or loses against Chelsea, Manchester United's league title hopes are slim.

With five Premier League games remaining, a 12-point lead is not safe for Tottenham Hotspur.

The second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals away to Barcelona in midweek, the north London derby at the weekend, and then a week's rest and Chelsea will be a battle of life and death, and if Tottenham can successfully eliminate Barcelona, Chelsea will be the first leg of the semi-finals after three days.

Ferguson hopes that in that game, Tottenham Hotspur will face his Manchester United, and it will be very difficult, but he has absolute confidence because the away score is definitely not a nightmare for Manchester United.

He gave up the game against Chelsea in order to play the decisive game against Bayern Munich at home

"Ye Qiu, Ye Qiu, although you gave me a league championship back then, don't blame me for not remembering the kindness of the day" Ferguson As long as he thinks of Ye Qiu and Tottenham Hotspur's schedule, his mood becomes very good.

To be honest, playing so many games in a row in just one month is not a problem for top teams like Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, but the real problem is that playing so many games and encountering all the strong teams that are not inferior to you in the slightest way is a nightmare.

Luckily, it wasn't Alex Ferguson and his United who had the nightmare, it was his opponents

"Good luck, Ye Qiu," Ferguson said with a somewhat gloating smile.

Wednesday, April 7, cloudy

Ye Qiu should be regarded as one of the more unpopular managers at the Camp Nou, after all, the hatred of Barcelona fans towards him is far from the level of Mourinho, but they still gave overwhelming boos at the moment when Tottenham Hotspur entered the stadium, especially in the stands, where there were remarks insulting Ye Qiu everywhere.

It is nothing more than that many fans think that Tottenham Hotspur's first leg was too conservative and soft.

It's not easy to be a manager these days, not only to win, but also to win beautifully, and it's best to be able to win so that your opponents admire you, otherwise they will definitely not be convinced, but is this possible?

In this game, Tottenham Hotspur still adopted the defensive counterattack tactics of the first leg, because Ye Qiu could feel that the team's state was really not very good, whether it was the main players Messi and Ribery, or others, the state was very average, in this case, as a guest at Camp Nou, Tottenham would only make himself stupid.

And Ye Qiu didn't dare to be careless at all, at least he knew very well that in the past week, how to crack the defense of Tottenham Hotspur has become an important topic for the Barcelona coaching staff and even all Barcelonans.

In fact, Pep Guardiola still gave the answer.

There are two interesting changes in Barcelona's game, one is that Van Persie was pulled up on the right flank, replacing Alexis Sanchez, a position that Van Persie has not played for a long time, but it will not be unfamiliar.

Another noticeable change was Thierry Henry's return to the starting line-up, and in the centre-forward position.

But there is a saying that is quite true, tactical formations are dead, but people are alive.

Don't look at Henry playing in the middle, Van Persie playing on the right, and Pedro on the left, but in fact, when it comes to the game, everyone will be surprised to find that their positions are often reversed, Pedro often cuts inside to the middle, while Henry frequently shifts from the middle to the left side he is familiar with to get the ball, and then in turn to impact the middle.

Although Van Persie plays on the right, he actually moves almost always on the right flank of Tottenham Hotspur.

At the beginning of the game, Barcelona used this quick change of position to pull the Tottenham Hotspur defence, and soon used a Henry pull to the left ribs, and then suddenly diagonally into the box, attracting the attention of Thiago Silva, and then Van Persie suddenly rushed into the box from the right rib, received Pedro's pass, and hit the goal with a precise stop, almost penetrating the Tottenham Hotspur goal.

Luckily, Cech reacted quickly and lifted the ball over the crossbar.

Although this kick failed to score, it made Tottenham Hotspur break out in a cold sweat

But a minute later, Barcelona's offensive came back again, still the same old routine, still through the transfer between Henry, Pedro and Van Persie, creating gaps, but this time Iniesta was disturbed by Yaya Toure when he got the ball, and failed to play the ball in time, causing Pedro, who had run to the gap, to waste a good scoring opportunity.

Two successive waves of attacks have achieved quite good results.

In addition to this pulling and changing positions of the front three, Barcelona also has a very obvious change, that is, it has strengthened the pressing of Tottenham Hotspur, and in order to achieve a better pressing effect, Barcelona's defense is pressed directly forward.

In fact, Guardiola's strategy has also been played smart.

0 behind in the first leg, Barcelona in the second leg of the home battle only one way to go, that is, to play with the attack, it can even be said that the defense is secondary to the current Barcelona, if you can't score, no matter how good the defense is, it is useless, so Guardiola will play with the attack after the opening.

Of course, the purpose of strengthening the counter-attack on the spot is to ensure the defense, because Barcelona also have to consider another situation, that is, if Tottenham Hotspur scores again, even if they score only one, they will lose even if they score three goals.

In fact, the interesting thing about the two legs of the Champions League knockout round is that the second leg can get very complicated regardless of the score of the first leg, so if it is common sense, Tottenham Hotspur should play the attack, because if Tottenham Hotspur score one more goal, Barcelona will have to score four goals to advance.

Therefore, Guardiola's attacking tactics can be described as having multiple strategic purposes.

Ye Qiu is also very aware of the current situation, away goals are the biggest initiative held by Tottenham Hotspur, and it is also the magic weapon to win, as long as an away goal is scored, Barcelona will be finished, but you know the way, Guardiola also knows the way, so he judged before the game that the opening game will not be easy to play, because Barcelona will desperately seize the initiative.

There is a saying that the soft is afraid of the hard, the hard is afraid of the horizontal, the horizontal is afraid of the flute, and the flute is afraid of death

The most difficult opponent in this world is the kind of guy who doesn't want to die, and he will go out of his way to play with you, so when Barcelona launches a desperate attack, desperately presses the defense line, and blocks and forces Tottenham Hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur is still inevitably passive.

Especially when the game reached the fifteenth minute, Barcelona finally seized a chance after crazy attacks and pressing, Iniesta, Pedro and Xavi made a series of one-two collisions against the wall, Iniesta shook the snatching Thiago Silva, straight behind him, Van Persie followed up and pushed a shot through Cech's goal.

The whole Camp Nou stadium was completely boiling, and all the Barcelona fans celebrated wildly with the goal.

This means that Barcelona still have a chance, and with just one more goal, they will be able to equalise on aggregate and the two sides will be able to return to the same starting line.

As if seeing this layer of hope, after the goal, Barcelona continued to launch a desperate attack, and even almost tied the aggregate score once, Puyol crossed from the right, Van Persie stopped the ball and did it, Iniesta volleyed from the edge of the penalty area, but the ball grazed the crossbar and went out of the bottom line.

For a while, Barcelona's offensive was like a storm, and Tottenham Hotspur's goal was a storm and crumbling.