The European Cup Winners' Cup final was ignited, and Aldridge's eyes swept over Barcelona's starting lineup, and he really felt a little miscalculated in his heart.

It wasn't surprising that there were some changes in the line-up, but the formation caught him by surprise.

After Cruyff's dismal end, Robson coached Barcelona this season, changing the team's formation from 433 to 442, and today it is obvious that Millwall has changed the usual formation, such as Popescu in the back position, which is to use defenders to play in the back, on the one hand, to strengthen the defense in front of the penalty area, and on the other hand, to liberate Guardiola.

Barcelona's young squad is truly star-studded, and as Aldridge emphasised, Ronaldo is Barcelona's superstar this season, but without so many great team-mates behind him, he would never have risen to superstar status in three months.

It's just that among the players who started this game, behind Ronaldo, Figo's ability is needless to say, Enrique was the absolute main force in Real Madrid before, if it wasn't for the club's falling out on the renewal issue, I'm afraid he wouldn't have come to Barcelona, Enrique is not only diligent on the field, but also a team player with a very obvious role, and is also the kind of player that Aldridge admires very much, hard-working, and has been working tirelessly in the frontcourt: anti-robbery, tandem, involving this kind of work, no coach doesn't like this kind of player, It may seem unpretentious, but it's actually crucial.

And in the midfield position, de la Pena will be less famous in the future than now, because he is now the Spanish golden boy on the same level as Raul, and his lethal passing ability is simply a master, and Ronaldo has scored goals this season. It is directly related to De La Pena's Ecstasy.

Further back. Pep Guardiola is the pivot of attacking and defending transitions. The defensive players are also not unknown, originally, in the Spanish giants, which player does not have a skill?

Among the players who did not play, Pizzi, Giovanni, Stoichkov, and Blanco always have a group of players who are absolutely the main players of the first-team team on the bench.

Although Barcelona used a 4231 formation to limit Millwall. But Aldridge didn't make any changes in his tactical play.

Unlike the older squad against Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona are young and the game is a 90-minute game.

Alone take out the 11 players on both sides to compare their abilities, Barcelona's offensive ability is absolutely complete, and defensively, maybe everyone is equal.

Therefore, the outside world is more optimistic about Barcelona.

But there's one word that Americans love to emphasize, and Aldrich believes is the key point of the game: team chemistry!

The Barcelona team's individual stats are stacked to surpass Millwall.

However, Aldridge thinks Millwall is superior to the team's chemistry.

Although Barcelona also plays as a team, it has not reached a particularly unusual level. Especially when you look at the offensive and defensive aspects of the team together.

Not to mention Ronaldo, De La Pena has contributed very little to the defensive end.

It's no surprise that Barcelona have more firepower than Real Madrid this season. They have scored nearly 20 more league goals than Real Madrid, but they are still catching up with Real Madrid, and their defense is not particularly good, and they have conceded the most goals in the La Liga semi-finals.

Aldridge believes that Millwall only have a chance of winning this game if they play their own style, and if they think about how to limit their opponent's individual play from the start, then the game will be difficult to play.

Millwall's main players rested for almost half a month, and today's game was full of energy and high morale, and after the game began, the whole team quickly entered the game state, focusing on the process of the game and running widely, with a high degree of mental concentration, and never hesitated to handle the ball.

Andrea Pirlo was still the commander of the midfield, and when he got the ball, there were at least three team-mates running in front of him, left and right to let him choose his route, and he calmly played the ball in De la Pena's symbolic press, decisively and correctly.

Schneider took the ball all the way to the side, Guardiola helped defend the side to press, Schneider crossed the ball to the middle, pulled back Nedved stopped the ball at his feet, and then left the ball in place and rushed forward, this way of doing the ball made Barcelona feel strange, because it seemed that Millwall lost possession, in fact, it was only Nedved who was sure that Pirlo, who was inserted in the attack, could hold the ball, and avoided the speed of the return pass to stop Pirlo.

They have a dazzling display of skill in training, although it is not a combination of man-ball and fancy movements at the feet, but a combination of playing the ball with time difference and challenging the nerves and judgment of the defenders.

For example, Popescu hesitated for a second, took a step to grab the ball, but he couldn't grab the ball in front of Pirlo, but the ball stopped there, between the lightning and flint, instinctive thinking surpassed reason, so he took a wrong step, just as he retracted his body, Nedved had already run past him three meters away, Pirlo rushed forward and made a direct pass, Nedved took the ball at the same time, but also broke through Barcelona's back defensive line.

In front of Abelardo, Nedved crossed the ball to the feet of Shevchenko on the right side, who kept the ball and crossed the penalty area, Nedved was already a half-one-on-one chance after cutting the ball forward, he forced his feet and volleyed out.

Baia didn't react, and bang!

The ball hits the outside of the post and bounces off the bottom line!

The attack was so smooth that the Barcelona players couldn't even touch the ball, and the spectators in the stands were stunned, especially the neutral fans, who couldn't feel the whole stadium in front of the TV.

Millwall attacked from the back, combined with the edge and through the middle to play deep, continuous and rapid passes, and the player's passing and running position was like a ruthless knife tearing apart Barcelona's defence.

There was applause from the stands, but Nedved ran back with a blank face and he ran two metres in front of Guardiola to make a defensive gesture.

Pep Guardiola wondered that he was off the ball, with a Nedved standing in front of him, and a Frenchman next to him, Trezeguet, eyeing him, this is the rhythm of staring at the striker!

On the flanks, Larsson and Andriy Shevchenko also dropped into the half, linking up with full-backs to compress space for Figo and Enrique.

Andrea Pirlo and Claude Makelle flank de la Pena. If de la Pena retreats. Makelle is in a motionless position. Pirlo retreated even deeper, as Makelele had to flank Ronaldo with the back line, compressing the alien's space to move.

You can't see it in close-up shots of live TV, but you can see it clearly on the sidelines and in the stands, the manager and the fans.

Not to mention Robson's frowning, even Mourinho has a solemn face.

The positioning and movement of the players on the pitch can be seen, and Millwall defence is purposefully linked together in three lines. Cut Barcelona's formation, but never take the chances, and if Barcelona's possession returns to the back line, Millwall's forwards won't fight for the ball.

If Barcelona's centre-backs have the organisation to move forward, Millwall will simply opt for space at the back.

Due to the intensity of La Liga fixtures and the fact that a national derby had been played just a few days earlier, the Barcelona players were not in the groove from the start of the game, with Popescu picking up the ball in central midfield and passing it to De la Pena, who came back in front of him.

The rising star of Spain's new generation of passing playmakers is not particularly fast, and he seems to be particularly confident in his ability at his feet, with Figo and Enrique not running out of the air. He chose to turn around on the spot, trying to get past Pirlo. But Pirlo easily reached out and stabbed his ball away.

The ball rolled to the left wing, Larsson grabbed the ball before Enrique and stabbed the ball directly into the middle, before Makelele received the ball, De la Pena pounced, the former easily kicked the ball forward, Pirlo stepped forward to take the ball, and then directly lobed a long ball into the opponent's penalty area.

When Pirlo's first tackle was successful, Trezeguet began to run forward, at this time he just pressed the flat position of the last man in Barcelona's backline, Couto, Barcelona's attack came to an abrupt halt in midfield, which their players did not expect, Pirlo's long pass, the defenders were moving forward, and suddenly the ball came back, and Couto immediately pulled his legs back and ran.

Baia broke away from goal and Trezeguet scrambled to head in just over the penalty line.

Baia jumped up halfway through and reached out to block it, and his fingertips actually touched the ball!

Trezeguet shook his head in pity, then immediately turned and ran back to find Pep Guardiola.

The ball that was blocked fell next to Abelardo, who cleared the ball with a big foot and went to the front, actually a little flustered.

The ball fell to the wing, Figo took the ball, turned around and had no choice to play, so he dribbled forward, and today he faced Schneider, and immediately showed his dexterous dribbling skills.

Schneider never blindly stepped out to steal, he knew that it would only make the opponent break through easily, and then throw himself off.

He stuck in the position of the inside line, Figo chose to go down, Schneider still guarded the inside line and pressed closely, Figo, a winger who does not rely on speed to eat, mainly relies on foot skills, and the combination of man and ball is a master, as long as Schneider does not lose his position and can keep up with Figo in speed, he will not be wiped out.

Slowing down the opponent's tempo, letting his teammates set up a defensive formation, and compressing the opponent's space, Schneider's confidence is getting stronger and stronger.

Figo deceived Schneider with a feint to force the inside on the baseline, but he just pulled the ball on the spot and pulled out the gap and crossed.

In the penalty area, Elgra pressed Ronaldo's header to clear the ball, and Makelele, who was protecting at two points near the penalty area, did not wait for the ball to land for a header relay, and consciously headed the ball to the left.

Capdevilla received the ball and crossed diagonally into the middle, Nedved took the ball, and Millwall's stormy counter-attack swept towards Barcelona's door again

Although Nedved hit the post with a shot and Trezeguet's one-on-one header was saved by goalkeeper Beya, Aldridge felt no regrets at all.

This is one of the most normal patterns of football, not every good chance will turn into a goal.

Moreover, the game is not yet fully on the winning track of the Millwall team.

He was waiting, observing.

Barcelona's attack was severely hampered, and the midfield fell into complete passivity, with Pep Guardiola's number of balls at the heart of the transition between attack and defense plummeting, with Trezeguet and Nedved sandwiched him in the middle, making Barcelona's teammates afraid to pass the ball to him.

And de la Pena was also limited by Pirlo and Makellele, and there was no room to play.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, was also isolated up front.

In the run-up to the game, all the British media were supporting Millwall, coming up with various theories to limit Ronaldo.

But Aldridge's focus on arranging the team's defense is not Ronaldo at all, but the teammates behind Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is a top goalscorer and a great figure at the top of football history, but he's not all-round! He needs his teammates to make the ball for him, he needs his teammates to help him get involved, and he needs a strong team!

This is true both in the big clubs and in the national team.

Ronaldo, who gets the ball, even if he takes the ball with his back, the threat will be full value, but Ronaldo, who can't get the ball, how can he threaten? This kind of thinking has similarities with Cruyff's possession of the ball, except that one is used for offense and the other is for defense.

One is to reduce Ronaldo's chances of getting the ball, and the other is to compress his space for the ball, even if he gets the ball, it can't let him get a chance to shoot in the danger zone!

After more than 20 minutes of the game, Barcelona's attack became monotonous, the midfielder could not stop the attack, and individual breakthroughs on the wing became a common means to turn the situation around, but Millwall's defense was very successful.

Gradually, Barcelona's backcourt players had to press up and increase the number of points on the ball, giving them more options when attacking.

Observing the start of the Barcelona back line, the cold-eyed Aldridge's eyes flashed, revealing a hint of fanaticism. (To be continued......)