Thank you for the reward of "Farewell to the Moon"! ——

Thursday night, Bergenbran Stadium, Norway.

Having experienced the luxury of the Theatre of Dreams in England, as well as the sophistication of Anfield and St James' Park, Millwall's players look at this Bran Stadium again, and feel that it is obviously not worthy of the status of European competition, the capacity is smaller than the Lion's Den Stadium, at a glance, the attendance rate is very high, there are not many empty seats, but in fact, the attendance is not even 15,000, which also includes nearly 2,000 Lions fans who have come from afar.

Most of the Nordic countries are sparsely populated, and the population base is there, and compared to Bergen's population of about 200,000, the number of people who come into the stadium to watch the game is actually a very significant number, which is also due to the football frenzy caused by Bran.

Millwall fielded their strongest formation today, Aldridge only put Ballack in midfield to replace Pirlo, and the tactical requirement was to play defensive counter-attack, 433 conservative became 4231.

Bran came up with a set of 433, three forwards plus three parallel midfielders and four defenders, and the Nordics often played speed wingers, and it is normal for them to play on both wings, and it is often seen in the national team.

When the game started, Aldridge sat in the coach's seat, the fans in the stands cheered, and there was no friction between the home and away sides.

If it is a giant opponent, let's use the momentum to compete with you, which matches the strength of the team. Cobran? It's a loss of identity to compete with them.

Aldridge has been pondering why opposition boss Calvinis would look down on Millwall.

Is it a smoke bomb?

But I don't seem to have seen a smoke bomb set off with extreme contempt. Most smoke grenades are demeaning about themselves. Bow down.

Maybe this is related to Millwall's promotion in the previous rounds, Millwall previously sent a substitute lineup to play cup matches, and the previous round of home and away two legs against the Swiss powerhouse Sion, both of which were only a one-goal victory, and the scene was relatively dull.

Aldridge now has space for the main squad to charge, and he has brought the whole team with him, and the rest of the players who can't play are just a way to get used to the rhythm of this midweek long trip. You don't have to play football, but your body has to adapt and learn to regulate your state.

Although the European Cup Winners' Cup is the second most influential club cup in Europe, it is actually not enough gold, known as the king of the cups, but think about the countries have only one cup champion, unless there is a defending champion who cannot get a Champions League seat, it will continue to compete in the European Cup Winners' Cup in the second season. It's also common for cup winners to have mid-to-lower teams, let's say so. As long as two or three of the top five leagues are won by mid-table teams in a season, there may not be a few familiar traditional powerhouses in the composition of next season's European Cup Winners' Cup.

This is not like the Champions League, the traditional giants have a stronger dominance over the league, although the Champions League is also a team in each league, but the league championship will not be won by non-giants in a large area every year, so the gold content of the Champions League is very high, this phenomenon was not until more than ten years later Platini played a balance in European countries and engaged in "poverty alleviation" The gold content of the Champions League has declined.

Therefore, Millwall advanced all the way to the quarterfinals, facing the little-known Bran, of course, the opponent probably thinks so, Millwall is the first time in the history of the team to compete in Europe, the name is naturally not loud enough.

After the opening, Millwall played a little conservatively and the tempo was slow, and the players kept Aldridge's advice in mind, defend first and then attack!

Bran, on the other hand, were more ferocious in attack, and the players seemed to trust their skills at their feet, with the wide players repeatedly trying to break through with the ball after receiving the ball, and did not take Millwall seriously at all.

Aldrich saw that his opponent was boldly pressed and played extremely unrestrainedly, and he put the speculation in his mind behind him.

It doesn't look like a smoke bomb anymore.

It's really despised!

Bran's player on the left side strides the ball to pass Schneider, the intention is very obvious, although Schneider will be suppressed by McManaman dizzy, but McManaman's dribbling style with a good combination of man and ball is indeed not easy to mark, because once the defender makes a move, it is easy to be changed by the opponent, and Schneider is not as strong as Thuram to directly card the position to ensure the success of the defense, even if you can't break the ball, people don't want to go over.

But in the face of Bran players when there was an obvious flaw in the distance between the ball and the ball, Schneider was not afraid, he predicted that the opponent was going to go down, took the first step to turn back and stuck the position, and then half turned to protect the ball, this turn left the opponent behind, and then he took two steps forward with the ball, observed the situation in front of him and made a long pass in a straight line.

Bran pressed a little up, and before Schneider passed the ball, Shevchenko started from the halfway line, and when the ball crossed the halfway line, Shevchenko had already rushed through the space between the full-back and the centre-back, and after the ball fell to the ground, Shevchenko caught up with the ball, at which point he took another step forward, completely leaving Bran's entire defence behind.

He didn't continue to dribble, but rolled the ball wide of the middle.

The ball rolled in front of the returning centre-backs, just down the middle of the penalty area, where Trezeguet slapped between the two centre-backs and fired a shot into the far corner.

The goalkeeper ducked and reached to block it, but the angle of the shot was tricky, and he was unable to return to the end of the shot, and could only watch the ball grub against the post and roll into the goal.

Trezeguet scored and ran towards Shevchenko, and the Millwall fans in the stands jumped up and down with excitement.

See? That's the power of our lions!

'Millwall scored uh, they just had two passes and one shot was past Bran. Right wing-back Schneider made a long pass, right winger Shevchenko received the ball on the right side of the field and crossed the middle, and striker Trezeguet scored with a direct shot. It seems that Millwall is indeed very powerful. But. Isn't this style of play a bit conservative? This is the English long pass. ”

The Norwegian narrator spoke in an awkward tone. In the first ten minutes of the game, he had been praising Bran's offensive and belittling Millwall's conservatism, and the sudden goal not only caused the Bran fans at the scene to be struck by lightning, but also the commentator was at a loss for a while.

Bran started a strong comeback after conceding a goal at home, Millwall took the lead, and the players' mentality suddenly became calm and played more calmly. The players on the field also quickly got into shape.

Bran's penetrating ball in the middle was intercepted by Makelele with precision, and then distributed the ball to the running Ballack, who made a direct pass to the front, and Trezeguet, who was holding the ball with his back, did not turn around, and passed the ball directly to Nedved, who was inserted at high speed in the middle.

After the Czechs of Iron Will started at full speed, Bran midfielders couldn't catch up at all, and when Nedved received the ball, he didn't slow down and went forward, breaking through Bran's backline and going to the meeting alone.

A powerful volley sent the ball into Bran's goal. In the twenty-seventh minute of the game, Millwall led by two goals!

The Bran players were dumbfounded. Millwall's transition was too fast!

This made it impossible for their minds to keep up, and from defensive success to counter-attacking scoring, Millwall's team chemistry was unbelievable, especially with the frequency with which the ball shifted and didn't stop at the feet of a player for as long.

Bran boss Calvinnis roared furiously from the sidelines, venting his frustration to his protégé as the home side were conceded twice, if they couldn't score, all but to end their European campaign.

Aldridge always sat in the coach's box, to be honest, he had not studied the video of Bran's game before, not to mention that he despised the opponent, but he felt that it was unnecessary, his own team strength was absolutely above the opponent, as long as he was more cautious tactically, he should not encounter Waterloo.

If he had asked his players to attack from the start, it could have been a problem, and in any case, playing away from home in Europe would have been a matter of defending first and then attacking.

The more Bran's players attacked, the more porous their defence became, and often their attacks came to an end on the edge of the Millwall penalty area, turning around and causing their defence to crumble with a counter-attack.

Larsson didn't appear to have shooting boots on goal today, a one-on-one shot hit the side-netting and a long-range shot from the left side of the box was ridiculously high.

"Is he deliberately releasing water?"

Aldrich turned around and joked with Benitez.

Benitez also had a rare sense of humor, saying: "It's possible that Norway is next door to Sweden, and a hundred years ago, they were still a family." ”

Maybe it's because the number of goals in the league is too much, although Millwall's league has always been a rhythm of wins and draws recently, but Larsson has played an average goal per game because he started every game, and it is also related to the penalty kicks handed over to him, the number of goals in the league has reached 27, the Premier League Golden Boot should have run away, and the rest depends on whether it can impact the European Golden Boot. Some of Europe's minor leagues have scored against the sky, leaving the mainstream leagues in the dust with goals that are beyond their reach.

Bran players went back and forth between the offensive and defensive ends, and Millwall seemed more relaxed than them, and the control of the game gradually fell into Millwall's hands.

In the second half of the first half, Millwall soldiers found that the opponent could not attack, so the two full-backs also began to take turns to insert assists, Schneider took the ball on the right side as if no one was in a no-man's land, easily broke through the opponent's full-back and did not cross in front of the goal, but passed back to the top of the arc of the penalty area, Nedved lightly cushioned the ball with the arch of his foot, and the defenders who pounced on him suddenly came to a sharp brake, the ball was easily unloaded and passed to the side, and Ballack, who ran up, faced this comfortable ball, came with a long shot.

This long-range shot is of high quality, and in addition to the speed, the angle is also tricky.

When a bang.

The ball bounced inside the post and into the goal.

Ballack raised his fists and swung up and down, his first European goal, and he was naturally excited.

"Millwall scored the third goal, the first half was not over, but the suspense of promotion should have disappeared, Bran and Millwall are not on the same level at all, how did this team from England appear? I've never heard of such a great team in England before! Their players all look top-notch and Bran is no match for them at all."

The Norwegian commentator was helpless and frustrated, and if it weren't for the respect for his hometown team, he would have added a sentence to the commentary.

"Coach Calvinnis, your pre-match rhetoric has been half achieved, yes, the first leg of the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup, Bran did make the suspense disappear at home, but the next leg to London, there is no hope of a comeback for your team."

Bran coach Calvinis has sat down in a daze, the team is three goals behind, he has no way, he can't attack, he can't defend and can't defend, surrender? But there's still a second half!

Dog's day Millwall, you played Sion in the last round, aren't you the fierce guy on the field now! (To be continued......)