Chapter 70: Hercules Cup, here we come!
Chapter 70: Hercules Cup, here we come!
Deschamps' remarks after the game directly put the England team at the center of public opinion.
It is a fact that England played better than France in the World Cup quarter-finals, and the vast majority of fans and media people also recognize it.
But it is not easy to make a powerful opponent admit this in person and express his acceptance of defeat.
The British media therefore praised Deschamps lavishly, calling him a true gentleman and a real man who can win and lose.
Li Chen also expressed his respect for the French team and Deschamps after the game.
But to be honest, he didn't like what Deschamps said to the media: "England will be the biggest favorite to win this World Cup."
This sentence seems to be fine, but it directly put England into the fire of public opinion.
There are three other teams preparing for the World Cup semi-finals now. With just one word from Deschamps, others have become England's "playmates" in the public opinion field.
What will their players and coaches think?
What would the media and fans in their own country think?
Another thing is that the English media has always liked to exaggerate their reports.
After saying this, Deschamps led the team away for vacation.
But what about England's players, who will ultimately be influenced by the media coverage in their country?
So while Li Chen praised Deschamps' demeanor after the game, he felt in his heart that the old guy had ulterior motives.
If they lose, the England team will have to take a test of public opinion.
Although the trouble is not big, it will eventually increase Li Chen's workload in managing the team after the game.
This somewhat diluted Li Chen's excitement about advancing to the World Cup semi-finals.
That night, Li Chen received many congratulatory text messages, some from club executives, some from FA officials, and more from his friends.
Ancelotti and Mourinho both briefly suggested that he should pay more attention to the atmosphere building of the entire team at this stage, and also pay more attention to the mentality of the players.
Preparation for tactical work has become easier now.
Because no matter which team they face, the England coaching staff can now collect tactical information of the opponent's at least five games, including two important knockout games.
It is almost impossible to hide anything tactically at this stage.
The new tactical routine that Li Chen prepared for England before the World Cup has also been used up.
His biggest advantage over the head coaches of the other three teams is his ability to make on-the-spot adjustments.
This is also what Ancelotti and Mourinho are most confident about him.
What they were both afraid of was that he would continue to spend his energy studying tactics at this stage and ignore the mental state of the players, so they both wanted to remind him.
As for why you didn't call him to communicate.
One is the time difference problem, and the second is that the two coaches may not want to interfere with Li Chen’s subsequent rest and preparation work.
But Li Chen was not pretentious at all. After a comfortable sleep, he called Ancelotti and Mourinho respectively at the temporary training base the next afternoon.
England will face Morocco, the biggest dark horse of this World Cup, in the semi-finals.
After entering the knockout stage, this North African powerhouse defeated Spain and Portugal in succession using extremely tenacious defensive counterattack tactics.
In these two knockout matches, Morocco's ball possession rate was only a ridiculous 23% and 27% respectively.
The Spanish and Portuguese teams fought Morocco for a total of 210 minutes before they only scored one goal. This shows how tenacious and strong Morocco's defense is.
Li Chen had a tactical plan to break the bus in his mind, but since there were two legendary football coaches on the scene who could ask for advice, of course he had to shamelessly seek some help.
Among them, Ancelotti has a wealth of offensive tactics at his disposal, and he is very familiar with the Italian chain defense, so he naturally knows how to break the bus efficiently.
There is no need to say more about Lao Mu. Parking the bus and breaking the bus are his specialties.
Li Chen has Kane, a big center forward, a bunch of long-range shooters in the midfield and frontcourt, and Maguire and Denburn, two penalty area giants in the backcourt.
The England team he has is exactly the dream lineup that Mourinho has been dreaming of.
So it would definitely not hurt to let Mourinho take some time to help him deduce how England could break through.
It's vacation anyway, so he can just sit there doing nothing. Besides, Lao Mu is his master...
The two coaches felt something was wrong the moment they received Li Chen's call.
As soon as Li Chen finished explaining the purpose of his call, the two old men could only laugh and curse, then asked Li Chen to wait and hung up the phone.
It was not until the evening, when the main players of the England team had finished their recovery training, that Li Chen received emails from Ancelotti and Mourinho respectively.
I have to say that these two famous football coaches are really efficient in offline tactical analysis and counterattacks.
In just two or three hours, the two old men not only clearly disassembled Morocco's defensive tactics, but also each gave Li Chen at least two tactical plans to attack Morocco's bus formation.
At least it saved Li Chen's coaching team a whole day of preparation time.
In the last part of the email Mourinho wrote to Li Chen, he put forward a novel idea.
"When playing against a strong opponent, shrinking the formation and playing counter-attack is the most economical tactical choice, but the prerequisite is that the main defender has the confidence to defend first, just like the counter-attack tactics we used against Barcelona when we were Inter Milan.
However, facing an offensive team that is good at dismantling the bus defense system, it may not be appropriate to just defend and give up control of the midfield.
Barcelona didn't have a center forward back then, and couldn't compete with our defenders in set-piece offense and defense, so I finally chose to concentrate my troops in the middle and let them control the ball.
But if we had met Real Madrid or Bayern back then, I would have increased the intensity of our midfield stranglehold and counterattacks, and even gone so far as to attack head-on with these two teams when necessary, because these two teams were not short of ways to break through the bus, so we would have to seek other ways to win.
Li, you have always been good at thinking from other people's perspectives. Your opponent was able to lead Morocco into the semi-finals of the World Cup, which must be due to his tactical layout strengths. At this point, the head coach of the team will not lack the courage to change the situation. Think about it, if you were him, how would you arrange tactics in the next match against England..."
Mourinho's advice gave Li Chen great inspiration.
This also made him slightly adjust his subsequent preparation plan, and not just blindly practice the offensive tactics of breaking the bus.
The players of the England team didn't quite understand Li Chen's intention of adjusting the training plan at this time, but their trust in Li Chen allowed them to complete their preparations smoothly.
On the evening of December 12th, the semi-final between Argentina and Croatia kicked off.
Croatia took the initiative and created many dangers at the beginning of the game, but after a long period of attack, they were soon threatened by Argentina's counterattack.
Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic went out to clear the ball and knocked down Alvarez with the ball. He was punished by the referee and received a yellow card.
Messi scored the penalty kick to help Argentina score the first goal.
Croatia, which had lost its tactical dominance, was forced to continue to take risks in the attack, while Argentina sat back and continued to expand its lead smoothly.
In the end, Argentina defeated Croatia 3-0 and advanced to the World Cup final first!
Messi played superbly in this game, scoring goals and assists, and led Argentina to the World Cup final again after 8 years. He is only one step away from becoming the champion.
The England players who watched the game together were deeply touched.
They all seemed to understand Li Chen's intention of temporarily modifying the training plan and no longer requiring the team to go all out from the start of the game.
With great concern and vigilance towards Morocco, England spent the last quiet night before the semi-final battle.
On the evening of December 12, the England and Morocco teams took the stage at the Gulf Stadium to face off in their semi-final battle.
Morocco head coach Reglaj fielded a 541 starting formation, seemingly wanting to carry out Morocco's iron-blooded defense to the end.
England fielded a 4231 starting formation that was used more frequently during Southgate's time.
Dan Burn replaced Luke Shaw as the starting left-back today, and Ben White was replaced by Arnold as the starting right-back.
The double defensive midfielder is composed of Longstaff and Rice, the attacking midfielder is Bellingham, the left midfielder is Maddison, and the right midfielder is Saka.
Kane is still the center.
The various media people who received England's starting lineup an hour before the game speculated whether Luke Shaw was injured again in training.
Otherwise, they really don’t understand why Li Chen started Dan Burn in this game?
Could it be that the England team is also afraid of Morocco's iron defense, so they want to give up the initiative in attack and attack Morocco's counterattack?
But could it be that Morocco head coach Regeraji couldn't understand such a simple tactical routine?
Media reporters with questions can only wait for the game to start so that they can find the answers from the game between the two teams.
What was beyond their expectations was that Morocco, which had clearly adopted a 541 starting formation at the start of the game, suddenly changed its formation to 343 and actively attacked England!
Boufal and Ziyech moved forward, changing from wing midfielders to wingers, leaving the wing positions behind them to Mazrawi and Ashraf who came up.
Morocco, which mainly uses the two-wing attack tactic, is fully capable of playing this game, at least in terms of personnel configuration.
But England's defense contracted more timely. After Bellingham and the wingers on both wings retreated, England was more inclined to a 451 defensive formation.
The defense in the middle has become flatter and has no layers, but the support for the flanks has been greatly strengthened.
With Longstaff's backup defense, Dan Burn adopted a central pressure defense style, and very boldly attacked early to confront Ashraf head-on!
However, in the wing areas where the space became narrow after England contracted its formation, Ashraf had nowhere to display his technical skills.
Facing Danburn who was as tall as a city wall, Ashraf could only bite the bullet and try to break through.
But he was soon forced out of the sideline by Dan Burn who was blocking his position and lost possession of the ball.
After this failed breakthrough, Ashraf lost interest in continuing to attack Denburn.
When the ball returned to the middle, Morocco's two starting midfielders Amrabat and Onashi looked at each other and once again chose to pass the ball to the sides in tacit agreement.
It's okay to let them do the dirty work and pass the ball to the sides, but it's too much to ask them to connect the team's central attack and compete with England.
I really don't have the ability, nor the ambition.
Therefore, Morocco's offensive could only continue to develop on the wing. Even if they repeatedly encountered obstacles, they could not play more flank penetrations or a combination of flank and center tactics.
Looking at England's defensive flanks today, Morocco head coach Regera couldn't help but touch his bald head.
Now Morocco's two-pronged attack has been completed and it seems to be completely ineffective. If they want to continue attacking, they can only give the ball to Ziyech.
Give him some space to attack, and let him sneak a shot...
With such a poor offensive strategy, Morocco should not have launched an offensive against England at the beginning of the game. It seems that the right thing to do is to continue to stick to their defensive tactics.
Regera actually thought so before watching the match between England and France.
But after seeing that England had broken through France's strong defense with a crazy attack, Regera quickly changed his strategy against the enemy.
When playing against England, we really can't give up all the ball possession like we did against Spain and Portugal.
The "Double Teeth" is a typical continental technical team. They are very good at ball control and have smooth passing and cutting on the ground, but they always seem to lack some means to force a breakthrough.
England also plays offensive football, but they rarely have ineffective passes, which is more like the style of play of Bayern during their strong period.
It's a young lineup, and every player can run like an animal. They are all talented and can attack you if they ask them to in a one-on-one match.
The midfield is strong and has good footwork, and the key is that there is also a top center forward who specializes in breaking through the bus.
The French team was extremely confident and felt that no other opponent in the world of football dared to attack them.
So they were directly stunned by England's crazy offensive.
To be fair, Regeraji does not think that his team's defense is stronger than France's.
So he doesn't think his own team can do what the French team failed to do.
Facing England, blindly defending would only lead to a dead end, so he was forced to make a plan to attack at the beginning.
However, attacking does not necessarily have to be aimed at scoring a goal.
As long as they can disrupt England's offensive rhythm and kill off some of the game time, this tactic will be successful for Morocco.
Reglagi has now achieved his goal.
But looking at the England team's defensive formation that seemed to have been prepared in advance, he felt that he had fallen into Li Chen's tactical trap.
"How did he know we would start the game with a sprint? This doesn't make sense."
Reglagi, touching his big bald head, really couldn't understand it, but it was not his fault.
After all, football fans all over the world would not have thought that Li Chen had two famous football coaches as consultants for his preparations this time.
Li Chen benefited a lot from Mourinho's reminder.
Facing a team that is good at breaking the bus and has strong offensive capabilities, they certainly cannot easily give up the initiative in the midfield at the beginning of the game.
Therefore, we must attack instead of defend, disrupt the opponent's offensive deployment first, and create more time for the implementation of our own sniper retreat plan.
Anyway, from Reglagi's perspective, Li Chen would definitely adopt this tactical approach.
And the facts have proved that Mourinho's advice to remind him to think more about others is very important.
At this moment, Reglagi, whose tactical thoughts were guessed by Li Chen, was still confused, while Li Chen had already played his own tactical card!
Morocco who dares to attack is giving England a chance!
After withstanding the first two waves of attack from Morocco, England immediately seized the opportunity to switch offense and defense, with Bellingham dribbling the ball and launching a counterattack.
Maddison didn't know when he switched positions with Saka and moved to the right. His retreat relieved the pressure of controlling the ball on Bellingham's shoulders.
After getting the ball, Madison was not in a hurry to break through, but turned around in the right flank area of the Moroccan half to avoid Amrabat's pressing!
This brilliant escape shocked the Moroccan defenders.
After his outstanding performance in the previous few games, Madison has already been known by fans around the world and his opponents.
The Moroccan players are well aware that once Madison tries to break through in the flank area, it means that England's variation attack is about to begin!
Not daring to be careless, they decisively and quickly returned to defense and contracted their formation to double-team the middle.
At this moment, Arnold, who was running in from the side, gave Madison more options for passing the ball.
Regera also shouted on the sidelines, signaling Mazraoui who was returning to defense to stop Arnold's run!
But at the critical moment, Madison chose to dunk the ball to adjust his position, and then used his left foot to send a round pass to the left back point of the Moroccan penalty area!
At this moment, with the cover of Sakara's running, Danburn, who had already penetrated to the back of the Moroccan penalty area, was like a mobile turret. He jumped high towards the landing point of the football and headed it with full force!
Seeing this scene, it was obviously too late for Ashraf to return to defense.
He put too much defensive energy on Saka and completely ignored Dan Burn, who didn't seem to pose much threat on the ground attack!
Who would have thought that the offensive tactics Li Chen designed for Dan Burns were high-altitude bombing from the wing? !
Two meters later, Dan Burn completed a powerful header and knocked down Moroccan right center back Dari who had just come to defend.
Although he is nearly 1 meters tall and weighs 9 kilograms, Dari is a strong central defender.
But after colliding with the taller Dan Burn, he was knocked to the grass like a piece of paper.
Moroccan goalkeeper Bounou, who was suddenly bombarded from the wing, was unable to block the powerful header.
The football hit the inside of the Moroccan goal without any suspense and fell to the ground!
As the global commentators cheered excitedly, Dan Burn roared, opened his arms, strode towards the corner flag area, and then swooped down and glided past like a huge heavy bomber!
Just in the 7th minute of the game, Morocco's iron defense against Spain and Portugal was bombed and collapsed by England's heavy full-backs!
The dark horse's defensive myth is shattered!
Reglagi stood on the sidelines with his head in his hands, a look of disbelief on his face.
Li Chen, who was not far from him, just put his hands in his pockets and watched the celebration of the English players on the field with a smile on his face.
There was chaos in the Morocco coaching bench. Regeraji and his assistants were disrupted in their tactical deployment by the sudden goal.
They completely lost the tactical initiative, and would certainly not be able to rely on their defensive advantage to continue dealing with England in the next game.
What made Reglagi feel even more desperate was the tactical gesture of retreating formation made by Li Chen afterwards.
The England team is going to play counterattack!
Facing Morocco, which was obviously weaker than them, England did not put on any airs. Instead, they lowered their tactical stance and directly adopted a defensive counterattack tactic!
The Moroccan fans at the scene were wailing.
On the field, the Moroccan players had to embark on a tragic and heroic offensive.
Commentators from many countries had already predicted that Morocco was about to suffer a disastrous defeat.
Because of their extremely defensive style of play, they cannot accept the result of conceding the first goal.
As long as they don't lose the ball first, their defensive system and defensive resilience are enough to wear down the opponent's offensive will.
On this basis, the quick counterattacks they often launch in the second half always work wonders. Even if the efficiency in front of the goal is low, they still have the ultimate magic weapon to win.
That is to rely on Bono's personal ability to kill stronger opponents.
Relying on this style of play, they made it all the way to the World Cup knockout stage, defeated Spain and Portugal, and finally made it to the semi-finals.
But now, their dark horse miracle was about to be shattered as England scored the first goal.
Morocco, which had no offensive trump cards at all, had to take huge risks and make efforts in areas where they were not good at.
And it is moments like this that England looks forward to most.
Their quick counterattacks caused great trouble to Morocco's weak central defense line.
Bono first miraculously saved two threatening shots from Kane and Madison during the counterattack.
But in the 23rd minute of the first half, he was powerless to stop Saka's shot from the near corner after he shook off Saiss.
2-0!
England further undermined the defensive will of the Moroccan players and ruthlessly and resolutely expanded their lead.
Four minutes later, Ziyech's cut-in shot hit the far post of England's goal!
This successful combined shot seemed to give the Moroccan team hope of a counterattack.
But just as they were desperately pressing forward, Bellingham, seizing the opportunity, once again staged a solo advance!
A 50-meter long-distance run with the ball, and an unselfish pass after passing two people!
Bellingham used a very charismatic and wonderful performance to help Kane completely kill the suspense of the game!
Kane, who scored his seventh goal of this World Cup, also chose to celebrate with his young teammates.
Seeing that the third goal had been scored, Li Chen signaled to the players to slow down the pace of the game as much as possible, control the field more, and not give Morocco any more opportunities to launch a large-scale attack.
Morocco, which had lost its spirit, seemed unable to launch a sustained offensive, and the halftime score between the two teams was fixed at 3-0.
In the second half of the game, Reglagi made two substitutions in a row, replacing Mazraoui and Boufar who were in poor form today, and continued to strengthen the attack.
But their substitutions did not bring about any significant improvements in the offense.
England's defense was very solid. They did not launch a single counterattack in the first ten minutes of the second half, and withstood Morocco's offensive rhythm with all their strength in defense.
Afterwards, Li Chen's on-the-spot substitution had another magical effect.
Less than three minutes after being substituted by Li Chen, Rashford received a pass from Maddison in a counterattack and shot well!
Although not long after, Enners received a pass from Ashraf and scored, helping Morocco to score a goal.
But then Madison's direct free kick scored again!
This goal also made the entire Moroccan team realize the consequences of continuing to fight back.
After that, they tried their best to prevent England from scoring any more goals on the field, but they did not launch any sustained offensive attacks.
After the game, the Bay Stadium once again became the "home ground" for English fans to celebrate.
The Sky Sports commentator even cheered passionately after the game.
"After 56 years, England finally announced its return to the World Cup finals with a thrilling goal battle!
This time, we must continue to leave no regrets, the World Cup, here we come!"
(End of this chapter)