Football: The king of midfield, Guardiola is crying with envy

"Beep!"

At the referee's whistle, the game continued.

Messi began to move actively to the middle.

Compared to the right side, he wanted to play a free man in the front court, just like Chen Chen.

Soon the ball came to the Argentine.

Without waiting for B-Seat and Sterling to rush to him, Messi dribbled the ball, avoided the first wave of entanglement, and then kicked immediately!

"Bang!"

A long pass with great force flew straight to the right side!

After Messi moved to the middle, Herrera and Ashraf gained more offensive space. This time it was Ashraf who made an overlapping run.

Marcelo's stop is very artistic and ornamental, but you have to know that many professional players in the five major leagues can do these actions.

For example, now Ashraf saw the opportunity to stretch out his right leg, and then slightly back and down to relieve some force, he stopped the long pass from Messi steadily at his feet.

There was no Marcelo's domineering feeling under his feet, but the meaning of the football being at Ashraf's command still penetrated the broadcast camera, bringing a good visual impact and a sense of astonishment to the fans watching the game!

Speaking of astonishment, Lewandowski's hook ball at the bottom line to restore the Bundesliga logo's touch action can also be mentioned.

At the Etihad Stadium, on the right side of Paris, there was no time to hesitate, Ashraf pushed the ball forward and burst through!

Then, Ashraf and Cancelo played one-on-one!

The struggle between defenders!

It's a pity that Ashraf did not choose to confront head-on. He chose to touch his feet, cut in the middle, and then suddenly shot a cold arrow while dribbling the ball!

This shot was really too fast!

Not to mention that the fans at the scene and in front of the TV did not react, Ruben Dias, who was defending with his hands behind his back, did not react either!

Ederson was originally watching Neymar and Mbappe. He judged that Ashraf would choose to pass the ball, so it was very likely that he would choose one of the two.

But who would have thought that Ashraf would choose to kick the ball himself!

Ederson didn't bother to look at other directions. The Brazilian immediately moved one step to the left and then rushed out!

"Ashraf!"

"Kick! Sudden shot!"

"Oh wow! Ederson saved the ball very hard!"

"The Brazilian goalkeeper rejected the Moroccan's possible equalizer!"

"This ball, Ashraf kicked beautifully."

"The ball was very fast, it can be said to be chasing the wind and lightning!"

"Sure enough, all defenders have a striker's heart!"

"I don't know if the audience in front of the TV have an impression, in the 18/19 season, Manchester City defeated Leicester City 1-0 at home. The captain of the Blue Moon, Kompany, a Belgian, scored a world-class goal in almost the same position!"

"In this attacking opportunity just now, in almost the same position, Ashraf reproduced Kompany's miracle!"

"The only flaw is that he didn't score."

"Blue Moon fans should thank Ederson. Ederson's save was very wonderful. He used his left hand to lift the ball out of the post!"

On the court, Ashraf, who missed a great opportunity, covered most of his face dejectedly, with only his eyes showing through the gaps between his fingers.

The Moroccan international's eyes were filled with the words "I can't believe it".

Closer to the goalkeeper, Director M, who had already taken advantage of the situation to outflank the goal and was originally ready to put on a smile, seemed to be poured with a basin of cold water, and the whole person fell into helplessness and regret.

People's joys and sorrows are not connected.

Ruben Dias turned around and pulled Ederson up, and then the two bumped shoulders and screamed passionately!

In football, in addition to goals that can ignite the team's fighting spirit, excellent saves can also do the trick!

The Etihad Stadium was filled with applause.

For Ederson's god-level save, the Blue Moon fans will not be stingy with their applause!

This save is an excellent stimulant and morale-boosting method for Manchester City and Manchester City fans.

But for Paris, it is a failed attack that hits Paris hard.

The Paris fans who traveled with the team on the scene felt very speechless.

It was obvious that they had a good hand against Manchester City in the first round, and few of their entire team performed well.

Why is it so difficult to return to Manchester City's home court today?

It is obvious that the opponent can only be regarded as Chen Chen replacing De Bruyne in terms of personnel replacement. What has this strengthened?

They also lost the real center forward!

How come everyone performed so well? !

In fact, they don't understand.

Just like Messi to Argentina and Ronaldo to Portugal, Chen Chen is also of incomparable importance to Manchester City!

Chen Chen's appearanceIn the competition, Manchester City only lost one game, that was against Crystal Palace.

That loss was because the team was very tired, and then Laporte was sent off with a red card. Manchester City played 10 against 11, no, 10 against 12, and the referee's penalty was also very outrageous.

To be honest, if Laporte had not been sent off, the result of the game would not have been certain.

Of course, this is all hindsight, and a loss is a loss.

But it is undeniable that Chen Chen has a great morale boost for the team!

As long as he is on the field, give him the ball and it's done.

This is the case in Brentford and in Manchester City.

Speaking of Laporte, the Spanish defender has not played much recently. Manchester City's starting central defenders are more often a combination of Ruben Dias and Stones.

This is not to say that Guardiola holds a grudge, just because the red card caused the team to lose points, and then put him on ice.

How is it possible?

The main reason is that Laporte is a rotation role in the Blue Moon team. From the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons to now, Laporte has only played 49 times in total, including 44 starts.

Including the first few games of this season, the total number of appearances should be about 55 now.

It's almost the winter window, and only 55 games in two and a half years!

A proper rotation level.

And it should be noted that in the rotation order of central defenders, the Dutch defender Ake, who came to Manchester City in the summer of 2020, has a higher priority than him...

On the original timeline, the Spanish defender's appearances took a sharp turn for the worse in the 2022/23 season, with only 24 appearances in the Champions League, League, FA Cup, etc. throughout the season.

So in this dispensable situation, Laporte finally moved to Riyadh Victory in the summer of 2023.

Manchester City used this transfer fee, added a little, to buy RB Leipzig defender Gvardiol!

Back to Etihad.

Ederson's extreme save prevented the goal from being scored, and Paris only got a corner kick.

"Beep!"

Orsato blew the whistle.

Messi put his hands down and kicked it out!

The ball was given to the front point!

Stones reacted quickly, he secretly restricted Kimpembe and headed the ball out first.

The ball came to Neymar's feet near the penalty area line.

Maer was still preparing to adjust and shoot again, but Walker and Gundogan quickly made up.

Neymar had to turn around and give the ball to Messi who was walking back after kicking the ball.

Messi didn't have any intention of dribbling past the opponent and breaking through the dragon. He chose to bypass the left back Nuno Mendes who was ready to respond behind him, and directly kicked it to Paredes who was behind the center back position.

As for Marquinhos, who was supposed to be in the center back position?

He was still waiting for a possible second pass in the penalty area.