[Football] Bad Boy Batty

The camera turned to the sidelines, where Batistuta was standing next to the fourth official, ready to go.

[There is still half an hour left in the regular time. Batistuta can go up and attack the opponent's defense. The question is who to take off. Neymar in the frontcourt must not be moved. Aguero is in good shape. B Silva is the hero of the goal. But if the midfielder is replaced, whether it is De Bruyne or - huh? ]

Amid the commentator's confusion, the fourth official on the sidelines raised the substitution sign, with No. 14 Laporte replaced by No. 9 Batistuta.

The audience was stunned, the commentator was stunned too, only the players on the field had no reaction.

Taking advantage of a throw-in, Laporte returned to the sidelines, Batistuta high-fived and hugged him, then ran onto the court.

In the 60th minute, Batistuta returned from injury.

[Removing a defender and replacing him with a striker, Guardiola is playing desperately. We will see how Manchester City's position changes later. ]

Yes, a desperate fighting style.

Guardiola certainly knows this.

But if we don’t fight hard now, when will we fight hard?
Withdrawing the defender means unstable defense, which may lead to disconnection between the midfield and the backcourt when facing Tottenham's advancement and counterattack. However, it cannot be denied that Batistuta's appearance has increased the offensive strength. Tottenham's defense also has big problems, and they have to devote more energy to dealing with the new forward.

Simply put, it is the ultimate attack instead of defense.

The risks are high, but the rewards are huge.

As we all know, Guardiola's Manchester City plays a ground penetration tactic, with players in the midfield and frontcourt positioning flexibly. When attacking, they will mostly adopt a 352 formation, while when defending, it will become 433 or even 442.

In this game, before Laporte was substituted, he was the right center back among Manchester City's three center backs, while the left center back was Lucas, and in the middle was naturally the old captain Kompany.
Walker moved to the midfield in advance, Fernandinho was the single defensive midfielder, with David Silva and De Bruyne in front of him. Neymar's position was relatively far back, and he was considered a left forward. Lucas behind him reduced the forward pressure, so the entire left corridor was his, and he also needed to return to defense and protect when necessary.
Aguero played as the lone striker in the frontcourt, with B Silva wandering behind him to the right, in the position between the shadow striker and the attacking midfielder.

So when Laporte was substituted, Manchester City's entire lineup changed. Fernandinho retreated to play as a central defender, Kompany switched to the right, B Silva retreated slightly later, and David Silva moved further to the left, sharing some of Neymar's defensive pressure. Batistuta played as a right winger and Neymar played as a left winger. Both of them had almost no defensive tasks.

This makes it close to a 334 lineup.

The most surprising thing is that this lineup has no defensive midfielder.

When the team was behind, Guardiola actually resorted to something unprecedented (at least not in his coaching career) -

No waist formation!
【Oh my god, this is so amazing, Guardiola is indeed the first person to innovate tactics! We all know that when the team is one step away from promotion, they can play an all-attack lineup, but with Manchester City's tactics, it is quite risky to not have a defensive midfielder. The midfield must hold the ball, and the front court must also give the opponent enough pressure. 】

That's right, Manchester City's style of play depends on passing the ball from the defensive midfielder to a certain extent. When Fernandinho changed to play as a central defender, his passing ability was bound to be weakened, and there was no clear player to replace him, so the task of passing the ball was given equally to every midfielder.

In general--

This is a very Guardiola yet not so Guardiola formation that uses offense instead of defense.

Due to the absence of players, Tottenham has been attacking instead of defending since the first leg, so now it has become a very interesting situation: the players/fans of the lagging side are very confident, and the players/fans of the leading side are unsure.

Batistuta didn't care about that, he just wanted to score a goal quickly to regain the lead.

“We must not lose in the quarter-finals!”

……

Perhaps Guardiola's change of formation caught Tottenham off guard, and as soon as Batistuta came on the court, his wish came true.

Eriksen's shot was confiscated by Ederson, and the hand-thrown ball was sent to Fernandes to quickly launch an attack. De Bruyne dribbled past Vertonghen and made a diagonal pass. Batistuta shot with his left foot before Rose blocked it, 4-2!

【Here it comes! Manchester City fans are familiar with Ding Ding and Batistuta's connection! 】

Manchester City overtook the aggregate score 4-3!

"Beautiful Kevin!" Batistuta excitedly jumped onto De Bruyne. If they could maintain this score, they would be the team that advanced. "I almost forgot that your pass was so comfortable!!"

"Do you remember it now?" With the familiar hug and the familiar heartbeat, De Bruyne hugged Batistuta back tightly.

"Actually, not yet." Batty smiled slyly, "My memory has deteriorated significantly since the injury. It may take a few more beautiful passes before I can fully remember it."

De Bruyne smiled.

Aguero took the opportunity to pounce on both of them -

"Come on! The game isn't over yet! Let's continue!"

……

Manchester City's attack soon picked up again. Neymar caused Trippier a lot of trouble. In addition, they were now behind. In the left rib area, the Tottenham defender finally couldn't hold back his anger. He knocked down Neymar and received a yellow card. Manchester City got a free kick in a good position.

Neymar took the penalty himself.

Batistuta did not follow. Instead, he called Neymar to remind him and then came to the front of the goal and fought with Tottenham's defenders.

The tacit understanding made Neymar quickly understand what this meant.

"I'll create a smoke screen, and you'll pretend to pass the ball but actually shoot it straight into the goal."

He glanced at the position of the goal, picked up the ball on the ground and adjusted it, stepped back, raised his hand to signal, took a run-up, and then shot!
At the moment Neymar shot, Batistuta rushed forward as planned, and he collided with the attacking Lloris. In those few seconds, Batistuta felt something scratching his knee, but because the French goalkeeper's body was pressing on him, he couldn't see what hit his knee.

The next moment, looking up, Barty only saw the ball land in the net.

[The ball goes in! Neymar's free kick causes chaos in front of the goal. Batistuta and Lori both fall to the ground. In the chaos, someone kicks the ball into the net! 5-3! There are still a dozen minutes left. Will Manchester City advance? ]

"I didn't play well! Thank God! Damn it, you don't know how much I loved you at that moment!" Neymar ran towards Batistuta, but he tripped on the way and stumbled over, almost making Batistuta fall again.

"Of course I know you love me! So you should thank me!" Batistuta accepted Neymar's crazy hug and looked at his teammates who gathered around him with a smile on his face. "What did I say? Without me, you guys wouldn't be here..."

Suddenly, the happiness came to an abrupt end.

Before Batistuta had the time to high-five Lucas who had arrived, he saw the referee, who was surrounded by Tottenham players, raising his hand to cancel the goal.

The reason was a collision with the goalkeeper.

"What!!"

Batistuta was furious. He pushed Neymar aside and ran towards the referee: "You can't do this! I didn't go looking for him on purpose! He hit me!"

Referee: "Calm down and listen to me——"

"No! You listen to me! I was running forward normally, it's his fault!" Batty was furious and didn't even give the referee a chance to speak. "There is no reason to cancel this goal! Go watch VAR! That stupid machine will tell you everything!"

Not only did the referee not have a chance to speak, but even the teammates who followed him did not have a chance to speak. They could only shout "VAR" in agreement. "Yes! Look at VAR!"
“We demand justice!”
"Var! Var! Var!"

Lucas and Aguero looked at each other and saw the same surprise in each other's eyes.

[It seems that there is some controversy. It is still uncertain whether Manchester City scored this goal or not. It can only be regarded as Schrödinger's goal. Haha, let's see what the referee will do. Should we watch VAR? ]

Guardiola on the sidelines was naturally also very emotional, and kept repeating the word VAR to the fourth official. At Manchester City's insistence, the referee agreed to watch the VAR on the sidelines.

"It was definitely a collision with the goalkeeper. Your goal will not count." While the referee was watching the VAR, Ali trash-talked Batistuta, "I saw it clearly, your studs hit him in the face."

"Really?" Batty sneered, "Then why is he still standing on the court?"

When it comes to trash talk, the less response the better.

B Seat passed by intentionally or unintentionally, and half-jokingly drove Ali away. Several people gathered together, and stared at the big screen and the referee separately.

As time passed, everyone felt uneasy.

[beep——]
After watching the video replay, the referee ran back to the field. Under the eager gaze of everyone, he first made the VAR gesture and then pointed to the center circle.

【进球有效！5-2！曼城总比分5-3！几乎一条腿踏进欧冠4强！】

……

In the 83rd minute, Tottenham equalized the game. Trippier took a corner kick and Llorente shot the ball into the net with his thigh from close range. To be on the safe side, the referee went to the sidelines again to watch the VAR goal replay, and then he ruled that the goal was valid.

5-3, the total score is 5-4.

[Tottenham haven't given up yet! There are less than 10 minutes left, will they still have a buzzer beater? ]

Killer?

impossible.

If you ask Batistuta about this, first of all he disagrees. They have always been the ones to score the winning goal. They are sure to make it to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

……

At this point in the game, both sides were getting a little angry.

In the 87th minute, Batistuta was violently brought down by Llorente while dribbling the ball in the frontcourt. De Bruyne rushed up first. The two tried their best to restrain their pushing. Seeing that something was wrong, players from both sides hurried forward to separate them. A small conflict broke out between them at the top of the Tottenham penalty area.

After being pulled away, De Bruyne turned around and saw Batistuta still sitting on the ground the next second.

"Bati, are you okay?" He walked over and stretched out his hand to pull Batty up.

Unexpectedly, Batty glared at him.

De Bruyne was a little dazed for a moment.

"What are you looking at? Go away!" Batty lowered his voice and gritted his teeth, "It's better to delay it as long as possible. It hurts so much. Go and ask for a yellow card!"

Oh.

De Bruyne understood that the little liar was at it again.

"You'd better be careful not to delay and get a card." He warned with his eyes.

"What are you afraid of? We'll be eliminated in the semifinals anyway!" Barty responded with her eyes.

At this time, the referee understood the whole situation. After showing the yellow card to Llorente, he asked about Batistuta's situation. Batistuta, with a firm but somewhat embarrassed look and a look of determination not to give up, successfully deceived the referee and avoided receiving a yellow card while delaying time.

After standing up, Batistuta secretly gave De Bruyne a smug look that said "see, I told you so". De Bruyne shook his head slightly, and then couldn't help but chuckled.

Well, he fooled me again.

……

The mood becomes more relaxed towards the end, this is exactly what Manchester City is like.

At the end of the 90-minute game, the referee awarded 3 minutes of extra time. Tottenham gave up defense and all players except the goalkeeper pressed forward to attack.

But in the end, it failed to change the defeat.

At the end of the extra time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

[The game is over! Manchester City held on to their victory! 5-3, 5-4 on aggregate, narrowly beat Tottenham and entered the semi-finals! Congratulations to Manchester City! Fans can sleep well now! ]

When the final whistle sounded, Manchester City players ran to the sidelines to celebrate like crazy.

This wasn't an important decisive battle, but it was the hardest one they had won this season! When they were confirmed to advance, everyone felt relieved, and the deafening sound of the team's landing eventually turned into a crazy celebration.

"Hey! I told you that you can't do without me!" With the blue flags waving above his head, Batty finally finished his sentence.

But the consequence was that he was brought down by his teammates (mainly Walker and Aguero).

"No! No, don't come over here! Jesus - go away! I'm going to spit out yesterday's pudding! No no no! Ah -"

To be happy, you have to play Jenga. This is a tradition in football.

Batistuta was pinned to the bottom, and of course, he had someone to take the blame for him - Lucas.

"I know you won't blame me, right, my best friend Mr. Luki!"

"Uh--"
Lucas was dizzy, and all he could see was Batty smiling at him. He was turned over and pressed down without paying attention. Before he could fully experience the feeling of close contact, his teammates pressed on him one by one with villainous laughter.

At that moment, the French defender felt like his internal organs were about to be squeezed out.

"Ahhh! Get up! I'm going to puke!"

He almost cried out as he watched Batty's smirk up close.

I want to post it, but not this kind of post it!
(End of this chapter)