Author: Ant who loves watching football

This year's Club World Cup will be held in Japan from December 10 to 20, 2015.

The competition system of the Club World Cup is relatively special, that is, the champions of Europe and South America directly enter the semi-finals, waiting in the upper and lower halves respectively.

The other two places will be determined through knockout rounds in several other areas where football is relatively backward.

Before Chelsea will face Leicester City in the Premier League, several games have been played in the Club World Cup.

First, in the opening game on December 10, the host team, Sanfrecce Hiroshima of Japan, defeated the Oceania champion Auckland City 2-0.

Yusuke Minagawa broke the deadlock in the 9th minute, and Tsukasa Shiotani expanded the result in the 70th minute. Sanfrecce Hiroshima successfully qualified and entered the quarterfinals.

Then on December 13, they defeated African champion Mazembe 3-0 in the quarter-finals to reach the semi-finals.

In another quarter-final, the Asian champion Changzhou Hengtai of the Dragon Kingdom faced the Central and North American champions Mexico America.

In the 54th minute, Oribe Peralta of the Mexican American team scored with a header; then Gao Lin of the Changzhou Hengtai Taobao team assisted Zheng Long to equalize the score.

In stoppage time, Changzhou Hengtai's Paulinho header completed the winning goal, helping Changzhou Hengtai defeat the Mexican American team 2-1.

Changzhou Hengtai also entered the top four!

At this point, the semi-final matches of this year's Club World Cup have come out.

One game is between host Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Copa Libertadores champions River Plate;

And the other game is between Changzhou Hengtai and the Champions League champion Chelsea!

Among them, the showdown between Changzhou Hengtai and Chelsea is naturally the most eye-catching.

Pan Yi leads the European champions to face the team of his home country and his disciple Paulinho, while coach Luiz Scolari of Changzhou Hengtai also faces his old team, both of which are worth the hype.

As for Pan Yi, he didn't care about this.

What he cares about is how to arrange the players' training and rest, and how to minimize their fatigue and injuries.

Although Pan Yi had already rotated players significantly against Bournemouth and Porto, these were two extra games out of thin air, which still had a great impact on the team's arrangement.

The game against Leicester City is on December 14th. After the game, we will leave for Japan immediately because we will play the semi-finals of the Club World Cup against Choshu Kota on December 17th.

Then there will be the final three days later on December 20, with a high probability of playing against River Plate.

After playing two games in the Club World Cup, the Christmas schedule will start immediately after returning, which will be followed by the game against Sunderland on December 23, the game against Watford on December 26, and the game against Stoke City on December 29.

vs Crystal Palace on January 3rd.

Then there will be the League Cup semi-final first leg against Liverpool on January 6, the FA Cup on January 10, and then the Premier League match against Manchester United on January 14, which is whether Milan can break the milestone of 58 games unbeaten.

Battle.

Finally, it was against Everton on January 16th, and this long series of consecutive games came to an end.

Basically, we play a game every three days.

Needless to say, the traveling back and forth is also suffocating due to the intensity of the schedule.

So Pan Yi and the coaching staff are extremely cautious.

Against Leicester City, of course, we need to let the main players who have basically rested for a week come on.

Although Leicester City is playing at home, they must still play according to Ranieri's anti-counterattack tactics. At this time, Chelsea's stars who are good at passing and controlling can come in handy.

They can control the ball at their feet, minimize consumption, and then follow Pan Yi's instructions to make fuss on the wing.

For this tactical purpose, Chelsea's formation was also adjusted to one.

The goalkeeper is Courtois.

The back four from left to right are Cancelo, Van Dijk, David Luiz and Azpilicueta.

The double defensive midfielder is Kante + Matic.

Hazard on the left, seat B on the right, and the two centers are Lukaku + Harry Kane.

This basically means mobilizing all the attack power, especially the attack power from the wing, while taking into account a certain speed.

Cancelo was chosen as the left back instead of Marcos Alonso, considering that Longo is slower and playing as a regular left back is not what he is good at, and Cancelo is obviously more suitable.

Such a formation that focuses on offense and light defense would be more risky under normal circumstances, but if Leicester City comes up with a bus, they can better utilize the offensive ability of this formation.

When Leicester City launches a counterattack, the wingers on both sides must block it immediately, and then cooperate with the double midfielders and defenders to slow down their attack.

In the locker room speech before the game, Pan Yi also emphasized:

"They may not have the strongest offense, nor are they the best in technology, nor are they creative, but this team is very tenacious, full of resilience, and has excellent power confrontation and running coverage capabilities."

"Facing such a team, no one will be relaxed, and we can't relax either."

"When we suppress the opponent and attack, we must pay attention to the movements of their arrowheads, especially Vardy and Mahrez."

"If they counterattack with the ball, and if you can't stop it, you can choose to foul immediately, don't hesitate!"

——

On the afternoon of December 14th, King Power Stadium.

In the 16th round of the Premier League, Chelsea challenged Leicester City away from home.

In the 75th minute of the game, Vardy stood in front of Chelsea's penalty area.

Facing the Belgian national goalkeeper Courtois, who was facing a formidable enemy, he quickly took a run-up and shot angrily!

Although Courtois judged the direction correctly, the ball was too fast and there was no way to save it.

The ball went in!!!

The whole King Power Stadium is in a state of excitement!

One to zero!

Leicester City are ahead!!!

At this time, there are only about ten minutes left in the game!

In front of the visiting team's coaching bench, Pan Yi shook his head helplessly.

David Luiz is really not determined enough sometimes.

——

As soon as the game started, Chelsea fired four arrows at once, launching wave after wave of fierce attacks on Leicester City's position.

And Leicester City really focused on defense, allowing Chelsea's offense to come back in vain again and again.

Obviously, Ranieri is very aware of Chelsea's strength, so he is more determined than ever to defend.

The formation he lined up today is one he has used regularly this season.

The goalkeeper is Schmeichel Jr., and the four defenders from left to right are Fuchs, Morgan, Huth and Simpson.

The four midfielders are Mahrez, Drinkwater, Mikel and Albrighton.

The double forwards are Vardy and Shinji Okazaki.

During the actual game, Shinji Okazaki often retreated very deep, forming a nine-man defensive posture, leaving Vardy in the frontcourt for counterattacks.

Under such circumstances, even with the strength of Chelsea's stars, it would be difficult to break through their defensive formation.

The game remained stalemate until the second half.

The second half of the game lasted for more than 20 minutes, but both sides still failed to get a good chance.

Chelsea completely controlled the ball, with a ball possession rate of 70%. The number of shots was N times that of Leicester City, reaching 20, but only four shots were on target.

How many shots did Leicester City have? 1.

It was Vardy's long shot from the corner of the penalty area.

Pan Yi himself felt that the Chelsea players were still in good condition, but their footwork was a little bit awkward. The opponent's goalkeeper Schmeichel also performed very well and made all four saves.

But such low efficiency was mainly caused by Leicester City's defensive pressure.

They defended very fiercely! This also made Chelsea players uncomfortable.

Under high-intensity pressure, Chelsea often shoot hastily when they attack the frontcourt, which results in a low-quality shot.

It stands to reason that Leicester City plays so fiercely in every game, and Ranieri's tactical system consumes a lot of players' physical energy. In addition, Ranieri only uses 23 players regularly, which is the least in the Premier League.

…

Tactics that consume a lot of money and players who play the most playing time. The combination of these two factors will only remind people of a severe wave of injuries. Last season's super dark horse Southampton fell due to the wave of injuries.

But Leicester City has the second-fewest number of injuries in the Premier League - only slightly more than Chelsea.

The problem is that Chelsea have a lot of players to play with, and Leicester City, apart from today's starting lineup, probably only have Ulloa, Andy King, Inler and a few others on the bench who can be used.

This is not only due to Leicester City's team medical team, but also probably a matter of metaphysics.

Or is it because Leicester City sacrificed their former head coach Pierce before the season, allowing them to be favored by the injury goddess?

Of course, the fact that Leicester City's schedule is not as close as that of other strong teams should also be an important reason.

At the beginning of the season, Leicester City chose to give up the FA Cup and League Cup.
To be continued...