Chapter 15 The Gap Opened

The time has entered the 40th minute.

There are only 5 minutes left before the end of the first half.

This makes Manchester City even more anxious.

They want to equalize the score before the end of the first half, or at least get one goal back.

For this reason, their attack in the remaining five minutes has become more intense, and they can be regarded as desperately attacking Arsenal's defense.

On the other hand, Arsenal decided to play steadily.

For them, there is no need to confront Manchester City head-on. After all, in the current situation, they only need to keep the score to smoothly advance into the second half and continue to limit Manchester City with an advantageous situation.

Both sides have their own plans, so the form of the game has become Manchester City occupying more ball possession and offense.

Manchester City's offense is mainly based on Foden's advancement.

As soon as this guy gets the ball, he turns around and starts running.

He doesn't care whether his teammates can keep up. As long as there is a chance, he will shoot directly.

And with this kind of rookie style of play, a few kicks almost blasted open Arsenal's goal.

If it weren't for the timely save by goalkeeper Martinez, they would be in danger.

"We can't just ignore him!"

Hummels reminded in the backcourt: "We must limit his shooting!"

He believed that Arsenal put too much attention on De Bruyne, which caused Foden to be completely unattended, which made Arsenal's defense somewhat dangerous.

Once this guy entered the shooting range, he would definitely choose to shoot.

And the quality of the shot was very good. The most important thing was that this guy was confident.

Lekai also felt something was wrong, and he also thought that Foden should be restricted.

For this reason, Lekai's position began to move closer to the center.

And the gap in this position was accurately felt by Bernardo Silva.

Seeing that there was an opportunity to break through on his side, Bernardo Silva raised his hand directly to ask for the ball.

When the ball was transferred to his feet, Bernardo Silva began to drive straight in.

A violent tumble began to madly attack Arsenal's penalty area.

As Lekai was standing close to the middle, he could not catch up immediately. Even if he caught up, he could not limit Bernardo Silva with his speed.

All the pressure came to Robertson, the full-back.

After two seasons of training, Robertson was very experienced.

He drove Bernardo Silva to the side and restricted his inward channel. If possible, he also wanted to intercept the cross.

Sure enough, Bernardo Silva kicked to pass the ball at this time.

Robertson immediately stretched out his foot to block.

But Bernardo Silva stepped forward, and after shaking Robertson, he made an inverted triangle pass.

The ball was passed to De Bruyne who was advancing.

De Bruyne was running fast, he strode forward, and swung his right foot directly to shoot.

At this moment, there was no interference from any Arsenal players around him or in front of him, and he could complete the shot very comfortably.

"Danger! De Bruyne's shot"

Before he finished speaking, De Bruyne had already shot.

But at the moment he hit the ball, a figure suddenly slid in.

Lekai rushed out from the side and restricted the shooting channel with a sliding tackle.

The ball hit Lekai's calf and flew towards the back point.

It was also at this moment that Lekai turned his head and shouted anxiously; "Pay attention to the support!"

The ball just fell in front of Aguero at the front point. The Argentine striker met the falling ball and poked it directly with his toes.

This poking shot was extremely fast and rolled into the goal from the side of Martinez's supporting foot.

In the 43rd minute, with only two minutes left in the first half, Manchester City chased back a goal.

"Aguero scored with a poke! Manchester City successfully recovered a goal!"

"Of course, Bernardo Silva's bottom triangle pass was very important for this goal. Although Kai tried his best to block it, he still couldn't reverse the fate of the ball rolling forward. Aguero's shot was also very wonderful. At the moment when the ball landed and bounced, he directly poked the ball with his toes. The swing of the whole leg was not large, but the shooting action was completed quickly, which made goalkeeper Martinez completely unable to react."

"After Manchester City made a substitution, Foden's advancement brought a positive effect, and Manchester City successfully recovered a goal!"

After scoring the goal, Aguero was very excited.

Manchester City players were also very excited.

Although they failed to equalize the score, their pressure was greatly reduced under this goal.

Now they are still one goal behind, but the overall situation is stable.

At the moment when the game was about to collapse, Manchester City survived it.

This goal also made Guardiola on the sidelines wave his arms vigorously.

This is an extremely critical goal.

If they entered the second half with two goals behind, their chance of winning might be only 10%.

But based on this goal, with certain tactical changes, their chance of winning was greatly improved.

This is a valuable goal.

The Arsenal players also felt very sorry for the loss.

But they were not discouraged. Despite some troubles, they still had great confidence to win the game.

The last two minutes.

Manchester City's fierce goals continued, while Arsenal stabilized the situation and successfully dragged the game into the second half.

After 45 minutes of the game, Arsenal currently leads Manchester City 2:1.

Halftime break.

The overall atmosphere in Arsenal's dressing room is quite positive.

"Manchester City wants to pull our midfielder's position as much as possible and then penetrate from the wing. If the midfielder cannot be restricted immediately, the full-backs need to be extra careful."

Mourinho looked at Robertson and said.

In the defense where the ball was lost, Mourinho believed that Robertson's defense was not resolute enough.

Of course, this does not mean to let him stretch his legs, but he must create an opportunity to steal, and no matter how bad it is, he cannot let the opponent pass the ball in an inverted triangle.

"You don't need to put too much defense on Foden, just limit it intentionally. Also, when Kanter is fighting, you have to be tougher!"

Mourinho believes Kante needs to be tougher in defense.

If Foden cannot keep up, fouling is not ruled out.

Kanter also nodded, he understood what Mourinho meant.

"Overall, our offensive performance in the first half was good, but we still have to stabilize our defensive problems. This is the key!"

Mourinho concluded and immediately signaled the players to rest.

On the other side, in the Manchester City dressing room, Guardiola was also arranging tactics for the second half.

"Arsenal is deliberately restricting De Bruyne and our passing attack. At this time, it is even more important to increase the width of the field. The goal in the first half is proof of that. But when we increase the width of the field, we will Get better offensive opportunities, and other players can also run into areas where they can create danger.”

After that, Guardiola looked at De Bruyne and said, "Your mission in the second half will not change. You have to remember that you are the hub of passing and the core of the team's offense. You must have a voice!"

De Bruyne nodded solemnly.

Immediately, Guardiola looked at Foden and said: "You performed very well in the first half, but your running was too blind. Sometimes you would retreat to our defense, but in fact, you There is absolutely no need to do that, you have to learn to observe more in the second half!”

Foden is a very good player, patient, hardworking and hardworking.

However, Guardiola hopes that the opponent will observe more instead of dribbling forward.

He has reminded him many times in this regard, but this guy just can't seem to learn to raise his head.

Usually he dribbles the ball with his head down, and either loses the ball or shoots it himself.

He cannot become a qualified midfield pacemaker.

For this reason, in Guardiola's selection, he is more of a surprise player than an important puzzle piece for the starting lineup.

Both sides are making adjustments for the second half.

Soon, the muster whistle came to mind.

This means the second half is about to begin.

When the players from both sides returned to the field and the game entered the second half, it also meant that the atmosphere became more intense.

Fans from both sides were cheering crazily, and the cheers also gave the players great motivation.

The Community Shield may not be that valuable, but for a game that can damage the opponent's morale, both Manchester City and Arsenal are very concerned about it.

After all, in the entire Premier League, these two teams are considered the seed teams with the most championship foundation.