Football’s First Defender

After the new year, there are fewer gatherings of relatives and classmates, and finally I don’t need to drink unconsciously every day... The update will be normal. Two updates will start tomorrow, and then the word count will return to 3000 words per chapter! )

Edvocaat's worries finally became reality!

The results of the draw came out, and Zenit was assigned to Group A, where each team has a certain level of strength!

Although Zenit can dominate the Russian Super League in various ways, there is a gap between the football level of the Russian Super League and the mainstream European leagues. This is an undisguised fact!

Having played two rounds of Europa League qualifying rounds, Zenit, who entered the main match smoothly, will finally face the test in the Europa League main match!

Although Zenit's grouping is not difficult in hell, the strength of the four opponents should not be underestimated. They are not a weak team that can be easily won!

The UEFA Cup in the 07-08 season is still different from the subsequent competition system!

In the group stage, there are 8 groups, each group has 5 teams, and a single round-robin game will be played instead of the host-away double round-robin group game. The specific host and guest of each game are determined by drawing lots to ensure that each team will play 4 games with both hosts and guests!

There are 5 teams in the group. After 4 games, the top three in the group enter the knockout stage. After the UEFA Champions League group stage, the third place in the 8 groups, a total of 32 teams, draw lots to fight against each other, and conduct a two-round knockout match for home and away. !

Zenit's signing luck, although it avoided some traditional European giants such as Bayern Atletico Leverkusen this year, it still encountered the strength of the other five major leagues and second-tier leagues!

The Eredivisie's powerful team Alkmaar! Bundesliga club Nuremberg! And Everton, the traditional second-tier strong team in the Premier League! The only weak opponent may be Larissa from Greece!

But the match between Zenit and Larissa was played away. Everyone knows that the home court of the Greek team has always been a place where miracles happen! In the European arena, Greece's fanatical devil's home court, I don't know how many strong teams have collapsed in the Aegean Sea!

In fact, in terms of team strength alone, although Zenit cannot be said to have an absolute advantage in strength, it must still firmly hold the initiative in dealing with the second-tier teams of these national leagues!

However, Zenit's defense general Yang Feng was injured! Yang Feng's injury was missing for 2 months, resulting in Zenit's most threatening and well-trained tactic, missing the most important part of the defense!

Now Zenit has fallen into the difficult decision situation in the early days of the Russian Super League!

Continue to maintain your own offensive suppression, and you will definitely draw your full-backs and midfielders to step forward and participate in offensive tactics!

If the opponent sticks to the counterattack with peace of mind, whether Zenit's defense can hold on is a question!

If you do a good job in the defense first, you must restrain most of your offensive players and let them participate in the defense. This will not only cause your own mature offensive system to be unable to use, but also cause most of the players in the midfield , because the defensive attribute is not high, it is unknown whether the defensive task can be completed in the end!

It's a pity that due to the national match day, the Russian Super League will also be suspended for 2 weeks, and the players will have to fly to various national teams to report. Advocaat can't test which tactics are better in games or training!

On October 25, Zenit will face the Eredivisie team Alkmaar at home!

The latest round of the Russian Super League is against Kasimaki at home on the 21st! Zenit, who has already won the championship, will naturally not force the exhausted international players to play a double match for a week for a Russian Super League match!

A group of substitutes and players promoted from the youth team, representing their big brothers, lost cleanly at home to the visiting Kasimaki. Although the score of 1 to 3 is not good-looking, but this is professional football. You must always know how to choose. No team can win all the championships, and no team can win all the games. Only sacrifice can win. This is in football. The world is also a wise saying!

The European arena is the event that Zenit cares most about next!

On October 25th, the Europa League group stage of the new season will start in full swing!

Zenit sits at home to face the visiting Eredivisie powerhouse Alkmaar!

Although Alkmaar's state in the new season is not good, especially in the last 8 games in various competitions, he only won one qualifying match for the Europa League and barely advanced to the main match!

But the eliminated opponent is after all the Portuguese Super League team Ferreira with a higher ranking in the league, which proves that although Alkmaar's state has ups and downs, the strength of the team is still there!

After all, Alkmaar is now in the Netherlands, and the traditional Dutch top three, Ajax, Feyenoord, Eindhoven, and the existence of the Big Four!

Last season, it was only 3 points behind and won the third place in the Eredivisie League! It almost ended the Dutch traditional top three's sweep of the league championship for more than 20 years! (Actually, in the 2008-09 season, the Alkmaar team led by Van Gaal finally broke the 28 consecutive hegemony of the Dutch top three against the Eredivisie champion!)

Its head coach Van Gaal has a glorious resume of coaching La Liga giants Barcelona!

Although the performance at the beginning of the season was very bad, but in terms of the team's background strength, today's Alkmaar team can definitely be compared with the three giants of the Eredivisie at the Champions League level!

The Europa League group stage of the 07-08 season is about to start!

In Group A, Zenit, who is at home, will face the challenge of the Eredivisie upstart Alkmaar!

One is the Russian Super League champion in the new season!

The other is the Dutch emerging powerhouse who kept the suspense of the Eredivisie championship until the final round last season, and came in third place by 3 points!

The duel between the two sides is definitely not an ordinary Europa League match. In terms of strength, both teams have the strength of the Champions League!

But on the other hand, the home team lacked the most important defender, Yang Feng, and the defensive stability was greatly reduced. After the visiting team sold the team's shooter Avelas at the beginning of the season, their offensive ability has greatly declined compared with last season!

The current two teams can both be said to have strength and background, but the recent team conditions are not very good!

I still look forward to both sides' first match in the European competition this season. They can show their strength and present a wonderful game to all the audience!

The players are already making their final preparations on the field!

Let's take a look at our home team Zenit's lineup for this game! The team's starters have changed compared to the regular starters!

Yang Feng's injury was replaced by Eric Hagen, needless to say! Dominguez, one of the core of the offense, was not included in the squad for this game due to physical discomfort!

Advocaat simply changed his formation and set up a three midfielder to strengthen the defense!

Tymoshchuk, Ziryanov, and Fernando Riksen partner in the midfield to strengthen our midfield defense!

Arshavin and Denisov are separated on both sides, and Boshen is at the front!

The defenders from left to right are Kim Dong-jin, Hagen, Skrtel, and Russian international Anyukov!

Goalkeeper Malafeev guards the gate!

Perhaps it was because of Dominguez's physical discomfort that strengthened Advocaat's determination to defend well and wait for an opportunity to attack in the first game!

Although Zenit's four-man frontcourt has been reduced to a gang of three, the threat level may have decreased, but the three in the midfield have excellent defensive capabilities, which can effectively protect their central defenders and reduce the threat of opponents!

The top three in the group stage can qualify, keep a tie and win, and absolutely can't lose, which is in line with the goal of qualifying for the group!

I only hope that Zenit can give full play to its offensive strength as much as possible while doing a good job of its own defense!

After all, there are only two chances at home. If you can grab three points at home, you can ensure that you are in an absolutely safe position to qualify!