Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions-Chapter 724 - 514: Tang Long Feints One Way and Strikes Another, Unpredictable Passing! Bonazzoli Fulfills His Promise to His Mother!

Chapter 724: Chapter 514: Tang Long Feints One Way and Strikes Another, Unpredictable Passing! Bonazzoli Fulfills His Promise to His Mother!

This Rodgers really knows how to keep his cool!

For a regular coach, in such a do-or-die match, falling behind at home, they would surely seize the opportunity with the near 60,000 home fans cheering to make a counterattack.

But after over three years of experience at a European giant like Liverpool, Rodgers understood one principle:

The more difficult the situation, the more you need to keep your cool and not lose your own composure.

Hold firm, defend well, and you can still launch counter-attacks;

but once you push too far forward and Manchester City scores a second goal, falling two goals behind, the morale collapses, and it’s game over!

So Rodgers, amidst the players’ grievances and the noisy home crowd, still chose to play steady defense in the second half, emphasizing to the players not to attempt ball control recklessly, nor to easily push forward, and to seize opportunities for counter-attacks.

"Heh, this Rodgers is so timid, no wonder Liverpool fired him."

Guardiola looked down slightly upon Rodgers for his somewhat conservative approach.

He interpreted Rodgers’ withdrawal as the Northern Irishman not wanting to suffer a disastrous defeat at home.

In the Premier League, when Guardiola plays against weaker opponents, he might hold back a bit to save face and avoid post-match media attacks;

but on the Champions League stage, he can unleash without restraint.

"Press forward, quickly score a second goal to kill the game!"

Then, with a wave of his hand, Guardiola urged Manchester City’s players to press forward without hesitation.

Center-back Stones moved forward to the defensive midfield position to participate in the organization, while Kompany stayed back alone.

The scene became overwhelmingly one-sided!

In the first 15 minutes of the second half, Manchester City’s possession rate once reached 90%, what does that mean?

It meant that Celtic, besides goal kicks and a few clearances, couldn’t even complete more than two passes.

-[Is it this exaggerated? It’s completely Manchester City pressing their opponents in their own half!]

-[What’s the point of Celtic playing like this? Losing by one or two is still a loss; do they lack courage, these Scots?]

-[With the Brexit referendum approaching, I predict Scotland will remain in Great Britain; they don’t want to leave.]

-[Haven’t seen Manchester City with such exaggerated possession for a long time; such scenes are impossible in the Premier League.]

-[Not enough thrill, Tang Long, another powerful shot please, let Celtic taste some color!]

It’s normal for a coach to show confidence in favorable conditions.

But the challenge is whether they still have confidence and their firm persistence when in adversity.

Rodgers is such a coach who maintains confidence in adversity.

65th minute of the second half.

Celtic welcomed their first interception of the entire match!

Perhaps due to underestimating the opponent, midfielder Diego didn’t pass quickly after getting the ball but played a back-and-forth pass with Gundogan.

Seeing Celtic players unmoved, huddled in defense, Diego felt contempt and decided to transfer the ball to the flank where Navas was.

Unexpectedly, his pass was too light and landed right at the feet of Beaton, the defensive midfielder.

Everyone was stunned!

Manchester City didn’t expect a mistake, and Celtic didn’t expect Manchester City would pass the ball to their feet.

"Give it to me!"

After holding back all match, Mousa Dembele quickly took off!

Raising his hand high while running, he signaled for Beaton to send him a high ball.

Seizing the opportunity, Beaton met the ball with a kick!

Stones was positioned too far forward, and Beaton’s kick was extremely accurate and fast, in no time, Dembele was in a one-on-one with Kompany.

Dembele forcefully went around Kompany!

He was a whole 10 years younger than Kompany and much faster, driving straight into the penalty area, pulling his foot to shoot!

Bravo, who had been idle for a long time, was finally called into action for his first save of the match.

Perhaps due to inactivity for a long time, Dembele’s shot was a chipped far post shot, not very tricky in angle or speed, but Bravo didn’t jump, watching the ball draw a beautiful arc into the top corner of the net.

"Ahhhhh——"

An excited Mousa Dembele celebrated by taking off his shirt.

Nearly 60,000 Celtic Park fans roared unprecedentedly.

"We Scots never say die!!!"

Seeing the score equalized, Guardiola angrily threw the water bottle in his hand to the ground and complained to assistant coach Chiwo:

"Christian! Look at Bravo, he’s too short, his arm span is too short, if it were a tall goalkeeper, he would have saved it!"

Chiwo just muttered "hmm," noncommittal.

He saw clearly that the goal resulted from Diego’s passing error, but Diego was Guardiola’s favorite player.

Guardiola brought him from Barça to Bayern, and from Bayern to Manchester City with the Blue Moon.

So biasedly, he didn’t blame Diego, instead targeting Bravo.

Meanwhile, far away in Messi’s home in Barcelona, three Barça players were clapping hands, delighted, thinking Celtic still had a chance.

...

The match has reached almost 70 minutes, how will Guardiola respond?

He certainly wouldn’t let the team’s three lines move back just because of one mistake by Diego; he still demands that all players press forward, aiming to score the second goal quickly.

As long as we score more goals than the opponent, we will win the match!

Manchester City quickly shook off the disappointment of conceding a goal, regrouped, and continued to apply high pressure on Celtic’s defense.

Tang Long tasted some sweetness. Since he couldn’t get past with short passes, he started using Fierce Tiger Shots from the periphery, attacking Celtic’s goal.

But as the Scottish Super League champions, these players in blue and green jerseys are not average opponents.

After a previous setback, whenever Tang Long took a shot from the perimeter, several players quickly surrounded him to block the line.

Tang Long’s three consecutive shots were blocked, and another shot, although it passed the defense, was just slightly off target, missing the goal area.

Even though Tang Long didn’t score with long shots, it exhausted the Celtic players coming to block him!

To avoid being deceived by Tang Long, Rogic, Brown, and other midfielders maintained the mindset of preferring to be hit by the ball rather than turning away, staring straight ahead as the ball came toward them when Tang Long shot.

Tang Long’s few hard hits landed on their bodies, making the ball bounce so high, it almost knocked them away.

But these Scottish men’s hearts were ignited with wildness, although the ball hit their bodies painfully, they still gritted their molars and got up to continue defending.

Time passed minute by minute, and the match was heading into the last 10 minutes.

Guardiola started getting restless and subbed out the exhausted Sterling for winger Sane.

Meanwhile, he replaced the veteran Kolarov with the young Robertson to continue strengthening the overall pressing power.

Although these substitutions maintained the stamina for front-field pressing, they didn’t bring qualitative changes to the situation.

To win, the key still lies with Tang Long!

In the second half of the 84th minute.

Retreated Tang Long received a pass from Gundogan, then made a bicycle move past the first defender Rogic, and glanced at the goal.

This glance set off a chain reaction as Celtic’s defenders, like startled birds, rushed to surround him, tightly guarding against Tang Long’s shot.

[Detected opponent displacement, watch for an opening]

This time, without a mind AI brainwave prompt, Tang Long noticed the shift in the situation.

Previously, when Tang Long shot, more than two Celtic players had gathered around him, and he noticed the gaps left behind when they departed their original area.

However, at that time, Celtic players were still robust in stamina, and even when players left their areas, others quickly filled in, and the formation remained tight, lacking ample passing gaps from one or two player displacements. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

But as the match went past 80 minutes, the situation subtly changed, and Celtic, who held firm throughout the game, couldn’t sustain their stamina!

"Sane!"

Tang Long called out to Sane, who understood immediately, and sprinted diagonally through a gap along the edge of the box!

This call woke the Celtic defenders up.

Pretending to shoot but actually passing, Tang Long was tricking them!

"Watch Sane, block the passing route!" Celtic players began leaning to one side, blocking Tang Long’s route to pass to Sane.

However, the ball Tang Long passed did not fly towards Sane on the right but towards the left!

"Bonazzoli!"

This shout was not from Tang Long but from Chiwo on the sidelines!

When Tang Long previously called out Sane’s name, if you looked around, Sane had already been marked, but Chiwo caught with his peripheral vision Bonazzoli quietly moving on the left.

He remained silent, waiting to see if Tang Long would notice this route.

When Tang Long’s ball really went to Bonazzoli, Chiwo couldn’t help but shout out the name of the player he once coached in Inter Milan’s youth team!

Before Tang Long, Bonazzoli was Chiwo’s favorite player in the youth team, expecting this player’s performance not to disappoint.

"Haha, it’s here!"

Bonazzoli had learned quite a lot from Tang Long while at Inter Milan.

One of the tricks was that when Tang Long passed the ball, don’t mind where he would pass or how many teammates were ready to receive it—even if you are back to Tang Long, as long as you run, there’s a chance the ball will come to your feet.

That’s exactly what Bonazzoli did, and sure enough, Tang Long’s floated pass didn’t go to Sane on the right but flew to himself on the left.

This move attacking the East sector caught the Celtic players completely off guard!

Earlier, they were tricked by Tang Long to lean the formation towards Sane, leaving only Brown and Toure to be able to mark Bonazzoli on the left.

Tang Long’s pass was so precise, bypassing the front of Brown directly, and as Bonazzoli took the ball, with two steps, he broke into the penalty area, facing the nearest opponent, Toure, with the goalkeeper, Gordon, right behind him!

Kolo Toure, he is Yaya Toure’s brother.

As an experienced old defender who played for both Liverpool and Manchester City, Toure, just like Rodgers, remained calm.

Seeing Bonazzoli charging with the ball towards him, Toure took a good position, maintained a proper distance from Bonazzoli, lowered his center of gravity, eyes on Bonazzoli’s every feint move, preventing him from getting past.

But fortune favors the young, Bonazzoli didn’t play any tricks; he didn’t even look at Toure and simply took a shot!

This shot was from the penalty box line, approximately 17 meters from the goal.

Bonazzoli’s shot power and accuracy couldn’t rival Tang Long’s, but this ball indeed blocked goalkeeper Gordon’s view.

Gordon didn’t make any excuses, because when Bonazzoli took the shot, his teammate, Beaton, who was actively back defending, slid just perfectly, allowing the ball to pass right through the gap between his legs, leaving Gordon unable to respond, and watched the ball roll into the far corner!

to 1!

Manchester City turned the score around!

"Mom, I scored, are you watching me on TV, my dear mom!" Bonazzoli pointed to the camera and then blew a kiss.