Football: My AI System Provides Max-Level Predictions-Chapter 768 - 553: Revenge Battle? Round 2, Ranocchia and Tang Long’s God-Level Connection!

The second leg is about to kick off at the Allianz Arena!

The surroundings of the stadium are already a sea of joy.

Bayern fans, dressed in their traditional red jerseys, with their faces painted with the team logo, are gathering from all directions, holding giant flags.

Fans who couldn't buy tickets are sitting in street-side bars, watching large screens that play past highlights of head-to-head matches between the two teams, while they drink beer and heatedly discuss the match's progression.

"A 1-2 score isn't bad, we have an away goal!"

"That's right! Home after away, we definitely need to gain back the ground this round."

"A narrow 1-0 win is enough, what's there to be afraid of!"

"Manchester City was our defeated opponent last season!"

...

In the visitor team's locker room.

Manchester City manager Guardiola is giving the final pre-match pep talk.

He uses his personal experience at Bayern to motivate the players.

"I know this Bayern team all too well; as you know, I coached here for three whole years."

"In my view, they are an excellent team, but also an arrogant one."

"Having long dominated the Bundesliga, they are used to that feeling of being high and mighty, admired by many."

Guardiola speaks rapidly, with passion, and the Blue Moon soldiers have to perk up their ears, or they'd barely understand his English with a Catalonia accent.

"But you are different!"

Guardiola points at the Manchester City players and says, "Manchester City is a club that grew from grassroots, and just ten years ago, it was worried about relegation."

"You have no heritage; you haven't won many Premier League titles, and historically, you've never won the Champions League, your team, compared to Bayern, is far behind!"

The eyes of the Manchester City players burn with fire.

Inwardly questioning, is the gap between Manchester City and Bayern really that big?

Guardiola wants to continue his speech but is interrupted by a loud shout from goalkeeper Bravo.

"Who cares about heritage or no heritage, without it, we'll just go create it. Turn Bayern upside down at the Allianz!"

"Yes!!!" The whole team shares a common enemy.

Guardiola smiles at Bravo, giving him a thumbs-up.

"Last season, I led Bayern to eliminate you, many were in the starting lineup, today, I want to lead you to personally defeat Bayern! Let's go for it, guys!"

Though with Bravo's declining form, Guardiola is not particularly fond of this goalkeeper;

But it must be said, as the main goalkeeper with Barça's treble in 2015, in Champions League experience, Bravo is unmatched in the entire Manchester City team.

When lining up to enter the player tunnel, Bravo intentionally calls Tang Long aside and carefully instructs him:

"Tang, trust me, I have extensive knockout stage experience, the faster you score that first away goal, the more pressure Bayern will be under, and we'll have the initiative!"

...

After the match began, Bayern Munich launched a ferocious attack on their home ground.

The main strategy was a blitz start!

As Guardiola predicted before the match, Bayern is an arrogant team.

In Germany, no stadium is like the Allianz; it's a fortress that's difficult to conquer, and every team that walks out of there loses layers of skin.

The fans at the Etihad Stadium are already passionate enough, but compared to Bayern fans at the Allianz, they are like a small witch meeting a great witch.

Like an airplane taking off, the huge roar has been reverberating around the stadium, shaking the eardrums of Manchester City players, from the moment the referee blew the whistle to start the match.

"They're too loud, we can't even hear each other call out!" Agüero complains, spreading his hands after a ball control mistake.

"No worries, it's so loud even Bayern players can't hear themselves." Tang Long says after a sliding tackle, deflecting the ball rolling towards Muller out of bounds, turning to speak to Agüero.

The Battle for Revenge!

These four words are engraved in the minds of Manchester City players ever since the match started.

Last season, Manchester City faced Bayern in the Champions League semi-final, ending in a 5-5 draw over two legs, only stopped at the final four due to the away goals rule.

But this also marked Manchester City's best performance in their Champions League history.

This time, with a 2-1 home advantage, Agüero, Tang Long, Kompany, Ranocchia, and others are already determined to settle old scores with Bayern at the Allianz.

Ranocchia takes the ball in the defensive midfield position and sees a gap, pushing forward two steps.

Looking ahead, defensive midfielders Harvey Alonso and Vidal have firmly occupied the midfield, glaring at him, not backing down an inch;

Meanwhile, Brazilian forward Douglas Costa quickly grazes to his side from the flank, seemingly attempting a flank sneak attack.

Ranocchia thinks to himself: "Bayern's defense is obviously tighter than in the first leg, penetrating through the center is not easy, it's best to get the ball quickly to Tang Long's left side, utilizing his individual skills to seek a breakthrough."

While pondering, Douglas Costa's foot is almost to the ball!

"Andrei, watch your back!" Teammate Kompany urgently shouts.

Kompany, as the sweeper center back, standing at the last line of defense, can see all player movements on the field completely.

No reminder needed from Kompany; Ranocchia already hears the sound of wind from behind.

Without looking back, right foot pulling the ball back, switching from straight-line advance to oblique 45-degree advance, with a half-turn dribble.

Just such an unintentional change of pace, instantly made Douglas Costa miss a tackle!

The Brazilian quickly came to a sudden stop, his foot slipping, as long cleats carved a deep mark in the grass of the Allianz Arena, barely managing to stand without falling.

"Thank you, I know!" Ranocchia waved backwards, expressing gratitude to Kompany, then continued his charge forward without looking back.

"Huh?" Chiwo, watching Ranocchia still charging forward from off the field, felt puzzled.

He had coached Ranocchia at Inter and was very familiar with his technical characteristics.

This player truly possesses sophisticated foot skills, dribbling and speed are both decent, but it's rare to see him carry the ball all the way forward from the backfield, even passing the halfway line without slowing down.

"What is he trying to do? Isn't he afraid of losing the ball? If the defensive midfielder loses possession, it could be problematic."

Vidal and Alonso were also quite astonished to see Ranocchia dribbling the ball directly into their defensive zone.

Logically, Ranocchia is a defensive midfielder, such an uninhibited advance is quite risky.

Even though he got past Douglas Costa, he's still deep in enemy territory, not seeking cooperation with teammates, perhaps a little too hot-headed, and underestimating us Bayern, isn't he?

"I'll go, you stay!"

Vidal pressed down his hand signaling Alonso not to go up, while he went forward to snatch the ball from Ranocchia.

The Chilean midfielder had played in Juventus for a full 4 years, during which he and Ranocchia were long-standing rivals on the Serie A field.

He considered himself to know this player very well, while charging towards Ranocchia, he pondered:

"No matter how good your technique is, you are still a player with a defender's background, do you think you are Messi!"

Vidal timed Ranocchia's dribbling steps, moving forward to make a steal attempt.

When he was in Serie A, he was famous for this move, often becoming the intercept king in a single Juventus match, receiving high post-match ratings.

Ranocchia indeed has a defender's background, and he certainly isn't Messi, but this kind of fearless advance wasn't meant to imitate a one-man Messi dribbling style, it was to maximize the attraction of Bayern's defensive attention.

Especially after he turned around Costa, shifting his charge from the middle to the right, forcing Bayern players to shift their focus and weight to the right side, thereby overlooking Tang Long on the left.

Sure enough, as Vidal went forward, Alonso began to move to fill in for Vidal's position, and Thomas Muller also appropriately retracted, inclining towards Ranocchia's side.

For a moment, Ranocchia's ball possession attracted the attention of three Bayern players.

"Dangerous, what will he do?" Chiwo frowned.

Chiwo keenly observed that Ranocchia had led the ball into a dead corner.

And due to his unexpected speed in possession progression, his surrounding teammates, be it Gundogan or Diego, couldn't form effective support for him;

Meanwhile, Walker, who was advancing on the other side, was firmly marked by Alaba, not running into a passing opportunity.

If it were Tang Long in this circumstance, Chiwo wouldn't be worried, as Tang Long always finds the most reasonable way to pass or break through;

But Ranocchia?

Chiwo wasn't confident.

"Look back at me!" Stones moved significantly forward.

There was no choice, central defender Stones could only take the initiative to step forward, signaling Ranocchia to pass the ball back.

This was the only channel on the field where he could play the ball out.

If Ranocchia obediently passed it back now, although this breakthrough would achieve no effective outcome, it still wouldn't lose the ball, making it a neutral action.

But surprisingly, Ranocchia actually further slowed down his ball possession speed, actively letting Alonso, Vidal, and Muller surround him from three directions.

Could it be that fighting off one Vidal wasn't enough, insisting on drawing three Bayern players for a snatch would satisfy him!

As Ranocchia pushed himself into a deadlock, a gleam flashed in Guardiola's eyes watching from the sidelines, he looked towards Tang Long on the distant left.

"If Andrei could play this ball..."

Whoosh—

The scene following made Guardiola's entire body shiver, he was right!

Ranocchia used a magical move, forcing the ball two meters back, instantly getting rid of the enclosure of Alonso, Vidal, and Muller.

At this point, he saw Stones coming back to receive, anxiously roaring, signaling him to pass.

At this moment, time seemed to freeze.

In Ranocchia's mind, he suddenly recalled the words spoken to him by the coach of Barry's youth team when he switched from a midfielder to central defender at the age of 13:

"Andrei, you've grown 12 centimeters taller this summer, which has caused your passing pace to drop too quickly, you can't play midfield anymore, you should switch to play central defender."

Ranocchia gave a cold smile, refusing to believe this dictum.

After getting past Douglas Costa, every move wasn't reckless but all within his plan.

And the remaining most crucial step was to fulfill this plan.

Ranocchia did not pass to Stones, but twisted his body in a narrow space, swinging his long left leg maximally towards the far end!

When he delivered this pass, he was completely back to the far end, he couldn't see where his teammates were, to uninformed people it seemed like a forced clearance, a rather embarrassed tactic.

But only Guardiola at the sidelines saw most clearly, at the moment Ranocchia kicked, in Guardiola's field of vision, Tang Long on the far end had already rapidly started cutting inside!

Wham!

The football, with a sidespin, flew from the right towards the arc top of the penalty area!

A blue shadow dashed out obliquely from the crowd—

Tang Long!

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