The ball drew a beautiful arc, bypassed Hamburg's wall, and penetrated into Hamburg's goal from the near corner.

Faced with such a high-quality free kick, Hamburg goalkeeper Keylor Navas had no choice but to make any move.

"goallllllllllllllllllllll!

Manchester City scored!

”

After Kolarov scored, he was so excited that he turned around and ran away, and all the Manchester City players also chased him to celebrate.

Kolarov's "golden left foot", in addition to his strong assist ability and long-range shot, is also world-famous for his free kick skills.

When he was at Lazio in Serie A, he was even hailed as the successor of Mihajlovic!

At this time, the Hamburg players were all stunned and seemed very frustrated.

It was only about ten minutes into the game and we lost the ball. This game is not easy to play.

"Remember what I told you in the locker room!

"Pan Yi yelled from the sidelines.

Of course he was not happy when Hamburg lost the ball, but he knew that he could not show such emotions now.

Once the head coach becomes impatient, the players will not get better.

"Cheer up, everyone! Hold on steady and play hard! It's still a long time!"

"Whoever gets downcast again, wait until I kick his ass hard with my boot!"

"What are you looking at? It's you! Lift your head, kid!"

After a loud shouting, the players finally woke up.

The main reason is that Pan Yi's status in the Hamburg locker room is really high now, and everyone has unconditional 100% trust in him.

He is the backbone of the Hamburg team!

Under Pan Yi's reminder, the Hamburg players also cheered up and got into the game!

……

In the President's Stand of the Intihad Stadium, Manchester City Club Chairman Mubarak, Director of Football Begiristain and CEO Soriano were all watching the game.

When Kolarov scored the Hamburg goal with a beautiful free kick, they immediately jumped up excitedly and cheered and hugged like ordinary fans.

"Beautiful!"

"Beautiful!"

"Great!"

There is certainly a reason for their excitement.

Since the Abu Dhabi Group took over Manchester City in 2008 and won the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League in 2012, they have shifted their focus to the Champions League.

Winning the Champions League is the ultimate pursuit of Sheikh Mansour, the boss behind Manchester City!

It can even be said that the main reason for the dismissal of former Manchester City coach Mancini was not the loss of the Premier League championship or the FA Cup final, but the humiliating exit from the bottom of the Champions League group stage with 3 draws and 3 losses.

.

The Chilean engineer Pellegrini was hired to take over as Manchester City coach because of his excellent performance in the Champions League when he was with La Liga teams.

"It seems that Pellegrini was the right choice to be the head coach." Chairman Mubarak said, "His style of play is very flexible and he can also build suitable players around the characteristics of the existing players.

tactics."

Director Begiristain also nodded and said: "Yes, I think he is one of the best head coaches in world football today."

"Fortunately, we didn't choose Pan Yi." Mubarak said with a smile, "He is indeed too young."

When Mancini dismissed class, Manchester City's senior management really seriously considered Pan Yi.

At that time, Pan Yi had just led Hamburg to the Bundesliga runner-up, and his Triple Crown achievements while serving as an assistant coach in Milan have not been ignored.

However, after long-term discussions, senior executives still believe that Pan Yi's performance after independent coaching still does not guarantee that he is qualified for the position of Manchester City coach.

First of all, Pan Yi has only been the head coach for one year. Sometimes it is normal for a new coach to achieve some results in the early stages of coaching. The difficulty is to consistently achieve results.

This kind of example is also very common in world football, and it feels like a kind of "newbie's luck".

For example, Di Matteo took over as Chelsea coach and won a Champions League, but then disappeared.

Sometimes, some coaches lead small teams and achieve good results, but once they reach a strong team, they immediately fail.

When you think he is really not good, he returns to the small team and immediately becomes good again!

This is commonly known as "not knowing how to fly an aircraft carrier".

There are more people like this, like Emery, Moyes... they are all like this.

For Manchester City and Sheikh Mansour, they want to build a dynasty.

Not only a dynasty that can dominate the Premier League, but also a dynasty that can dominate the Champions League!

Therefore, a stable, strong and senior head coach who can "fly an aircraft carrier" is a must.

And now it seems that Pellegrini is the person they are looking for!

As for Pan Yi...

Let’s observe him for a few more years to see if he can truly prove himself!

……

The game restarts.

Although Manchester City led by one goal, they still continued to organize attacks.

This is actually one of Pellegrini’s more distinctive features.

When the team is leading but not by much, many teams will adopt some methods to avoid risks.

Those who are strong will use "ball defense" and use ball control as an alternative means of defense;

Those who are weak will drop back to the low position and organize a solid defensive structure.

However, Pellegrini often uses neither method.

On the contrary, he will let the team continue to maintain a more direct offensive style, and hope to score the second and third goals during the transition between offense and defense to expand the score advantage.

In addition, no matter what time period he is in or what opponent he faces, he will insist on aggressive high-position pressure.

This is actually one of the reasons why Manchester City executives chose Pellegrini as head coach.

More goals are scored and the game is better to watch, which is also an important factor in attracting fans to the venue.

As a "new giant", there is a big gap between Manchester City and those "old money" fans in the global fan base.

For example, compared with their neighbor Manchester United, they are not on the same level at all.

But as long as Manchester City insists on attacking and winning, it will slowly shorten this gap and make Manchester City truly a world-class team with loyal fans all over the world!

However, at the competitive level, Pellegrini's approach is actually risky.

Once you are unable to score more goals, your physical fitness will decline under strong pressure, the space on both lines will be exposed, and you will lose control of the rhythm of the game.

Including if you encounter opponents with a more direct style of play, such as when they lost to the underdog Sunderland this season, the opponent would use long passes to resolve Manchester City's press, and then crush Manchester City to death.

Pellegrini also knew this very well.

So although Manchester City has taken the lead, the Chilean engineer is still a little uneasy.

After all, Hamburg now seems to have stabilized its position after experiencing a bit of panic and conceding a goal after the opening.

Especially after Pan Yi stood up and yelled for a while, there was no anxiety or panic on the faces of the Hamburg players. Instead, they were patiently building a line of defense to withstand Manchester City's attack and were not in a hurry to push the ball.

Go to the frontcourt.

It’s been 15 minutes since Hamburg started, and Hamburg hasn’t even had a shot!

But they still defended actively and calmly.

This indeed surprised Pellegrini.

Of course he had studied Hamburg games before, and he also knew that Pan Yi's team was mostly composed of young people and would often launch an aggressive attack in the opening stages, which was simply a replica of Manchester City.

But today is a bit uncharacteristic of the norm, even falling behind but still acting like nothing happened.

"They can really keep their composure." Sitting next to Pellegrini was assistant coach Brian Kidd. He looked at the head coach and asked, "Does Pan Yi want to withstand our onslaught first, and then come back in the second half?"

Launch a counterattack?"

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"When our physical energy is almost exhausted?" Pellegrini asked.

Kidd nodded: "With the team's current style of play, we will have a big physical problem in the second half. At that time, they may have a chance to counterattack."

Pellegrini also nodded silently.

Why doesn't he know about this problem?
To be continued...