After playing Arsenal at home, Ajax ushered in the 23rd round of the Eredivisie League over the weekend.

Ajax challenged Udrecht away.

Udrecht is just south of Amsterdam and is very close to each other, but this time, many players who participated in the mid-week Champions League matches, including Yang Yang and Ibrahimovic, were not included in the roster.

Everyone knows that Ajax is accumulating strength for the Champions League. After all, in the Eredivisie, Ajax's lead reached seven points, and he has seized the lead on the road to winning the championship and is fully capable of making such a dual-line layout.

But what surprised everyone was that the originally expected Eindhoven took the opportunity to narrow the gap between each other's points did not happen. Hidduk's team actually lost to Rodaj 1-2 at home, and lost two goals in less than 20 minutes in the first half. Then Hesselink made a comeback for Eindhoven.

One to two, the home loss caused Eindhoven's morale to plummet.

In another game that was played almost at the same time, Ajax lost 0-1 to Udrecht away. Fermuren appeared in this game and performed well on the back line, but still failed to prevent the team from losing.

The problems exposed by Ajax are still on the offense. Without Ibrahimovic and Van der Fate, two tiger players, nor Yang Yang, the gold medal substitute, Ajax's offense is fully exposed.

Although he lost, after the end of this round, Ajax was still seven points ahead of Eindhoven, who was second-placed, Alkmaar, who was third-placed, and Feyenoord, who was fourth-placed, and still firmly grasped the initiative to win the championship.

…………

…………

A week later, the 24th round of the Eredivisie.

Ajax challenged Valvik away.

Ronald Koeman continued to play as a substitute, Anastasch replaced Ibrahimovic again and formed a trident with Scola and Mitya, but this offensive combination still failed to break Valvik's goal.

In the end, Ajax escaped with an own goal from the opponent in the 39th minute.

In the last round, Eindhoven, who performed poorly in the past round, experienced a big explosion in this round.

Hiddink's team scored two goals in the last two minutes of the first half, and Park Ji-sung and Kejman scored two goals in the last four minutes of the second half, and finally defeated Udrecht four to zero away.

But since Ajax also narrowly won this round, the gap between the two teams is still seven points.

On the contrary, Feyenoord drew 2-2 at home in this round, starting to fall behind Alkmaar, who was third.

Substitutes and rotations were arranged in two consecutive rounds of the league. Ronald Koeman's thoughts and Ajax's goals were already obvious.

A three-to-two home victory can only be considered a miserable victory. Arsenal scored two away goals, requiring Ajax to have all his strength at Highbury Stadium, otherwise it will be difficult to advance smoothly from the away game.

After all, it is difficult to score two away goals at Highbury Stadium.

Therefore, defense became the most important thing for Ajax to visit Highbury Stadium.

…………

…………

In order to better prepare for the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, Ajax flew directly from Amsterdam to London the day before the game, and checked in the hotel before having a dinner.

After a night of rest, I had a simple training in the hotel gym the next morning.

In the afternoon, head coach Ronald Koeman gathered everyone in the conference room to hold a pre-match tactical meeting.

In the two rounds of knockout matches, Arsenal also played two games, one in the 27th round of the Premier League. Arsenal defeated Charlton 2-1 at the Highbury Stadium, and scored two goals in four minutes in the game, with Pire and Henry scoring.

Last weekend, Arsenal played against Portsmouth away in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. Henry, Lyonberg and Kloe Toure scored consecutive goals in the first half, while Henry and Lyonberg scored goals in the second half. In the end, Arsenal broke Portsmouth five-1 away.

"Looking at these two games, I don't need to say anything more about Arsenal's strong offensive. Everyone knows it in their hearts, but what I want to remind everyone is to pay attention to the time of the goal."

With a sentence from Ronald Koeman, the screen behind him showed a conspicuous goal time in two games.

"There are two very obvious characteristics. First, the first twenty minutes are very critical, especially at Highbury Stadium, Charlton, Manchester City and Middlesbrough and other Premier League teams. This season, they have fallen within twenty minutes. After leading, what Arsenal has done the most is to slowly control the game."

"The second point, Arsenal often pursues the victory after scoring the goal, plays Charlton in one go, and scores two goals in the second and fourth minutes of the game, playing Portsmouth. The first goal occurred in the 26th minute, but in the 44th and 45th minutes, and in the 50th and 57th minutes, Arsenal scores consecutive goals."

When Ronald Koeman said this, everyone present was already very clear.

This is an extremely terrifying opponent. Their attack is like a shark smelling blood. Once they catch the loophole, they are likely to chase and fight again until they break down the opponent.

"So, here, I have to tell you that the defense in the first twenty minutes is very, very important. The Gunners are a team that is very good at solving battles in the first twenty minutes. We must be able to defend these twenty minutes, and the most important thing is the defense at the two sides and the front of the penalty area."

As he said that, Luther Carroll cut into the next ppt, which is the Arsenal lineup predicted by the coaching staff.

The goalkeepers are Lehman, with the defense being Ashley Cole, Campbell, Kloe Toure and Lauren, the midfielder is Pire, Edu, Vieira and Lungberg, respectively, and the two forwards are Henry and Borgkamp.

There are two very obvious differences in the second leg from the first leg, that is, veteran Borgkamp returns to the lineup, and Reyes, who performed poorly in the first leg, should be a substitute. After all, Borgkamp is more familiar with Ajax and better understands Ajax.

Another difference is that left back Ashley Cole returns from injury, and Krish performs well during this period, but Ashley Cole is the world's top left back, and his comeback will be a considerable improvement against Arsenal's left offense.

Gilberto Silva has also recovered from injury, but on the one hand, Edu has been in very good shape recently, and on the other hand, it is also for the sake of caution that Wenger is unlikely to directly put Brazil's midfielder.

Of course, it is not ruled out that Wenger is in danger.

"The left side is very deadly. On the one hand, we must have a speed player to defend Henry, but at the same time we also need to pay attention to Pire and Ashley Cole who is inserted in the back, and the cooperation between Ryonberg and Borgkamp on the right is also very tacit, which is also something we must pay attention to."

"But the most important thing is our front of the penalty area. The first goal conceded in the first round was in this area. If Edu was reunited, Wenger would definitely want to make a fuss in this area."

Yang Yang sat down, heard the head coach's analysis, and nodded silently.

Over the past period of time, Ajax has been practicing the 4231 style of play. This formation played well in the first round, and the double midfielders also had excellent protection for the defense line and the front of the penalty area. If necessary, they could even directly return the two wing players.

If there is no accident, Ajax should still use 4231 as the formation in the second round.

Unlike the first round, the start of the second round is to seek stability and require defense. Yang Yang's defensive ability is relatively average. Although he can run, the head coach will definitely not waste his physical fitness and energy on defense.

In Ajax's lineup, there are more players who are good at defense, but there are few offensive players on the right.

There will be no big noise in the defense line. Trabelsey is good to defend Henry in the first round, and Maxwell will continue. Ajax's two full-backs are still very strong, and the central defender is still a combination of Heatinga and Escud.

The team uses a double midfielder style, which must be Garasek and De Jong. In the frontcourt, Ibrahimovic must be the center, and he is also the player in Ajax who can threaten Arsenal's defense most.

But Yang Yang couldn't guess the two sides on the left and right, and the front midfielder behind the center.

He could only have a premonition that he would come on as a substitute again.

Sure enough, after introducing the team's game strategy and response to emergencies in the game, Ronald Koeman quickly announced the team's lineup.

It is basically exactly the same as Yang Yang guessed, but on the left, the coaching staff chose Wesley Songk, and the speed of the Belgian striker is still quite threatening, especially when counterattacking.

On the right side, the coaching staff chose Scola. The only thing that surprised Yang Yang was the front midfielder position, and the coaching staff chose Sneider.

This means that the team's captain Van der Fate will be the same as Yang Yang.

After listening to the list announced by the coaching staff, many people turned their heads to look at Van der Fate, but found that the expression on the latter's face was not at all angry or dissatisfied. This made the gloating Ibrahimovic a little bored and also made Yang Yang feel very strange.

Did he know it long ago?

Only this explanation is reasonable, otherwise how could he not be angry?

"Finally, I still want to tell you here that no matter what the outcome of this game will be tomorrow night, I will be proud of you, and I always believe that you are a group of outstanding players, and each of you is very outstanding."

"Our team is able to reach today and appear in London, which proves your extraordinaryness. I sincerely hope that in this final tonight, everyone here can do their best to contribute their own strength to themselves and to this team."

"The outside now looks down on us, but I believe from beginning to end that we can escape from Highbury Stadium."
Chapter completed!