The overall situation is set, and Mancini has not continued to attack fiercely, but has sounded the retreat.
Finally, Inter won at home 4-1, with an aggregate score of 5-3, defeating Wolfsburg and advancing to the semifinals of the 2014-2015 UEFA Europa League with heads held high!
Zhang Xizhe stood dumbfounded on the spot.
Is this how the Wolfsburg debut ends?
The clothes on him are dry, not a drop of sweat.
The only time he managed to play the ball after coming on was when he received a pass but let the ball roll out of bounds, and his teammates evidently did not trust him after that, not passing him the ball at all.
Zhang Xizhe wanted to get the ball only by intercepting and tackling.
However, his movements were like a headless fly, and after a hard interception, he sent out a through pass, but couldn’t connect with his teammates.
Tang Long walked towards Zhang Xizhe to exchange jerseys with him.
"Xizhe, how have you been in Germany?" Tang Long asked casually.
"Not well," Zhang Xizhe’s eyes suddenly reddened, "In the last Bundesliga match against Bayer Leverkusen, Black Gold didn’t include me in the squad, and the sponsor Volkswagen Group took me to a local Volkswagen 4S shop to shoot an ad, now fans in China are calling me a salesman midfielder, hehe."
"Your through pass showed strong forward thinking, but the handling of the ball route wasn’t right, you could choose another path..."
Tang Long and Zhang Xizhe analyzed the route of that pass.
Zhang Xizhe initially looked baffled, but as he listened, his eyes gradually lit up, nodding like a chick pecking rice.
"Really! My vision was too narrow, Tang Long, your few words enlightened me!"
The image of Tang Long in Zhang Xizhe’s mind grew even taller and more imposing.
The two hugged, and Zhang Xizhe sighed, saying that this farewell, he didn’t know when he would face him again on the field.
Judging by his situation at Wolfsburg, perhaps he would never have the chance again.
Tang Long sat in his dorm, looking at the computer.
Still watching football matches.
This time, he was watching De Bruyne’s passes!
In the UEFA Europa League two-legged match, De Bruyne executed at least five precise ground strike long passes, creating numerous threatening plays for his teammates.
If not for Wolfsburg’s forward being ineffective, Inter eliminating the opponent wouldn’t be an easy task.
In fact, after the match, German media commented resentfully, saying that if Dost were swapped for Inter’s striker Icardi, Wolfsburg might have beaten the opponent at Meazza, and it would be them advancing in the UEFA Europa League, not Inter!
This kind of talk naturally seemed frustrating, but it also caused Tang Long to ponder deeply.
De Bruyne’s ground strike long passes are indeed a powerful weapon on the field!
Tang Long watched repeatedly in slow motion replay, closely observing De Bruyne’s passing posture, route choice, and timing.
De Bruyne’s ground strike passes, Tang Long believed, had three advantages: fast ball speed, close to the ground, and large curve!
Firstly, fast ball speed!
The extremely fast ball speed can maximize the prevention of Inter’s defensive players from intercepting the football.
No matter how fast one moves, they cannot match the speed of the ball, which is easy to understand.
Especially the second leg’s assist to Dost, the ball speed reached 88km/h, nearly as fast as a long shot.
Secondly, close to the ground!
Many players can execute ground strike long passes, but few can keep the ball stuck to the ground during rolling, resembling a glued effect, and only De Bruyne can achieve this!
In the second leg with Inter, Tang Long also sent Icardi a ground stand long pass.
Although it successfully assisted the Argentine forward’s goal,
In terms of passing quality alone, Tang Long’s ground strike was far inferior to De Bruyne’s!
In Tang Long’s passing stats, his long passing remains at 72, and short passing at 79.
After signing Ronaldo as his agent, his growth threshold increased by 12%, from 80 to a ceiling of around 90 now.
Through rigorous AI training, his long passing has improved to 75, and his short passing has surpassed the 80 mark, reaching 81!
But compared to De Bruyne’s stats, both over 95, the gap is still very evident.
Supposedly a ground strike, but Tang Long’s pass didn’t stay completely on the ground; it bounced at least three times, varying the ball speed unevenly, which demands a lot from the receiving player.
The pass’s success mainly owed to surprise, catching the opponent off guard, coupled with Icardi’s impressive positioning and shooting.
If replaced by Wolfsburg’s Dost, it would be difficult to intercept this ball under ordinary circumstances.
But Icardi is human too, he can’t play every game.
If Icardi weren’t on the field, Tang Long’s ball, whether to Podolski, Palacio, Shaqiri, or Bonazzoli, none of these attackers could comfortably receive it, let alone score.
How large is the arc?
Even Serie A’s tallest defender at 195cm, Ranocchia, puts his whole body out to slide tackle, he can’t stop the ball from curving just 10 centimeters in front of his toe, only to watch Dost comfortably receive the ball from behind, scoring single-handedly.
With Ranocchia at 195cm unable to block, regular central defenders at around 185cm can only look and sigh.
Generally, large arc passes are found in high balls.
For example, Beckham’s wide crosses, slicing through the sky like a crescent moon, followed by a header contest.
But De Bruyne’s arc is more refined, being a ground arc.
The benefit of sticking to the ground?
Eases offensive players’ ball reception!
Soccer, in essence, is a sport played with the feet.
In the human body, the most agile control part is the hands, followed by the feet.
Header power may be significant, but in terms of force and accuracy, it surely can’t compare to comfortably taking a shot with the feet.
Creating an arc on the ground rather than in the air dramatically increases the difficulty exponentially!
Because the high ball spins in the air, the friction applied to the football is due to air.
Ground balls, friction comes from the thick turf and the soil supporting it.
This means, to produce an arc as large as on a high ball, the passer must exert initial force much larger than when kicking a high ball!
Yet De Bruyne managed to do it, and in global football, kickout high-quality arc ball ground strikes, currently, only he can.
"Fast ball speed, sticking to the ground, large arc, only by organically combining these three can De Bruyne’s unrivaled passing skill be achieved."
This is the conclusion Tang Long derived after repeatedly watching De Bruyne’s passes.
A voice echoed in his mind.
"AI system detected a De Bruyne ground strike sample!"
"Please let the host search for 100 more De Bruyne ground strike pass samples to feed and supplement system big data!"