Tang Long's Feint, Unpredictable Shots! Bonazzoli Fulfills His Promise to His Mother!

Rodgers really knows how to keep his composure!

If it were a typical coach in such a do-or-die match, trailing at home, they would surely use the support of nearly 60,000 home fans to launch a counterattack.

But after more than three years of experience at Europe powerhouse like Liverpool, Rodgers learned a lesson:

The more difficult the times, the more important it is to remain calm and not lose your composure.

If we can hold our ground and defend, we can still launch counter-attacks.

Once you push forward and Manchester City scores a second goal, falling behind by two goals, your morale will plummet, and you'll be completely finished!

Despite the players' discontent and the home fans' clamor, Rodgers continued to play defensively in the second half, emphasizing that the players should not try to control the ball or push forward easily, but rather wait for opportunities to launch counter-attacks.

"Ha, Rodgers is such a coward, no wonder Liverpool sacked him."

Rodgers' somewhat conservative performance led Guardiola to look down on him.

He interpreted Rodgers' retreat as the Northern Ireland not wanting to suffer a crushing defeat on his home turf.

In the Premier League, Guardiola might hold back a bit when playing against weaker teams, saving face and avoiding post-match criticism.

But when he's on the UEFA Champions League stage, he can play without any worries.

"Push forward, score the second goal quickly and kill the game!"

Guardiola then waved his hand, and the Manchester City players pressed forward with confidence.

The ball was passed to center-back Stones, who moved forward to the defensive midfield position to participate in the playmaking, while Kompany stayed back.

The scene was even more exaggeratedly one-sided!

In the first 15 minutes of the second half, Manchester City's possession rate reached 90%. What does that mean?

This means that, apart from taking goal kicks and making some clearances, the Celtic are unable to complete more than two passes.

-[Is it really that exaggerated? Manchester City completely dominated their opponents in the first half!]

What's the point of Celtic playing like this? Losing by one goal is the same as losing by two, are the Scotland really that spineless?

-[The Brexit referendum is coming up soon, and I predict that Scotland will stay in Great Britain; they don't want to leave.]

- [It's been a long time since we've seen Manchester City have such an exaggerated possession rate; you simply can't see this kind of scene in the Premier League.]

[Not enough! Tang Long, unleash another powerful shot and teach the Celtic another lesson!]

It's normal for a head coach to show confidence when things are going well.

The difficulty lies in whether he retains his confidence and unwavering determination when facing adversity.

Rodgers is a coach who maintains his confidence even in adversity.

65th minute of the second half.

The Celtic have made their first steal of the game so far!

Perhaps due to underestimating his opponent, Thiago, the midfielder in possession of the ball, did not pass it out quickly after receiving it, but instead played a game of passing back and forth with Gündoğan in place.

Seeing that the Celtic players remained unmoved and retreated to defend, Thiago felt disdain and decided to pass the ball to the wing where Navas was.

Unexpectedly, the pass was too light and landed right on the feet of the defensive midfielder Bitton.

Everyone was stunned!

Manchester City didn't expect the mistake, while Celtic were completely unprepared for Manchester City to pass the ball to them.

"Give me!"

Moussa Dembele, who had been holding back all game, quickly got going!

As he ran, he raised his hand high, making a "fireball to the sky" gesture, indicating to Bitton to throw him a high ball.

Seizing the opportunity, Bitton met the ball with a powerful shot!

Stones was positioned too far forward, Bitton's shot was extremely precise and fast. In the blink of an eye, Dembele had created a one-on-one situation with Kompany.

Dembele forcefully walked right past Kompany!

He was a full 10 years younger than Kompany, and much Kompany. He broke into the penalty area and unleashed a shot!

Bravo, who hadn't been busy for a while, made his first save of the match.

Perhaps due to a lack of activity, Dembele's shot was a delicate curling shot towards the far corner, not particularly difficult in terms of angle or speed, but Bravo stubbornly refused to jump, watching the ball arc beautifully into the top corner of the goal.

"Aaaaaaah--"

An excited Moussa Dembele immediately took off his shirt in celebration.

The nearly 60,000 fans at Celtic Park erupted in an unprecedented roar.

"We Scotland never give up!!!"

Seeing the score tied, Guardiola angrily threw his water bottle on the ground and complained to his assistant coach Chivu:

"Christian! Look at Bravo, he's so short, his wingspan is too short. If this ball had been from a taller goalkeeper, he would have saved it!"

Chivu simply hummed in response, offering no comment.

He saw it clearly: the ball originated from Thiago's misplaced pass, but Thiago is Guardiola's favorite player.

Guardiola came to Bayern from Barca, bought him, then came to Bayern Manchester City, and brought him to the Blue Moon.

So, biasedly, he didn't criticize Thiago, but instead pointed the finger at Bravo.

Meanwhile, back in Barcelona at Lionel Messi's home, three Barca players were also high-fiving each other, overjoyed, feeling that Celtic still had a chance.

The match is approaching its 70th minute; how should Guardiola's team respond?

He would never allow the team's three lines to move back just because of Thiago's mistake; he still demanded that all the players push forward and score a second goal as soon as possible.

We will win the game as long as we score more goals than our opponents!

Manchester City quickly recovered from their disappointment at conceding a goal, regrouped, and continued to apply high pressure on Celtic's defense.

Tang Long had tasted success, and since short passes weren't working, he kept using fierce, Tiger Shot from the outside to attack the Celtic goal.

However, as the dominant force in the Scottish Premiership, these players in their blue and green jerseys are no ordinary players.

After suffering a setback last time, whenever Tang Long took a shot from the outside, several players would quickly surround him and block the path.

Tang Long's three consecutive shots were blocked, and although one of his shots went over the defense, it went just wide of the goal and did not hit the target.

Although Tang Long didn't score with his long-range shot, it caused a lot of trouble for the Celtic players who came to block him!

In order not to be deceived by Tang Long, defensive midfielders such as Rogic and Brown, when Tang Long shot, adhered to the idea that they would rather be hit by the ball than turn around, and just stared straight ahead with their eyes open, watching the ball come towards them.

Tang Long unleashed several powerful shots in succession, which struck the bodies of these people, bouncing high into the air and almost knocking them away.

But these Scotland men were driven by a wild spirit. The ball hit them, and despite the pain, they gritted their teeth, got up, and continued to defend.

Time ticked by, and the game was entering its final 10 minutes.

Guardiola was getting impatient and substituted the exhausted Sterling with winger Sane.

At the same time, veteran Kolarov was substituted with young Robertson to further increase the pressure on the field.

Although these substitutions maintained the players' physical condition for pressing in the attacking third, they did not fundamentally change the course of the game.

To win, the key lies with Tang Long!

84th minute of the second half.

After dropping back, Tang Long received a pass from Gündoğan, dribbled past the first defender, Rogic, with a stepover, and glanced up at the goal.

When he saw this, he was alarmed. The Celtic's defenders, like startled birds, swarmed around him in threes, closely guarding against Tang Long's shot.

[Opponent out of position detected, watch for openings]

This time, even without the AI brainwaves reminding him, Tang Long noticed the change in the situation.

Several times when Tang Long took a shot, two or more Celtic players surrounded him. Tang Long was not unaware of the gaps behind them after they left their original area.

At that time, the Celtic players were full of energy. Although some players left their positions, the players behind them would immediately cover for them. Moreover, the entire formation was very compressed, and the loss of position of one or two people could not create enough passing gaps.

But after more than 80 minutes of the game, the situation changed subtly, and the Celtic, who had held on throughout the entire game, could no longer maintain their physical condition!

"Sane!"

Tang Long called out to Sane, Sane immediately understood and charged diagonally through a gap in the penalty area!

This shout jolted the Celtic players on the back line awake.

Tang Long is using a fake shot to trick them!

"Watch out for Sane, block the passing lanes!" Celtic players began to lean to one side, blocking Tang Long's pass to Sane.

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

"Bonazzoli!"

This shout didn't come from Tang Long, but from Chivu on the sidelines!

When Tang Long called out Sane's name, if you looked around, you could see that Sane was already being marked, but Chivu caught a glimpse of Bonazzoli moving quietly to his left.

He remained silent, waiting to see if Tang Long would discover the route.

When Tang Long's ball actually flew towards Bonazzoli, Chivu couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, calling out the name of this player who had once coached Inter Milan's youth team!

Before Tang Long, Bonazzoli was Chivu's favorite player in the youth team, and he had high hopes for the player's performance, hoping he wouldn't let him down.

"Haha, they're here!"

Bonazzoli learned a lot from Tang Long back when he was at Inter Milan.

One of the lessons I learned is that when Tang Long passes the ball, don't worry about where Tang Long will pass it or how many teammates are on the side where he is looking—even players with their backs to Tang Long. As long as you run, the ball might just be passed to your feet.

Bonazzoli did just that, and sure enough, Tang Long's through ball didn't go to Sane on the right, but instead flew to himself on the left.

This feint caught the Celtic players completely off guard!

They had been tricked by Tang Long into tilting their formation towards Sane, leaving only Brown and Toure on the left flank to mark Bonazzoli.

Tang Long's pass was incredibly tricky, bypassing Brown completely. When Bonazzoli received the ball, he took two steps and broke into the penalty area. The closest player to him was Toure, and behind Toure was goalkeeper Gordon!

Kolo Toure, he was Yaya Toure's brother.

As an experienced veteran defender who has played for both Liverpool and Manchester City, Toure, like Rodgers, is equally composed.

Seeing Bonazzoli dribbling towards him, Toure took a good position, maintained a good distance from Bonazzoli, lowered his center of gravity, and paid attention to every feint of Bonazzoli's body, wary of him getting past him.

But youth is a force to be reckoned with. Bonazzoli didn't play any fancy tricks; without even glancing at Toure, he took a shot!

The shot was taken on the edge of the penalty area, approximately 17 meters from the goal.

Bonazzoli's shot, in terms of both accuracy and power, was far inferior to Tang Long's, but this shot did indeed obstruct goalkeeper Gordon's view.

He didn't need to make any excuses, because when Bonazzoli shot, his teammate Bitton was actively tracking back, slid in and, by sheer coincidence, the ball went right through the gap between his legs. Gordon couldn't react in time and watched the ball roll into the far corner!

2 to 1!

Manchester City have taken the lead!

"Mom, I scored! Are you watching me on TV, dear Mom?" Bonazzoli pointed at the camera with his finger and then blew a kiss.