The attack is still initiated from the backfield.
Demichelis, who is originally a defensive midfielder, is playing center back in this match. His proficient midfield vision allows him to calmly pass the ball to the supporting defensive midfielder, Toure, when facing Italy forward Borini’s pressing.
Toure looked up and imdiately found a huge gap in Sunderland’s disorganized midfield.
"It’s ti for big brother to shine!"
Toure made a decisive move, pressing forward like a bulldozer, effortlessly passing through two Sunderland midfielders.
However, this ti Toure learned his lesson, knowing that given his current physical condition, passing two players on the Premier League stage was already his limit.
He didn’t try to pass the third and gently pushed the ball to his midfield partner Tang Long.
Tang Long glanced around the field, seeing that Sterling, Agüero, Silva, and Navas, though surrounded by Sunderland’s towering defenders, were all very agile, constantly moving in mismatches and cross-running, he believed there was an opportunity.
Countless golden lines of options appeared in his AI brain, and Tang Long chose the most straightforward one, starting to thodically conduct across the field.
He sent a direct pass to Silva and began to advance forward.
Silva made a dislocation move, vacating the attacking midfielder position for Tang Long and started pushing towards the wing where Navas was.
Navas received the pass from Silva, quickly feigned a cross but pulled the ball back.
Snap!
In this single pull, he imdiately shook off the nearby fullback and passed the ball back to Silva.
Silva swiftly moved between the fullback and the sideline, cutting into the heart of Sunderland’s territory.
A sequence of one-two passes flowed smoothly, very impressive!
At this point, Agüero decisively advanced to intercept, dragging away a center back.
Silva saw Agüero, but his eyes were on Tang Long at the top of the box, delivering a reverse triangle pass and pulling the ball back to Tang Long’s position.
This series of pulls and shifts imdiately turned Sunderland’s defense into chaos.
"Watch out for his shot!"
Sunderland’s defenders may not be smart, but their fighting spirit is vigorous.
Relying on their robust running ability, they tightened and regained their positions.
However, Tang Long did not stop the ball, softly pushed left with his foot arch, instantly spreading Sunderland’s defense again!
"Great ball!"
Just as Tang Long pushed the ball, Sterling was already storming down the left wing at a speed of 36 kiloters per hour.
At the small box area, he unleashed a fierce left-foot top-of-the-foot volley!
The shot had power but was too straight, smacking directly into Sunderland’s goalkeeper’s belly.
Luckily, after the rebound, the quick-witted Agüero tapped it in the net!
Although it was Sterling’s rebound, Agüero knew the shot was possible mainly because of Tang Long’s no-stop diagonal pass at the top of the box.
So, right after scoring, he didn’t celebrate with Sterling but instead gave Tang Long a big hug.
Seeing this, Sterling stands on the side with a face full of black lines.
"Damn, it was supposed to be my goal, but he poached it!"
Tang Long teased Sterling from the side, playfully saying, "Who asked you not to score, buddy!"
After taking the lead, a large influx of Inter fans surged into the live chat.
-[Beautiful! Well done, Manchester City beat Sunderland!]
-[Just keep hitting, aim for a 7:0! Inter fans stay!]
-[Inter fans say, go down, Sunderland, go down!]
-[Tang Long, keep it up, beat Sunderland, avenge us!]
-[Serves you right! Not paying Alvarez’s transfer fee, a dishonest team like that should go down to the Championship, or even the English First Division!]
Many Manchester City fans watching the live stream, watching Tang Long, were confused.
Why do Inter fans have such a big grudge against Sunderland?
Explaining this could take long, but it’s actually quite simple.
In the 2014~2015 season, Inter’s Argentine midfielder Alvarez was loaned to Sunderland.
According to the agreent, Sunderland should permanently buy out this player at the end of the season for 13 million euros.
However, shortly after joining the Black Cats, Alvarez suffered a severe knee injury.
He hardly played any good gas throughout the season, and Sunderland used this as an excuse to refuse to pay Inter Milan the buy-out transfer fee!
This angered many Inter fans to no end.
Even if the player got injured unexpectedly, you should act according to the contract, how can you just break the agreent?
This dispute has gone on for a year, and the two clubs are still fighting in court, with no resolution to date.
Alvarez also was released by Sunderland and returned to Serie A, becoming just another player.
Many Inter fans consider the over 10 million euros transfer fee a substantial sum.
After all, given Inter’s current financial situation, it’s not ideal.
That’s why they have such deep resentnt towards Sunderland, wishing them relegation this season!
Whenever Manchester City plays teams from the lower to mid tiers of the Premier League, whether at ho or away, as long as they score the first goal early, the rest is like a blunt knife cutting at, slowly grinding away.
In the second half, 56th minute, Manchester City made several midfield shifts, Tang Long swapped position with Navas from the defensive midfielder role, rushing to the right wing.
This is a tactic Pellegrini likes; he studied Guardiola’s tactics at Bayern and is imitating such swaps.
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