Guus Hiddink comments on the Champions League final
"Two mini-teams of the world played, consisting entirely of stars." The head coach of the Russian national team was undoubtedly one of the most competent spectators among the 84,000 people who gathered at Luzhniki for the Champions League final. And commenting specifically for The New Times on the Chelsea-Manchester match, he expressed the opinion that a small number of goals from the field does not indicate the outstanding quality of football in this match.
Perhaps someone was expecting a scoring extravaganza from this game - like the one that happened three years ago, when Liverpool and Milan scored three goals against each other already in regular time, and then the British won on penalties. But now the situation was fundamentally different from the very beginning: Manchester and Chelsea play each other so often and have studied each other's strengths and weaknesses so thoroughly that the frequent creation of scoring chances was ruled out by definition.
Master class for the national team
Nevertheless, I am very pleased that the players of the Russian national team, who were present at the match in full force, were able to see for themselves how top-class teams act in defense. Just the utmost concentration on not leaving a single loophole for the opponent to penetrate the penalty area! When you watch such games directly at the stadium, it is easier to learn how to play football without the ball, that is, in fact, not to let others play, leaving them a minimum of time and space for making decisions. Such is modern football at the level of this kind of finals, and in this respect we saw just its model. At the same time, I do not fully agree with the opinion that the participation of two teams from the same country in the decisive match of the tournament a priori impoverishes the final. Just take a look at the line-ups: two mini-teams of the world played, consisting entirely of stars, and there were not so many Englishmen in both teams.
More pressure!
I also don't think that since the final turned out to be British, this clearly indicates that the English championship is the strongest in Europe. For example, it seems to me that in Spain they play just as well, and certainly with a greater attacking focus. But in the Pyrenees, at the same time, tough, aggressive defense is given as much attention as necessary, and in Russia, unfortunately, they don’t play like that, the rivals give each other too much space. This happens even when the leading clubs play among themselves, to say nothing of the meetings between the leaders and the middle peasants...
You've seen the pressure that both Chelsea and Manchester used brilliantly! And the best teams of the continent demonstrate such physical readiness at the most necessary moment, that is, at the end of the season, which began for them back in August.
The morning after the final, I said to my players: “You have seen the level of football that we are about to face at the Euro. We saw the game, its nerve, its tension, we saw everything that we should strive for together. And every match to play as the final.
