As soon as the referee blew the kickoff whistle, several Sunderland players immediately rushed past the halfway line, like hungry tigers pouncing on their prey, charging towards Swansea players!
Seeing the high morale of the Sunderland players, the Swansea players were clearly a bit flustered.
They hadn't recovered from the blow of conceding a goal just now!
So, they could only keep passing the ball back.
This could also be considered a conditioned reflex under high pressure, which was to adopt a "non-stick pan" style of play, making sure their ball handling was as safe as possible.
After all, Sunderland was pressing so fiercely now, and they were passing the ball in their own half. If it were intercepted, it could be another fatal blow!
So, the ball was passed around until it reached the feet of the goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski.
After Lukasz Fabianski got the ball, his first choice was also a relatively stable option: pass it to the sides.
But he first glanced to the left. Next to the left-back Olsen, Khazri was already eyeing him menacingly.
The goal conceded just now was caused by Khazri breaking through Olsen's defense, and the latter definitely still had psychological trauma.
Asking him to handle the ball again while being closely marked by Khazri was probably not a very good choice.
So Lukasz Fabianski glanced to the right again.
Sunderland's left-winger Borini had already positioned himself in front of their right-back Naughton, effectively blocking this exit!
At this point, Lukasz Fabianski was a bit flustered.
Although his two center-backs had also spread forward, trying to create space for Lukasz Fabianski to pass, Sunderland's midfield was also pressing high at this time.
Larson, Cattermole, and even Januzaj had all reached the edge of Swansea's penalty area, tightly pressing Lukasz Fabianski's forward passing lanes.
At the same time, Sunderland's striker Defoe was sprinting over, his target being Lukasz Fabianski, who was currently controlling the ball!
This was the high-press strategy adopted by Zhao Zhao's 4-2-3-1 formation, which originated from Klopp's highly valuable attacking strategy.
Klopp once said, "High pressing will allow you to win the ball closer to the opponent's goal, which means you only need one pass to create a good scoring opportunity."
This also demonstrated the efficiency and practicality of this tactic.
In short, the so-called high-pressure pressing strategy is to quickly organize a front-field interception line after losing the ball, forming a multi-sided encirclement of the opponent's ball-handler in a short period, with the aim of quickly winning the ball back and launching a counterattack.
This is exactly what Sunderland was doing now.
Their front-field pressing limited the opponent's ball distribution everywhere, making precise point-to-point passing impossible.
Under such circumstances, the opponent's goalkeeper, who was controlling the ball, had only two choices:
First, risk continuing to pass to the sides, but the risk would be infinitely greater, and he might also be blamed for it;
Second, to avoid having the pass intercepted, choose to clear the ball with a long kick, but then the ball might return to Sunderland's control.
Lukasz Fabianski clearly chose the second option.
He was not a goalkeeper with excellent ball distribution skills, nor did he have much confidence in his footwork.
When Defoe rushed towards him, he could only choose to clear the ball with a long kick.
As for where it would fly after being kicked, that was none of his business!
So, Lukasz Fabianski first took an emergency step back, then swung his leg, and kicked directly at the bottom edge of the ball!
When Defoe saw the ball being kicked hard, he instinctively jumped up and stretched out his leg to block it.
What he didn't expect was...
Due to Lukasz Fabianski's hasty clearance, the part of the ball he hit was not very accurate.
After the ball was kicked, it did not immediately fly very high, but instead flew obliquely forward.
It just happened to not clear Defoe's highly extended short leg!
And what surprised all the spectators even more was...
Defoe's unintentional block not only stopped the ball.
After being touched, the ball rebounded and then went straight towards Swansea's goal!
Watching the ball bounce and roll into his own goal, Lukasz Fabianski's legs went soft, and he knelt on the ground.
"Goal!!!"
"Another goal!!! In just two minutes, Sunderland actually scored two goals, leading Swansea 2-0 at home!"
"Looking at this goal again, it was Lukasz Fabianski's long kick error, blocked into the goal by Defoe's outstretched leg! Defoe also completed a brace because of this!"
"This is truly a super, super, super huge mistake! Haha! Director Zhang, what do you think?"
As soon as James Jun finished speaking, Zhang Lu said:
"This mistake is indeed a bit too basic, hehe."
"But we can also see that at this moment, Lukasz Fabianski really didn't have many good options; his passing lanes were all blocked."
"This kind of high-intensity front-field pressing and Rob has only been seen by me on Klopp's Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool before."
"From this, we can see that Coach Zhao Zhao's tactical arsenal is truly very rich."
"In the previous few games, we saw that he could play very sharp fast counterattacks, as well as decent passing and control tactics;"
"And today, his sudden deployment of the front-field pressing tactic also made our eyes light up!"
"Clearly, Swansea's Coach Clement was completely unprepared for this, and his players were also momentarily stunned."
James Jun also laughed at this moment:
"Coach Zhao Zhao's front-field pressing tactic is indeed powerful, but it didn't directly lead to a goal after all. The fact that Defoe's block could go directly into the goal also shows that they are lucky today."
"Perhaps Director Zhang's arrival brought good luck to Sunderland, haha!"
"This is Director Zhang's first time commentating on a Sunderland match with me today, and he witnessed such a super huge mistake. This feeling is also a kind of metaphysics."
"I even have a feeling, will we often see such goalkeeper errors in the future? Hahahahaha..."
Zhang Lu: "Hehe."
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Sideline.
Next to the Swansea dugout, Clement's face turned green.
He realized that the situation was completely different from what he had imagined.
His plan for today's match was to first focus on defense away from home, and then look for opportunities to counterattack.
Swansea's frontline had height, speed, and long-range shooting experts like Sigurdsson, so they could always find the opponent's weaknesses.
But Clement never expected that Sunderland would suddenly accelerate near the end of the first half, catching him completely off guard!
This also shattered all the strategies he had planned for the second half in his mind.
What to do now?
How should they play in the second half?
How to fulfill the boasts made before the match?
...
He couldn't help but look behind him, at his coaching staff.
Clement himself was a bit lost, and now he could only hope for advice from his "think tank."
But the assistant coaches were also looking at each other, none of them having any ideas.
"I think we should increase long passes and not get entangled with them in midfield." After a period of silence, a tall, thin Coach stood up and said.
Clement looked, and this guy was a youth team Coach who had been temporarily called up to the first team today.
His name was Alan Tate.