The good old defend hard & win games is making a return into modern football

As,seen in the last few years some teams employ a strong defensive ploy to defeat their much stronger couterparts.Mainly,popularized by jose mourinho when his inter milan side won the 2010 champions league they played a very defensive & waiting game against barcelona in the semi-finals & bayern munich in the finals.Both teams were stronger than milan so mourinho applied this method to defeat their opponents,& it worked in his favour.Barcelona were regarded to win the title that year but inter just created a terrific wall in the penalty box that it was difficult fir the catalans to break the wall.such was the frustration that even messi missed a penalty that night to add to the insult.in,the final the confident defense of milan again frustrated the bayern players & won the silverware for them

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Again in 2012 chelsea coached by rafeal de matteo was seen applying the same ploy in the finals against their much stronger opponents bayern munich.seven to eight players were employed in the penalty box by matteo that it made very hard for the bayern players to break free & score goals.it,eventually ended in the penalty shootout in which again the pressure told on bayern players & they lost again.Their star player Bastian schieweinsteiger missed a penalty & the blues were crowned the champions of europe for the first time.

So.defense hard & attack in the counter has again been revived.In,older days this type of football was played but in the modern era teams preferred a more attacking approach towards the game.But,it seems that the good old defensive game is making it,s return into the game once again.As,seen this week in the champions league matches almost every team tried to play defensively & attack on the counter.And,it resulted in success & some unexpected results also came out.first,is the match between Manchester united & defending champions Bayern munich.No on gave united a chance but their doggediness inside the penalty box not only helped them to keep the star studded bayern players at bay but it was united who scored the first goal of the match.Although the match ended in a draw,bur even a draw is a great result for united.And,they can hope now to put a similar performance in the allianz arena & win the tie.similarly,atletico madrid played a similar type of game against barcelona at camp nou.They were happy at giving away the possession to the opposition but attacked on counter & looked very dangerous at times.like manu atletico were also the first one to score in the match with a brilliant strike from diego outside the box.And,it frustrted the barca players throughout the match.although they pulled one back & the match ended in a draw but it was barca who looked more frustrared than the atletico players.And,atletico not only enjoyed success in europe this season but they are sitting at the top of the their domestic league this season & haven,t lost a game against either real or barca.It shows how strong their defensive line-up is & how they have able to play according to their plan.They are serious title contenders now both in europe & la liga.

Even in english premier league we have seen such ploys been applied by lots of managers.those teams which does'nt boast of a very strong attacking force they apply such techquinues to defeat their opponents.chelsea which does,nt have a great seson in terms of goals given but have maintained the most no of clean sheets in the league.But,even their plan backfired against them some tim es when other weaker teams applied similar ploy & defeated them like the defeats at crystal palace & stoke.stoke has been brilliant this season with this kind of play this season with handing defeats to manchester united,chelsea,& lots of scare to other teams like liverpool etc.similarly gas poyet's team have a similar ploy this season & they have been qutie succesful this season with a defensive play.they defeated man city in the league,man united in the league cup enroute to the final etc.

So,the good old defend hard & win games is making a comeback into the modern era & teams are finding it as a great weapon against stronger oppositions.