i want to be king

Chapter 375 Barcelona is dead!
On March 20th, in the No.[-] eighth round of La Liga, Barcelona played against Athletic Bilbao at home.

Athletic Bilbao's oppressive style of play allowed them to occupy the advantage on the court from the very beginning, and even once put Barcelona in a passive embarrassing situation.

This is still at Camp Nou!
But in the No. 201 minute, Su Dong took the ball and dribbled the ball quickly along the middle. At 30 meters from the goal, he shot a cold arrow and shot a long shot, opening the scoring for Barcelona.

This is also Sudong's No.20 eight league goals this season.

After entering the winter break, Su Dong's performance in the league has also received a lot of doubts, but in the two rounds of the Champions League against Bayern Munich, he received extremely high praise.

Then, in the No. 301 minute, Ronaldinho assisted Giuly to score, expanding the score for Barcelona.

The score of two to zero was also maintained until the end of the game.

…………

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A week later, in the ninth round of La Liga's No.20, Barcelona challenged Deportivo away.

In the 10th minute of the game, Barcelona took advantage of a free kick in the front court to create chaos in the penalty area.

Puyol, Sylvinho and Giuly all made up shots and were blocked.

At the critical moment, Su Dong used his body to support the defender in the middle of the penalty area. When he was about to fall down, he barely kicked his foot and scored a goal for Barcelona.

This goal allowed Barcelona to finally beat Deportivo [-]-[-].

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After playing the No.20 nine rounds, La Liga was suspended and ushered in a two-week national team match day.

The next schedule is very important for Barcelona. First, they will usher in the first round of the Champions League quarter-finals knockout match in the middle of the week. They will challenge Chelsea away. On the weekend, they will go to Madrid to challenge Real Madrid as a guest at the Bernabeu.

These two matchups are crucial, and they are the focus battles that Barcelona must win.

What is terrible is that captain Puyol was injured in the national team game and is destined to miss the No.30 round.

Not only that, the Mexican international Marcos traveled long distances to return to the country to participate in the competition. He also came and went in a hurry.

Who would have thought that just 1 minutes into the game, Edu made a pass from the left, and Fernando pushed in front of the goal and scored the first goal for Real Betis.

Just 1 minute later, Luis Fernandez sent a direct pass from the left. Edu succeeded in countering offside and made a diagonal pass. Joaquin followed up and pushed and scored the goal, expanding the score again.

Two to zero!
Conceding two goals in a row, still at Camp Nou, it can be said that Barcelona was completely stunned!
Fortunately, 3 minutes later, Harvey made a long pass into the penalty area. Su Dong blocked the Real Betis defender with his body, turned around after stopping the ball and volleyed directly, winning back a goal for Barcelona.

One to two!

No. In the 209th minute, Sylvinho drove straight in and made a pass from the left. Su Dong followed up in the middle, leaped high, scored with a header, and blasted the ball into Real Betis's goal again.

Two to two!
Barcelona successfully equalized the score!
But for Barcelona, ​​this is obviously not something to be happy about.

The knockout round of the Champions League quarter-finals is imminent, and the national derby against Real Madrid is just around the corner. At this critical moment, Barcelona's defense is repeatedly making mistakes, which makes everyone lose confidence in Barcelona.

……

In the second half, they changed sides and fought again.

In 7 minutes, Su Dong pulled to the left, received a pass from Ronaldinho, pulled the ball horizontally in the middle, and cut inward.

Three to two!
hat trick!

Although he scored a lot of goals, Su Dong, whose performance in the league has dropped a bit since the winter break, stepped forward at the critical moment.

The whole Camp Nou was cheering for him.

But Barcelona was not happy for long.

Only 6 minutes later, Joaquin successfully countered offside, dribbled the ball into the penalty area and scored a low shot from the right rib, which equalized the score for Real Betis again, [-] to [-]!
Subsequently, Rijkaard made a substitution adjustment, and Su Dong was replaced by Larsson.

Barcelona failed to score again, and neither did Real Betis.

In the end, the two sides shook hands [-]-[-] to make a draw.

……

Real Betis suffered a [-]-[-] draw at home, and Barcelona received a flood of accusations after the game.

Su Dong, who performed a hat-trick, was hailed as the only player who could walk out of Camp Nou with his head up. The Catalan media all said that Su Dong was the last dignity of Barcelona.

"It's hard for us to imagine that without the outbreak of Sudong at a critical moment, we would be slaughtered by Real Betis at home!"

The Daily Sports newspaper was quite dissatisfied with the result of this game, thinking that Rijkaard's team did not show a satisfactory transformation, especially on the defensive end.

Marcos Senna is still working hard, but this game he can't handle the midfield alone, but the defense is full of problems.

The absence of Puyol and Marcos is the key. Oleg himself is unstable. The teenager Navarro's replacement is also unreliable. This makes Barcelona's defense even more vulnerable.

World Sports Daily even issued a soul torture, "Is Rijkaard planning to use such a defensive line to go to Stamford Bridge and the Bernabeu? Does he think his team can get out?"

Even Barcelona's mouthpiece was extremely disappointed with the team's defense.

Although Rijkaard said after the game that Puyol and Marcos would follow the team to the away game to challenge Chelsea, everyone dared not place high hopes on Barcelona's defense.

"Going to London with such a line of defense is tantamount to committing suicide!" Godfather Cruyff was furious.

He once again pointed the finger at the Brazilian gang, thinking that too many Brazilian internationals caused Barcelona players to travel long distances and consume too much.

Ronaldinho's performance in the second half declined very obviously.

Although Su Dong's performance in the league was not as good as in the first half, he still scored a lot of goals at critical moments, and he turned the tide twice in the Champions League, which proved his value as the team's top scorer.

"Even, in the second round, he sacrificed himself and served as the team's tactical center, which shows his sense of teamwork."

Cruyff believes that if Rijkaard can't come up with a solution within three days, and a guest at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona will be in bad luck, and may even suffer a disastrous defeat.

……

Barcelona suffered a [-]-[-] home draw with Real Betis, the happiest thing is the British media.

Many British media have expressed that Barcelona's defense is as fragile as ever.

"Even against a team like Real Betis, Barcelona played quite awkwardly, and the defense was full of mistakes and omissions. At Stamford Bridge, Mourinho's team will have a better chance of winning."

The Sun newspaper is even more high-profile, believing that the Blues have basically won a ticket to advance to the semi-finals.

"Today's Chelsea is strong and morale is strong. Mourinho's team is fully capable of ending the battle in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, especially in the case of Barcelona's sluggish state."

The Daily Mail speculates that Real Betis can score three goals against Barcelona at Camp Nou with the attacking power of Real Betis, so with Chelsea's attacking power, scoring four or five goals at home is definitely not a problem.

"Perhaps, we will see an earth-shattering massacre at Stamford Bridge!"

Chelsea captain John Terry expressed confidence that the team will win the first leg.

"I know Su Dong is very strong, but I want to say that at Stamford Bridge, he will not get any chance!"

Makelele, who once played for Real Madrid, also said that he is very familiar with Barcelona, ​​"I will not let them pass through the midfield at will, we know how to beat them in the game!"

The Guardian also analyzed the three goals Barcelona conceded against Real Betis in the game, and believed that all of them were old problems of Barcelona's defense line.

"These problems have been around for a long time. Even if Puyol comes back, it will be difficult to change and improve in a short period of time."

The Guardian also revealed that Real Betis's counterattack is very fast, which is worth learning from and learning from Chelsea, because the Blues have many players with superior speed, such as Duff.

……

The decisive battle is imminent!

Compared with the overwhelming confidence of the British media, the Spanish media is very pessimistic about the prospect of Barcelona's expedition to London.

Although Puyol and Marcos both traveled with the team, and even though Su Dong had just performed a hat-trick and was in excellent form, facing Chelsea, whose overall strength is better than Bayern Munich, Barcelona exposed its own problems prematurely.

When announcing the 18-man roster, coach Rijkaard also reluctantly admitted that the team's defensive problems are indeed serious, but he believes that the team still has a chance at Stamford Bridge.

But if this word is spread, who will believe it?
The Spanish media felt that Rijkaard was bluffing.

When facing Bayern Munich, Barcelona failed to come up with a good strategy in the second round and just bet heavily on Sudong.

Now, facing the stronger Chelsea, Barcelona's state is so sluggish, and the defense problem is so serious, what can they use to fight the Blues?

Even Rijkaard said that in an away game, even a loss is acceptable, and it is completely possible to return to the Nou Camp to reverse, just like the first round against Bayern Munich.

But the question is, can this kind of thing be reversed again and again?

After Barcelona's [-]-[-] draw with Real Betis, the three major European bookmakers have all lowered their odds on Barcelona, ​​causing Barcelona's winning odds to drop to the third from the bottom of the eight teams, only slightly higher than Lyon and Eindhoven.

Chelsea's odds of winning the championship have been rising all the way, climbing to the height of keeping pace with AC Milan.

Apparently, bookmakers have come up with real money to bet that Chelsea will emerge from the knockout round of the quarter-finals.

The explanation given by William Hill is that there is no problem with Barcelona's offense, but in the Champions League knockout rounds, especially in the quarter-finals, with such a fragile defense line as Barcelona, ​​it is unlikely that they want to go further.

If it's just a gaming company looking at it this way, then there's still something to worry about.

When the three major gaming companies see it this way, it is basically a death sentence for Barcelona.

The game has not yet been played, and the Spanish domestic media has already sung bad news.

They have said that this will be the worst season in La Liga and the Champions League in recent years.

It was in this desolate atmosphere that Barcelona went to London.

(End of this chapter)