i want to be king

Chapter 387 The Fortune Teller Benitez

When Sudong heard Benitez say, "If we only lose one goal at the Nou Camp tomorrow night, we will have a very good chance of qualifying when we go back to the home court", his first reaction was that something bad happened!
Benitez has never been a gab, but precisely because of this, so he generally does not talk nonsense.

A person with an aloof personality who never talks nonsense suddenly gave up and said that if he only loses one goal, he will definitely come back when he returns home.

Why is that?
Psychological warfare!
Because after Barcelona entered the Champions League knockout round, they conceded more than three goals in two consecutive away games.

Nobody can say with any certainty that a visit to Anfield will keep up the away performances seen against Bayern Munich and Chelsea.

Benitez just wanted to instill in the Barcelona players a mentality before the game, that is, it is not safe to win a goal.

How is it safe?

More goals of course!

When players enter the game with this mentality, when the players find that they are closely marked by the opponent in the game, and it is too late to find a good opportunity to score, what will they do?
The answer is simple, hurry up!
The most obvious evidence is an attack that occurred in No. 13 minutes.

After Belletti and Iniesta cooperated on the right, the ball was passed to the middle of the penalty area. Su Dong overpowered Carragher, headed the ball down, and quickly passed it to Ronaldinho.

The Brazilian superstar shoveled a shot five meters in front of the goal, but he missed the ball and watched the ball slide out of the goal.

In desperation, he misjudged!

Only 8 minutes later, Ronaldinho passed the ball from the top of the penalty area and hit Xavi Alonso. After Su Dong grabbed the ball at the front of the penalty area, he was closely marked by the opponent.

Deco volleyed a shot five meters in front of the goal, and knocked the shot that was close at hand into the air!
After missing two good opportunities in a row, Barcelona's mood became more and more impatient.

……

Throughout the game, Barcelona firmly occupied possession and the upper hand, grasping the rhythm of the game.

The ball possession rate is also as high as 60.00%, almost overwhelming Liverpool.

Surprisingly, Barcelona, ​​which has the most offensive firepower in European football, failed to score at home this time.

And everyone was frightened by the defense, this time they didn't concede the ball!
Liverpool's Czech striker Baros, who had four stitches in his knee, also performed poorly in this game.

The best player in the game was Hyypia, who scored nine points.

In second place is Carragher with eight points.

Barcelona's defensive performance tonight was also solid, with no obvious mistakes, but after the defense was well grasped, the offense was not kicked out. This has to be said to be a very surprising thing.

Zero to zero, the two sides shook hands and made peace.

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When the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game, there was still warm applause from the entire Camp Nou stadium.

The score of zero to zero is indeed a bit regrettable, even if a goal is scored.

In this game, Barcelona missed at least three excellent opportunities, two of which were created by Su Dong for the team, but none of his teammates seized the opportunity, so Su Dong also scored the highest eight points of the Barcelona team, tied with Puyol for the first place in the team.

But Ronaldinho and Deco, who missed an excellent opportunity, performed very sluggishly. This is also related to Liverpool's targeted defense against them. Benitez obviously does not intend to let them unleash their offensive talents.

After Su Dong heard the whistle, he let out a heavy breath.

He knew that what Benitez said before the game would definitely have an impact on Barcelona.

Conceding three goals in a row in away games this season has almost cast a shadow over Barcelona and has phobias.

"It doesn't matter, zero to zero is also a good result."

Su Dong walked towards Iniesta and other teammates and shouted loudly.

Judging from the two rounds of the game, zero to zero is indeed not bad. Compared with one to one or two to two, zero to zero is much more favorable, at least no away goals are given to the opponent.

Of course, this is from the perspective of a draw. If Barcelona can win, it will be better.

"Su is right. This result is good. We should have confidence and try to make an away game!" Puyol also shouted vigorously, boosting the morale of the team.

Liverpool did perform quite tough at the Nou Camp tonight, and their defense was impeccable. This is largely related to Benitez's formation. He even put up a three-back midfielder to prevent his own half.

Just look at their poor possession rate and you will know how embarrassing they are at the Nou Camp.

Rijkaard also greeted the players, and he showed his attitude by applauding.

"Well done guys, we didn't concede a goal tonight, well done!"

Rijkaard's statement somewhat improved the mood of the players, coupled with the support of the Camp Nou fans, the team also calmed down, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tonight's game is not without good news. They will lose Harvey Alonso in the second round." Speaking of this, Rijkaard smiled and nodded towards Su Dong, which was due to Su Dong.

At that time, Xavi Alonso took a tactical foul on Su Dong, delayed Barcelona's counterattack, and got a yellow card, which made him accumulate yellow cards and suspend the next round.

In fact, the defensive pressure that Su Dong faced tonight was the biggest in the team.

Both Hyypia and Carragher are the best players in the Liverpool team, and their outstanding performance is precisely based on the defense against Su Dong.

Ronnie said that Liverpool's weakness is the central defender, but in fact, Liverpool's two central defenders were in full swing tonight.

Who can tell?
The most threatening attack created by Su Dong was the two good chances to score in the first half, but both Ronaldinho and Deco missed it. On the contrary, Su Dong himself did not get a decent shot at all, which shows how tight Liverpool defended him.

It can be said that Su Dong has tried his best!
In the case of being so closely marked, he still created two must-goal opportunities for the team. Who can criticize him more?
The only regret is that the team did not grasp it.

The key is the state of mind.

"Don't worry, the zero-to-zero score at home is still more beneficial to us. When we go to Anfield, we will try to attack from the beginning and try to grab him a goal, then they will not be able to defend!" Rijkaard encouraged.

Sometimes things like mentality are really mysterious, and even determine the outcome of the game.

Just like tonight, Barcelona was obviously in a hurry, but Liverpool defended very steadily.

It can even be said that Benitez came tonight with the mentality of not scoring or conceding goals, and he also achieved his strategic goal and retreated zero-to-zero.

Su Dong listened to Rijkaard's statement silently, and knew in his heart that what Black Swan said was indeed reasonable.

But he knows Benitez.

This guy is too scary, it can almost be said that he knows things like a god, and he has no plans.

May I ask, Rijkaard's mind is nothing unusual, would Benitez not have thought of it?
Or, would he have no countermeasures?
In the case of zero to zero at home, what choice will Barcelona make? Benitez may have already calculated many different plans and possibilities, right?
But Su Dong really couldn't say these words.

What Barcelona needs now is to regroup, and it doesn't help at all.

Because he doesn't know what Benitez will do, he can't influence the decision-making of Rijkaard and other coaching staff because of this possibility, and Rijkaard and others will not listen to him.

Therefore, he decided to find an opportunity to remind Rijkaard in private.

Benitez probably started preparing for the second round from the psychological warfare before the first round. He will let Barcelona score at Anfield?
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Liverpool suffered a [-]-[-] draw at home. Barcelona did not receive too much criticism after the game. After all, this is not a bad home result.

But there are still many media who are pessimistic about Barcelona's prospects for qualifying. After all, Barcelona's away record in the Champions League this season is really quite bad, especially after entering the knockout round, they conceded three goals in both away games. How can people believe this?

The weekend ushered in the No.30 four rounds of La Liga.

Main players such as Su Dong and Ronaldinho came off the bench again.

The team is still playing at home against Albacete.

In the first 10 minutes of the game, Barcelona was still unable to attack for a long time, and Larsson failed to score.

So that at No. 605 minutes, Rijkaard had no choice but to make a substitution. Su Dong and Messi came off the bench successively.

Only 1 minute after Su Dong played, Giuly sent a wonderful pass. Su Dong successfully pushed in front of the goal and opened the scoring for Barcelona.

Before the end of the game, it was Su Dong's assist that helped Messi score in stoppage time.

Two to zero, Barcelona won Albacete at home.

With one pass and one shot, Su Dong came off the bench but shined brilliantly, showing a good competitive state.

After the game, Su Dong rarely accepted an interview with the media, saying that the team's away game against Liverpool still needs to focus on stability.

"I always believe that as long as we defend well, we will have a chance to break the opponent's goal."

What Su Dong said was to remind Rijkaard that he had already mentioned this matter to the Dutchman in private, but what Rijkaard meant was to grab a wave after the opening.

"We can't wait for Liverpool to play against us!"

But is that really the case?
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On the evening of May [-]rd, Liverpool's Anfield Stadium.

Liverpool started the game aggressively in Barcelona's half with a high press. In the 3rd minute, Riise made a low pass from the left to the center.

Luis Garcia follows up and pushes an empty goal.

The three Barcelona defenders took turns in front of the goal and blocked the ball out of the goal, but the referee still whistled to indicate that the ball had passed the goal line and the goal was valid!
One to zero!

The entire Anfield stadium became a vast ocean.

Benitez crossed his legs and sat in front of the coach of the home team, chewing gum hard.

He's even balder than when he was coaching Valencia!

(End of this chapter)