Mister Legend

Chapter 457 No Strike in the Final

After a short celebration, the Turin players returned to their own half, and when they took their positions, they waited for the whistle to kick off again.

You don't need a high IQ to guess that Atletico Madrid will definitely strengthen their offense immediately, hoping to equalize the score in the shortest possible time.So without the reminder from the coach on the sidelines, the two forwards Belotti and Immobile are ready to retreat at any time to help their teammates defend. Everyone knows that the next few minutes will be the best goal for the team. During the dangerous time period, it is likely to take a bus.

Even commentators from broadcasters in various countries believe that Atletico Madrid will launch a wave of fierce attacks under the unfavorable situation of being behind, because according to the usual practice, high scores rarely appear in the finals of major competitions, and 1-0 is the most common. If the point difference cannot be recovered in time, the players of the Sheets will feel more and more psychological pressure, which may lead to a complete collapse at the last moment.

Even though this Spanish team is known as an iron-blooded team, in the first round of the semi-finals they scored a goal away to draw with Arsenal under very unfavorable circumstances. The pressure is far less than that brought by a decisive final.

It's just that the progress of the game was somewhat beyond everyone's expectations. After the kick-off, Atletico Madrid did show a stronger desire to attack, but they made a mistake in their first attempt. Cork wanted to connect with Sa Ur's pass was deviated under the interference of Baselli, and was intercepted by Belotti, who actively came back to defend, and the Turin team immediately counterattacked again.

However, since Immobile has only one point left in the frontcourt, it is obviously difficult to achieve any effect in this attack. However, the striker, who is temporarily leading the Serie A scorer list, still uses Benassi's cooperation to take advantage of an obvious goal. It was a deliberate cross that helped the Red Bulls get a corner.

Benassi made a free throw to the middle of the goal. Atletico Madrid obviously did a key rehearsal of defending high-altitude positioning balls. The Turin team's several headers were restricted to death. The first point was finally topped by Jimenez. restricted area.However, in order to limit the opponent's few players who grab points, Atletico Madrid kept a little less people on the periphery, and Vukocevic got the second spot.

The Montenegro midfielder leaned on Griezmann, who was trying to interfere, and seemed to want to volley the ball towards the goal with a volley, but he failed to grasp the good position in a hurry, and the ball was more like a strong pass The ball flew back into the penalty area and was caught by Belotti, who retreated with the large force.

Just because of too much strength, Hong Beibei, whose back was facing the goal, couldn't hold the ball in a short time. I don't know if it was intentional or an accident. He raised his right foot to stop the ball and just put the ball in front of him. Diego Llorente.Seeing this situation, the Spanish red defender who was defusing the corner kick attack and was preparing to quickly retreat to the backcourt almost instinctively kicked a volley with his right foot, which caught all Atletico Madrid players by surprise.

Goalkeeper Oblak couldn't make a save at all, because the incident happened too suddenly, and the ball passed through the gap between the two defenders. When he realized that the situation was not good, it was too late to react .

But good luck stood on the side of the Madrid team this time. With a relatively obvious external rotation, under the gaze of everyone, the ball slammed into the post on the left hand end of the Atletico Madrid goalkeeper, and then refracted to the outside. Finally flew out of the bottom line.Atletico Madrid narrowly escaped death because of a distance of a few centimeters!

And when the Turin team was extremely regretful about hitting the goal post this time, the British BBC Sports host and former world top striker Lineker, who broadcast live the final, was also presenting with guests before Manchester United. Centre-back Rio Ferdinand lamented the Red Bulls' missed chance to seal the win.

He popularized science: "It's really unlucky! The Turin team almost got a two-goal lead in the first 6 minutes of the game. You must know that in the previous 59 finals including the City Expo Cup, the predecessor of the game , There have been ten times in which one side has a 2-0 advantage, and only one of them has a reversal in the final outcome. In the 1975-76 season, Liverpool encountered the European powerhouse at the time, Bruges from Belgium in the final. Under the desperation of falling behind by two goals in the first half, the Red Army scored three goals in just 9 seconds from 350 minutes into the second half, and finally completed an epic reversal and won the UEFA Cup champion of the year. It was future two-time Ballon d'Or winner Kevin Keegan who scored the winning goal."

"Leo, we have all appeared on the stage of the finals of major competitions as players. Have you ever encountered a situation where you fell behind by two goals? How did it feel?"

"Oh no! Gary, you are pouring salt into my wounds! Well, of course I have suffered that kind of pain. Not to mention the domestic cup games, what I remember most is the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League final. We conceded a goal each in the second half and ended up losing 0-2 to Barcelona. It was a bad memory, although I still think we were capable of winning the game at the time, but Eto'o scored in the opening 10 minutes. The ball messed us up and in the second half Messi scored a goal through my area and after that we were completely hopeless. So I see what you mean, it's better to be one goal behind, the equalizer just takes A split second, or even a bit of luck, but being two goals behind ... it's really hard."

"Haha, well, Leo, thank you for sharing your painful past experience with everyone. Back in the game, although there have been reversal cases with larger points before, such as the classic Istanbul night, we must know that it is true. It’s a very special case. Even though Atletico Madrid’s willpower is very strong, even no less than that of Liverpool, but without the backbone Simeone in charge, I still can’t imagine that they played in less than 10 minutes. In terms of whether the situation of two goals behind can show the usual calmness as usual. Fortunately, their luck is not too bad, and the worst situation has not happened."

On the court, the Atletico Madrid players who experienced a shocking moment did confirm the comments made by the two former professional players of the BBC. Although they did not lose the second goal in a short period of time, their mental state was obviously still affected. There was a lot of interference, and he couldn't find the right direction in the next six or seven minutes, and he seemed a little disorganized in the game.

It may be because the sense of oppression brought by Diego Llorente's attack was too strong, so that the two central midfielders, Gabi and Saul, involuntarily reduced their investment in the offensive end, even when they went forward. Also keep vigilant at all times, and immediately retreat to the half court if the situation is found to be wrong.Their actions directly caused Atletico Madrid to lack a support point and organizer connecting teammates in other positions when they launched a positional attack. Griezmann had to retreat from the striker to the position of the midfielder to take over the responsibility of the area. , greatly reducing the pressure on the Turin defense line.

With the two wing backs recovering more and making the team in the position of five backs in most cases, the Turin team is not afraid of the individual performances of Cork and Correa on both sides. If Diego Costa is dead, the opponent will not be able to burn the flames of war into their own penalty area.Therefore, under Li Moody's latest instructions, Baselli teamed up with Vukocevic to strictly block Griezmann's plan to break through in the middle, and try to drive him to the two sides, even though the French had once fought against Cork. After completing two position changes, the defensive strategy of the Turin team remains unchanged, that is, they cannot allow the opponent to find any opportunities for the ground attack in the middle.

When Atletico Madrid's two consecutive crosses and a winger's attempt to cut inside failed, their assistant coach Boggs finally couldn't stand it anymore. He came to the sidelines and shouted at his players to signal everyone Don't be too afraid of the opponent's counterattack, you still have to implement the tactical requirements according to the pre-match deployment, and remind Saul that he must go up on the offensive end.Just when the Sheets had just resumed their original tactics, the Turin team found an opportunity, and Immobile completed a threatening goal, which caused a lot of damage to the morale of Atletico Madrid. hit.

No.15 minutes, Silvestri successfully tackled Cork, Baselli drove the ball all the way forward, and after halftime, it was handed over to Benassi in the middle.The latter continued to run towards the opponent's goal at high speed, and at a position about 10 to [-] meters away from the arc top of Atletico Madrid's penalty area, he used Belotti's diagonal running to contain the ball and passed the ball diagonally to Immobile in front right.Turin No. [-] made a slight adjustment, and directly kicked a long-range shot close to the turf with his right foot. The ball went straight to the far corner of the goal while blocked by two Atletico Madrid defenders.

Due to the long flight distance and the slight deceleration effect of the turf, the speed of this cold shot is not very fast. Even though the angle is very tricky, Oblak still uses a quick fall to the ground to block the ball. in front of the goal line.Although the first shot failed to completely control it, but no opposing player came up to make a supplementary shot, so the Slovenian national goal was able to make a second reaction more easily and grab the ball firmly.

Perhaps because they felt the danger of this counterattack, Atletico Madrid could not use their full strength on the offensive end in the rest of the first half of the game. Their one major stubborn disease was clearly exposed to everyone under the ingenious arrangement of Li Mudi. That is the lack of a dedicated midfield defensive player.

Originally, Gabi's ability could play the role of a defensive midfielder, but the factor of his age made his speed a bit slow, and he seemed a bit embarrassed under the special targets of Benassi and others; but Saul and Cork can come back Helping teammates to defend, but the two Spanish internationals with only average physical fitness cannot take care of both offensive and defensive tasks throughout the game. Neither of them is a B2B (box to box) player like Pogba and Kanter. Only one aspect can be chosen as the focus.Compared with the average level of defensive ability, I believe that no one will be so stupid as to let these two excellent midfielders act as defensive midfielders; as for Correa on the right, he is even more of a disaster on the defensive end. His teammates help him fill in the loopholes, so don't count on him in this case.

The current situation is not to say that Atletico Madrid's midfield strength is not good, this lineup is still world-class.It’s just that the Turin team seized an opportunity to score in the opening stage, forcing the Sheets to make a difference on the offensive end, but the Red Bulls’ counterattack ability is also very good, taking advantage of Gabi’s speed disadvantage to continue to attack.The most important thing is that the absence of coach Simeone caused Atletico Madrid to fail to find a way to crack the opponent's tricks through adjustments in time. This made this Spanish team that should have the advantage in the eyes of the outside world encounter an embarrassing situation at this time.

In the following 15 minutes, the two sides fully explained what is called the practice of no strike in the final. The game was played in a stable state with few exciting highlights.

Although Atletico Madrid, which can be regarded as the top level of European football in terms of willpower, quickly calmed down the youth training and gradually recovered the rhythm that he was originally good at, but faced with the team who had the ball in his hands and firmly played defensive counterattack tactics The Turin team really couldn't find a good way to deal with it for a while.

In order to prevent the midfielder from being instantly pierced by the opponent's fast pass again, Saul temporarily switched roles with the team's old captain, and he played more of a role as a central midfielder, allowing Gabi to focus all his energy. invested in the offensive end.This change still has a certain effect, but when all the players of the Red Bulls except Immobile are retreating and participating in the defense, Atletico Madrid is at an obvious disadvantage in the frontcourt. If one person advances, Turin No. 10 will actively move behind him, and the posture of always being ready to hit the open space is quite deterrent.

As a result, the two teams fell into a stalemate before half an hour of the game. The ball possession rate and passing data have been relatively balanced. Atletico Madrid has also leveled the previous gap in the number of shots. If you don't look at the score, at least they are evenly matched in terms of technical statistics.

However, Spain's third giant will obviously not waste time in such a daze. When the audience was almost yawned by the boring scene, they suddenly resorted to a trump card: high-position pressing.The two forwards plus Cork and Correa, who have turned into wingers, also spared no effort to strengthen their running and fighting, instantly raising the tension of the game by more than one level.

And the effect of this tactic is surprisingly good. Gabi's experience and extremely high golf quotient allow him to always appear on the best route of the Turin players, forcing several young players to look for other options. .After feeling the huge pressure several times, apart from Barreca in the defense, Diego Llorente, the second youngest central defender, almost made a big mistake.After receiving a pass from Baselli, he wanted to observe the target of the next pass in advance. As a result, he made a mistake in stopping the ball under his feet and was intercepted by his compatriot Diego Costa.

In desperation, the 24-year-old defensive star on loan from Real Madrid had no choice but to make a tackle from the opponent's rear side. Although he touched the ball, he also brought down Shengshi Meiyan.Fortunately, the referee Kuipers considered that Ranocchia was still at the end, and the young man's actions were restrained, so he just drew a yellow card as a warning and did not impose a capital punishment.This penalty naturally drew boos from Atletico fans.

But what made the Turin team even more helpless was that Llorente strained his thigh muscle because of this tackle. After being diagnosed by the team doctor, he could no longer persist and was replaced by Goldaniga who had completed the warm-up urgently.

When leaving the field, Spain's midfielder, who was still looking forward to his first World Cup trip, shed tears of sadness. The comfort of the big brother Cassie failed to make the young man who has entered the national team training squad People regained their composure.

As for the Red Bull, after the Coppa Italia final a week ago, injuries and downsizing occurred in the second consecutive important final. A trace of uneasiness came to the hearts of every club member and its supporters. I don’t know What kind of ending will the future fate arrangement bring.

(End of this chapter)