Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

Then Real Betis's attacking midfielder Robert took the penalty kick and scored in one go; the ball shot into the dead corner in the lower right corner of the goal. Palop guessed the direction correctly, but there was no way to prevent the ball from entering the net.

In the 8th minute after kick-off, Real Betis was lucky enough to lead Sevilla 1-0 at home.

Juan Ramos looked depressed. This was really a bad start. If Real Betis retreated and defended again, it would be difficult for them to score a goal. When falling behind, everyone's mentality would change. Not to mention trying out tactics, they would definitely think about how to equalize the score first.

However, it seems that it was not only the home team that was lucky today. About 5 minutes after Real Betis scored the penalty, the referee probably felt it was a bit awkward to award a penalty so hastily, so he gave the visiting team a direct free kick opportunity about 30 yards in front of the goal, slightly to the left of the center. Fabiano received the ball with his back and was pushed down, winning the free kick in a good position.

Renato's free kick was very fast, heading straight for the far corner that was not covered by the wall. Although the angle was not tricky, the ball was a little floating in flight, and it bounced in front of the goal and changed its height...

The goalkeeper didn't dare to take the ball head-on, so he could only hit the ball out with his fists. Originally, the goalkeeper wanted to hit the ball out of the baseline, but because the ball changed direction due to its bounce, and it had been raining a little before the game, the grass was slippery and the ball was a little heavy after being wet; the goalkeeper's hit was not accurate, and only slightly changed the direction of the ball.

With a bang, the ball didn't go into the net, but it hit the left goal post and bounced back to the front of the goal. In a flash, Li Qi, who had triggered the explosive point, had already accurately judged the rebound direction and landing point of the ball, and before anyone else, he flew and shoveled the ball into the empty goal!

Li Qi turned his head and saw that the linesman did not raise the flag, so it was not offside, so the goal was definitely valid! Li Qi started to celebrate with his hands in the air, but something was wrong. Although it was a derby in the same city, this was an away game, and he heard no cheers, but boos and scolding...

Uh, that's embarrassing... Ahaha! Never mind, there's a stand in the corner full of pure white Sevilla fans, so quickly run over there to celebrate and interact...

Juan Ramos, who was watching the game on the sidelines, breathed a sigh of relief. The score was equalized in less than 15 minutes, especially when the home team was defending tightly. It was a good thing no matter how you look at it. At least they were back to the same starting line, so they had time to think about other things.

After that, the two sides' offense and defense were very fierce, with Sevilla still attacking and Real Betis defending. However, the strategy was different from the previous derby game at Sevilla's home field. This game was at Real Betis' home field, so the home team could not retreat too much after being equalized. They still had to fight back, and the away team had to grab the ball as soon as it passed the halfway point.

However, Real Betis's tactical arrangement against Sevilla was still relatively effective. Although their offensive threat was not great, after all, most of their energy was on defense, they did limit the performance of the visiting team, pinching the two wings to prevent breakthroughs, and controlling the delivery of Sevilla's midfield and backcourt to the front line...

So neither side was able to knock on the other's door again.

Li Qi's playing time was also a little frustrating. Although he had scored a follow-up shot, he did not have many opportunities to touch the ball throughout the first half. Occasionally, when he retreated to get the ball, he was either brought down directly or forced to pass back by the dense defense. The occasional fleeting gaps were also unlucky and did not match the granularity - it seemed that the free kick that equalized the game had used up the visiting team's luck.

Around the 60th to 65th minute of the second half, Juan Ramos made personnel and formation adjustments, and Sevilla's offensive threat increased slightly. Li Qi retreated to the defensive midfielder position to take charge of the organization and dispatch, Korzakov replaced Navas and was pushed forward, Renato moved to the right, and Maresca replaced David and switched positions with Adriano, letting the latter play as left back and Xiao Ma as left forward.

Compared with the organizational abilities of Renato and Paulson, Li Qi can protect the ball and make accurate transfers when being double-teamed in the center circle. He is not afraid of close pressing. Under the double interference of the home team, the accuracy and speed of the pass are guaranteed. Therefore, Sevilla's midfield organization was revitalized at once, and they no longer relied on the back pass from the midfield and backcourt to test the two flanks.

The ball no longer needs to pass through the central defender or goalkeeper every time and move in a large arc, but can be directly dispatched and transferred by Li Qi near the center circle. In this way, Sevilla's ability to pull gaps and attack the weaknesses of the defense line has been greatly enhanced, and Real Betis began to run around.

Originally, the opponent would have increased his pressure on Li Qi to limit his ball handling and organization, but Li Qi, who returned to the defensive midfielder position, was more difficult to control, after all, he had more room to move and his movements were not so easy to predict. Moreover, Li Qi, who was tall and had long legs, was not afraid of the pressure from one person, and he easily passed it with a change of direction.

The Real Betis coach and players who had received the reminder did not dare to use harsh hands or commit malicious fouls against Li Qi. However, general pulling of hands, clothes, pushing and tugging of pants did not have much restriction on the organizing midfielder. Most referees would give favorable conditions to the offense, even if they blew the whistle to stop the game. Li Qi's quick start would catch the home team off guard.

Once two midfielders from the home team went up to rob Li Qi, there would be a gap in the central defense, which could be easily exploited by Maresca and Renato. They had already tried it twice. Once Renato cut inside and shot slightly off the left post. Once Maresca rushed into the penalty area, only to be cleared by the defender who risked a tackle and barely cleared the ball out of the baseline...

However, this lineup of Li Qi playing as defensive midfielder and Renato playing as winger was the first time tried in actual combat. The tacit understanding between the two teams was average, and no fixed offensive routine was formed. Therefore, after Juan Ramos replaced Paulson with Puerta for a strong attack, they were unable to break through the home team's goal.

Although Real Betis was extremely embarrassed in the final moments of the game, they still managed to hold on to a 1-1 draw; thus, the Sevilla derby ended in two consecutive dull draws.

At the press conference after the game, Real Betis coach Irueta believed that getting a point against last year's best club in the world would greatly boost morale: "The best clubs in Europe couldn't beat us, and the team will be more confident in facing the next games."

But compared to Fernandez's high profile, Sevilla coach Juan Ramos is much more low-key and modest. He believes that derby games are always difficult: "Getting one point away from home is completely acceptable. Don't forget that Barcelona only took one point here."

But in fact, Juan Ramos and the coaching staff were not very satisfied with this game, and were even a little conflicted. On the one hand, they did not win the game, and on the other hand, the tactical test results were not good.

Although Li Qi's performance as a defensive midfielder seemed to be quite good, that was when the opponent was defending with all their strength, and the key point was that this formation obviously had not formed a tacit understanding, and the lack of goals was the most intuitive explanation. On the contrary, no matter what, in the traditional formation, Sevilla still scored the equalizing goal, even if it was scored through a set piece...

Therefore, the cautious Juan Ramos still plans to test a few games. After all, stability is still very important during the season. Otherwise, if the change is fruitless and leads to a collapse, it will be a big loss.

However, after the end of this round of the league, Sevilla did not have time to digest the test of the new formation or make new adjustments. After a brief summary and recovery training, the whole team began to prepare for the away game of the UEFA Cup in the middle of the week.

Ricardo could only spend Valentine's Day morning with Julian before they went their separate ways. Julian was to transfer in Madrid to Chicago, USA to return to school, while Ricardo was to travel with the team to Romania.

In this round of knockout matches, Sevilla's opponent is Steaua Bucharest Football Club, which was founded in 1947. It is a traditional powerhouse with a military background. The team won the European Cup in 1986 and is the first Eastern European team to win the Champions League in history. At the same time, the team is also the team that has won the Romanian Football League Championship the most times.

Steaua Bucharest has trained many world-famous stars, such as Gheorghe Hagi, nicknamed the midfield conspirator, and Dan Petrescu, a famous coach who would later be active in Chinese football.

The home of the Stars team is the capital of Romania, located in the southeast of Romania, in the middle of the Wallachian Plain, on the banks of the Dambovica River, a tributary of the Danube. Bucharest, known as the "Little Paris" of Eastern Europe, is the largest city in Romania and a political, economic and cultural center, as well as the sixth largest international city in the European Union, with a permanent population of 216 million.

而情人节夜间抵达的里卡多，还没有来得及去仔细体悟这个东欧发展最快、夜生活闻名遐迩的历史文化名城的温柔与底蕴，就迎来了2007年2月15日晚的06/07赛季欧洲联盟杯32强淘汰赛首回合的较量。

As the defending champion, Juan Ramos has some experience and preparation for the knockout round of the UEFA Cup. Compared with the league match at the weekend, in addition to the rotation of individual positions, this game still arranged the strongest starting lineup under the 4-4-2 formation:

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Palop;

The left and right backs are No. 16 Puerta and No. 4 Alves, and the double center backs are No. 19 Dragutinovic and No. 2 Navarro;

The left and right wingers are No. 7 Li Qi and No. 15 Navas, and the double defensive midfielders are No. 8 Paulson and No. 11 Renato;

The two forwards are No. 10 Fabiano and No. 12 Kanoute.

Maresca, Marty, Adriano and Korzakov were all on the bench.

The home uniform of Steaua Bucharest is a red and blue vertical stripe version, a bit like Barcelona's home uniform. After the game started, I don't know whether it wanted to imitate Barcelona or gained enough confidence in the league, Steaua tried to use the advantage of home court to suppress the formation of the visiting team Sevilla and seize the midfield advantage.

This made the whole Sevilla team very happy. All the opponents they met recently in the league, except Levante, were just defensive and counterattacking, especially Real Betis, who retreated completely. It was rare to meet an opponent who was willing to attack!

Li Qi saw his teammates' eyes light up, as if they were about to burst into passion and overwhelm the opponent. He immediately called out to his teammates and held them back: "Don't! Don't be impulsive! Stay! Let the opponent rush out first! We will pull back and fight back. If we push them back and kill them all at once, and they start to shrink and defend again, it will be no fun..."

So, although he was playing as a left midfielder, Li Qi led his teammates to retract the formation, and even began to give up possession of the ball, choosing a low-post defense and waiting for the home team to approach the defensive third zone before starting to fight for the ball.

Once Sevilla snatched the ball, they would go straight into the counterattack without any ambiguity or control of the ball; this gave the home team the illusion that they could suppress the visiting team in terms of passing and control, while Sevilla could only create threats through sporadic counterattacks.

But Sevilla's second counterattack created a scoring opportunity, but it came from a set piece.

Around the 10th minute of the game, Li Qi cut in from the left in a quick counterattack but was tackled and knocked down by Stars' right midfielder Bostina, winning a free kick in a good position near the left side.

Renato, who was responsible for the penalty of this 30-meter-long free kick, did not choose to shoot directly, but instead rubbed the ball towards the far post. Alves, under the cover of Kanoute and Dragutinovic, rushed out from behind, jumped into the air at the far end of the goal, and swept the ball that was about to fly out of the bottom line across the goal!

Paulson, who was originally standing in a reverse wall position in the middle, had turned around and volleyed the ball from Alves in the middle of the small penalty area into the net... After blocking the far post, the Stars' goalkeeper was completely powerless to stop the final attack. Paulson and Alves, who provided the assist, could only run around to celebrate after scoring the goal.

This was Poulsen's first goal of the season, helping Sevilla lead the home team 1-0 away from home.

When the trailing Star team saw that Sevilla immediately retreated to a low defense after scoring a goal, they were immediately furious. They thought that the visiting team was just lucky and took the lead by relying on a set piece obtained from a counterattack, so they continued to press forward and attack, hoping to tie and surpass the score as soon as possible.

But the Stars' attack didn't last long. Less than 10 minutes later, Sevilla created a chance to score the winning goal in a counterattack.

After Sevilla scored, they had two good counterattack opportunities, but unfortunately Renato and Fabiano were too hasty. When they came to the outside of the penalty area, they saw that the shooting range was clear and could not help but shoot; but one shot was high and the other hit the goalkeeper right in the heart...

The third counterattack came from a low defensive interception. Puerta made a tackle to intercept Bostina's breakthrough, and the ball bounced right to Li Qi's feet. Li Qi first made a pass and cut with Kanoute who retreated to serve as a fulcrum, and then pretended to pass the ball to Fabiano or Renato who were trying to counter offside in front; then, while the home team's defensive formation was diverted by the first wave of feints, Li Qi shook his ankle and sent a straight pass to Alves in the second echelon...

Alves, who came in from behind, stopped the ball, changed direction, and had ample space to sprint. He immediately got rid of the defensive player who had just retreated with the first wave of attack and had not yet established a stable defensive position, and rushed straight into the penalty area.

Alves then made another large sideways pass, trying to dribble past the goalkeeper... The latter might have been too nervous for a moment and in a rush of thought he reached out and pulled down Alves who was about to shoot at the empty goal.

Fortunately, the referee was lenient and only gave the team a yellow card, without using the Ruby War Card, otherwise the Stars team might have collapsed before the first half was even halfway through.

However, Kanoute, who took the penalty kick, was not as soft-hearted as the referee. He made a fake move to deceive the goalkeeper's center of gravity before the penalty kick, and then accurately pushed the ball into the lower right corner of the goal with his right foot. In the 18th minute of the game, Sevilla led Steaua Bucharest 2-0 as a guest.

The Stars, who were trailing by two goals, were clearly still unwilling to accept the result and only managed to score a penalty kick by chance. They were still thinking of pressing forward and continuing to teach the defending champion a lesson.

But the head coach of the home team had already realized that something was wrong, and quickly asked his players to calm down, control the tempo of the game, pass the ball around under their feet, and not be penetrated by the opponent's counterattack again.

However, when Sevilla saw the home team retreating, they no longer cared about Li Qi's dirty tactics and pressed forward to grab the ball. After all, they were leading by two goals and had the advantage. How could they not make some attempts?

After just a few rounds, Sevilla, with its superior technical and tactical capabilities, suppressed the home team in the half.

Now all the players and coaching staff of the home team realized it (???????????)?: Damn, we’ve been fooled, these bastards are pretending to be pigs and eating the tiger!

……