Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

Less than 10 minutes had passed since the last goal. In the 19th minute of the game, Sevilla intercepted the ball in the backcourt and sent a long pass directly to the right.

Navas started from the center line, without being offside, and with a few quick sprints, he was several body lengths ahead of the players who were defending and chasing him. He stopped the ball, changed direction, and headed towards the right side of the penalty area.

Atletico Madrid's defense was horrified and immediately chased back with gritted teeth. The center back who was left at the end was also pressed by the two strikers of the home team and had to fight and retreat...

After Navas dribbled the ball into the corner of the penalty area, he changed direction again and rushed towards the bottom line; Atletico's left-back Antonio Lopez was completely unable to stop Navas and was dribbled past several times in a row.

Pablo Ibañez in the middle had no choice but to give up the tangle with Kanoute and move to the left to make a tackle to block Navas' possible cross and shooting route. After all, for a 1-meter tall man, it would be a pipe dream to keep up with Navas's change of direction and breakthrough rhythm. He simply threw his body center of gravity to block it. Anyway, they were about to enter the small penalty area and there was not much space left for Navas who was rushing forward at high speed.

Navas obviously knew what was going on. When he changed direction at the corner of the penalty area, he had already seen the situation inside the penalty area out of the corner of his eye. Atletico's defense line had been compressed in front of the goal, and Atletico's midfielder Maniche was about to make up for the deficit... So Navas rushed to the bottom line again, in fact, to create space and opportunity for the player in another position to make up for the deficit!

The ball was about to go out of bounds, and at the same time, Ibanez's long legs blocked Navas's low pass to the front of the goal. Antonio Lopez also returned to the middle of the penalty area to guard against the possibility of Navas' inverted triangle pass to the middle of the penalty area; and Navas twisted his waist with all his strength, and with a flexibly shaking of his ankle at an almost impossible angle, he sent the ball back to the empty position in the corner of the penalty area where he had just changed direction and broke through!

At this time, the No. 4 Alves of the White Army quickly followed, met Navas's return pass, and shot directly from 23 yards in front of the goal, in the corner of the penalty area! The ball went straight to the upper corner of the goal post with almost no rotation. Goalkeeper Franco only had time to stretch out his left hand, and the ball had already broken through the goal line and tightly embraced the net...

Less than 20 minutes into the game, Sevilla extended their lead to 2-0, seemingly returning to the fast-paced, devastating form of the first half of the season. This made Juan Ramos on the sidelines very excited: That's it, why adjust the tactical formation? Damn it! Charge!

However, the good times did not last long. It seemed that the entire Sevilla team was caught up in a state of excitement, and no one was able to organize, pull, slow down the pace, or use a group-calming negative clearing skill. As a result, the home team, who were howling and rushing forward, learned a lesson in the 36th minute of the game.

The overly excited Marti once again intercepted the ball in the center circle, and he kicked Aguero's thigh with his feet off the ground as he controlled the ball and turned around flexibly. The referee happened to be next to him and witnessed the whole process of the violent foul.

Naturally, Marty was in trouble. Even if the whole team pleaded for him and the home fans were cheering, the referee took out the Ruby War Card without hesitation and sent Marty back to the locker room.

Oh no, Sevilla took the initiative to reduce its players tactically just after 30 minutes. Juan Ramos' face was also red. I don't know if it was because of the excitement after leading by two goals, or because of the embarrassment of being slapped in the face by Marty after bragging to the coaching staff...

Fortunately, the team still had a two-goal advantage. Juan Ramos quickly replaced Fabiano with Li Qi to maintain the stability of the midfield defense, and hoped to use Li Qi's ability to organize in the middle to control the tempo of the game, help the home team slow down the tempo, and maintain the lead until the end.

Atletico Madrid was excited: Great, after more than half an hour of attacking us, they finally let their defensive midfielder take the initiative, right? Oh, they also replaced the No. 7. Originally, I was thinking of adjusting the formation in the midfield and giving up the middle to block the wings. Now, there is no need to adjust. It depends on what tricks No. 7 wants to play in the middle. I am waiting for you!

So Li Qi, who had just come on the field, felt full of malice. Although Li Qi's position fell on the defensive midfielder, the visiting team, which had one more player, raised its formation a lot. So Atletico's tough double defensive midfielders Maniche and Lucin directly faced Li Qi, and surrounded Li Qi from the front and back...

Li Qi was given the task in a critical moment, so he had some psychological expectations before he came on the field. He knew that it would be difficult to play as a substitute and an organizing midfielder when he was one man short, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult. The two midfielders of Atletico Madrid obviously studied and prepared for Li Qi, and had a certain understanding of Li Qi's passing and dribbling habits.

Either they would go around and intercept the direction of the ball to Li Qi, so that Li Qi couldn't touch the ball; if they couldn't stop Li Qi from receiving the ball, they would first try to violently attack from behind to disrupt the balance of Li Qi, an Italian sissy who had not yet fully developed; then they would let Li Qi receive the ball, but they would not immediately rob him, but block Li Qi's possible short pass routes, forcing Li Qi to control the ball with his feet or make a long pass...

These few times made Li Qi play very uncomfortably and awkwardly. He had no way to control the tempo of the game through skillful and fast passing and receiving the ball. He was often forced to control the ball with his feet in an unstable balance and face the blockade of multiple players from the visiting team in the key position of central midfielder. The psychological pressure was extremely great - once the ball was lost, the attacking players of the visiting team would face their own goal.

Fortunately, Li Qi still has his moments of explosiveness, which can be triggered occasionally. Many times, this has helped Li Qi calmly find the final safe route to pass the ball in the blind spot when he was about to lose the ball.

However, Li Qi played awkwardly, which naturally did not help the team much. He also made a lot of passing errors, which made Juan Ramos on the sidelines frown. However, Ramos also knew that Li Qi must have been targeted tactically, but there was really no good way in the short term. He had to defend the half court first and make plans during the half-time break.

Fortunately, there was not much time left in the first half. Li Qi used Cruyff turns and Marseille turns to protect the ball dangerously near the center circle, and then he heard the referee blew the whistle to end the half-time game: Phew, I can finally take a breath. I have to take advantage of the half-time break to discuss with the boss and change the tactics in the second half, otherwise I will be beaten to death by these tough guys from Atletico Madrid...

During the half-time break, Juan Ramos also hurriedly made new tactical arrangements. The golden right corridor of Navas and Alves would not be moved for the time being. Today these two players were in excellent form, so they had to be kept to deter opponents. The only room for adjustment was the left side.

Sevilla replaced No. 3 David with Paulson, Adriano retreated to play as left back, Paulson and Renato re-formed a double defensive midfielder, Li Qi moved to the left forward and organized the midfield on the wing.

If Atletico Madrid falls into the trap and sends a large number of troops to surround Li Qi, the latter can make a long pass to Navas or Alves on the right and break Atletico Madrid's left side defense again; if Atletico Madrid does not dare to surround Li Qi, Li Qi can control the rhythm of the game on the wing relatively calmly and maintain the lead in the score!

In the second half, Sevilla's organizational focus shifted to the left side. Li Qi was much more confident in controlling the ball on the sideline than in the defensive midfielder position. If it was difficult to handle, he would kick the ball to the opponent's defensive player to create a throw-in. If it was still difficult to handle, he would directly kick the ball out of bounds and lose the ball. If it was still difficult to handle, he would directly commit a foul on the sideline and lose a long-distance free kick...

Even if they are really attacked, the threat of losing the ball on the wing is not as great as that on the wing; and in case there is space, it is much easier to make a cross from the wing or a long pass to change sides than to pass the ball or send a straight pass against the opponent's double defensive midfielders in the middle. After all, you only need to face siege from one or two directions.

So soon after the kick-off, Atletico's midfield tried several times to encircle Li Qi on the wing but failed. They were also almost robbed by Navas who received a long pass and cut into the penalty area to steal another goal... So Atletico became obedient and began to slowly get into position to compete with Sevilla. They could only force Li Qi to pass back or transfer the ball, thus compressing Li Qi's space for movement.

Juan Ramos's tactical adjustment was quite powerful. Atletico Madrid's Aguirre's half-time adjustment was cracked before it could even start to work. Atletico Madrid felt a bit caught in a dilemma for a while. Although they still had a slight advantage in ball possession, the home team slowly regained a lot of initiative. The pass success rate that had dropped below 70% quickly rose again.

So for a while, the two teams entered a period of stalemate... But Atletico Madrid, who were two goals behind, couldn't wait. After all, time was passing silently. If they didn't hurry up, the game would be over.

So just after 60 minutes of the game, Atletico Madrid coach Javier Aguirre waved his hand, replaced Lucin and Galletti with Costinha and Mista to strengthen the attack, and the whole army pressed forward to steal their points, because we only had one more person!

Costinha, who had just come on as a substitute, was there to cooperate with right winger Maxi Rodriguez to surround and snatch Li Qi.

As a result, the originally stagnant battle situation quickly turned around again, and the offensive and defensive rhythms of both sides were accelerating; of course, Li Qi would seize the opportunity to send straight passes or long passes to counterattack, and if there were no good opportunities, he would still tend to pass back to slow down the rhythm.

So although Atletico Madrid seemed to have a stronger offensive force and had one more player, in fact, it was the home team Sevilla who had more and better chances after 10 minutes; Kanoute even wasted a half-solo chance and shot the ball into the stands...

However, Sevilla's counterattack did not turn into a goal in open play, but unexpectedly and reasonably borne fruit in a set-piece. After all, in the past 10 minutes, Sevilla's counterattacks were either shot into the stands or turned into corner kicks, with six consecutive corner kicks.

In the 71st minute of the game, Renato took the corner kick that Li Qi broke through Maxi Rodriguez on the left side. This was Sevilla's 11th corner kick in this game and the 7th corner kick in the second half.

Renato fired a half-high arc ball straight to the near corner of the small penalty area; and Escudé, who was lying in ambush at the front point, turned around and looked back at the moon, dribbling the ball backwards and ferrying it to the far end of the goal...

The far post was where the Malian striker Kanoute, who is currently the top scorer in La Liga, was! Kanoute used his 1-meter-tall tower-like figure to overpower Setaridis and slam the ball into the Atletico Madrid goal!

Kanoute scored twice in this game, which was his 18th league goal this season. While continuing to lead the scorer list, he helped the home team Sevilla extend the score advantage to 3 goals despite being one man down.

As soon as the ball went in, Juan Ramos, who had been nervous on the sidelines, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: there was a high probability that this game was won.

On the other end, Atletico Madrid's head coach Aguirre kicked the mineral water bottle at his feet in frustration: Damn, with one more person, not only did we fail to catch up, but we also lost another one.

Not long after the score was 3-0, both head coaches played their last card.

Atletico Madrid replaced Petrov and started playing with four forwards, ready to go all out.

On the Sevilla side, they replaced Renato with Maresca and moved Li Qi back to the middle; with 3 balls in hand and more than 15 minutes left, there was no need to waste time, just retreat to the defensive zone 3 and make a long pass to counterattack, and see if Xiao Ma and Navas don't overwhelm you!

So Li Qi became the pillar-type defensive midfielder guarding the top of the penalty area, and the sweep and steal were mainly handed over to Paulson; Li Qi, through his excellent game reading ability and penalty judgment, either returned to the penalty area to control the high ball, or headed out to the top of the arc to intercept the direct pass or long shot...

The effect was quite good. Li Qi could also send a few passes to Navas and Maresca to break through the opponent's over-pressed defense. Unfortunately, Kanoute was already at the end of his strength and his feet were weak. He failed to get the ball into the goal in two outflanking attempts, and he really missed the chance of a hat trick.

However, Atletico Madrid still relied on the human wave tactics and managed to score a goal in the 82nd minute of the game.

First, Petrov broke through the exhausted Alves on the left side, cut into the penalty area, and took advantage of Li Qi filling in to make a short pass behind Li Qi... and the agile Akun Aguero turned around to protect the ball before anyone else, and was knocked down by Osio who came over to steal the ball.

The referee, who was observing the whole process at the edge of the penalty area, once again blew the whistle on a foul without any hesitation, pointing directly to the penalty spot. Fortunately, he did not give out a card again.

Afterwards, Atletico Madrid center back Pablo Ibañez did not waste the opportunity and scored the penalty kick, helping Atletico Madrid to catch up to 1-3 away from home.

However, Atletico did not get any more chances afterwards; when Li Qi wanted to take advantage of the moment when all Atletico players had crossed the half court to lead the ball and end the game himself, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

Atletico Madrid suffered consecutive defeats in away games, while Sevilla, which won its first game in the last three rounds, tied with Barcelona in the standings, and only ranked second in the standings based on goal difference and head-to-head record.

Barcelona lost 1-2 to Valencia away this round, while Real Madrid was tied by Real Betis at home this round. Although Barcelona and Real Madrid defeated Santander 2-0 and 2-1 at home and reversed Real Sociedad away in the last round, both teams lost points in the previous round, Barcelona was tied by Osasuna away, and Real Madrid was defeated by Levante at home with a goal...

So while Sevilla was losing streak, Barcelona and Real Madrid were unable to widen the points gap; instead, Valencia was getting closer and closer, biting the first group tightly.

After this game, Juan Ramos seemed ready to make up his mind: even if Li Qi was arranged to play as an organizing midfielder, the opponent could still arrange targeted tactics to strangle Sevilla's central pass;

Secondly, Sevilla, which is in a busy schedule, has no conditions to develop tacit understanding and trial and error under the new tactical system. Instead, they are prone to making mistakes in key positions and being directly counterattacked.

In addition, Sevilla's player reserves and attributes do not really support the style of play where the midfield controls the output of the defensive midfielder. After all, the team building idea in recent years has been to fly on both wings and defend and counterattack.

Finally, after all, Li Qi is on loan, and it is not cost-effective to spend a lot of money on him as the uncertainty is too high.

Forget it, let's do one last formation test in the UEFA Cup round of 32 knockout match in the middle of the week, see the results and then the coaching staff will make the final decision, and then it will be the end of the season sprint...