Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

Half a month ago, the Spanish King's Cup quarter-final match between Real Betis and Sevilla was forced to end because Sevilla head coach Juan Ramos was knocked unconscious by a water bottle thrown by Betis fans. Last week, the Spanish Football Association announced a three-match ban on Real Betis' home field, and the remaining 3 minutes will be played at the neutral Perez Stadium, Getafe's home ground, on March 36.

The Spanish Football Association originally thought that the matter had passed, but first the Real Betis Club took advantage of a procedural loophole and continued to play a home game last weekend; this Monday it was the turn of the Sevilla Club to cause trouble. Since March 3 is an international match day stipulated by FIFA, several national team players of the Sevilla Club will leave the team to participate in national team competitions.

Sevilla publicly accused the Spanish Football Association of deciding to hold the make-up match on this day as unreasonable and taken for granted on its official website.

"Korzakov will leave the team on the 19th to participate in the Russian national team's game, Puerta, Poulsen and Dragutinovic will leave the team on the 20th to participate in the game with their respective national teams, and Kanoute will be called up by the Mali national team for 5 days."

Sevilla FC was very angry about the Spanish Football Association's decision to make up the game. An official said privately: "The Spanish Football Association is biased towards Real Betis. They were not affected at all on that day."

On Tuesday, this view was amplified after the Spanish Football Association refused to postpone the league match between Betis and Mallorca until Sunday. As Sevilla traveled to Ukraine for the UEFA Cup quarter-finals this week, their league match with Celta originally scheduled for this Saturday will be postponed to Sunday night - and the make-up match with Betis will be held on Tuesday night next week, leaving Sevilla less than 48 hours to prepare.

Sevilla Club then applied to the Spanish Football Association, requesting that Betis's league match with Mallorca be postponed to Sunday night in order to be fair, but the Spanish Football Association flatly rejected Sevilla's application.

Sevilla was completely enraged, and fans believed that the Spanish Football Association did not understand the importance of the Seville derby at all: "A 36-minute derby is also a battle!"

Fortunately, Italy has a bye in this round of European Cup qualifiers and only has a home game against Scotland on March 3. In addition, due to the influence of previous fan disturbances, the Italian national team also cancelled all national team friendly matches in the first half of the year. Therefore, Ricardo and Maresca can stay with the team to participate in the King's Cup make-up match against Real Betis and then return to Italy to report.

Yes, that's right, with Ricardo's strong recommendation and his recent excellent performance on the field, Maresca was selected for the national team's roster again. Although it is expected that he will not have a chance to play, it is his first time to be selected for the national team.

Two weeks later, Chiara came to accompany Ricardo again this weekend. Although most of the pressure of logistical support has been taken over by the more mature and skilled former flight attendant Eva, Ricardo still likes Chiara's identity as a beautiful white-collar banker.

In addition, the Easter holiday will begin in both Britain and the United States next weekend. Britain calls it the Easter holiday, and the United States calls it spring break. All major universities basically have one to two weeks of vacation, which happens to coincide with the national team's match day, so Ricardo will be busy.

After studying the calendar and communicating, Ricardo decided to welcome Ice Princess Julian to Seville for a relaxing trip next Monday, and then take care of Little Princess Sarafina when she returns to China to participate in the European Cup qualifiers next weekend. During this period, there are also many endorsement brand activities and media interviews, so there is almost no time left for family...

然而在国家队比赛日之前，在2007年3月18日晚上21时，还有一场06/07赛季西班牙足球甲级联赛第27轮的比赛任务等着塞维利亚，塞维利亚将在主场迎战塞尔塔的挑战。

In this game, in view of the overtime battle with Shakhtar Donetsk in the middle of the week, Juan Ramos made a lot of position rotations, arranging Osio and Escude to start, Li Qi, David, Marty and Korzakov also replaced Maresca, Adriano, Renato and Fabiano in the starting lineup respectively.

After the game started, as usual, Sevilla, playing at home, was very strong and firmly controlled the ball and the rhythm of the game from the beginning.

In this game, Juan Ramos played a trick. He started with two defensive midfielders and played high-pressure defense, letting Li Qi, as a wing midfielder, organize the attack close to the opponent's face... Juan Ramos wanted to resolve the battle in the first half and save the team's energy. After all, the national team match day will come, and who knows what impact the Fifa virus will have on the team.

However, the result was not what they wanted. The loss to Tarragona, the second-to-last team in the last round, upset Sevilla and put the club in a state of high tension. Although Sevilla fired 16 shots in the first half, including 8 on target, under Li Qi's close-range output, they did not score a single goal.

Li Qi also tried shooting in the 4th and 17th minutes, but Li Qi felt that his shooting was not very good today, and it was a bit off, and it was rare to trigger the explosive point. I don’t know if it was the exhaustion sequelae of the overtime battle in the middle of the week. So Li Qi decided to take more responsibility for delivery and assists in this game.

In the first half, Sevilla's first golden opportunity came in the 24th minute. Placente raised his foot too high against Li Qi in the penalty area and was penalized with an indirect free kick. Osio was responsible for handling the free kick in the penalty area, yards away from the goal.

Li Qi calculated the time for Osio's run-up, stepped on the ball, and Osio shot it! Unfortunately, the ball did not penetrate the wall, but was blocked out of the small penalty area by the defender.

Then, Alves intercepted the rebounding ball at the edge of the penalty area and shot it into the far corner, but Placente, who made a mistake, headed the ball away from the goal line. This lob that had bypassed the goalkeeper's fingers...

Less than 10 minutes later, in the 32nd minute of the game, Sevilla had another good chance to score; unfortunately, Sevilla missed the opportunity again.

Li Qi once again arranged a feint to the east and attacked in the west. He and Kanoute pretended to make a move on the left, but they played too small and was a bit slow, attracting double-teaming. When it seemed that the move was about to fail, Li Qi took advantage of Kanoute's strong body to make a long pass directly across half the court and accurately found Navas in the open position on the right wing.

After stopping the ball, Navas did not hesitate. He cut inside to create an angle and then sent a straight pass to Alves who was on the side.

Alves took the ball and rushed towards the bottom line. He penetrated Celta's defense in two steps, and then aimed at Korzakov to cross the ball from the right edge of the opponent's penalty area.

Korzakov made a quick header from the middle and the ball went straight to the near corner of the goal. Unfortunately, the visiting team's goalkeeper Pinto blocked the near corner and the ball went out of bounds...

However, the subsequent corner kick was taken by Alves, who played a tactical match and directly passed it to Paulson who was in the penalty area and retreated to the outside of the penalty area. The latter received a quick low corner kick and shot at the near corner without anyone marking him. Unfortunately, the ball that shot through the crowd hit the outside of the post and bounced out of the bottom line. It was really unlucky. If it had been 5 centimeters inward, it would have bounced into the net.

Finally, before the end of the first half, in the 45th minute of the game, Sevilla had a chance to break the deadlock.

Kanoute won a free kick in a good position with his back to the goal; Li Qi took the free kick from the edge of the penalty area on the left. This free kick was about 22 yards away from the goal, and Li Qi took a run-up and shot directly into the far corner.

The ball was about to fall into the upper corner of the goal after a wonderful arc, but unfortunately the ball was not fast enough and Celta goalkeeper Pinto bravely flew over the crossbar again...

So, thanks to the goalkeeper's magical performance and the favor of the goddess of fate, the visiting team successfully entered the halftime break with the home team with a score of 0-0.

Juan Ramos also immediately made personnel adjustments at home. Maresca and Puerta came on the field together, replacing Navas and David, and continued to strengthen the attack.

However, after Puerta came on the pitch, Sevilla's attack on the left improved a lot. After all, compared to David who could barely cover half the court, Puerta's awareness of holding the ball and advancing was much stronger.

So Li Qi began to consciously move towards the middle, leaving the left corridor to Puerta, and also gestured to Paulson to consciously help Puerta who was advancing.

Li Qi, who moved towards the middle, also interacted with Maresca, who came on as a substitute. After all, the names of Sevilla's Italian duo are now quite famous.

Moreover, Li Qi in the middle also puts more pressure on Celta's defense. After all, he can play on the left or right, in front or behind, and the threat of holding the ball in the middle is greater; forcing Celta to arrange two people to circle around Li Qi at all times...

However, it was not the two substitutes who helped Sevilla break the deadlock, nor was it Li Qi who was in the middle, but luck...

Sevilla finally broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute. After Marti intercepted the rebound ball that was cleared by the defender, he made another cross from the right side of the penalty area. Celta defender Gustavo Lopez, who rushed over to defend, actually opened his arms and blocked the ball.

When witnesses such as Marty, Li Qi and Maresca shouted handball at the first time, the referee also decisively penalized Celta with a yellow card and a penalty. Then Kanoute scored his 19th league goal of the season from the penalty spot, continuing to lead the scorer list and helping Sevilla lead 1-0.

Although he scored a penalty, Kanoute was not in a very good state in this game and had not performed well before. Not long after scoring the penalty, Kanoute pushed the ball weakly from 6 yards in front of the goal and sent the ball back to the goalkeeper, ruining Li Qi's wonderful through pass and once again missing the opportunity to change the score.

So in the 61st minute of the game, Juan Ramos replaced Kanoute with Adriano, and pushed Li Qi to the front line, directly playing the role of organizing center in the middle, and further providing face-to-face output.

Just a few minutes after Li Qi took over the front line, Sevilla almost extended the lead.

Alves passed the ball to the right side of the penalty area, Li Qi made a diagonal cut to receive the ball, then protected the ball with his back to his body and waited for his teammates to get into position. Then, when Celta's defender and midfielder were close to defend, he lightly made a shoulder fake, and then sent a low cross from the bottom.

The ball went straight through the small penalty area, and Pinto did not dare to attack because there was still distance and the ball was going very fast; but Korzakov who was covering the middle and Adriano at the far end both missed the ball that slipped through the goal.

Li Qi, who changed to play as a center forward, put Celta under greater pressure. Although Li Qi's body was not as strong as Kanoute's, his ball-stopping and ball-protecting skills were not inferior. His passing and dribbling were more agile, and his cooperation with his teammates was more in place, making Celta's defense line hard to defend.

Celta, who was one goal behind and wanted to attack, was pressed by Li Qi in the defensive zone 3 and could not get out. The score was behind and they were constantly besieged by Sevilla, which created great psychological pressure on Celta's defensive players.

Finally, after playing in the Sevilla circle for about 8 minutes, Celta's defender made a big mistake in the 74th minute, which changed the situation again.

Canobbio lost his position in defense and could only recklessly raise his foot to intercept Li Qi's overhead pass, but he couldn't control his body and strength, and it turned into a flying kick, directly kicking Alves in the face!

The assistant referee on the sidelines waved his flag, and the referee rushed to the scene of the incident as soon as possible. After arranging for the team doctor to enter the field, he showed Canobbio the Ruby God of War card without hesitation. If you want to practice Taekwondo, please go home and practice...

Celta, trailing in the score, in a passive situation and with one man less, collapsed directly.

Although the visiting team coach hurriedly made substitutions to strengthen the defense before kick-off and directly gave up the attack, Li Qi still seized the opportunity from the mistake in the formation adjustment and found an opportunity from the substitute who had just come on the field. He directly stole the ball at his feet and then shot directly into the far corner from the penalty area line.

This time the shot was not too bad. Although the power was not enough and the goalkeeper hit him, it was sudden enough and the angle was tricky. The ball bounced and turned and fell into the far corner. Sevilla led Celta 77-2 in the 0th minute of the second half.

And then, Celta gave up completely. All players retreated to the defensive third zone and set up a bus formation, intending to stick to the situation of losing by two goals. After all, losing by two goals to the top team in the league away from home is not shameful.

However, before the end of the game, in the last minute of stoppage time, in the 93rd minute, Celta's tight defense failed due to decreased physical strength and relaxed attention. The Italian duo, who were holding back, found an opportunity and connected to make a counter-cut.

Li Qi made a straight pass, and Maresca, who made a forward run and then switched positions with Li Qi, broke into the penalty area, received the ball and made a light cross pass to the middle. Finally, Korzakov pushed the ball into the goal from 15 yards in the middle to seal the victory.

In the end, Sevilla won three consecutive home games with a score of 3-0, closely following Barcelona who won 3-4 in this round, while Celta suffered a series of away defeats.

In addition, Real Madrid also won by 2 goals in this round, ending their 4-game winning streak and continuing to approach the top group in points; but Valencia failed again, and unexpectedly lost to the visiting Racing Santander with a score of 0-2 at home. While their 7-game home winning streak was tragically ended, they were once again overtaken by Real Madrid and fell out of the top three.

So Marca set another annoying flag: After this round, Sevilla and Barcelona have the same points, 5 points ahead of Real Madrid and 6 points ahead of Valencia. As long as there are no major fluctuations in form in the next 11 games, the top two places in the league are unlikely to fly out of their hands...

Zaragoza, ranked fifth, saw its points rise to 46 after winning the focus match against Atletico Madrid, just 1 point behind Valencia and 2 points behind Real Madrid. This is the rhythm of grabbing a Champions League spot.

After this round of the league, most of the players selected for the national team left the team and went to the international arena. However, the Sevilla and Italy twins who were also selected for this round of the national team will stay with the team for a few more days and play the King's Cup make-up match before returning home.

Before the game, Ricardo picked up Ice Princess Julian at the airport who came to visit and travel.

Needless to say, it feels so good to hold it in your hand, no matter front or back or up or down, it is impossible to grasp it with one hand...