Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

After waiting for 20 days, the Sevilla derby finally ended smoothly. In the 36-minute make-up match, neither side scored a goal. In the end, Sevilla defeated Betis 90-2 away in 0 minutes and advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 2-0 in two rounds, retaining the hope of winning the triple crown this season. Previously, they eliminated the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup and entered the quarter-finals. They are currently closely following the defending champion Barcelona in the league.

On February 2007, 2, the game at Betis' home stadium was interrupted in the 28th minute. Sevilla head coach Juan Ramos was hit by a water bottle thrown from the stands while directing the game on the sidelines. He was then sent to the hospital for observation for 54 hours. Betis' home stadium was banned for three games. The perpetrator was arrested last week and if confirmed, his membership of the Betis club will be revoked.

The make-up match was scheduled to be held at Getafe's home stadium, Alfonso Perez Stadium, which was not open to fans of both teams. Betis had to score at least three goals in a row to advance, but they did not show any improvement. Instead, Sevilla, who had two goals in hand, had the upper hand. In the 36-minute match, Betis goalkeeper Contreras made at least three heroic saves, successively blocking shots from Alfaro, Puerta and Maresca, and the goalpost also helped Betis.

Although Sevilla, who had the advantage, did not score any more goals, the score of 90-2 at the end of 0 minutes was still enough to help Sevilla eliminate their city rivals and advance to the next round of the King's Cup.

The day after the game, the King's Cup drew the semi-finals. In addition to Sevilla, the other qualifying teams were Barcelona, ​​Getafe and Deportivo La Coruña. Since Barcelona and Sevilla have basically secured their qualification for the Champions League, Getafe and Deportivo La Coruña both have the opportunity to pick up tickets for the UEFA Cup.

Soon, the results of the Spanish King's Cup semi-final draw were announced. Barcelona faced Getafe led by Schuster, while La Coruna competed with Sevilla for another ticket to the final.

It is worth noting that La Coruna's coach Caparros, who played at home first, was the head coach of Sevilla two years ago and laid a solid foundation for the team's future rise.

国王杯首回合比赛将于4月18日进行，5月9日再战第二场，决赛将于5月30日进行。

Ricardo participated in the Copa del Rey semi-final draw ceremony in Real Madrid with head coach Juan Ramos, because Ricardo was visiting Real Madrid with Julian these days.

The Alfonso Perez Stadium, where Real Betis plays its main game, is the home stadium of Spanish La Liga team Getafe and is located in Real Madrid. Ricardo had an excuse to travel on public funds. It must be said that due to the absence of a large number of main players, the club also specially arranged a hotel room for Ricardo alone.

It was just right for him to go back to China to attend the national team training, so Maresca was in a hurry to fly to Florence to report, as a new player needs to perform well. But Ricardo used the excuse of representing the club to attend the draw ceremony, meet some big names in Spanish football, and stay in the hotel with the United States for two more days, and also attended some brand endorsement activities and advertising shoots.

It was not until Friday night that I separated from Julian. One flew back to Milan to see his parents, and the other flew directly to Florence to meet Sarafina, who had returned home a few days ago, to report to the national team and continue to complete the contract tasks of the brand endorsement company.

Putting aside the scumbag couple of Ricardo and the little princess Sarafina, in the new national team list called up by Donadoni for the European Championship qualifiers against Scotland, Ricardo was selected as a striker for the first time. His Sevilla teammate Maresca, Roma's Tonetto and Sampdoria's Quagliarella are the three newcomers selected for the Blues for the first time.

Compared with the last national team roster, Grosso, Nesta, Zaccardo, Di Michele, Iaquinta and Inzaghi were not selected. However, Donadoni emphasized in an interview with La Repubblica: "Nesta, Zaccardo, Iaquinta and Totti all missed the roster due to injuries. They are the backbone of the team." Therefore, compared with these four people, World Cup hero Grosso and striker veteran Inzaghi are undoubtedly the biggest losers.

But in any case, in order to play well in the life-and-death duel with the group leader Scotland, which is related to whether they can finally qualify, Donadoni must select the players who are in the best condition and can help the national team. Before the game starts, Donadoni will further streamline the lineup, and finally only 21 players will be selected for the game.

But Ricardo was not too worried, because when he was called up, it was Donadoni who called personally, and specifically told Ricardo to be careful not to get injured before the national team game. He would arrange Ricardo, who can play both on the wing and in the middle, to play the role of the main attacker in the game, and would try to let Ricardo play in Totti's previous position...

Before the game, France, Scotland and Ukraine, who were in the same group, all won. The top two teams had played one more game and were 5 points ahead of Italy. Ukraine and Italy had played 4 games together and were 2 points ahead of Italy. Italy, who was fourth in the group, had to beat Scotland on Wednesday to take the initiative. Donadoni also made a harsh statement before the game: "The match against Scotland is our life-and-death battle. We must win, and then everything will start all over again."

After training with the national team for 4 days and feeding Maresca a lot of balls, he finally kept Maresca in the final 21-man roster. Although he did not make the starting lineup, seeing Maresca was so grateful that he was about to offer him a chrysanthemum, Ricardo quickly took Sarafina to the Galileo Museum and had to return to the hotel before the curfew.

After returning to the hotel at 20 p.m., the Italian national team coaching staff announced the lineup and starting lineup for tomorrow night's match against Scotland:

The attacking 4-2-3-1 formation;

The goalkeeper was young No. 1 Buffon who recovered from a stomachache in time;

The left and right wingbacks are No. 19 Zambrotta and No. 22 Oddo, and the double central defenders are captain No. 5 Cannavaro and No. 23 Materazzi;

The double defensive midfielders are No. 8 Gattuso and No. 10 De Rossi who replaced Pirlo in the starting lineup;

The three attacking midfielders are No. 16 Camoranesi, No. 11 Li Qi and No. 20 Perrotta;

At the top is center forward No. 9 Luca Toni;

The starting lineup is an entire World Cup lineup, but on the bench there are a number of good players including Maresca, Tonetto, Barzagli, Ambrosini, Pirlo, Gilardino, Piero, Di Natale, Quagliarella and Abbiati.

The opponent Scotland also announced its starting lineup and roster shortly afterwards, which also had 4 defenders and 5 midfielders, but it was indeed more focused on defensive arrangements.

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Gordon;

The four defenders are No. 2 Alexander, No. 4 Will, No. 5 McManus and No. 3 Naismith;

五中场是7号蒂尔，6号巴里-弗格森，8号哈特利、11号麦卡洛克与因为上周末对阵格鲁吉亚表现出色而有幸首次代表国家队首发的10号布朗；

The single arrow is Miller No. 9.

2007年3月28日晚上20时50分，欧洲杯预选赛B组焦点战在巴里圣尼古拉球场打响，蓝衣军团意大利坐镇主场面对白衣白裤的高地军团苏格兰的挑战。

Italy was 5 points behind Scotland before the game, but had one game less. Scotland could keep the top spot as long as they remained undefeated. This was the second game since Scottish coach McLeish took office.

此前意大利在主场对苏格兰5次全胜。多纳多尼也经历过一次，1993年10月13日世界杯外围赛3比1，正是现在的意大利主帅多纳多尼打进了第三个球，也是他在国家队5个进球中的最后一个。

The game started after a sudden downpour, which came suddenly and stopped quickly, as if God was just pouring some water on the stadium. Even in the evening after the rain, the setting sun shone on the stadium, creating a gorgeous little rainbow.

However, when the game started, the sky had already darkened, and the fans withdrew their attention from the beautiful sunset and rainbow and began to focus on the blue and white battle on the green field.

As soon as the game started, the Azzurri, playing at home, took firm control of the situation. The powerful double defensive midfielders made it difficult for Scotland to score. Together with the all-around three forwards, Italy's midfield kept a firm grip on the game.

But what Scotland finds most puzzling is the center forward Luca Toni. He is 1 meters tall and weighs nearly 94 kilograms, but he has flexible steps, excellent jumping ability and practical skills. He is simply a nightmare for defenders.

Interestingly, Toni is one of the few tall forwards who likes to compete for headers in the front post, although his headers are rarely scored with powerful headers that are vertically jumped high in the crowd; however, he is very good at using his body and finding space in the penalty area, so he can always get the best position to compete for headers.

In the third minute of the game, Luca Toni completed the first shot of the game; after receiving a diagonal pass from Li Qi in the corner of the penalty area, Toni shook off McManus's defense and headed the ball, but the ball just went slightly wide of the far post.

Five minutes later, Luca Toni made a comeback, this time receiving a cross from Oddo on the wing and heading the ball. Unfortunately, the ball went slightly wide of the near post...

But it can only happen once or twice, but not three times. The third time, Tony did not let the opportunity slip away.

In the 12th minute, Luca Toni first received a diagonal pass from Li Qi outside the penalty area, but was knocked down while protecting the ball with his back to win a set piece. Then Oddo took a free kick from the right side of the penalty area and passed it diagonally into the penalty area.

Luca Toni and Scottish defender Naismith jumped at the same time, but Toni's strong body gave him a better position to compete for the ball, and Oddo's cross was just right. In the end, Toni succeeded in grabbing the ball, and headed the ball 7 meters away from the goal, and the ball hit the bottom of the near corner of the goal steadily!

Italy leads 1-0!

Seeing Toni break the deadlock, Italian coach Donadoni and the coaching staff were so excited that they rushed to the sidelines from their seats to applaud and cheer for Toni. This goal was so important that the whole Italian team felt relieved. Li Qi jumped directly onto Toni's shoulders to celebrate. Yes, this game was really important for Italy.

After falling behind, Scotland began to try to attack, press Italy and try to equalize the score; while Italy followed the old tradition and once it took the lead, it would slow down the pace, retreat back to the half court and play defensive counterattacks. So Scotland finally got its first chance to score around the 15th minute of the game.

First, Barry Ferguson made a strong attack and won a corner kick. Then Brown received the corner kick from the right side, won the header and shot into the goal, but unfortunately the ball went wide of the left post.

However, once Scotland attacked, Italy had more opportunities and space to counterattack.

In the 17th minute, Li Qi predicted in advance and intercepted Hartley's pass in the middle, and launched a counterattack directly on the spot, passing the ball to Luca Toni who was in the front; the latter protected the ball and then stuffed it into the penalty area. Unfortunately, defender Will destroyed the ball before Camoranesi shot.

After that, both sides attacked and defended each other. Scotland mostly passed the ball from the flanks, or used set pieces and corner kicks to create scoring opportunities. However, the middle line guarded by Cannavaro and Materazzi did not give Scotland's attackers too many good opportunities; so the last line guarded by young player Buffon was hardly tested.

On the contrary, Italy's counterattack was very effective. As long as the ball fell into Li Qi's feet, Li Qi would be able to deliver the ball into Scotland's defensive third zone. Most of them could pose a threat in Scotland's penalty area, making Scotland's defense line panic.

However, Scotland obviously still had the stamina to hold out in the first half. Despite their exhaustion, they still managed to defend and did not allow Italy to easily change the score or expand their lead. But Li Qi did not care. After all, it was impossible for the Scottish players to maintain a high-intensity game rhythm.

As expected, at the end of the first half, Italy had consecutive chances to score.

First, in the 42nd minute, Zambrotta broke through on the left and made a cross. Camoranesi, who was unguarded, had a chance to intercept the ball at the back post facing a half-empty goal. Unfortunately, the latter's shot was too weak and the Scottish goalkeeper Gordon easily caught the ball after turning back in time to save the ball.

Then in the 45th minute, Li Qi again intercepted the ball in the middle, this time blocking McCulloch's dribbling; then Li Qi led the ball directly, made a wall-to-wall cooperation with Luca Toni, and secretly sent a straight pass on the penalty area line.

Unfortunately, Perrotta's fake move to dribble past the goalkeeper was seen through by Gordon, who directly tackled the ball and swept it out of the baseline...

After only one minute of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the Italians entered the halftime break with a one-goal advantage.

Looking back at the first half, Scotland only organized a few decent attacks when Italy slowed down the tempo after taking the lead, but they did not really threaten the World Cup champion-level steel defense. As Mazzola commented: "Scotland has made a lot of progress in defensive tactics in recent years, especially in man-marking, but it is still far behind in technology."

Italy was clearly leaning to the left in the first half. Although the goal was assisted by Oddo on the right, in fact the left-back Zambrotta pressed very high and often sought cooperation with Li Qi and Perrotta near the center line. Oddo was relatively far back, and Italy used more of a three-back tactic.

Shortly after the start of the second half, Scotland continued to intensify its offensive; the Scottish are such a stubborn and tough group that even if the defense is unstable, they will seize the opportunity to attack: As long as you can't kill me, I will kill you!

So Li Qi knew that he had to score the second goal as soon as possible to stabilize the game and not give Scotland a chance to equalize the score.

So in the first 5 minutes of the second half, the two teams had a very fast rhythm of attack and defense. Scotland wanted to take advantage of Italy's unstable footing and tie the score in the chaos; while the Italians wanted to take advantage of Scotland's massive forward pressure and score the second goal to secure the victory.

Scotland took the lead first. McCulloch made a cross and Alexander's left-foot shot from 28 meters in front of the goal went wide.

Then in the 48th minute, the Italians returned the favor. Li Qi received De Rossi's diagonal pass, played a wall-to-wall match with Luca Toni again, rushed into the left side of the penalty area at high speed, and then pushed the ball into the far corner with his right foot from 9 meters in front of the goal...

The ball was about to go into the bottom corner, but Gordon miraculously flew and blocked it with one hand!

Luca Toni and Camoranesi who followed up both held their heads in their hands in disbelief. Li Qi handled the ball very well and there was no problem with his shot. It was really an amazing performance by the Scottish goalkeeper.

However, Li Qi was not very regretful, but quickly picked up the ball and threw it to Oddo for the corner kick; because Li Qi felt that the gaps in Scotland's defense were getting bigger and bigger, and the goalkeeper would always have moments of explosiveness. Next time, as long as he handled it a little better, he would definitely be able to send the ball into the opponent's goal...