Red Rebels

When the draw just came out, the outside world generally believed that the encounter with Barcelona was like Mars colliding with the earth, a collision between the two strongest teams in Europe this year. It was very interesting and was also regarded as a confrontation between the Premier League and La Liga.

But more than a month later, it fell rapidly. The league was already 8 points behind Chelsea, the leader, and ranked fourth. At the same time, the proud unbeaten record also stopped at 60 games. Although it failed to create more unbeaten games, Although this record is already very powerful, everyone is very forgetful and they choose to look directly at the recent low point.

Yes, the epic half-time reversal of Chelsea is a classic, and the 4-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion was indeed satisfying, but Barcelona is not relegation favorite West Bromwich Albion, and the Nou Camp is not a Manchester stadium.

Faced with a strong team and a strong team, Barcelona currently tops the list in La Liga. All we can say is that we are asking for more blessings. This can be seen from the odds before the game. They all support Barcelona to win.

Another reason why fans are optimistic about Barcelona is the injuries of Beckham and Robben. The former's injury is relatively minor, but it is still unknown whether he can catch up with this focus battle. The latter has been confirmed to miss all games this season. Although Messi West has performed well in the games he has played in place of Robben, but the Argentine genius is still a bit immature.

On the other hand, Barcelona has been in good form recently, with goalkeeper Valdes becoming more and more stable, and the defense consisting of Van Blounthorst, Max, Puyol and Belletti is also relatively stable, but the La Liga giants attract the most attention. The most important thing is their midfielder. The Italian veteran Albertini, who transferred from Atlanta during the winter break, will serve as the main midfielder. Xavi and Iniesta occupy the two central midfielder positions. Ronaldinho and Hleb and Eto'o form a front three.

Judging from the starting lineup announced by Rijkaard before the game, Barcelona's main lineup is basically all present. They also obviously hope to take advantage of their home court advantage to defeat them at the Camp Nou and get the right to advance.

Some of the positions are not surprising. Goalkeeper Petr Cech, left back Evra, and Terry will occupy one center back position. Curtis has performed well in his comeback and will occupy the other one. The right back is likely to be used with more defensive ability. The strong Kolo Toure used the Ivorian to limit Ronaldinho.

The partners of the double midfielder will be Beckham and Essien. The Ghana midfielder became famous in the match against Chelsea and has now firmly occupied the main position. Once Beckham cannot catch up with this game, Fabregas will appear in the starting lineup. in the lineup.

The Spanish teenager came from the Barcelona youth training camp. He has made great progress in the past two seasons, especially his organization and passing ability in the defensive midfielder position. He is similar to Michael Johnson and John Obi Mi in the youth training camp. Kerr is also expected by fans to be the core of the next generation midfielder.

The magic quartet in the frontcourt is basically not difficult to guess. Drogba's impact will play a big role against Barcelona, ​​Kaká will also occupy a position, Ronaldinho and Messi will be separated on the left and right. wing.

Looking at the lineup, the only suspense is whether Beckham can play!

In order to leave this suspense until the end, Mourinho was very mysterious. First, he kept saying in an interview with the media that Beckham was not recovered from his injury and basically could not make it to the game.

However, when the team arrived in Barcelona, ​​the media saw Beckham coming with the team on the training ground. The latter also participated in the team's joint training and seemed to have basically recovered. This was also interpreted by the media. Because, Mourinho deliberately set off smoke bombs.

However, during group training, Mourinho placed Fabregas in the main team, called timeouts many times, and gave face-to-face guidance on the Spanish teenager's passing and organization. At the same time, he also applauded the Spanish teenager many times and praised his outstanding performance. Performance.

The media who were paying attention to every move outside the training ground immediately reacted to this, believing that Mourinho was secretly making preparations. The best thing is of course that Beckham would start. Once the England international really fails to catch up with the game,

Fabregas will serve as the team's organizing midfielder.

But before the game, when everyone got the starting list, they were all surprised.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech, the defense from left to right is Evra, Terry, Curtis, and Maicon, the double defensive midfielders are De Rossi and Essien, the attacking midfielder Kaká, and the double forwards are Ronaldinho and Meicon. West, the center is Drogba.

Cesc Fabregas, who had been vocal before the game, not only did not start, but his name could not even be found on the bench. Instead, Michael Johnson was on the bench, and the other six players were Almunia and Philipp Lahm. , Vidic, Ribery, Aguero and Villa, Mourinho obviously played a smoke bomb before the game.

……………” De Rossi started, and two defensive midfielders played together. Mourinho’s tactics were obviously based on defense. After all, this is the Nou Camp and it is Barcelona’s territory. If you want to It’s not without reason to hold on!”

No team has ever been able to defeat Barcelona at the Camp Nou this season. This is why Barcelona has high hopes for the first round. They hope to take advantage of their home court advantage to defeat them overwhelmingly.

"The referee blew the whistle to start the game, and Barcelona took the lead. They began to attack and put pressure on each other. Not to be outdone, both sides looked full of gunpowder from the start."

Barcelona's tactics are very particular about ball control. As Iniesta gradually matures, he and Xavi have a particularly tacit understanding of their partnership in the midfield. There were originally defensive players such as Marquez and Motta behind him, but with Edmilson's Injured, Max returned to the defense to form a central defender with Puyol, with Italian veteran Albertini in the midfield.

Although Barcelona's tactics emphasize possession of the ball, in addition to Ronaldinho, even Eto'o and Hleb are very particular about counterattacks in the frontcourt. In the second minute of the game, Eto'o Once, he stole the ball from Kaká in the midfield and distributed it to the left. After Ronaldinho took the ball and cut inside, he passed Maicon and shot low with his right foot, which went slightly wide!

Although no goal was scored, the fans at Camp Nou still gave warm applause to Ronaldinho's outstanding performance, and the Barcelona players became more and more excited, launching wave after wave of attacks. , which created considerable pressure.

"Hey, it's Kaka again. He stopped the ball in the middle, was intercepted by Xavi, and passed to Eto'o. The latter quickly passed through the middle and was cleared by Terry in advance!" The commentator's excited explanation was very capable. Inspire the audience.

The fans at the scene were frightened into a cold sweat by Eto'o's quick breakthrough. Terry kept gesticulating towards Essien and De Rossi, obviously asking them to pay more attention to their positions and protect their defense. .

"It has been 5 minutes since the opening of Kaka. A total of 3 times the ball was intercepted, one of which was by Albertini, once by Eto'o and once by Xavi. They all posed threats three times, but we still decided to use Kaka as the main attack. Point, this is a bit confusing!”

Mourinho was staring at the court intently on the sidelines. Everything that happened on it came to his mind clearly. Then he walked to the sidelines, pointed at De Rossi, and motioned for him to move higher, behind him Leave it to Essien.

The Italian midfielder quickly understood Mourinho's intention. In the previous training, the team had already practiced this tactic. After De Rossi pressed on, he better protected Kaká. Once the ball was intercepted by Kaká, , De Rossi immediately participated in the counterattack, with Essien's sweep zone behind him, which was enough to protect the defense.

The adjustment quickly changed the situation. After Kaka was protected by De Rossi, although the ball was still intercepted, Barcelona could no longer counterattack.

After the situation was alleviated, Kaka's position gradually moved further forward, which also brought the trident composed of Drogba, Ronaldinho and Messi closer to Barcelona's defense line, and the three players also started to counterattack on the spot. to a greater role.

Barcelona's offensive continued. Taking advantage of Camp Nou's home court advantage, they firmly grasped the situation on the field from the beginning and launched waves of attacks. In the 15th minute, Xavi intervened. Received the pass from Iniesta and made a long pass behind him.

Eto'o used his speed to get rid of the defender, and after receiving the ball, he wanted to rush into the penalty area. Curtis returned to defend the penalty area in time and used a beautiful sliding tackle to shovel Eto'o's ball out of the baseline, taking Eto'o down. Too.

The Barcelona players felt that this was a foul in the penalty area, and Eto'o also raised his hands, looking very confused that it was not a penalty kick, but a corner kick, but the slow-motion footage showed that this was indeed a beautiful defense.

Barcelona's head coach Rijkaard went to the linesman to protest. Apparently he also believed that this was a foul and should be awarded a penalty. The Barcelona fans at the scene gave the referee endless boos.

"The players on both sides were very nervous, and the atmosphere was particularly heated. The game entered a fast-paced confrontation from the first minute. Barcelona's offense was suppressed by the defense, but the offense was still unable to come out. "

A comparison of the statistics of both sides of the game appeared on the screen. Barcelona was far ahead in ball possession, with only 2 shots on goal, and they were all forced shots without much threat. On the other hand, Barcelona created several threats.

"Judging from the first 25 minutes, our defense performed solidly. In the 21st minute, Cech's attack promptly resolved Ronaldinho's single attack. However, our offense has not been able to improve, especially with Cardano. Card, the Brazilian made frequent mistakes, and obviously he was somewhat overshadowed by the joint efforts of Albertini, Xavi and Iniesta."

It can even be said that Kaka is the worst player among the starting 11 so far. Even Drogba is actively counterattacking and using a yellow card to prove his hard work and diligence. At the same time, his existence itself It is the biggest deterrent to Barcelona's defense.

Preventing high balls has always been a shortcoming of Barcelona. Puyol and Max are not experts in this area, and Drogba is indeed a tall and strong Warcraft-level center. This point was clearly stated by Rijkaard when arranging tactics. Focus on Drogba and not relax your attention on the African Elephant King. 360 search: (.*)☆\\\\半^福^生//☆=

This also prevented Drogba from getting too many opportunities. In several attacks, he had to retreat to respond. Unknowingly, everyone also ignored one thing, that is, Kaká’s position seemed to be Getting closer to Drogba.

However, what was even more deadly came from the two flanks. When Drogba retreated, their positions did not follow him. Instead, they wandered near Barcelona's defense, waiting for opportunities. .

what chance?

When De Rossi and Essien teamed up to intercept Eto'o's ball, it was immediately handed to the feet of Kaka. Kaka, under the entanglement of Iniesta, handed the ball to the feet of Drogba, who retreated to receive the ball. The ball hit back and formed a beautiful one-two with Kaká.

Escaped from the defenses of Iniesta and Albertini, Kaka kept balling and his speed soared in an instant, approaching Barcelona's defense.

Barcelona's defense was constantly retreating, but Kaka was too fast. After approaching, he took advantage of the situation and went straight behind the right rib.

Messi, who had been lurking for a long time, got rid of Van Blounthorst, received the ball and entered the penalty area, forming a single shot!