Chapter 158: War Reignites, Part
2007年1月20日晚上20时，06/07赛季西班牙足球甲级联赛第19轮先赛2场，其中领头羊塞维利亚新年以来联赛两连败之后做客挑战比利亚雷亚尔。
However, after the game started, the situation was a bit dull and both sides played very conservatively.
The visiting team's recent form is not very good. Since 2007, they have only won 4 out of 1 games and lost two games in a row in the league. Although they beat Rayo Vallecano 4-1 in the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarter-final in the middle of the week, Rayo Vallecano is a team in the Spanish Second Division and both teams mainly played with substitute lineups, so the reference value is not very large.
Juan Ramos seemed determined not to lose again in the league and wanted to gradually get the team back on track. Therefore, the visiting team kept a low profile after the kick-off, focusing on low defense, never rushing to steal, and never investing heavily when there was a chance to counterattack, as if they could steal if they could, and if they couldn't steal, they would prioritize ensuring their defensive position.
The Yellow Submarine, based at the Estadio degli Ambrosi, has also been in poor form recently, although they won a 1- victory over Athletic Bilbao in the last round of the league; but since the New Year, the conflict between coach Pellegrini and midfield core Riquelme has intensified, and he was eventually removed from the lineup and tried to fill the vacancy of the Argentine attacking midfielder with Chilean Mateis Fernandez.
However, Pellegrini's tactical adjustments are still in the running-in period, the team's performance is not stable, and the team's morale has also been hit by internal conflicts. Therefore, in this game, the Chilean engineer's strategy is also to play safe, try to control the ball, don't rush all the troops, and be extremely careful to deal with the guest team's counterattack and wing attacks.
Therefore, throughout the first half, both teams only had two shots each before entering the halftime break.
In the second half, neither side was in a hurry to make substitutions, and they still maintained the slow pace and cautious defensive posture of the first half.
However, Juan Ramos seemed to have discovered some problems in the dull game on the field - the recent losing streak in the league does not seem to be just a problem of form, but Juan Ramos is not sure of the specific reasons yet, so he still has to wait and see.
It was not until the 70th minute of the game that Juan Ramos started to make substitutions. He replaced two players at once. The Italian twins appeared on the field at the same time. No. 7 Li Qi replaced No. 18 Matti, but No. 11 Renato, who originally played as a striker, returned to the midfield, while Maresca replaced Paulson, who performed mediocrely in this game.
After Li Qi came on the court, the situation in Sevilla improved. Although the midfield was still controlled by the home team and the away team found it difficult to pass the ball to the front line through the midfield, Li Qi's frequent pull-up to receive long passes and retreat to organize the team still had a certain effect. The only problem was that the cooperation between Li Qi and Korzakov was not tacit enough, and the latter was not a fulcrum striker in the frontcourt.
So once Li Qi retreated, it was difficult for Sevilla to protect the ball on the front line. The tactic of Li Qi retreating to receive the ball and then cutting back to attack, which had worked well in the first half of the season, could no longer be used. Just when Li Qi was still thinking about how to further improve the efficiency of the attack, or whether he could switch positions with Maresca to deal with him, the situation on the field changed again...
First, Navas was knocked down by the opponent during a wing attack and sprained his ankle. In order to be conservative, Juan Ramos replaced Navas with Duda and moved Puerta to the right forward position.
Then in the 82nd minute of the game, veteran Osio injured his thigh during a header and was unable to continue the game; at this time, Sevilla had already used up their three substitutions...
So Juan Ramos didn't think of any other result, so he let Marti return to the central defender position and Li Qi returned to the defensive midfielder position, trying to maintain the draw until the end of the game.
Seeing that the visiting team was one man down, the home team was still patiently passing the ball back and forth without blindly increasing their attack, seemingly fearing the visiting team's defensive counterattack...
In the end, the two sides drew in the 90-minute match, and the two teams only contributed 11 shots throughout the game...
In any case, Sevilla, playing with one less player, finally stopped its losing streak in the slump and is still 2 points ahead of Barcelona, which has 3 games less.
However, this lead did not last more than 24 hours. Sevilla's one-and-a-half-month-long top spot finally expired, and Barcelona, who won this round, tied the points with them, and surpassed them with a slight advantage in goal difference and head-to-head advantage.
Since the New Year, Barcelona was first tied 1-1 by Getafe away from home, and then lost 1-3 to their city rivals Espanyol away from home. However, in this round, Barcelona returned to their home court and defeated the second-to-last team Tarragona 3-0, returning to the top of the standings with the advantage of goal difference and winning the half-time league championship.
The other title contender also equalized the score difference. Real Madrid lost 0-2 to Deportivo La Coruna as a guest after the New Year, but beat Zaragoza 1-0 at home, and then beat Mallorca 1-0 away. With the one-goal wins in the last two games, Real Madrid has 2007 wins and 3 loss in 2 league games since 1, and has 6 points, tying the points of the leader.
In this way, there are three teams in La Liga with 3 points each, but Real Madrid is temporarily ranked third due to its goal difference and disadvantage in head-to-head matches.
In addition, Valencia also quietly caught up, beating Villarreal 1-0 away, Levante 3-0 at home, and then Real Sociedad 1-0 away; Valencia won 6 consecutive games, and won all three league games since 2007, earning 9 points, narrowing the gap of 8 points with the leaders, and temporarily ranked fourth in the league with 37 points, returning to the league championship race in an instant...
The coming week will be a crucial week of preparation and adjustment for Sevilla. Firstly, the team’s record and form have not been good since the New Year. Secondly, starting next week, the team will have an intensive and important schedule. If they are not careful, all of last year’s efforts may go to waste.
In the league this weekend, Sevilla will continue to play away against newly promoted Levante. Although it is one of the weakest opponents in recent times, they still have to travel far to Valencia where the home team is located to play away.
Then in the middle of the week, it was the first leg of the King's Cup quarter-finals. Juan Ramos originally wanted to give up the King's Cup, but unfortunately, his opponent in the King's Cup quarter-finals was Real Betis, his city rival! That was a game he had to do his best to win no matter what, and once he entered the next round, it would be the King's Cup semi-finals...
Therefore, Juan Ramos has a feeling of being rushed into the game, and it seems that he has no choice but to play in the King's Cup.
After the King's Cup, only two days later, Sevilla will return to their home ground to face the challenge of another relegation team, Real Sociedad...
Fortunately, the injuries of the two players injured in the last round of the league were not too serious. Navas can return after a week of rest. Although Osio has to rest for two to three weeks, the impact on the team's lineup is not too great. In addition, Kanoute, David and Escud who were injured before will also soon return to the team after recovering from their injuries.
However, due to two consecutive weeks of away games and the maternity leave, Ricardo will not see his sweet beauty Chiara for almost a month. Fortunately, with Eva's caring care and Sofia's company, Ricardo will not be lonely.
However, Sarafina made an appointment to visit next week. It happened that she was going to start school on February 2st. She used the excuse of returning to school a little early to make a detour to Seville for a trip. She said she wanted to take the opportunity to clear out little Ricardo's savings and spend the traditional Chinese Laba Festival with Ricardo before leaving.
So the team took the rare opportunity to rest and prepare for the game during the week, and Ricardo was also busy. After finishing his private lessons on Monday morning, January 1, Ricardo put on a handsome suit and went to the airport to greet the little princess.
As for Eva, she took Sofia back to her grandparents' home in the town, and was very considerate to leave Ricardo some private space. Eva will take Sofia to the kindergarten in the town to handle the transfer procedures, and will not return to the city to attend the kindergarten affiliated with the private elementary school until February 2st. She also intends to let Sofia spend more time with her grandparents who have been taking care of her...
Seville is located at the southernmost tip of Europe and close to the sea, so the temperature at the end of January is not too cold, only about 1 degrees Celsius. So the little princess didn't wear too much today, a light blue strapless corset with the same blue wide-leg pants, a long camel coat from Parada, and a pair of khaki high-heeled Martin boots. Her long hair was hanging in loose waves, revealing a touch of red lips and warm smoky eye makeup, looking very energetic.
But... I haven't seen her for only a month. Although her body proportions are still good, Sarafina seems to have gained some weight, and it seems that a layer of fleshiness is beginning to be hidden under her petite and cute temperament.
Ricardo took the little princess's suitcase from a close distance and touched her slender waist. As expected, she gained three pounds every holiday season! But the chubby little princess should be more cute and fun.
Sarafina can be said to be the one with the best physique among Ricardo's girlfriends. After all, she is also the youngest one. So when the little princess set a flag and said that she wanted to clear out little Ricardo, it was really not a joke. So in the past few days, Ricardo spent the last few days in the head coach's hellish training and the little princess's devilish training, feeling both pain and happiness...
However, Sarafina was well prepared and did not let her beloved male lover embarrass himself during the training on the second day. Every day, as long as she reached Ricardo's limit, they would fall asleep in each other's arms.
In the past few days, when the weather is good and Ricardo is training, Sarafina will drag a certain scumbag who is almost being squeezed dry to visit major attractions in Seville, such as the Seville Cathedral, which is second only to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and the Milan Cathedral in Italy, the Giralda Tower, a landmark building in Seville, and the most popular Plaza de España and the Royal Palace of Seville, etc.
The scumbag also took the opportunity to do his homework, planning to repeat the same trick on Julian, who planned to visit the set and pass through to return to school in the middle of next month.
On the evening of January 1, after sharing the Laba porridge cooked by Ricardo, Sarafina's colorful journey in Seville came to an end. In the morning of January 26, Ricardo saw Sarafina off to London, and Ricardo also left with the team to Valencia to challenge Levante.
In order to prepare for the Copa del Rey derby with Real Betis in the middle of the week, Juan Ramos made more rotations in this round of the league.
The starting lineup of the 1-- team is as follows: No. , veteran goalkeeper Palop;
No. 19 Dragutinovic replaced the injured Osio and No. 2 Navarro as the double center backs, while the left and right full backs were No. 5 Duda and No. 4 Alves;
The double defensive midfielders are No. 18 Marti and No. 7 Li Qi, and the left and right wingers are No. 6 Adriano and No. 25 Maresca;
The two forwards are No. 12 Kanoute who has returned from injury and No. 9 Korzakov who was newly recruited in the winter window.
In this game, the Italian twin stars started together again!
This lineup appeared for the first time this season, especially Li Qi had few opportunities to start as a defensive midfielder, so Sevilla, playing away from home, played cautiously after the start of the game.
Li Qi mainly moved the ball in the midfield and backcourt, controlled the ball under his feet, and helped players who had played less games before, teammates who had just recovered from injuries, and new players to touch the ball more to find their form, feel, and develop tacit understanding.
However, compared with the newly promoted team, Sevilla is still stronger despite playing away. In the first 15 minutes of the game, Sevilla mainly dispatched the ball in the backcourt to stabilize the situation; the home team did not get any offensive and the ball possession rate was also far behind.
And once Sevilla gained a foothold, they launched wave after wave of attacks on the home team!
The first shot came in the 18th minute. Li Qi made a penetrating pass, Korzakov pulled to the right and passed the ball, Maresca came in from behind and shot wide from 20 yards in front of the goal.
Two minutes later, Li Qi passed the ball from the middle again, Adriano made a cross from the side, and Kanoute overpowered the defender and successfully got to the front post, but his header lacked power and was saved by goalkeeper Molina.
In the 28th minute, Li Qi, Marty and Maresca passed the ball to each other in a brilliant pass-cut combination. Then Li Qi advanced to the top of the penalty area, faked a shot and passed the ball diagonally to Korzakov who was lurking in the corner of the penalty area...
However, Korzakov was obviously fooled by Li Qi's fake shot and failed to start in time. He could only use a shovel shot near the baseline to sweep the ball that was about to go out of bounds across the goal, but it was blocked by the goalkeeper and went out of the baseline.
In the 32nd minute, Sevilla had a golden opportunity to score.
Li Qi controlled the ball while circling in the middle, and after observing for a while, he suddenly turned half-way and sent a straight pass behind Maresca on the right... and with the help of Maresca blocking the opponent's defensive player, Alves came in from the back, received the ball and rushed forward, then made a cross near the right side of the penalty area.
The ball drew a rainbow-like arc and fell straight into the middle of the small penalty area. Kanoute had already positioned himself and jumped up, ready to head the ball!
Unfortunately, the ball was punched out by goalkeeper Molina... and the ball was intercepted by Adriano after being hit outside the penalty area. The latter directly shot the empty goal from the left side of the penalty area, but unfortunately the ball missed the left post.
However, before Sevilla had time to regret having missed the opportunity, their next attack was successful.
Li Qi, who was originally close to the right and pretending to organize an attack with Maresca on the right, saw that he had attracted the opponent's defense to shift, so he made a quick and accurate long pass, directly across half the court, directly to the chest of Adriano who was advancing...
Adriano did not hesitate after stopping the ball. He made a straight pass towards the penalty area before the opponent's defense line had time to redeploy, and made a textbook straight pass and diagonal cooperation with Korzakov.
The latter broke into the left side of the penalty area and made a powerful low cross... The ball passed the defender in the middle and the goalkeeper who tried to intercept it, and Kanoute, who was ambushed at the far end, easily pushed the ball into the empty goal from 8 yards in front of the goal! Kanoute scored his 16th league goal of the season, helping Sevilla lead Levante 1-0.
Juan Ramos couldn't help but applaud on the sidelines when he saw the full development of this goal. Li Qi first controlled the offensive rhythm, then suddenly accelerated and exerted force from the weak point of the defense line. Adriano's handling was also very decisive and reasonable. Korzakov also began to integrate into the team and formed a tacit understanding. In the end, Kanoute's lore looked simple, but his technical action before asking the defensive players to stick to him was also very exciting...
Although many main players were rotated, today's Sevilla seemed a little different from before. The midfield and offensive organization were very smooth, which was completely different from the previous games when the offense was very anxious and laborious.
While Juan Ramos was thinking with his head down, Sevilla almost expanded its lead again before the end of the first half. Unfortunately, this time Maresca's header at the far end failed to control the ball and flew into the stands.
Seeing that Lao Ma had actually used his ingenious trick of passing the ball to the ball, Li Qi couldn't help but put his hand on his forehead: Damn, how come this team has no tacit understanding? The trick was enough to sway the opponent, but he didn't expect to sway his own players as well...
So the visiting team Sevilla entered the halftime break with a one-goal lead.
……
