Chapter 169: Battle against old club Barcelona, Part
Barcelona is in a turbulent period this season. There have been fierce infighting among the top management of Barcelona in the past two seasons, and Rijkaard is not the kind of iron-fisted coach who can calm the situation. In addition, the core players are not mentally mature enough, such as Ronaldinho and Eto'o... Ricardo had anticipated, or predicted the development of things from old Li Qi, so he actively wanted to loan them out this season to stay away from the center of right and wrong; of course, staying in the team does not guarantee a starting position and there is no chance of winning a championship, which are also two aspects.
But outsiders don't know the reason. They just think Ricardo is lucky. He just won several championships in Barcelona and was loaned out during Barcelona's turbulent period. Some fans who admire Ricardo even radically believe that Ricardo's loan out has led to Barcelona's unstable morale and poor performance this season...
However, Ricardo did stay in Barcelona for two seasons, and his current contract still belongs to the Barcelona club, but he is on loan to Sevilla.
As a result, Ricardo not only understands Barcelona's tactical system very well, but is also familiar with most of Barcelona's current main players. Even the new main right-back Zambrotta is Ricardo's teammate and elder brother in the Italian national team, and they have a good relationship. After all, they won a World Cup together.
So even though Juan Ramos and Sevilla are no strangers to Barcelona, they will also consult Ricardo's opinions and views before the game when facing the challenge of the leader Barcelona this weekend.
Ricardo naturally knew everything he could say. He couldn't help but elaborate on the technical characteristics of Barcelona players. After all, these had been studied thoroughly by the media and scouts. Ricardo knew that Sevilla's coaching staff had a whole box of analysis reports on the technical characteristics of Barcelona's first-line players.
So what Ricardo mainly introduced to Juan Ramos was the understanding of football, personality traits and thinking methods of several core bosses of Barcelona. Ricardo had consulted or exchanged understandings and views on football with them before in Barcelona, which belonged to a deeper discussion; naturally, this time he sold them more thoroughly, for example, Ronaldinho, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Eto'o, even Puyol and Marcos, the better their relationship with Ricardo, the more thoroughly they were sold by Ricardo...
Juan Ramos and the Sevilla coaching staff were overjoyed. Their notebooks were filled with notes so many times that the pens were almost smoking: What was Ricardo talking about with his teammates? This was quite an in-depth understanding. They even explored his thinking patterns when he was in control of the ball?
After talking about the players' situation, we will naturally talk about Barcelona's tactical system. Of course, Juan Ramos has his own thoughts, but after all, Ricardo is a player who has been integrated into the system. Although he is not the core, he has been a main rotation player for a period of time.
However, when Juan Ramos and the coaching staff heard Ricardo's explanation of Barcelona's tactical system, they were stunned: Wow! Ricardo, did you secretly attend a coaching training class? This tactical analysis of Barcelona is too detailed and accurate...
Of course, Ricardo would not say that in a few years, the whole world will know the specific tactical details of Barcelona. After all, old Li Qi has many experts who will constantly review and interpret Barcelona's Dream Team II, and even write many papers and reports.
Originally thought to be a short consultation session of ten minutes, it ended up being a tactical meeting between Juan Ramos and Ricardo and the coaching staff. They discussed for nearly three hours, and even Eva, who was waiting to relax after training Ricardo, called several times out of worry.
Of course, the specific tactical details will be perfected by the coaching staff, including compiling the preparation files corresponding to each position, which will be sent to each player on the game roster before tomorrow's training session. There are still two training sessions and three days before the game.
Not all coaching staff will prepare such detailed tactical requirements and preparation documents for all matches, but it is definitely necessary for the match against Barcelona, regardless of whether it is a top battle or not.
But for Ricardo, the basic tactical requirement is to take advantage of the hidden dangers of the core players of the Barcelona club being in disunity and the physical disadvantages of preparing for the Champions League and playing away games, give up possession of the ball, use positional defense to cut off Barcelona's tactical area, suddenly accelerate the pressure in certain specific time periods, and launch a blitzkrieg with high pressure.
As for the actual selection, the burden of commanding pressure was given to Ricardo, who played defense and organization...
The weekend of this round of competition happened to be China's Lantern Festival, and Chiara arrived as scheduled, wearing a purple cheongsam with a high slit... Fortunately, Eva took good care of him during the week, so little Ricardo didn't explode with excitement on Friday night.
So on the day of the game on Saturday night, Ricardo was able to maintain a fairly good condition and physical strength to deal with the top battle, and he was still refreshed. The moderate decompression and the endless compliments from the beauty helped Ricardo find his self-confidence and ambition to dominate the court.
Barcelona also played a King's Cup match in the middle of the week. Compared with the twists and turns in the Sevilla match, it was not easy for Barcelona to win away from home; but still relying on the goals scored by the twin stars of the midfield - Xavi and Iniesta in the 18th and 26th minutes of the first half, they managed to avenge Zaragoza with a score of 2-1 away from home despite the difficulties.
In the end, the two sides tied 2-2 in the aggregate score of the two rounds, and Barcelona narrowly advanced to the King's Cup semi-finals with more away goals. This is also the first time that Barcelona has eliminated its opponent in the last seven knockout matches against Zaragoza.
However, although the league was originally a battle between the top and the second place in the league, for Barcelona, everything will give way to the Champions League life-and-death battle at Anfield in Liverpool, England next week. Because even if Barcelona loses to Sevilla, there are still many opportunities to make up in the long league, while the Champions League match against Liverpool is a one-shot game to decide life and death.
So Barcelona coach Rijkaard still decided to arrange some of the team's main players to rest. In addition, he was still hesitant about whether to let Eto'o start: "Deco and Thuram will rest, Motta suffered a minor injury in training, they will all rest... Eto'o is ready, although he may not play the full 90 minutes... The three points in the game are very important for both teams. The team that doesn't get three points will feel a lot of pressure."
Rijkaard's last words in the interview before the game exposed Barcelona's mentality towards this game. Winning and getting three points is certainly important, but even if they don't win, it's just pressure, not critical, as there's still a long way to go in the league.
There was no belief in winning. On the bus to the stadium, Ricardo saw the news report and had new thoughts on Barcelona's tactical arrangement...
Before the game, the starting lineups for both teams were finally announced. Chiara chose to stay home and watch the game on TV. Because the game was too popular today, the VIP tickets had been sold out in advance. As for the ordinary tickets, Ricardo was worried about the safety of the beautiful snake, so he might as well stay home and prepare a bathtub with bath water and ice compresses for himself.
Originally, Sevilla had not reached an agreement on the La Liga broadcasting rights for this season, so there had been no live broadcasts of Sevilla's La Liga games before; however, at this point in the league, and with it being a battle for the top spot, the paying members of the TV sports channel would not be happy if there were no more broadcasts, so two days before the game, the broadcaster hastily signed a contract with Sevilla for the broadcasting rights for the rest of the league, which basically met the asking price of Sevilla, which now has an outstanding record.
Chiara can also sit at home, wearing a thin and translucent purple lace pajamas, and watch her boyfriend appear on the home team's starting lineup with a sly smile on TV.
Sevilla still uses a 4-4-2 formation, with veteran No. 1 goalkeeper Palop as the goalkeeper;
The two full-backs on the left and right sides of the back line are No. 3 David and No. 4 Alves, and the double center backs are No. 19 Dragutinovic and No. 20 Osio, who replace the injured captain Navarro and Escude;
The left and right wings of the midfield are No. 6 Adriano and No. 15 Navas, and the double defensive midfielders are the main force No. 11 Renato and No. 8 Paulson;
The two forwards are No. 12 Kanoute and No. 7 Li Qi.
Players such as Puerta, Maresca, Korzakov, Alfaro and Duda were on standby on the bench.
Although some players were rested at Barcelona, the starting lineup was still star-studded; Rijkaard deployed the 4-3-3 formation that Barcelona has been accustomed to in recent seasons;
The goalkeeper is No. 1 Valdés;
The left and right wingbacks are No. 11 Zambrotta and No. 12 Van Brongthorst, and the double center backs are captain No. 5 Puyol and No. 23 Oleguer;
The midfield trident is No. 4 Marcos and No. 24 Iniesta, assisted by the brain No. 6 Xavi;
The forward trident is No. 8 Giuly, No. 19 Messi and the core No. 10 Ronaldinho;
Also sitting on the bench are big-name players such as Cheetah Eto'o, Little Rabbit Saviola, Edmilson and Sylvinho.
When warming up before the game, Ricardo also hugged and greeted many former teammates, such as Ronaldinho's father, Xavi's elder brother and Puyol's elder brother, etc. And he and Iniesta and Messi, who are close friends, started to greet each other's families through text messages during the Spring Festival two weeks ago and fought with each other using texts.
The Sevilla coaches and teammates looked at Ricardo's close relationship with Barcelona bigwigs such as Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Xavi, Puyol and Zambrotta, and couldn't help but admire Ricardo's social skills, but at the same time they couldn't help but worry whether Ricardo would be soft-hearted when the game started, after all, this kid was only on loan.
Ricardo seemed to know the worries of the coaching staff and teammates: "Don't worry, don't worry, I am the little brother level, and I am the only one who can beat them. They, as the big brothers, should not always give in to the little brothers! What's more, I want to let them know that if I am loaned out, they will suffer a great loss. Just watch me beat them!"
Barcelona was defeated 0-3 by Sevilla in the European Super Cup at the beginning of the season, and also lost 2-3 away from home in the final stage of last season. However, Barcelona had already won the championship in that game, and most of the main players did not travel with the team; and Rijkaard won both times when he visited the Pizjuan Stadium before the above two games.
不过如果拉长到更长的交战历史上，在双方在塞维利亚的主场共有62次交手，其中塞维利亚28胜17平17负打入104球丢70球占据上风。
Both teams wore traditional home uniforms in this game. The starting 11 of the home team Sevilla wore white shirts and white pants, while the starting players of the visiting team Barcelona wore blue and red striped suits.
The players from both teams lined up on the field, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle. The most important focus match of the 06th round of the 07/25 Spanish Football League was about to begin!
After the start of the game, both sides fought fiercely and neither side dared to leave any offensive space to the opponent; but in general, Barcelona dominated the ball possession, except for the first two minutes, when Sevilla pressed out to grab the ball and then retreated to play a defensive counterattack, giving possession of the ball to Barcelona.
However, once Barcelona passed the half court, there was a fierce fight, especially near the center circle. Li Qi retreated to join Paulson and Renato's camp to confront Barcelona's midfield iron triangle of Marcos, Iniesta and Xavi.
With the addition of Li Qi, Sevilla not only has an overwhelming advantage in speed and physical strength, but also has a better understanding of Barcelona's midfield passing mode; it can only force Barcelona to constantly pass the ball to the sides or directly pass the ball to the forward line.
However, the wing is Sevilla's strong point, especially the golden right corridor of Navas and Alves. Giuly and Van Bronckhorst have no advantage at all on the left.
So around the 7th minute of the game, when the ball reached Van Bronckhorst's feet on the left side of Barcelona, Li Qi observed that Barcelona's formation was not ideal, the distance between the three lines was a bit large, and Van Bronckhorst did not stop the ball very well, not only was it a bit big, but it also stopped behind him.
When Li Qi saw that this was a rare opportunity, he didn't hesitate and shouted, "Go!" He took the lead and rushed forward to press Van Bronckhorst.
So Sevilla pressed forward as a group, changing their previous style of half-court defense and low-post counterattack, and went straight to high-pressure defense. Nine of the 11 players in the team crossed the half-court together, and immediately threw Barcelona into a state of disarray.
When Van Bronckhorst saw Li Qi approaching fiercely, he knew that this guy was not easy to deal with. He had intercepted the ball many times during team training last season. However, there was no point nearby to receive the ball, and all the passes were blocked by the home team. It was difficult to pass the ball now, and he didn't dare to pass it. Moreover, he had no time to think and observe, and the grandson was approaching.
Just at that moment of physical contact, Van Bronckhorst was almost knocked off balance by Li Qi, and the ball almost slipped out of his control. However, Van Bronckhorst was not sure whether he had caused Li Qi to foul.
Van Bronckhorst originally wanted to clear the ball directly, but remembering the coach's instructions to keep control of the ball with his feet as much as possible, he could only try to protect the ball with his back to keep in position, and then pass the ball back to the goalkeeper with his opposite foot.
But Li Qi had predicted it and knew that Van Bronckhorst's pass was not good, so he chased after the ball.
Seeing the ball coming towards him and about to be caught by Li Qi, Valdez in front of the goal was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat: Damn, is my teammate going to stab me from behind? Just clear the ball and it will be over! Do I have to test my own goalkeeper?
Valdes rushed out and flew up to tackle the ball, barely able to kick it out; but in a hurry, Valdes only reached the ball with his toes, and the ball was blocked by Li Qi's shin guards, so he had no power and did not fly far. It was directly caught by Navas' chest not far from the corner of the penalty area. At this time, Barcelona had an empty goal!
Navas didn't adjust, he paused with his chest, raised his leg and shot. The ball flew into the air, drew a parabola, brushed the face and hair of Puyol who was flying to block the ball, and went straight to the Barcelona goal; at the same time, Valdés also hurriedly got up and rushed to the goal, Marcos also rushed to the front of the goal, ready to clear the ball at any time...
However, Valdés and Marcos's help did not work, but the ball did not fall into the net. With a bang, it hit the crossbar and bounced out of the bottom line, which made Barcelona sweat! After Van Bronckhorst passed the ball back to Xiao, he knelt on the ground waiting for punishment until the ball bounced out of the boundary, then he stood up and raised his hand to signal.
Navas also hugged his head in annoyance, what a pity! Li Qi also pointed at Kanoute who was flanking in the middle. Navas stopped and passed the ball to Kanoute, which was the chance to score the winning goal. Of course, Navas cannot be blamed. It is indeed a rare opportunity. If it goes in, it is a good goal, nothing to say, but if it doesn't go in, there are ten thousand reasons to wait.
After a quick grab, they almost created a goal. When Barcelona picked the ball back and prepared to take a goal kick, Sevilla shrank back, set up their defense firmly and continued to play a low defensive counterattack.
……
