Chapter 204: A pragmatic second championship of the season,

Ricardo was not surprised to learn that Valencia had completely fallen behind in the championship race. After all, among those with a discerning eye, this was obvious. Only fools and true gamblers would believe that Valencia still had a chance to turn the tide.

Even for Sevilla, which is now 4 points behind the top of the table, Ricardo feels that this theoretically preserved hope no longer exists. With two rounds left in the league, hoping that the two Spanish Super League giants will not win a single game? This seems to be more difficult than winning the lottery jackpot...

But it is obvious that the Sevilla team does not have the time to care about the probability of winning the league title. After all, the King's Cup final in three days is the highlight of the team at the moment, and everyone's energy and attention are also on preparing for this key battle that will determine the outcome.

2007年5月30日晚上22时，06/07赛季西班牙国王杯决赛在伯纳乌球场展开争夺。

Neither team has ever won the Copa del Rey, but Sevilla reached the domestic cup final five times before 1977 and won three times, while Getafe is reaching the cup final for the first time in history.

In order to make way for the Spanish King's Cup, Italian coach Donadoni, who has confirmed the call-up of Ricardo Licci and Maresca, has also allowed the two to report to the national team the day after the game. Of course, it is highly likely that the two will not play in the away game against the Faroe Islands on the evening of June 6. They should save their energy and physical strength for the away game against Lithuania on the evening of June 2.

Facing the third cup title of the season - yes, Sevilla has already started to spread the rumor that the European Super Cup title is also an important part of the triple crown - Juan Ramos undoubtedly sent out the lineup that he believes is in the strongest state and strength.

But generally speaking, Juan Ramos copied the starting lineup of the previous UEFA Cup final. Only Dragutinovic was replaced by Escude due to a red card suspension, and Navas replaced Maresca, who was not very obedient in the previous final:

Goalkeeper No. 1 Palop;

The left and right backs are No. 16 Puerta and No. 4 Alves, and the double center backs are captain No. 2 Navarro and No. 14 Escude;

The four midfielders are No. 15 Navas, No. 7 Li Qi, No. 8 Paulson and No. 6 Adriano;

The double center forwards are No. 12 Kanoute and No. 10 Fabiano;

Korzakov, Renato, Marti, Maresca, Osio and Duda were on the bench.

Getafe also played in the final with most of their main players hidden in the weekend league. Berenguer, who was attacked from behind by Ronaldinho in the weekend league, also played in the 4-4-2 formation. The starting lineup is as follows:

Goalkeeper No. 13 Abondan Shelly;

The four defenders lined up in a row: No. 5 Pulido, No. 3 Paredes, No. 4 Berenguer and No. 2 Contra;

Standing in parallel in the midfield are No. 15 Najon, No. 22 Cascro, No. 7 Cotero and No. 6 Celestini;

The forward duo is No. 19 Guiza and No. 14 Manu;

The bench includes strong players such as Pajon, Dorado, Maris, Alexis and Panovich.

Although the Getafe players are not as famous as Sevilla, Li Qi and Juan Ramos dare not underestimate the enemy. After all, they have reached the final of the King's Cup, which is enough to prove the strength of the opponent. What's more, the opponent swept Barcelona 4-0 at home in the last round, stepping on the corpse of the Universe Team...

Therefore, whether it is the tactical arrangement or the rhythm after the start of the game, Sevilla is mainly stable. Of course, the arrangement is basically the same as the UEFA Cup final. Li Qi secretly complained about Juan Ramos' laziness. But it is understandable. After all, the final is a nameless game. Both sides must be playing safe and avoiding mistakes. Naturally, there is not much room for special arrangements...

However, in such a tense atmosphere in the final, normal people would be nervous. Even Li Qi, who has won the World Cup, would be a little nervous when playing in the King's Cup final. What's more, most of the players were playing in such an important cup final for the first time. If they were nervous, their movements would naturally be stiff, and if their movements were stiff, they would naturally make mistakes!

Just two minutes into the game, Contra, who was obviously too excited and nervous, committed a flying tackle on Puerta while pressing him, and was shown the first yellow card of the game by the referee.

Immediately afterwards, Li Qi's sudden straight pass through the middle in the 6th minute easily tore through Getafe's defense. Getafe's double defensive midfielders were obviously half a beat slower, and Li Qi's outside foot sent a pass that was not fast but very threatening.

Kanoute protected the ball with his back to the top of the penalty area, and when the opponent's central defender Berenguer came up, he promptly passed the ball to the right wing and fired a shot to Navas, who was on the right side of the penalty area, about 23 yards away from the goal!

The long shot was powerful, but unfortunately the angle was too straight and was saved by Abondanshelli.

However, during this attack, Li Qi discovered an obvious problem for Getafe at this stage, that is, the double defensive midfielders and double central defenders - at least Berenguer, they should be too nervous, which leads to a bit of stiffness in their movements, which is reflected in their slow movements, and their movements and kicks are a bit hesitant...

Li Qi decided to seize the opportunity to make a move before Getafe could adjust. And the opportunity was soon discovered by Li Qi.

Because it was the final, Juan Ramos did not allow the team to continue high pressing, leaving the opponent too much space for counterattack; so Sevilla adopted a half-court defense after the 8th minute, giving Getafe space to organize and advance.

At the 10th minute of the game, after another unsuccessful attack by Sevilla, it was Getafe's turn to advance with the ball in the midfield and backcourt; Li Qi, who had retreated to the half court, suddenly shouted: "Grab!" and directed Kanoute, Fabiano and Navas to press forward at the same time, forcing the Getafe player with the ball.

At this time, the player in control of the ball in Getafe was the young midfielder Najon, and Li Qi saw that he would organize a steal after receiving the ball because according to his angle, he would most likely only be able to safely return to Berenguer, the prey that Li Qi had targeted!

As expected, Najon, who was suddenly pressed, was obviously a little flustered, and hurriedly passed the ball back to the central defender of his own defense line who was easiest to lock in his sight. However, Najon's pass was not fast and accurate, and Berenguer had to turn around to stop the ball.

Berenguer's ability to stop the ball was obviously not good enough, and the ball stopped a little distance from his body. However, when Berenguer discovered the problem and tried to clear the ball, he could only kick the air!

@

In this match, only Eva came to watch the match among Li Qi's girlfriends. Moreover, the facilities and security of the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid are quite good, so Li Qi specially asked Pimenta to arrange a VIP box for Eva and Sofia. After all, the final between Sevilla and Getafe would not allow scalpers to drive up the ticket prices...

The mother and daughter, who came to the Bernabeu to watch a game for the first time, went into the VIP box. Everything they saw was new and there were all kinds of delicious food, from Spanish ham to Japanese sushi, from various fruits to Peking duck, and all kinds of wine, beverages and pastries. It was no different from a high-end buffet restaurant in a five-star hotel.

So 10 minutes into the game, the little foodie Sofia was still dragging Eva to pick out food, not noticing the changes on the court or the roar of the commentator coming from the TV screen in the box...

"It's Getafe's turn to organize the attack..."

"Oh! Sevilla suddenly attacked collectively!"

"Najon's pass back was not a good one!"

"Berenguer stops the ball... Oh my god! Li Qi steals the ball cleanly!"

"Break into the penalty area! Pass the ball horizontally..."

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Kanut received a pass from Li Qi 15 yards in front of the goal and successfully scored into the empty net!"

"Li Qi seized on Nachon's mistake in passing the ball back and Berenguer's slowness in handling the ball, and he quickly rushed forward and directly intercepted the ball from Berenguer's feet!"

"Najon's pass was really bad. It lacked strength and precision, which made Berenguer stop awkwardly."

"Either Berenguer should have kicked the ball back to the goalkeeper, or he should have just cleared the ball. His awkward turn to stop the ball, coupled with his hesitation and delay, gave Li Qi an opportunity to take advantage."

"The slow-motion replay shows that when Najon was about to pass the ball back, Li Qi had already predicted the trajectory of the ball and started moving towards Berenguer. As soon as Berenguer turned around to stop the ball, Li Qi cut him off in one step, as if he was passing the ball to Li Qi..."

"However, Li Qi did not take credit for himself. He rushed to the edge of the penalty area in three steps. Facing the attacking Abondanshelli alone, he chose the safest sideways pass to assist. Kanoute, who followed up, could not let the ball fly away. He only needed to steadily push the ball into the huge empty goal..."

"The game had only been going on for 11 minutes when Sevilla scored the first goal, 1-0, leading Getafe in this season's Copa del Rey final! Getafe is in trouble. Let's see if Getafe will launch a massive counterattack..."

However, Getafe, which was behind, was obviously very afraid of Sevilla's quick counterattack. Head coach Schuster also stood up in time and directed the team to stay calm on the sidelines. He still followed the pre-match arrangements and tried to calm the team down and adapt to the rhythm and intensity of the game first, at least to make the players less nervous.

This was beyond Li Qi's expectations, and after losing the ball, Getafe seemed to have come to their senses all of a sudden. Most of the players began to control the ball calmly and steadily.

In the 16th minute of the game, Li Qi tried to copy the development path of the first goal and commanded the team to press forward again, but was cracked by Getafe. This time, Berenguer used a very beautiful pull-and-turn to get past Li Qi who was using the same trick again.

Moreover, Getafe seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack when Li Qi was out of position. Casquero made a straight pass, and Guiza inserted diagonally behind Navarro and successfully got the ball from the offside position! However, when Guiza tried to dribble past the goalkeeper, Palop, who attacked in time, bravely confiscated the ball from the former's feet.

When Cascro sent a straight pass, the focused Palop was ready to attack; so Guiza didn't have much time to think. The latter didn't have time to shoot after receiving the ball, so he could only try to dribble past the goalkeeper, but Palop guessed the direction again...

Knowing that he made a mistake, Li Qi didn't dare to look at the coach's almost fiery eyes on the sidelines. Fortunately, he didn't lose the ball, so he honestly came back to defend and organize the ball seriously, and no longer took risks to steal the ball. So after that, although both sides fought fiercely, there were not many good opportunities for a while.

Before the end of the first half, Sevilla still had a chance to score. Li Qi took advantage of the opponent's short-term slack mentality at the end of the first half and suddenly passed the ball over the top. Fabiano did not stop the ball but chose to head the ball directly. Navas followed up and shot again with his right foot from the right side of the penalty area, almost the same position as the long shot at the beginning of the game!

But this time Navas chose to shoot low into the far corner, but the ball was once again saved by La Liga Golden Glove Abbondanshelli...

So Sevilla entered the halftime break with a score of 1-0. However, Li Qi knew that the balance of victory had begun to tilt towards Sevilla; because Getafe was a team with distinct characteristics, that is, it was good at defense and counterattack, but had few methods in positional attack.

If Getafe failed to equalize the score quickly, Sevilla, who broke the deadlock first, would have taken the lead in winning the championship.

In the second half, as Li Qi expected, although Getafe obviously began to tighten up its attack, the simple long and diagonal passes did not pose any threat to the well-positioned Sevilla defense.

On the contrary, Sevilla, who could always easily win back the ball, launched a successful counterattack under the organization and instigation of Li Qi.

Originally, Li Qi wanted to control the ball more when leading, force Getafe to steal the ball, and then attack behind the opponent's defense. But obviously, head coach Juan Ramos didn't want to take such a risk. If Getafe stole the ball and counterattacked on the spot, the score would be tied. It would be fun, but there was no need to take the risk. So Juan Ramos asked Li Qi to send the ball out of his own half as soon as possible, speed up the counterattack, quickly threaten the opponent's defensive third zone, and push the opponent's formation back to the half...

Moreover, just 5 minutes into the second half, Juan Ramos replaced Fabiano, who had a mediocre performance in the first half and was still a bit slow in passing the ball in the second half, with Korzakov, obviously intending to continue to accelerate the speed of counterattacks.

And the first time Korzakov touched the ball after coming on the pitch was when he received a diagonal pass from Li Qi and ran through the middle. Berenguer was forced to tackle the new substitute from behind. The price he paid was that the Getafe captain also received a yellow sapphire card.

Soon after, Korzakov once again used his skills and flexibility to create threats in the counterattack. He first got rid of the entanglement of Getafe defenders on the wing, and then passed the ball to the middle. Unfortunately, Kanoute's powerful shot from 25 yards in front of the goal was too straight and was caught by goalkeeper Abbondanshelli.

For a moment, Korzakov, who came on as a substitute, became the most active player on the field. Li Qi was happy to keep passing the ball to him so that he could attract the firepower, oh no, attention; then Li Qi could stabilize the defense while secretly planning another offensive plan...

Yes, the scumbag Li is not only a scumbag, but also extremely insidious and cunning. "Sacrifice teammates to achieve self-realization!" is his motto!

In any case, although the score of 1-0 is enough to win the championship, it is always not safe in the final, especially against a resilient team like Getafe.

If Korzakov can break the deadlock, that would be even better; if not, the conditions for his feint to the east and attack in the west, which would attract attention and create opportunities for other teammates, would be well prepared.

So Li Qi was happy to watch Korzakov fighting the opponent's entire defense line left and right, either making Getafe's defense fall to the ground, or Korzakov was tackled and knocked to the ground. Anyway, the Russian big stick made a lot of trouble!

Li Qi was also happy to provide support from behind, but he seldom stepped in to share the burden, because before a fatal blow, it was necessary to reduce his presence. It would be best to pick up the ball in the net by the time the opponent came to his senses.

But Li Qi didn't have to wait too long for this wish. When the game reached around the 70th minute, an opportunity appeared...

……