Chapter 67 The Ice Goddess comes to visit the set!

After 70 minutes, seeing that his team had been in a dominant position but could not score, Rijkaard, who was a little helpless, finally made personnel adjustments: in the 73rd minute, Messi replaced Larsson; in the 75th minute, he finally sent Li Qi to replace Oleger, and asked Puyol, who had been a full-back for most of the game, to move back to the middle...

At least in this game, although Puyol, who played as a full-back, performed well, he failed to provide outstanding assists against the second-best player, which shows that Puyol has not fully adapted to the position and requirements of a full-back.

In the 76th minute, Li Qi, who had just come on the field, was very active. He made a wall-to-wall cooperation with Giuly and then accelerated in a straight line. He overtook the outside line and broke through the right side defense of Alaves, and then made a triangle pass back near the right baseline. Giuly, who had just followed up, received the ball 16 yards from the right side of the penalty area and shot directly with his right foot, but unfortunately it hit the near corner post and bounced out of the baseline.

In the 81st minute, Van Bommel passed the ball to Giuly from the edge of the penalty area. The Frenchman passed the ball directly back to set up a shot. Ronaldinho's father shot a curved ball from 25 yards in the middle, but unfortunately the ball missed the left post again.

However, Barcelona still expanded the score in the 82nd minute.

Li Qi made a forward run and passed the ball to Messi, then made a high-speed forward run to break the defense; Messi, who seemed to be going to make a wall-to-wall match with Li Qi, faked a pass, turned to the other side, dodged the gap and passed the ball directly to Ronaldinho’s father who ran diagonally into the penalty area…

After receiving the ball, the Brazilian broke into the left side of the penalty area and shot at a small angle 8 yards in front of the goal, although the ball was blocked by Costanzo's legs.

However, Messi rushed to the front of the goal and shot the ball into the net from close range after the ball bounced back to the front of the goal! This was the third league goal of the Argentine this season, and helped Barcelona lead Alaves 3-2.

Shortly after the goal, Rijkaard played the third card: in the 85th minute, Maxi Lopez replaced Giuly.

However, in the last ten minutes, neither side changed the situation. Alaves had a chance to score in the stoppage time, but Li Qi cleared the ball at the edge of the small penalty area.

In the end, Barcelona easily won 2-0 at home, achieving 13 consecutive league victories. Together with the current winning streak in the European arena, the total has reached 18 games.

At the same time, Osasuna, ranked second in this round, lost to the Yellow Submarine Villarreal with a score of 1-2 away... In the standings, Barcelona successfully expanded its lead to 10 points!

……

"I want to congratulate my players. They know how to endure the pain and their fighting spirit is very high. This is another victory of hard work." Rijkaard admitted after the game that Barcelona was a bit blocked in the offense in the first half, but the Barcelona players responded after the halftime break, "... Alaves had a good defense, but our players had patience and perseverance. After the halftime break, I told the players that they must start to speed up the pace so that the offense can be faster. In the second half, we had more possession and played better..."

Although Giuly wasted many opportunities and hit the post many times... Rijkaard focused on praising Messi: "Messi played a decisive role. He broke the balance on the field and scored a goal. Messi is a great player, but he is still very young. We cannot force him to grow, but let him grow step by step."

In fact, Rijkaard did not blame Giuly, he just felt that Giuly was unlucky in this game.

However, the Dutch coach believes that Larsson, who replaced the original center forward, should be more selfish in shooting: "We all know that Larsson is a player with strong team spirit. He is always willing to give the ball to his teammates... He actively fought for the ball and scored a goal. Larsson always maintains a high level. I am very satisfied with him."

……

On the second day of the competition, after finishing a relaxation training session with his personal trainer Lopez in the morning, Ricardo rushed to the airport. Chiara had just left yesterday, and today he was going to pick up Julian who was returning from the United States.

Julian stayed in Chicago for nearly three weeks and officially received a full scholarship admission notice for a Ph.D. in biomedical science from the University of Chicago. She felt extremely happy and relaxed.

Julian, who just got off the plane, was wearing a khaki long down jacket with a beige sweater inside, which completely wrapped her curvy figure. She was wearing coffee-colored wide-leg pants and white sneakers, which showed off her tall and long legs. She also wore a pair of square-framed glasses, full of temperament and intellectual beauty!

Ricardo quickly took Julian's suitcase and took the Ice Goddess into the car. He went home first, put the Ice Goddess down to rest, and then Ricardo returned to the base for the evening training session.

After training, I took the Ice Goddess to have a romantic dinner near Columbus Square. It is said to be the oldest restaurant in Barcelona - 7Portes, with a history of more than 200 years. It produces the number one paella in the Barcelona area. It is Picasso's favorite restaurant, and there are even authentic works of Picasso in the store.

The Ice Goddess drank some red wine, but Ricardo still shamelessly drank soda water...

After returning home, at night, probably because she received a full scholarship offer for her doctorate, Julian, whose face was still flushed, was very relaxed and excited. After washing up, she took the initiative to push Ricardo down...

It was originally SuSu's side ball... Ricardo also swore and promised: "... those who mess around are beasts!"

……

Ice Goddess: "Ah! Wait...it seems to be slippery...ah!"

Beast: "Don't worry..."

Then the scumbag who broke through the last line of defense, oh no, it was Ricardo who turned into a beast, and he told all those famous classic lies again. It didn’t matter which famous quote he started with... Anyway, the last one was "Don’t worry, you won’t get pregnant!"

(For the sake of love and peace, thousands of words are omitted...)

……

After taking the first blood of the Ice Goddess, Ricardo, completely disregarding the possibility of blaspheming the Catholic doctrine, hugged the soft and tender Julian and fell asleep... He was not afraid of suffocating to death in his sleep on the fifth level+ mountain...

The next morning, Ricardo took Julian, who had difficulty walking, back to the school library to relax.

The main reason is that Ricardo has to sort out his winter vacation homework - all the data has been collected; and the winter vacation will end next week, and the spring semester will start on February 2. So Ricardo must submit the data sorting and verification results of the paper to the teacher this weekend.

However, in the afternoon, Ricardo still took the petite and plump goddess to Passeig de Gràcia for some shopping. Here, some famous Spanish luxury brands - such as Loewe, Balenciaga, etc. - are priced at almost the lowest in the world.

Of course Ricardo would not miss out on the Balenciaga stockings... He bought several pairs, which will be of important use in the next few nights!

Ricardo was extremely excited in the evening training session, which Rijkaard naturally noticed. He quietly planned to put Ricardo in the starting lineup for the King's Cup match on Thursday.

……

2006年1月26日晚上9时，西班牙国王杯1/4决赛首回合展开最后一场争夺，巴塞罗那奔赴客场挑战萨拉戈萨。

Although Zaragoza is only about 3 hours' drive from Barcelona, ​​Julian, who had just broken her virginity two days ago, was still settled at home to watch TV, waiting for Ricardo to return triumphantly after the game. Precisely because the distance is not far, the entire Barcelona team will take the bus to the away game at noon on the day of the game, and after the game, the entire Barcelona team will also return by bus overnight.

……

In this game, Rijkaard made two important rests, one of which was for captain Puyol. This was the first time the Iron Man got a rest this season. He started in all the previous 35 official games and played the full game. Belletti will replace him and Oleguer will move to the center back position.

The second is Ronaldinho's father. During the warm-up before the game, the Brazilian was not in a very good condition and was very tired - of course, he fought in the nightclub until almost dawn last night; so Rijkaard put Ronaldinho on the bench to be on the safe side.

So Messi, Li Qi and Holkera replaced Giuly respectively, Ronaldinho and Valdez started. Li Qi played as a left winger in this game, which made Li Qi very happy!

The three-man midfield combination is the same as in the previous round of the league, with Edmilson, Iniesta and Van Bommel as the main center forward; the veteran Larsson is the main center forward.

The person in charge of picking the side and guessing the ball is the team's third captain, Marcos.

Unlike that thousand-year-old unlucky god, Marcos won the right to kick off for Barcelona in this game.

As soon as the game started, Li Qi was very excited.

In the first attack after the kick-off, Li Qi received a pass from Iniesta in the middle. Li Qi, who was holding the ball on the left, made two rare fake changes of direction in a row. After shaking off the center of gravity of the defensive players, he accelerated and broke through to the left edge of the penalty area...

Then, facing the defender who came to defend, he directly kicked the ball to the middle, and the ball accurately found Messi at the far end... Messi, who was not marked, headed the ball from 6 yards in front of the far goal, but unfortunately, the Argentine flea, whose heading skills were even worse than Li Qi's, headed the ball away...

"Damn, I forgot! Messi's header is not enough, I have to pass the ball to him on the ground..." Li Qi thought as he returned to defense.

However, after this attack, Barcelona's offense seemed to stagnate. Except for Li Qi's attack on the left, everyone else seemed to be out of shape today. There were many mistakes in passing and cutting, and the desire to attack was insufficient...

Therefore, it was the Zaragoza team that broke the deadlock first, with a stronger fighting spirit, and they hit Barcelona with three consecutive strikes, which stunned Barcelona...

Zaragoza took the lead in the 23rd minute. Midfielder Cani made a straight pass and Diego Milito, who was in hot form, successfully made an offside move.

He stopped the ball and broke into the left side of the penalty area, then calmly shot low into the goal from 12 yards in front of the goal.

Zaragoza leads 1-0!

But shortly after Barcelona kicked off again, Zaragoza expanded their lead in the 25th minute!

The home team's two defensive midfielders worked together to intercept the ball from Van Bommel, who had obviously dribbled too much, and then immediately passed the ball straight to launch a quick counterattack.

After receiving the direct pass from Sapater, forward Everton made a fake move and knocked down Oleguer who was defending him. Then he shot directly from the edge of the penalty area on the right!

Although the second goalkeeper Holkera blocked the ball, the ball that was not controlled still went into the empty goal behind Holkera...

Zaragoza took a 3-2 lead within 0 minutes, but it was not over yet...

Zaragoza continued to score in the 27th minute. This time, the home team took advantage of the away team's over-pressing formation in their eagerness to equalize the score. Winger Oscar Gonzalez made a penetrating pass in the counterattack. Everton, who successfully got offside, got another one-on-one opportunity, broke into the edge of the penalty area and faced the attacking Jorquera. He calmly shot the ball into the goal and scored his second goal!

In just about 4 minutes, Zaragoza scored goals through three consecutive counterattacks, bang bang bang, and directly changed the score to 3-3!

Losing three goals in five minutes stunned all the Barcelona players, coaching staff and fans, while Zaragoza's Romareda Stadium was bustling with excitement, joy, dancing, cheering, ecstasy and jubilation...

Like the entire Barcelona team, Li Qi was also confused: "How did he score again? Is it that easy? Damn! I haven't touched the ball in the past few minutes!"

Li Qi forced himself to calm down. This game was bound to be a tough one. This was not much different from starting the game with a 3-goal deficit...

So after Barcelona kicked off again, Li Qi did not move to the side or attack, but steadily returned to the midfield. Through his large-scale and active running, he assisted Iniesta in organizing the midfield, first stabilizing the passing and receiving of the ball, allowing the whole team to recover from the state of distraction.

After Li Qi retreated deep and passed the ball around the midfield, he gradually felt that the team's passing accuracy and speed were beginning to recover, so he gradually transitioned the ball to the midfield and frontcourt, and organized the attack more on the left side, instead of breaking through in depth.

Li Qi's proactive adjustments did bring good results and helped Barcelona to equalize in the 36th minute.

Listen to the passionate comments of the TV commentator:

"Li Qi received the ball... passed it to Iniesta... passed it to Van Bommel..."

"The ball returned to Li Qi's feet on the left wing..."

"Straight pass! Larson! Beautiful, wall-to-wall cooperation! Li Qi suddenly speeds up!"

"Li Qi! Cut inside! Shoot! Oh no! Pass the ball..."

"Just right! Van Bronckhorst got the ball from behind! Not offside!"

"Entering the penalty area, cross the ball!"

"Middle! Header!"

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Larson received a cross from Van Bronckhorst and headed the ball in from 8 yards in front of the goal!"

"Zaragoza goalkeeper Cesar had no way to deal with this cannonball-like header. It was too close and too fast!"

"Barcelona scored a goal! After losing three goals in five minutes, Barcelona finally scored a goal quickly. This means there is still suspense in this game!"

……

Although Barcelona scored a goal, the home team, which was still two goals ahead, retreated to the half court steadily, and most of the players were deployed deeply in the defensive zone 3.

Such dense defense made it impossible for Barcelona to open a gap for a while. Instead, before the end of the first half, Zaragoza almost succeeded in a counterattack.

Unfortunately, Everton's shot from a small angle slipped past the goal post and he missed the chance to get a hat trick. Then, Ponsio's long shot from 25 yards on the right just brushed the left post and went wide...

It is not known whether Barcelona was lucky or unlucky - fortunately, at least the goal was not breached again, but unfortunately, they conceded three goals in five minutes; so Barcelona entered the halftime break with a score of 5-3 behind.

Back in the locker room, Rijkaard asked for the team to tie or even surpass the score as soon as possible, but apart from arranging to speed up and strengthen the offense in the second half, he did not have many constructive ideas.

Li Qi couldn't help but frown after hearing this: "It's obvious that the whole team is not on the same normal channel in this game. If we blindly ask for speeding up... this is not a good plan. We should consider making the game simpler, but the front team currently lacks high points... Then we can only adopt another plan..."

Knowing that his influence was insignificant, Li Qi would not rashly offer suggestions to his boss. Instead, he secretly found Xiao Luo's father and whispered, "Brother, the situation is not right... We should do this... this... right... we should do this..."

Ronaldinho's father: "Oh! Ricardo, what you said... um... um... makes sense... Okay, I'll talk to the boss later..."

……