Chapter 84 Before the European Quarter-Finals

Li Qi's activeness led to the recovery of the entire Barcelona team. The front, midfield and backcourt suppressed Getafe so much that Getafe could hardly pass the half court, let alone pose a threat to the goal guarded by Valdes.

However, after Barcelona continued to attack for 10 minutes, they finally equalized the score in the 22nd minute.

First, Li Qi broke through on the right and made a cross. There was a chaos in the penalty area, but no one touched the ball and it went directly to the left.

Van Brontehorst intercepted the ball before it went out of bounds, and pushed forward against the defense to the left bottom line of the penalty area and made another cross. This time, it was the 1-meter-tall Giuly who successfully grabbed the ball in the far corner and headed it into the goal...

However, Giuly was indeed in poor form, and heading was not his strong point. This header was hard to describe, and it looked like a header ferry...

Fortunately, the center of Getafe's penalty area had been turned into a mess by Eto'o, Motta and Van Bommel, so Getafe's central defender Matlan accidentally blocked Giuly's header, which would have missed the other post, into his own goal while returning to defense.

Barcelona was lucky enough to tie the score at 1-1, and the two teams returned to the same starting line.

In the second half of the first half, Ronaldinho gradually took over the game, and Barcelona's attack was mostly launched from the left wing; while the right wing where Li Qi was located was relatively quiet, with more tasks such as receiving, defending, and pressing. Most of the outflanking in the penalty area was done by Giuly and Van Bommel...

At the last moment of the first half, Ronaldinho's father switched to the right side to cooperate and continuously created offensive threats.

In the 45th minute, Ronaldinho's father switched to the right and made two consecutive wall passes with Li Qi, but in the end Ronaldinho's father did not pass the ball directly to Li Qi who was running down the bottom at high speed.

Because of the previous continuous cooperation and Li Qi's excellent running position, the right side has attracted four defensive players from the opponent, and two more defensive players followed Li Qi to the bottom line, and another central defender blocked Li Qi's cut-in or cross in the middle...

So Ronaldinho's father faked a pass and then dashed the ball across the middle... Deco followed up in the middle and was unmarked, so he had plenty of space to kick the ball at the edge of the penalty area! Unfortunately, Deco's right-footed shot hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line.

In the subsequent injury time, Martlan fouled Van Bommel at the edge of the penalty area, and Ronaldinho's father was responsible for handling the free kick about 20 yards away from the goal.

Ronaldinho's father stepped on the 7-star, took a magical run-up step, and then shot a curved ball into the near corner... The ball bypassed the wall of people, but eventually went out of the goal frame and hit the side net in the near corner.

Both sides went into halftime, and at the beginning of the second half, Rijkaard adjusted his tactics. Iniesta came on to replace Van Bommel, who did not perform well in the first half. Iniesta was responsible for playing as a defensive midfielder to organize and coordinate in the midfield.

After Iniesta came on the pitch, he cooperated more tacitly with Li Qi. The two often partnered in midfield together in the B team during training matches, so they strangled Getafe's counterattack in the second half when they wanted to improve.

Iniesta's understanding of the game and passing and cutting is obviously more suitable for this Barcelona Dream Team II than Van Bommel. After all, he is a youth player, so Barcelona's offensive organization is more fluent and smooth. In the second half, Barcelona even played a 22-shot attack after passing the ball in a row. Unfortunately, Motta's shot on the penalty area line was a bit too hasty and went out of bounds.

However, Barcelona soon overtook the score in the 52nd minute of the game. After Li Qi and Iniesta made consecutive passes and cuts on the right, Li Qi made a Marseille turn to pick up the ball from Getafe's siege, and then directly passed it to the middle.

After Deco got the ball in the middle, he faked a shoulder move to avoid the gap and passed it directly to Motta who was running in the back row...

Far away in Milan, Italy, Sarafina had just finished washing up and turned on the TV to watch the second half of the La Liga match when she heard the commentator's barrage of comments:

"Li Qi... Iniesta... gave it back to Li Qi..."

"A beautiful Marseille turn, Li Qi got rid of the defense, a beautiful combination, and broke through the siege of three people..."

"Li Qi passed the ball to Deco, and Deco passed... No, it was a pass!"

"Motta received the ball and passed it directly to Eto'o in the corner of the penalty area..."

"Eto'o...pass the ball to the right again, Giuly!"

"Not offside! Giuly broke through to the bottom corner of the small penalty area!"

"Inverted triangle! Opportunity!"

"Eto'o! Push shot!"

"Gooooaaal! Gooooaaal! Goal!"

"It was a superb teamwork. After a previous 22-pass pass was deflected by Motta, this time the 14-pass attack from the backcourt to the frontcourt was not wasted. French winger Giuly completed the key inverted triangle pass, and Eto'o completed the fatal blow near the penalty spot!"

"Getafe had no way to deal with Barcelona's continuous and rapid passing and cutting. There was no way to grab the ball, and they didn't even have time to commit a foul. They could only watch Eto'o easily push the ball into the near corner."

"This is Eto'o's 21st league goal of the season and his 100th goal in La Liga!"

"Barcelona took the lead less than 8 minutes into the second half! 2-1..."

The ball was passed to Van Bommel, the Dutch passed the ball to Eto'o, the Cameroonian passed the ball to the right, Giuly made a cross from the right side of the penalty area, and Eto'o pushed the ball into the goal from 12 yards.

However, just after Barcelona's wonderful cooperation, Valdes may have been worried that the team was too complacent, so he gave everyone another job on the goal line.

In the 59th minute, Pajon, who had just come on as a substitute, forced a cross from the right. Valdés rushed out to save the cross in front of the goal, but he made a mistake and fell, almost hitting the ball into his own goal. Fortunately, his second reaction was quicker, and he hugged the ball again after it rolled over the goal line, avoiding the joke of an own goal...

However, the whole team, which was originally in high spirits, suddenly became more energetic and focused on the game.

In the 60th minute, Li Qi intercepted Getafe's long pass and passed it to Iniesta, who made an accurate long pass near the center circle. After Eto'o successfully made an offside, he broke through to the edge of the penalty area and shot into the far corner. Unfortunately, the ball hit the left post and went wide.

Rijkaard then made another adjustment and in the 62nd minute of the game, Belletti replaced Puyol, who had just been given a yellow card for a tackle.

The whole stadium burst into thunderous applause, because this was the 200th La Liga match that Captain Puyol played for Barcelona. As the captain of Barcelona, ​​Puyol joined the first team of Barcelona from the second team in the 1999-2000 season, and started his brilliant career.

(Voiceover: Since the start of the 1928-1929 La Liga season, a total of 30 players in Barcelona's history have played more than 200 games, and only three have reached the record of 3 games. These three legendary figures come from different eras, namely Migueli with 300 appearances, Rexach with 3 appearances and Amor with 391 appearances. There are only two active Barcelona players who have entered the 328-game Hall of Fame. In addition to Puyol, there is another player on the 311-game honor roll, that is Xavi, who is still recovering from injury. He has played 200 times for Barcelona. Unfortunately, he has been recuperating since November last year, otherwise this record will continue to be updated.)

Puyol's yellow card for the tackle was also a voluntary suspension for the next round of the league, so that he could return in the century battle with Real Madrid two rounds later and reduce the burden on Barcelona's short-staffed defense.

As for the shortage of backcourt players in the next round against Malaga, isn't this game already a test of a new combination? After Puyol left the field, the captain's armband was handed over to Ronaldinho's father. However, the one who filled the central defender position was Li Qi, who originally played as a right back.

However, Li Qi, who was standing on the back line, did not face too many tests. He just needed to stop the ball steadily and pass it to the midfield line, because Barcelona's midfield and frontcourt had completely suppressed Getafe.

In the 68th minute, Giuly, who had already scored a goal, a assist and a goal post in this game, obviously gained confidence. He first made a wonderful wall-kick cooperation with Deco on the right side of the penalty area. Then the French winger suddenly played tricks 8 yards in front of the goal from the right side of the penalty area. Facing multiple double-teaming, he actually made a clever shot, but the focused goalkeeper Luis Garcia saved the ball from going out of bounds.

However, Barcelona soon changed the score again in the 69th minute. Iniesta deftly dribbled the ball to the front of the penalty area and passed it to Deco, who passed it to the left again without stopping the ball...

After receiving the ball, Ronaldinho's father pretended to cut inside, but actually passed the ball behind the defender. Eto'o, who successfully got past the offside, made a diagonal run. The latter dribbled into the left side of the penalty area and shot with the outside of his right foot into the far corner from 12 yards in front of the goal.

Cameroonian Leopard scored twice! This is his 22nd league goal this season. After Barcelona led 3-1, the Nou Camp stadium also started to play waves.

The opponent Getafe team seemed to have completely lost the desire to counterattack and equalize the score. Li Qi was relieved in the back line, but it was difficult for him to have outstanding performance and data. Unless he deliberately handballed, he would not even have the chance to get a foul number. Fortunately, Puyol got the yellow gem card in advance...

In the 72nd minute, Eto'o broke through on the left and passed the ball back, and Ronaldinho's father shot from 30 yards on the left but missed the near corner.

In the 75th minute, Ronaldinho's father broke into the penalty area from the left edge and made a clever lob shot. Luis Garcia jumped to the limit and almost blocked the ball over the crossbar with his fingertips.

In the 79th minute, Van Bronckhorst volleyed with his left foot from 28 yards in the middle, but the ball went slightly wide of the post.

In the 80th minute, Rijkaard made another tactical adjustment and formation experiment. Gabri came on as a substitute for Deco and arranged for Motta and Li Qi to swap positions. Motta tried to play as a central defender, Li Qi switched to play as a defensive midfielder, Iniesta took the lead to organize the attack, and Gabri was responsible for sweeping the midfield.

However, after the formation adjustment, Barcelona also sought stability, trying to adapt to the intensity and rhythm of the game without making mistakes in the new formation, and gradually find the feeling. Therefore, when the players who changed positions and came on as substitutes just found the feeling and were ready to play hard, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

Barcelona turned defeat into victory, beating Getafe 3 to 1. Meanwhile, in a later match, Real Madrid and Valencia, ranked second and third in the standings, drew 1 to 1 with Zaragoza and Villarreal respectively, so Barcelona's victory in this round expanded its lead in the standings to 11 points!

After the game, there was a small episode. The whole team surrounded Ronaldinho, threw him up, and congratulated him on his birthday together with the audience - yes, March 3, the day of the game, was Ronaldinho's 21th birthday and the third birthday of the Brazilian elf in Barcelona.

After throwing Ronaldinho nine times, Ricardo was responsible for pushing the customized football-shaped cake onto the field, and then began a full-court cake chase, which made the media take pictures and a few lucky fans were invited to join in...

Yes, this bad idea of ​​giving Ronaldinho a birthday surprise on the field after the game was suggested by Ricardo. Originally, the whole team wanted to celebrate Ronaldinho's birthday during the routine gathering at the Sofia Hotel before the game.

But Ricardo felt that it was too unoriginal. He had to pretend to forget before the game and then surprise himself after the game to create a contrast... He did not consider the negative effects of losing the first round of games at all. Fortunately, God was still on Ricardo's side, oh no, on Ronaldinho's father's side.

……

On the second day of the race, Ricardo, who had regained his energy, called Chiara to rescue him, hoping that Chiara would come to Barcelona a day in advance to help him solve the problem of loneliness.

The day before the match with Getafe, Ricardo submitted his thesis to the professor. Ricardo, who was at the peak of his male hormones, had been holding back for almost two weeks without any yin and yang balance. In addition, he had to leave early on Friday night, the 24th, to travel to Malaga to prepare for the 30th round of La Liga.

Because Malaga is a bit far from Barcelona, ​​the distance is 981 kilometers. It is not very convenient for the Barcelona team to take a 10-hour train ride to the away game. If they take a plane, they have to leave one day in advance to avoid delays. But the advantage is that they can take the night flight directly back to Barcelona after the game.

So Riccardo's little fairy Chiara came on Thursday night wearing black high heels with red bottoms, a silver-gray business suit, a long light green silk shirt, a blue-black chiffon double-layer skirt, and dark blue stockings that tightly wrapped her legs, twisting her waist and floating...

It was obvious that Chiara had come directly from the bank branch after get off work in her work clothes, and she looked like a professional beauty on a business trip.

This made little Ricardo, who came directly from the base to pick up the plane after training, stand up and salute immediately. Oh no, he was very moved...

So the battle between the two people who met again in the evening was more emotional and passionate. After all, Chiara also started to be an empty nester at the same time as Ricardo... (For the sake of love and harmony, several thousand words were omitted...)

Chiara took a day off to visit Ricardo, so Ricardo, who had a private training class and postgraduate course on Friday morning, also took a day off to continue his love affair with the little fairy. Oh no, he was preparing to go on an away trip...

It was almost noon on Friday, and only when Ricardo begged for mercy and shouted that there was no more chance did Chiara reluctantly let Ricardo go back to the base to reunite.

After a brief training session in the early afternoon, the entire Barcelona team will take a flight to Málaga, the capital of the Andalusia Autonomous Region, located on the Mediterranean Costa del Sol in southern Spain.

……