Chapter 92 European semi-final first leg,
After the second kick-off, Villarreal, who was behind, did not attack but instead tightened their defense and focused on the left wing where Li Qi was. They closely marked him, cut off the passing lines and compressed the space. This meant that for a while, apart from making a few fouls, Li Qi did not have many good opportunities, and the sharpness of his attack was obviously not as good as in the first ten minutes.
However, in the 16th minute of the game, another injury occurred on the field. This time, it was Villarreal's Gangalo who was injured and replaced. This was definitely not good news for the two teams aiming for the Champions League, so both sides deliberately slowed down the pace of the game to avoid further unnecessary casualties.
However, things went against his wishes. In the 35th minute of the game, Esquero, who had just come on as a substitute, sprained his right knee during a fight. He only played for less than 30 minutes before being replaced by Maxi Lopez.
Two players were injured at once. Although the exact extent of their injuries is still unknown, according to the team doctor's preliminary judgment, the two players will not be able to play in the Champions League match in the middle of the week. So Rijkaard immediately walked out from the bench and nervously told the players to pay attention to protective movements and try not to get injured.
As soon as Barcelona relaxed their pressure, Villarreal almost equalized the score in the 37th minute. Deco fouled Cazorla in the backcourt, and Rogge passed the free kick from the center into the penalty area. Arzur chested the ball from 11 yards in the center and performed a wonderful back-hook shot. The ball flew straight to the upper corner, but Valdes bravely flew over the bottom line.
In the last period of the first half, the Yellow Submarine's defensive general Peña also strained his left knee ligament while defending Li Qi's accelerated breakthrough. Pellegrini could only frown and replace him, and asked the team to slow down the pace of the game.
Both teams finished the first half with lingering fears and then entered the halftime break.
It was a dramatic effect. Rijkaard and Pellegrini were treading on thin ice as the Champions League semi-final was approaching, fearing that players would get injured. They risked sacrificing the league and kept several key players out of the game, but a large number of injuries still occurred.
Before the half was over, both teams had already used two substitutions. It seems that the league is indeed coming to an end. The high-density and high-intensity games make it difficult for professional athletes to maintain a good condition and induce various possible injuries.
During the halftime break, Li Qi sipped his sports drink while listening to his boss's deployment of tactics for the second half - mainly to use passing and controlling in the midfield and backcourt to consume the entire game. As long as there were no more injuries, it would be a victory: "It seems that we have to be more restrained recently. It's not a big deal if we are affected by our condition. If we get injured at the end of the season and can't go to Germany, it will be a big loss!"
In the second half, both teams continued the tacit understanding they had in the last period of the first half. If you don’t attack, I won’t steal. Even if we fight for the ball, we try to avoid physical contact...
As a result, the game was played very harmoniously, and both sides frequently threatened the opponent's goalkeeper with long shots. Naturally, Li Qi did not frequently raid the right wing as he did in the opening. Instead, he played a monkey game with the players in the midfield and backcourt, trying to control the ball as much as possible, and giving it to Van Bommel, Deco or Eto'o to kick it from a distance when there was a chance.
When the game entered the last 15 minutes, Barcelona deliberately slowed down the pace to control the game, and the ball possession rate was as high as 62%. Although Villarreal was behind, they did not fight for the ball very actively. After all, the Champions League is more important, and they are playing away at Camp Nou, and they may be defeated by Barcelona's quick counterattack if they are not careful.
In the 73rd minute, Arrabarena made a cross from the left, and Puyol headed the ball away before Jose Mari. In the 74th minute, Barcelona's central defense had a loophole, but Franco, who broke through to the edge of the penalty area, missed the ball again. In the 77th minute, Maxi Lopez's powerful shot from 25 yards on the left was slightly off the far corner.
In the last ten minutes of the game, both teams used up their last substitution quota. Barcelona replaced Van Bommel with Gabriel Magalhaes, and Villarreal replaced Cazorla with Fonte.
Then the two teams accelerated and attacked each other for a while. Villarreal was trying to equalize the score, and Barcelona was trying to give an explanation to the fans.
However, as Villarreal midfielder Hosi headed the ball over the bar after receiving a corner kick 10 yards in front of Cole, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.
In this slow-paced and tacit game, Barcelona finally took all 3 points at home, moving one step closer to the league title. It can even be said that one hand has touched the trophy.
But at the press conference after the game, Rijkaard had a sad face. The core players in the midfield and backcourt had just begun to recover from their injuries and returned to the team, and the forward line started to get injured again. Three days later, in the away game against Milan at San Siro, it could be said that there was only one combination left on the forward line. Fortunately, this combination was the main lineup at the beginning of the season: Giuly, Eto'o and Ronaldinho!
The combination of Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Giuly is also a terrifying combination for opponents when they are firing on all cylinders. Last season, this trident combination contributed 45 league goals for Barcelona, accounting for 61.6% of the team's total goals; this is also Rijkaard's greatest confidence in the away game against Milan.
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After the game, Ricardo returned to his apartment and asked Chiara to prepare a bathtub of ice cubes. Fortunately, the 711 convenience store near his home had a lot of ice cubes for sale. Ricardo applied ice to his muscles and joints for about ten minutes before crawling into the warm bed and starting to rub and generate heat...
Thousands of words are omitted about the specific process and details of heat generation for the sake of love and harmony.
During the weekend, the club had to prepare intensively for the Champions League semi-finals in the middle of the week, so the training was mainly focused on recovery and tactics, and was not very intense. However, Ricardo was a sensible child, and was quite restrained in sex. He would just play games with Chiara for half an hour every day before relaxing...
Ricardo did not become sensible suddenly. It was mainly because when he was browsing the news online on Saturday, he started to see some Italian media reporting on him in their columns, saying that he was one of Barcelona's promising twin stars, had comprehensive skills, multi-position attributes, and was the core main framework for Italy for the next 10 years.
"It seems that Uncle Charles, Cousin Francis and Lapang's media resources have begun to work hard for their World Cup journey..." Ricardo, who had just finished morning exercises in bed and wanted to take a break before the second battle, suddenly lost his sexual desire. He quickly washed up and stretched to prepare for the evening training session!
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Just one day later than Chiara, on Monday afternoon, Ricciardo landed in Milan, Italy with the team's expeditionary force to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against the Rossoneri on Tuesday night.
AC Milan has been the best Serie A team in the UEFA Champions League for four consecutive seasons. Since the Champions League expanded in 4, AC Milan has reached the semi-finals four times without losing, and they hope to continue this great record.
此前两轮淘汰赛中，AC米兰的主场表现也是参赛球队中最出色的，分别以4比1和3比1击败了拜仁和里昂。本赛季冠军杯上，AC米兰在5个主场打进了13球。自2003-04赛季小组赛主场输球后，红黑军团的13个主场取得了12胜，只有埃因霍温在这里拿到过平局。
两队历史上交锋9场，AC米兰4胜2平3负稍占优势。1993/94赛季冠军联赛决赛，米兰4比0大胜巴塞罗那，创造了13届冠军联赛决赛中的最悬殊比分。
两队的最近一次交锋是04/05赛季的冠军杯小组赛，AC米兰主场凭借舍甫琴科的头球1-0小胜巴塞罗那，而巴萨在主场则是在终场前由罗纳尔迪尼奥以漂亮的远射将比分定格为2比1，取得了冠军杯出线关键的3分。
本场比赛这是巴塞罗那第99场冠军联赛，也是该队第4次打进冠军联赛半决赛，上次是2001-02赛季以总比分1比3被皇马淘汰。
Barcelona had previously visited Milan five times, and except for the first win, the next four games had 5 losses and 4 draws (one of which was against Inter Milan). However, after losing three consecutive away games last season, Barcelona remained unbeaten in the Champions League (2 wins, 2 draws), and only conceded one goal (an own goal).
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Ricardo once again stayed in a five-star hotel in the center of Milan, but this time Ricardo did not dare to ask his girlfriend to come and accompany him. One reason was that he had to prepare seriously for the big battle tomorrow night. Although he was confirmed to be out of the starting lineup, his position on the bench was still very high.
In addition, the more important reason is that Chiara and Sarafina are both in Milan. If both of them want to come, then they should just not come. It would be bad if something big happened in the hotel during this critical period. After all, they just had sex last week...
So after the evening training session, Ricardo sent a message to his parents, brother, Sarafina, Chiara, Julian, Raiola, Pimenta and a group of friends, shamelessly boasting about his heroic performance the next day, and then started reading a book with Iniesta, the otaku in the same room.
Ricardo revised his paper once more over the weekend, and it should be basically problem-free. He just needs to wait for the professor to review it and then prepare to submit it for publication. However, there is still no rush for the assignment for the last graduate course, so Ricardo decided to give himself a vacation and not get too nervous before the big battle.
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The San Siro Stadium (San Siro), also known as the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza), is only 6 kilometers away from the center of Milan. It is a five-star football stadium of UEFA and the shared home stadium of Serie A giants AC Milan and Inter Milan.
This stadium, which consists of striped columns surrounding the stadium and red roofs hanging outside, was built in 1926 and renovated before the 1990 World Cup in Italy. It can accommodate spectators and is quite magnificent.
Ricardo walking into the stadium can be considered as going home, after all, his first appearance as a professional player was at Inter Milan's home stadium. However, after all the players entered the stadium, Ricardo walked towards the visiting team's bench.
Barcelona's starting lineup is still a 4-3-3 formation. Xavi, Messi and Larsson are absent from the main lineup due to injuries, and Deco, the only player in the team who has won the Champions League, is suspended.
The goalkeeper is the No. 1 goalkeeper Valdes who has performed well recently. Although he occasionally makes low-level mistakes, Valdes is one of the goalkeepers who has conceded the fewest goals in La Liga this season, and most of the time he is still trusted by his teammates in the back line.
The defense line used No. 23 Oleguer as right back (the boss still believes in more mature players), No. 12 Van Bronckhorst as left back, and the double center backs were No. 4 Marcos and No. 5 Puyol who returned to the team in time after recovering from injury;
The new iron triangle in the midfield is No. 17 Van Bommel, No. 15 Edmilson and No. 24 Iniesta;
The forward trident is the least suspenseful three people, No. 8 Giuly, No. 9 Eto'o and No. 10 Ronaldinho.
In addition to Li Qi, those on the bench also include Motta and Belletti who have just recovered from injuries, as well as regular substitutes Sylvinho and Gabriel Gabri.
而对面的AC米兰，虽然公布在媒体的是4-4-2阵型，但大家都知道，提起来就会变成着名的圣诞树阵型4-3-2-1。而圣诞树上挂着的也都是星光熠熠的球星。
The goalkeeper is No. 1 Dida;
The back line consists of No. 4 Kaladze and No. 27 Serginho on the two wings, and in the middle is one of the best central defenders in the world, No. 31 Stam and No. 13 Nesta;
The three midfielders are the old duo of No. 8 Gattuso and No. 21 Pirlo and No. 20 Seedorf;
The two attacking midfielders are No. 22 Kaka and No. 7 Shevchenko;
The single arrow is No. 11 Gilardino.
Italian striker Inzaghi, who lives on the offside line, missed the game due to a high fever, while Maldini, Cafu, Rui Costa, Ambrosini and other famous players sat on the bench. Ukrainian nuclear warhead Shevchenko served as the captain on the field. Shevchenko has scored 9 goals in the European Champions League this season, ranking first in the European scorer list.
This game was also Ancelotti's 50th European Champions League match as coach of Milan.
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At the beginning of the game, AC Milan took advantage of its home court and launched a tidal attack on the visiting Barcelona position.
In the first minute, Kaka won a corner kick with a breakthrough on the right.
In the second minute, it was Shevchenko's turn to break through, but he was brought down by Puyol and won a set-piece in the frontcourt. Pirlo took a free kick from the right, and Stam's shot in front of the goal was blocked by Marcos.
It was not until 10 minutes later that Barcelona gradually regained some initiative on the field through more skillful passing and cutting; however, Barcelona, playing away from home, was more cautious and failed to threaten the opponent's goal in the first 20 minutes.
Instead, AC Milan almost broke the deadlock in the 15th minute.
Milan threw the ball in from the left sideline. Oleg and Marcos defended at the front point. With the fight of Ukrainian nuclear warhead, the ball hit Marcos and bounced to the middle. Gilardino hooked the ball in front of him with his nimble right foot. About 4 meters away from the goal, he shot a powerful shot with his left foot at a small angle. Unfortunately, the ball hit the outside of the near post and bounced out of the bottom line!
Milan immediately created another threat. Seedorf passed the ball from the left behind Puyol, and Shevchenko flew to the top of the goal from 5 meters away from the back post. This time it was Valdes who made a great effort to block the ball from going out of the bottom line.
AC Milan's two consecutive attacks scared the Barcelona team into a cold sweat, but fortunately they did not lose the ball. After that, Barcelona, which had gained a firm foothold, gradually launched a counterattack towards AC Milan's hinterland!
……
