Chapter 94: Accidents, Happy Events, and the Next Round
On the second day after returning to Spain, after the routine training session, Ricardo learned that he was selected in the 18-man squad for the next round of the league and would travel with the team to Seville.
The next round of league matches will be on Sunday night. Sevilla is in the south of Spain, more than 1000 kilometers away from Barcelona. If they want to travel away, they have to take a flight one day in advance. So the whole team will gather and set off after the training session on Saturday.
In this case, Ricardo counted on his fingers and thought, forget it, Chiara doesn't need to make a wasted trip, they may have to separate in less than 24 hours after meeting, so she can just eat by herself this weekend.
Suddenly, Ricardo regretted not asking for leave to stay in Milan for a day. Wouldn't it be nice to just find an excuse to hang out with one of the little fairies for a day? Now, he has to be a monk for another two weeks.
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On Saturday evening, the entire Barcelona team airborne to Seville, the capital of the Andalusia Autonomous Region and Seville Province in Spain, and the fourth largest city in Spain.
而本次客战的对手--塞维利亚足球俱乐部（SevillaFC），是西甲的传统劲旅，历史上夺得过1次西甲联赛冠军、5次西班牙国王杯冠军、1次西班牙超级杯冠军、7次欧洲联赛冠军和1次欧洲超级杯冠军。
In addition, Ricardo learned from old Li Qi that Sevilla, which has performed well in recent seasons, will start to take off this season. Not only will it eventually win the fourth place in the league, but it will also start a legendary journey of winning the Europa League six times in 4 years!
This is also the way out that Ricardo is planning if he fails to get the promised stable playing opportunities at Barcelona next season.
As for whether Sevilla will promise Ricardo stable playing opportunities... Ricardo believes in Raiola's communication ability. It also depends on his performance at the end of the season. It would be best to leave a deep impression on the opponent's head coach and management in a direct confrontation!
In the last league match, Barcelona defeated Sevilla 2-1 at home, and Ricardo came on as a substitute in the 65th minute of the second half. Although he did not get any important statistics, Ricardo thought he performed well.
……
Just as the entire Barcelona team was adapting to training at Sevilla's home stadium, the Pizjuan Stadium, the media had already begun to clamor that if Barcelona won this round of away games, it would have a good chance of directly winning the La Liga championship this season.
While Real Madrid and Valencia are struggling to find a way to win the championship but to no avail, Barcelona has an almost extravagant worry: they are not worried about whether they can win the championship, but when is the most convenient time to win the championship.
After 33 rounds of fierce competition, the La Liga championship match point finally appeared. If Valencia cannot beat Athletic Bilbao, who is fighting for relegation, away from home in this round, and Barcelona, who has a huge lead, beats Sevilla away from home, they can win the 18th La Liga championship trophy in the club's history.
However, in Barcelona's current plan, La Liga has been temporarily relegated to the second tier, and the whole team is preparing for the game against AC Milan next Wednesday; yes, after all, there are still two games to win the Champions League! That's the Champions League!
Therefore, even if Barcelona can lift the La Liga championship trophy this Sunday, the club is prepared to keep a low profile and all celebrations may be postponed until after the game against AC Milan.
Barcelona club official spokesman Cambra said at a pre-match press conference: "No matter what happens this weekend, the team will focus on the game next Wednesday, so there will be no celebrations of any kind."
In addition, Cambra revealed that, like last year, Barcelona will still celebrate the championship at its home stadium, Camp Nou, which means that next Saturday's home league game against Cadiz will be the most ideal moment for Barcelona to celebrate the league title.
However, compared with the club's cautiousness, Barcelona players can't wait to win the La Liga title.
Brazilian midfielder Edmilson made it clear: "We hope to win the championship trophy in Seville, the sooner the better, but we also know that next Wednesday's game is a very important game, we must give 120%..."
Deco also said: "I hope we can win the La Liga title on Sunday so that we can focus all our energy on the game against AC Milan. As for celebrations, there is plenty of time and it doesn't matter if we postpone it."
But no matter what the players think, Rijkaard is very clear about the best option, so in the league on Sunday, he will continue the rotation strategy. Similarly, Sevilla, which will participate in the second round of the UEFA Cup semi-final next week, will also arrange for the main players to rest in this round of the league.
Therefore, this game, which would be considered a heavyweight at any other time, may become a cautious, dull and useless event; the situation is almost the same as last week's match between Barcelona and Villarreal, when both Rijkaard and Pellegrini kept their main players on the bench.
For Barcelona, Xavi, Messi, Larsson, Oleguer and Ronaldinho are definitely absent from this round of the league.
During Friday's training session, Ronaldinho collided with Puyol in a scramble, and the Brazilian fell to the ground in pain, holding his thigh with his hands for a long time, which made Barcelona very worried. The team doctor did not comment after the examination, but judging from his expression, the situation should not be serious. Despite this, Rijkaard did not include Ronaldinho in the team's list for the expedition for the sake of safety.
It is worth mentioning here that there are four first-class teams in Andalusia in southern Spain, but fans in this region have been unable to see Ronaldinho this season - the Brazilian did not travel with the team for away games against Betis, Cadiz and Malaga.
However, speaking of the injury list, Barcelona also has good news. After 140 days, Xavi has finally gotten rid of the "Pandora's Curse of Football".
Last Friday evening, the Barcelona star, who had recovered from a serious cruciate ligament injury, finally returned to the team's unified training. This also means that after nearly five months of injury, Barcelona's midfielder has officially returned to the team.
Xavi was injured by Edmilson during a team training on December 12 last year. A subsequent MRI examination showed that Xavi's right knee cruciate ligament was completely ruptured and it would take about 2 months to recover.
When Xavi was first injured, Spaniards generally believed that his World Cup journey was over.
Fortunately, Xavi's cruciate ligament rupture did not cause any complications. In order to reconnect the ligament before extensive bruising of the knee joint occurred, Xavi underwent surgery in Barcelona the day after the injury.
The operation was completed successfully, and he finally returned 40 days earlier than expected.
Teammates welcomed Xavi's return, and he quickly integrated into the team amidst laughter and joking. In the training match, Xavi was assigned to the blue team, which represented the substitutes, and was also on the same team as Ricardo.
However, since it was his first time to train together, Xavi still seemed to lack rhythm. However, Xavi's foundation was still there, and his ball control skills were still very skillful. He once cleverly cooperated with Ricardo and almost helped Larsson score.
But for this round of the league, Rijkaard did not include Xavi in the squad for safety reasons.
Xavi said in an interview with the media: "My knee feels very good now, but it's a little early to play this week... World Cup? If there is nothing unexpected, I believe I can participate in the World Cup."
Aragones is also very happy about Xavi's timely recovery, but whether Xavi can be selected for the national team depends on the next game. Within a week or two, the old coach will send his assistant to Barcelona to observe Xavi's recovery in detail.
……
On Sunday evening, April 2006, 4, it rained heavily in Seville...
The 05th round of the 06/34 La Liga match between Sevilla and Barcelona was originally scheduled to kick off at 21:20 on Sunday night. However, before :, heavy rain began to fall in Sevilla, mixed with olive-sized hailstones.
Soon, the poorly drained Pizjuan Stadium began to be flooded, especially on both sides of the stadium, which became a complete pond with water up to the ankles, making it completely unsuitable for playing games.
"The stadium is in this condition and the game cannot be played. Of course, everything is decided by the referee." Sevilla club president Del Nido was the first to propose postponing the game.
Next week, Sevilla will face Schalke 04 in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final at home. A 1-0 win will ensure they advance to the UEFA Cup final. Postponing the league at this time is a good opportunity for the team to rest and recuperate.
There is a conflicting mentality within the Barcelona team. Some people hope to postpone the game so that the team can conserve their energy and be ready to face the challenge of AC Milan at home.
However, the top management, led by Vicens, the vice-president, is worried: "It seems that the game is indeed difficult to proceed, but if Barcelona and Sevilla both advance to the finals of European competitions, it will be difficult for the two teams to find time to make up the game."
At 20:35, referee Teixeira went to the court to check the situation, but due to the heavy rain, he only stayed for more than 10 seconds and could not even test whether the ball could move on the field. He quickly returned to the locker room and negotiated with representatives of the two teams.
After that, until 22 p.m., Teixeira came to the stadium several times, but after multiple tests, he found that the field was like a pond and he could neither play nor pass the ball normally. Seeing that the field was still in a bad condition and the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping, Teixeira finally decided to postpone the game.
"The game was postponed and the referee did the right thing," said Barcelona president Laporta.
And Sevilla president Del Nido also fulfilled his wish: "We should not risk playing in such conditions."
Now both sides must find a date for the make-up match. Judging from the schedule, it is indeed not easy to find a match date. Except for May 5, even the midweek matches have already been scheduled.
But if Barcelona or Sevilla can reach the final of the European competition (one is the Champions League and the other is the Europa League), then the continuous battles will be extremely disadvantageous to the team.
Li Qi, who was waiting in the locker room with frustration, knew that in the end both teams did advance to the final European Cup final: "What a pity... Originally, I was scheduled to be the starting winger for this game!"
In March two years ago, Barcelona's away game against Real Betis, also a representative team of the Seville region, was postponed for half a month due to heavy rain.
Two years later, on April 4, Barcelona's away game against Sevilla was postponed due to heavy rain. It seems that any team visiting Sevilla this season must be prepared for the postponement of the game.
Due to the continuous heavy rain that night, the entire Barcelona team had to stay in Seville for one more night, and only took a flight back to Barcelona after the heavy rain stopped the next morning.
As soon as they returned to Barcelona, the entire Barcelona team began to prepare intensively for the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against AC Milan.
……
Time soon came to the day before the game, and AC Milan's expeditionary force arrived in Barcelona in advance to conduct on-field adaptation training.
而同一天晚上，2006年4月25日晚上20时45分，另一场欧洲冠军杯半决赛的第2回合比赛在情歌球场开始比赛，比利亚雷亚尔主场对阵阿森纳。
This is the most important match in the history of the two teams. Arsenal won the first leg 1-0 at home. In the previous two knockout rounds, Arsenal drew 0-0 with Real Madrid and Juventus away from home. If they repeat this score, it will be enough to ensure that they enter the final.
So Henry, Fabregas, Eboue, Ljungberg, Hleb, Reyes and other main players who had a rest in the derby last weekend all started; Arsenal's main players were all out!
If they can eliminate Arsenal, Villarreal will become the first team to reach the final of the Champions League for the first time since Sampdoria in 1992, but since the Champions League cut the second group stage three years ago, Villarreal has scored the fewest goals among all the top four teams.
Pellegrini also replaced three starters, trying to give his best!
However, after 90 minutes of hard fighting, Arsenal finally had the last laugh, although Villarreal had the advantage throughout the game.
However, the home team's striker Franco missed two excellent header opportunities in a row, and Fran missed the empty goal miraculously. In the 90th minute before the end of the game, Riquelme's lore penalty was miraculously saved by Lehmann!
A game without any goals, but with a very dramatic ending, which also left sadness at the Love Song Stadium.
Arsenal extended their record of not conceding a goal in the European Champions League to 919 minutes, which is also the third consecutive Champions League away game in which the team has kept a clean sheet and advanced.
In the end, Villarreal had to accept the result of a 0-0 draw at home, and Arsenal eliminated the Yellow Submarine with a total score of 1-0 in two rounds, advancing to this season's Champions League final and becoming the sixth English team to reach the Champions League final.
Arsenal will now be one of the two finalists and will wait for the winner between Barcelona and AC Milan at the Stade de France in Paris...
Ricardo, who has already been confirmed to be on the squad for tomorrow's second leg against AC Milan and can start on the bench, can't help but feel a little nervous: "Can we win the championship smoothly? There are only two games left..."
……
