Chapter 236: Hot Derby
People have always said that Villarreal is like Valencia's younger brother.
Whether it is from the historical achievements or the influence of the two teams, it is enough to illustrate this point.
What’s even more interesting is that Valencia’s president Roig is the brother of Villarreal’s president Fernando Roig.
Look, isn’t this just a younger brother?
But this season, things seem a little different.
Villarreal is currently ranked fifth in La Liga and has performed well in the UEFA Cup, which makes the Yellow Submarine seem to see the dawn of escaping the shadow of Valencia. They are no longer willing to be just a younger brother.
More importantly, it was their head coach Benito Floro.
The 51-year-old coach from Gijón has a deep relationship with Valencia coach Benítez.
As we all know, Benítez started his coaching career in Real Madrid's youth training camp, but he does not have the slightest bit of the elegance and grace of Real Madrid's offensive football. Benítez even often said that Real Madrid's tradition is the Juanito spirit, not the gorgeous offensive football.
Benítez left Real Madrid early and went to teams such as Valladolid and Tenerife. He absorbed the coaching essence of famous coaches such as Cruyff, Sacchi and Capello, and formed his own tactical style of balanced offense and defense.
But few people know that Benítez once worked as an assistant coach for quite a long time.
That man was Benito Floro.
At that time, Benítez was coaching the Real Madrid youth team. Benito Floro replaced Beenhakker as the head coach of Real Madrid, so he chose someone from the youth team to be his assistant, and that person was Benítez.
Floro was sacked midway through his second season as Real Madrid coach. The most painful shame in Real Madrid's history, the 0-5 defeat to Barcelona, was created under Floro's coaching.
Interestingly, after Floro was sacked, Bosque, the then head coach of Real Madrid's second team, entered the first team for the first time to put out the fire, but after the season, he returned to the second team because Real Madrid hired Valdano, who was coaching Tenerife with great results at the time.
After Valdano became the head coach of Real Madrid, Benítez returned to the youth team to coach for a season.
If Valencia has always regarded Villarreal as his younger brother, then Floro has also always regarded Benítez as his younger brother.
Back then, when I was coaching Real Madrid, you were just my assistant!
Because of this, Floro stated very early on that Villarreal would not be conservative when they faced Valencia at the Mestaña Stadium.
As expected, he fielded Anderson, Jose Mari, Riquelme and Guaire's front attacking combination.
This is very obvious. They are setting up their formation to fight against Valencia!
In front of his little brother, he put down his dignity and guarded against him? He, Benito Floro, couldn't afford to lose face!
…
At the beginning of the game, Valencia took advantage of its home advantage to seize the initiative and launched a wave of offensive.
But soon, the problem emerged.
Firstly, after the winter training, the players generally have not yet entered the game. Secondly, Villarreal's tactics are very targeted and the players are quite strong.
Riquelme's presence in the frontcourt forced Albelda and Baraja to move back a little and they did not dare to move forward easily.
Su Dong had to hold off the two central defenders of Villarreal's back line, the Argentine young lion Coloccini and Ballesteros, and Aimar was easily trapped in the double-team of the opponent's two midfielders.
Vicente had to be wary of the opponent's right-back Belletti, who has performed very well this season. This caused Valencia's frontcourt offense to be out of touch, especially the ball could not reach Su Dong's feet.
This suddenly became a very serious problem!
More importantly, in the 14th minute, Riquelme took advantage of a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt and scored directly, breaking the deadlock for Villarreal.
Afterwards, the game fell into a stalemate, and the score of zero to one remained until the halftime break.
In the locker room, Su Dong proposed to expand his scope of activities. He hoped to take on more tactical tasks.
But Benítez would rather he spend all his energy and physical strength on the opponent's defense and on the offense after getting the ball.
"In the second half, we tried to attack from the left, with Vicente's side as the main means of attack. Breaking through the wing was just a feint. Vicente needed to move more towards the middle, echoing Aimar, connecting the midfield and Su Dong, and passing the ball to his feet!"
"As for getting the ball..."
Benítez looked at Su Dong, and everyone in the locker room also looked at Su Dong.
"Don't worry, as long as I can get the ball, I can put it into the goal!"
…
After the second half, Valencia changed the direction of attack.
Vicente has been trying to change his role, and other Valencia players also need to adjust appropriately.
In the stands of the Mestaña Stadium, Valencia fans were anxiously waiting for the moment to turn defeat into victory. They kept shouting and even began to become impatient.
After about ten minutes of running-in, the Valencia players on the field finally created an opportunity.
Vicente retreated along the left side, received the pass from the midfield and backcourt, and quickly moved forward, but he did not go to the bottom of the outside line. Instead, after crossing the center line, he cut inside diagonally and quickly passed the ball.
Su Dong was finally able to catch the ball!
Although he received the ball with his back to the basket, Su Dong was still very excited.
Without waiting for Ballesteros behind him to get close, Su Dong stopped the ball and turned to the right, quickly dribbling the ball and rushing directly towards the penalty area.
Ballesteros was blocked by Su Dong behind him, and he was turned around by him. He was shocked and angry, and quickly chased after him from the side.
After seeing Su Dong being blocked by Kolochini, he immediately made a tackle from the side.
The ball was not tackled, but Su Dong was tackled.
In an instant, the entire Mestalla Stadium was filled with boos, and some even shouted for a red card.
The referee did not follow public opinion and only gave a yellow card and a free kick in the frontcourt for Valencia.
Baraha ran over quickly and picked up Su Dong from the ground.
"Leave it to me, I will avenge you!"
Su Dong patted Balaha's shoulder encouragingly, turned away, with envy in his eyes.
Baraja is the team's top free kick expert. He takes most of the set-pieces. Whether in games or in training, his hit rate is very high.
Since learning the falling leaf ball from Albertini at Sporting Lisbon, Su Dong has been constantly practicing free kicks and has made some progress, but he is still no match for Baraja and others, and he has never tried it in actual combat.
As Albertini said, the skill of free kick is achieved through daily practice.
It is said that Beckham would practice free kicks on tires after training every day for many years, which made him have excellent free kick skills.
Albertini also practiced free kicks every day.
Su Dong was the same. He believed that if others could master the skills of free kicks, he could do it too.
However, his free kicks are very good in terms of power and speed, but the angle is not accurate, and it can easily become an anti-aircraft cannon. Su Dong himself is not very satisfied with it, so he never actively asks to take the penalty.
He is waiting.
When I have practiced it well, it will become my secret weapon.
…
Baraja's direct free kick penetrated the goal of Villarreal goalkeeper Reina.
The technique used by Valencia's midfielder was different from Riquelme's free kick just now, but both were very exciting.
The vice-captain scored directly from a free kick and successfully equalized the score, which caused cheers at the Mestaña Stadium and also made the Valencia players on the field taste the sweetness.
While celebrating Baraja's goal, everyone gathered together and felt that head coach Benítez's tactical adjustment was correct.
"Keep attacking the left!"
The game starts again.
Villarreal had just kicked off and passed the ball into Valencia's 30-meter area when it was intercepted.
The Bat Army quickly launched a counterattack and still resolutely went to the left.
Belletti pressed too high when attacking, and this time Vicente took advantage of the opportunity and rushed along the left sideline with the ball, with the Brazilian right-back desperately chasing after him.
On the left side of Villarreal's penalty area, Vicente, under the interference of Belletti, first changed speed to try to confuse the opponent, and then sent a curved cross with his left foot.
Su Dong had already rushed into the position, but this time the ball did not come.
Su Dong, who was well prepared, used his body to block Ballesteros behind him. No matter how hard the latter pushed, he could not squeeze out Su Dong who had the advantage of height. The strength confrontation also completely suppressed his opponent.
Facing Vincent's pass, Su Dong headed the ball lightly and the ball was pushed back to the top of the penalty area.
At this moment, everyone in Villarreal was shocked.
Aimar quickly inserted himself into the backcourt, met Su Dong's header, stopped, adjusted, and kicked the ball! The ball went in! ! ! !
The Argentine midfielder shouted excitedly and rushed to the sidelines. The fans at the Mestalla Stadium were also very excited. Everyone was shouting Aimar's name, and many people were also shouting Su Dong's name.
Both goals were created by center forward Su Dong.
Especially the header pass to Aimar's assist, which was very crucial! 2-1!
Valencia successfully reversed Villarreal!
All the players of the Bat Legion gathered on the sidelines to celebrate, they reached a consensus once again!
Keep attacking! Keep scoring!
This is a derby in the same city!
Are you kidding me? How can we not defeat our opponents? ...
As Valencia turned the tables, the situation on the field became more and more tense, the atmosphere became more and more heated, and the players' movements became more aggressive.
First, Belletti fouled Vicente, then Vicente fouled during a counter-attack and had a conflict with Coloccini. Both of them were given a slap on the wrist by the referee and received yellow cards.
Later, Riquelme also joined the hot group and his foul on Baraja earned him a yellow card.
In the 73rd minute, Su Dong once again ran to the open space and got the ball. He quickly made a fake move to deceive Ballesteros. When he was about to dribble the ball and head straight for the penalty area, the Villarreal center back kicked him down from the side again.
It was a tackle just now, but this time it was obviously aimed at the foot.
(End of this chapter)
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