Chapter 375 Barcelona is doomed!
On March 12, the 28th round of La Liga, Barcelona faced Athletic Bilbao at home.
Athletic Bilbao's oppressive style of play allowed them to take the advantage on the field from the very beginning, and even put Barcelona into a passive and embarrassing situation at one point.
This was still at the Camp Nou! But in the 21st minute, Su Dong got the ball and rushed quickly along the middle. Thirty meters away from the goal, he suddenly shot a long shot and scored the first goal for Barcelona.
This is also Su Dong's 28th league goal this season.
After entering the winter break, Su Dong's performance in the league was also subject to considerable doubts, but he received high praise in both rounds of the Champions League against Bayern Munich.
Then, in the 31st minute, Ronaldinho assisted Giuly to score, expanding the lead for Barcelona.
The score of 2-0 remained until the end of the game.
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A week later, in the 29th round of La Liga, Barcelona challenged Deportivo La Coruna away.
In the tenth minute of the game, Barcelona took advantage of a free kick in the frontcourt and created chaos in the penalty area.
Puyol, Sylvinho and Giuly all had their follow-up shots blocked.
At the critical moment, Su Dong used his body to hold the defensive player in the middle of the penalty area. Even when he was about to fall, he managed to kick the ball and scored a goal for Barcelona.
This goal helped Barcelona beat Deportivo La Coruna 1-0.
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After the 29th round, La Liga was suspended and the national team match day for two weeks began.
The upcoming schedule is crucial for Barcelona. First, they will face Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals in the middle of the week, and then go to Madrid to challenge Real Madrid at the Bernabeu at the weekend.
Both of these matches are crucial and are key matches that Barcelona must win.
But the problem is that captain Puyol was injured in the national team game and is destined to miss the 30th round.
Not only that, Mexican international Marcos traveled a long way back to his country to participate in the competition, and was also in a hurry, so he was destined to miss the game. In addition, Edmilson was still seriously injured, so Rijkaard had to field the central defender combination of youth training players Navarro and Oleguer.
Who would have thought that just eleven minutes into the game, Edu made a cross from the left and Fernando pushed the ball into the goal in front of the goal, opening the scoring for Real Betis.
Just one minute later, Luis Fernandez made a straight pass from the left, Edu successfully made an offside move and passed the ball diagonally to the back post, and Joaquin followed up and shot into the goal, further expanding the score.
2-0! Losing two goals in a row, still in Camp Nou, can be said to have completely stunned Barcelona! Fortunately, three minutes later, Xavi made a long pass into the penalty area, Su Dong blocked the Real Betis defender with his body, stopped the ball, turned around and volleyed directly, scoring a goal for Barcelona.
One to two!
In the 29th minute, Sylvinho drove straight in and made a cross from the left bottom. Sudong followed up in the middle, jumped high, and headed the ball into the Real Betis goal again.
2-2! Barcelona successfully equalized the score! But for Barcelona, this is obviously not something to be happy about.
The Champions League quarter-finals final is imminent, and the national derby against Real Madrid is just around the corner. At this critical moment, Barcelona's defense has made repeated mistakes, which has made everyone lose confidence in Barcelona.
…
The two teams changed sides in the second half.
In the 57th minute, Su Dong moved to the left, received a pass from Ronaldinho, pulled the ball horizontally from the middle and cut inside. After dribbling past two defenders, he shot with his right foot, hitting a powerful arc ball that went straight to the right side of the goal.
3 to 2! Hat trick!
Despite scoring many goals, Su Dong, whose league performance had declined since the winter break, stepped up at the crucial moment.
The entire Camp Nou stadium was cheering for him.
But Barcelona did not remain happy for long.
Just six minutes later, Joaquin succeeded in getting offside, dribbled into the penalty area and shot low to equalize the score for Real Betis again, 3-3! Rijkaard then made a substitution, with Su Dong replaced by Larsson.
Barcelona failed to score again, and the same was true for Real Betis.
In the end, the two sides shook hands and made peace with the score of 3:3.
…
Barcelona was tied 3-3 by Real Betis at home and was heavily criticized after the game.
Sudon, who performed a hat trick, was hailed as the only player who could walk out of the Nou Camp with his head held high. The Catalan media all said that Sudon was the last dignity of Barcelona.
"It is hard for us to imagine that if Su Dong hadn't exploded at the critical moment, we would have been slaughtered by Real Betis at home!"
Daily Sports was quite dissatisfied with the result of the game, believing that Rijkaard's team did not show a satisfactory transformation, especially on the defensive end.
Marcos Senna still worked hard, but in this game he couldn't carry the midfield alone, and the defense had many problems.
The absence of Puyol and Marcos is the key. Oleguer himself is unstable, and the young player Navarro's replacement is also worrying, which makes Barcelona's defense even more vulnerable.
Mundo Deportivo even asked a soul-searching question, "Does Rijkaard intend to use such a defense at Stamford Bridge and the Bernabeu? Does he think his team can make it?"
Even Barcelona's mouthpiece was extremely disappointed with the team's defense.
Although Rijkaard said after the game that Puyol and Marcos would travel with the team to challenge Chelsea away, no one dared to place high hopes on Barcelona's defense.
"Going to London with such a defense would be tantamount to suicide!" Godfather Cruyff was furious.
He once again pointed the finger at the Brazilian gang, believing that too many Brazilian internationals caused Barcelona players to travel long distances and consume too much energy.
Ronaldinho's performance in the second half declined significantly.
Although Su Dong's performance in the league was not as good as in the first half, he still scored a lot of goals at critical moments, and he turned the tide twice in the Champions League, which proved his value as the team's top scorer.
"Even in the second leg, he sacrificed himself and served as the team's tactical center. His team awareness is evident."
Cruyff believed that if Rijkaard could not come up with a solution within three days, Barcelona would be in great danger when visiting Stamford Bridge, and might even suffer a crushing defeat.
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Barcelona was tied 3-3 by Real Betis at home, and the happiest people were the British media.
Many British media have stated that Barcelona's defense is as fragile as ever.
"Even when facing a team like Real Betis, Barcelona played very poorly and their defense was full of mistakes. At Stamford Bridge, Mourinho's team will have a better chance of winning."
The Sun was even more high-profile, believing that the Blues had basically secured a ticket to the semi-finals.
"Chelsea are now strong and motivated, and Mourinho's team is fully capable of ending the battle in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, especially when Barcelona is in a slump."
The Daily Mail speculated that with Real Betis's offensive power, they were able to break Barcelona's goal three times at Camp Nou, so with Chelsea's offensive firepower, scoring four or five goals at home would definitely not be a problem.
“Perhaps, we will see a shocking massacre at Stamford Bridge!”
Chelsea captain Terry expressed confidence that the team would win the first leg.
"I know Su Dong is very strong, but I want to say that he won't get any chances at Stamford Bridge!"
Makelele, who once played for Real Madrid, also said that he was very familiar with Barcelona, "I won't let them pass through the midfield at will. We know how to beat them in the game!"
The Guardian also analyzed the three goals conceded by Barcelona against Real Betis during the game, believing that all of them were old problems of Barcelona's defense. One was that Belletti did not return to defense in time after making a forward pass, and the remaining two were problems of the central defenders themselves.
"These problems have been around for a long time. Even if Puyol returns, it will be difficult to change and improve in a short period of time."
The Guardian also revealed that Real Betis' counterattack speed is very fast, which is worth Chelsea's reference and learning, because the Blues have no shortage of players with super speed, such as Duff.
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The decisive battle is about to begin!
Compared with the British media's overflowing confidence, the Spanish media are very pessimistic about the prospects of Barcelona's expedition to London.
Although Puyol and Marcos both traveled with the team, and although Sudon had just scored a hat-trick and was in excellent form, Barcelona exposed its own problems prematurely when facing Chelsea, whose overall strength was better than that of Bayern Munich.
When announcing the 18-man squad, head coach Rijkaard reluctantly admitted that the team's defensive problems were indeed serious, but he believed the team still had a chance at Stamford Bridge.
But who would believe this? The Spanish media all thought Rijkaard was bluffing.
When facing Bayern Munich, Barcelona failed to come up with a good strategy in the second leg and just gambled on the Soviet Union.
Now, facing the stronger Chelsea, Barcelona is in such a low state and has such serious defensive problems. What can they use to fight against the Blues?
Even Rijkaard said that even losing in away games is acceptable, and they can return to Camp Nou and make a comeback, just like they did in the first leg against Bayern Munich.
But the question is, can this kind of thing be reversed again and again?
After Barcelona drew 3-3 with Real Betis, the three major European bookmakers all lowered Barcelona's odds, causing Barcelona's odds of winning the championship to drop to the third from the bottom among the eight teams, only slightly higher than Lyon and Eindhoven.
Chelsea's odds of winning the championship have been rising all the way, reaching a level on par with AC Milan.
Obviously, bookmakers put up real money to bet that Chelsea would make it through to the quarter-finals.
William Hill's explanation is that there is no problem with Barcelona's offense, but in the Champions League knockout stage, especially in the quarter-finals, with Barcelona's fragile defense, it is unlikely to move forward.
If only one bookmaker thinks so, then there is still something to worry about.
When the three major bookmakers all think so, it basically means Barcelona's death sentence.
The game hasn't even started yet, but the Spanish media has already predicted the bad news.
They all said that this would be the worst season for La Liga and the Champions League in recent years.
It was in this sad atmosphere that Barcelona set out for London.
(End of this chapter)
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