Chapter 392: We must not lose the third goal!
A week later, in the 36th round of La Liga, Barcelona challenged Levante away.
Just six minutes into the game, Su Dong and Ronaldinho connected, and the Brazilian superstar made a long shot from the left that penetrated Levante's goal, opening the scoring for Barcelona.
But then the game fell into a stalemate.
In the 35th minute, Levante took advantage of a free kick opportunity to create chaos in the Barcelona penalty area. Rivera shot the ball and equalized the score for Levante. The two sides ended the first half with a score of 1-1.
But just over a minute into the second half, Levante player Kongo broke into the penalty area from the left and had a one-on-one chance. After his shot was blocked by Valdes, his teammate took advantage of the opportunity and made a follow-up shot to reverse the score.
It was not until the 60th minute that Xavi took a corner kick, Marcos headed the ball to the front point, and Su Dong headed the ball from close range at the back point to tie the score at 2-2.
After equalizing the score, Su Dong, Ronaldinho and others were also substituted one after another.
In the end, the two teams shook hands and made peace with a score of 2-2.
…
Although we did not lose the game and it had no practical significance, the fact that the defense conceded two goals against Levante is still somewhat worrying.
The Catalan media have questioned Barcelona's defense, especially with the Champions League final just around the corner, but the team has not shown any signs of defensive improvement, which is very worrying.
Far away in Italy, AC Milan, which had just lost 0-1 to Juventus at home, was unable to get out of the predicament and drew 2-2 with Lecce away from home, basically losing the fight for the Serie A championship.
At the post-match press conference, Ancelotti had to regretfully say that there was basically no hope of winning the Serie A championship.
"But we still have the Champions League!"
Ancelotti's meaning is very clear, that is, from this moment on, AC Milan will devote all its energy and resources to the Champions League final.
This is definitely not good news for Barcelona.
Even the godfather Cruyff reminded Rijkaard in his column in the Vanguard that defense would be the toughest test facing Barcelona in this Champions League final, especially the players, who must try to reduce unnecessary mistakes as much as possible.
"This is the most important and most competitive game in the world, bar none!"
"We all know that the more pressure there is in a game like this, the more likely it is that players will make some inexplicable mistakes."
"But every great team has to learn how to deal with this pressure and avoid these mistakes."
Cruyff also very rarely took the initiative to mention the Champions League final held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece 11 years ago. It was one of the most painful defeats in his life, and he rarely talked about it in front of outsiders.
But this time, he used this game as a negative example to remind Rijkaard.
"Before that unforgettable final, we had the advantage. We had the strongest attacking lineup, led by Romario, Guardiola in the midfield, Coman and Nadal in the back line. Everyone believed that we were very strong."
"On the other hand, AC Milan is greatly affected by the absence of Baresi and Costacurta. Everyone, including ourselves, feels that our offense should be able to work. We just need to control the ball and the tempo as usual, and use our passing and cutting advantages to pull and tear open Milan's defense. We have Romario, the best scorer in the world."
"But in the game, we were surprised to find that things were completely beyond our imagination. Our opponents did not intend to let us pass and cut easily. Our offense was strictly suppressed by the opponent."
"What's worse is that when our offense wasn't threatening, our midfield and backcourt kept making mistakes and we conceded goals again and again."
Cruyff reminded Rijkaard that he must be fully prepared and everyone must have strong psychological qualities and be prepared to lose the ball first, so as to avoid being in a panic and losing the ball again and again.
More importantly, you have to stay patient and not panic when you lose the ball. If the opponent attacks and then loses his formation, it will be very fatal.
"We have to be patient when facing the Italian team."
…
Cruyff's words attracted Barcelona's attention. Rijkaard even arranged for the players to watch the video of that game. Everyone saw how the Dream Team coached by Cruyff collapsed in front of Capello's iron army.
The four goals conceded were basically due to serious mistakes made by Barcelona in the midfield and backcourt, including a quick counterattack after the defender was intercepted while dribbling the ball.
In addition, if we go by today's standards, AC Milan's offside goal that was blown off should actually be considered a goal, because the player who was at the end of the game did not directly participate in the attack.
AC Milan even hit the post once in the second half, which was also a long pass directly behind the defense and a quick counterattack.
It can be said that throughout the entire game, Barcelona was indeed beaten black and blue by AC Milan and was in a very embarrassing situation.
The current Barcelona technical director Begiristain played as a left winger in Cruyff's team at the time. He also spoke out and warned all Barcelona players that in that game, the Barcelona players made too many mistakes that should not have happened.
"In the first half, when we were 2-0 down, we still had a chance, but unfortunately, at the beginning of the second half, we conceded the third goal, which was a despairing goal for us."
The goal was conceded because the left-back Sergi was too sticky to the ball and was intercepted by Savicevic, who then fired a long-range shot from the right side of the penalty area, which went directly into Barcelona's goal.
The goal was beautiful!
"But more importantly, our defenders and goalkeeper have committed irreparable disappointments, which is very demoralizing!"
Begiristain said that when everyone was ambitious to turn the situation around in the second half, the opponent widened the score as soon as they came on the field, especially the stupid mistakes made by the Barcelona players themselves, which made everyone lose confidence in counterattacking.
"No matter how powerful the attack is, it can't beat constant mistakes!"
As a former left winger, Begiristain obviously knows the mentality of offensive players very well.
Football has always been a difficult game to score goals.
Therefore, when the attacking players are trying hard to create goals in front, they keep losing the ball behind them, which is simply despairing.
"Remember, no matter how bad the situation is, you must not lose the third goal!"
Begiristain did not mean that Barcelona would lose, but he was warning Barcelona players to have a bottom line mindset and not concede three goals no matter what, otherwise even God cannot save them!
The players basically listened to it.
They are all experienced players, and they naturally know that in such an important final, if they lose three goals, they can only surrender, and there is no possibility of turning the situation around.
…………
…………
Student dormitory building in Munich, Germany.
Knock knock knock.
Wang Chuqing was studying in the dormitory when someone suddenly knocked on the door from outside, followed by the voice of her Korean roommate.
"King, I have a letter for you"
"Oh, wait a minute."
Wang Chuqing was somewhat reluctant. She turned her head to look out the window and sighed softly.
This must be another love letter that some bored person asked her roommate to send to her, right?
How many times has this happened?
She was tired of it.
Even though she has clearly rejected many people many times, there are always people who think they will be the lucky one.
But they had no idea that a special person had secretly moved into Wang Chuqing's heart since someone had known about it.
"It's from Barcelona, Spain." The roommate outside the door flipped through the envelope and saw the city the letter was sent from.
Inside the door, Wang Chuqing's heart trembled when she heard this. She immediately quickened her pace, taking two steps at a time, and walked over to open the door.
After taking the envelope from her roommate, Wang Chuqing smiled and said thank you. Then, noticing her roommate's strange look, she quickly turned around, closed the door, leaned against the door, and looked at the envelope.
She was from Barcelona! She had only one friend in that strange city.
Carefully opening the envelope, Wang Chuqing found a paper card and a football ticket inside.
"Ms. Wang, I hope you can come and watch my game when you have time, Su Dong."
The following is a printed introduction to two ways to go to the Champions League final. One is to go to Barcelona and meet up with the club's friends and family. At that time, the club will charter a plane to take the friends and family to Istanbul so that they can take care of each other.
They can also go to Istanbul on their own. Two days before the final, Barcelona had already booked a hotel, and relatives and friends can check in with their tickets and ID cards. Su Dong has already submitted the list of his relatives and friends to the club.
Wang Chuqing looked at the envelope, paper card and football tickets in her hand, and her heart felt as sweet as if she had drunk honey.
This is a ticket for the Champions League final!
I heard that scalpers have already driven up the price of the Champions League final tickets to two to three thousand euros, which is absolutely a sky-high price, and tickets are hard to come by.
A few days ago, some classmates asked her if they could buy game tickets through BMW's channels. But they didn't know that such a huge company as BMW could only get very few tickets. After a few top executives of the company, the tickets were basically left to the people below.
Su Dong gave her the game tickets, undoubtedly treating her as a good friend, which is more valuable than the tickets themselves.
Thinking of this, Wang Chuqing's heart moved. She immediately walked back to the desk, took out her cell phone, found Su Dong's number, opened the text message, hesitated for a long time, repeatedly considered the words, and finally sent the text message with trembling hands.
"I have received the tickets. Thank you. I will go to the game to cheer for you! You will definitely win!"
After the text message was sent, the girl blushed again and smiled foolishly as she looked at the football tickets, envelope, card and mobile phone in her hand. She was filled with indescribable joy.
"Thank you! My parents will be there too, and you can join them. See you in Istanbul!"
Su Dong quickly replied to her with a text message.
“See you in Türkiye!”
After Wang Chuqing replied to the text message, she no longer had the aloofness she usually showed in front of her classmates. She jumped up with joy, and her laughter was particularly sweet.
My Korean roommate next door was well-informed and was puzzled when he heard the noise.
This girl is in love? Who is it?
(End of this chapter)
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