Chapter 395: Absurd Beginning
"Dear viewers in front of the TV, welcome to watch the final of the UEFA Champions League in the 2004-2005 season!"
“This is the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.”
"Tonight's two teams are both full of superstars, AC Milan from Serie A and Barcelona from La Liga."
"These two teams are among the top giants in world football today."
"AC Milan is participating in the Champions League final for the tenth time and has won the title six times. Barcelona is participating in the Champions League final for the fifth time and has only won the Champions League once in history."
"It can be said that both teams are European giants, but AC Milan has more experience in the Champions League final."
"It is worth mentioning that the last time Barcelona reached the Champions League final was in Athens in 1994, and their opponent at that time was AC Milan. That year, Capello's Rossoneri defeated Cruyff's Dream Team 4-0."
"From then on, Barcelona fell into decline and failed to return to the Champions League final for 11 years."
"AC Milan, on the other hand, just defeated Juventus in a penalty shootout at Old Trafford in Manchester two years ago and won the Champions League. So Ancelotti repeatedly stressed before the game that they have rich experience in the Champions League final and they are not even afraid of penalty shootouts."
…
"The Turkish side specially prepared a compact and exciting large-scale song and dance performance."
“But the protagonists tonight are still the St. Bledsoe Cup and the two participating teams.”
"From the live footage, we can see that players from both teams have already appeared in the tunnel, ready to play at any time."
"AC Milan wore a white jersey, which is their favorite jersey color in the Champions League final, because they won the championship when wearing this jersey, so they were very happy."
"Barcelona were wearing their home kit."
"Now, we have obtained the starting lineups of both teams."
"Let me introduce AC Milan first."
"The goalkeeper is Dida, and the defense is Martinho, Nesta, Stam and Cafu. This should be the top defense in the world today. And Cafu said before the game that AC Milan will definitely win, because as long as they win this game, Cafu will get the Grand Slam of his career."
"The midfield is Seedorf, Pirlo and Gattuso, the Brazilian youngster Kaka is up front, and the two strikers are Shevchenko and Crespo."
"This is Ancelotti, the head coach of AC Milan."
"Ancelotti threatened to score against Barcelona in three minutes before the game. Now we are all looking forward to it. We want to know if he has done enough preparation and can really score against Barcelona in three minutes?"
"Barcelona's starting lineup is a traditional 4-3-3 formation."
"The goalkeeper is Valdés, the back line is Van Bronckhorst, Oleger, Puyol and Belletti, the midfield is Marcos, Deco and Xavi are in the middle, and the front trident is Ronaldinho, Sudon and Giuly."
"It is not difficult to see from Rijkaard's lineup that he still focused on stability in such an important final. Iniesta, who was highly favored before the game, did not appear in the starting lineup, but sat on the bench."
"In addition, Edmilson, who returned from injury, also did not play. It is obvious that Rijkaard is not confident enough in them."
"After all, this is the Champions League final!"
"The players from both teams shook hands and went to the sidelines to take their own photos."
"The game is about to start. The captains of the two teams, Puyol and Maldini, go over and guess the sides."
"We saw that it was Puyol who took the lead and got the serve."
"Barcelona obviously also like to have the ball, they like to have it."
…………
…………
When Puyol guessed the serve, he walked back and waved his fist at his teammates, and at the same time called everyone over and formed a circle.
Fighting for the serve is definitely good news for Barcelona, which is good at controlling the ball.
"After the opening, we have to keep a steady tempo, stay calm, and slowly consume the opponent. Don't be anxious. Once we are familiar with the rhythm and pressure of the game, we will make an effort. Do you understand?" Puyol asked loudly.
"Understood!" the players answered in unison.
"Come on, let's shout!"
After saying that, Puyol stretched out his hand.
The Barcelona players also reached out their hands, joined Puyol, and shouted one, two, three, "Come on!"
…
The two teams retreated to their respective half-court positions and took up their positions.
Su Dong and Jiuli stood in the center circle ready to serve.
Everyone on both sides of the enemy is facing a powerful enemy and no one dares to be careless.
Su Dong was actually very worried about the start, because Barcelona's defense, especially at the start, was always bad.
Against Bayern and Chelsea, we almost always lost the ball within the first ten minutes of the game.
This time, Ancelotti's call for a goal in three minutes before the game was definitely an exaggeration, but it was also a form of psychological warfare.
More importantly, Barcelona's defense is really not good.
Rijkaard explained to the players before the game that Edmilson was not in ideal form against Villarreal, and rashly letting him play in the final might even backfire, so Oleger continued to start.
It’s not that Rijkaard doesn’t want to make changes, but there is no one to make changes!
"Wait a moment, let's run more, grab the ball more, and put more pressure on their defense line." Su Dong said to Giuly.
The French winger also kept nodding his head, obviously not having much trust in the fragile defense line.
Su Dong turned his head and looked at AC Milan's half. Shevchenko and Crespo were standing on both sides of the center circle. Opposite Su Dong was Kaka. The young Brazilian player has played quite well for AC Milan this season. When he saw Su Dong, he grinned, nodded and greeted him with a smile, looking particularly sunny.
Don't hit a smiling person. Although Su Dong really wanted to beat this guy so that he couldn't play the game, he could only nod and smile at this moment.
…
With a crisp whistle, the referee soon blew the whistle to start the game.
Su Dong quickly kicked the ball to Giuly, then turned around and ran forward.
Giuly passed the ball back to Marcos, allowing Barcelona to get the ball in the midfield and backcourt, and he also rushed forward quickly.
AC Milan began to press forward in a big way. Shevchenko, Crespo, Kaka and others rushed into Barcelona's half at the first opportunity, forming pressure and siege on Barcelona in the midfield and frontcourt.
After Van Bronckhorst got the ball on the left, he felt the pressure from two nearby AC Milan players and immediately passed the ball forward, wanting to find Su Dong directly.
But the pass was not good, the force was a little light, and Gattuso got the ball down first.
Kaka retreated to organize the team and passed the ball to Cafu, who made a lob pass directly to Shevchenko in the frontcourt.
The Ukrainian chested the ball and tried to cut inside, but the ball was intercepted by Marcos who was dragged behind by the Barcelona midfield.
Pirlo grabbed the ball and passed it to Seedorf.
As soon as Seedorf stopped the ball, Barcelona's defense quickly took position.
The Dutch midfielder transferred the ball to Kaka on the right side of the center. Kaka stopped the ball and turned around, then sprinted quickly to the front right with the ball. He dribbled the ball so fast that he immediately shook off Ronaldinho who was following him and dribbled the ball straight to Van Bronckhorst, forcing the Dutch left-back to almost fail to keep up and commit a foul in the front left of the penalty area.
…
"Kaka is really fast and has a great ability to dribble the ball."
"AC Milan attached great importance to this free kick attack. The position was very good and very threatening."
"Tall players like Stam, Nesta and Martinho all came up."
"We have said before that there is a very obvious gap between Barcelona and AC Milan in terms of the average height of their players. Set-piece tactics and high balls will definitely be the focus of AC Milan."
"Look at this free kick, Pirlo took it quickly and there was some confusion in the penalty area."
"Martini!"
“The ball goes in!!!”
"Oh my god, just 52 seconds into the game, AC Milan used a free kick in the front field, led by captain Maldini to break the Barcelona goal, just 52 seconds!"
"Barcelona's free kick defense was a mistake!"
"They must have thought that Pirlo was going to kick the ball high and look for Stam and Nesta, but unexpectedly, Pirlo kicked the ball low and Barcelona's defenders didn't even notice Maldini."
“One to zero!”
“This is definitely a dream start!”
"Maldini scored the first goal for AC Milan!"
"This goal also made him the oldest scorer in the history of the Champions League final."
"We have to admire Ancelotti now. He said he would score against Barcelona in three minutes, but in fact, it didn't take three minutes at all. It took only 52 seconds for them to fulfill their promise."
…
Although Barcelona was shocked to lose the ball right after the start of the game, they were not completely unprepared.
Head coach Rijkaard and captain Puyol both spoke out to calm the team, hoping that the players could remain calm and keep their composure.
Before the game, Barcelona had simulated and made plans for conceding the first goal, but they did not expect to lose the ball so quickly.
The player quickly calmed down and was not in a hurry. He still wanted to control the ball.
AC Milan clearly placed the focus of seizing the ball in the midline area. They were not keen on the ball. They preferred to launch a counterattack quickly after grabbing the ball, and their weapons were long passes and Kaka.
In the third minute, AC Milan grabbed the ball again, and Seedorf made a long diagonal pass to the right side of Barcelona's penalty area.
Crespo blocked Puyol with his body, stopped the ball in front of the bottom line outside the right penalty area, turned around and made a cross, but the ball went out of the bottom line and earned a corner kick.
Seedorf took the corner kick and accurately kicked the ball to the front point.
Crespo suddenly jumped from in front of the goal to the front point, and headed the ball from close range before Deco could do so.
The ball hit Crespo's head and quickly went into the right side of Barcelona's goal.
Two to zero! In an instant, two completely different faces appeared on the court.
On one side was AC Milan, which was inexplicably surprised. Their players and fans were almost going crazy with excitement.
On the other side was Barcelona, which was stunned.
Before the game, everyone thought Ancelotti was bragging. They all thought, even if Barcelona’s defense was unreliable, could they still let you score a goal in three minutes?
But things in the world are so absurd.
Not only did Barcelona lose the ball within three minutes, but they lost two goals in a row!
Both were set pieces!
(End of this chapter)
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