Chapter 454 Don’t you believe me?
April 5, San Siro Stadium, Milan.
In the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Barcelona will challenge AC Milan away.
Amid the cheers of nearly 80,000 Rossoneri fans at the scene, AC Milan launched a fierce attack on Barcelona from the very beginning.
This was somewhat unexpected for Barcelona.
According to Rijkaard's pre-match deployment, he hoped to use his technical advantage to control the ball, slow down the pace, ensure his own advantage, and then slowly organize an attack on AC Milan.
But Ancelotti obviously doesn't want to see such a situation. He prefers the team to speed up the attack, especially Kaka.
The Brazilian players are very fast in getting the ball and advancing, and with the two forwards Inzaghi and Shevchenko, AC Milan's efficiency in switching from defense to offense is very high. Coupled with Barcelona's typical strong offense and weak defense, he believes that as long as AC Milan advances quickly, Barcelona's defense will be difficult to resist.
At the beginning of the game, Kaka won a corner kick for AC Milan with a breakthrough dribble.
Just one minute later, Shevchenko broke through the frontcourt with the ball, causing Puyol to foul, winning AC Milan a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt. Pirlo's free kick created a close-range header for Stam.
Unlike the fast-paced offense, AC Milan's defense restricted Barcelona's front trident very tightly, and constantly used foul tactics to stop Barcelona's offense and interrupt Barcelona's rhythm.
Su Dong, Ronaldinho and Messi were all fouled by the opponent one after another, but their actions were relatively clean and were all for defensive purposes, which made Barcelona helpless.
After entering the tenth minute, AC Milan launched a high wave and created two very threatening shooting opportunities. Although they failed to score, it was enough to make Barcelona break out in a cold sweat.
On the contrary, Barcelona, whose tactical deployment was disrupted by the opponent at the beginning, took the initiative to adopt a cautious strategy, trying more to slow down the pace and control the ball, so that in the first 20 minutes of the game, they could not even create a threatening shot.
The first time Su Dong created a threat in the whole game was in the 26th minute. After receiving a pass from Iniesta in the backcourt, he got rid of Kaladze and broke through with the ball. Kaladze was chasing closely behind him. Under no circumstances, he made a tackle from behind and received a yellow card, giving Barcelona a good free kick opportunity in the frontcourt.
But unfortunately, Ronaldinho's free kick hit the wall directly.
After entering the 25th minute, AC Milan's attack began to slow down, Barcelona's technical advantage gradually emerged, and ball possession began to increase, but facing AC Milan's defense, Barcelona still failed to create a threatening attack.
This made the game seem a bit stalemate.
After Ancelotti failed in the opening attack, he began to adopt a tactic of steady defense and counterattack.
Barcelona's most threatening attack in the first half occurred in the 37th minute. Sudong and Ronaldinho made a two-on-one combination in a small area at the top of the penalty area and sent the ball to the right, but Messi's subsequent shot made Dida break out in a cold sweat, but he failed to score.
The first half ended in a 0-0 draw.
…
“This was not a great first half!”
After the first half, the famous Spanish football commentator De La Morena summarized the performance of the two teams.
"The two teams had a possession rate of 51 to 49, which can be said to be on par with each other, and Barcelona was even slightly inferior. It is not difficult to see that Rijkaard's starting tactics did not work. He originally hoped to use Messi on the right to launch the attack and let Ronaldinho and Su Dong show their sharp knives."
"But the result was a little surprising. Martinho froze Messi, and AC Milan's attacking tactics at the start of the game made Barcelona's rhythm a little chaotic, and they couldn't even control the ball. It was indeed a bit regrettable."
"Of course, we have always said that Barcelona is doing better defensively this season than last season. Marcos Senna is as stable as ever in the defensive midfielder position, so that Kaka's performance is not as good as before."
"Inzaghi and Shevchenko were two sharp thorns of AC Milan, but unfortunately, they failed to assassinate Barcelona. This has something to do with AC Milan's diamond midfield. Kaka was restrained by Marcos Senna, and Pirlo was dragged to the end but was frequently disturbed by Su Dong, which made AC Milan's midfield run very unsmoothly."
"Barcelona's situation is not much better. Messi and Iniesta have not played to their full potential, which is also related to AC Milan's limitations. I believe that if Barcelona's midfielder Xavi was here at this moment, the situation would be better, but unfortunately, Xavi is still recovering from injury."
"Now, we can only hope that Barcelona's performance in the second half will improve."
"Especially Su Dong, his sharp knife hasn't been unsheathed for a long time!"
…
"Control the ball, you still have to control the ball!"
In the locker room, Rijkaard constantly emphasized Barcelona's core priorities.
He always believed that as long as they kept possession of the ball, Barcelona would have a chance.
The reason for the stalemate in the first half was that the rhythm was disrupted by AC Milan and the ball possession was lost to the opponent.
You know, AC Milan is also a team that is very good at controlling the ball.
Of course, in terms of technical advantage, Barcelona is far ahead of AC Milan.
This is also the reason why Rijkaard dares to ask the team to keep possession of the ball.
"We won't compete with our opponents in terms of fast pace. Instead, we will slow down the pace first and slowly consume their physical strength. Then we will have a chance." Ten Cate also firmly believes that Barcelona is stronger than AC Milan.
Everyone in the locker room expressed their opinions one after another, and gave their own judgments based on the situations they encountered in the first half.
"I think if the score remains 0-0, AC Milan will definitely press forward. They consume more energy than us and are older than us. In this regard, we have the advantage. Ancelotti will not want to drag the game into overtime."
Su Dong's idea was also recognized by his teammates. They all felt that AC Milan would not want overtime.
Entering the overtime, AC Milan's advantage will be smaller, and Barcelona's may be larger.
"We should take advantage of their thinking and when they press forward, we should retreat and attack them from behind," Rijkaard said with a smile.
As the head coach, he was quite depressed.
Every time he meets his old teammate Ancelotti, he is defeated.
In last season's Champions League final, the team was defeated in the first half. The same was true in the first half of the two games this season. The tactics were completely suppressed, which made Rijkaard very depressed.
"Then if they really press forward, which point should we look for when we counterattack?" Marcos suddenly asked.
There was a sudden silence in the locker room.
Everyone looked at each other, and many people looked at Su Dong, and then at Ronaldinho and Messi.
Under normal circumstances, it would definitely be Su Dong, without a second word. But in recent times, Su Dong's luck in scoring goals has not been very good, and his footwork has been a bit unlucky.
Messi didn't perform well tonight and definitely has no chance, but Ronaldinho was very excited tonight...
Rijkaard noticed everyone's reaction and he was also hesitant about this issue.
Find Su Dong? Or find Ronaldinho? Su Dong also noticed the reactions of his teammates and the coaching staff. He also knew what everyone was hesitating about, but he still took a deep breath, stood up, looked around at everyone, and said in a loud voice: "Pass it to me!"
Everyone in the locker room was stunned.
"Su, are you sure?" Rijkaard asked with concern.
Su Dong smiled confidently, "Don't you believe me?"
Everyone was stunned.
If it was in the past, I would definitely believe it, but now... I am somewhat shaken.
"I believe it!" Messi stood up.
"I believe it too!" Iniesta also stood up, "No one wants to win more than Su. If he says it's okay, it must be okay!"
"Yes, I support you, Su!" Marcos Senna also responded.
At the critical moment, Su Dong's close friends finally spoke up.
There were people who supported him, and since Su Dong was the team's top star, the others naturally followed suit.
"Su, I don't mean to doubt you, I just..." Rijkaard walked to Su Dong and explained softly.
"I understand." Su Dong nodded.
It's human nature because Rijkaard wants to win.
The Dutch Black Swan has never been a person who dares to make decisions. On the contrary, he has always been worried about gains and losses.
This is also an old problem of his in on-the-spot command.
…………
…………
The second half of the game resumed.
Barcelona tried hard to control the ball from the start.
Their technique is more refined, and their ball control ability, passing and cutting, and especially their one-touch passing ability, are much higher than AC Milan's. This makes it very difficult for AC Milan to stop them when they try their best to control the ball, and they can only rely on snatching the ball.
The person who passes the ball always consumes less energy than the person who tries to steal the ball.
So Barcelona played very patiently and was not in a hurry. They slowly controlled the ball, slowed down the pace, and let AC Milan take over.
In view of AC Milan's lack of long-range shots, once Barcelona lost the ball, they immediately retreated to the penalty area, strengthened the defense in the middle and boldly contracted, which made AC Milan's several counterattacks in the second half fail to pose a threat.
Kaka's threat was also greatly reduced.
Gradually, as time went by, it became clear that AC Milan was gradually pressing forward, getting closer and closer to the front.
Barcelona continued to shrink, firmly controlling the ball and launching long passes when there was an opportunity.
AC Milan had already taken precautions against this, and Barcelona's two long passes after 60 minutes failed to create any threat.
This made Su Dong, who was at the front, shake his head and wave to his teammates behind him.
This kind of long pass is not good, it lacks specificity, is not accurate enough, and has no threat.
Messi immediately gestured to his teammates, indicating that he could retreat to receive the ball, and Iniesta also indicated that he could receive the ball.
Ancelotti also had a very keen tactical sense and noticed Barcelona's long pass intention.
So he immediately asked Stam and Nesta to pay attention to Su Dong and keep an eye on him at all costs.
But Ancelotti did not give any instructions on how to press forward.
The reason is simple, he really needs to score a goal!
Given AC Milan’s average age and the intensity of the game, their chances of winning would be even lower if the game went into overtime.
This is Barcelona's conspiracy, which is known to everyone.
Ancelotti can only gamble.
Let's see whether the Rossoneri score first or Barcelona's counterattack is more effective earlier.
(End of this chapter)
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