Chapter 528 Grabbing the Headlines
The day after Atletico Madrid unexpectedly defeated Barcelona 4-0 away from home, major newspapers in Spain also published their own news and comments.
Catalonia's daily sports newspaper published a sensational headline.
Barcelona suffered the most miserable humiliation in history before Christmas!
In this front-page headline report, Daily Sports stated that Atletico Madrid's outstanding performance in this game and head coach Simeone's admirable command art deserved the victory of this game.
But at the same time, Barcelona's mouthpiece also pointed the finger directly at the referee.
"This is not only a shame for Barcelona, but also a shame for the Spanish refereeing community!"
"Michelle Perez's performance in this crucial top-ranked match was a nightmare!"
"His partiality towards Atletico Madrid has contributed to the Madrid team's rough and brutal style of play, which is stifling Barcelona's possession of the ball, especially in Atletico Madrid's first goal, when he ignored Diego Costa's header to support the defender.
"This was a disgraceful, stupid misjudgment and the goal should have been disallowed!"
On this basis, Daily Sports commented that it was because the first goal came too early and too suddenly that it directly disrupted Barcelona's overall rhythm and plunged Barcelona into complete chaos.
"Barcelona's poor performance is closely related to the referee's enforcement."
"We don't want to shirk responsibility, but Michel Perez's weakness and incompetence allowed Atletico Madrid to repeatedly use foul tactics when Barcelona's offense improved slightly, directly interrupting the rhythm and progress of the game."
“It’s a very aggressive, destructive style of football!”
"But it is regrettable that both the referee and the linesman turned a blind eye to this foul. Even when Barcelona players protested again and again, he repeatedly stated that there was nothing wrong with his enforcement."
"It can be said that what happened to Barcelona is a shame. It is not only a shame for Barcelona, but also a shame for artistic football!"
"After this game, the utilitarian and destructive football led by Simeone, Mourinho and others can finally be justified!"
"At least this kind of football can beat the great Barcelona, right?"
Like Mundo Deportivo, which is also a newspaper close to Barcelona, Mundo Deportivo also pointed the finger at the referee Michel Perez in its commentary.
"Throughout the game, everyone could clearly see how the referee dominated the game with a standard of enforcement that no one else could understand. Perhaps, for him, the only standard was how to beat Barcelona!"
"The most unacceptable thing is that Michel Perez turned a blind eye to Diego Costa's foul, especially the one that caused Pique to be injured and leave the field. It is simply a despicable crime!"
"It is a disgrace to Spanish football to allow a team like Atletico Madrid, which plays in a rough and despicable style, to top the La Liga standings!"
However, newspapers from Madrid have responded to the reports from the Catalan media.
As the mouthpiece of Real Madrid, although AS had attacked Atletico Madrid for its rough and destructive football a week ago, this time it took the initiative to speak well of Atletico Madrid.
“This much-anticipated battle for the top spot will undoubtedly end with the team that performed better winning!”
"In the press conference after the game, Barcelona's top star Messi said, 'We have no excuses, the better team won, congratulations to them, this is football'!"
"Head coach Vilanova also said that Atletico Madrid played better and deserved to win the game!"
"In an interview with the media after the game, Fabregas, who came on as a substitute, also admitted that when he came on the field, Atletico Madrid was launching its final offensive. At that time, Atletico Madrid's offensive was very fierce, which put huge pressure on Barcelona. Moreover, the Colchoneros played faster, more powerfully and more efficiently!"
"From these comments, we can see that Barcelona is convinced by Atletico Madrid's victory!"
"As for Atletico Madrid's frequent fouls, this can be seen as a game strategy. They have a more accurate grasp of the referee's enforcement standards. It is said that Simeone even arranged an analysis team to specifically study the referee's enforcement in the past few years."
"Controlling the referee's enforcement has become part of the professional league. Barcelona has done this a lot in the past, but they were the beneficiaries back then, and now they are the victims!"
"We prefer to think that instead of blaming Atletico Madrid, we should blame Barcelona!"
"Why are Barcelona players so lazy? Why is the running distance of Xavi and Iniesta so different from that of Gabi and Illarramendi? You know, Illarramendi only played for 65 minutes!"
"Did you know that Messi only ran 7,400 meters in the entire game? Tevez, who also played the whole game, ran more than 13,000 meters, nearly twice as much as Messi. Even Diego Costa, who played for 70 minutes, ran more than 11,000 meters!"
"Except for the substitutes and goalkeeper Courtois, all the players of Atletico Madrid ran more than 10,000 meters throughout the game, which is much higher than Barcelona!"
"All of this shows that Vilanova's Barcelona is obviously far from the Barcelona in Guardiola's heyday. We can't help but wonder if this is still the same team."
Compared to AS's attack on Barcelona and building momentum for the century derby a week later, Marca highly praised Atletico Madrid. They believed that this was a great victory and Simeone used an epic victory to point out a way for all teams eager to beat Barcelona.
Even Marca believes that with Atletico Madrid's outstanding performance in this game, it is not completely impossible for them to win the La Liga championship trophy again after more than a decade!
"After this great victory, Atletico Madrid is now at the top of the La Liga standings with a three-point lead. However, due to Mourinho's Real Madrid's disappointing 2-2 draw with Espanyol at home, Real Madrid is now 16 points behind its city rivals at the top of the table!"
"It can be said that Mourinho's team is no longer qualified to compete for the championship, especially since Jose Ramon revealed in his show two days ago that Real Madrid has already reached an agreement with Ancelotti. It is only a matter of time before Mourinho is fired."
"Now, we are going to start talking about the title race between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona!"
"So far this season, Atletico Madrid has made great progress in the Europa League, La Liga and the Copa del Rey, but now Simeone should probably think about whether he should focus on winning the league title!"
"After all, this is the closest Atletico Madrid has been to the championship in the past decade!"
"With Atletico Madrid's outstanding performance last night, they are definitely qualified to compete for the league championship!"
"Although they are only three points ahead of Barcelona, Barcelona will host Real Madrid next week. Mourinho will definitely try his best in this battle to keep his position!"
"If Barcelona continues to lose points in this round and Atletico Madrid further expands their lead, who dares to say that the Colchoneros can't become the number one favorite to win the La Liga this season?"
Not only the Spanish media, but media all over the world have also been hyping and paying attention to this key battle.
Fans all over the world have given high praise to Atletico Madrid's outstanding performance, believing that the Colchoneros deserved the victory over Barcelona.
But as to whether Atletico Madrid can win the championship, the vast majority of fans still hold conservative opinions.
After all, there are still more than 20 rounds of La Liga, and it is too early to talk about winning the championship now.
And since Benítez's Valencia won the championship in the 2003-2004 season, no third team has won the La Liga championship except Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Especially in recent years, the lead of Barcelona and Real Madrid has been astonishingly huge.
This also makes many people worried. Barcelona and Real Madrid are now facing some problems, but once they are solved, whether they can complete the reversal is still unknown.
Just like in the 2004 and 2005 season, didn’t Rijkaard’s Dream Team II also reverse the situation and win the championship in half a season?
In addition to the team, Tevez's performance in the past two key battles has also been recognized by outside fans and media.
The outstanding performances of players such as Mandzukic and Diego Costa also won recognition.
It can be said that through the past two key matches, Atletico Madrid has successfully established its reputation!
At the very least, it made fans all over the world notice that the La Liga is not just about Barcelona and Real Madrid, there is also a very passionate Atletico Madrid!
What was even more unexpected to the whole world was that after the two focus games were over, the last round of La Liga before Christmas ushered in the derby of the century.
Mourinho's team challenged Barcelona away, and the two sides ended in a 2-2 draw.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi scored two goals each, but neither side was able to achieve the results they wanted.
It was also after the end of this game that Real Madrid officially announced that head coach Mourinho was dismissed. Mourinho's team and assistant coach Karanka would all leave Valdebebas, and the new head coach was still undecided.
This earthquake news quickly swept the world, and almost all fans were exclaiming that Mourinho was about to be sacked.
But there are also many professional fans who think that Mourinho's dismissal is not surprising. Even Jose Ramon commented on Mourinho in his own program, saying that he is a head coach who built an empire but could not keep the empire he built.
It was like this at Chelsea and it was like this at Real Madrid.
Porto and Inter Milan chose to retire after their success. Otherwise, judging from the performance of Inter Milan's players after winning the Champions League, even if Mourinho stayed, he would probably not be able to escape the fate of being sacked.
Sadly, Atletico Madrid defeated Malaga 2-1 at home, quickly widening the points gap between themselves and Barcelona to five points, but the team was ultimately overshadowed by the news of Mourinho's dismissal and grabbed the headlines!
This also made Yang Huan laugh out loud, and he called Atletico Madrid the Wang Feng of La Liga!
But the five-point lead also made Yang Huan very happy.
After this round of La Liga, Real Madrid has basically announced that it has left the championship group.
The only teams capable of competing for the La Liga title are Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
But now, Atletico Madrid is five points ahead of Barcelona.
The advantage is not big, but it is exciting!
Especially in the Premier League, Southampton has won consecutive victories in recent times, which makes Master Huan very happy.
So, before Christmas, Master Huan suddenly announced a breaking news, which immediately caused exclamations from all over the world.
Atletico Madrid tried their best but couldn't grab the headlines, but Master Huan grabbed them without hesitation! --16841+d6su9h+11252549--