Chapter Thirty-Eight: A neat lineup is different
The frustration of losing the Champions League quickly dissipated after Modric and other attackers up front returned.
The main team returned, the formation was restored to order, and the Granada team regained its previous confidence of daring to challenge the double difficulties of La Liga.
And this self-confidence was quickly confirmed. A few days later, in the 12th round of La Liga, Granada won again.
The opponent in this round is Sporting Gijón, which belongs to the promoted horses that have just returned to La Liga, and their strength is very average.
Although the strength of the Sporting Gijón team is average, the Granada team can easily win 3:1 away from home, which is still a good indication of the strong competitiveness of their main lineup.
Luka Modric, Anthony Martial and Lin Fan each provided an assist in this game. And Sundel, who played in the Spanish national team for the first time, was full of confidence after returning from the national team, and he scored twice in this game. The other attack was scored by Riyad Mahrez.
These people have just returned from the national team and have given such a wonderful performance. This makes the outside world sigh once again that these talents are the real essence of the Granada team's offensive strength.
A big win swept away the gloom of Granada's Champions League defeat. And the next round of league victories was a good morale boost.
In the 13th round of La Liga, the Granada team played at home this time, but the opponent was a very strong Villarreal team.
Speaking of Villarreal, this team has been a relatively strong rival to Granada in the first two seasons. In the previous games, once encountered, the Granada team would play very hard.
Sure enough, after the game really started, even if the Granada team had the advantage of being at home, it was still very difficult to win against the Villarreal team.
In the first half, the two sides exchanged scores. In the second half, both sides were also slow to score. Although the Granada team, which has the home advantage, is more active, it always returns home under the unrelenting confrontation of the Villarreal team.
The deadlock was broken at the end of the game when Anthony Martial created a penalty and was converted by Luka Modric.
The backward Villarreal team did not admit defeat and launched a Jedi counterattack. However, fortunately, Yan Feng's condition was okay, and he led a group of defense brothers to stand up in a timely manner.
In the end, in this game, the Granada team won by one goal.
Although it was only a small victory, and the game was not easy, but after the lineup was neat, they won one after another, which can improve the team's morale.
And the progress of the Granada team did not stop there, and in the next round of the game, they won again.
The opponent in the 14th round of La Liga is the Real Betis team, which is still good.
Granada are away from Real Betis. Due to the home advantage of the Real Betis team, coupled with their more pragmatic strategy of defending and counter-attacking, it is not easy to play.
At the beginning, the Granada team was still a little out of shape and wasted chances. This has boosted the confidence of Real Betis.
The Granada team was a little too underweight, and they played a little slackly in the first half, and they were secretly attacked by Real Betis in a counterattack.
Granada, who had fallen behind, only woke up in the second half. When the Granada team began to focus on the game, the Real Betis team stepped up their defense, but they were unable to withstand the Granada team's attack.
Granada's attackers were furious and soon scored two goals in a row, and eventually won the defeat.
A small victory of 2:1, and the process was not so perfect. However, it was three wins in a row since the Champions League defeat, which brought the morale of the Granada team to the highest point again.
"A neat lineup is different!" Yan Feng said in the face of three consecutive wins. In these three games, although the process in the middle was not so easy, for him, to be honest, he felt that it was easy. He only needs to be his full-time midfielder, and he doesn't need to come out and carry the team hard. He really felt that he was not as tired as before, both physically and mentally.
This is extremely beneficial for the Granada team. This is especially true when they face Real Madrid, a direct title rival.
Judging from the games during this period, the Granada team is still in good shape under the stimulus of another three-game winning streak.
However, their two most direct opponents have also been in hot form in recent times.
Barcelona not only won all three games in the Champions League recently, but also won a terrible victory in La Liga.
The Barcelona team would achieve such an amazing result after leaving Neymar, which many people did not expect. And such results also make them top of the list. If it weren't for the Granada team and Real Madrid team in the back, the outside world would have thought that they would have won this season.
Another rival, Real Madrid, have also been in excellent form recently. After starting low at the beginning of the season, it has gone all the way up, and now it has also won more than a dozen in a row. In the La Liga standings, they are only one point behind Granada for the time being.
And in the Champions League, Real Madrid also performed well. In the matches that have been played, they have not played the whole game, but they are at the top of that group. Basically, it can be said that the group has no worries about qualifying.
In terms of the Champions League, Granada, the rookie, is undoubtedly far inferior to their two league rivals.
Fortunately, in the league, Granada is also doing well. This makes them the first group in La Liga this season with Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Because all three teams have performed so impressively in the league, there is at least a six-point gap between the first group and the fourth-placed Atletico Madrid.
With such a big gap, coupled with the current form of these three teams, La Liga has not yet passed the halfway point, and the outside world has begun to say that the goal of other teams this season can only be to compete for Europa League qualification.
Under such circumstances, the match between Granada and Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the 15th round of La Liga has become the focus of the world's attention.
Last season, although the Granada team had an exceptional performance against Real Madrid, each time it was seen as a grassroots challenge to the prince. Even if they have won, they will still not be regarded as opponents on the same status as Real Madrid.
And this time it's different. The trenched Granada team, with a neat lineup and full main force, was placed on the same level as Real Madrid by the outside world for the first time.
"It's going to be a great match, and it's likely to have another version of the national derby in La Liga at a later date!