Chapter 974: Missteps
It has been said that Mourinho's team can easily be read by the look on his face.
This may not be accurate, but the whole of European football knows that Mourinho has been in a good mood lately.
The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was unlucky, drawing Carlo Ancelotti's Manchester City, but in La Liga, Real Madrid are ten points ahead of Barcelona at the top of the table, and with eleven rounds remaining, the possibility of the Galaxy winning the league is very high.
Everything went smoothly and Mourinho was in a good mood and had a smile on his face.
In the pre-match press conference, he highly praised Chinatown, saying that Chinatown is a very good team with a group of very good players, and he believes that Chinatown has the strength to return to the top four in La Liga, and at the same time, he did not forget to take the opportunity to ridicule Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.
'I even think they deserve to be in the top four of the Champions League, why not? β
Regarding Real Madrid's lead, Mourinho is relatively low-key, saying that it is too early to talk about winning the championship, and for the next league, Mourinho said that the team will go all out.
"There is no doubt that we will continue to defend our winning streak at the Bernabeu. β
Yes, Jose Mourinho's side have been on a winning streak since losing at home to Barcelona in December, making it 11 wins in a row in La Liga, a winning streak that has kept Real Madrid firmly at the top of La Liga.
But Real Madrid are not without problems, such as midfielder James Rodriguez, who was brought in at a high price this summer, Mourinho has not yet fully unleashed his potential, Diego Costa and Higuain's compatibility issues have not been resolved, and Di Maria is unhappy with his long-term exclusion from the starting line-up......
However, none of this has hindered Real Madrid's high spirits.
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On the evening of March 18, at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Jose Mourinho lined up in a four-two-three-one-team formation, with Casillas in goal, CoentrΓ£o, Bruno Alves, Albiol and Arbeloa at the back, Moutinho and Felipe Melo in midfield, James Rodriguez in front, Ozil on the left, Diego Costa on the right, and Higuain in the middle.
In this match, Di Maria continued to sit on the bench.
Pochettino still adopts a four-three-three formation, with De Gea in goal, Alba, Miranda, Godin and Carvajal in the back, Ilia Ramendi in midfield, Rakitic and Herrera in the middle, and Hazard, Pelle and Aubameyang in the front three.
Before the start of the game, players from both teams wore T-shirts wishing Abidal and Mwamba, a move agreed by both clubs, with Barcelona's Abidal about to undergo a liver transplant, while Bolton player Mwamba suffered a sudden collapse in the previous game and is currently being resuscitated in a high-risk ward.
The pre-match charity did not affect the game, and the game went straight into the fast lane at the beginning, and the two sides launched an offensive directly towards each other without the slightest temptation.
Just two minutes into the game, James Rodriguez won the ball in the middle of midfield and distributed it to the right, Diego Costa passed to the bottom line, and Arbeloa cut in at high speed to cross from the right, but the ball was calmly confiscated by De Gea in the box.
But soon, Chinatown changed colors.
Eden Hazard cut inside on the left and passed to Herrera, and the Spanish midfielder broke free from Moutinho's entanglement and passed into the box.
Pelle got his body on Albiol and then turned and fired a left-footed volley, but he couldn't hit the target and went just wide of the goal.
It was also the first shot of the game.
Real Madrid soon organised another wave of attacks.
Moutinho dribbled forward in the middle and passed to James Rodriguez.
The Colombian midfielder calmly rubbed the ball and picked up a pass behind him, Higuain quickly cut into the box and caught up with the ball before everyone else, but at the crucial moment, De Gea made a decisive move to save the ball.
Chinatown quickly returned the color, Carvajal crossed the middle from the right, Ilia Ramendi dragged behind, received the ball, and calmly made a long diagonal pass, which moved the ball to the left in a wide area.
Alba quickly dribbled the ball, used his speed to force off Arbeloa Neche, passed to the feet of Hazard at the edge of the box, the Belgian curled the ball to a back point, Aubameyang cut in at high speed, pushed from close range, and the ball was deflected wide of the goal again.
Real Madrid's two attacks failed to create a threat, but Chinatown's two attacks formed shots, and both were very threatening shots, which made Casillas in front of the goal completely furious, shouting at his teammates, obviously very dissatisfied with the defense of his teammates in this game.
However, the Galaxy Battleship obviously did not take Chinatown seriously, and still fought against the attack.
Diego Costa soon got another chance on the right side of the box, shook off Alba and struck straight at goal, but he was slightly off the net and couldn't threaten.
The two teams battled each other from the very beginning of the game, and the pace of attack and defense was fast, which fascinated the fans of the entire Bernabeu, and the attack and defense of each other were also very efficient, but neither side could find the opponent's goal.
It wasn't until the 35th minute that Chinatown's defence made a mistake.
James Rodriguez split the ball down the left and Mesut Ozil couldn't get away from Carvajal's defence, but curled a cross to the back post, where Diego Costa slapped in and used his physicality to head home from close range ahead of Alba to open the scoring for Real Madrid.
1 to 0!
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When Diego Costa scored a goal, everyone in Gao Han's office was not surprised.
With Real Madrid's attacking power and the state of eleven consecutive wins, it is too normal to score a goal.
It can even be said that if you don't score until now, you have missed a lot of chances.
"Both teams missed a lot of scoring opportunities, but Jose Mourinho's side finally managed to take advantage of it, and Diego Costa was quite reliable in the crucial moments. Zidane chuckled.
He was Real Madrid's chief assistant coach and special adviser to the president before coming to Paris Saint-Germain as a cold assistant, a man of few words in front of Florentino.
Pochettino was a little anxious. Gao Han shook his head.
"There are not a lot of problems for Real Madrid in this game, Mourinho's opening high press is not surprising, but Pochettino opened directly to face to face, which is debatable, even if you want to grab a burst at the beginning, but after ten minutes or so, you should take a break and control the ball and the tempo. β
Zidane didn't see it that way, "After Mourinho opened, the three attackers all pressed the back line of China City, you look at Alba and Carvajal, they didn't dare to press, and the restrictions on Hazard were also in place, and the transition between attack and defense was quite good, which made China City unable to attack quickly from the back as before, and the two fullbacks did not press, the front attack lost its width, and the formation could not be completely stretched." β
When Gao Han heard this, he couldn't help but nod appreciatively towards Zidane, he was talking about the point.
Indeed, as Zinedine Zidane said, both of these problems in Chinatown are fatal, making it difficult for the attacking attack to create a threat.
Losing the width, the formation can't be stretched, everyone is squeezing into the middle, but Mourinho is here with a double back midfield, and the attacking effect can be imagined.
While everyone was talking, the game was going on live on TV.
After scoring a goal, Real Madrid continued to launch a fierce offensive against Chinatown.
James Rodriguez picked up the ball from a distance, was unguarded and fired a long-range shot that hit the crossbar and almost bounced into the back of the net.
The long-range shot of this heavy cannon made everyone break out in a cold sweat.
Sergio Garcia watched the match on his tablet.
"From the statistics of the game, we have the advantage in possession, but there are also a lot of passing and receiving errors, Real Madrid have more counter-attacks, more shots on goal than us, and more fouls than us......"
Except for one possession advantage, almost all others are at a disadvantage, so what is such possession for?
"What do you think should be done at this time?" Zidane asked with concern.
This game was held at the Bernabeu, and Real Madrid scored the first goal, which can be said to have taken the lead, and Chinatown basically has no chance of winning, not to mention that in terms of overall strength, Chinatown is not as good as the Galaxy Battleship.
"If it's me, the formation will not change, first retreat, stabilize my position, and let Real Madrid press out and play. β
Gao Han pointed to the live TV camera, "Illia Ramendi performed well in this game, this youngster has improved a lot with the assistance of Marcos Senna, and is now the team's main midfielder, with excellent defensive selection, filling and ball ability, plus Miranda and Godin behind him, our defense is not bad." β
Marcos Senna is old, and Ilia Ramendi is a matter of course, and it is also hand-picked by Gao Han.
Facts have proved that the main force of the Spanish national youth team has made great progress, and there is a faint posture of fighting against Barcelona's Busquets, which has attracted the attention of the two giants, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, but how can the back that Chinatown has cultivated with great difficulty be easily sold?
'Real Madrid are not very tightly formed, especially the back pair of Felipe Melo and Moutinho, as long as we drop back and let them press up, there will be a chance to counter-attack, especially Hazard. β
Real Madrid has won eleven consecutive games recently, and the offensive is like a tide, which seems to be very good, but in fact, behind the winning streak, especially in the case of the skyrocketing offensive ability, the hidden dangers of defense have also been exposed, in the last fifteen games, the number of games conceded is eleven, and Real Madrid has conceded four goals in the last three games.
"If I'm not mistaken, Real Madrid should be one of the teams that have conceded the most goals at home in La Liga this season, right?" Gao Han looked at Sergio Garcia.
The latter nodded heavily, "Yes, fourteen home games, twelve wins, one draw and one loss, good results, but in order to strengthen the attack at home, they have to sacrifice some defense, and their home defense is close to the bottom of the La Liga table." β
'Especially set-pieces. "Gao Han pointed out the weakness of Real Madrid.
That's why he pointed out Pochettino's opening tactics.
Jose Mourinho's team has always been disliked by Real Madrid fans before, that is, they feel that the attack is not sharp enough, so at the Bernabeu stadium, Mourinho's team has always been more inclined to attack.
In the face of such a Real Madrid, Chinatown, which is playing away, should play more patiently, instead of bent on attacking them, which is not the right thing for Mourinho?
'Look at the second half, what we found and Pochettino can certainly find out. Gao Han said expectantly.