Riazor Stadium.

For Deportivo La Coruna, despite being only third in the table, a full five points behind Atletico, they still have a psychological advantage, not only because they are the defending champions, but also because they have played Atletico the most times this season, having won two of them three times before......

Although Atletico have been excellent this season, we are the only ones who can have the upper hand against them!

And this game for Deportivo La Coruna, they will not give up either, although they still have the task of the Champions Cup, but the Champions Cup will only start the first round of the knockout round on April 4, compared to Deportivo La Coruna, but Atletico Madrid, who will go to play the second leg of the League Cup quarterfinals away in midweek, will be more able to concentrate on playing.

Irueta fielded his entire main line-up for the game, with goalkeeper Songoo, defenders Pablo, Naibet, Donato and Romero, midfielders Mauro Silva and De Jaminha in the middle, captain Forlan and Scaloni on either side, and Pandiani and Tristan in attack, who had just scored hat-tricks in the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid are also not to be outdone, although they have been fighting continuously recently, but they still maintain a good form, because Dick has used a good rotation tactic, in such a game, except for Marchena suspended due to the accumulation of yellow cards, Gamara returned to the main lineup, the other main players are also all playing.

Deportivo La Coruna is a team with a strong Brazilian flavor, and they have no shortage of Brazilian players in their squad, starting with Bebeto, Donato, Mauro Silva, Rivaldo, De Jaminha...... Deportivo La Coruna's team has reached a level of skill with their own unique characteristics, and winning the league title last season was the best reward for their 10 years of hard work, and at the start of this game, they continued to show their technical superiority.

Forlan, Scaloni and Dejaminha began to create opportunities for the strikers, under this attack of Deportivo La Coruna, Atletico Madrid began to retreat to the defense, while fighting in the midfield, the back line also retreated into the penalty area, so that the opposing two center forwards did not look for too many opportunities, Thuram was dealing with Tristan, and Gamara was paying attention to Pandiani, Dick did not set a scavenger in this game, because setting a scavenger did not have much effect on Deportivo LaCoruna's attack.

Deportivo La Coruna's two forwards have their own characteristics, Tristan is strong and has a strong scoring ability, while Pandiani is a typical shooter with explosive scoring ability, such a forward combination, just by staring at one person or letting a scavenger sweep, must be lacking, so Dick simply did not do that, but adopted a man-marking tactic, two central defenders staring at the opponent's two strikers, which at least allows the opposing striker to always face interference when he gets the opportunity.

As for the forward insertion of the opponent's midfield, it depends on the sweep of midfielders such as Makellele.

Atletico Madrid's defensive ability is also quite good, at least Thuram has a good eye on Tristan, and Gamara is struggling to mark Pandiani, but it is not easy for the opponent to break through.

The two strikers stared at each other, and the possibility of Deportivo scoring was stifled by a large part, and among the other players, Forlan and Scaloni were not very scoring midfielders, and De Giamina, who had excellent scoring ability, would not have many chances under Makelele's defense.

Dick was relieved to see that the defensive line had stabilized - at least his first goal had been achieved.

The next step is to get the game into a fast pace and drag down the veterans of Deportivo La Coruna......

Forlan's cross was headed out by Thuram, and Makelele quickly stabbed the ball to Belleron, who took the ball and turned around, and then immediately launched a counterattack with a long pass!

Jadel was fighting with the opposing defender for the landing point, relying on his height to barely grab the first point, and then pushed the ball to the Deportivo half, Vicente began to speed with Pablo, the two ran to the landing point at the same time, and when Vicente stepped forward, Atletico Madrid's Jadel, Baraja, Camoranesi and others also quickly cut forward towards Deportivo La Coruna's half!

Seeing Atletico Madrid's counterattack with such momentum, Deportivo La Coruna's players naturally began to defend quickly, and Irueta on the sidelines looked at the field with an unchanged face, but he was wondering what tactics Dick would use in this game.

"Hit us with a quick counterattack? Our defenders don't make mistakes like that......" Irueta thought to herself.

There are five people in the Deportivo backline, including Pablo, who is the youngest, who has just turned 25, Donato is the oldest, who is 39 years old, Naibet who has just turned 31, Romero who is about to turn 30, and Mauro Silva who has just turned 33......

They are the mainstay of Deportivo Deportivo Defence, with Forlan and Scaloni both attacking players and De Giaminha largely unguarded, so he works well with Mauro Silva because Silva is largely uninvolved in attack.

Three of the five main players are over 30 years old, and one is about to be 30 years old, such a defensive lineup, the experience is enough - this time Atletico Madrid's quick counterattack did not have a good result, although Vicente got the ball in front of Pablo, and then passed the ball to Baraja, but Baraja's long shot on the run was blocked by the returning Silva directly with his body, Romero controlled the ball in front of Camoranesi, and then passed the ball to Scaloni in front.

'Deportivo defended well and didn't make a quick counter-attack from Atletico work...... said the commentator.

Irueta nodded slightly, his defenders did not disappoint him.

Dick didn't have any disappointment on his face, because such a counterattack, as long as it succeeds once, it is fatal, not to mention that it doesn't matter if it doesn't succeed all the time, because such a quick return defense requires the defender to run with all his strength at that moment, once or twice is okay, if it is four, five, or even a dozen times, how many times can the old guys of Deportivo run again?

Scaloni received the ball and then began to organize the attack, he passed the ball to De Giamingha, who turned to face Makelele and did not force a breakthrough - although he sometimes seems to have some problems with his brain, but he does not often make mistakes, he has a normal brain, he is one of the top attacking midfielders in the world, and he is a midfield master who can be tied with Effenberg, Rivaldo, and Zidane, so he naturally does not make brain mistakes from time to time - at most five or six times a season, in the words of Iruetta, If he reduces the number of brain pumps to less than three times a season, then he will be World Footballer of the Year......

After receiving the ball and turning, Dejaminha handed the ball to Forlan on the right with a rather flowing passing action, Forlan took the ball and broke inside, but was blocked by Belleron, at this time Pablo had already inserted from the side, Forlan immediately handed the ball to him, in the face of Capdevilla's defense, Pablo did not break through directly, but passed a low flat ball to Tristan who pulled out of the penalty area.

Tristan received the ball and tried to force a turn, but Thuram stretched his leg in time to stop the ball, Dejaminha followed up and prepared to play again, and Makelele appeared in time to shoot in his path and blocked the ball with his body again.

The ball flew to the left, Scaloni received the ball and originally intended to attack slowly, but he was viciously pressed by Camoranesi who returned to the defense, and in desperation he passed the ball to Romero, Romero passed the ball directly to the penalty area, Pandiani grabbed the volley before Gamara blocked, and Molina flew to save the ball.

Héctor who got the ball immediately made a straight stopper to the ground, and then passed the ball to Camoranesi, who did not slow down the counterattack, and directly passed the ball to Jadel in the middle, and then stepped forward himself, and Atletico Madrid began to counterattack again!

The counter-attack was also played quickly, the Deportivo defenders were also quite quick to return to the defense, Romero forced Camoranesi to the wing, and finally Camoranesi passed the ball to the assist Héctor, who immediately raised his foot to cross, and then began to run back desperately......

The ball flew into the middle of the box, Naibet tangled Jadel, and Donato cleared the ball in time.

Irueta glanced slightly smugly at the visitors' dugout - young man, do you want to break us down with a counterattack? It's also a little naïve, you must know that we have always been good at attacking, if we don't have two brushes for the defense, I'm afraid we would have been beaten into a sieve by other teams with counterattacks, although Atletico's counterattack is much sharper, but it is also very difficult to rely on this to score our goals.

Dick was still quiet, of course he knew that the success rate of such a counterattack would not be too high, but Mr. Iruetta, I use such a tactic, and it is only secondary to want to score......

Time began to pass minute by minute, Deportivo La Coruna is still constantly besieging the door of Atletico Madrid, Atletico Madrid is constantly carrying out rapid counterattacks in the case of perseverance, their counterattack is very simple, either a small range of cooperation between several people in the front court, or a long pass to find the high point of the front court Jardel and the fast Vicente of the front court, Deportivo defenders began to constantly retreat to defend, and after the successful blocking, they launched the attack again......

The entire first half passed in such a situation, Atletico Madrid had seven shots on goal in the entire first half, and Deportivo La Coruna had a whopping sixteen shots, but they failed to score, and the final score was 0-0.

Irueta sighed as he walked into the tunnel, it was clear that Atletico's defensive tenacity was far beyond his expectations, and there were no flaws in the face of Deportivo LaCoruna's fierce attack, it seems that this team has indeed improved a lot, compared to the first half of the season, they are obviously much better.

But fortunately, they don't seem to have much to do to deal with Deportivo LaCoruna's pressing attack, and the effect of counter-attacks doesn't seem to be particularly good, as long as they continue to press like this, there will always be opportunities to score.

With that in mind, Irueta walked into the players' tunnel, not noticing the meaningful smile on Dick's face.