In the first round of La Liga, Atletico Madrid faced a difficult opponent - last season's fourth in the league, Real Mallorca from the island.

The team's performance in La Liga last season was quite surprising, and under the leadership of coach Aragonés, they once again finished in the top four of La Liga – just one step away from Cooper's third-place finish in La Liga and qualified for this season's Champions League.

Unlike the last time they finished third in La Liga and sold a lot of their main players, this time Mallorca left most of their main players, Eto'o and Luque, the striker duo who performed well last season, were retained, although no players were introduced, but for Mallorca, being able to keep the main players who performed well after a successful season is a big win!

Defending champions Atletico Madrid met in the first round of the league, Mallorca don't want to be beaten as soon as they come up, not to mention that this round of the league is still being played on their home turf, even against the defending champions, Mallorca have to fight hard - in the past few seasons, they have relied on their indomitable fighting spirit to create several miracles.

After leading the team to Mallorca, Dick did not see this opponent in his eyes - maybe they have a good fighting spirit now, but for Mallorca, it is a very difficult thing to fight on two fronts, although under the leadership of Cooper, they once won the third place in La Liga and also won the runner-up of the Cup Winners' Cup, but Mallorca at that time was not the same as Mallorca now, although Mallorca now has a lot of good players, but not as experienced as the Mallorca players, Samuel Eto'o and Luque are both very good players, but they are still young after all, and after the success of last season, it is inevitable that there will be emotional expansion this season, and they will subconsciously ignore the league and focus on the Champions League - Dick still remembers that Mallorca has performed well in the Champions Cup this season, and it was difficult to solve problems with Arsenal in the group stage, and in the end, they only failed to enter the second stage of the group stage because of the relationship between each other's wins and losses. However, in the league, they only narrowly escaped relegation, and it was the lack of background and experience that made them perform like this.

Aragonés is a great manager, but no matter how good a manager is, he needs good players to be able to reflect his tactical intentions.

In this game, Dick once again sent the same lineup as in the second half of the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup, with Torres and Jardel forming a forward partnership, and Camoranesi, Belleron, Baraja and Makelele in the midfield.

From the very beginning of the game, Atletico Madrid did not treat themselves as giants and defending champions, but put down the shelves and fought back and forth with Mallorca in the midfield, constantly wearing down the opponent's sharpness in the midfield - Mallorca's front court is relatively young, youth means passion, but it also means that they are prone to impatience.

Mallorca's backline is still dominated by veterans, last season Aragonés was very good at playing the passion of young players in attack, and reusing the calmness of veterans in defense, but now after a season, it seems a little outdated to use last season's tactics - there is no tactic in this world that cannot be solved, and if you don't take the initiative to change, you will feel that your game is becoming more and more difficult.

Atletico Madrid's results last season were excellent, Dick will still practice other tactics this summer, it is for this reason, Aragonés is not unaware of this truth, but there is still a certain gap between knowing and doing, with Mallorca's financial resources, it is already a great thing to be able to retain the main team after the end of the season, let alone introduce new blood to change.

Dick's tactical changes in the pre-season training camp were not so smooth sailing, after all, the players were used to that tactic last season, and the implementation of the change will definitely cause some backlash, but after the introduction of three new players, it has an impact on the original main lineup, and most of the players want to perform well in the training camp to keep the main position, so naturally there is no opportunity to protest against the new tactical drills, what about Aragones? It's great that Mallorca have a great squad to have, let alone put pressure on the squad so that the manager can implement his strategy.

With this entanglement, Mallorca's front-court players began to look a little upset, and the experienced Atletico seized a chance before half-time, and in a goalmouth scuffle, Camoranesi opened the scoring for the team!

With this goal in the first half, Atletico Madrid played more and more easily in the second half, Mallorca's defense was not as solid as before, and began to be passively beaten after the loss of the initiative in the midfield, Atletico Madrid played a wave of climax after 60 minutes, within eight minutes, Belleron, Torres and Jardel scored a goal each, Atletico Madrid unexpectedly swept Mallorca 4-0 away, beating last season's fourth place to the ground!

"Terrible Atletico! Mallorca, who was able to win one and draw one against Atletico Madrid last season, was completely slaughtered by them in the first round of the league! After changing last season's usual 451 to 442, Atletico Madrid's offensive ability began to be fully exerted, and last season's slow heat, Atletico Madrid has shown excellent form from the beginning of this season, while their city rival Real Madrid lost to Valencia away, Barcelona only beat promoted Sevilla by one goal away from home, and now Atletico Madrid and Deportivo are four goals better than their opponents, ranking first in La Liga......"

While the media began to report on Atletico's impressive performances, Dick was already ready to head to Monaco for the draw for this season's Champions Cup, as well as the UEFA Super Cup.

Dick didn't have much yearning for the draw ceremony for the Champions Cup, Atletico Madrid's previous European results were average, and it was a fire to win the League Cup last year, in this draw ceremony, they were only ranked in the second tier, and it is really unknown what team they can be in the same group, and Dick didn't expect Atletico Madrid to draw an extremely lucky group, such as the weakest team in the first tier...... Well, there are no weak teams in the first bracket...... It doesn't seem too realistic to be able to compete with Rosenborg in the third tier and teams like Sparta Prague in the fourth tier.

Dick is looking forward to now, but the fight with Bayern, at this time Bayern has begun to decline, in fact, at the turn of the century, that is, Bayern a year or two ago, is the most powerful Bayern, Bayern last season compared with the previous two seasons The strength has decreased a lot, but because of luck, Bayern only won the Champions Cup last season.

Being able to play against such a team, even if it is just to catch up with the tail of their best form, is enough to make Dick excited, the only regret is that Effenberg was injured in previous training and has been determined to be unable to play in this game, missing this opportunity, it is estimated that Dick wants to let his players play against Effenberg, there is no chance.

After bringing the whole team to Monaco, Dick was naturally not willing to be lonely, and he couldn't train that night anyway, Dick simply gave all the players a holiday, and then went to the casino in Monte Carlo to play a few laps, Dick was not addicted to gambling, but he didn't mind relaxing himself in this way.

Of course, the reporter will not let this go, and the next day the newspaper published the headline "Dick didn't do his job the night before the lottery, ran to the casino and spent a lot of money", which Dick didn't mind at all, anyway, his reputation was like this, and he never hid that he was a person who likes to enjoy - I'm young and golden, what's wrong with enjoying a little? You envious and jealous creatures!

In football circles, people only care about your results, just like Ferguson also likes to bet, he likes to bet on horses is well-known in English football, and no one makes a fuss about this - of course, there are many people who are good at gambling in English football circles, but players are often more hidden and don't want to be known, for example, Owen was once revealed to have lost tens of thousands of pounds in one night, and then Owen flatly denied it......

Coaches have far fewer concerns in this regard.

When he appeared at the draw ceremony the next day, Dick began to feel that his results last season played a certain role, and many head coaches took the initiative to greet Dick when they saw him - in this circle, strength means being respected!

Dick kept saying hello to people, and then found a place to sit down - the head coach from Spain naturally sat together, and Dick sat next to Bosque, Aragonés and Iruetta, these people are no strangers to Dick, but probably only Iruetta has a better relationship with him, Bosque, as the head coach of Real Madrid, naturally does not know Dick too well, and Aragonés ...... His team had just been beaten 4-0 by Dick, and of course he wouldn't have a good look for Dick.

Dick didn't care about this, people were floating in the rivers and lakes, how could anyone not be stabbed, and Dick didn't have the luxury of making everyone like him, as long as the fans of the club he coached liked him.

La Liga teams have had good results in European competitions recently, with Real Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna both in the first tier and Atletico Madrid and Mallorca in the second tier, and with a bit of luck, they should both be able to settle into a good group.

Dick has been treating the draw with a calm expression, even when Atletico Madrid is in Group G, and Manchester United is in a group, and Olympiacos and Ligue 1 third Lille are also in the same group, he is not at all quiet, making people sigh that this young manager is really calm......

But in fact, Dick has already UEFA up and down in his stomach, is there such a thing? We had just bought Stam from Manchester United and immediately put us in a group with Manchester United...... You don't have to make it so obvious!

In an interview, Dick was flat: "It's been a long time since Atletico have played in the Champions Cup, and it's the same for us no matter what group we are in...... The top two can play in the second group stage, and that's what we're aiming for. The biggest hit in this group? If I wasn't Atletico's manager I would say Manchester United, but now, I'm going to say Atletico because it's me who leads them. ”