Chapter 56: Dilemma
After the restart of the game, Atletico Madrid changed the way of strict defense and began to attack in a big way!
Under the organization of Belleron, Juninho's breakthrough brought a great threat, and Hasselbaink, who ran around in the front court, brought a greater deterrent, and the players of Barcelona were a little distracted because of Figo's injury, but they didn't expect Atletico Madrid to attack like this, and they were immediately suppressed by Atletico Madrid's players!
At this time, Mourinho remembered what he had just seen, and he immediately said to Van Gaal: "Oops, I saw Dick pulling Belleron and talking about something just now, probably to seize this opportunity to launch a counterattack......"
"You didn't say it sooner!" Van Gaal was so angry that he immediately jumped out of his coaching position again, and then shouted at the field: "Defend! Step up your defense! Withstand their attacks during this time! ”
Mourinho looked at Van Gaal's back with a wry smile: "I wanted to say it, but at that time you rushed out......"
He rarely sees Van Gaal angry like this, although he is stubborn and short-tempered, he is still very calm most of the time, but a series of recent events have made him impatient - the Catalans think that he is dissatisfied with him because he reuses the Dutch Gang and does not reuse local players, Rivaldo and Figo are dissatisfied because their salaries are less than that of substitute Litmanen, Dani is dissatisfied because he does not get many opportunities, these internal dissatisfactions, plus some setbacks on three fronts at the same time, Dick's provocation, Unfavorable ...... of the match situation These things add up, and finally the Dutch coach can't support it!
'There are a number of other factors that the manager can use to get the benefit on the pitch as well. Mourinho had some realizations at this time, and there were some changes in the eyes of Dick, who was also standing on the sidelines observing the situation on the field.
Dick was more than a dozen years younger than him, close to twenty years old, but he had already realized this truth on his own, and from the fact that his command in these games was not only the command ability of the game on the field, but also the means that could be said to be evil and crooked outside the game, he also used quite a lot, but these methods were also quite useful means!
When Van Gaal shouted to defend, Barcelona's players had actually started to defend, but after all, they were not good at defense, and they were not very prepared for Atletico Madrid's sudden counterattack, so that the defense line was a little shaky by Atletico Madrid's impact all of a sudden.
Juninho broke through Pep Guardiola's defense with the ball, but when Cocu came over, he stuffed the ball directly to Hasselbaink at the edge of the box, and the Dutch striker was about to turn and shoot, but Abelardo had already pounced, he immediately dunked the ball back again, and then raised his foot to pass the ball back!
Baraja, who was inserted in the back row, raised his foot to meet the ball passed back and fired a powerful long-range shot!
Heasp struggled to save the ball off the line, corner.
"Defend this corner!" Van Gaal shouted loudly into the stadium, Atletico Madrid could not keep Barcelona attacking, as long as they resisted this corner, the tempo of the game would return to Barcelona's control.
Solari stood in front of the ball, and with Dick waving his arms desperately off the pitch, Gamara and Chamot rushed forward, and Barcelona had six Atletico players inside and outside the penalty area, only Capdevilla, Aguilera and Serena stayed at the back, and the others were looking for opportunities in the box.
With so many players coming up in one breath, it shows that Atletico Madrid wants to take advantage of this opportunity to score, and it is no wonder that Van Gaal is nervous.
After Solari drove the ball out, a nervous Van Gaal saw his main centre-back, Spain international Arbelardo, ...... again Slippery underfoot!
Solaari's corner kick flew straight to the front of the penalty area, Hasselbaink began to run forward from the middle to prepare to respond, and Abelardo, who was marking him, naturally followed him, but after running two steps, Abelardo suddenly slipped under his feet, although he barely controlled his center of gravity and did not fall to the ground, but it was too late to jump to block Hasselbaink's header......
"Abelardo slipped and couldn't jump! What was he thinking! The Catalan regional TV announcer shouted in surprise as if he had seen the end of the world.
When he exclaimed, countless Barcelona fans also exclaimed!
In the exclamation of the whole Camp Nou, Hasselbaink, who rushed to the front point and had no one to defend it, jumped high, met the falling ball, concentrated in front of the waist and abdomen, and then quickly shook his head to attack the goal!
The ball flew into the Barcelona door from the spot! With a symbolic wave of his hand, Hesp watched as the close-range header flew into his guarded gate......
Atletico took the lead again with a set-piece! Led Barcelona 1-0 away from home!
More than 1,000 Atletico Madrid fans erupted in huge cheers, and if this game can be won, then they have no doubt that Atletico Madrid can succeed in relegation!
And Van Gaal's face, at this time is unusually ugly, Barcelona players also look at the Atletico Madrid players running and celebrating with unwilling and confused eyes, this season their progress has been very smooth, although the performance in the league is not as good as the previous two seasons, and it is often because they focus on the Champions Cup will lose, but in the face of Atletico Madrid, they have been deflated again and again......
To be precise, against Dick's Atletico Madrid, they have been deflated, and their luck has started to get terrible!
At this time, the media's previous verbal criticism of Dick had the opposite effect, because in order to show that Dick was a guy who didn't know anything, they said in an interview after Dick won the big fat lottery and won a prize of $100,000: "I've been lucky this year." The footage is repeated to prove that Dick is just a man who eats by luck......
But in the current situation, no matter how unbelieving in evil is, people begin to think, is Dick's luck so good? In this case, in the face of such a lucky guy, do we still have a chance to win?
Some of the things that Dick let others know made it seem like he was really lucky—there was basically no one in football who had ever won the Big Fat Lottery jackpot, and he got it; It took a few days to win two games, but it was full of luck with two goals against Malaga, two goals against Valencia, and two against Barcelona, Aguilera and Molina broke out, and Abelardo made inexplicable slips in both games...... All these things add up, and they have to believe even if they don't believe it!
"What the hell is Abelardo doing? It can be said that he is not familiar with the Calderón Stadium or that Atletico Madrid has done something on the pitch, but this game is our home stadium! He's played more than 100 times on this course and was able to slip! It's unbelievable......"
The Catalan commentator was angrily criticizing Abelardo, who was a Spaniard, and if he was Dutch, he would have been even more criticized for being worthless......
After the celebration, Dick waved his hand and signaled the players to continue to do the tactics just now - the pressing attack just now was Dick's temporary intention, and his original intention in this game was to fight for three points to keep a point, and now he is ahead? Keep defending and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack......
In the next game, Barcelona played very difficult, these two games against Atletico Madrid were like nightmares, anyway, what they wanted to do will always be hindered, it is so difficult to score a goal, but the opponent always seems to be able to seize some opportunities that are not opportunities, so that even the tenacious players will be seriously affected psychologically.
At the end of the first half, Barcelona were not able to seize the opportunity to equalize, but were attacked by Atletico Madrid several times in a row, and almost conceded again.
Even if they didn't concede a goal, Barcelona's morale was about to fall to the bottom at this time.
They didn't want to play any more for a nightmare game – Atletico were so tenacious in defence and fierce in their physical confrontation that they received two yellow cards in the first half before knocking Figo off the pitch......
The Champions Cup semi-finals are just a few days away, and they also attach great importance to the Champions Cup, but they don't want to be injured in such a game and miss the Champions Cup semi-finals or even the finals!
Van Gaal also has such scruples.
He made such a mistake in the last game, he could have continued to let Rivaldo and Figo rest, but because of a moment of anger, the two almost full-time main players went to play half the game, Figo's injury in this game is not related to the last game against the fierce Atletico Madrid players, the players are not in good health, they are more likely to be injured.
So in the dressing room, Van Gaal is also a little difficult, with his character is definitely looking for a field to come back, and this loss will also have a great impact on the league championship, but Van Gaal is now almost all of his energy pressed on the Champions Cup, has lost a Figo, who will lose to win this game? An Abelardo whose mentality is already collapsing with consecutive mistakes? Or an injured Rivaldo?
Atletico Madrid doesn't have any other burden anyway, they are fighting one game at a time, and Barcelona still has to play the Champions Cup, he is eager for the Champions Cup, only by winning the Champions Cup, his position will be more stable, and there will be fewer doubts about him!
In fact, in history, Barcelona has been empty this season, and Van Gaal's mood of gains and losses is also very problematic, on the one hand, there are internal problems, and on the other hand, he must make a breakthrough in the Champions Cup after winning two league championships and two Copa del Rey titles, so he wanted to pick watermelons and lose sesame seeds all the way, but in the end the watermelons were not picked, and the sesame seeds were lost and could not be picked back.
In the midst of such ambivalence, the precious half-time break was over, and Van Gaal could only tell his players to play as hard as they could in the second half and then protect themselves......
There's a joke that goes like this: the manager says to his players: "Today is a big game, you have to play well and go and win the game!" Then the player said to the manager: "Please make it clear – play well or win the game!" ”
Barcelona is like this now, if they want to win this game, they have to work hard, otherwise they can't break through the door of Atletico Madrid, which can't be defended, and if they want to work hard, they can't protect themselves......
So in the second half of the game, Barcelona's attack was even more unbearable than in the first half.