Chapter 243: Second Title Defense
Atletico Madrid fans celebrated frantically for two days, in their opinion, Atletico Madrid won the Champions Cup will not have any problem, although Leverkusen has performed very well this season, but we have even killed Real Madrid, can't we kill a Leverkusen?
The media believes that this season's Champions Cup is a dark horse rampant game, to a large extent, Atletico Madrid and Leverkusen are dark horses, although Atletico Madrid is the champion of La Liga last season, but they are the Champions Cup after four years, it is a new army, although Leverkusen's performance in recent years is quite good, but before the championship is at most the quarterfinals, generally speaking, the group stage can not qualify, the same is a dark horse!
A contest between two dark horses - it depends on who is the darker.
Although there are no top giants to participate in the final, the attraction of this season's Champions Cup final is not weak at all, the reason is that both sides have that kind of appealing players, and they have defeated countless strong teams along the way to advance, how can such an attraction be weak?
Although Atletico Madrid only eliminated Real Madrid in the knockout round before entering the final, but in the two group stages, they first met Manchester United, and then played against Roma and Liverpool, which is not bad at all, and Bayer Leverkusen came out of a group of absolute death, and then eliminated two Premier League teams Liverpool and Manchester United in a row to reach the final, which is also very good.
While Atletico fans celebrated, Dick began to prepare for the 37th round of the league.
Tenerife are promoted to La Liga this season and they are now bottom of the table - 35 points, but they still have a chance of relegation, above them are Zaragoza with 36 points, Mallorca and Las Palmas with 39 points, Villarreal with 40 points and Osasuna with 41 points, they are not without a chance of relegation, and if they can win both games in the next game, they still have a chance to succeed in relegation......
"Whether they want to be relegated or not, they have to be killed by us."
Dick said calmly: "Winning this game will give us ten days to prepare for the Champions League final, otherwise we will have to go all out in the league with only four days to go...... Let's not give Valencia any delusional chances, take out Tenerife and win the league one round earlier! We've given up a lot of games before, and we've even gone four games in a row without a win in the league, which keeps Valencia alive! Now let's tell Valencia that their so-called hope is only because we don't have time to care about them for the time being, and if we do it, then they won't have any hope! ”
It's just that Valencia, apparently, doesn't think so.
Chasing from a maximum of 14 points to the current three points is undoubtedly a very morale-boosting thing for Valencia, and Benitez seems to have plenty of confidence: "Now we are only one game apart, even if we end the season with a tie, we will still be defeated because we have achieved such results in such a bad situation!" Atletico's situation is not particularly favourable right now, they have just played an extremely overdrawn game, they only have three days of rest to recover, and if they still can't win this game, then they will be in a dilemma, that is, the final round and the Champions Cup final - you know, there are only four days between the final round and the Champions Cup final! ”
In the end, he concluded: "We have a lot of hope of winning the title and we will prove it." ”
Because Atletico Madrid participated in the Champions Cup, their match was postponed by one day, and the first game was Valencia's away game against Malaga, Valencia performed quite well in this game, relying on goals from Angulo and Rufit, they won the game 2-0 cleanly away, with 72 points, equal Atletico Madrid's score!
Benitez is proving that there is nothing wrong with his words, because now that Valencia have equalised, if Atletico are not able to win this next game, then they will have to win the final round to guarantee the league title!
They had just played a difficult game and then faced a team that was going to be relegated, which was quite bad for Atletico.
What's even more interesting is that on this day, Bayer Leverkusen, who are also going to participate in the Champions Cup final, lost the second game in the league, leaving them with a five-point lead by Dortmund by one point, and the league title that has almost been won is on the verge of losing!
Bayer Leverkusen are opponents in the Atletico Champions Cup final! They are similar, they had enough advantages in the league before, but the advantage was reduced to negligible due to the distraction of the Champions League, and now it is difficult for Bayer Leverkusen to win the league title, what about Atletico Madrid?
"Now let's tell everyone that Atletico Madrid is strong not just because of a main lineup!" Dick snapped his fingers before setting off, confidently speaking to all the players.
In this game, Dick fielded a mixed lineup of half main and half substitutes.
Goalkeeper Molina, defenders Héctor, Thuram, Stam and David, midfielders Makelele, Baraja, Jorgensen and Camoranesi, and forward partners are Cruise and Torres.
He rotated top striker Jadel and playmaker Belleron, and there is no doubt that it was quite a bold move.
"Maybe Dick will pay for his self-confidence...... However, in the past two years, he seems to have never paid such a price, let's see, after 90 minutes, it will be Atletico Madrid who will lift the league championship trophy! ”
And the Atletico fans in the stands are wholeheartedly supporting Dick and Atletico, they are constantly shouting loudly, hoping to see the team score first and then win this game!
They want a win, not a draw, not a loss!
What reassured them was Dick's victory gesture after his appearance - as long as Dick made this gesture, then Atletico would definitely win - this is a deep-rooted belief for Atletico fans!
However, this belief seems to have been challenged in this game.
In the twenty-third minute of the first half, Tenerife's top scorer, local striker Mariani, received a pass from his teammates at the edge of the penalty area, and then shot at the edge of the penalty area at the first time, hitting the ball into the corner of the goal!
The hundreds of Tenerife fans who came from afar immediately burst into huge cheers!
The desperate fight of the relegation team is really quite ferocious!
When the cheers in the stands quieted down, Dick looked cold and did not move, but continued to make a firm offensive gesture!
Don't be in a hurry, believe in our strength! We're going to win, because we've beaten so many big clubs before, are we going to capsize on our home turf?
We beat Tenerife away from home! Now it's on our home turf! At the glorious Calderón Stadium! How could it not be a victory!
Under Dick's command, the Atletico players quickly stabilized their position, and then launched a fierce attack!
Under the desperate defense of the Tenerife players, Atletico still equalized before the end of the first half! Jorgensen dribbled the ball on the flank past two Tenerife defenders in a row, and then passed the ball into the penalty area in the chaos, and Cruise appeared in time to the front point, facing the rolling ball with a clean and clean volley, and hit the ball into the corner of the goal, 1 to 1! Atletico equalised!
With this goal, the hearts of the Atletico Madrid players are settled, and the hearts of the Atletico Madrid fans are also settled!
Such an emotion made the game go on in the seventy-first minute of the second half, and there was a goal that made all Atletico Madrid fans shout wildly!
Baraja got the ball from the back, Cruise headed the ball in front of the penalty area, Torres, who stepped forward in time, grabbed the ball in front of the opposing defender, and then raised his foot to shoot the first time, and hit the ball into Tenerife's goal!
“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Fernando Torres! Beautiful goal! Perhaps a very important goal to help Atletico win the league! Worthy of the future captain of Atletico Madrid and the flag of the team! His performance is getting better and better, and as long as he can continue this performance, sooner or later he will become the number one main force of Atletico Madrid, and he can become an existence on a par with Raul! ”
"Dick's cultivation of Torres can be said to be not in a hurry at all, giving him opportunities, but not overdrawing his abilities! Such a dedicated approach is indeed the best training for Torres! There may be a lot of criticism that Dick is only focused on buying stars, but let's not forget that Baraja and Beleron are both at the top of their game under him, as well as the young Vicente and the brilliant Torres! You must know that it is not easy to maintain a balance between developing young players and achieving results, but Dick has done it, and he is the best manager in the history of Atletico Madrid! No one can do it better than him! ”
After the old Hill in the box cheered, although his face was a little flushed and his breath was short, he still looked very happy, and then looked at the two shareholders beside him: "What's the matter, does anyone still doubt that I let Dick into the management?" ”
Cerezo smiled bitterly: "There will be no more...... With him, Atletico will be even better! ”
While several club executives were chatting, countless Atletico fans were already cheering, and now that they are ahead, their last worries are gone, and for Atletico Madrid, being able to take the lead means that they can win this game!
Dick began to make substitutions, first replacing Torres with Marchena, and then replacing Camoranesi with Hage, Atletico firmly controlled the midfield in the next game, constantly wearing down the opponent's fighting spirit - and at this time, countless Valencia fans turned off the TV in disappointment, they knew that their team could not win the league title this season!
Finally, when the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game, this season's La Liga champion belonged to Atletico Madrid and belonged to Dick!
Atletico Madrid FC defended the La Liga title for the second time in its history!
Dick stood up from the dugout with his hands raised and enjoyed everyone's cheers and worship - and then there was only the final of the Champions Cup!