Chapter 577: The Strongest Line of Defense?

Before the match with Sevilla, many sports media in Europe were speculating that many of the main players participated in the World Cup in Brazil this summer, and Atletico Madrid, which suffered three matches in a week, was likely to be ended by Sevilla's five-game winning streak in La Liga.

However, when Atletico Madrid defeated Sevilla FC with a score of 5-0, many Spanish media immediately believed that this season's La Liga crown is likely to remain in the pocket of Atletico Madrid.

Although some hostile media at Atletico Madrid do not want to see them continue to dominate La Liga, as long as Atletico Madrid can continue their current strong performance and avoid a large number of injuries to their main players, it will be extremely difficult to beat the current Atletico Madrid team, even if they are as strong as Real Madrid and Barcelona.

After all, beating Atletico Madrid requires not only tearing through the toughest steel defence in Europe, but also keeping an eye out for a terrifying front line consisting of Feng Quan, Mandzukic and Griezmann.

Therefore, in the eyes of many Spanish media, when Real Madrid has been defeated, the burden of preventing Atletico Madrid from continuing its winning streak may only be borne by the Barcelona team. Moreover, even if Barcelona win in a direct confrontation between the two teams, it will only delay Atletico Madrid's efforts to defend the La Liga title. After all, the more comprehensive offensive means at the beginning of this season, whether in terms of data or in terms of deterrence against opponents, will surpass the original La Liga "two kings" Messi and Ronaldo.

At the same time, based on the strong performance of La Liga teams in the Champions League in recent seasons, the Spanish media also believe that this season's Champions League title will still be in the pocket of La Liga teams, and Atletico Madrid, which is currently the strongest performer, is undoubtedly the most powerful contender for the Champions League title.

While many Spanish media outlets believe that their teams will once again dominate Europe, the media in England, Germany and Italy do not share this view.

In their view, although Atletico Madrid continues last season's strong performance this season, it will be extremely difficult for Atletico Madrid to repeat last season's brilliant performance after selling Diego Costa, Felipe Luiz in this summer transfer period, and losing Courtois, who returned to Chelsea after a loan term.

Mandzukic and Oblak, who joined the team this season, performed well at the beginning of the season, but in fact, except for the third round of La Liga against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid has not encountered other difficult challenges since the start of the season.

Not only that, but with the newly signed Siqueira, as well as the inability of Javi Manquillo and Insua to completely replace Felipe Luiz in the team, Atletico Madrid's left side defense is likely to become a key breakthrough for opponents.

Although Atletico Madrid seems to be invincible in La Liga at the moment, there are not a few teams that have the ability to beat them in the entire Champions League. And Juventus, the Serie A hegemon who challenged Atletico Madrid away on October 2, has such strength.

While Atletico Madrid started La Liga with six consecutive wins, Juventus, who won Serie A for three consecutive seasons, also performed dominantly in Serie A. While also winning all the games, the defense also maintained a good record of not conceding a goal.

Therefore, this contest between La Liga and the leaders of Serie A has undoubtedly focused the attention of the entire European football world. Especially in the Italian media, the "Old Lady" is likely to be the first team to stop Atletico Madrid's winning streak and even give them their first defeat in more than a season.

In fact, there is some basis for the "optimistic" attitude of the Italian media.

On the one hand, in order to prepare for the UEFA Super Cup, Atletico Madrid's summer preparation period is more than a week earlier than Juventus. Moreover, the first round of Serie A will also start a week later than La Liga, so Juventus will undoubtedly have a better physical reserve than Atletico Madrid.

On the other hand, unlike Atletico Madrid's summer transfer period, which lost three key players, Juventus' main structure has hardly changed, and Morata, who has turned from Real Madrid, has further strengthened the team's forward configuration.

Combining the above two aspects, even if Juventus are playing away from home, it will not be too difficult to get out of the game.

However, when the game really started, Feng Quan, who was the absolute core of Atletico Madrid's striker, quickly slapped the reporters who were optimistic about the Juventus team in the face with his actual actions.

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Serie A is indeed very strong in opening five consecutive wins without conceding a goal, but Juventus's opponents in the first five rounds of the league are almost all at the level of the middle and lower reaches of Serie A, except for AC Milan, which has already subtracted the decline, which can barely be regarded as a "giant team". In addition, Serie A, which focuses more on physical and tactical aspects, generally suffers from a lack of attacking ability.

Therefore, even if Juventus have a good record of not conceding a goal in the first five league games, it does not mean that their defence is really rock solid.

As a result, when their "rock-solid" defense line in the eyes of the Italian media met the sharpest "sharp knife" in Europe today, it quickly showed signs of crumbling.

Less than two minutes into the game, the Juventus right side of the defense composed of Lichtsteiner and Caceles was "pierced" by the wind like chopping melons and vegetables.

After Feng Quan broke into the penalty area with the ball to get rid of the defense of the two, he first pretended to pass the ball to Mandzukic who received in the middle, and then waited for Bonucci to subconsciously move his center of gravity to block the passing line, but Feng Quan used his right foot to dunk the ball, and then picked up his left foot and shot the ball to the bottom left corner of the goal.

If it weren't for the goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon's quick reaction and falling to the ground with his leg to block the ball off the line, Juventus would have suffered the embarrassment of conceding the ball in the opening game. However, Gianluigi Buffon's heroic performance only delayed Juventus' conceded goal a little.

In the 9th minute of the first half, Feng Quan received the ball near the center circle and got rid of the defense of Marchisio and Pogba successively, and distributed the ball to Griezmann who received on the right side and then went directly to the opponent's penalty area.

Griezmann received the ball and collided with Mandzukic to the right of the edge of the Juventus penalty area.

In the face of Chiellini's marking, Griezmann first slid his right foot over the ball to break through the opponent's right side. Seeing that the opponent was not fooled, Griezmann immediately flicked the ball sideways with his left foot and made a long-range shot from outside the box.

However, when Chiellini pushed forward to block, Griezmann used his left foot to tip Mandzukic near the penalty spot.

Mandzukic, with his back to the goal, did not choose to stop the ball, but directly dialed the ball to Feng Quan, who was open on the left rib of the penalty area.

Feng Quan stopped the ball with his left foot in a position that he was extremely comfortable with, and then curled a ball with his right foot to break through the ten fingers of goalkeeper Buffon.