Although Diego Simeone said in an interview with reporters: "Feng Quan was absent from the 18-man squad to better prepare for the Champions League semi-final with Barcelona", for those fans and media who expect Feng Quan to achieve the feat of 60 goals in a single season, this explanation is not very convincing.

The match against Athletic Bilbao was played at the home of Atletico Madrid, while they also played at home in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. So even if it takes two games a week, Atletico Madrid doesn't have to worry about the journey, and the five-day gap between the two games gives the players plenty of time to recover.

Even for the sake of athleticism and fitness, Simeone could have played half or 60 minutes or so, and at the very least, he should have been on the bench.

In addition, Atletico Madrid, who are 11 points ahead of Barcelona after 34 games, can secure a win over Athletic Bilbao to win this season's La Liga title two rounds earlier, which will provide more opportunities for substitutes to play in the remaining leagues, allowing the main players to focus more on the Champions League.

Undoubtedly, Simeone's best bet would have been to secure the league title ahead of schedule with a win over Athletic Bilbao so that he could focus on the Champions League.

Simeone, who "designed" Beckham to receive a red card at the 1998 World Cup in France, is definitely a very shrewd guy, so he must know the truth that locking up the league title can put more energy into the Champions League.

Therefore, the reason why the Argentines know the importance of beating Athletic Bilbao is that there must be other hidden reasons for the absolute core of the wind.

Just when everyone was speculating about the various reasons why Simeone was hiding Fengquan, Barcelona's mouthpiece media "Le Monde Sports" suddenly broke the news: "Barcelona was ready to introduce Fengquan at a record price of 110 million euros, but it was categorically rejected by Atletico Madrid."

As a result, many media have speculated that perhaps because Atletico Madrid rejected Barcelona's offer, Feng Quan was very dissatisfied and then challenged the club, causing the club's senior management to be angry and forced Simeone to ban Feng Quan.

In fact, Feng Quan's "unselected" 18-man squad against Athletic Bilbao has nothing to do with the so-called "Barcelona offer" at all. Moreover, the reason why he "failed" the list was the result of his own leading requirements.

As expected by the media, Simeone was supposed to secure a win over Athletic Bilbao to secure the league title before putting more energy into the Champions League. However, it was a remark by Feng Quan before he announced his 18-man squad for Athletic Bilbao that made the Argentine change his mind.

"BOSS, if we beat Athletic Bilbao, does it mean that Barcelona has completely lost hope of winning the league title?"

Simeone nodded, "That's right. ”

"If I were the manager of Barcelona, I would have focused on the Champions League and then given up on the league where I had lost my hopes of winning the title. In this way, it does not increase the difficulty of our Champions League semi-finals. ”

After a pause, Feng Quan continued: "Also, if we win the championship early in the 36th round, then it is customary to wait until the 37th round against Barcelona, they will have to welcome us in the pre-match team. ”

Although there is a certain risk in Fengquan's "plan", considering that a maximum of two points will ensure the championship, even if he loses the match against Athletic Bilbao, it will be easy to defeat Levante, who has long been out of desire, in the 36th round.

So, Simeone happily agreed to Fengquan's proposal.

In addition to excluding all of the 18-man squad, Simeone also put Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann on the bench, thus freeing up the forward combination of Raul Jimenez and Fernando Torres.

In addition, Gabi, Felipe Luiz, Miranda and Juanfran are four of the main players in the midfield who are already in their old age, and they are also on the bench.

Although the absence of most of the main players seriously affected the overall strength of the team, a number of substitutes and young players were able to withstand the onslaught of Athletic Bilbao with the enthusiastic support of the home fans.

After 90 minutes of fierce battle, Athletic Bilbao, who took the initiative in all key statistics, had 26 shots on goal in the whole game, but they were never able to break through the door guarded by Oblak.

Similarly, first-time partners Raul Jimenez and Fernando Torres also missed a number of good chances to shoot on goal due to the rustiness of the combination.

With Barcelona's game a little later a day, Barcelona still maintained their hopes of winning the title after Atletico Madrid failed to secure the league title in advance, temporarily trailing by 11 points.

Originally, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique planned to completely abandon the league to focus on the Champions League, after all, it is unrealistic to hope that Atletico Madrid will not have a point in the last three rounds of the league.

However, when Luis Enrique proposed the idea of abandoning the league to focus on the Champions League, it was strongly opposed by Messi, Iniesta, Pique and other team veterans.

In the eyes of Messi and other veteran players, as a Barcelona player, as long as the team still has a glimmer of hope of winning the championship, he must go all out to treat every game. Even if you need to regain your energy for the Champions League semi-final in four days' time, you have to rest your key players if you are sure to win.

Therefore, in addition to the older Xavi and Danny Alves on the bench, Messi, Neymar, Suarez and other team cores all appeared in the starting lineup.

Facing Córdoba, which has no hope of relegation, Barcelona still has the hope of winning the championship, launched an almost crazy attack on the opponent from the beginning of the game, and Messi took the lead in breaking the deadlock on the field with a direct free kick opportunity in the first 3 minutes of the game.

In fact, the reason why the Barcelona veterans opposed Enrique's abandonment of the league was that in addition to still maintaining the hope of competing for the championship, Messi took the opportunity of Feng Quan's absence from this round of the league to launch the final impact on the goalscorer king is the main reason. After all, they are well aware that Barcelona's hopes of winning the title are extremely slim.

Messi broke the deadlock in the opening three minutes, giving the rest of the Barcelona players a sense that Messi had a great chance of scoring a hat-trick and even more goals.

So, whenever possible, other teammates will pass the ball to Messi.

However, although the "selfless dedication" of other teammates allowed Messi to get a lot of shooting opportunities, Messi, who lacked the favor of the goddess of luck, hit the opponent's post three times in 10 minutes.

In desperation, Messi, who felt that his feet were not going well, began to try to pass the ball to help the team.

In the 27th minute, Messi burst into the penalty area with the ball and assisted Suarez to rewrite the score to 2-0.

Six minutes later, Messi took the ball near the corner of the penalty area on the right side to attract three defenders of the opposing team, and suddenly passed the ball to the empty space at the top of the arc of the penalty area.

The next moment, Rakitic, who arrived at the horse, directly hit the goal with a heavy shot and went straight to the upper right corner of the goal, 3-0.

In the 39th minute, Messi broke through near the top of the penalty area with the ball along the middle and distributed the ball to the left side. Alba, who was inserted at high speed, received the ball and broke through to the bottom line and chose to pass the ball in an inverted triangle, and Suarez, who was outflanked in place, pushed the ball directly into the bottom right corner of the goal with his right foot.

In stoppage time, Roberto, who played at right wing-back, headed in a low cross near the baseline on the right to help Suarez make it 5-0 at half-time.

Seeing that the team had sealed the win in advance, Luis Enrique was ready to replace Messi and Suarez at halftime.

Suarez, who had already scored a hat-trick, naturally accepted the coach's kindness, but Messi, who only scored a free kick, chose to refuse.

Although Luis Enrique was a little angry in his heart, he had to reluctantly choose to compromise for the sake of team harmony, after all, the veterans of the team are on Messi's side.

After the start of the second half, although Messi was still able to easily get the opportunity to shoot, the goalkeeper of Córdoba, who did nothing in the first half, was as brave as a hanger, and his good form seemed to be only aimed at Messi alone.

Therefore, although Messi completed seven shots in the first 20 minutes of the second half and hit the goal range five times, he was never able to break the opponent's goalkeeper's ten fingers.

It wasn't until the 22nd minute of the second half, when Neymar burst into the box with the ball and was tripped by his opponent, that Messi took advantage of the penalty opportunity to complete the brace.

Considering that there will be a Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid in four days' time, Messi signaled Luis Enrique to take him off after scoring the penalty.

In the end, with Suarez's hat trick and Messi's two goals, Barcelona, who won by 6 goals at home, still maintained their hopes of winning the title.

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