After the league tie with Las Palmas, Atletico Madrid will take on Celta Vigo away in midweek.

They have just returned from Celta Vigo's home stadium.

Because the field was too dense, Simeone rotated in this Copa del Rey match.

Including Gao Zheng and Antoine Griezmann did not appear in the starting lineup.

In the end, Atletico Madrid won the first leg by beating Celta Vigo 1-0 away.

The second leg will be played on January 27, in the middle of next week.

Atletico Madrid will next host Sevilla at home and Barcelona away, both of which will be difficult to play.

In the 28 days of January, Atletico Madrid played a total of nine games, an average of one game in three days.

Such a dense schedule is very physically demanding on the players.

And this season, La Liga just doesn't have a winter break, and players who have been fighting for half a season can't get even a day off.

In such a situation, it is not surprising that Atletico Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Sevilla.

After such a dense game, the players did have a big problem with their fitness.

Gao Zheng and Antoine Griezmann started in this game, but they did not score anything, and the two who have been in good form recently were dumb at the same time.

Let the team at home have no choice but to accept this result.

Wu Lei, who was in the Spaniard, still did not get a chance to be in the squad, but he did not watch the game in front of the TV this time, but sat in the box at home and witnessed how his team led half time, and once again conceded a goal in the last minute and was equalized by Villarreal.

In the two games against Chinese players, neither Chinese player showed any performance, one did not score, and the other did not play at all.

At that time, there were even domestic media in China with such a headline: "The darkest moment for foreign players".

Gao Zheng, who has always been very good at scoring goals, and Wu Lei, who has high hopes, failed to enter the squad for three consecutive games after joining Espanyol.

Originally, everyone expected that after Wu Lei joined the Espanyol, he would be able to perform well under the stimulation of Gao Zheng, and the two of them complemented each other in Spain's top two big cities.

Unexpectedly, it fell silent at the same time......

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At that time, everyone thought that this was the worst time for Chinese foreign players.

I didn't expect the bad to come.

In the second leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals, Atletico Madrid faced Celta Vigo at home, and Gao Zheng came off the bench in the second half to score a goal for the team, but it still failed to change the fate of Atletico Madrid's 2:3 home loss to Celta Vigo.

Despite a narrow 1-0 win away from home in the first leg, they scored just one away goal on aggregate 3-3, while Celta Vigo scored three more. As a result, Atletico Madrid was eliminated from the competition because of the disadvantage in terms of away goals.

Fell in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey for two consecutive seasons.

Last season, it was because Gao Zheng participated in the Asian Cup and was eliminated by Barcelona, which is understandable.

And this season, in the case of Gao Zheng, because of rotation, lost to Vigo Celta.

The media believed that Simeone and Atletico Madrid were preparing for the next crucial match against Barcelona, so they did not hesitate to give up the Copa del Rey for this.

The problem is that such rotations don't always bring the results you want.

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In the 22nd round of the league on January 30, Atletico Madrid ushered in a crucial match, they took on Barcelona away.

Atletico Madrid fielded the strongest squad in this match.

The same is true for Barcelona.

It's a race where Mars hits Earth.

The 93,000 fans who poured in at the Camp Nou could tell how hot the game was.

Gao Zheng opened the scoring for Atletico Madrid in the 10th minute, helping the team temporarily lead Barcelona with a score of 1:0.

It wasn't the first time he had scored at the Camp Nou, but it was the first time he had scored here in an Atletico Madrid shirt – he was playing in the Asian Cup when Atletico Madrid visited Camp Nou last season.

However, Atletico Madrid's lead did not last long.

In the 30th minute, Messi equalized for Barcelona.

Eight minutes later, Barcelona struck while the iron was hot, and Suarez scored another goal to help Barcelona overtake the score.

Barcelona then took control of the situation on the field, and Atletico Madrid could only shrink up and play defensive counter-attacks.

That scoreline remained until the end, with Atletico Madrid unable to change the scoreline and they lost a crucial game on the road.

The impact of losing this game on Atletico Madrid is very far-reaching.

Because of the previous match with Sevilla, Atletico Madrid drawn, so now the points are only 50 points, while Barcelona's points have caught up and become 48 points, only two points short, the key is that Barcelona has one less game.

When Barcelona kicks the rematch, it is very likely that they will surpass Atletico Madrid in points.

The original seven-point lead was gone, and it was only two games away.

The Copa del Rey was knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Celta Vigo, who were comfortably beaten in the league and were chased by Barcelona by just two points.

In the Espanyol game the next day, Wu Lei still did not appear in the squad, and the Spaniards lost to Real Madrid with a score of 0:6 away from home without any suspense.

What is the darkest moment when Atletico Madrid was drawn by Sevilla and Espanyol was drawn by Villarreal?

Now is the time for the darkest hour!

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After the game, the Barcelona media raised their eyebrows and declared that Barcelona had successfully avenged.

In particular, the Catalan journalist named Manuel Blanco was even more excited to post five tweets in a row, each of which @Gao Zheng, as if he wanted to vent his anger at being slapped by Gao Zheng last season.

"It's a wonderful feeling to succeed in revenge!"

"I'm going to celebrate with my friends today! Share the joy! ”

"I always believed that Barcelona could get revenge on Atletico Madrid, even when we lost the league title last season. Now Barcelona have repaid my trust in them with a win and I'm very happy! ”

"Gao scored in this game? So what, it's still us who emerge victorious in the end! And not only did they lose the game, they were going to lose their top scorer – Suarez has caught up, and they are now also 19 league goals! ”

"Some people say it's just a game, what's there to be happy about? But what they didn't know was that Barcelona sounded the horn of a counter-attack, and now we are only two points behind in the standings, so what about the end of the season? Maybe we're not just two points ahead! Revenge starts now! ”