Chapter Ninety-Three: A Big Away Victory
The temperature in Mallorca was not low that night, around 15 degrees, which was much higher than the average temperature at this time of year. The wind speed is only level 2, and the slight fog on the island has been slightly poor in recent times, but the headlights inside the stadium have no effect at all, and it should be said that the external conditions are still very suitable for the athletes.
So as soon as the game began, the two teams quickly got into the groove, and the home team still kept possession of the ball in the middle and back to put the attacking means entirely on the two wings, trying to use the individual ability of the two wingers to open the gap and let the striker Charndo finish the final blow. However, Castilla, who are playing away, also gathered a large number of players in the midfield and backfield, so that the home team's individual breakthrough is completely useless, as long as two people come forward to grab it, it can be easily done. After cutting off the ball, he does not control the ball in a hurry, looks for opportunities in the pass, and does not blindly handle the ball.
In about fifteen minutes into the game, Atletico Balearic coach Uribe found that the situation was a little too good to play like this, if it goes on like this, not to mention whether it will concede a goal, it is difficult for the home team to score anyway, and the best result is just a 0-0, which is not an ideal ending for Atletico Balearic who will go to play the second leg away from home in two weeks, so he can only choose to signal the players to invest more in attack, In particular, the two midfielders and a central midfielder should press forward at the right time to meet their teammates up front.
In fact, all teams in this league will fall into this helplessness when facing Castile's superior possession ability. If you don't invest heavily in central midfield, you'll have to watch as your opponent holds possession firmly in their hands, and there will be very few attacking opportunities available to your side; However, if you want to increase your pressing up front and cause problems for the opponent's possession, you will have to reduce the number and intensity of the defenders at the back, which will expose Castilla to more opportunities to attack or counter-attack. Therefore, when playing against Li Mudi's team, there is often no good choice to play at home, if it is to play away, it is good to choose to defend and counterattack directly, anyway, it is the opponent who wants to score, as long as you can hold and occasionally play counterattacks, you don't have to bother to make a choice. Of course, the point is, there don't seem to be a few teams that dare to say that they will be able to keep the goal in front of this super team. But on your home turf, especially in this kind of home-and-away two-legged match, it is very troublesome. If you want to eliminate Castilla, you have to win at home, but pressing up and attacking will provide the opponent with a lot of counterattack opportunities, which is simply incomprehensible, just like facing that invincible Barcelona team in previous years, no matter how you play, it is a loss.
Uribe's mistake here is twofold: the first is blind confidence that his backline can withstand Castile's rapid attack; The second is to think too highly of the ability of their own offensive players. Yes, the visitors' defensive level is not the top, even if the rise of teenager Manu in the late stage helped the back line to make up for a slight lack of speed, but the overall defensive effect can only be in the upper middle of the second division, and the current record number of goals conceded is more due to the pressure on the opponent in the midfield to form too few effective shots on goal. But even if they are unbearable, they will not be directly overturned by two or three players who rely purely on their personal ability! If it is a top player like MSN or BBC, there is no need to say much, Isco or Xiaobai are here, and it is estimated that these lads will also die miserably. But you, a player in Spain's third division, no matter how strong your ability is, you can't just beat the Yellow Dragon.
Although the head coach of Atletico Balearic instructed the three midfielders to come forward to pick up their teammates, they couldn't stand the two wingers who had a heart of "if they don't stick to the ball", it is difficult to see them take the initiative to seek cooperation with their teammates until they are forced to a corner, and the tacit understanding between them is obviously poor to a certain extent, even if the away team is a little tricky because of the increase in the opponent's offensive investment, but every time there is some crisis, the home team will be very cooperative with various mistakes, Either the middle was outflanked and the people on the wing didn't see it, or they attracted many people to pack and distributed the ball into the open space, but no one ran away, and even a decent shot was not formed.
Castilla did not take advantage of the opponent's large number of mistakes to play counter-attack, but played steadily at the offensive end, trying to use the passing and running to make a fuss, but in the face of the home team's solid backline, it did not have the desired effect, and the game was in a stalemate for a while.
Uribe was confused by this situation, thinking that the opponent was still playing away from home or conceding a goal, so the tactics were a little conservative, and several defenders of Atletico Balearic played very well, so he misjudged the situation on the field, and even instructed the two full-backs to boldly press when attacking on their own side. However, just as the home team's right-back Vizzy crossed the halfway line for the first time, Castilla suddenly made a move, and Manu and Toro formed a scramble to intercept the ball from the feet of the home team's right winger Veinken, and the latter made a through pass to Mbappe, who had been waiting for his chance on the left flank. The Frenchman missed the last two weeks of Real Madrid's first team and international break with a wrist contusion, so he was sent to the reserve squad to find his form after recovering from the injury. At this time, he had long been hungry because he had not been able to participate in official competitions for a long time. Thirst is hard. Patience, coupled with the discipline requirements emphasized by the head coach before the game, so in the first 20 minutes of the game, he has been cooperating with the overall pass and control and even retreating defense, this time I finally found the opportunity that the coach has long agreed to speed up, and naturally I couldn't suppress it, and immediately mobilized my energy after receiving the ball, and accelerated like a sports car to the opponent's right back who had not had time to retreat.
Vizzy is in a tangle at this time, his speed is far less than Mbappe in 100 meters in 11 seconds, if you want to retreat in front of the opponent, it is estimated that people will give themselves facing forward with an acceleration; But if you turn your head and run backwards desperately, you can't see the opponent's dribbling route, and if someone takes two steps along the side and then cuts in, you will become a psychotic. And then there is the current position just near the halfway line, even if Mbappe has been rushing along the wing, but judging from the speed and ability of both sides, Vizzy feels that the opponent will surpass him 100% after more than 30 meters, even if the left midfielder of the visiting team is running with the ball, and he is running empty.
Fortunately, the 32-year-old Spanish veteran is still very experienced this year, and he judged the best defensive plan in a very short time, which is to use Mbappe to burst to his side, pretending to unintentionally use his body to give the opponent a slight charge, and directly stifle this very threatening rapid counterattack here. If you're lucky, you might be able to escape the referee's eyes and avoid a yellow card for a tactical foul.
Vizzie's idea was good, but he underestimated the power of the French sports car. When Mbappe came to a position about two meters in front of him, he suddenly kicked the ball out fiercely, and the ball flew quickly against Vizi's right foot, and the home team's right-back didn't have time to react at all, until the opponent was about to run to his left hand to complete a ball split, and then subconsciously raised his left arm to try to block it. It's a pity that how could he stop the sports car that had accelerated to the highest gear in his haste of action, and he was easily crossed by the other party just a little bit of Mbappe. The big ball was like Bale's brilliant pass against Alba in the 13-14 Copa del Rey final, but the ball and man went in the opposite direction. But that time the Barcelona left-back could always follow behind the great sage to interfere, but now Vizzie was brought to the ground by the contact between the two just now because of lack of preparation, and when he got up, the ball was about to enter the penalty area.
Mbappe used his speed to get past the only defensive barrier on the opponent's side, and after running for nearly 20 meters, he finally caught up with the ball he passed to him three seconds ago, at which time the German central defender of the home team Wiemann once again took advantage of his years of experience in the Bundesliga, judged the trajectory of the ball in advance, and wanted to run over to break the ball before the French youngster arrived. Unfortunately, empiricism killed people again, and he didn't expect Mbappe to be so fast, half a second faster than him, he touched the ball first, and before his sliding tackle arrived, he gently pinched it, and then flew over his body that was lying on the ground. When he rushed out of the sideline lying down, he looked back and saw that the opponent had rushed into the penalty area.
Mbappe cut inside from the left to the front of goal with no one to follow, forcing the only remaining Balearic centre-back in the middle, Prieto, to abandon the marking Mariano and come over to make up for it. The French youngster made two dribbles and shot feints in a row, and unexpectedly pushed the ball to the middle, and the home team's defensive midfielder Leugers was brought to the back of the goal by Kutchi, making Mariano, who was one step before the penalty spot, unguarded, and he pushed the ball to the far corner with his right foot and easily sent the ball into the home goal. 0-1, Castilla changed the score in the 24th minute and scored a valuable away goal.
Belch... In fact, it is impossible to say how valuable it is, because this away goal is really a lot in terms of numbers.
Atletico Balearic had no choice after conceding this goal, and naturally had to adopt an attacking posture to try to turn the tide of the game. However, there is really no good way to face Castilla's strict defense, and the excessive single-play of several players in the front court failed to take any advantage in front of the away team's defensive formation composed of as many as seven players, especially Li Muddy unexpectedly replaced Kuchi with Peperu in the 33rd minute, allowing the youngster to stand directly in the position of the back to protect the front of the penalty area, which made the away team's defensive ability go to a new level. In addition, goalkeeper Abad also made two wonderful saves, which led to the home team's strong attack not only failed to receive good results, but was counterattacked several times in a row by the away team that seemed to be swinging the bus after taking the lead.
In the 37th minute, the Castilla right-back cut off Lindberg's one-on-one after Forlan cut off the ball and immediately passed to Alvaro in front, who accelerated forward to make a cut. After using his speed to get past the opposition's midfield, the visiting right midfielder passed the ball to Mariano in the middle before Balearic Athletic left-back Fith stepped up to steal, and then accelerated down the right flank. In addition to Faith running after Alvaro desperately, central defender Prieto also came to Mariano, who was holding the ball with his back to the home team's goal, and kept trying all kinds of small movements behind him, trying to interfere with the opponent's pass, while waiting for the ball in the middle to come and grab it. The centre-back Wieman, who was dragged in the back, moved his position quickly to the right of the opposition, and once the ball was really passed smoothly, he could intercept Alvaro's breakthrough in the first place.
When everyone's attention was focused on the left half of the home team's half, the Dominican center forward stood in place and made a fake move to get rid of the opponent's marking, and then slammed his right heel towards the right rear of his body, and the ball slid between the two Balearic Athletic players, and then a lightning bolt suddenly struck out from this side. Mbappe fully exploited his talent for speed, shaking off the unreactive veteran Vizzy with one acceleration, and then taking two big steps in a row after receiving the ball, leaving everyone far behind. The goalkeeper at the top of the penalty area was also unusually calm, flicking the ball to the left and easily passing the opponent, and then lying forward and sending the ball into the unguarded gate. 0-2, one of Castile's hands has touched the trophy.
Seeing the boys on his side celebrating wildly in the stadium, and the fans behind him also singing and cheering, Li Mudi's heart was about to bloom. It's no wonder that so many coaches are so obsessed with the fast horse configuration on both wings, which is really amazingly powerful! Even professors, who have always been famous for cultivating young players, are so obsessed with speed, and have successively introduced a large number of "sprinters" with speed abilities above 17 or even full 20 such as Henry, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bellerin, Sanchez, etc., and the Real Madrid first team has become strong immediately after having Ronaldo and Bale's wings, which is indeed too powerful.
In the face of Castilla's ultra-high level of defensive tactics today, Atletico Valearic coach Uribe has no choice, and he can only ask the players of the home team to strengthen their running and cooperation in the later games to see if they can find a chance to equalize. Not only did they fail to score a single goal, but the visitors scored twice in the second half, with Kylian Mbappe and Mariano both netting twice.
0-4, no one will have any illusions about Atletico Balearic anymore, and it only took one round for Li Muddy to establish the team's double title!