The cooperation between Braniff and Vardy is so tacit that it is unimaginable, like the opportunity just now, as long as it is a striker with normal thinking, he will definitely shoot directly, because he does not have time to look at the position of his teammates behind him.

But Vardy didn't.

Vardy played the ball to Braniff and the pass was so clever that it was done with his back heel and it was so accurate that Barcelona couldn't defend at all.

Braniff was surrounded by opposing players, Toure followed him all the time, and Puyol on the other flank, but the two had no time to react, and by the time they noticed that the ball was rushing towards Braniff, Braniff was already swinging his foot at goal.

The reason why Braniff's goal was easy was also because Vardy had attracted most of the attention, and even goalkeeper Valdés had already attacked, apparently judging that Vardy would shoot straight at goal.

They've all been deceived!

Seeing Braniff easily kick the ball into the goal, several players next to him were stunned, and they recalled the pass just now, and they couldn't imagine it.

This is tacit understanding and strength!

Even if Vardy knew that Braniff was following and wanted to pass the ball diagonally behind, it was not easy, and ordinary players could only turn and push sideways, but Vardy used his back heel to deceive almost everyone.

Also, Braniff was good enough to get the ball up front and pass it to Vardy.

During this period, Braniff showed amazing footwork, and Puyol and Toure both had a deep experience, and they found that Braniff could not be stopped at all.

"How is Braniff better than Messi?"

The media paid a lot of attention to this issue before the game, and a lot of reports revolved around the relationship between Braniv and Messi, the Catalan media supported the media, and the Barcelona players were the same.

What now?

Puyol and Toure both feel that Braniff is even better, and even Messi can't bring them, almost no pressure.

Millwall fans in the stands around were cheering on the goal.

They don't want to delve into how difficult Vardy's pass is, they just need to know that the players played a good attack, and Braniff and Vardy were both very good, and it was enough for the two to give the team a lead over Barcelona.

Away dugout.

Barcelona coach Rijkaard has sorrow written on his face.

The Catalan media are confident in the game, or rather, they have confidence in Barcelona, but as the Barcelona manager, Rijkaard does not blindly assume that Barcelona will win.

The situation in Barcelona is not promising.

The league results can see a lot of things, they are completely behind their rival Real Madrid in the league competition, and the reason for this is that there are problems outside the team, for example, Real Madrid does perform well in the league, and the problems within the team are the main reasons.

The biggest event in Barcelona this season is the marginalization of key player Ronaldinho.

Ronaldinho was pinned on a lot of hopes, but his performance in the first half of the schedule was not satisfactory, Rijkaard still believes that Ronaldinho can recover his form, he gave Ronaldinho a lot of opportunities, but just when the Brazilian was injured when his form was just improving, and after Christmas, Ronaldinho recovered from injury, and his place has been replaced by Messi.

Rijkaard doesn't believe in Messi.

Messi is certainly a great talent, but when it comes to the big game, it is Ronaldinho, an experienced veteran who can be trusted.

Messi is still too young now.

Rijkaard still hopes to give Ronaldinho more opportunities to get the Brazilian back into form and become the core of the team again and become the leader of the team.

It's not really an internal issue.

Ronaldinho and Messi have a good personal relationship, and part of the credit for Messi's rapid improvement is also due to Ronaldinho's guidance.

If Ronaldinho is allowed to become the core again, Messi will not have much objection to the position adjustment.

But there was a problem at the top.

The club's hierarchy believes that the team should consider focusing on developing Messi, just keep the current situation and let Messi become the core of Barcelona, and Ronaldonho can give up.

Rijkaard argued with the higher-ups, but in the end it was inconclusive.

He's just the manager.

The consideration of the club's top management is also justified, because Messi is young enough to become a leader in the next decade, and in addition, Messi's commercial value is much higher than that of Ronaldinho.

After all...... Ahem.

Ronaldinho's appearance is too ugly!

For professional players, it is not a sin to be ugly, but there is no doubt that the commercial value of ugly players is certainly not as good as the handsome little white face, Messi cannot be regarded as a little white face, but he is at least much more normal, and he has always been built according to the standards of the star.

The background of the La Mania academy is more authentic than the 'foreign' Ronaldinho, and it is more representative of Barcelona.

Messi is the icon of Barcelona!

In addition, there is another important point, Ronaldinho's contract is about to expire, if Ronaldinho continues to play the core, he must be retained with a new contract, but his salary is too high, what will be the state in the next few years, it is difficult to guarantee, and the risk of continuing to renew the contract is too great.

These are the concerns of Barcelona's top brass.

Messi stepped up to lead Barcelona, and it became an urgent matter.

Rijkaard opposed the approach of Barcelona's top management, but in fact, he did not have much say, and even said that he could not even guarantee his position as manager, and his departure became almost inevitable after Ronaldinho's departure was confirmed.

Unless......

Barcelona can win the Champions League!

Rijkaard is not obsessed with Barcelona's position, he is just reluctant to leave, and it may be a good thing to take on a new challenge, but for the Champions League semi-final against Millwall, he also hopes to win and lead the team to the Champions League final for the second time, to fight for the Champions League trophy for Barcelona.

This is Rijkaard's wish.

Speaking of the game, Rijkaard knows how difficult it will be to win.

It's Millwall!

The Catalan media are blindly confident, but take a closer look at Millwall's results, who have won the league title for three consecutive seasons, are unbeaten in the top five leagues, and won the Champions League last season.

Millwall have won all of them this season.

With such a team that swept England and swept Europe, how could Barcelona beat it so easily?

Now Braniff's goal still surprised Rijkaard.

The two players on the other side cooperated too well.

Anyone can see that.

Rijkaard also has to admit that the dispute between 'Messi and Braniff' may have reached a conclusion, at least so far, Braniff is much better than Messi, Messi is very limited on the offensive end, and Braniff has easily become the focus of attention with his extremely good performance.

"Let's hope Messi can perform better!" Rijkaard sighed.

In terms of the current situation, no one can come up with a way to deal with it, and Millwall is clearly playing defensive counter-attacks, relying mostly on Braniff and Vardy in attack, and the rest of the players are all staying at the back.

The only thing Barcelona can do is to score with their good style of play.

As long as the players play well and score a few more goals, they will win the first leg and dominate the two-legged match, otherwise they will have to go back to Camp Nou to build on their efforts.

————

For Barcelona, conceding a goal is nothing, not to the point of the end of the world.

Just one goal.

Barcelona has a strong attacking ability, as long as they find an opportunity, they can easily equalize, the Champions League semi-finals are also two-legged battles, and a goal scored by the home team is nothing, or Braniff's goal process, which is a bigger blow to Barcelona's morale.

The fans couldn't see anything, but the Barcelona players knew how difficult it was to score just now.

Braniff is brilliant!

Players such as Puyol and Toure have judged that Branifer is better than Messi, and the opponent has such a player, who is too much of a threat to the defense, and Braniv also has a pretty tacit cooperation with Vardy, and they are all starting to worry about defense.

But Barcelona has never been a counter-attacking team, they are a team that plays attacking football.

So, temporarily strengthen the defense, which does not exist.

As long as it wasn't for the manager's emphasis, they would have continued to play tactically, constantly attacking Millwall in the half, and when they did, the attack was really terrifying.

After the game restarted, Barcelona attacked in two waves, both of which hit the penalty area.

Messi also performed.

In the second attack, Messi managed to shake off Livermore and hoisted the ball in front of goal from the edge of the box, but unfortunately, Eto'o could not resist Darren Ward's defence, and the ball was still driven out of bounds by Ward.

Barcelona's attack continued.

Millwall also shrank their defence slightly, and even Braniff retreated to the penalty line, making the game a one-sided situation, and the situation seemed to be completely controlled by Barcelona, and the visiting Barcelona fans also had to cheer for the team.

But......

For a long time, Barcelona still had no harvest.

Millwall's crowd tactics are the best defense, and targeted arrangements also work, such as Messi, who was limited by Livermore.

Messi is at the heart of Barcelona.

Messi can be said to be the engine of Barcelona's attack, and when Barcelona players pass forward, they like to find Messi's position, and when Messi's performance is turned off, the entire Barcelona offensive efficiency has been greatly affected.

Barcelona is not aiming to change anything.

Perhaps Barcelona is not good at changing, their attacking ability is shown on the right side, one is that Messi is used to playing on the right side, and the other is that there is a veteran Xavi on the right side.

Although the core of Barcelona has always been Ronaldinho, and now it has become Messi, Xavi is the anchor of the Barcelona midfield, and he leads the Barcelona midfielder with extremely consistent performance and efficiency.

Harvey can play multiple positions.

Xavi used to play in the back midfield, and occasionally played in the front midfield, when Ronaldinho and Messi played together, he often played in the front midfield, as the core of the team, and now that Ronaldinho is not there, Xavi is on the right side to match Messi's play.

However, Xavi's shift did not make a difference, but hindered Barcelona's performance.

Zambrotta!

Zambrotta is right opposite Xavi.

He knew Harvey's threat and had been clinging to Harvey.

Zambrotta's one-on-one attempt to target Xavi is impossible, but limiting Xavi's performance is still enough.

Barcelona's two pillars on the right side are all restricted, and they have not made changes, and they have been constantly looking for opportunities on the right side, and their attacking efficiency can be imagined.

Looking at the game on the field, Zhang Yang only felt very interesting.

Maybe I don't know that flexibility is also the reason for Barcelona's poor results, the first two seasons were better, but this season, every team knows how to play with Barcelona, and they all know that they are good at attacking on the right side, so they naturally know how to defend.

In addition, the newcomer is reused by Messi.

When it comes to Barcelona, it seems that there is only Messi, and other young players are not valued, even if they are famous, they are just Messi's foil, for example, on the other hand, Iniesta, a strong contender for the future Ballon d'Or, can't even get a pass most of the time.

This is because his teammates don't believe in Iniesta, and there must be a reason why public opinion is blowing.

But is Iniesta bad?

Even if it's not much worse than Messi, Iniesta must be a genius, but it's a pity that he is on the same team as Messi......

————

In the process of flamboyating Iniesta's secret pity, the first half of the game also came to an end.

Barcelona still didn't score.

At halftime, Zhang Yang praised the performance of the players, gave everyone some encouragement, and let the players rest.

Tactics don't need to be adjusted.

The team only needs to continue to be so big, and I believe Rijkaard can't think of any clever ways to deal with it, because the defense of the crowd tactics has no loopholes at all, and Rijkaard will let the team look for opportunities from the left side at most.

With Koncheski on the right side of Millwall's opposition and Maxey in front, the defense was relatively weak, but it was not so easy for Barcelona to find opportunities.

Soon the second half came.

There are still changes in Barcelona, and the most important change is that Messi has retreated.

Messi had been standing very far forward before, and he thought he was a striker when he was close to the penalty line, but now he had to retreat a little in order to 'dodge' Livermore's entanglement, but he thought too simply.

Livermore's main job is to limit Messi, not to play as a midfielder.

Zhang Yang sacrificed a Livermore in exchange for a Messi on the other side.

It's worth it!

However, Messi's retreat still has some effect, and in a large area behind, Livermore cannot always follow closely, because Messi only needs to cooperate with his teammates to get rid of Livermore.

Livermore was still mostly standing in front of the penalty line, but as soon as Messi rushed over, he immediately rushed to defend.

The rest of the defense is left to your teammates.

With little time left in the second half, Messi found himself still facing Livermore, and it was impossible for him not to run to the front, he was a key player for Barcelona, and standing in the back for a long time would also drag down the team's attack.

As for organizing the offensive?

No!

Messi is a player who charges forward, plays football by his individual ability, and simply organizes the attack to make the veteran Xavi more suitable.

So Messi continues to underperform.

Barcelona's attack was also hampered and they had to keep their tempo in check, but Millwall were soon on the counter-attack.

Very fast counterattack!

Millwall's offense mostly relied on Braniff and Vardy, and that doesn't mean the other players didn't have a role, otherwise it would have been nice to send eight defenders.

This time it's the wing Maxi.

Maxi is a player known for his speed, and he is very fast with the ball, and few people can catch up with him when he really runs.

After dribbling the ball to the front court, Maxi immediately passed the ball to Braniff.

Braniff showed superb footwork, unlike Messi who was restricted, Barcelona did little to do with him at the back, he tricked Toure behind him with two or three kicks, and Puyol, who rushed head-on, did not hesitate to make a flying tackle.

But Puyol didn't succeed.

Braniff kicked the ball forward first, then jumped to avoid danger and quickly kicked the ball into the box when his feet hit the ground.

He had a half-high ball and it was rolling towards Jamie Vardy.

Vardy squeezed Marquez and volleyed his foot, and the ball rushed into Valdés' goal!

Two to zero!

Millwall leads Barcelona by two goals!