Chapter 876: The Situation Is Clear
With the end of the fifth round of the group stage, there is no suspense about qualifying for Group A, with Atletico Madrid finishing first with 15 points from five rounds, and Juventus finishing second with nine points from a win over Malmo.
Malmo and Olympiacos are on three points, and the two teams need to decide three or four places in the final round, and the gap between these three and four places is also huge, with third place qualifying for the Europa League and fourth place going straight home.
The place in Group A has been decided, but B still needs to decide the second place in the final round, and Liverpool, who are back in the Champions League, have thrown themselves to the bottom with four consecutive defeats in a perfect start, and now they can only hope for the final round.
At the same time, the top team in Group B is the second team other than Atletico Madrid to have won all of their games so far, which is also a coincidence, because both teams are from Madrid, and Group B is Real Madrid.
Group C is not very concerned, but just like the strength of the teams in Group C, no one in this group has been able to qualify stably yet, and the suspense is left to the last round.
In Group D, Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund have already qualified for the two teams, but it is the Hornets Dortmund who have the advantage.
Group E is the group of death, but this group of death seems to be a bit of a misnomer, with Bayern Munich coming out on top, with the remaining three teams tied on five points and a final round to decide the second place in the group.
Group F Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona, the two teams will decide the top spot in the group in the final round, as for the qualifying places, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have already been obtained.
In Group G, Mourinho's team is also firmly in first place, Schalke 04 and Sporting Lisbon compete for second, and it also takes the final round to decide, as for the final group, it is actually similar to Group C, the attention is not high, and the points difference is not large.
The Champions League group stage is coming to an end, but La Liga is still going on, and even the Copa del Rey is about to start in December, not to mention Atletico's Club World Cup in mid-December.
The only good news for Atletico is that this Club World Cup is not in Japan, but in Morocco, across the sea from Spain.
This is certainly not good news for Asian fans, especially Chinese fans, after all, this is one of the few opportunities they have to watch Lin Dong play live.
It only takes more than three hours to fly from China to Japan, and if it is not Morocco, it is almost a full day, which is longer than coming directly to Spain.
Such a comparison is a bit more than worth the loss, the Club World Cup is very famous, yes, the competition between the continental champions of several continents, but the strength and influence of these continents are simply not comparable to Europe.
It is no exaggeration to say that the players in these continental champions have not even been able to gain a foothold in Europe's giants, and the gap is immeasurable.
Three days later, Atletico Madrid welcomed another promoted Mara Coruna team at home, with the former Super Laco relegated in the 12-13 season and back in the first division a season later.
As a promoted horse, Deportivo La Coruna behaved like a promoted horse, accumulating 10 points after 12 rounds, although it was not in the relegation zone, but this point was no different from the relegation zone, it was a matter of one game.
What's more, Deportivo La Coruna is facing the defending champion Atletico Madrid, who is in good form and beats Barcelona and Real Madrid.
It is true that Atletico Madrid is still a little short of becoming a real giant, but Atletico Madrid's strength has been recognized by the major European giants, and the two best teams in Europe are currently in La Liga.
In this game, Mandzukic returned to the starting line-up after injury, partnering Lin Dong, Gabi was suspended because of the red card in the previous game, Thiago and Suarez formed the middle, and the two sides returned to Koke and Turan.
At the back, it is no surprise that Siqueira has largely lost Simeone's trust, with Ansaldi and Juanfran splitting the flanks, and Gimenez and Godin in central defence.
The game was in Atletico's rhythm from the start, similar to Olympiacos' midweek game, and even the timing of the goal.
The goal was scored in the eighth minute of the previous game, and this game was a minute later than the previous one, and the player who scored the goal also changed from Lin Dong to Mandzukic.
It was also a cross from the side, but this time it was a corner cross, and before the match-fixing, Lin Dong's header was lifted out of the bottom line by Deportivo Favri.
Gabi was absent, the corner kick was sent by Koke, and the Atletico midfielder sent the ball directly into the penalty area, Mandzukic came out of the crowd, beat Diakite, a few centimeters above him, and threw the goal straight into the corner.
After the goal, Atletico Madrid has been pressing Deportivo to play again, although Deportivo has always wanted to fight back, but the difference in strength between the two sides is too big, and Deportivo can't save at all.
However, for a long time later, Atletico Madrid, who took the initiative, was never able to expand the score, well, this situation is still very similar to the championship of the week, if it weren't for the different jerseys on the field, Atletico Madrid fans in the stands couldn't help but wonder if they watched a replay, well, watch a real replay in the stands.
And the subsequent development confirmed this, and the first minute of the game came to the 43rd minute, almost the second goal of the Champions League in midweek, Atletico Madrid scored the second goal of the game, and the scorer was still Lin Dong.
Turan crossed a high ball from a 45-degree angle on the left, and Mandzukic fought for a header again, but this time Mandzukic made the ball for Lin Dong and headed the ball.
Lin moved to outflank the back, the header dived, and the Deportivo goalkeeper could only look at the ball and sigh, watching the ball fly into the goal behind him, and the score was rewritten to 2:0.
However, the game started to change at this point, and Atletico went into halftime at 2:0 in the midweek game, but this game was indeed 3:0.
In stoppage time, Lin Dong handed out his fifth assist of the season, and Koke is currently the assist leader of the Atletico Madrid team, while Lin Dong is second only to Koke.
Turan's cross again, Lin Dong fought for the first landing point, and it was also a header ferry, but the object of Lin Dong's header was Koke, who appeared diagonally opposite Lin Dong, stopped the ball on his chest, volleyed, and the ball went straight to the corner of the goal, and Atletico Madrid rewrote the score to 3:0.
However, the 3:0 in the first half was also the score of the whole game, and the three goals in the first half seemed to consume all the luck of Atletico Madrid's goals in this game, and in the second half, Atletico Madrid couldn't score no matter how they attacked.
At the same time, this is also the first time this season that Lin Dong has only scored one goal in a game, and in the previous games, Lin Dong was able to score at least two, and at most four.