Chapter 196: The Rise of the Dynasty vs. Barcelona (4)
It's so easy!?
That's it!?
When the ball slipped past Valdés' fingertips and into the net, Villarreal were dumbfounded, and even more incredulous than the Barcelona players, they did not rush towards Rossi who began to run in excitement for the first moment, but looked at Santiago with ghostly eyes.
One second ago, it was difficult for his side to breathe under the pressure of Barcelona, and the score was still 0:1 behind the score in the previous second, and even the coach Pellegrini, who has always been calm, couldn't help but make the choice to change the formation in advance, but in the case that everyone was not optimistic, Saint-Tiago used a magical pass to help Villarreal suddenly change the situation.
This was a pass that looked very ordinary, but it turned decay into magic, "just" so that Abidal did not dare to grab easily, and "just" let Keita block the sight of Xavi and others!
Although this situation has also appeared in the pass of Santi before, this time against the powerful Barcelona, it is even more magical.
After a short period of mental stagnation, the players shouted frantically and surrounded Stanti and Rossi at the same time, shouting excitedly, and Santi was even more complacent! When he sent out the ball and saw Rossi score it, all the tension he had had before disappeared in an instant, and it was replaced by endless excitement and fighting spirit! At this moment, he proved his ideas with practice, conclusions! Barcelona has weaknesses and their own speculations are completely correct!
Looking at the magnificent Camp Nou, Saint-Tiago's heart once again ignited a rolling pride, this time he wants to capture here!
"Unbelievable! It was a ghostly pass, no, it should be just the right one! Anyway, this pass really amazed me from the usual! His timing was just right, and what should have been an ordinary pass turned out to be the deadliest pass because it was just the right time! If it's just Santi who just happened to bump into it, I can only say that the Barcelona players are not very lucky."
"But if this is Santiago's long-conceived offensive, then ha! We've got a good show, audience friends! This game is sure to be even more exciting than we imagined! “
A prophecy, this is a real prophecy.
Just minutes after the excitement of the celebration, Villarreal almost took the lead again under the planning of Santo Thiago.
In the 38th minute, Santhiago and Ibargasa behind him came out together, this time Abidal did not throw another mouse in the face of Santiago, who took the ball, but chose to grab decisively, but he still made a bad way for Santi this time.
At the moment when he approached, Sainti suddenly knocked the ball with his heel to Ibargasa behind him, who directly got up and crossed from the left side, and Rossi, who had just completed the goal, rushed into the box again and jumped high to head the goal, but unfortunately this time Rossi's header was saved by Valdés with one hand, and Villarreal missed the opportunity to take advantage of the high morale to overtake the score in one fell swoop. Seeing this, the sailors couldn't help but sigh, and St. Saint also stomped his feet.
However, the Barcelona players on the other side were shocked into a cold sweat, seeing Abidal being played twice by the opponent's midfield core Saint-Tiago, everyone looked at Abidal with some dissatisfaction.
But this is obviously not that Abidal is not weak, but that he has faced too many tricks and is too cunning.
Fortunately, today's new generation of Barcelona has a coach with extremely rich experience on the field, seeing that the signs on the field are not right, Guardiola immediately commanded the players to stabilize their positions, and Puyol and Xavi also understood, and under their actions, Barcelona quickly regained its foothold and began to tightly seal the threat of Santilago.
The score of 1:1 was maintained until injury time, and after 45 minutes of fierce fighting, seeing that the score could still be maintained within the range that they could accept, the Villarreal players felt fortunate and at the same time could not help but be vigilant, but at this time, variables were everywhere.
Iniesta did not put down Senna when dribbling in the midfield, the home court awarded a penalty, Xavi quickly took a free kick, Messi, who had been silent before, suddenly appeared, and directly knocked the ball out after receiving the ball, and Iniesta took the ball again! Seeing this, the Villarreal players rushed towards the middle of the box, but it was too late, and Iniesta's cross from the right side of the box was met by Samuel Eto'o to score his 28th league goal of the season from the edge of the six-yard box.
The score was rewritten to 2:1, Barcelona exceeded the score again, and the Camp Nou was thrown into cheers.
With infinite disappointment, the Villarreal generals could only reluctantly accept the fact that they were overtaken by the opponent again at the end of the first half because of their slackness, and entered the away team's dressing room.
During the short break, unexpectedly, coach Pellegrini did not blame his disciples for doing something wrong, but emphasized the change that needed to be made in the second half, which Santhiago and the players were a little incomprehensible, and Santi even wanted to stand up and refute it at one point, but after thinking twice he gave up this idea, he understood that a team can only have one voice, especially in the middle of a big game.
Maybe it's too conservative, but he has to listen to the manager.
In any case, when the game restarted after a short break after a change of sides, the situation on the pitch changed dramatically under Pellegrini's control.
Unlike the mid-half half, when the two sides switched possession quickly under a strangulation in midfield, Villarreal gradually brought the game into their own control by moving back to reduce the tempo of the game. After careful thinking in midfield, Manuel Pellegrini knew that it would be a lethal threat to ignore the depth of the defence as he did in the first half, so maintaining the depth of the flanks as he did now would go a long way in containing the attacks on both wings in the 4-3-3 formation of the game.
This also caused a very puzzling point on the field, that is, Barcelona used defensive counterattack to score goals in the face of Villarreal's onslaught, and now Villarreal is also putting on a defensive counterattack posture, what is this?
Even the players on the field of Barcelona are so inexplicable, they were originally here to defend against the counter, good guy, didn't you tell me to beat you when you came up? So Barcelona couldn't advance or retreat for a while, you said that if I don't beat you, you still stay the same, we can't look at it dryly! If you let go of the attack, who knows what kind of moth Villarreal is playing at the moment?
After a brief period of confusion after seeing this scene, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola could only signal the players to gradually press and attack, and at the same time, he couldn't help but sneer in his heart: What are you doing, are we the one who is behind?
In fact, this is also his choice, in the face of such a situation with a one-goal lead, Guardiola actually has a better way, but he can't do that, because the emotional Barcelona fans will not be willing to shrink into a ball without attacking when they are ahead, not to mention the new Barcelona that has just re-advanced to the top at the trough, fans need to see this indomitable momentum, even Guardiola can't refute it, Therefore, the current Barcelona is forced forward as if being pushed by these Barcelona fans.
Barça's Andres Iniesta and his double team-mate Xavi combined beautifully in the Villarreal side's half, successfully past Cazorla and left the returning Santhiago useless. But then it's not easy, they're almost all Villarreal players in front of them, is this a bus? It's hard to believe that we don't see Villarreal use this trick against their opponents, especially when they are behind! ”
"Unconsciously, the players on both sides are like swapping bodies, and I have to say that the situation of the game is really right for us, Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola fell into the trap of Pellegrini, but, of course, Guardiola is not panicking."
'Barcelona tried to find Villarreal's space with a small range of combined passes, and oh, Samuel Eto'o was blocked, so he had to pass the ball to Andres Iniesta, who then turned it on to Xavi in the middle to re-organise. Even we have forgotten how many times Barcelona have been blocked in the past 15 minutes, and if the path taken by Pellegrini is to disrupt Barca's attacking rhythm with a tight and elaborate bus-style defence, then we can boldly guess that the next step will be to reverse the situation through simple and direct rapid assault and set-piece tactics. ”
"In such a situation, the performance of the Barcelona players is particularly important, whether they can seize the opportunity to continue to expand the score, and not lose the ball in the attack is the key to the game! Well? We've seen Alves get on the ball again, will he choose to try to break through on his own this time? It does seem to be absolutely amazing! It was an impressive pass, Henry picked up the ball on the left and was almost on the verge of breaking through with a quick change of direction, and Godin broke the ball off the line in the nick of time! ”
Just as Senna was made a breakthrough by Henry, everyone was shocked, Godin's breakthrough appeared on Henry's side to shovel the ball off the bottom line, and at the same time, Henry also fell in the penalty area, and the boos were everywhere in an instant, and the atmosphere at the Camp Nou changed.
"Foul !! Mr. Referee, this is a rude foul!! He deserves a red card!!! ”
"There is no doubt that it is a penalty, yes, sir!!!"