Chapter 962: Ace vs. Ace
Barcelona broke the deadlock first at the Mestalla Stadium was something that many media reporters and commentators did not expect before the game, after all, Valencia has been in very good form recently, and it should not be a problem to win Barcelona with the advantage of home field.
It's just that according to the performance of these few minutes in the first half, Valencia is obviously not in shape, but the away Barcelona seems to be more active and direct, playing their own characteristics.
When the game resumed, Valencia, who were behind at home, consciously increased their attacking intensity, while also reducing the dribbling time in the transition from defense to attack, and tried to pass the football as much as possible, so that Juan Mata or David Silva could dominate the direction of the football and organise a more effective attack.
Valencia's self-adjustment was very successful and created enough threat after two minutes.
Cazorla won the ball near the centre circle and pretended to make a pass to Mata, who retreated, only to deflect the centre of gravity of Sergio Busquets and Xavi before suddenly smashing the left side of the net and shaking off the angle.
All Barcelona defenders thought Cazorla's change was aimed at finding Ailo on the left flank, so Keita, Cesc Fabregas and Alves all consciously moved closer to Airo.
But what no one expected was that Cazorla turned out to be Jordi Alba, who was cutting in at high speed on the left with his left foot.
The change was clearly not expected by Barcelona, as full-back Alves scrambled to the brakes and turned towards Jordi Alba, who was looking up for the ball.
When Alves got close to Jordi Alba, the latter had adjusted the ball at his feet and crossed directly.
Alves subconsciously tiptoed hard with his left foot and flew to block the ball with his foot.
However, Jordi Alba's pass was not a high ball because Iroh was not in the box, and David Villa's fitness has declined with age, so it will be difficult to find the spot against the combination of Mascherano and Pique.
So Jordi Alba passed an inverted triangle.
As the camera cuts, the ball moves from Valencia's attacking left to the right of Barcelona's penalty area.
At the same time, the Valencia fans erupted in loud cheers - because it was Iro!
Keita, who was following Elo, pressed his shoulder, preventing Elo from getting a chance to shoot with his feet.
At the same time, Pique also subconsciously moved to the right, approaching Iro.
If Iroh chooses to shoot, Pique can still use his body to block Iroh's shot in the first place.
However, Elo's original idea was not to shoot at all, and when Keita pressured and attracted Pique's attention, his right foot reached forward and did not touch the ball, but a clever leak that rolled towards the top of the box.
"Juan Mata!!"
With a shout from commentator Hyde, Mata didn't make any adjustments, picking up his left foot and hitting the ball as he ran.
Pique and Mascherano were both half a beat slow to make a block, but goalkeeper Valdés had enough attention to shoot and swooped sideways to keep Mata's shot out.
"Whoa, whoa—"
The scene erupted in exclamations.
Although Valencia's attacking change did not result in the goal, it was a wake-up call for Barcelona that Valencia could create enough of a threat by bypassing Elo......
Ancelotti therefore returned to the coach's seat, continuing to cross Erlang's legs gracefully and mechanically chewing a well-known gum in his mouth......
※※※
Since Valencia also created a dangerous attack after bypassing Airo, Barcelona's defensive attitude has become much more correct, and they have been very focused on the defensive end and have not neglected one over the other.
But what they don't know is that as long as they don't have enough personnel to defend Iroh, it's a kind of trade-off.
Because Iroh is very strong in his personal ability, it is easy to lose control of Iroh in defensive operations if there are not enough defensive players to limit him.
Three minutes later, in the fourteenth minute of the first half, Wang Xiaolei took Messi's shot, which was in very good condition, in his arms.
Instead of pretending to press the ball under him and delay the time as before, he just ran and threw the ball with one hand to Cazorla, the metronome who wanted the ball.
Xavi, who was ready to retreat, stemmed from the essence of Tiki-Taka tactics, and ran on the first hand to break the ball with Cesc Fabregas.
Valencia, who had the same tactics, naturally knew that Barcelona would continue to counter-attack at the first time in this situation, Cazorla did not stick to the ball at his feet, arched his foot, passed the ball to Benatia, and then turned and ran.
Benatia also didn't stick to the ball, passing it to Cesar Azpilicueta and the ball was passed through the feet of Javi Martinez and Juan Mata before returning to Cazorla's feet.
After failing to grab the ball on several occasions in a row, the Barcelona players began to retreat into the half.
Valencia are worried about exerting too much energy, and Barcelona are equally worried.
Although the league opponents at the weekend are not strong, Bayern Munich, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final next week, is a tough one, and Robben joins Bayern Munich with Ribery to form a threat on the wings.
And both of them are players who can pass and shoot, plus the ability to cut inside is even better, which is an offensive method that Barcelona must be afraid of, and this game cannot be consumed too much......
As the Barcelona defenders retreated into the half, Cazorla calmly took the ball and looked up.
This time, instead of making a long pass to Jordi Alba or opening up David Silva on the right, he handed it to Elo, who was only two men to mark for.
Suddenly, Keita and Alves stared at each other.
Of course, the two of them did not blindly stick it, but consciously kept a safe distance, because this could prevent the acceleration breakthrough caused by Iroh's super explosive power.
But what they didn't expect was that Iroh had already planned to use this bit of their mind to create opportunities.
Before the ball could reach his feet, Iroh suddenly took a step forward to meet the ball, opened up the distance between Keita and Alves, and then slammed the ball to the left with the arch of his right foot.
At the same time, he kicked the toe of his left foot, driving his whole body to the left, completing the half-turn, and facing the defense of Keita and Alves head-on.
At this time, there seemed to be a big question mark hanging above the heads of the two, and they didn't know what Iroh wanted to do.
Soon, though, they knew Iroh's intentions.
Iello didn't stop after the half-turn, first making a fake right foot to pass to Juan Mata, tricking Keita, who was close to the middle, to move half a step to the left, and then quickly followed up and buckled the ball with his right foot to the left.
The right foot landed, and the left foot connected to the right-footed slam of the ball towards Keita and Alves.
"Croquettes?"
The local Barcelona commentator exclaimed.
They are very familiar with this trick, it is Iniesta's famous stunt!
Alves instinctively fell to the ground and hooked his feet, even if he didn't kick the football, he wanted to keep Iroh in place.
Because it is now a critical moment to switch from offense to defense, the defensive system has not yet been established, and if Iroh succeeds in breaking through, it will be an unpredictable result.
Keita was like-minded, but his previous move to the left had allowed him to move half a meter away from Iroh.
It just so happened that it was this half-meter distance that made their joint defense a fatal mistake.
Alves' defensive instincts are very quick, but Iroh is more explosive and accelerates on the spot.
According to the relevant research statistics of CIES, an authoritative institution of European football, Iroh's in-situ explosiveness is even stronger than that of the alien Ronaldo.
So Alves Mao didn't touch it.
※※※
The sky above the Mestalla Stadium erupted in cheers for Elloh's brilliant breakthrough, and Valencia fans had already guessed what Elloh's breakthrough meant.
Both the midfielders and full-backs were pushed past him, meaning that he was left with only centre-backs to face defenders.
But David Villa's forward acceleration drew attention from Mascherano's defence, and Iroh only had to face Pique next.
Pique faced Elloh, and he opted for a defensive strategy of half-sideways and fight-and-retreat.
Of course, his defensive move was to selectively abandon the wing and block Elo's inside lane.
Pique would still be a good defensive option if he was up against a top-notch attacker, but he was up against the world's No. 1 breakaway madman, Elo.
Iroh was unreasonable with his right foot and dunked the ball to the left, and the speed immediately changed from third gear to fifth gear, Pique subconsciously thought that Iroh was going to go outside, so he turned to the left and ran to the baseline.
As a result, when he finished turning, he couldn't see Iroh on the outside.
With rich defensive experience, he immediately realized that Iroh had dunked the ball in disguise in the process of dribbling at high speed.
"Whoa!!"
The stands erupted in loud cheers again, and the fans cheered for Iroh's visually striking breakthrough.
Even King Juan Carlos of Spain, who was watching from the VIP seats, stood up to applaud Elo's brilliant breakthrough.
"Over him!" Li Ai, who was sitting in the VIP box, couldn't help but clench his little fists because of the shouts that broke out at the scene, cheering for his father.
And he also has such a picture in his mind - to become a superstar in the limelight, just like his father!
By the time Pique turned to the right, it was too late, and Elo's explosive power took the lead, and Mascherano had to give up his defence against David Villa.
However, Iello slotted the ball to the left with his right foot and fired a shot from the edge of the box with his left heel.
No one guessed the change in rhythm, and goalkeeper Valdés still did the same.
As a result, his sideways pounce was much slower, and the ball grazed the inside edge of the right-hand post and bounced into the snow-white net......