Chapter 745: Goal is King (Part I)
(1st Update)
After Giuli came on Ronaldinho as a midfielder, the average altitude of Barcelona's three strikers has dropped to less than 170 centimeters, and such a forward combination is definitely more flexible and fast, but don't think about high-altitude balls, Liverpool's defenders will not be worse than them.
Although Benitez is not as good as Mourinho in terms of on-the-spot adaptation, he is still much better than Rijkaard, he saw Giuli on the field, and understood that Rijkaard wanted to strengthen the breakthrough on the side and create space for Xiao Luo in the middle, he sneered and said in his heart, how can there be such a good thing, let you play the combination of the side and the middle, and we will be finished.
Benitez walked to the sidelines, let Bellamy and Chen Yu retreat, the players continued to shrink, and the side passed without letting go, and there was a chance to play a resolute counterattack.
Benitez's arrangement is very targeted, it turns out that Liverpool's defense has shrunk to about 30 meters, and then shrunk by two meters, Bellamy and Chen Yu retreated, basically Barcelona's players have no room to break through, they can only pass and shoot from a distance, and Barcelona has no long-range shots and headers, Benitez shrinks the space, which can be said to have hit Barcelona's seven inches.
After Giuli came on the field, the deadlock was not broken, Barcelona still had an absolute advantage on the ball, but there were as few threatening attacks as before, they could only pass around the periphery, not penetrate Liverpool's penalty area, and there were many opportunities for crosses, but the landing points were all snatched by Liverpool, Saviola was under a group of Liverpool's long men, and he couldn't even see the sky, let alone head the goal.
Barcelona also tried long-range shooting, both Marquez and Deco both have good long-range shooting ability, especially Deco, he has the luck of long-range shots, and often hits the opponent's defenders to refract goals, but today's Liverpool made a very targeted arrangement, when Deco and Marquez enter the 30-meter area, someone will come forward to interfere, not giving them the opportunity to make an easy effort, under the interference, both Max and Deco's long-range shots are unreliable and cannot pose a threat to Reina.
Rijkaard's tactical adjustments did not work, and at the moment the game has reached 70 minutes, and Rijkaard has no one to replace if he wants to make substitutions, so he can only look forward to the flash of inspiration from geniuses such as Xiao Luo and Messi.
Benitez saw that the shape on the field was developing in the direction of Liverpool, but he did not relax, Barcelona could never accept the result of a 1:1 draw at his home stadium, although now he can't see Rijkaard's good moves, but Barcelona on the field has a lot of talent, just like Ronaldinho against Chelsea, often have a stroke of genius in the most difficult situations, and this is something that Benitez can't prevent at all, He can only hope that his stars like Chen Yu and Gerrard can break out first.
The first to break out was Barcelona's little king Messi.
Argentine teenage phenom Messi was diagnosed at the age of 11 with a developmental hormone deficiency that would stunt his bone growth. The family's financial conditions could not afford the cost of treatment for Little Messi. Messi's dwarfism isn't incurable, but growth hormone injections cost up to $900 a month, and the old Newell buddy of his parent team is unwilling to pay for a child with an uncertain future.
In 2000, the fate of Messi, who was only 140cm at the age of 13, took a turn for the better, and he was taken to the Barcelona academy La Masia for a trial by coach Kuka. During the trial, Messi's cousin won over the Barça youth coach, who decided to keep Messi and help him with his treatment.
Five years later, the 18-year-old Messi once again faced the choice of fate, the star-studded Barcelona club did not have a place for Messi, Rijkaard was ready to loan him out to exercise, and at this time, fate favored Messi again, this year, the Argentine youth team won the World Youth Championship under the leadership of Messi, Messi won the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards, and became the favorite player coveted by major teams, Rijkaard decided to leave Messi in the Barcelona first team to exercise.
At this time, Barcelona has stars like Giuli on the wing, and everyone thinks that Messi can only play as a substitute for one or two seasons in the left winger position, but no one expected that after only half a season, Messi and Gyuli rotated the main position, even if he suffered a muscle strain in the game with Chelsea, and fractured his metatarsal bone in the game with Zaragoza this season, Messi firmly grasped the position of the left winger in his own hands with his superhuman talent.
In the first half of the game, Messi also had several successive passes after passing the feat, but Liverpool then strengthened his defense, seeing that Liverpool's defense was so fierce, Messi who returned from injury had a little scruples, and then he was a little silent, but now, Barcelona has reached a critical point of life and death, and Messi has to use all his skills to break the deadlock.
In the 72nd minute of the game, Messi received the ball smoothly, shook Bellamy and cut inward to the middle, Gerrard came to help defend, and was quickly passed by Messi.
Liverpool's players knew that Messi was extremely capable and did not dare to let him rush, Ager and Alonso immediately went over to intercept, and Bellamy was also in hot pursuit.
Previously, in the impression of Liverpool players, Messi was a bit tendoned, passing people to the end, and rarely passing the ball, so Liverpool's players were very relieved when they wrapped him.
However, although Messi is young and vigorous, he is not a lone wolf style of play, he plays in the midfielder in the youth team, and he still has the vision and kung fu to pass, but he is young and has little experience, and he can't find the best time between breaking through and passing.
Seeing Liverpool wrapping himself, Messi decisively chose to pass.
Because of Messi's attraction, Ronaldinho also took away a defender, Saviola only Carragher was defending alone, and the space in the penalty area was not small.
It was Messi who passed the ball to Saviola, who was in an active position.
Saviola, nicknamed Rabbit, is also the Golden Ball and Golden Boot of the World Youth Championship like Messi, and when he transferred to Barcelona, he also created a sky-high transfer fee that year, but due to the restrictions of his body, Saviola has not played in Barcelona.
Messi's ball passed, Saviola showed the creativity and cunning of the South American player, he pretended to receive the ball, but leaked the ball from the crotch, received the ball and turned around and shook off Carragher, who was staring at him, **** the big penalty area, and shot with his feet.
It was a beautiful getaway and a shot, and the position of the shot was only twelve or thirteen meters away from the goal, which was very threatening.
Today, though, Saviola met Reina.
Reina, who lost his rivalry with Valdés and moved to the Premier League, was full of resentment towards Barca, and he was determined to prove himself at the Camp Nou, having saved several dangerous shots from Barcelona before, and this time Saviola's shot was close range, but Reyna miraculously hit the ball with one hand.
Seeing that the shot in this position was also saved, Saviola couldn't help but sigh in the sky, Barcelona fans shook their heads secretly when they saw Reina so brave, recalling Valdés's clumsy performance before, Barcelona fans really doubted whether the choice to drive away Reina and leave Valdés was correct.
The commentator on the scene has a lot of opinions about Saviola, "Such a goal can't be scored, no wonder Barcelona wants to loan him out, Saviola really doesn't have the ability to gain a foothold in the star-studded Barcelona, even if even his young junior brother Messi in the national team is not as good, at least Messi can destroy the opponent's defense." ”
Although Saviola's shot did not score, the Barcelona people were not discouraged, and they continued to attack Liverpool's defense with various attacks to try to break the deadlock.
In the 75th minute of the game, Messi made a comeback, this time Messi shook the extremely fast Bellamy from the side, broke into the bottom line and deceived Arbeloa, but this time Messi was unwilling to pass the ball again, he cut to the penalty area along the bottom line.
Although Messi no longer has the angle to shoot, but he can't let him rush to the goal, Ager quickly rushed over to fill the position, he stuck the bottom line, trying to drive Messi to the high position, where the crowd is dense, it is easy to form a trap on Messi.
But Messi showed a shocking footwork at this time, he was only half a meter away from the bottom line, and he pushed and pulled, and even wiped Ager with lightning speed.
"God! Messi is too fast! Ager is like a stake. He reminded us of Maradona. ”
Ager obviously didn't expect Messi's action to be so fast, he hadn't reacted yet, Messi was in front of him, and he was already in the penalty area at the moment, Ager didn't dare to foul, so he could only follow Messi and watch Messi dribble at the left post at high speed.
"Messi was less than two metres from goal and he beat three Liverpool defenders in a row...... After Ronaldinho was seen dead, Messi stepped up, he is also the most potential talent in the world today, known as Argentina's new Maradona! ”
Messi hit the closest place to the goal, he could almost see the hair on Reina's face, but he no longer had the angle to shoot, the best choice is to pass the ball out, Barcelona has several players have **** the big penalty area, but the biggest characteristic of young people is that they are easy to get hot, at this time, Messi has forgotten about the action of passing, he directly kicked the ball between Reina's legs.
"Danger! Messi shoots! ”
"Shot!"
Between Reina's legs was the only way to goal, but Reyna clearly knew better, as he merged his legs the moment Messi got up, and the ball bounced right on his leg.
It was the best chance of the second half other than Saviola's shot, but Messi was too young to capitalise on it.
Barcelona fans are full of bitterness, the game played for almost 80 minutes, and it was easy to get two chances, but the results have not been scored, this often happens in football, this side can't seize the opportunity, that side will often be counterattacked by the opponent to score, Barcelona fans are very worried about this worst result.
The hearts of Liverpool fans have just hung in their throats, until the ball flies out of the penalty area, their hearts fall into their stomachs, the catastrophe is not dead, the Liverpudlians have no more ideas, it is very good to be able to keep the current score, back to Anfield, as long as the Barcelona people do not score, they can eliminate Barcelona.