Although Adriano had played for Atletico Madrid for two years before, as the first superstar signed by the Sheets Army, Atletico has paid enough attention to it.

When Carlos Leao chatted with Yang Hao, he emphasized that Inter Milan's commercial development capacity is very limited, and Adriano's commercial value is far underestimated.

As Mr. Golden Globe in 03 and 04 for two consecutive years, Adriano's commercial value is even worse than Drogba's, dare you believe it?

Therefore, the Sheets Corps specially created a stunning debut ceremony for Adriano's joining.

Atletico Madrid wanted to emulate Real Madrid's move when they signed Zinedine Zinedine Zidane and Beckham, creating a big signing ceremony for Adriano, and also issued an invitation to the media around the world.

According to Atletico's earliest idea, there should be only one or two hundred media outlets invited to come.

Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm of the media far exceeded the expectations of the outside world.

Nearly 500 media applications came to the Emirates Stadium to report on Adriano's arrival.

In addition to the media being hotter than expected, the reaction from the fans was also quite enthusiastic.

The club had expected 30,000 or 40,000 people, but it turned out to be much more.

On that day, more than 76,500 Atletico Madrid fans walked into the Emirates Stadium to witness Adriano's arrival.

This far broke the record set when David Beckham joined Real Madrid.

At the same time, the TV station in charge of the live broadcast also counted the ratings, and it is estimated that more than 10 million people watched Adriano's joining ceremony, which is also a record.

At the Emirates Stadium, there are more than 500 security personnel alone.

Throughout the franchise ceremony, Atletico Madrid spent an investment of 2 million euros, creating a huge momentum.

In addition to media reporters and fans, Atletico Madrid is also full of expectations for Adriano's return, not only the management is all present, Yang Hao is also present at the signing site, Toni Muñoz, Kiko, Aguilera, Baraja, Torres, Kaka, Messi and Ramos and other stars are also present.

It can be said that Atletico Madrid has given Adriano the highest treatment.

The atmosphere of the whole signing and joining ceremony was also excellent.

Adriano came to the scene with his parents, wife and children, and when he saw Yang Hao, he was directly greeted with a warm hug, and he also hugged Atletico Madrid's senior management one by one, as well as the players of the Sheets Army......

Prior to this, many media were worried that Adriano's arrival would be at odds with Torres.

But at the signing ceremony, the excitement of Torres and Adriano after a long absence, was definitely not pretended.

Back then, when Adriano was the main force at Atletico Madrid, he didn't take Torres with him.

The two even trained with Kiko and had a very good relationship.

Ramos, Kaka, Messi and others were all in the youth team at the time, and the relationship with Adriano was also quite good.

At the time, they were just a group of little-known little guys, but now, they are all the best superstars in world football today, and Adriano and Atletico Madrid have always had a close relationship over the years.

Now that I'm back, everyone is happy.

It really made everyone feel an atmosphere that welcomed Adriano home.

Adriano was also very excited.

"I used to say that I will never forget the years when I played at Atletico and I am very proud to be back at Atletico Madrid."

"I know that Atletico is the best team in the world right now, and I will do everything I can to make Atletico stronger!"

Cerezo later welcomed Adriano on behalf of Atletico Madrid at the joining ceremony at the Emirates Stadium and revealed a detail in his speech.

When Atletico Madrid negotiated a personal treatment contract with Adriano, the Brazilian didn't even ask for anything, and he signed the contract offered by Atletico Madrid after reading it.

Whether it is salary, bonuses, appearance fees and signing fees, etc., he accepts Atletico's contract unconditionally.

"We are very happy and very proud to tell our fans that Adriano is home!"

More than 70,000 Atletico Madrid fans applauded and cheered.

As the first superstar cultivated by Atletico Madrid, Adriano's return represents the advent of a new era!

In the past, many people said that Atletico would only develop players and sell them after they were developed.

But now, Atletico Madrid wants to tell the world in this way, to tell all the fans, that the sale of the superstar is a thing of the past, and from now on, Atletico Madrid will usher in a new era.

It's really at this stage.

It has been two years since the new stadium was opened, and Atletico Madrid is now the second largest club in European football in terms of revenue, and even Real Madrid is not far away.

Now, Adriano's return is a strong signal.

Another thing that is very attractive is that after Adriano returned, he directly chose a relatively unpopular jersey number, No. 36, instead of competing with other teammates for the jersey number.

This is also very popular with Atletico fans.

When he appeared in Atletico's new jersey for the new season, almost everyone in the audience cheered.

Adriano also thanked the Atletico fans emotionally, "This is the first time I have walked into the Emirates Stadium wearing an Atletico shirt. ”

"From now on, the rest of my career will be for Atletico Madrid, for this stadium, for all Atletico fans!"

After speaking, Adriano kissed the Atletico emblem on his chest heavily and thanked all the Atletico fans.

This move ushered in an overwhelming cheer for him.

……

Atletico's preparation for Adriano is more than just a ceremony.

After the joining ceremony, Adriano's new No. 36 jersey was launched at 5,500 Nike outlets across Spain, and more than 10,000 pieces were sold two hours after its debut.

This is enough to prove that Atletico Madrid fans are happy and celebrating Adriano's return.

Sell 10,000 pieces in 2 hours, which is definitely a staggering number.

According to Atletico's official price, a single jersey is 68 euros, plus an additional 18 euros with the number and name printed, for a total of 86 euros, while 10,000 pieces are 860,000 euros.

That's definitely more than all the previous jersey sales records for new players when they joined.

When Beckham was at its hottest, he sold 8,000 pieces in only 3 hours when he joined.

Of course, this is also due to the careful preparation of Atletico Madrid, as well as the branding over the years.

Two hours after the joining ceremony, the official fan shop downstairs at Atletico Madrid's headquarters was still overcrowded, with 3 cash registers and 12 work counters, all of which were full of long queues.

The queue is expected to take more than half an hour.

The reason for this hot sales phenomenon is very simple, Atletico Madrid cooperated with Nike to launch a new jersey, and with the addition of Adriano, it directly overcrowded the fan store.

In fact, not only now, but even on weekdays, Atletico Madrid's jersey sales are better than Real Madrid's.

One of the simplest proofs of this is the sale of out-of-season jerseys.

Teams often change their jerseys, and out-of-season jerseys will be sold at a discount, while Atletico Madrid's jerseys can be sold for about 7% off even after the season, and some special years, such as the Treble period, can be sold at the normal price for more than 2 years.

As a sworn enemy in the same city, Real Madrid often discounts as soon as the season is over.

Just like now, the jerseys for the 08/09 season have started to enter the discount promotion, and there will be a buy one get one free next.

In addition to the normal jerseys of Atletico Madrid, such as some commemorative T-shirts are also loved by fans.

On Internet platforms such as eBay, you can easily search for second-hand sales of Atletico Madrid's commemorative T-shirts, jerseys and souvenirs, which are often sold at a higher price, and there are always fans who like to buy them.

This makes Atletico Madrid's overall jersey sales better than Real Madrid's.

As many have said, in the past few years, Atletico Madrid's overall brand image has even surpassed Real Madrid and Barcelona to become the first in La Liga and even European football, but it is slightly inferior to Real Madrid in terms of revenue.

This is mainly due to the fact that both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid have very fast revenue growth.

But in terms of influence, Atletico Madrid has far surpassed Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Not long ago, Merian, chairman of the Spanish Association of Tourism Enterprises, said in an interview with media reporters that the prosperity of Spanish football has greatly promoted the development of tourism in the whole country.

"Throughout 2008, a total of 300,000 Japanese tourists visited Spain, and the vast majority of them visited Atletico Madrid's Emirates Stadium and Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium when they visited Madrid, and shopped in the official fan shop."

"In addition, in 2008 more than 1.5 million citizens from countries that rarely travel to Spain for vacation chose this country full of sun and beaches, and the vast majority of them chose Spain for the reason it has to do with football."

Merian appealed to the Spanish government.

Spain's agriculture and industry are not well developed, and tourism has always been the backbone of Spain's tertiary industry.

But with the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, tourism around the world has shrunk, and Spain is already the country with the highest unemployment rate in the European Union, reaching 15%, in this case, more efforts should be made to support the development of the football industry.

Merian released data from the association, which showed that with the rise of La Liga teams such as Villarreal and Deportivo La Coruna, there has also been a wave of tourism in the two small cities.

It's like Deportivo La Coruna, after signing Park Ji-sung, it actually attracted a lot of Korean tourists.

and Villarreal, which has become a must-see city for tourists in Argentina.

You know, A Coruña is not a big city in Spain, and it doesn't have good tourism resources, and Villarreal is just a small town.

But football became their calling card, allowing them to attract countless tourists from all over the world to Spain.

Merian called on the Spanish government to continue to strengthen its support for the football industry and use the development of the football industry to activate the Spanish tourism market.

"It's the World Cup next year!"

"If Spain can do well in the World Cup, or even win the first World Cup title, we should carry out a series of tourism promotion and promotion around this theme to attract more tourists."

Merian revealed that his appeal was not unfounded.

Last season's Tenerife, for example, were trying to challenge for La Liga.

The team from the Canary Islands also hopes to use the platform of La Liga to promote the tourism resources of the Canary Islands, and the local government has given the team great support.

Unfortunately, Tenerife lost to Sares and Zaragoza in the play-offs and missed out on promotion.

However, this year's Tenerife is making a comeback.

This situation is also very beneficial for Atletico Madrid.

……

The day after Adriano's arrival, Yang Hao came to Atletico Madrid's headquarters again and participated in a huge signing ceremony at the press conference at the Emirates Stadium.

In addition to Atletico Madrid, there was also Savills, a real estate service provider from the United Kingdom.

Atletico's two skyscrapers are expected to be fully completed in 2010, when Atletico will hand over the lease, management and property of the twin towers, as well as the two headquarters buildings, to Savills.

And Savills is also full of expectations for Atletico Madrid's project, even at a time when the world is affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, they still made a commitment in the contract, guaranteeing that Atletico's annual yield will not be less than 7%.

Not only that, at the signing site, but also signed settlement agreements with a number of multinational companies, including Hilton Hotel, Amazon, PMC Spain, FM Insurance, etc., all of whom will settle here after the completion of the Twin Towers.

Although the real estate market outside is not very good right now, Atletico Madrid's location is very attractive.

Hilton plans to build an iconic ultra-high-end five-star hotel in the heart of the city in the twin towers.

This is also enough to prove that it was a wise choice for Yang Hao and Atletico to tighten the money and take down this project.

What's more, after the project was acquired, Atletico Madrid is actively preparing for docking, and Savills is one of the leading companies with the strongest commercial real estate operation capabilities in the world.

With the endorsement of Atletico Madrid's Emirates Stadium, the elegance and high-end of the Petronas Twin Towers, coupled with the strong presence of major multinational companies, this place has attracted strong attention from the outside world before it is completed.

Under Atletico's contract with Savills, with a yield of 7% per annum, Atletico is expected to earn €100 million a year, more than enough to cover all of Atletico's remaining bank loans at low interest rates.

There are quite a few left.

Savills has done research and told Atletico Madrid that with the full completion of the renovation project of Madrid's old town, especially the renovation of the Manzanares River, it will become another landmark and tourist attraction in Madrid.

At that time, the two twin towers of Atletico Madrid are bound to increase in value, and the rental income will also rise.

Especially after surviving the economic crisis.

Yang Hao combined with the materials he saw in his previous life, it is expected that after 2015, the entire commercial real estate in Spain will recover rapidly, and the rental yield will continue to rise, and I believe that the rental income will be more considerable.

In Yang Hao's previous life, the richest man with a small goal entered the market from 2013 to 2014, which was to step on this node.

It's a pity......

But now, Yang Hao entered the game earlier, and in the most advantageous way.

……

On the first day after the team's training camp, everyone came to Mahada Hongda to report for duty.

Including the internationals who participated in the Confederations Cup final, they all returned to report after more than a week of vacation.

The old rule is that all players have a detailed physical examination as soon as they return to the team.

Yang Hao emphasized the physical examination of Adriano.

The Brazilian has really been under a lot of pressure over the past few years, causing his body to be a bit over-depleted.

Moreover, with a high-intensity physical confrontation style like his, it is impossible to say that there are no injuries or anything on his body.

As far as Yang Hao knows, he has had stubborn diseases in his knees and back for many years.

The report that Parales brought back also showed that Adriano did have injuries on his body, some of which were caused by not dealing with the injuries at the beginning and playing again in a hurry.

Yang Hao asked the coaching staff to cooperate with the team doctor and try to come up with a set of plans.

He spoke to Adriano about Atletico's style of play now is completely different from back then.

When Adriano was around, the Sheets were actually playing a bit more balanced, but now they are playing more freely.

It can even be said that it is more unrestrained.

Whether it's passing or receiving, or the pace of the game, it's obviously faster.

Adriano has been playing in Serie A before and it will take time to get used to this.

There are basically no major problems with the team's medical examination.

In the first two days of the training camp, the team was in Madrid to adjust and prepare.

After everything was ready, Yang Hao led the team to take a special plane and flew to Cape Town, South Africa.

Since Atletico Madrid's pre-season training and pre-season matches are all projects cooperated by La Liga, Atletico Madrid and the South Africa World Cup Organizing Committee, they are very well arranged.

Upon arrival in Cape Town, the team checked into one of Cape Town's most luxurious five-star waterfront hotels, right next door to the Green Dot Stadium.

The stadium is not yet fully completed, but it is almost there, and will host Atletico's first warm-up match.

In fact, the Green Point Stadium is located in an area called Green Point Park, and there is another stadium next door, called the Green Point Stadium, an oval sports field with only one side of the stand.

At present, it is arranged to be used for Atletico Madrid's training.

La Liga arranged Atletico Madrid to South Africa for training this time, in fact, it also hopes to use this kind of training camp and preseason to develop the market south of the Sahara Desert.

Although it was a shame to sell Drogba, Atletico arrived in Cape Town and were warmly welcomed by the local fans.

The football atmosphere in South Africa is also very lively.

Many people may not know that in fact, as early as the end of the nineties of the last century, Ajax in the Netherlands once founded an Ajax Cape Town in Cape Town, which is Ajax's satellite club in South Africa.

The aim is to land on the continent and attract more young African players to Ajax.

Deportivo Pinar joined Ajax through here, along with the likes of Trabelsi.

This is a key step for Ajax to globalise its youth training.

But unfortunately, the project later turned yellow, and Ajax suffered huge losses, and it has been in a state of collapse ever since.

The potential of the football market in Africa is staggering.

Or, strictly speaking, it should be, the potential of players of African descent is staggering.

Cristiano Ronaldo has African roots, Nani from Valencia, and many others.

In 2023, when Yang Hao crossed over, the mainstream skin color of the entire European football world has been dyed black by more than half.

Yang Hao didn't actually discriminate against this, but just expounded a fact.

The strength of French football lies in the large-scale introduction of people of African descent.

This will be the trend for a long time to come.

Ajax left early, and they didn't have that much strength, so they crippled themselves.

After arriving in Cape Town, Atletico Madrid's summer training camp also kicked off.

Goalkeepers: Neuer, Palop;

Defenders: Patrice Evra, Alves, Zabaleta, Marcelo, Pepe, Ramos, Thiago Silva and Godin;

Midfielders: Xavi Alonso, Kaka, Iniesta, Mascherano, David Silva, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Sergio Busquets;

Forwards: Fernando Torres, Messi, Di Maria, Suarez, Eden Hazard, Adriano and Robert Lewandowski.

No more, no less, exactly 25 people.

……

The team's physical reserves and physical training, Yang Hao is fully responsible for Juan Mar Lillo, Pintus, Ortega and Rocca, he is basically not involved, only responsible for setting goals.

But in terms of the team's tactics, he and Juanma Lillo, Guardiola, Pochettino and others have been repeatedly scrutinizing, and Baraja, who is about to retire, also came to South Africa with the team to learn from Yang Hao's coaching staff.

In the past few years, Yang Hao has always insisted on playing 433.

But then he discovered that one problem was that when facing opponents with particularly good defensive ability, what 433 could do was actually relatively limited.

On the field, the advantage of possession is obvious, and the opponent's defensive area can be compressed into a small space, even near the big penalty area, but what about the next step?

Passing and possession alone can't break the game, which means it can't break down dense defence.

What to do?

In the end, I found that there were not many ways to do it.

It's basically the same.

Set-pieces, individual ability, or just the delicate combination of players in tight areas.

In set-pieces, corners and indirect free-kicks have always been Atletico's weapons, and direct free-kicks were kicked by Messi last season, and Alves is also good.

If you cooperate in a narrow range, it is basically the kind of delicate passing between players such as Messi, Iniesta, Kaka, David Silva, etc., and play a dazzling and overwhelming coordination of the opponent.

But this kind of thing itself is rare.

Truth be told, it still takes some space.

Then the rest is the individual ability of the players, who went it alone.

If it is against a team in the middle and lower reaches, in fact, Atletico Madrid is not afraid, and it is a great threat to go it alone.

But in a game of the level of the Champions League knockout round, it is very headache to encounter a game like Mourinho's Barcelona and Manchester United's Ferguson, who are so strong in their own right, but they are still cheeky and set up an iron bucket formation.

Defeated in the semifinals for two consecutive seasons, if Yang Hao didn't want to change, then he would be disqualified.

So, he decided to start experimenting with double strikers, or even 343 tactics.

442 will certainly not be the main tactic, but at some point, the presence of two forwards can greatly improve the team's tactical means when breaking down dense defenses.

Yang Hao intends to give players more freedom of play in the new season and make the team more fluid.

According to Yang Hao's thinking, when the team needs to play 442, the most important task of the two center forwards is not to score.

If they can score, they won't need to play as a two-striker.

So what is their mission?

Pull the defense out on both sides.

Atletico's current situation is that Messi on the right is the biggest threat, with David Silva and Angel Di Maria on the left.

Let's say the two strikers are Adriano on the left and Torres on the right.

If the ball is on the right side, Alves takes the ball forward, Torres is responsible for pulling to the right side to respond, Messi takes advantage of the situation and runs diagonally to the position that Torres pulled away.

At this time, it is actually a three-striker, and Messi is in the middle.

Kaka also took advantage of the momentum to move forward, which was able to quickly form an attacking phalanx of four players on the wing and on the ribs in a very short time.

The opponent is empty in the middle with Torres, Kaka and Messi.

Don't follow Torres, let Torres get the ball, face the attack, and pass back.

In this case, through repeated running and pulling, the opponent's defense line is opened.

What about the ball on the left?

Adriano La side.

He's also very good with his right foot, but he's a left-footed player, and when he plays down the left wing, he can just as much on the ball and organise the attack, as well as get down and cross.

Both David Silva and Angel Di Maria can quickly move diagonally to stand in the middle of the field, while Iniesta can press forward and form a four-man attacking phalanx on the left and on the ribs.

Atletico's two flanks are able to link up quickly with long passes and transfers, and they switch directions quickly.

This has been a big advantage for Atletico's attack in the past.

Perhaps, some will say, what about the defense of the midfield?

The opponent has put up an iron bucket formation, and at this time you still need to consider defense?

So, it won't be Atletico's main tactic, but it can play a key role when it counts.

Atletico's advantage now is that these players have very delicate foot skills, and they are all very comprehensive, and they are extremely individual ability, and once they have developed a local advantage, they can quickly form a threat.

In this style of play, in fact, players do not need to resist too much and fight physically, but more through flexible running and strategy, as well as skillful foot cooperation.

"What I'm trying to say is, isn't this a set set, you know what I mean?"

"If Messi dribbles the ball from the right side all the way to the left side, he can also quickly form an attacking phalanx with his teammates on the left side to threaten."

"In the same way, our two strikers don't have to pull the wings, they can also drop back, let the wingers go up, the central midfielders pull the wings, and the wingers cut diagonally, which is also a kind of rotation."

"Even, let's say, Messi goes up and finds that the ball is not passed, then he can also judge like a center forward what to do, retreat, or pull the side, and create opportunities for other teammates to step forward."

"I just hope that you can keep running, pulling and pulling, and be full of agility on the pitch, so that the opponent can't keep up with our rhythm."

"As long as this kind of attack is played once, it is basically a threat, or even a goal!"

Yang Hao conveyed his thoughts to the players in the first tactical meeting.

They have all played at Atletico Madrid for many years, and as soon as Yang Hao said this, they basically understood.

Even Lewandowski, who just joined, was still confused, and Adriano was also a little confused.

When Lewandowski was in the Polish league, he was more of an arrow, and his main task was to score goals, but he now understands Atletico Madrid's tactics more or less than when he was in Poland.

But it's okay, he still has plenty of time to get acquainted and get to know each other.

Adriano was emotional.

When he left Atletico, the team's tactics were not as complex and nuanced as they are now.

In Inter Milan, although Serie A is known for its tactics, everyone knows that in the past few years, the title of Serie A's tactical paradise has been lost to La Liga, and now La Liga is the stage for tacticians to compete, and all kinds of tactics are emerging in endlessly.

Kick 442, kick 433, kick 4231...... Anyway, there are all kinds of tactics, all kinds of ideas, and all kinds of ideas are colliding.

Atletico Madrid's ability to stand out in La Liga and the Champions League in the past few years is not only due to the ability of the players, but also to the advanced tactical system.

Adriano has been playing football for many years, even if he doesn't understand it very well, he can also detect the power of Yang Hao's thinking.

As long as the players cooperate tacitly, the opponent is really difficult to defend, or even unable to defend.

As for the number of goals scored by the strikers, there is no need to worry about this at all.

With the current strikers with a wide range of shots, they will not stick to the middle of the penalty area at all, in fact, there are more goals in the front of the penalty area and in the two ribs.

Besides, after pulling it out, and then reversing the front, it will actually be more threatening.

The key is to play on the spot.

Thinking of this, Adriano couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

He originally thought that he would still play the role of Inter Milan when he came, using his body to carry the opponent's central defender and backline, but now it seems that Atletico's tactics are not so rough.

Yang Hao is actually playing another idea, another way of playing with double strikers, Messi playing the front midfield.

That is, the regular 442 small diamond midfield.

The formation has changed back and forth, but the style of play is still the same.

The two strikers pulled the side, and Messi played in the middle and inserted it.

For Atletico Madrid now, the players cooperate well enough, as long as they can form an offensive threat, there is no problem in how they play.

And that's reflected in the training.

Atletico's training camp has always been very high, which is well-known in European football.

When practicing the team's skills and tactics, the coaching staff will also specially design some training programs to let the players get familiar with Yang Hao's tactical requirements through training, and also help the players integrate into the team.

The addition of Adriano, for Atletico Madrid, is equivalent to realizing the possibility of two strikers.

The three strikers still have different characteristics, but they all have very good ball-handling ability, especially Adriano and Suarez.

This allows Yang Hao to arrange different tactical playing styles according to different teams.

……

Atletico's first warm-up match in South Africa was played at the Green Point Stadium.

The opponent is Ajax Cape Town.

This team has a good strength in the South African domestic league, and the biggest name of the team is South African international midfielder Lancher Davies.

Since the Green Dot Stadium is not yet fully completed, the 66,000-seat stadium was actually only open to the public with 55,000 seats this time, but it was immediately sold out.

In this warm-up game, the Sheets Army still played with one lineup in the first and second halves, and easily defeated Ajax Cape Town 3-0 in the warm-up game and easily won the warm-up game.

……

Three days later, Atletico Madrid played Santos, the South African league's strongest team, at another stadium in the centre of Cape Town.

Like Ajax Cape Town, the full name of this team should actually be Santos Cape Town.

This is Brazil's Santos partner club here.

This time, the venue for the game was not at Green Point Field, but at Newland Field.

The stadium has a capacity of 51,900 people, and tickets are in short supply.

Atletico Madrid's influence in Africa is still very good, and it has been warmly welcomed by local fans.

This time, the Sheets defeated their opponents 2-0 in the second warm-up game.

Won two consecutive wins in the warm-up game.

……

After the two warm-up games, the Sheets continued to train in Cape Town.

The main thing is to study the problems exposed in the past two warm-up games.

Yang Hao and the coaching staff began to solve some new problems brought about by Adriano's joining the team, including the cooperation between the players and so on.

This is also an obvious question.

After all, Adriano has been away for many years, and after returning, it is not realistic to want to integrate into the team all at once.

Judging from the performance of the two warm-up games, he is still relatively unfamiliar with the current style of play of Atletico Madrid, and he is relatively unfamiliar with it.

But the strength of the players is there, as long as they strengthen the run-in, I believe that they will be able to integrate into the team soon, and there is no big problem.

Afterwards, the team ushered in the third warm-up match, again at the Green Dot Stadium.

But the opponent in this warm-up match is the Spaniard.

Valverde came from Barcelona and was very aggressive in tactics.

The arrival of Bam Adebayo and Chlo Toure this summer has given the Spaniards a big boost.

But it's a warm-up game.

Judging from the course of the game, Valverde was also tweaking the team's tactics, using two strikers and one striker respectively, apparently trying to hone in the coexistence between Santa Cruz, the team's top scorer last season, and new Togolese center forward Adebayor.

In front of the 55,000 fans at the Green Point Stadium, the two teams played a very close matchup, and the two sides fought against each other with no reservations.

Yang Hao played as a single striker for most of the game, Adriano in the first half, Torres in the second half, and Suarez came off the bench for half an hour in the back to play as a double striker.

In the end, Atletico drew 3-3 with Espanyol.

Both teams were not very good and the attacking firepower was good, especially Arshavin and Zhirkov, who were very active, and Valverde even lined up the trio of Adebayo, Santa Cruz and Fellaini at one point.

I have to say, this guy's appetite is really big.

Standing over there, all the back lines in La Liga have to tremble a few times.

……

Espanyol will remain in Cape Town after the Espanyol game, while Atletico travel from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and take on La Liga promotion Massa Laragoza at the newly completed Mandela Bay Stadium.

The game was also very intense.

Although Zaragoza are promoted to the next level, the quality of this team is obvious to all, and unlike Jerez and Rayo Vallecano, they are familiar with the current La Liga.

Atletico ended up beating Zaragoza 3-1.

The match also attracted 50,000 fans to the stadium and caused a wave of spectatorship in Port Elizabeth.

After playing a few warm-up games, especially with Espanyol and Zaragoza, Adriano revealed a sentence when communicating with Yang Hao, that is, the current strength of La Liga is really strong.

Moreover, it is much stronger.

When he left Atletico, there was a huge disparity between the strong and the weak teams, and the score was not necessarily huge, but it would not be so difficult to play.

The situation now is that all the teams are strong and the game is very intense.

For example, playing Espanyol, facing Kolo Toure and Ziglinski.

Needless to say, the former is the backbone of Arsenal's defense, which is the main defensive force of the Premier League powerhouse, and Ziglinski's previous performance in Ukraine is also obvious to all, and he is also a central defender in the Champions League group stage, and even the top 16.

Just imagine, facing a team in La Liga, against such opponents, the pressure is too much.

Yang Hao could only remind him with a smile that this was just a warm-up game.

The real La Liga hasn't started yet.

The first test of Atletico's new season is the Spanish Super Cup.

The match was played at two World Cup stadiums in Johannesburg against Jose Mourinho's Barcelona.

That's the real Mars hitting the Earth.

Yang Hao also wants to use Barcelona to test his newly developed set of tactical play.

Of course, if Mourinho can make up his mind and press out to fight against Atletico Madrid, Yang Hao doesn't mind.

……

After playing Zaragoza, Atletico departed for Durban and played another warm-up match at the Durban Stadium against Deportivo La Coruna.

Pinal, a South Africa international, played for Deportivo La Coruna and played the whole game, attracting more than 60,000 fans and almost turning the Durban Stadium into a Deportivo home.

In the end, the two sides played 2-2, and Atletico failed to bite the hard bone of Deportivo La Coruna.

Yang Hao still has a lineup in the first and second halves.

……

Atletico then travelled to Bloemfontein for their final game at the Stade Libre State, which was also the final game of La Liga pre-season.

The opponent is Valladolid.

This time, Atletico played with ease, winning 4-0.

This also made Yang Hao feel that Valladolid had been poached a lot of people, is his strength too weak?

Of course, whether it is weak or not, this season's La Liga relegation will still be very miserable.

After playing Valladolid, Atletico travelled north from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg.

At this time, Jose Mourinho's Barcelona have been waiting here for a long time.

Both legs of this season's Spanish Super Cup will be scheduled to be played in Johannesburg.

The first was at Ellis Park, the venue for the Confederations Cup final.

The second leg was at the recently completed 88,500-seat Soccer City Stadium.

This will be the first official match at the Soccer City Stadium.

Yang Hao is also looking forward to this matchup.

He wants to try it to see if Mourinho can still stop Atletico's attack this time!

(End of chapter)