Chapter 327: The National Derby
Although Feng Shiyu said that the draw for the top 12 groups is not a few days away, in fact, there is still almost half a month, and Atletico Madrid will play two league games and two Champions League games in this half month.
This is likely to be the month and a half that will determine the final harvest of the season for Atletico Madrid.
After playing the game with Qatar, Gao Zheng rushed back to Madrid, Spain non-stop.
He was greeted by a league match against Real Betis and a Champions League match against Barcelona.
On March 29 he was playing a World Cup qualifier in China, and three days later on April 2, he appeared on the pitch of Atletico Madrid's home match against Real Betis.
Considering that the players have just finished playing in their respective national teams, and the Champions League match with Barcelona is still in the future, Simeone did not play his main role in this game, but Gao Zheng still started anyway.
Simeone doesn't want to repeat the mistake of playing Sporting Gijón in the last round - if it weren't for Gao Zheng's last-minute stunner, Atletico Madrid might have said goodbye to the league title early.
If you put him on the bench this time, and wait for the second half to see that the situation is not right and then replace him, then what if Gao Zheng didn't score at the last moment this time? You can't always pin your hopes on Gao Zheng's outstanding performance after coming off the bench.
It's better to let Gao Zheng start the game and help the team lock up the victory early.
Although Simeone had this in mind, when the game started, everyone could still see that Gao Zheng was a little tired.
He didn't play aggressively in the start and made some mistakes with the ball.
Such a situation rarely occurs in Gao Zheng.
It wasn't until the 37th minute that Atletico Madrid broke the deadlock, and Gao Zheng finally scored.
Despite his physical exhaustion, he was given the opportunity to blast the back of the net for Real Betis in 37 minutes.
Then in the 42nd minute, Gao Zheng scored twice to extend the lead to two goals.
The two sides then went into half-time.
With two balls in hand, Simeone was settled.
Soon after the start of the second half, he replaced Gao Zheng with Fernando Torres and rested him.
And Atletico Madrid, which has a two-goal lead, has entered a high-speed track, and even if there is no Gao Zheng at this time, they can rely on inertia to tear apart the opponent in front of them.
The most rare thing is the stage from starting to speeding up, and Gao Zheng helped them complete this stage.
In the 65th minute, Juanfran scored to rewrite the score to 3:0.
Real Betis pulled one back in the 79th minute, but with 10 minutes remaining, being two goals down basically meant they would have struggled to equalise again.
Not to mention that Atletico Madrid could continue to score goals.
Sure enough, in the 81st minute, Griezmann scored, and Atletico Madrid led 4:1.
In the 90th minute, substitute defender Thomas put the icing on the cake and fixed the score at 5:1.
※※※
Of course, the most high-profile match of this round of the league is definitely not the match between Atletico Madrid and Real Betis.
Instead, the national derby will be played later, with Barcelona hosting Real Madrid.
It can be said that this is the last stumbling block on the road to Barcelona's victory.
If Barcelona can get past it, then there will be a flat highway behind them, and they can directly step on the accelerator to the bottom and sprint to the championship.
Before the game, whether it was the bookmaker's odds or media opinion, everyone was more optimistic about Barcelona winning.
Without analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides in each position, just mention one point - this is Barcelona's home stadium.
This is Camp Nou.
In the league, Barcelona are unbeaten against Real Madrid for three consecutive seasons at this stadium, with two wins and one draw.
The last time they lost at home to Real Madrid in the league was in 2011-2012 when they lost 2-1.
In the 2010-2011 season, Real Madrid even lost 0:5 to Barcelona in this stadium, when after the game, Pique opened his five fingers and showed a slap in celebration, as if it was a slap in the face of all Real Madrid people.
In the national derby at Camp Nou, Barcelona has an absolute advantage with 43 wins, 18 draws and 18 losses, and Real Madrid wants to conquer Camp Nou...... It can't be said that it is completely impossible, but it is very, very, very difficult.
It is also worth mentioning that Barcelona have not lost since Barcelona lost 1-2 away to Sevilla in the seventh round this season. After being held to a 0-0 draw by Espanyol on New Year's Day, they simply didn't even draw and have kept winning all of them, and have won 12 in a row so far.
The longest winning streak in La Liga history was also set by Barcelona, who recorded a staggering sixteen consecutive wins in 2010-2011, breaking the fifteen consecutive winning streak set by Real Madrid five decades ago.
If Barcelona can beat Real Madrid at home, they will not only extend their winning streak to thirteen, but will also be hoping to surpass their own record again – as long as they can hold on to Deportivo La Coruna, they will equalise the record, and a win against Sporting Gijón will set a new record.
On this road, except for Real Madrid, other teams are not afraid and can hardly pose any threat to Barcelona.
Today's Real Madrid has encountered Barcelona, whose morale is like a rainbow and the state is in a purple state, how can it be possible to retreat away from home?
※※※
Both teams used their strongest line-ups for this game, with Barcelo starting the MSN pair and Real Madrid the BBC pairing.
Before the game, both sides observed a moment of silence for the recently deceased Cruyff. It can be said that Barcelona can have today, and this "flying Dutchman" is inseparable, it is Cruyff who brought the all-attacking Dutch football to Barcelona and brought a new life to this old giant. Since then, Barcelona has catapulted from a domestic powerhouse in Spain to a giant force in European football.
Without Cruyff, there would be no La Masia Academy, and there would be no Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Messi, Pique, Busquets, the pillars of Barcelona's Dream II and Dream III.
Cruyff left Barcelona a great legacy, blessed for generations to come.
And such a great figure, who passed away, and before a game like the national derby, also made this game full of highlights.
Before the game, Barcelona fans showed a huge puzzle of "Thanks John" in the stands at Camp Nou, and it was natural that Barcelona fans would like the players to console Cruyff's spirit in heaven with a victory.
After all, Atletico Madrid had beaten Real Betis 5-1 in the game that ended earlier, and kicked the pressure ball to Barcelona's side.