Chapter Ninety-Three: The Offside Trap

"Whew......." Duan Xuan breathed a sigh of relief on the commentary seat. At the end of the first half, Atletico Madrid entered the dressing room with a 1-0 lead. And Real Madrid's onslaught in the final stages of the first half also caused a storm in the Atletico Madrid penalty area. ”

"Overall, in the first half of the game, Real Madrid still had the advantage - they now have more shots on goal than Atletico Madrid, including the number of shots on target, possession, and number of passes, especially their possession and passes, Real Madrid got 68 percent possession in the first half, while Atletico Madrid only had 32 percent, Real Madrid passed the ball to 286 passes, while Atletico Madrid only had 97 passes. But that's the way it is in football, Real Madrid are ahead in almost all the technical statistics, but they are 0-1 down in the score! ”

At half-time, various experts and commentators reviewed the first half of the game. Overall, Real Madrid took the initiative but fell behind on the scoreline, which gave the second half more room for imagination.

………

In the dressing room, Simeone praised the team's performance, especially at the back. Although Atletico Madrid looked embarrassed by Real Madrid's attack at the end of the first half, in the end Atletico withstood the pressure and did not concede a goal.

With a 1-0 lead, Atletico Madrid counterattacked with a more determined defense in the second half, and Simeone asked Atletico Madrid's players to continue to strengthen their strangulation in the midfield and continue to limit Real Madrid's attack through running and close confrontation.

And in Real Madrid's dressing room, there was a lot of commotion.

As soon as he returned to the dressing room, Ronaldo ran up to Bale and asked: "You should look up more often when you are dribbling the ball, brother!" You should have passed the ball to me before!"

Of course, Bell will never admit that he is too alone: "When you run to the right place, I will pass it on to you, Cristiano!" Of course, the implication is that Ronaldo has a problem with his positioning.

The two biggest players in the Real Madrid team were on the same page, and the other Real Madrid players also unceremoniously blamed each other, and for a while, Real Madrid's dressing room was chaotic like a vegetable market.

When Carlo Ancelotti returned to the dressing room, he saw such a scene. He stood in the dressing room, tapped the tactical board hard, and said loudly: "It seems that I can go and congratulate Atletico Madrid on winning the Champions League now!" ”

When the Real Madrid players quieted down when they heard this, Ancelotti looked around at the Real Madrid players in the dressing room for a week, and some of the players still had indignant looks on their faces at the moment, as if the reason why Real Madrid fell behind in the first half was because of their pig teammates......

"If you continue to quarrel like this! I don't think this championship is due to us. Carlo Ancelotti spread his hands to the Real Madrid stars and said, "But do you want that? Do you want to give up the title? ”

Ronaldo immediately stood up: "Of course not, sir, I want to taste the Champions League again too much!" ”

Bale also rarely spoke in the locker room at this time: "I will never allow the championship to slip out of my hands!" ”

For a while, Real Madrid's players reached an agreement and expressed their desire to obey the overall situation.

Ancelotti nodded with satisfaction, and now among the starters of this Real Madrid team, Ronaldo and Casillas have won the Champions League. This means that the current group of players is full of hunger for championship trophies, and this desire can definitely allow them to suppress their pride as superstars.

Now that the team's goals are aligned, Ancelotti has a much simpler to think about – scoring at least one goal in the second half.

To score goals, you naturally need to step up your attack.

When Diego Costa was gone, Atletico Madrid's attack was left on one leg – relying on their other centre-forward, Li Qingshan.

Li Qingshan has a good header and a strong body, and he is a great threat. But in the absence of Diego Costa, Atletico Madrid has a flaw that has been exposed - they now have no fast players on the field! Diego Costa's absolute speed isn't as fast as he is, but his start-up speed is still fast enough for him to get away from defenders. But what about the Atletico players who are on the pitch right now? There are almost no players with speed!

"Therefore, our backline in the second half tried to be as high as possible and put their striker Li Qingshan into the offside trap! Don't worry about failure – even if he does, he's not fast, and we can still chase it back when we're away from goal! ”

"In the second half we had to focus on attacking! Keep them under pressure, score as soon as possible and let their defence run down"

'You're all the best players in the world and you deserve it. I have absolute confidence in your abilities! Ancelotti concluded.

……….

The fifteen-minute intermission passed quickly. Players from both sides reappeared on the pitch with the same set-up as in the first half, with no substitutions on either side.

In the second half, Real Madrid kicked off first, and they took advantage of the kick-off to attack aggressively from the beginning, and they had the potential to overwhelm Atletico Madrid in one fell swoop.

But Atletico Madrid were mentally prepared for Real Madrid's attack, and they were not surprised by Real Madrid's onslaught in the second half - it would be strange if the opponent did not attack. You know, now Real Madrid is lagging behind!

Carlo Ancelotti is certainly aware of the risks of pressing aggressively. And his opponent Atletico Madrid is also very good at defending and counter-attacking. But Diego Costa's absence gave Ancelotti the confidence to press hard.

In the forty-eighth minute of the game, Atletico Madrid, who had successfully broken the ball in the backfield, launched a counterattack, when Li Qingshan received the ball and was about to turn forward with the ball, Varane, who caught up from behind him, came up behind and cut off the ball with a direct tackle.

Ancelotti was even more relieved to see this scene - as long as Li Qingshan was not given the opportunity to get close to the Real Madrid penalty area, the effect of Atletico Madrid's counterattack would be greatly reduced. And when Atletico Madrid's counterattack is not threatening, Real Madrid's defensive pressure is more than half.

Li Qingshan also quickly found out that he was in trouble.

In the 53rd minute, Atletico Madrid launched a counterattack again, but when Li Qingshan was about to play a match with Raul Garcia with a header, the linesman's flag was raised.

He's offside!

The TV broadcast restores this scene.

Godin cut off Real Madrid's forward pass, and then passed the ball to Thiago, who picked up his thigh and prepared a long pass to Li Qingshan, and Li Qingshan was ready to receive the ball.

However, two of Real Madrid's centre-backs pressed forward before Thiago's pass and put Li Qingshan in an offside trap.

Anyway, now Atletico Madrid has a Li Qingshan left in the front, and they are not worried about offside at all.

There had been three occasions since the start of the second half, and even though he was able to play offside, he couldn't match Raphael Varane's pace when he wanted to dribble through long distances.

Li Qingshan's brows furrowed, he had to find a way to deal with the opponent's defensive strategy!

After neutralizing Atletico's counter-attacking threat, Real Madrid's attacking firepower exploded in full force.

In the 54th minute, Ronaldo grabbed a point in the penalty area, kicked the ball to the post and bounced out, which was the closest to scoring since Real Madrid started.

A minute later, Real Madrid's attack came again, this time it was Bale who cut inside on the wing and shot straight with his feet, the curling ball went around the back post of the goal, and it looked like it was about to fall into the net, but Courtois made a very difficult flying save to save the ball!

"Real Madrid's attack is becoming more and more threatening, and Atletico Madrid's defense looks a little precarious!"