Chapter 190 Half a foot into the quarterfinals

Schmidt was helpless, he couldn't even complain about anything. It was all a reflection of the individual quality of the opposing striker, and this goal was the same as the previous one. This shows that Atletico Madrid's goal was not a matter of luck, but that the opponent was confident, and the individual ability of the two strikers alone made Leverkusen fall into the abyss.

Indeed, Leverkusen's situation is already quite dangerous now, and if the match ends with such a scoreline, Leverkusen will have little hope of progressing to the next round.

Simeone returned to the dugout after the goal, and although there were still 60 or 70 minutes left in the game, he was very happy with the situation he was in. With such unfavorable away conditions, a two-goal lead was achieved, and the game was basically won!

For a strong team, winning when you are in good shape is nothing, and when the whole team is not in good shape, you can still win, this is a team with a championship appearance.

After taking a two-goal lead, the whole Atletico Madrid team retreated to the half court more comfortably and continued to defend and counterattack.

However, until the end of the first half, neither side could score. Atletico Madrid's side had a couple of counter-attacking chances and shots, but they were all cleared away by the Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper. Bayer Leverkusen's side didn't score either, not because they didn't want to score, but because they couldn't create a dangerous attack, and in the face of Atletico Madrid's impregnable wall, despite the players' hard work, there was nothing they could do with such a defensive line - you know, when Atletico Madrid was determined to defend, even a super club like Barcelona or Real Madrid would be difficult to break through this defense.

At half-time, Schmidt did not criticize the team for conceding two goals in the first half. He himself is actually a very gentle coach with a high emotional intelligence and a very good relationship with the players.

Of course, the problems in the first half were obvious, with Bayer Leverkusen failing to create more attacking chances except for a brief period. Bayer Leverkusen's team is mainly a team that uses ground coordination and quick attacks on the flanks as the main means of attack, but in such weather, there are actually certain restrictions on the play of their offensive characteristics.

Therefore, Schmidt had to make adjustments. The first thing he asked for was two full-backs to boldly move forward, and it was decided that he was going to make a substitution - Schmidt replaced Calhanoglu in a midfield position and replaced the 192-centimeter-tall senior striker Kiessling, a veteran of the team who had played for Bayer Leverkusen for eight seasons.

Kiessling and the team's starting center Demic formed a double striker, and the team formation was changed from 4231 to 442, this formation is very familiar to Schmidt - when he was in the Red Bull Salzburg team, he relied on the 442 double strikers to press the fast attacking system with high positions, and remained unbeaten in the Austrian league for 33 rounds, with 110 goals in a single season in the league, and his double striker Soriano scored 31 goals in 28 appearances, and Alan scored 26 goals in 29 appearances. Full-backs Sadio Mane and Kanpur scored 13 and 9 goals respectively in 33 appearances! Won the Austrian Serie A that season and set a record of eight consecutive wins in the Europa League.

After he arrived at Bayer Leverkusen, he didn't have time to pass on his tactical philosophy to the whole team, but when it came to the moment when he needed to work hard, Schmidt's first trick was of course what he relied on to succeed.

Most people are like that, when you succeed once with something, you always take that set of things that make you successful. This is also the reason why the manager is so stubborn in the eyes of many fans. No one will easily break their shackles.

Schmidt asked the team to play more on the wings, and Leverkusen had players with speed and skill like Son Heung-min and Bellarabi on the wing, and their two full-backs were also very good at assisting.

"Be sure to create more crosses! You don't have to go down to the bottom to cross, you can do it at a 45-degree angle, it's not good for you on the ground, you have to get the ball in the air, in the second half Kiessling will come on and his height will create chances for us and we have to make the most of that! ”

Meanwhile, on the other side, Simonico was worried about something else.

'Slow down the tempo in the second half, try to slow down the pace of the game, we're two goals ahead now and the most important thing is to keep our advantage at the slightest cost.'

In such a snowy environment, Simeone's biggest concern was that if the pace of the game was too fast, it would not be good in case the team got injured.

Now Atletico Madrid has a two-goal lead over the opponent, and it is at the opponent's home stadium, so it is impossible to fight with the opponent. Just play it safe and win the game.

………..

In the second half of the game, Leverkusen's high-flying strategy really made Atletico Madrid's penalty area panic for a while, and the threat of the two strikers in the penalty area made Atletico Madrid still a little scrambling to deal with it for a while.

"Bella Rabi crosses! Mid lane Kisling grabbed the point!! Header!!!!!!!!!! Oh........... alas, it's too high!! ”

Leverkusen's style of play has also begun to be simple and rough, but such a simple and rough style of play has a greater effect than the threat created by Bayer Leverkusen in the first half.

However, it all ended when Li Qingshan returned to the penalty area - neither Kisling nor Dermic were Li Qingshan's opponents on high-altitude balls.

Kiessling is the same height as Li Qingshan, but the gap between the two sides in bounce, physical confrontation, and judging the landing point is still very obvious.

Therefore, when Li Qingshan appeared in the penalty area to participate in the defense of high-altitude balls, Leverkusen's offensive threat disappeared in an instant.

Antoine Griezmann roamed up front alone, waiting for a chance to counter-attack, and as soon as the ball was cleared, he led the ball into the opposition's defence alone.

For Atletico Madrid, just take one of those counter-attacking opportunities and the suspense of the game is killed. And not only this game, but also the second leg between the two sides, there is not much suspense.

Bayer Leverkusen still tirelessly made crosses, even if they were cleared by Li Qingshan again and again. This simple and crude tactic is like this, the success rate is very low, but the advantage is that you can launch multiple rounds of offensives in a short period of time, and the success rate is low, and the number of times is to make up. Maybe the opponent's defense will make a mistake and Leverkusen will score.

But halfway through the second half, Bayer Leverkusen still couldn't get on the scoresheet. To make matters worse, Atletico Madrid's players have gradually adapted to the snowy weather after most of the game, and the stability of the backline has gradually returned.

In the end, both sides failed to score in the entire second half.

Atletico Madrid won 2-0 away at Bayer Leverkusen to take the lead over the two legs.

After the win, Atletico Madrid has one foot in the door of the Champions League quarterfinals.