Chapter 32: I Renewed a Second for Atletico (1)

Atletico Madrid travelled to Italy to face Serie A giants AC Milan in the quarter-finals. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

If there was one of the most successful football teams of the 20th century, AC Milan would be one of the candidates anyway. However, with the decline of the Italian economy and the overall weakening of Serie A, AC Milan is no longer as brave as it used to be.

Even in terms of the roster, Atletico Madrid is even stronger than AC Milan. Although Milan still has a former world footballer like Kaka in the team. But the thirty-two-year-old Kaka, like Milan, who is equal to glory but is subject to economic problems, is not the same as the boy who chased the wind back then.

AC Milan's current situation in Serie A can be said to be very bad, at present, Serie A and La Liga have also played 24 rounds of league games, Milan has 8 wins, 8 draws, 8 losses and 32 points, only ranking 9th in the standings!

However, Atletico Madrid's recent form in La Liga has not been good, and in the schedule of more than a week of double matches for more than a month, it is not easy for the tired Atletico Madrid to win away from home.

For the Chinese media, the focus is on Li Qingshan.

As the fourth Chinese player in history to play in the Champions League, can Li Qingshan score the first goal for Chinese on the Champions League stage in his first Champions League game?

The media and fans are very confident in this. Compared with Sun Xiang, Dong Fangzhuo, and Hao Junmin, who had appeared in the Champions League before, Li Qingshan is currently the team's main scorer, and Atletico Madrid is not a weak team in Europe. Even if Li Qingshan doesn't score in this game, there is still a chance in this season's Champions League.

Given the team's recent form, Simeone didn't take any chances away from home and instead used a counter-attacking strategy. In this two-legged format, the team that plays away first still has a certain advantage.

This is the first time Milan and Atletico Madrid have met in the Champions League, having only met in a warm-up match in August 2006, when Milan beat Atletico Madrid 1-0. Atletico Madrid is still 442 in this game, except for Felipe, who continues to be injured and Suya replaces his position, the other positions are the main players, and the forward line is Li Qingshan's partner Diego Costa.

On the AC Milan side, Seedorf continued to use the 4231 formation, Balotelli was a single striker, Tarabut and Poli partnered Kaka to ambush behind the striker, and De Jong and Essien formed a double back; De Sciglio and Emmanulsen were on the flanks, the centre-back combination was Rami and Bonella, and Abbiati was in goal. Atletico Madrid also put on a single-striker formation, with Diego Costa as a single striker.

After the opening, AC Milan took advantage of the home interest rate to instigate an offensive first, causing a lot of pressure on Atletico Madrid.

In the 8th minute, Balotelli was knocked down from behind by Miranda, Milan won a set-piece in front, Balotelli took a direct shot at the goal, and the ball deflected off the left post; In the 14th minute, Tarabut went through, Kaka took the ball and dribbled to the side to distribute the ball to De Sciglio, who passed back, Kaka turned and volleyed the goal, the ball was saved by Courtois and hit the crossbar and bounced off the bottom line. In the 17th minute, Tarabut picked up a pass in the penalty area, Poli hit the goal with a header, and the ball hit the post!

AC Milan's attack was very ferocious, and Atletico Madrid was a little embarrassed by the away team.

Fortunately, Courtois's performance in this game was relatively consistent, and with the help of the goalpost, Atletico Madrid was able to maintain a 0-0 score for the first 45 minutes.

In the second half, Atletico began to try to counterattack, and the two sides gradually attacked and defended each other.

In the 61st minute, Li Qingshan headed the ball in the penalty area, and the football was slightly off the post, which surprised Milan goalkeeper Abbiati in a cold sweat. And this is the closest Atletico Madrid has come to scoring in this game so far.

The score remained 0-0 until the ninetieth minute of the game. In fact, Simeone is more than acceptable for a draw away from home. With the team's fitness reaching its limit, what Atletico Madrid needs most is to survive this difficult period of intense fixtures.

In the 90th minute, Atletico Madrid won a corner kick opportunity, and Atletico did not get too many set-piece opportunities in this game.

Gabi crossed from a corner, Li Qingshan pressed Bonella to head the goal again, but goalkeeper Abbiati reached out for a gear, and the football was blocked back into the penalty area. Diego Costa had a chance to shoot and stabbed the ball into the net with his toe before the defender!

Relying on this goal, Atletico Madrid won the away beat against AC Milan and took the lead in the two-legged Champions League knockout round!

Atletico did not have time to celebrate their victory after this game as they will be away to Osasuna in the league three days later.

The match between Real Madrid and Barcelona will be played a day before this match.

Before Atletico left for the Navarra Stadium, they received both good news and bad news.

The good news is that Barcelona dropped points in this round, and they lost to Real Sociedad in a shocking away game! Because in the Champions League match in midweek, Barcelona traveled to Manchester, and despite the 2-0 away victory over Manchester City, Barcelona's consumption was also very large. Faced with the impact of Real Sociedad's long pass, Barcelona could only swallow a defeat away from home.

The bad news is that Real Madrid beat Elche 3-0 at home, overtaking Barcelona and Atletico Madrid to move to the top of the table. Real Madrid trailed Atletico and Barcelona by five points in La Liga this season, but due to repeated mistakes by Atletico and Barcelona, Real Madrid seized the opportunity to overtake their opponents in points.

This season, the troika of La Liga has taken turns and the competition is fierce.

And for Atletico, this game cannot be missed. Even a difference in points can ultimately affect the ownership of the La Liga title.

It's just that their opponents in this round of the league are not too easy to deal with. Osasuna are very strong at home, and even Barcelona and Real Madrid only managed to get a draw at the Kingdom of Navarre.

Osasuna, as a typical northern team, emphasizes physical confrontation, and the combat effectiveness at home is even stronger, Atletico Madrid continues to fight on two fronts, and the intensity of the midweek knockout match is relatively large, so there will definitely be an impact on physical fitness, which is their biggest hidden danger in this game.

Due to the high cost of the midweek away game against Milan, Simeone made a rotation for this game. Cork and Alda. Turan was on the bench. This was very rare before, because in addition to injuries and other factors, even if they had to rotate for two games a week, at least one of the two of them would be on the field, and three fringe players such as Adrian, Diego and Suarez Jr. were given the chance to start. Although Villa has also returned from injury, Simeone did not rashly choose Villa to start when he has been absent for a long time, and Li Qingshan is still partnering with Diego Costa in the forward line.

The high-intensity away games in the Champions League have had a huge impact on the team. In just four days, they flew from Spain to Italy, and then flew back to Spain without stopping. The impact on the whole team is clear.

From the start of the game, Osasuna's attack was quite threatening. As a typical northern Spanish team, Osasuna emphasizes physical confrontation and is a relatively physical player in their midfield, while Atletico Madrid's side is not on the field due to the absence of Koke and Turan, and Adrian and Diego, who replaced them, are not the kind of players who are good at physical confrontation. This also allowed Atletico's half-time time to be cut off.

In the sixth minute of the game, Adrian was cut off for the ball in midfield, Osasuna played a quick counter-attack, and Oyer's powerful shot from the edge of the box line was saved by Courtois.

Amontrose then whipped in a corner from the left. The football was pushed out of the penalty area by Li Qingshan. However, Osasuna defender Garido, who was outside the penalty area, volleyed directly without stopping the ball, drew a world wave, and drilled into the goal from a ten-point angle! Such a ball is an accidental ball on the court, and in the same position and the same direction of the ball, even if there is no defensive pressure, let Garrido shoot in the same way, it is estimated that only one in a hundred attempts can hit such a perfect arc and angle. But with this one percent probability, Atletico Madrid suffered like this, and it can only be said that their luck is too bad.

And this game looks like Lady Luck has completely abandoned Atletico. In the 26th minute, Diego made a mistake in the midfield, Amonteros cut inside with the ball after breaking the ball, and made an arc with his left foot at the edge of the arc of the penalty area, and the football went into the net from the bottom right corner, 2-0!

Atletico Madrid was tired as a team, and their pace on the pitch looked very heavy.

There is only one exception, and this is Li Qingshan. After falling behind by two goals, Li Qingshan retreated to the midfield to help get the ball. At the same time, a wide range of runs are used to make up for the gaps caused by the lack of movement of other players.

His efforts soon paid off, and in the 38th minute, he used his body to fend off the opposition defence after receiving the ball in midfield, and dribbled forward, and before the opposition defender could come up, he passed the ball to Diego Costa, who was pulled wide down.

Diego Costa takes the ball to the bottom line and then slots it flat in front of goal.

Li Qingshan followed, fell to the ground and smashed the ball into the goal.

Two to one!

Atletico Madrid pulled a goal back!

However, Atletico didn't have time to rejoice too soon when they conceded again.

In the 43rd minute, Osasuna broke the ball again in front, Damia crossed from the left, and Roberto Torres's header in the penalty area went into the net, 3-1!!

Not long after the goal, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half.

As soon as the whistle blew, the Atletico Madrid players hurriedly walked into the players' tunnel with their heads down. The first half of the game was like a nightmare for them, especially Adrian and Diego, who finally had the opportunity to play the starter, and it was like falling into an evil spirit, with unstable ball protection, inaccurate passing, frequent mistakes, and three goals conceded in the first half, all of which were directly related to them!

Osasuna's players came off the pitch with smiles on their faces. As a team in the middle and lower tiers, to be able to score three goals against the mighty Atletico Madrid in the first half, they should be happy anyway.

“……… Atletico Madrid are in trouble at Osasuna's home stadium and it looks like the away Champions League game is still too much of an impact on their fitness, and despite Simeone's rotation, there is still no way to get Atletico's players excited on the pitch, and if they don't want to accept an away defeat and be pulled away by Real Madrid in the standings, they will have to come up with something to deal with in the second half of the game! Madrid's commentator said with some concern.