Chapter Forty-Nine: European Soft-Footed Shrimp?

The fact that Li Qingshan became the vice captain of the Chinese national team caused huge waves in China, but in Spain, not many people paid attention to it. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

On March 9, Atletico Madrid will go to Celta Vigo away.

Celta were still in the relegation zone in the first half of the season, but after the winter break, they performed well and have now come out of the relegation zone and are in the middle of the league, and the pressure of relegation is not great.

Celta coach Luis Enrique is also a believer in Barcelona's football philosophy, and under his tutelage, Celta has been able to coordinate the ground passing with a good and more Barcelona-like flavor.

But for Atletico, their favourite is the likes of Celta Vigo. Because the whole team of Celta is relatively short in stature, and the confrontation ability is average. The tallest of their team is their goalkeeper Rodriguez, who is also only 185 centimeters, while their two central defenders are also okay in height, No. 3 Fontas is 183 centimeters tall and No. 22 Jonny is 181 centimeters. Most of the other players are between 170 and 180 centimeters. This opponent is Atletico Madrid's favorite right now.

What's more, the rhythm of Atletico Madrid's game is no longer something that ordinary La Liga teams can compete with, and Atletico Madrid is not lagging behind in the face of Barcelona and Real Madrid, which shows that they are not at the same level as other small La Liga teams in terms of the rhythm of confrontation.

Due to the second leg of the UEFA Champions League 1/8 knockout round at home to AC Milan in midweek, Simeone made some changes to the line-up, with Villa, who returned from injury, starting in place of Diego Costa.

From the start of the game, Atletico took full advantage of Celta Vigo's height and weakness in the confrontation to let the football fly in the air.

In the eleventh minute of the game, Atletico scored the goal. Miranda and Li Qingshan did a cooperation with an aerial header. In a corner kick attack, Miranda's header at the front point rubbed back, and Li Qingshan, who followed up at the back point, easily put the ball into the goal.

The game then went into full Atletico rhythm and, before the end of the first half, Villa had a chance to shoot from inside the box and fired a powerful right-footed shot into the net to make it 2-0. At the beginning of the second half, Li Qingshan got rid of the defense in the penalty area and scored in front of the goal. Atletico Madrid won Celta Vigo away from home to maintain their leading position in the standings.

Real Madrid continued the pressure on Atletico at home with a 3-0 home win over Levante, while another contender fell behind - Barcelona lost 1-0 away to Valladolid. Now Atletico Madrid is first in the league with 70 points, Real Madrid is second in the league with 67 points, and Barcelona is third in the league with 63 points!

With Barcelona falling behind, the troika of La Liga went from being tied to catching up.

After this game, on March 12, Atletico Madrid will host AC Milan at home.

Seedorf's side are not in a good position right now, having just suffered two defeats in Serie A, a 2-0 defeat at home to Juventus and then a 1-0 defeat away to Udinese. After 27 rounds of Serie A, AC Milan won 9 wins, 9 draws and 9 losses, accumulating 35 points and ranking 10th in the league.

AC Milan suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Atletico Madrid in the first leg between the two sides, and Milan have failed to qualify in five times in the last decade against La Liga teams in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Although the results and historical data of the first leg suggest that Milan's prospects are uncertain, the whole Milan team is confident of a comeback on the road, and Milan coach Seedorf said after the first leg that he is confident that Milan can progress.

But AC Milan, who came to the Calderón Stadium, were doomed to disappointment.

Less than three minutes into the game, Atletico Madrid opened the scoring line.

Atletico Madrid played a long pass at the back, Li Qingshan completed a header with his back to the goal on the penalty line, and Diego Costa, who followed up, kicked the ball into the goal with a difficult cushion shot similar to Chinese kung fu. Atletico took the lead early. It was Diego Costa's seventh goal in the Champions League this season, second only to Cristiano Ronaldo with 11 goals, Ibrahimovic with 10 goals, and Lionel Messi with seven.

AC Milan then equalised through Kaka.

In the 27th minute of the game, Poli crossed from the right, Kaka headed the ball to the top of the goal to equalize the score, 1-1, and Kaka pointed to the Milan logo on his chest to celebrate after the goal. It was Kaka's 30th career goal in all competitions in the Champions League, making him the first Brazilian to score 30 goals in Champions League history. It should be noted that 25 of Kaka's 30 goals have been scored for the Rossoneri, making him the third-most goals scored in Champions League games for Milan in the club's history, ahead of Inzaghi and Shepchenko.

However, soon, Atletico Madrid scored again, in the 33rd minute of the game, it was Li Qingshan who used his aerial ability to win the high-altitude ball, and passed the ball to Alda Turan in the arc of the penalty area, Turan hit the goal in front of the arc of the penalty area, and the ball hit Rami and flew into the goal after changing the line, and Atletico Madrid led 2-1.

The next game completely entered the rhythm of Atletico Madrid, in the 70th minute, Koke crossed a free kick, Li Qingshan's header was saved by the goalkeeper, and Raul Garcia made up for it! Atletico Madrid leads 3-1! In the 85th minute, Diego Costa volleyed the far end of the goal from a distance, and the football hit the post and bounced into the goal, four to one!

In the end, Atletico Madrid defeated AC Milan 4-1 at home, and once again entered the quarterfinals of the Champions League after 17 years!

Atletico have reached the last eight six times in the Champions League, the last time coming in the distant 1996-97 season. Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund were in Group B that year, and the Sheets Army scored 13 points in the group stage with 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and ranked first with a goal difference advantage over the Hornets. However, after advancing from the group, Atletico Madrid was unfortunately eliminated by Ajax 3-4 in the round of 8. In addition, in 1959, 1971, 1974 and 1978, Atletico Madrid reached the last eight of the Champions League, and the best result of the Sheets in the Champions League was in 1974, but they lost to Bayern Munich led by Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.

Simeone's new Sheet Legion is making history for them.

Atletico Madrid knocked out AC Milan to reach the quarter-finals, but the next day it was a report from World Sport that stole the show.

The headline of the World Sports newspaper reporting on Atletico Madrid's elimination of AC Milan was: "The league is hot and the Champions League is cold, Li Qingshan becomes a soft-footed shrimp in the competition? ”

I have to say that the World Sports newspaper has a tricky angle.

In this report, in addition to lightly bringing Atletico Madrid to the quarterfinals, the focus is on Li Qingshan's failure to score in two legs against AC Milan. portraying Li Qingshan as an abusive player who "only scores goals in the league"....

I have to say that Qingqi of the brain circuit of the World Sports Newspaper, only two games without scoring is a soft-footed shrimp in the competition? As the throat of Barcelona, it is natural that it will not say anything good about Atletico Madrid.

In public interviews, Simeone scoffed at the World Sport report.

"Everybody knows where the ass of World Sports is sitting, but I would say that in the Champions League, Li Qingshan was one of the best players, he was a team player and he made the biggest contribution to the team. When the team needs him to score, he will step up! ”