Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Favorite?

Li Qingshan, who won the best player, got a high score of 9.5 in the post-match rating, and in fact, the rating of the entire Atletico Madrid team is basically around 9 points, which fully shows the level of Atletico Madrid's dedication to this game. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The score of the players on Barcelona's side is much lower, but the person with the lowest score surprised many "woke up" who have not watched this game - the player with the lowest rating in this game is actually Messi!

From Messi's running in this game, it can be seen why Messi is the person with the lowest rating. Messi, who played the full 90 minutes, only walked 6,853 meters on the field, while Barcelona goalkeeper Pinto even had 5,359 meters of running distance. Cesc Fabregas, who played only 45 minutes, ran 6,988 meters. Even the 34-year-old Harvey has a running distance of 11,820 meters. Messi, who walks on the field, basically does not put little pressure on Atletico's defense, and his negative mental state will also bring negative psychological cues to his teammates to some extent.

It was almost Messi's worst game since he became famous.

After the game, even Barcelona's most loyal throat, "World Sports", wrote an article criticizing Messi's performance.

"It shouldn't have been Messi's performance, it was a terrible game. Maybe the referee Webb has been running longer than him in this game. Maybe he's starting to think about the World Cup now. He's got all the honours at Barcelona, is he going to stay for the World Cup now? ”

Whatever Messi's performance in this game is so bad, Barcelona's exit from the Champions League is a foregone conclusion.

After this round of the Champions League, the top four teams were born.

Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid each eliminated their respective opponents to advance to the last four, with two teams from La Liga occupying two of the last four spots. The other two teams are Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, who eliminated Manchester United 4-2 on aggregate to advance to the semi-finals. In the other matchup, Chelsea relied on Demba Ba's 87th-minute winner to win 2-0 at home and advance to the semi-finals with a 3-3 total score and more away goals.

As a result, the four teams that advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League are Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich. Judging from these four teams, the smallest of them is Atletico Madrid. But not many people will think that Atletico Madrid is a soft persimmon in the top four, and at this stage in the Champions League, there is no team that is a soft persimmon.

There are even a number of media outlets who list Atletico as favourites, not because of Atletico are any better than the other three teams, but because of a somewhat superstitious law - since the 07/08 season, the Champions League has been won either by Barcelona or by the team that eliminated them.

The Champions League in the 07/08 season was won by Manchester United, and the Red Devils' road to the title included the elimination of Barcelona. In the semi-finals of the season, Manchester United and Barcelona met in a narrow way, with the first leg drawn 0-0 at Camp Nou, and the second leg Manchester United beat Barcelona 1-0 to reach the final thanks to Paul Scholes' world-class strike. In the Champions League final, on a rainy night in Moscow, Manchester United won the Champions League with a thrilling penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea.

The Champions League in 09/10 was won by Inter Milan, who beat Barcelona 3-1 at home in the first leg of the semi-finals, with Sneijder, McCone and Diego Milito scoring a goal each. In the second leg, Barcelona won 1-0 at Camp Nou, but Inter advanced to the final with an aggregate score of 3-2, and the Nerazzurri defeated Bayern 2-0 in the final, once again applying for the "Barcelona touchstone".

The Champions League winner in the 11/12 season was Chelsea, also in the semi-finals. Chelsea won the first leg 1-0 at home and drew 2-2 with Barcelona at the Camp Nou in the second leg to advance 3-2 on aggregate, with Lionel Messi missing a penalty and John Terry being shown a red card. In the final, Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties. In the 12/13 semi-finals, Bayern met Barcelona, and the Bundesliga team beat the Red Blues 7-0 over two legs, setting a record for the worst score in Barcelona's European history in the knockout round, and Bayern defeated Borussia Dortmund in the final. In these two seasons, the "Barça Law" has also been fulfilled.

In the 08/09 and 10/11 seasons, no team eliminated Barcelona, and Pep Guardiola's Barcelona made it all the way to the final and eventually won the title

Atletico have been in excellent form this season, leading the La Liga table ahead of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Including the Spanish Super Cup, La Liga and the Champions League, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have played five games, with one win and four draws. In the Champions League, they knocked out Atletico Madrid and then beat Barcelona 3-1 on their home turf.

Even if there is no so-called "Barcelona's law", Atletico Madrid will be the most anticipated team in the last four of this Champions League. After all, in the semi-finals of the Champions League, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea all have a record of winning the Champions League. And if Atletico win the title, it will also mean that a new member will be added to the club in the European Champions Cup.

The draw for the Champions League semi-finals will take place on April 11 at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. There will be no recusal principle in this round of draws.

When the lottery guest Figo drew Real Madrid and Bayern Munich before and after, the semi-final matchups will come out, Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid vs. Chelsea!

For Atletico Madrid, the three opponents are actually about the same, all of them are super strong teams. Needless to say, Real Madrid's squad will always be the best in the world. And Bayern Munich, as the reigning champions of the Champions League, their dominance in the Champions League is obvious to all. Chelsea, on the other hand, were champions the year before, and their decorated coach Jose Mourinho has officially returned to Chelsea this season. Just look at the teams that have fallen at their feet.

Drawing Chelsea is not too bad for Atletico. The two teams have only met 3 times in their history, with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss. Atletico and Chelsea have different mentalities for this Champions League. Atletico are now in a league swing, six points ahead of their rivals and aiming for the La Liga title. There isn't a lot of pressure on Atletico.

Chelsea's Premier League title situation is already in jeopardy after losing to Sunderland. In this case, Mourinho will definitely invest heavily in the Champions League and gamble on the Champions League. As a result, the pressure on the Chelsea players can be imagined.

Atletico have two more league games to play before this game. A six-point lead is not enough to guarantee Atletico the La Liga title, so Simeone will not dare to slack off in the league.

On 13 April, Atletico Madrid face a derby in the Madrid region, where they travel to face Getafe. The day before this match, Barcelona lost 0-1 away to Granada, which almost put Atletico Madrid just half a step away from the La Liga title! Atletico Madrid's back-to-back double-fronts have left the players a little tired, with Diego Costa and Turan injured in quick succession. However, Getafe in the relegation zone did not pose much of a threat to Atletico Madrid, with goals from Godin and Li Qingshan winning 2-0 away at Atletico Madrid.

A week later, Atletico Madrid held on to their top of the table with a comfortable 2-0 home win over underdogs Elche. Real Madrid, on the other hand, dropped points in this round as they drew 1-1 away at Valladolid.

In this way, Atletico Madrid's points have reached 82 points, nine points ahead of Barcelona and seven points ahead of Real Madrid!

There are four rounds left in the league, and as long as Atletico Madrid gets six points from the four league games, they can definitely win the La Liga title!

With six points in four rounds, for Atletico Madrid, who have been in great form recently, it can almost be said that the La Liga champion can't run!