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Chapter 496 The Difficult Seville

The opponent in the round of [-] is Sevilla. Everyone agrees that this is a good sign for Newcastle. You must know that in the second place of the eight groups, except for Hoffenheim, which is in the same group as Newcastle, the other seven The second place in the group includes strong players like AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and Bordeaux. There is a lack of particularly outstanding stars, and overall it is a notch worse than Newcastle.

It's just that such a team is not easy to play in Mourinho's view.

Compared with the number of stars, there are only a few teams in Europe that can be compared with Newcastle, and these teams are very familiar with Newcastle. On the contrary, they are not familiar with Sevilla Newcastle, or even very strange.

Sure enough, at the Pizjuan Stadium, Sevilla gave Newcastle a blow from the very beginning!
From the beginning of the game, Sevilla launched a fierce attack with the advantage of the home court. Newcastle was stunned at the beginning and could only retreat to defend in their own half.

The fans at the Pizjuan Stadium shouted excitedly. Although Sevilla has not had a great record in recent years, even Real Madrid and Barcelona are reluctant to come to their home court. Even if they come, they can win.

Although Newcastle fans are a little nervous, they are not too anxious. They are used to Newcastle winning in a passive situation. Although Newcastle has excellent offensive ability, their best tactics are quick counterattacks based on a solid defensive foundation. With their overall defensive ability, it is not something that any team can break through by suppressing the offense. After they have Long Bisheng, their counterattack methods have increased a lot and are much more effective.

When the opponent’s pressure is not so great, they can rely on the quick short pass of several people in the frontcourt to advance to the frontcourt. Even if the opponent does not give them this space, they can also directly pass the ball to the top of Long Bisheng’s head in the frontcourt, using his ability to compete for the top and the personal skills and speed of Messi and others to create threats.

They are even less afraid of attacking in positional warfare. Whether it is Long Bisheng's impact in the penalty area, Messi's personal skills, Bell and others' ability to break through from the side, and Gerrard's long-range shots outside the penalty area are all good means of attack.

Therefore, Newcastle does not lack the means to face any situation. Their fans naturally know this very well, so they are not too anxious when they are pressed by the opponent.

But today something is different.

The skills of La Liga teams are generally very good, and their offensive methods are also very good. This is caused by the atmosphere of La Liga.

Because Spanish fans only like to see wonderful games and wonderful offenses. In their opinion, a [-]-[-] loss is much better than a [-]-[-] victory-especially for fans of giants and mid-range teams.

Although Sevilla is not a wealthy team, it is a strong team. Sometimes they can play in the Champions League and sometimes in the UEFA Cup, so their fans are naturally very demanding, and demanding fans can naturally cultivate a team with an excellent offensive combination.

Although Sevilla does not have a particularly outstanding star, there are still a lot of outstanding attackers, such as Brazilian veteran Fabiano, Spanish national team winger Capel, and Spanish national team substitute center Negredo.

In the 201st minute of the first half, Sevilla finally broke Newcastle's defense under the onslaught. Capel made a pass from the wing, Negredo grabbed the goal and was saved by Petr Cech, Fabiano made a supplementary shot into the net immediately.

The Sevilla fans in the stands immediately cheered loudly. In the first half, they broke through the gate of Newcastle, which is known for its solid defense. This is indeed something to be proud of. You must know that even Real Madrid or Barcelona may not be able to do this.

Sevilla is also obviously very satisfied. They met a strong team like Newcastle in the round of [-]. Naturally, the home court advantage cannot be lost. Being able to score at home is of course very beneficial to the second round.

"It's okay! Guys, it's our turn to counterattack now!" A fan in the stands where the Newcastle fans were yelled loudly: "It's just one goal! We have the striker with the most goals in the Premier League! The defense of the Spanish team is very poor, one goal is nothing!"

His words actually represent the views of most of the Premier League fans. In their opinion, although the performance of La Liga teams is also very good, their defense is very poor. At the same time, apart from Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​the abilities of other La Liga teams can only be said to be average...

If the Italian Super League team concedes the ball first, it will be a bit difficult.

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After the first half, the Newcastle fans realized that it was equally difficult for a La Liga team to lose the ball first.

After taking the lead, Sevilla uncharacteristically did not press down on the attack desperately, but waited for an opportunity to counterattack while shrinking the defense. The speed of their frontcourt players was very fast, and their personal skills were also very good.

Newcastle wanted to attack, but immediately fell into the ocean of people's war. Everyone was surrounded by someone defending, making it difficult for them to cooperate.

Technical players always have a great advantage in defending technical players, that is, their skills are very good, and they can almost know what method you will use when you break through. At the same time, they are also very good at defending with their brains.

What's more, after they took the lead, they started to delay the time desperately, just like they were very happy to win only one goal at home.

A small victory at home will make it much easier to play away, because as long as they score one more goal, Newcastle will have to score at least three goals to eliminate them. Maybe Sevilla is playing this idea.

But it is not very easy for Newcastle, because it is not unacceptable to lose a goal in an away game. They still have a home game. At St. James' Park, the pressure on Sevilla must be much greater than it is now.

During the intermission, Mourinho's tactic was "continue to play like this, pay attention to their counterattacks, and never lose the ball again."

In the two knockout rounds, losing one away goal is nothing, but losing two goals and failing to score an away goal is a very troublesome thing. Even if you want to attack with all your strength after returning home, you will have great scruples.

So Mourinho decided to be steady. He believes in the offensive ability of his players. Even if they continue to entangle like this, they will still have a chance to score goals.

Even the team that is best at defensive counterattacks will feel a headache when facing the opponent's defensive counterattacks.

Newcastle did a great job defensively in the second half. They didn’t give Sevilla any chances to Sevilla’s fast and skilled forwards. Sevilla’s counterattack would be blocked as soon as it started, and at best they could only turn the counterattack into a positional attack.

But in terms of offense, they did not do well enough. Messi was constantly fouled by the opponent, and Ribery was also submerged in the opponent's crowd. At the same time, in order to prevent the opponent's quick counterattack, Maicon and Bell could only attack in turn.

In the penalty area, Long Bisheng was entangled by the opponent's Argentine defender Fazio. This defender's defensive skills can only be regarded as average, but he is very suitable for marking Long Bisheng - he is 1.9 meters [-] meters tall and not light in weight.

One side is defending wholeheartedly, and at the same time the focus of defense is quite targeted, while the other side cannot attack without scruples. This kind of confrontation is not too fair.

As the minutes ticked by, Newcastle's chances dwindled.

If it is in the league, Newcastle can attack aggressively regardless of the flaws in their defense. Anyway, if they lose one, they will lose, and if they lose two, they will lose.But in this case, they have to consider the second round. If they can score a goal, it is fine. If they are unlucky and fail to score the goal and are counterattacked by the opponent to make another victory, the second round will become more difficult.

Mourinho bit his lip, with his character he wanted to counterattack, but he had to consider the second round.

Sevilla is really not an easy team to deal with, at least their tactics are quite in place, and at the same time they have captured Newcastle's psychology.

Newcastle's goal is the championship, so they can't spend too much energy in this game. They have to think about the future, but Sevilla doesn't need to think about the future. All they have to do is play one game after another, and that's enough.

This situation continued until the end of the game. Newcastle failed to score in the remaining time. At the same time, their defense did not give Sevilla any chance to expand the score. The final score was [-]-[-], and Sevilla won at home.

On the surface, this is a score that can satisfy both sides. Newcastle lost, but they still have great hopes.

However, this is Newcastle's second loss this season, and it is the first time they have been blocked by their opponents in a game!In the previous games, Newcastle scored goals in every game, and the only game was nothing!

Sevilla proved with their performance that in the knockout stage of the Champions League, there will be no underdogs!

(End of this chapter)