football player

Chapter 274 A ball of nature?
Before the game, the two teams held a brief moment of silence in the center of the field.

Recently, the former Barcelona coach Vilanova died of a recurrence of cancer, and then the Serbian former Real Madrid coach Boskov also passed away due to illness, so UEFA arranged two Champions League semi-final second legs. Do a moment of silence before the game.

Boskov may not be famous because he is an older generation coach.

However, he once led Real Madrid and Sampdoria to the Champions League final, which is a great achievement. Unfortunately, he lost to Liverpool and Barcelona successively, and finally missed the championship.

The silence ceremony ended and the game officially began.

Atletico Madrid has been able to perform well this season, ranking first in La Liga and reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League.

In addition to their excellent defense, they also have a good offense.

With good organizational discipline and teamwork, Atletico Madrid can get huge bonuses whether it is offense or defense.

Now at their home court, they played very proactively from the beginning of the game.

At the beginning, Schalke kicked off the attack first, but was easily defended by Atletico Madrid.

Then it was the opponent's turn to attack. Turan Arda Turan made a diagonal pass from the side, Diego Costa headed back, and Koke followed up and hit the goal. After a series of cooperation, Schalke was about to be threatened directly. goal.

Fortunately, Navas was focused, made a good judgment in advance and hugged the ball.

Although Atletico Madrid played more proactively after returning to the home court, they are always a team that focuses on defensive counterattacks. They still like to slow down the pace of the game and look for opportunities slowly.

Of course, when they counterattacked, they were unambiguous, and the counterattack speed was absolutely top-notch.

In the 8th minute, Gretzka created a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt, and Lee Chenglong used it to complete Schalke's first goal, but the ball was higher than the crossbar.

Atletico Madrid was looking for opportunities slowly, and Schalke did not take the initiative to speed up.

During training in recent days, Stevens has been arranging defensive work, and Schalke must pay special attention to defense in the away game.

If possible, let the score of 0:0 be maintained for another 120 minutes, and then fight for a penalty shootout, that is the most feasible way to advance that Stevens thought of.

So the two teams didn't make any too aggressive moves, and the pace of the game dragged on relatively slowly.

In the 15th minute, Schalke was intercepted in the backcourt. Diego Costa received a pass from Thiago in the penalty area to complete the goal, but Hewedes blocked the ball from the bottom line.

Then in the corner kick attack, Adrian completed a low shot, and Navas, who has been in excellent form recently, easily confiscated the ball.

In the 24th minute, Li Chenglong received a pass from Gretzka in the frontcourt, quickly passed the ball into the penalty area, and immediately kicked the goal.

The ball hit Godin's arm. Li Chenglong complained to the Italian referee Rizzoli, but he didn't get the penalty he wanted.

In such a situation where both sides are pulling back and pulling slowly, Schalke is obviously at a disadvantage, because this is the rhythm of Atletico Madrid, and they like to play games like this.

The slow tug-of-war of positions, but a sudden and quick counterattack whenever there is a chance, this is how many strong teams fell at the feet of Atletico Madrid.

Playing at the opponent's rhythm, the entire Schalke team felt a little strenuous, and soon bad things happened.

In the 38th minute, Felipe broke through Atsuto Uchida on the wing, and then passed the ball to Cork.

Koke made a gesture to break through with the ball towards the goal, causing a hole in Schalke's defense, but he slanted his foot and sent the ball between Matip and Hewedes.

Diego Costa, who rushed to the goal behind the goal, pushed with a kick, and Navas was finally helpless.

"Costa~~~ beautiful goal!!"

"Atletico Madrid, the Sheets, they scored the first goal at home, and they are one step closer to meeting Real Madrid in the Champions League final!!"

The moment Costa scored a goal, the Calderon stadium immediately boiled up. More than 5 Atletico Madrid fans cheered loudly. They were blocking their opponents in their own way.

Simeone also celebrated enthusiastically on the sidelines, while Stevens frowned and strode back and forth.

Li Chenglong on the field is also very helpless, he feels uncomfortable playing this game, and now losing the ball seems to be a matter of course.

"Then Schalke may be in trouble. In the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Atletico Madrid broke through the Barcelona goal in the first 5 minutes at home, and then relied on tight defense to allow Barcelona to score in almost 90 minutes. They are all helpless, which shows that their defensive skills are quite profound."

"Now that Schalke is behind in the away game, although it is only a goal gap, for them, it is likely to be the natural barrier that prevents them from entering the final."

At this time, the German commentator was also worried about Schalke 04.

After the goal, Atletico Madrid took advantage of the opportunity to continue attacking. Stevens jumped up and down anxiously on the sidelines, finally allowing Schalke to stabilize the situation, but the next half of the game was almost over.

In this way, Schalke returned to the locker room with a score of 0:1 behind, and the whole team was a little depressed.

Because everyone knows what kind of team Atletico Madrid is.

If they want to defend, that one goal could really be a natural moat for Schalke.

At this time, Li Chenglong had to stand up and motivate the whole team.

"Hey guys, we're only one goal behind, it's not a big deal."

"I believe everyone knows the rules. We only need to score one goal in the second half to equalize the score, and then rely on away games to eliminate them."

"We have gone through untold hardships all the way to fight, grabbed the first place in the group in the super death group, eliminated Manchester City in the top sixteen, is likely to be the Premier League champion team this season, eliminated Paris Saint-Germain in the top eight, This season's Ligue [-] champions, now facing Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, they are likely to be this season's La Liga champions, but we are only one goal away!"

"It's just a goal, are you going to give up just like that?"

"I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm ready. When I go out in the second half, I'm going to prove it to the fans in the stadium, to the whole world—"

"I've worked so hard all the way here, I didn't come here to lose to these bastards!!"

Li Chenglong spent a lot of saliva to boost morale. At this time, Matip was the best guy, and he took the initiative to respond: "Boss is right, we definitely didn't come here to lose to those bastards!"

"I definitely didn't come here to lose to those bastards!"

"I definitely didn't come here to lose to those bastards!"

……

Driven by Matip, the entire Schalke team shouted together in the locker room. Even the security guard outside the locker room couldn't help but turn around frequently, curious about what happened inside.

Is there an internal strife?
Or just start the fight?

The morale of the whole team was raised, and Li Chenglong continued to give everyone a reassurance.

"Don't worry, everyone, the goal in the second half was directly on me."

It's not that Jackie Chan wants to take care of everything, but facing a team with very strict defensive discipline like Atletico Madrid, the individual abilities of superstars are often more effective than the overall tactics.

So Li Chenglong did his part, even if he had to bite the bullet, he had to stand up.

　Chapter 2.

　　There are only two chapters left today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)