The Pirates of Madrid and the King of Madrid, a pair of old rivals, have been fighting each other for more than a hundred years.
Let’s not mention things that are too far away. Let’s just say that in recent years, the competition between the two teams has become increasingly fierce at all levels.
This is also because the strength of Madrid Pirates has been strengthened.
And all this happened after Maxi Carey came to the team.
Before Carey, the Madrid Pirates had always been suppressed by their rivals in the same city. After being lucky enough to win the Champions League, they fell into a long-term trough.
In nine years, the team has changed 13 head coaches, and even the club president has changed twice.
At that time, the biggest goal of Madrid Pirates every season was to win the European Cup qualification - not the Champions League, but the European Cup. Even being able to participate in the Europa League was a victory for the club.
How can such a rival in the same city deserve to be compared with the King of Madrid?
Therefore, the main theme of Spanish football at that time was "two heroes competing for hegemony", and these two heroes were naturally the Kings of Madrid and Catalonia.
During those ten years, Kings of Madrid and Catalonia were chasing each other to share the La Liga championship - each team won five times, very evenly, as if everyone had agreed upon it.
In the past ten years, there has been basically no problem for Madrid Pirates in the league championship and European competitions.
When people talk about the giants in Spanish football, they usually only talk about Kings of Madrid and Catalonia. Many people don’t even know that Pirates of Madrid are also giants.
I thought they were on the same level as Sporting Vizcaya, Sevilla Navigator and Valentia.
With the arrival of Maxi Carey and head coach Bjorn Hantcek, this situation was broken.
However, at that time, the Pirates of Madrid were just a "strong rival" capable of threatening the King of Madrid and were positioned as a challenger.
Most of the time, they are still behind the Madrid Kings, otherwise why would they position themselves as "challengers"?
It was during this period that Pirates of Madrid was gradually recognized as one of the "Western Super League", and together with Kings of Madrid and Catalan United, they were known as the "Three Heroes of the Western Super League".
But among the "Three Heroes of the Western Premier League", they are also recognized as the last.
Until Hu Lai's arrival.
Since Julay joined Madrid Pirates two seasons ago, the team has undergone earth-shaking changes.
Julay completely conquered La Liga in just two seasons and led Madrid Pirates to become La Liga champions and Champions League champions.
The championship is second, but the most important thing is that these two championships were snatched from the two Spanish Super League giants such as Madrid Kings and Catalonia United.
This shows what?
This shows that the Madrid Pirates already have the strength to compete head-on with the Kings of Madrid and Catalonia United.
They are no longer "challengers", they are the challenged.
Today's King of Madrid does not dare to have the slightest sense of relaxation or contempt. The opponent of the Madrid Pirates is not only the most important opponent in a sense, but in fact, it is indeed the most important - he cannot win against the Madrid Pirates.
, they can't win the league championship, and they can't win the Champions League.
In the past two seasons, the two sides have met a total of eight times in the Champions League, League and Spanish Super Cup. Such frequent encounters have made both teams very familiar with each other.
So after the game started, without any testing, the two teams launched a fierce head-on confrontation.
Playing at home, the Madrid Pirates took the lead and launched a fierce attack into the Madrid King's penalty area.
Although the entire Kings of Madrid team has been in good form recently, Parotti is not worried because he has already seen that the current Kings of Madrid rely entirely on Melli's performance.
Although there are many first-class stars in the Kings team, whether it is the personnel and tactical arrangements or the mentality of the players, only Melima takes the lead.
In the last round of the league, after the Madrid Kings were tied with Atletico Málaga at home, some media reporters asked the team's head coach Miguel Tavares whether the team relied too much on Melli.
Tavares's answer at the time was to spread his hands and asked: "Isn't it bad to rely on Melli?"
Then he further said: "With Melli's personal ability, he will choose to rely on him in any team. If he does not rely on him, that will be the biggest problem."
Then he added: "I know what you want to say. You want to say that we rely on Melli, but Melli did not score in this game, which led to our failure to win against Atletico Malaga. But at the same time, Hu
No goals were scored, and the Pirates even lost to Royal Catalhorn. Why does no one say that the Pirates rely on Hu?"
In order to defend Melly, Tavares pulled Hulay out, and Hulay was shot.
However, fans and media who support Madrid Pirates and Hulay do not recognize Tavares's reasons.
At that time, a reporter counterattacked on the Internet: "Before Tavares said this, it is best to understand one thing - Hu has scored in forty consecutive league rounds. In other words, in the previous forty league rounds,
, the Pirates have no problem relying on Hu, and Hu’s stable performance also makes people believe in him. And what about Melli? Do you need me to count for Tavares how many rounds in the past forty league rounds he failed to score?
"
Everyone thought Tavares was sick, so they used Hulay, who had scored in forty consecutive league games, to block Melly's shot.
But they all saw that Tavares was determined to continue on Melly's "dog-licking" road.
Anyway, no matter what the outside world says, the core of his tactics will not change. When attacking, he lets everyone pass the ball to Melli, relying on Melli's super personal ability to change the situation of the battle. Either he shoots and scores, or distributes it to his teammates.
As for which one to choose, it all depends on Merry's own mood.
If he wants to pass the ball, he can pass the ball. If he doesn't want to pass the ball, he can shoot from 40 meters away from the goal.
Anyway, didn’t Hu Lai kick one directly in the center circle?
If Hu Lai can do it, why can't Meili?
How could "the most dazzling pearl in the king's crown" be inferior to Hu Lai?
In this way, facing the King's offense, the defense becomes relatively simple-just guard Melli.
It's not a secret, the Kings' opponents knew it before the Pirates of Madrid.
It's just that Melli's personal ability is indeed very strong. Even so, Melli can still score goals frequently.
After six rounds of the league this season, Melli has scored nine goals, averaging more than one goal per game. His scoring rate and number of goals are ahead of Hulay.
In the just-concluded midweek Champions League match, Melli broke out.
Facing Paris Eger, he scored twice to help the Madrid Kings defeat Paris Eger 3:2 away from home, winning the most important victory in the group stage and laying the foundation for their emergence as the first in the group.
A solid foundation.
When Melli took the ball on the right wing and cut inside, as Xia Xiaoyu once said, everyone knew he was going to cut inside and everyone knew what he was going to do after cutting inside, but they couldn't stop him.
The reason why so many people admire Meili is because his personal abilities are truly unique.
Some people even say that in terms of ball ability, Melli is not only the best in current service, but also the best in history.
Facing Melli, who is in excellent form, it is useless to rely on mass defense. He can definitely pass five or six.
There is no point in trying to completely lock down Merry. It is impossible and unnecessary.
Of course, Parotti will ask the players to guard Melli tightly on defense, but he believes that it is not the defensive effect against Melli that determines the outcome of the game with the Kings, but their own offense.
Instead of thinking about how to prevent the Kings from scoring a single goal in the game, it is better to try every means to score more goals than the Kings.
In the final analysis, football is still a sport about who scores more goals.
And speaking of scoring goals...
Parotti is not targeting anyone.
Miguel Tavares is right. If we want to talk about dependence, the Madrid Pirates also have it. They rely on Julay.
It's just that Hu Lai's performance is indeed more stable than Meili's and more worthy of being relied on.
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After the game started, the Madrid Pirates, who had the home advantage, launched a fierce attack on the King's goal.
The visiting Madrid Kings tightened their defense and first withstood three attacks from the Madrid Pirates.
Moreover, having Melli gives the Madrid Kings the confidence to counterattack. In fact, they are not afraid of the Madrid Pirates' fierce offensive, and they are even worried that the Madrid Pirates will not attack.
In the eighth minute of the game, Madrid Pirates organized an attack on the left.
When Vukovic got the ball near the left rib, Madrid Pirates' left back Ion Martinez advanced at high speed, and Vukovic passed the ball to him.
Before catching the ball, Ion made a gesture of accelerating to reach the bottom of the ball. He deceived the right back of the Madrid Kings, Patin Garcia, to take half a step back. Then he suddenly knocked the rolling football directly from behind with his left foot.
To the inside, and want to change to the inside from there.
Fortunately, Padin Garcia did not retreat completely. When he saw Ion about to cut inside, he quickly reached out to block him and dragged the latter to the ground.
The referee's whistle sounded together with the boos in the stands.
"Garcia fouled, Madrid Pirates won a free kick on the left side of the frontcourt!"
A very simple free kick from the wing. Players from both sides stepped into their positions step by step.
The two central defenders of the Madrid Pirates, Riva Moreno and Danny Drew, squeezed to the front, standing almost right next to the Kings goalkeeper Rodriguez Barker, while the Kings' central defender Sergi Pe
Larta and Nuno Sequeiros were standing in front of Bakker, trying to push the two Pirates center backs outwards to make room for goalkeeper Bakker.
Although it was a free kick, both sides treated it as a short corner kick.
Hulay was also in front of the goal, entangled with King Madrid's midfielder Mohamed Osei.
In front of the door, people were huddled together and in a chaotic mess.
Bucker was blocked on the goal line, but he still did not relax his vigilance against Hu Lai. He pointed at Hu Lai through several people and shouted to his teammates: "Hey! Hey! Keep an eye on him! Dudu! You go up too! You guys
Two people are following him!"
Even though Osei was following Hulay, Bakker was still not at ease and directed Brazilian midfielder Dudu Carlos to come up and help defend.
Dudu Carlos indeed followed the team captain's instructions and went to play against Orsay, sandwiching Hulay on the left and right.
There was chaos in the penalty area, but the situation on the wing was very simple - Toni, the free kick master of Madrid Pirates, stood in front of the ball. Although Vukovich also stood in front of the football, it was obvious that this free kick
Toni will take the kick, and Vukovic will just cover.
But when the referee blew the whistle, Tonini, who was taking the penalty with his left foot, stood still and did not move. Instead, Vukovich ran towards the football from near the baseline and pushed the football towards the goal with his right foot!
The football drew an arc and seemed to be a direct shot!
Hulay, who was originally in front of the goal, suddenly started to move forward the moment Vukovich kicked the ball.
Osei and Dudu Carlos did not dare to neglect and immediately followed.
As long as they stick to Hu Lai, they can successfully interfere with the latter and prevent him from shooting.
But Hu Lai still jumped to the football decisively, and then... headed the ball back!
The football that was originally heading towards the back point suddenly changed its line at the front point and turned towards the front point!
Backer, who was originally standing in the middle, saw Vukovich coming to take the free kick, and was about to step back to save the football that was pointed backwards.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he took a step back, Hu Lai, who was rushing forward, hit the football!
And the football flew to the front spot!
Even if he wanted to pounce forward at this time, it was already too late. He was beyond his reach and could only watch the football fly towards the near corner of the goal.
At the same time, all hopes were pinned on Melli who was guarding the near post - the Argentine took the initiative to stand at the near post when defending the free kick.
No one asked him to do this, but like some kind of revelation, he came to the near post before taking the free kick.
Now he is the only one who can save the team!
Under everyone's gaze, Melly took off and even grabbed the goalpost, using his hands hard, hoping to help him jump higher.
It's just that the angle of Hu Lai's backward kick was really too tricky. Even if Melli did this, he still couldn't stop the football from flying over his head and into the goal!
Only nine minutes into the game, Madrid Pirates took the lead at home!