Before the start of the second half, Barcelona requested a substitution. French star Giuly was replaced and 18-year-old Leo Messi came on as a substitute.
Li Ang's eyes immediately narrowed, and his eyes glowed with light.
In the first round of the match between the two sides, Messi did not get a chance to play. Rijkaard used Messi on the principle of being optimistic and protective, giving Messi chances to play little by little, and this little player's
Progress is also rapid.
"It's that Argentinian little guy." Banderas recognized Messi immediately. He still remembered that when he was the assistant coach of Real Madrid's under-17 youth team A and assisted the head coach Li Ang, Li Ang was very interested in this little man.
The players took it seriously and came to the conclusion that this big boy named Messi will be Real Madrid's biggest rival in the next ten years or so.
"Yes, it's that kid. From the perspective of promotion and training of young people, Real Madrid is far behind Barcelona." Li Ang nodded and said.
Banderas was silent. He admitted that Li Ang was right. In terms of training young people, Real Madrid is far behind Barcelona. This is not to say that Real Madrid's youth training is not as good as Barcelona, but because of the leadership of Real Madrid Chairman Florentino.
Due to the superstar policy, it is difficult for young people to get playing opportunities in Real Madrid. Just look at Mata. If he had not followed Li Ang to Sporting Gijon, Mata would probably still be like the other Real Madrid youth team teammates, still only able to play youth football.
As for the league, Barcelona, on the other hand, has always attached great importance to the training and promotion of young people produced by La Masia's youth academy. Among the Barcelona players currently on the field, goalkeeper Valdez is produced by La Masia, and captain Puyo
The same goes for you, Xavi and Iniesta in the midfield are also products of La Masia's youth training, and so does Messi who is now coming on as a substitute.
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Li Ang didn't notice his assistant coach's absence. He called Carlos to the sidelines before the game started and gave him instructions: Li Ang didn't expect Rijkaard to send Messi so early, so he didn't
There was a special arrangement during the halftime break, and now he immediately communicated the marking arrangements for Messi.
five minutes later.
Messi had just passed Carlos with the ball, but Carlos's entanglement prevented Messi from starting immediately, and then he found that he was in trouble.
Faced with Modric's pressure, Messi could only choose to pass the football.
Rijkaard frowned on the sidelines. He replaced Messi, hoping to use Messi's flexibility and small-scale maneuvers to tear open and drive Sporting Gijon's defense. However, he did not expect that
Li Ang gave Messi no chance to please him at all.
When Messi got the ball, whoever was closest to him pressed forward. He tried hard to control the ball and got rid of the first defensive player, and the second player appeared within one foot.
For example, just now, Messi just passed Carlos and was forced by Modric. Carlos was watching eagerly from the side. Messi could only pass the football.
The only thing that pleased Rijkaard was that Messi's breakthrough with the ball attracted some of Sporting Gijon's defensive attention, which allowed Ronaldinho to gain more space and opportunities.
However, after a while, the space and opportunities that were finally obtained became more crowded and narrow, and Sporting Gijon's formation was compressed again.
The expression on Rijkaard's face changed continuously, and he kept pacing on the sidelines. The team could not attack for a long time. As time passed, Rijkaard began to become more and more anxious.
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Xavi passed the football to Ronaldinho, who tried hard to break forward and finally broke out of the encirclement and went straight to Sporting Gijon's penalty area. Only when he reached the penalty area line did he realize that the pass could not be passed and the breakthrough could not be made.
The Brazilian star hesitated for a moment, but with the football under his feet, he was surrounded by Sporting Gijon players again.
Ronaldinho showed amazing ball control skills, but it was of no use. He had no passing route and no shooting space. He could only choose to pass back, and then Marquez rushed up and kicked him directly.
Long shot.
Valencia prepared well and saved the football.
Eto'o wanted to take a supplementary shot, but the ball was cleared by Hierro in advance.
Li Ang applauded on the sidelines. The overall strength of his players is not strong yet. If they face the powerful Barcelona team in a few years, they may be in big trouble. However, the current Messi is still a seedling and is far from the best.
As powerful as he was later, the little Argentine at this time was still not the club champion who later swerved and danced his way through the crowd of players before sending the football into the goal.
When it comes to individual breakthroughs, Ronaldinho doesn't have any good solutions when faced with a dense defense.
The Brazilian star's passing and shooting are world-class, and his one-on-one breakthroughs are also top-notch. However, facing the encirclement tactics of layers of defenses, Ronaldinho doesn't have much to do.
Therefore, people quickly noticed that Barcelona could approach Sporting Gijon's penalty area through passing and breakthroughs, but it was very difficult to go deeper. Under such circumstances, Barcelona began to constantly try long-range shots.
Sporting Gijon's goalkeeper Valencia is not a top goalkeeper, but he is experienced and will not make mistakes easily. He can always make saves when faced with long shots.
Of course, when faced with a long shot, the goalkeeper sometimes fails to control his hand movements well, or makes a subconscious save, leaving the ball in front of the goal, which gives Barcelona players the opportunity to make a follow-up shot.
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In the 59th minute of the game, Barcelona took another long-range shot, and this time Ronaldinho completed the shot.
The football shot by the Brazilian had a weird arc. Valencia flew to pounce on it, but he hit the football to the left side of the goal.
"Valencia saved the ball!!"
Eto'o, nicknamed "Cheetah", rushed forward like a cheetah. He almost succeeded in making a follow-up shot, if Carlos hadn't shoveled the football out in front of him...
Eto'o failed to grab the football. He bumped into Carlos's leg, tripped and fell down in the penalty area.
Barcelona players raised their hands to indicate that Eto'o was fouled and this should be a penalty kick.
Eto'o slapped the turf hard, annoyed that he was half a beat too late.
After he got up, he also looked at the referee. Referee Marienko shook his finger to indicate that there was no foul.
Eto'o did not continue to argue, he was just annoyed that he had missed this opportunity.
Li Ang smiled on the sidelines. Although Barcelona at this time was already in the habit of protesting to the referee, it was now considered 'more honest' compared to the later siege and pressure on the referee.
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Twenty minutes into the second half of the game, the passive Sporting Gijon had very few shots. Eighty percent of the time, the audience only saw Barcelona bombarding the 30-meter area surrounding Sporting Gijon.
Exploded, the number of shots was far ahead.
However, although Barcelona has been under siege and almost scored several times, Sporting Gijon's goal is like a crumbling wall, always saving the day at the last moment.
Barcelona's commentator was very dissatisfied with this, "Sporting Gijon is too conservative, too timid... They are like cowards without courage, they only know how to hide in a small space..."
Not only the Barcelona commentator was sarcastic about Liang and Sporting Gijon, but even the national TV commentator D'Agostino couldn't stand it anymore. "Leon is too conservative. They gave up the offense completely. This situation is dangerous.
Barcelona is very strong. They are always attacking, always shooting, and always looking for goals. Barcelona can't score with 10 shots, but it doesn't mean that they can't score with 15 shots. If Sporting Gijon continues like this
Be conservative, conceding the ball can come at any time."
The commentators were all criticizing Sporting Gijon's conservatism, and the fans also wanted to see the offensive battle between the two sides. This one-sided siege was really boring. The TV broadcast happened to give a close-up of Li Ang, who was sitting on the coaching bench.
He still had his legs crossed and seemed not at all anxious about the current situation on the court.
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A minute later, after Ronaldinho and Eto'o cooperated continuously, the latter passed the ball to Messi. The Argentine smashed the ball with his left foot, got out of the way, and was about to accelerate, but was pulled to the ground by Marcos.
Barcelona got a good set-piece opportunity in the frontcourt.
Ronaldinho stood at the penalty spot. The Brazilian's face was covered with sweat and his eyes were fixed on the goal.
Li Ang suddenly frowned, feeling a sense of danger.
Sure enough, this time, Ronaldinho's direct free kick flew through a wonderful arc and flew towards the goal.
Valencia flew to pounce, but the angle of Ronaldinho's shot was too tricky and the goalkeeper couldn't save it. The ball almost flew into the goal against the intersection of the crossbar and the post.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooool!"
"Long live!"
"Hail! Ronaldinho!"
The Barcelona people burst into huge cheers. Ronaldinho slapped his chest hard and roared, appearing very excited. The fact that Ronaldinho, who has always been a gentle man, could be so excited shows that the Barcelona people are very excited about this progress.
How excited and eager the ball is.
Eto'o rushed into the goal and wanted to pick up the football and run back to the center circle to kick off the ball as soon as possible. However, Sporting Gijon's goalkeeper Valencia held the football and refused to give it to him. The two sides clashed, which caused chaos on the field.
, players from both sides gathered together.
The referee Marienko had to come over and blow the whistle repeatedly to stop the minor conflict between the two sides.
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"Barcelona scored! I told you a long time ago that Sporting Gijon's conservative tactics will be punished!"
"Now, Sporting Gijon is only one goal behind. What should Leon do now? Continue to be conservative?"
"I guess Sporting Gijon will continue to be conservative. After all, they are still ahead by one goal. In fact, even if the score is tied in the end, a draw is acceptable to them. It's just that they led 2-0 but only got a draw in the end.
It is a pity that a great situation has been lost.”
The commentators expressed their opinions one after another. When Sporting Gijon was leading by two goals, they criticized Sporting Gijon for being conservative. Now that Barcelona has indeed recovered a goal, they all asserted and suggested that Sporting Gijon continue to be conservative...
Due to Barcelona's offensive strength, Gijon is only one goal ahead. If they don't continue to be conservative, it is possible to be reversed or even lose the game.
"This is the punishment for Sporting Gijon's previous conservativeness. Leon should reflect on it." D'Agostino also criticized.
"Perhaps, Li Ang had the intention from the beginning that he would be satisfied if he could draw with Barcelona." Gonzalez speculated.
Rijkaard raised his arms high to celebrate the goal, and then shouted loudly to signal his players to keep up their efforts to equalize the score and take the lead.
The Barcelona coach sees hope.
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Li Ang's face dropped like water.
Banderas and Scoteri also began to get nervous. They looked at Leon, hoping that the godfather of Sporting Gijon could find a way to solve the current predicament.
"I think we should defend more resolutely." Banderas suggested when he saw that Li Ang was silent.
Scott Rui also nodded. His idea was very practical. It would be best if he could continue to defend and hold on to a score of 2-1. Even if he conceded the ball again at the end, as long as he could hold on to a draw, it would still be a victory.
"Let Mata warm up." Li Ang finally turned around and said to his assistant.
Is this no longer defensive? We want to attack?
The expressions of Banderas and Scottry changed.
"It's time." Li Ang nodded with a firm tone, "Let Mata warm up."
Although the two assistants have opinions on this, Li Ang is the head coach and Li Ang has already made a decision, so they can only obey it.
Then, people noticed that on Sporting Gijon's bench, Juan Mata got up and went to warm up under the leadership of the assistant coach.
"Li Ang asked Mata to warm up? Is this going to break the defense?"
"I'm afraid this is not the right decision. If Sporting Gijon continues to hold on at this time, there is still hope. If they try to force it out, I am afraid the result will become even worse."
The commentators who noticed the changes on the side of the Gijon Arena said one after another.
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Li Ang stared at the court. If he heard what the commentator said, he would definitely sneer at it. For today's game, he originally planned to divide it into two stages. The first stage was to counterattack conservatively, and the second stage was to press out and use
The speed tore apart Barcelona's defense, and it was only a 2-0 lead that made him decide to extend the first phase. However, as expected of Barcelona, the offensive strength is indeed strong, and he finally seized the opportunity and used the star's personal ability to advance.
The ball is over.
Seeing Barcelona recover a goal, Li Ang made a decisive decision and changed the formation!
Since we can't defend anymore, let's see who scores more goals.
This was not a decision he made irrationally after conceding the ball. He had been paying attention to the game and had been calculating: Barcelona had been attacking for nearly seventy minutes, and their physical fitness must have reached its limit by now.
And recovering a ball will inevitably make Barcelona attack even more desperately. At this time, it also means that the possible gaps in their defense will be infinitely magnified...
This is exactly what he just said, it's time!
The whole game was not only a battle of players on the field, but also a battle of wits and courage between the coaches of both sides. Although Barcelona recovered a point, in Li Ang's heart, the situation was still under his control. He had this confidence, and he
Careful calculations, precise analysis, and tit-for-tat responses to Rijkaard's adjustments and changes. Facing Barcelona's strong attack, so far they have only allowed the opponent to use set pieces to get a goal back. With Sporting Gijon's strength
From a personal perspective, this cannot be said to be a failure, but rather a success.
Now, it’s time to show off your trump card!
Li Ang turned to look at the bench and shouted to Scott Terry, "Let Di Natale go warm up too!"
