Aragones' confidence actually comes, to a large extent, from the foundation laid by Dick in the previous two years.
This is why Dick can see at a glance why Aragones would choose to do this - Aragones believes that his team can make no mistakes in such back-and-forth attacks, and they have a tacit understanding of cooperation.
With excellent foot skills, even if the offensive rhythm is faster, there won't be too many problems. Although four main players left this summer, their overall strength has not dropped much - even though Dick has only coached for two years.
It takes a lot of time, but the foundation he left behind and the confidence accumulated in the past two years give Atletico Madrid a very strong foundation, which cannot be wiped out by Hill in one or two years.
In the next game, the two sides continued to play fast. Dortmund defended well and did not give the opponent too many opportunities. Atletico Madrid also achieved a top level in the transition between offense and defense, although it would be defeated by the opponent.
Attack, but there was no mistake!
Although there are no mistakes, it does not mean that the ball will not be conceded. However, if a team does not make any mistakes in the transition between offense and defense, then the possibility of them conceding the ball will be greatly reduced.
Atletico Madrid had more of the advantage in possession of the ball, but Dortmund's defense seemed very solid. Both sides created some opportunities, but...
In the ninth minute, Torres passed the ball and Jorgensen's long shot went over the crossbar.
In the fourteenth minute, Belleron made a direct pass to the edge of the penalty area. After receiving the ball, Torres reluctantly turned around and shot, but Lehmann got the ball.
In the 15th minute, Frings intercepted Marchena's pass in the midfield and then passed the ball to Rivaldo. Rivaldo turned around and passed the ball to Cavinaji, who forced a breakthrough.
After Coloccini defended, he immediately took a shot in the penalty area. Molina fell to the ground and blocked the ball with his legs.
In the 20th minute, Alves brought down Vicente and received the first yellow card of the game. Belleron's free kick went into the penalty area, and Ismail took the lead to clear the ball with a header.
In the 21st minute, Vicente broke through again. This time he was brought down by Warnes. Warnes also received a yellow card. This yellow card will cause him to miss the first round of the semi-finals. Dick endured
I couldn't help but shook my head. Dortmund did not have outstanding strength in the Champions League this season. In addition to Dick's tactical teammates, the fighting spirit of the players is also a factor. If you fight fiercely, you will naturally get more cards, so
Dick also has a mentality of playing one game at a time in the Champions League. Fortunately, Dortmund has sufficient manpower in the defense. Three top-notch central defenders are basically enough.
In the 25th minute, Rivaldo's long shot created a corner kick. Rosicky took the corner kick. Cavinaji nodded the ball in front, but Ismail, who was in the back point, was not protected by Stam.
The relay was successful and the ball flew out of the baseline.
"Sure enough...Aragones won't just watch us use set pieces to beat them. If you want to score in this game, you still have to rely on ground attacks..." Dick shook his head slightly,
After suffering a loss in defending the set piece in the first round, Atletico Madrid quickly responded. After all, they have Stam. In this game, Coloccini and Marchena were used to defend in terms of numbers and height.
, no longer suffer any loss.
"Fortunately, I didn't expect to score a goal with a set piece in this game." Dick thought, rubbing his chin.
The offense and defense between the two sides continued on the court. In the 30th minute, Belleron's free kick bypassed the wall but missed the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line. Four minutes later, Olic broke into the penalty area and passed the ball.
When Tam intercepted the ball midway, the ball bounced up and seemed to hit his arm. The referee did not whistle the penalty, and Stam immediately made a big kick to make a clearance.
The game reached the 40th minute, and the offensive rhythm of both sides began to slow down. In the previous 40 minutes, both sides had been attacking back and forth continuously. At this time, they began to feel tired, and the commentators had the opportunity to make their own comments.
"Although we didn't score a goal, this first half was exciting."
"Yes, when I had time to look at my watch, I realized that forty minutes had passed so quickly."
"Both sides attacked very quickly and with high quality. If the goalkeepers and defenses on both sides had not shown top quality, there would have been no goals in the first half... Atletico Madrid had the advantage in possession, and Dortmund had the upper hand.
While focusing on defense, the offensive quality is also very high. Although their counterattack speed is not very fast, the cooperation of several people in the frontcourt can always get some opportunities... It may be detrimental to Dortmund if they continue to struggle like this, because it seems
Neither side was able to create any decisive opportunities."
"There is also the second half of the game. The performance of the players on both sides cannot continue forever. With the ability of both sides to create opportunities, as long as the defensive side makes a slight mistake, a goal may be scored. As long as there is a goal, the entire game will be over.
It’s going to get intense!”
While the commentators were still thinking about what would happen in the second half, Dortmund created an opportunity in the 42nd minute. Taking advantage of a corner kick, Cavinagi rushed six meters in front of the goal!
Molina subconsciously made a wonderful save. He hit the ball with one hand. This made Atletico Madrid fans' hearts beat faster and they also let out huge cheers. Molina's save made them
Feeling extremely excited!
In stoppage time, Atletico Madrid also created a pretty good opportunity. Vicente suddenly cut inside after taking the ball, broke away from Alves' defense and broke into the penalty area, and then shot low into the far corner. Lehmann also made the same move.
A beautiful save, he quickly fell to the ground and blocked the ball with one palm!
"Both sides created a great opportunity before the end of the first half! However, due to the wonderful performance of Molina and Lehmann, neither goal was able to score... These two goalkeepers are substitutes in their respective national teams.
Goalkeepers, but when Kahn and Casillas had already missed the knockout rounds of the Champions League, they both showed their top level!"
The wonderful performance of Molina and Lehmann kept the game at zero-0 in the first half. When the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, fans from both sides sighed with regret -
—In their opinion, their team should be able to take the lead...
Dick and Aragones met in the players' tunnel. The two did not speak, but looked at each other and walked into the players' tunnel at the same time.
"Don't be anxious, guys." Dick and Aragones both used this sentence as their opening remarks in the locker room, but their subsequent words were very different.
"If we continue to attack like this, we will have opportunities. What we have to do is to seize these opportunities and continue to attack like we did in the first half. Don't worry too much. If Atletico Madrid slows down the offensive rhythm, then we will be in the middle.
The field puts more pressure on them!" Dick said to the Dortmund players.
"Pay attention to possession of the ball and attack boldly if you have the chance! We can't think that we can qualify with zero to zero. You are more familiar with Dick as the head coach than I am. He will always be in places that make people think it is impossible.
Give you a fatal blow! What we have to do is to take the initiative and establish our own advantage! Do you understand?" Aragones said to Atletico Madrid players.
Aragones never thought about ending the game 0-0. He knew that with Dick's tactical arrangement ability, it would not be too difficult to score a goal in the away game, so he never felt that the away game was 1:1.
What is the advantage of a draw? The key is how to score more goals than the opponent at home. Dortmund's stable performance in the first half also made Aragones feel that Dick was not impatient and wanted to delay time.
Then it is probably impossible to make the opponent urgent and expose more gaps in the backcourt.
Then attack. If you use offense to tear apart the opponent's defense, then no matter how calm Dick is, Dortmund must press forward and attack!
Aragones' vision almost became a reality two minutes into the second half!
Belleron still passed the ball beautifully to Torres who was pulling out of the penalty area under the attack. Under the fierce close pressure of Ismail, who came to defend outside the penalty area, Torres still controlled the ball at his feet, and then suddenly stood up.
Direct pass!
Jorgensen, who crossed diagonally from the right, received a pass from Torres. Facing the oncoming Vaughns, he first made a fake movement of dribbling the ball laterally. After attracting Vaughns' attention, he stepped on the ball.
With a quick dunk, he changed direction and rushed past Warnes!
Warnes subconsciously planned to foul, but because he already had a yellow card, Warnes hesitated. Jorgensen rushed over with the ball and faced goalkeeper Lehmann alone!
Lehmann attacked, opened his arms, and Jorgensen quickly hit the far corner with a curve ball from the inside of his left foot!
Lehmann stretched out his arm but failed to touch the ball. Just when Atletico Madrid fans were about to cheer, the ball somehow bypassed the far post and flew out of the baseline!
"Atletico Madrid missed an excellent opportunity! Jorgensen's single shot almost flew into the goal, but it was just a little bit short... Atletico Madrid's luck is so bad!"
"Dortmund escaped! If this goal was scored, then Dortmund would be in some trouble... Now they will breathe a sigh of relief... But if they continue like this, the situation will still be unfavorable to Dortmund, and they must strengthen their offense.
Already."
After being shocked by this attack, Dortmund's players quickly stabilized their emotions - this is due to the mentality that Dick has always instilled, that is, we are not afraid of conceding the ball, the key is to score goals!
When playing against Atletico Madrid, Dortmund's players also have a competitive mentality - after all, Atletico Madrid is Dick's predecessor...the current player always wants to show his abilities in front of his predecessor.
Lehmann took a goal kick and Alves received the ball. At this time, Atletico Madrid players were a little regretful that they had not scored a goal just now, so they allowed him to easily dribble the ball to the midfield. Until then, Vicente
Just came to defend him.
Alves still had some advantages in terms of strength, and he began to speed up and forcefully break through Vicente's defense.
After rushing over, Alves did not continue to dribble the ball forward. His skills were not very good. If there was space, he could rush very fast, but in this case, he could not dribble the ball too far.
distance.
Rosicky also came up at this time, Alves immediately chose a cross pass, Rosicky controlled the ball at his feet, and then began to drive forward with the ball - his forward move attracted the attention of Marchena and Makelele, and then
He passed the ball to Rivaldo who came to meet from the left.
Rivaldo stopped the ball at his feet. At this time, Olic had already wandered to the right to meet, and Cavinagi was in the middle of the penalty area to meet. On the left, Dede was cutting in at high speed. At this moment, Dortmund's
The offensive combination began to attract the attention of Atletico Madrid's defense in various directions!
