The Valledos Stadium, which can accommodate 31,000 people, was packed.
Twenty-eight thousand Celta fans and 3,000 Espanyol fans sat quietly in the stands, waiting for the game to start.
One hour before the game, the starting lineups of both sides were announced.
Celta starting line-up: goalkeeper Alvarez, back four: Planas, Cabral, Gomez, midfield three: Voss, Ladoga, Hernandez, forward three: Nolito
, Orellana, Aspas
Spaniard starting line-up: Goalkeeper: Pau Lopez
Defenders: Xavi Lopez, Alvaro, Rocco, Fuentes
Midfielder: Diop, Perez, Sanchez
Forwards: Caicedo, Moreno, Zhao Yang,
Now the 22 players are lining up in their respective half-courts, waiting for the referee Laos to blow the whistle to start the game.
This is the highlight of La Liga. In addition to the 3,000 Spanish fans who are lucky enough to be here, there are at least 300 million fans waiting in front of the TV to watch this game.
Li Hui and Tang Duo, a La Liga team that has been busy acquiring teams, also stepped out again to personally explain this focus battle.
After Dondo introduced the starting lineups of both sides to the fans in front of the TV, he began to introduce the position and situation of both sides in the league in this game.
"Espanyol is ranked fourth. This is the only Champions League spot left to La Liga by the top three of the Spanish Super League. Currently, the biggest competitors for this spot are Espanyol and Celta Vigo. The two teams are currently only one point apart in the standings. Who can
If we win, whoever wins will retain the initiative to compete for a place in the Champions League."
Li Huidao: "The biggest problem of the Espanyol team is that their core midfielder Asensio is absent. They now have a 433 formation. In fact, they are not very familiar with this formation. However, in the first two games against Levante, this formation played well."
France is very good, so Sergio can only arrange the lineup this way."
Tang Duodao: "The main thing is that this formation can give full play to Zhao Yang's role. Whether we can win against Celta depends mainly on Zhao Yang's performance. The other players can provide support."
Li Huidao: "Although Celta is much stronger than its opponent Levante in the previous round, the Spaniard is not afraid of Celta, and is even a little afraid of Celta. In the last ten games, the Spaniard has defeated Celta.
We won 5 games, drew two, and lost only three.”
Tang Duo smiled and said: "The mutual opposition on this court is also very interesting. Football in the world should have a top ten nemesis."
At this time, Zhao Yang, who was standing a little behind the center circle, was in a complicated mood and had a strange expression.
Because at the Valledos Stadium, Zhao Yang unexpectedly signed up for a skill called "Dive-Leap Save".
This is a goalkeeping skill.
Although it is said that Yiduo does not press forward, unless the goalkeeper is sent off, Zhao Yang really does not need it.
This is simply more useless than skills like "Scorpion Tail Swing".
Zhao Yang was a little disappointed.
Although the Valledos Stadium is not well-known, it has a profound heritage and a generation of geniuses such as "Tsar" Mostovoy have been active here for many years.
Zhao Yang felt that the sign-in skill was a prank on the system?
Zhao Yang thought he could sign a good skill and catch Celta Vigo by surprise, but now, he was caught off guard by Celta Vigo's pitch.
Beep!
As the referee Laos blew the whistle, the game began.
The first to kick off is the away team Espanyol.
Moreno and Caicedo stepped forward in the center circle, passed the ball back to Zhao Yang behind them, and then drove into the Celta half without looking back.
Zhao Yang knew that Celta's high-post press was very powerful, so he took the ball and passed it back to the defender.
As soon as Zhao Yang passed the ball, the opponent's forward rushed over like a wolf.
The striker named Orellana also used his body to hit Zhao Yang, which was full of provocation.
Zhao Yang ignored it and didn't push forward. He just wandered in his own half, preparing to meet his teammates in the backcourt.
Celta's pressing was really fierce, and the ball was passed back to the central defender. Spaniard defender Alvarez passed the ball a little slowly, and was tackled by Orellana and fell to the ground.
The referee Laos immediately blew the whistle, verbally warned Orellana, and awarded a free kick.
The free kick in the backcourt was so useless that goalkeeper Lopez simply took it himself.
Not to mention, Lopez has good footwork and vision. This long pass found Caicedo.
Caicedo tried to stop the ball with his chest, but was bumped by his opponent. Caicedo failed to stop the ball, and then his opponent immediately came over to double-team him.
Under the crowd's entanglement, Caicedo failed to control the ball and was intercepted by Celta.
After Celta steals the ball, it does not make a long pass, but quickly makes a short pass to level the ball.
Most of Celta Vigo's short passes were one-touch passes, which were fast and smooth, just like flowing water, leaving the Spaniard with no place to start when he committed a foul.
The Celta's short pass is not much slower than the long pass, but it is much safer, and the players also follow up in the short pass, which gives them a sense of participation.
Before the Espanyol players could react, the ball had already been passed to the Spanish offensive third.
Diop saw something bad. If the Celta people passed the ball again, they could pass the ball into the goal.
Diop saw the ball passed to Nolito, and he suddenly accelerated and stepped forward to steal it.
How could a player like Nolito let someone grab the ball so easily? He originally wanted to pass the ball, but seeing Zhao Yang rushing so fast, he easily lost his center of gravity, so he gave up passing the ball and dunked the ball lightly.
Passed by Diop.
Diop was shaken by, but he was not in a hurry. When he rushed over, he reached out and grabbed Nolito's jersey, and pulled Nolito onto his back and fell to the turf.
This is a provocation!
An absolute provocation!
The Celta fans in the stands were so angry that they booed and shouted: "Yellow card, yellow card!"
The game had just started. Out of caution, the referee Raos did not show a yellow card. He still verbally warned Diop and awarded a free kick.
Seeing this, the commentator Tang Duo smiled and said: "This old black man knows what he wants. He is testing the referee's penalty scale. He tried it out, and the referee's scale was a little loose today. Maybe he didn't want to
The game was cut into pieces, but the result was that the Spaniard may have taken advantage. A team like Celta that focuses on passing and controlling the ball does not like the Spaniard's physical flow."
This free kick is almost thirty meters away from the goal and is not suitable for direct shooting.
Diop knew very well when he committed the foul that he could never lose the big for the small, so he committed the foul thirty meters away.
Regarding the free kick, Aspas and Nolito discussed it, and finally Nolito took the free kick, while Aspas went to the penalty area to grab the ball.