On March 12, in the 28th round of La Liga, Barcelona faced Athletic Bilbao at home.
Athletic Bilbao's pressing style gave them the advantage on the field from the beginning, and even put Barcelona into a passive and embarrassing situation.
This is still at Camp Nou!
But in the 21st minute, Su Dong got the ball and quickly drove the ball along the middle. Thirty meters away from the goal, he suddenly shot a long shot and opened the scoring for Barcelona.
This is also Su Dong's 28th league goal this season.
After entering the winter break, Su Dong's performance in the league was also subject to considerable doubts, but in the two rounds of the Champions League against Bayern Munich, he received high praise.
Then, in the 31st minute, Ronaldinho assisted Giuly to score, expanding Barcelona's score.
The score of 2-0 remained until the end.
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A week later, in the 29th round of La Liga, Barcelona challenged Deportivo La Coruna away.
In the tenth minute of the game, Barcelona took advantage of a free kick in the frontcourt and created chaos in the penalty area.
Puyol, Sylvinho and Giuly all had their follow-up shots blocked.
At a critical moment, Su Dong used his body to hold up the defender in the middle of the penalty area. When he was about to fall down, he reluctantly took a shot and scored a goal for Barcelona.
This goal allowed Barcelona to defeat Deportivo La Coruña 1-0.
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After the 29th round, La Liga was suspended, ushering in two weeks of national team match days.
The next schedule is crucial for Barcelona. First, they will usher in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals in midweek and will challenge Chelsea away. At the weekend, they will go to Madrid to challenge Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
These two duels are crucial, and they are both focus battles that Barcelona must win.
Unfortunately, captain Puyol was injured during the national team match and was destined to miss the 30th round.
Not only that, Mexican international Marcos traveled a long way back to his country to participate in the competition. He also came and went in a hurry and was destined to be unable to catch up with the game. In addition, Edmilson was still seriously injured and had not recovered, so that Rijkaard had to exclude the young player from the youth training.
The central defensive combination of Navarro and Oleg.
Who would have thought that in just eleven minutes, Edu passed from the left and Fernando shot from the center to open the scoring for Real Betis.
Just a minute later, Luis Fernandez sent a direct pass from the left. Edu succeeded in countering offside and then passed the ball diagonally to the back post. Joaquin followed up and shot the goal, expanding the score again.
Two to zero!
Conceding two goals in a row, still at Camp Nou, it can be said that Barcelona was completely stunned!
Fortunately, three minutes later, Harvey passed a long pass into the penalty area. Sudong blocked the Real Betis defender with his body, stopped the ball, turned around and volleyed directly to get a goal back for Barcelona.
One to two!
In the 29th minute, Sylvinho drove straight in and made a pass from the left. Sudong followed up in the middle, jumped up high, headed the ball towards the goal, and blasted the ball into the Real Betis goal again.
Two to two!
Barcelona successfully equalized the score!
But for Barcelona, this is obviously not something to be happy about.
The decisive battle of the Champions League quarter-finals is approaching, and the El Clasico against Real Madrid is just around the corner. At this critical moment, Barcelona's defense has made repeated mistakes, which makes everyone lose confidence in Barcelona.
…
In the second half, the team changed sides and fought again.
In the 57th minute, Su Dong pulled to the left, received a pass from Ronaldinho, pulled the ball horizontally from the middle and cut inside. After passing two defensive players, he shot angrily with his right foot and hit a goal.
The powerful and heavy curve ball hit the right side of the goal.
Three to two!
hat trick!
Although Su Dong scored a lot of goals, his performance in the league has declined somewhat since the winter break, but he stepped up at critical moments.
The whole Camp Nou stadium was cheering for him.
But Barcelona was not happy for long.
Just six minutes later, Joaquin successfully countered offside, dribbled the ball into the penalty area and scored with a low shot from the right rib, leveling the score for Real Betis again, 3-3!
Subsequently, Rijkaard made substitution adjustments, and Su Dong was replaced by Larsson.
Barcelona failed to score again, and neither did Real Betis.
In the end, the two sides shook hands and settled for a draw at three to three.
…
Barcelona was held to a 3-3 draw at home by Real Betis, and Barcelona received a torrent of criticism after the game.
Su Dong, who scored a hat trick, was hailed as the only player who could walk out of Camp Nou with his head held high. Catalan media all said that Su Dong was Barcelona's last dignity.
"It's hard for us to imagine that without Sudong's explosion at the critical moment, we would have been brutally slaughtered by Real Betis at home!"
Daily Sports was quite dissatisfied with the result of this game and believed that Rijkaard's team did not show a satisfactory transformation, especially on the defensive end.
Marcos Senna is still working hard, but in this game he cannot handle the midfield alone, and the defense is full of problems.
The absence of Puyol and Marcos is the key. Oleg himself is unstable, and the replacement of teenager Navarro is also uneasy, which makes Barcelona's defense even more fragile.
World Sports even issued a soul torture, "Does Rijkaard plan to use such a defensive line to go to Stamford Bridge and the Bernabeu? Does he think his team can survive?"
Even Barcelona's mouthpiece was extremely disappointed with the team's defense.
Although Rijkaard said after the game that Puyol and Marcos would follow the team to the away game to challenge Chelsea, no one dared to place high hopes on Barcelona's defense.
"To bring such a line of defense to London is tantamount to suicide!" Godfather Cruyff was furious.
He once again pointed the finger at the Brazilian gang, believing that too many Brazilian internationals caused Barcelona players to travel long distances and consume too much.
Ronaldinho's performance declined significantly in the second half.
Although Su Dong's performance in the league was not as good as in the first half, he still scored a lot of goals at critical moments, and he even turned the tide twice in the Champions League, which proved his value as the team's top scorer.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Even in the second round, he sacrificed himself and served as the team's tactical center. The team awareness is evident."
Cruyff believes that if Rijkaard cannot come up with a solution within three days and visit Stamford Bridge as a guest, Barcelona will be in trouble and may even suffer a disastrous defeat.
…
Barcelona suffered a 3-3 draw with Real Betis at home, and the happiest people were none other than the British media.
Many British media have stated that Barcelona's defense is as fragile as ever.
"Even when facing a team like Real Betis, Barcelona played in a very awkward manner, and their defense was full of mistakes. At Stamford Bridge, Mourinho's team will have a better chance of winning."
The Sun was even more high-profile, believing that the Blues had basically obtained a ticket to advance to the semi-finals.
"Today's Chelsea can be said to have strong troops and high morale. Mourinho's team is fully capable of ending the battle in the first leg at Stamford Bridge, especially when Barcelona is in a sluggish state."
The Daily Mail speculated that with Real Betis's attacking power being able to score Barcelona's goal three times at Camp Nou, it would definitely not be a problem for Chelsea's attacking firepower to score four or five goals at home.
"Perhaps we will see an earth-shattering massacre at Stamford Bridge!"
Chelsea captain Terry expressed confidence that the team will win in the first round.
"I know Su Dong is very strong, but I want to say that he will not get any chance at Stamford Bridge!"
Makelele, who once played for Real Madrid, also said that he is very familiar with Barcelona. "I will not let them pass through the midfield at will. We know how to beat them in the game!"
The Guardian also analyzed the three goals Barcelona conceded against Real Betis during the game and believed that all of them were old problems with Barcelona's defense. One was that Belletti failed to return to defense in time after assisting, and the other two were both.
It's the central defender's own problem.
"These problems have been around for a long time. Even if Puyol comes back, it will be difficult to change and improve in a short period of time."
The Guardian also revealed that Real Betis's counterattack speed is very fast, which is worthy of reference and learning by Chelsea, because the Blues have many players with super speed, such as Duff.
…
The decisive battle is coming!
Compared with the British media, which is full of confidence, the Spanish media is very pessimistic about the prospects of Barcelona's expedition to London.
Although Puyol and Marcos both traveled with the team, and although Sudong had just scored a hat-trick and was in excellent form, Barcelona exposed its own problems prematurely in the face of Chelsea, whose overall strength was superior to Bayern Munich.
When announcing the 18-man roster, head coach Rijkaard reluctantly admitted that the team's defensive problems were indeed serious, but he believed that the team still had a chance at Stamford Bridge.
But if this word spreads, who will believe it?
The Spanish media all felt that Rijkaard was bluffing.
When facing Bayern Munich, Barcelona failed to come up with a good strategy in the second round and just bet on Sudong.
Now, facing the stronger Chelsea, Barcelona is in such a sluggish state and has such serious defensive problems. Why should they fight against the Blues?
Even Rijkaard said that even losing in away games is acceptable, and he can return to Camp Nou to reverse the situation, just like he did in the first round against Bayern Munich.
But the question is, can this kind of thing be reversed again and again?
After Barcelona drew with Real Betis 3-3, the three major European bookmakers all lowered Barcelona's odds, causing Barcelona's championship odds to drop to the third-to-last among the eight teams, only better than Lyon and Estonia.
Inhoven is slightly higher.
Chelsea's odds of winning the championship have been rising all the way, reaching a level that is on par with AC Milan.
Obviously, the bookmakers spent real money betting on Chelsea to emerge in the quarter-finals.
The explanation given by William Hill is that there is no problem with Barcelona's offense, but in the Champions League knockout rounds, especially entering the quarter-finals, with Barcelona's fragile defense line, it is not possible to move forward.
If it were just a gaming company that saw it this way, it would still have to worry about it.
When the three major gaming companies all see it this way, it is basically a death sentence for Barcelona.
The game hasn't even started yet, but the domestic media in Spain is already pessimizing it.
They all said that this will be La Liga's worst season in the Champions League in recent years.
It was in this desolate atmosphere that Barcelona set off to London.
