A week later, in the 36th round of La Liga, Barcelona challenged Levante away from home.
Only six minutes into the game, Sudong and Ronaldinho connected, and the Brazilian superstar shot a long shot from the left that penetrated Levante's goal and opened the scoring for Barcelona.
But then the game fell into a stalemate.
In the 35th minute, Levante took advantage of a free kick opportunity to create chaos in the Barcelona penalty area. Rivera fired a shot and equalized the score for Levante. The two sides ended the first half 1-1.
But just over a minute into the second half, Levante player Gango broke into the penalty area from the left and made a single shot. After the shot was blocked by Valdez, his teammates missed the shot and made a missed shot, reversing the score.
Until the 60th minute, Xavi took a corner kick, Marcos headed the ball forward, and Su Dong scored a header from close range from the back point, tying the score at 2-2.
After the equalizer, Su Dong, Ronaldinho and others were also substituted one after another.
In the end, the two teams shook hands 2-2.
…
Although there was no loss and this game was of no practical significance, facing Levante, the defense conceded two goals, which is still somewhat worrying.
The Catalan media have expressed doubts about Barcelona's defense, especially with the Champions League final just around the corner, but the team has not shown any signs of defensive improvement, which is very worrying.
As far away as Italy, AC Milan, which had just lost 1-0 to Juventus at home, could not get out of trouble. It drew with Lecce 2-2 on the road and basically lost the fight for the Serie A championship.
At the post-match press conference, Ancelotti had to regretfully say that there was basically no hope of winning the Serie A championship.
"But we still have the Champions League!"
Ancelotti's meaning is very clear, that is, from this moment on, AC Milan will devote all its energy and resources to the Champions League final.
This is definitely not good news for Barcelona.
Even Godfather Cruyff reminded Rijkaard in a column in the Pioneer newspaper that defense will be the most severe test faced by Barcelona in this Champions League final, especially the players, who must reduce unnecessary mistakes as much as possible.
Mistakes.
"This is the most important game in the world, and it is also the most competitive game, bar none!"
"All of us know that the more pressure we play in such a game, the more likely it is that players will make some inexplicable mistakes."
"But every great team must learn how to resolve these pressures and avoid mistakes like this."
Cruyff also rarely took the initiative to mention the Champions League final held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, eleven years ago. It was one of the most painful defeats in his life. He rarely even talked about it in front of outsiders.
.
But this time, he used this game as a negative lesson to remind Rijkaard.
"Before that final that I will never forget, we had an advantage. At that time we had the strongest attacking lineup, led by Romario, we had Guardiola in the midfield, and Koeman and Nadal in the defense.
,Everyone believes that our strength is outstanding.”
"Looking at AC Milan, the absence of Baresi and Costacurta has a great impact on them. Everyone, including ourselves, feels that our offense should be able to work. We just need to control the ball as usual.
Control the rhythm and use our passing and cutting advantages to stretch and tear apart the Milan defense, we have the best scorer in the world in Romario."
"But during the game, we were surprised to find that things were completely beyond our imagination. Our opponent had no intention of allowing us to easily pass and cooperate, and our offense was strictly contained by the opponent."
"What's even more terrible is that when our offense failed to pose a threat, our midfielders and backfielders kept making mistakes and conceding goals over and over again."
Cruyff reminded Rijkaard that he must be fully prepared. Everyone must have a strong psychological quality and be mentally prepared to lose the ball first, so as not to be in a hurry and lose it again and again.
More importantly, you must be patient and don't mess up if you lose the ball. The opponent will lose their formation as soon as they impact, which is very fatal.
"You have to be patient when facing Italian teams."
…
Cruyff's words attracted Barcelona's attention. For this reason, Rijkaard even arranged for the players to watch the video of that game. Everyone saw the dream team trained by Cruyff.
How to collapse in front of Capello's iron army.
The four goals conceded were basically serious mistakes in Barcelona's midfield and backcourt, including the defender's quick counterattack after the ball was intercepted.
In addition, if according to current standards, AC Milan's offside goal that was disallowed was actually a goal, because the player AC Milan trailed at the end did not directly participate in the attack.
AC Milan even had a center post in the second half, which was a quick counterattack with a long pass directly behind them.
It can be said that throughout the entire game, Barcelona was indeed beaten to a pulp by AC Milan and was quite embarrassed.
The current Barcelona technical director Begiristain served as a left winger in Cruyff's team at that time. He also appeared and warned all Barcelona players that in that game, the Barcelona players themselves made too many mistakes that they should not have made.
.
"In the first half, when we were trailing 0-2, we actually still had a chance, but unfortunately, at the beginning of the second half, we conceded the third goal. This was a goal that made us desperate."
That goal was conceded because the left back Sergi was too attached to the ball. After being intercepted by Savicevic, he directly kicked a long-distance lob from the right side of the penalty area and directly lobbed the ball into the Barcelona goal.
The goal is very beautiful!
"But more importantly, our defenders and goalkeepers have committed irreparable disappointments, which is very demoralizing!"
Begiristain said that when everyone was ambitious to regain the situation in the second half, the score was expanded by the opponent as soon as they came out, especially the stupid mistakes made by Barcelona players themselves, which made everyone lose the confidence to counterattack.
.
"No matter how powerful the offense is, it can't withstand constant mistakes!"
As a former left winger, Begiristain obviously knows the mentality of offensive players very well.
Football has always been a difficult game to score goals.
Therefore, when the offensive players are working hard to create goals in front, they are constantly conceding the ball behind them, which is simply disappointing.
"Remember, no matter how bad the situation is, you must never concede the third goal!"
Begiristain does not mean that Barcelona will lose, but he is warning Barcelona players to have bottom-line thinking and not to concede three goals under any circumstances, otherwise the gods will be hard to save!
The players basically listened.
They are all experienced stars, and naturally they all know that in such an important final, if they concede three goals, they will basically surrender and there is no possibility of turning the situation around.
…………
…………
Munich, Germany, student dormitory building.
Knock knock knock.
Wang Chuqing was studying in her dormitory when someone suddenly knocked on the door from outside, followed by the voice of her Korean roommate.
"King, I have a letter from you"
"Oh, wait a minute."
Wang Chuqing was a little reluctant, turned to look out the window, and sighed quietly.
This must be another love letter sent to her by some boring person asking her roommate to send it to her, right?
How many times has it been?
She has long been tired of this.
Even though she has clearly rejected many people many times, there are always people who think she will be the lucky one.
But how did they know that in Wang Chuqing's heart, a special person had been secretly living in her?
"It's from Barcelona, Spain." The roommate outside the door turned over the envelope and saw the city where the letter was sent.
Inside the door, Wang Chuqing's heart trembled when she heard this. She immediately quickened her pace, took three steps at a time, and walked over to open the door.
After taking the envelope from her roommate, Wang Chuqing smiled and thanked her. After noticing the strange look in her roommate's eyes, she quickly turned around and closed the door, leaning against the door, looking through the envelope.
Sure enough, he is from Barcelona!
In that strange city, she had only one friend.
Opening the envelope carefully, Wang Chuqing found a paper card and a game ticket inside.
"Miss Wang, I hope you can come and watch my game when you have time, Su Dong."
The following is a printed introduction to two ways to go to the Champions League final. One is to go to Barcelona and meet up with the club’s family and friends group. At that time, the club’s chartered flight will take the family and friends group to Istanbul, so that each other can take care of each other.
You can also go to Istanbul on your own. Two days before the final, Barcelona has already booked a hotel. Groups of relatives and friends can check in with their tickets and IDs. Su Dong has already submitted the list of his group of relatives and friends to the club.
Wang Chuqing looked at the envelope, paper card and game ticket in her hand, feeling as if she had drank honey.
These are tickets for the Champions League final!
I heard that scalpers outside have sold tickets for the Champions League final to two to three thousand euros, which is definitely a sky-high price, and it's hard to get a ticket.
Two days ago, some classmates were asking her if they could buy game tickets through BMW's channels, but how did they know that the huge BMW company only gets very few game tickets, and it's basically one point for several company executives.
There's nothing wrong with the people below.
Su Dong gifted her with a match ticket, undoubtedly treating her as a good friend, which is more valuable than the ticket itself.
Thinking of this, Wang Chuqing's heart moved. She immediately walked back to her desk, took out her mobile phone, found Su Dong's number, opened the text message, hesitated for a long time, considered the words repeatedly, and finally sent the text message with shaking hands.
"The tickets have been received, thank you, I will go to the scene to cheer you! You will definitely win!"
After the text message was sent, Xiao Nizi blushed again, looked at the tickets, envelopes, cards and mobile phone in her hands and smiled stupidly. She felt indescribable joy in her heart.
"Thank you! My parents will be here too, you can come with them. See you in Istanbul!"
Su Dong quickly sent her a text message back.
“See you in Türkiye!”
After Wang Chuqing replied to the text message, she was no longer as aloof as she usually was in front of her classmates. She jumped up with joy and her laughter was particularly sweet.
The Korean roommate next door was well-informed, and when he heard the noise, he felt puzzled.
