Chapter 55

Chapter 55

After a 3-0 victory over Barcelona in the away game, Mallorca's momentum reached a peak.

The relegation has almost been completed, and all energy can be put into the UEFA Cup. The players of Mallorca can be regarded as light-packed. Although the previous breath has been vented, but because of the stimulation of the UEFA Cup championship, their state will not decline. , On the contrary, I can meet the game with a more relaxed mind and a good state!

On April 15th, Mallorca, who played at home, relied on Tristan's brace to defeat the visiting Alaves cleanly. After this defeat, Alaves basically lost their entry into the European arena. Mallorca's points reached 43 points, and the ranking rose to 12th, leading Atletico Madrid, which is ranked 18th in this round, by as much as 10 points. With five rounds left in the league, it is basically The relegation can be declared a success.

This season's relegation battle has made everyone's eyes fall. It is reasonable for Sevilla to be at the bottom of the points. After all, they are the newly promoted this season. It is normal for the newly promoted to be relegated, but Atletico Madrid and Betis... one is 95- The La Liga and Copa del Rey double winners in the 1996 season, and the other two years ago set a world record for turning a player in the transfer market. These two teams are already infinitely close to the relegation zone...

Perhaps the happiest about this are the Real Madrid fans...

Jose didn't have a big reaction to this. If he doesn't play well, even an old-fashioned team will have to be relegated. It doesn't mean that you will be able to avoid relegation if you have a long history. Every victory is fought out, not by others Let it out.

Just like the current good situation in Mallorca, it is also the result of the whole team's next game! If not relying on the spirit of hard work, how could Mallorca have the current situation?

Jose silently prayed for Ranieri, the "tinker" who coached Atletico Madrid, and Hiddink, the famous Dutch coach who went to Betis to fight the fire, and then led the team to England to prepare for the UEFA Cup. The second round of the game.

For Mallorca, it was a time of great momentum for them to win consecutive battles during this period, while Leeds United was more tragic-they lost two games in a row in the UEFA Cup and the league before, and lost to Mallorca in an away game. The game was their third consecutive loss, and after that loss, they continued their losing streak in the league, losing 0-1 to Chelsea, 0-1 to Aston Villa, 0-4 to Arsenal, and the league four. A losing streak, a six-game losing streak in all competitions, and the most terrible thing is that they have not scored a goal in four consecutive games...

The poor results during this period have caused Leeds United to lose hope of winning the league championship. They have been widened by the top three, and even the fourth position has begun to falter. For Leeds United fans, April It's been the darkest period of the season since the beginning...

"What tactics are we going to use in this game?" Natal asked Jose after arriving in Leeds.

"Two goals at home, no goals conceded... Needless to say, of course it's an offense!" Jose said indifferently: "They have to strengthen their offense. If it's just defense, we will be under a lot of pressure, but They are eager to press the offense, and there will definitely be holes in the backcourt. Even if we score goals against them, it is a good deal. If we score one, they will have to score four to win us. If we score two, they will Going five ... If it's just defending, when they get a goal back, it's going to be difficult for us."

Listening to Jose's natural analysis, Natal began to understand why the other party was able to become the head coach at such a young age, but he could only become an assistant coach—before coming to Leeds, he only thought about playing Mallorca's characteristics and using defense. To kill Leeds, after all, as long as the defense is strengthened, the advantage of two goals is enough to ensure that Mallorca will advance to the final. However, Jose's approach is more secure, fully extending the advantage of away goals to the maximum!

At the same time, the pressure on the team is not too great. After all, the mentally tense defense against Barcelona in the whole game also consumes the energy of the players-not only physical strength, but also mental power, double consumption.

It is still possible to play this kind of game occasionally, but if you play like this every game, the players from Mallorca must be the first to collapse. There is no doubt about this.

Players are human beings, not machines. It may be possible to demand players not to make mistakes in a certain important game. If you want players to function like supermen and robots throughout the season, the consequences will only be ho ho ho... …

Before the start of the second round of the UEFA Cup, the second round of the Champions League quarter-finals ignited the battle. For La Liga, this Champions League knockout match is really a good day for them, because the participating players Three teams have won one after another...

Needless to say, Valencia, which had a big home victory before, entered the semi-finals despite a small loss to Lazio in the away game. They defeated the defending champion Manchester United two-to-two to enter the semi-finals, while Barcelona, ​​which is not doing well and is in the worst situation, completed a full-fledged game at home!

The goals of two superstars, Rivaldo and Figo, gave Barcelona a two-goal lead over Chelsea in the first half. Although Flo's goal in the 60th minute made Chelsea see the hope of advancing, Van Gaal made a decisive change. , Dani came on to replace a midfielder, and the four kings of Barcelona's frontcourt began to have a tacit cooperation. In the 84th minute, after creating several opportunities, Dani finally took a free kick from Figo. Top-Goal, equalized the total score for Barcelona!

Although Barcelona missed the chance to tackle their opponents directly before the end of the 90 minutes - Rivaldo's penalty missed and Chelsea escaped unharmed, in extra time Kluivert and Rivaldo's goals made it clear. They completed a 5-1 victory, and finally advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League with a score of 6-4 in two rounds!

The top four of the Champions League have won three seats, and this season's La Liga can be said to be proud!

Next, it's up to Mallorca.

For the players of Leeds United, for this game, they can only muster Yu Yong to strive for a better result, but the pressure in the league prevents them from concentrating on the UEFA Cup Come on, after all, the hope of entering the UEFA Cup is not very great. At the same time, even if you win the UEFA Cup, in terms of benefits, it is far from being able to compare with entering the Champions Cup.

Just like Mallorca, they were eliminated in the Champions League qualifiers, which made them lose at least tens of millions of dollars in appearance fees and also tens of millions of dollars in broadcast fees, tickets and bonuses. This loss, even if they won the league The champion of the cup can make up half of it at most.

The team's income in the UEFA Cup cannot be compared with that of participating in the Champions League anyway, which has caused many teams to work extremely hard when playing the Champions Cup, but they are perfunctory in the UEFA Cup, so that later UEFA The Uefa Cup was reformed to form the Europa League, increasing revenue and prize money to make teams more interested in this cup.

Of course, this is already a story.

With the current state of Leeds United, it is still a question of how much energy they can focus on in this UEFA Cup game.

Perhaps when the game went smoothly, they could still strive to create a miracle in one go. However, after Jose set up a tactic of substituting offense for defense, their fate was actually doomed.

Just four minutes into the game, Mallorca played a beautiful frontcourt. After receiving a pass from Ngonga, Tristan forced the ball into the penalty area. Woodgate was forced to bring him down. The referee made a decisive penalty penalty!

When the referee made this penalty decision, the hearts of the 40,000 Leeds fans at the scene were instantly chilled...

If this penalty is scored, then Leeds United will have to score four goals in the next game to qualify for the final! The game was doomed almost from the start!

Stankovic calmly hit the ball into the dead corner amidst the interference of 40,000 Leeds fans. This was another ball stuck to the ground, which made Martin helpless and without temper.

"Leeds United have no chances... Next they have to score four goals in more than 80 minutes, maybe they can do this, but Mallorca's counterattack will not watch them score in a row , not to mention that just over a week ago, Mallorca used tenacious defense and sharp counterattack to beat the mighty Barcelona 3-0 in the away game, causing Barcelona to suffer the biggest defeat at home this season..."

The ESPN commentator shook his head and said with a sigh that although there were more than 80 minutes left in the game, he was basically sure that it was impossible for Leeds United to stop Mallorca's momentum...

For this point, almost everyone has a clear understanding, and the progress of the next game has also proved this point.

Although the Norwegian midfielder Barker received a corner kick from his teammate to equalize the score in the 16th minute, Mallorca fought with each other. Even in the away game, they were not at a disadvantage. Three minutes before halftime , Tristan showed his skills at his feet. After receiving a pass from Eto'o, Tristan first swayed past the full-back Myers who was rushing up, and then forcibly broke through Woodgate's defense. A strong shot in the penalty area once again helped Mallorca gain the lead!

As soon as the goal was scored, the tone of the entire game was basically set.

Leeds United still needed to score four goals to qualify, but they only had time left in the 45th minute of the second half.

"In the second half of the game, we can defend with peace of mind." Jose said with a smile in the locker room.

Jose's words caused the players to laugh knowingly. This is what they are good at, and at this time, their mentality is also extremely relaxed.

"In the second half of the game, I don't have too many requirements. There are only a few points that you should pay attention to-first, pay attention to fouls and be careful about cards. I don't want anyone to be suspended in the final. Second, when fighting, be careful of injuries. They have It's impossible to get to the final, so we have to be careful not to get hurt by them because we have more important finals to play."

As soon as Jose's words of arrangement came out, the whole second half began to become boring immediately.

Mallorca began to delay the time with dense defense and back and forth back and forth. Although Barker scored twice with a corner kick in the 68th minute to equalize the score, they did not gain anything in the following time. The score of 2 to 2 lasted until the end of the game. With a total score of 4 to 2, Mallorca advanced to the final of the UEFA Cup with its head held high!

"There is also a La Liga team Mallorca that entered the UEFA Cup final! This is the overall victory of La Liga! This season will be an extremely brilliant season for La Liga. Mallorca has kept the last hope of entering the UEFA Cup next season ! This is really a La Liga year!" The commentator shouted excitedly.

"Qualification for the UEFA Cup next season? I don't care about that. What I care about is just the UEFA Cup champion. The UEFA Cup qualification is nothing to mention..." Jose was thinking about it.