Chapter 379: Billion is All Water“Let’s go!” The referee used 3 minutes of stoppage time to end the first half of the game. During the entire 48 minutes, Chelsea kept looking for offensive opportunities but failed to successfully break Atletico's goal. Atletico Madrid did not score any goals either, but this result was acceptable for Atletico Madrid. Because they never launched any offensive attacks at all! “xuuu——!!!” "Beep, beep, beep!" On the way back to the locker room, the home team fans in the stands began their traditional skills. When they saw their own team's players, they shouted the names of them crazily, and when they saw the opposing players, they booed them crazily. There was no way out, the score between the two teams was 0:0, and Atletico Madrid fans who wanted to win so badly had to resort to some dirty tricks. Simeone walked into the home team's locker room wearing a pure black down jacket. Because the heating in the locker room was turned on relatively high, the first thing Simeone did when he entered the locker room was to throw his down jacket on the stool, revealing the gray sweater underneath. “We didn’t play particularly well in the first half”
The Argentine gave the results of his and the coaching staff's analysis: "We gave the opponent a lot of opportunities, fortunately they did not fully grasp these opportunities. The current score is still 0:0. Judging from this score, our first half was very successful." The only criterion for testing tactics is the score on the field. For the 550 bus formation, 0:0 is a perfect score. It doesn’t matter whether we score a goal or not, as long as the other team doesn’t score a goal. Simeone looked at his watch, then raised his head: "Our plan for the second half is to play defense for another 15-20 minutes. During this time, we must not let the opponent get a chance to score. By the way, there is also the issue of physical strength. Our opponents consumed a lot of physical strength in the first half, so what you need to do at the beginning of the second half is to exchange physical strength with the opponent as much as possible." It is said that Simeone's coaching style is "iron-blooded" and tough, but not the kind of brainless toughness. As the Argentine just said, Chelsea consumed more physical energy in the first half. When the second half begins, Atletico's defensive players will lead Chelsea to engage in a 1:1 physical consumption game with them. Assuming that the players on both sides have the same stamina, the Chelsea players' physical strength will run out faster in the second half, not to mention that Atletico players are generally better at running. The players in the locker room looked around, and it was obvious that everyone felt that Simeone's style of play was very feasible. No matter how strong Chelsea's offense is, what's the point of attacking when you run out of energy? After Simeone made his summary speech, assistant coach Matthews came up with the tactical blackboard. Simeone was polite and took the initiative to give up the middle position for Matthews. The summary is over, and here are some small details that need special attention. "Boom!" Matthews found a good position and pressed the magnetic button onto the tactical board. On this tactical board, red represents Atletico Madrid, while blue represents Chelsea. The button that Matthews just picked up represents Hazard. "Mr. Diego has just said that we need to consume the opponent's physical strength in the second half. In fact, the key to consuming physical strength is to consume Jiang's physical strength. The problem is that Jiang's endurance is relatively good, so if we want to successfully control the second half of the game, we must find a way to do more on the right side." Hearing that it was on the right side, Saul and Vrsaljko involuntarily leaned their upper bodies towards Matthews with somewhat surprised expressions. In order to successfully restrict Jiang Yuan in the first half, each of them received a yellow card. As a result, in the second half, the team assistant coach asked them to continue to target Jiang Yuan. What should they do if 2 yellow cards turn into 1 red card and he is sent off? “They already have the cards on them.” Captain Gabi reminded them, but they obviously misunderstood Matthews' meaning. “No need to foul” Matthews shook his head: "Have you noticed? Hazard will lean towards Jiang whenever he gets a chance, even if the chance is small. What you have to do is to let Jiang go and let Hazard pass the ball. After the ball is given, you can play one-on-one with Jiang."
After this explanation, everyone finally understood. Matthews' intention was to lure Chelsea into continuing to attack from the left, and although Atletico Madrid did not seemingly set up defenses on Jiang Yuan's side, in fact, someone had always been eyeing Jiang Yuan. According to the data feedback from the scene, Jiang Yuan had already run in the first half alone. If he was hit twice more in the second half, Jiang Yuan's personal ability would definitely start to decline. “Great idea!” Gabi nodded to Matthews, then turned to look at Saul and Vrsaljko: "Don't be nervous, I can help you foul if necessary." Saul and Vrsaljko both received a yellow card, but Gabi was still very safe. Besides, Atletico Madrid’s three substitutions were not used! The second half of the game had just begun when Simeone asked Lucas Hernandez, Enrique, Gaitan and Partey to start warming up, giving Chelsea the illusion that they were going to continue parking the bus. When the game just started, Atletico Madrid was indeed playing defense. Simeone used a defensive substitution and a defensive formation to perform an illusion on Chelsea. In this illusion, Chelsea thought Atletico was about to give up the attack. Mourinho is also quite smart. Seeing that Atletico Madrid intends to defend, he also asked his players to reduce the frequency of attack. Although the score of 0:0 in the first half was very much in line with Simeone's wishes, you have to know that the first leg was held at Atletico Madrid's home stadium. If the final score was still 0:0, Chelsea would have made a small profit! Mourinho wanted to slow down the pace of the game, but it was difficult for the players to do so. Atletico Madrid's bus was a big test for the mentality of Chelsea's frontcourt players. After almost 50 minutes in the first half, Jiang Yuan and Hazard's tempers were revealed. "Come, come, here!" Jiang Yuan, who was waiting for an opportunity on the sidelines, keenly seized the gap between Vrsaljko and Saul and quickly signaled to his teammates to pass the ball. When Kante saw Jiang Yuan behind him, his eyes lit up, but because there were many Atletico Madrid players standing between the two of them, Kante could only pass the ball to Ibrahimovic's head, and then Ibrahimovic used his head to pass the ball to Jiang Yuan on the left. "Jiang Yuan, is it coming? Jiang Yuan hasn't started yet, but Atletico has already started to move near the baseline." "Vrsaljko, 1 on 1 with Jiang Yuan on the wing!" "Jiang Yuan ran very fast, but Vrsaljko was closer to the baseline, so he had the advantage in terms of position." "Jiang Yuan accelerated and started. Instead of cutting inside, this was a very clean move!" Under the shouts of the CCTV commentator, Jiang Yuan stepped on the sideline and started a one-on-one battle with Vrsaljko. The Croatian put one hand on Jiang Yuan's chest to prevent Jiang Yuan from running forward to get the ball. This was a very effective move, but Vrsaljko's ability to resist was slightly weaker. The two men bumped into each other, and finally Jiang Yuan seized the opportunity and stepped in front of Vrsaljko. Jiang Yuan knew that Vrsaljko had a yellow card, so he wanted to see if he could trick a foul. Vrsaljko ended up bumping into Jiang Yuan, but the force was not enough to warrant a yellow card, so Jiang Yuan did not choose to fall to the ground. Keep going to the bottom line! Because there was no space, Jiang Yuan was unable to change direction and kept bumping into Vrsaljko. Finally, the experienced Vrsaljko got the better of him and he had to watch the ball roll out of the baseline. fuck! Jiang Yuan bit the collar of his jersey, and the muscles on his face twisted into a knot. Atletico Madrid gave Jiang Yuan a very strange, even disgusting feeling, just like when he was competing against Walker on the wing against Tottenham. It was very uncomfortable. The only difference is that among Tottenham defenders, only Kyle Walker is fast, but all Atletico defenders are very fast. Even some players who were not good at running have acquired considerable speed after joining Atletico Madrid. After several operations, Jiang Yuan is already on the verge of the red card. “Easy, easy!” Azpilicueta, who was about to move forward to support the opponent, started to run backwards after confirming that the ball was awarded to Atletico Madrid. While running, he did not forget to look back and signal Jiang Yuan to calm down.
The camera turned to Mourinho in front of the bench. The Portuguese was sitting on a chair at the beginning of the second half, but now in the 50th minute, he stood up again. Obviously, both the players and the coach are getting more and more anxious as the game goes on. Like Simeone, Mourinho also had many players warm up near the bench. If it were a league game, Mourinho might have used up one substitution by now, but this is the Champions League after all. Compared with the five major leagues, where the first substitution is made in the 40th minute on average, the first substitution in the Champions League is relatively late. It's about 75 minutes, and only at this time will the team make large-scale personnel adjustments. In the 64th minute of the game, Chelsea's third deep attack in the second half ended in failure. When Moya put the ball in the penalty area and was about to kick the ball, there was a sudden noise in the stands of the Calderon Stadium. "Atleti, Atleti, Atletico de Madrid~" "Jugando, ganando, peleas como el mejor~" "Porque siempre la aficion～" "..." This is Atletico Madrid's team anthem. I don't know which stand started singing it first, but it spread from one stand to ten, and then to a hundred, and soon the entire Calderon Stadium was filled with the singing of Atletico Madrid fans. At this time, Simeone made his first substitution of the game, with No. 9 Torres replacing No. 21 Gameiro. Only one forward was replaced, which didn't seem to be anything new, but fans of both teams immediately noticed something was wrong. Atletico's original formation was 550, but after Torres came on the field, they changed back to 442. The team song sounded again, and this time it didn't spread little by little, but everyone sang loudly at almost the same time. "Atleti, Atleti, Atletico de Madrid~" "Atleti, Atleti, Atletico de Madrid~" "Atleti, Atleti, Atletico de Madrid!" Griezmann crossed the center line for the first time in a long time, and with Torres suddenly substituted on, how could Atletico fans not know what their team wanted to do? The counterattack has begun! "nimo!" "nimo!" After Griezmann dribbled the ball across half court, he suddenly accelerated, causing Pogba to almost not react. Fortunately, Griezmann was not fast, and Pogba immediately got into position, successfully preventing the opponent from advancing further. Griezmann looked left and right, and found Felipe on the left side, and decisively sent a through ball. "Go to the back, to the back!" Realizing that something was wrong, Hazard took the initiative to retreat. After reaching his position, he signaled Pogba to run back, while he himself kept an eye on Griezmann and Koke. On Chelsea's right, Felipe ran up and successfully controlled the ball with his left foot, but he did not stop and chose to continue running forward. Snapped! "The pass came from Felipe, Ake stretched his legs but couldn't reach the back post, Saul was already there" "Azpilicue really wanted to rush forward to grab the ball, but his position was not good, so it might have been too late." "Saul, perfect stop, very nice!"
Atletico's passing was very smooth during the attack, and it was obvious that they had practiced this mode of sudden force in the second half. In fact, in terms of the smoothness of the pass transfer, Atletico was still a little behind Chelsea, but after more than 60 minutes of attack, Chelsea's players' physical strength was somewhat exhausted. Ake wanted to defend actively, but he really couldn't hold on any longer. Saul quickly adjusted after stopping the ball and immediately found an empty space at the back post, then started a one-on-one match with Ake on the wing. Under normal circumstances, Ake's one-on-one defense is not inferior to anyone, but now it is not a normal situation after all. Snapped! The pass from Saul was aimed at Griezmann at the back post. Griezmann ran away from Kante, rushed into the penalty area, jumped up and headed the ball directly into the Chelsea goal. "Tiro..." "Gollllllllllllllllll!!!" “Antoine Griezmann!!!” “El gol de Griezmannnnnnn!!!!” After fighting for more than 60 minutes, Griezmann scored a goal directly in the first counterattack. His emotions could be described as crazy. "Ah ah ah ah ah!!!" Griezmann rushed over and hugged Vrsaljko. VAMOS! "Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom boom boom!" "In the 67th minute of the game, Atletico Madrid's No. 7 Griezmann scored with a header, and the current score is 1:0!" Roar! ! Simeone outside the field roared at the camera, as if the goal was not scored by Griezmann, but by Simeone himself. There is no way out. After being beaten for almost 70 minutes, it is finally Atletico Madrid's turn to stand up! 68 ' ATM:CHE 1:0 "what are you doing?" Courtois spread his hands to Zouma: "If he runs up to you, just go for it. What's the point of standing there and waiting? He won't run towards you!" "You blame me for all this?" Zouma was so angry: "I was marking the number 14, Griezmann ran out from the front!" “What can I say!?” Terry quickly pulled Zouma and Courtois apart. If someone had to be blamed for this ball, it would be the problem of the entire Chelsea team. [Fuck, who said Atletico was suppressed by Chelsea? As soon as I came in, Atletico scored a goal] [Chelsea is also invincible. They kept attacking but never scored a goal, while Atletico scored as soon as they attacked. This is a truly strong team. Chelsea is still too weak] [I feel like Chelsea was trapped by Atletico Madrid, but Atletico Madrid's defense is really awesome. Jiang Yuan and Hazard couldn't even get through the left wing when they combined.] [Simeone, a famous coach, capable! ] [I feel like Xiao Jiang is about to get into trouble. Every time he gets the ball, three people rush to attack him. Who can handle this? Atletico Madrid treats Jiang Yuan like a ball.]
[I am so angry, can Mourinho come up with something else? If he continues like this, he will definitely lose.] [There is no other way. Mourinho's style of play was a gamble. He just wanted to break through Atletico's defense in the first 65 minutes, but he didn't expect that he couldn't do it. It can only be said that Mourinho underestimated Atletico's defense.] [No, shouldn't Vrsaljko have been given a yellow card during that attack in the 50-minute mark? Why didn't the referee give him a card?] [Damn, Simeone looks quite honest, but how can he play tricks like that? Chelsea is doomed to fail.] [Mourinho, please make a substitution quickly. Now Atletico Madrid is not parking the bus. Chelsea has a chance to score! ] [Substitution? Mourinho looked at the players on the bench and finally fell into deep thought...] After conceding a goal suddenly, Mourinho could no longer sit still and quickly told the fourth official that he wanted to make a substitution. "The fourth official outside the field raised a sign, and we can see that Chelsea is going to make a substitution. Zouma and Falcao will be replaced by Alonso and Remy." "Eh, even though Chelsea's starting lineup is the most valuable in the Premier League, there are really not many players on their bench. After Falcao left the field, Mourinho could only use Remy as a winger, but we also know that Remy is not a pure winger after all." Other teams can turn the situation around by making substitutions when they are behind, but it is hard to say for Chelsea. The starting 11 players are worth nearly 6 million euros, with an average of more than 5000 million euros per player. The total value of the seven players on the bench is 7 million euros. The total value of the substitute players is not as high as the total salary of the starting players. Yes, this is Chelsea! "Stay more to the left!" Mourinho gave instructions to Remy who was about to play. Atletico Madrid's celebration had just ended and Jiang Yuan was already a little overwhelmed at this time. After taking a look at Mourinho outside the field, Jiang Yuan wanted to gesture to have himself substituted, but then he felt something was wrong. There are only a few genuine wingers in the team now. If Jiang Yuan goes down again, Chelsea will have no chance of continuing to play. clap clap! Patting his thigh, Jiang Yuan decided to continue on the court. Although Chelsea replaced their players with full energy on the bench when they were behind, as He Wei just analyzed, the effect of doing so was actually not great. Atletico Madrid seems to have grasped the secret to defeating Chelsea, which is to strangle Jiang Yuan and Hazard. In order to prevent them from cooperating, Atletico Madrid set up a separate line of defense between the two. Helpless Hazard could only dribble the ball into the penalty area by himself to see if he could form a connection with Ibrahimovic. However, due to his size and age, Ibrahimovic was destined to not be as flexible as Hazard, and the two of them could never think of the same thing. "Screw you!" Jimenez squeezed Ibrahimovic away and then cooperated with Koke to complete a steal from Hazard. "Fuck!" Feeling something was wrong, Hazard immediately reached out and pulled Koke down. Before falling to the ground, the latter passed the ball to Torres who came to meet the challenge. The referee points to Chelsea's goal, the attack is in their favor! "Chelsea's frontcourt coordination made a mistake and Atletico Madrid got the chance to counterattack"
"Let's see how Atletico Madrid grasps this counterattack opportunity. Torres! Since he just came on the field, Torres has plenty of physical strength." "Saul is running forward on the wing, and there is an Antoine Griezmann waiting in front of him. This is a very good counterattack opportunity." Simeone is a talented player, but he let the 32-year-old Torres run back and forth between the front and backcourt. The most amazing thing is that Torres’ speed is not bad! In the picture, Torres dribbled the ball to the top of the arc and then passed the ball to Griezmann on the left. Griezmann handled the ball very calmly. He did not rush to shoot, but chose to pass the ball back to Felipe behind him. Remy rushed towards Felipe, and Felipe knocked the ball to Griezmann with his heel. "Middle!" Felipe shouted, but Griezmann knew what to do without him reminding him. Griezmann pretended to stop the ball, but actually let the ball pass behind him. Turn around and face the Chelsea goal and shoot! Snapped! The ball hit the ground, bounced towards the goal, and hit the right post. "The ball goes in! Griezmann scores!" "A brace, a brace from Griezmann!" "Oh my God, Atletico scored another goal in the final minutes!" Griezmann ran along the baseline with his arms outstretched. Chelsea players stood there stupidly, not knowing what to do, just standing there. "Antoine!" "Antoine!" Griezmann stretched out three fingers towards the stands, first retracted his ring finger to make two fingers, and then retracted his middle finger. Finally, the index finger. 3, 2, 1. "VAMOS!" The director gave Mourinho a brief focus shot, and the Portuguese coach had returned to his seat on the bench. What the hell is this? From the start of the game till now, Chelsea has been trapped in Atletico's trap and has never gotten out! "Chelsea!" xuuu——!!! "Chelsea!" xuuuu——!!! There were boos in the stands. Atletico Madrid beat Chelsea in terms of score and crushed them in terms of momentum. The game was going on for 90 minutes and 8 seconds when the fourth official gave the extra time for the game. 5' 5 minutes of extra time is one of the few good news for Chelsea. It is worth mentioning that 5 minutes of these 4 minutes of extra time were contributed by Jiang Yuan. In the 90 minutes of the game, Jiang Yuan has fallen to the ground almost 15 times. At this time, Chelsea fans expected the team to create a miracle in the last 5 minutes, even if it was just one goal. But the fact is, miracles also need to be reasonable. Now the whole Chelsea team, except for the goalkeeper, has almost exhausted their physical strength, so it is impossible to score a goal. Otherwise Mourinho would not have sat back in his chair so early. “Beep, beep, beep—!!!”
"Okay, dear audience friends, the game is over. In the end, thanks to Griezmann's two goals, Atletico Madrid defeated Chelsea 2:0 at home." "This is definitely an unacceptable result for Chelsea because they have a much better squad than Atletico Madrid." "I personally think that the Chelsea coaching staff needs to take most of the responsibility for losing this game." …… After the game, Mourinho was interviewed by reporters in the locker room of the Calderon Stadium: "I am sorry that you lost this game. In the first half and the first few minutes of the second half, you almost controlled the game, but you lost in the end..." “Is this because the players are not in good shape?” When the reporter asked questions, Mourinho folded his hands across his chest. After the reporter finished his question, Mourinho put his hands on the table and slowly spoke into the microphone: "The players are in poor condition, that's for sure. But I think we lost this game mainly in tactics, this is my problem" "Jose, do you mean to say that you are responsible for Chelsea's loss?" "Of course, of course, if the team loses, the head coach needs to take responsibility, this is a very obvious truth" Mourinho held the microphone tightly, with no expression on his face, as if he was heartbroken: "They (referring to Atletico Madrid) used a very extreme defensive formation at the beginning. I thought the team's offensive ability was strong enough, so I let the players force the attack. However, the fact is that I underestimated the opponent's defensive level. Atletico Madrid's defense is very reliable." Due to his personality and other reasons, Mourinho rarely admits his mistakes, but today he really has no choice but to admit it. We were pressing the opponent in the first half, and then we were pressed by the opponent in the second half. This is 100% a problem with the team's tactical system! If it was a complete Chelsea, Jiang Yuan + William + Ibrahimovic might be able to break through Atletico's iron-blooded defense, but the problem is that Chelsea is not a complete team now. Falcao can't hold up on the right alone, and Hazard is unwilling to help him. What's the point of playing? Mourinho was being interviewed. At this moment, the away team's locker room was silent. Although they only lost 0:2, which doesn't seem to be a big score, in fact, the Blues players were almost stunned. Jiang Yuan sat on the bench and checked Twitter. It was full of people scolding Mourinho. He also watched the team videos and found that they all had basically the same style, except that fans from different countries spoke in slightly different ways. "We shouldn't have played that offensively in the first half!" Seeing that no one spoke, Pogba chose to break the ice himself. "Shouldn't we attack when they are defending? Should we defend as well when they are defending?" Ibrahimovic spread his hands to Ibrahimovic. "Nonono! Zlatan, you misunderstood what I meant. I said that we played too aggressively in the first half. In fact, we didn't need to do that at all!" Pogba stood up from his chair with a blue sports towel draped over his shoulders. He said: "We keep attacking but can't score. Isn't this just a waste of energy? The other side treats us like donkeys! We might as well play defense so that no one can score." "So do you think we can beat them on defense?" Ibrahimovic was anxious with Pogba and wanted to stand up to confront Pogba. Terry, who realized that something was wrong, quickly grabbed the Swede's arm and said, "Okay, okay, there's no need to copy. Wait for the coach to come over." "What's the point of the coach coming here?" "..." "Sorry, I'm sorry..." Pogba, realizing that he had said the wrong thing, sat back in his chair, the towel that had been draped over his shoulders now in his hand. Pogba pulled the towel hard, holding one piece with his left hand and one side with his right hand. He had no place to vent his emotions, so he could only vent his anger on the towel. The door of the locker room was pushed open. Hearing the noise, Jiang Yuan put his phone back into the cabinet. The next second, Mourinho walked in.
At this moment, all the players looked at Mourinho at the gate. No one said anything, but the meaning was very clear. Dear Jose, is there a small problem with your tactical arrangement today? "..." Under the gaze, Mourinho asked Brown to bring him a bench. Mourinho, who liked to talk while standing, finally sat down because it was easier to control his temper while talking while sitting than standing. "Well, you don't talk, but I know what you are thinking." Mourinho's gaze randomly fell on the players in the locker room. In order to avoid embarrassment, he deliberately made eye contact with the substitute players who did not play, and was unwilling to look into the eyes of Jiang Yuan and Pogba from beginning to end. "We lost the game, and lost it in a very uncomfortable way. This is the result. I need to take most of the responsibility for the loss of this game." Just as he said to reporters, Mourinho also chose to stand up in the locker room. Speaking of Chelsea's current locker room, head coach Mourinho is very clear that if the team loses, some fierce conflicts are likely to break out, especially in such a painful loss. At this time, someone needs to stand up to avoid internal quarrels among the players. “We shouldn’t have been so aggressive.” Pogba pointed out the problem directly, and judging from his body posture, he seemed to want to say something, but Jiang Yuan immediately put his hand on Pogba's thigh to prevent the Frenchman from saying anything further. "I know, of course I know" Mourinho turned his body and faced Pogba: "There is a problem with the tactics, but we have lost the game. This is the result. What we should think about now is how to win the next round at home, instead of arguing here. Paul, do you think I am right?" Judging from what Mourinho said, he heard the argument between Pogba and Ibrahimovic outside just now. In order to prevent Pogba from making any embarrassing remarks, Mourinho hardly paused between his sentences. "The truth now is that Lyon, I and the coaching staff need to develop a new tactic, and you have to adjust your mentality, otherwise we will still lose to Atletico in the second round." The locker room was in despair. Jiang Yuan leaned against the cabinet at the back, his hands folded across his chest, feeling helpless and lost. The others were not much better. The team was defeated by its opponents in the first round of the round of 16, and the following games will probably not be any easier. "Daily Sports" - Atletico Madrid beat Chelsea 2:0 at home. The total value of the starting players of both teams differed by million euros. Among them, Griezmann, who scored twice, was worth 8000 million euros, which can only rank fourth in Chelsea. AS launched a poll on the newspaper's Titter account: Will the serious premium on Premier League players have a negative impact on the football trading market? …… (End of this chapter)