Chapter 20 Hat Trick
"Juan, wait a moment."
After sending all the players out of the locker room, Yang Hao called Belleron alone.
Many players turned around and looked at them strangely, but they also guessed that the head coach probably had something to say to Belleron.
The performance of this number ten player in the first half was obvious to all, and the team's offense started from him.
It is obvious that Yang Hao relies on him.
Bellion is a reserved person who has a lot on his mind, but appears to be introverted and shy on the surface.
"How is your physical condition?" Yang Hao asked with concern.
This is actually a problem he is facing now. He doesn't have a good idea of the players' physical energy consumption and can only rely on asking constantly. After all, this is not playing a game.
Physical fitness data can be clearly displayed in Football Manager, but this is not possible in reality.
Yang Hao was thinking that maybe he should find a better fitness coach, and then apply analytical software and models to derive the players' data well, so that he could see the players' physical energy consumption more intuitively.
"It's okay, no problem." Belleron nodded.
Yang Hao nodded and patted Belleron's shoulder like a brother. The two of them walked slowly side by side towards the player tunnel.
"You played well in the first half, but I felt it wasn't enough."
Belleron looked at the head coach in surprise. He had already created two goals, was that not enough?
Yang Hao felt Belleron's gaze, turned around and smiled at him, "In my mind, you can still perform better."
This one sentence made Bellion not know how to react.
A gentleman will die for his friend?
Or is the head coach too harsh on himself?
"I've always felt that on a football field, even in a top-tier league, if you think of a football team as a group of people lost in the dark, most of them are groping their way forward, some not even daring to look up, only looking down at their feet for fear of tripping."
Yang Hao's words contained a hint of Zen, but he believed that someone as smart as Belleron would be able to hear it.
In this kind of large-scale football match, this is indeed the case for the vast majority of players.
They are not like fans in the stands or watching the live broadcast on TV, where they can see the game clearly from the sidelines.
"So, every team must have someone stand out, hold the torch high, walk at the front of the team, and light the way for the teammates behind them."
Belleron stopped in his tracks, raised his head, and looked at his head coach in disbelief.
"I told you, instead of letting everyone run around aimlessly, it's better to let them run around one person, the leader holding the torch. And in our Atletico Madrid, at this moment, that person is you!"
Belleron had no idea what to say.
He felt an unprecedented feeling of being trusted and relied upon.
He always has a lot on his mind and even doubts every word of the head coach, but at this moment, he doesn't have any doubts at all because he is really moved.
Yang Hao has used his actual actions to prove time and again that he really values Belleron.
"Believe me, Juan, open your arms and trust your teammates around you, and you will open up a whole new world!"
At the end, Yang Hao patted Belleron and walked away.
Behind him, Belleron raised his head high, looked straight at the head coach's back, his eyes becoming more determined.
…
If we say that Atletico Madrid reversed Barcelona by two goals in the first half, but was suppressed by Barcelona throughout the entire half, then the start of the second half surprised everyone.
Because from the very beginning, Atletico Madrid reversed the passive situation in the first half and launched a fierce attack on Barcelona.
They no longer passively retreated to the center line, but actively pressed forward and kicked very decisively.
The tragic reversal in the first half dealt a heavy blow to Barcelona's morale. During the halftime break, Van Gaal asked the players to pay attention to the connection between Atletico's two flanks, with the focus on keeping a close eye on Belleron.
But in the second half, everyone noticed that Belleron became more active.
His enthusiasm for participating in the game was obviously higher, and he began to actively participate in defense and offense.
Especially after just 3 minutes into the game, he completed a beautiful short pass with Solari on the left flank in the middle, and suddenly passed the ball diagonally to the left through the gap between the players.
Capdevila's speed is not considered fast among the wingers, but his awareness of forward runs is very good. Before Solari moves inward, he goes straight to the wing and just receives the pass from Belleron.
After advancing along the left side to the left side of the penalty area, Capdevila took a look inside the penalty area and made a curved pass to the middle of the small penalty area.
Hasselbaink, who was waiting in the middle, quickly made a run and used his body to force De Boer behind him. He didn't even jump, but headed the ball directly into Barcelona's goal.
Hespu was slow to react and failed to stop it.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"48th minute, in the 48th minute, Atletico Madrid scored again!!"
"Oh my God, just 3 minutes into the second half, Atletico Madrid used a wonderful cross from the left, and Hasselbaink scored another goal for Atletico Madrid, 3-1!!"
"Who would have thought that Atletico Madrid would launch an attack right at the start of the second half."
"Look at Atletico's cooperation on the left this time."
"Solari and Valeron's one-two combination tied down several Barcelona defenders, leaving the entire left flank open, and Capdevila's late run at the crucial moment played a decisive role."
"Of course, the most important thing was Belleron's pass, which was very delicate, just like a scalpel, and it just went through Barcelona's defense."
"I have to say that Atletico Madrid played very well tonight and they are getting better and better."
"Hasselbaink scored twice, the Dutch striker is back in form!"
…
After conceding another goal at the start of the game, Van Gaal showed no intention of giving in. Instead, he replaced midfielder Xavi with Litmanen four minutes after the goal was conceded.
This is a very obvious signal to strengthen the frontcourt attack.
Barcelona's formation also changed. It was no longer a 433 formation, but an irregular formation.
Yang Hao remained unmoved and immediately signaled his players to continue increasing the pressure and defeat Barcelona in one fell swoop.
During this period, Atletico Madrid put a lot of pressure on Barcelona, especially the tactic of pressing and oppressing the entire field, which made Barcelona very uncomfortable.
On the other hand, Atletico Madrid scored goals again and again, and their morale became higher and higher.
In the 59th minute , Pablo Garcia fouled Litmanen and was shown a yellow card.
Barcelona quickly took a free kick, hoping to catch the opponent off guard, but Santi Denia blocked the ball in time.
Baraja stopped the ball and passed it to Belleron, who took two steps forward with the ball and suddenly made a straight pass.
In the penalty area, Hasselbaink stopped the ball and turned around with his back against Cocu.
The Dutch center back had been in physical contact with Hasselbaink, but when his opponent turned around, he also wanted to turn with him, but for some reason his feet slipped.
De Boer rushed over to fill the position immediately, but it was too late.
Hasselbaink stopped the ball, turned around, and kicked another powerful shot.
The ball hit Barcelona's goal like a heavy artillery, unstoppable.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"Atletico Madrid again! Hasselbaink again!!!"
"Four to one!!"
"hat trick!"
"Atletico Madrid scored two goals in the second half, and Barcelona's entire defense was unable to stop Atletico Madrid's attack."
"The situation is very bad now, especially for Van Gaal's team. The attacking front is not threatening, and the defense behind is making frequent mistakes."
"As we said before, Barcelona has a lot of stars, but they play in a scattered manner. Especially this season, the conflicts within the locker room and between the stars have made the team very loose."
"Originally, Atletico Madrid also performed poorly, but tonight's game showed us a very competitive Atletico Madrid again. I just don't know if they can continue this performance in the league."
"We all know that many teams will have a kind of erratic performance similar to a curse, performing well in one competition and performing poorly in another. This is more about the mentality of the players and the confidence of the team."
"Hopefully, Atletico will be able to overcome this problem well."
At this moment, the camera of the game first switched to the sidelines, focusing on Hasselbaink who performed a hat trick.
The Dutch striker and his teammates were cheering excitedly at the camera on the sidelines, celebrating their goal.
This is a hat trick!
A hat trick against Barcelona!
Rijkaard, did you see that?
…
Standing on the sidelines, Yang Hao turned his head and saw that Van Gaal had returned to the visiting team's coaching bench, looking helpless, while the assistant sitting next to him was chattering about something.
He wasn't interested in guessing about this.
When he saw the players return to the field after finishing their celebration, he immediately raised his left and right thumbs up to Hasselbaink and others, giving them a thumbs up and double-clicking 666.
There is no more direct way to praise someone than this.
Especially the Atletico Madrid players, after watching it, they all felt that the coach's 666 was a thumbs up for themselves, and they immediately laughed, and some even waved to the coach to say hello.
Only at this moment did Yang Hao finally breathe a sigh of relief.
4 to 1, now the score is barely stable.
Next it depends on Barcelona's counterattack.
Yang Hao was already prepared, and the next step was to replace Aguilera with Fresnedoso.
The veteran has consumed a lot of physical energy. After Fresnedoso came on, the focus was on strengthening the midfield defense, especially the protection of the left side, to relieve the defensive pressure after the midfield's physical energy was consumed to a certain extent.
With his current training level, Aguilera cannot withstand such high-intensity competition, especially two games a week.
Kiko will replace Hasselbaink, who will save his energy for the weekend league game.
The last substitution is a flexible substitution and has not been decided yet.
As Yang Hao expected, Barcelona made a second substitution, replacing Gabriel Gabri with Rezig.
After the substitution, Reiziger played as right back, Puyol moved inside to play as center back, and Cocu was pushed to midfield.
At this time, Barcelona actually had a bit of a 4231 formation.
Van Gaal is making a final effort!
