Chapter 40: Defeat Magic with Magic
When referee Antonio Andrew blew the whistle to end the game, the entire Mestalla Stadium was filled with wailing.
Hill Jr. and Paul Futre sat in the chairman's stand, suppressing their inner excitement and feeling very, very painful.
How much they wanted to rush down and cheer with the Atletico players who were celebrating wildly in the stadium.
But, they can't do it.
Because, at this moment, sitting next to them were Valencia's president Cortes and other management.
1 to 3!
According to international practice, the home team is in front and the visiting team is behind.
This was a score that surprised everyone.
Before the game, no matter who guessed the outcome of the game, no one would have thought it would be such a score.
This is outrageous!
It even makes people wonder if this is a fixed match?
How could the invincible Valencia be kicked like this in its own home stadium in the Champions League?
But only those who are familiar with La Liga will know that this cannot be a fixed match.
Because no one can afford Valencia's asking price.
This involves the Champions League, which means tens of millions of euros in revenue. Who would dare to gamble?
Judging from the course of the game, both teams tried their best.
In the first half, Atletico Madrid took a 2-goal lead thanks to Hasselbaink's two goals.
After the second half, Valencia launched another fierce attack, but unexpectedly, the defense was breached again not long after the start of the game.
Baraha suddenly rushed forward in the middle, intercepted the ball, and passed it to the right.
Aguilera passed Fresnedosso and dribbled the ball to the right side of Valencia's penalty area. He passed the ball to Hasselbaink and decisively broke into the penalty area.
After Hasselbaink stopped the ball near the right side of the penalty area, he faced Pellegrino's defense and was unable to turn around, but he cleverly passed the ball back to Aguilera.
The Atletico Madrid captain lightly flicked the ball inside the penalty area, and Belleron followed up with a close-range header from the left side of the small penalty area, making it 3-0!
This goal conceded made Valencia completely lose confidence.
Cooper immediately made a substitution, replacing the underperforming Gerard with Albelda to strengthen the team's midfield defense.
The substitutions barely stabilized the defense, and Valencia's stars also showed their threat.
When Mendieta got the ball on the right side of the rib, he forced an opportunity and passed it to Lopez in the penalty area. The latter easily pushed the ball into the goal and scored a goal for Valencia.
It was only the 63rd minute of the game.
Valencia fans rekindled their hope and the players began to actively plan their attack.
Yang Hao made decisive substitutions, making two consecutive substitutions in the 65th and 70th minutes respectively, to strengthen the team's defense and stabilize the situation again. After that, the game was completely deadlocked.
Especially in the 81st minute, Mendieta could no longer hold on and Cooper had to make a substitution.
At this point, the game is basically over.
In the end, Atletico Madrid defeated Valencia 3-1 away and won another valuable victory.
…
"He fought it out, Paul, he really fought it out!"
Little Hill excitedly grabbed Paul Futre's hand, and his voice trembled and choked, showing his excitement and excitement at the moment.
The Portuguese is not much better. He still has very deep feelings for Atletico Madrid.
"They all think that I was fooled by Yang Hao, but how could they know what Yang Hao said to me? I'm not a fool. I don't have any real skills. How could I be fooled by him?"
Little Hill seemed to have been holding it in for a long time, and now he could finally let it out.
If nothing else, Yang Hao has already proved himself based on the past three matches.
From now on, who would question Atletico Madrid's decision to hire Yang Hao?
"I really didn't expect it!" Paul Futre also had mixed feelings.
This is probably something that no one expected, right?
At the beginning, the entire Atletico Madrid management thought it was a crazy decision, including Paulo Futre.
But now it seems that it is precisely this crazy decision that is saving Atletico Madrid.
Regardless of whether the team can successfully avoid relegation this season, Yang Hao has already made the entire European football world take notice.
…
Compared to the serious and arrogant look during the handshake before the game, after the game, when Cooper came over to shake hands with Yang Hao, the expression on his face was obviously much more relaxed, and he also looked a lot more lonely.
"You performed very well tonight and deserved to win." Cooper could afford to lose.
This one sentence changed Yang Hao's impression of him a lot.
"Thank you. The main problem is that you are fighting on two fronts, which consumes too much energy."
Cooper smiled slightly. This was a comforting remark. As a professional head coach, Cooper knew better than anyone that Valencia was really defeated, and defeated completely.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"you say."
"How did you come up with this tactic tonight?"
When asking this question, Cooper stared at Yang Hao intently, as if he wanted to take in every change in Yang Hao's expression, even the smallest movements, and then judge how true the answer Yang Hao gave was.
Even if he loses, he must know how he lost.
"Intuition." Yang Hao replied without thinking too much.
"Intuition?" Cooper raised his voice, a little surprised.
"Over the past week, I've watched a lot of Valencia's games this season, especially some important ones. I've also studied some of your losses. I think using a style like tonight, using defensive counterattacks to counter your defensive counterattacks, should be effective."
At this point, Yang Hao grinned, "Unexpectedly, my bet was right."
This is called defeating magic with magic.
Really?
Cooper looked at Yang Hao with some suspicion in his eyes, but did not ask.
He absolutely did not believe that Yang Hao was gambling, because people who gamble would not have such determination and fighting spirit.
Before and even after scoring the goal, Atletico Madrid had been forced into a very embarrassing situation by Valencia. It can even be said that as long as Valencia passed the ball into the right place, Atletico Madrid would be finished.
At such a critical moment, gamblers will definitely waver.
But Yang Hao has always persisted.
Not only did he insist on it himself, but even the Atletico Madrid players insisted on it. This proves that they must have discussed it before the game. Yang Hao must have told the players about all the difficulties they would encounter in the game and reached a consensus.
Is this still gambling?
But Cooper felt that Yang Hao said this simply to make him feel better.
Thinking of this, he didn't say anything more.
"Good luck, young man!" Cooper said goodbye to Yang Hao.
"After tonight, your relegation situation will be completely reversed, but your next opponents will also pay more attention to you. I really hope you can lead the team to successfully avoid relegation. This will be a legend!"
Yang Hao nodded slightly, "Thank you."
From beginning to end, Cooper had a serious face and looked like a really rigid and stubborn guy.
But he's a very good coach.
In his previous life, Yang Hao disliked Cooper very much because of Ronaldo, but after gaining a deeper understanding of professional football, especially during the turn of the century, when Cooper led two teams to the European finals for three consecutive years but ultimately failed to win the championship, Yang Hao's impression of him changed.
After tonight, he no longer hated Cooper.
…
As soon as the game at Valencia's Mestalla Stadium ended, the whole of Spain was in an uproar.
First, countless netizens were discussing it on the Internet, especially on the websites and forums of major newspapers. As soon as the news came out, it immediately sparked a huge discussion.
No one could have imagined that Atletico Madrid could beat Valencia 3-1 away from home, and score three goals in a row.
What's this?
This was an undisputed victory over the opponent.
Before the game, almost everyone looked down on Atletico Madrid, but unexpectedly, Atletico Madrid slapped the doubters in the face in the game.
If the first two rounds of the game still raised some doubts, after all, the match against Barcelona was the King's Cup, and Malaga's strength was not very strong, many people believed that Yang Hao's two consecutive victories were too exaggerated.
But now, facing the powerful Valencia, Atletico Madrid's victory has completely proved itself.
Yang Hao's name has become the focus of discussion among netizens and fans on major websites and forums.
Everyone wants to know how this young coach, who is only 25 years old, did it?
Why can he do what famous coaches like Ranieri and Antic can't do?
Many professionals have also published columns, believing that Yang Hao is the key to Atletico Madrid's three consecutive victories. In these three games, he adopted three different tactical styles according to different opponents, which fully demonstrated the art of coaching.
"Especially the match against Valencia, anyone who watched the match or the live broadcast will definitely be particularly impressed, because Atletico's defense was watertight and did not give Valencia even the slightest chance."
"Valencia had 16 shots in the entire game, but only one shot was on target, creating a goal."
"It's not that Valencia is too inefficient, but that Atletico's defense is too targeted."
"Cooper's team was almost completely frozen in attack. Mendieta, Lopez, Angulo and others were all trapped under Atletico's iron wall and could do nothing."
The tactics Yang Hao created for Atletico Madrid have been increasingly recognized, especially after defeating Valencia. He became a prominent figure in Spain in a very short period of time.
But soon, many media and fans realized a problem, that is, they actually knew very little about Yang Hao.
Since coaching Atletico Madrid, Yang Hao has been completely ignored by the media and fans, but behind the disregard is contempt. In a fit of anger, he simply did not attend the press conference and refused to accept interviews from all media reporters.
Up to now, looking around the world, there is not even a single in-depth report about Yang Hao, let alone an exclusive interview with Yang Hao.
This made it so that even if everyone wanted to praise, they didn't know where to start for a while.
Cooper brought it to them when they really didn't know how to praise it .
At the post-match press conference, when the media asked the Argentine about his views on the game, he said that his team did lose to Atletico Madrid and there was nothing to hide, but he still emphasized that Valencia would qualify for the Champions League next season.
“I have every confidence in this!”
Cooper also expressed his affirmation of Yang Hao without reservation.
"After the game, I chatted with him for a while. I don't know how to describe him. I think there have been many outstanding talents on the football field, and Yang Hao should be a genius on the coaching bench!"
