Chapter 74: Gao, you must stand up for us!

"You are still careless."

In the presidential stand of Camp Nou, Barcelona vice president Alfonso Gaudio smiled and said to Real Madrid vice president Vulture Butragueno who led the team to Barcelona, with a somewhat condescending tone in his voice.

What he meant by hasty was Real Madrid's decision to appoint Gao Shen as head coach.

No matter what, using a 25-year-old rookie as head coach is absolutely a ridiculous scandal.

President Laporta was also sitting next to Butragueno at this time, "watching" the game with a smile. After hearing Godard's words, the smile on his face became even bigger.

Over the past few years, Real Madrid has always been suppressing Barcelona, and Florentino is a man who is well-connected in both the political and business circles and has great resources. Even Laporta would inevitably feel inferior to him. When will he be able to hold his head high and directly criticize Real Madrid's problems face to face like he does now, and Real Madrid will not be able to refute it?

Butragueno was very depressed, but he really couldn't refute it.

Nowadays, the situation on the field is that Barcelona is stronger and Real Madrid is forced to passively defend.

Off the field, in the past two or three seasons, Barcelona has also been rising strongly, while Real Madrid, which is full of superstars, has begun to decline.

Especially this season, Barcelona superstar Ronaldinho led the team to beat Real Madrid 3-0 at the Bernabeu and won warm applause from the Bernabeu fans. This is a shame for the Real Madrid management.

The situation is stronger than the person, and Butragueno feels helpless about it.

"Come to think of it, we really have to thank you." Etxebarria, who was sitting on the other side of Laporta, said with a smile.

"Ronaldinho and Deco were both given up by you, otherwise it would have been difficult for us to get them, not to mention Eto'o, who was sold to us by you."

Etchebaglia is not only a member of the Barcelona presidency, but also Laporta's brother-in-law. He was the person in charge of the negotiations between Barcelona and Real Madrid on Eto'o's transfer. He can be said to be a powerful figure in Barcelona's management.

Eto'o was a youth player at Real Madrid, but he didn't get a chance in the star-studded Real Madrid, so he was sent to Real Mallorca. Under the coaching of Aragones, he made rapid progress and was favored by Barcelona.

According to the contract, Mallorca and Real Madrid each held half of Eto'o's ownership. If Barcelona wanted to buy Eto'o, they had to get the half held by Real Madrid. This was considered an almost impossible deal at the time.

But who would have thought that Real Madrid would finally agree.

The reason is very simple, because what Real Madrid wanted at that time was Michael Owen.

Sometimes, things in the world are really strange.

Real Madrid had Zidane, so they didn't need Deco, and Deco, whose playing style was simple, didn't meet Real Madrid's definition of a star. Between Beckham and Ronaldinho, Real Madrid chose Beckham, who had higher commercial value and was a bigger star at the time, rather than the ugly Ronaldinho, which was understandable.

The same is true when it comes to the Michael Owen and Eto'o deals.

Who would have thought that these three people created the glory of Barcelona in the past two or three years?

Butragueno kept smiling and maintained his composure, but he was already cursing in his heart, but there was nothing he could do.

Who made the two teams become sworn enemies?

"The score is still zero to zero, it's hard to say who will win or lose." Butragueno said lightly.

"That's right." Laporta nodded in agreement, but then changed the subject, "I have a feeling that Eto'o will score again tonight."

Both Godard and Etxebarria agreed, because Eto'o has a nickname: Real Madrid Killer.

What does it mean?

He has scored in all three of his last three games against Real Madrid.

Not only that, since leaving Real Madrid in 2000, he has scored against Real Madrid a total of ten times, including seven league goals, two King's Cup goals and one Super Cup goal.

Seven of them were scored for Mallorca and three for Barcelona.

This shows how deep Eto'o's resentment towards Real Madrid is.

Butragueno was sitting in the stands of Camp Nou, surrounded by Barcelona's management and guests. Hearing them all look confident of winning, the Real Madrid vice president was filled with shame and anger, but helpless.

Gao, you must stand up for us!

…

Ronaldinho once again dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the left side and kicked a long shot before De La Red could block it.

But the shot was too hasty, with poor timing and angle, and it went high.

This was his second shot in three minutes.

Just now, Gravesen pulled down Deco 25 meters outside the penalty area, giving Barcelona a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt. Ronaldinho took the penalty, but the ball was slightly higher than the goal.

Both shots failed to hit the goal and failed to pose a threat.

And now, the first half has reached the 42nd minute.

Rijkaard wore his black suit and red tie tonight, which is his lucky outfit, but Barcelona's luck does not seem to be particularly good.

The best chance of the entire first half was Eto'o's one-on-one shot at the beginning of the game, but he missed.

After that, it was difficult for Barcelona to get better opportunities.

There was a lot of noise, but very little threat, more of a long shot.

"This guy has some strength. No wonder he was able to reverse Arsenal and draw with Juventus away." Ten Cate said on the sidelines, mainly praising Real Madrid's defense.

"This kind of overall compact defense is still very unique, but it is also a big test for the players. To be honest, I really didn't expect that he could make Beckham and Raul return to the penalty area and make Zidane chase back to the goal. It's not easy!"

Before coming to serve as Rijkaard's assistant coach, Ten Cate was also a head coach in the Eredivisie, so he knows that no matter how good the tactics are, they need players to execute them in order to be effective. In a team like Real Madrid, the real test for the head coach is often how to deal with the players, rather than the tactics themselves.

In this regard, Gao Shen is indeed outstanding.

On the field, after Real Madrid intercepted the ball in the midfield, Zidane got the ball near the center line and made a long pass directly to Negredo.

Real Madrid's center forward took Oleguer and quickly advanced to the right side of the penalty area. He used his body to hold Oleguer and stopped the ball. However, just after the ball stopped, before he could do anything, Puyol got the better of him and poked it away.

Such scenes happened many times throughout the first half, but Real Madrid still enjoyed it.

"He now wants to consume our two central defenders and make sure Thiago Motta is ready during the halftime break and can come on at any time in the second half." Rijkaard frowned.

This was specially prepared by him and Ten Cate for Ronaldo.

Thiago Motta is taller than Oleguer and has similar physical conditions, but as a Brazilian player, he is more flexible than Oleguer. He plays well in the deep midfield position, is agile with his feet, and is a left-footed player.

Both Rijkaard and Ten Cate believe that the partnership of Thiago Motta and Puyol can contain Ronaldo.

As soon as Real Madrid makes a substitution, Barcelona will immediately follow suit.

…

The first half ended with two long shots from Barcelona.

First, Van Bronckhorst made a sudden shot from nearly 30 meters on the left, followed by Ronaldinho's cross pass, and Van Bommel suddenly inserted a long shot from behind, but both shots went over the bar.

Referee Brewer blew the whistle to end the first half of the game, and no one was able to score.

But whether it was the scene or the data, Barcelona had an overwhelming advantage.

Not to mention anything else, just the number of passes, Deco alone received 54 passes, including six threatening balls, five tackles, and two steals. This data is enough to make him stand out from the crowd.

On the Real Madrid side, Zidane made the most passes, with only eighteen, while Negredo only had a pitiful five.

In other words, Real Madrid basically spent the entire first half fighting for the ball.

The data may not reflect everything, but it is enough to show Real Madrid's absolute disadvantage on the field.

Generally speaking, such a scoreline would only occur in a major defeat, or even in the case of a professional team crushing an amateur team.

But Gao Shen didn't react at all when he got the data.

Because he felt that he was too weak.

In 2006, this was a very common phenomenon. Barcelona's passing data was already very high, especially the data of Deco, Iniesta and Ronaldinho.

For example, Eto'o only scored 16 times, Larsson scored 15 times, and Van Bommel scored 10 times.

It should be said that this is the mainstream of football now.

But after Guardiola led the Barcelona Dream Team III to rise, the situation of scoring over 100 points in a single game and densely packed passing lines throughout the field really came into people's view. It was also from that time that more and more teams began to pay attention to passing, and the passing data really improved by leaps and bounds.

To some extent, Barcelona's style of play is a dimensionality reduction attack on the current mainstream style of play.

With the number of passes in a single game increasing so dramatically, it is conceivable that the impact on football games will be absolutely revolutionary.

Unfortunately, Real Madrid can't play that kind of football now.

In fact, apart from Barcelona, it is probably difficult for any team to play that kind of football.

Even if Gao Shen wanted to, he couldn't put together such a lineup now.

Modric, Xabi Alonso, Toni Kroos, David Silva... this group of outstanding passers are still too young.

Or it should be said that their later career peaks were also influenced by the subversion of the Dream Team III, and were even cultivated by Guardiola himself.

So, after seeing the football of the Dream Team III and then looking at the current Barcelona Dream Team II, how could Gao Shen be surprised?

…

"How is it? Can you hold on any longer?"

This is the question Gao Shen asks most often after entering the locker room.

The general answer given by the players is: yes.

Including Raul, Negredo and Zidane.

Beckham is known for his good running, so this will be no problem for him.

Afterwards, Gao Shen specifically praised Ramos and encouraged Elguera.

Although there was a fatal mistake in the first two minutes, Elguera did a good job most of the time.

In such an important battle, Gao Shen can only give encouragement and cannot discourage the players' enthusiasm.

There are also Graveson, Delared, Felipe and Arbeloa, all of whom performed very well.

Real Madrid's defense is becoming more and more solid, but there is almost no investment on the offensive end.