Barcelona's draw was like a bomb, causing huge waves in Spanish football and even European football.
Who could have imagined that the team that was already a foregone conclusion to be the quasi-La Liga champion would suddenly encounter setbacks?
In Spain, even the Catalan media are asking themselves: what is going on with Rijkaard's team? What went wrong?
Daily Sports used two pages to analyze this game and dissect the crux of why Barcelona was tied by Racing Santander.
Finally, I came to a very depressing and helpless conclusion: Ronaldinho.
Real Madrid was chasing very fiercely from behind. Barcelona actually took this game very seriously, or it should be said that they took every subsequent game very seriously, for fear that they would be reversed by Real Madrid by accident.
Rijkaard also sent out all the main players in this game, only letting Ronaldinho, who had been fighting continuously, to rest. The rest were all main players, and the central defenders were young players Rodri and Puyol.
But even with this main lineup, after losing Ronaldinho, the team suddenly couldn't win.
The ball possession rate reached an astonishing 80%, which can almost be said to be a huge advantage. However, Barcelona only had ten shots, three of which were on target, and scored two goals.
Racing Santander, playing at home, only had about 20% of the ball possession, but created eight shots, three of which were on target, and scored two goals. In terms of offensive data, they were actually on par with Barcelona.
Racing Santander head coach Manolo Preciado admitted in the post-match press conference that he was not surprised that the team was able to draw with Barcelona at home. He even believed that if the team could do better, it would be fully capable of defeating Barcelona.
The head coach, who is on the verge of being fired, made no secret of the fact that he had gained valuable experience in defending Barcelona from the national derby at Camp Nou. "If we look at the process, 2-1 would be a more reasonable result, as we won at home."
Preciado's words attracted a lot of attention from the media.
Although the head coach of Racing Santander has not performed well this season and has no impressive record in the past, he is 59 years old and has been working in football for decades, so he is by no means a mediocre person to be the head coach of Racing Santander.
Is the battle at Camp Nou really worth learning from?
Daily Sports analyzed that Santander Racing was almost replicating Real Madrid's 4-2-3-1 tactics, especially the back line, which cut into Barcelona's front trident and forced Barcelona's front players into a situation where they had to fight on their own.
Without Ronaldinho, Barcelona also lost its offensive core in the frontcourt. Larsson, Eto'o and Giuly were mostly fighting alone. Deco and Iniesta were also very tired after fighting continuously.
Daily Sports stated that this season, Ronaldinho missed six games, and Barcelona's record was two wins, two draws and two losses. This report card is definitely failing for the La Liga leader, and it also highlights Ronaldinho's importance to Barcelona.
But Brazilian stars are also human beings, they also need rotation and rest.
Daily Sports even used Real Madrid as a comparison.
Both were fighting on two fronts and both were aiming for the championship, but Real Madrid rotated most of the players in this home game against Real Sociedad, but still managed to beat Real Sociedad 1-0 at home without any danger.
Barcelona's mouthpiece did not forget to imply a wave of profound conservatism, because since he took over Real Madrid, he has played more than a dozen games, except for the first game against Atletico Madrid which was 3-0, most of the games only had one goal.
This is a very embarrassing statistic, especially for the head coach of Real Madrid, who is a representative of offensive football.
But from another perspective, Gao Shen's rotation was indeed good, especially at the critical moment, he decisively used Brazilian players, whether it was Ronaldo who returned early, or Baptista, Robinho and Cicinho who started this round, they all showed very good levels and renewed the momentum for Real Madrid.
Daily Sports stated that Rijkaard and his team should think carefully about how to go further in both La Liga and the Champions League.
Because next, in the Champions League semi-finals, Barcelona will face Villarreal led by Pellegrini.
Real Madrid faces AC Milan, Barcelona meets Villarreal, and there are three La Liga teams in the Champions League semi-finals. This is certainly a signal of La Liga's strength, but it also rings the alarm bell for Barcelona.
The Yellow Submarine has always been Barcelona's nemesis.
…
Barcelona's draw made many media outlets that had been skeptical and conservative suddenly become reluctant to speak.
Call him conservative, he is indeed conservative, the score is always one to zero.
But when it comes to results, Gaoshen played steadily and steadily, winning three points in every game, especially on defense.
Since he took over as head coach of Real Madrid, the team has kept zero goals in seven consecutive rounds of the La Liga. This improvement in defensive level is visible to the naked eye.
Some even say that Real Madrid scored so many points by relying on defense.
No matter what, whether it was conservative or defensive, Real Madrid caught up.
From being ten points behind to now tying the game, the only difference is that the team is at a disadvantage in terms of results. With six games left in the league, who dares to assert that Real Madrid will not have a chance to make a comeback?
Who can guarantee that Barcelona will not make mistakes again?
As a result, the direction of Spanish public opinion began to change.
More and more media began to praise Real Madrid's defensive level and the efforts of Real Madrid's players.
For example, a Madrid media published in the newspaper that Real Madrid stars did not take a vacation after playing against Juventus, but immediately started preparations for a new round.
According to the practice during the Galacticos era, the team should have a day off after playing against Juventus. Even considering the tight schedule, they should have a half-day off so that the stars can have a good rest.
"It's called a break, but everyone knows that this is time that the club has set aside for the stars to earn extra money."
Over the past few years, whenever the team has a rest time, there will be news and reports about the stars attending commercial activities.
When the team performs well, fans talk about it with great relish; when the team's performance is not ideal, this kind of commercial side-hustle is criticized and becomes the target of blame from fans and the media.
But no matter what, Real Madrid will not cancel the team's vacation.
Previously, tough head coaches such as Queiroz and Luxemburgo had fallen out with their stars many times because of canceling their holidays.
The most serious incident was when the coaching staff, captain Raul and local players had already agreed, but the stars still protested and received support from the management. The reason was not complicated. Some of the stars' commercial activities were actually arranged by the club.
So, to some extent, canceling the vacations of star players is equivalent to cutting their income in a roundabout way.
There is a saying throughout the ages: Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing his parents.
But during Gao Shen's coaching, the team's holidays were canceled many times, but not even a single controversy broke out.
The media even published photos of Raul, Ronaldo, Zidane and Beckham training hard in vests on the training ground after playing against Juventus to prove the transformation of Real Madrid stars.
"We don't know what kind of magic Gao Shen has that can make these originally unruly superstars obey him, but we can feel that Real Madrid is beginning to become more and more normal under Gao Shen's coaching."
"This is the secret behind Real Madrid's seven consecutive victories!"
…
After Real Madrid tied with Barcelona, ​​Gao Shen still did not attend the post-match press conference.
He finally fulfilled his promise and let Maqueda show his face in front of the media.
This made the media reporters at the scene very dissatisfied, because Gao Shen did not take the uncrowned king seriously at all.
Some media reporters even threatened Maqueda in person, "If he doesn't attend the press conference again, we will reject Real Madrid from now on!"
But how much deterrent effect does such intimidation have?
Even though Real Madrid's performance has declined, the Galacticos' golden signboard is still shining, especially the ups and downs of this season's performance and the legendary head coach, which make Real Madrid more attractive and more eye-catching.
Are they willing not to report on Real Madrid?
Maqueda is not from Xiamen University, so he certainly won't be fooled, but he didn't argue with the media reporters. He just conveyed a profound sentence, "I believe that Barcelona will make mistakes again, and we will definitely catch up."
Then, Maqueda looked down at the note in his hand, then looked up at the media reporters in front of him, then looked down again, and then looked up again...
After hesitating for a long time, he finally read it out.
"There is not much time left. I hope everyone present here will first think about how to write the report on Real Madrid's victory!"
The scene was dead silent at first, and then it became lively.
All the media reporters in the audience were shocked.
Isn’t this too arrogant?
Do you really think Real Madrid can win the championship just because they have tied with Barcelona in the standings?
He probably forgot that Real Madrid is still second in the league.
But soon, some media couldn't help but think more deeply: could this be another sophisticated psychological warfare?
Some media outlets thought more deeply that this was not only a psychological warfare, but also a mobilization and encouragement of the players.
Some media continue to dig deeper...
Maqueda sat on the podium, looking at the media reporters who were talking about the topic below, and he suddenly felt very puzzled.
Isn’t it just a sentence that Gao Shen said and wrote down casually?
Do you have to be so nitpicking and delving so deeply into words?
He even said that he was the uncrowned king and didn't even realize that he was being led by the nose by a 25-year-old young man.
What a disgrace to the uncrowned king!
However, on second thought, Maqueda actually hadn't guessed what Gao Shen meant by this sentence.
Psychological warfare? Mobilization order? Or...
Or maybe a bit of everything.
Anyway, during the time they have been together, he feels that Gao Shen looks young, but he is unfathomable. The more he tries to figure him out, the more he finds him unfathomable, and the more he feels in awe of him.
Many times, what he did seemed very meaningless at the time, but when he looked back on it later, he found that it always had a deeper meaning.
Maquida had no idea what others thought of Gao Shen.
But he really felt that Gao Shen was like a monster in the fog of the abyss.