Qin Xiong's expression was serious as he solemnly looked at every Real Madrid player who walked past in front of him. Probably due to the internal turmoil in Real Madrid, the players were stingy with their reactions to the outside world. It was as if everyone's face was taut and they just wanted to create a state of surging fighting spirit.
"The first leg of the UEFA Champions League 18 finals, Real Madrid and Arsenal's game is about to begin. Let's take a look at the starting lineup of both sides.
Real Madrid starting lineup: 451.
Goalkeeper: Casillas.
Defenders: Cicinho, Ramos, Woodgate, Carlos.
Midfielders: Beckham, Guti, Gravesen, Zidane, Robinho.
Striker: Ronaldo.
Arsenal starting lineup: 451.
Goalkeeper: Lehmann.
Defenders: Eboue, Touré, Senderos, Flamini.
Midfielders: Ljungberg, Fàbregas, Qin Xiong, Silva, Pires.
Striker: Henry. "
With the whistle of the referee, the first half of the game began.
Real Madrid kicked off first.
Arsenal's overall formation did not press forward. It looked stable, but it was ready to shrink at any time.
In an away game against Real Madrid, Arsenal naturally still played a defensive counterattack, and it was more conservative than the usual defensive counterattack. Ljungberg simply retreated to the area between the side midfielders and the defensive midfielders to protect the defensive midfielders and the right back, Eboue.
The long-established Zidane had a similar offensive tendency to Henry: left-leaning!
Therefore, this side had to be strengthened, or the consequences would be unimaginable.
Real Madrid did not launch a radical offensive at the beginning of the game. They steadily passed the ball back and forth to control the game. The technical advantage of the La Liga team was beyond the reach of other leagues, let alone the powerhouse Real Madrid.
It was time to test Arsenal's defensive center.
They maintained absolute calm and would not rush to snatch the ball. They compressed the defensive space and waited for Real Madrid's offensive impact.
In the third minute of the game, Real Madrid's right midfielder, Beckham, instigated an attack. However, Ronaldo, who had begun to decline significantly, did not manage to grab the ball on the frontline. He did not even try to grab the ball. After all, if a high altitude ball could not bypass the defenders, grabbing headers was not something Ronaldo was very willing to do. He was better at attacking with the ball under his feet.
Arsenal had just finished a defense and thought that the opportunity to fight back had arrived. He did not expect that the football that Toure sent out to clear the siege was first intercepted by the brave Guti. After the interception, Guti immediately passed the ball to Zidane.
Zidane dribbled the ball forward. Qin Xiong predicted the direction of Zidane's breakthrough while defending. He guessed right!
However, Qin Xiong was surprised by Zidane's sudden stop to spike the ball and break through from the other side.
At Zidane's level, there was no need to deceive the opponent's center of gravity. Instead, even if the opponent predicted correctly, he could immediately change the direction of the dribble. The football and his whole person seemed to be one.
Qin Xiong, who had failed to defend, was not discouraged. He was facing a master of today's football and the uncrowned king of football!
He immediately retreated to the front of the penalty area to protect the back waistline. Zidane indeed moved forward along the left side. Ljungberg and Eboue immediately formed a line to defend against Zidane. Zidane seemed to leisurely send out a wonderful pass.
Robinho got a chance to cut down from the bottom on the flank. Because he was too close to the end line, Ronaldo in front of the goal wanted to snatch the ball. However, Toure and Senderos pinched him well. Robinho did not pass the ball. Instead, he dribbled the ball to the outside to get an angle to shoot.
Just as he took a step outside, Fàbregas poked the ball out of the end line in front of him.
Real Madrid got a corner kick.
Arsenal once again destroyed Real Madrid's offensive.
It was not until the corner kick came out and was cleared by Senderos' header that Arsenal got a chance to attack!
After the football was cleared, it fell at Henry's feet. He did not turn to move forward. Instead, he looked to the back. The Arsenal players rushing out of the penalty area were distributed reasonably. When Henry saw Qin Xiong, he immediately chose to pass the ball to Qin Xiong.
When the football rolled in front of Qin Xiong, Ramos, who was diagonally behind, tried to intercept directly. He obviously underestimated Qin Xiong. Qin Xiong would deliberately change the speed of his running and dribbling.
The moment he touched the ball, Qin Xiong dribbled the ball forward and made an obvious acceleration.
This caused Ramos' path to charge at Qin Xiong to deviate. He could not speed up to chase immediately because he had to slightly adjust his direction.
And Qin Xiong took advantage of this opportunity to shake him off.
Guti had just taken two steps back when he found that Qin Xiong's dribbling speed was too fast. He immediately moved horizontally to defend against Qin Xiong.
Just as he moved horizontally from Qin Xiong's front right to Qin Xiong's front, Qin Xiong suddenly kicked the ball to the front right, which just happened to rush diagonally behind Guti.
At this time, he had already reached the midfield center line. There were Real Madrid players chasing and intercepting Qin Xiong from all directions. Under the heavy encirclement, Qin Xiong kicked a long pass over the top to the left side of the front field.
Pires charged into Real Madrid's half unmarked. Beckham went to kick the corner kick. At this time, distant water could not put out a nearby fire. The other full back, Cicinho, was in the middle position behind during the corner kick attack. He had just gone to defend against Qin Xiong head-on, and his defensive area was completely empty.
Qin Xiong's pass made Arsenal's counterattack very simple in the front field.
Two against two!
After Pires succeeded in receiving on the flank, he immediately dribbled the ball toward Real Madrid's penalty area.
Gravesen took the lead to return to the center back's defensive position in the middle. Then, when Pires had the tendency to cut inside, he headed out to defend against Pires one-on-one.
Pires decisively sent a straight ball to Henry.
The man who followed Henry closely was the Brazilian full back, Roberto Carlos.
Pires' straight ball was a little deep. Henry found it difficult to shoot directly when he rushed forward. Carlos was not slow either, and he consciously tried to obstruct Henry's sprint.
Casillas left the goal and also rushed to the football.
When Henry touched the ball first, Carlos directly slid to block Henry's shooting angle. Henry had no choice but to stop the ball and move past Carlos. But in this short period of time, Casillas had come to a position less than two meters in front of Henry. When Henry pushed the ball to the right to avoid Carlos, who had slid past him, Casillas, who had made his choice later, calmly moved horizontally and then got closer to Henry. Henry tried to take him by surprise and shoot directly. Anyway, as long as he could penetrate the ball through Casillas, he was absolutely confident that the ball would definitely go in!
But Casillas decisively fell to the ground to block Henry's shot and held the football firmly in his arms.
Henry looked at Casillas, who had blocked his shot in front of him, with a trace of unwillingness in his eyes!
Maybe a poke would have been better?
It was useless to think about it!
Casillas's save caused thunderous applause at the Bernabéu.
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