The second half of the first round of the new season's La Liga match between Real Madrid and Villarreal began.
Villarreal CF kicked off first. Riquelme agilely moved to the flank, and then directly sent a wonderful pass to Nihart.
Qin Xiong was helpless. He could not tell if Riquelme was afraid of him or if he had learned to be smart.
Before he got close, Riquelme would pass the ball decisively, and then he would run away slowly. He did not care whether Qin Xiong followed him or not. After all, Real Madrid had to attack eventually, so Qin Xiong would definitely take the initiative to participate in the offensive positioning. At that time, Riquelme would naturally be able to get rid of Qin Xiong.
Nihart and Forlan wanted to break through Real Madrid's defense through a two-two combination, but Cannavaro's accurate interception ended Villarreal's attack.
Real Madrid turned around to attack.
A bad sign appeared. In the offensive link from the backfield to the front field, Salgado directly chose a long pass. His long pass defeated van Nistelrooy and Peña in the fight for the top.
Villarreal regained possession of the ball in less than ten seconds.
Perhaps because they had been suppressed for a long time in the first half and Real Madrid was playing at home, their mentality began to become anxious in the second half. In addition, some players who used to have a large offensive range had their offensive ability suppressed. Under Capello's watch, they did not dare to openly disobey orders, but used unreliable methods to achieve their ambition to participate in the attack.
The long pass style of play was not suitable for La Liga at all because it focused too much on technique and did not pay attention to physical confrontation.
After Real Madrid's three consecutive attempts to find their frontline teammates from the backfield were declared fruitless, and they did not even manage to form a shot, Real Madrid's backfield players also realized that this style of play would not work.
Qin Xiong still remained silent.
If it had been Arsenal, he would not dare to say that in the first season. If the team bypassed the midfield organization and directly played long passes in the second season, Qin Xiong would have the confidence to directly argue with his teammates, regardless of whether Wenger would agree or not.
But he was still able to remain calm because the team itself did not have a clear idea of how to attack.
Capello only said that the core of the front line was Ruud van Nistelrooy. Everyone thought that it was to create opportunities for Ruud van Nistelrooy.
But how was he going to do that? Capello was still unclear. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he was still inspecting the team. After all, the substitutes' bench still had players like Beckham, Robinho, Reyes, Ronaldo, and so on.
In the 55th minute of the game, after a brief offensive chaos, the only thing Real Madrid could be thankful for was that Capello's adjustment of the defense in the midfield still had an immediate effect.
Even though it was impossible for Qin Xiong to mark Riquelme closely, Riquelme was also afraid of charging into Qin Xiong's defensive zone. This left Riquelme only able to act as a passer in the midfield. Fran and Nihart, who were on the frontline, were caught in the dense double team of Real Madrid's rear defensive line.
The turning point of Real Madrid's offense also appeared at this point in time.
In the 56th minute, Emerson intercepted the ball at Nihart's feet in the backfield, then turned around and kicked the ball forward. Qin Xiong and Riquelme competed for the ball at the same time. He had the advantage in terms of speed and physical confrontation.
So, he ran neck to neck with Riquelme. He personally took the initiative to delay Riquelme's speed. It could even be said that he was suppressing Riquelme, making the other party rush forward but unable to invade Qin Xiong's path.
The football rolled head-on. Qin Xiong did not touch the ball directly. Instead, he blocked Riquelme, causing Riquelme to rush past the football. Qin Xiong stopped and turned forward, easily controlling the ball and dribbling forward.
Striding across the midfield, Qin Xiong noticed Raúl's horizontal running position before he came to the front waistline. When Senna came to intercept Qin Xiong, Qin Xiong ran the ball diagonally to Raúl in the middle.
Raúl kicked the ball out and passed the ball horizontally, allowing the ball to roll on the path of Qin Xiong's forward running position.
After the pass, Raúl rushed directly into the penalty area and formed a double ghostbuster stance with van Nistelrooy!
Villarreal's rear defensive line retracted to the front of the penalty area, and Qin Xiong sent out a diagonal ball outside the penalty area.
He was still looking for Cassano!
The ball was passed to the back of the goal, penetrating the gap between Villarreal's center back, Peña, and the full back, Aruabarrena.
Countless fans at the Bernabéu stadium watched Qin Xiong's scalpel-like direct pass create a very good scoring opportunity. As long as Cassano pushed the ball with his foot at the back point, the ball could be sent into the almost midair goal. The goalkeeper's movement was obviously slower than Vieira, because Qin Xiong's pass at the beginning seemed to be passed to Raúl, so Raúl could not reach it after the emergency stop. It was a confusing pass!
Under Qin Xiong's expectant gaze, Cassano tried his best to run to the back of the goal. Unfortunately, Cassano only ran halfway before Qin Xiong showed a look of disappointment.
Cassano started slowly. Based on his speed and explosive power, he could not catch up with the ball!
In fact, as Qin Xiong expected, Cassano wanted to make a shovel shot, but the football went out of the end line ahead of time!
There were sighs of disappointment in the Bernabéu stadium.
"Real Madrid missed the opportunity to break the goal again. Qin Xiong, who was elected as the European king of assists for two years in a row, created very threatening opportunities in the first and second half, but his teammates in the front line did not take advantage of it. It's embarrassing. Real Madrid, which is full of big names, does not have a killer who can seize the opportunity in the front line to kick the goal!"
Capello adjusted his glasses on the sidelines, then turned back and gave the order to the assistant manager: Substitution!
A minute later, Real Madrid made the first substitution of the game.
Cassano off!
Beckham on!
The bad boy Cassano was replaced in less than 60 minutes of the game, which was probably unexpected by the media who paid attention to the game before the game.
Because Cassano should be the direct line that Capello wanted to help.
In this regard, Capello still had the courage of a champion manager.
A game was a game. If it were not for the irreconcilable contradiction, he would not be so muddle-headed as to ruin the game in order to revive Cassano.
Beckham was also a big name star player that Capello did not like. If Ronaldo's excessive indulgence in his private life affected his competitive state, then Beckham's excessive commercial activities made Capello dissatisfied.
Therefore, in the first game of the season, Beckham sat on the bench and could only play as a substitute.
But the substitution did not satisfy the Bernabéu fans.
First of all, Cassano was a striker, and Beckham was strictly a midfielder and winger.
It looked like a conservative substitution.
Secondly, the Bernabéu fans did not like Beckham very much. From the first day that Manchester United joined Real Madrid, the question that accompanied Beckham was: Did Real Madrid need Beckham in addition to commercial development?
And with the fall of the Galactica era, Beckham's position in the hearts of the fans was naturally not high. In his three years of service, Real Madrid gained nothing.
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