Real Madrid launched an aggressive offensive after the restart and unleashed a swift and violent attack on Liverpool.
But the team's offense could not create particularly good opportunities.
In the seventh minute of the game, Qin Xiong sidestepped Mascherano in front of the penalty area and his long shot was saved by Reina.
In the twelfth minute, Qin Xiong pulled the side and passed to Raúl to create a header opportunity. Raúl also headed the ball wide.
On the other hand, Liverpool's offense appeared to be more vigorous and fierce.
Gerrard, Riera, Kuyt, and Alonso were frantically trying to snatch the ball from the midfield. They were also consciously suppressing Guti and Diarra.
Gerard missed a golden opportunity in the fourteenth minute of the game. After Diarra's pass to Robben was intercepted by Aurelio, Liverpool launched a wave of swift and fierce attacks.
Aurelio directly kicked the ball to the right side of the front field.
It was Kuyt again. He rushed to the edge of the penalty area and pressed Marcelo for a header pass.
Torres attracted Pepe and Cannavaro in the front, and Gerard rushed to the back of the goal for a header. In the face of Real Madrid's almost half-empty goal, Gerard's header flew out!
Benítez fiercely shook his hand on the sidelines and was secretly angry with Gerard for missing a God-given opportunity.
Although he had coached Liverpool for many years, Benítez's relationship with the players was very ordinary. He was a madman at work, but a cold-hearted person in life. He often appeared to be unreasonable to the players.
Because of this, even though the players listened to Benítez, they did not have a very good personal relationship with him.
At this moment, the audience in the Bernabéu stands also saw a very obvious problem: Real Madrid could not control the midfield!
This was almost a phenomenon that had not been seen in the games in the past two months.
It was not that Real Madrid's ability to control the field had declined, but that the opponent was different!
Liverpool, who came from the Premier League, was obviously more aggressive in their running and pressing in their defense.
Secondly, it was the conclusion that Benítez came to after studying the Real Madrid game.
Most of the La Liga teams were living under the shadow of the White Army's terrifying firepower from last season!
Therefore, in the past two months of games, Real Madrid's opponents have been restricting Real Madrid's frontline!
The five-back tactic, iron bucket formation, three defensive midfielders, and other methods to contain Real Madrid.
This method was used last season and was very common.
But it still couldn't stop Real Madrid's crushing.
Benítez thought the phenomenon was strange: Real Madrid's overall strength was not as good as last season, so why could the same defensive strategy not bring better results?
After studying Real Madrid's game, he found that these La Liga teams were too afraid of attacking groups like Qin Xiong, Raúl, Robben, and Snede. They had already blindly blocked and contained the reaction of Real Madrid's attacking groups.
This was drawing a circle and not really analyzing the overall situation.
Real Madrid's frontline was still very strong.
But where was Real Madrid's weak point?
The midfield!
M- Diarra was injured in the first half of the season. His condition after recovering from the injury was not ideal. His replacement, Las Diarra, had not fully integrated into the team. He did not form a whole with Real Madrid's skillful tacit technical and tactical system from last season.
Secondly, the midfield general Guti's competitive state had a tendency to decline this year. Guti, who was over 32 years old, was already an out-and-out veteran!
His physical state could not guarantee that he would be as energetic as in the past. Secondly, Guti also had a lot of minor injuries this season, which seriously affected his competitive state.
Most teams in La Liga focused their defensive forces on the rear defensive line when facing Real Madrid, which did not expose the weakness of the midfield combination of Guti and Las Diarra!
They could play freely in a relaxed environment. Guti could organize the attack and plug in to participate in the attack when he was relaxed. Diarra only needed to deal with the opponent's occasional and not fierce counterattacks.
Liverpool adopted an extreme defensive counterattack strategy against Real Madrid last season. They waited for Real Madrid's midfielders to press forward and expose the defensive gaps before launching a quick counterattack.
In this season, Benítez changed his strategy. Quick attacks were still the main offensive method, but there was no need to wait for Real Madrid to make a mistake before delivering a fatal blow.
The main battlefield was set in the midfield!
They could block Real Madrid's midfield organization and even launch a quick attack after directly stealing the ball. They could even kill Real Madrid!
The first goal came from the will of his tactical arrangement.
After that, Liverpool's more offensive opportunities also came from this, but they did not seize the opportunity.
Benítez did not think that his tactical arrangement before the game could last until the end of the game. But before Real Madrid could make active and effective responses and adjustments, Liverpool must seize every opportunity that presented itself!
That was the reason why he was angry at Gerard for not seizing the golden opportunity in the face of it.
Qin Xiong on the field was another player who saw Liverpool's intention.
Guti was targeted and restricted today. Diarra did not have enough organizational talent to control the situation. Real Madrid's midfield attack and defense hub was suppressed by Liverpool and was almost on the verge of destruction.
Real Madrid was finally able to push the offense to the front line. It was not necessarily a good opportunity. Instead, it was difficult.
In Qin Xiong's eyes, perhaps Guti's fighting spirit had dropped after obtaining unprecedented glory in the previous season. After all, she was a veteran and had the mentality of waiting to be stripped of her armor and return home.
Before last summer, before Real Madrid's signings began, the media listed that Real Madrid needed to bring in a high-quality midfield commander to be Guti's successor.
It was originally thought that Fàbregas would go to Bernabéu to increase Real Madrid's midfield strength instead of decreasing.
In the end, Fàbregas was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he acted in a soap opera with Ronaldo for a summer.
This was not without warning. The problem that Real Madrid was now exposed in front of a real top opponent had, in fact, appeared in the El Clásico game against Barcelona.
At that time, Real Madrid could only restrain Barcelona with an extreme defensive counter-attack.
But when they arrived at Bernabéu and faced Liverpool at home, would Real Madrid also play a defensive counter-attack?
That was impossible!
Especially with the momentum of the past two months, plus most of the players now wanted to perform better and strive to stay in the football temple after the era of change at Bernabéu this summer.
In the face of the team's poor organization in the midfield, Qin Xiong took the initiative to retreat. This retreat was different from when he occasionally retreated as a shadow striker to provide support.
This was a change in role, from a shadow striker to an attacking midfielder. As a result, Real Madrid's formation would also change.
From 442 to 4231.
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