Beckham raised his hand and complained to the referee. He found that the Sporting de Gijón team's human wall was too close. He motioned for the referee to come over.
The referee ran over, took a look first, and then issued a warning to the Sporting de Gijón players in the human wall to move the human wall back two steps.
The Sporting de Gijón players did as they were told. But when the referee turned and walked away, the human wall moved forward in small steps.
Beckham frowned, but he did not continue to complain. It was common for the opponent's players to play such tricks. He could not dwell on it. Beckham decided to raise the football a little to cross the human wall.
With a whistle, the referee signaled that Beckham could take the free kick.
Beckham kicked the football out.
The football bypassed the human wall.
It should be said that the quality of Beckham's free kick was quite high. It was almost headed for Helguera's head.
Helguera jumped up and wanted to head the ball.
However, someone was faster than him.
Isma jumped high. He was in front of Helguera and headed the football out.
Zidane and Miguel Cobbs both rushed to the football. The two jumped together, but no one grabbed the football. The football hit Zidane's back and bounced out.
Figo keenly captured the landing point of the ball. He kicked the football to Guti with his right foot.
Guti stopped the ball and adjusted it.
Then he saw Juan Carlos rushing straight over.
Guti did not even have time to think. He made a pass based on his memory. He used his heel to rub the football behind his side.
He remembered that his team's Carlos, Roberto Carlos, was there just now.
*****
Guti was a player who used his brain to play football. It was beautiful to knock the ball with his heel. However, he forgot that he was the defensive midfielder of the team. The football was at his feet. Once the ball was intercepted, Real Madrid's backfield would be wide open.
Carlos didn't give Gutti any time to consider the time, and his forceful coercion showed its effect.
After Guti passed the ball, he turned and ran forward. He looked at Roberto Carlos, meaning to pass the football back again and let him organize the attack.
However, he found a problem — it was terrible. Roberto Carlos was plugging ahead. This was a forward plugging run without the ball. Roberto Carlos did not have the football at his feet.
Roberto Carlos was plugging forward. His body was facing forward and he was not aware of the situation behind him. He did not know that the football had been intercepted.
Where is the football?!
Just as Guti knocked the ball with his heel, Sporting de Gijón's captain, Miguel Kobas, suddenly rushed out and used the tip of his foot to poke the football away midway.
Then, Sporting de Gijón's Carlos immediately moved.
Juan Carlos's move was ingenious, or rather, sneaky.
Guti was shocked to find that the football was not at Roberto Carlos's feet. Then he saw Miguel Kobas rushing towards the football.
Guti was about to rush towards Miguel Kobas, but he felt that he had hit a wall.
Juan Carlos smartly moved and blocked Guti.
*****
"Defend!" Real Madrid's manager, Luxemburgo, suddenly stood up on the sidelines, rushed out of the technical area, and shouted to the sidelines.
Zidane and Figo were still waiting in the penalty area to receive the pass. Ronaldo was the same as them. They did not hear the coach's shout on the sidelines because the scene was too noisy. At this time, they were waiting to attack.
Captain Raúl reacted immediately and was about to rush out to defend when he saw someone rush towards the Sporting de Gijón player who had the ball.
It was Beckham!
Raúl breathed a sigh of relief.
On the sidelines, Li Ang saw this scene and also praised Beckham's attitude. Although playing as a defensive midfielder was not Beckham's forte, the Englishman's conscientiousness and professionalism was undeniable.
However, Beckham's reaction was still slow.
To be exact, it was not Beckham's mistake. Guti's pass was intercepted. From that moment on, it was destined that Real Madrid's luxury battleship had a problem.
Miguel Kobas did not give Beckham a chance to come up and intercept the ball. He suddenly swung his leg and made a long pass!
The football went over Beckham's head and flew to the sidelines.
Juan Mata, who had been lying in ambush, received the football.
It seemed to have been planned long ago. Sporting de Gijón changed from defense to offense in a very short time. Carlos suppressed Guti, Miguel Kobas intercepted, Carlos stopped Guti from counter-intercepting, and Miguel Kobas took the opportunity to adjust the football. Beckham rushed up to defend, and Miguel Kobas had already passed the ball!
From the interception to the pass, it only took one or two seconds!
It could be said that this almost perfectly completed Li Ang's tactical requirements before the game: counterattack must be fast! Fast! Fast! Fast!
*****
Li Ang stood on the sidelines and craned his neck to look. His fists were clenched, and his palms were sweaty.
This was the counterattack opportunity that Sporting de Gijón had been waiting for and pursuing. Whether they could succeed or not depended on Mata!
At this time, Real Madrid's center back, Helguera, was running back. However, Helguera had not run past the center circle — Helguera was not a player who was good at speed, and his form this season had deteriorated even more.
Carlos was also running back. He was very fast, but there was a hint of dark humor. He had just plugged in very quickly. When he found that Guti's pass had been intercepted, he had to wait until he realized that the opponent was going to counterattack. Then, he ran back. It took time to react! What's more, his extremely fast plugging in just now made the distance he had to run back longer …
Mata received the ball.
When Mata received the ball, Salgado, who stayed in the midfield for Real Madrid, rushed up.
Salgado was ferocious.
"Idiot!" On the sidelines, the Real Madrid manager, Luxemburgo, scolded angrily.
"Good job!" Li Ang cheered for Salgado.
Salgado's scramble was so fierce that he threw his entire center of gravity out. Such a scramble was the best for the ball holder to deal with!
The moment Mata stopped the ball, he cleverly sped up and broke through immediately. This was just right to leave Salgado, who had just come up, behind.
*****
Salgado could be said to be the only person in Real Madrid's penalty area who could obstruct Mata when he had the ball. Roberto Carlos was still desperately chasing back, and so was Helguera.
In the entire Real Madrid team, only these two players were desperately chasing back.
Raúl was halfway back when he stopped in his tracks.
So was Beckham.
They saw Salgado pounce on Mata and thought that their teammate could successfully stop Mata.
They did not expect Salgado to be so easily bypassed … This scene was so familiar.
Luxemburgo covered his face in despair.
Li Ang excitedly opened his eyes wide to watch.
Salgado had lost his guard here, and Mata could dribble the ball straight into the penalty area.
There was only a lone Paven in the penalty area. This man could not stop Mata! Li Ang was confident.
Could Paven stop a Sporting de Gijón player who dribbled the ball? Luxemburgo had no confidence in his heart!
"Beautiful breakthrough! Now there's a lot of space in front of Mata! "Dagestino shouted." This is Sporting de Gijón's counterattack! Their counterattack is really fast! "
"Paven! He's the only one who can stop Mata now, "González shouted.
*****
From the beginning of the game, Paven was in a state of extreme nervousness.
Although Sporting de Gijón put all their energy into defense since the beginning of the game and did not pose any pressure or threat to Real Madrid's goal, Paven was still nervous.
He remembered the matter that the media had been hyping up in the past few days. He remembered the Sporting de Gijón manager's "attack" on him. He also remembered the scene when almost all the players on the other side were staring at him when he came on the field just now …
Throughout the season, Real Madrid's midfield did not have Makelele from last season. The most direct consequence of this was that Paven faced the opponent's striker directly many times. This caused many of them to break through from Paven's side whenever Real Madrid lost the ball. Then, the media condemned the poor player in speech and in writing. They did not care what caused Paven to be the unlucky one who was broken through every time …
This made the youth star handpicked by Florentino lose his self-confidence little by little … There was already a shadow in his heart.
Before the game, because of the war of words with Li Ang, the media suddenly praised Paven, the player they had criticized for a season, for a good while. They almost praised Paven as Spain's most promising defender.
This kind of praise was to cheer Paven on.
However, the media didn't know. This made Paven even more flustered because he didn't feel any encouragement. Instead, he felt immense pressure. He felt that he had once again become the focus of attention. The focus of this match. These were all bad memories.
At this moment, he saw Mata coming over with the ball.
Paven could not hide the fear in his heart. Perhaps Mata's young face was the biggest comfort in his heart now. This kid was so young. Maybe he was easy to deal with.
Paven rushed forward, ready to stop Mata.
He saw Paven rushing up.
Mata's eyes were full of excitement. He remembered Li Ang's words. Attack Paven, destroy Paven!
Mata liked this job very much.
Mata dribbled the ball at high speed. Suddenly, there was a change in speed and then he spiked the ball.
Paven immediately shoveled down.
Then, Mata easily pulled the football back. With an acceleration, he dribbled the ball and galloped past Paven who had fallen to the ground.
Mata did not even glance at the fallen player from the corner of his eye. He was really weak. The boss was right. This guy was Real Madrid's biggest weakness.
*****
From the moment Sporting de Gijón intercepted the ball to counterattack, there was a huge uproar and boos over the Bernabéu stadium.
The Real Madrid fans used the overwhelming boos to form a sound screen in an attempt to affect the Sporting de Gijón players. To be precise, they tried to put a lot of pressure on Mata, who dribbled the ball. They hoped that the 17-year-old young player would play abnormally under this huge pressure.
However, looking at how Mata bypassed Paven, did this kid look the slightest bit timid?!
Casillas was on standby in front of the goal.
Seeing that Paven had been bypassed so easily, he was shocked and rushed out of the goal.
Mata did not give Casillas time to attack. Just after he bypassed Paven, he made a slight adjustment and suddenly raised his leg to shoot!
This shot was very sudden and did not have much power, but the arc of the shot was admirable.
The football drew a beautiful arc.
It bypassed Casillas, who was in the middle of his attack, and continued to fly.
Finally, it hit the inside of the far goalpost. Then …
Everyone saw that the football rebounded into the net.
In an instant, the Bernabéu stadium, which had been noisy and booed just now, became silent.
There was complete silence!
PS: Seventh update.
Seventh update completed. Asking for a monthly ticket. Asking for subscriptions, asking for tips, all kinds of requests.
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