The 18-19 Season. (7)
“Ugh, nine in a row, but the gap isn't closing at all.”
'Damn, Real Madrid must have won again today.'
After securing the victory against Levante, someone in the locker room muttered while checking the league standings. Hearing that, I glanced at my phone too, and Real Madrid had won once more, leaving the three-point gap unchanged.
We'd been on a nine-game winning streak since the loss to Real Madrid, but Real Madrid had also been winning without dropping a game.
“Well, what can we do? It's thanks to that that we got eliminated from the Champions League.”
Actually, the reason the gap isn't closing is because Real Madrid rotated in the Champions League. Because of the league title that came after a long time, Real Madrid rotated in the UCL, and as a result, they were winning easily in the league without much crisis, unlike other seasons.
Thanks to that, they got eliminated by Juventus in the Champions League.
And of course, when Real Madrid was eliminated, the other players cheered.
Honestly, in terms of the bracket, if we met them, the final would likely be El Clasico, and the thrill of stomping from above would be greater, so I wanted Real Madrid not to be eliminated, but it was undeniable that our chances of winning the Champions League had increased because Real Madrid was out.
'Hmph, even if we didn't lose in the league, we could have aimed for the treble.'
Now that things had turned out this way, I regretted losing the El Clasico a bit too much.
“Come on, come on. Don't worry about those guys, let's just do what we need to do. It's been a while since we've played in the Champions League.”
Angela, perhaps sensing the players' regret, clapped her hands to refresh the atmosphere.
As Angela said, the important thing was not to miss the opportunity for the Champions League title that had come after a long time.
Since it was the Champions League title that had come after 15 years, it was a bit regrettable to give up the league, but we had to focus on the Champions League.
So, I was just sitting on the bench for today's match.
“Well then, let's go home like this today and prepare well for the next match. Let's definitely secure the semi-final at home.”
“Yes! Thank you for your hard work!”
Since the match was at home, the return home was quick.
There were three days left until the match against Liverpool.
“The player we need to be careful about from Liverpool is first the attacking midfielder Andrea. He's been performing well, surpassing 10 goals in the league. Since Liverpool's attack usually starts from his feet, we need to prioritize tying up Andrea.”
We had focused on recovery and analysis of Liverpool during that time, and the most threatening player from Liverpool was Andrea, who led them to the Champions League final last year, and...
“...and we also have to be careful about Chloe. She's the one who scored over 30 goals in the EPL this season and secured the scoring title.”
...the Belgian starting striker who transferred from PSG to Liverpool after the World Cup.
Especially Chloe, who had been performing brilliantly since joining and leading Liverpool to the league top, so these two needed to be particularly careful.
However, there was one thing regrettable: that senior Seo-hee wasn't in Liverpool's squad?
It was a bit regrettable that after the Asian Cup, Seo-hee immediately transferred to Korea, so we couldn't face her in a match.
Anyway, instead of intense training, focusing on analyzing Liverpool, time passed quickly, and before we knew it, the day for the match against Liverpool had arrived.
“Well, here's the starting lineup for today's match. Goalkeeper: Maximilena, defense line: Aila, Tiana, Narcis. And defensive midfielder: Valentina.”
'Valentina?'
And before the Liverpool match, Angela had chosen to use Valentina as the defensive midfielder.
Chloe was a 190cm tall striker with heading, shooting, defensive involvement, playmaking, etc., close to a complete attacker, except for her slightly slow speed.
And because of that, blocking that guy was the key to this match.
It seemed Angela had intended to assign that important task to Valentina, who had good defensive ability.
'Well, with Valentina like this, she wouldn't be easily headed in.'
Especially considering the squad didn't have many players to block his heading, I thought Valentina's starting was a pretty good choice.
“And central midfielder: Lorenza and Yelena. Attacking midfielder: Ryu Ha-neul, three tops: Eloya, Albaria, Arnal.”
And Angela filled the remaining positions with the main starters without much change. It was a bit regrettable that Camila was missing, but considering it was a home game, she judged that Valentina could fill the attacking gap sufficiently, so this starting lineup was quite satisfying.
After the starting lineup was announced and time passed, and it was time to enter the stadium, someone spoke to me from beside me.
“Long time no see?”
“Yes?”
Since there was no one I knew from Liverpool, I was surprised and looked beside me, and it was Andrea standing next to me. Since we weren't close, it was a bit surprising for a moment,
“I lost to you in the last World Cup, but today will be different.”
'Ah, right. He's Swiss, right.'
I could immediately understand why Andrea said that. Andrea still harbored resentment from the World Cup round of 16 where we eliminated them.
“Ah... do your best.”
Well, it wouldn't change the result much from the World Cup.
After answering Andrea's words with a smile, we entered the stadium.
With the referee's whistle, the match began, and after a few minutes of setting formations, I could roughly see what tactics Liverpool was using.
Liverpool's usual tactic was 4-2-3-1 with Andrea as the attacking midfielder. But today it was slightly different: during defense, Andrea would drop back to fill the midfield gap, and Abha, who was originally a midfielder, would drop to the defensive midfielder position to mark me, using a flexible tactic.
Combined with Liverpool's signature high-pressure that doesn't think about the back, it felt exactly like they had made it to the semi-finals for nothing.
'Well, facing a team like this isn't that hard.'
Actually, it's true that passing football is weak against high-pressure like Liverpool, but if you have the ability to properly escape such pressures, you'll eventually gain a physical advantage. We just move the ball, while the pressing team has to move people.
And our team had me, who possesses the world's best ability to break through presses.
“Pass!”
I moved around the midfield throughout the first half, receiving passes whenever a dangerous situation arose, and after receiving the pass, lightly dribbling past 1-2 players to create space and send a return pass.
So draining the opponent's stamina while operating the game as stably as possible, the possession at the end of the first half was about 7:3, and the shot score was 5:2, clearly leading.
It was a bit regrettable not to score, but we had enough with that.
“The opponents' first-half activity level is over 5.3km on average. They're doing well. If they keep this up, they'll tire out soon.”
It was obvious their activity was over the pace.
Usually, average first-half activity is from late 4km to early 5km. Our average was 4.7km recorded, so the opponents were almost like having one more player running.
And since it's now the second half and their league is famously a brutal schedule in the EPL, maintaining this pace into the second half doesn't make sense.
'Then I need to aim for before the players are substituted.'
The important thing was to accurately target the gap where their stamina was depleted.
After the second half started, they would have some stamina left, and after 25 minutes, they'd substitute players, so aiming for 10 minutes after the second half started would have a high probability of good results.
With the whistle, the second half began.
As soon as the second half started, Liverpool launched a strong attack, and Andrea, who had created the gap, crossed to connect to Chloe's head, creating a quite threatening chance, but Valentina, marking Chloe, body-checked well, and Chloe's header missed the goalpost.
Since Liverpool's attack had passed, now it was our turn.
We circulated the ball as safely as possible like in the first half, inducing the Liverpool guys (or rather, the girls) to run around the field as much as possible, and after about 10 minutes, it was clear that the pressure from the Liverpool girls had slowed down.
'They're tired already. Yeah, they've been running around all season, so it's no wonder they're tired.'
And against tired opponents, speed was perfect.
I stole a glance at the fastest Albaria in our team. Thanks to receiving short passes throughout the game, Albaria who was far from the ball was almost free. From behind, Abha was running to press me.
By using a light drag back to create space, Abha reacted loosely. I understood Abha's reaction because I had sent return passes in this state so far, but unfortunately, the choice I chose this time was different from before.
With a cheerful sound from the ball, it flew high.
“Eh!”
Abha, looking at the ball's trajectory, exclaimed in surprise. Because my ball was flying towards the empty space near Albaria, who was almost empty.
An unexpected forward pass.
And Albaria, who received my ball, lightly touched it once to beat the fullback and dove towards the penalty box.
The ball left Albaria's foot. It wasn't that fast, but accurate, and Arnal, who had come running from far away, was where the ball arrived.
Arnal's shot shook the net and the Camp Nou vibrated.
Liverpool, after conceding the first goal, finally started substituting players hastily, but with one goal conceded and trying to press hard, a crack began to appear in Liverpool's solid defensive line.
A crack that was too good for me to target.
“Ha-neul!”
At the moment when three players surrounded me, Eloya shouted loudly. And in the very brief moment the defenders turned their eyes to Eloya, I used both feet dribbling to escape the press, and took the space in front of the empty Yelena through the gap where the defenders were clustered around me.
And Yelena's long-range shot from about 35 meters shook Liverpool's net once again.
'Yeah, it's easy to deal with guys who think just running is enough.'
This made the score 2:0. Angela, perhaps judging the match was almost over, called me to the bench around the 75th minute of the second half, and we could finish the first leg against Liverpool while maintaining the 2:0 score.
“Ryu Ha-neul player! Today, with a playmaking ability that doesn't match your age, you were selected as the match MVP, please give your thoughts!”
“Liverpool is a good team too, but we couldn't beat them. This is Camp Nou.”
“Haha, a response that home fans would like. Then, how do you see the match at the opponent's home, Anfield?”
“Probably the same as today's result, right? We're Barcelona, after all.”
And in the interview, the first leg of the semi-final against Liverpool ended with a slight provocation to make Real Madrid excited without harming my image.
“Ha-neul, what is this? Such provocative interview.”
“So, you have to help me not to be embarrassed inside. You know?”
“Of course.”
“Haha, the youngest did such an interview, we can't back down. Let's give it our all in the second leg for Sir Ryu as well.”
After finishing the interview, entering the locker room and checking the players' condition, it felt like we wouldn't be careless in the second leg either.