At the same time, many elderly fans in Riquelme can’t help but overlap this scene with the classic picture after Roberto Baggio missed the penalty in the World Cup final 12 years ago. However, Baggio was the whole Italian fans at that time, expecting everyone to come out again and save Italy from the possibility of competing for the World Cup, while Riquelme’s kick this time is only the first time in Villarreal’s history to reach the Champions League final. The importance of both is naturally beyond measure.
Of course, judging from the results and the subsequent influence on the parties, there is obviously a difference between them. The teams where Baggio and Riquelme belong lost their further possibility because of their missed penalty, and they became the chief culprits for the team’s defeat overnight. At the same time, although the missed penalty gave Riquelme and Baggio a tragic hero color, they still have a very high popularity among the fans, but from this moment on, their careers are doomed to return to the peakeven after that, they have produced the same excellent performance and transcripts on the court.
I have to say that Riquelme missed the penalty (especially in response to Cristiano Ronaldo’s provocative failure), which was a devastating blow to Villarreal’s morale. Therefore, when Florence kicked the ball, the yellow submarine player had no idea of continuing to fight, and he accepted the fate of losing the second round with Florence when he hastily dealt with the injury in the last few minutes of the game.
In this way, Villarreal, the biggest dark horse in the Champions League this season, was eliminated by Florence in two rounds, and officially said goodbye to the Champions League final!
Chapter 14 Roman ending
To be honest, Villarreal’s player configuration and bench depth can make it to the semifinals in the first Champions League trip since the team was established, which is already a very remarkable achievement. real betis was directly out of the group at the bottom of the group stage, and Real Madrid lost to Lazio Barcelona in the quarterfinals. Compared with the performance of Yellow Submarine in the Champions League season, it is the last conscience of La Liga team.
Although Villarreal’s performance in the Champions League is amazing enough, people are always greedy. This is not because Riquelme failed to score a penalty, which led to Villarreal’s small loss in the away game. It is a pity that Florence was still madly admiring the Argentines before she was out of the Champions League. She said that Riquelme didn’t come, especially when he missed the penalty at the last moment of the game. These reporters and ball critics slammed him and just called him a sinner of Villarreal and Spanish football.
With the change of media tone, the attitude of Villarreal fans towards Riquelme has also been affected. They are no longer full of respect and love for the midfielder as before, forgetting that if Riquelme had not joined us, the Yellow Submarine would still be struggling in the relegation line. How can there be a chance to show up in the Champions League?
For the criticism from the media and fans, Riquelme did not come out to counter these remarks, but chose silence. This attitude and practice of the Argentine made those fans who did not respond more dissatisfied and misunderstood him.
So something unexpected happened. In the media, fans’ misunderstanding and dissatisfaction were fanned by pellegrini, and Riquelme’s indifferent attitude and other factors contributed to it. Together, Riquelme quickly changed from el madrigal’s darling and star player to a dispensable member for Villarreal.
Among them, the attitude of head coach pellegrini played a very important role. When Roig (President Villarreal) asked pellegrini whether Riquelme was still indispensable to the team under the influence of the media and fans, the Chilean coach immediately said that he wanted the team to take out some of the benefits from participating in the Champions League to reinforce it, and he was confident that the team would not lose Riquelme and its performance would drop sharply.
Roig was most impressed by pellegrini’s words: Mr. Chairman, although Riquelme is a top player, we have to pay too much to match his game rhythm and playing style. Although we have picked up a lot of leaks from the giants in the past two years, who can guarantee that we can find Fran and Sorin, which are suitable for Riquelme’s football style every year? Compared with learning from Parma and Vicenza, it is the most suitable strategy for our life to introduce some experienced veterans and cultivate those who have grown up well.
Riquelme is suppressing the growth of other technical players. This is why cazorla has made great progress in the past two years, but it is difficult to become the main force of the team. The main reason is that he needs the ball to play a sufficient threat. He really doesn’t match the style of Riquelme. Therefore, many times when he first arrived in pellegrini, he had to sacrifice cazorla’s interests to take care of Riquelme’s emotions. Now, with pellegrini’s gradual practical actions, he has won the confidence of the club’s top management and fans. Chileans have finally set out to cultivate their own team.
Roig is also very moved by pellegrini’s remarks. Although the Villarreal President is very willing to pay for the team to enhance its strength, he is also very willing to let the team be selffinancing while ensuring its performance. In his view, since the club has the opportunity to become a club that relies on training and selling players to maintain its operation and develop itself, it is unnecessary to spend a high salary to stay in Riquelme.
Although Riquelme’s dramatic situation in Villarreal is very regrettable, on the whole, the Argentines did it to themselves. If the Argentines could calm down and listen to pellegrini’s suggestion to give up the idea of kicking a spoon and taking a penalty, Villarreal might have made further history and entered the Champions League final instead of being eliminated by Florence, and he would not have received so much blame and criticism after the game.
In Zhuang Ge’s previous life, Riquelme’s position in Villarreal also declined after the Yellow Submarine was eliminated from the semifinal of the Champions League. However, in that world, although Riquelme missed the key penalty, he didn’t have to kick the penalty kick in Ronaldo’s provocative situation. Arsenal didn’t expose Riquelme’s disadvantage as much as Florence did. Therefore, Riquelme had to leave el madrigal in the past life until the conflict with pellegrini broke out in the middle of the 67 season.
Now, because Riquelme took the initiative to die in the second round, the Florentine team’s defensive body showed a strong restraint effect on places in organizations like Riquelme, which made Villarreal no longer optimistic about the Argentine’s prospects. Therefore, it is not surprising that Villarreal gave birth to the idea of sending Riquelme away earlier than in his previous life.
In this way, in pellegrini, it was suggested and promoted that Riquelme should enter the countdown stage in Villarreal. However, if Chileans want to truly achieve this goal, they need to make real achievements in the new season to prove it. Otherwise, it is likely that Roig will not be Riquelme but will talk nonsense about pellegrini.
Chapter 141 Lock the champion
Let’s stop talking about Villarreal for the time being. Let’s turn our attention back to Florence. After beating Villarreal in the semifinal, Viola finally got a ticket to the Champions League final after a full three years!
You know, the first time Florence reached the Champions League final was in 223. In the last two seasons, Viola was still a strong contender for the Big Ear Cup, but it left a lot of regrets for the fans. Now Florence fans finally have a chance to see their support team show their great power in the Champions League final stage!
The Fiorentina players are also quite excited at this time. Although the team has long since been out of the Italian Cup and won the triple crown, it is also a goal worth striving for in their eyes to become a double crown in Serie A and Champions League. Therefore, even though the league championship has been won for more than half, the Fiorentina players are still carrying out daily training under the supervision of Mourinho and have not shown slack.
After all, if a player annoys Mourinho at this time because of his bad attitude and is kicked out of the list of ten players in the Champions League final by the other side, it will be an absolute pity for this player. It will be even more serious for life. If someone makes a careless lowlevel mistake in the game and causes the team to lose the trophy, don’t say that Mourinho will not let him go. Other Florence players will kill him at the first time …
The day after Florence eliminated Villarreal, another semifinal of the Champions League was also decided. AC Milan, led by Ukrainian nuclear warhead Shevchenko and Brazilian star Kaka, lost to Lazio 21 away, and the total score was blocked by the Biancocelesti 12!
AC Milan felt ashamed of this defeat. After all, just last season, they beat Lazio 52 in the Champions League final to win the Big Ear Cup, which symbolizes the highest honor of European clubs. Unexpectedly, the main team did not change in less than a year, but the coach changed from Mancini to Lippi Lazio, and the money to beat them was so obvious that it was really unacceptable for AC Milan players.
Among them, Shevchenko’s Ukrainian nuclear warhead chose to leave Florence for AC Milan. On the one hand, he was dissatisfied with the reality of giving vieri a thug, but AC Milan gave him the position he wanted. On the other hand, AC Milan made him feel the ambition of the Rossoneri to win the championship trophy because of its frequent foundation in the transfer market, which allowed him to further his football career here.
However, what Sheva didn’t expect was that after he joined AC Milan, Benitez’s investment in the transfer market became less and less. In recent years, when Gilardino was introduced, it was rare to be generous, and the rest of the time base was stingy, so there was no ambition to win the championship.
Therefore, after personally experiencing the event that Lazio successfully reversed the semifinal and eliminated the Champions League, I felt that there was no hope in AC Milan. Shevchenko once again moved the idea of transfer. This time, he planned to go to the Champions League final for the second consecutive year. Lazio has made a splash in recent years!
In fact, since Abramovich announced his entry into Lazio, the Russian tycoon has never stopped recruiting Andriy Shevchenko from AC Milan, but at that time AC Milan was the top Italian club and its performance was much better than that of the Biancocelesti. In addition, Shevchenko was very comfortable in the Rossoneri, and this transfer has been stranded.
Now, as AC Milan continues to win the League title and stop at the semifinal in the Champions League, Shevchenko’s heart is finally moved by Abramovich’s hometown friendship.
Although Berlusconi was greatly dissatisfied with the result of AC Milan’s season, Benitez finally stayed awake this time and didn’t jump out and clamor for firing Ancelottior Benitez has realized that coach Ancelotti is the best choice he can make now that he doesn’t want to invest heavily in AC Milan.
In this way, Florence’s opponent in the final of the 2008 Champions League is finally expected to be released, that is, she has just successfully avenged Lazio in the Rossoneri!
Fiorentina, the final opponent, is also a bit tricky. Although Lazio was indeed left behind by Fiorentina and Juventus early in the league, Lazio’s combat effectiveness has been greatly improved under the guidance of Lippi, the silver fox. In the two encounters between Florence and Lazio in the league battlefield last season, the record was one win and one loss, but Viola did not have much advantage in the scene. All these are enough to say that Lazio has evolved into a rather terrible opponent after Lippi.
However, before dealing with Lazio, Florence has to solve the problem of the league battlefield. On May 7, Florence rotated more than half of the main team. More than 50,000 home fans were eagerly looking forward to the penultimate match against Reggina at the Frankie Stadium.
Although Juventus and Italian media tried their best to build momentum before the game, hoping that Reggina could play the spirit of fair play and stop Florence from destroying the other side’s dream of winning the championship in this game, it is obviously unnecessary for Reggina, who has already succeeded in relegation and hopes to play in Europe, to offend Florence at this time.
Although there are many stories in the history of football that teams capsized at the last minute and lost the championship trophy, in most cases, there won’t be too many accidents in this kind of disparity between strength and weaknessif the ball can be upset in the giants’ stadiums by relying on the socalled willpower and iron bucket array, then what do these giants and stars need?
Threetoone Fiorentina sent off a oneday trip to Frankie Stadium, and Reggina won an important victory and successfully defeated old rival Juventus with three points. The previous round locked in the 56season Serie A championship!
Chapter 142 League closing
Florence’s previous round of winning the championship in Italian football didn’t cause much impact. After all, Viola had already taken the lead in the second place in the standings, Juventus, by more than four points. Although this difference is not big, with only two rounds left in the league, these four points gap is enough for Juventus to overcome the barrier.
And things really went as expected. Florence easily got rid of Reggina in the 37th round, and held the league title tightly in their hands in the previous round!
No matter how much people can’t think of Mourinho, who has gone from an interpreter to a head coach for two years, he has to admit that this young coach from Portugal has already qualified as an equal with those top coaches.
Although Florence’s defending league title has become an unshakable fact, and Viola’s dominance in Italian football doesn’t seem to show signs of instability because of Heinx’s departure, it is still a wonderful season for Serie A fans. Florence and Juventus have been fighting for the top spot for nearly a season, attracting the attention of several fans. The two teams alternately lead in the standings and grab points to make everyone hooked.
In addition, Milan, Rome, Parma and other teams also contributed many classic games to the fans during the season. Although these teams fell behind in the middle of the league and lost hope of competing for the Serie A championship, they also qualified for the Champions League. They also tried their best to compete fiercely in the competition, which was not much worse than the championship battle between Juventus and Florence.
Although the skyrocketing video broadcast in Serie A has enriched the pockets of all Serie A clubs, compared with the strict financial review system, these clubs will not cause too much financial burden even if they are in the Champions League, but for these teams, the qualification for the Champions League not only means huge video broadcast and competition bonuses, but also represents their status and discourse in Italian football to a certain extent.
A team that has been in the Champions League for many years and a team that can occasionally play a bottle of soy sauce in the Champions League must have a different position in the hearts of fans and players. This is like being dubbed the crazy fourplayer in previous lives. Although not many people think that the gunners really have the strength to compete for the championship, Arsenal’s record in the top four of the league every year is enough to keep it firmly in the top four of the Premier League, while teams such as Tottenham Hotspur and Everton can be excluded from this circle.