London – “Al-Quds Al-Arabi”: Nothing new is mentioned or old is repeated. For the 11th time in the last 13 seasons, Real Madrid is able to reserve its seat in the quarter-final draw for its favorite tournament of all time, the European Champions League, content with an economic victory over its favorite English victim in the years. Liverpool, with a clean goal signed by captain Karim Benzema, at the closing summit of the round of 16, which was hosted by the “Santiago Bernabeu” stadium last Wednesday evening, confirming his seriousness in touching the fifteenth cup and his right to run for the quarter-finals, in what can be described as a “show of strength.” On the Merseyside red, with a terrible six that could be increased by two goals in the two-legged aggregate.
Before succulent dreams
The prevailing belief before the Real and Reds summit was that coach Jurgen Klopp, in his squad of resistance, quality and experience, had enough to correct his tragic image on the night of the fall by five among the supporters there in the heart of “Anfield”, and we may have noticed the massive spread of the famous term “Remontada”, whether In the global media or social networking sites, and the matter is not related to the frightening reputation that Einstein, the German coaches, drew for his project in the Premier League giant, as a team that is highly respected before the young in all parts of the United Kingdom and the entire old continent, in other words, it is a “difficult” team and it is difficult to predict a response His players did in the big nights in particular, similar to what happened the week before last, by preying on the northern enemy Manchester United with an unprecedented seven in the history of the two great confrontations at the level of the English Premier League with its various names, but what was new this time, was the bet on what is known as the cold royal seasons. “Rare” in European competitions, and this was evident in the media “nostalgia” for the most famous defeats of the kings of the continent in their home, “Santiago Bernabeu”, beginning with the shock stuck in the ears. Han since the mid-nineties of the last century, when he won outside his bases over Danish Odense 3-2 in the first leg of the European Cup final (currently the Europa League), and lost in a catastrophic scenario by two goals in the second leg of the “Bernabeu” in the last moments of regular time, passing through With the nightmare of the last decade in front of German Schalke 04 in the final price of the Champions in the 2014-2015 edition, when Cristiano Ronaldo and his companions decided to go to “Viltens Arena” with two goals without a response, then in the second leg they snatched the pass to the quarter-finals with a spherical miracle, in a dramatic night whose hero was Leroy Sane , who led the team to defeat the Century Club by four to three, and perhaps if the match had extended for a minute or two in stoppage time, it would have ended in a disaster similar to the most famous defeat in the modern era against Ajax Amsterdam, 4-1, in the second leg of the round of 16 in the 2018-2019 edition.
The dreams and wishes of the Liverpool fans included that her team would repeat the same result that Juventus achieved in the “Bernabeu”, by advancing by three clean goals until the last moments of the counted time instead of lost, which witnessed the penalty kick with which the Don stole the card against Liverpool in the 2018 final, or at At the very least, the simulation of Chelsea and Manchester City, who tasted victory in the most famous football stadium in the world, and the fundamental reason behind all these dreams, is that coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team is moving steadily backwards, compared to the image it had in the same period last year. . On the other hand, it is assumed that it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Mohamed Salah and his colleagues, to strike back against the Merengue, after a series of defeats and performances shattering the hopes of the fans in front of the White Club in particular, including sipping from the bitterness of defeat twice in the final match, and between them a defeat with the same result as the Kiev final. And the exclusion from the quarter-finals of the season before last, and the most cruel and painful thing that happened in the first leg of “Anfield”, but in the end the attempts to return and whiten face in front of the loyal ones who accompanied the mission in the Spanish capital did not succeed, with a traditional defeat for the fourth time in the last six seasons, under the rule of Klopp. In addition to the lackluster collective performance, which reflects only the modest preparation and unsuccessful reading by the coach looking for the greatest “Remontada” in the history of the game, as if he formed an alliance with his Italian counterpart Carlo Ancelotti, to kill the remaining glimmer of hope for Liverpool, even if by returning from Madrid, with a result that heals the hearts of the angry. In the red part of the Merseyside River City.
Easy catch
As we mentioned above, all the conditions were ripe for seeing Liverpool in a different way than it was at “Anfield”, even the simple Madrid fan expected it to be an equal match at the very least, but what happened on the ground exceeded the expectations of the football world, by watching a match to say the least. About it “by one side”, or one of the easy La Liga evenings, with the tyranny of the charisma and hostile personality known to the Royal on European Tuesday and Wednesday nights, avoiding the lapses of the first 20 minutes on the eve of Valentine’s Day, with control and dominance over the mother of battles, with an invaluable gift from Klopp, who He suddenly decided to gamble in the midfield, relying on the duo James Milner and Fabinho in the 4-2-3-1 tactical drawing, thinking that offensive extremism, relying on 4 players at once of the offensive tendency Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Cody Khakpo, In front of the two pivots, he will confuse the accounts of the holder of the title, and put him under pressure from the first minute, forgetting that he is in front of a competitor who loves to play against teams that press from the last third, in the presence of names of the quality of Luka Modric and Toni Kroos and their glowing third, Camavinga, who mastered Klopp’s scheme, From the illusion of damnation In the Tunisian dialect, “all in all”, and the scenes of the red siege of the white giant in his defensive areas in the first quarter of an hour, hoping to take precedence and play to score two goals in the remainder of the match, to a nightmare from which he woke up to the sounds of bombs and shells that Kroos, Modric and Camavinga were competing in Directing it towards the defender of the guests’ den, Alisson Becker, most notably the one that the young Frenchman shot from the edge of the penalty area, and almost broke the crossbar of the Brazilian goalkeeper. And all of the above is in the balance, and the ironic match between Vinicius Jr. and Trent Alexander Arnold on the right side of Liverpool in the balance, with a series of raids and spherical terror, was evident in the variety of tricks and evasions that the English international was subjected to in front of the samba dancer, including 4 easy evasions in the first 45 minutes, The same number of dribbles that were recorded for the rest of the Real Madrid players in the same half.
See what he saw
It is true that there were flashes of Salah and Núñez from time to time, the most dangerous of all being tackled by the octopus Thibaut Courtois at the start of the match, but in general, it was a carbon copy of the first leg, the only difference being that Real Madrid dealt with it as a mere 90 minutes of collection. Has, in other words, started the match from where it ended there at “Anfield”, where he controlled the rhythm and coordination of the match, with hints of the ability to score and score at any moment, especially from the defiant Arnold side, from which the only goal of the match came, with a common defensive gag. Between the right defender, and the two defense hearts, Virgil van Dyck and Konati, standing at a distance before the moment of defensive confusion, which ended with the ball arriving on a silver platter in front of Algerian origin Benzema, to kill the match clinically in the last 10 minutes, and this happened, after Liverpool left the match, Due to the unfortunate changes of the coach, by paying the Brazilian Firmino, the young Harvey Elliott, and returning from injury Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the first quarter of an hour of the second half. With it, the offensive features of the English team disappeared, with incomprehensible movements and roles of Salah, Firmino and Khakbu before being replaced in the 90th minute, sometimes by seeing the pharaoh on the right side, and at other times in the imaginary striker. Similarly, Khakbu did not have a clear role, sometimes he assumes the role of the playmaker, and sometimes he appears Offensive positions in the center of the left wing or on behalf of Salah on the right side, even Firmino did not feel his presence or influence, and this explains the state of disintegration in which the Liverpool attack was, especially in the second half. And the worst of all, the coach was satisfied with watching Arnold’s suffering in front of Vinicius, although everyone who followed the match in the live broadcast noticed very well that the Real Madrid goal was being cooked on a quiet fire from Arnold’s desert road, even my friend Awad Al-Masry, who was attached to the world football for the sake of Salah, He asked me more than once, “What is the story of this Brazilian valley?” And how is the club silent all this time?” I told him that it was a tactical sentence agreed upon between this Vinny and Benzema. Mister Carlito was not disappointed in shaking the opponents’ net since the first match in the qualifiers last season against Paris Saint-Germain until the night of the five, the only exception was in the 2022 final. Despite that, it ended with the famous Vinicius goal, and only minutes passed on the fingers of one hand, and with the goal scored by Karim in the Madrid carbon wholesale, it descended like cold water over my friend’s head, striking fifths with sixths, like Liverpool fans and the rest of the continental opponents of Real, who are unable to understand What happens to their teams in front of the king of the continent, and what magic Xavi Hernandez does, to tame this brute force.
Password and minions
The most obvious password, which the Barcelona coach relies on, to tighten his control over the eternal enemy, remains in relying on a four-line defense with various specifications, the most important of which is sharpness and ferocity in seizing the ball before Vinicius Junior reaches his favorite areas near the operations square, where his talent explodes. In dribbling and his creative moments in player-versus-player situations near the penalty area, the same applies to Federico Valverde or Rodrigo Goes on the left side, which negatively affects Benzema and makes him appear almost isolated, especially in recent months, during which the owner of the “balloon role” struggles. », to restore the glamorous version that it was in last season, in addition to that, taking advantage of half-chances before certain opportunities, and avoiding showing any kind of complacency in front of this Madrid generation, as he himself said after the famous quartet: “We do not give them a chance to return to the result.” Following the same Madrid weapon, waiting for the opponent’s gifts, and not putting pressure on the first ball-carrying player in the middle of the field, to avoid vacant spaces, which Vinnie is good at exploiting, with the generous support of playmakers the size of Modric and Kroos, and for Klopp, it is possible Saying that he did the opposite of the maestro’s prescription, by choosing a basic formation and a way of playing that serves the interests of the opponent and highlights the strengths of his sources of strength, as we witnessed football suicide, by starting with four attackers in the basic formation, and this in itself, contradicts Xavi’s commandment, not to underestimate or show any kind of Types of indolence or lack of respect for kings, not to mention the vacant spaces that Valverde, Vinicius, and those coming from behind raced to exploit, to export all the meanings of spherical panic to the helpless goalkeeper, Alisson, as the best service provided by the German coach to the Italian godfather, in the manner of the saying in the Arab series “Tears in Brazen Eyes: “We thank you for your good cooperation with us.” The pressure and worries on Klopp multiplied in the next stage, facing the specter of the disaster of the season before last, from which the team came out empty-handed, and its best achievement was snatching the Champions League qualifying card in the last few meters.
Ironically, Klopp is now required only to save what can be saved, by finishing the season among the first four places that qualify for the two-eared cup, while Mister Carlito hit two birds with one stone, including maintaining the frightening impression engraved in the minds of the competitors, about the great European riyal. Also, he did not exhaust all his weapons and the energy of the players, before the epic of dignity and pride against Barcelona, scheduled this evening at the “Camp Nou” stadium, in the 26th round of the Spanish League, after Ancelotti and his team fell 3 times in the last 4 Clasico matches against Xavi Hernandez and his youth, Including the night of great humiliation, losing by four in the second round last season at the heart of the “Santiago Bernabeu”, and the last two defeats in the Spanish Super Cup and the first leg of the King’s Cup semi-finals, only the one thing that hardly disturbs Ancelotti at the moment remains that headache that worsens from Benzema’s absence is repeated due to injury, and this makes the team lose more than 50% of its attacking strength that it had in the fourteenth season, unless the effect of Klopp’s gifts and the influence of European morale in El Clasico continues today, to revive F. The competition ball for the La Liga title after widening the difference with the leading rivals to a full ten points. As for any other result, it will be an early announcement of the return of the La Liga title to the “Camp Nou” coffers for the first time in the post-legend Lionel Messi era.
