Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 638

Chapter 638: The Match or The Tie VI
Asensio hit a low cross into Benzema’s path and Benzema rushed at the ball, hitting it at the goal from near the penalty spot.

{Benzemaaaaaaa!} the commentator shouted, but Buffon was alert, too alert to the ball coming in and unfurled himself like a spring, getting a hand to the ball as it flew at the bottom left corner of the goal he was guarding.

{Saved- Hazard is there to hit it again!}

Before the Uventus fans could let out the tension that had built up, they found Hazard behind the ball and hitting it back at the goal.

With Buffon already on the ground after the earlier save, there was little anyone could do to stop the talented Belgian.

The ball shot into the back of the net with more power than necessary, but no Madrid fan cared as they erupted into a loud burst of excited cheers and shouts as Hazard took off down the sidelines, a huge smile on his face.

{They’ve done it, they’ve taken the lead!}

{Despite being under quite a bit of pressure from their opponents, they have struck when needed, perfectly displaying their skill and experience}

{Right before halftime, they take the lead} the commentator said excitedly as he watched Hazard jump into a knee slide before he was swarmed by his excited teammates.

{It was a beautiful save the first time, but there was nothing Buffon could do about the second one}

{I’m sure he must be thinking, “Where were my defenders”}

{We’re thinking the same thing}

{They crumbled like powder right from the beginning of that attack. Committing too early, terrible positioning and a lack of tactical aggression led to that goal. There’s no other way to explain it} the co-commentator gave his own analysis of the goal and Pirlo on the sidelines could not help but agree with the man’s words.

His players had been playing well so far, but it was clear that they had blundered there.

Perhaps it was the pressure beginning to get to them or frustration from not having scored despite having quite a few chances.

All that didn’t matter now.

All that mattered now was how his players would respond to going behind.

Luckily the first half was already almost over.

Calling out to his players to fall back and play tighter, decreasing the spaces in the middle of the field and forcing the opponents to the flank.

This tactic was used to stretch out the Madrid players and make attacking difficult.

If it was the Madrid of three years ago, this tactic wouldn’t have worked because of the combination of Ronaldo, Marcelo and Dani Carvajal.

Those two wing backs knew how to pick out Ronaldo even in the tightest of spaces and Ronaldo knew how to make the most of the ball to score even in the tightest of positions.

Unfortunately for Madrid, Ronaldo now played for his team and the tactic worked perfectly.

The Uventus team managed to hold back the Madrid team and keep them from building any further momentum, buying themselves enough time till the referee finally blew his whistle to end the first half.

With the first half over, the players of the two teams didn’t spend any time dawdling on the pitch and hastily made their way into the tunnel and moved to their locker room.

When Jason arrived in his team’s locker room, some of the other players who had gotten there earlier were already seated and guzzling water like they had been parched for days.

Pirlo stood calmly in the middle of the room, waiting for the players to settle down which didn’t take too much time as the players also understood the severity of the situation at hand.

They were already down by one and if they didn’t find their way back soon, then they would likely be down by an even higher by the end of the game.

“That was not a bad first half, but there are a lot of areas we can improve on,” Pirlo said, getting right down to business.

He was a tactical coach who despite knowing the importance of a player’s mental state, believed that tactical superiority was the main difference between two teams.

He wasn’t the type to say sweet nothings to his players just to get them all pumped up when there was clearly a problem that only needed to be addressed and everything would go well.

“We did quite a bit on the attacking front and though our luck hasn’t been the best today, I think as long as you keep doing what you were doing earlier, then we will soon get a few past them,”

“The midfield is also doing their part in being the connection point between the defense and the attack. Not to mention that we have been able to keep our opponents in check for most of that first half,”

“The defense however, needs to be more alert!”

“I told you before the match, don’t commit to a tackle too early. Instead, force them out to the flanks instead, but no, you thought you were smarter… now look where that has gotten us?” Pirlo scolded, eyeing Alex Sandro as he spoke.

“Also, the rest of you, why did you let Benzema to make that run into our box uninterrupted? There were two of you for Christ’s sake and yet neither of the two of you could block his path or intercept the pass before it reached him?” Pirlo continued his scolding, this time facing the center backs.

“Worst of all… You Cuadrado, how was Hazard so free that he could score a rebound? You were supposed to be marking him, so where were you?”

“… See, mistakes happen in football, that is understandable… but it is not acceptable!”

“I choose not to accept it!”

“You are professionals! You cannot be losing your cool just because you haven’t scored in the first half of the game!”

“Now we are down by one and may have to spend most of the rest of the second half making up for it… I’ll tell you now though,”

“It is not impossible,”

“You already know what to do,”

“You already know what works,”

“All that remains is for you to keep going, keep pushing and we can win,”

“I want you to go out with that mindset.”

“WE CAN WIN,”

“It doesn’t matter whether we’re down by 1, 2, or 3,”

“We can come back,”

“We can win,” Pirlo said.

Not even realizing that midway through his complaining, he had begun to motivate his players instead of changing the tactical approach. The meeting continued for a little while after that, but in the end, all they had was fifteen minutes and some of that time would be spent getting off the field and back onto it, so they didn’t actually have that much time.

Soon they were back on the field for the second half.