Geometrically, a complex dynamical network (CDN) can be regarded as the interconnected system composed of the node subsystem (NS) and the link subsystem (LS) coupled with each other. Guided by this idea, in order to achieve the goal of each node following asymptotically its own reference target in a CDN, this paper investigates the model following adaptive control (MFAC) problem of NS via the dynamics of links, which implies that the LS plays the important dynamic auxiliary role in the MFAC realization of nodes. Meanwhile, we focus on the condition that the links state information is unavailable, due to sensor practical application and measurement cost constraints. To obviate this restriction, we construct the asymptotical state observer for the LS. Next, to achieve the control goal of this paper, an appropriate Lyapunov candidate function is selected, by which the MFAC scheme for NS is synthesized based on the state observer of LS. Finally, the simulation example is performed to demonstrate the theoretical results in this paper.