Mister Legend

Chapter 615 Gather momentum
After two consecutive days of communication, the first phase of the plan to transform Shuangbijia has immediately entered into a state of activation. With a professional team there to assist in the whole process, Li Moody can transfer all his energy back to Real Madrid.

From receiving a call from Zheng Xiaoyang after the elimination of Atletico Madrid to handling the Shuangbijia training, it took the Real Madrid coach about ten days, but his "private work" did not affect the team's preparations In terms of performance and results, the Galaxy Battleship played a total of two games during this period, both of which were relatively easy to win.

On February 2, they first ushered in the league's No.1 opponent Athletic Bilbao in the third round at home.This is a focus battle that has attracted much attention from the outside world. It is not because the strengths of the two sides are very similar, or because of all kinds of grievances in the past. On the contrary, the Basque Lions are now struggling in the quagmire of relegation. Neither their morale nor ability can be compared with the glorious La Liga leaders.

However, Athletic Bilbao's trip to the Bernabeu obviously cannot be analyzed from a conventional perspective. They must go to Madrid with the mentality of fighting their opponents.It was Real Madrid's San Mamés massacre at the beginning of the season that confused the Basque team, which was originally in a good situation, and led to the collapse.Their legendary history of never being relegated since the establishment of La Liga is likely to be disgracefully ended this year, and whoever changes it will fight desperately with the culprit!

It’s just that Real Madrid has long been prepared for the relevant difficulties. The club’s board of directors and public relations minister Butragueno expressed his concerns about the penalty scale of the game in an interview with the media before the game. The fine, but it did have an effect. The referee Rodrigo Schirner, who enforced the matchup, did not let the Bilbao people's tough moves too much, which greatly reduced the hidden danger of injuries to the players of the home team.

As a result, without being able to gain the initiative on the field by strengthening physical confrontation, the Basque Lions, who are temporarily ranked No. Played the best form recently, but still conceded a goal in the first and second halves, and encountered a double play by this opponent with a score of 3 to 0.

Judging from the comparison of the strengths of the two teams, this score is already a relatively decent result, but for Athletic Bilbao, where the whole team is extremely pessimistic, it is undoubtedly like another heavy hammer. over their hearts.Because with the end of other games, their ranking not only failed to escape the relegation circle, but dropped another place, and the relegation situation became more and more precarious.

Not just Bilbao, in fact, the whole of Spain and even the European continent are paying close attention to the severe situation facing this team. After all, as the only four old teams that have never been absent from the domestic top league in history For a strong team, people still don't want to see the tragedy happen emotionally, so after the game, many media commented or analyzed the game and the losing side, which can be regarded as a recent hot topic in European football.

However, Li Mudi obviously doesn't have the time to pay attention to the life and death of other teams that have nothing to do with him. Since the end of the winning streak, the status of most players in the Real Madrid team has shown a downward trend. to be processed.Fortunately, the situation faced by the team on the three fronts is fairly smooth, and there is enough room for them to make adjustments.

However, after discussion, the Real Madrid coach decided not to forcibly intervene in the players' competitive state, so that they can walk on the invisible parabola according to the laws of nature. The purpose is to make the nerves tense for half a season. The boys try to relax as much as possible.After all, the team has accumulated a huge advantage now, which is enough for everyone to enjoy for a while. The most important thing at this stage should be to avoid injuries and accumulate momentum and energy, in order to enter the critical period that will be encountered in April Make the most adequate preparations, and you don't have to be tense all the time for the rest of the things. This is in line with the famous saying of the Celestial Dynasty, "One piece of one piece and one piece of relaxation are the way of civil and military affairs."

So in the next full month and a half, the previous majestic and aggressive galaxy battleship almost completely disappeared from the eyes of the outside world.They have always been able to play the field performance that amazed everyone, and they have become a lot more peaceful, and the head coach's use of troops always gives people a feeling that they can't figure it out. From top to bottom, it was like a big transformation. It was completely impossible to tell that this was an invincible team that had just tied the super record. It attracted many black fans who had been silent before to start their angry mode again.

On February 2th, Real Madrid challenged Malaga, which is currently ranked No.4 in La Liga, in the first round of the Copa del Rey semi-final. Unexpectedly, he took the initiative on the field after the opening, and even launched a siege to the penalty area of ​​the league leader at one point.

In this game, Li Moody used a 3-5-2 formation that has never been used this season very strangely, allowing Rodrygo and Jorge Solzano to appear in the starting lineup at the same time. It also allowed Couch to appear in the midfielder position, obviously intending to test new offensive routines.But his abacus failed to start. The team's defensive line was frequently in a hurry, so the three of them had to take turns to retreat sharply to help the team's defense. It can be said that the opportunities for offensive rehearsal in the first half were very few. .

And after the rematch, before the Real Madrid players could use the adjustment strategy made by the coach during the intermission, Malaga scored a refraction with the help of luck, rewriting the score as 1 to 0.

Encouraged by this goal, the morale of the home team rose to the peak in an instant, and they began to show super-level performances to form a strong pressure on the opponent's defense.Not daring to be careless, Li Moody had to replace the teenager Solzano shortly after the start of the second half, and changed the formation to 3-6-1 or more precisely 3-4-2-1, strengthening his own side The ability to control the midfield area gradually reversed the situation.

It’s just that on the offensive end, Odriozola and Alvaro Fernandez, who served as two-way wingbacks, had some minor problems this day. They failed to achieve the assist effect expected by the head coach, and Real Madrid’s offense could only Concentrating on the middle to make a fuss also allowed Malaga to deploy defenses in a more targeted manner.

No.70 In the second minute, Elias Zidane, who came off the bench, was too obvious with a through pass, causing the pass to be interrupted.The home team immediately played a wonderful counterattack. The veteran central midfielder Deco (with the same name as the Portuguese superstar), who was once selected for the Spanish national team, sent a top pass to help the Argentine forward Rodrigo Marquez, who was loaned from Manchester City, against offside Succeeded to form a single sword.

Looking at Varane who was struggling to chase after getting up but could only follow in the ashes, all Mei Linger couldn't help feeling a kind of hero's twilight sigh in his heart at that time. Although the French central defender is not yet 33 years old, in this experienced player He can't be regarded as very old in terms of position, but years of injuries still ruined the speed ability he was proud of in his youth, which is quite helpless.

As for the final result of the ball, it is obviously very unreliable to rely on Courtois alone to stop Marquez, who has a shooting value of 16, without other interference.The forward of the home team didn't even give the Belgian goalkeeper any chance to make a save. Instead, he directly chose to speed up the ball and passed the "pantyhose" of the attack, and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.

2 to 0, Malaga at home became the first team this season to break Real Madrid's goal twice in a single game, which few people could have expected before the game.And according to past experience, the team that can achieve a two-goal advantage in the first round at home has a 71% chance of qualifying. This ratio is already quite high, and it will naturally cause a lot of trouble. Began to predict whether this will be the beginning of another shocking upset.

However, Li Mudi and his disciples rejected the possibility of themselves becoming the protagonist of the tragedy with practical actions. They completely controlled the situation on the field in the last 10 minutes of the game, and Rodrigo scored a wonderful goal. A team-coordinated goal, this is a goal that went through as many as 12 consecutive passes between five people. The commentator on the broadcast side repeatedly shouted the word "perfect".

In the end, Real Madrid, the defending champion of the Copa del Rey, performed unsatisfactorily in the first round of the semi-finals, but the result of the 1-2 defeat still gave them some advantages in the competition for promotion rights. It is barely acceptable.

However, the downturn, which was originally considered to be an occasional downturn, continued until three days later in the league. Under the premise of adopting a large rotation strategy, Real Madrid players still failed to exert their due strength.At the Espanyol's home stadium, Cornela-El Prat, with Asensio and Mbappe both starting, the La Liga leader's offensive efficiency is still unsatisfactory. A total of 17 shot opportunities were obtained in the game, but the hit rate was only [-]%. If Pellegri hadn't completed a difficult dive to grab the goal, they might have surrendered the first blood in the league.

And the performance on the defensive end is also a bit out of standard, and he has made many mistakes. If it weren't for the Ukrainian national Andrei Lunin who made two world-class saves, the suspense of the victory might have been overwhelmed early. Cracked.But it was precisely this goalkeeper's fatal mistake shortly after the start of the second half that allowed the home team, which wasted opportunities continuously, to score a goal full of surprises.

In the end, a 1-1 draw continued the sluggish state of the Galaxy Battleship, which made all the media and fans who followed them very worried. As a result, Li Moody was questioned by many reporters. What happened to the team that was invincible in the first half of the season has no answers.

On the evening of the 10th, the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League kicked off. Real Madrid made their debut on the first match day, visiting Lisbon, the capital of the neighboring country, to challenge Benfica, the top team in the Portuguese Super League.

As a result, it almost became a boring battle again. Li Mudi also put Ndidi and Marcos Llorente, two defensive midfielders, into the starting lineup, which exposed the Spanish giants' intention to play defensive counterattacks before the game. Nothing left.

And Benfica, who wanted to take advantage of the opponent's poor state to see if they could do anything, became a little timid after seeing Real Madrid's super speed in the frontcourt. Too many troops were invested on the offensive end on the territory, which made the pace of the game very slow, and there was a serious lack of exciting pictures.

It's just that the home team failed to take the opportunity to fight hard under the advantage of the favorable location and people, which led to a fatal bitter fruit in the second half. Li Mudi maintained the score of 0-0 until No. 705 minutes, and then replaced Pellet in succession. Gerry and Ceballos took advantage of their own ball-handling ability to directly complete the counter-pressure.

And when there were 4 minutes left in the regular time, Asensio scored a beautiful long shot from outside the penalty area, scored an away goal and a victory from the away game, and will surely advance to the next round Grabbed the tickets in his own hands, and almost put them in his pocket.

At the same time, this unexciting but extremely affordable victory seems to have brought a lot of improvement to the Galaxy Battleship, which had been in a downturn before. After returning to China, they won 4-1 at home in the weekend league. The victory over Real Betis eased the outside world's concerns about the team a little.

Three days later, facing Malaga, who played against Malaga for the second time in two weeks, Real Madrid finally played the momentum of the world's top giants. From the very beginning, they suppressed the opponent within the half-court and launched a frenzied siege. The goal was scored in the 8th minute, which not only tied the total score, but also took the initiative to advance because of the advantage of away goals.

However, the visiting team, who wanted to try their luck on the offensive end, was completely unable to do so, because after the re-kick-off, Real Madrid's players immediately launched a frenzied high-position press, and the extremely high enthusiasm of the unremitting running forcibly passed within 1 minute. Nei took the ball back, and then entered the cycle of siege-ball conversion-high interception-player conversion-siege.

What's even more frightening is that the end of this cycle is not a goal, because the home team played like this throughout the first half of the game, even though they had already rewritten the score to 3-0 when the intermission came, but Still no option to recycle.

In the end, the Galaxy Battleship, which did not slow down until 65 minutes into the game, defeated Malaga, which had just defeated them 4 days ago, 0-[-], and achieved revenge for the second consecutive year. on the final stage of the Copa del Rey.

(End of this chapter)