I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 188: Chapter 68: Heated Debate in China, a Double Reversal

”Chen, Chen!”

”I’m finished, I’m finished!”

Post-match, Marcelo returned to the Sports City and tightly hugged Chen Zhong, large tears rolling down his cheeks. After this match, he’s afraid he’ll never have the chance to make the starting lineup again.

Real Madrid had just initiated a fan celebration with a big victory.

And Chen Zhong’s performance in the match against Valladolid, with five goal involvements, scoring one and assisting four, had sparked domestic discussion. However, in this round against Betis, Real Madrid was overturned by Betis.

Due to the next round taking place in Italy against Rome for the first leg of the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, Schuster made some rotations in this match.

The goalkeeper position remained unwavering with Casillas, while the defense line consisted of Marcelo, Cannavaro, Ramos, and Sergado.

In midfield, Gago, Guti, Robben, and Drenthe appeared together, while the front line was composed of the duo Higuain and Raul.

On the bench were players like Balboa, Van Nistelrooy, Soldado, Pepe, among others. Chen Zhong was not included in the squad list; on this day of rest, he was brought along to shoot some commercials and participate in some interviews.

Baptista, also resting for this match, followed a similar schedule.

Chen Zhong and Baptista have already become Real Madrid’s most ”solid” golden midfield pairing. When the two are on the field, Real Madrid stands strong.

Amidst the chants of ”Be~tis, Be~tis~” in the stands, Real Madrid broke through Betis’ goal early, but Betis was not demoralized by Real Madrid’s goal and continued to enjoy football.

Real Madrid, having scored early, coupled with the previous match’s big victory, became somewhat complacent. Marcelo, wanting to perform well desperately, ended up having his weaknesses exploited by Betis.

Betis seized the opportunity at the 32nd and 36th minute, repeatedly targeting Marcelo.

In the 32nd minute, Pavoni crossed from the left, and Edu headed in forcefully over Marcelo from 7 yards to score.

At the 36th minute, Edu feigned Sergado on the left before crossing, and ex-Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez headed in front of Marcelo at 8 yards to score at the far post again.

Because of Marcelo’s two mistakes, Betis defeated Real Madrid in the league for the first time in seven years, marking the first time in two years they won a league match on Saturday.

Within Real Madrid, the defeat in this match led to reflections in the post-match locker room.

Of course, first of all, this needs to rule out the widespread rumor of the Andalusian curse.

The public often likes to talk about things like corridors and curses, because Real Madrid lost 1-2 to Betis at Lopera Stadium, reminiscent of the first half of the league when they suffered a 0-2 defeat to Sevilla, also in the city of Sevilla, and two weeks ago, Real Madrid lost another match in an Andalusian city when they played Almeria away.

Until now in the league, of the four matches Real Madrid lost, three were in southern Spain’s Andalusia, which inevitably raises suspicions that Real Madrid is cursed, leading some to label this curse the ”Andalusian curse,” claiming that whenever a football match takes place in Andalusia, it results in victory over Real Madrid.

Compared to the unscientific curse theory from the outside, Real Madrid’s internal discussions were simpler. Firstly, Casillas and Ramos had minor injuries, secondly, Metzelder injured himself in training and underwent ankle surgery, resulting in his season-ending, and Pepe also had some thigh muscle issues.

Adding to that, Cannavaro, whom Real Madrid always relied on, was plagued by constant injuries.

Although he always managed to return quickly, it still had an impact to some extent.

Most importantly, the last match’s big victory significantly affected the team’s mindset. After the previous match’s 7-goal triumph, Real Madrid’s 18 conceded goals were only second to Barcelona in the entire La Liga, prompting normally low-profile Casillas to boldly claim to the media: ”We have the best defense in Europe.”

Then, as everyone saw, after proclaiming this, Marcelo’s two defensive header mistakes in the Betis match resulted in two identical goals, with Real Madrid’s goal getting breached twice within five minutes by the opponent.

It made everyone begin to reevaluate this so-called ”best defense in Europe.”

News reports indicated that Real Madrid made only two mistakes in this match, which Betis exploited. But in reality, not only was Marcelo’s left side problematic, the right side with Sergado also exposed vulnerabilities due to his age.

In fact, this season, Sergado has already shown his deficiencies in terms of speed and response. When facing outstanding forward players one-on-one, Sergado consistently gives the impression that he might get overpowered at any moment.

In this match, Ramos moved to the center-back position, which made the typically impulsive, aggressive Marcelo and the aging Sergado directly render Real Madrid’s flank defense non-existent.

Both flanks became the Achilles’ heel of Real Madrid.

And Real Madrid this season has shown defensive competence primarily due to the excellence of Cannavaro, Ramos, and Casillas’ solid goalkeeping, along with Chen Zhong holding the fort in midfield, intercepting most threatening through balls, allowing Real Madrid to evade threats of goal breaches time and again.