I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 841: Chapter 73: The Battle Begins! Champions League Semifinals! (Part 2)

For Real Madrid, Mourinho’s team in the Champions League is the team with most goals, least conceded goals, and the best performance. The King’s Cup final victory also proves that this Mourinho’s squad can completely intercept Barcelona like last season’s Inter Milan did.

Before the Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona started, Marca published an article praising Mourinho as the King of Knockout Matches. He has won many cup trophies, and recently he has maintained a streak of 12 knockout matches without defeat. The last time he was eliminated was on April 22, 2009, when he was knocked out by Sampdoria in the Italian Cup. In Mourinho’s career, he has participated in 64 knockout matches, successfully advancing in 53 of them, with a passing rate as high as 82.8%. Mourinho’s team has encountered Barcelona in single-elimination or two-leg knockout matches four times and won three of them. In this era when Barcelona is overwhelming Europe, only the Portuguese can repeatedly celebrate victories brazenly in front of Barcelona.

In the Champions League semi-finals, Mourinho will continue to maintain the three defensive midfielders system, with Khedira, Alonso, and Pepe maintaining their roles.

In the past two El Clasico matches, Real Madrid’s three defensive midfielders system was quite effective, successfully suppressing Barcelona’s attacks. Mourinho is clearly unwilling to change the three defensive midfielders’ tactics.

Upfront, Real Madrid still insist on the ”strikerless formation,” with Chen Zhong, Kaka, and Cristiano Ronaldo forming the attacking trio.

Mourinho used this set of combinations in the last two confrontations against Barcelona.

In defense, with Cavaleiro absent, Mourinho will form the center-back pairing of Ramos and Albiol, with Marcelo as the left-back and Alvaro as the right-back.

The first leg of the Champions League semi-final takes place at the Bernabeu, and Real Madrid has also made some other tactical arrangements for this.

Although the outside world generally believes Real Madrid can achieve victory, internally, this encounter is still taken very seriously.

Barcelona likes the grass to be short and wet, as this allows the ball to move at the fastest speed, while Real Madrid prefers high and dry grass to prevent Barcelona from fully exploiting their passing advantages.

So, what will the grass at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium be like when Guardiola steps on it for the Champions Cup semi-final?

According to the World Sports Newspaper, on Tuesday afternoon, the entire Barcelona team conducted an adaptation training at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and found that the grass was long and dry, making it very unfavorable for Barcelona’s passing game. Even Guardiola made a slight complaint about the grass at the Bernabeu in the press conference.

It is reported that to let the grass grow rapidly, Real Madrid even used a type of grass growth agent.

After applying ”fertilizer” continuously for several days, the grass at the Bernabeu has reached a height of 5 centimeters. Playing on such turf will greatly slow down Barcelona’s passing speed.

On April 27, German referee Stark will lead the referee team to inspect the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. If he thinks the grass height does not meet the requirements, then Real Madrid Club must trim the grass.

However, in terms of the field’s hardness, Real Madrid still has considerable autonomy.

In the Champions Cup matches, the home team has the right to turn on the sprinklers to irrigate the field only one hour before the game, and Real Madrid clearly won’t irrigate the field until 7:45 PM tonight. As for the amount of water, there is no quantified standard.

Although UEFA regulations stipulate that irrigation should be done during team warm-ups and at halftime, Real Madrid clearly won’t go out of their way to do something detrimental to themselves.

The media calls the dispute over the grass height the ”green war,” but since the Champions League semi-finals are based on two legs, it is conceivable that when Real Madrid visits Camp Nou, they will inevitably encounter short and wet grass, with Barcelona’s ball moving like bullets.

Barcelona’s ”godfather” Cruyff said that instead of worrying about who the main referee is and whether the grass is high or low, it’s better to focus more on tactics and strategy, which is the most important thing.

The Manchester United and Schalke 04 match precedes the Real Madrid and Barcelona match.

After winning the first leg 2-0 against Schalke 04, Manchester United has almost secured a ticket to the final.

Manchester United’s head coach Ferguson expressed that he hopes to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

But he also pointed out that Manchester United’s current focus is to ensure no surprises in the second leg.

Schalke 04 has shown mediocre performance in the Bundesliga this season, but their play in the Champions League has been improving. In the previous quarterfinals, they eliminated last season’s champion Inter Milan with a 7-3 aggregate score.

Many people have high hopes for Schalke 04, thinking they will perform a Porto miracle, but evidently, Schalke 04 has now shown that they might not meet the fans’ expectations.

If the ”Red Devils” Manchester United eliminates Schalke, they will have a chance to win the club’s fourth European Champions Cup.

Many consider Barcelona as the favorite to win this year, but Ferguson pointed out that this season’s Real Madrid is very competitive. ”When the draw result came out, I thought Real Madrid had a great chance to win.”

”In the two confrontations, Real Madrid achieved one draw and one victory against Barcelona. In the King’s Cup final, Mourinho made the center-back Pepe play as a midfielder, and Real Madrid’s aggressive tackling made Barcelona suffer quite a bit.”

Ferguson also talked about Messi and Chen Zhong: ”Messi or Chen? They are both very excellent players.” In Ferguson’s view, Messi and Chen Zhong are two different types of players. He said, ”Messi is a completely different type of player, but equally talented.”

Moreover, the octopus ”Iker” from the Benalmadena Aquarium in Malaga, Spain, once again took action to predict the two-leg Champions Cup version of the century battle.

Iker predicted that Real Madrid would eventually eliminate Barcelona and advance to the Champions Cup final.

The Benalmadena Aquarium stated that this prediction was not only for the Real Madrid-Barcelona battle at the Bernabeu tomorrow but that the final choice made by the octopus Iker will be the winner of the two-leg match, meaning the team it chooses will also be the one advancing to the final.

Again, the method by which the aquarium had Iker choose was the same—a pair of glass tubes with sardines inside. After hesitating for 20 minutes, Iker finally swam towards the glass tube marked with Real Madrid’s crest and clung to it tightly.

In the two century battles between Real Madrid and Barcelona that have already concluded, Iker successfully ”predicted” the outcome—the La Liga match with Real Madrid drawing against Barcelona, and the King’s Cup with Real Madrid defeating Barcelona.

The time quickly reached match day.

As expected, Barcelona’s bus was ”attacked” as it entered the Bernabeu Stadium.

For Real Madrid fans, the team is at a critical point now.

The team has already won the King’s Cup and is also at the top of the league table. Winning the Champions League will set a record in the club’s history.

For the first time since its creation, Real Madrid could become the ”Triple Crown” winners.

At the same time, Mourinho could also become the first coach to achieve the ”Triple Crown” with three different teams.

Fans of both teams gathered at the Bernabeu and already erupted into fierce conflicts before the match, with some fans missing the chance to watch the game due to extreme actions.

In Real Madrid’s locker room, the players could clearly hear the fans outside singing loudly.

Everyone knows what they have to do now and what it means.