Chapter 207 Three Red Cards

Just as Fino was about to explain to the referee, Xavi and Arbeloa started arguing fiercely on the sidelines, immediately diverting the referee's attention.

Fino turned his head and saw that Pedro was also rolling around in the air, covering his face, just like Alves.

Led by Puyol, the Barcelona players had surrounded the referee, chattering away about how Barcelona had been wronged, like dwarfs chattering around Snow White.

Upon seeing this, Alonso and Pepe immediately went over to prevent Puyol and his group from adding fuel to the fire.

The other players weren't idle either. Marcelo and Villa were chatting on the sidelines, seemingly quite amicably, while Ramos and Pique, the Spanish national team's good partners, were arguing with their arms around each other's waists...

After realizing that no one was watching his performance, Alves quietly got up from the grass.

Apart from Xavi and Arbeloa arguing quite fiercely, the other players were very restrained and tried their best to prevent the tension on the field from escalating. At the end of the season, every team is entering a period of peak injuries, and no one wants to add more injuries due to artificial confrontation and collapse at the end of the season.

More importantly, the game has been rather dull so far, which means it's been uneventful and hasn't really gotten going yet.

After consulting with the linesman, the referee issued Arbeloa the first yellow card of the match.

Just now, Arbeloa blocked Pedro with his shoulder while off the ball. Pedro stumbled forward and his face collided with Arbeloa's slightly raised hand.

Judging from the slow-motion replay, Arbeloa's use of his shoulder to block Pedro was likely intentional, but he did not intentionally elbow or shove Pedro; it was purely coincidental that the blow landed on Pedro's face.

After issuing the yellow card, the referee signaled for both sides to resume the game immediately, completely ignoring the earlier conflict between Fino and Alves.

A few minutes later, Alves fouled Kaká again on the left side of Barcelona's penalty area, and the referee showed him a yellow card and awarded a free kick.

In this match, Alves and Kaká clashed several times on the left side of Barcelona's penalty area. Although he did not intentionally hurt Kaká, the number of times he did so earned him a ticket from the referee.

At that moment, another incident occurred near midfield. The referee had just shown Alves a yellow card when he jogged back to midfield to quell the unrest.

Before passing the ball to Kaká, Marcelo turned to shield the ball and raised his arm, causing Busquets behind him to fall to the ground in pain, clutching his face.

The midfield altercation was quickly replayed in slow motion by the live broadcast. By comparing shots from different angles, it appears that Marcelo did not hit Busquets; the distance was about a fist's width. Busquets was probably faking the fall.

"Busquets' movements were a bit exaggerated," the commentator said rather tactfully.

The referee was exasperated when he saw Busquets roll around covering his face. This was one of Busquets' old tricks, and the fact that he didn't peek through his fingers this time was an improvement.

After consulting with the fourth official, the referee did not make a ruling on the conflict between Marcelo and Busquets. Instead, he asked Busquets to get up immediately and then returned to the spot where Kaká had fallen. Real Madrid was to take a free kick.

Casillas, who rushed over from the goal, helped Busquets up, and Busquets readily agreed.

At this point, the first half had entered stoppage time, and once Real Madrid finished their free kick, it would be halftime.

Cristiano Ronaldo's free kick hit the wall and was then cleared by Mascherano towards midfield. Fino, in full force, won the ball near the halfway line and lofted it back into the penalty area.

Pique jumped up and headed the ball out of the penalty area. Mascherano headed it on towards Puyol on the wing. Mascherano's header lacked power, and the ball dropped midway, landing right at Kaká's feet. Kaká immediately took a shot.

Valdes reacted quickly and saved the ball. Adebayor followed up with a shot, but it was blocked again by the already fallen Valdes. Ramos got to the ball and continued to shoot, but the ball grazed the crossbar and flew towards the stands.

The referee then blew his whistle to signal the end of the first half, with the score at 0-0 going into halftime.

Surprisingly, the peaceful atmosphere that had lasted throughout the first half was broken when the player left the field at halftime.

As the players from both sides walked toward the players' tunnel, Arbeloa and Keita got into a verbal altercation. At first, everyone tried to break it up, but Barcelona's substitute goalkeeper Pinto jumped in to defend his teammate and slapped Arbeloa, escalating the argument. Real Madrid staff members were also drawn into the chaos.

The referee team immediately came over, separated the crowd, and showed a red card directly to Pinto, who had made the move.

Since Pinto is only Barcelona's substitute goalkeeper and will not affect Barcelona's performance in the second half, this has left Real Madrid players feeling uneasy. Could Barcelona have done this on purpose?

The conflict during halftime was filmed and broadcast live. Given that the first half was somewhat dull, the TV station was already worried that viewers would change the channel. Now that there was such a big climax, of course they had to broadcast it to the viewers.

The clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona during halftime of the first leg of the Champions League semi-final quickly became a trending topic on social media.

At this moment, Vicente del Bosque, the Spanish national team coach, looked worried in the stands at the Bernabéu.

The frequent clashes between Real Madrid and Barcelona in a short period have inevitably intensified the rivalry between the two teams, both boasting a large number of Spanish internationals. Vicente del Bosque is concerned that these on-field conflicts could spill over off the field, causing a rift within the Spanish national team. It's important to remember that Spain is currently in its golden age; the players who won the 2008 European Championship and finished as runners-up in the 2010 World Cup are still in their prime, a time when they should continue their pursuit of major tournament titles.

Judging from their performance in the first half, the Spanish players on both teams seemed to have realized this, playing much more restrained than in previous encounters and trying to maintain a semblance of peace, which gave Vicente del Bosque a slight sense of relief. However, this relief came too soon; Pinto's decisive strike shattered this fragile peace.

Pinto is also a Spanish player. Because Spain has produced many talented goalkeepers in recent years, Pinto has never been selected for the national team. However, because of this slap, Vicente del Bosque remembered him for a long time.

As expected, things developed in the direction that Bosque did not want to see after the start of the second half. The actions of both sides became more and more aggressive, and clashes occurred frequently.

In the 53rd minute, Ramos fouled Messi and received a yellow card.

According to the Champions League's rules on cumulative yellow card suspensions, if a player accumulates three yellow cards in different matches, he will be suspended for one match in the next game. After one suspension, the penalty will be increased, and the suspension will be reduced to two yellow cards in different matches.

Ramos was already suspended for one match in the final round of the Champions League group stage this season due to accumulating three yellow cards. He also received a yellow card in the first leg of the round of 16 against Lyon. With this latest yellow card, Ramos is destined to miss the second leg at Camp Nou.

In the 57th minute, Mascherano fouled Pepe, and the referee issued the fourth yellow card of the match.

The major incident occurred in the 61st minute when Pepe and Alves clashed during a challenge. As Alves swung his leg to kick the ball outwards, Pepe's foot left the ground and kicked out, landing squarely on Alves' right leg.

Alves immediately fell to the ground, clutching his leg and rolling around. Barcelona's team doctor brought up a stretcher, helped Alves onto the stretcher, and carried him off the field.

The referee showed Pepe a straight red card, sending him off the field.

Pepe has just completed his suspension for the second leg of the previous match against Tottenham, and will be suspended again for the next match.

After Pepe received the red card, Alves, who was on the stretcher, immediately felt no pain in his leg and got off the stretcher without any apparent delay in the rest of the game.

Mourinho was furious on the sidelines. Two of Real Madrid's key defenders will be unavailable for the second leg at Camp Nou. How can they possibly play?

Mourinho immediately rushed toward the fourth official, hurling insults at him, and was subsequently shown a red card and sent to the stands for mocking the referee. Assistant coach Karanka temporarily took over as head coach.

After being sent to the stands, Mourinho was surrounded by UEFA staff to prevent him from contacting the substitutes' bench. However, this surveillance was somewhat self-deceptive, as Mourinho could still pass notes to the bench through others.

Before the game resumed, Real Madrid used their first substitution, replacing Ronaldo with Albiol, removing one attacking midfielder and adding a center-back to fill the vacancy left by Pepe.

Through this substitution, Fino understood Mourinho's meaning: to continue defending and try to draw the game.

Before Karanka could relay the message, Fino had already instructed the team to further tighten their defense, with all players retreating to positions behind the center circle to defend in low blocks. They maintained a compact formation both horizontally and vertically, maximizing the space that Barcelona could utilize.

Fino looked serious. Since they could only play with ten men and were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, they would completely block the goal for the remaining 30 minutes.

In the 65th minute, Barcelona's attack came to a standstill after crossing the center circle, immediately under Real Madrid's tight defense. Xavi, Messi, and Keita passed the ball around a few times, trying to advance without success. Xavi then passed the ball to the right wing, where Alves had already made a run from the backfield.

Fino, Alonso, and Marcelo immediately closed in. Marcelo cut off the connection between Alves and Pedro in front, while Fino and Alonso together surrounded Alves from the front and left, squeezing him step by step towards the sideline.

Under pressure from Fino and Alonso, Alves had no choice but to pass the ball back to Mascherano, who then passed it to Xavi in ​​the middle, with Fino also returning to the center.

Barcelona began to attack from the left flank again. Xavi passed the ball diagonally to Villa on the left. Villa received the ball and immediately began to cut inside. Arbeloa, Ramos, and Lass Diarra surrounded Villa from three directions, locking him in at the corner of the penalty area.

Villa managed to pass the ball between Ramos and Lass Diarra to Messi on the right. Lass Diarra immediately countered towards Messi, and Fino also came over, sticking close to Messi and cleverly slipping in front of him, giving him no chance to shoot.

Most players struggle to defend against Messi because of his high touch rate and frequent changes of direction; aside from fouling, there seems to be no better way to stop him. But Fino is different. He seems to have completely read Messi's mind, building an invisible wall in front of him. No matter which direction Messi darts in, he will be blocked by Fino.

The two were locked in combat for only a few seconds. The audience could only see a few mirror-like swaying movements between them with the naked eye. When the camera slowed down, it was discovered that the two had engaged in countless exchanges in a very short period of time.

After failing to break through, Messi chose to pass the ball to Xavi behind him. Xavi lobbed the ball into the penalty area from about 30 meters away from the goal. Alves went up alone to compete for the ball, but lost to the 190cm tall Albiol.

After Albiol headed the ball away, Casillas easily caught it.

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Author's Note: Thank you everyone for your support! [starry-eyed]