Chapter 177 Victory
After Real Madrid's unexpected goal, Ajax intensified their attack, eager to equalize in the first half and bring the two teams back to level terms.
In the 44th minute, De Zeeuw dribbled the ball across the halfway line and passed it to De Jong on the left wing. Before Alonso could close in, De Jong launched a long pass over the top, sending the ball to Sulemani outside the Real Madrid penalty area. Just as Arbeloa was about to close in, Sulemani passed the ball to Hamdawi on the right wing.
Arbeloa cut between Hamdawi and Soleimani, trying to cut off their connection. Hamdawi turned and pushed the ball back to Soleimani's feet.
Soleimani dribbled past Arbeloa and prepared to shoot, but Alonso, who was chasing back, made a sliding tackle from the side, clearing the ball out of bounds and bringing Soleimani down with him.
The referee blew his whistle and jogged over.
Soleimani tilted his head back, covered his face, and lay down on the ground.
Fino helped Alonso up, and before he could say anything, Alonso led him away from the scene of the incident.
Pepe and Carvalho walked over to distract the referee, but the referee waved them away, signaling them to move aside. He didn't give them a chance to speak, but instead held up a yellow card and called Alonso's name repeatedly, telling him to come over quickly.
Seeing that he hadn't escaped the experienced driver's notice, Alonso had no choice but to lead Fino back.
The referee raised a yellow card high for Alonso, who didn't even bother to argue, only managing a helpless smile.
That was definitely a yellow card offense. He deserved it. He left the scene only hoping to escape.
Alonso's act of pretending nothing happened was so cute! Was he silently chanting "Can't see me? Can't see me? Can't see me?" Fino was about to laugh when he saw Arbeloa next to him start laughing.
Fino immediately glared at Arbeloa again. Don't think he didn't see it; Alonso's card was for Arbeloa, who should have been the one to make the tackle.
Arbeloa's "hehe" immediately turned into "no hehe".
His brain was racing. What had he done to offend this big shot? Why was he being glared at twice in a row?
Despite Ajax's hard work, the score remained unchanged until the end of the first half, leaving them trailing by one goal going into halftime.
On the way back to the locker room, Arbeloa took Fino's arm.
Fino rolled her eyes at him.
Arbeloa touched his nose and said ingratiatingly, "Finnie, what did I do wrong? Please forgive me. How about I treat you to dinner?"
Although he didn't know why, Fino wasn't an unreasonable person, so sliding to his knees first was definitely the right thing to do!
Seeing Arbeloa's submissive demeanor, Fino felt somewhat embarrassed. Arbeloa was simply taking his anger out on Fino, and he was ashamed of his childish behavior.
Fino patted Arbeloa's hand that was wrapped around his arm, and was about to speak when Alonso separated their intertwined arms from behind, stepped between them, and casually put his arm around Fino's shoulder.
Alonso turned to Arbeloa and said, "He doesn't have time; he needs to study."
Yes, three years after graduating from high school, Fino finally went to college.
In fact, he had been researching universities and majors in Milan since last spring, planning to enroll in September. However, plans change quickly, and he never expected that he would leave Milan in the summer.
After transferring to Real Madrid, all his previous research was wasted, and he had to start researching universities in Madrid from scratch.
Fortunately, Julia was very helpful, handling everything from collecting information and preparing materials to the application process, saving Fino a lot of time and energy.
Spanish university courses are quite flexible, so Fino can easily balance playing football and studying.
In September of this year, he finally enrolled in school successfully.
Fino's decision to go to college caused quite a stir in the locker room.
For many players, once they get to play in professional leagues and have a means of making a living, they completely give up their studies. It's admirable if they can successfully obtain a high school diploma. Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, only attended school for a few years.
For someone like Fino, who has already reached the pinnacle of his football career, to still have academic aspirations is truly awe-inspiring for someone who struggles academically.
Alonso is certainly not among the academically challenged players; he is a rare highly educated player alongside Fino.
Alonso enrolled in the engineering program at the University of the Basque Country at the age of 18. However, due to the demands of playing football, he found the engineering program challenging and switched to finance, successfully completing his studies four years later.
When Fino was applying to schools and choosing a major, Alonso gave him a lot of helpful advice.
Just as Arbeloa was about to find another excuse to please Fino, Fino apologized to him first.
"Alvaro, it's my fault. I shouldn't have glared at you. We had a lot of shots in the first half but failed to score, and all the teammates who took those shots were the ones who lost in the bets before the game started. I got impatient and took it out on you."
So that's how it is.
Arbeloa finally breathed a sigh of relief and solemnly assured Fino, "I will never open betting before matches again, so as not to ruin our luck."
This remark was still meant to coax Fino, and sure enough, Fino was pleased.
Fino patted Alonso's arm across the arm and gave him a smile.
In the second half, Real Madrid's scoring efficiency did not improve, and they continued to dominate possession but fail to convert their chances into goals.
Several forwards seemed to be cursed; their shots either grazed the crossbar or the post, or were caught by the goalkeeper, and they even missed open goals.
In the 72nd minute, Real Madrid had an excellent attacking opportunity.
Fino launched a long diagonal pass of over 60 meters from near the right sideline in Real Madrid's half. Ronaldo sprinted along the left sideline towards the landing point, winning the battle with Van der Wiel for the ball and cutting past him into the Ajax penalty area.
With two Ajax center-backs intercepting him, Ronaldo passed the ball across the penalty area to Di Maria, who was positioned on the right side of the box.
From Fino's long diagonal pass to Ronaldo's cut inside, and then Ronaldo's cross into the penalty area to Di Maria, the fans' emotions were stirred up, and even the boos that had been coming from time to time since the start of the game stopped.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for the goal to be scored.
However, Di Maria, unmarked, took a shot but missed, sending the ball flying high over the crossbar and towards the stands.
Ajax goalkeeper Stekelenburg didn't even attempt a save, simply looking up and watching the shot fly away.
Mourinho was furious; he slammed his hand down on the air on the sidelines.
Di Maria's performance in this match was really poor. Perhaps he should give Pedro León more opportunities, or he could try Benzema, who can also play on the right wing.
Di Maria was met with the loudest boos since the start of the match.
Di Maria was incredibly frustrated. He actually preferred the left wing, but he couldn't compete with Ronaldo and had to go to the right wing. Shouldn't he be given some time to adapt?
Arbeloa trembled; it was too eerie. No wonder Fino glared at him. Hopefully, no one else will connect this to the pre-match betting, especially Mourinho—he still wants to take advantage of Ramos' injury to compete for a starting position!
The inability to score left Fino exhausted, and he made up his mind that if a good opportunity came his way, he would go it alone.
Fino soon got his chance.
In the 78th minute, Real Madrid launched an attack from the left flank. Before De Zeeuw could intercept, Marcelo passed the ball to Fino on the right wing, who then dribbled forward.
Enno and Alderweireld attempted to intercept, but Fino and Ronaldo combined with a series of one-two passes to successfully dribble the ball into Ajax's own half. As Ronaldo cut inside, Fino sprinted back to the center to wait for a pass outside the penalty area.
Ronaldo's cut inside wasn't going smoothly; two attempts to change direction failed, and seeing that another Ajax player was closing in from behind, Ronaldo decisively passed the ball to the center.
Fino stepped back a few paces, creating distance between himself and Enoch, and received the ball from Ronaldo, shooting directly from outside the penalty area.
He spotted Higuain in the penalty area, but Higuain's accuracy was terrible today, a far cry from his performance with the national team. He wasted several chances for Fino, making it difficult for Fino to trust him in this match.
The ball was powerful and fast, passing by Enno who had no time to react, and flying diagonally towards the upper right corner of the goal. Oiel, who was marking Higuain in the penalty area, raised his leg to block it a step too late. Stekelenburg jumped up with all his might and his fingertips barely touched the ball, but he was unable to change the ball's trajectory.
The ball nestled between the crossbar and the post, slipped into the goal, hit the inside side netting, and slowly rolled out.
2-0, Fino extended Real Madrid's lead.
A thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the stands at the Bernabéu. The fans disliked Mourinho's defensive tactics and were dissatisfied with the team's lack of attacking prowess in recent matches, but this discontent did not extend to Fino.
Fino, who dropped back to the attacking midfield position, performed exceptionally well. Whether it was individual dribbling, organizing the attack, or even assisting in the defense, he did everything perfectly, and Meringer had no reason to be dissatisfied.
Mourinho on the sidelines clenched his fists and roared, "Finally, finally, I've scored!"
The score remained 2-0 until the end of the match.
Real Madrid exposed some problems in this match.
Perhaps eager to reverse the image of a weak attack in the eyes of fans, the forwards were too impatient to score, often taking long shots from outside the penalty area after gaining possession. With such a distance, their accuracy naturally declined.
Furthermore, neither Ronaldo nor Di Maria frequently crosses from the byline; they prefer to cut inside and shoot themselves. Di Maria, in particular, is incredibly selfish; once the ball reaches his feet, it's very difficult for him to pass it to anyone else.
This resulted in Real Madrid unleashing a staggering 35 shots throughout the match, managing only two goals, one of which was an own goal by the opposing team.
However, Real Madrid is not without its bright spots. This season, under Mourinho's guidance, Real Madrid's defense has improved significantly compared to last season. Ajax has not been able to organize many effective attacks, and Casillas's appearances on the field are not as frequent as Mourinho's off-field performances.
As a top team in European football, Real Madrid's every move attracts a lot of attention. After this match, Mourinho's conservative tactics and Real Madrid's lack of attacking prowess once again sparked a huge discussion.
From Mourinho to Real Madrid's forwards, everyone has been dragged into a meeting and criticized by the media and fans.
Mourinho seemed to have made up his mind, completely ignoring outside opinions. In the next five league matches and the Champions League match against Auxerre, he used the 4-2-3-1 formation to the end, and he didn't even rotate the starting lineup much. Apart from Ramos returning to right-back after recovering from injury, and Khedira and Lass Diarra taking turns in the defensive midfield position, the starting lineup for the other nine positions was exactly the same as the squad for the match against Ajax.
With a stable tactical approach and a strong starting lineup, Real Madrid played increasingly smoothly, achieving a record of 5 wins and 1 draw in these 6 matches, with the scoreline shifting from narrow one-goal victories to large-margin wins.
In the sixth round of the league, Real Madrid even achieved a score of 6-1 at home against Deportivo La Coruña, with Higuain, Di Maria, Fino and Ronaldo all scoring.
After seven rounds of league play, Real Madrid has 17 points, surpassing Barcelona with 16 points to take the top spot in the La Liga standings.
-----------------------
Author's note: Thank you everyone for your support! [Laughing]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
