Chapter 219 Champions League: vs. Juventus (I)
The news that Real Madrid was short of players and would face Juventus with an incomplete lineup instantly swept all major sports media. There were so many people who were pessimistic, blindly praising, stirring up trouble, and creating topics that it was really overwhelming.
But everyone has gotten used to it. Anyway, this year is Zidane's second year as the coach of Real Madrid. Logically speaking, Zidane's performance last year was brilliant, so he shouldn't have made any major achievements this year. However, they obviously underestimated Zidane's coaching level.
If last year's Zidane was able to turn decay into magic, then this year's Zidane is as mysterious as a god.
It’s really hard to guess!
Looking at Real Madrid's current games, there are more than ten games, but the number of losses is not even counted on three fingers, and every victory is achieved with a variety of tactics and winning methods, which is really confusing.
I don't understand why Zidane has so many incomprehensible lineups and tactics. Why do those seemingly terrible, magical, and incomprehensible tactics lead to victory?
That's clearly just a bunch of random kicking tactics!
People couldn't understand, but they didn't know how much sweat Real Madrid's players had put in to adapt to Zidane's multiple tactical changes, and everyone had almost trained their instinctive reactions to tactical changes. In order to not make mistakes in the combination of various tactics, it requires collective cooperation.
Moreover, Real Madrid is now a team that makes its own decisions based on the players involved. In fact, the real controllers of the tactics used are the captain and midfielders of Real Madrid.
Modric, Eggesie and Kroos are now the three permanent midfielders of Real Madrid, and they are nicknamed the three midfielders of Real Madrid's destiny. It's not that they are unlucky, but basically if the three of them really work together, then the opponent can really say that the thread of destiny is in their hands.
Generally, the initiators of offense are Eggsy and Modric, and the initiators of defense are Modric and Kroos. Modric will reinforce and supplement the offensive or defensive details, or cooperate with Eggsy and Kroos.
When it comes to defense, the three of them are really experienced. Real Madrid's midfielders are almost all-rounders, from Modric, Kroos to the latest Eggsy, they are all all-rounders who can attack as center forwards and retreat as defenders.
Moreover, even when attacking, Kroos usually stays at the back, and even if he presses forward, he will never go beyond the half-court attack line. This is to prevent others from using Real Madrid's signature defensive counterattack and raiding the back.
Although Kroos seldom organizes attacks and is more focused on defense, once he organizes an attack it becomes an offensive carnival for Real Madrid's defense line.
So it is true that everyone in Real Madrid is armed with a knife and is a forward when he rushes forward.
Although Real Madrid is strong, their lineup is incomplete...how to play?
Zidane certainly has his own way. He just looked through the list of all the players in the club and came up with an idea.
Of course, Real Madrid's holding back on moves is already well known, and in such situations, fans and the media know not to even think about asking the players, as the players certainly won't tell you what they've been practicing so hard recently.
At first, there might be a group of media who didn't believe in it and blocked the entrance of Real Madrid. However, Real Madrid's training camp in the past few days made it impossible for them to stay. Finally, Eggsy came back, but it was late at night, and the media didn't catch him.
However, before Eggsy attended the training camp the next day, they still found a way to catch him. The way they caught him was also very strange. Eggsy had a package sent from the UK. When Eggsy was getting the package at the door to board the plane, he was caught by the media.
"May I ask what Eggsy is doing lately?"
"Get the package."
"...I'm asking about your recent training..."
"I just got back yesterday and haven't trained yet."
Eggsy's irrelevant answers and questions were kicked back and forth, which successfully made the reporters realize that they could not ask anything. But even if the players could not ask anything, they could just block Zidane!
I don't believe he doesn't go out! !
In fact, Real Madrid really doesn't go out during the match training. No matter how famous you are, what awards you have won, or how big a star you are, you have to stay in isolation during the match training and practice as usual.
So after Eggsy came back, they only had one day of closed training, and the next day they all went to the airport. Of course, such news could not be hidden from the fans, but when they rushed to the airport, they found that they could not see the Real Madrid players at all.
"A special passage?"
"Why is this happening?"
The fans were disappointed but there was nothing they could do. If Zidane specifically asked the airport to be open, it was probably because he didn't want his players to cause trouble for the airport operation. And avoiding the media and bothering the fans was also normal.
However, they really didn't expect that Zidane's arrangement was indeed his strategy, and he also knew the problem of incomplete lineup of Real Madrid, so there was really some tricks on the roster for this game.
On the contrary, Juventus, who are playing at home, also have lineup problems. Although Higuain, Dybala, and Bonucci form the offensive trio of Juventus, except for goalkeeper Buffon, the back line of Sandro, Heddes, De Sciglio, Benatia and others, Real Madrid actually has the problem of a lack of young players.
The main reason is that Juventus will have the intention to sell forwards after their professional age exceeds 35. In fact, this is not uncommon in major clubs, and this standard is actually a consensus in the football world.
But this situation will lead to another problem, that is, the coordination between the new players who have just arrived and the old players. Now Higuain has just arrived, and it is the running-in period for the new striker and midfielder to cooperate.
Higuain himself has certain psychological problems, and this is entirely his pressure.
Compared with the transfer fee of Edgar Alli and Bale of the same period, Higuain's transfer fee of 90 million is a little lower than that of Bale of the same period, which can be regarded as a record. He himself has also brought a lot of goals to Juventus since the start of the season, but he is firmly suppressed by Ronaldo and Messi.
Isn't Higuain under a lot of pressure?
big!
He knows that Juventus bought him to win the Champions League, but this time Higuain himself also takes this game very seriously. For him, this is even a head-on confrontation between him and Ronaldo.
Even when facing Ronaldo, Higuain's pressure is unspeakable. His age has become his fatal flaw, but Ronaldo, who is of similar age to him, is still at his peak in all aspects.
The greatest pressure comes from the outside world.
In Italy, Higuain's 90 million transfer fee is just mediocre compared to his current performance. It is remarkable, but not worth the money. The main reason is not that Higuain is not capable, but that Ventus is not as wealthy as Real Madrid. He bought Higuain for 90 million, but he may not have enough money left to equip Higuain with a set of playing style and lineup that is completely suitable for him.
At least he didn't have an organizing midfielder like Modric and Eggesi who could complement each other at any time. After all, organizing midfielders are hard to come by, and meeting two of them at once, and they are master and apprentice, can only be a blessing from heaven.
Juventus' midfield problem is that Pogba is enough to give them a headache. As a scout, Pogba often does some weird things to attract attention, but his condition on the court is not very good. The injury in September made him go to Miami for rehabilitation and he has not returned yet.
Compared to him, Marchisio is much more reliable. He dedicated almost all of his peak period to Juventus. As a standard Italian midfielder, Marchisio has excellent running ability and is good at both offense and defense. As a defensive midfielder, his excellent running and intercepting abilities make him a barrier in the midfield.
But he is just one person. When facing Real Madrid's three midfielders, or even facing the midfield lineup of Eggesie and Kroos, who can attack and defend at any time, who can Marchisio rely on? Only Pjanic.
Pjanic has a broad vision, strong passing ability, and outstanding organizational ability. He is simply an excellent midfield commander, but compared with Eggsy of the same period, they are evenly matched. But the key is that Pjanic is older than Eggsy, more than ten years older, which makes it difficult to say whether he has more experience or explosiveness on the court.
Compared to Pjanic, Eggsy, who is only 17 years old now, can be said to have unlimited potential.
Both have an incomplete lineup and face disadvantages in this competition, but which of these two veteran giants will be favored by the goddess of victory?
The game started at 4 pm that day, and Real Madrid had already arrived at the airport at 8 am. Zidane's original plan was for them to arrive in Italy at 9:30 and then everyone would go to the hotel.
At noon, the players can rest in the hotel and prepare for the afternoon game. Eggsy and Ronaldo were assigned to the same room as usual. After entering the room, Eggsy rushed to the bed and started rolling around.
He threw his backpack at the door, almost tripping Ronaldo who had just come in. Ronaldo stepped over Eggsy's backpack, and then said unhappily to Eggsy who was rolling on the bed: "You have to change this bad habit, why do you always like to throw your bag and rush to the bed like this?"
Although Eggsy was being scolded, he was in a good mood. He even called Ronaldo over and said, "This is a water bed! A water bed!"
Of course, Ronaldo had slept on a water bed before, so there was nothing new about it. But seeing Eggsy's curious expression, he couldn't help but want to tease Eggsy, so he put down his backpack, ran up, and jumped onto the water bed where Eggsy was lying.
This one pounced forward, and his strength directly bounced Eggsy, who was lying on the water bed, up!
"Wow!!"
This was the first time that Eggsy encountered a water bed, but he had never encountered such a way of playing with it. His whole body was bounced up by Ronaldo, which made him very excited this time. He laughed and asked Ronaldo to do it a few more times.
In fact, this kind of play is a bit like the inflatable trampoline on the street. Of course, Ronaldo has played it before, and he played it a lot when he was a child. But Eggsy is different. He has never played it before.
Eggsy, who grew up in an orphanage, has never done this. He had no money when he was a child, and when he grew up he had to live even though he had some money. Later, he went to play football, and even if he had money, he couldn't bring himself to do these things.
However, Eggsy has always wanted to play on the inflatable trampoline, and he didn't expect that he could make up for it on the water bed. Naturally, he played on the water bed in the room with Ronaldo.
Just as the two of them were playing on the seesaw water bed, the phone in the room rang. Ronaldo and Eggsy called a timeout and then answered the phone.
The voice coming from the phone was not in Italian, but from the coach of their team's coaching staff: "Some of the rooms in the hotel have water beds this time. We hope everyone will not sleep on the water beds. Please notify the hotel as soon as possible. The hotel will find a way to replace the mattresses."
After hearing this, Ronaldo quickly talked about their rooms. He had just seen that his bed had a high-elastic mattress, while Eggsy's was a water bed.
The coaching staff here immediately said that they would notify the hotel, but it would take time. They should not sleep on the waterbeds during their lunch break, which would make their muscles and bodies ergonomic and would affect the afternoon game.
So Ronaldo directly carried Eggsy, who was playing on the water bed, down from the water bed and threw her on his bed, saying, "Don't sleep on the water bed. You don't want to have a sore back during the afternoon game, right?"
Eggsy listened to the advice and would abide by the rules if sleeping on the water bed would affect the game. However, they did not need to think about the sleeping problem now because it was almost 11 o'clock and they just needed to eat.
The Italian restaurant offers a lot of Italian meals. Apart from reminding the players to eat less seafood to avoid indigestion during the afternoon game, they don't need to be reminded as most of the players are still quite restrained in their diet.
So when Zidane came with the coaching staff, he saw the players fighting with the grilled sea fish. It seemed that they chose salmon, which was protein and balanced in nutrition. Of course, no one dared to drink alcohol.
After lunch, most of their players returned to their respective rooms for a nap.
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