As a goalkeeper, it is true that the older you get, the better you become. The reason for this lies in your mental state and experience.

But Casillas seems to be an exception. Casillas' advantage is actually his top-notch reaction speed. Other excellent goalkeepers are quick-witted and can only occasionally display precise reaction speed like a nerve reflex, while Casillas is always quick-witted and always flashes with holy light.

As Casillas gets older, although his experience has increased, his reaction speed has decreased. As a relatively short goalkeeper, once Casillas loses the advantage of reaction speed, his disadvantage of poor aerial ability will be infinitely magnified accordingly.

In addition, as the captain of Real Madrid and the leader in the locker room, Casillas is also the leader of the anti-Mourinho faction. It is precisely because of the irreconcilable locker room conflicts between Casillas and Mourinho that Real Madrid club decided to let Mourinho go.

Therefore, this game is not only about the feud between Mourinho and his former disciple Carvalho, but also about the feud between Mourinho and Real Madrid captain Casillas.

This game also attracted the attention of global football media.

Everyone wants to know whether Mourinho, now with Gu Ran, can regain his former club Real Madrid's reputation.

At exactly 3 pm, when the referee blew the opening whistle, the Bernabeu Stadium immediately erupted into crazy cheers.

The two teams have similar playing styles, and this match is of great importance as it can basically determine who will be the leader of the super death group, so both sides played cautiously at the beginning.

In the first five minutes, both sides were in the stage of testing each other.

In the 6th minute of the game, Real Madrid began to exert its strength in the midfield. Modric made a precise pass, breaking through Liverpool's central defense and passing the ball to the feet of midfielder Ozil. Real Madrid's two left and right wingers, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, immediately accelerated and cut inside to respond.

However, just as Ozil got the ball, before he could see the situation in the front court clearly, Gu Ran sprinted back at high speed, suppressing Ozil with his body! This was pure physical confrontation! Ozil obviously had no advantage in physical confrontation, so Ozil immediately opened his elbow and tried to pass the seemingly rough Gu Ran with his flexible dribbling skills.

Ozil's ball control skills are absolutely world-class, and he certainly has the confidence to do so.

However, the next second, Gu Ran accurately predicted Ozil's dribbling position. Gu Ran was not polite at all. He blocked Ozil's center of gravity and made a swift and decisive steal. He directly intercepted the ball and knocked it to Gerrard who was supporting him! Ozil raised his hand to signal the referee, but the referee waved his hand, indicating that Gu Ran did not commit a foul.

When Ozil turned around again, Gu Ran had already turned around and shook him off, speeding towards Real Madrid's penalty area.

Gerrard also quickly passed the ball to Coutinho who was in an open position. Coutinho was not at all afraid of Modric's interception. He passed Modric with a beautiful fried meatball.

Modric quickly reached out and pulled Coutinho's jersey, but Coutinho failed to pass the ball in time before falling to the ground.

At this time, Gu Ran had already relied on the violent sprint of the Son of Wind at full speed to the top of the Real Madrid penalty area, while Carvalho and Pepe had not yet reached their positions, and there was only Essien entangled with them. If Coutinho had given the ball earlier, then with Gu Ran's personal ability, he would have no problem single-handedly fighting against the aging Essien.

Liverpool's counterattack started beautifully, but Real Madrid's defense was indeed fierce.

The referee called a foul but did not give Modric a card.

Liverpool won a free kick close to the midfield line.

Gerrard's free kick accurately found the area where Gu Ran was. Gu Ran moved in and out with his ghostly body, and jumped up and bombed the ball between Pepe and Carvalho, two not-too-tall central defenders! San Casillas accurately judged the route of Gu Ran's shot, and made a beautiful diving save, firmly putting the ball in his pocket.

The Real Madrid fans at the scene cheered victoriously.

Being able to see Casillas' wonderful saves is something that makes Real Madrid fans very excited.

Immediately afterwards, Casillas threw the ball to the left-back Marcelo without any pause, and Real Madrid's defensive counterattack was extremely fast!

Liverpool's players hurriedly ran back to their positions! However, Marcelo's dribbling speed was so fast that Liverpool's right side was broken through in one breath before they could form a defensive line!

Marcelo seized the opportunity and made a quick diagonal pass to the left rib.

Ronaldo took advantage of the collapse of Liverpool's right side and cut from the left side to the ribs without the ball. Facing Van Dijk and Carragher who were shouting to come up to defend, Ronaldo did a classic bicycle dribbling, shook off the young Van Dijk, and then rushed to Carragher with speed! Carragher was completely unable to defend against Ronaldo in his prime! Ronaldo dribbled the ball as if he was in an empty space. Before more Liverpool defenders approached, he directly kicked and shot hard! This shot was almost taken when there was no shooting opportunity or gap. For other forwards, such a shot would be a mess, but for Ronaldo, even under such conditions, it would never delay his shooting and scoring! The football directly broke through the embarrassed defense line in Liverpool's penalty area at an extremely fast speed and in a strange arc, and rushed to the far corner of the goal!

Liverpool's goalkeeper Reina was also very focused. He lay down sideways to save the ball without hesitation, and used his fingertips to push the ball away when it was almost crossing the goal line!

The football hit the goal post and went out!

The Real Madrid fans at the scene sighed immediately! Ronaldo also shook his head and smiled.

I have to say that Reina's performance today was pretty good. He saved all the tricky shots from Ronaldo.

Real Madrid got the first corner kick of the game.

All Liverpool players gathered in the penalty area and launched a man-to-man defense on Real Madrid players.

Attacking midfielder Ozil took a tactical corner kick. After Modric got the ball outside the penalty area, he kicked a high ball directly in front of the penalty area.

Pepe jumped over Van Dijk and headed the ball to the goal.

The ball was not pressed well and went slightly over the crossbar.

Although neither Real Madrid nor Liverpool scored a goal in this round, the fast pace of defensive counterattacks and offense-defense transitions was really exciting to watch.

…

(End of this chapter)