Chapter 478: Everything Goes to the Reverse

As early as the beginning of the 17th century, Madrid officially became the capital of Spain.

Madrid is one of the most famous cities in the world. The transportation in the city is very developed. 150 bus lines, 12 subway lines and 8 suburban trains cover every corner of Madrid. In the eyes of football fans all over the world, today's Madrid and the Bernabeu Stadium have become the center of world football.

Due to historical reasons and in order to protect cultural heritage, the Madrid Municipal Government has stipulated that all old urban areas must be preserved. As a result, the famous "Chinese District" and Pirate Market in the south of Madrid have been preserved, and passing through there is another La Liga club in Madrid - Atletico Madrid.

Atletico Madrid fans there say their club exists to rival Real Madrid.

This is not an exaggeration at all.

In an interview with the media not long ago, Real Madrid's president Florentino said: "I never think that Barcelona is our main rival. Our direct and important rival is Atletico Madrid. Our competition with Atletico Madrid is the real contest."

Perhaps such a statement is a bit offensive, but in fact there is no need to worry that Atletico Madrid fans will be angry. In fact, such a declaration is what Atletico Madrid fans like to hear the most. They never regard becoming an enemy or opponent of Real Madrid as a shame, and the existence of Atletico Madrid seems to be to fight against Real Madrid.

This theory has been deeply rooted in the bones of Atletico Madrid fans. They feel that being an enemy of Real Madrid is a proud and heroic thing.

As for Real Madrid, their mentality is different from that of Atletico Madrid. If they have to choose an ally between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid will definitely stand on the side of Atletico Madrid, but conversely, if Atletico Madrid has to choose an ally between Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​then they will definitely choose Barcelona.

The purpose of this club's existence seems to be to compete with Real Madrid, even though Real Madrid does not regard it as an opponent worthy of respect.

In fact, it is true. The real Madrid derby is always hyped up by the media, but the process of the Madrid derby makes people feel meaningless. So far, Atletico Madrid has created the most embarrassing derby record in world football - specifically, the most unbalanced derby: Real Madrid has not lost once in the last 15 consecutive matches with Atletico Madrid!!!

This kind of derby result is not only not found in the La Liga, it is also very rare in derbies in other countries. After all, the derby in the same city is also in the same level of league, and the record of the two teams is really embarrassing.

But this should not stop the media from promoting the game.

In Spain, apart from the world-famous Spanish derby, the Madrid derby is the most popular. Even when Real Madrid was playing the King's Cup with Zaragoza, the media had already begun to hype this game.

In the first half of the season, Luxemburg led Real Madrid to beat Atletico Madrid, so this time Atletico Madrid shouted the slogan of revenge.

Can they really get revenge?

Can they beat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu?

These became questions for the media and fans. At this time, Barcelona had already begun to fan the flames. As Real Madrid's main rival, Barcelona hoped that Real Madrid would always encounter derby games.

You know, the derby has its extraordinary significance. Although there is a clear gap between Atletico Madrid's strength and Real Madrid's, many fans still want to watch this asymmetric contest, simply because the Madrid derby has its special significance - the confrontation between the poor and the rich. This is the concept of Atletico Madrid fans and the greatest significance of the Madrid derby.

On March 5th, the Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid hosted this eye-catching derby.

This was the first derby match that Carlo had experienced since taking office. Carlo himself was a little nervous before the match, but he still suppressed the nervousness and fielded a semi-substitute lineup - no matter how important the game was, it was just a league game, and Carlo still had to prepare for the second round of the European Champions League round of 16 in a few days.

For this game, the media's unanimous opinion is that Real Madrid will win. After all, Atletico Madrid has not beaten Real Madrid in recent years. Although this derby is in the same league, the strength of both sides and the record of past encounters are too favorable to Real Madrid. In addition, Real Madrid is playing at home in this game, which can be said to be the right time, place and people.

This argument dominated the media.

The day before the game, Wang Li was interviewed and said in response to the argument that "Real Madrid must win", "The derby is not a stage for one team. Both teams must make all kinds of preparations. I know that tomorrow's game will be difficult, and we are at home so the pressure is naturally greater, but I hope Real Madrid will win in the end."

Wang Li rarely said this. In fact, he thought so too. Carlo would definitely not send out his main players to play against a team that was against Real Madrid. Not sure what would happen on the court. The opponent would definitely fight to the death, especially since they knew that Real Madrid would have a Champions League knockout match with Arsenal in a few days. They would be eager to see Real Madrid make a fool of themselves.

"We should always think we can score goals, and score more goals, because we had many chances, but now we should think about the next round."

Talking about his recent performance, Wang Li felt that it was nothing. He believed that he was still the same himself. As a member of Real Madrid, it was natural for him to perform at a normal level. The most important thing was to help the team win.

"As long as we have the belief that we must win, then victory will always accompany Real Madrid." At the end of the interview, Wang Li said: "Maybe the game is a test for us, after all, the recent competitions are too dense, but we will still win."

The situation of the game was similar to Wang Li's judgment. At the beginning, Real Madrid encountered a crisis.

After all, Atletico Madrid is a La Liga team. In this game of historical hatred, their performance was really strong and they dared to fight hard, which made the pampered stars of Real Madrid panic for a while and they were suppressed at the beginning.

Wang Li had no other choice but to look for opportunities to score in the frontcourt.

The team's overall performance was sluggish, and he could only rely on scoring goals to save the situation. Fortunately, Atletico Madrid was not too strong, and even when Real Madrid was in a passive situation, they did not score any goals.

As Real Madrid players slowly entered the game state, the two teams began to fight for the midfield. The ball kept flying back and forth in the midfield, and there was chaos there. Wang Li kept asking for the ball in the frontcourt, but the ball changed hands very quickly. Whenever he received the ball, many Atletico defenders rushed to defend, which made him have no chance. It was obvious that Atletico's head coach arranged a lot of defensive forces against him.

However, it was not easy for Atletico Madrid's defense to defend against Wang Li's attack. Wang Li still scored a goal in the 29th minute of the game.

It was a powerful long shot.

After dodging two sieges by opposing players, Wang Li got a chance on the right side of the penalty area. Using the limited space, he raised his right foot and kicked the bottom edge of the rolling football. Facing this shot, the Atletico goalkeeper had almost no reaction.

After waiting for such a long time, Real Madrid finally scored a goal. The Bernabeu suddenly cheered, but in response, Atletico fans also booed. As a derby in the same city, there were as many as 30,000 Atletico fans present today.

However, these Atletico Madrid fans are obviously very thick-skinned. Perhaps they are used to seeing Atletico Madrid lose, so they don't care about the situation on the field. They are more concerned about constantly causing trouble for Real Madrid, such as composing a song to satirize Real Madrid, Real Madrid players and so on.

This is also the purpose of their coming to the Bernabeu.

During the half-time break, head coach Carlo wanted to take Wang Li off the field because he was worried that Wang Li would have physical problems. After all, the game against Arsenal was more important. However, Wang Li refused because he felt that 1:0 was not safe.

Now the competition between Real Madrid and Barcelona has reached a fierce point. The two teams have the same points, and Barcelona is ahead of Real Madrid because of the advantage of goal difference. In this case, if Real Madrid draws or loses a game, the gap between them will immediately widen.

In the second half, Real Madrid players, encouraged by Carlo's spirit, performed quite well after coming on the pitch. At least they had firmly suppressed Atletico Madrid in terms of the situation, and the ball was rolling in Atletico Madrid's half most of the time, which greatly increased Wang Li's chances.

In the 55th minute of the game, Wang Li finally got a good chance. He received a pass from his teammate in the penalty area after offside, and shot from a small angle to change the score to 2:0.

After celebrating the goal, Carlo directly replaced Wang Li. Carlo was still worried that if Wang Li continued to play, it would affect his performance in the next game.

The final result of the game was 3:1. After Wang Li left the field, Baptista scored a goal for Real Madrid, and then Atletico Madrid counterattacked and scored a goal. However, the score difference was a bit large, and Real Madrid finally won.

The end of the Madrid derby also made everyone in Real Madrid breathe a sigh of relief.

The recent 4 games were too tight, and the Madrid derby was the most difficult one and also the last one. Now everything is over and they have won all the games. This result is not bad, which makes the whole team more confident about the next game against Arsenal.

The day after the match with Atletico Madrid, Carlo asked all the players who participated in the match to do recovery training, mainly to train their physical fitness to prevent the players from getting injured due to excessive fatigue. For those players who did not play, they were arranged to have a training match to help them find the feeling of the game so that they would not have to wait a long time after the start to find the game state.

As a player on the court, Wang Li also trained with others. Although such physical training was boring, he still persisted.

Fortunately, Real Madrid has a decent bench depth, otherwise Carlo would definitely be overwhelmed. In recent games, substitute players have been on the field more frequently, and the gap between the main players and substitutes is gradually narrowing. This is the situation of the giants in the second half of the league. Fighting on multiple fronts will definitely test a team's bench depth. It is indeed not easy to have a good performance in every game.

Fortunately, Wang Li is the most reassuring player in the team. His performance has always been very good and his training condition is also good.

After completing the physical training, Wang Li played in the competition and scored a goal soon. This good state made Carlo feel relieved. As the match with Arsenal approached, the pressure on Real Madrid players gradually increased.

Although they won 4:2 at home, which can be said to have gained some advantages, the advantages are not too strong. As long as Arsenal can win by two goals, they can win the final victory with the advantage of goal difference.

Now Real Madrid has the same points as Barcelona and there is pressure from the Champions League, which puts a huge pressure on everyone in Real Madrid. The players are becoming more serious in training, and the relaxed training atmosphere is gradually decreasing.

This situation made Carlo secretly anxious. He felt that the pressure would affect the team's performance. Regardless of whether the impact was good or bad, it was not under Carlo's control.

So, Carlo kept trying to enlighten these players, but the effect was minimal.

In the end, Carlo had no choice but to find Wang Li and ask for his opinion. In fact, since Carlo took office, he would ask Wang Li for his opinion on everything. It can be said that Wang Li is an important pillar of Carlo's coaching of the first team.

"Why don't you get a psychiatrist?"

Wang Li certainly didn't know what to do about this kind of thing, but when he was at Chelsea, Mourinho would always find a capable psychologist to reduce the pressure on the players before the game.

From this detail, we can also see the gap between Carlo and world-class coaches. When encountering some small problems, Carlo, who has never experienced such a big situation, will be at a loss as to what to do, but world-class coaches can come up with various ways to solve these problems.

On the afternoon of March 8, Real Madrid's special plane arrived at London International Airport, accompanied by about 10,000 Real Madrid fans and more than 100 Spanish reporters.

In fact, Arsenal's Highbury Stadium can only accommodate 38,000 fans, and the number of fans allocated to Real Madrid is only a pitiful 3,000. Such a small number of people, facing more than 30,000 Arsenal fans, can't make any waves at all.

As for other Real Madrid fans, they can only watch the live broadcast in bars or outside the stadium.

The purpose of these fans without tickets coming here is more to boost the momentum of Real Madrid and express their support for the team. They flew from Madrid to London for this purpose. This may seem incredible in other parts of the world, but for European fans, liking a team means giving such love. In order to increase the momentum of Real Madrid, all this becomes irrelevant.

After arriving in London and putting the luggage in the hotel, Wang Li, as the host, took his Real Madrid teammates to play in London. They went directly to visit Victoria Park. The environment here is very good, with a sense of the style and comfort of London residents.

However, after they walked into the park, they met several Chelsea fans. These fans recognized Wang Li at a glance, and they came forward and found that he was surrounded by big-name stars of Real Madrid. Then they asked for his autograph and took photos with him.

"Alan, teach those Arsenal players a lesson tomorrow and let them know how powerful you are!" a fan said when asking for an autograph.

"Don't worry, they will definitely be eliminated."

As Chelsea fans, they certainly don't want their biggest rival in the same city to have any good results. Last season, Real Madrid dominated Arsenal on several fronts, and Chelsea fans hope that this situation will continue.

This season, although Chelsea's performance in the league is not as strong as last season, it has been leading the Premier League and has reached the round of 16 in the Champions League. However, Arsenal seems to be on the rise again this year. They are Chelsea's biggest competitor in the league. Another rival, Manchester United, has performed mediocrely this season, but is still ranked third in the league, one point behind Arsenal.

After signing autographs for the fans, the Real Madrid stars lost interest in sightseeing.

In London, the football atmosphere is not much worse than that in Madrid. There are many fans in the streets and alleys. Although they all wear sunglasses, their figures and looks are still recognized by many fans. It’s okay to meet some fans of other teams, who just ask for some autographs, but when those Arsenal fans saw them, they ran over to protest and shouted: "You can’t score tomorrow!!" "You will definitely lose! Just wait!!"

This was still considered a good thing. Some radical fans even ran over to threaten them: "If we lose tomorrow, just wait!!" "I will find someone to kill you!!"

All these things made the Real Madrid players lose the desire to continue strolling around. In fact, London is too prosperous and there is really nothing to visit in a place like this.

After returning to the hotel that evening, Carlo gathered the players together to explain the tactics for tomorrow's game and highlighted several points for the players to pay attention to.

The next morning, Real Madrid players rushed to Highbury Stadium early to train to adapt to the venue.

This kind of training is physical training, which allows the players to become familiar with their physical condition and the environment of Highbury Stadium. It does not involve any targeted training. In front of so many media reporters and coaches, it is impossible for them to reveal their strength and trump cards in advance.

Looking at this "small stadium" which can only accommodate 38,000 fans, many Real Madrid players felt like they were playing against a small club. As a top team in the Premier League, Arsenal's stadium is really not good enough.

“Their new stadium won’t be open until next year.”

In fact, the Emirates Stadium (Emirates Stadium), which started construction in early 2004, will not be put into use until August next year. Before that, Arsenal will continue to play their games at Highbury Stadium.

Compared with other European top clubs, Highbury Stadium is indeed too shabby.

"Who cares? We'll leave after winning." Wang Li spread his hands and said indifferently. The previous owner of his body had a persistent love for this stadium, but when he stood here facing Arsenal, his body had an urgent desire to score a goal.

This may be the opposite of extremes.

(To be continued)