Chapter 426: Advance to the Champions League Final
Atletico Madrid's 4-3 away win over Borussia Dortmund in West** on April 3 not only greatly increased Atletico Madrid's chances of promotion, but also brought Zhang Huasong's total Champions League goals to 17.
This has surpassed Messi to become the record for the most goals scored in a single season in the Champions League. Whether it is before or after the Champions League reform, this is the highest record.
Moreover, Zhang Huasong's Champions League competition this season is not over yet, and he still has a chance to continue to improve his record.
After returning to Spain, on April 7, in the 30th round of La Liga, Atletico Madrid played away against Getafe.
Because April 9 is the second leg of the match with Dortmund, Atletico Madrid rotated most of the main lineup in this game against Getafe, and Zhang Huasong only came on as a substitute in the second half to play 30 minutes.
In the end, Atletico Madrid beat Getafe 2-0 away to continue to lead the table with 85 points.
Zhang Huasong only scored one free kick in this game, and the other goal was scored by Alda Turan.
Despite scoring only one goal, Zhang Huasong still continued the magical performance of scoring in every game as long as he was on the field. Even if he only came on as a substitute for 30 minutes, he could still score.
On April 9, at the Calderón Stadium, Atletico Madrid hosted Borussia Dortmund.
In the first leg, Dortmund lost to Atletico Madrid. Therefore, in order to advance, Dortmund will have to take the initiative at the Calderon Stadium.
And this undoubtedly gave Atletico more opportunities to counterattack.
As a result, Zhang Huasong scored twice in the first half to help the team lead 2-0, and then was replaced by Simeone in the second half.
In the end, after Zhang Huasong went off the field, Atletico Madrid and Dortmund scored one goal each, and Atletico Madrid defeated Dortmund 3-1 at home and advanced to the Champions League semifinals this season with an aggregate score of 7-4.
After all the Champions League quarterfinals are over, everyone is surprised to find that Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid, the top three in La Liga, have all advanced to the semifinals, and the remaining one place has been grabbed by the Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich, and the Premier League, Serie A and French teams have all been wiped out.
It seems that Bayern Munich is going to be surrounded by the top three in La Liga.
However, as soon as the quarterfinals were over, Ully Hoeness, the former general manager of Bayern Munich and the current president of the club, said: La Liga teams are all embroidered pillows, and the Bundesliga teams known for their willpower have always ended in victory against the La Liga teams with technical flow.
Whether it is Atletico Madrid, the top of the La Liga standings in Europe, or Barcelona, known as the Cosmos Team, or the galaxy Real Madrid, Bayern Munich is not afraid of anything.
Bayern Munich will prove the tradition of Bundesliga teams always ending their matches with a win against La Liga teams.
Hoeness's speech naturally caused great annoyance in the Spanish media, and they cheered up the top three of La Liga, so that no matter who the three La Liga teams meet Bayern, they must beat them, so that the Champions League final will become a Spanish civil war.
However, at this time, no one in the top three of La Liga paid attention to the war of words in the media, and they did not want to encircle Bayern at all.
After all, the current top three in La Liga are simply mutual mortal enemies.
Barcelona and Real Madrid are bitter rivals in the Spanish national derby, while Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid are bitter rivals in the Madrid derby, while Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are now rivals in the standings this season.
Therefore, at this time, everyone is thinking about how to fight in the semi-final draw against a mortal enemy, rather than going to fight a war of words with Hoeness, who has always been a big mouth.
Three days later, on April 12, UEFA held a draw for the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League.
Then, Bayern Munich drew Barcelona, Atletico Madrid drew Real Madrid, and the Champions League semi-finals staged the Madrid derby.
Bayern Munich has nothing to say about Barcelona, but the match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid is enough to attract attention.
That's when the Madrid duo start a war of words.
This is the second Madrid derby in the history of the Champions League, with the last Madrid derby in the Champions League dating back to the distant 1958/1959 season.
At that time, there was no away goal in the Champions League, and the two semi-finals were Real Madrid 2-1 Atletico Madrid and Atletico Madrid 0-1 Real Madrid, and the two sides played to a 3-3 draw, and then chose a neutral venue for the make-up match.
In the end, Real Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1 in a neutral venue match to advance to the Champions League final that season and win the title.
Therefore, when the semi-finals came to the Madrid city derby, Atletico Madrid fans shouted the slogan of revenge, stepping on the corpse of Real Madrid to enter the final and win the championship.
Simeone also said in an interview that he will definitely lead the team to defeat Real Madrid and complete the revenge on the sworn enemy in the Champions League.
Real Madrid is naturally not to be outdone, Mourinho not only said that he would continue to beat Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semifinals, but also beat Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey, and complete the double kill of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey against Atletico Madrid.
The first leg of the semi-final between the two sides will not be until April 24. However, preparations have already begun.
Among them, Atletico Madrid has an advantage over Real Madrid. Because they are 10 points ahead of Barcelona, they have a chance to breathe in the league.
As a result, in both league games on April 13 and April 21, Atletico Madrid rotated their main players to a certain extent, and basically every main player was given plenty of rest time to prepare for the Madrid derby in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
In these two league games in the 31st and 32nd rounds, Atletico Madrid finally lost.
They lost 0-1 to Sevilla in the 32nd round of away matches on April 21, Zhang Huasong and Falcao did not play in the whole game, and Aguero and Costa only came on as substitutes in the second half to play dozens of minutes.
Therefore, it is not uncommon for the team to lose away to Sevilla.
Despite a defeat, Atletico lead the table with 88 points, seven points ahead of Barcelona on 81 points.
In the 31st round of the game, Zhang Huasong scored 2 goals, and his total number of goals in a single season in La Liga has reached 55.
On April 23, in the first game of the Champions League semifinals, Bayern Munich faced Barcelona at home.
As a result, Barcelona, who lost Pep Guardiola, was poured four goals by Bayern at the Allianz Arena.
Bayern's 4-0 win over Barcelona completed the big talk that Big Mouth Chairman Hoeness said before the game that the Bundesliga team will win when it meets the La Liga team.
The score of 4-0 basically announced the end of the suspense of the second leg. Even back at Camp Nou, it would be impossible for Barcelona to beat Bayern Munich at home.
The next day, April 24, in the second match of the Champions League semifinals, Atletico Madrid faced Real Madrid at the Calderón Stadium.
After more than 50 years, the Champions League semi-finals are once again staged in the Madrid derby.
However, the Madrid derby in the Champions League semi-finals, which sounds imposing, has actually disappointed the media and spectators.
Because, both Madrid heroes play defensive counter-attacks, and both teams have super-fast attackers, so that the opposing midfielders do not dare to press support.
As a result, what everyone sees is basically that both teams are downplaying in the middle and back. Then there was an occasional attack, and only three or four offensive players played fast breaks, and I couldn't see the wave after wave of indiscriminate bombardment.
In the end, in a dull defensive battle, Atletico Madrid had the last laugh with a score of 2-0.
The reason is that Atletico Madrid has Zhang Huasong, who has one more free kick goal weapon than Real Madrid.
Atletico won four well-placed free kicks in this game, and Zhang Huasong scored two. Real Madrid won three well-placed free-kicks, but Ronaldo didn't score any of them.
That's the difference.
However, Atletico's 2-0 victory did not come without a price: the atmosphere of the derby caused Costa to lose his mind, and he was knocked down by Ramos and pushed up and was shown a yellow card by the referee. Costa then missed the second leg of the semi-final at the Bernabeu after accumulating three yellow cards.
If Real Madrid have any chance in the second leg, it is the suspension of Atletico Madrid centre-forward Costa.
After the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, in the 33rd round of La Liga, it was a coincidence that Atletico Madrid hosted Real Madrid. After the 33rd round of La Liga, it is the second leg of the Champions League semifinals.
In other words, the last three games have all been Madrid derbys.
What's more, on May 17 next month, there will be a final of the Spanish Copa del Rey, also a Madrid derby.
This year's Madrid derby seems to be too much, and both teams play defensive counter-attacks, and there is no sparkling derby to be seen, and the media is no longer able to complain.
However, Atletico fans don't care if the game is good or not!
As long as Simeone can lead the team to win against the sworn enemy Real Madrid, they will not be able to defend against the counterattack or attack football!
On April 27, in the 33rd round of La Liga, Atletico Madrid once again faced Real Madrid at home.
In this match, Atletico played surprisingly better than the Champions League semi-final: Atletico beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 4-1 at home.
Perhaps it was the defeat in the last Champions League semi-final that upset the Real Madrid superstars, but they were significantly more attacking in this game.
However, it also gave Atletico more opportunities to counterattack. Zhang Huasong's counterattack speed and dribbling and shooting advantages were shown to be greater.
In the end, Zhang Huasong scored another hat-trick to help the team beat arch-rivals Real Madrid 4-1 at home, turning the Calderón Stadium into a mecca for Atletico Madrid fans.
To Atletico's delight, Barcelona were held to a draw again in this round: they were held to a draw away by Athletic Bilbao and only picked up one point.
As a result, after the 33rd round of La Liga, Atletico Madrid continued to lead the standings with 91 points, Barcelona ranked second with 82 points, and Atletico Madrid led Barcelona by 9 points.
With only six league games remaining, Atletico Madrid is getting closer and closer to the league title.
After the Madrid derby in La Liga, on April 30, it will be the turn of the Madrid derby in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals.
This time, the pitch was replaced by the Bernabeu, and the risk-taking element in Mourinho's personality was finally stimulated.
Perhaps knowing that if you don't attack, you will die, but in this game at the Bernabeu, Mourinho finally let the team bombard Atletico Madrid's goal, basically ignoring the goal.
At times, even centre-back Sergio Ramos has sprinted across the halfway line and become involved in the attack.
As for corners and set-pieces, it goes without saying that there must be a place for Ramos in the no-go zone.
In this game, Real Madrid, who played at home, finally showed their might, Ronaldo completed a hat trick, Ramos scored twice, Ozil scored a goal, and Real Madrid poured six goals at the Bernabeu with Atletico Madrid.
And, too, they did emerge victorious: they beat Atletico Madrid 6-4 at home.
Zhang Huasong's limelight in this game was finally overshadowed by Ronaldo, Zhang Huasong only scored one goal and two assists, which was completely incomparable with Ronaldo who scored a hat trick.
However, when the game was over, Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a hat-trick, and Ramos, the defender with a knife who scored twice, both squatted on the ground and cried bitterly, while Zhang Huasong, who was not as good as Ronaldo, celebrated with Falcao and other teammates on the Bernabeu pitch.
Because, the aggregate score of the two sides was tied 6-6, and Atletico Madrid eliminated their rival Real Madrid with the advantage of more away goals and advanced to this season's Champions League final.
Atletico Madrid finally completed their revenge on their arch-rivals Real Madrid in the Champions League, avenging their 1958/1959 Champions League semi-final knockout.
For Real Madrid players and fans, this way of being eliminated is quite demoralizing.
It's okay to be eliminated if they lose, but they scored six goals at the Bernabeu and won the game, only to be eliminated by their opponents on away goals.
Being eliminated by a sworn enemy in such an exit is simply the most uncomfortable ending.
Looking at Real Madrid's attacking power in this game, and considering the performance of Real Madrid in the last leg of the away game, fans have every reason to call Mourinho down.
After the game, even Cristiano Ronaldo launched an attack on Mourinho, saying that Mourinho's tactics did not fit Real Madrid's tradition at all.
Originally, the Portuguese gang led by Ronaldo was used by Mourinho to deal with the arrowheads of the Spanish gang led by Casillas.
But now, Ronaldo feels he has been used by Mourinho as a tool against dissent.
So, when the team's league and Champions League results were not good, Ronaldo launched a fatal blow to Mourinho. At the same time, it was also announced that Mourinho was out of control of the Real Madrid dressing room.
He co-opted Cristiano Ronaldo to fight Casillas's locker room operation to take power, and failed!
Basically, this has already decided the ending of the Magic Bird class after the end of the season.
And for Atletico Madrid fans, in addition to the thrill of knocking out arch-rival Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League and succeeding in revenge, they also see the dawn of a treble.
Prior to this season, there were only six Treble winners in European football, and they were:
Celtic in 1966/1967, Ajax in 1971/1972, PSV Eindhoven in 1987/1988, Manchester United in 1998/1999, Barcelona in 2008/2009, Inter Milan in 2009/2010.
This season, Atletico Madrid are currently nine points ahead of Barcelona in the league and have reached the final of both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
If they win all three, Atletico Madrid will not only win the first Champions League trophy in the club's history, but will also become the seventh team in European football to win the treble.
At that time, it would not be a bit controversial to call Atletico Madrid a European giant.
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