1085 Real Madrid's vital point
March 5, at the Bernabeu.
In the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 knockout round, Real Madrid hosted Shakhtar Donetsk.
After a 2-2 draw away from home, Real Madrid returned to the Bernabeu with the strongest attacking line-up.
Goalkeeper is Diego López, Marcelo, Vermaelen, Ramos and Carvajal at the back, David Silva, Mascherano and Xavi Alonso in midfield, and Eden Hazard, Yang Yang and Robben up front.
After the opening, Real Madrid quickly controlled the initiative of the game and launched attacks again and again towards Shakhtar Donetsk, and the offensive was like a tide, but the Ukrainian team was determined to play defensive counterattacks and retreated across the board.
As the team's number one attacking star, Yang Yang was also extremely active, receiving a precise through ball from David Silva in the tenth minute, and volleyed vigorously in the penalty area, but the ball was blocked by the goalkeeper with his body.
After Xavi Alonso's long-range shot threatened the opposition goal, Yang Yang had another wonderful performance of driving straight into the midfield with the ball.
Throughout the opening, Shakhtar Donetsk was suppressed by Real Madrid, not to mention counterattacking, and even the defense became full of holes.
It wasn't until the 31st minute that Arjen Robben created a corner from the right, Xavi Alonso took the spot, and Ramos headed in from close range to break the deadlock for Real Madrid.
After that, Real Madrid's offensive continued unabated, morale boosted and they performed even better, while Shakhtar Donetsk began to rush to equalize and frequently planned attacks, which gave Real Madrid an opportunity to take advantage of.
Five minutes later, Real Madrid played a quick counterattack, Yang Yang pulled to the right side to receive the ball, drove straight into the ball, crossed from the right side of the penalty area, David Silva in the middle rushed to the horse, followed up with a push, and pierced the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk.
Two to zero!
Real Madrid then threatened but couldn't find the back of the net.
It wasn't until the 59th minute of the second half that Xavi Alonso suddenly hit a long-range shot from the edge of the penalty area, causing the goalkeeper of the Ukrainian team to get out of his hands, and Yang Yang appeared in front of the goal like a ghost, easily picking up a missed shot and expanding the score.
Three to zero!
In the 74th minute, Real Madrid played a wonderful front-court combination.
David Silva passed diagonally to the right, Robben stopped the ball in the penalty area, turned around and knocked back, Yang Yang followed up and shot directly, and the ball broke through the goal of Shakhtar Donetsk again, 4-0!
It's overwhelming!
Real Madrid drew 2-2 with Shakhtar Donetsk in the away game, and defeated the Ukrainian team 4-0 at home with Yang Yang's two shots and one pass, and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals with an aggregate score of 6-2.
In the subsequent quarter-finals draw, Real Madrid drew Galatasaray from Turkey.
This is also Real Madrid's luckiest draw in the Champions League this season, drawing the weakest of the quarterfinals.
It is worth mentioning that in the same half as Real Madrid are Bayern Munich and Juventus.
In the other half, Barcelona meets Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund meets Malaga.
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March 10, Valedos Stadium.
In the 27th round of La Liga, Real Madrid challenged Celta Vigo away.
Real Madrid rotated a total of seven positions in this game, with only goalkeeper Diego López, left wing-back Marcelo, midfielder David Silva and Yang Yang in the forward line continuing to start.
Fighting on two fronts, rotation is inevitable.
However, the large-scale rotation made Real Madrid's performance in the first half very unsatisfactory, especially in the away face Vigo Celta, the home team in the first 20 minutes, let Real Madrid fall into the offside trap seven times, Yang Yang alone created four times.
In the 40th minute, Yang Yang created a great opportunity to pick up a pass to the left behind him, and Jesse inserted it to form a single knife, but the talented young player with high hopes for Real Madrid did not start to hit the goal at the first time, but chose to stop the ball.
There was no doubt that he had a beautiful stop and a solid stop, but he missed the best chance to get off the ball and then the goalkeeper came out to block and his shot went on the goalkeeper.
For this reason, Yang Yang also gave Hesse a stern lesson, thinking that he should have started directly just now and didn't need to stop the ball again.
Perhaps knowing that he had made a mistake, Jesse was more aggressive, and after a minute, he shook continuously on the left side of the face of the defender, and crossed to the goal, where Yang Yang hit the crossbar with a close-range header under the left and right of the two central defenders, but hit the crossbar and bounced back.
Tonight, Yang Yang and Real Madrid's luck is a little back.
After the rematch in the second half, Real Madrid continued to lay siege to Celta Vigo.
In the 61st minute, David Silva sent a corner kick, the goalkeeper hit the ball with both fists, Di Maria shot angrily on the edge of the penalty area, hit the defender and deflected, Yang Yang picked up the cheap again and easily pushed the shot.
1 to 0!
However, it was short-lived, and two minutes later Celta Vigo instigated a counter-attack, Marcelo could not return to position in time, and was crossed by the opposing player Fernandes, and the unguarded striker Aspas in the middle shot on Pepe and bounced into the back of the net.
It wasn't an own goal, it was an Aspas goal.
The two sides returned to the same running line, and this time the organizational stalemate reached the eighty-sixth minute, David Silva cooperated with Jesse on the left side and passed to the unguarded Yang Yang, forming a single knife, Yang Yang calmly seized the opportunity and exceeded the score again, 2 to 1!
In the end, the score remained until the end of the game.
Real Madrid relied on Yang Yang's brace to narrowly defeat Vigo Celta 2-1.
In the other game played at the same time, Barcelona beat Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 at home, Sanchez scored in the 38th minute and Messi sealed the win in the 88th minute.
And when this round was over, the Spanish Football Federation also announced that this season's Copa del Rey final venue was placed at the Mestania Stadium, which made Barcelona lucky to escape and greatly relieved.
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On the evening of March 16, at the Bernabeu Stadium.
In the twenty-eighth round of La Liga, Real Madrid faced Real Mallorca.
Between the 27th and 28th rounds, Real Madrid got an extremely rare week of rest this season, and Carlo Ancelotti even gave the team two days off to let everyone relax and adjust.
A week later, against Real Mallorca, Real Madrid was quite good in terms of form, fitness and morale, and began to control the initiative on the field from the beginning.
However, in the sixth minute, a quick counter-attack from Real Mallorca saw former Barcelona Academy graduate Dos Santos cut through the gap left by Carvajal's forward assist and crossed to the goal, where Nsué headed past Ramo to find the back of the net.
But Real Madrid didn't let Mallorca be proud for too long, in the fifteenth minute, Modric sent a direct pass, Robben calmly divided the ball, and Yang Yang easily pushed the goal from the edge of the small penalty area to equalize the score for Real Madrid.
But in the 21st minute, Mallorca took advantage of a corner kick, dos Santos took a corner kick, creating chaos in the Real Madrid penalty area, Alfaro hit the goal with a header, and once again exceeded the score.
Falling behind twice, conceding two goals, both hit the nail on the head of Real Madrid.
One is the gap between the full-backs and the attack, especially Carvajal's side, which is more exposed, and the other is Real Madrid's old problem, the defense of set-pieces.
The former is a new problem, while the latter is an old problem that has plagued Real Madrid for four years.
The score of 1-2 was maintained until the second half, but after the rematch, Real Madrid quickly took advantage of a corner kick opportunity, and Yang Yang nodded the ball to the goal for Real Madrid, equalizing the score for Real Madrid, 2-2.
Two minutes later, Marcelo stepped forward to assist the left side of the penalty area and crossed into the box, and after being cleared by a defender, Modric followed up with a direct volley to break through Real Mallorca's goal again, 3-2.
In the 57th minute, Robben crossed from the right, and the unguarded Yang Yang shot in the small penalty area, expanding the score again, four to two!
Yang Yang scored a hat trick!
Then in the ninety-second minute, Yang Yang suddenly pulled to the left side of the penalty area, and after receiving Hazard's pass, he selflessly crossed to the back point, Robben followed up and easily pushed and hit, expanding the score to five to two!
In the end, Real Madrid defeated Real Mallorca 5-2 with Yang Yang's hat trick and an assist.
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Real Madrid won a big victory, Yang Yang hat-trick, and both led the standings and scorers' charts.
However, after the game, Real Madrid were criticised for conceding two goals, especially the second goal.
Corner kick defense has always been a major weakness of Real Madrid, and it can even be said that since Benitez was in charge of Liverpool, corner kick defense has always existed, and the British media also criticized Benitez for this, thinking that his zone-to-man hybrid defensive tactics were problematic, but then disappeared with Liverpool's quadruple title.
But Real Madrid's corner kick defense has never been stable over the years, which is already a thorny old problem.
Especially this season, goalkeeper Casillas has not returned, and even if he returns, he doesn't know how to do it, while left fullback Marcelo is unstable after his return, and right fullback Carvajal is a weakness in defense, which makes people very worried about Real Madrid's defense.
If even Real Mallorca can break through Real Madrid's goal twice, then in the Champions League, especially in the quarterfinals, or even the semi-finals, can Real Madrid defend against stronger opponents?
Both Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane know this, and to some extent, Real Madrid's performance this season has greatly surprised everyone, because after the summer regrouping, the team's performance has not lost at all in the past.
Carlo Ancelotti also admits that the team's set-piece conceded goals are indeed the worst problem, but he says it is due to a number of reasons and the team will work this aspect.
But the Italian also said that Real Madrid's goal this season is to work hard in the league, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League.
'Of course, it's not going to be easy, especially in the Champions League, where we're going to have a bigger challenge, but it's going to be a great experience for a young team like ours.