Chapter 623: Zidane's "debut"

In the other Champions League quarter-final on April 15, Juventus, who were thought to be comfortable in the semi-finals, unexpectedly suffered a hard-fought battle on their home turf.

Although the Serie A hegemon with the advantage of home stadium controlled only 60% of the possession in the first half of the game, the slow pace did not create too many threatening attacks, but the away Monaco team used the opportunity to counterattack many times to threaten the door of Juventus many times.

Fortunately, Italian international Gianluigi Buffon is in very good form, otherwise Juventus could really turn the tables unexpectedly on their home turf.

After the start of the second half, Juventus, who had accelerated their attack, really took the initiative on the field, but in the face of Monaco's stubborn defense, it only won a difficult victory with a controversial penalty from Vidal.

In two games a day later, Portuguese champions Porto pulled off an upset at their home turf to beat Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga giants behind Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, 3-1.

Barcelona, who is temporarily in second place in the La Liga standings, beat Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain by three goals away from home.

Although many, many mainstream European sports media believe that the four teams that win the first leg of Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Porto and Barcelona will all advance to the last four of the Champions League, several German media outlets are not buying it.

In their opinion, although Bayern Munich lost the first leg of the away game by two goals, the team's overall performance in the game was not bad, and it was only because of two "brain short-circuit" mistakes by the two central defenders that Bayern Munich hated away from home.

In addition, because Bayern Munich got an away goal in the game, as long as they play a 2-0 score at their home stadium, they can advance to the Champions League semifinals with an away goal advantage.

Even if Porto, who have a two-goal advantage, opt to defend in the penalty area in the second leg, it will not be impossible for the mighty Bayern Munich to score two goals on their home turf.

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Although a 3-0 first-leg win would have almost assured Atletico Madrid a place in the Champions League semi-finals, Diego Simeone fielded six substitutes in the starting line-up for the trip to Deportivo La Coruna on 18 April.

And Feng Quan, who scored a hat trick in the last game, "lost" the team's 18-man squad for two consecutive games.

Even though Diego Simeone sent a large number of substitutes in the game, Deportivo La Coruna, who had just suffered a nine-game winless run and was already very demoralized, still struggled to pose a substantial threat to Atletico Madrid's goal.

In the end, thanks to a goalmouth sweep from Fernando Torres and a header from Raul Garcia, Atletico Madrid won their 31st league game of the season without surprise.

In another important match on the same day, Barcelona at home beat visiting Valencia 2-0 thanks to Messi's pass.

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Although it had been expected that Real Madrid would be difficult to win away from home, the 0-3 score still made the club's president Florentino feel very angry.

It's not that Florentino can't tolerate the team's defeat, otherwise Ancelotti, who has been "winless in derby" in the past two seasons, would have been swept away by him, and what really made him intolerable was the way the team lost.

If Real Madrid go toe-to-toe with their opponents, as they have done in the previous eight derbyes, and end up losing because the defence is unable to effectively contain Feng Quan's breakthrough, Florentino may still have a chance to finish the second leg of the match.

However, Carlo Ancelotti's side have been a good performer both offensively and defensively.

So, the day after losing the "Madrid derby" for the ninth time in a row, Florentino dismissed Ancelotti as the head coach of the team, and at the same time announced that Zinedine Zidane, who coached Real Madrid B, would be the coach for the time being until the end of the season.

Due to the suddenness of the incident, two days after Zinedine Zidane took office, he faced Malaga in the league who still had European hopes.

Although it is difficult for Zidane, who is busy to take office, can bring real changes to the team in a short period of time, as one of the few "football Grand Slam" winners, the Frenchman's "king halo" still gives the team a lot of help at the mental level.

Real Madrid when Carlo Ancelotti was in charge, although they also had a very high winning rate against teams in the middle and lower reaches of La Liga, but the way the team played seemed calm and less passionate.

Although this way of playing avoids the chance of a big defeat for the team, if you encounter a team with similar strength and aggressive play, it is easy to be shocked by the momentum of the opponent and it is difficult to play the real strength.

Although Zidane's first game after taking charge did not make much changes to the team's main framework, it required the team to abandon the previous seemingly dashing way of playing with the ball at the feet and changing to a more aggressive pressing attack with full-court pressing.

Just eight minutes into the game, the Malaga players made a fatal mistake under the pressure of Real Madrid, and Benzema seized the opportunity to break the deadlock on the field.

It is worth mentioning that Cristiano Ronaldo, who provided the assist for Benzema, had the opportunity to score by himself after the ball was broken in front, but Zidane's pre-match conversation with him led him to choose to pass the ball to Benzema, who had a better chance of scoring.

Because the three-goal defeat in the first leg basically announced Real Madrid's farewell to this season's Champions League trophy ahead of schedule, the only chance Real Madrid has a chance to compete for the La Liga Golden Boot this season, and Ronaldo, who has scored 41 goals, is also the only candidate for the team to have a chance to compete for this honor.

However, although Zidane still set Ronaldo as the team's attacking core after taking office, in a separate conversation with Ronaldo after the first training session, he persuaded the Portuguese star to put the overall interests of the team first, rather than individual goal statistics.

At first, Ronaldo was a little resistant to Zidane's persuasion, after all, Carlo Ancelotti made the same point to himself last week, but the result was the team's ninth consecutive defeat to their local rivals.

Hearing this, Zidane spoke: "Cristiano, do you know the real reason why we have been trampled under the feet of those Atletico Madrid guys for the past two years? ”

"It's simple, because that kid is the fastest guy in the world, and no defender can catch up with him." Ronaldo shrugged his shoulders and said.

"Yes, that kid's speed advantage is a real headache, but the real scary thing about that kid is that he always makes the most reasonable choices in attack. He rarely forced a shot when the opponent was in the middle of the pack, but instead passed the ball to a team-mate in a better position at the right time, who could take the next step in attacking. ”

"It is precisely because of this that the Chinese kid can win the assist king of La Liga while winning the La Liga and the Champions League Golden Boot, and he is also ranked in the top three in the Champions League assist list."

"On the surface, choosing to pass the ball to other team-mates reduces the number of shots he can take, but at the same time it also adds more concern to opposing players when defending him, and his team-mates will willingly pass the ball to his feet when the opportunity comes, thus indirectly improving his chances of scoring."

"Trust me, Cristiano, as long as you continue to play like you did in the last round of the league, you will have a good chance of surpassing that Chinese kid in the scorer list."

Just 15 minutes after Benzema broke the deadlock, the French striker reciprocated for Cristiano Ronaldo's second goal.

At that time, Benzema could have chosen to force the goal himself after receiving Isco's through ball on the line of the penalty area, but after seeing that Ronaldo was inserting into the huge space on the right side of the penalty area, the Frenchman did not hesitate to choose to pass.

In the 11th minute of the second half, when Cristiano Ronaldo broke through on the left side of the field, Benzema and Isco cut into the box at the same time, and Bale also cut into the edge of the box from the right side.

Because Ronaldo chose to pass the ball to his teammates when he cut inside several times before, the defenders in the middle of the Malaga team did not step forward to make up for it at the first time.

Unfortunately, Ronaldo did not pass the ball again as he imagined this time, but directly blasted a powerful long-range shot near the line of the big penalty area and hung straight into the upper right corner of the opponent's goal.

Although the Malaga goalkeeper's performance in the subsequent game did not allow Real Madrid to extend the lead again, Zidane's debut was unanimously praised by the Spanish media after the game.

Of course, Ronaldo's two passes and one shot in the game also helped him make the front page headlines of many media again.

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