Chapter 426: Before the Derby

In fact, even many loyal fans of Fengquan in China are not optimistic about the Atletico Madrid he plays for.

That's right, since joining Atletico Madrid, Feng Quan's performance in the six official matches he has participated in is indeed world-class, and he has initially had the trend of adjusting Messi and Ronaldo, the two "king" players in La Liga.

But even so, in the eyes of most fans in China who really know the ball (except for Feng Quan's die-hard fans), although Feng Quan and Diego Costa's performance in the first six league games has been impressive enough, it still can't make up for the gap between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid in terms of overall strength.

What's more, Real Madrid spent a record 100 million euros this summer to bring in Welsh star Gareth Bale (Gareth Bale) from Premier League powerhouse Tottenham Hotspur, as well as super reinforcements such as Isco, the new European Golden Boy Award winner.

Although after the first six league games of the season, Real Madrid did not perform as well as Atletico Madrid in terms of goal statistics (Real Madrid; 14 balls; Atletico 26 goals). But that doesn't mean that the Galaxy Battleship is really inferior to their derby rivals.

Moreover, judging from the historical results of the two teams in La Liga in the past 4 seasons, Real Madrid also has the absolute upper hand. They have won all of their eight previous Madrid derby matches this season.

Especially in the 2011-2012 La Liga season, Real Madrid defeated their rival Atletico Madrid with the same score of 4-1 home and away. Therefore, before the Madrid derby of the new season begins, Real Madrid have a psychological advantage.

Since the start of this season, the performance has been summed up, even if Atletico Madrid can force an opponent from the Bernabeu Stadium, it can already be regarded as a "super level performance". Want to start the league with seven straight wins!? Excuse me, but are you telling a joke?

As a result, in the predictions of the victory or defeat of the Madrid derby on major sports forums and Weibo in China, nearly 7 percent of fans and "so-called experts" believe that the Atletico Madrid team played by Feng Quan will be more auspicious.

In addition to the media and fans, the major European bookmakers are also not optimistic about Atletico Madrid's prospects in the Madrid derby, as evidenced by the odds they have offered for the match before the game.

Home win: 1.65 to 1

Away win: 4.95 to 1

Draw: 3.75 to 1

Although the major media and most fans believe that Real Madrid will continue their winning streak in the "Madrid Derby".

However, Diego Simeone, the head coach of Atletico Madrid, has not been affected by the trend of public opinion and the majority of fans. Moreover, in the opinion of the Argentine coach, the match that will be played on September 29 will be the best time for him to lead his team to end the eight-game losing streak in the "Madrid derby".

The reason why Diego Simeone has such confidence is that Atletico Madrid's consecutive wins since the start of the new season have greatly boosted the team's morale, and in the last two rounds of the league to lock up the victory in advance, the physical condition of several core players in the team is basically in a relatively ideal state.

Although Real Madrid also won the first two rounds of the league, two consecutive 2-1 small victories have caused a great drain on the physical fitness of their ace striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

Especially in the last round against Elche, it was not until the second minute of second-half stoppage time that Real Madrid scored a penalty by Cristiano Ronaldo to seal the score 2-1.

On the other hand, although Real Madrid FC introduced a number of strong reinforcements in the attacking line such as Bale and Isco during the summer transfer period, it has successively "lost" strong players such as Raúl Albiol and Ricardo Carvalho in the defensive end, which is not a strong defensive end.

It was the departures of Albiol and Ricardo Carvalho that really gave Diego Simeone hope of ending the "Madrid derby losing streak".

Before the two of them left, Sergio Ramos, the "silver bullet of the defence", would often be put on the wing by the manager of Real Madrid when he encountered a team that excelled in attacking from the wing, and used his strong physical fitness to contain the opponent's wide attackers.

When Albiol and Ricardo Carvalho left in the summer transfer window, Real Madrid's new boss Carlo Ancelotti completely "pressed" Sergio Ramos to the central defender position.

Carvajal, who was bought back from Bundesliga giants Bayer Leverkusen this summer, have had some eye-catching performances at some point in the first six league games. But at the same time, he also showed a lack of marking on the defensive end, and the team often failed to return to the defense when switching from offense to defense due to the excessive range of assists. And this situation is exactly what Diego Simeone would like to see the most.

In addition to Diego Simeone, many Atletico Madrid players also have high hopes for the upcoming Madrid derby.

Yes, Real Madrid do have a certain advantage in terms of overall strength, but the Atletico Madrid players do not think that the opponent's weak backline can hold off the striker combination of Feng Quan and Diego Costa, who have dominated the entire top five leagues since the start of the new season.

Not only that, Feng Quan himself instructed his agent Zhao Shijie to contact his parents and some close relatives, use their identity information to apply for nearly a dozen accounts, and then go to major European bookmakers to bet on Atletico Madrid to win.

At the beginning, Fengquan's mother Xu Jingxin also strongly opposed her son spending a huge sum of three or four million euros to "gamble". However, when Feng Quan said to him: "If you oppose my betting, you have no confidence in me." After the words, even though Xu Jingxin's heart was still reluctant, he no longer objected to Feng Quan's "gambling" behavior.

In fact, the reason why Feng Quan made such a bloody bet to win Atletico Madrid is that in addition to being very confident in the strength of himself and the team, the most critical factor is that as a "traverser", he "already knows" the final result of this Madrid derby.

In Feng Quan's view, Atletico Madrid, which did not join by himself, was able to take away a victory from the Bernabeu Stadium with his tenacious defense, and with the addition of his own strong reinforcement, it was even more difficult for Atletico Madrid not to win. Moreover, when most people are not optimistic about their team's victory, Real Madrid players who have the advantage of being at home may still be influenced by public opinion and become arrogant.

In addition, the millions of euros that Feng Quan earned from several major European bookmakers at the Moscow Athletics World Championships gave him the confidence to gamble.

As a result, before the Madrid derby began, Feng Quan had already begun to think about how to "consume" the return of his "big gamble......