Chapter 637: Achieving the Triple Crown

After the game, Li Mudi praised Juventus' spirit of never giving up, saying that his players had learned a lot from this opponent, but did not reply too much to reporters' questions about the final.

A day ago, Paris Saint-Germain set up the bus for the whole game in Manchester, and won a 0-0 game with great difficulty, and with a narrow victory in the French capital in the first leg of the meeting between the two sides, it reached the final stage of the Champions League for the first time in history, and became one of the focuses of attention in the whole world football.

The battle-hardened Real Madrid met the "first brother" Grand Paris, and it is not surprising that the outside world's predictions will be one-sided. However, Li Mudi did not pose that there was no suspense about the ownership of the championship as analyzed by many experts, but showed a slightly worried expression on his face, mainly because the quality of the turf on the competition venue was not very satisfactory to him.

As mentioned above, this season's Champions League final was selected by UEFA as the world-famous new Wembley Stadium, and this football mecca has great influence and appeal on England and even the entire European football world.

However, since 2007, when the newly refurbished Wembley Stadium, which cost close to £800 million, was announced to be reopened, the quality of its turf has been criticised by teams that come to the stadium, including the England national team and many of the Premier League's biggest clubs.

The general reaction is that the lawn here is extremely slippery, and players often slip when running at full strength on the field, and even have been injured many times, and the rolling route of the ball on the turf is also very irregular, which is complained by many players and coaches that it is like a pasture after hand-harvesting.

In the Carabao Cup final in February 2010, Michael Owen, who was playing for Manchester United at the time, suffered an accident at full speed on a slippery pitch and strained his thigh muscles, so he took a six-month break. In response, the then Manchester United boss Fernandess angrily criticized: "I think the Wembley stadium is terrible, when I stand on the pitch, I think there has been an equestrian show before, and this kind of field reminds me of the ploughed ground. ”

Martin O'Neal, the head coach who has coached Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland, also complained after coming to the venue to play: "The turf at Wembley Stadium is like having a rock concert the night before, which is terrible for a national stadium." The stadium cost £800 million, but it went wrong on the turf that should have been done, and I don't really know what could have caused it, but the conditions were intolerable. ”

Players such as James Milner and Leo Ferdinand even felt that the quality of Wembley's turf was not as good as that of any Championship team's home stadium, which became a disgrace to English football at the time.

Later, after many investigations and adjustments, the turf of the stadium has finally improved to a certain extent, but it is still not worthy of the name of the most advanced stadium in the world today. Just over a month ago, the Three Lions played a friendly against African giants Egypt here, and as a result, Tottenham star Alli and Hamdi, who plays in the Portuguese Super League, both suffered injuries during the game, and both had a lot to do with the quality of the turf.

Although the FA said at the time that it would try to renovate the venue as much as possible to ensure that the Champions League final could be held successfully, and it was believed that the Englishmen, who had always been good-looking, would do everything they could not make themselves a laughing stock again before such an important event.

However, with this season's FA Cup final scheduled for 24 May, the Sunday before the Champions League final, the time frame for staff to replace and maintain the turf is very tight, and no one knows what the situation will be.

Li Mudi doesn't want injuries to his core players in that crucial game that will allow Real Madrid to achieve the treble, because it will not only affect the performance of the game, but also disrupt the current plans for next season, which is really a big risk.

So on May 10, before the penultimate round of La Liga, the Real Madrid coach gave a pre-match interview to the media to vaguely express his concern about the venue of the final in three weeks' time. Just an hour later, Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique joined Limdoudi's camp and expressed hope that Wembley Stadium would be in the best shape for the showdown on 31 May.

The FA was quick to respond to questions about the change of direction of the managers of the two teams, and said in a playful tone: "Please trust our ability to do our job, and we will not let the condition of the pitch be the object of a team's post-match search for reasons to lose." ”

However, the reality later proved that the British were too blindly optimistic and confident.

On the 10th and 17th, in the last two rounds of La Liga, Li Mudi continued the rotation system that had been implemented throughout the season, allowing almost all registered players in the first team to get the opportunity to play, and even the No. 3 goalkeeper Quinter Moya, who had not been able to represent the team all season, became the last member of the Real Madrid first team to have an appearance record after halftime in the closing game.

However, even with such a seemingly absurd lineup, the results of the Galaxy Battleship were not greatly affected, and it was also due to the weaker strength of the last two opponents - Leganés and Rayo Vallecano, so the two-time winner of La Liga who won two consecutive victories easily finally achieved the honor that was not part of their plan before the start of the season, that is, to end the whole year of league journey with an undefeated record.

The total score of 32 wins, 6 draws, 0 losses and 102 points has set a new record in the history of La Liga for more than 100 years, and it can be said that it is the most dominant championship performance in history. The 112 goals scored and the 20 goals conceded, while not breaking either record, are still in the top 10 or even the top 5 of their respective lists, and even the most critical critics or the Catalan media, which has always made it their life's work to spew out the capital's team, can no longer make any criticisms.

And with the end of the league, the best awards of the season voted for by major media and fans have also been released. Not surprisingly, Real Madrid have almost finished the lists, and even though the lack of minutes has had a huge impact on the selection of the best team, it still can't get the judges to vote for players from other teams.

Of course, the least controversial thing is the selection of the best head coach, if Li Mudi can't complete ALL Kill, then the selection without awarding this award to him can declare that there is no next one.

Another award that has attracted everyone's attention is the best newcomer, with young centre-back Zori becoming the 2025-26 La Liga newcomer with his outstanding performances in the second half of the season. Even though he has played the fewest minutes of the 10 candidates, and there have been a few underperformances in between, there is still a lot to believe that the tower, who has a lot of style on the pitch, will be at the heart of the Spanish national team's future, but it also reinforces the other veteran's decision to leave the Bernabeu at the end of the season.

On May 22, just as Real Madrid's players returned to Valdebebas Sports City after a short break after the league to prepare for the final match nine days later, "Marca" broke the news that the team's captain Varane will terminate his contract with the Galaxy Battleship for 15 years at the end of the season, return to his hometown team Lille, and make his own contribution to the latter's impact on the Champions League spot, which has achieved good results in recent years.

Immediately, his agent and Real Madrid director Hierro confirmed the news in front of the outside world, attracting the attention of a large number of fans.

Born in 1993, Raphael Varane has just celebrated his 33rd birthday, and he is far from too old in the position of central defender, and with his current ability, he can stay at the Bernabeu to continue to play his remaining energy. It's just that due to the frequent suffering of various minor injuries this season, his status in the team has shown a clear downward trend.

This is not to say that the team has gradually become no longer needed him, after all, as the longest-serving veteran, the whole team, including Li Mudi, still has great respect for Varane, and the French central defender is not only the first captain of Real Madrid, but also one of the spiritual leaders in the dressing room, and is unanimously loved by all Meilinger. The coaching staff also intends to allow the veteran to "bring apprentices" from next season, passing on his wealth of experience to the younger players as much as possible, and helping the team's future stars to grow rapidly.

However, in the face of the player's own desire to officially enter the final stage of his career, Raul and Li Mudi also gave full respect, due to the rise of Zori, Varane's playing time next season is bound to be further reduced, this situation is indeed a bit unfair to a veteran French who is still capable of playing in a first-class team. So after a brief exchange, the club agreed to the captain's request, and also exempted him from the last obstacle to returning to his hometown team, that is, not having to pay a penny of transfer fees from Lille, which can be regarded as a reward for the team's dedication to Real Madrid for more than ten years.

Although another captain of the team failed to complete the happy ending of his life at the Bernabeu in the eyes of the outside world, this is an unavoidable situation that cannot be forced. However, the news of Raphael Varane's imminent departure was unexpectedly and reasonably boosted the morale of the entire team, and everyone felt that they had to send their captain off with a victory, and for the Champions League final on the last day of this month, Real Madrid was prepared with a must-win mentality.

Of course, the mental level can only play an auxiliary role for the player's performance on the field, and the most fundamental reason for determining the outcome of the game is the overall strength of both sides, and in this regard, Real Madrid is undoubtedly the more favored side by everyone.

Even if Vallejo was sent off for two yellows and one red in the semi-finals, so he will not be able to appear on the final stage, but in addition to him, Li Mudi still has plenty of cards in his hand, and all of them are extremely powerful, and they can make the opponent scared when they play. Therefore, it can be seen from the handicap of the bookmaker before the game that Real Madrid's chances of achieving the treble are still quite large.

It's just that no one thought that the process of successfully carving their names on the historical glory roll of football would be so simple and easy.

Due to the continuous light rain in London on the 29th and 30th, coupled with the FA's slow response and failure to close the roof of the new Wembley Stadium in time, the turf on the day of the game appeared a little soft and slippery. Even though the staff had already taken extra steps to deal with it before the game, due to the design of the roof of the stadium, the lighting in the stadium was severely inadequate, so both players were given more caution from their respective coaching staff before stepping onto the field. Real Madrid even wore special spike sneakers to prevent accidents.

As a result, there is an old saying in the Celestial Empire, called "It is a blessing not a curse, but a disaster cannot be avoided", no matter what kind of preparation the two teams made for the environment of the court, a scene that everyone did not want to see still appeared.

Less than eight minutes into the game, Raphael Varane fell to the ground in a violent collision with Parisian striker William Gobels on close quarters, resulting in the latter lying on the pitch in pain and wailing as his right ankle was badly twisted in the process.

The team doctor immediately rushed to the referee's call, but soon gave a very cruel diagnosis for the Ligue 1 champions, that is, the team's leading goalscorer could no longer hold on and had to leave the field early. At this moment, not only Enrique's heart on the sidelines was cold, but even the current coach of the French national team, Bruno Genesio, who was watching the game in the stands, almost jumped out of his seat, because there were only three weeks left before the start of the World Cup.

As it turns out, there is! Because in the 61st minute of the second half, another player who is almost certain to be selected for the Gallic Roosters World Cup squad also left the field due to injury: central defender Dayote Upamecano. And, like his team-mate Gobels, a slow-motion replay from the sidelines VAR team and the broadcaster confirmed that both men had injured themselves because they had failed to balance themselves on the petrified turf, and that it was none of the Real Madrid players.

Therefore, those black fans who think of the precedent of Ramos in the 2018 Champions League final who is suspected of deliberately injuring Salah to smear the Galaxy Battleship are also unable to use the topic to play, which makes them very depressed.

In the case of the opponent's "two sons in a row", especially the two cores of one before and one behind, Real Madrid, which is already superior in overall strength, if it can't get a victory, then it can really be self-judged to thank the world.

In the end, with the outstanding performance of Asensio, Pellegri and Mbappe, the number one frontcourt trident in world football today, scored one goal each, the "King of the Champions League" Real Madrid successfully won the Big Ear Cup like their lover after a lapse of five years, and at the same time reached the top of European football for the fifteenth time in the team's history, it also achieved the prestige of the first treble in the 124-year history of the team.

After reaching the pinnacle of three consecutive Champions League titles in 2015-18, Real Madrid has once again added another weight to their bid for the title of the best club in the world of the 21st century.