Chapter 621: Winner Takes All
Although the defeat inevitably had some impact on the team's morale, the narrow defeat on the road, combined with the luck of the game, did not shake the confidence of the Real Madrid men to reach the next round of the Copa del Rey. It was clear to everyone that the final victory would be their own, so the players quickly adjusted their mentality and were the best prepared for the weekend trip to the Stade de la Ceramic, formerly known as the Stade de la Love Song, to take on tough opponents Villarreal.
It is worth mentioning that on the way back to Madrid from the Basque Country by plane, Li Mudi deliberately arranged the position of the teenager Zori by his side, and in less than an hour of communication, he enlightened this young man who was very depressed because he made two big mistakes in a row.
Zori's mental attributes in the FM system are very good, both in terms of professionalism and ambition have reached the level of a world-class star, even if the future growth space is very limited, it is extremely rare, the only flaw is that the requirements for themselves are too strict. However, this is not a bad thing, all the superstars who have achieved great things have the habit or characteristic of "abusing themselves", otherwise how can they finally stand at the top of the world football with a huge number of players.
So from this point of view, Li Mudi previously thought that among the three future stars who were promoted from Castile, Zori's achievement would be the biggest prediction, which is still very reasonable.
It's just that everything is too much, it's not advisable to go too extreme, and moderate self-motivation is the right path to success. That's why the Real Madrid coach deliberately persuaded the young man on the way back, and promised that he would let him play in person in the subsequent league clash with Eibar to regain the lost face, which made Zori, who was somewhat unthinkable, regain his confidence.
On the evening of the 11th, the regrouped Galaxy Battleship did not let the outside world's various worries about them become a reality, and on the way to the Valencian Autonomous Region in eastern Spain, they withstood a ferocious offensive launched by the yellow submarine after the start, and then scored two times before half-time through a sharp counterattack, and finally won a 2-0 victory at the Ceramic Stadium, where the away team can rank in the top six of La Liga in terms of points conceded.
Atletico Madrid, who were previously second in the standings, suffered an unexpected draw in this round, which made Real Madrid's lead slightly expanded. The win also extended the team's streak to 20 games at the start of the domestic league season, which can be said to be a super record that has never been seen before, and it is difficult to come back again.
For a while, almost all the Spanish media except Catalonia began to be excited about the result of this game, because the next round of the Galaxy Battleship is against the weak Deportivo La Coruna, and the place of the meeting is still the Bernabeu, this is a matchup without suspense, which means that Real Madrid will almost certainly equal the record of 21 consecutive wins in the top five leagues set by Arsenal three years ago.
If Li Mudi can lead the team to continue the winning streak at the Anoeta Stadium in two weeks' time, then he will really become a legend that will be difficult for future generations to surpass, breaking this record twice in three years, and it is hard to imagine anyone else who can do such a magical thing in the future.
However, in the face of constant praise from the outside world, the mentality of the Real Madrid coach has remained very stable, and he has long known how to eliminate unnecessary distractions after experiencing the ups and downs of life, and has temporarily devoted most of his attention to the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Chinese Copa del Rey next week.
He is very sure that the team and himself are aiming for the treble this season, so there must be no problems in the domestic cup competition, especially if the opponents are not very strong. How to ensure that the comeback was successful, and not leaving Eibar with even the slightest chance of an upset, was one of the reasons why he started working overtime for two consecutive days after his hasty return to the club's residence.
Another important reason is that there is no one at home to cook for him, and the takeaway is no longer reassuring due to the impact of mad cow disease that has not completely subsided, so it is more reassuring to eat in the cafeteria.
But Li Mudi actually dealt with the first issue about Zori. After the team's defeat at the Ipurua Municipal Stadium, a radical fan group of Real Madrid published a crusade on the Internet, putting the blame for the failure of the Galaxy to achieve the unbeaten season on the youngster who has made big mistakes in a row, and claimed to call on everyone to immediately launch a collective boycott of Zori, so that he can realize that it is not so easy to represent Real Madrid's first team.
Although this incident did not have much impact because it did not receive a response from the vast majority of fans, it was also highly valued by the club. The top brass held an impromptu meeting early the next morning to discuss what to do about possible excesses by fan groups.
In the context of professional sports, almost all teams have various conflicts and even conflicts with their supporters, and whether they can solve these problems is the moment to test the skill of the club's management and whether they are qualified to lead the club to a higher level.
When it comes to Real Madrid, the world's top giant, the situation is even more obvious. Within the city of Madrid alone, he has nine officially recognized fan organizations, and if you add unofficial ones, the number immediately soars to nearly 60. And if we expand the scope to a global scale, although no one has ever done accurate statistics on this, it should not be difficult to guess what kind of astronomical figure it will be.
Of course, some of the most well-known groups are located in the Spanish capital, such as the "Grada Fans", which are self-proclaimed die-hard fans, the "Grada Joven", which is only formed by Real Madrid members since the new century, and the most notorious activist group, "Ultras Sur – Extreme South Stand".
The latter occupies the seat of the Bernabeu South Stand in home matches all year round, and while cheering for the team, he has also made several collective activities to boycott the manager, players and even the entire club's senior management, and there are many suspected racialism and violent incidents.
In 2013, Real Madrid officials tried various methods to ban the militant group, but in the end not only did not succeed, but were met with a strong counterattack. In a Champions League match the following year, the extreme South Stand organization actually hung up the head of Galeries Lafayette's deceased wife and the cemetery painting to express its dissatisfaction with the then president of Real Madrid, which was really unbearable.
This time, it was a branch of this organization that wanted to attack Zori, and it was no wonder that Raul and the others would react like they were facing a great enemy.
In the handling of this matter, Li Mudi obviously can't intervene, he has never had the will to contact the fans, and he does not have the ability to make the outside world change the opinion of his players, but he also has his own unique way to express his support for the young man Zori.
At the press conference before the 16-8 leg of the Copa del Rey on the 14th, the Real Madrid coach uncharacteristically wore a team-specific support hat, and the number printed on it happened to be Zori's number 24. The three home team players who were interviewed with him also emulated the boss's actions, showing the unity within the team.
In the process of the game, Li Mudi has also been holding this hat in his own hands and constantly playing with it, which has attracted the frequent attention of many people. This kind of wordless support moved Zori, who could only sit in the stands and watch his teammates fight because of the suspension punishment, and the young man finally dissolved the last trace of resentment in his heart.
After seeing this change through the FM system, the Real Madrid boss sitting in the dugout finally showed a deep smile from the heart, and he could finally let go of his worries about the future star and focus all his attention on the next game.
However, Real Madrid has once again encountered a lot of trouble in this comeback battle with Eibar, and the strong attack after the opening did not have the expected effect, even though Li Mudi has put Pellegri, Asensio and Mbappe and other attacking cores into the starting lineup, but the visiting team's iron bucket team today played far beyond their level of strength on paper. Almost all of the players showed excellent defensive ability, and with a bit of luck, the score never changed.
And as time goes by, the Galaxy Battleship, which is still one point behind in the big score, will naturally feel more and more psychological pressure, which is not a good thing for the home team that wants to advance no matter what.
Fortunately, the tragedy that Meilinger feared the most did not happen, and just before the half-time whistle, Pellegri successfully knocked on Eibar's goal with two consecutive goalmouth shots, reassuring the team and supporters.
With this goal underpinning, Real Madrid could obviously deal with the visitors' strict defense with a more relaxed mind in the second half, and in this atmosphere, the difference in strength between the two sides was vividly displayed.
Soon, Febas's long-range shot and Mbappe's goalmouth flank made the suspense of the game minimal. And after Manuel Pellegri scored an inverted golden bell in the 72nd minute, all the Real Madridians celebrated wildly and decided in their hearts that the place in the quarter-finals was securely in the bag.
At this time, Li Mudi began to adjust the lineup on the field, and several cores were replaced at the same time, which also announced the arrival of garbage time.
However, 4-0 was not the final score of the game, as substitute Elias Zinedine Zidane scored a brilliant direct free-kick in the final moments of the game, prompting all 80,000 Real Madrid fans to give him a standing ovation. At that moment, the older generation of fans seemed to go back to the distant 25 years ago, and the scene of Zizu wearing the white jersey of the Galaxy Battleship to help the team win victory after victory is still one of the best treasures in the memory of Melinger.
Just when everyone was lamenting where the time had gone, the draw for the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey quickly appeared on the official website of the Spanish Football Federation on Thursday evening, and the next opponent of the defending champion Real Madrid was their city rival Atletico Madrid, which really cannot be rated as good.
But in Li Mudi's view, Atletico Madrid, like Barcelona, is the biggest obstacle on the road to the team's completion of the treble, and the league is better, after all, the accumulated advantage is big enough, but in the domestic cup and even the Champions League, they are still one of the main opponents who have the ability to cause big trouble for Real Madrid.
The Sheets have just signed Mexico international winger Diego Linez on loan from Borussia Dortmund, which has led to a significant decline in the team's chemistry, and it is better to meet Atletico Madrid at this time than to have a run-in squad in the semi-finals or final, so the promotion situation is still very favorable for Real Madrid.
And that's not all, if he can win this opponent by a landslide head-to-head, it may have a big impact on Riverola, who has not yet made a decision on which new team he will join, because he is desperate to succeed and must not want to join the underdog's camp. Even if a move to Atletico Madrid could have secured a first-team starting position earlier, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Real Madrid are the most competitive team in Madrid City, Spain and even the entire world football for years to come, and not everyone likes masochism.
And reality did not play out as he had predicted, with Real Madrid following the weekend's home win over a defenseless Deportivo La Coruna to equalling Arsenal's 21-game winning streak in the opening season, and then waiting for Atletico Madrid to return from a trip to the Canary Islands in the middle of the following week.
The visitors, who were an absolute physical disadvantage, had to rush into the starting line-up with Diego Linez, who had just joined the team less than six days ago, which led to a large number of mismatches in the attacking end, and almost completely abandoned the idea of scoring at the Bernabeu.
Without any pressure on their own goal, the Galaxy Battleship's firepower directly smashed the backline of the city's rivals into a sieve, and a 3-0 victory not only allowed them to lock up a promotion place in advance, but also made Riverola, who was closely watching these two teams, see where he should be on the road in the future.
On the morning of the 24th, the day before Real Madrid's away challenge to Real Sociedad in the 22nd round of La Liga, after preparing his suitcase, Li Mudi talked on the phone with the superstar he valued very much as agreed before, and persuaded the other party in what he thought was full of temptation:
"Did you watch that Madrid derby three days ago? Atletico are a good team, but Real Madrid are the better side and I can assure you that they won't be able to turn around in the next 10 years. So are you the superman who wants to save the weak? Or do you want to be a winner in life like Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi? ”
"I see in you that there is no inferior talent to those superstars, but whether you can bring it all to the fullest, in addition to your personal efforts, is indispensable for professional and correct training and guidance. And at this point, Valladolid can't do it, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and even Barcelona can't do it to the extreme, only I can help you achieve your dream of becoming the best in the world. So, there's nothing more to hesitate to become Real Madrid's next legend! ”
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