On the last Wednesday of November, the Real Madrid boss who led the team to the Serbian capital made a radical rotation strategy, adding players such as Oyarzabal and Vinicius, who had not played in the league three days earlier, into the starting line-up, along with Dybala, who was all but certain to leave in the winter window.

Li Mudi directly pushed the Argentine veteran to the center forward position this time, which has two advantages, one is that it allows him to minimize the possibility of sticking to the ball, after all, as the most prominent person in the team's formation, Dybala's activity area is basically limited to the opponent's penalty area and outside, and there are few opportunities for people to control the ball for a long time.

Second, several of the Red Star Belgrade defenders are tall and powerful, and are very good at physical confrontation and headers, but it is still a little difficult to deal with dexterous attackers, just so that Dybala, who is still extremely agile, can use his magician-like imagination and foot skills.

The result did not disappoint the Real Madrid coach, the home team's various names ended in the word "strange", in the face of Real Madrid's flexible and rapid teamwork and individual assault, although it is not yet powerless, but the degree of embarrassment is also extremely dissatisfied with the audience, and even in the second half of the second half of the game, there was a lot of boos.

3-1, although the central defender Melle was sentenced to leave the field in the 73rd minute for a reckless tackle and received a second yellow card, but the Galaxy Battleship, which played one less, still relied on the advantages accumulated in the previous time to achieve the expected victory relatively easily, and continued to beat Bayern Munich to the top of the group.

As long as they beat Ajax, who are already doomed to the knockout round in Amsterdam in two weeks' time, Real Madrid will have a good chance of getting a relatively ideal opponent in the 16-8 draw, which will be a great help to continue to qualify.

Until then, though, the focus will be entirely on the national derby, which kicks off on Sunday night, so the players who returned to Madrid overnight were on the training ground at the Valdebebas Sports City on Thursday afternoon after a night's rest. From their faces, the coaching staff could easily see that in addition to a slight sense of fatigue, there was also a mixture of fear and excitement.

Since winning the La Liga title in the 2021-22 season, Real Madrid has been crushed by archrivals Barcelona for two consecutive years in various competitions at home and abroad. Just looking at the results of the league, although they won one runner-up and one third place in succession, they were beaten by Barcelona, who completed two consecutive championships, each time by a double-digit point difference.

Last season, in particular, the 18-point gap was the largest in 31 years between the two sides - in the 2002-03 season, Barcelona, who were going through the last dark period before the Dream II Dynasty, began the season as if under a spell, and performed to an unimaginably bad degree. If it weren't for Serbian coach Antić who was ordered to lead the team to a wave of consecutive victories in the closing stages, perhaps the magical record that has not been absent since the birth of the three major European cups would have come to an end. That year, Real Madrid won the La Liga title with 78 points, while Barcelona only had 56 points and squeezed into the top six in the final round.

Coupled with successive defeats in the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, the Galacticos seem to be suffering from "Pastophobia", which has put a lot of pressure on players who have experienced previous seasons.

But on the other hand, the team's performance in the new season has given everyone a lot of confidence, even if there is no factual basis, but everyone will inevitably have the feeling that they will be able to successfully play a turnaround this time, so they will have a certain expectation and confidence in the nervous mood.

The time came to the day of the match in an atmosphere in Spain where all eyes were focused on the national derby, and the coaches of both sides attended the pre-match press conference in the multi-purpose hall of the Bernabeu Stadium.

First up was the visiting coach Xavi, the world-legendary midfield maestro who almost copied the path of his predecessor Pep Guardiola after retiring, starting out as the head coach of his old club's reserve team, and then quickly getting the opportunity to take charge of the first team, and the process of success and even the end result was so similar.

In the summer of 2022, Barcelona, who lost the league title, dismissed their position with former Argentine coach Argentine Matyjevic and corrected their own line-in-law, Xavi, who proved to the club's hierarchy in the shortest possible time how wise their decision was.

Two seasons later, two La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey title, one Big Ears Cup, one Club World Cup, and one Spanish Super Cup, this heavy result is a rich reward for all supporters brought by the new Barcelona coach.

And not only does he have such outstanding performances in terms of results, as a pure-blooded Barcelona from La Masia, Xavi also values his own academy much more than his predecessors, and under his strong care, more and more young players have been given the opportunity to make their debut in the first team.

Although it is difficult to meet legendary superstars such as Messi, Xavi and Iniesta for more than ten years or even decades, with La Masia's reputation in world football, countless young players who are regarded as talents come to join every year with their dreams, and their potential value is above 140 at the worst, and one or two can appear every year around 160.

The fundamental reason why there were no outstanding new stars in the past few years is that the team did not provide them with sufficient opportunities, and how can they expect young players to grow by leaps and bounds without actual training in La Liga and Champions League competitions.

And the current coach Xavi is willing to provide those lads with such opportunities, and naturally he will get far more than his predecessor.

As a result, Xavi, who had only been in charge for just over two seasons, quickly became one of the most highly regarded coaches in Spain. If it weren't for Pep Guardiola's impressive achievements at Manchester City, the title of the first coach in home country might have begun to tilt towards the current Barcelona coach who is not yet 45 years old.

For such a legendary figure, even the media in Madrid did not want to embarrass him too much, and Xavi's personality was already very kind, and he rarely spoke ill of other people or teams, so in the more than half an hour that he was the protagonist, the atmosphere in the hall was still relatively river crab, and there was no tension between the two clubs before.

However, when Li Mudi sat in front of the stage, the journalists from Catalonia did not choose to be kind to him, as the Real Madrid boss had made a number of offensive remarks about Barcelona's form in the previous months. And in recent days, he has repeatedly stated that he will make his opponent cry and leave the Bernabeu, as a response to Real Madrid's 3-0 defeat at Camp Nou last year, so it has caused Barcelona to be very unhappy.

This is not to say that Li Mudi, who has always shown himself as a good old man, has suddenly become a madman like Mourinho, who likes to spray everywhere, but the new chairman Pique who has just taken office on the other side really likes to show how firm his "anti-Real Madrid will" is in the war of words, and often launches all kinds of cynicism against the Galaxy Battleship, which is annoying.

But on Real Madrid's side, the chairman Raul is a standard gentleman who never spews against others outside, and Hierro, another big man of the club, can't participate too much in the refutation of the behavior due to "seniority" and status, so the team manager feels that it is necessary for him to stand up and protect the reputation of the club.

At the press conference, in the face of the difficulties of some reporters, Li Mudi once again emphasized that he was confident that he would lead the team to give Barcelona a hard kick in the ass, which was regarded as a FG and laid the groundwork for the big events in the future.

Before the official start of the game, the packed Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was lined up with the visiting players, and the deafening boos silenced the announcements conveyed by the DJ through the amplified microphone, and the 22 players on the field all had extremely grim faces, which also indicated that this big game will never be the kind of feast that fans use to enjoy the charm of football. As the referee's whistle sounded to signal the kick-off, the two sides directly launched a hand-to-hand battle like a bloody bayonet as if they were fighting for a strategic place of life and death.

Xavi's Barcelona are naturally based on the Tiki-taka tactic, but he has also added a number of new tactical routines, such as quick flank attacks and more deep penetrations, to make the team's style of play look similar to Manchester City.

The reason for this change is naturally the fact that Guardiola's tactical system is indeed very strong, but it is more of a helpless transformation, because after the Dream Three team also collapsed with the departure of Messi and others, the team can no longer find a player who can play a core role in the complete Tiki-taka tactics.

Even though the 28-year-old Brazilian midfielder Artur is the top passer in world football today, there is still a big gap from the level of Xavi and Xiaobai, and after the loss of the nuclear Messi king, neither French star Malcom nor Argentine Balco can revitalize the offensive line of the entire team on their own, so transformation is inevitable.

The decline in midfield possession has also made Barcelona unable to be as calm as the old-timers in the face of the opponent's ferocious high pressing, and they must adopt special methods such as forward recovery to deal with it, and today at the Bernabeu, this is the situation.

The powerful trident of Mbappe, Rodrygo and Asensio accelerated into the visitors' half after kick-off, and launched a fierce assault on the Barca midfield line of Artur, Coutinho and others. Among them, Ku Bird's agility and speed ability have declined more as he gets older, so his role in the team has also changed a lot, from the previous position of forward or left winger to midfield, and shared part of the work of metronome and playmaker for his Brazilian brother Artur.

In Xavi's system, the one in the middle of the three midfielders will be a defensive midfielder, so there are basically two solutions for the visitors to get in the way of passing the ball, one is to put the possession area behind, and the other is to temporarily recycle the two wingers. Facing their number one enemy today, it is not surprising that Barcelona, who do not want to be overwhelmed in momentum, chose to implement the second option.

Today's left winger is the tall but excellent sprinting ability of Danish star Dolberg, the Barcelona coach's choice is actually a bit unexpected, after all, Balko is also in good form, and is also the team's first set-piece penalty taker, should have been the team's number one choice in this position. However, Xavi still pulled down the side of Dolberg, who played more often as a central striker, for the sake of attacking impact, and he and Malcom, who mainly play on the right side, are absolutely the best in the world in terms of individual skills, and with their recovery assistance, they can solve the pressing strategy of Real Madrid to the greatest extent.

It's just that in this way, when the away team tries to put the front line on the ground, there will be a situation where the number of people in the front court is too small, and they need to wait until the support players come up to launch the attack, and the efficiency will definitely not be high.

And Real Madrid with the advantage of home combat, after the opening of the trial, from the fifth minute began to gradually increase the intensity of physical confrontation, Li Mudi in the initial grasp of the referee's penalty scale, the use of the opponent's best at touching porcelain and has a super free kick skills of Balco is not on the field, the competition level of this game has been raised to a new level.

Because in this regard, the home team with better physical fitness can take a big advantage, and when you meet an opponent who plays well with good technique, you have to play with him physically, which is the winning concept of smart people.

Under the guidance of the tough attitude of the home team, the actions of the Barcelona players began to become "bold", and they successively physically violated the Real Madrid players on the defensive end, which attracted bursts of boos. It's just that the two sides can still keep their sanity in their hearts at this stage, and they haven't made too many moves, plus today's referee on duty Manzano's punishment scale is indeed not strict, and some slight actions with suspected fouls have been let go, so the flow of the game is still relatively coherent, which also brings a higher viewing effect to this national derby.

However, in the case of the same formation of the two teams and many similarities in their tactical play, Real Madrid, which is still fighting at home and has the advantage of geographical advantages, took the lead after a fierce hand-to-hand fight.

In the 14th minute, they played a simple long-distance transfer, and as a result, Mbappe used his speed and acceleration ability to beat Barcelona left-back Mark Cucurella successfully, and then cut diagonally into the penalty area before Umtiti could make up the defense in place to knock the ball horizontally to the middle, and Rodrygo, who arrived in the ball, volleyed directly into the top corner of the near goal without stopping, and was lifted off the crossbar by the god-like Ter Stegen.

Asensio then whipped in a quick tactical corner and Odriosola's cross was grazed towards the back post by Varane, only to have the ball almost grazed the outside of the post and flew off the line. Real Madrid continued to make killer moves in front of the opponent's goal, but unfortunately they all missed the goal in the end, but this performance was enough to arouse the excitement of the home team's supporters in the stadium, and for a while, the crazy shouts and cheers resounded at the Bernabeu, bringing huge psychological pressure to the Barcelona players and coaches.