Chapter 605: An Imperfect Ending
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The common denominator of the great comebacks in the history of football is that the side that fell behind in the first leg always scored the first goal early in the rematch, helping them to cement the confidence that they had a chance to turn the game around, thus completing the miracle.
If you can't narrow the gap in the first half hour or even before half-time, then you can basically play GG, because not to mention whether you can complete a three-goal reversal in only 45 minutes in terms of ability, there are few people who can break through the psychological pressure and despair alone.
This is also the reason why Li Muddy has always been extremely proud to be able to coach such a team, although in terms of strength, the current Real Madrid team is still far from the level of unbeatable opponents in the world, but at least on the mental level, the tenacious style of the players who never give up can still be called the best in the world. Even if the comparison targets traditional iron-blooded divisions such as Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, the current Real Madrid is not too much to compromise in this regard.
In competitive sports, there are many factors that can make participants successful, such as ability, mentality, luck, etc., but in the end, the original driving force is the desire to win.
When they saw the Real Madrid players on the pitch not celebrate their goals, but rushed back to their own half and placed the ball on the halfway point, signaling the referee to blow the whistle for a restart, everyone saw in them a spirit of conviction that they could overcome their opponents and win the final victory. And this spirit quickly infected the vast majority of neutral viewers who were tuning in to watch the game live, and for the remainder of the game, almost everyone, except for the Bayern fans, poured their support into the home team, hoping to see a miracle happen.
On the field, the Real Madrid players who finally saw the hope of turning the tables were forced with all their might immediately after kick-off, leaving only two central defenders in the backfield to mark Bayern striker Jose Gomez, and the rest of them completed the task of one-on-one marking in a short period of time, so that the visiting team could not find a good point of the ball at the back of the back, and could only temporarily pass back and forth between the four defenders, but also suffered from the interference of Villarivre and Kuchi.
Under the custom, Bayern made two mistakes in the backfield in just three minutes, and the home team directly counterattacked on the spot, although they failed to score, but also scared the Bundesliga hegemon. In desperation, Ribery had no choice but to order the midfielders to retreat again, while protecting their own defense, they could also increase the receiving points of passes, which barely withstood Real Madrid's menacing high pressing. It's just that this strategy also makes their offensive threat zero, and they can only passively set up the bus, giving up the initiative of the game to the opponent who has already gone crazy.
However, Real Madrid's shooting efficiency is really not flattering, and their impatience makes them look a little bad in terms of footwork or choice when they control more than 80% of the possession (in one stage) and get the chance to get their feet through hard work several times. This, combined with the god-like performance of the visiting goalkeeper Früchtel, delayed the second goal, which was so much anticipated by all the home supporters, and it was not until the 79th minute that the situation changed significantly.
Asensio did not choose to go to his team-mate to complete the connection when he was facing a block in front of him in the middle, but forced his foot to complete a long-range shot that went wide of the goalframe, incurring the displeasure of Mbappe, who was ready to come up on the right side. Just when the two cores of the team seemed to want to "have a good conversation", Bayern quickly sent a goal kick, and Bruchtel passed the ball directly to left-back Nick Schulz, who took advantage of Mbappe's misposition to dribble forward and drew Odriosola to the top of the wall after a wall collision with his central team-mate to avoid Valverde's interception, and sent a precise long-range through ball to Jose Gomez who ran into the open area behind Real Madrid's right-back.
Although the Portuguese striker was marked by Vallejo, the huge difference in speed and ability between the two men made it easy for the former to throw the Spanish international more than three meters away when he caught up with the ball. Although Gomez's footwork is not on par with a top star like Mbappe, Real Madrid's backfield is now an open field, as long as he can ensure that he will not make mistakes in the straight stride, then he can directly face Courtois after cutting inside, because Varane has physical problems in the defense, and the speed is not as fast as before, and he is obviously unable to prevent the appearance of a single goal.
In desperation, the Belgian international chose to abandon the goal, and met the opposing striker in the penalty area about three or four meters away from the penalty spot on the left side. Gomez doesn't seem to have enough confidence in his shooting skills, so he chose to accelerate and change direction to shake the ball past the Real Madrid goalkeeper, and Courtois, although he adjusted his pace for the first time, reacted a little slower because of his passive position, in order to prevent the opponent from shooting directly after opening the angle, he could only choose to gamble and fall to the ground to block and wait for the opportunity to catch the ball.
However, he misjudged the extent of the Bayern striker's dribbling of the ball, perhaps due to the technical ability of his feet, and the latter's step diagonally out was very large, and it was far greater than that of the average player, leaving Courtois, who is tall and armed, empty.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper's heart suddenly cooled, knowing that his goal was very likely to be lost, but he had two choices at this moment. The first is to completely surrender and hope that the opponent will make a super low-level mistake in the face of the golden opportunity to kick the empty goal.
The second is to raise the outstretched right hand and grab Gomez's right foot, which is sprinting with all his might, and drop him to the ground. However, it will undoubtedly be a red card and penalty package, but it can give the team a chance to try to save themselves, although the probability of success is not too high in theory, but at least it is much better than the first option, but the team can only play one less player in the next ten minutes.
1-1 against 11, 1-1 on 10 against 10, or 1-1 on 10 against 10, how the final stage of this semi-final will play out is just in the mind of Courtois.
In the end, sanity got the upper hand in his mind, and he didn't add any extra moves to ensure that he could stay on the pitch and continue to play for the team. However, the score of the game changed two seconds later, and it was almost a goal that killed the suspense of promotion, and if they want to reach the final venue at the Stadio Speros Luis in Greece on June 1, Real Madrid will have to score four goals in the 14 minutes before the final whistle blows (three minutes of injury time is expected), an impossible task that even Ethan Hunt and his IMF team will not be able to do, because it is much more difficult than saving the world.
Against the backdrop of the excited celebration of Bayern members inside and outside the stadium, the entire Bernabeu stadium seemed so quiet, which was in stark contrast to the noise of up to 100 decibels a minute ago, sadness, despair, and giving up, this is probably the evolution of the psychological state of most fans at the moment, even Li Mudi, who has always believed that there is hope, is a little overwhelmed at this moment.
But the status of the manager of the world's No. 1 club immediately reminded him of what to do next, first explaining to his assistant Platz that he should use the last substitution, and then recruiting Marcos Llorente, who was closest to him and had replaced Ceballos before, to his eyes, encouraging the latter to let go of the baggage in his heart and continue to grit his teeth and stick to the aggressive strategy.
In the end, Li Mudi asked the defender to return to the field and conveyed his words to all Real Madrid players, that is, "Since the game has reached this level, don't care about whether you can complete the comeback, but let all the fans who support us all over the world see how tenacious and unyielding Real Madrid has and the spirit of striving for victory, which is the only reward we can give to the fans." ”
It's hard to say what effect this "chicken soup for the soul" has brought to the players, but after the whistle for the restart sounded in a very quiet stadium environment, the home team once again launched pressure on Bayern's penalty area at all costs, still leaving only two central defenders to mark the opposition's lone striker, who did not seem to be afraid of Bayern's possible sharp counterattack.
The Bundesliga giants, who had thought they would give up their efforts because of the goal, were clearly unprepared for this situation, and their defensive attention was not as focused as before, resulting in their own goal being fatally threatened twice in the next three minutes. Früchtel was unable to keep out Kutche's low shot in the 83rd minute when he blocked Villarlivre's header from just in front of the six-yard box, allowing the ball to go into the back of the net for the second time in the game.
2-1, Real Madrid scored a goal to take the lead again with about ten minutes left in the game, but it still did not have much impact on the outcome of the entire series.
However, the players have not changed their belief in the desire to score more goals, even if their physical strength has long been pushed to the limit, and it is all thanks to strong willpower to be able to maintain high-intensity movements. And this performance also stimulated the home fans in the stadium, even if there were still not many people who thought that the team still had hope of a comeback, but the spirit of never giving up on the field still touched the seemingly cold but in fact enthusiastic Melinger, and the cheering shouts that had disappeared before broke out again in the stands of the Bernabeu.
The cheering of "Hala Madird" continued to transmit invisible energy in the ears of the players, giving their already exhausted legs the motivation to continue running, and launched wave after wave of impact on the equally exhausted Bayern players.
In the 85th minute, Goretzka was frantically pressed by Asensio when he controlled the ball at the back, and his teammates were entangled by other Real Madrid players for a while. The German midfielder, who was unwilling to risk being tackled, chose to use his strong body to protect the ball first, and then see if he could find a safe passing route, but he did not expect that the Spanish star's not so powerful body could burst out with enough power to shake his body, and just a slam on the shoulder made Goretzka lose his balance and the ball was immediately taken away from his feet.
If the scale were more strict, it could have been whistled as a foul for stealing the ball, but today's Swiss referee Sandro Schaller chose to relax the criteria a little in the closing stages of the game, naturally in order to make the matchup more exciting for fans around the world, otherwise it would be no different from blowing the whistle for the end of the game early, which UEFA and all neutral fans do not want.
After two successive passes, Villarivre fended off a defender two steps to the right of the penalty spot and completed an irregular shot, but unfortunately it was slightly wide of the post due to interference, and almost completed two consecutive strikes in a short period of time.
However, Real Madrid did not live up to everyone's "care", and scored their third goal of the game at the end of regular time, changing the aggregate score of the two sides to 3-4, at least the way they left the Champions League stage would not seem so miserable.
Just two goals away from a comeback is definitely good news for the home side, but time is running out, and four minutes of stoppage time is not enough, but it leaves one last glimmer of hope.
As a result, when Mbappe, who scored with a volley, wanted to pick up the ball in the net as soon as possible and put it back in the center circle, Bayern goalkeeper Früchtel took the lead in scooping the ball into his arms, wanting to kill the game time. The two of them immediately sparked a more intense physical conflict because of the scramble, and both received the gift of yellow gem cards, but because of this, they also fulfilled the wish of the away team, and lost about 40 seconds in vain, attracting huge boos from the fans at the scene.
In the Champions League campaign with only 180 seconds left for Real Madrid this season, they still completed a miracle that was not considered a miracle, and before the referee had already begun to look at his watch and was about to blow the whistle for the end of the game, Asensio forced the ball to cut into the box from the left side, and fell to the ground under the reinforcement of the opposing two defenders, which was considered by Schaller to be a foul by the visiting player, which once again caused strong dissatisfaction from Bayern.
It was only when Mbappe smashed the ball into the top right corner of the goal in one fell swoop and brought the aggregate score to a magical 4-4, before he could rush over again to scoop the ball out, two short and one long whistles sounded.
Although the Galacticos won back the three-goal deficit they lost in Munich in the second leg of the home matchup, they were still blocked out of the final due to the fact that they were behind in the number of away goals, and unfortunately missed the opportunity to create a miracle.
Although they have already won the Copa del Rey and are only half a step away from La Liga, their early exit from the Champions League has made it difficult to say that they have been perfect all season.
Li Mudi's first season back to his parent club ushered in the closing moment in such a slightly legendary way.