Chapter 91: The Second Round

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Mourinho quickly left the pitch after shaking hands with Leonardo after the game, and at this moment he did not want to be the center of attention. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info He knows that after the game there will be media re-excavation of his old story with Inter Milan, but for him it doesn't matter anymore and he prefers to focus on the game itself.

In his post-match press conference, Jose Mourinho was asked about his feelings for Inter Milan, and his answer was unremarkable, expressing both respect for his former club and reaffirmation of his loyalty to Real Madrid.

Chu Zhongtian's excellent performance in this game has also become the focus of everyone's discussion after the game, some Chinese reporters asked Mourinho to evaluate Chu Zhongtian's performance since joining Real Madrid for most of the season, although everyone knows that Chu Zhongtian's performance is very good, but they just want to hear the praise of Chu Zhongtian from the mouth of the world's number one head coach to satisfy their vanity as Chinese.

Jose Mourinho did not disappoint them either, praising Chu Zhongtian's performance.

In fact, Chu Zhongtian's performance in this game was indeed very good, and he fully deserved such praise and the pursuit of the media.

If he hadn't opened the scoring in the game, no one knows where this game would have developed, and perhaps Inter Milan, who had the home advantage, gradually took the initiative and won the game in the end.

Because of Chu Zhongtian, even if it is a draw now, Real Madrid can return to the home stadium to face Inter Milan with an away goal.

In the two-legged knockout round, Real Madrid has taken the lead.

Chu Zhongtian was also besieged by reporters in the mixed zone, and his performance in this game was excellent, and according to Real Madrid's current form, Real Madrid's hopes of reaching the Champions League final again are high, because after the quarter-finals, their opponents in the semi-finals are not too strong. The other quarter-final match in this region is between two underdogs. They are the Moscow Spartans from Russia and the Celts from Scotland. Regardless of who wins or loses these two teams, with the strength of Real Madrid, it will be easy to suppress them and advance to the final. So the difficulty was in the quarter-finals with Inter Milan.

Now Real Madrid are off to a good start on the road.

If Real Madrid can really reach the final, Chu Zhongtian will hope to become a player who has won the Champions League for two teams in a row, and this is the most important purpose of his transfer from Hoffenheim to Real Madrid.

After the match in Meazza was over, Real Madrid flew straight back to Madrid, the capital of Spain.

Where they play another domestic league game, then it's the second leg between the two sides.

In preparation for the second leg of next Wednesday's clash with Inter Milan, Mourinho will use a rotating line-up for the weekend's clash with Racing Santander, with Chu Zhongtian and others all set to get a break.

Especially Chu Zhongtian, although the end of the season is approaching, whether it is a championship or a relegation, the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and it has become white-hot. Racing Santander are currently just five points clear of the relegation zone. In order to avoid relegation, even away from home, Racing Santander will do their best to win.

So Mourinho is worried that this will greatly increase the chance of injury to players on his side. In fact, Real Madrid have not had any key players injured so far, and Mourinho has already felt lucky. But luck can't go on forever.

In order to protect his important players, Mourinho decided to rest Chu Zhongtian, C. Ronaldo and Kaka, as well as Alonso, in the match against Racing Santander.

and Racing Santander, he sent basically a rotation player, Gareth. Gareth Bale replaced Marcelo, Arbeloa came on as a substitute for Ramos, the two centre-backs were Albiol and Gary, the two midfielders were Khedira and Granero, the forward defenders were Di Maria and Mesut Ozil, and the forwards were Karim Benzema and Adebayor who started.

Jose Mourinho plays 4231 most of the time and 442 in rotation because there are not enough people in midfield and the strikers have plenty to spare...... Jose Mourinho doesn't think he will lose to Racing Santander at home with such a large rotation, after all, this set of squads is very strong in terms of winning and fighting.

In fact, Real Madrid swept Racing Santander 4-1 at their home stadium to push them directly to the brink of the relegation zone.

However, Barcelona also won, and the gap between the two sides is still one point.

The battle has reached a fever pitch.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are currently in contention for the Champions League and domestic league titles, with Real Madrid also having a Copa del Rey final to play. It can be said that three fronts are fighting at the same time.

Such a high-intensity game and the intensity of winning the championship continue to stimulate the players of the two teams, and it depends on who is now strained by this high pressure and loses.

The Real Madrid players are now keenly aware of how much pressure can be on the frontrunners.

If it weren't for Mourinho's ability to regulate the psychological emotions of the players, it is estimated that Real Madrid would have collapsed by itself long ago...... Chu Zhongtian also felt that kind of pressure, whether it was in Metz or Hoffenheim, in fact, Chu Zhongtian did not experience the feeling of being a leader, Metz and Hoffenheim were chasing most of the time, and occasionally had the opportunity to sit on the top spot in the league, and they would soon come down, at least they were always in the process of alternating league rankings.

Real Madrid have been in great form this season, having not lost in 32 league games so far...... They have been sitting at the top of the league since their 2-0 home win over Barcelona in the 16th round of the league.

It has been 16 rounds of leadership, and such a long lead process has become more and more of an ordeal for all Real Madrid players.

Every game has to be played carefully, whether they play first or Barcelona play first. Barcelona won, they have a lot of pressure and have to win; They were under equal pressure to play first, because they didn't know if Barcelona would be able to win, so it was safest to win first.

In short, there is a lot of pressure no matter what.

Chu Zhongtian is not a person who is afraid of pressure, and now he is a little nervous in the face of Barcelona's aggressive pressing.

In his opinion, the pressure is even greater than the pressure of going to a Champions League final, because the Champions League final is just one game, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes, or even longer - if you want to play a penalty shootout.

And what about the league now? Every round of the league is like a Champions League final for Real Madrid players, and the pressure of each game is amazing.

And this pressure can't be released by losing, because if you lose, the pressure will be even more - who is not under pressure if you lose the championship?

So I can only grit my teeth and hold on, to see who can not hold on to the team first.

In fact, Barcelona's side is not comfortable, their opponent in the Champions League is not weaker than Real Madrid's opponent, the quarter-final Barcelona opponent is Manchester United, first played at Camp Nou, Barcelona won Manchester United a 2:1, it is not an insurance score, because Manchester United got an away goal. And their second leg is still to Old Trafford, which is more dangerous than Real Madrid.

Even so, Pep Guardiola did not give up on the league, and he fielded the best team he could to beat Real Sociedad 2-1 away. The pressure continued to be maintained against Real Madrid.

But what made Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola happier than the victory was the match against Real Sociedad, with no one injured in his players.

That means he can also field his strongest squad against Manchester United.

Even if Barcelona beat Manchester United, he faces the winner between Chelsea and Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. Either of these two teams is much better than Celtic and Spartak Moscow.

In such a situation, Barcelona can still hold on to Real Madrid, and the pressure on Real Madrid can be imagined.

Mourinho didn't have time to think about how much pressure Barcelona had put on his players, and the second leg of Inter Milan was already imminent.

The day after the match against Racing Santander, Mourinho gave the players who played against Racing Santander a recovery session, mainly to train their fitness to prevent injuries from being too tired in training. Those who did not play increased their training volume, and at the end of the training session, Mourinho also arranged an intra-team match, in this way to help the players maintain the game, so as not to lose form because they did not play a game.

Chu Zhongtian, C. Ronaldo and Kaka are all the ones who didn't get a minute of play time in this game.

Towards the end of the league draw, Mourinho gave more appearances to players who don't usually have easy access to game time, as well as youngsters who were brought in from the second team.

In training, Chu Zhongtian showed his good form, which reassured Mourinho.

Now the core of Real Madrid is Chu Zhongtian, if Chu Zhongtian is in good shape, then Real Madrid's state will not be bad, and if other people are in good shape, you can expect a big victory.

Chu Zhongtian belongs to the kind of player Mourinho likes most - he is serious in training, has a work ethic, does his best on the pitch, does whatever it takes to win, keeps a low profile and works hard in life, and maintains good habits to ensure that his good form can continue.

On Tuesday, Inter's plane arrived at Madrid airport, accompanied by about 10,000 Inter fans.

In fact, Real Madrid's home Bernabeu did not provide so many tickets to the away team at all, and only 3,000 lucky people could actually enter the stadium to watch the game, and at that time, such a small number of people could not afford any storm in front of 70,000 Real Madrid fans.

As for the rest, they can only watch the game live on TV from the outside of the stadium or in bars and hotels.

It stands to reason that since they are all watching TV, it is the same in Madrid and Milan, but these people still choose to come to Madrid just to show their support for their team.

Inter Milan fans know very well what kind of situation their team is facing now, this trip to Madrid can be described as a lot of bad luck, because of this, it is necessary to give them maximum support, not to go to the stadium to watch the game, but to follow the team to Madrid, to make a strong noise, let the Inter Milan players know that they will always be with the team.

For a time, there were many more patrols on the streets of Madrid, and the security forces were strengthened. The atmosphere of the competition is getting stronger and stronger.

And at this time, in the sports city, Real Madrid is still training as usual. Jose Mourinho called Pepe, who was sent off in the last game, to attend the press conference with him.

For Pepe's red card, the Spanish media protested after the game, thinking that the referee's sentence was too heavy, just give a penalty, at most give a yellow card, there is no need to directly give a red card to Pepe off the field.

Real Madrid did not protest much, they apparently confessed. Mourinho also made no comment on this.

The two legs of the Champions League semi-finals between Barcelona and Real Madrid last season were very hot, and there was a lot of debate about red cards and fake falls on the pitch after the game, and Mourinho and Real Madrid were warned by UEFA to be quiet.

So now Real Madrid FC is much more well-behaved.

Of course, Pepe's penalty was unquestionable, and the argument for the red card was not very tenable. So everyone handled the matter in a low-key manner. This season, Fiorentino's request to Mourinho is to argue less off the pitch and put more experience on the pitch in order to win a convincing title. He really can't stand Barcelona's monopoly on Spanish football, and he plans to monopolize European football.

The Spanish Super Cup at the beginning of the season simply couldn't satisfy Fiorentino, it was a chicken rib championship trophy, and it was a shame to be proud of that trophy - since when did Real Madrid cheer for a chicken rib title?

In his press conference, Mourinho answered questions about Real Madrid's goals for the season. Mourinho has never said in public what his goals are for this season. But you can guess - for a club like Real Madrid, what else can satisfy them other than the trophy?

But everybody wants to get confirmation from the manager.

A final answer.

"It's the semi-finals – I know what you want to hear, but I'm sorry, it's not fair to our opponents to talk about the championship or the final or anything right now. Inter Milan are a very strong opponent and we have to give it our all to be able to beat them. ”

At this time, Mourinho did not look arrogant at all, and even very low-key and humble.

There was a lot of speculation that it had something to do with his opponent being Inter Milan, and he obviously didn't want to ruin his image in the eyes of Inter Milan fans with those arrogant words. He's a guy who cares a lot about what people think of him, he cares about those comments, and he's still loved and supported by a lot of Chelsea fans at Chelsea, and at Inter Milan too, and he's proud of that.

If you change opponents, I'm afraid that Mourinho will start the psychological warfare he is best at again.

Leonardo was lucky, relying on Inter Milan to avoid being ridiculed by Mourinho - Mourinho wanted to ridicule Leonardo, there are too many reasons and excuses.

Pepe was asked about the red card. Many people are worried that Pepe's unavailability will lay a hidden danger for Real Madrid's backline, and although he will suddenly short-circuit his brain at times, his defensive ability is still quite strong. With him, Real Madrid's backline will be much more solid. Inter Milan didn't play well in the first leg, but if anything, it might have been a red card from Pepe. If Inter Milan want to get back in the second leg, they will have to take advantage of Pepe's inability to play.

Pepe refused to discuss the red card, not even calling out for himself, saying he would be on hand to cheer for his team-mates and hope they can beat Inter Milan to reach the semi-finals.

Even if Real Madrid could advance to the semi-finals, he would not be able to play in the semi-finals of the first leg, but he would always be able to play in the second game.

※※※ Unlike Real Madrid's low-key, Leonardo has been very confident since coming to Madrid.

In an interview with reporters, he said that he came to Madrid to take away a victory.

"It's very simple, we have no other way but to win, so we can only go for it. My players and I are ready. …… It's certainly a very difficult game to play at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid, but we have to win. We'll do our best! ”

Sneijder also expressed his support for the manager.

The home team was beaten 1-1, which was not a good result, but it was not the end of the world. Inter Milan are now united and united.

"I'm good to be back in Madrid. The last time we won the Champions League here, I think it's a stadium that can bring us good luck! ”

Sneijder is no stranger to the Bernabeu Stadium and has previously played for Real Madrid. He didn't have the time to catch up with his former teammates, and the most important thing was to prepare for the game without distractions. He could have gone to his former team-mates after winning the game and progressing to the semi-finals to soothe the wounded hearts, but not now.

In fact, he was definitely not thinking more about catching up with old friends, but about eliminating Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and giving Fiorentino a hard slap in the face.

He still remembers how he felt when he was abandoned by Real Madrid, and he has a deep affection for Mourinho, but that doesn't mean he has to have a deep affection for Real Madrid.

In the first round, he was restrained by Chu Zhongtian, and only improved slightly in the second half as Cambiaso came up to help. But it still didn't help the team win. In this second round, he won't allow himself to perform like he did in the first fight anyway.

Whether it's Chu Zhongtian or Real Madrid, he has to beat!

(To be continued)