Chapter 131: The starting lineup

readx;

When the Real Madrid bus arrived at the stadium, the square resounded with the cheers of the mountains and tsunamis, and even the cheers of Abel and Cornelia who were sitting down in the stadium could be heard clearly. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info shows the incredible magnitude of the momentum.

Later, after the Barcelona bus arrived, Abel and Cornelia heard the cheers outside in the stadium that seemed to be louder than just now, and the two of them looked at each other and smiled, knowing that this was the Barcelona fans who were unwilling to let the Real Madrid fans suppress their momentum. This is how the two sides are battling.

Not long after this cheer, the number of fans entering the stadium increased significantly, and the queue at the entrance became longer and longer.

Fans from both sides began to enter, and the security and police in the stadium were like enemies. All entrances were opened and all ticket gates were overcrowded.

The media did not forget to shoot this spectacular scene: "Look at it! This is the strongest matchup in the history of the Champions League! This match will fill up the Allianz Arena! ”

Fans began to enter the stadium and wait for the game to begin, while players from both sides stepped off their buses and entered the locker rooms directly through the dedicated aisle.

After a short break in the locker room, it's time to warm up.

Before they even went in, there were already TV broadcasters who went in to shoot it. Later, television viewers in various countries will be able to see the signal provided by the broadcaster through the television station. They will see the jerseys of both teams in the dressing room, as well as a few other details.

Barcelona went into the home dressing room, Real Madrid went into the away dressing room.

In the dressing room, their jerseys, boots and even socks are ready for them, thanks to the team staff who arrived early on the pitch and left the work to the professionals to keep them focused on preparing for the game.

Chu Zhongtian walked into the away dressing room at the Allianz Stadium, and a familiar feeling came to his face - he had played in the Bundesliga for three seasons, and he had never walked into the home team's dressing room, and he used the away team's dressing room when he came. This time I represented Real Madrid to play the Champions League final, but I didn't expect that it was the away team that was still drawn. He seems to have a real affinity with the visiting dressing room.

He walked in and looked at the Real Madrid shirt hanging on the wall. In a trance, he saw these white jerseys in front of him as Hoffenheim's away jerseys, and the figures shaking in front of him were not Real Madrid's teammates, but Ibisevic, Salihovic, Sana, Van Nistelrooy, Obasi and others...... He still vaguely remembers how they felt when they first came to the stadium.

Before that game, the media hyped up the match between Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich to the level of subverting the Bundesliga tradition and challenging the old with the new. Few people think it's nice that they can lose a few fewer goals at the Allianz Arena.

As a result, Hoffenheim, who were not favored in that game, drew away from home with the mighty Bayern Munich.

With this draw, Hoffenheim won the winter title and eventually won the Bundesliga title that season, shocking the entire German football world and creating a "country fairy tale" that is no less than the "Kaiserslautern miracle". Starting with this league title, Hoffenheim completed their most impressive feat two seasons later – they beat Barcelona in the Champions League final to lift the European Cup in history!

All country fairy tales start with this game, from the away dressing room at this stadium. Ralph. Rangnick slapped his young hillbillies and encouraged them: "...... It's a great opportunity for us to show ourselves to the world, and if we miss it, we won't have it again! ”

Chu Zhongtian found that this sentence was also very suitable for today's situation.

It's the best chance to beat Barcelona again in the Champions League final and if you miss it, you won't have to.

Next season, of course, our goal is to win the title, but there are always surprises of one kind or another in the long set of races, and no one knows if we will actually make it to the final. And even if they break into the finals again, who will be the opponent on the opposite side? It's not a good chance of being Barcelona. Now it's different, now that we're in the finals, what's the reason not to fight for this one?

He walked over to his jersey and began to take off his formal suit, change into his training clothes, and prepare to go out to warm up.

β€»β€»β€»In the stands of the Allianz Arena, fans are rapidly filling the modern stadium with a capacity of 66,000 people.

The same is true in the VIP box.

Those invited sponsors, football celebrities, and political bigwigs have crowded into the box, taking advantage of the time before the game to chat with new or old acquaintances.

Rangnick was sitting in the box, he had been invited by Klinsmann, and if he had bought his own ticket to come in to watch the game, he would have been sitting in a regular seat. These VIP boxes are not sold to the public at all, and the duration of these tickets is counted by years, and they are generally chartered by wealthy people for several years.

Now his friend Klinsmann was entertaining and no one came up to shake his hand, so he sat in his seat and waited quietly for the game to start.

After Klinsmann finished his exchange of pleasantries with his friend, he finally sat down next to Rangnick.

"How does it feel?" Klinsmann asked.

"Honestly...... Somewhat boring. Rangnick said.

"Ha, who asked you how it was like to wait, I asked you how you felt about this game."

"Originally, Barcelona as a whole was far superior to Real Madrid, but now it is different, and the strength of Real Madrid as a whole is almost the same as Barcelona." He said.

Klinsmann smiled: "Is it because of Chu? ”

Rangnick nodded.

"Ralph, if Chu hadn't left the team last summer, would you have the confidence to bring this team to this position again?" Klinsmann gestured to the court below.

Rangnick was silent.

Honestly, it's hard. A team that has reached the final two years in a row has to be a bit of luck in addition to absolute strength.

After all, not any team can reach the Champions League final three times in four years like Barcelona.

After thinking about it for a long time, he finally sighed and admitted his "incompetence": "I can't. ”

"Even if there is Chu, it can't work?"

"No matter how good Chu is, he can't top the whole team, and a team can break into the Champions League final, which is a reflection of comprehensive strength...... With Hoffenheim's current strength, it's very difficult, even if I bought players last summer and increased my strength, I'm afraid it won't work...... The Hoffenheim side used to be hungry for glory, but after they won the Champions League, I could clearly see that their performance was declining. They are no longer hungry and thirsty, and their motivation is low. ”

Klinsmann nodded. He knew that. He's also watching the Bundesliga, and Hoffenheim are on par with the previous two seasons. Some media experts believe that this is the reason for the loss of the core and soul. However, Klinsmann believes that Chu Zhongtian's departure will not have such a big impact, the main thing is that the whole team is not motivated to play the game and the desire for victory is decreasing. A lot of games could have been won in the end, but the players suddenly lost their energy, like a car that had lost power.

So the loss of some games, the media can't understand it.

What's not to understand about this? Hoffenheim are just nouveau riche anyway, and they lack the heritage of a wealthy family. It's too easy to get carried away because of a single peak, lose all your goals, and feel like you can sleep on your credits.

They are not like Bayern Munich, and they are not giants who have won the Champions League once or twice, they are very strict with themselves, they think that winning the championship is the norm and it is taken for granted, so they will go all out in every game, and every championship wants to pursue.

Hope's ambition was to build Hoffenheim into a giant in five to seven years, but UEFA's new policy suddenly disrupted his entire plans. In the absence of any further funding into the team, he had to revise his goal to a current Bundesliga foothold that would ensure that he could stay in the Bundesliga every season and dream of a giant.

So finally being able to win the Champions League is already a "windfall".

Chu Zhongtian's departure was a sign of the end of Hoffenheim's meteoric glory, but it was definitely not the reason for their end, he was at most one of the reasons. Even if he remained in Hoffenheim, he would only let Hoffenheim's decline come a little later, and he would not be able to fundamentally reverse the process. From the player's personal point of view, it is obviously appropriate to leave Hoffenheim, who no longer has any ambitions. This is evident from his first season at Real Madrid, where he reached the Champions League final with the team, and he made the right move.

Chu Zhongtian was not cultivated by Hoffenheim, before he came to Hoffenheim, he had already led the little-known Metz to win the League Cup, otherwise how could he be worth 30 million? A professional player, a professional player with pursuits, of course, will take the championship wherever there is.

Klinsmann has no other opinion on Chu Zhongtian's choice to leave Hoffenheim, it is just a normal job hop.

He's just for his friend Ralph. Rangnick felt pity. He's a manager with ideas, it's a shame not in an environment that's right for him. Just like he was at Bayern Munich. In fact, most managers are not as lucky as Wenger and Ferguson, who can stay in an environment that suits them for ten or twenty years, and most managers are like wandering travelers, looking for a place where he can settle down and feel at ease all his life, so that he can give full play to his thoughts, feelings, and understandings.

He thought Hoffenheim was a good place for Rangnick, but now it seems that it was just a good place.

And he doesn't seem to have found a place for himself yet.

Jose Mourinho is an alternative among them. He doesn't seem to need a place that can suit him for a long time, he just needs to fit himself for a short time to create brilliant results, this man is super adaptable, he is also very adaptable, he has never belonged to any club, he can leave a deep imprint on him everywhere he goes, but it may not be able to leave such a deep imprint on his body.

Klinsmann felt that Mourinho would not be able to do much at Real Madrid either. Now Fiorentino hopes that Real Madrid can break the monopoly of the championship by the arch-rival Barcelona, so he has found Mourinho, who is most suitable for winning the championship quickly.

Jose Mourinho has what it takes, having led the team to the Copa del Rey and La Liga titles in his second season at Real Madrid, and is still hopeful of a treble – the most difficult to achieve for many teams, but under the Portuguese, it seems like breathing. He has already won two trebles with Porto and Inter Milan, and is now about to make his third treble with Real Madrid.

But ironically, when he achieved such a brilliant result, it was also the beginning of the countdown to his departure from Real Madrid. Fiorentino could not tolerate a man threatening his power to remain in the team for long, especially after winning the 10th European Champions League he had dreamed of, and the next step was to purge dissidents and regain power. Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid is very competitive, but in the final analysis, it is not Real Madrid in the traditional sense, and his football is too utilitarian. Florentino still has to return to tradition, when Real Madrid will have no place for Mourinho, every word he says will become the fuse for him to leave, his arrogance will make him rebel in Madrid, if he is smart, it is best to choose to leave after winning the treble, just like Inter Milan, calmly left, while leaving a legend, but also to the successor to leave a glorious back, so that Real Madrid fans always remember his good, But he didn't care about his negative things at all...... Klinsmann patted Rangnick on the shoulder: "I heard that Schalke 04 is touching you?" ”

Rangnick nodded. It's not news that he's leaving Hoffenheim, and there were several times in the middle of last season that he was leaving the team, and his relationship with Hope is not as harmonious as it was at the beginning.

"If you can, you might as well jump over and try it."

"I told them to wait until I watched the final before I decided."

Klinsmann smiled and said nothing more.

While they were chatting, the players from both sides had already run out to warm up, and the atmosphere was warm, and the fans on both sides were more energetic with their singing.

After the warm-up, the players from both sides left the field again. When they come out again, it's time for a big war to break out.

β€»β€»β€» With the players leaving, the Allianz Arena was a little quieter again.

Everyone is recuperating and ready to cheer on their team for the game.

At this time, the starting lists of the two sides have been released, and the on-site reporters and TV stations have already obtained the starting lists provided to them by the tournament side. Generally this starting line-up is the same as the starting line-up for the match at the time, unless a player is injured during the pre-match warm-up and is unable to play.

Pep Guardiola also got Real Madrid's starting line-up, and as he expected, Xavi was hyped up by the media for a while before the game. Alonso was not in the starting line-up and was on the bench.

He laughed - everything was under his control, and there was nothing to worry about at least the game.

He even had some anticipation of Mourinho's expression when he got Barcelona's starting line-up...... In the visiting dressing room next door, Jose Mourinho was indeed stunned after seeing Barcelona's starting line-up.

He saw two midfielders in the starting line-up, one was Butzques and the other was Mascherano, and this time Mascherano was not a cameo centre-back, because there were two other centre-backs in the starting line-up.

And among the forwards, there is a name missing - Barcelona actually gave up the 433 formation they had insisted on for 20 years and played 442 instead!

He was stunned for a moment, then laughed again.

He doesn't think that a few days of surprise training will make Barcelona players familiar and understand 442, and he also agrees with Cruyff's statement that if Guardiola changes his best tactics for this game and changes to another set of tactics that he is unfamiliar with, then it means that Guardiola has been timid before fighting. As soon as he encounters a setback in the game, such as conceding a goal, he will first start to sway from side to side, not knowing whether to stick to this set of tactics or switch back to his traditional tactics. This back-and-forth mood will definitely affect the team's performance, and this impact can be fatal when it matters most.

So he was not afraid at all.

It doesn't matter if Barcelona is 433 or 442, it's the same. If one Butzquez can't prevent Chu Zhongtian, will he add another Mascherano? If it was Mascherano in the early years, maybe it would have been true, but in the past two years, the former Argentine midfield defender has lost his fighting spirit and form on the bench at Barcelona, how much of the old things are left of him?

Mourinho is now very eager to see how Chu Zhongtian singled out these two top midfielders in the game...... He shook the Barcelona starting XI in his hand and said to the players who were changing clothes: "We have got their starting line-up and they have changed the formation - they have sent two midfielders, obviously, to deal with Chu. ”

After everyone heard him say this, they all set their eyes on Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian shrugged his shoulders: "That's great, it's easier to deal with two in one breath than one at a time and two in a row." ”

Seeing Chu Zhongtian so confident, Mourinho smiled: "Don't let me give you a thought, who will be your opponent in the game?" ”

Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "I guess it should be Butzques and Mascherano, one is responsible for tandem attack and defense, controlling the rhythm, and the other is responsible for defense." It's not an unusual combination, and Barcelona has both. ”

Mourinho pouted: "Now that you know everything, then I look forward to your performance." ”

Everyone laughed.

Mourinho coughed: "Gentlemen, please be quiet, I have something to say to you......"

Everyone turned their attention to Chu Zhongtian again.

(To be continued)