Real Madrid, who returned from Saudi Arabia, were greeted by a grand ceremony before their home game against Getafe a week later.

This is a tradition that has been passed down from La Liga.

If a team can win the league early, the visitors will be lined up for their first game back at home.

Except, of course, sworn enemies.

Later, whenever he won a tournament and returned to his home stadium for the first match, his opponents would line up to greet him.

After taking a photo with the Spanish Super League championship trophy, the two sides began to play.

The two clubs had a good relationship, and with the welcome at the beginning, Real Madrid played very well, winning 2-0 and continuing the pursuit of Barcelona at the top of the table.

The next two opponents were Sevilla and Valladolid, and Real Madrid rotated the line-up and finally won the opponent without danger.

In the 1/8 finals of the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid played as a substitute lineup, defeating Zaragoza 4:0 and advancing to the top 8 of the Copa del Rey.

Heading into February, Real Madrid began to enter the devil's schedule of double matches a week.

At the league level, Real Madrid's opponents are Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, Celta Vigo and Levante.

Except for the match against Atletico Madrid, which was at home, the other three games were all away.

In the round of 8 of the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid met the difficult Real Sociedad.

In the Champions League round of 16 draw, Real Madrid, the second place in the group, met the powerful Manchester City.

After the end of February, Real Madrid's first opponent in March was Barcelona.

Then came the second leg against Manchester City.

Faced with the grim schedule, Zidane spoke with Florentino for two hours in the president's office.

The Real Madrid president is most keen to intervene in the transfer of the team, because it can directly bring huge commercial value and influence to the club.

As for how to play, that's the manager's business.

Therefore, Real Madrid's previous managers are not easy to be.

It's so hard to have a star on the pitch and look good and be able to win.

However, there are only three people who can do this in Real Madrid in the past ten years.

Jose Mourinho is a man of Real Madrid's reconstruction.

In order to overthrow Barcelona's dominance in La Liga, Real Madrid gave him a high degree of freedom, and even after being humiliated by Barcelona 5:0, Florentino still supported him.

The league won the championship by 100 points, and Ronaldo's header victory in the Copa del Rey is the best proof of this.

However, the defeat in the Champions League, coupled with the escalation of conflicts with the players, made Mourinho finally sack.

The second is Carlo Ancelotti, whose ability to watch people cook and his good personality make Real Madrid stars coexist and play beautiful football at the same time.

Although he did not win the league title, the Champions League and Copa del Rey won him to stay in his position.

However, in the second season after the glory, Real Madrid, who had no results, decided to part ways with Ancelotti.

The last person is now Real Madrid's head coach Zinedine Zidane.

Adept at dealing with the dressing room and players, he has gone from a rookie coach to a decorated coach with two Champions League trophies under his belt.

Therefore, even if the big four were empty last season, Florentino was still willing to give him a chance.

This meeting is the most important one about Zidane's coaching career at Real Madrid.

Today's Real Madrid is facing a choice in the three-front battle.

Will it be the Champions League, or will multiple battlefields go hand in hand?

With Real Madrid's current staffing and heritage, it is enough to support multi-front operations.

What bothers Real Madrid is never the squad, but the pressure from the club.

The frequent change of coach has made the time and space for trial and error of the previous Real Madrid managers very small.

At a critical juncture in the second half of the schedule, there may also be player injuries, causing the multi-front operation to collapse within a month.

So, a trade-off has to be made.

Compared to the Champions League and the league, the Copa del Rey has become one of the first competitions that Real Madrid abandons.

But today, Florentino gave Zidane the task of being a third-tier champion, which made Zidane a little embarrassed.

Not to mention the difficulty of the Champions League, even after the long 38 rounds of La Liga, there is no guarantee that the championship will be won.

The more critical the tournament gets, the greater the psychological pressure on the manager and the players.

Now that the Copa del Rey is counted, the pressure on the team has increased a lot.

Zidane can only promise the chairman that he will protect the Champions League or league title, and if he can't do it, he will leave the class.

After two hours of verbal warfare, Florentino finally compromised, and as long as he could win one of the two, Zidane could continue to coach Real Madrid.

Zidane, who walked out of the chairman's office, did not breathe a sigh of relief.

He knew Florentino too well.

Today he compromised, just a championship.

Then next year, he will ask for two.

As Chair, his request was reasonable.

After all, last summer, he brought himself the Rosie of his heart.

But as a manager, it's not just good players who win all the titles.

As soon as Zidane returned to his office, he held a meeting to discuss how the team would make arrangements for the upcoming February game.

After an afternoon of discussions, Real Madrid decided to abandon the Copa del Rey and concentrate on competing for the La Liga title and the Champions League.

With a clear policy in place, Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid 3-0 in their first game in February.

In the next 1/4 finals of the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid lost to Real Sociedad 3:4 and was eliminated.

Interestingly, when Real Madrid was eliminated, the Bernabeu booed very little, which also shows that the Meilinger fans do not take the Copa del Rey seriously.

In the next three consecutive back-to-back away games, Real Madrid won 2 and drew 1, and passed the test in a thrilling way.

After 25 rounds of league matches, Real Madrid is 3 points behind Barcelona and is in second place in the standings.

Next, Real Madrid will face two home games, Manchester City and Barcelona.

These are also the three most important games related to the Champions League and the league title.

If Real Madrid fails to make it through, then Zidane will receive a notice of dismissal from Real Madrid the day after the defeat.

Just when the outside world was paying attention to Zidane's "life and death", the Frenchman held Pintus's report and smiled.

After giving up the Copa del Rey and making rotations, Real Madrid's players are in good physical condition for the next three back-to-back games.

Especially on the injury list, except for Mariano, all 24 players in Real Madrid's first team are healthy, giving Zidane more options in terms of lineup tactics.

However, Manchester City are not easy to deal with.

Before the match against Real Madrid, Manchester City were eliminated from the EFL Cup after losing 1-0 to Manchester United.

In the league, Manchester City accumulated 57 points in the first 29 rounds of games, with one less game, 25 points behind Liverpool at the top of the table, and basically missed the league title.

Manchester City, who have only two cups left, have players who are better than Real Madrid physically and mentally.

Pep Guardiola was so confident that he and his team took a flight to Madrid.

(End of chapter)