Chapter 631: Chelsea again, Tuchel's counterattack
The victory in the national derby not only brought a morale boost to Real Madrid, but also gave Real Madrid a far lead in the standings.
During the week of international breaks, Real Madrid's main players went to the national team and were very tired.
Ancelotti rotated his squad for the weekend against Celta Vigo and rested his squad for the midweek Champions League quarter-finals.
After returning from injury, Benzema played as the main centre-forward, while Rossi sat on the bench.
Real Madrid, who played away, did not play smoothly, and the cooperation between the players was not tacit enough, and the attack was anticlimactic.
The sequelae of the FIFA virus have seriously affected the state of the players.
In the end, it was Benzema who made points in the penalty area and hit it himself, helping Real Madrid win 1:0.
On Wednesday night, Real Madrid welcomed their quarter-final opponents Chelsea at the Bernabeu.
Eden Hazard's injury and exemption card have greatly reduced the strength of Chelsea's forward line.
Tuchel set up a bus at the Bernabeu to try for a draw.
However, in the final fifteen minutes of the game, after Real Madrid stepped up their attack, the Chelsea defence was a little unstoppable.
The effect of the pressure on the defence was that the goalkeeper had to kick the ball forward and lose possession.
But the frequent long passes put a lot of pressure on the players' hearts.
Rossi seized the moment when the opponent's nerves were about to collapse and grabbed goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, causing him to miss the ball and Rossi stretched out his foot to block the ball into the goal.
In the end, Real Madrid won 1-0 at home to Chelsea thanks to Rossi's goal and took the lead in the second leg away to Stamford Bridge.
After the game, Pixie took to the stadium to celebrate the victory with Rossi and thank the fans.
In fact, the purpose of Pixie's coming here is to dominate the crowd.
Since Rossi was invited to participate in the reality show, the radio hostess has frequently appeared in the stadium of Real Madrid matches, giving exclusive reports and post-match interviews.
Her target, of course, is Rosie.
This aroused Pixie's wariness.
Female stars and hostesses are both mature women with temperament, and appearing in the interview screen is enough to make fans shine.
But in terms of aura, Pixie still has to win and crush Daisy.
After the interview, Pixie brought the news that Mrs. Cheng had contacted Rossi's parents and agreed to meet next Wednesday.
It was the second leg against Chelsea.
"I've got three VIP tickets and I'm watching you play at the stadium with my aunt and uncle. As soon as the game is over, we will go to the Chengjia Hotel. β
Rosie didn't expect to see her parents again in the stadium.
I wonder if at that moment, the parents will be proud of their choice?
In the 31st round of La Liga, Real Madrid defeated Getafe 2-0 at home, completing the feat of defeating 19 teams in La Liga this season, and in the standings, it is as much as ten points ahead of second-place Barcelona.
Real Madrid has taken another big step on the road to defending the league title.
12 April, Stamford Bridge, London, Fulham.
As a Premier League giant, Chelsea can only accommodate more than 40,000 spectators in the stadium, which is the biggest loss for fans.
On the way to the stadium, fans raised their arms and cheered for the team from time to time.
Because they know that the team will face a heavyweight opponent Real Madrid today.
As long as they win this Champions League team, Chelsea will have no rivals in the next road to promotion.
By the time the players from both sides warmed up, the stadium was already full, and the blue home jerseys turned the stands into a sea of blue.
There are not many seats, but the pressure is not small.
The small number of Real Madrid fans who arrived were squeezed into the seats behind the goal, feeling the pressure from all sides.
Last season, Real Madrid knocked out Chelsea in the semi-finals, and the famous scene of home fans leaving the stadium early is still fresh in my mind.
This time, Chelsea are back in action to defend their home honours.
Thomas Tuchel's conservative performance in the first leg led to a rout after being suppressed by Real Madrid in the second half.
Although the impact of conceding one goal on the second leg was not that great, it was enough to attract Tuchel's attention in terms of formation.
In the starting line-up, Chelsea have lined up a three-centre-back system led by Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva and Reece James.
But Marquez Alonso's presence at left wing-back is actually a signal for Chelsea to play with a back four.
Mateo Kovacic, N'Golo Kante and Loftus-Cheek were in midfield.
Kai Havertz plays in midfield.
In front of him are Eden Hazard and Timo Werner, who have returned from injury.
On the Real Madrid side, MilitΓ£o's absence has weakened Real Madrid's defensive ability to resist pressure.
Nacho can make up for the gap, but in the high-altitude defense, he is a little thin.
Valverde's replacement for Vinicius was the biggest change for Carlo Ancelotti in this game.
This change is due to Chelsea's protection of depth, which has made Real Madrid's counter-attacks on both wings lose speed.
Valverde is not as capable as Vinicius in individual combat, but his physical impact and technique can take care of both offensive and defensive ends.
Polish referee Marciniak led the players of both sides onto the pitch under the brilliant fireworks at Stamford Bridge.
Guess the coin in the middle circle, Real Madrid gets the right to attack first.
As the whistle blew, the second leg between the two sides officially began.
Chelsea play a three-centre-back, ensuring that the midfield can invest more players and press Real Madrid forward.
In the opening stages, Chelsea pressed fiercely, and at one point Real Madrid were forced to pass around the penalty area, and the threat increased sharply.
Fortunately, the Real Madrid midfielder and Valverde ensure the quality of the ball on the premise of ensuring the ability to withstand pressure.
But such a tug-of-war is obviously not in line with Real Madrid's tactical system of passing control + speeding up, and is more suitable for Barcelona's passing control.
Therefore, Carvajal's forward insertion is the key for Real Madrid to break the pressure at the back.
On the right side, Modric will move closer to the flanks and form a passing link before Carvajal or Valverde will find space to move forward.
Valverde's strength is not only that his speed and impact can bring Real Madrid up to speed, but also that his tacit cooperation with the midfield, reducing long balls and using ground cooperation to penetrate.
In the seventh minute, the Real Madrid midfielder sent a through ball forward and broke through the Chelsea defence.
Rossi was about to accelerate with the ball on the wing, but Kante behind him touched the ball first, causing him to lose control of the ball and then James cut off the ball.
Two minutes later, Ernesto Valverde was under similar siege on the other flank, with Real Madrid failing to threaten the Chelsea defence in the opening stages.
Seeing that the team's lack of confrontation in the front field led to the collapse of the midfield defence, Tuchel asked his players to strengthen the defense in order to delay Real Madrid's advance, and not to rush easily.
Sure enough, it worked.
Real Madrid's characteristic is to speed up, and the Chelsea players used confrontation to curb the advance of Real Madrid players for the first time, which also cut off Real Madrid's acceleration in attack.
Moreover, Chelsea were defending Rossi and deliberately used Reece James to mark the line.
Rossi isn't afraid of the stalker-beating Reece James, but rather the omnipresent N'Golo Kante.
With N'Golo Kante's support, Rossi didn't pose enough threat on the left and had to detour to the flanks and the middle in search of space to get forward.
In the 12th minute, Real Madrid attacked, Rossi retreated in the middle to respond, and immediately stepped forward after passing to Benzema, pulling the defense line and making room for his teammates.
However, N'Golo Kante suddenly came out from behind and rounded up Benzema with Rudiger to cut off the ball.
After Chelsea strengthened their physical confrontation, the quality of their defence instantly rose a notch, and Real Madrid's offensive was resolved one by one, and they began to slowly grasp the ball.
After winning possession, Chelsea began to counter-attack.
Their attacking focus was on Nacho in the left rib area.
Eden Hazard began to move frequently down the left flank, pulling Ernesto Valverde back from his position up front and making him afraid to press forward easily.
Kai Havertz and Timo Werner then moved closer to this flank and linked up with Eden Hazard to try to break through Nacho's defence.
For a time, the Real Madrid defense was under tremendous pressure.
Not only on the ground, but Chelsea also tried to suppress Real Madrid in the air.
Real Madrid was under the continuous pressure of the opponent, the defense was loose, and the players only cared about clearing the siege, and did not convert attack and defense at all.
In the 20th minute, Marcos Alonso intercepted Real Madrid's clearance ball from the perimeter, then glanced at the box and crossed with his feet.
Rudiger stepped forward to get in on the attack, jumped high and beat Alaba to head the ball down the middle.
Although Courtois made a save, the ball was too fast to react, and the ball flew into the net after hitting his finger.
[The ball is in!] γ
[Rudiger has made a meritorious service! γ
[He scored a crucial goal for Chelsea!] γ
[Real Madrid's air defense capability is finally exposed! ] γ
[Alaba only cares about the ball in front of him, and he can't see Rudiger behind him clearly! γ
[Eventually causing the team to concede a goal!] γ
[The total score of the two sides came to 1:1!] γ
[Next, if Real Madrid does not make adjustments, Tuchel will definitely grasp this weakness and strike wildly!] γ
[Because Chelsea are one goal away from qualifying!] γ