Chapter 111: I Am Different From the World. I Can’t Hide when Playing Against Bayern. I Can’t Hide. [Please Subscribe, Big Guys!]
The whole Real Madrid team, which won the La Liga championship again after three years, is extremely excited at this moment!
The old players feel more relieved.
For example, Ramos, Pepe, Casillas, Higuain and others.
They watched their mortal enemy step on their heads and win the championship for three years after winning the championship in the 07-08 season. It is not easy to vent this anger today.
As for players like Ronaldo, Di Maria, Kaka, Benzema and others.
They only have the comfort of simply snatching the championship from Barcelona.
Real Madrid's previous championship has nothing to do with them. They have created a milestone record in their career in Real Madrid.
Real Madrid won the first heavyweight championship!
And now they have sufficient reason to believe that this will not be their last championship trophy this season.
The fans at the scene of Real Madrid are singing, shouting Mourinho, shouting Ronaldo, and shouting the names of every player in the team.
When Mourinho first came to Real Madrid, he promised the fans that he would bring Real Madrid back to where it should be.
Last year, facing Barcelona, he won the King's Cup with a last-minute goal.
Before the start of this season, they defeated Barcelona again in two rounds and won the Spanish Super Cup.
Now, they have successfully returned to the throne of La Liga!
Every Real Madrid fan may have complained about Mourinho's tactics and use of players in the past season.
But, as a classic old saying in football goes.
Fans are forgetful.
Now Real Madrid fans are full of love and gratitude for Mourinho.
Maybe in a week or two, they will complain about Mourinho's tactical style again.
But at least at this moment, they are 100% die-hard supporters behind Mourinho!
With the news of Real Madrid regaining the La Liga championship released to the world.
The Real Madrid players who had already celebrated the first round passionately were also "arrested" by the reporters, and they accepted interviews with different emotions in front of the camera.
Li Ang originally wanted to find Mourinho and Mr. Karanka to celebrate again, but he was intercepted by a female reporter from Marca who was familiar with him.
"First of all, congratulations! Li Ang, you played a dominant performance this season, and now you have regained the La Liga championship. Can you talk about your feelings at the moment?"
Faced with questions from old acquaintances, Li Ang was still relatively relieved. At least if the other party wanted to ask about breaking news, they would clearly ask, and would not set interview traps for him.
"Of course I am very excited. To be honest, in the middle of the season, we thought that the championship would be won in the 35th or even 36th round.
So, this is a surprise, and of course, we all like such surprises very much!"
"Then can you talk about the slogan you shouted on Ronaldo's back a few minutes ago? We seem to have heard that you were reminding the team that will play against Real Madrid in the next round to line up and salute Real Madrid~"
"Ah? Did I say that?"
The female reporter and Li Ang both laughed at this moment, but Li Ang finally answered the other's question directly.
"Okay, okay. This is a good tradition. Of course, I mean, if Barcelona lines up to salute us in the next round, then there is no doubt that their mind and demeanor will make their supporters proud, and we will naturally be very happy because we have received the respect we deserve."
Li Ang's answer was quite standard. After all, he had won a whole season, and he didn't want to force any public opinion trouble.
"Okay, the last question is, you are about to face Bayern Munich in the first round of the Champions League semi-finals. Do you have the confidence to win against Bayern?"
"Personally, I am confident! And we have come this far. If we don't have ambition and pursuit for the final victory, it would be disrespectful to all the participating teams. Wait for our good news, hala madrid!!!"
Li Ang finally clenched his fist and shouted a slogan with his determination to the live camera, then returned the microphone and trotted back to the field to continue looking for the figure of Uncle Bird.
Ten minutes later, amid the enthusiastic applause and cheers of the fans on the scene, the Real Madrid players wearing the championship T-shirts also responded with applause and returned to the player channel one by one.
More happiness and passion were left to the fans themselves. The Real Madrid players needed to calm down their mood of winning the championship as soon as possible and rush to their other important battlefield.
※※※
No hangover, no laziness.
On the afternoon of April 15, the entire Real Madrid team received a physical examination on time and started a new round of recovery training.
The joyful atmosphere of winning the championship is still hanging over the Valdebebas training base.
Logically speaking, Real Madrid's players should at least get a one- to two-day vacation.
But the reality is helpless. After the game with Sporting Gijon, Real Madrid only has two and a half days of rest time.
They are about to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals.
So Mourinho only dared to squeeze out half a day to let his disciples and family relax.
While the players took a short break to enjoy the taste of winning the championship, Real Madrid's coaching team was still preparing for the game.
At present, the only good news for Mourinho is that Bayern Munich also finished a round of league games on April 14, which was yesterday.
Heynckes arranged a lineup of starting and rotating players, hoping to keep Bayern's hope of overtaking Dortmund and winning the championship at the last moment.
But obviously, he failed.
Bayern was tied by Mainz at home, nine points behind Dortmund, and there are only three rounds left in the Bundesliga.
In theory, Bayern still has the last glimmer of hope to win the championship.
That is, Dortmund will lose three games in a row and Bayern will win three games in a row. In this way, Bayern can win the Bundesliga championship with the advantage of goal difference.
But this year's Dortmund is not the Dortmund of the 2022-2023 season.
The confident Hornets fans started celebrating when the result of Bayern's draw came.
It can be said that the Dortmund fans and Real Madrid fans were in the same mood last night.
The injured Bayern fans can only hope that the team can move forward bravely in the Champions League and comfort their injured hearts with a victory over Real Madrid.
The two super teams that also consumed a round of physical energy before the Champions League battle did not have much time advantage in rest.
From this point of view, this matchup is relatively fair.
On the afternoon of April 16, the main players of Real Madrid who had completed the training session followed the coaching staff on an away trip to Germany.
The battle was about to start, and almost all European sports media also focused on Munich.
For fans, this is a super battle that cannot be missed.
After all, the match between Barcelona and Chelsea on the other side seemed too suspenseful.
Barcelona completely swept Benfica in the last round, just like Real Madrid vs. Marseille and Bayern vs. APOEL, all of which were stress-free crushing games.
Chelsea almost fought hard to keep the score of 1-1 after scoring first in the second round.
In the end, AC Milan was eliminated with the advantage of 4-4 in two rounds and more away goals.
It was so difficult to beat Milan, whose strength has declined significantly and is now on the decline. The old Chelsea really can't gain the trust of more neutral fans.
So for more fans, the battle between Real Madrid and Bayern is the "feast" that deserves more attention!
And then, whether Bayern enters the final and competes with Barcelona.
Or Real Madrid enters the final and re-stages the national derby with Barcelona in the Champions League.
Those are all scenes they like to see.
Even the Real Madrid team, including Mourinho, basically thinks that Barcelona's victory in the other half is no suspense.
Li Ang is still the one who is different.
He is optimistic about Chelsea, and the reason he gave is that Torres scored in the second round of the Champions League quarter-final against Milan, and his form has improved.
And he is optimistic about the old-age monster Drogba.
"Torres will be an important backup for Chelsea, and Drogba is in good form recently. Barcelona can't do anything about Drogba. As long as Pique misses someone and Drogba plays a mismatched confrontation, Chelsea's chance will come!"
The other players of Real Madrid disagreed, but seeing Li Ang's firm look, it was not easy to offend him, so they stopped discussing this topic.
On the morning of April 17, the entire Real Madrid team completed the last pre-match training at the training ground provided by the Munich 1860 Club.
At this moment, many well-known media also gave their guesses about the starting lineup of Real Madrid and Bayern.
Bayern was basically speculated by the media to continue to play the familiar 4-2-3-1 that they are good at.
Robben, Ribery, Gomez, Muller or Kroos can all play very well in this system.
Heynckes' tactical deployment has always been stable, and there is not much possibility of making a major change to the starting lineup before the game.
On the Real Madrid side, the starting lineups given by the media are different.
Some speculate that Mourinho will play 4-4-2, while others speculate that Mourinho will play 4-3-3, and the reasons given by the media are quite sufficient.
Because Real Madrid has achieved good results when playing these two lineups this season.
If you have to say that it fits the current capabilities of Real Madrid players, then 4-3-3 would be more suitable.
But Mourinho has always been good at throwing tactical smoke bombs before the big battle. Who can say that he will not play that set this time?
On the evening of the 17th, the players from Real Madrid and Bayern entered the Allianz Arena in Munich one after another to warm up.
At this moment, various media reporters and commentators got the starting player lists of the two teams more accurately.
As expected, Bayern continued to play 4-2-3-1, with Muller on the bench and Kroos starting.
Schweinsteiger and Gustavo's double defensive midfielders also provided solid protection for the back line.
As for Real Madrid, Mourinho seemed to have finally chosen the 4-3-3 style of play.
Because Kaka was on the bench, Di Maria did not seem to need to continue playing in the midfield.
The sweeping style of Li Ang and Essien has taken shape, and Di Maria will be more lethal when he returns to the wing.
Duan Xuan, who commented on the Champions League battle tonight, also got basically the same information.
So after the live broadcast started, when he and Zhang Lu introduced the information of the starting players of both sides in advance, they also mentioned the tactical game between the coaches of both sides in the formation selection today.
But if nothing unexpected happened, the accident finally came.
Mourinho did start the players shown on the information sheets obtained by the media commentators.
But today Real Madrid did not play 4-3-3 at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
They also played 4-2-3-1!
Li Ang and Essien did not stand in the corresponding positions on the left and right sides of the midfield.
Mourinho finally chose to field two defensive midfielders, with Li Ang and Alonso falling back and Essien playing as central midfielder.
Ronaldo and Di Maria's positions fell back a bit, and Benzema rushed forward.
On the back line, Coentrao, Ramos, Pepe, and Arbeloa lined up.
This is the starting lineup with the strongest defensive and counterattack capabilities on paper for Real Madrid.
And comparing Bayern's starting lineup again, many fans found something very interesting.
That is, the current Real Madrid and Bayern teams are too similar!
Two defensive midfielders, both excellent interceptors, and one organizational core.
The defense is solid, and they are proficient in air defense and ground interception.
The characteristics of the two flanks are also very similar, with stars with strong personal abilities, fast speed, and good passing and shooting.
The starting center forward has excellent ball-handling ability and can play a pivot role well.
Look at these characteristics, one by one, are most of them right?
It is normal to have differences in details, but overall, the similarity between Real Madrid and Bayern is really high.
There has been no similar case on the Champions League semi-final stage in the past decade.
It may be that in terms of style, the distinctive characteristics of Mourinho and Heynckes have affected their respective teams.
Real Madrid should pay more attention to counterattacks after defense, and pay attention to retracting the fist and then hitting it hard.
Bayern will be more inclined to take the initiative to attack.
At least in the previous games, the styles of the two teams were generally like this.
However, after the referee blew the whistle to start the game, the fans' views had to be reversed again.
Because Real Madrid chose to take the initiative at Bayern's home!
Mourinho once again boldly chose the offensive method!
Seeing that the players on both sides have invested a lot of manpower in the battle for midfield control from the first second of the game, countless neutral fans watching the game instantly became excited!
Mourinho is standing on the sidelines. He looks very energetic after having his hair shaved, and his eyes are full of thinking and careful observation.
Yes, this is a "tactical surprise" prepared by Mourinho for Heynckes and Bayern.
He will not choose to stabilize the defense first at Bayern's home.
Because he knows that he can't survive against the current Bayern.
Attack!
Even if they lose the game today, as long as they get enough away goals, the probability of Real Madrid winning in the end is at least 60%!