Chapter 403 Santiago Bernabéu Stadium

It is 6:45 am Madrid time, and there are still two hours before the first round of the Champions League match between Real Madrid and Chelsea. At this time, Chelsea players have already changed their clothes in the locker room.

In another 15 minutes, they will warm up on the grass of the Bernabeu Stadium!
"Shit, damn it!"

Brown walked in from outside, and Mourinho was confused: "Lyon, the game is about to start, why did you leave for so long?"

"I wanted to go to the home team's locker room to take a look at the opposing team's starting lineup, but I didn't get in."

Brown rubbed his head. It seemed that this guy had walked all the way from the circular passage under the stands to the home team's locker room.

Brown's behavior made the players in the locker room burst out laughing: "Leon, why did you come up with this idea?"

"Come on! Are you a little too nervous?"

Mourinho put his hand on Brown's shoulder and motioned for the latter to sit down, drink some water and relax.

"What? Didn't you ask me to go?"

Brown looked into Mourinho's eyes, and as soon as he spoke, the entire locker room fell silent.

The players' attention also shifted from Brown to Mourinho.

I was wondering why Brown could come up with such a bad idea, it turns out it was the work of you, Mourinho.

It is a bit outrageous to peek at the opponent's starting lineup at the door of the locker room, but it is normal if it is Mourinho.

"I asked you to go say hello to them!"

Mourinho defended himself, but no matter how he explained, Jiang Yuan would not believe it.

"Jose, you're the one who's nervous, not us"

Hazard sat on the bench, holding a bottle of mineral water in his hand and said with a smile.

"Aren't you nervous? If you are not nervous, then it's right."

Mourinho looked around at everyone in the room: "Everyone says that our opponent today is very strong and that we are no match for Real Madrid. Of course, I also know that our opponent today is very strong, but what I want to say is that we have a chance. We have a chance, do you understand what I mean?"

Ibrahimovic rubbed his hands and twisted his neck. Because he hadn't started warming up yet, his neck made a "cracking" sound when he twisted it: "I never thought Real Madrid was better than us"

Ibrahimovic has been in Barcelona and has some Camp Nou blood in his body. For this reason, he will never say anything good about Real Madrid.

"Right, that's the attitude I want."

Mourinho raised his hand, he wanted to put his elbow on Ibrahimovic's shoulder to continue talking, but then he found that the height difference between the two was too big, and he couldn't do it at all. The Portuguese could only settle for the second best, and pulled Ibrahimovic's left shoulder tightly with his palm: "They protected the area around the locker room, but I don't think it's necessary. Real Madrid only has a few lineups, I know how Zidane will arrange it without thinking"

Although the attempt to spy on the locker room failed, Mourinho was already confident about Real Madrid's lineup: "Gareth will play, but he should not be the starter. In the first half, we were under the most pressure on the right side."

Mourinho looked at Pogba and Ake: "You guard Cristiano"

"Defending Cristiano?"

Ake's eyes lit up and he pointed at his mouth: "Me, me?"

"Yes, it's you! And Paul, Paul, you have to pay special attention to the defense on the right side today. The left side can be completely handed over to N'Golo. At least before the end of the first half, you don't need to exchange to the left side."

Mourinho gave his analysis. In the tactics he arranged for the league, the two defensive midfielders, Pogba and Kante, could swap positions at any time, but it was not necessary in today's game.

Ronaldo's impact is too great, and letting Kante go up there will basically have no practical effect. It is better to let Pogba handle it himself.

"Is there a problem?"

Mourinho asked.

“No problem at all”

Ake gave a thumbs up. Everyone said that Ronaldo was flexible in movement and had excellent shooting skills, but Ake only needed to concentrate on him and there would be no problem.

Because in the training match, that's how Ake dealt with Jiang Yuan!
“Then there’s no problem.”

Mourinho waved his hand, signaling the players to sit down and relax, and they could go out for warm-up later.

"You really don't feel stressed?"

Jiang Yuan stared at Hazard beside him with wide eyes. The Belgian just said that there was no pressure at all to play against Real Madrid in the Champions League, which almost scared Jiang Yuan.

“No pressure”

Hazard bandages his ankle: "We are going to lose, there is no need to be nervous"

"Forehead……"

……

Ten minutes before the game starts, in the player tunnel of the Bernabeu Stadium.

CCTV commentators: Dong Lu and Zhang Lu.

"We can see that the players from both sides are ready in the player tunnel. Today's game is a key battle in the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League."

"Well, but you can't say that, hehe, at this stage of the quarter-finals, every game should be a focus game. There are 1 teams except Monaco and Leicester City, the rest are giants, hehe"

"That's right. Judging from the starting lineup announced before the game, Real Madrid did not let Bale, who had just returned from injury, start the game."

"It's the same with Chelsea. The players on the right side of both teams are not core players. The only difference is that Bale is on the roster, but Falcao is not."

The two commentators were discussing passionately, and the players from both teams in the player tunnel had already greeted each other. Casemiro and Jiang Yuan hugged each other tightly: "This is the first time we are opponents."

“There will be another one in a week.”

Jiang Yuan reminded him, and after the hug he pinched Casemiro's ribs: "Carlos, you have lost a lot of weight."

"I have to lose weight to play for Real Madrid"

Casemiro spread his hands. The intensity of Real Madrid's physical training was totally incomparable to that of Porto. Pintus's endurance training often knocked down the fat man Casemiro.

“But it shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Casemiro looked Jiang Yuan up and down. If nothing unexpected happened, Jiang Yuan had grown a lot taller since the last time they met.

Young is good!
"This is Ronaldo. You've always said you wanted to play a game with him. You have to work hard today because he's better than you think!"

Casemiro praised Ronaldo in front of him. Ronaldo actually heard the conversation between Casemiro and Jiang Yuan, but he pretended that he heard nothing and secretly enjoyed the praise from Casemiro and Jiang Yuan in his heart.

"Cristiano!"

Jiang Yuan walked over and patted Ronaldo's arm. Ronaldo pretended to have just reacted and quickly turned around to hug Jiang Yuan: "Come on, come on!"

"Come on, come on, I can hear your voice in La Liga, you are awesome!"

While the two were encouraging each other, volunteers on both sides of the aisle ran out, and less than 10 seconds later, the familiar Champions League entrance music sounded at the Bernabeu Stadium.

"Beep!"

"Captain, check the armbands. The home and visiting teams, follow me outside!"

Accompanied by the entrance music, players from both teams walked out of the passage one after another.

"VAMOS!"

"Cirsitiano!"

"Madrid! Madrid, Real Madrid~!"

The entrance music was very light at the beginning, but the staff at the Bernabeu Stadium were very clear about the process. After the main players walked out of the passage and entered the fans' sight, the on-site staff immediately turned up the volume to the maximum.

The Champions League entrance music is accompanied by the cheers of the home and away team fans. This is the correct entrance ceremony.

Pogba wanted to dance to the music, but Jiang Yuan pulled him back: "What are you doing? This is not for us!"

“It’s going to be a busy day today”

Hazard looked towards the stadium stands with a dull expression. The Bernabeu Stadium has more than 8 seats. Standing on the grass and looking up, there is a sense of solemnity.

There are 8 people, 5 of whom are die-hard Real Madrid fans. Chelsea is under maximum pressure today.

“They are the best team”

“Sie sind die allerbesten Mannschaften (German) (They are the best team)”

"The main event" (English) "Die Meister" (German)

As the players waited for the game to get back on the field, the Champions League theme song started playing. According to the process, the players needed to stand still and wait for the theme song to end. Jiang Yuan put his hands behind his back and looked at the Real Madrid fans in the stands.

"Don't look at the stands"

Terry, who was standing on the far right, noticed this and signaled Azpilicueta to let Jiang Yuan lower his head: "Don't look at the stands, it will make you feel stressed."

The home team fans usually take the opportunity at the start of the game to taunt the visiting team players in order to influence the mentality of the visiting team players. Terry is well aware of this, so he doesn't want Jiang Yuan to look at the stands.

However, what attracted Jiang Yuan's attention was not the insults, but a white sign with a sentence written in poorly written Chinese.

[Jiang Yuan, Real Madrid welcomes you! ]

"皇" and "德" are both typos. It is obvious that they were "drawn" by non-native speakers according to the template. It is really difficult for these Spaniards to make such a sign.

Florentino has been bragging about bringing Jiang Yuan from Chelsea, but there has been no progress after two seasons, and the fans are getting a little impatient.

The singing stopped, Terry and Nacho walked to the middle referee position, and after exchanging team flags, the referee Casse looked at both teams: "If it's heads, the away team makes the first choice..."

The selection of sides is still going on. Jiang Yuan and Hazard are shaking their legs to warm up. After finishing the selection of sides, Terry points to the goal in the north stand and says: "Serve later."

Jiang Yuan came to the north stand and stood on the midfield line.

"China Media Group, China Media Group!"

"Here is the live broadcast of the first leg of the 2016-17 Champions League quarter-final, Real Madrid vs. Chelsea at home"

"The referee is looking at his watch!"

"The game has begun. Let me introduce the starting lineup for this game. First up is the home team, Real Madrid!"

Real Madrid (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Navas
Defenders: Carvajal, Nacho, Ramos, Marcelo
Midfielders: Modric, Casemiro, Toni Kroos

Forwards: Isco, Benzema, Ronaldo

Head coach: Zidane

"Then the visiting team Chelsea, wearing blue jerseys and white shorts, attacked from the left side of the screen to the right side"

"..."

"We can see that Fabregas still played as the right winger today. It seems that Mourinho prefers to use Fabregas as the winger rather than Falcao who is in poor form."

"Yes, although Fabregas is not as good as Falcao in dribbling, he also has the ability to head the ball which Falcao does not have. Considering that Chelsea mainly breaks through on the left, they need a winger with heading ability to support Jiang Yuan at the back post."

The game had just begun when Benzema passed the ball back to Ramos, who kicked it out in preparation for a quick attack on Chelsea. However, Ramos's long pass was a bit too hasty, and Ronaldo and Kroos were not in position, so the ball went straight to Ake's feet.

“Here!”

Pogba pointed to the open space in front of him, Ake passed the ball to him, and Pogba started to advance with the ball.

Although Real Madrid did not get the first point of the kick, the attacking players were running forward. Benzema and Ronaldo ran towards Pogba almost at the same time, and the team's attack was forced to stop.

Originally, this was a quick attack at the beginning of the game by Real Madrid, but due to some small mistakes, the attacks of both teams failed to be launched. In the end, Chelsea controlled the ball and started their back pass in the backcourt.

"Historia que tú hiciste~"

"Historia por hacer～"

"I'm so tired~"

“Tus ganas de vencer~~”

The epic "Hala Madrid y nada más" resounded throughout the Bernabeu Stadium. This is Real Madrid's new team anthem and also the commemorative song for Real Madrid's winning the 2014th Champions League trophy in team history in 10.

Compared to the old team song, more fans like this new team song. The strong epic feeling brought by the bass voice is unmatched by other team songs.

Even if you have never heard of Real Madrid before, after listening to their team song you can be sure of one thing: they have a very, very long history!

This is the first time Chelsea has landed at the Bernabeu Stadium in recent years. Real Madrid fans will definitely put enough pressure on them. If nothing unexpected happens, Chelsea will play under the Real Madrid team song throughout the first half.

"Go forward!"

The sharp-eyed Hazard found the opportunity and signaled Jiang Yuan to start moving down the flank. He then found Kante behind him and prepared to act as a bridge to pass the ball between Kante and Jiang Yuan.

Hazard's idea was really good, but his intention was too obvious. Modric ran over from the wing and stepped in front of Hazard, preparing to interfere with the Belgian's attack.

"shit!"

Hazard cursed, pretended to turn around and receive a through pass, deceived Modric's center of gravity and turned again, caught the ball facing Kante in front of him, and then ran to the side away from the Croatian.

If it is not necessary, Hazard will not actively seek confrontation. This is true in the league and even more so in the Champions League.

After temporarily getting rid of Modric, Hazard quickly ran to the top of the arc. Casemiro and Modric ran towards Hazard from the right and left. Hazard was so scared that he quickly did bicycle kicks to protect the ball. The last one suddenly accelerated and rushed out directly between Modric and Casemiro.

"Wow! Hazard, beautiful! Casemiro was pulling and dragging Hazard, haha"

"The referee signals that the attack is favorable, Hazard did not fall to the ground, continue to attack!"

"Pass the ball to Jiang Yuan! Jiang Yuan, go down to the bottom line and challenge Carvajal!"

"Carvajal's speed is already relatively fast among full-backs. He will have no problem defending against average wingers. But he is facing Jiang Yuan now. We have to see how Carvajal will deal with it."

"Keep a safe distance! This is a very smart move. With Carvajal doing this, Jiang Yuan basically can't dribble the ball down the line."

“But isn’t the safety distance given by Carvajal a bit too big?”

As soon as Dong Lu finished speaking, Jiang Yuan made a cross with his right foot to the back post. Fabregas easily got rid of Marcelo's defense and jumped at the back post of the penalty area.

There was basically no shooting angle from this position, so Fabregas did not choose to shoot directly, but instead headed the ball towards the open space in front of Ibrahimovic. Ibrahimovic was also a ruthless man, and before the ball landed, he volleyed it directly into the air.

The distance between Ibrahimovic and Navas was very close just now, and the goalkeeper would not have any time to react if the ball was hit. Unfortunately, Ibrahimovic's shot was too straight and almost went towards Navas' chest.

Snapped!
Navas pulled his hands to his chest and successfully blocked Ibrahimovic's volley.

Hazard reacted quickly, ran to the expected position, caught the ball with his chest close to his right shoulder, and then controlled it under his feet.

"Get up!"

Navas shouted anxiously, saying that Hazard could shoot directly in his current position if he could control his center of gravity!
Nacho did not hesitate, he took small steps forward to help Navas block the near corner of the goal. Seeing that he had no space to shoot, Hazard passed the ball to the left, and Jiang Yuan got the ball again.

Snapped!
Jiang Yuan, who was originally standing still, suddenly accelerated and almost knocked Modric down. After cutting into the penalty area, Jiang Yuan began to look for an angle to shoot. At this moment, a white object suddenly flew over from the grass on the right.

Snapped!
Tackle from Ramos!

"Fuck!"

Jiang Yuan, who was speaking his native language, was kicked hard on the ankle by Ramos. The severe pain made him fall directly to the ground.

This was a very obvious injury in the penalty area, but the problem was that Ramos' foot touched the ball first, so nothing happened.

"Grass!"

Jiang Yuan clenched his right fist and slammed the grass, then got up from the ground angrily.

"Are you okay?"

Hazard looked at Jiang Yuan's ankle and looked a little panicked.

"it's okay no problem"

Jiang Yuan waved his hand, signaling Azpilicueta to quickly take the corner kick.

"call……"

Off the field, Mourinho took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

As expected, Jiang Yuan is the "guest of honor" at the Bernabeu Stadium today!

Before the game, Mourinho asked the team doctor to wrap Jiang Yuan with an extra layer of sports bandage. There are two bandages, one black and one blue, for protection. The probability of Jiang Yuan's ankle injury is still relatively small, but he is afraid that the targeted defense of Real Madrid players will affect Jiang Yuan's mentality.

Apart from this, Chelsea is still doing relatively well in other aspects. Everyone says that Real Madrid is very strong, but Chelsea is not completely without chance!
……

(End of this chapter)