Chapter 172: Chapter 60: Barcelona Wants to Sign a Chinese Genius! (2)

In the movie “Victorious Escape,” the goalkeeper played by Stallone left a strong impression, and in reality, former Stuttgart goalkeeper Wolffat resembles Stallone so much that fans once jokingly called him Stuttgart’s “Rambo.”

This time Stallone came to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for promotion, and Calderon handed a jersey with Stallone’s name on it to the action star.

The 21st round of the La Liga is about to begin, and before the match starts, the media changed tactics for hype.

It was about the controversy between the referee of the match and Schuster.

The main referee for this match, Alvarez, has some grudges with Real Madrid’s coach Schuster.

In the 11th round, Real Madrid’s away loss to Sevilla was officiated by Alvarez, and after the match, Schuster’s remark, “The referee is from Catalonia? Then I have nothing to say!” shocked the entire Spanish football scene.

This incident caused quite a stir at the time.

Therefore, after 10 matches, the refereeing committee once again arranged for Alvarez to officiate the Real Madrid game, causing many Real Madrid supporters to feel worried for the team and Schuster.

In football matches, things like which team the main referee supports, their winning rate when officiating that team, and various amusing facts are all concerns for fans, as if they could influence the match’s outcome and the team’s victory.

In regard to these discussions, Villarreal’s coach Pellegrini openly supported Alvarez, saying: “This is the refereeing committee’s arrangement, Alvarez is a professional referee, and he and his refereeing team know how to officiate.”

“I think the refereeing committee’s arrangement has no issues whatsoever.”

Upon hearing Pellegrini’s public statement, Schuster also responded directly: “This is the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, with countless fans watching this match.”

“I believe Alvarez knows how to officiate this match.”

At this time, media from the Catalonia Region jumped in.

Last season, Madrid media complained about referees favoring Barcelona, and this season, with Barcelona’s poor performance, it was Catalonia’s media that started to grumble that Real Madrid was favored by referees.

Among them, Real Madrid being rarely penalized with penalties and Chen Zhong’s wild tackles became their points of entry.

Amidst the discussions, the last league match of January officially began.

Outside the Santiago Bernabeu, fans of both teams arrived one after another. As the referee Alvarez and his team arrived at Bernabeu, boos from Real Madrid fans came from all directions.

“Catalonia Region bastards.”

“Did you get paid today?”

“We’ll be watching you!”

The shouts from the fans made Alvarez’s face turn a bit ugly. He sheepishly led the referee team members into Bernabeu.

A small group of Villarreal fans also came to the scene, and this time they did not continue singing songs about sinking the Galaxy Battleship but instead started to praise the individual performances of players.

Among them, Rossi naturally took the lead.

“We will break through the goal guarded by Casillas.”

“And the one to break through the goal will be Rossi, Rossi, Rossi.”

The former Manchester United player from Italy, a genius player, finally realized part of his talent in Villarreal, and finally made people feel what a genius is.

His agility on the field and sharp intuition made numerous Villarreal fans excited.

Before the match, predictions were already made that there would be plenty of goals in this match between Real Madrid and Villarreal. After all, in the previous game at the Candy Stadium, Real Madrid hosted Villarreal with a “seven-up,” so in this match, Villarreal would not aim to massacre Real Madrid but at least break through Real Madrid’s goal.

With Villarreal’s condition improving this season, Pellegrini also proudly raised the flag of aggressive football, making Villarreal’s attacking power equal to Real Madrid’s.

In the league alone, the “Yellow Submarine” has already scored 39 goals, and the killer duo Giuseppe Rossi and Nihat contributed 20 of them.

As partners, their technical characteristics are similar: small stature but excellent speed and technique.

It seems to respond to this match, both players recovered from injuries and returned the team a few weeks ago, and showed extremely tacit cooperation in the match.

Nihat has strong explosiveness and possesses very high impact strength.

Compared to Nihat, although Rossi’s physique is slightly thin, the Italian “Golden Boy” has very agile feet, combined with accurate passing, greatly enhancing his ball output capability, and with Nihat’s strong impact, they are definitely a headache for defensive combinations.

Rossi now has scored 9 goals in the league, placing him second in the league, and without counting penalties as just athletic goals, Rossi is the undisputed athletic goal king of the team.

In the last round where Villarreal sank Valencia, Nihat hit the goal frame twice and scored a goal, earning him the title of the best of the round by various media, and it was believed that he reached new career peak beyond his time at Real Sociedad after finally escaping the entanglement of injury troubles.

With these two blades in excellent condition, Real Madrid’s dilemma after Pepe’s absence was how to configure the defense line.

“The match being broadcast live for you today is the 07-08 season of the Spanish Football League, a round 21 match.”

“Held by Real Madrid Team on their home ground, defending against Villarreal’s challenge at Bernabeu.”

“Wearing white jerseys is the Real Madrid Team, and wearing yellow jerseys is Villarreal Team.”

“In this match, both teams adopted a 442 formation, Real Madrid’s starting lineup…”

“Villarreal’s starting lineup…”

“Personnel-wise, due to Pepe’s absence, Schuster adopted a central defender combination of Ramos paired with Cannavaro, while Sergado replaced Ramos as the right back.”

“This approach will make the team’s right side more stable defensively, while in terms of offense, more reliance on short-passing advances through the middle, considering the team’s left back is Torres, who is not a player skilled in defense.”

“And in the midfield, Guti returned to the starting lineup, pairing with Robinho, Baptista, and Chen Zhong to form the midfield combination.”

“This season, Real Madrid achieved a 7-0 away victory against the Yellow Submarine, Villarreal has made eight visits to Bernabeu in league history, resulting only in 3 draws and 5 losses without achieving a win.”

“In their 17 league encounters, Real Madrid secured 10 wins, 6 draws, and only suffered one defeat.”

“Torres and Guti replaced Marcelo and Sneijder respectively. Villarreal also used Sena and Vento to replace Josico and Angel as starters.”

“And we wonder, in the clash between Pellegrini and Schuster, who will prove to be more skillful?”

“The two teams are starting to enter the field gradually.”

“We can clearly hear fans inside the stadium chanting Chen Zhong’s name, and a Five-Star Red Flag has appeared in the stands.”

“With increasingly more young domestic players traveling abroad, I believe we will see more Chinese elements in the five major leagues.”

The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, with the momentum created by Merengue, stirs emotions; Chen Zhong and the players stepped onto the grass of Bernabeu. In the stands, the shouts of “CHEN” signifies that he has surpassed his earlier obscurity.

When the two teams shook hands to express friendliness, the shorter Rossi tightly grasped Chen Zhong’s hand and said: “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”

The last time the two faced off, Rossi was kicked by Chen Zhong so he avoided him, but this time, he, Rossi, wants to overcome the mental barrier.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep