Chapter 452: The same loss will not be eaten twice
On the evening of May 6th, three days after the battle with Barcelona, the Bernabéu Stadium once again erupted into celebrations. After nearly 95 minutes of fierce competition, when the referee blew the final whistle, over eighty thousand home fans erupted into thunderous cheers.
Staff from the Real Madrid coaching staff and substitute players rushed onto the field in excitement to celebrate with the victorious players. While Schuster tried to maintain composure, he couldn't hide the smile at the corner of his mouth.
In stark contrast, Chelsea players remained seated on the ground, struggling to come to terms with their defeat. In the previous leg, they had been confident of their advantage, only to be swiftly brought back to reality and eliminated.
Before leaving the field, Chelsea's head coach, Scolari, approached Schuster and shook his hand. "Congratulations," he said, "Honestly, I envy you for having a player like Wang Feng on your team. It would be a wonderful thing to coach him."
Schuster replied with a smile, "Yes, I have always felt the same way."
On the big screen at the Bernabéu, the final score was displayed: 3-0 in favor of the home team. Combined with the result of the previous leg, the Galácticos defeated the Blues 3-1, advancing to the Champions League final for the third consecutive year!
In fact, Chelsea's tactical strategy remained unchanged from their home game; they opted to defend deeply, disrupt with fouls, and counterattack opportunistically, aiming for a narrow victory.
Typically, such a strategy would cause headaches for the opponents, but it had two drawbacks: firstly, their own players were constantly under pressure and unable to relax, and secondly, if the opponent had strong attacking players, it could lead to collapse.
And Wang Feng was precisely that kind of player—able to outshine all others in the world.
The situation in the first leg led Scolari to misjudge the actual effectiveness of his tactics. He even entertained the thought: if all teams adopted this "park the bus" strategy against Wang Feng, would the universally acknowledged uncontainable world number one have no chance?
Wang Feng educated him thoroughly at the Bernabéu. At the start of the match, both teams seemed to be stuck in a deadlock like the previous encounter. Chelsea disrupted Real Madrid's rhythm through tight marking and fouls. Despite the home team's referee bias, their actions were clean, making it difficult to issue warnings.
This status quo persisted until the 26th minute when Wang Feng dropped back in the midfield to receive a lateral pass from Sneijder. At this point, about forty meters from the goal, Chelsea defenders Mikél and Alex closed in, ready to intercept him.
The Chinese superstar nonchalantly flicked the ball up as it descended and then, with the momentum of its descent, powered a shot with his thigh. "Bang!" The sound echoed throughout the stadium as the ball, like an arrow leaving the bowstring, sped towards the goal.
The shot took everyone by surprise, especially the visiting goalkeeper ?ech. But he quickly composed himself, thinking that from such a distance, it shouldn't pose much of a threat.
However, the ball's speed was extraordinary. The Czech could only dive desperately, but as it came within reach, ?ech finally showed a look of horror—it was a knuckleball!
The ball slipped under his hands and crashed into the net behind him. 1-0, Real Madrid took the lead, leveling the playing field!
After all the effort and the ugly display of the match, easily erased by the Chinese superstar, it was a significant blow to the Chelsea players, especially since they didn't know if they would be stabbed again suddenly.
Because just seven minutes later, Wang Feng fired another shot from over forty meters out. Though this one hit the right post and bounced out of bounds, it still struck fear into the hearts of all the visiting players.
They became somewhat frantic, unsure whether to draw the danger zone further out; that would be too risky, and everyone's nerves were on the verge of snapping.
By the 41st minute, when Wang Feng prepared for another shot, Chelsea defender Mikél couldn't resist charging forward to block it.
But this time, the Chinese superstar didn't shoot. Instead, he casually sidestepped the sliding tackle, then delivered a surgical through pass. Iván Iguaín, who had already been lurking, swiftly surged past the Chelsea defense line.
Successful offside trap! After that, everything became simple. The Argentine forward burst into the penalty area, leaving the goalkeeper behind before effortlessly slotting the ball into the empty net. 2-0, Real Madrid completely turned the game around!
The second half became even easier to play. Trailing Chelsea had to reorganize their attack, but in a short time, they couldn't fully unleash their strength, resulting in a lot of open space.
Moreover, the players' mentality had already been thrown off balance by Wang Feng and Real Madrid, causing confusion. Finally, in the 72nd minute, Sneijder assisted Robben in scoring the goal that sealed the victory.
In the mixed zone after the match, Wang Feng, as one of Real Madrid's heroes, received enthusiastic attention from the media. Many wanted to know about the crucial first goal.
"To be honest, I had this idea after losing the first leg. I wanted to defeat the opponent from a greater distance since Chelsea's defense was too tight in the back. We had to come up with stronger attacking methods," he explained.
"For this, I trained specifically for a while. I am very grateful for the support of the head coach and the players. Without them, this brilliant goal wouldn't have happened."
When asked about his shooting success rate, Wang Feng shrugged. "Success rate? Oh, dear, how do you calculate that? You saw it too. I tried four times during the match, and only one was successful."
"And even in the same position, under the same circumstances, there's no guarantee of hitting the target every time. Everything is full of chance," Wang Feng said. "There's simply no stable probability."
Some reporters also mentioned the feint-pass before the second goal. Wang Feng nodded proudly. "Yes, we practiced this tactic specifically. When the long shot succeeded in creating a deterrent effect, we could attempt this tactic."
"Gonzalo is an extremely talented shooter, and his sense in front of the goal is not inferior to mine. Our passing and cooperation are highly successful, so scoring was a natural outcome."
Real Madrid's head coach Schuster lavished praise on Wang Feng, saying, "Chelsea is a tough opponent, and we had to find other solutions. We couldn't make the same mistakes twice, and Wang's method was indeed very effective."
"More importantly, it's the execution. Honestly, I was shocked by the first goal because, in my imagination, even if it missed the target or hit the crossbar, it would still be the best result, with a chance to draw Chelsea's defense line apart."
"But Wang did it perfectly, and everything that followed was within our expectations, leading to the final victory."
Chelsea's head coach Scolari smiled bitterly, saying, "This failure was unexpected but also unsurprising. Wang Feng's attacks were somewhat unreasonable."
At the same time, he admitted that after conceding the first goal, their tactical plans fell short, and the team's play became chaotic. "In fact, luck played a part. If we could quickly adjust our mindset, we still had the strength to fight."
"But the players aren't machines. In that situation, frustration and doubt easily invaded all their thoughts, leading to a complete collapse in the end."
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶