Chapter 537: Change is imperative
As Huang Hu gradually moved towards the right track, the La Liga also completed the first round of competition. Real Madrid thrashed Zaragoza 6-0, while Barcelona slaughtered Villarreal 5-0. The opening victories of the two giants remained extremely ruthless.
From the data perspective, Wang Feng stood out, with 10 shots, 8 of which were on target, achieving a fantastic four goals and providing one assist.
In this round, Messi also scored twice, while Sordado, who was once a product of Real Madrid's youth academy and now plays for Valencia, contributed a hat-trick, closely following the Chinese superstar in the scorer's list.
However, the Valencia team only narrowly won 4-3 against Santander Athletics. Due to the debt crisis this summer, Valencia was forced to sell key players such as Mata and Joaquin, causing a significant decline in strength. They can only rely on Spanish forwards.
According to the commentary of Sky Sports UK, La Liga has been divided into "two leagues": one is the "super league" participated by Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the other is the "first league" participated by the remaining eighteen teams.
"La Liga is seriously lacking competitiveness and resembles a game between Real Madrid and Barcelona. In contrast, the results of the Premier League matches are harder to predict, and smaller teams are more daring to challenge bigger ones. The competition for the Premier League title is fiercer than La Liga."
However, this view was quickly refuted by the Spanish newspaper "El Pais", which counted the champions of the two leagues in the past decade and found that only three teams had won the title, indicating that the Premier League is not necessarily more competitive than La Liga.
"On the side of La Liga, there are Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, while on the side of the Premier League, there are Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal. Other teams find it difficult to shake their positions."
The only debatable point is that the gap between the third and second in La Liga is much larger than that in the Premier League, mainly because the top two often score ninety or even over a hundred points.
"But in terms of competing for Champions League spots, La Liga's competition is obviously more intense. Since the 2000-2001 season, Spain has had 12 teams enter the Champions League, including not only Real Madrid and Barcelona but also Valencia, Sevilla, Deportivo La Coru?a, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Celta Vigo, Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Mallorca, and Osasuna."
"During this period, only 8 teams from the Premier League have entered the Champions League group stage, including Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Newcastle United, Everton, and Manchester City."
"Since the 2004-2005 season, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool have monopolized the Champions League positions for a long time, with only Tottenham Hotspur replacing Liverpool last season."
"So, although the Premier League seems more intense, it is still dominated by the big clubs, but they have not produced a team with absolute dominance."
The battle between La Liga and the Premier League has a long history, and the media from both sides argue for their own reasons. However, it cannot be denied that the Premier League is more "healthy" than La Liga.
This "health" does not refer to the competition for the league title but to the benign development of each club, especially in terms of television broadcasting rights distribution. La Liga is already completely imbalanced.
Currently, in the Spanish league's television broadcasting system, the broadcasting rights of Barcelona and Real Madrid are sold separately, while those of other teams are sold in packages. This also results in the two giants earning significantly more, occupying the vast majority, while other teams earn relatively little, especially small clubs.
The same is true for Serie A, so their mid-to-low table clubs often face financial crises due to insufficient income, just like La Liga.
But it's different for the Premier League and the Bundesliga. They bundle the broadcasting rights completely and then distribute them according to certain rules, so even if the top clubs receive a lot of attention, other teams can still benefit.
Therefore, change is imperative. Currently, the La Liga alliance is discussing the distribution of television broadcasting rights contracts according to the Premier League's plan, with 50% evenly distributed among the 20 teams, 25% allocated based on league ranking, and 25% allocated based on the number of club matches broadcasted.
With this distribution, it is estimated that there will be only about 1.6 times difference between the teams with the highest and lowest incomes, unlike the current difference of dozens of times.
Returning to their home ground, Real Madrid welcomed the second round of La Liga competition against Hetafe.
They continued their hot performance from the previous game, scoring just under a minute into the match.
Di Maria passed from the right side, and Wang Feng rushed in to make a beautiful shot from outside the penalty area, the ball curling into the top right corner, 1-0!
This goal boosted the morale of the Galacticos, and they dominated Hetafe's players, who struggled to get out of their own half.
In the 17th minute, Wang Feng received a diagonal pass from Modric on the right side of the penalty area, under the tight marking of two defenders, he reached near the sideline. As it seemed the ball was going out, he used his foot to hook it back between the legs of the defenders, then turned and pushed it to Alonso, who slotted it in with his left foot to increase Real Madrid's lead.
Twelve minutes later, Wang Feng and Di Maria broke through Hetafe's defense with a series of quick passes on the right side, and the Chinese superstar finished with a low shot into the near post, leaving the visiting goalkeeper helpless.
After dominating the opponent in the first half, Ancelotti quickly made changes to the lineup. In the second half, Granero and Miku each scored a goal for their team, sealing a 4-1 victory.
In another crucial battle, Barcelona surprisingly drew 2-2 with Real Sociedad, with Messi unable to continue his goal-scoring spree. This led the media and fans to acknowledge that Wang Feng is the only one who can consistently deliver outstanding performances.
Sordado, on the other hand, continued to impress, scoring the only goal of the match to help Valencia beat Atletico Madrid 1-0.
As a result, Wang Feng led the top scorer list with 6 goals, followed closely by Sordado with 4 goals, while Messi's 2 goals only placed him in 10th position.
On September 15th, the UEFA Champions League group stage officially kicked off. Real Madrid flew to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, to challenge Dinamo Zagreb.
This team is Modric's former club, and since the establishment of the Croatian league, they have won 12 league titles and 8 cup titles, undoubtedly dominating domestically.
However, they evidently lack competitiveness in the Champions League. In the early stages, Wang Feng made a shot from outside the 20-meter area, slightly off target, causing anxiety among all home fans.
In the 16th minute, after Modric failed to break through in the frontcourt, he passed to Wang Feng nearby, who swiftly dribbled with his left foot to evade the defender and entered the penalty area. Without waiting for the home team's defense to react, he sent a low shot past the goalkeeper into the bottom left corner, making it 1-0!
Similar to the previous game, Real Madrid, with their momentum, continued to score relentlessly, with Di Maria and Hediara adding to the tally.
Before being substituted in the second half, Wang Feng seized another opportunity to score, completing a brace and expanding the lead to 4-0.
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