It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 71 Liverpool vs Real Madrid (Daily Transition)

In the end, the first Barcelona "Football Table Tennis Tournament" ended with a perfect ending, with Group A represented by Charles narrowly defeating Group B represented by Eto'o.

After playing, Guardiola organized all the players to watch Real Madrid's Champions League game.

The opponents in the Champions League round of 1 are strong and weak, but in the quarter-finals, they will all be tough opponents.

Harvey skillfully took out a bag of melon seeds and distributed them to everyone.

The entire Barcelona team was sitting in the tactical meeting room.

This conference room is like a classroom, with a projector and whiteboard at the front.

Below are rows of seats.

Charles sat between Xavi and Iniesta, eating sunflower seeds with Xavi while opening his notebook.

"Who do you think will win, Ciel?"

Harvey nudged Ciel with his elbow.

"I think it will be Liverpool."

"I think it will be Liverpool, too," Iniesta nodded. "Real Madrid rarely wins against Premier League teams in the Champions League."

"But Igor is a very strong goalkeeper and it is difficult for Liverpool to score."

Puyol was sitting behind the three and suddenly joined their conversation.

On the afternoon of January 1 this year, the world's most authoritative football statistics organization IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) announced the final ranking of world football goalkeepers in 9.

Casillas won the 2008 World Football Best Goalkeeper award with an overwhelming advantage thanks to his outstanding performance in the European Cup and last season's La Liga.

Italy's Buffon and Manchester United's old goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar could only rank second and third respectively.

"In their first leg, Liverpool beat Real Madrid thanks to a goal scored by Benayoun," Xavi said without saying who he supported. "But this time, Benayoun is injured."

"Also, Liera was suspended due to accumulated yellow cards, so Gerrard and Babel came off the bench to start."

Liverpool and Real Madrid are in different leagues, so there shouldn't be any major conflicts.

But Real Madrid and Liverpool have a score to settle.

27 years ago, Liverpool defeated Real Madrid and won the Champions League, which directly delayed Real Madrid's dream of restoration by 17 years.

After learning that Liverpool was going to play Real Madrid, Liverpool stars Sammy Lee and Phil Thompson publicly advised Liverpool in the newspapers to continue to inflict devastating blows on their opponents.

Moreover, after Benítez became the head coach at Anfield, Liverpool was imbued with a strong Spanish flavor.

The Reds even replaced Valencia as the largest exporter of Spanish internationals.

In short, Liverpool and Real Madrid are very familiar with each other.

As soon as the game started, Liverpool, who were very familiar with Real Madrid, quickly "became friends" with Real Madrid.

Yes, it’s still a one-sided fight.

Just like Puyol said, Casillas is really good.

Less than 3 minutes into the game, Casillas blocked Torres' one-on-one shot with his foot.

In the following corner kick, Mascherano volleyed, but all were saved by Casillas.

Then there was Skrtel's header, Gerrard's shovel shot...

Soon, Liverpool opened their scoring account.

Liverpool made a long pass from the backcourt, and Torres and Kuyt formed a double-team to attack Pepe.

Torres lightly pressed Pepe, causing the opponent to fall to the ground and failed to make a tackle.

Then Kuyt received the ball and passed it horizontally, Torres shook off Pepe and shot directly into the empty goal.

The KOPs hadn't finished celebrating for long before Gerrard brought them good news again.

In the 28th minute, Arbeloa stopped the ball in the penalty area and hit Heinze's shoulder.

Referee Debreck blew the whistle for a penalty kick and gave Heinze a yellow card for protesting. Gerrard scored from the penalty spot.

Liverpool 2:0 Real Madrid.

The total score is 3:0 Real Madrid.

But this is not the end. In the second half of the game, Real Madrid replaced Robben with Marcelo.

This substitution did not bring good luck.

Just 1 minute and 11 seconds into the game, Babel broke through on the left, dodged Ramos' block and made a cross.

Gerrard scored his second goal with a right-foot shot from 7 yards.

Liverpool 3:0 Real Madrid, aggregate score 4:0 Real Madrid.

"Lars (Casillas) tried his best," Puyol said in a low voice as he watched Casillas dig the ball out of the net.

"For a player like this, you can't ask him to take on the responsibility of organization, dribbling and scoring goals in addition to defense. He tried, but..."

No matter how much Puyol sympathizes with his national team teammates, Liverpool's torture of Casillas is not over yet.

In the 89th minute, Mascherano received the pass from Babel and made a cross from the right, and Dossena shot into the empty goal.

Liverpool 4:0 Real Madrid, aggregate score 5:0 Real Madrid.

Charles originally thought that the scores between Barcelona and Lyon were already exaggerated enough, but he didn't expect Real Madrid to be even more exaggerated.

At this point, the Champions League quarter-finals are all over.

The draw ceremony for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be held on March 1 at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Eight teams will meet in the quarter-finals, and among these eight teams, four are from the Premier League.

Serie A was completely wiped out.

Originally, Atletico Madrid could have reached the quarter-finals, but they tied with Porto in both rounds and were eliminated in the end due to the home and away goal system.

In the round of 16, the scores were almost always big.

Among them, the most exaggerated was Bayern, which directly won 12:1 in the two rounds, creating a shocking score and eliminated Sporting Lisbon.

The most terrifying thing is that in the second round, Bayern still had many substitutes playing, but they were still able to score 7 goals against Sporting Lisbon.

Lisbon's only goal was scored in the extra time of the game.

Charles couldn't help but suspect that Bayern had a change of heart and deliberately let the team down.

Immediately afterwards, Arsenal defeated Roma 8:7, showing the Gunners' strength.

After watching the game, Guardiola asked the players to go home and rest, and he stayed to analyze and study the next game with the coaching staff.

Charles and Busquets did not continue playing games, but made an appointment to go house hunting.

Although both of them now have their own places to live, Charles also moved out of the hotel and lived in an apartment arranged by Barcelona.

Busquets is a local and he doesn’t need to buy a house for the time being. He is here simply to accompany Charles.

Xiaer Chunchun wants to move to a closer place because his current residence is not close enough to the training base, and there are too many reporters and fans outside the door.

The manager has already selected several properties and is waiting for clients to visit them.

Among them, Charles in the Castelldefels district is a favorite.

While Charles and Busquets were looking at the house, Puyol picked up his mobile phone and quietly dialed the phone number he knew by heart.

Just as he dialed the last number, Puyol recalled the projected image of Igor shedding tears in the player tunnel. He deleted the call he was about to make and walked straight to the parking lot.

After driving back home, Puyol changed to an ordinary, inconspicuous car in the garage and drove to La Finca.

Well, La Finca is a luxury residential area in Madrid, very close to Valdebebas Sports City (Real Madrid training base).

(End of this chapter)