CHAPTER 128: CHAPTER 40: CHEN SHINES IN THIS MATCH

"Schuster placed Chen Zhong in a relatively backward position for this match, allowing him to participate more in the team’s defense."

"This resulted in Real Madrid’s defense visibly becoming more solid."

"Considering Chen Zhong’s organizational skills, compared to a purely defensive midfielder, he also has some ability to organize and distribute the ball, which is one of the reasons Real Madrid was able to score so quickly in this match."

The Merengue fans in the stands raised their right hands, waving scarves adorned with the team crest, the atmosphere on site becoming frenzied, and the lights began to flicker, giving people the feeling of being in a disco.

Raul, after scoring a goal, kissed the ring on his hand and ran towards the corner flag, followed closely by Van Nistelrooy behind him.

Santander Athletic wouldn’t surrender so easily; during the 6th minute of the match, Lopez, the former Valencia midfielder, took the ball in the center and made a beautiful through pass, precision-passing the ball through the space between the two central midfielders, Baptista and Sneijder, heading towards the gap between the two central defenders.

The Santander Athletic forward also quickly moved in.

Just as everything seemed to fall into place, from the flank came Chen Zhong with black hair, yellow skin, wearing the No. 22 jersey, who slid his body directly into the passing lane, intercepting the pass.

"Beautiful!"

"A very beautiful interception!"

"Chen Zhong, he killed a scoring opportunity for Santander Athletic."

"His defensive awareness is outstanding."

"His actions are also very decisive."

"Had he hesitated even a bit, the ball would have slipped through."

The Merengue fans in the stands applauded Chen Zhong’s beautiful interception while mocking the bravery of Santander Athletic.

"Are you stupid?"

"Ever since our midfield had Chen Zhong, you still want to use through passes for a one-on-one chance?"

"Don’t you know our Chen Zhong is known as ’No Entry’?"

The nearby Santander Athletic players quickly rushed towards Chen Zhong, but he didn’t panic at all. He took a few steps with the ball, squeezed out of the surrounding Santander Athletic players, and passed the ball to Baptista.

After Baptista took the ball, he made a through pass to the advancing Sneijder.

Sneijder, facing pressure from Santander Athletic, had to run in a diagonal direction.

Real Madrid quickly pressed forward; there were as many as 5-6 players in the penalty area, even Chen Zhong running into Santander Athletic’s penalty area.

Sneijder carried the ball all the way, finally choosing a cross pass near the goal line.

Unfortunately, the line wasn’t too brilliant, and the Santander Athletic player was just in the right position to cut off the pass.

Originally, he could have become the team’s hero.

But the problem was, Chen Zhong was eyeing him closely at that moment.

In the entanglement between the two, the Santander Athletic player failed to control the strength of his foot, and a back pass turned into a shot-like kick, the ball went right past the goalkeeper, into the goal.

The two looked at each other with wide-eyed expressions, while Chen Zhong raised both arms and jumped towards the corner flag.

"Oh wow!"

"An own goal!"

"Under Chen Zhong’s aggressive pressure."

"The defensive player made a mistake."

"This is a huge, huge, low-level mistake."

"How could such a mistake happen?"

"Let’s look at the replay."

"Chen Zhong’s physique is really too strong."

"The Santander Athletic player was obviously pushed to panic."

"That back pass was too powerful."

"The match hasn’t even reached 10 minutes."

"Real Madrid has already scored two goals."

"Chen Zhong contributed significantly to these two goals."

"He was extremely impressive in this match."

The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was boiling, and the Santander Athletic fans felt despair.

This dream start swept away the recent gloom over Real Madrid in all competitions.

Schuster laughed heartily on the sidelines, while Francisco tried to dodge Schuster’s approaching big slap.

Schuster was all good, just like to cast his original five-strike combo when happy.

"Why are you dodging, why are you dodging."

"Look, my formation change this time, isn’t it a great success?"

"Yes, yes." Francisco looked at Schuster smugly, having to admit that the formation change indeed achieved good results, and Chen Zhong playing back was better than Diara playing back.

The point is, when playing back, he has some Pirlo-like qualities.

The only difference is, his defensive contribution is much better than Pirlo’s, but in organizing, Chen Zhong doesn’t have that stunning through or long pass. However, he has a unique flavor in physique, ball protection.

Considered as a somewhat unclassifiable organizing defensive midfielder?

Santander Athletic clearly had a carefully designed match, wanting to steal one with a cross early on.

Unexpectedly, the formation of Real Madrid changed, moving Chen Zhong’s position back, all previous plans were wasted.

"Real Madrid secured the victory in just 10 minutes."

"At Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, gaining a two-goal advantage within 10 minutes, no team has the possibility to come back."

"Santander Athletic wanted to capitalize on potential slack from Real Madrid at the start to strike first, but obviously, Real Madrid had the same idea as them."

"Santander Athletic attempted to use center forward Smolare combined with Munitis on the flanks for crossing cooperation, but in this match Chen Zhong playing back, combined with the 4-3-3 formation, allowed Real Madrid to achieve speed-to-speed control."

"Especially Chen Zhong’s two key defenses in the first ten minutes, which disrupted Santander Athletic’s rhythm directly."

While the commentator was explaining, Real Madrid’s third goal was born.

In this match, Baptista and Sneijder were more similar to attacking midfielder positions, along with Robinho alternating freely on both wings, making it difficult for Santander Athletic’s wing attacks or long passes to escape Real Madrid’s interference.

Baptista disrupted a long pass from Santander Athletic; the ball was deflected upwards, and Baptista, using his height advantage, headed the ball to the advancing Chen Zhong, who, upon receiving the ball, made a one-touch pass to the slightly withdrawn Van Nistelrooy.

Van Nistelrooy wanted to pass to Raul, but it was intercepted by a Santander Athletic central defender.

But Raul quickly snatched the ball from behind.

Facing the opponent’s pressing, Raul skillfully dribbled past the opponent, then faced the goalkeeper and coolly pushed a shot to score in the far corner.

3:0

Raul kissed his ring and ran towards the corner flag; this was his 8th goal this season, his state was excellent, responding to those doubting voices from the beginning of the season with goals.

"Beautiful goal."

"3:0"

"Three goal advantage has completely killed the match."

"The pairing of Chen Zhong and Baptista has given Real Madrid’s midfield unprecedented hardness."

"In physical confrontation, Real Madrid’s midfield fears no one."

"This is Baptista’s first start in the league this season."

"His outstanding performance, can it impress the head coach to give this Brazilian beast more opportunities?"

The match here had no suspense left, Santander Athletic also gave up resistance, ending the first half with a score of 3:0.

In the second half, Real Madrid gradually substituted Saviola, Robben, Gago for Robinho, Sneijder, Chen Zhong.

When Chen Zhong was substituted, the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was filled with warm applause, this was Schuster’s affection and commendation towards Chen Zhong.

And just less than three minutes after Chen Zhong left, in the 84th minute of the match, Santander Athletic’s newly-substituted player made a cross from the left side of the penalty area.

And clearly, Gago couldn’t do Chen Zhong’s job, as Munitis, who had been persistently looking for an opportunity, finally found his chance, making a low shot in the box, breaking through Real Madrid’s goal, fixing the score at 3:1.

The once laughing and joyful Merengue fans instantly held back their smiles.

"I thought it was our defense that was strong."

"Turns out it was Chen!"

"I’m starting to worry about what would happen if we lose Chen."

...

Compared to the monotonous comments from foreign fans, Chinese fans summed it up concisely with: "You only know who is ’Rowing’ during the low tide."