I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 800: Chapter 54: Aerial King

In a Champions League quarter-final, Chen Zhong once again firmly cemented his title as the king of the air.

In this match, he twice used headers to break Tottenham Hotspur’s goal for Real Madrid.

Some fans even shouted that Chen Zhong isn’t really a midfielder at all, he should be playing as a center forward and take Adebayor’s spot.

Adebayor no longer has the glamour he had when he first joined: 3 goals in 13 appearances for Real Madrid, and yet he’s still being called a Premier League goal machine?

Before kickoff, the jeers ringing around the Bernabeu were the fans’ "welcome gift" to Adebayor.

And in this match, Adebayor’s performance could only be described as utterly mediocre; that’s why when Higuain came on for Adebayor, the thunderous applause carried a sense of anticipation for the return of a former hero.

Of course, the real leading man was still Chen Zhong.

By now, everyone knows that Chen Zhong’s heading is one of his most powerful weapons.

Back when the height was "restricted" at Camp Nou, the fans had already realized this, but what they remembered most was Chen Zhong’s long shots; if you asked them what Chen Zhong’s real specialty was, they’d definitely say long-range shooting.

Even though Chen Zhong’s headers always win the aerial duel and crash into the net with tremendous power.

Chen Zhong’s long shots, however, always seem able to kill the game with one strike from outside the penalty area.

A man who can rely on long-range shots to smash open the opponent’s goal—does he really still need to grit his teeth and battle others for headers?

Before the match, when people talked about heading, their focus might have been on Adebayor or Crouch; nobody expected that Chen Zhong, who is 10 centimeters shorter than Crouch, would deliver an "air king" conquest you never saw coming but, on second thought, feels completely natural!

After the game, Mourinho was unstinting in his praise of Chen Zhong’s performance, and when speaking about the second leg, although his words still carried a hint of caution, everyone knew full well that Tottenham’s Champions League journey was already over.

Before the match, Mourinho had said that a 0–0 draw at home against Tottenham would be acceptable; when he was asked about this again afterwards, he said: "It’s obvious that 4–0 is better than 0–0, but what I meant was, in a first leg at home, 0–0 is not a bad result, and it doesn’t mean we would actually play for that result."

Mourinho even joked about it: "It’s 4–0 because we were 11 against their 10." He also defended the referee: "The referee did what he had to do. Crouch looked a bit lost out there. The game evolved into a situation where one team just sat back and defended, unable to respond. I love football, and scenes like that make me feel sad. I hope people won’t criticize Tottenham the way they criticized last year’s Inter and this year’s Arsenal."

In any case, Mourinho was unwilling to attach too much importance to this 4–0: "A few years ago I took Chelsea into an FA Cup quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur. We were once 3–0 up, but in the end they fought back to 3–3. Premier League teams at home will fight to the last second at one hundred percent intensity. Away from home we must play stronger, get a good result, and then we can tell everyone that we’re the only team in this season’s Champions Cup that hasn’t lost a single match."

In this game, Tottenham actually gave people the illusion early on that it could be a proper end-to-end contest.

Tottenham produced several dangerous counterattacks in the first half, but being stuck in a 10 vs 11 situation so early made it impossible for them to hold out at the Bernabeu.

OPTA data shows that in this 4–0 match, the shot count was 25 to 4, corners 9 to 3, and Ball Control time 37 minutes 5 seconds versus 20 minutes 7 seconds. It wasn’t literally a complete one-way beating, but Real Madrid at least had absolute dominance. Even though Tottenham can very well play a stirring, blood-and-thunder game at White Hart Lane, to claw back four goals—just thinking about the fact the opponent is Real Madrid tells you there’s no such hope.

This is already the third time this season Real Madrid have hit a 4–0 scoreline. Stats show that in Real Madrid’s history in European two-legged ties, they’ve played 198 such matchups, and in any first leg where they’ve won 4–0 or more, they have never failed to advance.

Even more brutal data says: forget the Champions League; in all European competitions and King’s Cup games Real Madrid have ever played, whenever they’ve taken a 3–0 or better scoreline in the first leg, they have never been eliminated.

If Tottenham could break that pattern, they’d be creating a truly great record—but looking at the overall strength comparison, Tottenham simply don’t have the potential to pull off such a shocking upset. Even if Real Madrid were forced to play 10 vs 11 away from home right from the start, Tottenham would still be unlikely to hit a freak score like 4–0.

Because the difference in quality and maturity between the two teams really is fundamental.

Call Tottenham a "people’s club" and few would agree, but the pity is that their past glory hasn’t added much genuine big-club pedigree to this current side.

No composure, only the old-school blood-and-thunder ferocity of United Kingdom football—and the result is a fatal red card.

No pragmatic "lose less and call it a win" strategy, only beating the drum to squeeze out the last ounce of courage and dreaming of a heroic few against many win over Real Madrid—and the result is, they burned through their energy far too early and had no answers at all in the closing stages.

In counterattacks there was likewise no careful calculation or precise tactics; letting Bell sprint up and down one lane until he cramped up was the entirety of Redknapp’s counter plan. If anything happens to the Welsh, Tottenham are basically left just flailing around blindly.

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