From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 773: Battle of the Bernabeu

"To be honest, I didn't have much hope that the second half would be any good," Martin Taylor said to his partner Andy Gray.

"Objectively speaking, a 1:1 draw is acceptable to Manchester United as a guest," said Andy Gray. "I just don't know if Zidane is willing to accept a draw at home."

In the commentator's opinion, Real Madrid is the king of the Champions League, and playing at their home stadium, the Bernabeu, they should have more ambitions and pursuits, but after the start of the second half, they immediately realized that they were wrong.

The two sides continued to fight in the midfield, and as the game progressed, the stalemate did not change.

At about sixty minutes, Manchester United head coach Mourinho made the first adjustment, replacing Kante with Gundogan.

However, Gundogan did not appear in his usual attacking midfielder position, but formed a double defensive midfielder with Kante, so this was a positional substitution and Manchester United's formation on the field did not change.

Martin Taylor said somewhat unexpectedly: "Mourinho doesn't seem satisfied with taking a draw away from the Bernabeu."

Andy Gray nodded and said, "Now it depends on how Zidane will deal with it."

The camera gave a close-up of Real Madrid coach Zidane, and then turned to Bale on the bench.

Obviously, if Real Madrid head coach Zidane is also unwilling to accept a draw and wants to make adjustments on the offensive end, the most likely option is to replace Bale.

Bale also looked a little anxious. He stared at the field and was eager to play.

Bale whispered to his teammate sitting next to him from time to time. This person seemed even more anxious than Bale. He was Real Madrid's German midfielder Toni Kroos.

Speaking of which, Mourinho secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Kroos sitting on the Real Madrid bench after the game started.

Mourinho replaced Gundogan to strengthen the attack.

On the Real Madrid side, Zidane finally took action after nearly ten minutes. He asked Bale and Toni Kroos to get up and warm up.

Mourinho also noticed the changes on Real Madrid's bench.

Substituting Bale means that Zidane is not satisfied with the score of 1:1 and Real Madrid still wants to attack; but if Kroos is substituted, it means strengthening the midfield defense, which means expressing satisfaction and acceptability with the score result of 1:1.

In the 71st minute of the game, Zidane finally made a substitution, replacing Vinicius with Bale.

Seeing Zidane's adjustment, Mourinho made a tit-for-tat adjustment after thinking for a moment.

He replaced Rashford with Greenwood.

Replace Rashford, who is already unable to run, with Greenwood, who is fast and has strong impact, and continue to strengthen the attack.

Zidane stood on the sidelines, staring at the field with a serious expression.

He was hesitating. Mourinho was deploying his troops and continuously strengthening the attack. Zidane was considering whether to continue to adjust to strengthen the defense, or to adapt to the changes in the situation and instead strengthen the offense in order to seize the gaps after Manchester United's attack.

This is a multiple-choice question: should we be conservative and accept a draw? Or should we give it a try and win the game?

At this moment, Mbappe used his speed to break through Mendy on the wing, then suddenly cut inside and pretended to shoot, but made a diagonal pass. Gundogan came in from behind and attracted the attention of the defender, but made a back pass at the opposite angle. Greenwood followed up and shot the ball, and it flew high into the stands.

There was a huge booing above the Bernabeu Stadium. Real Madrid fans used this way to ridicule Greenwood, but in fact they were trying to cover up the panic in their hearts.

Although this ball was hit by an anti-aircraft gun, it made them break out in a cold sweat.

It was this wonderful offensive combination played by Manchester United that made Zidane make the decision.

Zidane immediately made a substitution, with Marcelo coming on as a substitute, replacing left-back Mendy.

In this game, Mendy had a hard time facing his French national team teammate Mbappe.

Mourinho folded his arms and frowned. Real Madrid defended with all their might, which made it difficult to deal with. It was like they were wearing a suit of armor. If you wanted to hit them, you had no idea where to start.

Just as Mourinho was thinking, boos broke out from the stands. Mourinho looked up, then clenched his fists, leaned forward, and then even louder boos mixed with cheers resounded throughout the stadium.

Mourinho jumped three times on the spot and pumped his fist in excitement. He no longer needed to worry about his headaches, as his disciples helped him solve his troubles.

This was Gundogan who intercepted the ball in the frontcourt, stole the ball from Valverde's feet, and quickly launched a counterattack.

Gundogan dribbled the ball forward at high speed, and Casemiro slid to make a tackle. Gundogan deftly lifted the ball up, jumped up himself, avoided Casemiro's tackle, and then passed the ball to Harry Kane.

Harry Kane took the ball with his back, held off the defender, and knocked the ball away.

Bruno rushed forward.

"Block his shot!" Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois shouted anxiously.

As the current world No. 1 in football, Bruno is too threatening. Even Courtois was nervous when facing his shot.

………………

Ramos came up to block, and then he saw that Bruno was about to shoot, but when he touched the ball, his foot shape changed, and he flicked the ball with the outside of his foot very lightly, and the ball went diagonally through the defense line of Real Madrid.

Everyone saw Greenwood coming in from the left, receiving the ball and cutting inside.

Facing defender Carvajal who came out hastily to intercept, Greenwood did not give the opponent a chance to get close, and directly shot the ball!

"Mason!!!" Accompanied by the roar of commentator Martin Taylor, Greenwood shot hard, and the football suddenly jumped up and flew straight towards the goal of Real Madrid.

Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois opened his arms to save the ball, but the shot was so powerful and it was an upward ball. The ball passed through Courtois' hands at high speed and continued forward until it rolled up the net...

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! Greenwood! Greenwood! He scored for Manchester United! 2:1! Manchester United overtook the score away from home!" Andy Gray shouted. "After the Manchester United midfielder stole the ball, they launched a quick counterattack. Gundogan, Harry Kane, Bruno, Greenwood, Manchester United's stars teamed up to score a wonderful goal."

"The game is in the 2st minute and Manchester United leads Real Madrid 1:!"

………………

Greenwood looked very excited after scoring the goal. He turned around and excitedly pointed at the team captain Bruno who passed the ball to him.

Bruno opened his arms, laughed, and hugged Greenwood who ran over.

Other Manchester United players also ran over excitedly and gathered around to celebrate.

This game is too difficult. If we finally win the game with this goal, it will be the best reward for everyone's efforts.

Moreover, if they can win away from home, this series of knockout matches will become easier for Manchester United. It can even be said that they have already stepped half a foot into the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League.

"This is a very crucial goal. Including injury time, with more than ten minutes left in the game, Manchester United leads 2:1..."

Manchester United players were celebrating wildly, while Real Madrid players looked depressed, even a little frustrated.

Losing the ball at this time point is really damaging to morale.

2: 1!

This is also the final score.

After conceding the goal, Real Madrid launched a frantic counterattack. Zidane even sent out another striker, Jovic, to use four forwards to attack Manchester United's defense.

On the Manchester United side, Mourinho immediately replaced Mbappe with Bellingham, changing the formation to 442 to strengthen the midfield defense, making Real Madrid's crazy counterattack at the last moment ineffective.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the score did not change again. Manchester United beat Real Madrid 2:1 away and took away a hard-fought victory from the Bernabeu Stadium.

………………

At the post-match press conference, Mourinho was not modest. He praised his players fiercely.

"Real Madrid is a team that deserves respect. They are strong and aggressive. The Bernabeu is a terrifying stadium. It is difficult to win and go home from here."

"So, I want to praise all the players. They performed very well. I am proud of the fighting spirit and hard work shown by the players and the competitive state they showed."

As the former coach of Real Madrid, Mourinho is very aware of the strength of the Galacticos. It is absolutely rare for Manchester United to beat Real Madrid away from home, and it deserves any praise from him.

Listening to Mourinho praising his players, some reporters felt bored, while others nodded in approval with excited expressions. The former were media from Real Madrid, and the latter were not only media from Manchester United, but also media from Barcelona.

Real Madrid lost, and they were happy too.

Yes, Barcelona is very wary of Manchester United, but objectively speaking, in their view, Manchester United is not a La Liga team after all, and there are very few opportunities to play against them, so the threat to them is limited.

But it is different for Real Madrid. This sworn enemy is in the same La Liga as them, and they have to play face to face at least twice every season. If they meet again in the King's Cup or European competitions, there will be more games.

Therefore, Real Madrid poses a greater threat to them than Manchester United.

Especially in the Champions League, Real Madrid has won 12 Champions League trophies, far ahead of Barcelona's 4.

If Real Madrid continues to advance in the Champions League this season, even reaches the final, or even wins the championship, it will definitely not be good news for Barcelona.

Now that Real Madrid is losing at home, it is almost eliminated from the Champions League early, and Barcelona is also happy to see it.