The predetermined fate had changed, and Sevilla's offensive was once again neutralized.
Kanoute gritted his teeth and ran out of the penalty area. In this aerial battle, he again fell short. For the second time, Kanoute tried to position himself first, waiting for the ball to land on his head.
However, Chen Zhong always managed to get there a step earlier, positioning himself at the drop point of the ball, creating a vicious cycle.
"I have a premonition that I can score a hat-trick in this match," Kanoute roared internally. The day before the match, he had an unbelievable dream where he led his team to a 5-goal victory over Real Madrid, completing a hat-trick, and his teammate Renato scored twice.
It was a beautiful dream to defeat Real Madrid at the Bernabeu and lift the championship trophy.
In Sevilla's coaching area, with a determined face, dressed in a suit with a tough-guy demeanor, stood the man at the edge of the pitch, writing and drawing on his notepad. He was Juan de Ramos, Sevilla's head coach, and the hottest manager recently, a collector of trophies.
In his first season, he led the team to its first European title in 101 years of Sevilla's history—the UEFA Cup.
In the 2006-2007 season, Juan de Ramos led Sevilla to retain the UEFA Cup, starting Sevilla's path to becoming the "King of Europa League," and also helped the team to win the Spanish King's Cup that season.
"What would you do, Jose?" Juan de Ramos murmured to himself on the sidelines. Few knew that he and that special one had once worked together at Barcelona, both deeply influenced by Cruyff's football philosophy.
Back then, Juan de Ramos was the coach of Barcelona B, while Mourinho was an assistant coach for the first team.
The first to notice Sevilla's change was Schuster, a manager nicknamed "Madman" by the fans. His expression changed slightly as he looked at Francisco and said, "I've never rated Juan de Ramos highly; he's too dull. Even when his team scores, he won't celebrate with a fist pump, just stands like a stone on the sidelines. But I have to admit, he has ability."
"Do we need to adjust?"
"No, no need!" Schuster looked at Francisco with a smile and said, "Now we're just bringing the match back to a normal stage! They've realized that kid on the pitch is as calm as a 16-year-old shouldn't be."
"They can't scare Chen, nor can they take advantage of him."
Real Madrid gradually launched their offensive, but it was difficult to get into Sevilla's penalty area. Pepe even got an opportunity for a long-range shot from 30 yards out on the right side of the penalty area.
The long-range shot had great power, but unfortunately, goalkeeper Palop was highly focused.
Ramos also began to become active on the wing, with his overlapping crosses being an important part of Schuster's tactical system. Within a few minutes, Ramos provided two scoring opportunities for the frontline.
One was a pass to Raul on the edge of the penalty area, and the other was a lob to the returning Van Nistelrooy, but unfortunately, both did not break Sevilla's goal.
Juan de Ramos, watching Ramos stirring up on the wing, fell into deep thought. He wrote a small note and took the opportunity to give it to his players.
"The match has reached the 17th minute."
"Both teams are attacking and defending alternately."
"Before the match, Juan de Ramos stated in an interview that Sevilla would not fear Real Madrid or Barcelona."
"From this match, he has proven that he wasn't bragging, huh? We can see he handed a small note to his players."
"Judging by the players' expressions, they seem to not quite understand what was written on it."
"Ramos making a forward run down the wing; this match, Real Madrid has launched many attacks from this route with Ramos."
"He made a direct cross, the landing point wasn't good, it's cleared, Sevilla took the ball, a long pass to the wing, targeting behind Ramos."
"Sevilla's rapid counterattack!"
Sevilla's quick passes were decisive and resolute; Ramos wished the wings on his jersey could become real, and the large open area behind him gave the Sevilla players space to gallop.
Duda couldn't find an opportunity on the right wing, in the central area Pepe and Chen Zhong had positioned themselves well, and weren't flustered by Sevilla's impact, while Diara's quick retreat temporarily blocked Duda's route to cut inside.
Faced with this situation, Duda didn't hesitate at all, directly sending a half-high ball towards Real Madrid's penalty area.
Kanoute spread his arms, taking steps to block the nearby Chen Zhong while charging towards the ball's drop point. The two's bodies tangled, and Kanoute could only attempt a powerful yet poorly angled shot.
The ball was like a cannonball, smashing towards the goal. Casillas reacted quickly, punching the ball away with his hand. The ball flew to the other side, where Sevilla's Baulsen picked it up, facing Casillas, who was charging like a mad dog. Without hesitation, he passed it laterally to the unmarked Renato.
Renato, only 6 yards from the goal, stood sideways near the small penalty area line, quickly attempting to push the shot to break Real Madrid's goal.
At this critical moment, a white figure slid in from the side, making a sliding tackle, blocking Renato's shooting lane, and making a beautiful block.
The ball deflected off his body, landing right at the feet of the retreating Ramos.
Scattered applause broke out from the stands, Chen Zhong's crucial goal-line save, that critical sliding tackle, slid into the hearts of many Merengue fans, as if seeing the shadow of the iron-defense Yeluo from the past.
It's not that his ability is already comparable to Yeluo, but his reckless feeling in front of the goal and the way he risks everything for that jersey really make the fans can't help but feel emotional.
"Well done, Chen!" Casillas clapped his palms heavily on Chen Zhong's shoulder. Without Chen Zhong's reckless block, this ball would have absolutely been too late.
Schuster on the sidelines was also punching continuously, chasing Francisco to use a few slaps to vent the agitation in his heart.
The originally continuous cursing from the stands also completely disappeared after this block.
"How did he appear there?" Juan de Ramos's face became serious, "Is he really only 16 years old?"
Brave, decisive, calm, unafraid, with keen observational skills, his physical condition is also quite outstanding in the central defender position. Such a monster is no wonder he could become a dominant player in the youth team.
The match fell into a stalemate, yet Juan de Ramos was not in a hurry. After all, in the first leg, they had defeated Real Madrid by 1 goal, and the time came to the 42nd minute, Sevilla once again created a chance behind Ramos.
Pepe knocked down Sevilla's player outside the penalty area, giving the opponent a free-kick opportunity.
The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium was filled with jeers, Pepe's face was grim. Coming suddenly to world giant Real Madrid, plus the external media's attacks on him, made his emotions increasingly hard to control.
"Calm down, Pepe." Chen Zhong hurried to embrace Pepe, seeing Pepe's mouth moving, seemingly about to spit, hurriedly turned him around and said, "This isn't Portugal, not Porto, it's Real Madrid, calm down, my friend!"
Chen Zhong had long seen Pepe's discomfort. This physically refined central defender had shown subtle errors several times in this match. This wasn't due to Pepe's defensive skills lacking but because he was too eager to prove himself before the fans.
For this reason, he even attempted to join the offense several times.
But the problem was that now the team's defensive system had flaws, such as the defensive midfielder's protection, the limitation on wing crosses, just like in this defense.
As a central defender, there are principles in defense, one key point is to defend the back rather than the front, just like this foul. Pepe stepped forward to intercept, apart from wanting to show himself, there was no other reason.
His most correct approach should have been to mark the opponent, block the line, and seize the opportunity to intercept, rather than rushing up impatiently.
Fortunately, Pepe did not receive a yellow card, only got a verbal warning from the main referee.
Sevilla's free-kick, from this distance, could choose direct shooting or a pass to the center, Chen Zhong noticed Kanoute running to Pepe's defensive area but didn't pay it much attention, after all, as long as Pepe wasn't feeling hotheaded, his comprehensive ability was definitely stronger than Chen Zhong's at present.
Sevilla's player raised his right hand high, Chen Zhong tried to guess the intention from his hand movement. In the game, corner or free kick movements are generally purposeful, often hiding some kind of code, like, I'm going far end, I'm going near post, I'm passing middle, etc.
Informing teammates of a rough position for the pass.
Baulsen took a running start, Chen Zhong stuck close to Renato while paying attention to other players' movements. The ball's angle was very tricky, completing a direction change in mid-air, falling towards Kanoute's position.
Pepe and Kanoute tangled together holding a certain advantage, Casillas's position was quite good, blocked most of Kanoute's angle. Chen Zhong marked Renato beside him.
You could say the stage was completely set for Casillas.
However, Pepe disrupted these arrangements, during his tangle with Kanoute, he unexpectedly raised his arm to elbow block the ball.
Kanoute was the first to raise his right hand high, eyes wide open, roaring loudly to signal this was a penalty.
And Renato beside Chen Zhong also turned, spreading his arms towards the referee.
The piercing whistle sounded.
The main referee immediately pointed towards the penalty spot and showed Pepe a yellow card.
The cheers erupted from Sevilla's fans in the stands, Schuster cursed angrily on the sidelines, obviously couldn't believe such a thing would happen just as the first half was about to end.
Francisco's lips trembled, recalling that past dream again, in the dream, Pepe got two yellows turned into a red, was sent off, resulting in the team losing the match at Bernabeu.
"It's okay! It's okay!" Chen Zhong immediately went up to comfort Pepe. The noisy stadium left Pepe's mind completely blank.
"I, I don't know."
"I don't know why I did such a thing." Pepe looked at Chen Zhong somewhat dazedly; he had long told Chen Zhong that recently when reviewing matches, seeing his own actions, he himself couldn't quite believe, those were things he did: "I didn't want to do it intentionally, I'm not."
"I know, I know!" Chen Zhong soothed Pepe's emotions, being able to come to Real Madrid, for Pepe, was akin to a fish leaping over the dragon's gate, it was a transformation in life.
The football world has no shortage of examples where players join giants and cannot withstand the pressure, and eventually are forgotten.
"We still have Casillas!"
"They might not score, we still have Casillas."