Santiago Bernabeu Stadium
Both teams started cautiously, with the midfield battle exceptionally intense. Villarreal was clearly out for revenge in this match, fearlessly dragging Real Madrid into the "meat grinder" in the midfield again and again.
But Pellegrini obviously miscalculated.
The current Real Madrid is worlds apart from the team at the start of the season. With Baptista and Chen Zhong as two tanks in the midfield, they can entirely compensate for the physical disadvantage of Guti and Robinho.
"Cazorla has the ball."
"Torres's defense is very steady."
"Cazorla shifts the ball to the center."
"Chen Zhong!"
"Directly shoves the opponent aside."
"He seems to have become even stronger."
Chen Zhong directly pushed aside the opponent beside him, protecting the ball, and using his strength advantage, passed the ball to Robinho, who was in decent form for this match. After receiving the ball, he quickly found an opening and passed it to Van Nistelrooy.
