The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

Chapter 416 - 90: Clinching the Title Early! Number One in the Bundesliga! Next Stop: Superstar! Toying with De Gea! He Single-handedly Toppled Atletico Madrid

With Dortmund’s narrow 3-2 home victory over Atletico Madrid, all of the midweek European matches came to an end.

The first legs of both the Champions League and UEFA Europa League semifinals were now complete.

Both Bundesliga teams that reached the semifinals were victorious.

Bayern Munich secured a narrow 1-0 victory at home against Lyon in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals.

Although they won the match, Van Gaal’s team paid a heavy price.

French left-winger Ribery received a red card in the first half and was sent off.

However, it wasn’t long before Lyon’s Toulalan was also sent off after accumulating two yellow cards.

In the end, it was a crucial goal from Robben that allowed Bayern to narrowly defeat Lyon at home.

In response to this match, the German media widely praised Robben and criticized Ribery.

The French winger was in the middle of a contract dispute with Bayern, with potential transfers to Real Madrid and Barça causing a huge media stir.

Robben, on the other hand, had been sensational ever since joining Bayern.

However, throughout this season, Bayern’s overall performance had been far from satisfactory.

In the league, they had long trailed behind Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen. In the Champions League, Bayern had stumbled their way into the semifinals, but their performance there was equally unconvincing.

For example, after being drawn against Bordeaux, Juventus, and Hapoel Haifa in the group stage, everyone thought Bayern would top the group without a doubt. Instead, they barely scraped through in second place.

And they were a distant second to Bordeaux.

In the Round of 16 match against Fiorentina, their second goal in the 2-1 home victory didn’t come until the 89th minute.

Then, they lost the away leg 2-3.

Historically in the Champions League, teams that lose a match during the knockout stage have a very low chance of winning the title.

In the quarterfinals, facing Ferguson’s Manchester United, it was another nail-biter for Bayern.

They conceded early in the home leg, only managing a dramatic comeback thanks to a goal from Olic in stoppage time.

Things didn’t improve at Old Trafford, where they found themselves down 3-1 at halftime.

Bayern was completely powerless against Manchester United for the entire match.

The turning point of the match was the red card shown to Manchester United’s right-back, Rafael, in the 50th minute.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with the red card itself, but after the match, most people felt that Manchester United had been treated unfairly.

If Manchester United’s Rafael could get a red card while playing at home, then Bayern’s Van Bommel should have received two yellows in the first half alone.

The Dutchman played way too dirty!

Specifically, Rafael’s first yellow card came after he unwisely retaliated against Van Bommel, who had fouled him, while the referee remained indifferent to the initial infraction.

Before Rafael was sent off, Bayern had created virtually no chances.

Ribery, who was matched up against Rafael, was particularly useless, completely shut down by the Brazilian full-back.

So, when Ribery was sent off with a red card just 37 minutes into the match against Lyon, he was met with a tidal wave of criticism from the German media afterward.

He was supposed to be the one to step up and lead the team to victory.

But now, it was Robben playing that role!

From the group stage to the knockouts, Bayern’s luck of the draw had been truly excellent.

But even so, their performances were difficult to praise.

Other than their 4-1 victory over Juventus in the final match of the group stage, Van Gaal’s team had not played a single convincing game.

But was Juventus really that strong?

In the UEFA Europa League Round of 16, Dortmund completely routed Juventus, winning 3-0 in both legs.

In comparison, Dortmund’s path since the start of the UEFA Europa League knockouts—facing Ajax, Juventus, Benfica, and Atletico Madrid in succession—has definitely featured a higher caliber of opponents than Bayern’s.

And Dortmund has remained undefeated throughout the knockout stage.

This is clearly far more impressive than Bayern’s run!

Although the narrow 3-2 home win over Atletico Madrid added plenty of suspense for the second leg, the performance of Klopp and his young squad still earned unanimous praise.

Wang Shuo, in particular, earned widespread acclaim once again for his two goals and one assist.

In the other UEFA Europa League semifinal, Liverpool drew 1-1 at home against Fulham.

But the midweek European match that truly shocked the world’s media and astounded fans was undoubtedly Inter Milan’s 3-1 home victory over Barça.

Mourinho was instantly deified for this single victory!

Although pro-Barça media blamed the loss on volcanic ash from Iceland, the excuse was clearly unconvincing.

The home performance of Mourinho and his Inter Milan side dazzled the entire world.

They had crushed the seemingly invincible "Dream Team" Barça!

This was especially true for Messi.

The Argentinian superstar extended his embarrassing record of failing to score against a Mourinho-led team!

However, the buzz generated by Mourinho and Inter Milan was so immense that it completely overshadowed the news of Dortmund’s 3-2 victory over Atletico Madrid.

Speaking of contract renewals, after Inter Milan’s 3-1 victory over Barça, Moratti personally announced his hope to extend Mourinho’s contract.

The Portuguese maverick’s tenure at Inter Milan was already the stuff of legend!

He arrived on the Apennine Peninsula in 2008, signing a three-year coaching contract with an annual salary of 9 million euros.

In 2009, Inter Milan officially announced a contract extension for Mourinho until 2012, with his annual salary increasing to 11 million euros.

Now, Inter Milan was once again eager to extend Mourinho’s contract, offering an annual salary of 13 million euros.

No one would doubt if Mourinho was worth that price.