Real Madrid's chairman, Calderón, had already intended to change the manager. On the one hand, it was to shirk responsibility and let Capello take the blame. On the other hand, he also wanted the team's locker room to stabilize as soon as possible.
But there were a lot of problems.
First of all, changing the manager was not something he could decide on his own. He needed to take into account the will of the club's management. If he invited a successor who was opposed by others, it was obviously digging his own grave.
Secondly, Real Madrid had just suffered a crushing defeat and their elimination from the Champions League had been recognized by the world. If they changed the manager at this time, then the successor would first have to bear the responsibility of being eliminated from the Champions League. Although it was not a big deal, at least a slightly rational manager would not be willing to bear the responsibility for Capello's poor results.
It was easy to fire Capello. Capello could pack his bags and leave as soon as Calderón gave the order.
But who to find to take over was a problem that left Real Madrid in a terrible fix.
After all, they were still four points ahead of Barcelona in the league. If the result of changing the manager was to lose both the Champions League and the league, Real Madrid's chaos would be difficult to end.
After the Champions League game, the European football world was scrambling to report the news of Real Madrid's crushing defeat to AC Milan at the Bernabéu. Kaka shone in the game and could almost be said to be leading the game.
He was the most dazzling star player in the game!
In any case, Capello was not a manager who gave up on himself. He could smell danger from the changes in the club's top management, but he would not irresponsibly wash his hands of it.
After the Champions League game, Real Madrid immediately ushered in the Madrid Derby!
At Atlético Madrid's home ground, most of the Real Madrid fans who came to the away game raised banners to express their protest against Capello and called for the club to "unblock" Qin Xiong and Beckham.
This made Capello very embarrassed at the Calderón stadium.
Real Madrid's performance in the derby was quite bloody. Unfortunately, the technical and tactical aspects were still lacking and there was no significant improvement.
The team finally tied with Atlético Madrid, led by Torres and Agüero, 1: 1.
In the same round of the game, Barcelona defeated Athletic Bilbao at home by 3: 0 and shortened the point gap between Real Madrid.
Now, the difference between the two teams was only 2 points!
Champions League, Madrid Derby.
After two consecutive intense battles, Real Madrid's depletion was extremely serious. Following that would be the second leg of the Copa del Rey 14 final. The opponent was not weak, it was Seville.
A few days after the Madrid Derby, many Real Madrid fans gathered in groups to hold up banners and protest outside the club, calling for the team to let Qin Xiong return to the starting lineup!
It was only when the team was in the most critical moment that the forgotten man was missed!
Due to competitive considerations and external pressure, Capello had no choice but to re-select Qin Xiong and Beckham into the starting lineup for the second leg of the Copa del Rey 14 final.
March 1st, Bernabéu Stadium.
After two and a half months, Qin Xiong once again appeared on the field wearing the Real Madrid uniform.
In this King's Cup match, Qin Xiong did not deliberately speed up the pace of the game after he took on the role of attacking midfielder. Instead, he controlled the game with a slow pace most of the time.
Then, he used the change of pace as a means to suddenly launch an attack to threaten Seville's goal.
In the slow pace, Real Madrid's overall defense was relatively stable, which was a psychological stability that emanated from the inside out.
Seville, on the other hand, was a little radical. They looked like they wanted to take advantage of Real Madrid's unstable performance to take advantage of the situation.
Qin Xiong and Beckham played energetically in the game. After all, the two had not played for a long time, so there was absolutely no problem in terms of energy.
In the 36th minute of the first half, Qin Xiong suddenly launched a personal dribbling breakthrough in the midfield, driving the offense to the front and back of Seville's defensive line. After pulling out a gap, he sent an assist to Robinho, who shot from the side of the penalty area to the far corner of the goal.
Real Madrid opened the scoring and led their opponents 1: 0.
This score was not safe. The reason why it was not safe was that once Seville equalized the score, Real Madrid would still be eliminated.
The format of the Copa del Rey was very similar to the knockout stages of the Champions League. The home and away goal advantage would have a huge impact on the outcome of the game.
Because of this, after the start of the second half, Seville launched a large-scale attack, and Qin Xiong seized the opportunity to launch a long-distance attack. Seville had suffered losses from Qin Xiong before and frequently used killing tactics.
In the 68th minute of the game, Qin Xiong was kicked down in front of the penalty area, and Real Madrid was awarded a free kick.
Qin Xiong wanted to relieve the pain of being kicked, so he gave the opportunity to take the free kick to Beckham.
Beckham, who took the free kick, kicked out a full moon scimitar full of personal colors and went straight for Seville's goal!
Real Madrid led Seville by 2: 0 at home.
At this time, Capello began to adopt a conservative strategy and made continuous substitutions to let the team start to defend.
Even if the team was in sight to advance to the top four of the Copa del Rey, when Capello adopted a conservative substitution strategy, the Bernabéu stadium still rang with ear-piercing boos.
Now the fans had enough of Capello's defensive football.
No matter what the result was, if the game was not exciting enough, they would directly express their dissatisfaction.
Seville scored a goal before the end of the game, and in the little time left, Real Madrid was on tenterhooks for a while.
Fortunately, when the referee blew the whistle at the end of the game, the score was still 2: 1.
Real Madrid defeated Seville by a total score of 2: 1 over two legs to advance to the top four of the Copa del Rey!
At the post-match press conference, Capello simply answered a few questions about the overall trend and result of the game and left in a hurry.
The reporters were not satisfied, but they understood tacitly: Capello was afraid!
He was afraid that the reporters would ask him: How did he feel when Qin Xiong and Beckham, whom he had blocked, were able to bring the team a hard-won victory when they came on the field together?
Advancing to the top four of the Copa del Rey was no joy for Real Madrid.
Because the haze over their heads was still the team's crushing 0: 3 defeat to AC Milan!
Before the weekend's league game, Capello once again attended the pre-match press conference. The focus of the reporters' questions was: Will Qin Xiong and Beckham play in the league game this weekend?
Capello's answer was: Not sure!
Because he included Qin Xiong and Beckham in the list of substitutes.
He explained the reason: Qin Xiong and Beckham played the Copa del Rey game in the middle of the week and needed to rest well to prepare for the Champions League game next week!
The reporters suddenly realized that Capello had now revealed in advance that Qin Xiong and Beckham would play in the Champions League. It seemed that it was not a smokescreen.
However, the question was: Would that game be a life-and-death game?
Trailing 0: 3 at home and going to San Siro to make a comeback?
What an international joke!
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