At 20:45 on the evening of March 27, the first leg of the 2011/2012 Champions League quarter-finals, in which Real Madrid challenged APOEL away, officially kicked off at the GSP Stadium, the home stadium of APOEL.
The outside media and fans do not believe that APOEL can eliminate Real Madrid and create a miracle, but APOEL's players and fans still want to give it a try.
Because they made it through three rounds of play-offs this season, and then qualified as the top team in Group G in the Champions League group stage, and eliminated Lyon in the round of 16.
They had already created a miracle when they made it through three rounds of play-offs to reach the finals and took first place in the Champions League group stage.
When they eliminated Lyon and advanced to the quarterfinals, they had already created a new history of European football performance in Cyprus.
Now, they want to go one step further, sink the galactic battleship, and create a greater dragon-slaying legend.
Especially at their home ground, APOEL will not flinch.
Of course, this is just psychological fearlessness.
Tactically, facing Real Madrid, the coach of APOEL will naturally not let his players go against the stars of Real Madrid, as that would be tantamount to seeking death.
The reason why APOEL was able to qualify as the top team in the Champions League group stage this season and eliminate Lyon in the round of 16 was because of their defensive counterattacks.
Even at home, they would not take the initiative to attack, but instead defend and counterattack, looking for that slight chance to score the winning goal.
As for Real Madrid, they have no choice but to attack.
Facing the weakest team among the quarterfinals, if Real Madrid, whose value is dozens of times that of its opponent, does not dare to attack and has to rely on Mourinho's defensive counterattack to win, they will be criticized even if they win.
Therefore, in this game Real Madrid deployed their formation in advance and fought a positional battle rather than a defensive counterattack.
However, this is not a problem for Real Madrid.
Because Real Madrid is too terrifying this season, most teams play defensive counterattacks against Real Madrid, but Real Madrid does not lack the ability to fight positional battles.
Especially when there are two passing masters in Alonso and Lu Wenbin in the team.
Alonso and Lu Wenbin, one in the defensive midfielder and the other in the attacking midfielder, make Real Madrid's midfield offensive organization ability the best in the world and unrivaled.
In the 6th minute, Real Madrid launched a threatening attack.
Alonso's straight pass avoided all interceptions from opponents, and Benzema also successfully made an offside move. Unfortunately, the goalkeeper of APOEL acted too timely and kicked the ball out of the sideline before Benzema.
In the 9th minute, Ozil, who was playing as a winger, made a cross from the bottom, and Lu Wenbin followed up with a header from the middle, but the shot was slightly above the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Real Madrid made a comeback.
After breaking through the wing and cutting inside, Ronaldo made a high-quality long shot, but the goalkeeper of APOEL made a wonderful save, pushing Ronaldo's long shot out of the bottom line, winning cheers from the fans.
In the 15th minute, APOEL completed the first shot through a counterattack.
Although the ball did not hit the goal frame, it still drew warm applause and encouragement from more than 20,000 home fans.
Although the overall situation was that Real Madrid was dominating Athens, Athens never lost the ball and even had occasional counterattacks, which made the home fans at the scene quite happy.
However, soon, the home team fans were no longer happy.
Because Real Madrid's continuous attack finally scored a goal.
In the 19th minute, Real Madrid made a classic short pass in the frontcourt.
Lu Wenbin, Ronaldo, Ozil and Benzema passed the ball continuously, using quick short passes to penetrate the defense of APOEL. Finally, Lu Wenbin completed the final shot in the ribs of the penalty area, sending the ball accurately into the blind corner of the goal.
Real Madrid took a 1-0 lead away from home, and APOEL fell into a passive position at home.
After taking the lead away from home, Real Madrid became much more flexible.
They can retreat in formation and wait for the opponent to attack and expose the gap in the backcourt.
Anyway, even if the score remains at this level until the end of the game, a 1-0 away win would be enough, and Real Madrid will definitely advance to the semi-finals.
However, APOEL, who were behind at home, had to press forward and attack.
If you lose at home, there is no need to expect to win away from home.
Therefore, the bottom line for APOEL is that they cannot lose at home, so now that they are behind in the score, they naturally have to attack and try to equalize or even reverse the score to win.
But this was an impossible task for the Greek athletes.
There is a huge gap in strength between the two teams. If they have to press forward to attack against Real Madrid, which mainly relies on defense and counterattacks, then the backcourt will be a racetrack for Real Madrid's stars.
In the 31st minute, defensive midfielder Diarra intercepted the ball and passed it to Alonso, who passed it to the full-back Marcelo who made a forward counterattack.
Marcelo, the defensive midfielder, made a cross from the bottom of the wing, and Ronaldo's header was saved. However, Lu Wenbin, who followed up, was the first to get to the ball, and he shot the ball into the goal of APOEL.
Real Madrid leads 2-0 away from home.
This score was even safer and basically sealed the death of Greek Athletic.
The following game became uneventful.
Although APOEL tried their best to attack, the lack of offensive ability and the strong defense of Real Madrid prevented APOEL from scoring a single goal. Instead, they were often counterattacked by Real Madrid during their continuous attacks.
The speed of Lu Wenbin and Ronaldo, and the passing ability of Alonso and Ozil, all made AELK suffer a lot.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 0-5, and APOEL suffered a 0-5 defeat to Real Madrid at home.
This score was 100% a death sentence for Greek Athletic.
There has never been an example in the history of European competitions where a team lost 0-5 in the first leg but was able to turn the tables in the second leg.
What's more, this was a home defeat in the first round, and having to play away in the second round would make it even more impossible.
It is a foregone conclusion that Real Madrid will advance to the semi-finals of this season's Champions League.
Among the five goals scored by Real Madrid, four were scored by Lu Wenbin. Lu Wenbin once again completed a hat-trick in the Champions League.
Now it has become a routine for Lu Wenbin to score goals in games. It is not surprising if he scores two or three goals, but it is worth mentioning if he scores four or more goals.
It is only big news when Lu Wenbin doesn't score a goal.
After playing in the Champions League, Real Madrid returned to the league. On March 31, in the 31st round of La Liga, Real Madrid challenged Osasuna away.
Osasuna has performed well this season and is currently ranked sixth in La Liga, ahead of Atletico Madrid.
However, facing Real Madrid, Osasuna was unable to resist even at home.
After 90 minutes, the score on the big screen was 1-5. Osasuna lost 1-5 to Real Madrid at home, and only scored one goal through a penalty kick.
Lu Wenbin scored a hat trick in this game and assisted the remaining two goals. He directed all five goals of Real Madrid and was the dominant player in the game.
After this big league victory, Real Madrid played at home in the second round of the quarter-final against AEK.
However, this time Mourinho sent out most of the substitute lineup.
Not only Ronaldo, Benzema and others, but even Lu Wenbin sat on the bench and did not appear on the field until the end of the game.
The 5-0 away win in the first round made the second round a routine matter, and all we had to do was send someone to deal with it.
In the end, the game ended in a 3-1 score.
Although Lu Wenbin did not play, Real Madrid still won. AEK Athens tried their best and scored a goal to save face.
Real Madrid reached the semi-finals of the 2011/2012 Champions League with a score of 8-1 in two rounds.
Their opponent in the semi-finals is Chelsea, Mourinho's old club, which defeated Benfica.