After the league match with Valladolid, the entire Real Madrid team quickly boarded a plane and flew to Japan to prepare to participate in the 2012 Club World Cup as last season's Champions League champions.
The Club World Cup is an international football tournament hosted by FIFA and attended by the top teams from six continents. It was first held in 2005.
The Club World Cup is nominally the highest level competition at the world club level, and the champion can be called the world champion.
Of course, its value is much lower than that of the Champions League, and it is more like a warm-up match.
The predecessor of the Club World Cup was the Toyota Cup, which was held in 1981, and before that was the Intercontinental Cup, which was held in 1960.
Due to the inconvenient transportation in that era, the Intercontinental Cup was not very important. In everyone's mind, it was similar to a warm-up match. Many teams were unwilling to travel back and forth to play in the Intercontinental Cup and affect their team's normal games or preparations, which led to the interruption of many events and their failure to be successfully held.
However, with the development of modern football and the convenience of transportation, people have begun to pay attention to the champion of any event.
After all, it's good to have one more championship title.
Especially for Real Madrid this year, winning the Club World Cup will make them the six-time champion in 2012. This is an unprecedented annual super Grand Slam in the history of world football and must be taken seriously.
Therefore, on the plane to Japan, there were not only the Real Madrid team and coaches, team doctors, and staff, but also Florentino and other club executives.
In fact, this year's Club World Cup has already started, because there are still teams that need to play in the qualifiers, quarter-finals, etc.
There are a total of seven teams participating in the 2012 Club World Cup, namely 2011/2012 UEFA Champions League champions Real Madrid, 2012 Copa Libertadores Corinthians, 2012 AFC Champions League champions Ulsan Hyundai, 2012 African Champions League champions Al Ahly, 2011/2012 CONCACAF Champions League champions Monterrey, 2011/2012 Oceania Champions League champions Auckland City, and the host, 2012 Japanese J-League champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
Because the level of football in Europe and South America is too high and there are not enough teams, Real Madrid and Corinthians directly entered the semi-finals.
For the remaining five teams, Sanfrecce Hiroshima first played a qualifying match with Auckland City. The match was held on December 6. Sanfrecce Hiroshima took advantage of the home advantage and beat Auckland City 1-0 to advance to the quarter-finals. Auckland City became the seventh place in this Club World Cup.
On December 9, two quarter-finals were held, Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs. Al Ahly and Ulsan Hyundai vs. Monterrey.
The final result of the game was that Sanfrecce Hiroshima lost 1-2 to African champions Al Ahly, and Ulsan Hyundai lost 1-3 to CONCACAF champions Monterrey.
The collective elimination of the two Asian teams indirectly proves the low level of Asian football.
Al Ahly and Monterrey advanced to the semi-finals and will play Real Madrid and Corinthians in the semi-finals.
Before that, Ulsan Hyundai and Sanfrecce Hiroshima competed for the fifth and sixth places.
In the end, Sanfrecce Hiroshima defeated Ulsan Hyundai 3-2 and won the fifth place. Ulsan Hyundai became the sixth place in this Club World Cup.
Then all that remained was the semi-finals, where the European and South American champions, the two teams with the highest football level, appeared one after another.
The first match was against South American champions Corinthians.
On December 12, at the Toyota Stadium, Corinthians beat African champions Al Ahly 1-0 and advanced to the final.
Next, it is Real Madrid's turn to play, and their opponent is the CONCACAF champion Monterrey.
At 19:30 on the evening of December 13th, local time in Japan, the second match of the 2012 Club World Cup semi-final between Real Madrid and Monterrey officially started at the Yokohama International Stadium.
Although it was only a semi-final and the opponent was an unknown Central and North American team, the game was still broadcast in dozens of countries.
The reason is the fame of Lu Wenbin and Real Madrid, as well as the attraction of Real Madrid's upcoming six-crown title.
Moreover, the stands were packed with people. Japanese fans welcomed Real Madrid's appearance with great enthusiasm. Even Lu Wenbin was greeted with screams and cheers from countless female fans.
With Sanfrecce Hiroshima already eliminated, these Japanese fans naturally focused their affection on Real Madrid, which has more superstars.
Especially Lu Wenbin, even though he is a Chinese player, his extraordinary skills and great achievements cannot stop his appeal to fans.
Except for a few extremists, most Japanese fans still admire and even worship Lu Wenbin.
Monterrey Club is a club from Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León in northern Mexico.
Monterrey is obviously quite strong as it was able to win the CONCACAF Champions League.
But in front of Real Madrid, which is heavily invested and full of superstars, Monterrey is obviously too weak.
Just 4 minutes into the game, when Lu Wenbin got the ball in the midfield and saw that the opponent's goalkeeper was standing slightly forward, he suddenly kicked a long-range lob shot.
The fierce general Orozco was horrified and retreated quickly, barely jumping on the line of the small restricted area, but still failed to block the long-range lob shot.
Lu Wenbin scored his first goal in the Club World Cup with a wonderful long-range lob shot of over 40 meters.
It was a cold day, and after the game started, the fans all hunched their necks to watch the game.
As a result, as soon as the game started, the fans at the scene were excited by Lu Wenbin's wonderful goal.
Some fans simply stopped sitting down and continued to stand and watch.
The entire Monterrey team is mentally prepared to be defeated by Real Madrid. After all, Real Madrid is too strong.
However, they did not expect to fall behind right at the start and concede such a beautiful goal to Lu Wenbin.
Especially the goalkeeper Orozco, who was standing in the front position and was successfully lobbed by Lu Wenbin, almost wanted to die.
After the game resumed, Montero's team, which suffered a blow at the beginning, were a little out of shape.
In the 17th minute, Real Madrid scored again, and this time it was an own goal by Monterrey.
Ozil made a cross from the bottom of the wing, but Lu Wenbin, Benzema and others failed to get the first point. However, defender Mesa, who got the first point, was disturbed by Lu Wenbin and did not get the right position. His header that he wanted to clear out of the baseline was headed into his own goal.
This is another heavy blow to the entire Monterrey team.
After conceding a beautiful long-range goal from Lu Wenbin and then falling behind 0-2 due to an own goal, the entire Monterrey team had no confidence in winning.
Real Madrid completely controlled the game.
In the 38th minute, Real Madrid scored the third goal with a cross from Ronaldo to assist Lu Wenbin from outside the penalty area, giving Real Madrid a 3-0 lead.
In the 57th minute of the second half, Alonso took a corner kick, Ronaldo jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball into the goal, giving Real Madrid a 4-0 lead.
At this point, the game was basically over and Mourinho started making substitutions.
As a result, before Lu Wenbin was substituted, Lu Wenbin scored a long-distance counterattack goal in the 65th minute, completing a hat trick.
Real Madrid leads Monterrey 5-0.
Then Lu Wenbin was replaced.
It was not until the injury time of the game that Monterrey seized the opportunity of a free kick, and striker Denigris scored a goal in the penalty area to save face.
Real Madrid defeated Monterrey 5-1 in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup and advanced to the final.
They will compete with South American champions Corinthians for the final Club World Cup title.
This is the final battle for Real Madrid's six-crown title of the year.