Chapter 409: Chapter 89: Faster Than Messi! Who Dives Anyway? A Crazed Atletico Madrid! Klopp: "Wang Shuo, I Love You to Death!

TWEET!

The moment Atletico Madrid’s midfielder Paulo Assunção fell to the ground clutching his face, the Danish referee, Larson, immediately blew his whistle and pointed toward Dortmund’s half of the field.

In an instant, the entire Westfalen Stadium erupted in a chorus of boos.

"I didn’t touch him on purpose! He ran right into me."

Götze, extremely agitated, rushed toward the referee.

Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Wang Shuo immediately chased after him. He got to Götze before referee Larson could and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey, Mario, calm down."

"I didn’t touch him! That damn bastard ran into me on purpose! It wasn’t a foul!" Götze was still fuming.

The young Dortmund player was clearly driven mad with anger by Assunção!

"Listen to me! Calm down! Listen to me!"

Wang Shuo grabbed Götze firmly by the shoulders and gave him a hard shake, trying to get him to calm down.

"You go back. I’ll handle this, okay?"

Götze calmed down a little, but he was still livid. "I really didn’t touch him. I was just trying to make a breakthrough, and he deliberately stuck his head out and hit my hand."

"I know. I’ll talk to him. You go back," Wang Shuo said, leaving no room for argument as he pointed to their own half.

The referee had already made the call, so possession would definitely go to Atletico Madrid.

Götze was still fuming, but he obeyed Wang Shuo’s order and turned to run back to his team’s side of the field.

By this time, Assunção was already back on his feet.

The referee walked over and saw that there was nothing seriously wrong with him.

But now, Dortmund’s chance to counter-attack after winning the ball near the halfway line in Atletico Madrid’s half was completely gone.

Wang Shuo strode toward Larson.

"He’s fine, isn’t he?" Wang Shuo asked the Dane in English.

According to UEFA’s officiating standards, referees use English during matches.

After serving as team captain for a while, Wang Shuo had realized the necessity of learning English.

After hiring Shen Qinghe as his personal assistant, Wang Shuo had started learning some essential English phrases for the pitch from her to better communicate with referees.

Larson had also sensed Götze’s agitation earlier.

Götze was still very young, with a bit of baby fat still on his face. He had a likable appearance and looked rather well-behaved.

Assunção, on the other hand, looked like a cunning character at first glance.

"Yes, but Götze’s hand did indeed make contact with Assunção’s head," Larson explained.

"Of course, I saw that too."

Wang Shuo didn’t deny it.

The call had been made. Arguing was pointless; one had to unconditionally respect the referee’s authority.

"But Mr. Larson, look at them. Their tackling is so aggressive, and they’re diving. He obviously ran into it on purpose. Götze just instinctively swung his arm. Do we have to keep our hands glued to our bodies when we play?"

The most annoying thing about Assunção was how he’d stick to you.

At 1.73 meters tall, he was very agile and a real pest.

Once he latched onto you, he was like a stubborn plaster you couldn’t shake off.

If you made the slightest careless move and touched him, he’d immediately hit the deck if the timing was right for him.

But he also made a lot of dirty, off-the-ball moves.

Some might ask, then why not use dirty tricks against him?

That’s a matter of playing habits.

To put it bluntly, what kind of decent person would spend all day thinking about pulling these dirty tricks?

It’s like all those Oscar-worthy performances from the Barça players. Are you sure they haven’t had professional training?

What normal player would do that?

Despicable!

"You should keep some of their behavior in check, otherwise it’s unfair to us! This is our home ground!" Wang Shuo protested.

Larson nodded. "I understand."

After walking away, Larson immediately ran over and called Atletico Madrid’s captain, Antonio Lopez, over.

Wang Shuo didn’t know what the referee said to Atletico Madrid.

But he and the rest of Dortmund were getting a major headache.

To be able to break into the UEFA Europa League semi-finals, this Atletico Madrid team was truly strong!

Many people might look at Atletico Madrid’s lineup and think their offense was formidable.

Aguero, Fran, Ximang, Reyes—all were world-famous football stars with superb individual skills.

But once you actually played against Atletico Madrid, you’d discover you were wrong!

This Atletico Madrid team’s attacking players were indeed very strong.

But their defense was even stronger!

That’s why Atletico Madrid’s performance in the league was actually quite average, but in cup competitions, they did exceptionally well.

This was true for both the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Europa League.

Wang Shuo turned his head and glanced at the man in front of the visiting team’s dugout—a Spaniard who also had a full beard.

Enrique Sanchez Flores, 45 years old, a native of Madrid, and a second-generation footballer with a prestigious pedigree.

His father, Isidro Sanchez, was Real Madrid’s starting right-back in the 60s and was a teammate of the legendary Di Stefano. They were also very close friends.

So close that Di Stefano became Flores’s godfather.

Flores’s playing career took him from Valencia to Real Madrid, and finally to Zaragoza.

His coaching career started with the Real Madrid youth team, then moved to Getafe, Valencia, and then Benfica, before he came to Atletico Madrid in ’09.

He first made a name for himself starting at Valencia.

During his time as coach, Valencia consistently had the best defense in La Liga.

The very reason Atletico Madrid valued Flores was precisely for his ability to coach a strong defense.