"Suker scored just four minutes into the match! Facing his old club, he didn't hold back at all. From the moment the game started, he was in his most explosive form!"
"The young lads of Dinamo Zagreb must understand one thing: Suker and this Real Madrid team are the toughest opponents they have faced so far. They need to show more in this match."
Klaushevich didn't dare say they could win the game—it was almost impossible.
The Champions League six years ago was different!
Back then, Suker and the others had gathered together, and Dinamo Zagreb was full of talent. It was an era of abundant talent.
The current Dinamo Zagreb isn't weak, but that's only in the league. They lack the drive and ability they had six years ago.
In the VIP box, as Suker scored, everyone couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
"Suker's chance conversion is incredible!"
"It's more than just chance conversion—he created that opportunity himself!"
Boban shook his head in amazement. "There's almost no unnecessary fuss. Everything is efficient, concise, and deadly. That's why Suker has won three Ballon d'Or awards!"
"He's about to get his fourth!" Davor Šuker said with a smile.
Then he turned to Bešić. "Did you ever imagine he'd achieve this much when you brought Suker from Bosnia to Dinamo Zagreb?"
Hearing this, everyone turned to look.
Back then, Bešić had brought Suker and Modrić out of the "backwoods" and even invited Davor Šuker and others to mentor these young lads.
Although it was only for a year, they grew rapidly.
In the second year, they began their Champions League campaign and achieved impressive results. Because of this, the Dinamo Zagreb "supermarket" officially opened, and Suker and the others embarked on their journeys in the top five leagues.
"To be honest, I had some expectations," Bešić said. "But I never imagined this. Back then, I was limited by my perspective. After all, even Davor didn't win the Ballon d'Or. For us, it was too far-fetched."
Boban: "But this guy won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year in his second year at Milan."
"It was two consecutive Ballon d'Or awards. The second one was shared with Luka!"
As they spoke, they smiled.
Their words were filled with emotion.
After all, they had watched Suker and the others grow from young players to where they are now.
Years had passed in the blink of an eye, and the achievements of Suker and the other players filled them with pride.
And the Croatian national team, composed of these players, would undoubtedly go further in the World Cup. They firmly believed it.
On the field, as Suker scored, the entire Maksimir Stadium erupted in fierce applause.
Although they wanted to shout Suker's name as they had in the past, they had to respect their own players and held back.
After all, for them, Real Madrid was still the opponent.
After conceding the goal, Dinamo Zagreb became somewhat constrained.
Or rather, their actions became hesitant.
In the Croatian league, no team played like this, and no player was like Suker.
Even though they set up a 4-5-1 formation, Suker still gave their defense a hard time.
In the 11th minute, Suker dropped back again to receive the ball and slipped it to Bale.
Bale dashed down the wing along the channel Suker had opened for him.
Suker didn't follow up forward but kept looking around, observing.
The young players of Dinamo Zagreb were panicking. They all rushed toward the penalty area, almost all focused on the ball, and started leaving players unmarked.
Seizing this opportunity, Suker moved diagonally forward.
"Pass it here!"
Bale was still controlling the ball, looking for a chance to cut inside. Hearing Suker's call, he immediately passed the ball over.
Suker pulled the ball, turned, and began dribbling horizontally along the edge of the penalty area.
"Suker is here again! What will the young lads of Dinamo Zagreb do?"
Seeing Suker with the ball, these players rushed toward him again.
They were really only watching the ball!
Watching the Dinamo Zagreb defenders swarm forward one after another, Suker couldn't help but shake his head.
Before they could form a defensive formation, he slipped the ball through a gap to Di María.
Di María dashed forward, nudged the ball slightly to create a shooting angle, and pushed a shot.
The ball hit the near post and bounced into the net.
Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 Real Madrid.
With the second goal, the situation became even more dire.
The Dinamo Zagreb players grew more anxious and made frequent mistakes in their decisions.
This was the problem with fielding so many young players. Once they fell behind, they couldn't calm down, and their self-regulation was poor.
What's more, no one reminded them.
If one person panicked, the others followed suit.
Fortunately, after taking a two-goal lead, Real Madrid slowed down their overall attack.
In the 38th minute, from a Real Madrid corner, Carvalho scored with a header.
Real Madrid led 3-0.
This goal was also the last of the first half.
Time entered halftime.
The players from both teams returned to the locker rooms for adjustments.
"They played too chaotically," Bešić frowned.
The current coach of Dinamo Zagreb was his former assistant. Although not particularly tactically gifted, he was stable and resilient.
However, with the departure of some veteran players, the squad had become a team of youngsters.
It wasn't that young players were bad—they had drive and energy, bringing vitality to the team.
But a team's age structure needed the support of experienced veterans.
In this match, veterans would know what to do and how to adjust the situation.
Young players, limited by experience and often impulsive, were prone to collapse.
Bešić shook his head slightly.
But he couldn't say anything. After all, he had already stepped down. Intervening would only make things difficult for his "assistant."
"After Kovačić and Brozović left, the team had became weaker," Davor Šuker said.
"It has nothing to do with that. It's purely a problem with the age structure," Bešić said.
Davor Šuker turned his head. "Brozović joined Inter Milan, and Kovačić went to Real Madrid. The former's transfer was good, but isn't it too early for Kovačić to go to Real Madrid now?"
Bešić: "He'll be loaned out. He'll leave in the winter window."
Hearing this, Davor Šuker basically understood what it meant.
This was about building Kovačić's reputation and resume, and then sending him out for development.
At 17, it was almost impossible for him to be a starter at Real Madrid.
In the second half, the teams switched sides.
Dinamo Zagreb made some adjustments, strengthening their defense.
They intended to focus on defense and avoid conceding more goals.
In this situation, they really had no other options. They could only look for opportunities against other teams. Against Real Madrid, there was almost no chance of victory.
From start to finish, they were thoroughly suppressed.
The limitations of the squad and the gap in individual player abilities were immediately apparent.
And this was against a depleted Real Madrid lineup.
The Dinamo Zagreb players couldn't help but feel discouraged. This was Real Madrid's team, with many key players absent. If it were the full-strength team, how much more scarier would they be?
Perhaps they would have collapsed in the first half already?
In the 55th minute, Mourinho substituted Suker off.
He only substituted Suker, giving him a moment to receive applause alone.
As Suker left the field, the entire Maksimir Stadium erupted in fierce applause.
Tens of thousands of Dinamo Zagreb fans applauded wildly.
Even though their team was losing, they were still willing to give Suker applause. He was their pride!
Suker walked off and sat on the bench.
The camera focused on Suker for a close-up.
His performance in this match was decent: one goal and one assist.
As for Dinamo Zagreb's performance, Suker couldn't help but grimace.
Far from it!
They were far worse than his former team.
No wonder many people said that Dinamo Zagreb's entry into the Champions League group stage this time was due to luck.
It was probably due to the result of a favorable draw.
But such luck would run out in the Champions League group stage.
After all, in the group stage, without solid strength, luck alone wouldn't take you far.
Suker believed that this Dinamo Zagreb team would likely be eliminated in the group stage.
If they continued performing like this, they wouldn't even make it to the Europa League.
In the end, the full match ended.
Real Madrid defeated Dinamo Zagreb 4-0 away.
It was a complete beatdown. Dinamo Zagreb had already shown signs of collapsing in the first half, and an own goal in the 70th minute of the second half further dampened their morale.
Neither Real Madrid nor Suker held back at all, so they secured the victory comfortably.
The Dinamo Zagreb players looked utterly dejected.
They had played poorly, and even they knew how many mistakes they had made.
Suker wouldn't bother with these things, but Srna, the "model csenior," went over to comfort these young players.
As a "model senior," Srna was always willing to help these youngsters.
"This is your first Champions League match. Don't worry too much about the result. What's important is what you gained from it! Don't dwell on the match that's already over. Look ahead and strive to play better in the next game," Srna said with a smile.
With his reminder, the young players' emotions eased somewhat.
"Then… can we exchange jerseys with Suker?" one player asked timidly.
Srna was taken aback.
Better not, right?
Given Suker's personality, if they didn't catch his eye, he probably wouldn't exchange jerseys.
Besides, these guys had performed really poorly.
"That guy is probably busy dealing with the media. If you really want his jersey, I can try to get it for you."
Srna said with a dry laugh.
Just then, someone behind him said, "Why are you deciding what to do with my jersey?"
Everyone turned to see Suker standing behind Srna.
Srna was stunned. He immediately pulled Suker aside and whispered, "Say something nice. They're just young players…"
Suker rolled his eyes at Srna and pointed at Dinamo Zagreb's goalkeeper. "What's your name?"
"I… I'm Pulić!"
Pulić had come on in the second half to replace the starting goalkeeper and had put in an outstanding performance.
He had blocked several shots from Bale and Di María and was arguably the most impressive player.
Suker nodded and handed him his jersey.
If anyone deserved his jersey, it was this guy.
The others looked at Pulić with envy, and the latter immediately handed his jersey to Suker.
After the exchange, Suker turned and left without saying a word.
Srna also said a few brief words and quickly followed.
"What kind of play was that? They're far worse than our batch."
Suker casually remarked.
"You can't use our batch as a reference. After all, we were special!"
Hearing this, Suker turned to look at him.
"Do you know how punchable that sounds?"
"But it's the truth!"
Srna shrugged.
Suker did not attend the post-match press conference or media interviews. Although the Croatian media wanted to interview him, Suker had no intention of accepting.
After the match ended, Real Madrid immediately flew back to Spain overnight.
The plane landed, and they took a bus back to the training base.
On the bus, many were dozing off.
Suker, however, browsed the Champions League stats website.
As he refreshed, the data updated.
The top scorer list had changed.
A name appeared in first place:
Cristiano Ronaldo, three goals!
Suker couldn't help but twitch his mouth.
A hat-trick in the first round of the Champions League?
Suker sighed. Messi in the league, Ronaldo in the Champions League.
These two had been causing him trouble from start to finish.
Suker pulled up Manchester United's match panel.
He was surprised to find that Benfica had defeated Manchester United 4-3.
Even a Ronaldo hat-trick couldn't save Manchester United?
Suko immediately checked the match details and soon discovered that Manchester United was missing many key players, mostly due to injuries.
This meant Manchester United was also using the remaining bench, and their injury crisis was even worse than Real Madrid's.
It was understandable, especially in the Premier League, where the style was more "passionate." Injuries were inevitable in the Premier League.
It was bizarre how someone like "Hazard" could be an iron man in the Premier League but become injury-prone in La Liga.
Suko briefly watched the match video.
Manchester United's defense had made too many mistakes.
Modrić hadn't played in this match either. They had relied heavily on Ronaldo to carry them, but it still wasn't enough to secure a victory.
Ronaldo's ability was undeniable—he could score, but he couldn't stop the opponent's attacks.
He scored on his end, but the defense kept leaking goals. For a forward, that was a disaster.
After putting away his phone, Suko looked out the window.
They couldn't afford to relax either.
After all, their next match was an away game against Valencia, and they needed to be focused.
Valencia had performed well in recent seasons.
Moreover, they often threatened Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Especially since Real Madrid would be fielding bench players, they needed to be extra cautious.
After returning to the training base, Mourinho briefly summarized the match.
In this summary, Mourinho highlighted defensive issues.
Specifically, on the left side of the defense, Pepe had been too aggressive.
Carvajal was already a young player with limited experience.
At this point, Pepe needed to take on more of a sweeping, anchoring role. But Pepe was charging forward even more fiercely than Carvajal, playing like a young player himself.
In this situation, the left side of the defense became somewhat problematic.
Fortunately, Dinamo Zagreb's attacking threat wasn't significant, so they managed to hold on.
But the next match was against Valencia, so Mourinho had to remind Pepe about this.
Around 11 p.m., Suko returned to his villa, took a quick shower, and then climbed into bed to sleep.
It had been a long day—playing a match, taking a flight, riding a bus, and attending a summary meeting. It was exhausting.
Suker fell into a deep sleep amidst this fatigue.
The next morning, after walking his dog, Suker returned home.
Kaká, Srna, and Bale arrived on time.
Kaká was no longer on crutches. His recovery was going well, but he still couldn't start rehabilitation training.
He needed another week!
Currently, Kaká and Ramos were recovering the fastest.
Kaká's injury wasn't severe, and Ramos had good recovery abilities.
In about two weeks, these two could likely return to normal training and be available for matches.
"Valencia has won two in a row. They've been performing quite well this season," Kaká said.
Srna took a sip of hot milk. "Valencia feels strange. They're not very stable, but they can frequently pull off some attacking. It feels messy, but they still manage to connect."
Kaká nodded. He felt the same way.
Their passing was stumbling, but they always managed to get the ball through and even threaten the goal.
Valencia didn't focus too much on passing in the final third. Once they advanced to a certain point, they would inevitably shoot.
The entire team had a very high desire to shoot during attacking phases.
Even the two full-backs would frequently push forward and take shots.
Aerial duels and headers were also a highlight!
Suker waved his hand. "It's not a big problem. As long as we don't make mistakes, Valencia won't get any chances!"
"So the fear is that problems will arise!" Kaká grinned. "Have you noticed something?"
"What?" Suker asked.
Kaká sighed. "From the 30th round last season until now, Pepe hasn't received a single card!"
Hearing this, Suker was stunned.
Pepe, this card magnet, had suddenly gone quiet. That was even scarier than him getting cards.
After all, no one knew when he might suddenly snap!
"This…" Srna pondered for a moment. "Ramos has been getting cards more frequently, so maybe Pepe is holding back!"
"Him holding back is the problem!"
Suker grimaced.
Pepe's personality was like a powder keg. Making him suppress his anger was worse than killing him.
Last season, for the treble, he had held back.
But now, with the stable Carvalho covering behind, the possibility of Pepe suddenly exploding wasn't zero.
Thinking about it, Pepe had already shown signs of moving in the last match.