The day after Real Madrid crushed Bayern Munich 8–0 on aggregate over two legs and smoothly advanced to the Champions League Final, Atletico Madrid also came from behind to defeat Chelsea 3–1 away at Stamford Bridge in London, advancing to the final 3–1 on aggregate thanks to goals from Diego Costa, Adrian, and Turan.
Mourinho's team scored first at home. Torres performed well against his former club and opened the scoring, but before halftime, Atletico Madrid equalized. After the break, they scored twice in succession to complete the comeback.
The Madrid derby in the Champions League Final immediately drew the attention of the entire European Football world.
After all, besides these two powerhouse teams, Barcelona were also capable of challenging for the Champions League title. In other words, La Liga had three teams with the quality to reach the Champions League Final. It was almost unbelievable.
Even more frightening was that amid such brutal competition, Real Madrid had remained undefeated against their two biggest rivals while also maintaining an unbeaten record in La Liga, having drawn only four matches to date.
The stability and dominance displayed by Ancelotti's team were simply unbelievable.
However, many people believed that while Real Madrid's strength was beyond doubt, they still fell short in terms of tactical innovation. When it came to promoting and advancing tactical innovation in football, Barcelona's philosophy was undoubtedly superior.
Real Madrid themselves acknowledged this point, because that simply was not what they pursued.
From the very beginning, Real Madrid and Barcelona had been built on different foundations. Their team-building strategies were different, and naturally, so were their tactics. Forcing Real Madrid to pursue Barcelona's team-building strategy would only result in an awkward imitation.
After a string of consecutive matches, Real Madrid welcomed the thirty-sixth round of La Liga