Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 587 Barcelona's Shan Yongzhuo Syndrome

The fourteenth round of La Liga matches has concluded.

This round saw many matches with large-margin victories.

皇马客场5比0大胜阿尔梅里亚，马德里竞技主场7比0大胜赫塔菲，塞维利亚主场4比0大胜皇家贝蒂斯，西班牙人客场4比1击败巴列卡诺……

The stark contrast between strong and weak teams in the matches has left the media marveling at the clear divisions within La Liga, highlighting the vast gap between the two sides.

In this round's key match, Granada's 5-3 away victory over Barcelona was undoubtedly a surprising result.

However, while Barcelona's first defeat of the season at Granada was surprising, it also seems quite reasonable upon closer examination.

Barcelona has undoubtedly been extremely strong this season, achieving an impressive record of 12 wins and 1 draw in the first 13 league matches.

In the Champions League, they achieved a record of three wins and one draw in the group stage, only managing a draw against AC Milan, a performance that was undoubtedly very impressive.

However, this time they suffered another complete defeat at home, and the one who brought them their first loss of the season was none other than their most troublesome opponent – ​​Shan Yongzhuo.

After being defeated by Shan Yongzhuo once again, Barcelona seemed to have lost their spirit, and in the following Champions League fifth round match, they suffered another shock defeat to Ajax away from home.

Their performance was astonishing.

The "Shan Yongzhuo effect" is a term many media outlets use to describe Barcelona.

Whenever they are defeated by Shan Yongzhuo, they often face a series of defeats. The season before last, they suffered consecutive defeats under such critical circumstances, which ultimately led to Real Madrid winning the league title.

Last season, Real Madrid encountered a similar situation. They were eliminated from the Champions League by Shan Yongzhuo, and then experienced a butterfly effect, stumbling repeatedly at crucial moments in the league, ultimately losing the championship to Barcelona.

Spanish media jokingly remarked, "La Liga's two giants have contracted Shan Yongzhuo syndrome."

In La Liga, besides the strike, the focus remains on Shan Yongzhuo.

He delivered a powerful hat-trick at Camp Nou, leading Granada to victory over Barcelona and a commanding top spot in the league standings.

On the top scorers list, the 38 goals in 14 rounds is a disheartening figure. In second place is Real Madrid's star player Cristiano Ronaldo, who has only 15 goals, 23 behind Shan Yongzhuo.

Of Ronaldo's 15 goals, 4 were penalties.

Shan Yongzhuo's goals were all from open play, none of them were penalties.

These statistics have once again prompted Spanish media to exclaim, "The tigers are really here!"

The current La Liga goal record is held by Messi, who scored 50 goals in a single season during the 2010-2011 season. This record is already an incredible achievement.

However, it seems that this record won't last much longer.

Shan Yongzhuo has already scored 38 goals, just 12 away from 50.

Scoring 12 goals is not an easy goal for other strikers; many strikers cannot even achieve that number of league goals in a whole season.

But everyone knows that this statistic is just a matter of a few games for Shan Yongzhuo.

Many betting websites have even offered odds to predict in which round of the league Shan Yongzhuo will break Messi's goal-scoring record.

This prediction contest attracted a large number of participants.

Then, Granada's matches became incredibly popular, with everyone watching to see when Shan Yongzhuo would break Messi's goal-scoring record. You know...

Shan Yongzhuo still holds a number of goal-scoring records.

Austrian Bundesliga single-season goal record, Italian Serie A single-season goal record, English Premier League single-season goal record, Europa League single-season goal record, Champions League single-season goal record, Europa League all-time top scorer, Champions League all-time top scorer...

As for other records such as the FA Cup single-season goal record, the media did not bother to compile them, since Shan Yongzhuo has broken far too many records.

Among them, the La Liga record and the Champions League record are the most attention-grabbing.

In the all-time Champions League top scorers list, Shan Yongzhuo surpassed Raul's 71 goals with 72 goals, ranking first.

Unfortunately, Shan Yongzhuo will not be able to play in the Champions League this season.

Meanwhile, Messi is closing in closely, trailing Shan Yongzhuo by only 12 goals.

If Messi performs well in this season's Champions League, he might be able to catch up with or even surpass Shan Yongzhuo's goal-scoring record.

In La Liga, the gap between Shan Yongzhuo and Messi is also 12 goals.

Therefore, who would break the other's record first became the focus of discussion among European media and fans.

Amidst this intense attention, La Liga ushered in its fifteenth round of matches just a few days later.

In the very first match, with Messi still sidelined due to injury, Barcelona seemed unable to shake off the "Single Yongzhuo syndrome."

Having just lost to Ajax in the Champions League, they suffered another major upset in this round of league matches, losing 0-1 away to Athletic Bilbao.

Barcelona, ​​who had a very strong start to the season, suffered three consecutive defeats in all competitions to everyone's disbelief, a performance that shocked many.

Especially with Messi sidelined due to injury, the performance of Brazilian prodigy Neymar is almost unbelievable.

Neymar has performed terribly in these few matches. Not only has he failed to contribute anything to the team's attack, but he has also repeatedly fallen into the same predicament as when facing Nainggolan against Granada.

In these matches, Neymar has repeatedly found himself in one-on-one situations.

Although he can still pose a threat with his breakthroughs, his scoring efficiency is extremely low.

The Lone Wolf, the King of Shooting.

Neymar's reputation plummeted overnight.

Barcelona's defeat not only spurred Atletico Madrid to catch up, but they also easily defeated Elche 2-0 away in this round, surpassing Barcelona in points.

Not only Atletico Madrid, but Real Madrid, who also won big against Valladolid this round, is also catching up and keeping close behind Barcelona in the standings.

That's how La Liga is; for the top teams, a single loss can have immeasurable ripple effects.

After all, the disparity between strong and weak teams in La Liga is far too stark.

Granada's Pellegrini also sees hope in pulling away from Barcelona.

In this round's home game against Sevilla, Pellegrini gave the whole team the order to win, and they must win this game to pull ahead of Barcelona in the standings.

(End of this chapter)