At that mont, the iconic Real Madrid anthem, Hala Madrid, rang out majestically from the Bernabéu stands.
The Madrid supporters wanted to use their collective voice to empower their new talisman.
A few seconds later, the Barcelona wall had been ticulously set by Ter Stegen.
Every single cara in the stadium was focused on Theodore Bjorn.
Theodore's eyes, cold and unshakable, remained locked on Ter Stegen's positioning behind the wall.
Then, suddenly, Theodore began his run-up.
He struck the ball with explosive, snapping power with his right foot.
At that exact mont, the Barcelona wall jumped in unison with all their strength, anticipating a dipping, top-corner strike.
But Theodore outsmarted them all.
He did not lift the ball.
Instead, he executed a flawless, viciously driven low strike.
The ball zipped along the slick Madrid turf, shooting directly beneath the feet of the jumping wall.
In that instant, it resembled a white bolt of lightning, racing straight toward the bottom corner of the Barcelona goal.
Marc-André ter Stegen had already shifted his weight, anticipating a shot over the wall.
By the ti he realized the ball was traveling underneath, Theodore's shot was simply too quick.
The German keeper threw himself down desperately, but he had no ti to get a hand to it.
The net rippled.
The score changed once again!
4–2.
Real Madrid had emphatically restored their two-goal cushion.
"GOAL! GOOOOOOAL!" Palr scread. "THEODORE BJORN OUTSMARTS EVERYONE!"
"He goes under the wall! A second direct free-kick goal!"
"Tonight, the eighteen-year-old Norwegian has completed a hat-trick in his very first El Clásico! And he has an assist to his na!"
"Barcelona are being dismantled by a teenager!"
The Spanish comntator inside the stadium was overco with pure emotion.
With a voice already hoarse, he scread Theodore's na again and again into the PA system.
In the Bernabéu stands, the Real Madrid fans abandoned the club anthem.
Instead, they began bowing toward the pitch, screaming Theodore's na with all their might.
After completing his hat-trick, Theodore did not sprint to the corner flag or execute a wild celebration.
He simply stood perfectly still in the center of the pitch, planting his hands firmly on his hips, projecting an aura of absolute dominance, as if dismantling Barcelona were the easiest thing in the world.
Although Theodore looked completely calm, his teammates lost their minds.
One after another, they sprinted to his side.
Raphaël Varane arrived first, grabbing Theodore and playfully wrestling him to the turf.
Within seconds, every single Real Madrid outfield player piled on top of the teenager, creating a massive, joyous dogpile near the center circle.
...
Once the score beca 4–2, the suffocating pressure imdiately fell back onto the Barcelona players.
While the Real Madrid players were still celebrating wildly, Ronald Koeman had already turned to his bench.
Antoine Griezmann, the €120 million French star, stripped off his tracksuit.
Koeman was preparing to gamble everything.
After stepping onto the pitch, Griezmann replaced Philippe Coutinho, who had endured a fairly anonymous and frustrating evening.
Once Barcelona restarted play, Griezmann was extrely active, constantly making sharp, darting runs through the channels in the Real Madrid penalty area.
But!
Most of those intelligent runs proved entirely ineffective.
Why? Because the current Barcelona midfield simply lacked the requisite quality to deliver the ball accurately into Griezmann's path under pressure.
Whether it was Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong, or the young Pedri, their collective passing ability and vision simply could not compare with the legendary duo of Xavi and Iniesta.
In fact, Barcelona's control of the midfield battle had dropped significantly as the match wore on.
In the 65th minute, Real Madrid and Barcelona engaged in a fierce tactical battle in the center of the pitch.
After the young Pedri received a pass from Busquets, his initial instinct was to play the ball directly to ssi.
But when he glanced up and saw Theodore Bjorn's imposing figure shadowing ssi's movent, Pedri imdiately abandoned the idea.
Clearly, sowhere deep in his subconscious, the young Spanish midfielder had already accepted the brutal reality that ssi could not break through Theodore's defending tonight.
Since he could not pass to his captain, Pedri chose to take responsibility himself.
He suddenly knocked the ball forward with his right foot and drove quickly into the attacking half.
The Real Madrid defensive block had already identified Pedri as a creative threat requiring close attention.
The mont Pedri crossed the halfway line, Toni Kroos was the first to step up and confront him.
However, the confident teenager did not seem intimidated by the German veteran in the slightest.
Pedri suddenly pushed the ball toward Kroos' right side.
Just as Kroos extended a leg to intercept, Pedri abruptly chopped the ball back the other way.
Although Pedri was young, his playmaking style was incredibly composed and mature.
Utilizing a series of sharp, stop-start changes of direction, Pedri successfully navigated past Toni Kroos' initial press.
The next second, just as Pedri was preparing to shoot from distance, Luka Modrić slid across to block the shooting lane.
To be brutally honest, with Pedri's current level of individual ability, beating two legendary Real Madrid midfielders in quick succession was a near-impossible task.
In desperation, as Modrić closed him down, Pedri spotted Antoine Griezmann making a peeling run down the left side toward the Real Madrid penalty area.
Pedri did not hesitate.
He imdiately used his right foot to slide a reverse pass into the Madrid box.
At the far post, Griezmann had only just received the ball when the Real Madrid defensive cavalry arrived.
Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão both rushed in front of Griezmann simultaneously, successfully slamming the door shut on any potential shooting angle.
But!
Griezmann had never intended to shoot in the first place.
Even if Militão and Carvajal had not converged so quickly, the angle was already extrely tight for a left-footed strike.
Griezmann's true intention had always been to serve as a decoy and a wall.
Bang!
After receiving the ball with his left foot, Griezmann imdiately used that sa foot to execute a blind, first-ti cutback pass toward the top of the penalty area.
Lionel ssi was already arriving late, perfectly positioned near the edge of the box.
"The cutback!" Palr shouted. "Danger here for Real Madrid!"
"ssi shoots!"
"BUT IT'S THEODORE AGAIN! THEODORE BJORN ARRIVES OUT OF NOWHERE TO EXECUTE A MONSTER BLOCK!"
Palr's comntary was laced with sheer shock and disbelief.
At that exact mont, thunderous, standing applause erupted from the Bernabéu stands.
This was exactly the kind of gladiatorial defensive display the Real Madrid fans most wanted to see.
"Brilliant, Theo! Absolutely shut him down!"
"That's right! Do not let that guy get a single sniff of goal!"
"I've supported Madrid for twenty years, and this is genuinely the first ti I've seen a player completely lock down Lionel ssi in a 1v1! Theo! You are a legend!"
"We finally have a player who can stand up to ssi! No—Theodore is stronger than ssi!"
Theodore had been tracking ssi's movent the entire ti.
The instant Griezmann received the ball inside the box, Theodore anticipated the cutback.
As ssi moved toward the top of the penalty area to strike, Theodore accelerated, arriving in front of him a fraction of a second earlier.
Channeling the flawless timing of his Gattuso Peak Card, Theodore forcibly swept the ball away from ssi's feet with a thunderous sliding challenge just as the Argentine pulled his leg back to shoot.
ssi's face was a mask of utter disappointnt.
He lifted his head and glanced at Theodore.
Then, ssi lowered his head again, staring at the turf.
Through this grueling, 65-minute duel, Lionel ssi had finally, painfully realized just how terrifyingly complete Theodore Bjorn's defensive ability truly was.
The match continued.
In the 76th minute, Barcelona, playing away from ho and trailing by two goals, were clearly beginning to panic.
ssi, starved of service in dangerous areas, started dropping deeper and deeper into the midfield to demand the ball and try to orchestrate play himself.
This ti, Frenkie de Jong had only just received possession near the center circle when a swarm of Real Madrid players collapsed on him.
Modrić, Rodrygo, and Theodore executed a ruthless, synchronized press.
To be fair, Frenkie de Jong's ability to escape tight, coordinated pressure was actually rather ordinary. It arguably wasn't even as refined as the younger Pedri's.
So, when three Real Madrid players closed in on him, the Dutch midfielder panicked.
Just as he was at a total loss for options, De Jong saw ssi's figure dropping deep.
The next second, he did not hesitate. He decisively used his left foot to force a pass to ssi.
Because Theodore had already stepped up to press De Jong, this actually left ssi in a rare pocket of space, granting him a genuine attacking opportunity.
After receiving the ball in midfield, ssi did not hesitate. In his brilliant mind, he had already mapped out his attacking route toward the goal.
Although Real Madrid full-back Ferland ndy had already rushed out to confront him, ndy's technical defensive ability was simply not enough to contain an accelerating ssi.
ssi quickly moved his left foot, touching the ball twice within a single microsecond.
With a breathtakingly fast elastico, he easily humiliated ndy, leaving the Frenchman stumbling.
After bypassing the first line, ssi rushed ominously toward the top of the Real Madrid penalty area.
Without question, this was ssi's lethal shooting zone.
Inside the Real Madrid box, center-backs Raphaël Varane and Éder Militão both recognized the imminent danger and stepped forward together in unison, attempting to block the shooting lane.
At that exact mont, ssi opened his body and shaped to shoot.
But it was only a feint.
ssi's true intention was actually a disguised, reverse pass.
On Barcelona's left flank, left-back Jordi Alba had already surged into the attacking third on a massive overlapping run.
ssi wanted to slip a reverse pass perfectly into Alba's stride.
But the absolute instant ssi executed the disguised pass, Theodore Bjorn, who had sprinted back 40 yards to recover, stretched out a long, telescopic leg.
Bang!
The next second, ssi's genius pass was brutally deflected away.
Theodore Bjorn had stopped Lionel ssi once again!
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