Chapter 294: Chapter 293: The Portuk Star
"Young man, it’s a good thing to aspire to be the king of the outside of the foot, and that’s certainly better than having no ambition at all. Look at your teammates, they’re all happy for Deng Kai..."
"Except Quaresma doesn’t look too happy, probably because he was too tired in this game; after all, he did provide two beautiful assists..."
Afterward, the score remained unchanged.
Five to two, that was the final score.
Lisbon Sports Club won all three of their initial matches in the UEFA Europa League group stage.
With this, they became the team most likely to advance from their group.
Surprisingly, Lisbon Sports Club’s attitude towards the refereeing in this match defied everyone’s expectations.
Trigella, Maxa, Deng Kai, Quaresma, and other players remained silent on the matter.
They didn’t bring up words like "rigged," "misjudgment," or "they don’t want us to win" excessively.
Even when the media initiated the topic, they didn’t follow suit in attacking the head referee.
Some media interpreted this as Lisbon Sports Club not wanting to be reduced in numbers because of external factors. With control over advancing in their hands, obsessing over the referee’s "misjudgment" was pointless.
But only the key members within Lisbon Sports Club knew that they were already keeping an eye on this referee.
His every match henceforth would be specially recorded and analyzed—his intent, his tricks, all documented.
Then, at certain critical moments, these findings would be officially provided to the UEFA authorities by Lisbon Sports Club or made public directly.
If fairness was random before this match,
then in a future one, Lisbon Sports Club could demand almost absolute fairness.
This may very well help them steal a round in the UEFA Europa League.
...
"Lisbon Sports Club is a powerhouse in the Portuguese Primeira Liga; we’ve never lacked experience in juggling two or even three competitions simultaneously, so you don’t need to worry about our condition... We’re very confident about winning the next round against Porto!"
Maxa, who received a red card in a European match, returned to the Portuguese league schedule, still brimming with confidence.
The script Trigella gave him didn’t have those last four words... "We’re very confident" rather than "We’re very confident about winning."
The former conveys an attitude, while the latter implies a result.
In the Primeira Liga, no team could say with confidence that they would defeat Porto after facing them.
Yet, within the Lisbon Sports Club team, there was another person who dared to say those words.
"Maxa smiles slightly, does Lisbon Sports Club have a clever strategy to defeat Porto?"
"Ronaldo brimming with confidence, Jia De’er wants the Golden Boot this year but he’ll need my consent first! Maybe you’ve forgotten, but Kai and I were the players who defeated Porto to become champions! Remember last year’s Cup of Portugal? We’re not afraid of Porto at all!"
"The super derby of the Primeira Liga is here! Porto VS Lisbon Sports Club, who do you fancy more?"
"The battle for the top! Worth six points!"
"Postiga: We are obviously the better team, we have the best midfield in all of Portugal! If Figo is not counted as a midfielder, that is!"
"Jia De’er: I feel like I’m completely back in form, Porto creates many more chances than Lisbon Sports Club, that’s what makes a true championship team!"
"Deco: In terms of form, both teams are similar, but I think we have better balance. What’s more, their team has players like Drogba and Desailly dealing with injuries."
"Deng Kai: Postiga, saying Deco is the best midfielder without considering Rui Costa’s feelings? Deco is indeed great, but the current him is still several steps behind Rui Costa!"
"Trigella: Postiga is an excellent striker, but the coexistence issue between him and Jia De’er has clearly affected the team’s balance."
Before the match, both sides engaged in a media war, stabbing each other with words.
Among these, there’s always one or two stabs that count.
For instance... Postiga has almost never acknowledged Jia De’er’s evaluation positively.
This means that competition between the two sides has already reached an intense stage.
Last year, when Jia De’er left Porto, Postiga became the main striker for the team.
And he actually didn’t do too poorly.
Fifteen league goals.
Without injuries, reaching twenty goals was possible.
For any striker, scoring that many in their first season is quite good.
But that’s nothing compared to the expectations Porto fans have, because their previous striker was at Porto.
Scoring less than thirty goals in the league is seen as rubbish by Porto fans.
Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Drogba: ???
This year, with Jia De’er’s return, Postiga’s starting spot was taken away.
Of course, in order to turn him into a valuable asset, Porto positioned Postiga as a left winger, trying to develop him into a shadow striker.
Postiga was struggling to adapt to this change.
On November 21st, half a day before the round 11 match of the Portuguese league began.
Drogba and Terry returned to the team.
Terry’s vision assessment finally passed, while Drogba was diagnosed by the team doctor as "being at his peak!"
The return of these two players was of great importance to the team.
Pepe’s defense under intense confrontation was definitely stronger than Terry’s.
But in the Large Circle Tactics, the position where Pepe and Terry played was unlikely to face strong confrontations, at which times, the less error-prone Terry was the better choice.
In the previous match, except for the goal he scored at the beginning, Ibrahimovic’s performance was almost nonexistent.
In severe muscle entanglements, he would still subconsciously vanish.
In this regard, Drogba was indeed tougher.
Also, Drogba’s style of play meant that even if the opponent resorted to fouls to stop him, they wouldn’t necessarily succeed.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
After a simple training session, everyone was ready to rest.
But Quaresma stuck around to kick a few more times.
Deng Kai went over to take a look... outside of the foot...
It seemed Quaresma was also obsessed with the outside of the foot technique.
After the last match, the media had already started to praise Deng Kai as the king of the outside of the foot.
But Quaresma had previously held this title.
The two players were engaged in an invisible competition for this name.
In the match against Porto, Quaresma set his own mission to reclaim the title of the king of the outside of the foot!
Soon, it was evening.
The great battle was about to commence.
Drogba and Terry, back on the main roster, did not get a chance to start and took their seats on the bench.
However, before the first half ended, they both began their warm-ups.
In the sixth minute of the game,
Deco and Postiga switched positions and continued to successfully dribleshoot on the left flank.
Most importantly, he anticipated Matthaus’s sliding tackle, maneuvered the ball around it, and wowed the crowd.
Deco delivered a lob from outside the big penalty area.
Jia De’er controlled the ball with his chest, and without letting the ball touch the ground, turned and shot fiercely, scoring the first goal of the match in a very dominant center forward manner.
One to zero!
Porto took the lead!
In the nineteenth minute.
It was Deco again, who after several ghostly movements to shake off Pepe’s tracking, delivered a through pass to Postiga.
Unfortunately, Postiga’s control was too heavy, otherwise it would have been another goal.
In the thirty-first minute.
Deco continued to draw fire, this time directly creating a long shot opportunity for his teammate Sasso.
Sasso’s long shot slipped through Schmeichel’s hands, and Jia De’er, who was able to attack and shoot, finished it on the rebound, scoring his second goal of the match.
Porto was leading two to zero!
Amidst this scene, Trigella and Deng Kai exchanged glances and then gave a sweeping gesture.
Drogba and Terry were both substituted onto the field.
Ibrahimovic and Pepe were substituted off before the half-time break!
A rare occurrence indeed.
