Chapter 364: Chapter 363: Feng Te, My Ni Ma
After the match, when faced with interviews, many players showed a completely different attitude compared to their performance in the first encounter.
Deco, "We lost the Championship Trophy, which is hard to swallow. We had chances to change the score in this game, but we missed them, and that shows we still need to improve."
"For Sporting Lisbon, I hope they can also be successful in European competitions. We at Porto have no team that we haven’t beaten; I hope Sporting Lisbon can achieve those victories."
"Deng Kai is definitely the best performing midfielder in Portugal this season, whether in the Primeira Liga, the Portuguese Cup, or even the Europa League."
After the loss last time, Deco was full of confidence, but it was more about encouraging his teammates and fans.
This time around, Deco understood that many things can’t be changed, including the control of the league championship which was now in Sporting Lisbon’s hands, so he spoke a few truths from the heart.
It was evident; he still really hoped that Sporting Lisbon would perform well.
After all, if Sporting becomes the treble winner, the Primeira Liga would see a significant bump in attention.
And the players who would benefit the most from the rise of Sporting Lisbon would be Deco and Jia De’er, as they draw the most attention in the Primeira Liga.
The worst-case scenario is Sporting Lisbon winning the domestic league and cup, but failing in the Europa League - that’s when Deco and Jia De’er would truly be at a loss.
But these principles, Deco understands them; Jia De’er does not.
After the match, in the interview, Jia De’er was still frustrated about the penalty that Ronaldo won: "That should never have been a penalty, Ronaldo was simply diving, the kids nowadays are too cunning!"
"I know that penalty didn’t affect the final score, but it disrupted our rhythm in the game."
"The goal Ibrahimovic scored in the end definitely involved a foul! It should have been called off!"
Both suffered defeat, but this time Jia De’er was furious, and the fundamental reason was...
Jia De’er had secured the Primeira Liga Golden Boot.
In the Portuguese Cup, Jia De’er scored four goals, tying with three other players for the Silver Boot.
The Golden Boot went to Ibrahimovic, who scored five in the same competition.
That was the point of Jia De’er’s anger.
What?
You ask about Ronaldo?
As I said before, there were three players tied for the Portuguese Cup Silver Boot with Jia De’er.
Yes, Ronaldo wasn’t one of them!
Ronaldo scored one goal in the Portuguese Cup, haha!
Ronaldo explained that last year he had already won the Best Assist provider in the competition, and he felt that the tournament no longer presented a challenge to him.
Deng Kai: ???
Deng Kai, "I also didn’t find it challenging, that’s why I took the Portuguese Cup Golden Boot last year, and this year, with a mere five assists, I took the Best Assistant provider again."
"The same absence of challenge, so why is there such a big difference?"
Ronaldo, "You’re full of it! Last year I had seven assists! You only have freaking five this year. I had almost twice the number of assists in one season than you!"
Deng Kai, "Seven divided by two equals five, I was against you leaving the math field... Did the Portuguese Football Federation give you two Best Assist provider trophies then?"
Ronaldo: MMP!
Of course, what really made Ronaldo "jealous" was that Deng Kai actually received two "Best Player of the Portuguese Cup" trophies!
Last year, Deng Kai had seven goals and two assists, sweeping four awards in the Portuguese Cup for Best Player, Best Midfielder, Best XI, and Top Scorer.
This year, Deng Kai scored three goals and had five assists, successfully defending his individual honors and adding Best Player of the Portuguese Cup, Best Midfielder, Best XI, and Best Assist provider to his achievements.
He redefined what it means to be consistently outstanding!
Subsequently, the Portuguese Football Association also announced the Best XI of the current Portuguese Cup.
Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Jia De’er, Deng Kai, Deco, Quaresma, Terry, Pepe, Barzagli, and other players were all selected.
Lisbon Athletics had a total of Seven players selected, even stronger than Morelense last year.
Deng Kai and Ronaldo also became the extremely rare players who have consecutively won the Portugal Cup champions with different teams for two years!
Feng Te: "Did you guys forget something?"
Besides the post-match interview, another interesting part of the match was the scene of lifting the Championship Trophy at the end.
This season’s team captain of Lisbon Athletics was Matthaus, so logically, Matthaus should have been lifting the Championship Trophy.
But since Matthaus had few appearances in the Portugal Cup, he was a little self-aware about it.
He said he hadn’t lifted a trophy before?
Let the others do it.
Hey, he really hadn’t lifted the Portugal Cup Trophy before.
Once Matthaus stepped back, taking into account factors like seniority, strength, and popularity, the one who should lift the trophy was Quaresma.
After all, he was the star player.
However, Quaresma was aware of his own situation, his agent had already informed him that the deal was set in stone, and Barcelona was determined this time to secure Quaresma, the enhanced version of Simon.
Quaresma was not heartless; he was about to leave, did he really deserve to lift the trophy?
"Or... Kai, you do it?" Quaresma passed the trophy to Deng Kai.
Deng Kai, who always liked to play at the edge, was pulled by his teammates to the center position (C position).
Deng Kai truly couldn’t turn it down.
Ronaldo stood on the outermost edge alone, dumbfounded by all this.
There’s always an unspoken understanding of team positioning; initially, everyone asked Ronaldo to stand in the center of the front row, but since Deng Kai wanted to stay on the edge, Ronaldo accompanied him to the outer edge.
And now you suddenly go to the center, I...
Ronaldo almost spat blood.
Maybe it’s true that Feng Te has high Emotional Intelligence.
Seeing Ronaldo’s embarrassment, Feng Te promptly invited Ronaldo to join him in the center of the back row.
Even though it was the back row, it was still the center.
Ronaldo smiled and moved over.
And Feng Te shifted a bit from the very center of the back row, just enough to offset Deng Kai who was in front.
In the end, Deng Kai held the Championship Trophy high, and the players of Lisbon Athletics shouted, "We are the champions!"
For a moment, the flashbulbs were firing.
But in the vast majority of the photos taken, Ronaldo was completely obscured by the trophy held high by Deng Kai.
Many fans counted several times and still couldn’t find Ronaldo.
"Terry, Barzagli, Feng Te, trophy, Drogba, Ibrahimovic... Where’s Ronaldo?"
Ronaldo: "Feng Te, what the hell!"
...
"Victory by One Goal! Deng Kai, Ronaldo, Feng Te successfully defend the Portugal Cup Championship!"
"Lisbon Athletics secures the first trophy of the season! Swedish genius Ibrahimovic scores the only goal of the game!"
"Ibrahimovic with the Golden Boot, Deng Kai the assist king, Lisbon Athletics take the first step towards a treble season!"
"The race for treble progresses! Liverpool holds two trophies, Lisbon Athletics likely to welcome the second Championship in four days!"
"The English League Cup + FA Cup VS Portugal Cup + Primeira Liga Championship Trophy! Can Lisbon Athletics keep up the pace?"
