Chapter 494: Chapter 493: The Chinese Subteam Celebrating the Championship
But when you think about how Deng Kai has openly declared his determination to go all out for the Champions League, can we also start talking about the treble?
Losing is losing, and there’s no shame in losing to Manchester United, Real Madrid, or Bayern.
But if we win, that’d truly be legendary.
In the history of football, no team has ever won the treble two years in a row, including the mini-treble and the cup treble.
Uh, does saying this seem a bit inauspicious?
Anyway, it seems like Sporting Lisbon has always been creating miracles!
So why can’t this year be one of them?
Yes, this season!
Bet on Skinner!
April 21, the thirty-second round of the Portuguese league.
Sporting Lisbon hosts Setubal at home.
This match had stirred some controversy before it even started.
Because Sporting Lisbon had fielded almost an entirely reserve lineup, except for the goalkeeper Reina.
They even had to call up quite a few youth players from the academy to fill in due to insufficient reserve players.
This was not incomprehensible.
After all, the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United was coming up in three days.
With a six-point lead, Sporting Lisbon could afford to lose.
But the Portuguese league association had some objections.
Because theoretically, in an extreme case, Sporting Lisbon could have ended the season’s competition with Porto and directly won the Portuguese league championship from this match!
If neighboring Benfica beat Porto, that is.
In this round of the league, Benfica and Porto had their third encounter of the season.
Including the previous Portuguese Cup semi-final match.
Benfica had always been the loser.
But... as long as there was a chance, the leaders of the Portuguese league had to take the Championship Trophy to Estádio Alvalade.
Isn’t this just upsetting the apple cart?
If a fully reserved Sporting Lisbon loses to Setubal, then everyone’s run for this round would have been for nothing.
This included the media as well.
So some people criticized Sporting Lisbon through the media for not taking the league seriously.
Completely lacking in the big picture.
As a result, Sporting Lisbon fielded the youngest average age lineup in history.
Although the team had veterans like Joao Pinto and Paolo Bento, with the former even maintaining high performance levels, the team also featured an array of academy players registered at ages seventeen, eighteen, nineteen.
Joao Moutinho, Yu Shihao, Shao Jiawei, Hao Junmin, Chen Tao, and so on.
However, a bizarre scene unfolded.
In the third minute of the game, Hao Junmin delivered a long pass assist, and Yu Shihao scored a breakaway goal, giving the team an early lead.
But Setubal scored in the thirty-second minute of the first half and the sixtieth minute of the second half, respectively.
In the last minute of regular time, Hao Junmin swung in a corner, Shao Jiawei’s header hit the crossbar, and Chen Tao swept in to complete the score.
Two to two, Sporting Lisbon drew with Setubal at the death.
Two minutes later, the final whistle of the match sounded.
Almost at the same time, cheers were heard from the neighboring field.
Benfica, with no hope of winning the title this season, narrowly beat Porto four to three.
The Portuguese league championship... was born!
Sporting Lisbon successfully defended their Portuguese league title!
Officials of the Portuguese league breathed a sigh of relief, although unwilling, they eventually made it.
There they were, caught up in the championship celebration.
It was another opportunity to get on camera, give speeches, and present awards to the players.
It was all about face value.
The Lisbon Sporting starters, dressed in their civilian clothes, rushed onto the field to celebrate with their teammates.
Deng Kai even pushed Ronaldo aside, grabbing Wu Xudong, Shao Jiawei, Yu Shihao, Chen Tao, and Hao Junmin for a big group photo.
Ronaldo was very dissatisfied, "What do you mean? Why did you push me away?"
Deng Kai laughed, "No offense, just a picture with our own Chinese squad. Please step aside for a bit, friend from Portugal."
Ronaldo was speechless.
Thus, the photo with the highest Chinese presence on the European stage was born.
Reporters also interviewed the Chinese youngsters from the game.
Reporter: "Chen Tao, you scored a very important goal for Lisbon Sporting this season. What drove you to score that goal?"
Chen Tao scratched his head, "I mainly didn’t want to increase the burden on Brother Kai. If we could wrap up the league early, the team could focus entirely on the Champions League semi-finals."
"As a member of Lisbon Sporting, even though I’m just a youth player, I also hope to contribute to the team and alleviate Brother Kai’s worries."
Reporter: "When we looked up your information, we initially found Chen Tao from Shenyang Jinde Football Club. Are you brothers with him?"
Chen Tao: "No, no, no, we don’t know each other. My name is pretty common back in China; there are over a hundred thousand people with this name where I come from."
"Plus, I mainly play as a defensive midfielder or center-back, while the Chen Tao you mentioned is an attacking midfielder and a national youth team player. In terms of status, he’s more impressive than me."
Reporter: "Yu Shihao, you scored the first goal today. How do you feel?"
Yu Shihao: "Amazing, I hope my family could watch this game; they would be so happy."
Reporter: "Hao Junmin, your performance today reminded people of Ronaldinho."
Hao Junmin: "Thank you for the compliment, I have a long way to go to reach Ronaldinho’s level, but I hope to work hard to narrow the gap a little."
Reporter: "Shao Jiawei, your defense was great. Some fans think you should replace Feng Te."
Shao Jiawei: "The captain actually is talented, it’s just that he gets distracted by some off-field issues."
Reporter: "Captain? Is that a nickname given by Chinese fans? Does it refer to ’outstandingly unique’ or is it ’Yue Buqun’, the head of Mount Hua Sect?"
Shao Jiawei: "It’s ’Group Master’ from ’Deng Kai Global Fan Club Admin Group’."
Reporter: "Wu Xudong, you and Deng Kai were both rotated out, which means you’ve entered Lisbon Sporting’s main rotation. Congratulations, then we look forward to your performance in this summer’s World Cup."
All the Chinese players present changed their expressions.
Including Deng Kai.
Because... Wu Xudong could not possibly be called up by the Chinese team.
At least currently there were no such rumors.
And in the future, there likely wouldn’t be any either.
From Jiang Yunzhu’s side, there was very reliable information.
Wu Xudong gave an awkward smile, "I hope so, but it’s probably... quite unlikely."
In fact, as the season was about to close,
many national teams had already prepared a preliminary list.
Some even announced a long list of over fifty players, hoping to motivate some fringe players to perform better and yield some surprises.
Of course, some national teams also refrained from announcing the roster too early to not affect the players’ performance in their league, cup, or European games.
But in any case, there would definitely be some private, preliminary contacts.
Like Ronaldo,
The Brazilian national team had already given him a heads up, pleading with him not to get injured.
As a result, Ronaldo also toned down his play a bit in the league.
