Chapter 736: Chapter 735: An Unfavorable Year, Heaven Does Not Favor Man
"Viana, Nuno Gomes, Quaresma Substitutions Ineffective, Multiple Players Show Dissatisfaction with Black Faces!"
"Europe’s Number One Pretend Powerhouse! Who Still Hypes Up Portugal Now?"
"Spaniards Succeed! Without Deng Kai, the Portugal Team is Just a Bunch of Loose Sand, Facts Have Proven!"
"Fate? Has Deng Kai Brought China’s Bad Luck to Portugal?"
For a time, various news stories sprung up.
The hottest team, Portugal, had lost their first match.
Who knows how many people on the rooftops across Europe increased.
Key point being that even without Deng Kai, Portugal should have won.
To put it harshly, nearly any player from Portugal’s midfield or attack could be the core of the Greek team.
And yet they lost?
Incomprehensible.
All of Europe couldn’t comprehend it either.
Some interviewed Mourinho who had just led Porto to win the Champions League.
He and Maxa were the hottest coaches at the moment.
Mourinho stated, "Trigella’s tactics are incorrect. I built a defensive system for the Portugal national team. If he had followed my tactics from Porto, Portugal would have absolutely had no problem getting out of the group stages."
"I know Trigella wants to prove himself, but my tactics are the best. No one understands Portugal and Deco better than me."
Quite a few media outlets agreed with Mourinho’s perspective.
Because according to the analysis of the first match, Portugal seemed too focused on attacking.
They wanted to score so badly, not just one goal.
They wanted to declare to the whole world with a big win that even without Deng Kai, they’re a champion-level team.
As a result, they were hit with two classic counterattacks by Greece.
Sky Sports: "Portugal’s front line is not as strong as everyone thinks. Rui Costa, Figo, and Bolaita showed chemistry, but they struggled with Ronaldo."
"Also, he overlaps with Deco’s position."
"This created loopholes in their defensive system."
"Deco, as the team’s hub, failed most of his forward passes apart from back passes. We even have to doubt how he got his twenty assists this season?"
"Was it all thanks to Drogba?"
"Ronaldo is indeed sharp, but his solo play affects the rhythm of the team’s midfield and attack."
"This new king from Manchester United doesn’t seem to have fully adapted to national team life."
"Trigella has his own understanding of how to use wing players; he assigned Valente and Paços de Ferreira lots of attacking duties, but these two fullbacks at Porto had only one job — to defend!"
"Facing the Greeks’ defense and fouling, the Portuguese clearly panicked."
The results were almost what the media analysis suggested.
The Greeks held down the Portuguese.
Without the help of fullbacks, the revolutionary tactics that Trigella and Deng Kai built together couldn’t be implemented.
In Sporting Lisbon, Trigella mainly plays with three central defenders.
Two wing forwards or attacking midfielders, with the help of Deng Kai and the forwards, take off directly.
But Mourinho did create a championship-level defense for Portugal.
The Champions League is suffocating.
This forced Trigella to use Porto’s four defenders formation.
But Mourinho + Trigella ended up even less than one.
And with this style of play, the forwards couldn’t adapt either.
Ronaldo’s breakthrough relies more on speed, being sharp in counterattacks, but lacking when breaking through tight defenses.
Figo was getting older, gaining the ability to organize but increasingly unable to break through.
Quaresma, strong in technical breakthroughs, but after playing at Barcelona for so long, never developed his core strength, and his effectiveness diminishes against physical opponents.
Rui Costa, under Kaka’s shadow on AC Milan’s bench, undoubtedly declined from world-class.
Viana didn’t get much playtime, wasn’t familiar with his teammates, and also brought the Milan system, reducing his chemistry with the old teammates.
Deco was used to looking up and seeing Drogba, emphasizing cooperation with the center forward.
On one hand, it squandered the world-class wing talents of Ronaldo, Quaresma, and Figo.
On the other hand, neither Bolaita nor Nuno Gomes could play the ball like Didier Drogba did.
Perhaps Bolaita at his peak might have, but he had already reached the twilight of his career.
Nuno Gomes wasn’t ever a pivot-type forward to begin with.
He was more of a penalty area striker.
One could say that this lineup was inherently difficult to gel together.
It required Deng Kai to be proactive and imaginative, creating opportunities on the field for each player to excel.
The expectations on Deng Kai were exceedingly high.
Moreover, the core player Deng Kai was absent.
Deco, Viana, and Rui Costa clearly lacked this capability at the time.
Knowledgeable fans should actually be feeling anxious for Portugal at this point.
With their current situation, they might not even win against Russia.
Against Spain, it would be a definite loss!
Of course, the most attention-grabbing upset this round belonged to Portugal.
Next was the conflict between the Wolf King Totti and Danish player Poulsen.
On the field, Totti spat on Poulsen and received a red card for it.
This caused Totti to face criticism from all media outlets.
Totti’s personal image took a major hit.
Before this, Totti was practically the Beckham of Serie A.
Handsome appearance, strong abilities, an even more dynamic and appealing playing style than Beckham, and with leadership qualities.
There had been rumors that Real Madrid planned to sign Totti after the UEFA European Championship.
The two sides were said to have reached an understanding, just waiting for the summer transfer window to open.
But now...
This incident might well affect Real Madrid’s decision.
At the very least, after coming away empty-handed from all four major competitions, Real Madrid couldn’t afford any further negative publicity.
They needed to keep a low profile.
And to strengthen their defence according to the wishes of the fans.
Otherwise, Florentino could be impeached by the fans at any moment.
June 16th.
Fans flocked to Lisbon.
Luz Stadium, Benfica’s home ground, welcomed Portugal’s second group match.
Portugal VS Russia.
Deng Kai was again present in the stands for this game.
The charges against him were still ongoing.
According to various regulations, he still couldn’t play for Portugal.
This was a crucial match for the Portugal team.
If Portugal lost again, they’d probably have to say goodbye to the European Championship early.
Luckily.
Russia was indeed weak.
For Portugal, riding on the goals from Figo and Kilop, they scored a two-nil victory and took home three points.
Figo’s blade was still sharp.
Your uncle is still your uncle.
However, the bad part was that Simon, who had performed well, exited the match due to injury.
After the match, the Portugal team regretfully announced that Simon would miss all of the remaining European Championship matches for Portugal.
Simon shed tears at the press conference.
On the other hand, the Greece team miraculously pulled off another upset.
