Chapter 154
Porto's brilliant and successful lightning counterattack made the Velodrome Stadium a little quiet for a while, and even the most optimistic Marseille fans knew that Marseille was unlucky on their home ground today. However, soon Marseille's team song sounded again, and if they were to lose, they hoped that the team could at least lose with dignity. And after the restart of the game, at the request of the manager, the Marseille team also began the last fight and began to press out with all its strength.
Marseille's counter-attack was simple, lobbing the ball into Porto's penalty area, which was their most effective style of play at the moment, not caring about the quality of the pass, only focusing on the number of passes. The football kept falling like a cannonball into the Porto penalty area, which made Drogba, who had been depressed in the second half, start to run happily. Although not every ball can be fought for, at least every time it can make Porto's back line nervous, scramble, and turn the game into a chaotic battle. Although Lao Lei has some control over the rhythm of the game, in the face of Marseille's decisive impact, it is not easy to stabilize all of a sudden, and he needs to avoid the edge for the time being.
In the 73rd minute of the second half, Porto's back line finally made a mistake when Costa and Ferreira got together in a header duel that gave Drogba the opportunity to take advantage of it. Drogba got his body on Carvalho, first touched the ball and then played a pass to his partner Magath at the top of the box. At this time, due to the lack of understanding between Costa and Ferreira's position this time, the defense line in the Porto penalty area was in chaos, and Magath was unguarded at this time. In the face of Drogba's pass, Magath decisively got up and pushed the shot, but Baia couldn't save. Soccer went to the net. At 3:2, Marseille pulled a goal back. The game became suspenseful again.
Just when the Marseille fans themselves were about to give up, they didn't expect Porto's backline to give such a big gift. Look at the excited Marseille fans. Feeling the vibration of the Velodrom stadium, one can't help but worry about the quality of the stadium's stands and whether it can hold up. In the Porto penalty area, Costa and Ferreira were speechless, such a mistake had never happened to them before, and they did not expect to be explained here for the first time. Mourinho was also very dissatisfied with this mistake, and rushed to the sidelines to express his strong dissatisfaction with Costa and Ferreira. At the same time, he also asked the players to retreat for the time being. Shorten the distance between the three lines, strengthen the defence and possession, and survive this time. He could guess what kind of frantic impact Marseille would show when the game restarted. Watching and listening to the crazy cheers of the Marseille fans around him, Mourinho secretly said in his heart: "The devil's home stadium is worthy of its name!" ”
As Mourinho expected, Marseille saw hope of an equaliser after the restart. As if he had suddenly forgotten his fatigue, he began to press frantically against the players in Porto. Fortunately, Lao Lei, Deco and others retreated in time, so that Porto's defense did not have holes again. At this time, Lao Lei found Drogba and helped Costa and others to defend closely. Exactly. This time, the additional skill brought by the Devil Muscle Man is a 15% increase in strength attributes. Relying on this promotion, Lao Lei stubbornly carried Drogba alive. This came as a surprise to the Marseille players, fans and Drogba himself, who had never seen anyone else who could compete with him in terms of strength.
Didier Drogba goes over a header. After being stuck in the position by Lao Lei, he glanced at Lao Lei with surprised eyes. It's a rare feeling in his career to feel blocked head-on. And what he didn't know was that Lao Lei was the one who was even more surprised. Lao Lei originally thought that there was a bonus brought by the devil's muscles. I should have been better anyway, but I didn't expect it to be a draw. He looked at Costa and Carvalho, who had been entangled with Drogba for the whole game, and his eyes showed some admiration inexplicably. Although I envy Drogba's strength, but Lao Lei is not ready to continue to train his strength, if he strengthens it, the muscles will affect the flexibility of his body, and it will be too much at that time, after all, he is not a striker, he needs to do a lot of work, and if his strength continues to strengthen, other aspects will be affected.
When Lao Lei and Drogba were fighting in the penalty area, the eyes of the people around them were all eyes that they were not the same kind of. Marseille striker Magath, after hearing the dull "thump" sound of the two men in the process of collision, wisely moved away from them a little, in order to ensure his personal safety and not be injured by mistake.
After the old ray who opened the plug-in restrained Drogba, Marseille's attack was like a spear without opening, losing its lethality and achieving little effect. And with the passage of time, the morale mobilized by Marseille because of the goal just now began to fade gradually, and at the same time, the exhaustion of the body made Marseille's offensive slowly weaken, flourishing and declining. Mourinho on the sidelines was also relieved, seeing such a situation, he knew in his heart that this game was won like this, and Marseille had lost the ability to resist.
In the 81st minute of the second half, after Lao Lei sensed Marseille's lack of strength, he led the players to slowly press out the formation and regain the initiative. In Marseille's formation, the only person who has fought so far is Drogba. However, in the last 10 minutes, Porto did not attack vigorously, and in the final stage, it was mainly for stability, and if Marseille stole a ball with Drogba at the end, it would really be no place to cry. Without the support of his teammates, Drogba's efforts alone will not make much difference in front of the whole Porto team.
The score of 3:2 was maintained until the end, and Porto successfully won the second victory of the Champions League group stage, and unexpectedly ranked first in Group F again. In the other group stage of Group F, Real Madrid were unexpectedly beaten by Partizan Belgrade by a goal away from home, and compared to the game against Porto, this time Real Madrid's superstar did not step up again, and the table was in a very sluggish state. After only two minutes of the opening game, Real Madrid's counterattack could not find its way in the dense defense of Partizan Belgrade. After the game, Real Madrid coach Queiroz once again ushered in a new round of public opinion climax of doubts from the outside world, and losing to Partizan Belgrade was an intolerable thing for the Meilingues. And Porto also took advantage of this trend and once again won the first place in Group F with the advantage of clean ball, pressing the La Liga class to Real Madrid. Not only will they have to face the pressure of the rising Barcelona led by Ronaldinho in the league, but Real Madrid, who are also not going well in the Champions League, and the Galaxy has begun to decline this season.
After the referee blew the whistle for the end of the match, Costa and the others lay on the ground exhausted, wheezing violently in their chests, and it is conceivable how much body they had consumed. And Lao Lei also found Drogba and exchanged jerseys with him. Looking at the topless Drogba's powerful muscles that seemed to be about to burst, Lao Lei lost confidence in his figure in the face of others for the first time. And Drogba looked at Lao Lei inspecting his upper body, and the cold feeling at the beginning hit his heart again, and he took Lao Lei's jersey and turned around and walked towards the player's tunnel, with high and fast steps. This made Lao Lei behind him, once again, he couldn't help but sigh at the strength of Drogba's body, and at this time he suddenly remembered that he forgot to exchange phone numbers with Drogba, and Lao Lei still wanted to make this friend. But maybe if he did ask for the number, Drogba would have fled the pitch as quickly as possible.
This somewhat funny little misunderstanding also caused a series of ridiculous stories between the two in the future, which will not be mentioned later. The whole Porto team, who returned to Portugal with a victory, did not have much time to rest, and soon they had to travel long distances to Setúbal for away games. Looking at the tired faces of the players, Mourinho decisively started a big rotation.
Deco, McCarthy Alenichev and others are all resting in rotation, and Lao Lei, who has always been excellent in physical fitness, needs to continue to play with all his heart. At the back, Costa was found to have a minor ankle injury after the match against Marseille and needed to rest and was unable to play. The lineup that Porto actually sent is half main and half substitute.
Just 15 minutes into the game, Porto suffered another early blow when Maniche forced his way down the left flank and was tackled off by a Setúbal defender, leaving Porto without any of their main players up front. Defensively, if the impact of Costa's truce can be compensated, the impact of Namaniche's departure from the field that has greatly reduced the attacking power in the front court is irreparable. Ray was in a difficult situation in this game, and Setúbal imposed a dense blockade on Ray, making his best attempts in vain.
In the 35th minute of the first half, with a corner kick, Setúbal opened the door to Porto with a follow-up shot from the scramble in the penalty area. It was the only goal of the game, as Porto suffered their first league defeat of the season, temporarily slowing down their progress. In the 65th minute of the second half, Lao Lei had a very dangerous shot on goal, and it was a free-kick opportunity in front. Lao Lei's free-kick went straight to the goal, bypassing the wall and the goalkeeper of Setúbal, but in the end it was unfortunately denied by the crossbar and lost the chance to equalize.
Although the Porto side was helpless, they could only accept this situation, who let Deco and them were all left at the training base in Porto by Mourinho and did not bring it. After the game, Mourinho also admitted in a press conference that he underestimated the enemy and that he needed to bear most of the responsibility.
However, a defeat did little to Porto and after this round of the league, they are still three points clear at the top of the table.
After returning to Porto, the whole Porto team first took a vacation and rested for two days, and then prepared to prepare for the 10th round of the match against the opponent national team. (To be continued......)