Chapter 61: The Devil's Schedule (3)

With only two rounds of fixtures left before the winter break, the major sports newspapers have begun to compile a summary of the Portuguese Super League for half a season, including the results and form of the teams, players and managers. In the scorer list, there is no doubt that Sporting Lisbon's Jadel is the sole leader**, and the data of 15 goals in 11 rounds has made many people expect that Jadel can break the single-season goal record of 43 since the establishment of the Portuguese Super League. This is held by Sporting Lisbon's goalscorer Fernando, and it is worth mentioning that the current Portuguese Super League has two occasions in the history of the Portuguese Super League with more than 40 goals scored in a single season, both of which were created by this Fernando. Jardel, on the other hand, could become the second man in the history of the Portuguese Super League.

Porto's Deco leads the list of assists alone, topping the list with 10. Lao Lei is on this list, and he is also on the list with 5 times.

When it comes to the team, Leiria is definitely an unavoidable topic. At present, with 11 games, 9 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, with 28 points, it is at the top of the list. It was the best result in Leiria's history, and with one win and one draw in the next two games, it could go into the holiday season with a record number one finish before the winter break. Its previous best result was fifth. And behind it are Sporting Lisbon and Benfica, who are closely behind, with 25 and 23 points respectively. Porto's performance was underwhelming, finishing seventh with just 17 points. In Portuguese football, there is already talk that Porto are approaching the miraculous manager of Leiria, Mr. Mourinho, to change the team's malaise by taking charge of Porto during the winter break.

In the major selections of the half-marathon, Jadel is in super hot form and has a good chance of winning the title of the best player in the half-marathon. Lao Lei and Mourinho led the selection of the best newcomer and the best manager respectively. The story of these two masters and apprentices has long been reported by major gossip newspapers, and it can be regarded as well-known in Portugal. A young player who has no future and a manager who has just been ousted meet each other and redeem each other. Such a story is simply a sports inspirational film without a script.

With the results of these selections, Lao Lei has attracted the attention of many commercial manufacturers. Lao Lei's unruly character has attracted the support of many young fans, which is synonymous with money and profit in the eyes of those manufacturers. There have been a lot of endorsements in Mendes' hands, but he did not immediately agree, in his opinion, now is not the best time, one is that Lao Lei still needs a stable training time to get a better performance, which is very important for young players; The second is that in Mendes' view, after the end of this season, the value of Lao Lei can soar or even double again, and it is not wise to promise it at this time.

However, the internal reports of this praise have not been affected by the reports of this praise, one is that Mourinho's adjustment has played a role, and the other is that these players have seen enough praise in the past half season and have a certain immunity.

Now they are aiming for the last two games before the winter break. In the next game, Leiria was another away challenge, and the back-to-back away games exhausted these players. The game against Vicente will be their last away game before the winter break. The only difficult point for Leiria's players in this game was the mental fatigue and the fact that they didn't know how much of an impact the game would have on their performance. The players themselves will have mental laxity and lack of concentration in the last stage of the winter break, and this situation has been exacerbated by the back-to-back away games of Leiria. In this mental state, the players are not easy to get excited, which leads to slow entry into the state. At times like these, it is often also a time when the weak team can cause an upset.

Mourinho can't do anything about this situation, it's a psychological problem. Leiria, a club that has grown up, has not provided such treatment as psychological treatment for players. Mourinho can only hope that the team can get through this difficult time smoothly and then try to reduce the pressure on the players as much as possible in normal times.

On December 12th, Leiria's away match against Vicente kicked off at Vicente's home stadium, Novo Stadium. In this game, Mourinho lined up the strongest lineup of Leiria for a long time, and it can be seen that he is determined to win this game.

However, after the opening game, Leiria's players appeared to be slow to get into the groove. Even Lao Lei, who usually runs the most, feels a little unable to run, not because he has no physical strength, but because he is not energetic. On the contrary, after Leiria became the target of sniping for all teams in the Portuguese Super League, the opponents in the game against Leiria were full of energy, and Vicente at this moment was no exception.

Seeing that Leiria's players were so out of shape, Vicente's head coach immediately made a big pressure gesture, trying to beat Leiria for an unstable foothold. For the manager's decision, the core player in the Vicente team, C. Carolino, is undoubtedly the happiest. This arrogant young player wants to go to a better club and get more salary, but this will require him to improve his reputation. Leiria, who is no longer in shape today, is the best stepping stone to enhance his fame in his eyes. In his heart, he is actually very jealous of Lao Lei, who is also a young player in a small club, he does not have so much media attention and so much fan support, and today he does not have the intention of competing with Lao Lei. Of course, Lao Lei didn't know the person of Lu Dao, and he didn't know that Lu Dao himself had become the object of envy and comparison of others.

Due to the fact that Lao Lei is no longer in shape, Leiria's attack without Lao Lei's organization has not been smooth, forming a threatening attack. Coupled with the carelessness of the players, Leiria, who had the advantage in strength, did not break the deadlock and take the lead in the score.

Instead, in the 30th minute of the game, Vicente seized a counter-attacking opportunity. After Vicente broke the ball at the back, a simple long pass broke through the out-of-form Leiria backline. Carolino, who won the ball, burst into a cold arrow from outside the box and hit a boccia ball. Lemato couldn't react and the ball grazed the left post and rolled into the goal.

Vicente's commentary said passionately: "GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!! In 30 minutes, we were ahead. Leiria is clearly out of form and has been affected by the schedule. Maybe we can enjoy the thrill of beating the leaders at home. That's a rare occurrence. “

The more than 10,000 fans at the Novo Stadium were also pleasantly surprised by the team's unexpected lead. Before the game, they expected their team to lose without shame, and now it looks like there is still hope of winning.

The unexpected goal conceded made Mourinho jump up and down on the sidelines in a furious rage. When he came to the sidelines, he almost scolded the whole team of Leiria, and even Lao Lei did not avoid it. In fact, in the Leiria team, Lao Lei can be regarded as the one in the best condition, not the worst. However, Lao Lei also felt that he was scolded convincingly, who made himself the core of the team's organization, and the biggest responsibility for the team's poor play is himself, which is the responsibility that the core must bear under the control of the ball and the support of the whole team.

After scoring the goal, Carolino, after celebrating in front of the fans, looked at Lao Lei, who was reprimanded by Mourinho, and suddenly raised a smug smile on the corner of his mouth, and walked towards Lao Lei. Lao Lei, who was remorseful, looked up and saw a Vicente player with a cheap smile of how to look and how to play, came to him, and said to himself: "It seems that you are not very good." After speaking, he sighed twice, shook his head, and walked past Lao Lei. Lao Lei was behind him, stunned for a moment, and showed a meaningful smile at his figure.

After the game restarted, Leiria's players were somewhat energetic under Mourinho's scolding. Among them, Lao Lei, who has been provoked, is undoubtedly the fastest rebounding state. However, before Leiria, who had rebounded in form, equalised, she was hit again.

In the 35th minute, Vicente was awarded a corner on the left. After a corner, Victor grabbed the first drop in the box, which was at the front post. When he was about to push the football off the line, the Vicente players who were next to him interfered with him physically. He lost control of his header and the direction of the ball changed to the direction of the goal. And Lemato was not prepared for this at all, and football went into the net. The score was extended to 2:0.

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!! An own goal, 2:0. We really have a chance to win this game. "The home fans have more expectations for the team to win, and as long as they hold on to Leiria's attack in the second half and have two goals in hand, there is still hope.

Mourinho's face darkened after seeing the goal, and this time he didn't scold his players. It's a balloon, and it seems that luck isn't on Leiria's side today. An own goal was a blow to Leiria's morale, and in the next few minutes, Leiria was unable to pull a goal back. The first half ended with a surprise of all with Vicente leading by 2 goals.

Leiria's players entered the dressing room in frustration, Mourinho grimaced and the atmosphere in the dressing room was somewhat silent. Mourinho saw that his disciple was not in good spirits, and said: "You guys played like in the first half. But did you just give up? Are you just throwing in the towel, like a bunch of? “

Mourinho is not a good time to blame at this time, and now the players need more stimulation, motivation. After hearing Mourinho's words, the players really changed their frustrated looks, and their eyes were full of unwillingness, and they raised their heads. Old Lei stood up and said firmly, "No, head." I guarantee that in the second half, you will see a different Leiria. Ben should have stood up at this point, but Leiria's players didn't have any complaints about Ray's actions, including Ben. Old Ray has slowly become the spiritual pillar of this Leiria team, and the performance of turning the tide in the past few months, the magical speed of a few steps, and the performance of standing up for his teammates have made it all start to become natural.

"Do you all think so?"

"Yes, head."

"Good. In the second half Vicente will certainly retract when the head of the turtle is shrunk. Blasting open his tortoise shell for me. “

Sure enough, after the start of the second half, Leiria returned to her proper level. In the face of Vicente's retracting defense, in the 50th minute of the second half, Ivan scored with a header from Andre's corner kick to make the score 2:1.

'We still have chances, as long as we can hold on to the left-hand advantage.'

Just five minutes later, the score was rewritten again. Old Ray got an assist from Andre on the edge of the penalty area and fired a long-range shot with a big foot. Before Vicente's goalkeeper could make a save, the ball went into the net. After Lao Lei scored, he walked directly to Carolino and said, "Tsk, that's it." Shaking his head, he walked back to his half, leaving a grim-faced Carolino.

'The team, work hard, should be able to keep a draw. A point against the leader is also a good result. “

Carolino wanted to fight back for the rest of the fight, but it turned out he wasn't that material. After the counterattack, Lao Lei completely lost interest in him, and his attention was focused on the game.

In the 60,70 minutes, scored by Hugo and Andre, respectively. The match ended 4:2. Leiria won the game without any danger.

'That's what we're capable of and the players have done their best.

After the game, Mourinho was in the team's bus when he received a call from Mendes, and a bad news made him lose his temper.