Chapter 69: Reclaiming the Advantage
In the opening 10 minutes, Porto, who had been a big hitter, fell behind Sporting Lisbon at home, which was more or less surprising to those who watched the game. The Porto fans in the stands fell into a brief silence, not unacceptable, but suddenly unacceptable. It's just that Porto's performance at home this season has been really impressive, and it was the first goal they have conceded at home this season. Relative to the fans, perhaps this goal had a relatively small impact on the Porto players. It took only 7 minutes to be opened by Quaresma to score such a beautiful world wave, and there was too much luck involved. In terms of the difficulty of the goal, Quaresma probably won't be able to score a goal like this again this season, and it will take too much serendipity.
But football matches are like this, who doesn't eat dumplings during the New Year, the blame is only for hitting the muzzle of the gun. Adjusting their mood, Porto's players quickly regained their formation and waited for the game to restart. Mourinho on the sidelines also had this view on the goal conceded, although Sporting Lisbon forced Porto to make mistakes, but defensively, Porto's players did not have any problems, which can only be blamed on Quaresma's surprisingly good form today.
He now just blames himself for not thinking in advance that Sporting Lisbon would be so bold, knowing that their approach, a bad one will leave Porto excellent counter-attacking opportunities, and they need to take great risks. Success is courage and wisdom, failure is recklessness and impulsiveness, and today Sporting Lisbon is fortunate to play the role of a winner. Although Mourinho was dissatisfied with himself in his heart, he did not show it on his face. Just come to the sidelines and signal your players to calm down. Stabilize the situation, the game has just begun.
And just as the players on the field waited for the game to restart. The TV commentator was poking fun at Quaresma's action against Ray after he scored. Although Quaresma didn't point at Lao Lei's nose and make this celebratory gesture, anyone with a discerning eye knew that he was targeting Lao Lei. The commentator on the Sporting Lisbon side naturally laughed at this, praising Quaresma and belittling Lao Lei. And the commentator on the Porto side could only pretend not to see it, holding his breath in his heart, waiting for Lao Lei to respond. Laughing at it again, they have this confidence in Lao Lei.
The fans at the Stadio de la Dragons also noticed the details of Quaresma's celebration through the big screen, and smiled sarcastically at the Sporting Lisbon fans, and the Porto fans could only hold their breath in their stomachs for a while, saying that the game was still early, so let's wait and see. They decided that after waiting for Lao Lei's response, they must laugh back. It is said that Lao Lei, who quickly became the new favorite of the Dragon Stadium, has rapidly improved his status as a Porto fan, and now he is faintly regarded as the façade of Porto. Representative stars.
After the game restarted, Lao Lei immediately rushed up in his heart, attacked the impulse to equalize, and patiently reversed his feet and organized in the midfield. And Sporting Lisbon in the first minutes after the restart of the match. I also want to take advantage of the morale boost brought by the goal, continue the strategy of pressing in the front court, and chase after the victory. Again in the front of the field to force Porto to make mistakes or break the ball, looking for a good opportunity to score.
But this time. Porto's players have come out of the panic at the start and are back to their original form. As a result, Sporting Lisbon's old trick did not have the effect of the first time. Under the leadership of Lao Lei, Porto re-played a smooth pass in the midfield, so that the players of Sporting Lisbon could only run after the ball, and there was no way to do it. Seeing this situation, the Lisbon players also retreated to their usual style of play under the instructions of their own head coach. This kind of pressing tactic is very physically demanding, and since you see that the opponent has stabilized, there is no need to continue to waste physical strength. Besides, scoring a goal is already considered to have achieved the tactical goal, so don't be greedy enough, lest Porto seize the opportunity to bite back.
In the 12th minute of the first half, Porto had largely regained dominance on the field. In the face of Bento's interference behind him in midfield, Lao Lei kicked the ball back to Kostiani, and then turned 180 degrees directly and cut forward. At this time, Kostiani also comprehended the football and stuffed it straight in front of Lao Lei, and the two played a reverse two-on-one cooperation. By the time Lao Lei controlled the ball, Ronaldo had already defended in front of him. For Old Ray, he is not weaker than Quaresma's jealousy and competitiveness.
But for him, the gap between the defensive end and the offensive end is too big. In the face of Ronaldo's defense, Lao Lei changed direction with a simple dribble, and then firmly stuck him with his body, and then accelerated with a ball, leaving Ronaldo behind. For Ronaldo, who is still relatively thin, Lao Lei decisively adopted the simplest and fastest way to get rid of it. Cristiano Ronaldo behind him, although he also wants to use his body to hit Lao Lei and get the space to break the ball in the card position. But Lao Lei's solid back stuck him, and he was not moved at all, but his own body bounced back and was completely thrown away by Lao Lei.
Lao Lei continued to dribble the ball on the right side of the middle and did not pull it to the middle. At this time, Lao Lei and Alenichev were on the right flank, facing his teammate in the national team, Sporting Lisbon's left-back Jorge. Lao Lei first gave the football to Alenichev, and after receiving the ball, Alenichev also accelerated, attracting all the attention of Jorge. He gave the football to Lao Lei, who was already pulling to the middle, and after Lao Lei got the ball, he faced Beto, knocked the ball directly to Deco who came over to answer without stopping the ball, and then continued to accelerate forward.
This time, Deco formed a tacit understanding with Lao Lei, made a wall, and knocked the football back to Lao Lei. Lao Lei stopped the ball with his left foot and continued to pull laterally, and the central defender of Sporting Lisbon forced out. In the face of him, Lao Lei first stopped with a button with his left foot, and then the outside of his left foot was flicked out, and the two Lao Lei connected quickly with his increasingly solid basic skills, and the center of gravity of the Lisbon central defender did not keep up. Taking advantage of this moment, Lao Lei's right foot suddenly threw back and came to the left side of his left foot. The two legs were twisted, and then the right foot was raised. Picked the ball into the penalty area. At the front of the Sporting Lisbon penalty area, Lao Lei suddenly came to a very ornamental flower arrangement pass. At present, Lao Lei's passing skills. It's enough for him to make some fancy passes.
If the flower arrangement pass is used accurately, in addition to a certain ornamentality, it requires less adjustment time than ordinary passing movements, and has a certain suddenness, which can catch the opponent off guard. This pass of Lao Lei obviously played this role, and the central defender of Sporting Lisbon did not make any blocking moves at all, and the football flew lightly past him into the penalty area.
And in the penalty area, McCarthy has also been diagonally in place. With his excellent explosiveness, he took Sporting Lisbon's defenders. Left behind, he was the first to touch the football. The right foot adjusted the football slightly, and before the defender of Sporting Lisbon slid the tackle, he used his right foot as the fulcrum, forced a half-turn, and directly swung his left foot to deliver a powerful shot.
McCarthy's shot hit the top corner of the net and the Sporting Lisbon goalkeeper's hands were not able to block the ball, but the crossbar blocked the brilliant effort. The powerful soccer ball is directly framed by the goal. Beat trembling. And with the goal trembling was the neat and loud cries of the Porto fans. McCarthy, who fell to the ground after the shot, also regretfully held his head and lay on the grass for a while before getting up, facing Lao Ray, who gave him a wonderful pass. Give an apologetic thumbs up.
Although Lao Lei has some regrets about this ball, he has not gone too far in his heart. There is still time to play. Lao Lei is confident that he can continue to create such opportunities.
The game restarted and it was Sporting Lisbon's turn to attack. Porto's defensive strategy was clear, which was to block both of its flanks. Jardel's absence. Let Sporting Lisbon's attack in the middle lack a strategic fulcrum. And Joao's form in this game has not returned to his best form, and he has not played with two eyes so far, and he has been severely limited by Porto's defense. Sporting Lisbon's backup striker was even more useless, being controlled by Porto's backline. In addition, there are two crushers with a large defensive range in the midfield, Lao Lei and Kostiani, and it is unlikely that Sporting Lisbon will want to penetrate through the middle. Therefore, Sporting Lisbon's attack in this game can only rely on the play of their two wing supernovas.
And Mourinho has also instructed Lao Lei and Kostiani to pay more attention to the assistance of the two wings when defending, and help Valente and Ferreira stabilize the side defense. In view of Quaresma's previous provocative moves, the elder Lei naturally chose the right flank where Quaresma was located.
In the 17th minute of the first half, after Quaresma got the ball from Barbossa, he hurriedly faced Lao Lei and began to accelerate directly. That opening goal gave Quaresma the confidence he could beat in this game and overwhelm Ray.
In the face of Quaresma, Lao Lei did not rush up. Although he was a little unhappy in his heart, Lao Lei had to admit that Quaresma's foot skills were indeed excellent, and all kinds of breakthrough skills were also at his fingertips. Keeping a certain distance from Quaresma, he stepped back in unison, not allowing him to accelerate, but also allowing himself to make a quick tackle on the ball when he wanted to move. And this is also a sign that Lao Lei's defensive skills have improved, and there has never been a good defensive player who has succeeded only by bravery.
Quaresma saw that he could no longer continue like this, and that he would fall into the double bag of Old Ray and Valente as he went. He began to pedal his bicycle again, although it was very confusing and ornamental, but Lao Lei was not moved at all. For a moment, there was nothing he could do, and Quaresma suddenly flicked the outside of his left foot and made a gesture to cut inside. But Lao Lei still didn't move, and after studying with Lei Dongduo for a while, he was able to judge such a feint.
Sure enough, Quaresma's left foot suddenly kicked back, then his right ankle turned outward, and the ball rolled forward after hitting his right foot. Then he kicked with his left foot, and he was about to accelerate through Lao Lei from the outside road. And Lao Lei was waiting for this opportunity, and suddenly stepped forward, and his body came sideways, directly separating him from the football. Then his right hand also took advantage of the trend to force backwards, and put Quaresma, who couldn't stop the car and hit Lao Lei's back, directly to the ground. Quaresma was like a lobster at this time, curled up, and the sharp pain in his abdomen instantly made him lose strength all over his body.
The referee's whistle didn't blow and it was a successful defense.
Old Ray handed over the football to Kostiani and turned to look at Quaresma lying on the ground.
In Quaresma's eyes, Ray's trademark evil smile appeared. (To be continued......)