Chapter 63: The Devil's Race (5) Φ Trick (1)
Today is the last round of the league before the winter break, and Leiria will take on Ferreira at the Magal Hays Stadium. In the past few days, Leiria has detached itself from the image of a normal and comfortable city, and the whole city is in a state of adrenal hyperstimulation. Ferreira had arrived in Leiria the day before, and they had been greeted with a violent "welcome" from the local Leiria fans, numerous middle fingers, disdain, invective, and unfriendly banners such as "Welcome to hell, shit". In short, Ferreira was definitely treated at the highest level in Leiria, and it was rare to see such a presumptuous side of the civilized and courteous Leiria people.
But for Ferreira, this is just the beginning. They only got a pitiful 30 minutes on the acclimatization pitch, which only warmed them up. Ferreira protested, and Leiria responded by saying that the turf at home needed to be repaired. Although they appealed the matter, it is clear that the Portuguese Football Federation will not make any substantive decisions at all, and they do not want to add fuel to the fire again before the game, which is already hot enough, and increase the possibility of a conflict. For them, everything now has to be set up for Euro 04, during which they will not allow anything to happen that will harm the environment of Portuguese football.
During the night at the hotel, Ferreira did not have a good rest because of the noise of the Leiria fans. The encounter of this day and time unconsciously raised the anger of Ferreira's players to the highest point before the game started. According to some media reports, these two teams, which have not had any grudges for decades, are approaching the standards of their sworn enemies at an unimaginable speed.
On the afternoon of December 18th, Ferreira's bus drove out of the hotel. They were surrounded by cars of Leiria fans in front of and behind them, not only driving slowly, but also enduring harassment from these fans. It's not just about getting angry, it can disrupt the mentality of Ferreira's players, shorten their warm-up time and disrupt Ferreira's coaching staff's plans. These fans are very knowledgeable.
On the other side, Leiria was of course treated like a hero, moving forward amid the reverence and cheers of the fans. Old Ray's supporters are already clearly making up the majority of Leiria's fans. Lao Lei looked through the glass window of the bus and saw a banner pulled up by two big men in two cars, which read: "Tear them up, Godzilla!" There is also a picture of Godzilla next to it. Looking at this group of fans who support him, Lao Lei felt a little astringent in his heart, and when this season is over, he doesn't know how they will react.
This emotion was only for a moment, and Lao Lei immediately adjusted and focused on the upcoming game. Lao Lei, who knew that he would leave, and Mourinho had the same thoughts, both wanted to create something before leaving, and Leiria had a special meaning for both of them.
Joseph and the others were supposed to come to watch this game, but they were stopped by Lao Lei. Although the fans who know Ferreira are only talking about it at most, this kind of thing is still safety first, isn't it? Besides, the local police station in Leiria also considered and suggested to Lao Lei's family. Joseph, who was originally of Russian descent, didn't care about these threats, and finally under the persuasion of Lao Lei, he proposed to consider the safety of Hexian and Mi Ji before agreeing to watch at home.
It was a game that did not require mobilization for the players of Leiria. In that match at the start of the season, there were a few clashes between the two sides. Now at the top of the list, Leiria, who has arrogance in her heart, of course, wants to teach Ferreira a good lesson. Jose Mourinho did not make a routine pre-match mobilization in the dressing room, instead he kept asking his players to stay calm, watch their movements and not get injured. At such times, a conflict or some injury can have an irreparable impact on Leiria's results this season.
Andre, Ivan, Ugo and Lao Lei are the key targets of Mourinho's advice, and according to Ferreira's defensive style, Mourinho can imagine that these four will not have an easy time in this game. Among them, Lao Lei is the only one who can make him feel a little relieved, after all, it is the physical fitness that is placed here. Among them, Andre made him the most relieved, after all, he had not been recovering from his injury for a long time, and now he couldn't suffer any more injuries.
At 18 o'clock, the game officially began at the referee's whistle. Leiria won the ball, and at the beginning of the game, Old Ray did not attack immediately, but started to slowly fall in his own half. Against a team like Pacos Ferreira, you can't come hard, you have to be smart, that's what Mourinho asked before the game.
Since Lao Lei developed his long passing technique, the defensive strategies of each team against him have changed again. Under normal circumstances, a player will be sent to follow the defense, and then a player will be placed nearby, once Lao Lei dribbles the ball and delays the ball, he will step forward to steal. After all, with Lao Lei's current two hits, it is still a little difficult to get rid of the personal players, but in view of Lao Lei's performance in the previous games, Ferreira's head coach added a second lock.
In the 5th minute of the first half, the player with Ferreira slipped away for a while and suddenly launched a long pass. The ball found Andre in front, and just as Andre was about to turn away from the player behind him, the Ferreira player suddenly rushed forward and hit Andre with a shoulder. Andre was dropped straight onto the pitch.
"Toot", the referee immediately blew the whistle. He had anticipated the situation before the game, and quickly called the Ferreira player to his side and warned him. It wasn't a malicious foul in the strict sense of the word, and it was only five minutes into the game, so he was just giving a verbal warning. Of course, this decision did not satisfy the Leiria side, you must know that André fell to the ground in pain, and the action just now was obviously aimed at people. Mourinho came to the side of the fourth official and protested fiercely, he did not expect the referee to change the decision, he just wanted to put pressure on the referee team to make the referee favor him in the next game.
With Mourinho's pre-match warning, Leiria's players remained calm. Only Ben stepped forward to protest and received a resolute answer from the referee that the verdict would not be changed. At this time, the neutral commentators who watched the excitement and didn't think it was a big deal said excitedly: "Roar, look at Ferreira's foul is really ruthless." "They want the two teams to fight each other and then they can make the team they support a profit.
The Leiria fans at home, of course, disagreed, and the boos rang out. At this time, Lao Lei suddenly waved his hands at the Leiria fans in the stands, meaning to boo louder. After receiving the idol's request, the boos suddenly went up a level, and it was no longer clear what the people next to him were saying in the stadium. The referee, commentator and camera all noticed Lao Lei's movements, and Lao Lei once again succeeded in attracting the attention of the audience.
"Oh, look at what Remaia is doing, this is such a bad boy. But I like it, hahaha. The emotions of the Leiria fans were stirred up by him. The referee had to run to Lao Lei to warn him not to deliberately provoke the emotions of the fans, to which Lao Lei just replied innocently: "Mr. referee, I'm just stretching." ”
Old Ray is not stupid, of course he knows what Ferreira's purpose is. Lao Lei is confident that Leiria's strength is higher than Ferreira's at this time, and Ferreira's purpose is nothing more than to draw the attention of himself and his teammates to physical confrontation and reduce Leiria's threat. At this time, the best way to do it is to put pressure on the referee and remind him of the penalty scale. This allows Ferreira's players to throw a bogey and not dare to foul so unscrupulously. Of course, if this is Ferreira's home stadium, Lao Lei doesn't mind paying back to Ferreira's players, but this is his home stadium and he can play a little smarter. However, such a direct and obvious request for the boos of the home fans, perhaps Lao Lei has set a precedent again.
After the game restarted, in the 10th minute, Lao Lei won the ball in the midfield and shook off a little of the defender's center of gravity with croquettes. Immediately rushed to the right, but the defender immediately stabilized his center of gravity and chased after him. At this time, the referee was behind Ferreira's player, Lao Lei seized this opportunity, the corner of his eye was fixed, and the elbow of his left hand was directly hit on the lower abdomen of Ferreira player with a small swing back. Ferreira's defender suddenly stopped and shrank like a lobster, and Old Ray took advantage of this opportunity to get rid of him with the ball.
The referee also found out that something was wrong, but after all, he didn't see it with his own eyes, and the referee on the sideline didn't signal and added the pressure from the home fans just now, so he pushed the boat down the river, didn't see it, followed Lao Lei, and ran towards Ferreira's half.
Before Ferreira's players could press up, Lao Ray took the lead in handing the ball to Andre and it was an opportunity. Andre didn't stop the ball and handed the ball to Lao Ray, who was inserted in front, and turned around and cut it forward. After the old ray won the ball, a big diagonal pass was made to Ugo, who was already up on the touchline.
However, Lao Lei's long pass was still a little big, and Ugo could only barely catch the football, and at this time Ferreira's players had already pressed up. However, this Ugo had a flash of inspiration, knocked directly on his heel, and the ball rolled past the Ferreira player and gave it to Andre, who was plugged in behind.
"Oh, nice fit, fast, concise, with Leiria's usual attacking character. I don't know when Leiria will be able to come up with this beautiful football. "In fact, this is also the confidence that the results bring to the players of the team, so that they dare to do actions that they usually dare not do, so that the scene is naturally smooth and good-looking.
However, it is a pity that the attack was the most difficult and the goal was not scored because Ivan's shot was interfered with by Ferreira's players, and the anti-aircraft gun was fired. However, this wonderful front-court cooperation still received applause from the fans.
However, it has to be said that Ferreira's team does have its own uniqueness in defense, with the shadow of Italy's chain defense in it. Compared to the last game, Ferreira has done plenty of research on Leiria and has defended more thoroughly.
This made Leiria feel like she was facing a hedgehog for a while, and it was hard to swallow. The good news was that the referee's penalty was tightened, and after Patrick Ferreira's centre-back brought down Ugo at the edge of the box, the referee decisively showed a yellow card. Although the free-kick didn't turn into a goal, it allowed Ferreira's players to start controlling their movements.
It is precisely because of this that the scene of the game was not as hot and brutal as the media expected before the game. The game was played at a high level of attack and defence.
Leiria's offense was actually less threatening. Lao Lei, who was a little silent by Ferreira's defensive strategy, decided to start increasing his assault. Since the overall coordination can't be broken, then use a little attack power to break through and break the surface with points.