Chinese champion

Chapter 158 Ups and Downs
"Luis, do you want me to play Pei Wei against Osasuna?" Manzano asked Ferrando in the office.

"His training state has been very bad these days. It seems that his state is not good!" Ferrando did not answer Manzano's question directly, because he knew that Manzano was better than him in formation formation. I am much smarter, I just need to tell Manzano the state of the players in training, it is not a wise choice to express opinions in places I am not familiar with.

"Yeah, I'm also thinking about this issue. Although we are ranked second, we haven't met a strong team yet, but we have won two draws. The game against Osasuna is exactly the same. When we were fighting for points, but at this time Pei Wei's condition is not good...it's really a headache." Manzano rubbed his temples and said with nerves.

"According to the state he showed in training, he has not reached his best state, but the report given by the team doctor said that he has no physical problems and can definitely participate in the game... Strange, these two years Pei Wei has never been in such a situation, although he has always been the player who participated in the most games in our team, but his state has always been the most stable... Is there something wrong with his family?" Ferrando asked .

Manzano shook his head, denying Ferrando's point of view: "There is nothing wrong with his family. I asked him, but when I asked him if he had anything on his mind, the kid just shook his head and said nothing. He refuses to say it, and I can't force him to say it... I'm a little worried."

"I can't see it. Although Pei Wei is usually so gentle, he is so stubborn at critical moments... Actually, I really appreciate this character." Ferrando said with a smile.

Manzano rolled his eyes at Ferrando: "Now is not the time to discuss Pei Wei's character, but to discuss whether Pei Wei will play or not! You, the head coach, can't eat for nothing, so please tell me Suggestion, what should I do?"

"I'm sorry, it seems like you should make this decision?" Ferrando was obviously dodging the topic: "I'm only in charge of the training of the players, and you can decide everything else. It's stipulated in the contract. That's right, I don't care about this... By the way, the players are still waiting for my guidance on the training ground. I'm very busy, so take your time to think about it, I'm going out first!"

As soon as Ferrando finished speaking, he immediately slipped out of the office, leaving only Manzano with wide-eyed eyes: "Hey! You don't have to give such a clumsy excuse if you want to escape, right? It's dinner time, why not?" What idiot player will be waiting for your guidance on the training ground? What a shameless guy!"

Manzano, who had just cursed Ferrando in his heart, immediately lamented again: "God, why is there such an unfair thing? His salary is as high as mine, but 70.00% of the team I'm doing it all! Why am I so unlucky!"

"Lord, please tell me, should I send Pei Wei into the game tomorrow?" Manzano prayed devoutly.

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In the game against Osasuna, Manzano finally chose to believe in Pei Wei. He dispatched all the main lineup in his mind and prepared to strive to get the three points at home.

He made such a choice and it is not for nothing. Now Mallorca is in second place two points behind Valencia, one point ahead of Real Madrid and two points ahead of Barcelona, ​​but they will usher in a game soon During the intensive period, they have to play four league games, two Champions League group matches and one sixteenth game of the Copa del Rey within one month. The opponents in the four leagues are Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Deportivo and Valencia, while the Champions League opponents include giants such as AC Milan and Ajax. Mallorca actually has to face such powerful opponents in this short month. It's scary to think about it one by one.

Although Mallorca's strength has been greatly enhanced, their opponents this time are almost all top European giants. No team can feel guilty in such a dense schedule.

So this game against Osasuna is very important. If it is played well, it will be a good start for the following game, and if it loses, Mallorca might be big in the next game. Defeated, he withdrew from the ranks of winning the league early.

Manzano followed the lineup against Anderlecht in the Champions League. The front trident is Pei Wei, Garcia and Eto'o.

In his vision, Garcia and Pei Wei can completely coexist, with Eto'o at the forefront as the main striker, while Pei Wei and Garcia are constantly changing positions, inserting into the forward line to attack in turn, so that the The opponent's defenders care about one thing and lose another, greatly increasing the offensive firepower.

As if his prayers yesterday hadn't worked out, Manzano frowned on the progress immediately after the game began...

Pei Wei's condition is really not good. Not only did he not play the role of connecting the front and back courts, but he often overlapped with Garcia's running positions, which often made Mallorca's offense chaotic after hitting the front court. Eto Ao was as lonely on the front line as a wolf wandering on the grassland.

The misfiring of the attack in the center directly caused Mallorca's attack to be unable to break through the opponent's defense, and several attacks from the side were also easily cracked by the opponent due to the lack of height in the center.

Just when Mallorca's offense couldn't start the situation, Osasuna's lightning counterattack had a miraculous effect!
Wang Xiaomin was pushed out of the penalty area by the opponent's defender in a cross from the wing, and the midfielder grabbed ahead of Pei Wei to clear the siege. After several concise and fast passes, Osasuna attacked in front of Mallorca's penalty area. Forward Weber Seeing that no teammates are keeping up, he kicks decisively and shoots!
The angle of the shot was not tricky, and Bolano had already reacted, but when the ball flew into the penalty area, it was blocked by Nino, who stretched out his foot to block it, and flew to the other side of the goal!
The ball changed direction. Although the speed slowed down, Bolano, who had already moved ahead of time, was unable to make a second reaction. The ball slowly rolled into the goal!

In the No.40 minute of the first half, the visiting team Osasuna scored a goal despite being besieged!
After conceding the goal, Mallorca launched a flood of offense, but Pei Wei still continued his poor state. Often after the ball reached his feet, it became the end of Mallorca's offense. Don't pass the ball to him.

This is not because his teammates have lost trust in him, they just obey the most basic rules of professional players, and they cannot let a player who is clearly out of form organize the offense!
The situation remained the same in the second half. In desperation, Manzano had to replace Pei Wei with Delgado in the No. 60 minute. Garcia returned to the position of the midfielder. Mallorca's formation returned to the traditional 4-4- 2.

The substitution had an immediate effect. Mallorca's offense began to flow smoothly under Garcia's scheduling. No. 703 minutes, Garcia wiped a defender after receiving the ball outside the penalty area and then kicked a long shot. The opponent's goalkeeper will The ball was saved but Eto'o was in front of it and put it in for Mallorca to equalize.

Mallorca, who continued to attack, reaped results again in the No.801 minute. Wang Xiaomin's cross from the wing was blocked by the opponent's defender. Ibagaza drove a corner kick into the penalty area. When he got the upper hand, he ferried the ball to the back point, and the captain Nadal who stepped forward to assist took the lead with a header.

2:1, this is also the final score, the winning Mallorca kept the second position, but the real test has just arrived.

Seven days later, Mallorca welcomed their opponents in the Copa del Rey, Albacete.

The opponent is a newly promoted team in this year's La Liga, and their strength is not strong. Mallorca once played against them in the league half a month ago. Mallorca won 2-0 in the away game. Considering that the intensive schedule is coming soon So Manzano did not send all the main players. Wang Xiaomin, Nadal, Ismail, Eto’o and Garcia rested one after another. Only Pei Wei was sent by Manzano because of his poor state recently. Find status.

But Albacete's two South American forwards exploded with amazing energy, turning half of Mallorca's defense upside down!
3:0!In the first half alone, Albacete let Mallorca's goal open three times!

Brazilian Fabiano and Uruguayan Pacheco became a nightmare for Mallorca's defense in this game. The South American's delicate footwork was fully demonstrated by them!

When Pacheco and Fabiano scored the third goal with a series of excellent two-pass cooperation, the two happily tap danced on the sidelines!

And this made Pei Wei furious!

Manzano shook his head. Although he thought about giving up the Copa del Rey, he was not willing to see such a miserable exit.

The second half began, but Pei Wei's performance caught Manzano's eyes!
Just 5 minutes into the second half, Pei Wei took a long shot when he was 40 meters away from the goal after receiving a pass from Ibagaza!The ball rushed towards the goal quickly, but was thrown out by the goalkeeper!

Pei Wei glared at the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper was startled by the anger in his eyes, and didn't recover until he was touched by his teammates.

"Well, Pei Wei's momentum is different." Manzano touched his chin on the sidelines and thought, "This is a bit like the old Pei Wei."

Ibagaza took the corner and the opposing goalkeeper struck out to take the ball off Delgado's head.

However, a figure suddenly appeared on the way, and headed towards the ball before the two of them!
The ball brushed against the crossbar and flew out of the baseline, and the goalkeeper broke out in a cold sweat.

It was Pei Wei who shot again. In just 3 minutes, he had already had two very threatening shots.

Albacete immediately stepped up his defense against Pei Wei, and there were three people surrounding Pei Wei.

Obviously, Pei Wei's condition has not recovered to the best, but he still caught a flaw revealed by the opponent, and his pass accurately landed at Delgado's feet in the penalty area, and Delgado used his body to lean against the opponent's The defender strafed and Mallorca pulled back a point.

But this goal can only save a little face. Mallorca still lost the game without temper, and their road to the Copa del Rey this year came here.

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"Pei, are you still troubled by that?" Nadal asked Pei Wei while sipping beer in the same small bar.

Pei Wei smiled wryly, but did not answer.

"Is it worth it to affect my state in the game because of these things?" Nadal asked seriously.

"Captain, do you know how I feel?" Pei Wei became excited: "Playing for the country has always been my biggest dream. I am very excited to be selected into the Olympic team this time! Excited! Do you know? When I know that I When I can use my ability to help the Olympic team to achieve good results in the Olympics, the feeling even surpassed when I won the UEFA Cup last year! But what I didn't expect was that there would be betrayal among my future teammates People who are interested in my own country, this feeling scares me! I am not afraid of losing, nor am I afraid of the enemy in front of me. What I am afraid of is that when I am attacking in front, I will be stabbed in the back by my own people. I am in pain, Captain!"

"I understand!" Nadal said loudly: "Anyone will be afraid of having such a person among their teammates. I understand your feelings! But you are not only playing for other people, you also have other teammates around you! What's more, you play football for yourself! The club did not apologize to you. You should show all your strength and use your performance to say to your domestic fans: 'I will lead the Olympic team to have a good future. performance!' You know?"

Pei Wei was silent for a long time, and then slowly opened his mouth: "I know, captain, I will not be like the previous games."

After Pei Wei finished speaking, he left the bar. Nadal shook his head and drank the rest of the beer in the glass.

He knew that his words could not clear up all of Pei Wei's worries, because he still hadn't seen the former Pei Wei.

That cheerful and sunny boy, that Pei Wei who is full of aura and confidence on the court.

Perhaps it was Pei Wei's performance in the second half of the game against Albacete that impressed Manzano. In the league against Atletico Madrid on the 19th, Manzano still let Pei Wei start consecutively, which made Mallorca fans immediately Happy and worried.

Perhaps the conversation between Nadal and Pei Wei played a certain role. Pei Wei’s performance on the court was quite satisfactory. When Atletico Madrid’s Torres scored first in the No.206 minute, only 10 minutes later, Pei Wei was in the middle. After a two-for-one cooperation with Garcia, he passed the ball to the penalty area, and Eto'o shot through Franco's ten fingers and equalized the score.

Franco got up from the ground with a wry smile, the feeling of being scored by his former teammates is really bad...

Then Mallorca firmly controlled the situation on the field. Pei Wei and Garcia continued to change positions, which made Atletico Madrid's defenders feel a little powerless.

Not long after the start of the second half, Pei Weiyu pretended to go forward and attracted the defense of the two defenders of the opponent. Garcia's wonderful breakthrough formed a one-handed goal. Facing Franco, he used an easy kick to help Mallorca pass the goal. The score is overtaken!

In the 70th minute, Eto'o forced his way into the penalty area and was tripped by a defender. The referee immediately awarded a penalty kick. Seeing the penalty spot where Pei Wei walked, Franco became nervous.

Having been teammates with Pei Wei for two years, he certainly knows how accurate Pei Wei's footwork is, coupled with his strong shooting power, basically as long as Pei Wei doesn't shoot the ball out of the goal frame, the goalkeeper will surrender.

Pei Wei runs up and shoots!
Franco dived to the right, but the ball flew into the goal from where he had been standing! 3:1!

This time Franco didn't even have the energy to smile wryly. He didn't expect that he would be conceded three goals in a row against his old club for the first time. He was really unlucky.

After scoring the goal, Pei Wei showed a long-lost smile on his face, and hugged Eto'o tightly with Eto'o who came up to celebrate.

In stoppage time of the game, Atletico Madrid pulled a goal back from substitute striker Kiko, but it was too late, and Mallorca won 3:2.

"It seems that Pei Wei's condition is gradually recovering! Now I know what to expect in the Champions League match against Ajax three days later!" Manzano said to Ferrando with a smile.

But he seemed to be happy too soon.

Two days later at the Amsterdam Stadium, Mallorca lost a crucial game for them, with Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic's three-minute goal giving Ajax all three at home. In another game, Anderlecht suffered the biggest upset of the Champions League so far at the San Siro Stadium. In the 3rd minute, relying on Mponsa's goal, they were lucky to lead AC Milan, and then they used the iron barrel formation of ten guards and Wu Qi's excellent performance to miraculously take away three points from San Siro, with a goal difference The disadvantage ranks third. Although AC Milan lost the ball, it still ranks second.

In the three rounds of the group stage that have already been played, the Mallorca team has two draws and one loss without a win, which makes everyone pessimistic about their prospects for the Champions League. In the match against Ajax, Pei Wei Completely marked by the opponent's Czech midfielder Garasek, the whole game was mediocre, and Mallorca could not organize an effective attack after losing the scheduling of Pei Wei's engine. This is why the Mallorca team lost. A very crucial reason.

The ups and downs of Pei Wei's state directly affected Mallorca's performance, which made Manzano confuse.

How to solve Pei Wei's unstable state has become Manzano's biggest headache.

But after the match against Ajax, a phone call from He Jin to Pei Wei helped Manzano a lot.

(End of this chapter)