football's number one madman

Chapter 131 Pre-season warm-up match

After leaving a wreckage in Singapore, it was already July 7 when I returned to Spain.

There are only four weeks before the official opening of the new season, and the time left for the Bat Corps to run the lineup is actually very limited.

Due to the unexpected joining of Li Polo, Nuno's plan to buy defender Abden Nur from Monaco was rejected by the top management, and the club saved nearly 2500 million euros...

Boss Lin will definitely be grateful for this decision, because this Tunisian player has not only been proven to be a big parallel importer in history, but also left the team freely in the end. The transfer fee of more than 2000 million euros was completely in vain!

I don't know if it hindered Nuno's plan to "spend money". Although Li Polo worked extraordinarily hard in daily training, and has always maintained high-intensity extra training, he even blew up his own competition in team competitions many times. Opponents Mustafi and Wei Zuo, but... But it didn't affect Li Polo being placed on the substitute side in every group training.

On July 7, Valencia went to Cologne, Germany to participate in a friendly match.

Since the host is the Cologne Club, it can also be called the "Cologne Cup".

In addition to the hosts Cologne and Valencia, there are two participating teams from other leagues: the Portuguese Super League giants "Red Dragon" Porto, and the "Potter" Stoke City who have been mixed in the Premier League.

The rules of this event are a bit weird. The four teams are divided into two groups. Each team only competes with two teams from the other group. Finally, the scores are calculated in the order of points, goals, and goal difference. .

——In fact, it is not as refreshing as each team playing three single round-robin games.

Valencia's first opponent is Porto.

Although the Portuguese super giants in the 21st century are somewhat quiet, they have been playing the role of "European black shop" very stably, and continue to send many first-line players to European football. Some of them are Deco, Carvalho and Pepe. , Anderson (Manchester United), and more recent ones include Hulk, Falcao, Ronaldo, Mangala, J Ma...

In Porto in 2015, their lineup was a bit bleak. Except for Casillas who had just left Real Madrid, only Andre Silva had some fame. Even Waldo couldn't get into the eyes of the European giants.

But... just such a down-and-out Portuguese team has put Valencia, who is fourth in La Liga, into a hard fight!
Although Porto did not pose too much threat to them from the beginning to the end, facing the group bombing of Negredo, Paco, Parejo, and Figuli, Casillas just relied on his own high and low blocks to complete the game. 90 minutes of zero seals!
The 0:0 score was maintained until the last second of regular time, and Lee Polo, who was sitting on the bench, watched the two sides enter a penalty shootout!
After the first 5 rounds, both sides conceded a goal and had to send No.6 penalty shooter.

Porto's Tello relied on his talent from La Masia to fool goalkeeper Matthew Ryan and easily volleyed.

Valencia's Joao Cancelo wanted to throw a "spoon penalty", but he failed to fool the experienced San Cassie and was directly confiscated by the latter!
Cancelo shook his head with his hands on his hips, but he wasn't too frustrated.

It's just a warm-up match, who cares so much about winning or losing? -
Only 48 hours later, the second game started again.

Facing the host team Cologne, Nuno sensibly set up a substitute lineup.

Of course he has a reason for this arrangement. Didn't his main players just finish the first round?

Li Polo unfortunately started the game and became a gift from Nuno to Cologne...

His defense is still fierce and stable, but he can't stop his teammates from being absent-minded, and the lack of coordination of the defense can't stop the fierce offensive of the Cologne team.Before the first half was over, the hosts scored three goals in a row, almost smashing the bat army!
Nuno on the sidelines didn't feel too ashamed, but the players playing on the field were a bit dull. After all... Cologne only ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the Bundesliga last season, while Valencia was He won the No.4 in La Liga upright!

There shouldn't be such a disparity in strength between the two sides!

A reinvigorated Valencia showed a very different mentality in the second half, with Andre Gomes setting up Mina and then Rodrygo, and when he got his third chance from a set piece , he finally successfully connected with Lee Polo and completed his third assist!
3:3, Valencia drew strongly with the hosts!
Since the Cologne team had only 4 points with one win and one tie, they had to be inferior to Porto, which had won two consecutive victories, and won the runner-up of the "Cologne Cup".

With his actual performance, Nuno Santo gave the best gift to his old club that he has played for many years.

Worthy of being Porto's meritorious goalkeeper! -
With the good result of the third place in the Cologne Cup, the Bat Army returned to their base and continued their pre-season preparations.

Probably feeling that such a result might bring down the morale of the team, the club hastily invited Zaragoza from La Liga, hoping to find a soft persimmon to pinch.

It is a pity that even against low-level teams, Nuno's team still did not show outstanding performance. They have long been accustomed to defensive counterattacks and lack means in positional warfare, and they have high hopes. Negredo did not play the role of a "battering ram" at all, but was defeated in repeated physical confrontations.

Faced with the opponent's quick counterattack, Mustafi and Wezzo also looked very embarrassed. The German central defender even made a hasty return pass in the penalty area and almost broke his own goal...

Fortunately, in the end, they relied on the score of 2:1 to win the victory without any risk, which did not make Zaragoza grow more confident.

But the embarrassing thing is that when the game reached the final stage, there was a tidy voice over the Mesitalia Stadium:

"Ruffett! We miss you!"

There were boos in the stadium when the voice was heard, and Nuno Santo's face was even more ugly!
The "Ruffite" in the mouth of the fans is the former sports director who was just pushed away by him!

It is also because of Rufet's dismissal that Nuno was able to hold the two positions of head coach and director by himself, completely grasp the right to speak about the transfer, and become the "one-handed" talker within the team!
Nuno felt aggrieved looking at the excited fans.

[If it wasn't for me to run the army with an iron fist, could the team finish fourth in the league last season? 】

[If it wasn't for my strong persuasion, could Boss Lin spend more than [-] million yuan to buy players? 】

[If it is not relying on my network, where can Singaporean fishmongers buy so many talented players? 】

[They can't even buy the Spaniard Negredo! 】

——Ah, although the price is indeed a bit high, but that can't be helped!

[You can't just let the horse run without giving the horse grass, can you? 】

The Portuguese marshal secretly clenched his fists:

[You narrow-minded Spaniards are simply discriminating against me, a Portuguese! 】

[Just watch, wait until I hit a trophy this season, and then I will slap you in the face! 】

(End of this chapter)