road to victory

Chapter 144 First Defeat
The investment matter was decided so happily, and the Spring Festival passed so simply.Fan Shang did not ask his father to return to the Heavenly Dynasty. Now that the money has been invested, he will go back after holding it until May and June. Once the rice is collected, the company will directly operate it.

There will continue to be league and cup competitions. The French cup competition is also very interesting. The schedule is mainly concentrated in February. In this month, the French Cup and the League Cup will determine the two finalists. The final round will be held in May.

Bordeaux has now entered the quarter-finals in the French Cup and the semi-finals in the League Cup. Together, the two cups will be full and there will be five games.In addition, there are still 13 rounds in the league, and if the UEFA Cup still enters the final, Bordeaux will need to play 2 games in the three months from February to May, and there will be about 5-24 games per month. This intensity is really nothing to say .

Fan Shang has already started to work on the rotation. If the players can't have enough rest to balance work and rest, then the second half of the season will definitely be nothing.

Therefore, except for the League Cup semi-final match against Montpellier, where Vincent played the entire main lineup, in the other two league games and the French Cup, Vincent was a mix of the main force and the substitute, giving every player time for them to rest.

Four wins and one tie in these five games, the tie appeared in the league game against Guingamp.Guingamp was really too rough. He made a lot of moves in Bordeaux in the first round, and now he is even more unscrupulous at home. Vincent can only replace a few main players early to avoid the risk of injury.

The four victories are the League Cup semi-final victory over Montpellier, the French Cup quarter-final victory over Nice, the semi-final victory over the Second Division team Laval, and the victory over Marseille in the league.Let me mention Marseille here. This veteran French giant has fallen at the feet of Bordeaux three times this year.

In this way, Bordeaux perfectly completed the February games. Although almost all of them were against underdogs, consecutive victories in the knockout games were also an incentive for the team.

France's two major cup finals, one in April and one in May.The French League Cup final is on April 4, and Bordeaux's opponent is Strasbourg.The French Cup final is on May 12, and the opponent is the rough style of Guingamp.

If February means that the schedule is dense, then March is a devil schedule for Fan Shang. In the first three weeks of March, there will be three consecutive one-week double matches. Bring a lot of pressure to Bordeaux.

"Bordeaux ushered in the first defeat of the season, and the cruel schedule may cause Bordeaux to continue to slump"

"Although leading in the league, the gap is gradually narrowing." Which media posted it at this time, Fan Shang really admires this reporter, no matter how small the shrinkage is, it will not affect the ranking.

However, their team is still relatively competitive. Under the leadership of the Dutch coach Stevens, the ups and downs in the league are now only two places behind the relegation circle. However, they made it through in the UEFA Cup. The counterattack entered the quarterfinals.Well now, two defensive counterattack teams come together to see if your shield is tough or mine is tough.

The first round of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals at the Garden Stadium in Gelsenkirchen can only be described in four words, and it is good.The two teams have...defense, the word offense is definitely eaten by the two teams.The total number of shots in the game can be calculated by breaking your fingers, and the shots inside the goal frame are all based on set kicks. Almost all open games are not given to the opponent at all. This game is definitely the pinnacle of defense. .

This kind of defensive counterattack is still different from what Vincent used in Bordeaux. Vincent also needs the team to run, but except for a few people, he will not require the whole team to perform this kind of running, and the defensive players of Schalke 04, Almost always running when defending, even the running distance of the central defender is very impressive.

Now both the French Cup and the League Cup have advanced to the finals. In the league, Bordeaux is the best. The gap with No.2 cannot be caught up in three or five games. Only the UEFA Cup is the most difficult now. Go fight game by game.

Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 football club is located in the Schalke area of ​​Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-West** state in western Germany.They had a financial crisis for a period of time before, and it was not relieved until last year, and they achieved a good result of No.3 in the league.The management of Schalke 04 is also quite strange. Generally, clubs choose the league and European competitions mainly in the league, and then attack the European competitions within their capabilities.But Schalke 04 did the opposite this year. The club leadership decided to hit the UEFA Cup on the premise of relegation.Last season's No.3, this season's goal turned out to be relegation...

Of course, in the league weekend, Bordeaux sent all the substitutes. They suffered their first defeat of the season in the away game. They lost 0:1 to Strasbourg in the away game. Vincent didn't care about it at all. Whether he wins or loses a game, his mind is on the champion, and what he needs is a four-line attack to win the championship.

"Bordeaux played all substitutes and lost to Strasbourg. It is suspected that the main lineup suffered a large number of injuries." I will go, this is more editable, can you please take a look at the schedule, this is just giving up the league for the UEFA Cup.Fan Shang suddenly discovered that his decision was similar to that of Schalke 04's wonderful executives.Fan Shang laughed at himself several times in his heart.

Fan Shang didn't really know that the Dutch coach, known for his total defense, played such a slippery defensive counterattack in Schalke.After this game, Fan Shang asked people to collect information and get to know the head coach in depth.He is also a standard Dutch coach. Roda JC, who was in the Netherlands before, was not so conservative.But he is definitely a person who adapts to local conditions. Seeing that Schalke's materials are not suitable for his original tactics, he directly changed to defensive counterattack, and this defensive counterattack is based on unremitting running, almost for German players. tailor-made.

On the first day of March, the whole team assembled and flew to Germany.This time Bordeaux's opponent in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup is the German powerhouse Schalke 04. This time Bordeaux is another guest before the host.

After this game, Vincent saw clearly that the two defensive and counterattacking teams collided, and the most effective way to score is set-pieces. In the next week, the training of set-pieces became Bordeaux's top priority.

In the post-match interviews, the media who had already switched from criticism to praise returned to the old way of black Vincent and Bordeaux, and a game directly changed the direction of the wind.

Before Fan Shang came to Gelsenkirchen, he had already determined his goal. It would be good to get a draw and leave. At worst, he would practice penalty kicks and beat his opponents with penalty shootouts after returning home.

When Vincent returned to Bordeaux the next day, Theo came to the club and decided to have a talk with Vincent.

"Fan Shang, you have also read the media reports, what do you think?" Theo asked Fan Shang
"Louis, can you believe this kind of report?" Fan Shang couldn't understand how Theo would believe the things in these newspapers, "Although I gave up this round of the league, I was preparing for the UEFA Cup. I think that right now The UEFA Cup is much more important than the league. If you look at the reports, our lead in the league is not a little bit, and the win or loss of a game is really not very important."

Theo smiled, "Fan Shang, I know this, I think you and François are not very good at the media." I'm not on good terms with you, and I wonder if you guys need someone to help you deal with the media?"

Fan Shang feels that this matter is not bad, but he also feels that it is not right. Where did you go when the media blackmailed me?It's only coming out in the second half of the season now?
Theo came here this time to install another person in the club. He originally counted on Lao Le, but judging from the first half of the season, he did not play a role in representing himself at all except for making watches. Shang is in trouble with the media, and he plans to assign another media spokesperson to Bordeaux. This will not only ease the relationship between Bordeaux and the media, but also make his own voice heard.

(End of this chapter)