From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 747: The Battle for First Place

After Manchester United defeated Newcastle in an away game and won eight consecutive league games at the start of the season, international football entered the second national team match day of the new season. Bruno also returned to the Portuguese national team to compete in the group stage of the European Cup next year.

On the evening of October 10, the Portugal national team played against Luxembourg at home.

In Bruno's impression, Luxembourg is a country that cannot be any smaller, with an area of ​​less than 2600 square kilometers, which is only equivalent to an ordinary county in China. The population is more than 60, which is also only equivalent to the level of an ordinary county in China.

However, such a small country is a highly developed capitalist country, with a small country and rich people, and its per capita GDP has ranked among the top three in the world for many years. Both China and Portugal are far behind Luxembourg in this data.

As for football, Luxembourg is also a well-known bottom-ranked team in the world football arena.

综观卢森堡过去的战绩，可以用两只手就数完他们的胜场，被称作红狮军团的卢森堡从1934年以来在世界杯预选赛的142场比赛仅取得8胜，另外134场的战绩是10平124负。在1964年欧洲杯开办以来的资格赛同样坎坷，在117场比赛中只有8场胜利，其余109场比赛11平98负。

This number of wins is not even as good as the biggest number of goals conceded in a single game in the history of the national team (0:10).

For Luxembourg, it is a rare thing to draw with the opponent in an official match. It is truly the weakest team in Europe.

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This is the 16th time that Portugal and Luxembourg have met in history. Previously, Portugal had 13 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Luxembourg's only victory was in 1961, 58 years ago. Not to mention Bruno, even his parents were not born at that time.

What surprised Bruno a little was that Luxembourg was not the worst team in the group, nor the lowest in the group. They defeated another weak team, Lithuania, in the first round of the group stage and won a victory. They are currently ranked second from the bottom in the group.

Their current world ranking is 93rd, which is higher than Lithuania's 131st.

However, even so, Bruno still did not have much interest in facing Luxembourg. Although he started and played the whole game, he hardly participated in the team's offense, but only played the role of the offensive and defensive hub in the midfield, using passes to organize Portugal's offense.

Apart from Bruno, other Portuguese players also have little interest in giving their all in the game.

But even so, Portugal still won a 3-0 victory at home. Bernardo Silva, Ronaldo and Guedes each scored a goal. Bruno assisted Guedes, who came on as a substitute, by taking a corner kick and scoring a goal, providing an assist.

However, three days later, Bruno and Portugal encountered a tough battle.

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On the evening of October 10, the Portuguese national team visited the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv to challenge Ukraine.

In the current group standings, both teams have 15 points, but Portugal has one game less and is ranked first in the group with the advantage of goal difference over Ukraine.

Since Serbia, ranked third in the group, currently has only 6 points, and Serbia is at a disadvantage in the matches against Portugal and Ukraine, and its goal difference is much less than the two teams, the top two places in this group are basically determined. Serbia can basically only compete with Luxembourg for the third place in the group and participate in the play-offs.

In fact, as long as Portugal and Ukraine draw 0:0 in this game, the two teams can advance together.

However, in the match at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv, both sides fought very fiercely, with no sign of playing in tacit agreement at all.

Santos was well prepared for this match.

Three days ago, in the match against Luxembourg, he made rotations to conserve his energy and fully prepare for the tough battle with Ukraine.

Both sides have made sufficient preparations for this game. Santos rotated their players in the match against Luxembourg and kept their main players for this match. Ukraine sent out all its main players. Shevchenko arranged a 4141 formation. The goalkeeper was Piatov, the central defenders were a combination of Matveenko and Krivtsov, the right back was Karavayev, the left back was Mykolenko, the single defensive midfielder was Stepanlenko, the midfielders were Malinovskyi, Maltos, Zinchenko and Yarmolenko, and the single forward was Yarimchuk.

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The competition is very fierce. It can be said that both sides are fighting for every inch of ground, and scenes of people falling on their backs appear from time to time.

In the first half of the game, Guedes of Portugal was injured by a tackle and had to be replaced by Felix.

Portugal quickly retaliated, as Martos was injured and replaced by Konoplyanka.

Ukraine, determined to take revenge, was in pretty good shape. They scored the first goal in the first half. Stepanlenko made a diagonal pass into the penalty area, Krivtsov's header from the edge of the small penalty area was barely saved, and Yaremchuk made a close-range shot into the net.

The score in the first half was 1:0, with the home team Ukraine leading.

The entire halftime was filled with roars of excitement at the Kyiv Olympic Stadium, with Ukrainian fans very satisfied with the first half. However, less than five minutes into the second half, Portugal equalized the score.

This was a free kick opportunity for Portugal in the frontcourt. Bruno and Bernardo Silva stood in front of the football. Bruno took a run-up and pretended to shoot directly, but he ran past the football. Bernardo Silva followed up and hoisted the football into the penalty area. Ronaldo jumped high in the penalty area and headed the ball over Krivtsov to equalize the score for Portugal.

However, in the 71st minute of the game, Ukraine once again took the lead.

Mykolenko made a cross from the left, and Yarmolenko, who was unguarded, pushed the ball into the net from 10 yards. For this ball, Portuguese goalkeeper Patricio had no way to deal with it. 2:1, the home team Ukraine took the lead.

There was a deafening cheer at the Kiev Olympic Stadium.

Ukrainian fans seemed to want to vent all their frustration at being defeated 3:0 by Portugal in the first round of the group stage.

The entire Kiev Olympic Stadium was shaking as if there was an earthquake.

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The live camera gave a close-up of Santos. The Portuguese head coach had a gloomy expression and it was obvious that the unfavorable situation on the field made him in a bad mood.

"It looks like Portugal's situation is not good today. Perhaps their unbeaten streak will be broken today." Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray said in the commentary booth.

"Ukraine played very well today and Santos and Portugal were in big trouble," said Martin Taylor.

Santos couldn't hear what the commentator said, and even if he did, he wouldn't pay much attention to it. What he cared about was definitely not the fact that his undefeated streak was broken. What he was thinking about was how to turn the tables and win the game!

Although they are behind in the score now, Santos' goal is not to equalize the score, but to win.

Yes, Santos doesn't care about his undefeated record. He just wants to win the game. He doesn't care about false reputation.

Santos was considering a countermeasure. At this time, on the field, Ukraine's full-back Karavayev was at a disadvantage in speed when facing Bruno's dribbling breakthrough. Seeing that he could not catch up with Bruno, he reached out and pulled the opponent down.

Santos' eyes lit up and he had an idea.

"Let Bruma warm up." Santos said to his assistant Val.

The latter was obviously stunned for a moment, then looked at Santos in surprise. After getting confirmation, he hurried to inform Bruma to warm up.

"We still have time, we can't give up the game." Val advised during Bruma's warm-up.

"Who said I was going to give up the game?" Santos asked.

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Born in late October 1994, Bruma's real name is Armindo Touré na Bonya, nicknamed Bruma. In fact, he is not young at all, and will celebrate his 10th birthday in 10 days.

Moreover, Bruma became famous very early. He played in the 2013 Toulon Tournament and the Turkey World Youth Championship with Bruno, and performed very well. He was one of the heroes of the Portugal national youth team's winning the 2013 Toulon Tournament and the World Youth Championship. As a result, he was favored by the Turkish Super League giants Galatasaray and joined Galatasaray in the summer of 2013 for a sky-high price of 1300 million euros.

However, after starting professional football, Bruma's development has not been very smooth. In the past six years, he has moved to many teams including Galatasaray, Real Sociedad, RB Leipzig and PSV Eindhoven, but he has not been considered the absolute main force of the team.

In the group stage of last year's UEFA Nations League, Bruma finally made his debut for the Portugal national team. He made three appearances throughout the UEFA Nations League, but had no goals or assists, and his performance was very mediocre.

In this European Cup qualifiers, Bruma was selected again, but he never got a chance to play and can only be regarded as a marginal international player of the Portugal national team.

It is precisely because of this that when Val learned that Santos was planning to send Bruma to play, he thought that Santos was planning to give up the game.

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While Bruma was warming up on the sidelines, Santos also made adjustments to the lineup.

Bernardo Silva's position was moved to the front line, forming a double striker with Ronaldo, while Bruno moved to the right midfielder position and Felix went to the left.

The double striker configuration soon took effect. Ronaldo played a fulcrum role in the frontcourt. With his involvement, Bernardo Silva gained more space on the front line.

At the same time, Bernardo Silva's movement also helped Ronaldo attract the opponent's defensive attention.

In addition, Felix has also become active on the left, and with the addition of Guerrero, who has a strong assist ability, Portugal's offense can now be said to be seriously tilted to the left.

The pressure on Ukraine's right-back Karavayev suddenly increased, forcing other Ukrainian players to come over to support the defense, which directly caused Ukraine's defense line to be forced to tilt to one side.