Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

During the half-time break, it was obvious that Juan Ramos was very satisfied with the course of the game and the score. The tactical adjustments he made in the midfield were to avoid injuries and save energy, because the Sevilla derby would be held three nights later, which was also an extremely important game.

So at halftime, Juan Ramos replaced Kanoute with Kepa in advance. Before Fabiano regained his form, the Mali striker was an indispensable machine for destroying cities and taking castles; in addition, he also wanted to focus on cultivating Kepa.

Ten minutes into the second half, Ramos saw that the situation was stable. After Copa missed a through ball from Li Qi, he replaced Li Qi with Maresca and the team changed to 10-4-4-1.

Then in the 70th minute of the game, Navas was replaced by Mati, strengthening the midfield defense while preserving the core winger's strength for the next round of the derby.

However, even though Sevilla strengthened its midfield defense, the tenacious home team still took advantage of a frontcourt free kick in the final moments of the game, with the tall central defender beating Navarro and heading the ball into the goal, scoring a face-saving goal.

In the end, Sevilla won the first UEFA Cup match of the 06/07 season with a score of 3-1 away from home, laying a good foundation for the next home game. It can even be said that they have already advanced halfway to the next round of group matches.

The best player of the game was Kanouté, who scored twice and clocked out at halftime; Kanouté's form since the start of the game was really great.

At the press conference after the game, the home team's head coach lamented the team's regretful loss, but he also praised the strength of the defending UEFA Cup champions and set a flag: "Yes, Sevilla controlled the entire game, and our players worked hard... I hope we will have a wonderful performance in the next round and shock the world!"

Juan Ramos was very low-key. After simply praising the players' efforts, he hastily ended the press conference and returned to the hotel to rest... Yes, because of flight reasons, Sevilla would not be able to return to Seville until the second day of the game.

When Ricardo took the flight back to Seville, he also picked up Chiara at the airport after not seeing her for two weeks...

On the day of arriving in Seville, Juan Ramos gave the whole team a day off and disbanded the team at the airport. After all, the games during this period were too tight. Fortunately, there were not many main players of the national team in the team, otherwise there would be a wave of injuries.

So, under the envious gazes and gnashing jealousy of everyone, Ricardo hugged Chiara, who was dressed in a white dress and looked like a fairy, and got into a taxi back to the apartment to make love with her...

(For the sake of love and harmony, thousands of words are omitted from the process and details of several mountain climbs and summits.)

……

The next day, Ricardo, who had a poor performance due to some leg weakness, had to solemnly promise the head coach that he would have a good rest on Saturday night, control his desires, and that his condition would be explosively good on Sunday...

However, Juan Ramos, who had observed the team's recovery and tactical training, frowned slightly at Ricardo's youthful arrogance: "It seems that this boy needs to learn a lesson. An overly indulgent life has ruined many young talents."

……

2006年9月17日周日晚上20时，06/07赛季西班牙足球甲级联赛第3轮展开7场争夺，其中的焦点战是塞维利亚在主场迎战皇家贝蒂斯的第105场塞维利亚德比战。

Real Betis Balompié is also a football club located in Seville, the capital of Andalusia, Spain. It was founded in 1909 and is one of the nine La Liga teams that have won the La Liga championship.

Although Real Betis has only won the La Liga title once, and that was before World War II, many teams have never won it. Fortunately, Sevilla has also won it, although only once...

In this round, Li Qi started from the bench. He was substituted in the previous game, and Li Qi thought that the coach must want him to save his strength for this derby. Unexpectedly, he and Chiara were too passionate about their reunion, which made the coach unhappy.

But what to do? Young people are full of energy, and now it takes 2-3 weeks to detoxify and relieve internal heat, so every time it must be a thunderstorm...

Just when Li Qi was still thinking about how to solve his problem, the visiting Betis made the first threat in the 7th minute of the game, but Nano's header from 6 yards in front of the goal was slightly off target; the entire Sevilla team and fans broke out in a cold sweat.

Only then did Li Qi come back to his senses and pay attention to the game.

In this game, Juan Ramos fielded a starting lineup mainly composed of Spanish players, still in a 4-4-2 double defensive midfielder formation.

The starting goalkeeper is Palop, the double central defenders are the tough captain Navarro and Osio who made his debut this season, and the double sidebacks are Alves and David.

The double defensive midfielders are Mati and Renato, the right midfielder is Navas, the left midfielder is Puerta; the double forwards are Kanoute and Kepa.

Among the 11 starting players, 8 are of Spanish nationality, and there is only one non-Spanish player in each of the three lines, which truly reflects the extraordinary significance of competing for local fans and honors in the derby.

So after the opening, both sides fought fiercely, the game was carried out vigorously, the offense and defense switched quickly, there was no need for testing, and no conservativeness, both sides had the momentum to beat the other side in one go!

Although Betis was nominally an away team, the away team responded calmly and had several opportunities to take the initiative. If Navarro had not made timely rescues in front of the goal, Betis might have taken the lead in the first 25 minutes of the game.

However, the home team took the real lead in the 26th minute, with Kanoute's powerful shot from 12 yards opening the visiting team's goal, helping Sevilla break the deadlock 1-0. Kanoute really lived up to the expectations of the head coach, and was much more reliable than a certain Italian young talent who had no self-control and did not take care of his body, so I won't mention him by name.

In the past two seasons, the home team won the Seville derby. However, Betis, who was temporarily behind in the score, was unwilling to give up; and launched a wave of offensive climax before the end of the first half.

First, in the 42nd minute, Betis' new player Sobis scored from close range to equalize the score. Then, before the end of the first half, Betis midfielder Rivera's free kick almost reversed the score. Unfortunately, the ball hit the outside of the goal post and bounced out of the bottom line, and Sevilla escaped.

So the two sides exchanged venues with a 1-1 draw and started fighting again in the second half.

At the beginning of the second half, Betis clearly continued the state at the end of the first half, and in the 53rd minute, Sobis scored again with a right-foot shot in the penalty area. The new Brazilian player scored twice and helped Betis come from behind and overtake the score.

Juan Ramos couldn't sit still at this point, as he still had many tricks up his sleeve on the bench! So he called Li Qi, who was warming up during the halftime break, and Duda, who performed well in the previous game, to give them a few words, and in the 56th minute, he made two substitutions.

Li Qi replaced Kepa, who was active in the game but missed many opportunities, and Duda replaced David, who was at a disadvantage in physical strength. However, Puerta retreated to play as left back, while Duda played as left forward, continuing to put pressure on Real Betis' defense.

After the two new players came on the field, they almost immediately helped the home team turn the situation around. The main reason was that Li Qi wanted to prove himself, and the appearance of the other two non-Spanish players brought the team's rhythm and offensive and defensive balance back to a relatively reasonable level, unlike before when they just got the ball and lowered their heads to rush forward. Previously, Sevilla's organization and offense were too simple and direct, which made it easy for Betis to defend and seize the opportunity to counterattack.

Soon, less than 5 minutes after Li Qi came on the court, he made a fatal assist and helped Sevilla equalize the score.

After Sevilla kicked the ball out of the goal, it passed through the midfield and came to Li Qi's feet; Li Qi did not immediately develop into the depth of Betis' defense area, but instead dribbled the ball back and passed to the midfield again, because Betis' backcourt defense was too dense, and the core defensive area had already been defended, and there was no space to rush forward.

So Li Qi decided to pass the ball back to attract Betis's midfielder to rush out... Sure enough, Li Qi's pass back made Betis's midfielder combination move forward about 10 meters, which left about 3 meters of space in Betis's originally tightly closed defense zone 10.

Renato passed the ball to Alves, who then made a strong low pass to Li Qi who was in the gap. Li Qi received the ball and turned around deftly. At this time, neither the Betis midfielder nor the defender came up immediately, because the defender thought that this area belonged to the midfielder, and the midfielder thought it was the defender's responsibility to defend the striker.

So Li Qi pretended to play a wall pass with Alves who was inserted in the back row, shook the center of gravity of the back midfielder and the defender again, and actually dribbled the ball to the top of the penalty area, and made a gesture as if he was ready to take a long shot at any time. Indeed, the position, angle and space were very good...

But Li Qi actually made a fake shot and passed the ball to the defender who was flying towards him after the explosive moment. Kanoute, who had successfully countered the offside, made a diagonal run and shot the ball into the far corner before the goalkeeper could attack!

So Kanoute also scored twice to help Sevilla equalize the score! 2-2, the two sides are back to the same starting line.

Sevilla, who equalized the score, was in high spirits and seemed to have found the winning code in an instant. They began to pass the ball and cut around Li Qi, hoping to score the second goal again. But obviously Betis also found the problem. The defensive midfielder no longer rushed forward blindly, and always left one person to fill the position in front of the central defender to prevent Li Qi from taking advantage of the opportunity again.

But a few minutes later, Li Qi came up with a new trick. If the mouse doesn't come out of the hole, it will take the initiative to give you a chance to come out of the hole. Li Qi kept pulling the ball to the side of the visiting team's penalty area and the 45-degree angle, cooperating with Navas or Duda, as well as Alves and Puerta to form a local numerical advantage on the wing.

Attract the opponent's defender or defensive midfielder to the side to make up for the position. Once they leave the middle and leave a gap, Li Qi will cut back to the middle and attack Betis's penalty area directly. If Betis stubbornly refuses to make up for the position on the side, or hesitates for a moment, Li Qi can calmly kick a cross from the side of the penalty area, taking advantage of Kanoute's high point...

In the 68th minute, the Mali international got another golden opportunity. Li Qi cooperated with Alves on the wing, and Alves took away the full-back. Li Qi, who held the ball but did not pass it to Alves, was suddenly empty without any defensive players interfering.

So Li Qi calmly turned around, took aim, and then kicked a curved cross. The ball accurately found Kanoute who was lurking at the far end of the small penalty area... Unfortunately, Kanoute's header hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line, missing the chance to perform a hat trick.

However, it can be seen that after Li Qi came on the court, Sevilla not only suppressed Betis' counterattack, but also exerted stronger pressure on Betis in the second half. However, the efforts and patience of the White Army finally paid off in the 86th minute.

Li Qi followed suit again, but this time he switched to the right and cooperated with Puerta to send a 45-degree cross. Kanoute also learned his lesson this time, knowing that it would be difficult to score in the penalty area due to interference from the opponent's defender, so he headed the ball back from the far end of the small penalty area...

Brazilian midfielder Renato rushed over, met the ball at the edge of the penalty area and shot it, and the ball went along the grass like an eagle and flew into the lower right corner of the visiting team's goal... Renato scored with a powerful shot before the end of the game, helping the team to overtake the score!

In the end, Sevilla beat their city rivals Real Betis 3-2. Having won the UEFA Cup last season and defeated two La Liga giants, Sevilla has shown their great potential this season, and this victory also allowed them to continue to lead the 3/06 La Liga standings with three consecutive wins.

At the post-match press conference, the visiting team's head coach expressed regret for almost winning the derby, and also complimented the home team on its recent flourishing form and enviable lineup depth.

Juan Ramos praised Kanoute's recent amazing performance of scoring goals while showing the efforts of the whole team. He also revealed that arranging Li Qi to play in the second half was a special tactical adjustment...

……

But in fact, Ricardo also understood that this was a warning from his boss. He had to adjust his schedule and not let his suppressed desires explode all at once...

So on the way home, the scumbag returned to the underground parking lot of the rented apartment while thinking about how to adjust the pressure of life and relieve the youthful impulses during the week and weekends when Chiara was not around.

There were few people in the underground parking lot near midnight. There were only rows of cars parked neatly in the parking spaces, waiting for their turn. The lights in the parking lot were not very bright. Only when Ricardo's car reversed into the garage would the voice-activated chandelier at the corresponding position light up to provide illumination...

The only exception is the access control area leading to the elevator from the parking lot, where the night light is always on to make it easier for residents returning home at night to find the access control key.

"Huh? A young lady sitting next to the door like this? Is she drunk?"

When Ricardo walked into the elevator access control, he saw a white-collar beauty wearing a white silk shirt, a black one-line skirt, flesh-colored stockings and silver-gray high-heeled shoes; she should be around 30 years old, with a mature but not exaggerated professional makeup of mainly dark red lipstick that was a little flowery, and she seemed to be drunk and not quite sober, sitting on the ground with her back against the access control iron door.

A classic LV shoulder bag was hanging not far from her hand, with keychains, sanitary napkins, and makeup boxes scattered around the bag...

"Shit, is that true? I actually have a chance to pick up a corpse in the parking lot below my own apartment building?"

"It's like pie in the sky, my wish has come true... Oh no, it's time to test my good neighbor."

"You can drive back home when you're this drunk? Is there a Didi price these days? Oh no, it's an Uber price..."

Many questions came to his mind, but old Li Qi's experience reminded Ricardo to look up and see if the camera surveillance was working properly...

"Huh? The camera surveillance light is on, but why hasn't the security guard come to help yet?"

"Should I wait here? She's blocking the door..."

……