Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 507 Mystery
Benfica.

The full name of this team is Lisbon and Benfica Sports Club (Sport Lisboa e Benfica, referred to as SL Benfica), which is a comprehensive sports club located in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, with football as its main sport.

The club was founded on February 1904, 2, formerly known as "Sport Lisboa", and merged with "Grupo Sport Benfica" in 28 and renamed "Lisbon and Benfica Sports Club".

In the field of football, Benfica is the number one giant in Portugal. It is difficult to shake, mainly because the honors achieved by Benfica in history are too brilliant.

Compared with the embarrassing results of other fringe league clubs in Europe, Benfica is different. In history, they are the second club to win the European Champions Cup, and they have also reached the Champions League final seven times. This data is second only to Real Madrid and AC. Milan and Bayern Munich.

In their own league, Benfica is even more brilliant. They have won 31 Portuguese top league championships, 26 domestic Portuguese Cup championships, and they are also frequent visitors to win trophies in various other competitions.

If this does not prove that Benfica is the most brilliant club in Portugal, then another statistic will definitely prove it——
Benfica has the largest number of fans in Portugal!

According to statistics released on November 2005, 11, the number of paid members of Benfica reached a staggering 10 people. This data is not only the most in Portugal, but also the club with the most paid members in the world. Real Madrid , Barcelona, ​​Manchester United and DC are all incomparable, and with this, Benfica was also included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Of course, these are not what we care about, what we care about is the strength of Benfica.

The strength of such a luxury club is worthy of recognition, but since the 20s, due to the failure of the Benfica club's efforts and the lack of prudence in spending money in the club's transfer market, the club has continued to experience crises since then, with many records. times down. In the early 80s, the domestic performance was not bad, and he won the championship several times in a row, but he did nothing in the European arena. From the mid-20s to the beginning of the 90st century, he missed the championship for eight consecutive years, and even ranked sixth in the 20~90 season!

This result is indeed too bad for one of the most dazzling clubs in the world. Fortunately, in the 2004/05 season, the club began to recover under the leadership of the new chairman and won the first league championship in the new century. The famous coach Ronald Koeman was also invited as the coach, hoping to maintain prosperity for a long time!

In this way, the team's performance has recovered. Many Benfica fans hope that the team can rebuild its past glory.

And Benfica has not let the fans down this season. They have passed the test one after another, directly eliminated Barcelona in the European Champions Cup and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.

This result satisfied the fans. They now hope that the team can go to the next level and win a Champions League trophy and bring it back to Portugal. This is the pinnacle of Benfica's glory.

In fact, although Benfica's performance in the Champions League is very good, but in the league this season, the team led by Koeman only ranked No.3 in the league. Such a result obviously does not satisfy the fans. However, Now the team is working hard to compete for the European championship trophy, and Koeman's position is still stable. If he wants to stay in Benfica, he will definitely get the tickets for the European Champions Cup final. In this way, he can make up for Benfica's performance in the league lack of.

If he cannot enter the Champions League final, Koeman can only submit his resignation to the club with the poor third place in the league.

Therefore, this contest with Real Madrid is very important for both Benfica Club and Ronald Koeman himself. Of course, this also applies to Real Madrid and Carlo.

Perhaps the experiences of Carlo and Koeman are somewhat similar now. They are both working hard to find ways to win and eliminate their opponents so that they can continue to coach the team. But in this case, there can only be one winner between the two. In this way, trampling the corpse of the opponent to the top, every successful person does this.

In the analysis of the media before the game, there is still a good evaluation of the Benfica team's forward line.

In the current Benfica team, the two absolute main players in the forward line are Gomez and Simao. One of these two players is 30 years old and the other is 27 years old. It seems that the forward line is a bit aging, but the strength of these two players There is no doubt about it.

Now, the whole of Portugal knows that the country's golden boy is Cristiano Ronaldo, who played for the Manchester United team and has proved his talent and strength with his performance, but in fact, five years ago, this title belonged to Nuno Gomez's, the 'golden boy' of the same era as Raúl.

At the age of 21, Gomez was snatched by Benfica, and he began to prove that he was worth his money by scoring goals. Under the leadership of the famous coach Heynckes, Gomez quickly became a Benfica As early as before the 2000 UEFA Champions League, Gomez had scored 95 goals in 58 games and became Benfica's well-deserved top scorer.

Many people think that the era of Gomez has passed, but in fact, after entering the 21st century, Gomez's performance is still strong, and he continues to prove his state with goals, even though he is now 30 years old, But Benfica still has him as a main force, just because of his outstanding performance and stability.

Such an outstanding striker, no wonder the media will evaluate him as 'a shooter who can threaten Real Madrid's goal'.

Another main striker of Benfica is the current captain of the team, and a more threatening striker than the current Gomez, that is Simao Sabrosa.

Simão is the cradle of famous talent - a striker produced by the Sporting Lisbon youth academy. After being promoted to the first team, when he came off the bench in his Portuguese top league debut, he scored a goal in 1 minute. This is absolutely true. It is a beautiful picture worth recalling many times.

After three years with Sporting Lisbon, Simão caught the attention of La Liga giants Barcelona with his first 30 appearances and 10 goals in his final season.At that time, Barcelona was also looking for a wing position that could make up for Figo's departure. Simao, who also had a strong wing breakthrough ability and free kick skills, was the "Figo II" they were looking for.

So, in the summer of 1999, Simao joined Barcelona, ​​Spain with a transfer fee of 1500 million euros, but this became the beginning of Simao being submerged. The state of Simao in Barcelona was ups and downs. 46 goals scored.Perhaps it was because the light of his predecessor was too strong, Simao has always lived in the shadow of Figo and has not really integrated into the team.
It was not until 2001 that Simao returned to Portugal again, joining Sporting Lisbon's city rivals Benfica.

Simão became a fan favorite at Benfica club and he was quickly captained by the Eagles.In the next few years, Simao performed well in Benfica. He played 191 times in the league and cup and scored 88 goals. In the last few seasons, Simao has been the top scorer of Benfica every season.Simao is also considered to be the best player of the Benfica club in these years and one of the best players in the Portuguese Super League.

It is worth mentioning that he has also written two books and published DVDs teaching children how to play football.

Such a striker, of course, deserves the attention of the Spanish media. They also continue to make suggestions for Real Madrid's defense of Simão, and even "Marca" said, "Sião is the most worthy of attention. We should focus on him, so that Real Madrid's defense is basically worry-free', it seems that they attach more importance to Simao than all other players in Benfica combined.

Clearly, none of these reports made sense to Carlo.

Benfica's striker is very strong, the media knows this, and of course he also knows that Carlo is doing work for Real Madrid's defensive tactics at this time. In fact, this work has been done almost since Carlo accepted Real Madrid Yes, Real Madrid's striker doesn't have to worry about it at all, but the defense... can be said to be a mess.

And yesterday, the team captain Pavon was injured again during training, which made Carlo scratch his head even more. Such a defensive general is very important to Real Madrid's defense, and now Real Madrid's main defense line, Except for Carlos, almost all of them are newcomers, which really makes Carlo worry.

At the same time, Ronald Koeman in Lisbon was scratching his head even more than Carlo.

Real Madrid is worried about the defense, and Benfica is even more worried. Speaking of which, if you compare the defense of Real Madrid and Benfica, Benfica is definitely better. Although their players may not be as expensive and famous as Real Madrid's players, but football The real strength of the competition team does not depend on this.

Almost all of the four main players in Benfica's defense are Portuguese internationals who have played for Benfica for more than 4 seasons. Not only their personal skills, but also their cooperation is very tacit. In contrast, Real Madrid's defense Ramos, Cicinho Although the two are very famous and worth a lot, they are still young after all, and there are many commercial factors in their worth. Although the two are very strong in personal ability, but comparing the defenses of the two sides, Benfica's defense Osides, Louison, Anderson plus Leon and Ricardo Rocha, the gap is really not small.

On this point, in the last Champions League match, Barcelona and Benfica failed to score a goal, which can prove something.

But despite this, coach Ronald Koeman is still worried about the team's defense, just because Real Madrid's offense is too strong.

Koeman didn't even need to analyze carefully to know that Real Madrid's striker starters must be Wang Li and Robinho. The partners of these two players have become an excellent combination for Real Madrid, and Ronaldo and Raul are also very good. The two veterans can only be their substitutes now.

But so what?

How to defend that black-haired kid, how to restrain Real Madrid's offense?This is the most headache for Coman, because he can't think of a way.

According to the practices of other teams, such as Chelsea, their approach is to defend. Only a large-scale defense can restrain Real Madrid's offense. It proves that such an approach does have some effect, at least Real Madrid scored the fewest goals in the game against Chelsea, and if Chelsea really defends with all their strength, it is not impossible to keep the goal for 90 minutes.

However, football is a scoring sport, not a defensive sport. If you are all defending, how can you win?

If you want to win, you still have to attack! !
There seems to be no doubt about it.

After scratching his head for a few days, Koeman felt that the team's hope of victory was really low. Although he was very confident in the team's strength, he was more confident in Real Madrid's strength.

Use offense to let the team score more goals than Real Madrid? ——Barcelona's 8:0 has proved that this method is completely unworkable. Barcelona can't score more goals than Real Madrid. Can Benfica do it?Obviously, the answer is no.

After trying to score a goal, play a defensive counterattack? ——It seems that this approach is really good, but is it really okay?Can Benfica hold on?And can the team really take the lead in leading the score?

Koeman didn't know, but he knew that if the team didn't score in the first wave of offense, then the possibility of Real Madrid taking the lead was too great. After all, their black-haired kid was too strong! !
So, what to do now? ?

Many thoughts are lingering in Koeman's mind. He really doesn't know how the team should play in order to have hope of victory.

Perhaps, the players of the team are full of confidence, or perhaps according to the evaluation of the Portuguese media, Benfica may still win. After all, they have already eliminated a Barcelona, ​​but as a head coach and after careful research, Koeman knows that as long as Real Madrid's dark-haired kid plays, then Benfica's chances of winning are too small, too small.

After all, even without that black-haired boy, Benfica still has a gap with Real Madrid in strength, and now, this gap is no longer negotiable. Two asymmetrical opponents are competing, and the hope of their own victory is slim.

"If we can draw with them, it would be great to directly fight for a penalty shootout." After thinking hard, this idea suddenly appeared in Koeman's mind.

And this thought, like the dawn in the darkness, immediately illuminated Coman's thinking path.

"tie!?"

Coman thought carefully, trying to seize this ray of dawn to find a countermeasure. Finally, after more than an hour, he gritted his teeth and strengthened his mind.

"Then try it like this." It seems that Koeman made this decision with great determination.

On this day, Real Madrid's special plane arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.

At Lisbon's international airport, many, many reporters and fans were waiting there to welcome the arrival of Real Madrid. When the players walked out of the cabin, many reporters scrambled to come forward to interview, and the surrounding fans also shouted for the Real Madrid players name.

These are not local fans of Real Madrid, they are all local fans of Portugal.

If someone sees this scene, they will definitely feel that there are so many fans in Real Madrid. There are so many loyal fans even in Portugal. But in fact, these fans are all local fans in Lisbon. How can they like Madrid, Spain? Real Madrid?
But this time, the reason why so many fans came to pick up the plane was because they were all fans of Sporting Lisbon. Sporting Lisbon and Benfica have been rivals in the same city for hundreds of years. The relationship between them is like that of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Any chance of reconciliation, privately these fans are the same with each other.

Now, Real Madrid has become Benfica's opponent. Sporting Lisbon, which has ended the European competition this season, certainly does not want to see any good results from its rivals in the same city, so this time, they are all cheering for Real Madrid.

Sporting Lisbon fans hope Real Madrid can 'teach' Benfica a lesson and send them straight out.

In this way, they have reason to gloat.

After arriving in Lisbon, Real Madrid spent the afternoon doing some simple training in a fixed venue. After that, the team returned to the hotel as a whole to rest and prepare for tomorrow's game.

The first round of the competition is very important. For Real Madrid, this is an away game. Carlo hopes that the team can play normally in tomorrow's game. As long as they can score 1,2 or [-] away goals, then The next match at the Bernabeu will be much easier.

As for the defense, although Carlo tried his best to strengthen it, but a clever woman can't do anything about it. He doesn't have many ways to deal with Real Madrid's defense, so he just hopes that the team can score more goals than their opponents.

"I hope so."

On the court the next day, Carlo watched Real Madrid's training with emotion during warm-up training.

However, a few hours later, when the two teams were already standing on the court at the same time and preparing to kick off, Carlo no longer worried about the team's defense——
Because the Benfica team did not send Simao to start the game at all, and the striker only had the symbolic Gomez alone.

"What kind of mystery is he playing?" Carlo looked at the Benfica coach's bench on the right side with a puzzled expression on his face.

(End of this chapter)