Born to be a coach [soccer]

Chapter 215

In this way, when Sunderland flew to Lisbon to prepare for the second round of the Europa League knockout round, news broke out in England and Portugal at the same time: because of a hamstring injury, Ibrahimovic may not be able to participate in the second round of Sunderland against Benfica Contest.

As soon as the news came out, Sunderland fans were in a hurry.However, Benfica fans all feel like they have survived the catastrophe. After all, last time Ibrahimovic's "blind kick also scored" the first goal scared the entire Benfica team and even the fans.Now that the opponent's general cannot play, Benfica's hope of "coming back against the wind" and advancing suddenly became clear again.

But Benfica fans are embarrassed to gloat, because the [-] fans who visited Sunderland last time got selfless help from the opposing fans in Sunderland.They were all housed in Sunderland's "Fans House" for free, spent that unforgettable snowy night, and returned to Lisbon in batches the next day. #Everything for Bright Stadium# This label still makes these fans never forget.

They relayed the experience to their respective fan groups:

"We are really convinced of the opponent's organizational ability. With such a heavy snow, we all wanted to spend the night in the stadium. As a result, everyone was settled within a few hours."

"People from the club's senior management to the head coach are all involved in this matter. I saw with my own eyes that the head coach of Sunderland stayed in the stadium before the fans left... Our head coach has already run away .”

"By the way, we actually saw that...virtual reality football simulator in Sunderland!"

"Yes, yes, I logged in for 5 minutes and kicked a few kicks in it. The feeling of playing football is exactly the same as myself! Although I am just a waste material."

"I heard that a buddy went to try on the head coach's glasses by himself..."

"Yes, yes, we saw this when we were watching live TV. I really envy that buddy..."

"What's there to envy? It looks exactly like ordinary glasses in his hand. It was windy and snowy. That buddy spent the whole game cleaning his glasses. It is said that those people outside the field saw the pair. The screen projection of the glasses..."

For these reasons, Benfica fans have been thinking about how to entertain Sunderland fans from afar.

When crowds of Sunderland fans came to Lisbon's "Stadium of Light", Benfica fans also hung a banner at the airport: "#Everything for the Stadium of Light#, welcome my friend!"

The temperature in Lisbon was not too high that day, it had not yet reached 20 degrees, so Benfica fans felt sorry that they did not let the English fully see the warmth of Portugal-but Sunderland fans saw the sun and saw their mothers Similar: In February, double-digit temperatures... This is simply unimaginable.

Benfica fans have prepared a great gift for Sunderland fans: Sunderland fans who come to the Stadium of Light in Lisbon can visit Benfica's team history exhibition hall and Eusebio's statue for free as long as they have a ticket. Portugal fans provide professional tour guide services.

Sunderland fans took a look: "Benfica has indeed performed well in the European battlefield, but why are the champions all before the 60s!"

Benfica fans: "Isn't it all due to the curse of "Gutman"?"

Sunderland fans: "...Awesome, we have never cursed or won the European championship!"

Benfica fans: ...

In the end, the fans of both sides made a decision together: no matter which team can advance tonight, the club that advances must continue to use the hashtag of #任何为光明场#, after all, it represents the honor of the "Bright Stadium".

Soon, the starting rosters of both sides were announced: Ibrahimovic's name appeared on the bench, not as reported by the media in advance, and he was completely unable to play.

But Benfica also let out a long sigh of relief-as long as Ibrahimovic does not start, the pressure on their shoulders will be much less.

Lisbon, Stadium of Light.

Sunderland played away against Benfica in the second leg of the Europa League round of [-].

Before the start of the game, Sunderland's players ran to the field to warm up - night had fallen, and the warmth brought by the sun during the day was fading away bit by bit.But both the Sunderland players and the fans felt unusually warm, which couldn't be compared with the cold and long winter night in England.

In the stands, there was also a group of Benfica fans, wearing glasses similar to Anton's, sitting on the sidelines.At the beginning, Sunderland fans had every reason to suspect that these people were wearing glasses to mock Anton, and whistled and booed together.

Unexpectedly, it didn't take long for these Benfica fans to play the banner of "Bernard recovers soon".Some Sunderland fans went over to ask, only to know that these fans are also game fans and Bernard fans.

One of the fans happened to be the owner of the largest glasses shop in Lisbon. Recently, a friend of his suddenly gave him a huge balloon in the shape of glasses.The boss thought it was very strange. After all, ordinary people seldom order balloons into the shape of glasses, so he went to inquire and heard that a Benfica fan used this to Sunderland to mock Anton. People are persuaded.

The owner of the optical shop thought to himself: No way!We used balloons to sarcasm first, and others repay grievances with kindness, and then give a helping hand. Now that they come to our own land, we can't just pinch our noses and pretend that this never happened.

He immediately sponsored a pair of frame glasses for each of the game fans he knew, and everyone went to watch the game together.

That's why there is such a "spectacles group", which looks quite neat from a distance. Coupled with the slogans and flags specially prepared for Bernard, Benfica fans thought: The grievances in the first round should be enough, right?

Looking at it again, it turns out that the Sunderland fans stopped booing and waved in a friendly way: In the eyes of Sunderland people, as long as they support Anton and his family, they are Sunderland. Lan's own people.

For this reason, the smell of gunpowder before the Stadium of Light was not too heavy.But the tension in the warm atmosphere reached its climax when the captains of the two sides exchanged team flags and guessed coins to choose the venue-this is a knockout match!The winner will advance to the next round of [-] finals, while the loser will stop here and bid farewell to the European competition.

Anton's team holds two balls in their hands, which is not a small advantage, but it is not very stable.If the opponent scores 2-0 in this game, the two sides will have extra time or even a penalty shootout, but as long as Sunderland can score an away goal, then unless Benfica can win by three goals or more, If only two wins, Sunderland can advance with the advantage of more away goals.

For this reason, Benfica coach Jesús and the coaching staff watched almost all Sunderland game videos within a year before the game, and made targeted arrangements for his team, not only strengthening the offensive end, but also I want to keep the goal clean and prevent Sunderland from scoring away goals.It is definitely good news for Benfica that Ibrahimovic did not start.

Soon the game will start.

Benfica sits at home, and with the support of tens of thousands of home team fans, the opening game was very aggressive and the scene was very oppressive. At one point, all Sunderland players were defended in their own half, looking extremely passive.

Ibrahimovic was sitting on the bench on the sidelines at this time, and seemed very dissatisfied with his team's blindly defending; the rebroadcast camera happened to capture his contemptuous expression, and immediately gave a close-up.

But this is actually a lesson that Sunderland learned from when they lost to Getafe in the Europa League group stage.Southern European players have good footwork and enthusiastic fans. They often put on a posture of "Mars hitting the earth" at the beginning of the game.If Sunderland hadn't withstood this stormy offensive at the beginning, or had rushed to fight against the opponent, they would often look at the head and ignore the tail, and the defense line was prone to fatal mistakes.

Sure enough, Sunderland survived the first 10 minutes, and finally gradually slowed down. The ball possession rate increased visibly to the naked eye.

Ibrahimovic's expression looked a little better at this time, sitting on the bench, holding his left leg and knee with his hands, his whole body fell backwards, but he was still concentrating on watching the players on the field.

If someone who is very familiar with Ibrahimovic is here, they will inevitably ask: When did Ibrahimovic care so much about the performance of his teammates?

But for Ibrahimovic, Ibrahimovic generally cares about anyone who is eligible to join his "friend list".

I don't know if Royce performed too well in the last round. In this game, Royce received the "key" care of Benfica, and was often double-teamed and blocked during the breakthrough process.The opposing players were very cautious and did not commit major fouls, but various small moves continued.Royce was a little unbearable, and often passed the ball as accurately as possible to his teammates as soon as he got the ball.Even so, he still created two good opportunities, one of which was a direct free kick in the frontcourt.

Ibrahimovic watched anxiously from the sidelines. Seeing that Anton had been staying in the front command area, he went to Russell: "Let me go, I have to score the ball for Marco!"

Russell stared at the cowbell, thinking: Feelings, you want to play just to score the ball for Royce? ... Why can't the realm of thought be raised a little higher?

It is still far from the time for substitutions, and Ibrahimovic's request was naturally rejected by Russell.

In the 35th minute of the game, Benfica scored a goal.

The ball did look like a mistake by Sunderland - Sunderland took an offside tactic at the time, but Hummels, one of the central defenders, was slightly behind. The Benfica striker only crossed when his teammates passed the ball Hummels was about one shoulder away, and the lineman who enforced the law did not call Benfica for offside.But Pickford was unlucky. He had already touched the ball when the opponent shot, but the opponent's kick was too strong. Even if Pickford touched it, he could not stop the ball from flying into his goal.

Pickford naturally punched the ground three times in accordance with his old habits, angry that he was not good at learning.

Garner and Henderson went to the referee to protest together, pointing out that the opponent was offside just now.But the referee did not intend to change the sentence at all.

On the side bench, Ibrahimovic directly found Anton who had already sat back on the coach's bench at this time:

"Head coach, change me quickly, let me go!"

With that posture, if Anton doesn't replace him immediately, he will die in a hurry.

The author has something to say: the agreed-upon addition will be delivered.