Chapter 117: European Cup Draw! Enemies Meet!
Seeing this scene, Mourinho showed a strange smile, while Joao frowned.
Roma's team doctor rushed into the field and gave Zaniolo a preliminary examination.
Zaniolo is only 22 years old, but he has suffered serious injuries to the cruciate ligaments in both his left and right knees. Roma has kept him out of the game for more than a year.
It was not easy for him to return to the game in good health this season. Mourinho also regards him as an important attacking point in the frontcourt. If he suffers a serious injury again at this time, it will undoubtedly have a huge negative impact on this season.
The team doctor on the field used a strap to fix Zaniolo's shoulder and asked the staff to carry him off the field on a stretcher.
In desperation, Mourinho had to replace captain Pellegrini again.
Pellegrini immediately stabilized the team's emotions after coming on the pitch, and the game quickly started and it was halftime.
In the locker room, Mourinho loudly and indiscriminately reprimanded all the players who played in the first half.
He pointed at the tactical board and slapped the opposing player who had already received a yellow card.
He told the whole team that the other side was a group of villains. They were using fouls to dismember Roma's offense and to stir up trouble on the field. As long as even one Roma player was sent off, their plan would succeed.
No one has a way out in the two rounds of the game. You can’t win the game by being a nice guy, but you also can’t win the game by just talking!
He tapped the two number plates repeatedly: "Gianini has a yellow card, Theopilas has a yellow card, and the opponent's left back Trondsen was also warned by the referee in the first half!
In the second half, your goal should be to target these people! Repeatedly attack their defense area and repeatedly harass them with your body! Just like what Theopilius did to Zaniolo!
This is called fighting back!
I repeat, nice guys don’t win games, got it?!”
Since coming to Rome, I have listened to Mourinho’s locker room speeches during halftime many times.
Chen Xiaoliang has not yet fully adapted to the differences in personality and habits between Mourinho and Gerrard.
Just like what I said above, when Chen Xiaoliang first arrived at the team, when he heard similar words, he always wondered in his heart, is this motivating the players or discouraging them?
However, as time went on, he slowly realized that this was a way for Mourinho to instill in his players.
Compared to Gerrard's approach of motivating players, Mourinho hopes to instill his own ideas and consciousness into players in the long run, so that the players understand what they should do on the court to bring themselves victory.
So here, you rarely see players walking back to the field with excitement and joy before the second half starts. They often look thoughtful.
However, to be fair, his ideas and demands sometimes put tremendous pressure on some players.
Especially some players who cannot understand his intentions yet, such as several young players in the team, will appear at a loss when faced with such a locker room speech.
Sometimes they don't even understand what to do to meet Mourinho's requirements.
However, once you accept his ideas and intentions, you will know from the bottom of your heart that he is right, he is helping you improve, and he is leading the team to victory.
So, just like the players in the teams Mourinho has coached in the past, those who love him are even willing to die on the court for him, while those who hate him wish he would be fired by the club tomorrow.
After the start of the second half, Trabzonspor launched several waves of attacks.
They first made some moves in the middle, but all of them were destroyed by Chen Xiaoliang's fierce steals.
Under Hamsik's command, they shifted the focus of their attack to the two flanks, especially the left side where Veretout was responsible for assisting in defense.
First, in the 48th minute, taking advantage of a corner kick opportunity, center back Hugo's header in the penalty area was saved.
Then in the 52nd minute, there was a wing attack, and left-back Trondsson made a cross that passed the far post and went out of the bottom line.
In the 58th minute, Gervinho broke into the bottom line and made a cross. Smalling headed the ball out, but it was not far enough. Hamsik volleyed on the penalty area line, but was saved by Patricio again!
Our Portuguese goalkeeper has made 6 saves and has become the busiest person in the Roma team!
After withstanding the opponent's opening three attacks in the second half, Roma finally launched a counterattack.
Taking advantage of the gap in Trabzonspor's defense as they continued to press forward, Chen Xiaoliang intercepted Hamsik's pass on the penalty area line and kicked the ball directly towards the front court!
Abraham got the ball in the center circle and rushed forward alone!
The opposing center back Edgar Lai caught up with him at the edge of the penalty area and tried to push him out with his body.
Abraham was running with the ball at high speed, and suddenly shot with his left foot. The ball went into the goal between the legs of goalkeeper Cakir!
2 to 0! The total score is 4 to 1!
This goal completely killed the game and made Trabzonspor lose hope of a comeback.
In the subsequent games, in order to protect the main players from injuries, Mourinho replaced Abraham with El Shaarawy, Chen Xiaoliang with young player Eduardo Bove, and Mkhitaryan with Carles Perez.
Chen Xiaoliang returned to the bench and sat next to Wu Lei, discussing the situation on the field with him.
In particular, the two have been analyzing substitute striker El Shaarawy, who is Wu Lei's main competitor for playing opportunities.
In a quick counterattack in the 84th minute, El Shaarawy broke into the penalty area, received a pass from Zalewski, made two consecutive dribbles, and shot into the lower right corner of the goal while being surrounded by three people, scoring the last goal of the game!
3 to 0! The total score is 5 to 1!
Chen Xiaoliang could see that Wu Lei was very happy about the team's victory, but he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed when he saw El Shaarawy, who was usually lazy in training, score a beautiful goal on the field.
He is very eager to play, especially in a game where the opponent is not very strong. He hopes to play like he did in the first round and score a goal to show himself.
In terms of comprehensive ability, not to mention Abraham and Zaniolo, even substitutes Marayol, Carles Perez and El Shaarawy are stronger than Wu Lei.
Therefore, Mourinho currently only regards Wu Lei as a backup substitute. When the situation is difficult to open up, especially in the second half, he sends him up to disrupt the opponent's defense by running at all costs.
This is also because of Wu Lei's attitude and fighting spirit.
As for the lazy El Shaarawy, although Mourinho has publicly expressed more than once that he will take his positive attitude in training into consideration when arranging the playing roster, it seems that the Portuguese head coach still wants to give the striker, once known as the Little Pharaoh, some opportunities to perform.
Chen Xiaoliang encouraged Wu Lei to wait a little longer. After he had more time to train and integrate, he would definitely have a chance to play regularly.
Chen Xiaoliang believed that by that time, when the tacit connection between him and Wu Lei could reach bright green, Wu Lei would definitely be able to fight in the team!
Since he can help Scottish Premier League players like Barisic, Morelos and Nathan Patterson to compete on equal terms with Leicester City and Manchester United in the Europa League, he can definitely help Wu Lei make a name for himself in Serie A!
He helped Wu Lei not only because of their friendship, but also because he wanted to leave some spark for Red Country football in Europe instead of leaving himself alone.
In this way, whether now or in the future, the European football dream of those young players from the Red Country who truly love football will continue to burn in their hearts.
After the game, Roma players did not show much joy, as Zaniolo's injury made them feel a little worried.
However, on the next day, August 28, two pieces of news dominated all the pages of the sports media!
Five-time Ballon d'Or winner and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Juventus and returns to Manchester United!
This piece of news did not come as too much of a surprise to Chen Xiaoliang. Such a big event naturally existed in his memory before he traveled through time.
But another thing made him doubt the progress of this world!
After UEFA conducted the draws for the Champions League and Europa League, in the group draw for the Europa League, Tottenham Hotspur, an A-tier team, was actually placed in the same Group G as Roma, a B-tier team!
The other two teams are Vitesse from the Eredivisie and Mura from Slovenia.
Countless media outlets named these two explosive news pieces "reunion"!
But their subtitles are "Going Home" and "Revenge"!
[Who said last time that Cristiano Ronaldo saw Xiaoliang's performance and was ready to leave Serie A overnight? He is simply a prophet! ]
[I almost believed it, 23333]
[UEFA's plot is too obvious! They forced this to increase the popularity of the European Cup]
[I heard that Juventus wants to buy Vlahovic to replace Ronaldo]
[What a pity! I can’t see the duel between Chen Xiaoliang and Ronaldo! ]
[Manchester United will play in the Europa League next season, will Roma also play in the Europa League? (Funny)]
[Manchester United was the runner-up in the Premier League last season. With Cristiano Ronaldo, they are likely to win the championship this season! ]
[This post is a proof that Ronaldo can lead Juventus to fourth place and Manchester United to the Europa League]
