Chapter 289 Welcome to the road of confrontation!

Napoli arrived in Rome , and along with them came reporters and scouts from all over the world, a financial statement from Spain.
Despite being prepared, Chen Xiaoliang still slightly underestimated the cost of maintaining a low-level club.
Ibiza, which currently ranks 13th among the 18 teams in Group 3 of the Western Association B in the new season, spends 20,000 euros per week on staff salaries, player salaries, maintenance of its small home stadium with 5,000 people, and maintenance of training facilities.
There is also the transfer application. According to the current situation and lineup, it is uncertain whether the team can avoid relegation at the end of the season. Riise and the coaching staff, who are managing the team's daily affairs on behalf of Chen Xiaoliang, have drawn up several names. They are all "ace" players from the Western Association A and Western Association B. The transfer fee is about 300,000 euros.
These are all net expenses. Although the football atmosphere in Spain is very good, most La Liga teams are spending more than they earn. What's more, for small teams in the fourth-level league, the average price of a match ticket is less than 10 euros. It is simply a fantasy to expect to make money purely through the club's own operations.
In that case, what else is there to say? The boss will go out and make the money himself.
Reese signed two sponsorship deals that had been on hold for a long time, and picked a day specifically for Chen Xiaoliang to accept an advertising shoot arranged by the sponsors in Rome.
As a result, the players on the island discovered that the home stadium had been renamed Gatorade Arena, that they no longer had to pay for drinks during training and games, and that their sports equipment had all been replaced with Puma gear.
The sponsors don’t care, as long as the advertisement is shot by Chen Xiaoliang, they don’t care who uses the sponsored items.
However, compared to such a trivial matter as the sponsorship that Chen Xiaoliang brought to the Ibiza club, something big or small happened in Spain.
As 9 of the 12 founding clubs of the European Super League encountered tremendous pressure after the announcement of the European Super League and announced their withdrawal from the European Super League plan, the only three remaining clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, were unwilling to give up and are still fighting with UEFA and FIFA.
Recently, A22, the parent company of the European Super League dominated by Real Madrid, faced UEFA's appeal head-on at the 17th Commercial Court in Madrid, where the company is registered.
UEFA previously expressed that it would punish the three clubs that refused to give up, and the three clubs applied for protection from the Madrid court, so UEFA launched an appeal.
But why is this matter so big or so small? Because, generally speaking, it is a sign that UEFA and A22 are officially at war at the legal level, which means that this matter has reached a point where it cannot be resolved through negotiation, and one party will eventually pay a heavy price.
But on a smaller scale, even UEFA itself knows that it is only a matter of time before their appeal is rejected in Madrid.
Real Madrid, which has national symbolic significance for Spain, cannot be compared with the "faraway and overreaching" UEFA, whether in terms of its own influence in the country or the operational capabilities of the current board of directors headed by Florentino.
Therefore, the result of this appeal will not determine the final fate of the European Super League.
UEFA is betting on the European Court of Justice.
Although in recent years domestic courts in Germany, Poland and other countries have repeatedly challenged the European Court of Justice on domestic sovereignty issues, violating the principle that EU law takes precedence over member state domestic laws, when it comes to sovereignty matters, no country would be foolish enough to allow the EU's "traitors" to manipulate them and damage their own interests.
But football matters clearly do not fall within the scope of sovereignty.
So the current confrontation is ostensibly a showdown between "freedom and monopoly", "closed and open", "co-prosperity and oligarchy", "rich and grassroots", "tradition and subversion". In reality, everyone is secretly carrying out a large number of small moves for their own interests, trying to ultimately influence the final decision of the European Court of Justice.
Florentino has recently made public statements, claiming that adjustments have been made to the negative impacts and potential drawbacks brought about by the previous closed league structure, and that an open league with 60-80 teams, divided into 3-4 levels, and promotion and relegation will be established in the future.
Considering that the UK has left the EU and the British government has long publicly stated that it will punish Premier League teams that participate in the European Super League, and the biggest purpose of establishing the European Super League is to forcibly divide a piece of the profits from the increasingly dominant Premier League, A22's recent actions are all focused on working around clubs and government sports departments in countries such as Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Portugal.
Their representatives were at Rome at this time.
But all the talks were secret and off the record.
With the outside world's opposition voices obviously louder and UEFA and FIFA sternly expressing their intention to punish, the three clubs except Real Madrid and Savino have no way out. Even if they surrender voluntarily, they will still be held accountable later, so they can only fight to the end. Other clubs do not want to speak out publicly and get involved in this matter.
But privately, clubs like Roma, Marseille and PSV Eindhoven, which are well-known in their own countries but far behind the giants in Europe, are all waiting and watching.
At this moment, Pinto expressed to the representatives of A22 that Rome is fully willing to participate if it is legal and compliant.
As a core player, Chen Xiaoliang was informed of the matter by the board of directors together with Mourinho, but both of them signed a confidentiality agreement not to disclose any news of the meeting or Roma's statement on the matter.
Just because it cannot be told to outsiders does not mean it cannot be told among insiders. In a private discussion with Mourinho, he directly told Chen Xiaoliang that this was an internal conflict caused by uneven distribution of spoils among underworld gangs.
Florentino is not reconciled to the fact that UEFA and Premier League make more money. He hopes to create a groundbreaking new competition, just as Real Madrid founded the Champions League 70 years ago. This will not only bring endless revenue growth to his club, but also make him famous in human history.
But Mourinho's closing remarks were:
"I am old now. Whether it is the Champions League, the European Super League, or a possible national team career in the future, I am destined to be just a passer-by."
"As for you, if this event can really be established, no matter which team you are on at that time, they will definitely try their best to have you appear on their field."
"Without you, what can they use to compete with the Premier League for the Asian market?"
After the brief episode, the teammates, who were completely unaware of the situation, devoted themselves fully to the training.
The six-day rest seemed like a blessing, giving the players a chance to catch their breath after fighting on two fronts.
But this benefit is obviously two-way, and Napoli players also enjoyed sufficient rest.
At the pre-match press conference, Napoli head coach Spalletti was very low-key and said that Roma is the undisputed favorite to win the championship, and their goal tomorrow night is to try to keep 1 point.
Mourinho was more direct, saying that Spalletti has always been a liar and that they will definitely stick to their very aggressive football in the game.
Spalletti did not tell the truth. He just wanted his players to lower their expectations and take a low profile. Not only that, he was also very angry.
Kvaratskhelia was originally the target he had his eyes on, but was snatched away by Roma halfway. He must settle this account with Mourinho.
After 5 days of training, another 20 training points were credited to his account. As his attributes had increased, the speed at which training points were added was too slow. Chen Xiaoliang also secretly used two stamina cards to train for 3 more hours at home. Anyway, there had been no competition for 6 days, so his fatigue value was well controlled, and occasionally increasing the amount of training would not lead to any adverse consequences.
Training value 12→35
Stamina recovery card 6→4
An hour before the game, the starting lineups of both teams were released. Napoli's starting lineup was no different from the previous main lineup:
Goalkeeper Meret;
The back four includes Oliveira, Rahmani, South Korean center back Kim Min-jae who has performed well this season, and captain right back Di Lorenzo;
Lobotka is the sole defensive midfielder, Zielinski is on the left, and Cameroon midfielder Anguisa, who has also shown signs of improvement this season, is on the right;
Left winger Politano, center forward Osimhen, right winger Lozano.
Roma's lineup is also full of main players:
goalkeeper Patricio;
The back four is Malacia, Gvardiol, Smalling and Celik;
Cristante and Enzo form a double defensive midfielder partnership, with Chen Xiaoliang in front;
Left winger Kva, right winger Dybala and center Cesco are in the front.
However, even though the players had watched many videos and materials of the opponents provided by the coaching staff for the past six days, and thought they were mentally prepared to the same extent as when they played against Liverpool, and because it was a home game, they were still shocked by Napoli's crazy behavior when the referee, Roma's old friend Osato, blew the opening whistle.
Osimen and Politano stood on both sides of the ball in the center circle. Among the remaining 8 players except the goalkeeper, only the two central defenders Rahmani and Kim Min-jae stood behind. The remaining 6 were all lined up from left to right on the midfield line!
Even the Roma fans couldn't help but exclaim "Oh".
Forti couldn't help but ask Mourinho: "Jose? What are they going to do? "
Mourinho sneered: "What are you doing? They are not here to secure 1 point, they are clearly here to fight us to the death!"
On the field, Chen Xiaoliang took the initiative to step back, then quickly turned around and asked his two defensive midfielder teammates to move slightly to the sidelines and pay attention to protecting both sides.
Lou Yichen: "Welcome to watch the focus match of the 11th round of Serie A brought by Penguin Sports. Napoli, the top team, will challenge the defending champion Roma, who is only 1 point behind them!"
"What kind of formation is Napoli using?!"
Just when the commentator was still wondering, Osato blew the whistle!
“Beep!”
Hearing the whistle, Osimhen kicked the ball to Rahmani behind him, and then the eight people standing on the center line all started instantly and rushed towards the heart of Roma like short cannon players hearing the starting gun!
Rahmani made a long pass to his own left side. The defensive combination there was Dybala, Celik and Enzo on the right side of Roma. Chen Xiaoliang quickly retreated to the front of the penalty area because he knew that this was definitely not a blind pass. The opponent was exploiting the weakness that the three players on the right side of Roma were all relatively short.
Sure enough, Zielinski overpowered Celik and headed the ball down. Lobotka ran to his side without any hesitation and suddenly transferred the ball to the middle before Enzo came up to press. Anguissa received the ball and Chen Xiaoliang immediately stepped forward to block it.
Anguissa also did not stop the ball. He pushed it to his right and made a diagonal pass into the penalty area!
Osimhen, wearing a face protector that resembled a Zorro mask, immediately ran to the bottom line on the right side of the penalty area, held off Gvardiol who was pressing him and got the ball.
The two men confronted each other for a while, and Gvardiol immediately followed him, followed by Smalling who came to assist in defense, while Chen Xiaoliang and Enzo had already retreated to the middle of the penalty area.
Osmeen suddenly started and broke through to the baseline!
Gvadior followed closely and did not allow Osmeen to leave any space for him to break through!
While watching the two people fighting, Chen Xiaoliang kept a close eye on the opponent's player who was cutting into the middle.
For this ball, as long as Gvardiol does not lose his position, Osimhen will only have two options: passing back or forcing a cross in front of the goal!
However, just when all the Roma players and even the Napoli players were thinking this, Osimhen suddenly stepped on the ball with his left foot, raised his right foot and shot the ball rolling forward!
But at this moment his body was only about 2 meters away from the baseline!
Patricio, who was guarding the near post, fell to the ground immediately, but the ball drew an arc on the grass and hit the goal through the gap between the near post and his body!
Lou Yichen: "Beautiful! Beautiful!"
"Zero-degree shot! Oh my god!"
"Within less than a minute of the game, Napoli's striker Osimhen, who seemed to have broken free from his seal this season, single-handedly shot from a small angle near the bottom line on the right side of the penalty area, creating a dream start for Napoli!"
Liu Yue: "Gvardiol defended the ball very well, and there was no problem with Patricio's positioning. Looking at the replay, Xiaoliang and Enzo also retreated to the penalty area to help Smalling protect the middle. Roma did not make any mistakes in defense. It was all thanks to Osimhen's superior physical fitness that he created a little shooting space and then seized it."
Lou Yichen: "Let's see! Old goalkeeper Patricio looks helpless!"
It is indeed as the commentator said, even though Patricio is experienced, has experienced many big scenes, and has been a national team teammate with Ronaldo for more than ten years, he has never faced such unreasonable shots in a game.
He was in such a state, not to mention the young Gvardiol. He couldn't help but think, "Damn! Isn't this guy a hundred times better than Lukaku?"
Napoli also did not expect such a smooth start. Whether it was the coach or the players, some covered their mouths, held their heads, some shook their heads while walking, and all rushed over to hug Osimhen to celebrate. The only one who looked calm was the head coach Spalletti, who just stood there, smiling and applauding.
Seeing his old rival successfully accumulating coins, Mourinho was furious, but he could do nothing about it. It was really not the players' fault for such a magical goal.
At 1 minute and 45 seconds, referee Osato blew the whistle again, but this time it was Roma who kicked off.
The two sides tested each other in the midfield for a while. Napoli, who was leading by one goal, still played very actively, occasionally encircling and pressing Roma's midfield and backcourt.
Chen Xiaoliang had a very obvious feeling that after not seeing this team for half a year, the team had improved a lot.
In addition to Osimhen, Anguiza, who had forced a competition with him in terms of speed and confrontation last season, has also become much calmer. He is no longer impulsive, but is wholeheartedly cooperating with his teammates to attack Roma's weakest area - counterattacking behind Smalling and pressing on the left side in positional warfare.
For a moment, Dybala seemed to have turned into a right-back, and Celik was pressed so hard that he couldn't even get out of the penalty area.
It’s not that Chen Xiaoliang didn’t think about going over to help, but as long as he went to the right to assist in defense, Napoli would pass the ball to the left to find Osimhen.
In terms of one-on-one defense, Gvardiol was not at all inferior, but the magical zero-degree ball at the beginning of the game left Roma players with lingering fears. As long as they saw the opponent looking for Osimhen, they would become extremely vigilant and restrained.
There is only one Chen Xiaoliang. No matter how fast he runs, he can only appear in one place on the court at the same time.
Seeing that Osimhen and Lozano made it difficult for Roma to advance on the left side, Chen Xiaoliang simply decided to switch lanes and pick on the toughest bones of the opponent.
In the 6th minute, Di Lorenzo launched an attack on the right. Chen Xiaoliang retreated while reaching out to let Kwa, who was about to return to defense, stay in the frontcourt.
Kwa has always unconditionally trusted the captain who is three years younger than him on the field.
Seeing that there was no defensive pressure, Di Lorenzo continued to dribble the ball forward, but in the end it was Malaysia who let go of Lozano and headed forward.
Lozano cut to the middle and pretended to attack the middle. Chen Xiaoliang deliberately ran a few steps with him.
Sure enough, the left side was empty, Osimhen immediately came out of the penalty area to ask for the ball, and Di Lorenzo immediately passed the ball straight to the side of the penalty area.
Gvardiol did not come out of the penalty area. Osimhen was just about to receive the ball and rush into the penalty area easily, but he felt someone approaching from the left rear. He turned his head and saw that it was Chen Xiaoliang. He immediately entered a highly concentrated combat state!
Looking at all the giants in Serie A, which striker wouldn't want to challenge Roma's captain who started out as a defender?
Osimhen is not like Chiesa who would hang around with his opponents. With Nigerian descent and at the golden age of 24, he has always been proud of his physical fitness, whether it is speed or burst. After his confidence increased this season, he even ate up the opponent's defenders in several games.
Seeing that Chen Xiaoliang wanted to compete with him in physical combat, it was exactly what he wanted!
The two of them, defending on the left and attacking on the right, chased the through ball sent by Di Lorenzo at the same time, while trying hard to push the opponent outwards.
In this kind of half-ball, no one gains possession of the ball. As long as there is no obvious pushing action with the hands, the confrontation during running is completely in accordance with the rules.
Once, twice, the two men ran slower and slower, and the direction of their force seemed to have completely changed from the ball in front to the opponent on the side.
Three times, four times, and every time they collided, both of them were secretly surprised!
Chen Xiaoliang thought to himself: "Shit, what did this black guy eat to grow up! He's a lot ! If it weren't for my skills in close defense, with my strength, balance and explosiveness, I probably wouldn't have lasted more than two hits before being pushed away!"
Osimhen thought: "What's wrong with this Asian guy? I can't even push him away?! What's more, I used my shoulder to hit his shoulder, but he used his elbow to hit my waist! Damn, my waist is numb!"
The two men saw that they couldn't tell who would touch the ball first if they continued playing, so they both tried to get their hands on the ball when it was so close.
Osmeen pushed Chen Xiaoliang's right shoulder with his left hand, and Chen Xiaoliang pushed between the two ribs on Osmeen's left side with his right hand.
The two men swayed and fell to the sides, then turned back to look at the linesman at the same time. Seeing that the linesman did not react at all, they were about to stand up, but Gvadiol, who had been assisting in defense for a while, came up and kicked the ball to the front court!
"Foul! Referee, he poked me!" Osimhen shouted at the linesman, but the linesman ignored him.
Chen Xiaoliang had already stood up and ran towards the front court at full speed!
While running, I really wanted to turn around and shout to Gwadior: "You are such a genius!"
Gvardiol did indeed see that the captain, who usually made sliding and flying tackles in training, actually saw the ball enter the tackling range and could obviously knock the ball out of bounds, but he still pushed Osimhen down, just to give himself space to clear the ball.
And there, their left winger Kwa is waiting!
Di Lorenzo jogged back to his own half, looking up at the ball flying over him. When his sight fell on the horizon, he found that a red number 77 received the ball in his defense area and rushed into the penalty area!
"Oh no! No wonder they gave me the green light to lead the attack. It turns out they were waiting for me here!"
Even if he understood it in his heart at this moment, it was too late.
Facing the South Korean central defender Kim Min-jae, Kva did not get close to him at all. He used his speed to rush to the bottom line and forced his way into the penalty area!
Dybala and Cesco both rushed into the penalty area, but Napoli's other central defender Rahmani, left back Oliveira, defensive midfielder Lobotka and Zielinski also followed into the penalty area!
Kva looked up and saw that there was no space to pass the ball in the penalty area. He was close to the baseline and even if he wanted to try a zero-degree shot like Osimhen just now, there was really no angle.
Besides, can’t you get into the magical ball whenever you want?
When Kva was slowing down on the left side of the penalty area and preparing to adjust his rhythm to see if there would be any gaps in the opponent's defense, he saw a familiar, blood-red figure on the right side of his field of vision running quickly towards the penalty area, raising his left hand to signal him to pass the ball!
Seeing that Kim Min-jae who turned back was about to approach him and Rahmani in front was about to block him, Kva kicked the ball with his left foot and passed it to the outside of the top of the penalty area!
This ball must go in! It must go in at all costs!
Only an equally explosive shot could offset the unexpected shadow left in the hearts of his teammates by Osimhen's magical goal just now!
[Used the peak Matthäus mid-range long-range shooting attribute card]
[Effect: Long Shot 20]
[Additional skills: Good at long-distance shooting]
[Additional skills: Good at powerful shooting]
Chen Xiaoliang doesn't want anything else. With the bonus of tacit understanding with Kva, his own long-range shooting attribute of 18 can be increased to 20 in a few seconds. But what Chen Xiaoliang wants is the skill of being good at powerful shooting!
He ran to a place about 5 meters outside the top of the penalty area, and the ball landed just right in front of him and bounced - bouncing to a perfect height!
Chen Xiaoliang began to adjust his pace with small steps!
Anguisa in the penalty area found something wrong. It was obvious that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, so he quickly pounced on Chen Xiaoliang.
Knowing that his body was about to face a powerful blow like a cannonball, he clenched his teeth, held his breath, turned sideways and flew up to block the long shot.
Good at long-range shooting... Good at long-range shooting...
In an instant, countless legendary long-range shooting scenes flashed through Chen Xiaoliang's mind.
But in a trance, the most familiar figure froze in front of my eyes!
Who knows him better than himself? ! Who knows him better than himself? !
Chen Xiaoliang swung his right foot back with all his strength, and contracted his waist, abdomen, upper limbs, hips, and thighs with all his strength, and all the strength was transferred to the outside of his right foot!
Anguisa only heard a "bang"!
Then all the fans in the stadium and even all over the world watching the game heard a loud "bang" through the microphone above the goal!
The ball flew straight towards Meret, and then halfway through it, it suddenly changed direction to the outside and headed straight for the lower right corner of the goal!
Meret dived sideways with all his might, stretching his left hand to the point where it could no longer extend itself, but before he could complete the save, the ball had already hit the goal!
"yeah!!!"
The Rome Olympic Stadium roared like a tsunami at the start of the game as if it had been hit by a club!
When Chen Xiaoliang hit the ball with force, Mourinho was so nervous that he jumped involuntarily!
Chen Xiaoliang rushed towards the corner flag, then bent his knees at a faster speed, leaving two long sliding tracks on the grass!
All the players on and off the field rushed over and pinned him to the ground in an instant!
Osimhen never expected that his powerful performance would be overshadowed by the other party before even 10 minutes had passed!
After his teammates dispersed, Chen Xiaoliang pointed to the grass on the ground and faced the fans in the stands!
Lou Yichen: "Xiaoliang looks like he let out a sigh of relief with this ball!"
Liu Yue: "Indeed, after the start of the game, Roma's players were obviously a little nervous after Osimhen scored a world-class goal. It seemed that their pre-match deployment and psychological preparation were disrupted."
"Xiaoliang's goal came at the perfect time, equalizing the score in the 7th minute. We can even say that the game really started at that moment."
Lou Yichen: "Let's see! Napoli is preparing to kick off again, but this time they didn't choose all 8 players to rush forward like they did at the beginning!"
"And Xiaoliang went up to defend Osimhen right after he kicked the ball! He stopped Lobotka from passing the ball right away!"
Liu Yue: "In Roma's midfield, the only players who can compete with Osimhen physically are Chen Xiaoliang and Cristante, but the latter is too slow and can easily be broken through by Osimhen using his speed."
Lou Yichen: "Xiaoliang didn't move an inch, and Osimhen seemed a little angry and deliberately bumped into Xiaoliang with his body! Xiaoliang also bumped back without showing any weakness!"
"The referee Osatu stopped the game! He called the two over and gave them a verbal warning!"
"Haha! After Osatu finished speaking, Xiaoliang smiled at Osmeen and said something after they separated!"
Soon, a like appeared in the barrage:
[Serie A's No. 1 midfielder: Welcome to the confrontation road! 】
Jun 27, 2024
悍腰
Jun 27, 2024
预判之王
Jun 27, 2024
LOL:这个男人太强了!
Jun 27, 2024
足坛第一狂徒
Jun 27, 2024
治愈系篮球