From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 895 Understatement
The European Cup schedule is very tight. On the afternoon of June 6, Portugal welcomed its second opponent: North Macedonia!
Among all 24 teams participating in the European Cup, North Macedonia is relatively weak. The biggest star in the team is striker Pandev, who currently plays for Genoa in Serie A. The 38-year-old veteran, who once played for Inter Milan, still maintains a good scoring rate in Serie A.

This is also the first time in North Macedonia's history that it has entered the European Cup finals.

Because the opponent's strength was limited, Santos made appropriate rotations in this game.

On the defensive line, veteran Pepe sat on the bench, Ruben Dias and another veteran Fonte partnered as central defenders, and Semedo and Guerrero played on the two wingers.

The midfield was composed of two defensive midfielders, Palinha and Ruben Neves. Danilo Perreira and William Carvalho were both sent back to the bench, and Bruno played as the attacking midfielder.

The front trident is still the combination of Ronaldo, Jota and Bernardo Silva.

Although the Portuguese team has a lot of talents, Santos still dare not arrange for Bruno to rest. After all, there is a strong opponent, Austria, in Group C. Although it is possible to advance as the third in the group, advancing as the first in the group or as the third in the group, the opponents faced in the knockout stage are completely different.

Opponents like North Macedonia are the key to winning goals, and the team's offensive power is crucial. Without Bruno's heavy weapon, Portugal is really worrying.

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The trend of the game also confirms this.

After the opening, Portugal quickly took control of the situation on the field and launched a series of attacks by virtue of its midfield advantage.

Bruno was not too involved. This was the arrangement Santos made for him before the game, because the team needed him to maintain a stable performance for a long time, rather than using him to death. Therefore, his pressing in the frontcourt was far less active than that of Ronaldo, Jota and Bernardo Silva, but everyone in the team was convinced by this.

With Bruno and without Bruno, Portugal faces two completely different game environments.

Just like in the game against North Macedonia, Bruno just standing there, or even just walking slowly, could make the North Macedonian defensive players feel like they were facing a formidable enemy, fearing that he would rush out at any time.

This is a deterrent to the opposing players.

For a tournament like the European Cup, which has a dense schedule and every game is a high-intensity game, if Bruno is asked to play his best in every game, he will definitely have to rest. So the Portuguese locker room also agrees with this, and even Bernardo Silva and Jota told Bruno to run less, and they would run for him so that he could save his energy to participate in the attack.

Although Bruno did not perform particularly hard, he still managed to score in the 15th minute. After retreating to the midfield to receive the ball, he turned and made a diagonal pass behind him on the right side. Jota quickly inserted and got the ball before the opponent's central defender and made a cross, but Ronaldo hit the ball high.

This was Portugal's most threatening attack since the start of the game, and it was also a reminder to North Macedonia that even though Bruno seemed to be doing nothing, if you are not careful and give him the opportunity, he can take your life in minutes!
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However, Bruno is not the kind of person who ignores the overall situation.

Portugal's first attack after the opening was ineffective, but the opponent counterattacked. Pandev entered the penalty area and was knocked down by a defender when he was about to shoot. The referee awarded a penalty kick, and Alioski's shot was saved. Alioski then scored with a follow-up shot.

0:1, Portugal conceded the first goal in both of its group matches.

This goal greatly boosted North Macedonia's morale, but dealt a heavy blow to Portugal, because after attacking for more than 20 minutes, they not only failed to score, but were instead able to allow their opponents to sneak attack and succeed, which was really not right.

But just two minutes later, Bruno successfully helped Portugal equalize the score.

After Ruben Neves intercepted the ball in the backcourt, he made a long pass to the left side of the frontcourt. Bruno quickly caught up, dribbled past two central defenders of the opponent and broke into the penalty area to shoot, but was knocked to the ground by the opponent's goalkeeper Stoel Dimitrevski. The referee awarded a penalty without hesitation.

Bruno smiled and gave the penalty opportunity to Ronaldo, and the Portuguese captain calmly took the penalty and scored, 1:1!

Just four minutes later, Bruno took the initiative to retreat again. After successfully intercepting the ball, he turned around and moved forward with the ball. Suddenly, he passed the ball diagonally to the right. Jota got the ball and knocked it back to the middle. Ronaldo followed up and shot directly. The long shot from 2 meters away once again penetrated the North Macedonia goal, 1:!

After the reversal, everyone in Portugal was extremely excited, especially Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored twice. He was the first to run towards Bruno and celebrate his goal with him.

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After the second half, North Macedonia launched a strong attack, especially the flank attacks began to increase.

But in the 3th minute, Portugal launched a counterattack. Ronaldo made a wonderful pass to the right, Jota drove the ball straight into the goal, and finally passed it across the goal. Bruno ran easily and calmly shot the ball into the goal, 1:!

Afterwards, Santos quickly replaced Bruno with veteran Moutinho, and the score of 3:1 remained until the end of the half.

In the press conference after the game, Santos said that his idea before the game was to let Bruno and Ronaldo and other players play only 60 minutes, and then the rest of the players would defend the victory. "I am very happy to see the final score. We achieved the goal we set before the game, and everyone contributed."

The North Macedonia head coach said depressedly that Portugal was able to win because they had two world-class stars.

"Bruno and Ronaldo are both world-class players, especially Bruno. He made it difficult for us to focus on attacking. He didn't touch the ball many times, but every time he created a threat, especially the penalty kick. We couldn't imagine how to stop him except by fouling. He changed the whole course of the game."

But in the end, the man of the match went to Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored twice, because the Portuguese captain obviously worked harder.

In its scoring, UEFA believed that Bruno only played seriously for less than ten minutes in this game, but he created two goals for Portugal, and the goal in the second half seemed to be a coincidence while he was just strolling around.

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On the afternoon of June 6st, in the third round of the European Cup group stage, Portugal faced Austria.

As Portugal won two consecutive games in the first two rounds of the group stage, it has advanced to the round of 16 one round in advance.

But because Austria defeated North Macedonia in the first round, if they beat Portugal today, they will be able to surpass Portugal and take the first place in the group. So Santos fielded the strongest lineup in this game. Cancelo started on the right side of the defense, Guerrero was arranged on the left, Pepe and Ruben Dias were still the central defenders, and Danilo Pereira and William Carvalho were the double defensive midfielders in the midfield, and Bruno was the forward.

The front trident is a combination of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva and Jota.

Just two minutes into the game, Bernardo Silva made a tactical combination with Cancelo on the right, and Cancelo was fouled by the opposing defender when he got the ball, giving Portugal a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt.

The ball was very far away from the goal, about 40 meters away and on the right side. Everyone basically concluded that it was an indirect free kick, because at such a long distance, the possibility of a direct shot was really small.

But just when Bernardo Silva and Ronaldo were discussing how to cooperate, Bruno suddenly ran over from the left.

"I'll fight!" Bruno said eagerly.

"Hit directly?" Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva both suspected that they had heard it wrong.

This place is a full forty meters long and on the right side, making it difficult to hit.

But Bruno didn't say much. He stood at the penalty spot, glanced at the goal 40 meters away, and said with a smile: "I'll try."

Of course, Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva would have no objection. The Portuguese captain even patted Bruno on the shoulder and said jokingly: "Remember, if this ball doesn't go in, you have to make three more later."

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Bruno didn't take Ronaldo's joke seriously. Instead, he looked up at the sky, walked over, picked up the ball, wiped it carefully, and then gently put it back on the grass. After stepping firmly on the grass behind the ball, he silently counted his steps and walked back.

At this time, all the fans in the audience also noticed Bruno's move, and everyone cheered.

"God, is Bruno going to knock on the door directly?"

"This is too difficult. We just calculated that this position is 40 meters away from the goal. It is very difficult to shoot directly. And his action has obviously given a signal to the Austrian players."

"Bachmann must have been prepared. In this situation, it is really difficult to play such a long-distance direct free kick. This is definitely a challenge."

But the Portuguese players didn't seem to feel much. Cancelo even shouted to Bruno from a distance: "Hey, Bruno, if it doesn't work, just pass it over the head. I'll wait for you!"

Bruno waved at him, as if to say, don't bother me!
The referee arranged the scene. Due to the far distance, Austria did not put up a tight human wall. Obviously, they were more worried that Portugal would take an indirect free kick, so they paid more attention to keeping an eye on other Portuguese players.

The Portuguese players also tried their best to cooperate with Bruno.

After the referee blew the whistle, the Portuguese players ran quickly, attracting the attention of the defense.

Bruno took a deep breath, rushed forward quickly, raised his right foot, and kicked the football directly in front of him.

(End of this chapter)