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

Chapter 982 Unexpected Loss

It is late March, and the world football has entered the first international match day of 3. This international match day will also be a severe test for Bruno and the Portuguese national team, because they will have to travel thousands of miles back and forth for a period of time.

After the match with Chelsea, he will leave the UK the next day with Cancelo, Dalot and others and rush back to Portugal to participate in the friendly match between Portugal and Hungary away on March 3.

After this game, they will fly to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, again to play a friendly match with the Danish national team on March 3.

After the international match day, Bruno will fly back to the UK as soon as possible to participate in the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leicester City at home on April 4.

Within two weeks, traveling to four places, covering more than 7,000 kilometers, and playing four high-level games is a severe test for any player's physiology.

But now, Bruno doesn't have to go through such trouble, and Mourinho doesn't have to worry about losing this core player who absolutely cannot be lost.

Because before, the Portuguese team had informed Manchester United that the Portuguese national team would not call up Bruno to participate in the friendly matches between Portugal and Hungary and Denmark.

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The Portuguese team also sent the same notice to Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and other teams, telling them that they would not call up the Portuguese internationals to participate in the matches against Hungary and Denmark.

This made the clubs feel relieved. These people are the main players of their teams. Who would want to let their starting lineup be injured for no reason? Moreover, this delay is not just a matter of one game. Continuous long-distance running in such a short period of time has a great impact on the players' physical fitness and condition.

But now, the Portuguese team announced that it would not call up Bruno, Ronaldo, Bernardo, Cancelo and Jota, five players who play for Premier League giants, to participate in the two friendly matches.

Manchester United's young player Dalot is the only player playing for the four Premier League giants who was called up to participate in national team games. He even returned home a week in advance to prepare for the two games.

Because he still couldn't play in Manchester United, what was the point of staying there? He simply applied to return to Portugal early to prepare for the national team game.

Dalot has few opportunities to play for Manchester United now, but his mentality is quite good and he no longer feels anxious or resentful about it.

At Manchester United he focused on training and saved his form for the national team games.

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The Portuguese media supported and recognized Santos' decision not to let five Premier League players including Bruno return to their country to participate in the game. Everyone believed that there was no need to recall them in such a tight time to play in such a non-critical game.

After all, Portugal has already secured its qualification for the Qatar World Cup in advance, and there is still more than half a year before the start of the Qatar World Cup.

At such a time, it is really unnecessary for Bruno and his team to participate in two insignificant friendly matches.

Taking into account the high-intensity games of these major Premier League giants in the early stages and the physical energy waste of long-distance flights, even if they were called back, they might not be able to perform at a high level.

Even Santos had this idea, believing that since they had already qualified for the Qatar World Cup in advance, there was no need to bring all the core players back to participate in a game.

Instead of taking this opportunity, you might as well take a look at those international players who are usually on the fringe of the national team. You may get some unexpected results.

It is not impossible to defeat Hungary and Denmark, which are of average strength, by relying solely on domestic players.

Besides, it’s not like he didn’t get any players from the Premier League giants. Didn’t he also call back Dalot?
In addition, he also called back several Portuguese internationals who were playing for Wolves, another Premier League team.

In this way, Santos started this international match day with his Portugal national team B, and their opponent was Hungary, a team of average strength.

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Before the game, both the media and fans were optimistic about winning the game. Some media and fans also said that we should not always attribute the credit of winning to Bruno and Ronaldo, the core players. Our other players are also very good. This game is a perfect opportunity to show their style to the world.

In the past five or six years, the Portuguese national team has performed so well, winning all the world championships. It is the most watched team in world football in recent years. People all over the world are saying that Portugal has created the most dominant dynasty in football history.

However, under the aura of continuous victory and championship, the world's attention is still on Bruno and Ronaldo, the two great players. The rest of the Portuguese players have almost been robbed of all attention by these two.

Even Cancelo, who also plays for Manchester United, and superstars who play for top teams like Manchester City and Liverpool are not very famous worldwide.

But the Portuguese national team as a whole, winning is never the result of one or a few people. While we are praising Bruno and Ronaldo, we should not ignore their teammates around them.

Maybe they are not as dazzling as superstars like Bruno and Ronaldo, but they are equally indispensable.

Some media have compared the core players of the national team to the eye-catching parts of a beautiful house, and the ordinary national team players to the cornerstones of the house. They are buried deep underground and unknown to the public, but they are very important to the house. They call on everyone to give confidence and support to these ordinary national team players. ………………

These principles are all correct and the words are beautifully said, which aroused strong resonance.

Everyone expressed their expectation that the Portuguese team B would be able to put on a wonderful performance in the friendly match. But just 20 minutes into the game, the Portuguese team lost a goal...

Hungary scored a goal during a counterattack!
In front of the whole world, in front of countless Portuguese fans who had full of confidence and expectations for them, the Portuguese team lost the ball and fell behind!
The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat different from before.

Hungary is currently ranked 41st in the world, which is not good enough in Europe, where there are many strong teams, not to mention compared with Portugal, which has long been ranked first in the world.

As a result, the goal that Portuguese fans were expecting appeared, but the goal was scored by their opponent Hungary!
"...The Portuguese team made mistakes when defending, and the cooperation between the defenders and the goalkeeper was not tacit enough..." the commentator said helplessly.

After conceding the goal, the Portuguese players launched a fierce attack on the Hungarian goal. Hungary, which was already leading by one goal, was very content and quickly withdrew its defense and huddled in front of its own goal, intending to maintain this one-goal lead until the end of the game.

Until the end of the first half, Portugal still failed to equalize the score.

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After the start of the second half, Santos' adjustments during the halftime break did not have any effect.

At the very least, we can see that Portugal's attack is quite chaotic, with no system or method at all. They just attack wherever they think of, without any purpose or direction.

The most threatening player on the field was Dalot, a young player who did not play many games for Manchester United.

Dalot, who played as a right back today, showed a great threat in Portugal's wing attack. His crosses were very sharp, but unfortunately, the Portuguese striker wasted his crosses several times and failed to help Portugal score the equalizer.

At this time, the commentator said: "... I think everyone must miss Bruno and Ronaldo at this moment? When Bruno and Ronaldo were on the court, our offense was not like this..."

He expressed the thoughts of many fans. On the Internet, some impatient fans have already criticized the performance of the Portuguese national team B: "They were hyped so much before the game, but in the end they were just a façade. Without Bruno and Ronaldo, their true colors were revealed. They are simply vulnerable!"

"I just don't understand, why not recruit Bruno and the others?"

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In the end, the Portuguese team, with disorganized midfield and weak forwards, lost the game despite being highly favored before the game. They lost 0-1 away to Hungary, ranked 41st in the world, which was an upset.

When the whistle sounded at the end of the game, the Portuguese players were dejected. They never expected that they would lose the game.

When the game just started, they came with the determination to win.

After conceding the goal, they were still thinking about a comeback and winning.

With only fifteen minutes left in the game, their goal had become "just to equalize the score."

But after the game, even this goal was not achieved.

This is really tragic.

The Portuguese internationals had confused expressions on their faces, not understanding why they lost to the underdog Hungary.

They are number one in the world, and Hungary is number 41 in the world. How big is the gap in strength?
Santos took all the responsibility for the loss on himself in the post-match press conference: "The failure to win was a problem of tactics and personnel arrangements. As the head coach, I take full responsibility."

A reporter asked: "Does the problem with personnel arrangement refer to the failure to recruit core players such as Bruno and Ronaldo?"

Santos shook his head and denied: "It has nothing to do with this."

"So if Bruno and others are recalled for this game, can we ensure victory?" the reporter asked.

Santos continued to shake his head and said: "I can't make such a guarantee. Football games are not so simple. It's not this or that."

(End of this chapter)