It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 97 95 St. George's Day and Roses

In the match against Getafe on the 18th, Charles and Messi sat on the bench for the entire game.

Charles' injury is almost healed, but Guardiola, for safety's sake, decided to let Charles continue recuperating.

Messi's situation is similar to Charr's, but his injury is not external, but internal - gastroenteritis.

Because Getafe's goalkeeper was in great form today and Guardiola intentionally slowed down the tempo of the game, the game was very difficult.

In the end, Barcelona defeated Getafe 1:0 and took away three points with great difficulty.

Time passed quickly. On the 20th, Charles went to the hospital for a follow-up check. After confirming that his injury had completely healed, he was once again selected into Guardiola's squad.

……

The daylight outside the window passed by in a flash, and soon it was April 4, the day when Barcelona faced Sevilla at home.

When Charles went out in the morning, he deliberately left 20 minutes earlier than usual - tomorrow is St. George's Day in Catalonia.

In Barcelona, ​​Sant Jordi (or Saint George's Day) is more than just a simple holiday. It is the Catalan equivalent of Valentine's Day.

The traditional custom on this day is that men give women roses, and women give men books in return.

Moreover, the relationship between the two parties is not important, they do not necessarily have to be lovers or husband and wife.

At the same time, with the evolution of time, there is no longer any customary agreement on who must give whom what gifts.

A man can receive roses, and a girl may receive a book.

But what Charles didn't expect was that even though he had set out early and today was not Valentine's Day, there was still a traffic jam.

The moment the city woke up, stalls of all sizes appeared in the streets and alleys of Barcelona.

The streets are filled with roses wrapped in ribbons in the colors of the Catalan flag, books, and all kinds of tourists.

Along the way, you can even see many balconies surrounded by roses, which are warm and brilliant, dazzling in the morning sun like the scales of a red dragon.

After hurrying, Charles finally drove from the congested street to the training base.

But before Charles could drive into the parking lot, he was stopped at the door.

Suppressing his anxious heart, Charles rolled down the window, took the jersey handed over by the fan, and asked gently, "What do you write?"

The fans helped to straighten the jersey, "Charles...Charles, just sign it!"

After Charles quickly signed the jerseys of three fans in the car, he noticed a fan in a wheelchair behind the crowd.

10 minutes late.

"Let's take a photo, Xiali!" the fans shouted excitedly.

Charles unbuckled his seat belt, got out of the car quickly, and half-crouched next to the fan. The companion who came with the fan held up the camera tremblingly and took pictures of the two of them.

"Click."

After talking with them for a while, just as Charles was about to get on the bus, the fan in the wheelchair suddenly called out to Charles and took out a book wrapped in red and yellow stripes from his bag.

"Happy St. George's Day, this is for you."

……

After parking the car, Charles could no longer hide the anxiety on his face and rushed towards the locker room at great speed.

Damn Valentine's Day, he is still single, but he has to celebrate this holiday for couples with them.

He can still afford the 200 euro fine for being late, but the key point is that he just asked Guardiola to let him at least have something good for three meals a day instead of eating salad every day.

Messi lay listlessly on the small bed in the locker room. His gastroenteritis had not yet fully recovered.

"I left home half an hour earlier and just arrived. We are lucky, but Kars is still stuck in traffic."

Ciel opened the cabinet and put his things in, "Why did he block it for so long?"

"He was going to buy some books, and when he was shopping he was recognized, so he stayed there to sign for a long time. When he got on the bus again, he was stuck in traffic and couldn't move."

Henry turned on his phone and summarized the messages in the group.

Charles had no time to check his phone during the journey. "What should I do?"

Xavi glanced at the door and found no one there, so he stood up and closed the door, whispering, "If Vilanova is also stuck in traffic, we can help him hide it and say he is in the toilet."

Charles couldn't help but shake his head when he heard this. He didn't expect that Puyol, who looked so honest and a trustworthy defender, actually wanted to escape punishment after being late.

"Who will go to the teaching assistant's office to check?"

Pique had already changed his equipment and was still fiddling with or organizing his books: "It must be blocked today. We can just drag it out in the locker room for a while."

At this time, Bojan walked in with a bunch of roses in his arms, and the whole locker room was instantly filled with the fragrance of roses. "This is too strong, you..."

Before Bojan could finish his words, the door of the locker room was opened again.

Guardiola stood at the door with his hands on his hips. "Why are you all still here? I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Harvey quickly glanced at Charles.

Charles rolled his eyes and ran to Messi's bedside, looking like he cared about his teammate, "Leo said he was bored in the locker room alone, so we just wanted to stay here and keep him company."

Suddenly, everyone in the locker room echoed, "Yes, yes, we are accompanying him."

Messi had no choice but to cover his face. He was afraid that if he didn't cover his face, he would burst out laughing. "I want Charles to chat with me..."

Guardiola didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and was about to walk through the door to check on Messi, but Bojan subconsciously stepped aside holding the roses.

"boom!"

The door of the locker room made a loud noise and was suddenly pushed open.

The rose in Boyang's hand bounced open, and red juice and red petals splashed everywhere.

As the whole team stared in amazement, Puyol stood at the door with his hands on his knees, panting, "Pep didn't come?"

The entire locker room was silent.

Puyol hadn't reacted yet and was still wondering why no one was talking.

Slowly looking up, I saw first leather shoes and a suit, then Guardiola's livid face, and finally a large bouquet of roses upside down on his head.

Puyol swallowed.

Charles quickly pulled up Messi, bypassed Guardiola and escaped from the locker room without mercy.

Pique, Henry, Xavi and others followed closely behind.

In the blink of an eye, a swarm of people rushed out of the locker room.

Even though Busquets is slow, like a wheelchair-type midfielder, the wheelchair can create sparks at this moment.

As he followed the main group, he also thoughtfully closed the door of the locker room and shouted inside, "Carls doesn't dare to resist!"

The bees quickly fled to the restaurant and a circle of people gathered around them.

Charles took a breakfast and asked, "Wouldn't it be unfair of us to do this?"

Messi was still lying on the table listlessly, and directly exposed him, "But you run the fastest." Busquets drank a glass of milk happily, "Don't worry, Pep will never do anything to Carles, well - at most he will put flowers on his head."

"Hehe," said Iniesta, who had just peeled an egg and couldn't help laughing at the thought of Puyol with roses on his head. "So who brought the camera?"

Charles understood immediately, "You are too mean! But I brought a camera."

When talking about this, everyone looked at each other and smiled.

……

Puyol was not kept for long. After having dinner with everyone, everyone got on the bus to Camp Nou.

In the past, we would not set off so early, usually three hours in advance, but considering today's heavy traffic, we had to set off earlier.

"Station, stage, you are watching the 2008nd round of the 09-32 La Liga season, Barcelona vs. Sevilla at home."

"Barcelona will face Sevilla, Valencia, Chelsea and Real Madrid in 11 days."

"It can be said that Barcelona is now in a devil's schedule. At this stage, no team is as burdened as Barcelona."

"After the 7-0 victory over Bayern in the Champions League, public opinion believed that Barcelona's true main lineup had emerged."

"Alves, Marcos, Pique and Puyol form the defensive line (left back Abidal is still recovering from injury)."

"Yaya Toure, Iniesta and Xavi form the midfield; Messi and Eto'o are the forwards."

"Among them, Charles is quite special. His original position is actually a midfielder, but his breakthrough ability is so strong that he can also be a striker perfectly."

"Guardiola's tactical system is very rigorous, but Charles is a special one among them."

"Plus Valdez guarding the gate."

"Some people now believe that Guardiola should not change the starting lineup when the results are good, especially when the season enters the sprint stage."

"Real Madrid is now chasing closely in the league, and any misstep in the Champions League could mean the team miss out on the trophy."

"But when facing a tough schedule, it's hard for players to maintain a high level of performance without rotation."

"In this game, Guardiola continued to rotate, Pique replaced captain Puyol, Abidal, Toure and Charles returned to the starting lineup."

"Iniesta replaced Messi who was absent due to illness, and formed an attacking trident with Eto'o and Henry."

"For Sevilla, Kone replaced Kanoute. Sevilla's old goalkeeper Palop received a yellow card in the last round and will be suspended this round. He will be replaced by young player Barras."

"Barcelona have won 6 and drawn 4 of their last 2 home games against Sevilla, including 4 consecutive home wins in the league."

“双方联赛历史交锋129场，巴萨66胜28平35负占据上风，其中主场48胜10平6负。”

"Here are the lineups for both teams:"

“巴塞罗那(4-3-3)：1-巴尔德斯/20-阿尔维斯，4-马科斯，3-皮克，22-阿比达尔/6-哈维，24-图雷，17-夏尔/8-伊涅斯塔，9-埃托奥，14-亨利。”

“塞维利亚(4-4-2)：13-巴拉斯/15-莫斯克拉，4-斯奎拉奇，14-埃斯库德，18-纳瓦罗/7-纳瓦斯，22-罗马里，8-马雷斯卡，17-卡佩尔/10-法比亚诺，9-科内。”

"In addition, in order to save energy, Barcelona is currently actively changing its playing style."

"Barcelona's original style of play was to make short passes in the frontcourt and create space through passing."

"But in the second leg of the Champions League away against Bayern, Barcelona still played short passes in the second half."

"But the ball is not passed in the front court, but in the midfield. The purpose is to use the ball to consume the opponent's physical strength and weaken the opponent's offensive."

As Charles was queuing in the stadium tunnel, he heard the system's voice again.

"TADA~Congratulations to the host for obtaining the reverse Squilach - 'Mehdi Mustafa Siba'."

"In a way, Squillaci looks like an 'Angel (Di Maria)', but the 'Angel' never played for Ajaccio."

"Nine years after Squillacci left Ajaccio, Mehdi Mustafa Saba, who was three years younger than him, also came to Ajaccio."

"Sometimes no one would have thought that their life trajectories would overlap again four years later."

"It's just that this time, they are teammates."

Charles thought about it for a long time, but he still didn't quite understand this "Mehdi Mustafa Siba".

He knew Squillaci before, he could be said to be a well-known player of Ajaccio.

Although he was originally loaned to Ajaccio, during the two years he played for Ajaccio, he directly helped Ajaccio to be promoted from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1.

Although Ajaccio was relegated again later, Squillaci had already left Ajaccio by then.

Charles sighed, regretting that he had not learned enough when he needed it. He still didn't know enough about the players. He could only wait until the warm-up on the court to find out.

Puyol, who had changed into his equipment, also walked out of the locker room. Seeing Charles' serious expression, he patted Charles' shoulder with concern, "Are you okay?"

As soon as Charles turned around and saw Puyol's face, he lost his composure and burst out laughing, "No...it's okay."

Puyol instantly changed from the affable captain to the ferocious-looking Carles, but when he spotted Guardiola approaching from behind in his peripheral vision, he looked affable again.

The "affable" Puyol firmly grabbed Charles' shoulder and walked towards the field.

……

The referee blew the whistle to start the game.

Sevilla has the ball.

Fabiano pushed the ball directly, and Navas faced pressure from Charles after receiving the ball.

Without any hesitation, Navas turned around after receiving the ball, and before Charles could get close, he passed the ball diagonally.

The ball was given well in advance. After Romali successfully received the ball, he faced Eto'o not far away and kicked the ball out without panic or hesitation.

He gambled again that Eto'o would never be able to intercept the ball.

Eto'o rushed out like a cheetah.

But in the end, Romari made the right bet. Squillaci easily stopped the ball with his left foot and stood still. Just as Eto'o rushed over, he lightly tapped the ball with his right foot.

Although goalkeeper Barras is a young player, he was able to pass the ball smoothly again when facing the ball passed by Squillaci.

Well, it wasn't passed to the Barcelona players.

The Sevilla defender had no intention of passing the ball back to the backcourt.

They are now ranked third in the league and want to try to capture the Nou Camp once away from home.

Soon, after receiving the pass from his teammate, Squillaci kicked the ball directly to the front court.

In the header, relying on tacit tactical cooperation, the ball was quickly passed to Fabiano after a few smooth passes.

Fabiano took the ball and ran wildly on the wing, but Abidal was always following him near the inside of the goal, so Fabiano had no space to shoot at all.

When he was about to reach the penalty area, Fabiano found that the space was getting smaller and smaller, so he could only force a shot.

Sure enough, Abidal appeared directly in his shooting path like a flash.

The ball hit him and bounced out of the sideline.

(End of this chapter)