Chinese players in Europe

Chapter 694 Enraged Tottenham
Tottenham Hotspur did not have a record of playing against Porto in the past history, but they played against Sporting Lisbon, also a Portuguese giant team, in the UEFA Cup group stage in the 1980-1982 season. At that time, Tottenham eliminated their opponents 1-0 in two home and away games under the leadership of legendary stars Yadinis and Hodo.

Although more than 20 years have passed since that game, the two teams have undergone earth-shaking changes, and Porto is not Sporting Lisbon, but the English media and fans are still digging out this dusty history and citing it again. There are many examples of the English team defeating the Portuguese team to illustrate how the English team has a psychological advantage when encountering the Portuguese team.

Tottenham just laughed off this far-fetched argument, but they are still full of confidence in winning an away game. After all, Tottenham is now a super team in Europe, and Porto has won in history. Too big ear cup, but their current strength... To be honest, anyone with a normal head would not think that Porto and Tottenham are comparable.

However, just before Tottenham were full of ambitions and prepared to launch their troops at the Dragon Stadium, Tottenham suffered a series of injuries. It is well known that Huddlestone cannot participate, but the main central defender Dawson and midfielder Parker Two days before leaving, I suddenly contracted the flu. On the front line, Ibisevic strained his thigh muscle during training. After the team doctor's diagnosis and treatment, it was confirmed that it was only a minor problem caused by fatigue, but although it was nothing serious However, for the sake of safety, the Bosnian striker can only watch from the sidelines in the first round of the semi-final match.

Dawson's frontal defense and air defense ability in the back line is unmatched by Tottenham, but he still has substitutes after all. Naldo and Basson can both go up and resist for a while. If it is not possible, Joel Luka can also A cameo as a central defender, and the injury of the main forward Ibisevic is more troublesome, but Raul and Adebayor have been in good condition recently, and they can also fill the vacancy left by the Bosnians.The most troublesome thing for Redknapp is the position of the midfielder. The main midfielder Huddlestone has just been injured, and the substitute Parker is doomed to miss the game due to influenza. The two outstanding midfielders in the team cannot play. , This caused a complete shortage of people in the midfielder position.

The situation was so embarrassing that Redknapp had no choice but to rush the ducks to the shelf and pull the left midfielder Gareth Bell back from the frontcourt. Anyway, Bell has played as a midfielder before and is no stranger to this position. He is a defensive player, and I believe his performance in this position will not be too bad.It's just a pity that Bell will sacrifice his excellent assist ability when he returns to the backcourt.As for the position of the left midfielder, Redknapp handed over the heavy responsibility of attacking from the left to Lennon, a teenager with excellent breakthrough and speed.Although Lennon's counter-attack ability is insufficient, he is active in winning. His offensive ability is not inferior to Bell's. I believe he can suppress the opponent on the wing.

In fact, Redknapp has nothing to do with it. No matter how outstanding his formation ability is, no matter how unpredictable he is, he is still a clever woman who can't cook without rice. If there is no one in his hands, everything he says is false!

Tottenham's defensive players in the backcourt are indeed in sharp decline this time, injured and injured, and rested, but fortunately Tottenham's attacking group in the frontcourt is basically complete. Except for Ibisevic, the other players The team can go out in the best condition.

Even so, the British media is still sweating for Tottenham. It is very difficult to win the game without a good offensive player at most, but it is very likely to lose if the defender and midfielder are absent. This is a very simple reason.The reporters can only bet their hopes on Tottenham's strong offensive line, use the injury-for-injury style of play, use more violent offense and more goals to take the initiative.

The afternoon before the game, the plane carrying Tottenham players arrived in Porto, Portugal. At the entrance of the Irapus Hotel where the team stayed, fans and reporters were already there, and the players signed autographs for enthusiastic fans. , while Redknapp accepted an interview with a reporter from Portugal's largest portal "SAPO".

Internet reporters are much sharper than print media and TV media reporters. After expressing the welcome of Portuguese fans to Redknapp, they bluntly asked Redknapp if he had thought of losing.

Redknapp admitted frankly: "I did consider the possibility of losing. After all, no team will never lose. Before the start of this game, our midfield lacked too much The main force, this is a bad situation that has never been seen this season, but I think me and my team are ready for it."

When a reporter asked the Tottenham coach what he thought of Porto, Redknapp said: "Porto is a great team. An important component of strength. Although the two teams have never played against each other in history, we know that it is undoubtedly very difficult to defeat them and successfully advance to the final."

What Redknapp said was half-truth and half-false. Complimenting Porto's greatness is pure nonsense. He didn't pay much attention to such a declining team.But it is true to say that promotion is difficult. If Tottenham had a full lineup, Redknapp would be full of confidence in victory, but now, his expectation for this game is to keep the tie and win.Anyway, you can't lose, and you have to score as many away goals as possible to seize the initiative for the second round of the game.

Finally, Redknapp also answered a reporter from the "SAPO" website about what kind of tactics Tottenham will use in the away game, "We have no secrets in this regard, our style of play and style have never changed. , mainly me, keep attacking, we have always insisted on playing beautiful football and winning. This is the characteristic of Tottenham Hotspur, we will always play like this, because it will make Tottenham Hotspur all over the world The fans are satisfied."

Irapus is a five-star luxury hotel with indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a health club and a rooftop bar on the top floor, free Wi-Fi in public areas, and a view of Porto and the city from the rooftop bar. There are beautiful views of the Douro River.

Of course, the main reason why Tottenham Hotspur chose this hotel was not because of these good facilities, but because this hotel is not far from the Dragon Stadium, and it only takes 15 minutes to feel the stadium if you walk.

After drinking afternoon tea, Redknapp held the team's first team affairs meeting after coming to Porto. The theme of the meeting was about defense. Compared with last season, Tottenham's offensive power is more mature and mature this season. Strong, 112 goals have been scored on all fronts, so Tottenham don't have to worry about offense at all.And the defense lost Dawson, hurt Huddlestone and Parker, which has never happened this season.Redknapp is very aware of the importance of defense. Although the outside world is talking about Tottenham's crazy and abnormal attack power, in fact, without a dedicated defense line, it is impossible for Tottenham to achieve the current results.

Naldo and Bell, who served as central defenders in this game, were naturally the focus of the team affairs meeting. These two men are offensive madmen, and their ability to attack is stronger than defense, so Redknapp strictly requires them to do well. Defensive mission.

Lennon was also given some opportunities by the nagging old Ray face-to-face, and asked the young England player to press on boldly without worrying about the defense behind him, and only needed to complete the task of assisting.

After Wenger finished speaking, assistant coach Kevin announced the training plan for today and tomorrow to the team, and then sent each player a prepared USB flash drive, which contained information about the opponent and the players' room. There are computers in the house, which can be used to study the opponents they will be facing.

After the meeting, Tottenham went to the Dragon Stadium for their first pre-match training session. Unexpectedly, many local fans came to support outside the stadium, including hundreds of Huaxia fans. Is Murphy's fan.Due to the special relationship between Portugal and China Macau, Mo Fei's arrival has also aroused the popularity of local fans.However, there are also some Portuguese fans who are more hostile to Mo Fei because he defeated Ronaldo at the FIFA awards ceremony, so the bodyguard Lao Yao almost followed and protected his employer in Portugal.

After the training, Redknapp participated in the pre-match press conference. In the press conference, Redknapp complimented Porto and praised that Porto is a difficult team to deal with at the Dragon Stadium. They have won a lot of honors in the European arena, and Tottenham are still far behind their opponents in this regard.However, Redknapp believes that the first round cannot decide who will advance, and the game at White Hart Lane is decisive.

Porto's 44-year-old young coach Pereira appeared to be more confident and passionate than Redknapp. When it came to excitement, he even loosened his tie, which seemed to restrict his performance: "... like As coach Harry said, at the Dragon Stadium, we are a well-deserved super team. Here, we are always full of confidence and can explode [-]% of the combat effectiveness. Porto has reached the semi-finals of the Champions League three times in history , two of which reached the final and won the Champions League in the end, so we have a psychological advantage and more experience than Tottenham, so the team that will eventually advance to the final will definitely be Porto. Of course, in terms of lineup, Tottenham It is true that they are stronger, but we are two-time Champions League winners, and we are better than Tottenham in the European arena... More importantly, many of their main players cannot play in this game, I think it is not enough to deal with a defense A neat squad won't have too much difficulty..."

When Pereira said this, Redknapp's face was very ugly. As the saying goes, if you swear at someone, you don't expose your faults, if you hit someone, you don't slap them in the face. He didn't even know where the other party's confidence came from, but he was able to be so arrogant, even to the point of ignorance.

"Porto is indeed better than us. Of course, I mean the effort on the lips. I don't think that no matter how confident and arrogant the off-court remarks are, it won't make much sense. Everything will be seen on the court!"

The Tottenham players watched the press conference in the conference hall of the Erappus Hotel. Seeing the opponent's head coach speak so bluntly and arrogantly, the Tottenham players felt that their lungs were about to explode. They have been provoked by many teams before, but this is the first time that the other party has been so outspoken in "revealing shortcomings" and stating that Tottenham are not as good as Porto.Porto is blatantly ignoring Tottenham!
Lennon clenched his fists and said angrily: "You say we are not as good as Porto? Are these bastards amazing? Are they Real Madrid or Barcelona! What a fuck!"

Bell also slapped the table and shouted: "Be sure to show them some color."

"If I were the coach, I would turn the table over and tell that bastard Pereira that you and your team are just clowns!" Van der Vaart said in a deep voice.

Mo Fei smiled slightly and mocked: "I'm about to be eliminated, don't you want to let others have fun with your mouth?"

Assistant coach Kevin was also very annoyed. He loves Tottenham very much and he doesn't want anyone to underestimate his team. Porto's ability to win the Champions League twice is a kind of background, and it must have the strength to reach the semi-finals all the way this season. What's more, this is their home court, and we must deal with it carefully."

"Bullshit background, this is a group of poor bastards who are addicted to the old days and can't extricate themselves." Van der Vaart interjected in a low voice.

Modric, who had been silent all this time, said calmly: "Mr. Kevin is right, maybe they just want to provoke us! We just don't let them do what they want, and fight them calmly. I don't believe it. Is it true that a European second-rate What kind of wind and waves can be turned up!"

"Even if they are top-notch in Europe, we have to beat them to the bottom of Europe!" Lennon yelled loudly again, "These people are destined to be a bunch of clowns! They have nothing to do but add more jokes! Let's go tomorrow We must deal with them well, slap them hard, and let them understand that there are some things that can be said, and some things that cannot be said! Arrogant, look at your opponents too, they must pay the price!"

The irritated "Assassins" are eagerly waiting for the game to come sooner, but the Portuguese media are still fanning the flames. In the report of the next day, Porto coach Pereira's arrogant photo was on the headlines of all newspapers page headlines, and in the side text report, Pereira's "Tottenham is not as good as Porto" remarks are also listed, Portuguese fans can't help but be full of wonderful fantasies about this game.

As everyone knows, Tottenham's angry butcher knife has been raised high, and is about to split them in half...

(End of this chapter)