Chapter 120 His Legs Weakened

This weekend, in the 11th round of the Portuguese Super League, Sporting Lisbon will face Maritimo at home.

Pepe faced his old club and started with Andre Cruz.

The trident of Sudong, Ronaldo and Quaresma all sat on the bench.

Boloni's statement to the outside world was also very straightforward. The three young players performed well in the League Cup in the middle of the week, tried their best, and needed more time to rest.

But the result of the Trident's rest was embarrassing.

That is, Sporting Lisbon's attack was silent throughout the game, until the 60th minute, when Quaresma was replaced, the team's offense began to improve, and Ronaldo was replaced in the 74th minute to continue to strengthen the attack.

Su Dong replaced Tonito in the 81st minute and partnered with Niculai as a striker.

The stalemate continued until the end of the game.

In the 89th minute, Su Dong and Quaresma cooperated on the right side. Quaresma dribbled the ball into the penalty area, but was blocked out of the baseline and turned it into a corner kick.

Albertini took the corner kick, Sudong made a feint, and Pepe got the ball and headed it into the goal.

The Brazilian center back scored the goal that broke the deadlock against his old club Maritimo.

The game then entered overtime.

At the last moment, Su Dong retreated and got the ball, then suddenly accelerated and dribbled forward. At the front line of the penalty area, he made a sudden shot with a powerful Bati GOL, which once again opened the door for Maritimo.

Two to zero.

The entire Alvalade Stadium was cheering for Sudong's goal.

Sporting Lisbon fans are becoming more and more fond of this young Chinese player who came out of their own youth training camp.

Although, according to UEFA regulations, Sudong is not considered a youth training player of Sporting Lisbon, and Sudong has not even trained at the Sporting Tower Stadium, the fans don't care about the regulations. They only know that Sudong is their own child who came out of the youth training camp.

…

After the game, media reporters once again gave high praise to Su Dong's performance after he came on as a substitute.

There is also a front trident.

So a media reporter asked Bologna, "Since all three substitutions were given to the front three, why didn't you arrange them to start?"

There was a burst of laughter in the press conference hall.

There were three substitutions, given to Quaresma, Ronaldo and Sudong respectively, and it was these three players who changed the course of the game. In this case, why not just arrange them to start?

Of course, Boloni heard the ridicule and sarcasm from the media reporters, but he still maintained his composure.

The Romanian head coach said that he did not arrange them to start, more out of consideration for physical energy consumption.

"These three players are 17, 18 and 19 years old respectively. At their age, many players are still playing as substitutes. I can't make the decision to let them play on two fronts and play two games a week, and I don't think it's a good thing for them."

However, these righteous remarks are somewhat overshadowed by the fact that they had previously suppressed Su Dong and unconditionally supported Nikulai. After all, Nikulai played the entire game tonight and did nothing again.

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A week later, the Portuguese Super League was suspended and the fourth round of the Portuguese Cup was held.

This is also Sporting Lisbon's first Portuguese Cup this season.

The opponent was an amateur team from the regional league, Estarreja.

Bologna did not take this game too seriously. The strength of the opponent was there. Sporting Lisbon had good luck in the draw and it was a home game, so the team still played with a substitute lineup.

It was just that Nicolaj started again.

Just two minutes into the game, Carlos Martins scored the first goal for Sporting Lisbon.

But in the 17th minute, Estarreya scored a goal.

Five minutes later, Nikulai finally scored a goal.

This was the Romanian center's first goal of the season.

He was so excited that he ran around the field, venting his inner depression. Finally, he hugged head coach Boloni tightly in front of the home team's coaching bench to thank his compatriots for their unconditional trust in him over the past year.

But after that, Nikulai never scored again.

Ronnie and Danny, who came on as substitutes, scored two goals in a row, helping Sporting Lisbon beat their opponents 4-1 and advance smoothly.

…

After qualifying, Sporting Lisbon's luck in the draw is still good.

The opponent in the fifth round is Olivia from the third level.

After the game, Portuguese media reported Nicolae's goal.

The Romanian center forward was once highly anticipated, but he lived under the shadow of Jardel last season and has not been able to break his goal drought this season. Now he finally scored against an amateur team in a regional league.

“In fact, even against amateur teams from the regional league, it was still very difficult for him to score.”

What this means is that Nikulai wasted too many scoring opportunities.

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After playing the Portuguese Cup, Sporting Lisbon immediately prepared for the first leg of the UEFA Cup away game.

The opponent is Thessaloniki from Greece.

Su Dong is not only in the 18-man roster, but will also be arranged to start.

But this time, he finally experienced the nightmare of playing away in European competitions.

The voyage to Portugal and Greece is 2,500 kilometers, which is undoubtedly a very long journey.

But this is just the beginning.

There are no direct flights from Portugal to Greece. You have to transfer in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, or Munich...

In order to save time, Sporting Lisbon prepared a flight for the team to transfer to Amsterdam. The entire journey took more than eight hours, and it was already two o'clock in the morning when they arrived in the Greek capital Athens.

After staying in Athens for one night, we flew to Thessaloniki in the north the next day.

Not only that, for the weekend match, Sporting Lisbon has to fly back to Lisbon immediately after the away game, which is also a long journey and a lot of hassle.

When they actually arrived at the competition venue, everyone realized that the long journey had exhausted their energy.

Including Sudon, Ronaldinho, Quaresma and Nicolaj who came on as a substitute, all performed poorly.

Fortunately, Sporting Lisbon's defense was good, and they were only broken by the opponent's forward in the 51st minute, resulting in a small loss of 0-1 away from home.

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Throughout the game, Su Dong and the other two performed poorly and could not muster any energy.

…

"Now I finally understand why they say that the most formidable enemy in away games in Europe is not the opponent on the pitch, but the long journey."

On the return flight, Ronnie said with a sad face.

Not long into the game, his legs went limp.

"Who said it wasn't?" Quaresma was also frustrated. "This is just Greece. If we encounter Turkey, or Georgia or Azerbaijan further east, it will be even more terrifying."

Su Dong also smiled bitterly, but he thought of another piece of news.

"Don't forget, there is Kazakhstan further east. They just left the Asian Football Confederation in April and officially became the 52nd UEFA member in July. We will meet in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup in the future."

At the end, Su Dong couldn't help laughing.

Although they lost the game, in fact, Thessaloniki's strength is not that strong, mainly because it is too difficult to play away.

Not to mention the two flight changes, the journey was extremely long and the conditions were very poor, which was unbearable for the players.

The main reason is that Sporting Lisbon is too poor. If it were like other wealthy teams, they could have chartered a plane directly.

Firstly, there was no money, and secondly, there was only half a month from the announcement of the draw results to the away game, and it was difficult for the club to prepare in all aspects. It is conceivable how much the players suffered along the way.

However, after returning to recuperate, in the second round of the Lisbon battle, it was the opponent's turn to have nightmares.

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The long journey and the rush back and forth not only affected the first round of the UEFA Cup, but also the Portuguese Super League derby.

In the twelfth round, Sporting Lisbon faced its city rivals Benfica.

The team's performance remains sluggish.

In the twelfth minute of the first half, the team's defense made a mistake and conceded a goal.

In the 42nd minute, Thiago scored another goal, helping Benfica lead 2-0.

Su Dong came on as a substitute in the 54th minute, but his performance was not outstanding and he failed to help the team turn the situation around.

In the end, in this city derby, Sporting Lisbon lost to Benfica 0-2.

…

The media, fans and club management all expressed understanding for the team's two consecutive defeats.

The team traveled a long distance to play away games, and the consumption and pressure were indeed very high. After returning to Lisbon, they immediately faced Benfica. The team could only conduct one afternoon of recovery training the day before the game, and had no time to prepare and adjust.

On the contrary, Benfica is recuperating in Lisbon, waiting for their city rivals.

As one side gains, the other loses, so it's normal to lose.

However, Su Dong said in an interview with the Morning Post that he was not worried about the team's condition at all.

"I know it's hard to accept two losses in a row, but the trip to Greece did have a very big impact on us."

Su Dong took the initiative to mention his discomfort. He had been running back and forth for a whole week and couldn't even maintain normal training. This was undoubtedly quite uncomfortable and was also the reason for the team's poor form.

"In the next week, we can have a good rest. The team will have two days off. I believe this will help us get back to form as soon as possible and achieve better results in the next few games."

As for the UEFA Cup home game against Thessaloniki, Su Dong said confidently, "We will definitely reverse the opponent!"

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As expected, after a week of rest, Sporting Lisbon's performance has indeed improved significantly.

But in the 13th round, when challenging Bellagio away, Pepe's mistake led to the opponent's goal just seven minutes into the game, and the game then fell into a stalemate.

Su Dong came on as a substitute at halftime and assisted Nikulai to score in the 54th minute.

Two minutes later, Nikulai returned the favor and assisted Su Dong.

The two centers finally broke the awkward situation of not interfering with each other and assisted each other.

In the 79th minute, Ronnie assisted Tonito to score another goal.

In the end, Sporting Lisbon reversed Beiramar 3-1 and took all three points.

(End of this chapter)