Chapter 111
Cristiano always hangs around Carvalho during training.
As for the unlucky defender who might suffer the same mistake and be kicked in the lower body in the next game, Cristiano was thinking about how to remind him to protect his lower body without being regarded as a pervert.
Carvalho was puzzled by Cristiano's hesitation to approach him, and he couldn't help but call out to the man in front of him: "Cristiano, do you want to say something to me?"
"...Is it obvious?" Cristiano scratched his hair and muttered to himself.
Carvalho looked at the other man with amusement. It was obvious, very obvious.
Cristiano hesitated for a moment, then waved to the other party, indicating that he should come closer to talk.
"In the match against England, pay attention to Rooney," Cristiano said.
Carvalho raised an eyebrow when he heard this, of course he knew Rooney was Cristiano's teammate in the club, it seemed that their boy had some little secrets to share.
So the tall defender immediately called all the central defenders to come and listen - after all, they had to defend against those guys on England's front line.
Cristiano: “…”
He had never expected Carvalho to do this, but he could only bite the bullet and say dryly: "What I mean is that the English players have a lot of physical confrontations, so... protect your vulnerable parts and don't get knocked off the field."
"Vulnerable parts?" Carvalho asked in confusion, "Knees? Ankles? Chris, we all know these..."
"I mean, the key parts, below the waist and above the thighs." Cristiano interrupted Carvalho's off-center words, cleared his throat, and then swept his eyes over the lower bodies of his teammates in front of him.
Cristiano's gaze was so clear and so obvious that Carvalho and the other central defenders reacted quickly. They all bent down slightly, clamped their legs together, and coughed awkwardly.
"Cristiano!" Carvalho blushed and shouted to stop the Portuguese golden boy from staring at him.
"It seems you understand." Cristiano raised his eyebrows and breathed a sigh of relief. He thought he would have a more awkward and straightforward explanation, but he didn't expect his teammates to be so smart. He licked his slightly pointed fangs and narrowed his eyes. "That's it."
Carvalho muttered: "Oh my God... Rooney is like this... Does he hate men?"
"What?" Cristiano was stunned, not understanding why Carvalho's words suddenly gave rise to another meaning, "No, of course not..."
The teammates on the side interrupted and said, "He must be."
"Luckily Cristiano reminded us."
“So dangerous.”
"Don't worry, Chris, we won't tell anyone." His teammates promised solemnly, and were grateful for such a timely and crucial reminder.
Cristiano: “…”
Rooney must not know this.
…
The match against England is just three days away.
Proudly go to Schalke Stadium.
The players of both teams went to the field to warm up. Cristiano saw Alan's platinum head from afar, which was particularly eye-catching among the group of black-haired and brown-haired players.
"Alan!" Cristiano greeted him excitedly from afar. In his previous life, Alan was seriously injured in the match against Liverpool and was unable to participate in the World Cup. But this time, he was on the starting list.
Alan looked over when he heard the voice, raised his eyebrows, curled up the corners of his mouth and waved his arm in greeting.
Rooney looked over to Cristiano and muttered: "Ronnie, can't you see me?"
Ferdinand and Neville kicked the ball over and snorted when they heard it: "It must be because Alan's hair is too shiny that Ronnie found him."
Didn’t Ronnie say hello to them either? It must be the hair color.
Rooney touched his short stubble when he heard this. It must be because his hair was too short.
Beckham listened to the idle chat of several of his teammates. He narrowed his eyes slightly and looked towards the warm-up field on the Portuguese side. The young man wearing the No. 17 jersey was dribbling the ball briskly at his feet on that half of the field. From time to time, he would stop the ball with his back and then shake his shoulder to his forehead.
“It’s a bit flashy,” he commented.
Then his eyes fell on the other person's earlobe wrapped in tape - it must be the pair of shiny earrings - Beckham still remembered the report that Ferguson kept the earrings for the other person, and he was deeply impressed. He felt that it was simply unreasonable and that Ferguson was completely different from the impression he had of him.
Neville and Ferdinand both heard what Beckham said. They looked at each other at the same time, touched their noses and pretended not to hear it.
With less than half an hour left before the game started, the players who were warming up returned to their respective locker rooms.
When Cristiano was about to walk into the player tunnel, someone suddenly patted his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Figo motioning him to look to the side.
"BOSS?!" Cristiano looked over and exclaimed in surprise.
He immediately trotted to the side of the audience near the player's tunnel, where Ferguson was standing there waiting for him, smiling with his eyes curved and his arms open to welcome his little Portuguese.
"That fool Scolari actually let you start after all?" Ferguson hugged Cristiano, stroked the back of the boy's head with his hand, and gritted his teeth in Cristiano's ear in a bad tone.
Cristiano couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. He nodded and said, "The team doctor checked me before allowing me to play."
"Tsk." Ferguson didn't say anything else. He patted his shoulder and said, "Okay, go ahead and do your best."
What does England's game have to do with the Scots?
Cristiano responded cheerfully and trotted into the passage.
Beckham was watching not far away. He pursed his lips, lowered his head, and walked away quickly.
"David," Ferguson called out.
Beckham paused, walked over slowly, looked at Ferguson, and subconsciously opened his mouth: "BO..."
He braked in time.
Ferguson pretended not to hear and patted Beckham on the shoulder: "Go kid."
Beckham stiffened slightly, then nodded quickly, turned around and walked quickly into the player tunnel.
Ferdinand and others followed behind. When Ferguson saw them, he nodded slightly and turned back to his VIP audience seats.
Seeing this, Rooney whispered, "See, the boss is too obviously biased. He would even greet David, but he would just nod to us. He really only likes number seven."
Neville rolled his eyes slightly and put his arm around Rooney's neck: "Don't be unbalanced. If you can score a goal in this game, the boss will look at you differently."
Rooney curled his lips and said, come on, even without David and Ronnie, the boss obviously liked Alan more.
With so many people in front of him, Rooney was strangely more balanced.
///
"The game begins! Welcome to the Schalke Stadium! The quarter-final between Portugal and England is underway!"
"The Portuguese team is wearing red home jerseys and attacking from the left side of the screen to the right side; the English team is wearing white away jerseys and attacking from the right side of the screen to the Portuguese goal on the left side!"
Portugal took the lead in kicking off, and Figo made a back pass in the midfield to break open England's defense.
Cristiano mainly ran in the midfield and on the left side. Ferdinand and Neville were very familiar with the route controlled by Cristiano. As soon as Cristiano got the ball, they immediately approached and double-teamed him.
Having learned from the previous game against the Netherlands, this time Deco and Nuno stayed close to Cristiano at all times, ready to protect their forward line.
Cristiano looked up at Ferdinand who was chasing him like a high wall. He blinked his left eye at Ferdinand and stopped suddenly.
Ferdinand was caught off guard and failed to brake. He staggered forward twice. The nimble young man stopped suddenly, then lightly kicked the ball with his heel, and the ball passed Neville on the right and landed at Deco's feet in the middle.
Ferdinand put his hands on his waist and wiped his sweat with his head helplessly. Cristiano grinned and ran past the two of them quickly like a gust of wind.
"Ronaldo dribbled past two of his club teammates and sent the ball through the middle!"
"Deco passed the ball to Figo, who dribbled the ball to the right and broke through to the small penalty area! Shoot!!!"
The ball was narrowly saved by the goalkeeper.
Just a few minutes into the game, there was a strong threatening shot. Portugal seemed very active. After the ball was saved, Figo just smiled and gave a thumbs up to Deco and Cristiano, indicating that they had cooperated well.
The two sides then attacked back and forth. Beckham shot twice in succession towards the goal guarded by Ricardo. One long shot went over the crossbar, and the other was a small-angle cut in the penalty area that was accurately predicted and caught by Ricardo.
There was both applause and booing in the arena.
It was his free kick that won the last game and took England into the quarterfinals. The English fans on the field obviously wanted to see their hero show off his skills again in this game against Portugal and let the new Manchester United No. 7 from Portugal see what he has done.
There were also fans in the audience holding up a banner that read "Forever No. 7, David Beckham" and booed the Portuguese boy, telling him to go back to Portugal.
When it comes to national team competitions, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo will never truly belong to English fans.
But on the other hand, even local stars will still be despised if they lose a game. What fans always follow is the carnival of victory, and no one will embrace and taste the sour taste of failure.
Beckham pursed his lips. His knees began to ache again. His running became noticeably sluggish and slowed down.
"Alan and Rooney headed into the penalty area! Carvalho shoveled the ball away from Rooney's feet!"
"Alan quickly snatched the ball back!" the commentator exclaimed. After all, it is rare to see a striker knock down the opponent's defensive player in the opponent's penalty area. Often the striker is the one who is knocked down.
Alan intercepted the ball and turned around, shooting the ball without any pause or adjustment!
The ball spun, brushed past the goalkeeper's fingertips, and quickly hit the upper right corner of Portugal!
"The ball goes in!!!" the commentator exclaimed, "England is leading by one point!!"
Cristiano and Alan met eyes from a distance across half of the field. That goal was indeed a beautiful one. He clapped his hands to signal Alan. Alan blinked slightly in surprise, but soon he nodded and smiled at Cristiano.
"Alan Smith scored a point for England in the 13th minute of the game! We saw Ronaldo applauding Alan's goal on the field, and Alan nodded and smiled in response!" said the commentator.
His partner immediately echoed: "These two former best players in the club are now competing against each other on the court, showing the greatest respect and friendship to each other! It's really rare!"
Portugal's counterattack was launched quickly. Cristiano stole the ball from Neville's feet, and Ferdinand rushed forward and tackled the ball cleanly.
Cristiano jumped over nimbly, almost as if by muscle memory, keeping his balance, and immediately snatched back the ball that had been tackled.
"What a pity! After Ferdinand shoveled the ball away, England failed to catch up with the players in time! The ball returned to Ronaldo's feet!"
Ferdinand quickly got up from the ground and chased Cristiano, but Cristiano was too fast. He watched the number 17 printed on the crimson jersey slip away in front of him.
England's other defenders chased up from the right wing, but it was obviously too late.
"Cristiano Ronaldo ran through midfield with the ball and was fouled!" the commentator shouted. "England's defenders could only foul to stop Ronaldo's attack on the goal!"
"The referee showed a yellow card! And awarded a free kick!"
The free kick was more than 20 yards away. Ferdinand and his men formed a human wall and stared closely at Cristiano who was standing on the penalty spot.
"Damn it, it's the same posture again." Rooney lowered his voice and whispered, "I really hate him sitting opposite me right now."
"Stop talking nonsense and focus on Wazza," Neville said, thinking to himself, who doesn't hate it?
When he saw Cristiano take a deep breath and look past them towards the goal, his heart began to beat fast.
He was shocked by the determination and calmness in Cristiano's eyes. It felt like he was fighting a battle that he was sure to win. It was a terrible feeling.
"Ronaldo runs up... and shoots!!"
"The ball goes in! Ronaldo scores a long free kick against England!!!"
"Less than two minutes after Alan Smith scored against Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo immediately responded with a goal!! The score was tied!"
"In the last game, the last Manchester United No.7, Beckham, scored a free kick from 23 yards away from the goal to defeat Ecuador and lead the team into the quarterfinals. In this game, the current Manchester United No.7 also scored a free kick and broke through England's own goal! This ball was 27 yards away! It was like a rocket that shot into the goal!"
There was silence from the England fans as Cristiano scored from a long free kick into their net, a silent declaration that made the banners they were holding seem like a mockery of themselves.
Cristiano did not make any obvious celebration, and Figo and other teammates ran over and hugged him.
Not long after Cristiano scored, Beckham fell to the ground in a scramble. He covered his knee, growled in pain, and slammed the grass hard in frustration.
The team doctor quickly came on the field for emergency treatment and not long after, the England coach made a substitution.
There was an uproar on the field.
"Within 20 minutes of the game, England replaced their captain! Lampard replaced Beckham!"
"It seems Beckham has had a recurrence of an old knee injury. It's a pity. It's heartbreaking to see him sitting on the bench."
Cristiano glanced in the direction of Beckham and felt a sense of empathy. Nothing could be more painful for them than leaving the field due to injury.
He had been in a similar situation before, and he even had to be carried off the court on a stretcher, but for him, the physical pain was not even one-tenth of the mental pain.
But fortunately, the European Cup belonged to them that year. His teammates, who had been friends since Sporting Lisbon, played for him and scored the winning goal for them. Quaresma, together with him and this tenacious team, won the championship for Portugal.
And now, Cristiano has looked away, and England's road to promotion has come to an end.
Shortly after Lampard came on as a substitute for Beckham, England got a corner kick opportunity.
Neville took the corner kick, Lampard got the first point, very close to the goal, he kicked it sideways, and Ricardo dived to save the ball.
Rooney followed up with a shot, but failed to control the wildly spinning ball, which flew directly over the crossbar.
"What a pity! This was the moment when England had the best chance to reverse the score again!" the commentator lamented.
Rooney squatted on the ground with his hands on his head.
The whistle blew to end the first half.
Cristiano walked slowly towards the player tunnel. He could already hear the English fans in the stands booing in anger just because he scored a goal.
Alan quickly caught up with Cristiano. He bumped into Chris lightly, then took off his white jersey and handed it to him: "Exchange?"
Cristiano was stunned for a moment, then reacted. He took off his jersey and handed it to Alan, covering his mouth and said, "You don't have to do this. Maybe they will scold you too."
Sometimes even the household registration booklet may not be useful.
Just look at the fans of Leeds United and you will know how many crazy things Alan did when he first transferred to Manchester United. Burn the jerseys, hold up the Judas sign, and pierce the doll wearing Alan's jersey with silver needles.
These fans are crazy about both love and hate.
"Don't they scold me enough?" Alan sneered nonchalantly. After taking Cristiano's jersey, he threw his directly at the opponent's head.
"Hey!" Cristiano took off the jersey and couldn't help grinning, but at least he complained, "Can't you just hand it to me?"
Alan ignored him.
The broadcast screen did not miss the action of Alan and Cristiano exchanging jerseys in the midfield. The commentator in the broadcast room was a little surprised and said: "It seems that Alan and Ronaldo have a really good relationship. After each of them scored a goal against the other in the World Cup match, they actually exchanged jerseys while chatting and laughing."
"If England wins, it's fine. But if they lose, the headline in tomorrow's newspaper will be 'Manchester United's Two Judases'," his partner joked.
The two commentators looked at each other knowingly, smiled, and quickly changed the subject.
After the halftime break, the second half of the game kicked off.
At the beginning of the second half, England launched several threatening shots frequently, but they were all resolved by the goalkeeper or the goal post.
After a few attempts, the England team became noticeably nervous.
After Rooney stole the ball from Nuno, he immediately tried to break through with the ball. Cristiano arrived quickly, and Carvalho and Deco double-teamed Rooney from the front and back, sticking close to him to prevent him from turning around.
After Rooney used his body to forcefully push away the short-statured Deco, he immediately turned around with the ball, but was blocked by Carvalho, who shoveled the ball out from under his feet.
Rooney cursed angrily, and after being pulled away, he kicked back in anger, and Carvalho immediately fell to the ground and curled up.
The referee was right next to Rooney and Carvalho and blew the whistle for fouls almost at the same time.
Cristiano and Deco arrived quickly. Cristiano didn't expect this to still happen. He hurried to see Carvalho lying on the ground and gasped. He had clearly reminded the other party in advance.
"Oh my God, are you okay?" Cristiano asked in a low voice while lying on Carvalho.
Carvalho curled up and covered himself with his hands. When Cristiano asked, he used Chris's body to block his face and whispered: "Oh my God, that guy really hates men."
"Fortunately, he didn't kick me, but he should get a yellow card for this dirty move." Carvalho said quickly to Cristiano, and then groaned loudly and rolled over.
If Cristiano hadn't reminded him, he would never have been on guard and would have been kicked in that place.
Just thinking about it made Carvalho break out in a cold sweat and roll around even harder.
Cristiano was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then he scratched his face and stood up, ignoring Carvalho.
He looked at the referee, who had already taken out the yellow card and was recording it. Deco and Nuno rushed up to put pressure on the referee.
Cristiano saw Rooney angrily push Deco, just like he pushed himself in his previous life - Rooney, who was emotionally overwhelmed, didn't care at all who said what to the referee. All he cared about was being given a yellow card and being blocked from attacking with the ball.
Cristiano quickly stepped forward to grab Rooney and whispered to stop him: "Calm down, Wazza! You don't want to get a red card, do you?!"
Rooney sobered up for a moment after hearing this and stopped what he was doing.
"I get it, Ronnie." He waved his hand away in frustration, but he didn't expect that it would hit the hand of the referee who was about to show him a yellow card, and the yellow sapphire card was knocked to the ground by Rooney.
Rooney was stunned for a moment, and hurried to explain to the referee, but because of his previous actions, the referee directly determined that he was dissatisfied with the penalty and took out a red card from his waist!
"Oh my God! Rooney was sent off!" the commentator screamed. No one expected it to turn out to be such a dramatic scene.
"Let's take another look at the replay! Rooney's kick was indeed... Even if he was shown a red card right from the start, it wouldn't be excessive..."
"But what did Ronaldo say to him?"
Ferdinand and Neville also rushed over at this time. Rooney was obviously confused, and even Cristiano stood there in a daze. They obviously did not expect that some fateful trajectories would overlap again in such a funny way.
Lampard arrived shortly afterwards and hurried to explain and plead with the referee, while the other players were furious at the Portuguese player standing beside them.
Seeing this, Neville quickly pushed both sides away with one hand. He shouted in a low voice: "Damn it, Ronnie, just do me a favor and don't get involved! Get out of here!"
He couldn't guarantee what his angry teammates would do to Cristiano. Even if he and Rio joined in, they couldn't stop anything!
Ferdinand also quickly pulled Cristiano out. He pulled the boy's clothes back and pulled him away, pushed Figo towards him, and then quickly pinched Cristiano's neck. He could see that Cristiano was completely confused and his face looked very bad.
The whole stadium erupted in noise and uproar, as if they were going to tear down the Schalke Stadium.
Ferguson sat in the VIP stands with a cold and ugly face. All around him he could hear the deafening curses from the crazy England fans, and their hatred seemed to surge like a flood.
Even for him, it was hard to imagine what would happen next.
Besides, no one knows what happened on the court just now - what happened to Rooney and Ronnie's sudden waving after talking?
Ferguson could hear the fans in the stadium yelling angrily, all of them convinced that it was a provocation, a trap, a despicable "red card" tactic, but Ferguson was very sure that his little Portuguese would never bother to use such means.
Rooney had to leave the field, and Beckham, sitting on the bench, looked at the scene in front of him in confusion and despair - the England team, which was missing one player, almost had no chance of reaching the semi-finals.
The game was indeed dragged into a penalty shootout.
The English team, with their mentality completely broken, missed the first penalty kick. Except for the second goal, the next two penalties from Lampard and Gerrard were all judged by Ricardo and completely saved!
"Now it's Portugal's turn, and the penalty kick is from Cristiano Ronaldo! This ball will be the winning goal of the game! If he scores, he will directly kill the game!" the commentator shouted excitedly.
Cristiano took a deep breath. Right in front of him were the extremely angry English fans, who were looking at him with ferocious looks and cursing.
It’s nothing, he had experienced this in his previous life.
He closed his eyes, exhaled, then opened his eyes, ran up, and shot!
"Ronaldo scored a penalty!! So calm!!! Portugal finally won the ticket to the semi-finals in the penalty shootout!!"
“Congratulations Portugal!!”
Cristiano was knocked to the ground by his teammates, and he roared fiercely as if to vent his anger.
The England team fell to the ground. Alan silently watched Cristiano who was surrounded and hugged in front of the goal. He said nothing, but quickly returned to the locker room with the team.
The Portuguese side thanked the whole audience - even though more spectators threw water bottles and paper balls onto the field - Cristiano was quickly yelled at by Scolari to return to the player tunnel as soon as possible. He was really afraid that some crazy fan would rush into the field to retaliate.
Cristiano trotted back to the passage, both sides of which had been cleared by security to ensure safety.
Ferguson was specifically allowed to stay nearby, calling out to his child as Cristiano ran by: "Ronnie!"
"...Boss." Cristiano stopped and wanted to explain urgently, "I swear I didn't say anything, I just told Vazza to calm down. It was a pure coincidence. We tried to explain to the referee, but it was useless..."
Ferguson listened to Cristiano's quick and hasty explanation, and he felt more relieved. He pressed his hand down, motioning Cristiano to listen to him, "I understand, Ronnie, I believe you, but you need to..."
"But do I need to go to the England dressing room to apologize?" Cristiano asked Ferguson with a disappointed look on his face.
"What? No, of course not. Go to the England locker room, you don't need to apologize to anyone!" Ferguson looked at Cristiano angrily, "You need to calm down, block out those voices outside, keep your form and prepare for the semi-finals! That's what I want to say."
"The World Cup only comes once every four years. Let's put those conflicts aside. I will handle Rooney's side and the club's side." He held Cristiano's shoulder, stared into the boy's eyes and said seriously.
Ferguson was extremely grateful that he was at the scene, otherwise he didn't know how long he would have to delay in dealing with such a troublesome matter, and he didn't know how this incident would affect Cristiano's next game status.
Cristiano was stunned for a moment. This was completely an answer and possibility he had never expected.
His eyes quickly turned red, and then he hugged Ferguson tightly and buried his head in the other's suit.
"Thank you, Boss... Thank you, really." Cristiano said with sobs, speaking incoherently, mixing Portuguese and English, and his tears were all smeared on Sir Alex Ferguson's suit.
Ferguson sighed and patted Cristiano on the back of his head. Even though he would try to do something, he knew that the period after the World Cup would be more difficult: "Ronnie, I will make sure that no one can shake your position at the club, but you have to be mentally prepared. The next few days may be difficult."
Damn Scolari, he knew that this Brazilian was up to no good, and this could have been avoided if he had replaced Ronnie earlier! ——Ferguson was angry in his heart for no reason. If he had to find a scapegoat for this matter, it would be Scolari.
Scolari sneezed violently again in the locker room.
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