At the dinner that night, Gu Ran and Ronaldo chatted for a long time again, and finally finished a glass of red wine. The friendship between the two was greatly improved.

When the party was over, Ronaldo took the initiative to put his arm around Gu Ran's shoulders, took a photo with his mobile phone, and they exchanged contact information.

The two chatted for a while in the parking lot before Ronaldo drove away.

Mendes also sent a driver to take Gu Ran to the seven-star hotel specially booked for Gu Ran by Real Madrid Club.

I have to say that Real Madrid's operation is much more clever than Barcelona's.

After all, as a world-class club like Real Madrid, it could have been more arrogant than Barcelona, ​​but Real Madrid did not do that. Instead, it carefully sent out its fellow player Cristiano Ronaldo and Mendes to a friendly dinner and brought up the matter of transferring to Real Madrid.

This actually means that Real Madrid has not officially made its decision yet.

In this way, if Gu Ran is really interested in joining Real Madrid, then Real Madrid will naturally come forward in an official capacity and start negotiating the transfer. If Gu Ran does not agree to join Real Madrid, then at least for the sake of Ronaldo, they will not completely refuse, and there is still room for the transfer.

Compared to Barcelona, ​​which only sent a scout disguised as a staff member to contact Gu Ran, Real Madrid's operation scored a big point.

Of course, Gu Ran has his own ideas.

Be it Real Madrid or Barcelona, ​​even though they are among the top giants, they are not Gu Ran’s first target.

After the meeting with Ronaldo, Gu Ran returned to Southampton on Ronaldo's private plane the next day.

After taking a day off at home, Gu Ran returned to the Staplewood training ground and trained with Salah and other newcomers.

On September 20th, the battle of the English League Cup will resume.

Southampton was listed as a seeded team because of its performance in the previous League Cup, so it did not need to participate in the first two knockout rounds. On the 20th, it played directly as a visiting team against Ipswich Town in the third round of the League Cup.

Ipswich Town was very weak, so Southampton did not play conservatively at the start, but instead adopted a 4231 offensive formation. Gu Ran also moved to the central midfielder position, cooperating deeply with Salah, Chamberlain and Lallana.

In the end, Southampton defeated Ipswich Town with a score of 11:0.

Among them, Gu Ran completed a double-double, scoring 4 goals and providing 4 assists.

Salah scored a double, Chamberlain also scored a goal, Henderson scored a goal, Mane, who came on as a substitute in the second half, also scored a goal, Ward-Prowse also scored a goal, and Rudiger also scored a header from a corner kick.

This massacre-like score also made Southampton fans cheer and believe that the team will be able to return to the Premier League after this season.

Southampton Club's share price in the secondary market also soared with this big victory.

Three days later, on September 24, the Championship League opened with Southampton facing Crystal Palace at home.

In this game, Southampton sent out a rotation lineup. Gu Ran sat on the bench and did not play. Mikel and Van Dijk took on most of Southampton's defense, and Henderson was half Gu Ran, playing a go-between role in the midfield and frontcourt.

In the end, Southampton narrowly defeated the visiting Crystal Palace team with a score of 2:1.

Southampton's Henderson performed well, getting the highest score of 7.9 points in the game and had an assist. Lallana and Mane each scored a goal.

On September 29th, the second round of the Europa League group stage kicked off.

Southampton played at home against the Polish powerhouse Lech Poznan.

Lech Poznan is the strongest team in Poland, and Lewandowski was once the star player of Lech Poznan.

However, Lech Poznan still has overall strength, and Polish teams have always been tough, physically fit and highly competitive.

From this point of view alone, Southampton will not have any advantage in terms of physical strength and confrontation in the competition with Lech Poznan.

In this game, Coach Adkins carefully deployed a 442 defensive counterattack formation.

Lech Poznan played high and continuously attacked Southampton's flanks.

Soon, in the 14th minute of the first half, Southampton found an opportunity to counterattack. Van Dijk accurately intercepted the cross from Lech Poznan on the right, and then without even looking at it, he kicked the ball directly to the empty area near the center line.

Gu Ran started half a beat ahead of time and sprinted to the front of the football with the speed of the Son of Wind and the King of Highbury. He first stopped and passed a midfield defender, then continued to sprint, and used his body to eat two tall Eastern European players of Lech Poznan. From outside the top of the penalty area, he forced a long shot and changed the score to Southampton 1:0 Lech Poznan.

Lech Poznan, who conceded a goal first, immediately increased the tempo of their attack and the intensity of their confrontation.

However, Southampton is a defensive counterattack team, and the team not only has a group of world-class Mavericks players, but also Gu Ran, a B2B midfielder.

As long as Lech Poznan makes a mistake in attack, Southampton can launch a sharp and exciting counterattack.

At the end of the first half, Southampton used defense and counterattack to score three consecutive goals against Lech Poznan.

Among them, Gu Ran scored 1 goal and assisted 1 goal, Salah assisted 1 goal, Mane scored 1 goal, and Chamberlain also scored 1 goal.

Southampton scored in many areas in the first half.

In the second half, Rudiger unconsciously handballed in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty by the referee.

Lech Poznan finally seized the opportunity and scored a face-saving goal.

However, after this goal, Lech Poznan faced a crazy counterattack from Southampton.

Lech Poznan has always been known for its offense, but its defense is not that good.

At the end of the second half, the score was 7:1.

Gu Ran completed a hat-trick and Salah also scored a goal.

After the second round of the Europa League, Southampton won all 3 points, with a total score of 6 points, ranking first in Group G.

In another match in Group G, Atletico Madrid easily defeated Lille of French Ligue 1 3:0 with a clean defensive counterattack away from home.

As a result, the points situation in Group G has changed.

Southampton ranked first with 6 points, Atletico Madrid jumped to second with 3 points, Lech Poznan and Lille lost the game and each had 1 point, ranking third and fourth at the bottom.

Southampton's chances of qualifying are bright.

This game also allowed the share price of Southampton Club to continue to soar in the stock market, and Southampton's shares became a hard-to-come-by commodity in the stock market.

…

(End of this chapter)