After the game, Piero took the initiative to walk towards Gu Ran.

"Hey, Gu. Congratulations on winning this game. You deserved the victory."

After all, he is the Zebra Prince, and his speech is very classy.

Gu Ran quickly said politely: "Mr. Piero, I like you very much. It is my honor to be able to compete with you today."

Piero smiled and said, "No, no, it's my honor. I have played with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but I dare say that you are better than them. They have resources like Barcelona and Real Madrid, but you don't. I believe that as long as you find a big club that can give you resources, you will definitely surpass Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo."

Gu Ran smiled and said, "Thank you for saying that. I will continue to work hard."

Piero patted Gu Ran's shoulder in a friendly manner and said, "If you are interested in coming to Juventus, I can help you. Juventus is a world-class club. As long as you come to Juventus, I promise that all the resources in Juventus will be yours."

Gu Ran quickly said: "I'm sorry, Piero, I don't mean to reject your kindness, and I'm not targeting Juventus, but in fact, I prefer to stay in the Premier League to play football."

Piero sighed helplessly, "Well, Serie A is indeed not as vibrant as the Premier League now. However, my invitation to you remains unchanged. No matter what happens, as long as you are willing to come, please call me at any time."

"Okay, thank you."

The two then exchanged phone numbers and then exchanged jerseys.

This season will be Piero's last season, so there will be one less Piero's game jersey left.

After this difficult game, the third day was the match day of the Championship League.

Coach Adkins rested all the main players and faced Hull City at home with an all-substitute lineup.

In the end, Southampton's substitutes performed well and defeated Hull City with a score of 3:2.

The next day, April 20, was the Championship League match day, and Southampton played against Middlesbrough at home.

The intensity of the two consecutive days of the English Championship League is extremely high.

But there is no way around it, because Southampton has the Carabao Cup, FA Cup and Europa League games, so several Championship games have been postponed, and now it is time to make up for the games.

Fortunately, Southampton has sufficient bench depth this season, and coach Adkins continues to send out a full substitute lineup.

In the end, Southampton lost 1:2 to Middlesbrough.

Although we lost the game, it had no practical impact, and Ward-Prowse and Mane also performed very well.

Immediately afterwards, on April 21, it was another Championship match day, and Southampton challenged Blackpool away.

Coach Adkins sent out half of the main players for rotation.

In the end, under the leadership of Gu Ran, Southampton beat Blackpool 4:0.

That’s right, as long as Gu Ran is there, a score of 4:0 is indeed a small victory.

April 22nd is another Championship match day, and Southampton will challenge Crystal Palace away.

Gu Ran was rested, while Mikel and Lallana led the team.

In the end, the two teams ended up in a 0:0 draw.

On April 23, the Championship match day, Southampton challenged Peterborough United away.

In this game, Coach Adkins also let the team go and sent out all the main players.

As a result, Peterborough United did not live up to their expectations and was beaten 1:0 by Southampton's all-substitute lineup.

Peterborough United's relegation is almost a foregone conclusion.

On April 26, the second round of the Europa League semi-final resumed.

Southampton flew to Turin, the football capital of Italy, to challenge the old lady Juventus away.

During this period, the intensity of the Championship matches was very high, with matches held every day for 6 consecutive days.

Fortunately, Southampton had already secured the Championship title early on, otherwise, they would have definitely collapsed at this time.

Now, Southampton's main players have had sufficient rest, and they are all in high spirits and full of energy.

This game also attracted many Juventus celebrities and senior executives to watch the game.

Zidane, who had just retired, also came to watch the game.

The Turin Stadium was packed with people, even the aisles were filled with crazy Zebra fans, and fireworks were already set off in the stands before the game started.

In this game, Juventus head coach Conte did not make many changes to the formation. He still chose to trust the main players from the last match.

On the Southampton side, Sturridge was replaced by Mane, who has performed well recently, and the formation was changed from 4231 to 442, using English-style long passes to break Italy's chain defense.

At the beginning of the game, both sides engaged in fierce fighting in the midfield and frontcourt.

Both teams are stable and focus more on defense, so the situation was very stalemate from the start.

According to the last round of the two teams' match, the situation is favorable to Southampton. However, this is Turin, the football capital of Italy, and Southampton's opponent is also the world-class veteran Juventus. Therefore, an advantage of only 1 goal difference is really not much of an advantage.

The deadlock between the two sides was broken in the 27th minute.

Pirlo dribbled in the middle, Gu Ran and Mikel went up to intercept, Pirlo was not fast, so he was easily entangled by Gu Ran. Mikel forced a steal, but Pirlo's ball protection level was extremely high, and Mikel failed to intercept the ball after two consecutive kicks.

Just as Pirlo turned around to pass the ball, Salah retreated from the center position and directly intercepted the ball.

Pirlo was only concerned with defending Gu Ran and Mikel, and never expected that the center forward Salah would take the initiative to retreat and steal the ball.

When Pirlo wanted to counterattack again, Gu Ran had already taken off with the ball, leaving Pirlo several steps behind.

Juventus immediately contracted its formation and implemented chain defense against Gu Ran and other forwards.

However, Gu Ran had no intention of passing the ball. While accelerating at full speed, he lobbed the ball while running from a position at least fifty meters away from the goal !

Zidane in the audience couldn't help but exclaimed.

Buffon's position was slightly forward, and by the time Buffon reacted, it was too late!

The football was in the air above the small penalty area, with an obvious acceleration and falling motion! A flying fairy from the sky plus a deadly elevator! …

(End of this chapter)