Chapter 144: Blue Eagles vs. Green Lions
The hard-fought away victory over Besiktas excited the whole of Lisbon.
But after returning to Portugal, Sporting Lisbon went straight to Moreirense for an away game.
This newly promoted team has performed extremely well this season and relegation will not be a problem.
Bologna rotated the team's lineup. Eleven minutes into the game, Sporting Lisbon scored the first goal. Rui Bento opened the scoring for Sporting Lisbon.
But in the 30th minute, Tonito was sent off with a direct red card for a malicious foul out of anger.
Sporting Lisbon, who were one man down, fell into trouble on the field, while Moreirense launched an attack at the beginning of the second half and equalized the score in the 51st minute.
In the 65th minute, Bologna finally made a substitution, replacing Nikulai, who had a mediocre performance throughout the game, with Sudong.
No one can remember how many times this kind of substitution has happened.
After coming on as a substitute, Sudon was very active, and in the 73rd minute, he received a pass from João Pinto and scored against Moreirense, putting Sporting Lisbon ahead again.
The score remained the same until the end of the game.
2-1, Sporting Lisbon narrowly defeated Moreirense away from home.
…
In the same round, Porto beat Beiramar 3-0 at home and continued to maintain a four-point lead.
Everyone is also clearly aware that it is difficult for Sporting Lisbon, with its thin lineup, to maintain a two-front battle, especially with a Portuguese Cup coming up.
As expected, in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup in the middle of the week, Sporting Lisbon challenged Navarre away.
Boloni played with a half-main and half-substitute lineup, but kept Su Dong, who had been playing continuously, on the bench and continued to trust Nikulai.
As a result, Sporting Lisbon failed to score after a long attack away from home, and instead conceded a goal to their opponent in the 85th minute.
In the end, they lost 0-1 away and were unfortunately eliminated from the Portuguese Cup.
After the game, the media were not surprised that Sporting Lisbon was eliminated from the Portuguese Cup by a lower-level league team.
The Morning Post believes that with Sporting Lisbon's lineup configuration, if they insist on fighting on three fronts, the final result may be that all three fronts will be difficult to sustain. Even in the Portuguese Super League, Porto's performance can be described as quite stable.
"Mourinho's team is so stable, it's like they never make mistakes!"
The Morning Post said that Sporting Lisbon should make a decision on the main battlefield, such as focusing on the Europa League.
But sometimes, things are just so wonderful.
When more and more people suggested that Sporting Lisbon should consider focusing on the UEFA Cup, in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, the Green Lions actually drew the strongest of the eight teams, Lazio from Serie A.
This immediately caused widespread grief throughout Portugal.
Notícias even stated that Sporting Lisbon had the worst luck among the three Portuguese Super League teams.
In the knockout rounds, they faced teams from Greece and Turkey in succession. Not only did they have to travel back and forth for each away game, covering thousands of kilometers, but after entering the quarterfinals, they were drawn against the strongest team, Lazio.
This is really unique luck!
On the other hand, Boavista was drawn against Malaga of La Liga, a team currently ranked 14th in the La Liga standings.
Porto's luck was as good as ever. Although they drew Panathinaikos of Greece, they played the first leg at home.
As we all know, the best schedule for knockout matches is to play away first and then at home, but this is relative.
For a strong team like Porto, which wants to fight on multiple fronts, the best result would be to defeat the opponent directly in the first round and make the second round of the game lose suspense.
What’s interesting is that except for the second knockout round, Porto played all of their UEFA Cup matches this season at home first and away.
More importantly, the opponents are not strong.
This schedule is really favorable for them as they are fighting on two fronts.
After gaining enough goal advantages in the first round, we played a tight defense in the second round.
Of course, Porto's strategy is based on the team's overall strong strength.
In addition, Mourinho's team has indeed not encountered any strong teams along the way.
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In the 25th round of the Portuguese Super League, Sporting Lisbon will host Boavista at home.
This team, which had a great time fighting with Sporting Lisbon for the league title last season, has completely fallen into decline this season.
After selling several star players, Boavista is currently ranked only in the middle and its strength has declined a lot compared to last season.
Just five minutes into the game, Su Dong scored the first goal for Sporting Lisbon.
In the 20th minute, center back Tula committed a foul in the penalty area when defending Ronnie and was sentenced to death by the referee.
Albertini scored the penalty kick himself to extend the lead for Sporting Lisbon.
Afterwards, Sporting Lisbon deliberately slowed down the pace.
Especially in the 35th minute, Tula committed another foul, received another yellow card, and was sent off with a red card.
From then on, Boavista was completely defensive and Sporting Lisbon did not step up its attack.
Su Dong played for sixty minutes and was replaced early by Nikulai.
He needs to save his energy for the League Cup in midweek.
But it seems that no one is optimistic about Sporting Lisbon's first leg away trip.
So far, Sporting Lisbon has not performed well in away games in European competitions. Now that they face the powerful Lazio, the prospects are even less optimistic.
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Is Serie A strong? Yes, it is very strong.
The nickname of "Little World Cup" proves that Serie A is recognized worldwide as the world's number one league.
This is where the world's largest and strongest superstars gather, and the competition is also the most intense in the world.
Is Lazio strong in Serie A?
There is no doubt about this.
From the late 1990s to the turn of the century, after a round of crazy capital investment, Lazio's overall strength has been dramatically improved, and it has created a very powerful lineup.
Recently, Lazio's finances are not so good, but the team is still full of stars.
Former Italian legendary goalkeeper Peruzzi, Jaap Stam who is known as the world's top central defender, veteran central defender Mihajnovic, Italian international left back Favalli, and Italian international right back Pancaro.
In such a defensive line, Argentine international Sorin and Italian right-back Oddo can only play substitute and rotation roles.
In the midfield, there are Dino Baggio, Diego Simeone, Gazzetta da Gazzetta, Stankovic, Fiore...all of them are famous players in Europe and even in the world football.
Not to mention the forward line, Argentine star Lopez, Italian forwards Corradi and Simone Inzaghi, Serie A ace scorer Chiesa, all of which make Lazio's forward line star-studded.
You have to know that this is the lineup after Lazio sold captain center back Nesta, Argentine center forward Crespo and Spanish midfielders Mendieta and De La Pena.
The head coach of this team is also very famous, Roberto Mancini.
Lazio experienced turmoil last season, with neither Zoff nor Zaccheroni able to bring stability to the team. This season, under Mancini's coaching, Lazio has remained firmly in the top four of Serie A and is basically guaranteed qualification for the Champions League.
As the pressure in the league is not too great and the team has already reached the quarterfinals, Lazio may not necessarily have the idea of competing for this honor.
All these factors put Sporting Lisbon under great pressure from the beginning of the draw.
The outside media are also not optimistic about the Green Lions, believing that this team from the Portuguese Super League is not worth mentioning in front of the powerful Lazio.
Italy's La Repubblica even made a harsh statement before the game, predicting that Lazio would completely end the battle in the first leg.
"Mancini won't want the team to drag the suspense of the victory into the second round!"
In fact, everyone in Sporting Lisbon is also not optimistic.
…
The team arrived in Rome, Italy one day in advance and checked into the hotel that had been booked in advance.
But on the eve of the game, Sudon, Ronaldinho, Quaresma, Albertini and others gathered in the room, some lying on the bed, some leaning on the sofa, and Pepe even sat directly on the carpet.
Two emotions were written on everyone's face: anxiety and worry.
"Unlike all the teams we have faced before, Lazio is really strong, and it is a real strong team with strong players in all three lines. There will be no fancy moves."
Albertini came from Serie A and almost joined Lazio before, so he is very familiar with this team.
"I don't believe there is really no chance." Su Dong said.
"There is definitely an opportunity." Albertini nodded, "But to be honest, we have to be able to seize the opportunity."
After a pause, the former Milan vice-captain analyzed: "For example, Jaap Stam, 30 years old, 1.91 meters tall, this Dutch central defender is perfect. He has height, skills, speed and physical strength. He is never afraid of anyone, including Vieri. Moreover, in frontal defense, as far as I remember, very few people can break through him."
"His only shortcoming is probably the reason why Ferguson gave up on him. He is slow to turn around, and after that serious injury at Manchester United, his strength and condition have indeed declined a lot. But even so, he is still one of the strongest central defenders in the world."
"Then try to hit him from behind more..."
Before Su Dong finished speaking, Albertini shook his head and rejected it.
"You are wrong. Lazio is the team with the most draws in Serie A so far this season. As you can imagine, they have more draws than even those mid- and lower-level teams, so they have lost the fewest games in Serie A and have the best defense, second only to Juventus and AC Milan."
Albertini exhaled lightly when he said this. "You have to know that compared with the wealthy Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, Lazio is in deep financial trouble this season. The team can't even pay salaries. But such a team can still be brought to fourth place in the league. Facing the top three teams in the league, its record in six games is one win and five draws. The win was at Juventus' Alpi Stadium."
"Faced with such an opponent, with our strength, I can't think of any other way except to fight to the death."
In other words, Albertini believes that all the advantages Sporting Lisbon had against all previous teams have disappeared when facing Lazio.
Even veterans Albertini and Andre Cruz were pessimistic, so you can imagine how bad the team's morale was.
But is it really like this? Su Dong didn't believe it.
(End of this chapter)
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