The biggest fanatic in football

After leaving a wreckage in Singapore, it was already July 22 when we returned to Spain.

There are only four weeks until the official start of the new season, and the time left for the Bat Corps to adjust the lineup is actually very limited.

Due to the unexpected joining of Lipolo, Nuno's plan to buy defender Abdennour from Monaco was rejected by the top management, thus saving the club nearly 24 million euros...

Boss Lin will definitely feel lucky for this decision, because this Tunisian player has not only been proven to be a big parallel import in history, but he also left the team for free in the end, and the transfer fee of more than 20 million euros was completely wasted!

I don’t know if it hindered Nuno’s plan to “spend money”. Although Li Polo worked extra hard in daily training and maintained high-intensity extra training, he even beat his own competition many times in intra-team competitions.

Opponents Mustafi and Vizo, but...but it did not affect Lee Polo being placed on the substitute side in every group training.

On July 30, Valencia went to Cologne, Germany to participate in a friendly match.

Since the host is Cologne Club, it can also be called the "Cologne Cup".

In addition to the hosts Cologne and Valencia, there are also two participating teams from other leagues: the Portuguese Super League giant "Red Dragon" Porto, and the "Potters" Stoke City who are mixed in the Premier League.

The rules of this event are a bit strange. Four teams are divided into two groups. Each team only competes with two teams from the other group. Finally, the results are calculated in the order of points, goals, and goal difference.

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——In fact, it is not as refreshing as each team playing three games in a single round-robin.

Valencia's first opponent is Porto.

Although the giants of the Portuguese Super League in the 21st century are somewhat silent, they have been playing the role of "European black shop" very steadily, and continue to deliver many first-line players to European football, including Deco, Carvalho, and Pepe.

, Anderson (Manchester United), the more recent ones include Hulk, Falcao, J Ronaldo, Mangala, J Ma...

In Porto in 2015, their lineup was a bit bleak. Except for Casillas, who had just left Real Madrid, only Andre Silva was somewhat famous. The rest were Tello, Aboubakar, and Ossie.

Even Waldo cannot get into the eyes of European giants.

But... such a down-and-out Portuguese team has made Valencia, fourth in La Liga, into a tough fight!

Although Porto did not pose much of a threat to them from beginning to end, in the face of the group bombing of Negredo, Paco, Parejo, and Feguli, Casillas simply relied on his high pick and low block to complete the victory.

90 minutes of clean sheet!

The score of 0:0 lasted until the last second of regular time. Li Polo, who was sitting on the bench, watched the two sides enter a penalty shootout!

After the first five rounds, both sides conceded one goal each and had to send out a sixth penalty kicker.

Porto's Tello relied on the talent from La Masia to deceive goalkeeper Matthew Ryan and easily volleyed.

Valencia's Joao Cancelo wanted to score a "spoon penalty", but he failed to deceive the experienced Saint Cassie and was directly confiscated by the latter!

Cancelo put his hands on his hips and shook his head, but he was not too frustrated.

It's just a warm-up match, who cares so much about winning or losing?

-

After only 48 hours, the second game started again.

Facing the host Cologne, Nuno wisely put together a substitute lineup.

Of course he has reasons to arrange this. Didn't his main players just finish the first round?

Lipolo unfortunately started the game and became Nuno's gift to Cologne...

His defense was still fierce and steady, but it couldn't stop his teammates from being distracted, and the lack of cooperation in the back line couldn't stop the Cologne team's fierce offensive. Before the first half was even finished, the host nation scored three goals in a row.

, almost destroyed the Bat Army!

Nuno on the sidelines did not feel too ashamed, but the players on the field were a little shameless. After all... Cologne was only ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the Bundesliga last season, while Valencia was

We won the fourth place in La Liga with dignity and dignity!

There shouldn't be such a huge difference in strength between the two sides!

The revitalized Valencia showed a completely different mental state in the second half. Andre Gomez assisted Mina and Rodrigo to complete the goal, and when he got the third chance to set the ball in the frontcourt

, he finally successfully connected with Li Polo and completed his third assist!

3:3, Valencia tied the host strongly!

As the Cologne team only accumulated 4 points with one win and one draw, they had to lag behind Porto, which had two consecutive victories, and won the runner-up place in the "Cologne Cup".

Nuno Santo used his actual performance to give the best gift to his old club where he has played for many years.

He is worthy of being Porto’s meritorious goalkeeper!

-

With the good result of third place in the Cologne Cup, the Bat Army returned to its base and continued its pre-season preparations.

Probably feeling that such results might demoralize the team, the club quickly invited Zaragoza from the Spanish Second Division, hoping to find a soft persimmon to pinch.

It is a bit regretful that Nuno's team still did not perform well even against low-level teams. They have been accustomed to defensive counterattacks for a long time and lack the means in positional warfare, so they have high hopes.

Negredo failed to function as a "battering ram" at all, and instead was defeated in physical confrontations time and time again.

Faced with the opponent's quick counterattack, Mustafi and Vizzo also looked very embarrassed. The German central defender even made a hasty return pass in the penalty area and almost broke his own goal...

Fortunately, in the end, they still relied on the score of 2:1 to win this victory without any danger, which did not make Zaragoza gain confidence.

But the embarrassing thing was that when the game reached the final stage, a chorus of uniform shouts rang out from the sky above Messitalia Stadium:

"Rufit! We miss you!"

Hearing the shouts, the stadium suddenly burst into boos, and Nuno Santo's face was even more ugly!

The "Rufit" in the fans' mouth is the former sports director who was just squeezed out by him!

It is precisely because Rufitt was fired that Nuno was able to hold the two positions of head coach and director, completely mastering the right to speak on transfers, and became the "one-handed" talker within the team!

Nuno looked at the excited fans and felt aggrieved.

[If it weren’t for my iron-fisted leadership, would the team last season have achieved fourth place in the league? 】

[If I hadn’t strongly persuaded him, would Boss Lin have spent more than 100 million to buy players? 】

[If it weren’t for my connections, how could the fishmongers in Singapore buy so many talented players?]

[They can’t even buy Negredo, a Spaniard!]

——Ah, although the price is indeed a bit high, there is nothing we can do about it!

[You can’t just let the horses run without giving them grass, right?]

The Portuguese young marshal secretly clenched his fists:

[You narrow-minded Spaniards are simply discriminating against me, a Portuguese!]

[Just watch, wait until I win a trophy this season, and then I’ll slap you in the face!]