The biggest fanatic in football

August 19th.

"Nuno, how are Valencia's preparations for the new season?"

"In a few warm-up matches in the summer, you seemed to have only defeated low-level Zaragoza. Can you beat Monaco in this state? They were the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season!"

At the pre-match press conference for the Champions League qualifying play-offs, Nuno Santo was confused by reporters' questions.

He scratched his nearly bald forehead, scratched his beard, and organized his words:

"We bought a lot of people this summer, so the team needs more time to adjust to the new lineup. The results of the warm-up matches have gone up and down, which is normal. If you have watched our games against Bayern and Cologne, you will find that,

Our performance was not bad and the players were actively integrating into my tactics."

The reporter immediately asked:

"Will the departure of last season's core player Otamendi create a weakness in the team? Do you think the partnership of Mustafi and Vizzo can really support the team's defense?"

Nuno Santo's answer is simple:

"We are not just two defenders. I believe that the players can play their due roles. However, the transfer window has not closed yet. Maybe we will have new deals, who knows?"

The Portuguese coach's confidence was not out of thin air. The next afternoon, he proved himself with practical actions.

As public opinion said before the game, Monaco during this period was not an unknown underdog.

They ranked third in the French Ligue 1 last season, second only to the two giants Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon. In the Champions League, they even eliminated Arsenal in the top 16 and finished first in the top 8.

The goal was a small loss to Juventus, creating the best European record in ten years.

Under the leadership of head coach Jardim, this Monaco team also has many star players:

Carvalho and Tularan are still strong and their swords are still young, Moutinho and Shaarawy are also in the prime of life, not to mention the "new Henry" Martial, Kurzawa, Bernardo Silva, France

Binho, Lemar, Pasalic... these young people around 20 years old are even more likely to catch up from behind.

But such a team with a scientific combination of old, middle and young people suffered a blow at the Mestalla Stadium!

Less than 4 minutes into the game, DePaul made a pass from the left, Feguli headed the ball over, Rodrigo scored in front of the goal, and the Bats got off to a dream start.

The two sides then exchanged offense and defense, but failed to change the score. In the 4th minute of the second half, the performer became the Monaco side.

Martial stepped on the joint team, passed the entire right side of Valencia in one breath, and then sent a cross to the goal.

Center defender Vizzo barely made a clearance, but he still kicked the ball to the feet of the opponent's player Pasalic. The latter accepted the gift and volleyed the goal to equalize the score.

After losing the ball, Nuno quickly made adjustments. He replaced DePaul with Piatti to further strengthen the wing breakthrough and attack. Piatti did not disappoint him. After only 4 minutes, he assisted Pare.

Huo scored!

In the last 15 minutes of the game, Valencia completely took advantage of the field. In the chaos after a corner kick, Feguli pushed the opponent's clearance ball into the goal, and the score was fixed at 3:1.

Nuno's three substitutions were used on Piatti, Negredo, and Fuego respectively. Lipolo could only watch the 90-minute performance of Mustafi and Vizzo on the bench.

There were a few times when he was defending, and he couldn't help but cheer for the opposing players from the bottom of his heart!

Mustafi's performance was quite satisfactory, but Vizzo made three or four major mistakes. In addition to the mistake in clearing the ball that resulted in an own goal assist, he also overestimated his own jumping ability, which resulted in him intercepting the high-altitude ball.

There was a missed shot at the time, but unfortunately Martial was not prepared and the shot was not powerful and was easily resolved by goalkeeper Ryan.

The 3:1 victory over Monaco immediately silenced the public opinion that was not optimistic about Nuno before the game. The Bats have already entered the Champions League main game with one foot.

Three days later, on August 22, the 2015-2016 La Liga season officially kicked off. Valencia's first opponent was Rayo Vallecano, who ranked 11th last season.

Although the ranking and strength are only in the middle, this team has attracted much attention in China.

The reason is simple, because they have a Chinese player in the team, Zhang Chengdong.

And this game... has also been given a lot of exposure by the domestic media that are full of patriotic sentiments, and has even been described as a "Chinese Derby"!

This kind of exposure did greatly increase the ratings of this game, but after 90 minutes, those fans who stayed up late to watch the game were extremely disappointed.

Neither Zhang Chengdong nor Li Polo had a chance to play for even a second in this "focus battle"!

They could only miss the scene on the bench!

The process of this game was also lackluster. Valencia, who had just finished playing in the Champions League, obviously had not recovered from the excitement. Playing away games, they directly formed a defensive formation and gave up possession of the ball.

But Rayo Vallecano, who has a weak lineup, does not have very good offensive methods. The harder they attack, the more fierce the counterattack will be...

There were no goals, no wonderful passes, and only four yellow cards remained in this stadium in Madrid.

Although a draw was acceptable, Nuno still felt a little pressure looking at the obviously tired players, especially players such as Piatti and Vizzo who made consecutive mistakes.

"Isn't it too reluctant to fight continuously?"

He thought carefully for a long time and finally reached a consensus with his coaching team:

"It seems... we have to rotate for the next game!"

-

Li Polo, who had been on the bench for two consecutive games, unexpectedly got a yellow vest in the training session after the first round of the league.

Does this mean that he has entered the lineup of the main team?

He hadn't been happy for a minute when the assistant coach conveyed Nuno's meaning:

"Due to continuous fighting, the next game will be an away game. We need to rotate the lineup to a certain extent, so in the next two days, we will strengthen our defensive tactics to ensure nothing goes wrong in France!"

Li Polo looked at Wei Zuo, who looked relaxed and was about to take a vacation, and quietly swore a poisonous oath:

"When I come back from France, prepare to take a long vacation!"

-

Happy days are always short-lived. Just two days later, Lee Polo boarded a flight to the away game with the team.

Although Monaco is third in Ligue 1, they are not a French team, but from the independent Grand Duchy of Monaco.

However, since this country only has 38,000 people, most of whom are immigrants or wealthy tax avoiders, it is impossible to organize a professional football league, so they participated in the Ligue 1 matches nearby.

At the pre-match press conference, Nuno and midfielder Fuego expressed their attitude:

"We will definitely win this game!"

"The club spent more than 120 million euros in transfer fees in the summer window just to advance to the Champions League!"

Then……

On August 25, at 7:30 in the evening, the decisive battle for the tickets to the Champions League finally kicked off at the Stade Louis II!