Chapter 150: The Italian Twins of Seville, Part

At 2006:12 on December 3, 17, the 13th round of the La Liga, Sevilla away challenged Espanyol. Ricardo watched the game at home with Chiara, waiting to send Chiara to the airport to catch the evening flight after the game, and some passionate stories happened while watching the game...

Compared with the League Cup match in the middle of the week, Juan Ramos made four adjustments: Puerta rested David as left back, Osio replaced Dragutinovic as central defender, Marty replaced Maresca as right forward, and Kanoute replaced the injured Li Qi and Fabiano to form a double striker.

Navas, who returned from injury, sat on the bench with Copa, Duda, Escud, Hinkel, Maresca and David.

Although the Spanish team played away in the UEFA Cup in the middle of the week, they still played with all their main players in this game. They were fierce and fearless. They ran very fast after the start and everyone rushed for the ball...

However, it was the visiting team that broke the deadlock first. In the 25th minute, Sevilla's quick counterattack finally broke through the Spanish midfield press. Adriano broke into the right side of the penalty area and was tackled by the Spanish goalkeeper Kameni.

The referee decisively awarded a yellow card and a penalty, and then Kanouté scored a penalty kick, scoring his 10th league goal of the season and helping Sevilla lead Espanyol 1-0 away from home.

Falling behind at home, the Spaniards launched an even more fearless counterattack, which put Sevilla in a panic for a while; however, taking advantage of the home team's heavy pressure, Sevilla also got several good opportunities to counterattack, but they failed to seize them. Marti, Alves and Fabiano missed good chances to score in front of the goal one after another.

In the second half, the Spanish team regained their momentum and suppressed Sevilla's fierce attack in the first half; from the 45th minute to the 65th minute, there were nearly ten shots, including many good opportunities that were close to scoring. It was all thanks to Palop's magical performance and enviable luck that the goal was kept intact.

Ricardo knew the situation was not good. If Spain equalized the score, they would definitely lose the ball again. They had to control the ball...

But it was useless for Ricardo to worry in front of the TV. Apart from making Chiara enjoy herself more, he couldn't change the situation on the field.

Just as Chiara gritted her teeth and rolled her eyes, in the 68th minute of the game, Espanyol finally equalized the score!

Halke sent a straight pass from the midfield, and captain Tamudo cleverly stopped the ball, pulled the ball and turned around, breaking through Navarro's defense, breaking into the left side of the penalty area and shooting from 12 yards in front of the goal. This was his fifth league goal this season, helping the home team to a 5-1 tie.

The home team, which had equalized the score, was even more motivated and pushed Sevilla's defense desperately. Juan Ramos could only keep changing his players, hoping to change the situation by making substitutions, or at least disrupt the home team's offensive rhythm. Duda and Copa were sent onto the field one after another...

However, it was of no use, Espanyol still took the lead in the 80th minute of the game.

In the 80th minute, De La Pena made a 45-degree cross from the right, and Luis Garcia, who was lurking at the far post, broke free from the defense and easily shot into the empty goal; Espanyol reversed the score 2-1!

Helpless Juan Ramos could only send Navas who had just returned from injury, hoping to equalize the score through a flank attack at the last moment.

In the 85th minute, Espanyol really gave Sevilla a chance. Riera was sent off with a red card for a foul on Alves who broke through the wing. Sevilla gained the numerical advantage in the last 5 minutes of the game.

However, before the final whistle, Sevilla was unable to make up for the disadvantage in the score, and the final score was still fixed at 2-1, with the home team in the lead and the visiting team behind.

After Sevilla's winning streak was ended by Espanyol, it also lost a good opportunity to overtake Barcelona and regain the top spot. This was also Sevilla's first defeat in the past seven league rounds.

Real Madrid, which kicked off at the same time, reversed the visiting Athletic Bilbao at home, overtaking Sevilla by one point and closely following Barcelona by only one point.

After this game, Sevilla will have a week of rest and will host Real Madrid at home next weekend. This is also the highlight of the next round of the league and a direct confrontation between the championship teams. After all, there is currently one second and one third place.

……

After sending Chiara away, the scumbag Li had no time to feel empty before he met Eva who had just returned from the town, and started to have an in-depth communication with Eva overnight... Well, the specific arrangement was the Christmas holiday itinerary:

里卡多将于12月20日晚上结束本年度的最后一场比赛，之后全队就将放假一直到来年的1月5日，有长达15天的冬歇假期。

Ricardo will leave for Chicago, USA to meet Sarafina on the evening after the race, and will participate in Nike and Coca-Cola's business activities and advertising shoots in the Great Lakes region on the 22nd and 23rd; then Ricardo will take Sarafina to New York to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas, and participate in Tissot and Kinder's business activities and advertising shoots.

Afterwards, Ricardo will separate from Sarafina on the pretext of going to London with Raiola to inspect the Premier League. Sarafina will fly to Milan on Christmas Eve to go home to see her parents, and the scumbag Lee will fly to London on Christmas Eve to throw himself into Julian's arms.

In the next three days, Lee will take Julian to travel back and forth between London and Manchester to attend business activities and advertising shoots for Armani and Tissot; Raiola will also contact Prudential on behalf of Ricardo to discuss endorsements in the insurance field.

Then the scumbag Lee will return to Milan, Italy with Julian to visit their family. Although Ricardo has a conscience, he only stays for two nights to accompany his parents and brother, and during this time he also attends Nike and Armani's promotional activities and advertising shoots in Milan.

At the same time, single mother Eva will take her family to celebrate Christmas in the Swiss hot spring resort where Ricardo stayed last year, and Chiara will fly to Greece with her family and friends at almost the same time; Ricardo will naturally cover all the expenses, but both families are low-key and have not arranged round-trip first-class flights. It's just the hotel, plus the cost of local car rental and meals, which is not much money.

Afterwards, Lee will meet up with Chiara in Rome on the evening of December 12th to participate in the New Year's countdown in Rome and attend promotional activities and advertising shoots for Coca-Cola and Telecom Italia.

The day after New Year's Day, Li will return to Spain and meet up with Eva and her girl in Madrid. They will travel together in Madrid for two days and attend promotional activities and advertising shoots for Kinder and Armani.

In the evening of January 1, if nothing unexpected happens, Ricardo will return to Seville on time to report to the club.

Ricardo's Christmas vacation is so tight. He dates, hangs out, and attends business events as a cover. In between, he also squeezes in three private lessons and six self-training classes. Unless he is rushing on a plane, Ricardo will spend an hour and a half training every day to stay in shape.

However, all the major endorsement brands are quite satisfied with Ricardo's Christmas schedule. He traveled around the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, just in time to take care of business activities in various places. With Ricardo's popularity rising, if he continues to cooperate in this way, it is not impossible to increase his endorsement fee!

However, after making the itinerary plan, Ricardo felt exhausted... He hasn't reported to Sarafina and Julian yet. Although he had briefly tested it before and there was a high probability that there would be no problem, with business activities as a cover and shield, the two of them would basically cooperate. However, they both said that they wanted to completely occupy their Christmas vacation.

Another thing is that Chiara has changed a lot. I wonder if it is the impact of the sale of the pipeline company this year. I also wonder if she will become more sensible next year?

As for layoffs? The scumbag Li Zizi thought that he had enough energy and strength now, and he was determined not to lay off any employees. He also stopped cheating on his girlfriends, which was considered a good service to his four girlfriends...

During the week, Ricardo kept talking on the phone, confirming the details of his business trip with Raiola and Pimenta, and chatting with Sarafina and Julian about the places they planned to visit. Fortunately, Sarafina and Julian quickly accepted Ricardo's plan, the former had 4 and a half days, the latter 3 and a half days...

However, before the end of the winter vacation, both of them made appointments to come to Seville to visit the set; Ricardo was nervous again, but he would wait until the end of January or February. Fortunately, the holidays in the United States are longer than those in the United Kingdom, otherwise it would be difficult to avoid the time.

With Eva's company, time quickly came to Saturday, December 2006, 12.

At 22: tonight, Sevilla will face the Galacticos Real Madrid at home, which is also the highlight of this season's championship battle.

塞维利亚是迄今主场唯一保持6战全胜的球队，而皇马客场战绩5胜1平也是西甲第一，不过皇马近3次做客皮斯胡安球场1平2负未尝胜绩。

This week, Sevilla had no European matches or King's Cup games, so they had six days of rest and were fully energetic and ready to go.

Most of Real Madrid's main lineup was rested in the Champions League match in the middle of the week. Cannavaro and Guti returned from suspension to replace Messia and the injured Diarra respectively. Ronaldo, who scored twice in the middle of the week, also started the game, while Ramos started against his old club.

Real Madrid fielded a star-studded 4-4-2 formation;

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Casillas;

The back line from right to left is No. 2 Salgado, No. 4 Ramos, No. 5 Cannavaro and No. 3 Roberto Carlos;

The midfield combination is No. 14 Guti, No. 8 Emerson, No. 23 Beckham and No. 7 Raul;

The forward line combination is No. 17 Van Nistelrooy and No. 9 Ronaldo;

Also sitting on the bench were big-name stars such as Messi, Reyes and Robinho.

As for Sevilla, they also fielded all their main players, and Juan Ramos still chose his usual 4-4-2 formation;

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Palop;

The back line from left to right is No. 3 David, No. 14 Escude, No. 2 Navarro and No. 4 Alves;

The midfielders from left to right are No. 6 Adriano, No. 11 Renato, No. 8 Paulson and No. 7 Li Qi;

The forward duo is No. 12 Kanoute and No. 10 Fabiano;

Navas, who returned from injury, started on the bench. In addition, Maresca, Puerta, Dragutinovic, Duda, Kepa and Mati and other good players were also on standby on the bench.

After the opening, the two sides started a fierce competition. Sevilla almost directly replicated the treatment it suffered at Espanyol's home last weekend, but this time the fierce pressing was given to the visiting team Real Madrid.

In the 7th minute of the game, Li Qi broke through the opponent's defense with a pass and created a good chance to score.

However, after receiving a long diagonal pass from Li Qi, Adriano stopped the ball and broke through Salgado, but he dribbled the ball a little too far and was promptly intercepted by the newly-minted world No. 1 defender Cannavaro.

Although Real Madrid was temporarily at a disadvantage in Seville's devilish home court, they still scored the first goal in the 13th minute.

Alves fouled Van Nistelrooy on the backcourt wing. After all, the king of the small penalty area was nearly 1 meters tall, very flexible, and had good skills, so he was really hard to defend against. Li Qi was two steps slow in returning to defense, and Van Nistelrooy almost got into the penalty area. Alves could only foul in time to block him.

But this free kick from the corner of the penalty area was only about 28 meters away from the goal, which was within David Beckham's shooting range...

Beckham performed his signature free kick, and the ball brushed the hair of Li Qi who was jumping, drew a beautiful arc, and fell straight to the far corner of the goal... Old goalkeeper Palop originally wanted to block the near post, but when he saw the ball heading towards the far post, he flew up and stretched his body to the extreme.

But Shell's free kick was so good, even though it was not a very accurate shot, it was still at the world level, with a large arc, fast speed and tricky angle... Palop still failed to touch the ball and could only watch the ball fall into the net in the air.

This was Beckham's second goal of the season, successfully helping Real Madrid lead Sevilla 2-1 away from home.

However, Sevilla did not panic after being scored against, because we had the obvious advantage, especially on the right side where Li Qi and Alves were, suppressing the left side guarded by Roberto Carlos and Guti...

Roberto Carlos was naturally furious when he met the same guy who had given him a red card last season. But a year later, Carlos had aged a little, while Li Qi was stronger, so Li Qi had a greater advantage.

Before the game, Juan Ramos arranged to attack the right side where Li Qi and Alves were, trying to break through Real Madrid's left wing defense and create space for the fatal blow in the middle and left.

However, just 4 minutes after Real Madrid scored, Li Qi and Alves' right-wing attack was effective, successfully helping Sevilla equalize the score in the 17th minute.

The repeated assists from Li Qi and Alves made it difficult for Guti and Roberto Carlos to cope with the situation. Seeing this, Cannavaro came over to block Li Qi's further breakthrough.

When the latter saw Cannavaro leaving the middle of the penalty area, he made a low cross and sent the ball to Kanoute who was facing away in the middle; Kanoute leaned on Ramos and passed the ball directly back to Fabiano who was in a better position to face the goal.

Fabiano took advantage of the fact that Cannavaro had not yet returned to his position and Ramos' flying tackle had not yet arrived, and volleyed the ball with his left foot. The ball hit the bottom of the crossbar like lightning and bounced back into the middle of the small penalty area... and Kanoute, who had just passed the ball, turned around and blocked Salgado, stopped the ball with his chest, and then shot the ball into the empty goal from 8 yards in front of the goal.

Casillas, who had just dived for Fabiano's shot, could only lie on the ground and watch the ball go in. This was Kanoute's 11th league goal of the season, helping Sevilla tie the score.

After being tied, Real Madrid quickly adjusted their tactics. Capello knew that if he only defended on the left, he would be beaten by the opponent's young right wing. After all, the opponent had the advantage in physical strength and speed, so he could not defend. He could only attack, force the opponent to return to defense, and suppress the opponent in the half court...

So Roberto Carlos began to frequently provide assists, but as he was older, he no longer had the strength to go all the way as he did in the past, so he could only keep threatening the home team's goal with long-range shots.

In the 18th minute, Van Nistelrooy fired a shot, but Roberto Carlos' long shot from 40 yards missed.

In the 21st minute, Ronaldo passed the ball straight to the left, and Roberto Carlos shot from 25 yards, and the ball hit Palop right in his arms.

However, Li Qi and Alves were not too worried about Roberto Carlos' long-range shots. Instead, they felt that such shots were the best way to consume Real Madrid's hard-earned possession of the ball.

However, the tactical adjustments made by Real Madrid's other left-wing player, Golden Wolf Guti, were more effective, helping Real Madrid regain a lot of initiative for a while.

……