Chapter 152: The Final Battle of the Year, Part

After beating Real Madrid 2-1 at home, the entire Sevilla team was very happy, even a little proud. Head coach Juande Ramos actually publicly stated for the first time that Sevilla has the strength to win the La Liga championship this season: "We have the ability to compete with the league's two giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona."

Ramos probably felt a little crazy after saying that, so he quickly tried to redeem himself: "Our results and performances show that our strength is at the same level as theirs... However, the season is very long and we need to be patient. Our team has great potential, and I hope the team can continue to improve and beat more teams, not just strong teams like Real Madrid."

However, Capello, who lost at the Pizjuanya Stadium, disagreed with the media's criticism of his ugly football. He said in the post-match press conference: "A more reasonable result should be a draw, but this is football... Sevilla's first goal was a rebound from the crossbar, and the second was a world-class overhead kick scored by Li Qi from a set-piece. Our Carlos and Ronaldo also had chances... But overall I am satisfied with the team's performance and I firmly believe that the team will continue to move forward."

Capello also commented on the performance of Sevilla players: "The opponent has several fast players and played a good wing attack. However, they did not create too many chances today... Their Li Qi is a very good player, but I think his best position is not on the wing or the front line..."

……

After winning the crucial battle, Juan Ramos not only felt good at the press conference, but was also in a good mood after the game and gave the whole team a day off.

Eva took advantage of this Sunday to bring her daughter to downtown Seville to meet Ricardo. Ricardo had previously agreed to be the godfather of Eva's daughter, but he also needed Eva's daughter to agree and accept it, after all, the previous "fathers" were really scumbags and not reliable at all...

So this time Eva decided not to find a father for her daughter, but to hire a godfather, at least this godfather is very rich; but the prerequisite is that the two must have some emotional foundation first, or Sofia must not resist Ricardo, otherwise it would be useless to hire him. However, if the two have a good relationship after meeting, they can get the relationship of godfather and goddaughter in the church in Madrid during the Christmas holiday...

Eva arranged their first meeting at the largest shopping mall in downtown Seville - the Nivihon Shopping Center, a super-large complex that combines fashion, catering and entertainment. It has the best cinema in Seville and the largest children's playground in the city.

When Ricardo saw Sofia for the first time, he was mesmerized by the cuteness of this little princess. She was even cuter than the cutest girl Ricardo had ever imagined: it seems that Eva’s ex-husband, a scumbag, is also a super handsome guy. Coupled with Eva’s natural beauty, they together created this little angel who fell into the world.

Sofia Garcia, who just celebrated her 6th birthday, is about 1 meters tall. Today, she wore a pink dress with shiny patches, a pair of pink princess shoes, a pink Mickey hairpin on her head, and light brown hair draped over her shoulders. Her facial features are as delicate as a doll, with big eyes, curved eyelashes, rosy lips, and a chubby face with baby fat...

Ricardo's heart almost melted when he saw it. After all, it turned out that old Li Qi was also a daughter-obsessed man, and this point might have been passed on to Ricardo to some extent. Originally, Ricardo just thought that he was a scumbag because he liked beautiful women, but he didn't expect that deep down it was because he liked being a father!

Sophia is 6 years old, and her mother Eva is only 29 years old. So when Sophia is 18 years old... Duck! Scumbag Li! What evil things are you thinking about! You are the man who will become Sophia's godfather and umbrella!

Ricardo quickly calmed down, hid his evil heart, disguised himself as a righteous gentleman, and rushed to give Sofia a big white bear doll, then hugged the shy and timid little angel affectionately, and introduced her without any shyness: "Hello, Sofia, just call me Ricardo or little brother. Are you hungry? Or do you want to go to a movie first? Have you seen "Happy Feet" which was released last month? There is a penguin who loves to dance, it's very interesting..."

However, Sophia saw the largest Toys "R" Us in the atrium at a glance, so Ricardo went on a big shopping spree for the little angel. As long as Sophia liked something, Ricardo would buy it all. How much money can a toy cost...

When it was time to check out, she found that there were too many items to carry. Eva tried to persuade her that it was too much, but Ricardo said it was okay and asked Sofia to pick two and have the rest delivered to Sofia's grandparents by courier.

The same goes for buying clothes and shoes, and eating... Eva is even a little jealous. Ever since Sofia appeared in Ricardo's eyes, Ricardo has been staring at Sofia without blinking, he is a perfect example of a daughter slave.

But this also made Eva feel a little relieved. At least he loved his daughter more than her previous scumbag husbands, and this feeling was really painful. He even forgot about her. Look, Ricardo, who had captured Sofia's trust, had let Sofia ride the horse to the naughty castle to play, leaving him in the restaurant to look after the large and small shopping bags...

Eva hoped that Ricardo would not just be a novelty, but would always be nice to Sofia, then she would feel relieved... However, after watching a movie at night, when she returned home with the sleeping little princess in her arms, Ricardo's words completely broke Eva's defenses, and she almost made up her mind to give Ricardo a free ride for the rest of her life: "Eva, go find a bigger house as soon as possible, and let's bring Sofia to the city, and I'll find the best school for her. Sofia is going to be a princess, and she must receive the best education since childhood..."

A lifetime may be too long, but at least that night Ricardo was very happy. Models, stewardesses, young wives, and married women, isn't this ecstasy? In order to avoid disturbing Sofia, Ricardo quietly put on the bunny earmuffs bought at Toys "R" Us and a bunny eye mask for the sleeping little angel. Anyway, like readers and listeners, he couldn't see or hear the specific battle situation...

……

In the middle of the week, Sevilla also has a UEFA Cup group match at home against Alkmaar of the Netherlands; however, this match does not affect the promotion situation of both sides, because both sides have already qualified in advance.

The only thing that will be affected is the group ranking of both teams, and then the opponents after promotion. However, before the game, the entire Sevilla team was confident of winning, having just defeated Real Madrid at home, and was in good form, ready to welcome the opponent's long journey; and Sevilla would secure first place in the group as long as they drew; but how could the home team draw? It would definitely be another big win.

Before they knew it, the entire team from top to bottom felt a little bit adrift, including Ricardo, who had accompanied Sofia on a trip these days, and Juan Ramos, who was already arranging signings for the winter break.

2006年12月14日周四晚间，06/07赛季欧洲联盟杯C组的最后一轮小组赛展开争夺。

Sevilla coach Juan Ramos focused on the weekend league, so he kept several main players such as Alves, Kanoute, Renato and Navarro in the bench. Even Palop, Adriano, Poulsen and the Italian duo started the game from the bench.

Juan Ramos started with backup goalkeeper Cobinho, and the back line was Hinkel, Dragutinovic, Osio and Duda;

The midfielders are Salles, Martí, Jesuli and Puerta; the two forwards are Fabiano and Copa;

Except for Fabiano, it was a pure substitute lineup. However, Van Gaal did not send all the main players to play - yes, Alkmaar's head coach this season is the famous Dutch coach Van Gaal!

It is well known that Van Gaal has a fanatical love for offensive football, but in this game, he commanded the team to give possession of the ball to Sevilla and chose a defensive counterattack strategy.

After all, Van Gaal is also a tactical master, not just a stubborn old man who doesn't know how to adapt. He wants to go head-to-head with the defending champions who are in good form at the devil's home ground? That's not a question of whether it's wise or not, it's just sheer stupidity. Didn't you see that the Galacticos returned home in defeat a few days ago? Alkmaar doesn't have Cannavaro and Casillas...

Although Van Gaal's tactics did not work very well in the first half, they still restricted Sevilla's attack. Apart from the one-on-one efforts of Puerta and Fabiano, the home team did not pose much threat to the Dutch team's defense.

Ricardo, who was sitting on the bench, had a vague feeling that something was not right, because Sevilla's offensive organization was very chaotic today, and they were too eager to kill the opponent with one blow, so the offense had no sense of hierarchy at all; and it seemed that the whole team was a little floating, everyone wanted to show themselves, and the desire to attack was too strong, even the two full-backs attacked at the same time...

However, shortly after the start of the second half, Sevilla scored the first goal.

In the 52nd minute, the visiting team defender Da Silva fouled Fabiano in the penalty area, and the Brazilian shooter scored a penalty to give Sevilla the first score.

Ricardo saw that his team was ahead, and wondered if he was worrying too much. After all, Sevilla had the advantage of playing at home, and their technical level was indeed higher than their opponents. He glanced at the head coach, who seemed to be calm and confident, and kept urging the team to press forward and try to secure the victory as soon as possible.

However, Van Gaal immediately deployed a substitution, replacing midfielder Zeeuw with striker Jena to strengthen the attack. At the same time, he changed his previous strategy of defensive counterattack and began to press forward and speed up the tempo of the game.

Van Gaal's adjustments soon paid off. In the 62nd minute of the game, Alveraz broke into the penalty area during a counterattack and decisively shot into the dead corner to equalize the score.

However, Sevilla did not panic after the score was tied, or it did not attract the attention of the whole team, because Sevilla still had more ball possession and offensive opportunities. Although the organization was still a bit chaotic, resulting in insufficient offensive threat, after all, a draw was enough for Sevilla to secure the top spot in the group.

Juan Ramos also sent on Paulson and Maresca around the 70th minute to strengthen the defense and hardness of the midfield, but the problem of offensive organization was still not straightened out. In addition, after Maresca came on the court, he just rushed forward as soon as he got the ball, just like Puerta, Fabiano and Copa, which did not help much in controlling the midfield.

However, just when Sevilla's attack was unable to bear fruit, Georgian striker Alveladze once again took advantage of a counterattack and scored a long shot from the top of the penalty area, scoring his second goal and helping the visiting team reverse the score to 2-1.

It was at this time that Juan Ramos began to realize that something was wrong, but there were less than 5 minutes left in the game, and it was too late to replace Li Qi.

In the end, Sevilla lost 1-2 to Alkmaar of the Netherlands at home, and their unbeaten record at home was also ended.

Before this game, Sevilla had maintained an excellent record of not losing in 50 European home games in the past 29 years, only two games away from Ipswich's record of 31 European home games without losing. However, losing to the team led by Van Gaal in this round of group matches meant that Sevilla fell short.

This was also the first time that Sevilla lost at home since February 2 this year. Before that, both Barcelona and Real Madrid had difficulty dealing with this Andalusian team, but former Barcelona coach Van Gaal, who was familiar with La Liga, seized the opportunity to rewrite history.

Losing this game not only put an end to Sevilla's great record, but also caused Sevilla to lose the first place in the group and could only qualify as the second in the group.

The second place team in the UEFA Cup group is treated worse than the third place team! Because the third place team will face the first place team in the UEFA Cup group, while the second place team will face the third place team in the UEFA Champions League group stage - the UEFA Champions League teams are generally of a higher grade than the UEFA Cup teams.

Sevilla, who advanced from the group stage, drew with Romania's Steaua Bucharest.

After the game, the Sevilla Daily helped everyone summarize: "The good situation in La Liga, especially the victory over Real Madrid in the last round, made Sevilla a little complacent, and they no longer cared too much about the UEFA Cup. The players hesitated whether to use all their strength in the game, and the defense was dozing off in the game. There was no sense of urgency, and finally paid a high price: the club's unbeaten record at home in European competitions that they had worked hard to build for many years was ended, and they lost the advantage of being the first in the group. If one thing goes, another must come. Sevilla should be careful!"

In addition, Juan Ramos also led the whole team to reflect on the training session on the second day: after winning Real Madrid, the whole team became a little inflated and impetuous, and they must concentrate and play well in the last two rounds of the league this year to make a good summary of 2006.

……

However, this week it wasn't just Sevilla that suffered a setback. Barcelona, ​​which travelled to Japan, also suffered a major setback and unexpectedly lost in the final.

日本当地时间2006年的12月17日晚上19时20分，06/07赛季世界俱乐部锦标赛决赛在日本的横滨综合竞技场展开争夺。

In the end, thanks to Adriano's goal in a quick counterattack in the 82nd minute, Internacional unexpectedly defeated last season's Champions League champion Barcelona, ​​which fielded all its main players, and won its first international championship in 97 years.

This made the entire Barcelona team and fans who had traveled all the way to Japan extremely frustrated. The Club World Cup title that was originally a sure win was like a cooked duck that flew away, which was unacceptable.

Ricardo was extremely grateful when he saw the news before preparing to warm up on the away field: it was a wise move to leave Barcelona on loan this season! It is very likely that Barcelona will not win any of the four major titles this season, while he has already won a European Super Cup.

Sevilla is still on the rise this season, and with their own strong intervention, they should be able to win the 06/07 UEFA Cup and the Spanish King's Cup, which they were supposed to win!

……