The last round of the 20032004 season of Segunda División ended.
Sporting de Gijón defeated Cadiz 4: 2 at home.
Huelva tied with their opponents in this round of the league.
The top three teams in the league, Levante, Numancia, and Aravés, all won this round of the league.
Aravés, ranked fourth in the league, tied with their opponents in the final match.
In this way, after the end of the season, the top six in the Segunda División were finally settled.
Levante, with 82 points, ranked first.
Numancia, with 81 points, ranked second.
Getafe, with 80 points, ranked third.
Aravés, with 76 points, ranked fourth.
Sporting de Gijón, with 73 points, ranked fifth.
Huelva, with 72 points, ranked sixth.
The Segunda División champion, Levante, and the Segunda División runner-up, Numancia, were directly promoted. The two teams would compete in the 20042005 season of Segunda División.
The teams ranked third to sixth, Getafe, Aravés, Sporting de Gijón, and Huelva, would also participate in the promotion playoffs to determine the last promotion spot.
Sporting de Gijón defeated Cadiz at home in the last round of the league. Not only did they directly step on the opponent's corpse to enter the promotion playoffs, but because Huelva tied in this round of the league, Sporting de Gijón's final ranking was fifth.
Li Ang was very satisfied with this ranking.
Because the final ranking was related to the semi-finals of the promotion playoffs.
According to the rules, the third place in the league would fight the sixth place in the league, and the fourth and fifth place in the league would fight each other.
In this way, the semi-finals of the 20032004 season of Segunda División promotion playoffs would be: the third place in the league, Getafe VS the sixth place in the league, Huelva VS the fourth place in the league, Aravés VS the fifth place in the league, Sporting de Gijón!
If he had to choose between Getafe and Aravés, Li Ang still hoped to play against Aravés in the semi-finals.
There was no other reason. They had reversed the situation in the Copa del Rey and eliminated Aravés, so the players would have more confidence psychologically.
*****
The news of Sporting de Gijón entering the promotion play-offs became the headline of all the media in Gijón the day after the end of the league. Even the Gijón Post, which had been banned by Li Ang and Sporting de Gijón, had to sing praises for the club. However, this media outlet was still banned by Li Ang. They could not get first-hand news about Sporting de Gijón, and even some of the reports had to be reprinted from other media outlets. This caused the media outlet, which used to have the largest sales volume in Gijón, to suffer a heavy blow. When they offended Li Ang, they probably did not expect that the China man they had looked down on would bring them such big trouble.
Li Ang naturally did not pay attention to the predicament of the Xihong Post. He had no interest in paying attention to a loser.
Li Ang was at the betting station in the city center of Gijón. He was there to increase the bet.
The UEFA European Championship was in full swing in Portugal. Li Ang knew about this hot summer and the miracle that had happened on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula. Naturally, he wanted to get a share of the pie.
Half a year ago, Li Ang had used all the funds he had on hand to bet on Greece winning the championship. Of course, he was embarrassed. His investment, which took up more than half of his fortune, was only 5,000 euros.
However, at that time, the odds for Greece were 1 to 100. This meant that after Greece won the championship, Li Ang would receive 500,000 euros. Of course, this was before taxes.
At the beginning of the month, before the UEFA European Championship began, Li Ang used 5,000 euros from his salary for this quarter to bet on Greece winning the championship. At that time, the odds for Greece winning the championship had been adjusted to 1 to 50. This was not because the bookmakers favored Greece, but because the UEFA European Championship was about to begin and the odds were adjusted as usual.
*****
He still remembered the look of surprise on the faces of the staff at the betting station in Gijón when they looked at him. It was obvious that they found it unbelievable that Li Ang favored Greece to win the championship.
Li Ang was now a celebrity in Gijón. It was not an exaggeration to say that he was the hottest star in the city at the moment. Him betting on the UEFA European Championship was naturally a piece of news that was neither big nor small.
Later, the media also reported that Li Ang had taken out a 'large sum of money' to bet on Greece winning the championship. This caused a wave of discussion. The media joked that Li Ang's team was good at coaching, but the bookmakers' foresight was not good. Favored Greece? This was really strange. Well, to be precise, he was giving money to the bookmakers.
This matter became a joke for a while, and some football fans were talking about it during their leisure time.
Of course, there were also a few loyal fans of Li Ang who, for unknown reasons, chose to follow Li Ang and bet on Greece winning the championship. However, they were obviously just joining in the fun. The most they bet was within 100 euros. Of course, they could still make a small profit in the end.
This time, Li Ang came to the betting station again. He was warmly welcomed by the staff. These were all Sporting de Gijón fans. Li Ang had led the team to the playoffs, so of course, they liked Li Ang.
"Hi, Li, I love you to death. Yesterday's game was great. "A plump middle-aged woman hugged Li Ang. She was Maria, the person in charge of the betting station.
"Thank you." Li Ang smiled and said, "This is because the lads performed well."
There was a wave of kind laughter from the betting station. It was indeed quite interesting for a 28-year-old manager to call his players' lads'.
"Li, are you going to continue betting on Greece?" Someone shouted.
Everyone laughed again. Everyone knew that Li Ang was optimistic about Greece winning the championship.
"Of course —" Li Ang blinked. "No."
Everyone laughed again.
*****
"One thousand euros on Portugal winning the championship," Li Ang said, "One thousand euros on Portugal entering the semifinals."
“OK！” Maria wrote out the votes for Li Ang skillfully. She was not surprised that Li Ang chose to bet on Portugal. Portugal was the host, and they had a golden generation like Rui Costa, Luís Figo, and Bouleta. They were indeed the favorite to win the championship.
"Is it only one thousand euros?" Maria asked. One thousand euros was naturally a lot of money under normal circumstances. However, considering that Li Ang had bet a total of 10,000 euros on Greece, this one thousand euros was not much.
"Nope." Li Ang shook his head. He knew the result. The one thousand euros he bet on Portugal winning the championship was destined to be wasted. Of course, the one thousand euros he bet on Portugal entering the semifinals could still earn him some money. However, he did not earn much. After all, Portugal was strong and was the host. Many people were optimistic that they would enter the semifinals or even win the championship. Therefore, the odds were not high.
Why did Li Ang bet on Portugal? It was to confuse the public to a certain extent. If he only bet on Greece to win the championship, it would be too shocking if Greece really won the championship in the end. That was because he had bet heavily on Greece.
After that, Li Ang placed another bet. "Five hundred euros on Greece winning the championship. Five hundred euros on Czech Republic entering the semifinals."
"Haha, you're still optimistic about Greece." Everyone laughed.
"Why is there only five hundred euros this time?"
"I'm out of money." Li Ang shrugged. Then, everyone laughed kindly.
At the same time, they expressed their understanding of the choice of their beloved team's head coach. Li Ang was still optimistic about Greece. However, he was afraid that he would lose everything. Therefore, he chose to bet on Portugal and Czech Republic. This was to stop his losses and prevent him from losing everything in the end.
However, in everyone's opinion, Coach Li Ang was going to lose badly this time. That was because he had bet 10,000 euros on Greece winning the championship. This money was definitely going to be wasted.
*****
The small matter that happened at the betting station was reported on the media again the next day. At this time, any small matter related to the head coach of Sporting de Gijón, Li Ang, could be said to be newsworthy. The fans liked Li Ang and were also interested in the things that happened around him.
Although Li Ang came to the betting station and bet on Portugal and Czech Republic, he still placed a small bet on Greece. Therefore, Li Ang's loyal mouthpiece, the Voice of Gijón, did not forget to tease him. "It seems that Coach Li Ang is still optimistic about Greece. Well, considering the magic of our dear Li Ang in the coaching seat, I think that everyone should also bet on Greece. Maybe you can make a small fortune from this."
This teasing caused many fans to laugh kindly. However, a strange scene happened. Many fans went to the betting station again and really bet on Greece winning the championship. Of course, most of them placed small bets of five or ten euros.
Because so many fans went to the betting station, the fans who came to bet on Greece actually had to line up.
This was a local anecdote. Later, a local TV station in Gijón interviewed the fans who were lining up at the betting station. They asked them why they followed Li Ang and whether they were really optimistic about Li Ang's choice of betting.
The answers of these fans were very interesting. That was, they liked Li Ang and wanted to lose money with him …
"We followed Li Ang to win on the field and enjoy the joy of winning." The fans shouted at the camera. "He brought us victory on the field. Now, he is going to lose money, and we are going to accompany him."
This news was broadcast on TV that night. Li Ang saw it when he was finishing his meal.
He was stunned at first, then he laughed. "This bunch of fools."
The eyes of the Chinese head coach of Sporting de Gijón were a little wet …
After dinner, Li Ang turned on his laptop. He was now focusing all his energy on the first leg of the promotion playoff semi-final against Aravis that was coming a day later.
In the first leg, Sporting de Gijón would be facing Aravis at home. Li Ang's goal was very clear. He hoped that the team could establish a victory as much as possible in the first leg!
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