On November 10, 2004, Sporting de Gijón would host the second round of the Copa del Rey.
Their opponent was the Primera División team, Pontebedela.
For Sporting de Gijón, they were lucky to draw a team from the Primera División.
Although Li Ang had already decided in his heart that he would not put too much effort into the Copa del Rey this season, if the team could go as far as possible in the Copa del Rey and play a few more games, it would always be a good thing. Before the intensive schedule of the second half of the season, the Copa del Rey could be used as a training ground for some of the team's substitutes to get more opportunities to play.
This morning, at the entrance of the Maleo training base, Li Ang was playing with a puppy. It was a cute puppy that looked only a few months old.
"His name is Dracula," the old gatekeeper, Vazquez, said.
"Vampire?" Li Ang was surprised.
"That's right." The old man was a little proud, "I've been reading a book about the vampire count recently. Isn't this name cool?"
"It's really not bad." Li Ang held back his laughter and asked, "This dog, um, Dracula, where did it come from?"
"This is Osgood's twenty-ninth child," Vazquez said proudly.
"Twenty-ninth …?" Li Ang was a little speechless. He glanced at the old dog lying on the ground, basking in the sun, and cursed in his heart. Are you a f * cking breeding dog?!
"Yes, Osgood has three wives and six lovers. This is a big family," Vazquez said.
Li Ang glanced at Osgood. This fat dog has a f * cking harem of countless beauties?!
Osgood seemed to feel Li Ang's gaze and glanced at this person with disdain, as if to say: Single dog!
I have a girlfriend!
Li Ang bent down and pretended to be affectionate. He patted the old fat dog's head hard, then got up and clapped his hands, "What a good dog!"
Then he said goodbye to the old gatekeeper and left.
Osgu, whose head was ambushed, stood up and barked at Li Ang's back.
Vazquez slapped the dog's head. "Be honest. Li likes you!"
*****
After bullying that fat dog with countless beauties, Li Ang was in a good mood.
However, on the night of the competition, Li Ang felt like he had been screwed.
Sporting de Gijón didn't get off to a good start against the Spanish Serie C team, Ponte Bedela. Their starting goalkeeper, Roberto, was injured and left the field three minutes into the match. The third goalkeeper, Handanovic, came on as a substitute.
Then, before the end of the first half, the substitute striker, David Lago, was also injured.
Li Ang flew into a rage. If Robert's injury was an accident, then David Lago's injury was caused by the other party's malicious scramble.
Ponte Bedela knew that their strength was not as good as Sporting de Gijón's, so in today's game, they adopted rougher tactics.
Such a team was rare in the Spanish football world, even in the Serie C. Spanish professional football teams generally advocated offense and cooperation on the ground. It was rare to see such a team that was good at hand-to-hand combat and had such a rough style of play.
With David Lago injured, Li Ang could only send in Benzema, forming the striker combination of Benzema and the veteran, Maiquel Pihra, with the biggest gap between the young players.
What made Li Ang most depressed was that after Roberto and David Lago were injured, the score on the field was still 0: 0 in the sixty-fifth minute of the game!
Sporting de Gijón, who could slaughter Real Madrid in the away game and beat Deportivo de La Coruna and Valencia, were at their wits' end against a Serie C team like Ponte Bedela.
This made Li Ang fly into a rage. Although he had made a large number of rotations in today's game, the starting eleven players on the field, except for the center back, Pepe, and Di Natale, who had changed to play as an attacking midfielder today, the rest were usually substitutes. However, this was not the reason why the team could not take down a Serie C team.
In the end, neither side was able to score in this game. The score remained 0: 0 until the end of overtime, and the two sides entered a penalty shootout.
In the penalty shootout, Handanović saved one of the opponent's penalty shots, while Sporting de Gijón's side made all five of their penalties.
In the end, Sporting de Gijón defeated their opponent 5: 4 in the penalty shootout and advanced to the third round of the Copa del Rey.
*****
After the game, in the home team's locker room at the El Molinon Stadium, Li Ang's roar could be heard clearly even outside the corridor.
"Do you think you're so great that you can beat Real Madrid, beat Valencia, and be ranked second in the league? Do you think you can easily beat a Serie C team?! "
Li Ang was a little angry. He smelled a hint of arrogance!
Although most of the players in today's game were substitutes, this showed the state of the whole team: after consecutively beating traditional powerhouses, the players were a little complacent. This was not a good sign. With Sporting de Gijón's current player configuration and game experience, Sporting de Gijón really had no reason to be arrogant.
Originally, Sporting de Gijón had drawn a Serie C team like Ponte Bedela, which should have been easy for them to advance without sweating, and the team could also get a rest. However, in the end, they advanced through the penalty shootout. It was no wonder that Li Ang was so angry.
As for this difficult game, Li Ang felt that this game came at the right time and sounded the alarm for the whole team. Moreover, the players who played in this game were basically the substitutes, while the main players sat on the substitutes' bench and watched the game from the stands. This allowed these people to calm down through this game, recognize themselves clearly, and not forget their original intentions.
*****
Li Ang was very angry, but the Gijón media was more tolerant of this game and the players. They felt that almost all of the team's substitutes were playing, and that it was a good thing that they could advance. Therefore, the next day, the local Gijón media did not criticize the team too much.
Of course, this was mainly because there was more important news and juicy news.
The Gijón Post, which was an absolute enemy of Li Ang, reprinted a report from Italy's Milan Sport.
The report said that Sporting de Gijón's young player, Juan Carlos, had decided to play in Milan. The young midfielder had even expressed in advance that he was happy to play in Milan.
In order to show that their news was accurate, this report also included two photos. These were the photos of Li Ang being surrounded by several reporters in front of his own residence for an interview.
Li Ang threw the newspaper on the table and slammed the table hard.
Then, he picked up the microphone and called assistant manager Scott Terry, asking him to go to the locker room and call Carlos over … He wanted to find out what was going on face to face.
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