Li Ang could use that method to fight back against the Madridistas, but he could not do the same for the majority of the Spanish media's criticism.
After Sporting de Gijón defeated the defending champions, Valencia, in the next two league matches and one Copa del Rey match, excluding the penalty shootout in the Copa del Rey, they had two draws and one loss in the regular match time. They did not win in three matches. Moreover, their opponents in these three matches were not strong, and could even be said to be relatively weak, including a Serie C team. Therefore, these results were described by the media as the end of Sporting de Gijón's dark horse journey. Sporting de Gijón began the dark horse routine: fierce at the beginning of the season for a period of time, and then quickly back to square one!
This time, Li Ang unexpectedly did not write a rebuttal to these "prophetic" comments in his column.
Li Ang now had a big headache.
Sporting de Gijón was currently suffering from a large number of injuries.
Mata would not be able to return to the field until at least February 2005, and Dorado would need more than half a month to resume game training. The substitute goalkeeper, Roberto, was injured in the game against Ponte Bedela. Later, the diagnosis was that he would need to rest for two months, but now it turned out that the injury was not optimistic. He would need to rest for at least three months.
Li Ang had no choice but to transfer the B team's young goalkeeper, Manuel Pastor, to the first team. The little guy was very happy to be able to play football under the boss again.
David Lago's injury was also more troublesome. If he wanted to return to the field, it would be after 2005. He would only be able to recover from his injury in March at the latest.
*****
The goalkeeper, the rear defensive line, the midfield, and the forward line all had players injured in all four lines.
Mata's absence and Dorado's absence had a greater impact on Sporting de Gijón. Mata's absence was needless to say, as he was an important chess piece in Li Ang's tactical attack. After Dorado's injury, Ivanovic was pushed to the position of the main right back by Li Ang. His current performance was not bad, and he even scored against Real Madrid and Lazio, and it was a very beautiful reverse hook shot.
However, Ivanovic was, after all, young and inexperienced. Sometimes, he would panic under certain circumstances. At this time, Dorado's value was reflected. He was a player who did not have any outstanding performances, but his advantage was that he was steady and would not make mistakes.
Then there was the forward line. David Lago's injury also affected Li Ang's line-up. After Lago's injury, Sporting de Gijón now only had four players in the forward line: Dinatale, Diego Milito, Michael Pihra, and Benzema. Michael Pihra was old and had been suffering from a lot of minor injuries recently. The veteran had already considered terminating his contract early and retiring early.
Benzema was still too young and could play in limited games. However, if Milito had any injury, Li Ang would have no one to put in an important position in the forward line.
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It was precisely because of the team's injuries that Li Ang had a headache. He did not have the time to argue with the media at this time.
He was already thinking about filling in some positions during the winter transfer.
There were also some players in the team who had not had many opportunities in the past half of the season. Some of the original main players in the Segunda División also showed the intention of transferring to a team that could play in the competition. In such a situation, Li Ang would not force them to stay. The camp was made of iron and the soldiers were flowing like water.
Li Ang added a few more names in his notebook. These were his possible targets during the winter transfer.
After the game with Albacete, Li Ang decisively announced that the team would undergo closed training. Except for the afternoon training, they were not allowed to leave the training base at any other time. They were also not allowed to accept any media interviews.
This also made the media very unhappy. Many of the media took the opportunity to hype that Li Ang was beginning to panic. They said that Sporting de Gijón had internal problems after three games without a win. Li Ang also had problems with the control of the team.
Sporting de Gijón's players were speechless when they saw these newspapers. They said that Li Ang had lost control of Sporting de Gijón's locker room. If they came to the Malaio training base to take a look, they would see Li Ang's prestige in these players. They would see how well Li Ang trained the players during training. He was simply a demon king. With such training intensity, no one dared to complain.
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The media's harassment and clamor at the Malaio training base decreased a lot after a day.
This was because this round of La Liga was the last game to be played. It finally came a day after the other games had finished.
Barcelona's home game welcomed its century-old nemesis, Real Madrid!
El Clásico!
This game was undoubtedly the highlight of this round of the league tournament. It was a game that attracted the attention of the world.
As Real Madrid's nemesis, as well as Catalonia's recognized "old friend," Li Ang received a call from Spain's national television station before the game, asking him to predict the result of the game.
"Three to zero!" Li Ang said decisively. "Barcelona will win three to zero! Without a doubt! "
This program was Spain's highly rated "When the Goal Comes," and the host was Li Ang's "old friend," Dagestino. This gold-medal commentator was also a well-known sports program host.
Dagestino was surprised that Li Ang gave such a decisive answer and even directly stated the score. In his opinion, Li Ang definitely did not want Real Madrid to win. That was for sure. Li Ang should have said something like he was optimistic about Barcelona. He did not expect Li Ang to directly give a prediction of the score! And it was a big score of three to zero. How much did you hate Real Madrid?
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"Why is it three to zero?" Dagestino did not ask. A sexy female guest in the live studio asked the question through the connected phone.
"In my eyes, my Sporting de Gijón is the best." Li Ang said, "So, even though Barcelona is good and is the leader, I still think they will score one goal less than us!"
The Real Madrid fans would jump up in anger when they heard Li Ang's words in front of the television. If Li Ang was in front of them, they would not mind letting this guy know the truth of why the flowers were so red. At this time, this person still did not forget to mention the score of Sporting de Gijón's four to zero victory over Real Madrid!
The Real Madrid people were very unhappy and were even angrier at Li Ang, while the Barcelona people were very happy and said that this was a real old friend.
Hearing Li Ang's super domineering answer, the beautiful female guest's eyes rippled with extraordinary splendor.
Three hours later, the Campeonato Nacional kicked off and then came to an end after ninety minutes of the game. Barça defeated Real Madrid at home in the Derby of the Century by three to zero. Eto 'o, van Brontkhorst, and Ronaldinho each scored a goal in the game.
Barcelona easily won the Campeonato Nacional. Their next round of the league tournament, which was six days later, was still in Camp Nou at home. They were going to welcome the 'old friend of Barcelona', Sporting de Gijón, led by Manager Li Ang!
PS: Fourth Update, League K, 1314.
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