During the match between Sporting de Gijón and Barcelona, the incident of a conflict between players spread all over the world the next day. Sporting de Gijón was no longer a nobody. They were the biggest dark horse of the La Liga season. Barcelona was even more so. They were a La Liga powerhouse and the leader of the league. Many countries around the world chose to broadcast such a heavyweight game live. Many people witnessed what happened in front of the TV. Whether it was the process or the result of the game, or the quarrel between the players after the game, it was enough to attract attention.
Li Ang and Rijkaard, who had been quarreling at the press conference, had a tacit understanding to temporarily stop fighting. Both of them chose to target the referee of the game, Cadilamendi.
Obviously, both Li Ang and Rijkaard were very smart. The two of them used such an attitude to put pressure on the Spanish Football Federation. There was no problem with the game itself. There was no problem with the players. It was the referee who lost control of the game that caused all this to happen.
Since it was the referee's problem, then the punishment for the players should be lenient.
The attitude of the two clubs showed that they were not afraid of offending the referees' committee. Barcelona was a powerhouse and naturally had the qualifications to challenge the referees' committee. What about Li Ang and Sporting de Gijón? This was a typical example of a barefoot person not being afraid of wearing shoes.
Everyone's eyes were on the Spanish Football Federation. They wanted to see whether the Spanish Football Federation's president, Vera, would raise the big stick high and kill the players, or choose to be gentle this time.
*****
On November 29, the Spanish Football Federation met with the referee, Cadilamendi, and hoped that he would explain the officiating of the game.
Later, the Sporting de Gijón club announced that the club had appealed to the referee for some unfair decisions of the game.
At the same time, the Barcelona club also announced that the club had submitted a report to the Spanish Football Federation about referee Cadilamendi's officiating mistakes.
The Spanish Football Federation also announced that it had received the complaints of the two clubs and had a meeting with the referee, Cadilamendi. The Spanish Football Federation would set up a special discussion group to discuss the matter. The specific results would be announced in three days.
This could not help but make the media complain again, criticizing the Spanish Football Federation for being too bureaucratic and dragging. A punishment result actually had to be delayed for three days.
During this period, the media continued to hype up the matter, and there were even signs of overdoing it.
Marca reported an interesting story. It was said that after Eto'o learned that he had been 'cursed' by Sporting de Gijón's manager, Li Ang, that he would never be able to score a penalty kick, he was so angry that he shouted that he would beat up Li Ang's team every time he saw them.
Considering Marca's pro-Real Madrid attribute, as well as its extreme unfriendliness towards Barcelona and Sporting de Gijón, the news was suspected of inciting trouble.
Some media outlets found Li Ang and asked him for his opinion on the matter.
Li Ang's response was, "Haha."
This was a very connotative word. After the Spanish people pondered for a while, they finally understood the profoundness of this word, so much so that this word actually began to become popular in Spain.
Some people even suggested that Spanish educational institutions make the most accurate annotations for "haha." "Haha": an onomatopoeic word used to describe people's laughter. Now there was a new definition, which could be understood as being too lazy to pay attention to someone or something.
*****
Two days later, Sporting de Gijón would have an away game in the UEFA Europa League group stage. They were going to the cultural city of Bruges in Belgium to challenge the Belgian First Division powerhouse, Bruges, in an away game.
Having just experienced the conflict between the players, Sporting de Gijón must be a little flustered now. The media wanted to see if Sporting de Gijón would suffer a defeat in the away game against the Belgian powerhouse.
Anyway, there were many people waiting to see a joke, and for the sake of maximizing their interests, these media outlets naturally hoped that Sporting de Gijón would lose so that they could hype up the game.
However, Li Ang would not let those waiting to see a joke get their way.
In the UEFA Europa League group stage match against Bruges, Sporting de Gijón won the away game.
The suspension in the league only took effect in the league and did not affect Sporting de Gijón's European competition. Therefore, in the UEFA Europa League, Sporting de Gijón could field their strongest lineup.
In the game against Bruges, except for the injured Ivanovic and the replacement of Marcos with Modric, Li Ang fielded almost the same lineup as Barcelona.
Skrtel had suggested that Li Ang rotate the lineup to a certain extent because the players were tired, but Li Ang rejected the suggestion. On one hand, the difference in ability between Sporting de Gijón's substitutes and the main players was relatively large. Sporting de Gijón did not have the capital to rotate. On the other hand, Li Ang clearly understood the mental state of his players. In this game, the players might be a little tired, but there was one situation that had to be taken into consideration. These players were holding their breaths now. They were likely to vent their frustrations in the league on the UEFA Europa League group stage.
Especially Carlos and Pepe, who were about to be suspended. This game would definitely be a game of life and death.
*****
The game went as expected. Sporting de Gijón played happily at Bruges' Bredel Stadium. They were not conservative at all. They were very bold. They unexpectedly played offensive football in the away game and did not take Bruges' offense seriously at all.
Just by replacing Marcos with Modric in the starting lineup, Sporting de Gijón's lineup became more aggressive.
In the end, the game ended with a score of 4: 2.
Both sides scored a total of six goals. On Sporting de Gijón's side, Di Natale and Ribéry each scored a goal. The most shocking was the center back, Pepe, who scored a header in the game. In addition, Carlos took part in the attack with a long shot that did not pose any threat, causing the opponent's own goal.
Carlos and Pepe, two players who had just received red cards in the league. One was almost a pure defensive player, and the other was a center back. Both of them had made contributions in the offense, which was really surprising.
The commentator joked that Sporting de Gijón's players, from the coach to the players, must be holding their breaths. Everyone was going all out in this game. Cluj's play was not bad. It was just that he met a "berserk" Sporting de Gijón.
*****
After winning the away game against Bruges, Sporting de Gijón had won all three of their group matches. They had already qualified for the group stage one round ahead of time, and had locked in first place in the group.
Of course, the current format of the UEFA Europa League was really strange. There were five teams in a group, and three teams qualified for the group stage. Moreover, it was a single round-robin competition. The strangest thing was that the group stage did not affect the draw for the knockout stage. In other words, the first and third place in the group meant the same thing. Therefore, for Sporting de Gijón, getting first place in the group would at most make them feel a little proud. In reality, it was not very useful. Of course, first place was still first place. For Sporting de Gijón, who were playing in Europe again after so many years, it was still enough to boost their morale.
For Sporting de Gijón, getting first place in the group stage and qualifying for the group stage meant that Sporting de Gijón could easily face the last match against Austria's Rapid Wien. As long as Li Ang was willing, he could even make a large rotation. For Sporting de Gijón, whose lineup was not very deep, this could temporarily relieve the pressure on their players.
After the match against Bruges and confirming that they had qualified for the next knockout stage, Li Ang received a notification from the system. A main quest had been triggered.
And just as Sporting de Gijón's entire team was returning to Spain from Bruges, while they were still on the flight, the Spanish Football Federation announced the results of the "Camp Nou Incident".
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