Sporting Gijón's manager, Ang Li, was suspended for three matches, the coaching staff member, Banderas, was suspended for two matches, the main defensive midfielder, Carlos, was suspended for four matches, the main center back, Pepe, was suspended for two matches, and the main midfielder, Ribery, was suspended for two matches.
In addition, Mata, Dorado, Ivanovic, and Michael Pihela were all recovering from their injuries.
It could be said that Sporting de Gijón's starting lineup was crippled.
On December 5th, in the 14th round of the La Liga, Sporting de Gijón would face Levante in an away match. Levante was another dark horse in the La Liga this season besides Sporting de Gijón. Their current points were the same as Real Madrid's, and they were ranked ninth in the league. They were only four points behind Sporting de Gijón. Levante, the dark horse, was very different from Sporting Gihon. Levante's results against strong teams were mediocre, but their results against other teams were relatively stable. In the past, Sporting de Gijón would not have been afraid of Levante at all, and it would not have been difficult for them to take down Levante. However, Sporting de Gijón was lacking in players, and it was hard to say how they would fare against Levante in an away match.
One week later, on December 12th, in the 15th round of the La Liga, Sporting de Gijón would face Villarreal CF at home. This small city team, nicknamed "Yellow Submarine," was very difficult to deal with.
Then, in the middle of the week, Sporting de Gijón would face their last match in the UEFA Europa League group stage. They would face the Austrian powerhouse, Rapid Wien, in an away match. Of course, Spain's suspension had nothing to do with the European competition. Li Ang could direct the match on the spot, and Sporting de Gijón, who had already locked in first place in the group stage, could also make appropriate rotations.
Then, on the weekend, on December 19th, in the 16th round of the La Liga, Sporting de Gijón would face Real Sociedad in an away match.
This match would be the last match of Li Ang's three matches.
Three days later, Sporting de Gijón would host Racing Santander in the 17th round of the La Liga Championship on December 22nd. After this match, the La Liga Championship would officially enter its two-week winter break.
Sporting de Gijón was without a major general, and their manager was also suspended. These few games were a hurdle, and it would not be easy for them to overcome it smoothly.
Of course, according to some media in Madrid, Li Ang and Sporting de Gijón were in luck, because in the 18th and 19th rounds of the league, Sporting de Gijón would meet two strong opponents, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid. These two games were after the winter break, which gave Sporting de Gijón a chance to breathe. At the same time, Sporting de Gijón's suspended players would return, and the team's lineup would be relatively complete.
However, for Li Ang, there was no need to think about what would happen after the winter break. The most important thing for him now was how the team would get through the difficulties in front of them.
Li Ang began to realize that compared to the team's injury suspension, his suspension should have the biggest impact on the team. This was not Li Ang boasting, nor was it because he thought too highly of himself, but it was the truth. In the current Sporting de Gijón team, no player was truly indispensable, but he, the manager, was the most important! The manager, Li Ang, was the backbone of Sporting de Gijón!
When the Voice of Gijón analyzed the impact of the Spanish Football Federation's suspension on Sporting de Gijón, they went straight to the core of the problem, saying that the three-game suspension of the manager, Li Ang, was the biggest blow to Sporting de Gijón!
Even if the team suffered a large number of injuries, as long as the Chinese man stood on the sidelines, both the fans and the players would have a backbone.
Now that the manager, Li Ang, was suspended, the local media in Gijón pointed out that this was the biggest test for Sporting de Gijón.
*****
On December 5th, in the 14th round of the La Liga, Sporting de Gijón had an away game against Levante. For this game, Li Ang was suspended, and Sporting de Gijón's assistant manager, Scott Tri, was in charge. Of course, before the game started, Li Ang had already done his best to arrange everything.
There was no need to say much about the process of the game. The score was zero to zero, and the pale score showed how boring the game was.
After the game, the media in Madrid made fun of Sporting de Gijón for this game, saying that they were like timid groundhogs. They made fun of Sporting de Gijón for being so conservative when facing Levante.
Li Ang snorted and ignored them.
Carlos was suspended, Pepe was suspended, Hierro was suspended, Ivanovic was suspended, Mata was suspended, Dorado was suspended, and Ivanovic was suspended due to injury.
Sporting de Gijón even struggled to get together the starting eleven for this game. The left back, Dani Borregello, was in the starting lineup, while Grosso was arranged to be the guest left center back, forming a new center back partnership with Isma. In the midfield, Javier Blanco played in Ribéry's original position.
Li Ang's attitude was very clear. He wanted to get a point from Levante's away game! The whole team focused on defense, attacking when there was an opportunity, and defending when there was no opportunity. Not conceding goals was the most important thing.
He did not care about what the media said. With Sporting de Gijón's current lineup, getting a point was the most important thing. Everything else was meaningless.
Sporting de Gijón got a point with difficulty in this round, and Barcelona, who was also suspended, won the game, but it was not easy. Against the weak Malaga, Barcelona only scored with a long shot from Decaux in the 80th minute of the game, scoring the only goal of the game.
Real Madrid, who had been waiting to reap the benefits, played against Villarreal at the El Madrigal Stadium in this round of the game. In the end, they tied with Villarreal and did not take the opportunity to narrow the gap between the second place in the league, Sporting de Gijón.
Yes, Sporting de Gijón was still in second place in the league after the draw with Levante. They had the same points as Sevilla, who had won this round, but Sporting de Gijón scored more goals and had a higher goal difference than Sevilla, so they were still in second place.
*****
For Real Madrid, this was a good opportunity to narrow the gap between the points. Surprisingly, Real Madrid did not take advantage of this opportunity. This time, AS, which had always been the mouthpiece of Real Madrid, changed the direction of public opinion and began to criticize Real Madrid.
AS's headline was, "If you don't live up to expectations, everything else is useless." The newspaper's reporter, Castrío, thought that Real Madrid should not think about anything else now. The most important thing was to do their job well.
AS criticized Barcelona for playing with no fighting spirit. Villarreal controlled the ball from the beginning, and the submarine took the initiative in the game, while Real Madrid appeared to have no fighting spirit. It seemed that they were not prepared for the difficulty of the game. There were not many fouls in the game, but Real Madrid was not able to play a beautiful offense.
"Look at the star players on the field for Real Madrid, then look at the star players on our substitutes' bench, and then look at Sporting de Gijón, who barely managed to put together a starting lineup. As much as I don't want to admit it, the fact is that the Chinese man did very well. He used the materials of a tractor to drive the speed of a sports car …"
Castrío's words were really rare. AS's words were equivalent to high praise for Li Ang. The implication was that he did a much better job than Real Madrid's manager, Luxemburgo …
However, Li Ang did not appreciate the praise from Real Madrid's mouthpiece. He said unceremoniously in his column in the Voice of Gijón, "I didn't want to say anything, but I have to say something because I need to correct one point. My players are not made of tractor material. They are unpolished diamonds. They are priceless treasures!"
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