The face of Numancia's manager, Lopez, was burning.
He had just told his players that the French kid was nothing to be afraid of, and Benzema had scored. This was simply a quick slap in the face.
However, he still did not want to believe that a seventeen-year-old young striker would be Sporting de Gijón's biggest threat!
Lopez's face kept changing. He was thinking about Sporting de Gijón's goal.
In the end, his gaze rested on Di Natale. That Italian!
Yes, it was this Italian!
Di Natale was the key to Sporting de Gijón's goal!
Di Natale's flexible movement and coordination with Ribéry gave a beautiful assist.
Of course, there was also the Frenchman, Franck Ribéry!
Ribéry's breakthrough and goal on the flank were also the highlights of the attack!
It was the tacit cooperation between the two that led to Di Natale's assist pass.
If the team had restricted Ribéry or Di Natale, the goal would not have been conceded!
*****
Lopez looked down on Benzema. This was human nature. Benzema had previously performed well and was considered to be a popular rookie under the age of 18 in La Liga. However, compared to Ribéry and Di Natale, who had already attracted the attention of the La Liga football world, he was still lacking.
There were already rumors that the French national team's manager, Domenech, was already observing Ribéry. The Italian national team's manager, Lippi, had previously gone to Gijón for an inspection. Everyone knew about this. These two could be said to be national footballers for France and Italy.
Therefore, Lopez felt that he had found the key to the problem. It was not that the kid called Karim Benzema was very good. It was the outstanding performance of Ribéry and Di Natale that caused the goal concede!
Moreover, among Sporting de Gijón's starting players on the field, only Grosso, Ribéry, and Di Natale were the real main players. These three players were on the left flank. Therefore, Sporting de Gijón's offensive focus was on Numancia's right flank!
Defending the right flank, or more accurately, restricting Ribéry and Di Natale, was tantamount to tying down Sporting de Gijón's attacking feet!
So, Lopez passed on his orders: Ignore Benzema! Focus on defending against Ribéry and Dinatale!
*****
Ribéry soon found it difficult to break through on the flanks.
Lopez quickly adjusted Numancia's midfield position. He let the midfielder Lazio Paz, who was relatively good at defense, mark Ribéry. At the same time, he let the team's center forward Velasco lean to this side, ready to cover at any time. At the same time, right back Juan Pa was also on standby.
In this way, if Ribéry wanted to break through, he would have to face two Numansia players (a full back and a side midfielder).
Numansiya's rear defensive line also paid special attention to the defense of Di Natale. This made Ribéry try to cooperate with Di Natale twice, but the results were not ideal.
Seeing that Ribéry and Di Natale's offensive on the left flank was contained, Lopez on the sidelines was slightly relieved. Although they had already lost a goal, as long as they could contain the Gijon players, with a one-goal gap, Numancia still had hope of chasing the points.
Li Ang on the sidelines noticed the opponent's adjustment: Numancia was focusing on defending against Ribéry and Di Natale. This Numancia looked a little strange — leaning to the right!
That's right, leaning to the right. Numancia's entire defensive line was leaning to the right!
Then Li Ang understood. Grosso — Ribéry — Di Natale!
Sporting de Gijón's starting lineup only had the left flank as the main configuration. It was no wonder that Lopez focused on the right flank.
*****
Compared to the left flank, Sporting de Gijón's right flank, Modric's position was more towards the middle. So, on this side, it was Dorado — Juan Arango — Benzema!
Arango's performance was very average.
Dorado had also just returned from his injury!
Benzema was a seventeen-year-old half-grown boy.
Even Sporting de Gijón's right center back was only the former Corsica gardener, Rami, who got his first chance to start!
Sporting de Gijón's first goal was a cross from the bottom after the team broke through on Ribéry's side. Compared to the previous boom on the left flank, Arango's right flank was relatively quiet.
It was no wonder that Numancia's manager, Lopez, did not pay much attention to his team's left flank defense.
Li Ang touched his chin. He wanted to see if he could take advantage of Numancia's adjustment to make a tit-for-tat arrangement and make a fuss.
Then he walked to the sidelines. During a dead ball opportunity, he called Modric to the sidelines and the Croatian gave him instructions.
"Luca, you have to press more on this side."
"Franck is in trouble. You organize the attack."
Modric nodded to show that he understood.
Li Ang glanced at Benzema, who lifted his jersey to wipe his sweat on the field, and his heart moved. "If there's a chance, pass more to Karim!"
Modric nodded and obeyed.
*****
Li Ang only felt that Di Natale and Ribéry were restricted, while Benzema's side did not seem to attract the opponent's attention. So, he let Benzema try to attack more.
This was the correct deployment after the keen observation of an excellent manager.
He didn't think about anything else, but the French kid, who was very excited today, was like a fish in water after receiving more support from the crowd.
Five minutes later, after Ribéry dribbled the ball into the encirclement, he chose to pass the ball back. Arango passed the ball and Modric dribbled the ball forward.
Benzema ran over to help. He saw that there was no chance in front, so he took the initiative to retreat to ask for the ball.
Modric did not pass the ball to Benzema immediately. He motioned for Benzema to plug forward and rush into the penalty area to get ready to grab the header.
Then Modric passed the ball to Arango, who dribbled two steps and passed it back to Modric.
The Croatian looked at Benzema again. Benzema ran forward for a distance and actually ran back, and kept raising his hand to signal for the pass.
Modric was so angry that he almost laughed.
However, when he thought of the manager's instruction to pass more passes to Benzema, and the latter's raised right hand was so conspicuous, it would not make sense not to pass the ball. Moreover, Benzema had a good relationship with him in the team.
The football was passed over close to the ground. Then Modric ran forward, ready to do a wall combination with Benzema. However, the Croatian kid was surprised to see what happened next.
*****
The seventeen-year-old French kid did not intend to do a wall combination. He faced the football, pulled the ball, turned around, and then suddenly accelerated to dribble the ball. He dribbled a few steps like this. When he saw that the opponent's defender did not come up to intercept, it was obvious that the opponent did not take him seriously. This made Benzema a little angry!
He raised his eyes to look in the direction of the goal and felt that he had entered his shooting range. He made a slight adjustment and immediately followed up with a powerful long shot!
The location of the shot was about thirty meters away from the goal!
This shot was too sudden!
Numansiya's goalkeeper, Juan Zuma, tried his best to save, but all he could do was to rub the ball. He could not completely change the flight trajectory, and the football went into the net!
Until they saw the football fly into the goal and saw the net shake, the Numansiya players thought they had seen wrongly — they thought the football had hit the side net and there was no goal! They could not accept that the French kid actually scored again in such a short time!
But the truth was cruel. The referee's whistle and hand signals clearly showed that the ball had gone in!
The ball had gone in!
Not only were the Numansiya players stunned, but the Sporting de Gijón fans were also stunned. The goal was too sudden! So much so that the Sporting de Gijón fans did not immediately react to the goal. Their first reaction was that the football had hit the side net!
Then they saw the referee's hand signal and saw the football in the net!
The hand signal was very clear: the ball had gone in!
*****
After a moment of silence in the stands of the El Molinon Stadium, there was a larger and crazier eruption. The entire stadium was like a volcanic eruption!
In the crazy lava of the volcano, the seventeen-year-old Benzema ran. He opened his arms, spread his wings and flew to the side of the field, and then plunged into the embrace of Li Ang, who was laughing loudly with his arms open.
Throughout the stadium, thirty thousand people were shouting: Benzema! Benzema！ Benzema！ Benzema！ Benzema！
The sound was louder and louder. It could overturn the roof of the stadium!
PS: The third update is here. There are still two chapters. Asking for a monthly ticket. Everyone is awesome! Thank you, everyone!
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