Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

After the match with the French team, the Italian national team's training camp ended and the team disbanded in Paris. However, except for Li Qi, all of them were Serie A players, so they also took flights in groups to different cities in China, such as Milan, Turin, Rome, etc.

Li Qi flew to Seville, Spain alone: ​​"In order to have a companion on the journey, I will have the opportunity to recommend Maresca to the national team coaching staff. Besides, the national team does not have a strong attacking midfielder like him. Only Brother Camoranesi had a similar style before..."

Sevilla's league match this weekend is away to challenge Real Sociedad, whose home ground is San Sebastian in the Basque region of northern Spain, just adjacent to the French border.

Li Qi arrived in Seville to report back to the team on September 9. Before he could even warm up the bed in his new apartment, he stayed there for only two nights before joining the team to set off for San Sebastian on the border between Spain and France... It was quite a hassle.

Therefore, in this round of games, Juan Ramos continued to considerately put Li Qi on the bench. After all, not many Sevilla players were affected by the Fifa virus, and most of the players had nearly two weeks of adequate rest. It was the time when they were in a bad state and urgently needed to vent.

In the past two weeks, only Li Qi, Paulson and Kanoute were called up by the national team and had appearances, and among them, only Paulson played the whole game.

Therefore, in this round of the league, Juan Ramos arranged the players with sufficient physical strength to start, and three people including Li Qi, Paulson and Kanoute were on standby on the bench.

The starting goalkeeper is Palop, the central defender combination is captain Navarro and Dragutinovic who performed well in the last round, the right back is Alves, and the left back is David; the double defensive midfielders are Renato and Marti, the right forward is Navas, and the left forward is Adriano; the double forwards are Copa and Fabiano who has just returned from injury.

2006年9月10日晚上21时，06/07赛季西班牙足球甲级联赛第二轮同时展开了7场比赛的争夺。

In this game, although Real Sociedad played at home, the visiting team Sevilla obviously got into the game faster than them.

In the 9th minute, Renato used a direct free kick to knock on the home team's goal. Maybe it was because he saw Li Qi's wonderful direct set-piece goal in the last round of the league, and he was worried that his position as the number one set-piece taker would be lost; so he was holding back and wanted to compete with Li Qi.

After Sevilla broke the deadlock, they continued to dominate the game; the home team did not get many good opportunities.

In the second half, Juan Ramos replaced Fabiano who had just recovered from injury by bringing on Kanoute.

Kanoute, who came on as a substitute, took advantage of a mistake made by Real Sociedad's defender in the 75th minute of the game and extended the score to 2-0.

When Juan Ramos saw that the situation was settled, he decided to let Li Qi have a good rest. He sent on Jesuli and Sales, who had not played before, to replace Navas and Renato for a rest.

After that, Sevilla slowed down the tempo of the game, focusing on defense and wasting time, hoping to get the most affordable victory at the lowest cost and prepare for the subsequent league and Europa League.

When the game reached the last few minutes, it reached its climax again.

First, in the 90th minute, Sevilla's central defender Dragutinovic suddenly led the ball forward and then shot violently from 35 yards out. Unexpectedly, Real Sociedad's defender Rabaka was unable to dodge and blocked the ball on the edge of the penalty area, causing the ball to hit his own goal at a weird angle on the sideline...

Real Sociedad had no way to deal with this sudden deflection shot. Their focus was already on the other side, ready to save the long shot's original trajectory, so Sevilla luckily extended the score to 3-0.

However, in the first minute of stoppage time, De Serio scored a face-saving goal for the home team.

In the end, Sevilla defeated Real Sociedad 3-1 away from home.

After the game, Sevilla did not return immediately because there were no suitable flights. Instead, they stayed in San Sebastian for one more night and returned via a connecting flight on the second day of the game.

This is also a point that Ricardo is a little confused about. Although Seville is the fourth largest city in Spain and the largest city in the south, it is not a major aviation hub in Europe after all. There are not many direct flights, and most flights have to stop at Madrid Barajas Airport for transfer.

In particular, there are very few flights from Milan, Italy to Seville. If you have to stop in Madrid, the flight time will take 3 hours or even more, which is not as convenient as the original flight from Milan to Barcelona, ​​which takes more than an hour...

Yes, so Chiara can no longer come to provide logistical support for herself every week, but has reduced the frequency to twice a month, and each time she has to take a day off from the annual leave and stay on Friday or Monday.

There are four direct flights from London to Seville every day, but the journey takes 4 hours and 2 minutes; Sarafina, who is still adapting to university life, will probably have time to visit me during holidays to relieve her homesickness.

As for Julian who is far away in Chicago, there is no need to think about it...

But the scumbag Ricardo thought back and said, "Hey, then wouldn't it be possible to have the time and energy to experience Seville's nightlife and the different Spanish customs?"

"But I can't drink alcohol, so I can only go to bars where alcohol is not compulsory. There should be such places in Seville, right?"

"Or maybe you can go to a library or museum in a couple of days? See if you can strike up a conversation with a pretty lady with a scholarly temperament. It's safer, and more innocent..."

But this week, they are not free, because after returning to Seville, the team will start preparing for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Cup, which is also the first knockout round of the main competition. Two days later, the team will go to Greece; this time, Seville will challenge the mysterious Greek team Atromitos away.

……

06/07赛季联盟杯的赛制和欧洲冠军联赛有些不一样，在两周前的联盟杯的抽签仪式上，共有80支球队，包括32支从资格赛晋级的球队，18支直接入围的球队、11支国际托托杯晋级队、3支得到公平竞赛奖的球队和16支冠军杯资格赛第3轮被淘汰的球队。

在抽签中，80支球队按照欧足联积分分为种子队(40支)和非种子队(40支)。所有球队抽到8个小组，每个小组10支球队，其中包括5支种子队和5支非种子队。

In the first round, the teams in each group fought against each other. After two rounds of home and away games, 1 teams from each group entered the group stage. After that, each group played a single round-robin match. The top three teams in each group (5 groups, 8 teams in total) entered the knockout stage and participated in the draw for the knockout stage together with the 24 teams eliminated in the Champions League group stage (8 teams in total).

This means that after the qualifying round, before entering the group stage, there is a two-round knockout round, even the defending champions have to participate. After the group stage, each group will have three qualifying places, and they will participate in the next stage of the mixed knockout draw with the third place of the eighth group in the Champions League group stage.

After studying this somewhat complicated competition system, Ricardo found that as long as you enter the group stage, the probability of advancing to the knockout stage is greater than that of the Champions League, after all, the top three teams are selected; and the actual ranking of the top three is not very important, because there will still be a mixed draw afterwards.

……

At 2006 pm on September 9, 14, the third qualifying round of the UEFA Cup, the defending champion Sevilla was about to play away against Atromitos.

Atromitos F.C. is a football club in Peristeri, a suburb of Athens, Greece. It was founded in 1923 and is one of the oldest teams in Greece.

The team wears blue and white striped shirts at home (similar to Porto), but in this game Sevilla wore what is said to be the most shocking fluorescent pink jersey in history.

Juan Ramos also sent out the strongest lineup in this game. Compared with the last round of the league, Escudé replaced Dragutinovic in the starting lineup, and Adriano also returned to the starting lineup to replace David.

In the midfield, Poulsen returned and partnered with Renato as the defensive midfielder, Duda started as the left midfielder; Li Qi and Kanoute started as the double forwards, while Kepa and Fabiano who had just recovered from injury were rested.

This is a very aggressive and technical lineup, and Juan Ramos' idea for this game is very simple - win!

At the beginning of the game, despite playing away, Sevilla showed the momentum of defending champions. Li Qi gradually integrated into the team and gradually formed a tacit understanding with the team. In this game, he retreated to the front midfielder position and formed a midfield iron triangle with Renato and Paulson to firmly control the initiative of the game in the hands of the visiting team.

In the first 10 minutes, Atromitos took advantage of the home court and made a fierce rush. Although Sevilla had a little difficulty in dealing with it, Li Qi mobilized Alves, Adriano, Navas and Duda, four technical wingers, to make continuous long passes, making Atromitos's pressing futile.

Often, Atromitos felt that he had driven the ball into a dead end and was trapped, so Li Qi retreated deep to receive the ball, then made a long pass, the ball came out again, and then he began to prepare for Atromitos' counterattack...

At the beginning of the game, Li Qi's strategy was that the opponent's morale and state were at their peak, and it was in the explosive period. At this time, speeding up and counterattacking the home team might not be effective, and they might even be counterattacked. So in the first ten minutes, he learned from Barcelona, ​​constantly transferring the ball, changing the rhythm, wearing down the home team's physical strength and morale, and bringing the game into the rhythm that his team is good at...

When the home team's pressing and defensive efficiency begins to decline, it is time to speed up and start counterattacking, which happens to interrupt the opponent's recovery window, keeping the opponent in a high-frequency operation. After a few rounds of this, the opponent's physical strength and condition will drop rapidly; at that time, it is time to close the net and teach the opponent a lesson.

About 10 minutes into the game, Li Qi clearly felt that the opponent's midfielder's fighting intensity began to decline, and the distance between the three lines was a bit loose. It was time to speed up.

So this time when Li Qi retreated to support the opponent, he did not kick the ball directly, because the opponent's midfielder did not come up immediately.

Li Qi stopped the ball and turned around, imitating Qi Xuanzong's fake move of lowering his shoulders and then slamming the ball with his long legs to change direction continuously, which opened up a gap in an instant. He didn't even need to trigger the burst point. He looked at Kanoute's running position and sent a straight pass directly to the ground...

Kanoute stopped the ball, turned around and went straight into the penalty area in one go, then shot against the opponent's defender's defense from 18 yards in front of the goal!

Unexpectedly, I don’t know if it was because of the long-distance flight that affected his condition, or because he was too nervous and excited, this half-single-handed shot actually went astray and hit the crossbar and flew out of the bottom line.

Sevilla missed a good chance to break the deadlock.

In fact, when he started his first League Cup match, Li Qi was a little nervous and excited at the beginning; but not long after the start, he triggered a flash point, which made Li Qi calm down. After all, examining the situation on the field as if time had stopped can indeed cool down the boiling blood and brain instantly.

So it doesn't matter. Li Qi doesn't care about missing one or two opportunities in this game. After all, Sevilla has an overall advantage in terms of technology, speed and organization. So let's help the shooters correct their aim first and try again for the next wave.

However, not long after, 2 minutes later, Sevilla had a second chance. But this time it was Kanouté who made a cross pass after breaking through the wing, and it was Navas' turn to shoot the ball wide...

Then more than 2 minutes later, it was Li Qi's turn to set up the shot, and then Renato's long shot, the angle was too straight, and was caught by the opponent's goalkeeper.

Finally, when the game time was about to reach the 20th minute, Sevilla scored the first goal. It was Li Qi who helped Sevilla score the first goal, because when the whole team couldn't find a shooting boot for a while, Li Qi decided to try it himself.

This time, Li Qi retreated to receive the ball and passed it to Paulson, who then passed it to the side. Alves then broke through to the side of the penalty area and kicked the ball directly towards the middle of the small penalty area... After Kanoute at the front point attracted the attention of the defender, Li Qi inserted from the back row and headed the ball straight into the upper right corner of the goal 8 yards in front of the goal!

1-0, Sevilla took the lead away from home.

After Li Qi scored, Sevilla seemed to let go even more, completely suppressing the home team, and shots began to hit the goal frequently; if it weren't for the heroic performance of the home team's goalkeeper, Sevilla, who had already shot 30 times on target in the first 6 minutes of the game, would have been able to beat Atromitos.

However, just after half an hour, Sevilla also scored the second goal. This time, Kanoute received a diagonal pass from Renato, entered the penalty area, and shot directly from the left side of the goal 18 meters away.

Although the goalkeeper hit the ball, the ball was too fast and it changed direction and still went into the bottom of the far corner of the net. Sevilla expanded its lead.

Sevilla, who were leading by two goals, began to consciously slow down the tempo of the game to avoid unnecessary consumption or injuries. After all, they had traveled a long distance to play away from home, and the main reason was that the home team was anxious... Atromitos players, who were eager to equalize the score, began to frequently use fouls to block Sevilla's control of the ball.

However, Atromitos, who was eager to equalize the score, exposed the gaps in the defense behind him even further.

So before the end of the first half, Sevilla had another golden opportunity. First, when Li Qi retreated to meet the opponent, he was knocked down by the home team's back midfielder with his back to the ball. Renato next to him and Alves not far away were not happy with it and started to make gestures with the opponent's players. The referee quickly separated the players of both sides...

At this moment, Li Qi, who was still pretending to be dead on the ground, rolled up, then directly pressed the ball and passed it to Canute who was ready to steal the ball at any time. After receiving the ball, Canute did not hesitate to step on the penalty area line and made a low shot... The ball bypassed the goalkeeper's block and went straight to the near corner of the net.

The referee turned around and determined that Sevilla's quick kick was valid, and gave the Atromitos player who complained a yellow card. Yes, you committed the foul and you also complained...

In this way, Sevilla successfully entered the halftime break with a score of 3-0; head coach Juan Ramos was very satisfied, and they were almost halfway into the group stage of the UEFA Cup.