Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

After Maresca came on the pitch, he and Li Qi played a series of wonderful passes and cuts in the middle, causing chaos in Athletic Bilbao's defense. In the 82nd minute, when the cooperation between the two attracted the attention of most of the defensive players, Li Qi suddenly deliberately missed the ball in the crowd, and the ball came to the defensive gap on the ribs...

Maresca made a diagonal pass, Li Qi faked a shot but spread his legs and dribbled past three defenders, allowing the ball to reach Alves' feet near the corner of the penalty area. This leak broke through Athletic Bilbao's defense.

Alves calmly stopped the ball on the right wing and observed it, and made a timely low cross before the opponent's defender could make up for it. Fabiano, who successfully beat the offside, shot and scored from 10 yards in front of the unguarded point!

Fabiano, who had already contributed two assists in this game, finally scored a goal. This was the Brazilian's 8th goal of the season and his first league goal in nearly three and a half months. After the winter break, Fabiano has only scored 3 goals in total, and his last league goal dates back to the match against Zaragoza on January 3. However, the Brazilian striker excitedly took off his shirt to celebrate and received the first yellow card of the home team in this game...

The score was already 4 to 1! However, Fabiano, who was already in high spirits, didn't want to stop at all. Before the end of the game, when the injury time was about to begin, Fabiano returned the favor again.

In the 89th minute, Fabiano received a lob pass from Maresca, protected the ball with his back and then cleverly passed it with his heel. The ball just passed between the legs of the central defender... The alert Li Qi followed up, took the ball in one step, dribbled diagonally past the goalkeeper who was attacking, and then steadily pushed the ball into the empty goal!

Although Li Qi also scored two goals in this game, the best player of the game was definitely Fabiano, who provided three assists and a goal that broke his three-month goal drought.

In the end, Li Qi's goal locked the score of the game, 5 to 1! The white-clad Sevilla defeated the black-clad Athletic Bilbao at home...

The score of 5-1 also allowed Sevilla to get out of the slump of not scoring in three consecutive league rounds. At the same time, the home team also won its first victory in the last four league rounds and continued to closely follow the leader Barcelona in the standings. Bilbao, whose winning streak was ended, suffered a series of away defeats.

In the two key matches that have already been played, the results of Barcelona and Real Madrid have been released.

In the battle at the Estadio degli Amor, Barcelona lost 0-2 to Villarreal away from home. After Ronaldinho and Eto'o wasted chances, Pires and Marcos Garcia scored a goal each in the second half to help the home team win. Barcelona's lead was reduced to 1 point after suffering a series of away defeats.

Real Madrid beat Valencia, who had defeated Sevilla in the previous round, 2-1 at home. Van Nistelrooy scored the first goal, Morientes equalized the score against his former club, but Beckham, who came on as a substitute, assisted Ramos to score the winning goal.

皇马也取得了近5场比赛的第4场胜利，和塞维利亚只有1分的差距，离巴塞罗那也只有2分的距离。但是本轮需输球的瓦伦西亚则是基本丧失了争冠的可能性了，甚至联赛排名再次被本轮2比0在主场拿下保级队塞尔塔的萨拉戈萨超过。

However, among the three teams that have a chance to win the league title, only Sevilla still has a chance to chase the treble, and Sevilla, who won this round of the league, is one step closer to their dream...

For this reason, after this round of games, Marca published an editorial to praise Sevilla:

"Looking at the top teams in La Liga, Sevilla is the only team that can still fight on three fronts at the end of the season. They have reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup, and their league points are always close to Barcelona.

The UEFA Cup last season and the Super Cup victory over Barcelona in the summer have made Sevilla ambitious. Head coach Juan Ramos' goal is no longer to win the Champions League, but to win in all three categories. As club president Del Nido said, the team has performed very well this season, and since they have reached this point, it is not impossible to win the treble.

Judging from the surface, it is not impossible for Sevilla to win the championship on three fronts. Compared with Real Madrid with weak midfield and backcourt, Valencia with many injuries, and Barcelona which once lost Eto'o and Messi, Ramos' team is the one with the most complete lineup among the top four teams in La Liga. Moreover, their advantage lies in the relatively average strength of the players, and the rotation does not have too much impact on the overall strength.

However, after nearly a season of hard fighting, most of Sevilla's players have entered a period of fatigue and a period of frequent injuries. In the past month, absolute main players such as Palop, Kanoute, Alves and Navarro have been plagued by injuries one after another, and the stability of the lineup is no longer as good as at the beginning of the season.

At the same time, Sevilla's recent schedule is quite difficult. The UEFA Cup semi-final against Osasuna next week will definitely be a tough battle. The following weekend they will challenge Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, and their opponent in the King's Cup final will most likely be Barcelona. If things go wrong, they may really repeat the tragedy of Leverkusen's three victories.

The only consolation for Sevilla is that they still have strong attacking capabilities, as exemplified by their 5-1 victory over visiting Athletic Bilbao in this round of the league.

Not only did the two main players Kanoute and Fabiano maintain their very good form, but Korzakov, who came on the scene during the winter window, also had a good performance, helping Sevilla win six games in the second half of the season alone.

In addition, the Italian genius Li Qi, who was loaned from Barcelona this season, unexpectedly played with the efficiency of a top star in La Liga and showed the performance of the core of the team. However, it can be predicted that it will be difficult for the Pizjuan Stadium to keep this rising star player next season. It is said that many giants have already inquired about the price of Barcelona..."

Ricardo closed the newspaper and naturally knew which giants were interested in him; there were not many, according to the call that La Pang had just made, there were three in the Premier League, two in Serie A, two in the Bundesliga, and another big boss in La Liga besides Barcelona was also inquiring, but the last one wanted to buy players directly from Barcelona, ​​which was extremely difficult.

As the season is coming to an end, the summer transfer window will begin in less than three months, and there will be no world series this summer, so most clubs will take action earlier than in previous years.

However, Ricardo has authorized La Pang to contact him privately first, but the final decision still needs to wait until the summer to talk with Barcelona. In addition, this summer Ricardo has decided to participate in the European Under-21 Football Championship (UEFA European Under-21 Championship), referred to as the U21 European Youth Championship.

The U21 European Championship has been held every two years since 1978. The finals were held in even-numbered years before 2007, but have been held in odd-numbered years since 2007. The tournament is also the European qualifying tournament for the men's football event at the following Summer Olympics.

So this year is the year of the reform of the U21 European Championship, and it is also the second consecutive year that the U21 European Championship has been held. Originally, in the summer of 2006, the U21 Italian Youth Team wanted to recruit Li Qi to play in the final stage of the U21 European Championship. However, Li Qi had been preparing for the Champions League final with Barcelona at that time, and then he was selected for the national team to prepare for the World Cup, so Li Qi declined the call-up of the U21 Italian Youth Team at that time.

It is understandable that the team was led by the old acquaintance Casiraghi at that time. After all, both the Champions League final and the World Cup finals are more important than the 2006 U21 European Championship. After all, the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics was the 2007 U21 European Championship, not the last European Championship before the reform.

However, the age limit of the U21 European Championship is different from that of the World Youth Championship and the Olympics. Its age limit starts from the qualifying year, not from the finals. The qualifying round usually starts two years before the finals, and like the national team, it uses international match days to play.

所以1986年出生的李奇甚至还有资格参加下一届2009年的U21欧青赛，因为2009年U21欧青赛预选赛于2007年9月开始，2008年10月结束，86年后出生的球员有资格参加2009年决赛阶段的比赛。

Therefore, for this summer's U21 European Championship, players born after 1984 are actually eligible to participate; however, as a qualifying tournament for the 2008 Chinese Olympics, this age group does not meet the requirements of the Olympics, because the appropriate age group for the football competition of the 2008 Chinese Olympics is born after 1985.

So in fact, most teams participating in the 2007 U21 European Championship will still form their teams with players of the right age after 1985, and Li Qi, who was born in 86, is naturally Casiraghi's first choice as the cornerstone of the team.

So Casiraghi, the coach of the 05 Dutch World Youth Championship, called one and a half months in advance before the final roster was announced in the hope of confirming Ricardo's willingness and time: He declined last year because of the World Cup and the Champions League, which was acceptable, but there is no reason to refuse this year, right?

But in fact, Ricardo really had reason to refuse.

2007年U21欧青赛的预选赛从2006年的4月12日的资格赛开打；不过意大利U21代表队的预选赛征程是从8月16日的小组赛开始的，而两场小组赛全胜之后意大利U21代表队就进入了10月7日与11日的附加赛。

During those two days, Ricciardo was playing for the Italian national team in the European Cup qualifiers. On October 10, he was fouled in the away game against Georgia and was out for a month...

However, even without Ricardo, the Italian U21 team defeated the Spanish U2 team 1-21 in the play-offs and successfully entered the finals.

而2007年的U21欧青赛的决赛圈阶段是从2007年的6月12日至6月24日在荷兰举行。

那至于里卡多拒绝的绝佳理由是06/07赛季西甲结束的特别晚，最后一轮联赛竟然是在6月17日举行，届时U21欧青赛都已经踢到半决赛了……

However, the UEFA Cup final and the Spanish King's Cup final had already been played by then, and the champions of the two cup competitions and the UEFA Champions League would be decided before the end of May.

So after a slight hesitation, Ricardo still agreed to his old coach Casiraghi. However, Ricardo did not say anything definite. He could only say that it would depend on the rankings in the last two rounds of La Liga. If the final ranking has been settled in advance, or has nothing to do with Sevilla, Ricardo will ask for leave from the club and report to the Italian U21 national team.

Because in the memory of old Li Qi, which Ricardo inherited, Sevilla finally won the double crown this season, but the La Liga champion did not make it to the end...

But in fact, as long as Ricardo is willing to participate, Casiraghi will definitely put Ricardo on the list of the game, even if he can only play in the knockout round! This is the guarantee of winning the championship and performance! It's all thanks to Ricardo's big and thick legs...

However, Ricardo also has many reasons to participate in this U21 European Championship:

First of all, there is his own national team Grand Slam record; the most difficult World Cup championship, he won it last summer with the help of God of War, the young player and Sleepy. He has also won the U17 European Championship, the U17 World Championship, the U19 European Championship and the U20 World Championship. Now there are only the U21 European Championship, the Olympic Championship for U23 and the European Cup left.

Needless to say, the Olympics, although Ricardo will have the opportunity to participate as an over-age player in future Olympics...but Ricardo will definitely go to the 08 China Olympics, because old Li Qi has a strong obsession with this, and there are mysterious Chinese beauties waiting for the scumbag Li to take into his harem. If he doesn't participate, not only old Li Qi will not do it, the author will not do it, and even many fans and readers will not do it, right?

For this reason, Ricardo has included the requirement of being allowed to participate in the Chinese Olympics into the core conditions of contract renewal or transfer negotiations, because the Chinese Olympics will start in August, which will definitely affect the summer preparations of the major European leagues.

So the second reason is that this U21 European Championship is also the qualifier for the 08 Olympic Games in China.

So although Ricardo still has a chance to participate in the 09 U21 European Championship, he must ensure that the Italian U21 team can enter the semi-finals of this U21 European Championship and qualify for the 4 Olympic finals. Although, historically, Italy also entered the 08 Olympic finals, but who knows whether Ricardo's butterfly effect will affect the final result?

The champions of the last U06 European Championship in 21 were the Dutch youth team, and this year the finals are being played in the Netherlands. If we are unlucky and meet the Netherlands again, and therefore fail to make the semi-finals, won’t we cry to death?

And if I didn't participate in the qualifiers, and didn't participate in the finals of the U21 European Championship, who knows if I can finally be selected for the 08 Olympic Games. So it's just right that I won this year's competition...

The third reason is that the finals of this year's U21 European Championship will be held in the Netherlands, which is Ricardo's lucky place. After two years, it must be very stylish and interesting to revisit the venue where he won the 05 World Youth Championship. (?ˉ?ˉ?)

The last reason is that Ricardo needs to recruit younger players. According to old Li Qi's knowledge, Italy will have a talent gap after the 2010 World Cup. In the 2010 World Cup, they were eliminated in the group stage. In the 2014 World Cup, they slipped to the fourth tier, but they were also eliminated in the group stage. And then it was even worse, missing the 2018 and 2022 World Cups...

2014 and 2018 are the peak periods of the professional careers of football players born between 85 and 86. As for 2022, if they work hard, they can still have a chance to play in their sunset years.

According to old Li Qi's knowledge, Italy's youth team has never won a championship since they last won the U2004 European Championship in 21.

Before this World Youth Championship, the Italian youth team was a regular in the U21 European Youth Championship finals, and won five championships in 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000 and 2004, winning five championships in seven consecutive competitions; so before 7, the Italian national team did not have to worry about the main lineup, and there were too many stars to choose from...

But afterwards, until the source of news from old Li Qi stopped, the starting lineup of the Italian national team was lackluster, especially in the attacking midfield and frontcourt, where there was no general but Liao Hua as the vanguard. If Vieri, Piero, Totti and now big brother Luca Toni knew about this, they would laugh to death.

Therefore, Ricardo needs to find help for himself and train suitable teammates from this U21 European Championship, just like he trained Maresca in the club.

However, Maresca was born in 80 and will probably not be able to play in the World Cup after 2014; but Chiellini, Antonio Nocerino and Aquilani can, as well as the younger brothers from the U20 World Cup, such as Pelle, Montolivo, Criscito and Viviano...