Chapter 313: Leaving with a smile

On March 18, in the 30th round of La Liga, Valencia faced Osasuna at home.

Osasuna's performance this season is average. Although she has not entered the relegation zone now, she is only a few points away from the relegation zone. The characteristic of La Liga this season is that there are no particularly weak teams. After the 29th round, the score difference between the tenth and the twenty-fifth is only ten. To the present, more than half of the La Liga teams are even likely to be relegated. The score difference between Valencia, the first place, and Valencano, the last place, is only 27 points...

Osasuna is now ranked 13th, but only five points ahead of the bottom Vallecano. In this game, they also have enough fighting spirit to participate in the game.

Benitez sent most of the main players in this game, and Tiger, who was in the center of the vortex, recently started - this shows a attitude of Valencia Club. In any case, Valencia Club is on Tiger's side.

When Tiger was the last to appear, the commentator in the stands began to loudly report Tiger's name in the most passionate voice, and when Tiger's figure appeared in the stadium, a huge cheer burst out from the stands!

Countless banners raised above the stands proved the support of Valencia fans for Tiger. Tiger raised his arms high and signaled to the stands. Even though he was not under much pressure before, being in the whirlpool of controversy, being able to get the support of Valencia fans is undoubtedly something that greatly encourages Tiger.

In the next game, as soon as Tiger got the ball, there would be huge cheers in the stands, and Tiger did not disappoint the fans who supported him. In this game, he also performed very well!

With one goal and two assists, Tiger helped Valencia defeat Osasuna three-to-one. After the second half, Benitez replaced Aimal. Villa and Kili were the three absolute main players, allowing Tiger to fully utilize his strength. Tiger became the only protagonist on the entire court!

After the game, Tiger raised his hands around the field and paid tribute to the fans. The fans also gave warm applause. All of this was recorded faithfully by the camera. After the game, Spanish TV station sighed: "Tiger did make a mistake, which also affected Valencia's performance in the Champions League next. Valencia's fans still supported him so much. If Tiger had not won a lot for Valencia before and this time he was just an impulse, he would not have received so much support..."

However, Tiger's suspension did have an extremely impact on Valencia's combat effectiveness in the Champions League.

Three days later, in the last round of the second stage of the Champions League group stage, Valencia, who had already won the first place in the group in advance, was defeated by Leverkusen three-to-one at home. This was Valencia's first defeat in various home games this season. Leverkusen also miraculously qualified with the help of two consecutive victories in the last two rounds - on the other court, Juventus defeated Arsenal 1-0 away. The two teams scored seven points together and both were eliminated in the group stage. Leverkusen narrowly qualified with eight points, creating a miracle that is not big or small!

Although this loss did not affect Valencia's qualifying as the first in the group, Valencia did not send all substitutes to train the team in this game. Benitez sent all the main players besides Tiger, just to try how to play without Tiger, but the result was not very good. Although Benitez had tried to downplay Tiger's influence in the team before, it was obvious that Tiger's scheduling and scoring ability still did not have a Valencia player to fill it.

This made Benitez start to feel some concern about the subsequent knockout rounds.

The knockout round will be held in early April. Before that, Valencia has two league games to play. Before Real Madrid was tied by Barcelona and was left with three points by Valencia, giving Benitez a confidence to train his lineup. So in the next round of away game against Vallecano, Benitez once again hides Tiger and wants to experiment with new tactics.

However, the effect of doing this is also not very good. Valencia, who lacks Tiger, almost suffered a Waterloo away. If Rufit had not equalized the score before the end of the game, Valencia would have been defeated by Valencio, who was fighting for relegation away. Real Madrid, who won this round, took the opportunity to narrow the gap by two points and continue to be one point behind Valencia!

Faced with this situation, Benitez did not dare to play with hot anymore. In the next away game against the newly promoted team Tenerife, Benitez's old club, although Benitez hid some of the main players, he brought Tiger back to the main lineup. Such dispatching was immediately effective. Tiger scored the only goal in the game in the 65th minute, helping Valencia continue to beat Real Madrid with one point advantage!

After playing this game, Valencia began to travel to the UK - they have been to the UK a lot in the past two years, and this time the opponent was Manchester United, whom he met once in the group stage...

"Tiger, thank you for that punch!"

Manchester United fans made such a banner in the stands at Old Trafford, which made Tiger, who was watching the game in the stands, laugh and cry. This banner has a dual meaning. The first is of course thanking Tiger for suspending his punch, which reduced Manchester United's huge trouble. The second is thanking him for giving Vieira a punch and breathing a sigh of relief for Manchester United fans...

However, Manchester United fans should indeed thank Tiger for the result of the game.

Although Valencia, who lacked Tiger, played very hard, he lacked players who could make a final decision. Manchester United seized the opportunity very well. Beckham's direct free kick and cross helped Van Nie to score, allowing Manchester United to gain a two-goal lead at home in the first half. In the following game, Manchester United began to pay more attention to defense and maintained this lead until the end of the game. After falling behind two goals away, Valencia may find it difficult to turn the game at home...

Tiger could only shake his head and sigh. In the past two years in Valencia and the year at Manchester United, Tiger was able to help the team enter the Champions League final every year. This time, it seems that this magical record cannot be continued...

After returning to Valencia, Tiger did not apologize to his teammates. He had always apologized before. Now what he has to do is to help his teammates reduce the burden through his performance...

So when facing Real Sociedad in the next round at home, Tiger volunteered again. Benitez placed most of the main players on the bench, allowing Tiger to lead a group of substitutes to struggle on the court, so Tiger led the substitutes to complete a brilliant victory at home!

Real Sociedad is not a bad team, but they have been in a very miserable season. They have only just left the relegation zone. At the beginning of the season, they even fell to the brink of relegation. The situation has just improved a little recently, but they encountered a Tiger who has performed at the top level because of some guilt...

Four to zero! Although Tiger scored only one goal in the game, he completely controlled the midfield and kept creating opportunities for his teammates. Carum scored twice, Angulo added icing on the cake. Valencia continued to beat Real Madrid with one point advantage and led the standings. There were five rounds left in the league, and Valencia defended the title in sight!

Three days later, Valencia welcomed Manchester United at home. In the absence of Tiger, Valencia still performed at an extremely high level. If it weren't for the big gap before, they even had the chance to reverse their opponents - although Solskjaer won the first goal, Valencia relied on Blanco's own goal. Villa and Baraja's goals surpassed Manchester United by 3-1. When one goal was needed to advance, Valencia was ahead of the front and was eventually attacked by Giggs, losing hope of promotion.

Valencia was eliminated from zero to two away and three to two at home.

"For this situation, we can only say that our luck is not very good... The players performed very well, but luck was not on our side. Next, we will focus on the league because we can only focus on this now. Defending the title in the league will be a task we must achieve this season." Benitez said helplessly after the game.

"Valencia was not embarrassed to be eliminated... Although Manchester United advanced to the semi-finals, they were not convincing. Valencia showed enough courage, fighting spirit and strength. Without Tiger, they almost made Manchester United swallow the bitter fruit. This proves that in the past two seasons, Valencia relied on not just Tiger's strength. It was an equally excellent team hidden under Tiger's light."

This article by Valencia's local media has defined Valencia's Champions League journey this season, but the Champions League is eliminated and the league will continue. The remaining five rounds of the league will determine whether Valencia will set the record of the first defending league champion in the club's history or win nothing.

On April 14, Valencia and Real Madrid were bitten by the relegation team at the same time. However, the tough Valencia saved a draw away. They tied with Mallorca on the island, but Real Madrid seemed gorgeous and fragile. Although Zidane scored a very beautiful goal, Osasuna desperately left three wounds on Real Madrid - the three-to-one score made the gap between Real Madrid and Valencia begin to widen to two points!

"Although it's only two points, Valencia's advantage is unshakable. There are four rounds left in the league. Valencia, who does not need to be distracted from the Champions League, has more advantages. Real Madrid will not. They will have two rounds of life-and-death confrontation with Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League... Although Real Madrid is also very strong this season, I still feel that their hopes are actually very small in the league."

The comments of "World" can be considered to be a sharp hit. Although Real Madrid swept the bottom Tenerife four-one in the 35th round, Valencia defeated La Coruña 1-0 at home in the next game with a goal worth a thousand gold medals, continuing to lead Real Madrid by two points!

"Real Madrid lost the last chance to catch up with Valencia. If Valencia loses or is tied by La Coruña, then Real Madrid with the same points may be able to rely on the advantage of goal difference to finally win the La Liga championship this season. However, Valencia survived the last hurdle. The next three opponents are Espanyol, Malaga and Betis - maybe these three teams are not weak, but don't forget that in the first round of the game, it was Valencia who won three consecutive victories, found his state, and set off a frenzy in the second half of the season. With Valencia's current state, it is difficult for these three teams to have a chance to stop Valencia's advance, not to mention that Real Madrid has to be distracted from the Champions League game..."

On April 24, when Real Madrid went to Camp Nou to compete in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Valencia's entire team was comfortable resting in Valencia, preparing for the next game against Espanyol.

Valencia's players naturally gathered together to watch the game in this game, and Real Madrid also performed at a very high level in this game. In this season's Champions League, Barcelona remained unbeaten at home, and Real Madrid has not been able to beat Barcelona away for a long time, which has given them enough confidence, but Real Madrid has performed better than them.

Zidane and McManaman's goals in the second half allowed Real Madrid to defeat Barcelona 2-0 away. This result basically means that they have entered the finals. In this game, Real Madrid played a very high level in both offense and defense. Faced with Barcelona's bombardment, they did not reveal any flaws. Instead, they used their excellent offense to score two goals in a row, completely taking advantage of their advantages.

"These guys are really powerful." After watching this game, Ayala couldn't help but sigh.

"Let them play. The better they play in the Champions League, the easier we will be." Tiger said with a smile: "In the Champions League, there will be some ups and downs when we go back to the league... Maybe we will become easier in the league..."

Valencia's players looked at each other and thought Tiger's words were really damn reasonable...

It makes sense indeed.

After a week of rest, Valencia, who was very talented and had enough food, easily beat Espanyol in the 36th round of the game. However, Real Madrid, who ran from Camp Nou, ran to Real Sociedad at home to play at home, collapsed. They were scored three goals in a row by Real Sociedad, who fought for relegation, and suffered a crushing defeat on the away game!

After this round of league, Valencia is only one step away from defending the league championship - with two rounds left in the league, they are already five points ahead of Real Madrid. In the next two games, they can win the league championship with just two draws...

When the entire league was almost halfway through, it was only ranked eighth. Who knew that Valencia could perform so well in the second half of the season?

Valencia's fans are already crazy about being happy. They firmly believe that in the next round, they will be able to win the championship one round ahead of schedule!

In fact, Real Madrid has basically given up on the league.

Instead of wasting physical fitness in a league where there is almost no hope, it is better to leave your physical strength and condition in the Champions League game. They now have a good chance to enter the final three times in five years and have a good chance to win the Champions League championship...

After Real Madrid tied Barcelona at home to advance to the Champions League final, the 37th round of La Liga came as scheduled, and Real Madrid gave up the game directly. They were tied by Mallorca 1-1 away while Valencia took advantage of the victory and took down Malaga away with a two-to-zero away game. While completing a double-kill against the victim in a season, they also won the La Liga championship one round ahead of schedule!

In this case, the last round of home match against Betis became a stage for Valencia fans to celebrate!

In this game, Benitez sent most of the substitutes, and only Tiger started - all Valencia fans knew that maybe this game was the last game Tiger played for Valencia.

Tiger also performed at the same level in this game. In the first half, after receiving a pass from Ruffit, Tiger passed two consecutively in the middle, and then used his iconic long shot to score Valencia's first record!

Valencia's players also passed the ball more to him to let him perform on the court. Tiger, who rushed left and right on the court, showed his skills again after the second half. He saw the opponent's goalkeeper standing in front of the penalty area, and raised his foot and shot with a spoon!

There was a huge cheer sound in the stands, and Tiger opened his arms and rushed to the sidelines, listening to the cheers coming from the stands!

In the 65th minute of the second half, Benitez replaced Tiger with Aimal. When he saw the sign played on the sidelines, Tiger realized that his career in Valencia was over.

Although Tiger never said he would leave Valencia after the end of this season, everyone knew in his heart that Tiger would not stay for another year. With his ability and current status, Valencia could not keep it. Even Valencia has won a lot of honors, but compared with the wealthy families, they are still much worse.

Tiger walked off the court step by step, hugged Aimal and then walked off the court. Then he opened his arms and clapped to the stands, and the cheers in the stands became even more enthusiastic.

For the next time, Tiger sat on the bench, covering his head with a towel without any movement. He didn't want others to see his current appearance - it was not until the end of the game that he pulled off the turban covered on his head and laughed happily.

Even if you leave, you must leave with a smile!
Chapter completed!