Currently, Sporting Gijon has five forwards: Diego Milito, Di Natale, Benzema, Meguir Pihra and Enrique Chiesa.
However, Di Natale has always been used by Li Ang as a shadow forward, and Chiesa is also regarded by Li Ang as Di Natale's substitute.
Meguir Pihra is old and has only played very few games this season, leaving no room for further progress.
Therefore, when Li Ang was considering which player to use the [Intermediate Hundred Steps to Penetrate Yang] skill, he could only choose between Diego Milito and Benzema.
Twenty-five-year-old Diego Milito is in his prime. This late-blooming striker has made rapid progress and is currently the top scorer in La Liga. He is the current star of Sporting Gijon.
And Benzema, who is just seventeen years old, has already scored six goals in his limited playing time, making him the fourth goalscorer in the Sporting Gijon team. Benzema is the young man who Li Ang has high hopes for.
future.
Li Ang was a little hesitant to choose between the present and the future.
However, just two days later, he found that he no longer needed to worry about this multiple-choice question.
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On February 4, 2005, in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey in the 2004/2005 season, Sporting Gijon faced Sevilla away from home.
This time as a guest at the Pizjuan Stadium, Sevilla coach Caparros vowed to avenge the previous humiliation.
This game was extremely fierce, and the intensity exceeded Li Ang's expectations.
The referee showed two red cards and six yellow cards during the game. Sevilla captain Navarro was sent off with a red card. For Sporting Gijon, Pepe was sent off with a red card and six yellow cards. Sevilla
Got four, Sporting Gijon two.
In the words of commentator D'Agostino, both sides in this match had almost no technical content and could be described as a hand-to-hand battle.
In the end, Sporting Gijon drew 2-2 with their opponents in an away game, advancing to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with a total score of 4-2.
What Li Ang regrets most is that he did not estimate the tragedy of this game. Otherwise, he would have used the [Basic Misfortune Transfer] skill in advance to avoid the possibility of injuries to his own players.
Diego Milito scored a goal in the game. However, the Argentine striker was injured and left the field in the second half of the game. According to the diagnosis of the team doctor, the Argentine will be absent from the game for at least a month.
After the game, Li Ang almost went berserk and angrily accused Sevilla of playing dirty football at the press conference.
Sevilla head coach Caparros was not to be outdone and criticized Sporting Gijon for not playing cleanly.
After Sporting Gijon's 5-1 away win over Sevilla in the league, and this two-leg match in the Copa del Rey, the relationship between Sporting Gijon and Sevilla, or in other words, between Leon and Caparros
The hatred deepened.
Spain's National Radio also joked that Sporting Gijon and Sevilla have become enemies, and there is another pair of hated enemies in La Liga.
***********
Diego Milito is injured, and Li Ang no longer has to make multiple choices. He can only give Benzema more starting opportunities in subsequent games.
Therefore, in the training on the second day after the game, Li Ang used the skill of [Intermediate Hundred Steps to Pierce Yang] on Benzema.
The effect can be said to be immediate.
In the intra-team competition on this day, the 17-year-old French boy impressed his teammates. In the 45-minute competition, Benzema scored three goals with his head and kick!
"Milito's injury stimulated the French boy." Assistant coach Scott Rui said.
This is the common view of almost everyone. They believe that Milito was injured, which gave Benzema the opportunity to fight for the starting spot and broke out in training.
It cannot be said that what they thought was completely wrong. Benzema did work harder than before in training. Coupled with the effect of his [Intermediate Hundred Steps to Penetrate Yang] skill, the 17-year-old French boy shined in people's eyes.
Li Ang could only sigh in his heart that this kid Benzema is so lucky. Milito's injury gave Benzema a chance, and he could only give Benzema that 'big benefit'.
Benzema didn't know that the head coach had given him a big benefit. He was very happy and excited. He only felt that he was improving very quickly and his shooting felt great. This gave this kid more opportunities to compete for the starting position.
confidence.
***********
Sporting Gijon heads high and moves closer to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.
This made Li Ang happy but also a little helpless. A tournament that he had originally planned to give up, because of Atletico Madrid's Hill's "trouble", he had to do his best in the game against Sevilla in order to stabilize the morale of the army.
The main force used victory and promotion to stabilize the morale of the army, and thus reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.
Having already reached the semi-finals, he couldn't think of giving up the King's Cup. After all, the King's Cup is also a championship. For Sporting Gijon, a down-and-out grassroots team, there is really no reason to give up.
He wanted to give up the King's Cup, but club president Manuel Arango would not agree: on the night the team eliminated Sevilla and entered the semi-finals, the old Arango congratulated the team.
, and asked about the team's possibility of defending the King's Cup... Obviously, the old Arango is looking forward to winning the King's Cup.
Sporting Gijon's opponent in the Copa del Rey semi-finals is another old rival, Atletico Madrid, whom they just beat 7-2 in the league. In addition, Atletico Madrid owner Angel Hill's praise for Leon,
This must have made current Atletico Madrid head coach Aguirre feel embarrassed, so this Copa del Rey semi-final was considered a gimmick by some media.
Fortunately, the semi-finals of the King's Cup won't start until mid-April, so Li Ang doesn't have to think about the King's Cup for the time being.
***********
February 5th, Malayo training base.
After the training, Li Ang announced to the players the starting lineup for the 22nd round of La Liga against Numancia the next day.
For the goalkeeper position, Li Ang chose to rest the veteran Valencia and chose the young Handanovic.
The left back of the defense is Grosso. As for the right back, Li Ang chose to rotate, giving Dorado, who was returning from injury, a chance to start.
In the central defender position, Pepe received a direct red card in the Copa del Rey and was suspended for two games by the Spanish Football Association. He was unable to play in this game, and veteran Hierro accumulated yellow cards and was suspended in this game. Therefore, Liang had no choice but to
Under this situation, they could only choose the starting combination of Vermaelen and Rami. After coming to Sporting Gijon, Rami first trained with the reserve team for a month, played a few reserve team games, and then trained with the first team.
, but there is no record of playing for the first team. In this game, he was able to directly get the starting opportunity. Li Ang's choice is really bold.
In the midfield, Marcos got the chance to start, Carlos was rotated and rested, Albertini was rotated, Juan Arango got the chance to start, Ribery and Modric started, and Juan Marquez returned from injury.
Mata was put on the bench. If he can come on as a substitute, it will be Mata's first game back on the court after missing more than two months due to injury.
***********
Finally, there is the choice of striker.
"Antonio Di Natale." Li Ang read out Di Natale's name.
Then he paused.
Benzema in the crowd was breathing rapidly and holding his breath.
"Karimi Benzema!" Finally, Li Ang read out the last name.
Benzema waved his arms vigorously and roared. Although he guessed that he should get the chance to start, he still couldn't hide his excitement.
Li Ang glanced at the excited boy, folded the paper with the starting list, encouraged the players a few more words, then turned and left.
The players also came up and touched the French boy's head to express their congratulations. Within the team, the younger players are more taken care of by the older guys, and Benzema is a smarter guy who knows how to make trouble.
, very popular.
"Hey, kid, don't worry, I will assist you." Ribery came up and put his arms around Benzema's neck and said.
"How many goals do you plan to score?" Di Natale also joked. Benzema's condition in training these two days has been amazing, so he made this joke.
The French kid didn't answer, he just smiled and secretly clenched his fists. With the main forward Diego Milito injured, this game is his opportunity, and he must seize it!
PS: The first update is here. I will continue to ask everyone for monthly votes. Can I get more votes for monthly tickets? It’s the middle of the month. I don’t know if there is still hope to grab the monthly ticket list. I want to fight. Of course, I will reward you with updates.
