081 The pressure of the Portuguese Super League flagship
Twenty years ago, Benfica was the only team to win the Portuguese Super League, with 27 wins and Sporting Lisbon 16 by the time Porto won their 10th league trophy in 1988.
But over the past 20 years, Porto has gradually become the flagship of the Portuguese Super League!
Porto lifted the league trophy for the 25th time this past summer, and their record of 32 titles from Benfica has been reduced to seven!
Sporting Lisbon, on the other hand, have been left behind by Porto, and the gap between them is also 7 league titles!
The big-name Porto squad can be called luxurious, even if you look at Europe, it is definitely between the first-tier clubs and the giants, which is obviously stronger than the first-tier clubs, but there is still a certain gap with the giants.
Hulk, James Rodriguez, Kleber, Janko in the front, Fernando, Moutinho, Sousa in the midfield, Pereira, Otamendi, Mangala, Danilo, Sandro and so on in the back, such a team won the Portuguese Super League with an unbeaten record last season is definitely not only super stable, but also inseparable from their terrifying strength that completely overrides their opponents.
Porto has completed a change of manager in the new season, and it is a continuation of the tradition of young coaches, with the departure of Villas-Boas, his former assistant and two-time coach of Porto's youth team, Victor Pereira, taking over.
Porto's coach has become a hot topic in the Portuguese Super League, from football to entertainment, from connotation to fashion, since Mourinho's Armani coat style has captivated countless female fans, Boas's handsomeness that resembles a star's face can also turn everyone upside down, and it just so happens that the new coach Victor Pereira is also a fashionable man.
What could be more representative of the Portuguese Super League than a cool and sophisticated fashion coach leading a team of kings to the north?
Porto, who has won four consecutive league games at the beginning of the new season, seems to be an unsinkable giant, but Pereira unexpectedly came to the home of promoted Ferenc, but Porto, the Portuguese Super League leader, could not attack for a long time in the game!
Even at the end of the game, the impatient James Rodriguez was sent off for a red card for a foul!
And the next game they will play at home to Benfica!
Due to the Champions League in midweek, Pereira hid the center Hulk in this game, but in the eyes of the outside world, even if Porto removes half of the main team and replaces the substitute players, the strength is definitely more than one grade above Ferrense!
But Porto shook hands with Ferrens away from home, and the home fans cheered for the draw, and as a promoted horse, they were able to take points from Porto, which means that they stabbed the Portuguese Super League giants!
It's a pleasure!
Pereira shook hands with the opposition coach with grace and said in an interview that a draw would have no impact on the title race.
But he was reminded by reporters to learn that in another match, Braga beat Guimares 2-1 away.
Now Porto is tied with Braga and Benfica in the Portuguese Super League standings, but Braga is at the top of the table on goal difference!
Braga's move to the top of the table didn't cause panic in Pereira, but it was frustrating to think that the club had asked for the Chinese striker and that they had no intention of joining Porto.
Mendes told the big three clubs with only one simple sentence: if Tang Hong leaves Braga, his next stop will be the big five leagues.
Let's take things in a good direction first, and no one will be disappointed when the future is at stake.
In other words, if Tang Hong can't get out of the Portuguese Super League, I'm afraid the three giants will no longer be interested in him.
The best ending is to be able to live in Braga without being abandoned.
After learning that the Chinese player had scored again in this round, and the number of goals had been rewritten to 8 goals on the scorer list, Pereira felt a little uneasy.
It's not uncommon for a super goalscorer to rewrite the team's fortunes, especially in the Portuguese Super League, where Jardel was once a goal machine with a 1-0 halo.
In the standings, Braga only leads by goal difference, and only one, and has no advantage in points.
But on the scorer list, Tang Hong has left his competitors far behind!
There is no need for Pereira to be under pressure or have a hunch, the Portuguese media have labelled this season's title race as "unprecedentedly fierce"!
Porto will not be able to defend their title as easily as last season, and apart from Benfica's old rivals, the new addition Braga will have to see how strong they are, but now they are on a ferocious momentum!
Braga's rise to the top of the Portuguese league table did not excite the players, as no one was going to award them the trophy in September, but the support for the team continued to grow.
This makes the fighting spirit and motivation of the whole team stronger!
In the 6th round of the Portuguese Super League, Braga hosted the Portuguese National team, last season the Portuguese National won the sixth place in the league, and also got a Europa League place, but they had to start from the first round of the play-offs, and they were out of the first round, and then the first four rounds of the league were difficult to win, and in the last round, they beat Ferreira by one goal at home, and now they are ranked 14th in the Portuguese Super League, and there are only 16 teams in the Portuguese Super League, which is absolutely too bad, especially compared to last season.
Braga have only left with draws away to Portugal Nationals in the last three consecutive seasons, but they have also beaten Portugal Nationals at home in three consecutive seasons with clean sheets!
It is conceivable that Braga, who are now in a strong position, will of course put on a strong posture at home against the Portuguese nationals.
The Municipal Stadium is like the brightest stage in the city of Braga at night, and there are not many Asian faces in the stands, but they are all wearing a Braga home jersey with the number 11 on the back, and the three or five are holding up signs or banners with Chinese support for Tang Hong.
Obviously, it is an international student in Europe, which is not big in Europe, and it is very convenient to come to Braga.
Tang Hong's popularity in the Portuguese Super League has made him a new idol supported by European students and some Chinese fans.
And there have been domestic media calling for the FIFA match day in October, and the Chinese team should recruit Tang Hong into the national team.
A striker who can score consecutive goals in the Portuguese Super League will not be ranked behind the current national team strikers.
In just one month, the atmosphere at the Municipal Stadium was very different, with the noise before the whistle even began, with Braga fans chatting and laughing and cheering slogans.
Once the game started, Braga took the initiative at home.
Tang Hong found that he was blocked by his opponent from the beginning, and it seems that the opponent's preparation is doing a good job.
He doesn't bother with the lack of space to break through with the ball, passes the ball more and plays more with his teammates.
Today he started with Lima and Viana up front, Amorim, Custodio and Barbosa in midfield, and the team picked up the tempo from the start of the game, switching between attack and defense very quickly, and at the same time the midfield was very fluid.
This made Braga kill frequently on the field.
In the 19th minute of the game, Tang Hong received Amorim's pass on the left side of the front field, he took the initiative to retreat under the two of them, and met the ball with a long pass to the right rib of the penalty area.
Amid the cheers of the audience, Yaltim breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that it took more than a month for him to see a more ideal team.
Tang Hong's performance on the court made him occupy a main position unshakable.
Excluding his own threat and goalscoring ability, he still has to be more tactical than the other Braga strikers.
He gave Braga's offensive a good continuity.
To put it simply, when Tang Hong does not have a good opportunity, he will pass the ball to ensure that the ball is not lost, and the team continues to organize the offensive, then at least the team's offensive state is still there, but it is difficult to guarantee it with Alan or Ukara, the former is not mature enough to judge the situation and always want to take risks, the latter is completely not strong enough, as for Paulo Cesar and Nuno Gomez, they cannot be the main choice of the team because of their age, they are just a supplement to the team's forward line, and it is possible to save the emergency, but it is impossible to develop tactics around them.
The Portuguese nationals limited Tang Hong for 20 minutes, and Tang Hong did not enter the box in those 20 minutes, but the Portuguese nationals still conceded a goal, which forced them to focus on the attacking side.
They are trying to stay away from the abyss of relegation.
But the game didn't go the way they had hoped.
Braga's morale was even stronger after the goal, and in the 34th minute of the game, Braga played a delicate pass in front, and after Lima returned the pass, Amorim split the ball to the side, and Bayano, who assisted it, sent the ball to the edge of the penalty area with a through pass.
Viana stepped back and swung an angle across the middle of the box, and Barbosa followed up with a kick that was close to the ground.
When the football rolled into the left rib of the penalty area, Tang Hong quickly cut inside to kill first, and shot with his feet but the ball changed to the central defender who had blocked it, and he got closer to the middle and had a better angle, Tang Hong volleyed the ball into the upper left corner of the goal!
It seems that he has been holding back for a long time and only cares about the catharsis of power, not as if he had been shooting more often before.
When he hugged Barbosa, who had provided him with an assist, laughed and ran to the sidelines to celebrate the goal together, the crowd at the Braga Municipal Stadium cheered and shook all sides!
HONG!
Scored in five consecutive Portuguese Super League games, and the number of individual goals approached double digits!
Tang Hong's 9th goal in the league was born!