A boring week.

For some of Bayer Leverkusen's players.

In the last round of the league, Bayer Leverkusen defeated Winterhaching 2:0, ending all the journeys of the 99-00 Bundesliga season, winning the Bundesliga championship one round ahead of schedule, and the double champion has been crowned, and Leverkusen only has to play the final European battle with Real Madrid at the Stade de France on May 24.

But Ronaldinho, Ballack and Emerson didn't qualify for the final, so they began to indulge.

From the night the league ended, they celebrated wildly.

It's a ridiculous phenomenon, Bayer Leverkusen are obviously preparing for the Champions League final, but the vast majority of their main players are spending a lot of time drinking.

Bild – On the night of the end of the league, Ronaldinho threw a small party in his house, inviting players such as Emerson, Ballack and Lucio who could not participate in the Champions League final, as well as a group of models from Poland who drank until 7 a.m. Ronaldinho then drove to Bochum, where he and his Brazilian countryman Lucio continued their celebrations. Worrall didn't seem to have any restraint on such a thing, and perhaps because none of the players were able to play, he gave them a holiday early. However, all the players who qualified for the tournament stayed at the training base and began to prepare intensively.

The Bild newspaper reported the news with pictures and texts, and there were also some interview notes.

'For us, the only thing we can do to help the team is to cheer everyone on, we can't do anything else, and even if we're on the training pitch, it makes them frustrated, so we might as well start celebrating early. Well, in fact, it was very sad for several of us to miss such an important game, and we had to forget about it for the time being. Ronaldinho's excuse sounds grandiose.

Ballack also said: "What we can do now is stay away from our team-mates who are fighting and not distract them, so we have to stay away from the training ground and get them used to being without us. ”

But who says Worrall doesn't care?

When Bild reported the news, he immediately called the team one by one, scolded everyone, and called them back to the training ground.

"Are you pumping your brains?"

"Did I say I'd give you a holiday?!"

"God, you're going to mad me!"

"Look at what Real Madrid is doing, and look at what we're doing!"

With a snap, Worrall slammed a thick stack of newspapers, all the news newspapers about Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen for two weeks, on the table.

"Just because you can't play doesn't mean you can't help the team."

"There is still a week to go, I need you to cooperate with the players in training, from today onwards, you are 'Real Madrid', you have to do your best to deal with Zheng Zhi and them."

"But, boss, Zheng Zhi's current lineup will definitely not be able to beat us, if we lose their confidence, the result may be very bad." Ronaldinho shrunk his neck and squeezed the words out between his teeth.

"I don't think it's a good way to do it."

Listening to Ronaldinho's words, Ballack also echoed: "Yes, boss, we will break them, they are not our opponents." ”

Worrall grimaced, "How do you know if you haven't been beaten?" ”

"Maybe you won't win."

Actually, he didn't have much confidence in his heart. Comparing the lineups on both sides, the strength of these people who can't participate is really stronger than the few who participated, except for Zheng Zhi. But hit the crash? Probably not!

He still thinks that this kind of training is very effective.

"Hit first, then see how ...... effect"

"It's really not good, let's adjust it when we go back."

……

……

In the afternoon, Worrall divided the team into two groups.

One group is preparing to start the Champions League:

goalkeeper Marty Seck; defenders Hoffman, Hap, Novotny, Gresco; midfielders Zheng Zhi, LaMelo, Ribery, Ponte, Rib; Forward Neuville.

He can still play 451, but the midfield is too short of manpower, Ponte has been injured for most of the season, and Libu has hardly played any games, and the two midfielders are too much of a hidden danger. Now he's still wondering whether to play 442 or 451.

On the other end, goalkeeper Eulik; defenders Kovac, Lucio, Mamic, Hedik; midfielders Emerson, Ronaldinho, Ballack, Renlov; Forwards Link, Burdaric.

In comparison, the midfield on the other end is stronger, and even the defense line is not much worse.

"Hey, guys, we're going to win you guys."

Ronaldinho was serious.

"But it's nothing to lose to us, because we are really better than you, you just have to win against Real Madrid."

Ballack is also very confident, "I think it's funny, but I'm sure it's going to be us. ”

Zheng Zhi stood in front of them and didn't say anything, the lineup he is in now is indeed a little unfamiliar, there is no problem with the back line, and there is no problem with the forward line, but the change in the midfield quintet is a bit big, without Emerson and Ronalnidio, both offense and defense will definitely drop a notch. And I don't know what the state of Pont and Rib is. Although Worrall often put them off the bench, there was still too little game time. Nor are they going to be as tacit as Emerson did.

However, there are still ten days of preparation time now, and there is still a lot of time left for Leverkusen.

But when the training match started, he was wrong.

The midfielder on Zheng Zhi's side was completely suppressed by Emerson's side! Knowing each other too well, Emerson and Ballack surrounded Zheng Zhi in the middle and cut Zheng Zhi's exit route, Ronaldinho had the upper hand against Hofmann and Ribery alone on the left, and Renlov was not famous, but he was equally dominant against Ponte. Zheng Zhi's best performance on his side was the defensive line, and in the face of the combined impact of Link and Burdaric, he still did not let them score.

But the score is just an illusion, in terms of the number of shots on goal, it is very different, in the first half of the half, Zheng Zhi's side only got 3 shots, while Ballack's side got 8, the number of shots on goal was almost 3 times worse.

After the start of the second half, Worrall made a slight adjustment, switching Kovac and Hoffman, that is, returning Kovac to the starting lineup, but it still had no effect, but because of Kovac's mistake, Ronaldinho gave Link an assist.

In the end, Zheng Zhi's side lost 0:1. Zheng Zhi's personal statistics in defense are good, but the offensive end is very lackluster.

The first day of training was really not ideal, and everyone was inevitably a little frustrated. If you can't even win the intra-team game, how can you play Real Madrid? Many people have such thoughts in their hearts.

Fortunately, Worrall had conducted closed training, and if Spanish and German reporters had been allowed to run in, it was estimated that the newspapers would be flying all over the sky the next day saying that Leverkusen was out of play, and there could be no good words.

The next day, Worrall adjusted the formation, removed Ponte, put Burdaric on the main side, and the formation was also changed to 442, the effect was much better than the first day, the double strikers got significantly more shooting opportunities than on the first day, but they still failed to score, and Ballack's side scored again, or Ballack's long-range shot broke the goal, and the score was still 0:1.

At this time, Ronaldinho was also interviewed by Brazil's "Globo Sports" at his doorstep.

'It's a shame not to be able to play in the final, Bayer Leverkusen in the final is not the strongest, we have even won two games in a row in training, but I think the team is getting better and they will definitely be stronger when the game comes.'

"I wish I could play for the team!"

The speaker has no intention, but the listener has a heart.

Ronaldinho's remarks were quickly seen by Spanish and German media newspapers.

"Kicker" immediately wrote that Ronaldinho shocked the team's situation is difficult, the main side has lost two games in a row to the substitute side, and it is impossible to form a fighting force, and it seems that Worrall has not yet found the key to victory.

Spain's Marca newspaper was even more direct - Worrall panicked, he couldn't find a new best team for Real Madrid in a short period of time, and Bayer Leverkusen, who were stretched thin in midfield, couldn't even find a reliable starting lineup. In the face of such a Bayer Leverkusen team, Real Madrid undoubtedly increased their chances of winning the championship.

Even Italy's Sport newspaper joined in the excitement – Bayer Leverkusen's prospects are not optimistic, and Leverkusen, who are short of major generals, have faced their biggest difficulties of the season, and perhaps reaching the Champions League is just a fantasy, and Real Madrid, who are strong in their arms, look to be giving them a bloody result.

Early in the morning, Worrall was surrounded by reporters at the gate of the training ground, and people wondered if what Ronaldinho said was true. But Worrall did not give interviews, and at the same time did not allow anyone to be interviewed again. Statements like Ronaldinho's without thinking about it can no longer be repeated. Worrall also deliberately held a small meeting on the training ground to enforce discipline.

After the meeting ended, Zheng Zhi made a suggestion to Worrall.

"We may be going in the wrong direction."

"There's no Ronaldinho,"

"It's an opponent that doesn't exist. And we shouldn't have Frank and Ronaldinho in the opposite position, should we? ”

'We should let Ribery play on the weaker side of the opponent so that maybe our side will come alive.'

Oh, yes?

As soon as Zheng Zhi's words came out, Worrall's eyes lit up.

It makes sense, two days ago, Ribery was put in the opposite position of Ronaldinho, Ribery was basically on the defensive, and the attack was completely suppressed, but Real Madrid did not have a player like Ronaldinidio, what is the point of doing this?

Ribery should have been moved to the left, so as to stagger Ronaldinho. In this case, although Ronaldinho's attack is still strong, Ribery can also play on his side?

Why didn't I think of it?

Sometimes, chatting with Zheng Zhi is really boring, and I always feel that Zheng Zhi's football knowledge is stronger than my own......

What's going on......

So that afternoon, he made another change to the line-up, with Ribery going to the left. As a result, the course of the game has changed, and it has become much better than the previous two days. Ronaldinho and Ribery staged crazy attacks for their respective teams, although Ronaldinho's performance was a little more eye-catching, but Ribery's performance was also very impressive.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is that because Ribery's performance on the offensive end is good, it also allows Zheng Zhi to get more offensive space by the way! Emerson often has to go to the wing to help defend, so Zheng Zhi will naturally not be always sandwiched by Ballack and Emerson as before.

Hiss~

It's much better now.

The expression on Worrall's face also became much more relaxed, and his brow was no longer so wrinkled.

In the selection of right-back, he still chose to trust Kovac, Hofmann was sent away, he preferred to believe in the old players, Kovac finally got rid of the injury and returned to the training field, he was reluctant.

After the training, he took the initiative to park his car at the training ground for an interview with reporters.

"I know what you're trying to ask,"

"But what I want to tell you is that we're getting better and better now, and we've found the key to victory."

"We did have a little trouble the other day, but now we've solved it. Of course, Real Madrid are certainly the favourites to win the title, and I don't mind being depressed and continuing to look down on us with articles. It makes us less stressed, doesn't it? ”

On the fourth day, Worrall continued to deepen the training of the squad, especially the rotation between Ponte and Rib, and he had to make sure that both of them were well trained and in shape, and as long as Ponte and Rib did not hold back, the team's performance was stable.

Of course, the two most important people in his current lineup are Ribery and Zheng Zhi.

Worrall gave the team a day off on Saturday afternoon, and when they reassembled on Sunday afternoon, Bayer Leverkusen was on their way to France in the west, arriving in Paris by bus four days earlier.

Real Madrid arrived a day early, arriving in Paris on Saturday to stay at the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Paris, where they naturally have the warmest following as one of Europe's greatest clubs, with thousands of fans for stars such as Raul and Redondo.

Bayer Leverkusen didn't have the same swagger as Real Madrid, they checked in directly into a small hotel in the small town of Saint-Denis, and Worrall didn't want to be disturbed too much by the outside world. As for the training grounds, Real Madrid have already booked the training ground for Paris Saint-Germain, which is in line with their Real Madrid identity. Bayer Leverkusen, on the other hand, have been linked to another club in Paris, Paris FC, which has been playing in the third division and will just be in the second division this year. Paris FC play in the lower leagues, but their training ground is still very good and very quiet.

However, Worrall was wrong, but he didn't expect Leverkusen to be highly sought after, and many French fans waited early outside the door of the hotel where Leverkusen was staying, wearing all Leverkusen jerseys, and the number on the jersey was naturally the number 17 belonging to Ribery. Despite Ribery's young age, he now has a large number of fans in France. This is not even comparable to Zheng Zhi, after all, this is mainland France. The fans who came here to welcome Zheng Zhi were basically Chinese fans, but there were only more than 300 people.

"Frank!"

"Frank!"

"Frank!"

French fans are chanting Ribery's name.

When Ribery stepped out of the bus with a scarred face, he shyly waved at the fans, and looked around from time to time, as if searching for something.

"But,"

"Even he has fans,"

"Mine?"

Ronaldinho and they also came with the big team, although they could not participate in the final, but they will definitely follow the team, and the club will not pull down any heroes. If they win the final, they are all eligible to come on the court to receive the award, and even if they lose, they have to stand with the team.

"He's not afraid that the scars on his face will frighten the fans?"

"Tsk, there are a lot of female fans, the French girl is really sexy, I really want to touch it, and then sleep a few ......"

"Although the legs in Germany are very long, they are not emotional, and they are not interesting."

Ronaldinho muttered quietly.

"You don't talk a little bit about being serious,"

"Frank, it's called homecoming, you know?"

"When you return to Brazil when you are successful, you will also receive such a warm welcome, and then Frank is even better than you in terms of age?"

"Me? ……”

This is the sore spot, I don't know how to quibble. I want to say that I have a Copa America champion, but I still suffer from my age. Back then, I should have won the World Youth Championships, but unfortunately I didn't!

Ribery's footsteps eventually stopped, and his eyes fell on a pot of tulips to the right of the hotel's entrance.

His eyes flashed with tears in an instant, and he choked up directly.

Isn't it his father who is standing there alone?

Father finally came.

And in such a familiar way, with unkempt hair and somewhat shabby clothes, hiding far behind the crowd. He was so ordinary, but in Ribery's eyes, he was so majestic. Especially after not seeing each other for half a year, all the emotions poured out in an instant.

"Frank,"

"Your father is here."

"Why didn't you say it earlier?"

Zheng Zhi's right hand patted Ribery on the shoulder, "Go and have a good reunion with your father, and I'll help you ask for a leave of absence." ”

It seems that his father came from Turkey, and judging by the way he was dressed, he must have arrived in the dust, and he didn't have time to change his clothes.

Ribery took a step and made his way through the fanbase......

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