Now that the club's goals for the season have been set, the next move for the club is of course to tilt all its resources towards the League Cup.

As a club with very few material and human resources, Pavia simply cannot have the ability to play on both the league and cup competitions, and the only thing they can do is adjust their best teammates and best form to the cup competition.

Thankfully, after Descartes joined the first team, the Pavia club has made it a two-game winning streak, and they have also temporarily climbed to sixth place in the standings with 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.

It is not surprising that in leagues such as Serie C Group B, the gap between rich and poor is actually more pronounced than in Serie A or Serie B, although these clubs are called professional clubs, but a large part of them are semi-amateur surnames, and they do not even have professional youth reserves, which can be seen.

And those teams that intend to rush to the relegation, as long as they invest a little money, pay attention, it is a "little" investment, they can basically make their wishes come true. For example, the Pavia club's recent victory over Gallipoli changed owners a year later, and a wealthy businessman at the level of an Italian parliamentarian took over the team, and then their results skyrocketed, staying in Serie B until 2013.

So in the Serie C standings, it's easy to see a situation like this: either a ride or a slump.

This is why the management of Pavia FC agreed to go all out to attack the League Cup, because with their strength, although there is no hope of relegation, there is no guarantee of relegation.

Having been in the league for so many years, Pavia is not afraid to stay another year, as long as they can win the League Cup, they can also be a hero in the hearts of Pavia fans.

The fans in these small towns are much cuter than the fans of the big clubs, they have already accepted the fact that there are no results, and their love for the team is sincere, unadulterated.

Like those so-called "iron fans" and "hardcores" later, which team has good results, which team is a fan of which team, these people are usually just football fans, not club fans.

This is originally just two attitudes towards life, and there is no superiority or disadvantage, but we often see disputes on the Internet over whether these people are "pseudo fans", sometimes I really think it's funny, as long as the people who watch the game, we can call them "fans", what are real fans, what are pseudo fans? Is it a pseudo-fan if you don't like a club in a fixed way? Maybe with professional football knowledge, those "real fans" are not as good as other people's "pseudo fans".

The Italian League Cup kicks off at roughly the same time as the league, with their qualifying rounds usually taking place in July, with the main draw taking place in mid-August. The teams participating in the main tournament are not actually all 90 teams from Groups A and B, with about half of them being eliminated in the qualifying round, and only 48 teams making it to the main tournament.

As the mid-to-upper group B team in the league last season, Pavia were lucky enough to avoid a brutal clash in qualifying, as they eliminated two not-so-strong opponents in the previous two rounds of the main draw, and are now in the top 12.

This is the main reason why Descartes chose the League Cup as a breakthrough point of honour, if they have already been eliminated in the previous knockout rounds, then everything that has been said before is meaningless.

Of the remaining 12 teams, exactly half of the teams from Group B and Group A are combined.

Don't think that the team in Group A of Serie C is necessarily stronger than Group B, in this level of the league, everyone's investment is not very different, as long as one side invests a little more money, it is very likely to surpass the other side in strength.

Just like the Pavia club, except for Descartes, all their players are not worth more than one million, to put it sadly, Ibrahimovic's worth alone is likely to be equal to the total value of all the club players in Serie C B, so a certain club only needs to invest a little more money, even if it is tens of millions, it is very likely to change the pattern of the league.

Therefore, the teams in Group C do not have an absolute overwhelming advantage over the teams in Group B, and sometimes even the top team in Group B is stronger than the top team in Group A, and the difference between them is only one year.

That's why we often hear that in the lower leagues, there are often things like promotions, when everyone is the same, and you suddenly encounter a large investment or become a local tycoon, then the promotion is simply a breeze for you.

In fact, this is no different from playing FM games, as a manager, the player goes around looking for those potential demons, and then upgrades in the lower leagues like a rocket, and then rises to the higher leagues in a few seasons.

The only difference is that the former requires a monetary investment, while the latter uses the same vision as his own cheating and the player search tool that comes with the system.

Therefore, it is very normal for teams in both divisions to split evenly in the top 12.

However, the League Cup is not like a league, it is not a weekly game, the entire schedule of the League Cup will last from July of the previous year to April of the following year, the middle span is very long, but there are not many games, often only one game is played in two or three weeks.

Since the Pavia club decided to focus on the Carabao Cup, of course they had to tilt all their policies in this direction, and in the following rounds of the league, although Descartes also got a steady chance to play, the team's tactics were very conservative, and in order to prevent injuries to the players, the rotation was also very diligent.

In this case, the Pavia club also only won 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss in the following games, and they are still sixth in the league.

On November 4th, the team finally ushered in the third round of the League Cup.

Their opponents are Serie C A side Sorrento.

It's also a perennial team that has been between Serie C and Group B for many years, and they haven't produced any big stars, with the team's best result being a third place in Serie A, which was 23 years ago, but then they were eliminated in the play-offs and failed to break into Serie B.

The team were in Group B like Pavia last season, but they were lucky and had a richer boss than Pavia's, so they managed to get out of Group A through the play-offs last season. However, after the promotion, the team did not show their ambitions, they basically kept the original team and only brought in one or two unknown small trash fish, so their strength has not increased much, and the team is only hovering outside the relegation circle in Group A at the moment, which is not a strong team.

Two of the team's best players are striker Ginestra and midfielder Kamilucci, who combined to score 17 goals in the league and have been the biggest contributor to the team's stay outside the relegation zone.

However, the playing time of these two players in the last two league games has also been greatly reduced, which shows that they are not without ideas about the League Cup, at least they believe that it should be a sure thing to retain the strength to survive the Pavia club.

Unfortunately, they didn't expect that Pavia FC had already decided to give it a go in the League Cup this year, so they were a piece of iron.

The first match between the two teams was played at the home of the Pavia club, and thanks to the appeal of Descartes, the Pavia Municipal Sports Center was still full of friends and the atmosphere in the stadium was extremely hot.

It is said that since Descartes joined the first team, every game of the team has been full, and even the staff of the municipal axe want to award Descartes a medal, and it is precisely because of his existence that everyone's income has risen a lot recently.

Amid the non-stop cheers of the audience, the two teams quickly entered the rhythm of real battles.

I don't know if there is a so-called "Cartesian syndrome", after Descartes was promoted to the first team, Pavia became the third team to defend wholeheartedly in the first half, regardless of attack.

The first two teams are the Pavia Junior Team and the Italian National Junior Team.

The tactics of all three teams were obvious, with the first half of the game not conceding a goal, and the second half of the game against Descartes.

This feeling is a bit like the "Zen master" Phil Jackson back then, no matter what difficulties the team encounters, if Jordan is on the court, give it to him, if Jordan is not on the court, let Jordan go.

In the face of such an opponent who is dedicated to defending at home and can't defend it, Sorrento, who is not strong, really has nothing to do, and their coach is jumping on the sidelines and sulking: "Don't play like this, isn't this your home stadium, and you still have to be shameless?" Don't think that Descartes can solve all problems, as long as you dare to press out and attack in the second half, I want you to look good! ”

It's a pity that the ideal is always plump, while the reality is often skinny.

After Descartes came on in the second half, Sorrento's head coach suddenly found that his team could not attack.

This is not a change that Descartes brought about alone, and while his tandem up front can help the team get a lot of opportunities in attack, the biggest change is the attitude and determination of the whole team.

When the team's tactics need to defend, the players usually do not leave their defensive zone, they will put the defense first, so of course the offensive intensity will not be very large, and correspondingly, the opponent will naturally get more offensive opportunities; But when the team's tactics become an all-out attack, the players will take the initiative to press or step forward, everyone's thinking is unified, the intensity of the attack is enhanced, and the opponent's offensive opportunities will naturally become fewer.

And the Pavia pair, with Descartes as the core, is obviously more disciplined than the Sorrento team when attacking.

After several rounds of league running-in, Descartes and the team's tacit understanding has entered a new realm, although this group of Pavia players are not highly qualified, but Descartes's ball quotient is very high, whether he passes the ball or runs will be adjusted according to the ability of his teammates, just like an excellent engine, it can run 300 kilometers per hour on Ferrari, can also run 60 kilometers per hour on Alto.

It's not how fast the engine can go, it's how fast the car that loads it can go.

Maybe it's also a gift.

With Descartes' frontcourt tandem, Pavia's attack will always seem more direct and threatening than Sorrento's.

In the 63rd minute of the game, Pavia relied on an overall combination to tear apart Sorrento's defence, and the goal was a difficult barbed shot.

The striker of the Pavia Club, Shakaruga, who scored the goal, couldn't help but be overjoyed, lifted his jersey and ran wildly on the pitch for nearly twenty or thirty meters.

At this time, the manager of the Sorrento team also woke up, and it was obviously very unwise to attack them when the Pavia club had the upper hand, so he hurriedly made adjustments, and the team also launched a tight defensive formation after that, and this 1:0 score also became the final score of the game.

It seems that the advantage of the Pavia club is not obvious.