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After confirming that they want to make a difference in the UEFA Cup, Metz still played aggressively in the second leg of the next 16 finals of the UEFA Cup, holding two away goals, and they did not want to draw at home and then rely on the away goal advantage to eliminate their opponents, but continued to pursue more goals. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

This has always been the style of football played by Fernandes, and although he has sometimes abandoned this goal-seeking attacking football in favor of a slightly more passive and conservative defensive football for the sake of victory, Metz are still one of the most attacking football teams in Ligue 1 - they have scored 40 goals in 25 league games so far, which is second only to Lyon's 44 goals. In addition, Metz also bought a lot of players in the attacking line as a supplement to the team's strength.

Metz fans love Fernandes so much because he has trained a team that plays attacking football that can make people excited, rather than ugly football that can put cows to sleep.

Of course, the one who turns football into beauty on the training ground and on the tactical board is Jean. Fernandes, and his colleagues, but it was the players who made it all happen on the pitch, and the key figure among the eleven players was a man named "Chu Zhongtian".

Chu Zhongtian did not have Ramirao's close defense in today's game, although Skibe re-sent someone to defend him, but it was far from Ramirao's compelling defense. It's called Gonzalo. Castro's (gonzalo_castro) German lad was very young, only nineteen years old, and he was far from Chu Zhongtian in terms of experience and ability, and he had no way to successfully contain Chu Zhongtian.

Later, it was discovered that a Castro could not defend Chu Zhongtian, and Skibe had no choice but to replace Babarets, and then replace Simon, who was still injured. Rolfes (simon_rolfes). Although Rolfes's position is also a midfielder, he is a midfielder who is better at organizing attacks than defending...... Chu Zhongtian singled out two opponents, one was an inexperienced rookie, and the other was an injured cameo sapper, without any pressure.

Under his control, the machine was running smoothly and in good condition.

In the end, in the cheers of 20,000 fans at home, the Metz team and Bayer Leverkusen played 3:1, won the final victory with an aggregate score of 5:3, and advanced to the round of 16.

After advancing to the round of 16, they will face Portuguese giants Benfica.

No one is intimidated by this opponent, on the contrary, they are looking forward to their first match against Benfica on March 8.

What is the purpose of finally coming to the League Cup? Isn't it just about playing against all kinds of European powerhouses? Then beat them one by one to end up on the championship podium...... What a sense of accomplishment that was!

The morale of the whole Metz team, who eliminated Bayer Leverkusen, was high, and they beat Lorient 3-0 in the league on the 24th. Chu Zhongtian has been wearing the captain's armband in these games, he is getting more and more comfortable with his new role, no one needs to be reminded, he will take the initiative to let everyone go out to warm up, or stand up when he is about to play and tell his teammates that when he stands at the forefront of the team and leads the team, he will also be the first to accept the cheers of the Metz fans.

He suddenly felt that it was not difficult to be a captain, as long as he got used to it. In fact, it is the same as leading the team to play according to his ideas on the field, except that he uses his actions on the field and his mouth off the field.

※※※ March 3 is the 27th round of the league, which is also the last league game before playing Benfica at home, so Fernandez naturally rotated in the game, including Chu Zhongtian, all the main players did not start, Chu Zhongtian just sat on the bench and went up to warm up in the last ten minutes of the game. At that time, his team was already 0:4 behind Lille.

Head coach Jean. Instead of telling him to attack and press on his team-mates to do a miracle, Fernandes said to him: "Don't get hurt. ”

Metz, who gave up the league for the UEFA Cup, eventually lost to Lille with a score of 0:4, allowing Lille to catch up in the league standings.

Lille is fourth with 42 points, while Metz is 3rd with 43 points. Lens, who are second in the league, have 48 points, Lyon 61, and the gap between Metz and the second place in the league is getting wider and wider, and it seems that the third place in the league is not guaranteed.

However, no one in the Metz team felt regret and pity, and perhaps there would be some voices in the outside world regretting their performance in the league, but the whole Metz team turned a deaf ear. They have long set their top goals for the season, just like last season's French Cup.

Once this goal is set, no matter what the outside world says, they will not be disturbed, they will only try to move towards that goal.

League Cup!

There's nothing more important this season.

※※※ Judging from the rosters of both sides alone, Benfica, who visited the Holy Mountain Furian Stadium, is not weak, and even slightly stronger. Because they have a number of veterans who have been famous for a long time. For example, center forward Nuno. Gomez (nuno_gomes), midfielder Rui. Costa (rui_costa), wing-back Simao, plus Juventus loan Micoli (fabrizio_miccoli) and Greek midfielder Karagounis (gios_karagounis), who made a name for himself at the European Championship in Portugal, are a team that can still be very effective.

The outcome of a football match is not determined by the lineups of both sides alone, otherwise everyone compiles the ability of each player into a value, and then adds up the ability of the starting eleven in each game, and the side with the largest number wins, such a game is too boring.

The fun of football is that the strong team doesn't necessarily win, and the weak team doesn't necessarily lose.

When the score hit the scoreboard at the Holy Hill Fortion Stadium after 90 minutes, there was a cheer from the stands.

2:1, home team in front, away team in the back.

Metz beat Benfica 2-1 at home.

But judging by the scoreline, the win wasn't perfect as they allowed their opponents to get an away goal at home.

The goal came from Rui. A free kick taken by Costa.

The game Rui. Costa did not start and came off the bench in the twentieth minute of the second half, when Metz had already led Benfica 2-0. In the stands at the Stadio Fortion on the Holy Mountain, only the singing and cheering of the Metz fans could be heard, and the Portuguese fans fell completely silent.

It was at this time that Rui. Costa, the last classical midfielder on the planet, came on the pitch.

Ten minutes later, Chu Zhongtian fouled him in front of the penalty area and was awarded a free kick. Rui. Costa took the penalty himself, and the ball went around a wall of five Metz players and got into the corner of the goal, and goalkeeper Humby made a save, but he couldn't fly from one end of the net to the other, and he may not be able to do it at a young age of ten years.

From this goal, Chu Zhongtian felt Rui. Costa's old ginger is really spicy...... A two-goal lead turned into a one-goal lead, and the opponent took an away goal. It's a bit hard to play away from home...... The Stadio was a little quieter, and some fans were worried that the team would be equalised by Benfica in the final moments of the game, which was a tragedy. Some fans are already thinking about the second leg of the match between the two sides in six days' time, and this score is not easy to play away...... Fortunately, in the end, the Metz team held on to the score and won the game 2-1, taking the lead in the two-legged knockout round.

However, the players of Metz were not happy after the win, and similarly, the players of Benfica were not depressed after the loss, and they even quickly got together to talk and laugh together, as if they had won the game instead of losing the game.

Why such a strange scene?

Because both players know about Rui. What that goal from Costa meant, what it represented, what it meant.

So in the mixed zone after the game, it was also interesting when the players of both sides were interviewed, and the players of Metz were generally not very happy with the scoreline, and some people talked about the goal conceded at the last moment, and could only frown to answer questions from reporters.

Benfica's players were interviewed with smiles on their faces.

"Yes, they [Mace] did a great job, but we're not bad either."

"With an away goal, is it better for the second leg?"

"That's right, the task given to us by the manager before the game is to try to get away goals......

Rui. When Costa walked into the mixed zone, it attracted a lot of interviews from the Portuguese media. In the minds of Portuguese journalists, although Costa only played 20 minutes, they were willing to pick the 34-year-old as the man of the match.

"Hey, Rui. Let's talk about that goal, shall we? That's a beautiful free kick! ”

'You must be in a good mood to score a valuable away goal for the team, right, Rui?'

More than a dozen microphones were extended to Rui. In front of Costa, he paused to answer questions from enthusiastic journalists.

'I'm happy to score goals, even though I don't play a lot. Have an away goal? Of course, everybody knows the use of away goals......"

Just as he was saying this, Chu Zhongtian also walked in. Portuguese journalists surround Rui. Costa asked, Chinese reporters naturally will not let Chu Zhongtian go.

"If you concede a goal in the last minute, will it be bad for the team in the second leg?"

The Chinese reporter asked this question as soon as he came up, which made Chu Zhongtian a little unhappy. Because that conceded goal was against Rui. As a result of Costa's foul, doesn't that imply that he is responsible for the goal conceded? In addition, the questions he heard along the way were almost all related to the goal conceded, as if Benfica had won the next game with that goal...... He was unhappy with the reporters' emphasis on an away goal, just an away goal, not two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine away goals, as for being so concerned and nervous?

"I don't think there's anything disadvantaged." So Chu Zhongtian replied with a straight face.

His faceless answer made many Chinese reporters unexpected, and everyone was stunned for a moment. Taking advantage of their stunned efforts, Chu Zhongtian ended the interview and walked over.

The interview with him was so short that when he walked past Rui. While Costa was around, the Portuguese veteran was still being interviewed by the Portuguese media.

“…… It's a goal that will help us when we get back to home......"

Chu Zhongtian from Rui. That's all Costa heard as he walked by.

He pursed his lips.

※※※After returning to the locker room, Chu Zhongtian felt that today's locker room was much quieter than usual, this was not at all like a locker room after winning the ball, looking at everyone's frowns, it looked like a locker room that lost the ball.

Chu Zhongtian could guess the thoughts of most of his teammates - they were all troubled by this one lost goal.

Although an away goal is not much of a problem in itself, the score is really not good...... If they win this game with a score of 3:1 or 4:1, it is better to say, 2:1 will give the opponent too much room for reverie, which will make Benfica think that they have a chance to take advantage of it, and only need to score another goal when they return to the home stadium to be able to tie the aggregate score and take the lead in terms of promotion chances.

Just like the match between Metz and Bayer Leverkusen.

"It looks like we're going to have a tough away game......" Ibisevic muttered.

"I knew we should have scored one more goal before......" said Matthew. Valbuena, who started this game in place of Oblagnac, was average.

"I think we contracted too hard at the last moment, we should press out and fight them!" Franck Ribery, who had little to do in the final 10 minutes of his team's contraction, was also reeling from the decision and now has an excuse to voice his frustration. "Defense is not good, offense can solve the problem!"

Only this time no one echoed him, and everyone was worried that the 2-1 scoreline would end their road to the League Cup at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 14.

Chu Zhongtian didn't like this kind of atmosphere, he felt that as a winner, there should be a winner's performance, such as cheering, screaming, and Ribery making jokes about others in the locker room...... This kind of thing, this is normal, not as dull as it is now, which can be suffocating.

Head coach Jean. Bruno Fernandes was out for the post-match press conference and there was no one in the dressing room except the players, and as captain, he was now the highest-ranking person in the dressing room, so he had to say something to do his duty as a captain.

He stood up, then coughed. Everyone heard his cough and turned their eyes to him.

"I'm sorry, I gave them a free-kick." Chuzhong Heavenly Dao. 'It was a free-kick that caused us to concede.

Then he changed his mind.

"But I think...... As long as we score a goal on their road as well, won't their away goal advantage be gone? Who says having an away goal advantage is a big deal? Why should we be afraid of an away goal? They scored one goal against us and we returned at least two away goals away from home! It's just an away goal, it's not three or four, so what are we afraid of? Why do you all have to sit here and sigh as if we lost the game? ”

He asked, spreading his hands.

'I came from outside just now and I heard a lot of questions from reporters in the mixed zone about the goal we conceded. They're all asking if the other side has an away goal, will it be difficult for us to play in the next leg? I'll admit it's not going to be easy, but it's the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, so what game is not going to be hard? In the future, there will be more difficult ones to fight, what will I do then? Because it's hard to fight, everyone sighs in the locker room like this? ”

"Does anyone remember what it was like last season before we played Lyon? Are we going to make mistakes twice on the same issue? The second leg hasn't started yet, so instead of complaining about what wasn't good enough in the match that just ended, it's better to think about how to do better in the next match against them. ”

After Chu Zhongtian finished speaking, he felt much more comfortable in his heart. These words just now, which have been held back since the end of the game, can finally be said.

He sighed and said, "Put on some music, we're the winners!" ”

※※※Let. Bruno Fernandes is taking questions from reporters at his post-match press conference.

"Mr. Fernandez, do you think your team was hit by a late goal, do you think it was a blow to the team? At the same time, we noticed that a number of Metz players were not very excited after the game, whether that had anything to do with the goal conceded...... Also, do you still think Chu's foul was a bit underconsidered? ”

Fernández's answer was crisp: "No, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. We won the game, the players played well, the opponents played well, we teamed up to give the fans a great game and there was nothing like this night. I think everything is fine. ”

The reporter felt that Fernandez had answered the question a little incorrectly, or that he deliberately avoided the important and trivial, so he asked: "So now Benfica have an away goal, which is very beneficial for their next game......"

'Of course, it's good for them to score away from home, if they can successfully stop us from scoring away from home.' Fernandez finally got something interesting to the reporters.

The Metz boss revealed that he will continue to play attacking football on the road...... Many reporters have written this in their own notebooks.

"About Chu's foul ......"

"Fouls are part of defense, just like conceding a ball is part of a football game." Fernandez smiled and said, "I think he's done a great job. ”

In front of the media, he supported his proud disciples.

There was also a reporter who wanted to ask questions, but he had already raised his hand and signaled that he was leaving: "I'm so sorry, everyone. I want to go and celebrate with my players, goodbye. ”

With that, he nodded to the press officer and got up and walked out.

The press officer turned to the reporters and said, "All right, ladies and gentlemen, the time for the interview is over, please leave!" ”

A group of reporters could only disperse with regret and helplessness.

But it doesn't matter, whether this one away goal will have an impact on the second leg between the two sides will be known in another week.

(To be continued)