******

The four quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup have all ended, with another Spanish team, Villarreal, losing 0:2 to AZ Alkmaar, Shearer's Newcastle being slaughtered 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon on the road, and CSKA Moscow drawing 0:0 away to AJ Auxerre.

The teams that managed to advance to the semi-finals were: AZ Alkmaar, Sporting Lisbon, CSKA Moscow and Valencia.

The semi-finals will be held on April 15 and 16 and April 23 and 24 against AZ Alkmaar vs Sporting Lisbon and CSKA Moscow vs Valencia.

German newspapers have unreservedly praised the Spanish team, Valencia is a Spanish team, how can the Spanish media not report hard?

As the best-selling "Valencia Sports Newspaper" in Valencia, first of all, congratulations to Valencia for being able to advance to the semi-finals of the 04-05 UEFA Cup, and then used "painful promotion" to describe the team's current situation, and then the accompanying text is even more obvious to write out the unfavorable feelings, "Although Valencia has advanced to the semi-finals of this season's UEFA Cup, we have one less captain and a manager, which makes the next round of cold Moscow full of suspense..."

Because Valencia defeated the leader Barcelona in the last round of the league, making Real Madrid only one point behind Barcelona, so the more pro-Real Madrid "Marca" first commented on Valencia's game after the 1/4 finals of the UEFA Cup, "Valencia's spirit of never giving up is like our traditional 'matador' spirit, it will not give up the game for objective reasons, and Vicente's goal helped the team equalize this point. Then the referee sentenced Valencia to death, a penalty and a red card is a disaster for any team, and the manager was also sent to the stands for protesting, at this time our former international, known as the 'Dragon' Canizares stood up, he saved the penalty kick of Italian striker Gilardino to save the sinking Valencia, and then the wonderful boy Ai's excellent play assisted David Silva to equalize the score! ”

The reports of the newspaper "As" and "Marca" are somewhat similar, and they can be regarded as a modest contribution to Spanish football.

What's more special is the "World Sport", that is, the local Catalan newspaper that recently had a grudge against Elo, they used the title "Valencia that escaped death", the picture is based on Baraja and Ranieri being sent off with red cards as the background, with a bright red 2:2 on the head, the text reads: "This is a tragic promotion, as the only remaining seedling of Spain, but it casts a shadow for next month's semi-finals, and the captain and manager will not be able to appear in the away game against CSKA Moscow. As the 'death zone' of Europe's mainstream teams, will the cold Moscow be the end of Valencia? ”

seems to be worried about Valencia, but in fact it is looking down on Valencia, only the team that does not enter the stream will worry about objective reasons, and it fully highlights that Valencia has paid a heavy price in order to advance!

Subsequently, the article from World Sports was also reprinted by the Daily Sport.

******

After last night's game, the referee wrote Ranieri's insulting gestures and insults in his post-match report, so UEFA staff investigated the video footage of the game that night.

The next day, UEFA faxed the ticket to Valencia FC.

Baraja was banned for one match, but coach Ranieri was banned by UEFA for six games (UEFA continental competitions) and fined 50,000 euros for insulting gestures and insults to the referee, although he could appeal.

Since UEFA has allowed appeals, Valencia FC will certainly not drop their appeals, and a six-match ban for European competitions is definitely a fatal blow, and the UEFA Cup has reached the last four. The next game is against a super tough team, CSKA Moscow, and the head coach will be out for both legs, which is undoubtedly a fatal blow to the team!

Taking a step back, if the UEFA Cup does not reach the final, but next season's UEFA Champions League will be played, the manager of the first four rounds of the key group stage will not be able to sit in the field, which is not what Valencia's club management wants to see.

So, on the day of receiving the ticket, Valencia faxed the material of the club's appeal to Guò.

******

With Angulo and Aimar returning from injury, Andy and Pyssen, who were directly promoted from the youth team, were sent back to the youth team.

This made Elo, David Silva and Albiol, who were also promoted by the youth team, more unhappy!

However, this is also a helpless thing, the youth team is supposed to send fresh blood to the first team, when the main team returns from injury, it will naturally have to make room, this is a world of the jungle, and the two lives of Ailuo are very clear, so if you are not happy, you will not be happy, but you will not show Xiàn out.

On the morning of March 12, Valencia began the day's training, thanks to the return of two strong players Angulo and Aimar, the team's combat effectiveness skyrocketed, but head coach Ranieri and assistant coach Benetti were in a happy trouble.

Now they are naturally in the eyes of Elo's hot state, aside from Angullo, and Aimar is a player that Valencia bought with a full 25 million euros of real money a few years ago, with a top salary, which is impossible for the coach to ignore.

Aimar is in great form when he returns from injury, and he even assisted Iroh to score a goal with a direct through ball in the team's intra-game.

At that moment, Ranieri's eyes lit up!

Angulo, Vicente, and Aimar are not easy to move, but the center Ferrer can move! So he then adjusted the lineup, "Huh! Ai - go to play Albert's position, Guillen plays left winger, Miguel plays right winger, Pablo is in front, and the double midfielders are David and Reuben! ”

In a moment, Ranieri's brow furrowed!

Pulling Elo to the position of center forward is indeed to make the most of his offensive ability, but Ranieri ignores one point, that is, Ailo needs space, space to move! Nailed him to the position of center forward, and also limited his potential to the maximum!

Iroh is one of those players who needs space for him to start, and if you hold him in the opposition box, he'll lose himself very quickly!

Although at the beginning, he used his fast turning speed to wipe out Navarro's defense and scored a single goal, but in the following time, under Navarro's concentrated defense and continuous small movements, he was like an eagle without wings, unable to spread his wings and soar, and he could not give full play to his greatest advantage - speed!

Seeing this, Ranieri fell into deep thought again.

******

What Ranieri didn't know was that while he was struggling with the team's main squad, Valencia club president Soler was discussing with general manager Carboni about the possibility of sacking him.

'I think it was a wrong choice for us to re-hire Ranieri. When Caponi arrived at Soler's office, he got straight to the point.

"Huh? What do you mean by that? Soler did not answer Carboni directly, but asked him rhetorically.

Carboni was very helpless about the new president who only took office last year, so he had to curse the old fox, "The appeal to UEFA has been rejected, which means that at least Ranieri will not be able to participate in the first three group games of the Champions League next season, so..."

"So you want to take advantage of the change of manager?" Soler put his leg on Erlang's leg and said with a smile.

"Yes!!"

When Caponi was about to speak, Soler hurriedly raised his right arm slightly, and the former immediately put what he was about to say in his stomach for the time being.

"Has anyone chosen one??"

"Yes!"

"Oh? Who?? Now Soral became interested, and the whole person sat up straight.

"Quake Flores"

When Soral heard the name, he felt a little familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while, he habitually pressed his temple, and suddenly remembered it, and asked tentatively, "Querc Flores, who has played in Valencia for ten years?" ”

"Hmm!" Caponi nodded.

"Where are you coaching now? How was the experience?? After Soler asked, he added, "What about the salary?" ”

Caponi almost rolled his eyes and fainted.

The boss is really the boss, and the salary for the employee is always the favorite.

'He's in charge of Getafe now and he's doing well, he's 12th in the league now, so there's no need to worry about experience, he's from Real Madrid's B team like his predecessor Rafael Benitez. The salary is not high, it should be 1.5 million euros! "As a qualified professional manager, Caponi should be careful to answer the boss's questions.

Soler then fell into a brief moment of contemplation.

"Well, if you don't do that, let's talk about the new coach at the end of the season, it's still early..." Soler sighed, waved his hand after a while, and said slowly.

Although Soler is the president of the club and should be thinking about the club's achievements, he is first and foremost a businessman. Ranieri's liquidated damages are not low, and now he is leading the team to play well, ranking third in the league, and without the right excuse, Soler will not fire Ranieri lightly.

"Well, that's fine... If it's okay, then I'll go first, you're busy..." Seeing that Soler was a little impatient, Caponi took his farewell to Chairman Soler.

After Caponi was gone, Soler went to the window of his office, looked at the first-team training ground, and muttered, "Is it better to change the manager?" Or is it better to keep Ranieri? ”

Soler fell into deep thought again.

The Champions League is undoubtedly a very big cake in his eyes, needless to say that the club's income has increased, and there are countless teams fighting for Champions League places every season, so you can imagine how crazy the Champions League prize money is.

If it was before this UEFA Cup quarter-game, or if Ranieri did not have the impulse to insult the referee, Soler would have stayed with Ranieri 100%, after all, his results are there, but Valencia will play in the Champions League next season. If Ranieri stays, then at least there is no manager in the first three rounds, which makes the club passive in the group stage, and whether it can qualify will have to be marked with a big question mark!

This is something that Soler, who is a successful businessman, does not want to see!

*******

On the day of the match, the Mestalla Stadium was packed, both by fans of the home team Valencia and the away team Atletico Madrid. They formed an orange-yellow, red-and-white phalanx in the stands and filled the Mestalla stadium completely.

This is the highlight of this round of the league, whether it is the top two Barcelona and Real Madrid, or the fourth-placed Villarreal, they are all paying close attention to this game.

Villarreal, in particular, had their surprise 1-2 away defeat to relegation side Levante in the first round of the league yesterday afternoon, which made them pay special attention to this game! Therefore, a handful of Villarreal fans wearing yellow jerseys can be seen sitting in the stands cheering for Valencia.