Rebirth Football Simulator

Chapter 101 The team that can't go home

On September 9, in the middle of the week, in the seventh round of the Ligue 23, Lyon played against Bastia at home.

Before the game, Zhang Chaoqiang successfully stole a little strength and filled up his strength attribute by 80 points.

Now Lyon's tactics require him to keep attacking the penalty area, and the benefits of supplementing strong attributes are very good.

In the end, Lyon won 2:0 at home with the goals of Tolisso and Marbranco, and continued to occupy the top spot in Ligue [-].

On September 9, in the 26th round of Ligue 8, Lyon challenged Bordeaux away.

Bordeaux were double-killed by Lyon last season, and both games made them very uncomfortable.

In the first round, they lost 0:4 at home. In the second round, they wanted to prevent Lyon from winning the championship, but they were killed by Zhang Chaoqiang's ultra-long free kick.

This time at the new home stadium, the Bordeaux fans chanted revenge again.

Bordeaux also changed to a new home, called the Atlantic Stadium.

Like the Olympic Stadium in Lyon, it was newly built to take advantage of the convenience of the European Cup in France next year, and it was officially put into use two months ago.

This time in the new home, Bordeaux really achieved revenge.

Lacazette missed a must-goal opportunity at the beginning of the game, which gave Bordeaux the hope of revenge and began to attack continuously, leading Lyon 3:0 in the first half.

Before the end of the first half, Zhang Chaoqiang played a good arc with a free kick, but was rejected by the post.

This is Bordeaux's post after all.

In the second half, Bordeaux took the initiative to control the rhythm and firmly defended the victory.

It was only at the last moment that Lyon pulled back a face-saving goal.

Zhang Chaoqiang passed someone from the side and sent a cross, and the teenager Kornet, who came off the bench, scored a goal.

In this way, Lyon lost 1:3 away to Bordeaux and suffered their first defeat of the season.

In the other games of the same round, Paris beat Guingamp 3-0 with Di Maria's pass in the away game, overtaking Lyon by one point and ascending to the top of the standings.

In fact, Di Maria also made a penalty kick in the game, but was missed by Ibrahimovic.

It has to be said that after coming to Ligue [-], the Argentine started to be alive and kicking again. He no longer made many mistakes and played lifelessly like he did during Manchester United.

He also activated Ibrahimovic by the way.

You must know that before Di Maria joined, Ibrahimovic was unable to score in five consecutive games. Many French media said that the Swede was old and dying.

It is precisely because of this that the media are very optimistic about Lyon in the prediction of the Ligue [-] championship this season.

Lyon's ability to beat Paris to win the championship last season was largely due to Ibrahimovic's absence from too many games.

If Ibrahimovic falls into a scoring drought for a long time this season, there is a good chance to replicate the miracle of last season.

But with the joining of Di Maria, Ibrahimovic started scoring consecutive games, and now he has successfully reached the top of the Ligue [-] list.

After the game, the Paris media congratulated Paris and said: "Lyon's top experience card has officially expired!"

Lyon climbed to the top of the table after the second round of Ligue [-] and stayed for six rounds before being ousted by PSG.

"As long as Paris maintains its form, there will no longer be a chance to top the list."

Many French media agree with this point of view.

Although the difference between the two teams is only one point.

※※※

"Don't worry everyone, our main goal this season is the Champions League."

"As long as we reach the knockout stage of the Champions League, then we have achieved our basic goal, and it is enough to stay in the top three in the league."

Lyon's coaching staff organized an in-team meeting specifically to deal with being dropped from the top spot.

Relying on the double guns last season, coupled with various situations in Paris, Lyon took the opportunity to grab the Ligue [-] championship.

But Lyon's management is very clear-headed and knows that such good things do not happen every season.

So let the players prepare for the Champions League with peace of mind, that is the most important game.

The Champions League is not only rich in income, but also greatly improves the reputation of players.

On September 9, in the second round of the Champions League group stage, Lyon challenged Shakhtar Donetsk away.

Lyon's nominal opponent is from Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

But in reality, Lyon's real destination was Lviv, in western Ukraine near the Polish border.

Because of the turmoil in the Donetsk area, the miners moved their home court to Lviv.

There is a famous saying in football circles that football has nothing to do with politics.

But it's been bullshit all along.

The situation of Shakhtar Donetsk is direct proof.

Since Ukraine broke away from the Red Empire, it has always been a very divided country. The region headed by Kyiv in the west is pro-American, and the region headed by Donetsk in the east is pro-Russia. The two sides have not confronted each other for a long time.

In 2010, Yanukovych, the leader of the Donetsk region, was successfully elected as the president of Ukraine, which became the fuse of Ukraine's direct split.

Speaking of which, Yanukovych was able to be elected president with a narrow margin, and he relied on football to help.

Because Shakhtar Donetsk won the Europa League in 2009, and the owner of Shakhtar Akhmetov is not only the richest man in Ukraine, but also one of Yanukovych's allies.

This greatly increased Yanukovych's influence.

At the beginning of 2014, Yanukovych was finally ousted under long-term pressure from the United States. After careful consideration, Akhmetov decided to fall to Kyiv, and at the same time to fall to the United States.

It's not shabby to earn money.

After all, there are too many benefits promised by the West.

Now Shakhtar Donetsk instantly became a traitor, and Donetsk fans boycotted it.

Soon the Donetsk region ignited the flames of war, and various local organizations announced their own separation from Ukraine in order to support Yanukovych.

So the misfit miners had to move their home court away from Donetsk and temporarily settled in Lviv.

Now it's a team that can't go home.

At 8:45 p.m. local time in Ukraine, Lyon's away game against Shakhtar Donetsk officially began.

In the stands of the Lviv Stadium, it was bleak.

In a stadium with a capacity of 5000 people, only a few thousand people appeared in the stands, obviously less than [-] fans.

You must know that this is a hugely influential Champions League game.

If it is the Ukrainian league, the number of fans may have to be cut in half.

The miners who moved to the west are in this situation. The fans in the east no longer support them, and the fans in the west don't recognize them, resulting in a long-term lack of fans at home.

However, although there are few fans, the overall strength of Shakhtar Donetsk is not weak.

After all, the boss is rich, and the team has a lot of Brazilian support.

The midfielder Teixeira, the midfielder Fred, and the forward Tyson are all strong Brazilian foreign players.

This is still in the case of the turbulent situation in the past two years, which has caused many Brazilian foreign players to leave the team.

At its peak, more than half of the miners' starters were Brazilians.

It is precisely because Shakhtar Donetsk is not weak that Lyon responded with a defensive counterattack in the away game.

Lyon is qualifying with Real Madrid in the group. If anyone has the ability to squeeze out Lyon's qualifying places, it must be Shakhtar Donetsk.

Therefore, it is very important to play against each other directly in the two rounds. Lyon came with the plan to keep a tie in the away game.

In the first three and 10 minutes of the game, both sides played with relative restraint.

In the 33rd minute, Shakhtar Donetsk was no longer satisfied with paddling each other, trying to speed up the pace of the game.

Shakhtar players are very clear that if they want to qualify from this group, squeezing out Lyon is the only option.

So they have to try to beat Lyon at home.

But as soon as they picked up speed, Lyon found their chance.

Gonarones tackled the opponent's pass, Valbuena sent a long oblique pass, and Zhang Chaoqiang accelerated from the left.

Stop the ball in the chest, step forward, and quickly shake off Fred.

Approaching the opponent's restricted area, slow down slightly.

Push the ball under your feet and then kick it back, your body tilts with the football and resets.

"Beautiful!! Super Zhang has passed!!"

Changing his shoulders to pass the Croatian veteran Srna, Zhang Chaoqiang broke in from the corner of the penalty area and immediately volleyed from the far corner.

Ukrainian goalkeeper Pyatov stretched out his foot in time to intercept, and his toe also successfully touched the football.

But that wasn't enough to stop it, and the ball flew into the net after a slight change of direction.

"Goooooooooal——"

"Super Zhang!! Very beautiful and fast counterattack to score!"

"Super Zhang has scored goals in two consecutive Champions League games, and Lyon temporarily leads by one away goal!"

After the goal, Zhang Chaoqiang rushed to the sidelines to celebrate.

There were actually many fans in the stands applauding him.

These people seem to just come in to watch the excitement, and don't care who wins or loses.

(End of this chapter)