Rebirth Football Simulator

Chapter 23 The New Season Begins

On August 8, Lyon's first game of the new season officially arrived.

Zhang Chaoqiang flew to the Czech Republic with the team to challenge the Czech team Boleslav away.

This is the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Europa League.

This season Ligue 4 has three teams playing in the Europa League. Guingamp directly participates in the Europa League group stage as the French Cup champion, Saint-Etienne participates in the Europa League qualifying play-offs as the No. No.5 participates in the third round of the Europa League qualifying round.

Lyon's opponent Boleslav was the third runner-up in the Czech League last season, and his overall strength is not strong.

Therefore, everyone in Lyon has a relatively relaxed attitude towards this game, basically coming to the away game with the mentality of using the game as a substitute for training.

Fournier arranged the 442 formation that has been running in recently. Lacazette, Zhang Chaoqiang and Fekir all started with the front trident.

"Zhang Chaoqiang played as the starting striker. This is the first time in his career that he has started in the Europa League."

"At the same time, along with this game, Zhang Chaoqiang will become the first Chinese player to play in the Europa League for two consecutive seasons. I hope he can perform well in the game and try to win the first goal in the European war..."

Although Zhang Chaoqiang performed well against Juventus last season, he only made a penalty kick and did not score directly.

Therefore, many domestic fans are paying close attention to Lyon's schedule, waiting to see Zhang Chaoqiang's first European goal.

Unfortunately this time they were disappointed.

Lyon won easily away from home, taking a three-goal lead in the first half.

Lacazette scored twice and Gonalons scored from a long shot.

In the second half, Umtiti made a reckless handball in the face of the opponent's counterattack, causing Boleslav to pull back a goal, which made Fournier, who was smiling on the sidelines, restrain his smile.

Fournier is a defensive coach, and this needless conceding of the ball made him very unhappy.

Fortunately, 5 minutes later, Umtiti scored with a header from a corner kick and completed the work.

Lyon beat Boleslav 4:1 in the away game, and the promotion has basically been locked.

But the domestic fans feel that it is not very good, because Zhang Chaoqiang neither scored nor assisted.

And Zhang Chaoqiang felt that his performance was not bad.

Lacazette's first goal was that he quickly broke through the torn defense line from the wing, and then passed back to Fekir in front of the penalty area, and Fekir assisted Lacazette.

There is also the corner kick opportunity where Umtiti scored a goal, and he also made a strong volley.

On the plane back to Lyon, Fournier sat next to Zhang Chaoqiang for a while and recognized his performance.

"Zhang, your ability to read the game is very strong, which is another talent of yours besides speed."

"As long as you can continue to maintain this level, I will definitely have a place for you in my starting list."

This is where Fournier is different from his predecessor.

In the past, Remy Gard said everything directly in the locker room after the game, but now Fournier is different. He always likes to find an opportunity to talk to the players alone.

※※※

After returning to France, Lyon continued to prepare for the new season.

On August 8, the second round of the third round of the Europa League qualifying round came.

Since Lyon had already achieved a 4:1 lead in the first round, Fournier arranged for players to rotate in this game.

Lacazette still started, but Zhang Chaoqiang and Fekir did not appear in the starting list.

Fournier arranged for Algerian striker Benzia to partner with Lacazette.

Benzia was once a super genius in the Lyon youth training camp. He was once very famous, known as Benzema II.

Because he, like Benzema, is of Algerian origin, both came from Lyon youth training, and both became famous at a young age.

In 2004, as a core player, Benzema helped the French youth team win the U17 European Youth Championship. At that time, together with Nasri, Ben Arfa and Mene, they won the reputation of the French Four Little Swans.

In 2011, Benzia, who had a high degree of similarity, quickly became famous in the U17 World Youth Championship. Although he failed to help the French team reach the top, his performance in five games and five goals was good enough, and seemed to be even more amazing than Benzema back then.

But the same youth became famous, and the paths of the two of them were completely different after that.

Benzema has been on a smooth journey, a substitute striker, a main striker, then the Ligue [-] Golden Boot, and then transferred to the giants of the century Real Madrid, and now he has won the Champions League.

Benzia is quite rough.

After becoming famous in the World Youth Championship, he quickly got a professional contract, and then mentioned the first team as a substitute, which is exactly the same as Benzema.

But Benzia's body couldn't adapt to the confrontation rhythm of the adult team at all, and he struggled quite a lot in the limited playing time.

The key point is that his body is fragile, and he is easily injured if he doesn't move.

Therefore, under Remy Gard, Benzia has always been a marginal substitute for the team, and whether he can make the squad is often a matter of fate.

Now that Fournier is the coach of Lyon, he seems to want to try rescue work to see if he can rescue this former super genius.

Benzia is a player for 94 years and will not turn 20 until next month.

If the rescue is done properly, it may be impossible to achieve something.

It's a pity that Benzia got the chance to start, but failed to show any convincing performance.

Physical confrontation is not dominant, and it is easy to lose the ball when dribbling.

There is no advantage in speed, and the shot has no direction.

Benzia obviously wanted to show himself, but actually played a mess, and Lyon conceded the ball first as expected.

Fortunately, with the goal of another Algerian player Ghazal who came off the bench in the second half, Lyon drew 1:1 with Boleslav at home and successfully advanced to the Europa League qualifying play-offs.

Soon UEFA organized a draw for the European play-offs, and Lyon's opponent was still from Eastern Europe, the Romanian team Giurgiu Astra.

At the same time, two other Ligue [-] teams also participated in the European play-off draw. Saint-Etienne drew the Turkish team Karabuk Sport, and Lille drew Porto, one of the top three in the Chinese and Portuguese Super League.

As the third place in Ligue [-] last season, Lille naturally needs to participate in the Champions League qualifying round.

And because Ligue [-]'s European points have dropped to sixth in Europe, Lille needs to start from the third round of the Champions League qualifying round.

However, Lille's opponent in the third round was relatively simple, the Zurich Grasshoppers in Switzerland, and finally advanced easily with a score of 3:1 in two rounds.

Now that they meet Porto in the Portuguese Super League in the play-offs, Lille has encountered a real challenge.

The reason why the Portuguese Super League can surpass Ligue [-] in the ranking of the European War points is precisely because of the fierce grabbing points of Porto and Benfica.

In terms of overall strength, Lille may not be better than Porto.

※※※

The day after Lyon's Europa League qualifying match, on Friday 8 August, the 8/2014 Ligue 15 season officially began.

In the opening game, the defending champion Paris Saint-Germain challenged Reims away, but the result of the game was a bit unexpected, because Paris conceded two goals in the first half, and finally won a tie with Ibrahimovic's brace.

I have to say that Ibrahimovic in Paris had real thighs.

In fact, in the French Super Cup last weekend, Paris Saint-Germain also won the championship by defeating Guingamp 2-0 with Ibrahimovic's brace.

In addition, if Ibrahimovic was absent from the League Cup final last season due to injury, Lyon might not be able to win Paris.

On Sunday, August 8th, Lyon ushered in their first-round league opponent-Rennes at home.

For Lyon fans, this game is the real start of the new season.

(End of this chapter)