Chapter 286: A warm farewell ceremony

Camp Nou has no miracle. Although it is not a particularly big miracle to recover from home, Leiden Oriental's unity has made Barcelona not create miracles in the end.

After the game, despite being filled with great disappointment and despite his bleak prospect of coaching in Barcelona, ​​Van Gaal still showed the style of a world-class coach. While Xiao Ming was cheering, Van Gaal walked over and stretched out his hand.

"I'm sorry we didn't make it to the Champions League final... but we still have to congratulate you, just like last season, you and your team once again created miracles." Van Gaal said with a sigh.

"I don't think so. If we can win the championship, that would be a miracle!" Xiao Ming blinked and laughed.

If the opponent in the final was not Real Madrid, he would not have performed like this in front of his opponent who had just lost to him, but the opponent was Barcelona... This may make Van Gaal feel a little more pleasant.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Van Gaal's sad face also had a hint of anger, and a smile appeared on his face: "As Barcelona's head coach... I'm very happy to hear you say this... I don't want to see the team that defeated us lose to Real Madrid."

After a few more talks, Van Gaal turned and left, and before him, the Barcelona players had already left the court in disgrace, leaving only the Leiden Oriental players cheering and celebrating on the lawn of Camp Nou.

Mourinho followed Van Gaal and left. Before leaving, he turned his head and looked at Xiao Ming deeply. This game and the tactics arranged by Xiao Ming in the last game brought a great impact on the Portuguese. The Portuguese, who was already planning to leave Barcelona, ​​began to think that if he had the opportunity to lead the team to play against Barcelona in the future, will the tactics used in Xiao Ming in these two games be helpful to him?

If Xiao Ming knew Mourinho's current thoughts, he would definitely laugh out loud. The tactics used by Xiao Ming in these two games almost completely copied Mourinho's tactics against Barcelona when he led Chelsea and Inter Milan in later generations. Although there are very different specific situations, the guiding ideology is the same - he borrowed from Mourinho's tactics in the future, and the result allowed Mourinho to learn something from his tactics - this is a confusing account.

Most of the Barcelona fans dispersed from Camp Nou sadly and angry. After two seasons of league championships, they were extremely eager to recreate the glory of Cruyff's "Dream Team" this season, but Barcelona, ​​which fought on both sides this season, was not satisfactory on both fronts. They have been led by Coruña in the league. The Champions League finally achieved the best results after winning the last Champions League. They entered the semi-finals, but they made Leiden Oriental's reputation as the biggest dark horse in the Champions League this season - no one would be happy about this.

Van Gaal, who was already in a crisis of trust, may not be stable after the end of this season - he led Barcelona to win two league championships and entered the semi-finals of the Champions League. Such results will be fired, and professional football is indeed a bit cruel.

Leiden Oriental Club has long released the wind. This game will not be sent to the main players, but due to various factors, the tickets for this game have been sold out long ago. First, this game is the last home game of Leiden Oriental this season, and not every Leiden Oriental fan can buy tickets for the Champions League finals; Second, Leiden Oriental's outstanding performance this season makes Leiden Oriental fans hope to use their strength to express their support for the team; Third, this game will also be a farewell ceremony for a respected veteran...

Lombardo said a month ago that he would leave Leiden East after the end of this season. He rarely gets a chance to play in Leiden East this season. Although Xiao Ming sincerely gave a two-year contract for coach and player, Lombardo was also quite moved by this contract, but more than a month ago, Lombardo received an invitation that made him even more excited.

The veteran strong team Sampdoria, who was relegated from Serie A last season, was not able to get out of the quagmire of Serie B. This season they are temporarily ranked fifth, and there are very little hopes to return to Serie A. At the same time, there are many young players in the team and need a veteran who can hold the team to prepare for the next season. So they found Lombardo.

Lombardo, who had originally planned to retire directly from Leiden East, would probably not be tempted if he received invitations from other teams. After all, Lombardo has basically settled in London and he also likes this place very much, but the one who invited him was Sampdoria, the team that he performed best and created glory... At the same time, Lombardo did not really want to retire at the age of 34 and go to the second-level league. He still had many games to play.

Lombardo found Xiao Ming very frankly and explained his wish. Although Xiao Ming was very sorry, he understood it very much, so he agreed that Lombardo would transfer to Sampdoria as a free agent after the end of this season. At the same time, Lombardo also said that he planned to study the coaching courses well in the past few years after returning to Italy, hoping to come to Leiden East as a coach after retirement. Xiao Ming was very happy about Lombardo's requirements. The level of Italian coaching courses is quite high, not much worse than Germany. There are many tactical masters. At the same time, Xiao Ming believes that it is relatively easy for Lombardo to change careers and become a coach, such as Lombardo.

When Xiao Ming played football manager games in his previous life, he hoped that the players who retired in his team could become the team's coaches and continued to look at those familiar faces, even if they were not seen on the court, they could still satisfy him when they saw them on the training ground.

Since Lombardo wants to play for a few more years, he will not stop him. In the past few years, Lombardo can better enrich himself and become an excellent coach to help him - for him, an excellent assistant coach is indispensable and can make up for his weaknesses and shortcomings.

As the first player Xiao Ming bought since he joined Leiden Oriental, Lombardo has a very famous star in Europe, although he was not an important player in the three seasons of Leiden Oriental, he was injured after half of his first season, and in the second and third seasons, he served as a substitute, but only played in the cup. However, this kind Italian midfielder is still very popular in the minds of Leiden Oriental fans. So when he knew that this game would be Lombardo's farewell game at Leiden Oriental, it greatly stimulated their enthusiasm to come to watch the game on site.

On May 15th, the last round of the Premier League.

Brisbane Road Stadium is full, and because Aston Villa is not important for this game, there is nothing Aston Villa's fans running from Birmingham to London to see a game that is destined to be a time for the opponent to celebrate. So today, almost all the players on the stadium are Leiden Oriental, and only a few tourists are left.

An hour before the game, all the fans had reached their own position, cheering and jumping. Of course, they were also indispensable to sing the team songs of Leiden Oriental together, which made the entire stadium full of a fanatic atmosphere.

"This season, our attendance rate was as high as 96%, and even some unimportant League Cup games were as high as 80%. Maybe we should expand the stadium a little bigger. At that time, I thought the stadium with 30,000 people was enough at this stage, but now it seems... it is not enough." Xiao Ming sat on the coach's seat and said to McDonald about topics that had nothing to do with the game.

"I don't know much about this... But if you want to build a stadium that is bigger than this, it will probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars. I remember that this brand new Brisbane Road stadium cost you tens of millions of pounds at that time. It took you two years to repair it. Isn't it a waste?" McDonald asked curiously.

"Money is not a problem." Xiao Ming waved his hand: "I can still pay out hundreds of millions of dollars... The key is the location selection problem. Leiden is not big. You and I know that except for Brisbane Road, other places are residential areas and public green areas. It is the limit to expanding Brisbane Road to accommodate 30,000 fans... If I want to acquire the nearby land, it will probably take ten years to achieve results... I was already old at that time."

MacDonald laughed. Xiao Ming is less than 30 years old now. What's the old age in ten years? There are many people in the Premier League bosses in their sixties and seventies... But in the UK, it is very difficult to buy land privately, not to mention that Xiao Ming doesn't only have more than 100 square meters to build a house. It's really a decade later that the daylily will be cold.

"Okay, stop talking about this... Now is the only relaxing moment before the Champions League final... Enjoy it."

Today, Leiden East sent all the substitutes, with only one Phillips who wanted to score 30 goals. The goalkeeper was Paul Gerrard, four defenders Ashley Cole, Carlazer, Perth and Finnan, midfielder Joe Cole on the left, Lombardo on the right, Holland and Sun Jihai as double midfielders, Davao Suk and Phillips on the front, and the third goalkeeper Mackenzie, centre-back Hepia, midfielder Simon Davis, Boban, and forward Robbie Keane.

For these substitutes, the fans of Leiden Oriental are still not stingy with their applause. Among them, there are players who often come on as a substitute and have good performances, such as two Cole, such as Carlazer, and there are also players who have very few opportunities to play in the cup, such as goalkeeper Gerrard and Perth, Lombardo, who wears the captain's armband in this game, and former World Cup golden boot Suk, also have players who almost never get any chance to play without complaints, and do not make trouble in the locker room. Like Holland, he came to Leiden Oriental with Jin Klazer, the oldest player, but rarely gets the chance to play. There are several iron men in his position where he is good at, which he cannot compete, and like the young Simon Davis, these players are very clear about the position of their role players. In Xiao Ming's eyes, such players are completely indispensable.

Phillips, who was constantly pursuing the honor of thirty goals, finally got his wish. In the first half, he stabbed Joe Cole's straight pass into the goal and scored his 30th league goal of the season, which also made the atmosphere in the stadium stronger. Lombardo, who played for Leiden East for the last time, was also extremely active. He seemed to have returned to his peak state with the captain's armband, running actively, fighting fiercely, and constantly creating murderous intent for the players in the middle through rapid breakthroughs on the wing. Maybe he is not a superstar, but he is an excellent professional player. The long-term inability to get the chance to play has not made him unfamiliar with the stadium.

After all, Leiden Oriental plays all substitutes, and Aston Villa is also a backbone of the Premier League. After being scored by Phillips in the 30th league goal of the season, Aston Villa launched a counterattack and overtook the score with one goal in the first and second half. Xiao Ming replaced Finnan with Boban, and Sun Jihai returned to the right-back position and changed to the diamond midfield to strengthen the offense.

In the 31st minute of the second half, Boban's direct pass created a single shot for Suke. Suke calmly shook past the opponent's goalkeeper and then pushed the ball to the empty goal. Leiden East tied the score.

The fans of Leiden Oriental also gave great applause to this goal. Everyone knows that in addition to Lombardo's last time to represent Leiden Oriental, this game is also very likely Suk's best song at Leiden Oriental. This Croatian sharpshooter was not at the wrong time. His declining condition and the outstanding performance of the other three forwards made him not have much chance. After the end of this season, Suk may go to a place where he can play more games.

At the 36th minute, an exciting moment came.

Joe Cole used his excellent skills to create a penalty kick. Now the player on the Leiden Oriental field is Phillips, and Phillips, who has scored his 30th league goal, handed the ball to Lombardo and asked him to take the penalty kick!

No one has any objection to this, this is the collective choice of Leiden Oriental players.

Lombardo scored this penalty with tears in his eyes, and there was endless applause in the stands. No one would forget that Lombardo scored a goal in the first official game for Leiden East, starting with a goal and ending with a goal. There is no better farewell ceremony than this.
Chapter completed!