Chapter 593: A future

After winning the first home victory of the season at home, Leiden Oriental flew to Germany to prepare for the first game of the Champions League group stage against Hamburg.

This is the first time Hamburg has appeared in the European Champions League game after six years. Hamburg has gained a lot in the transfer market this season. After unexpectedly introducing Dutch genius Van der Fate last season, they have grabbed the Belgian central defender Kompani, which attracted the attention of the whole of Europe this season, and bought the captain of the Argentine national team at the 2006 World Cup before the transfer window, and their strength has also been greatly enhanced.

However, in this game, both Thorin and Van der Fate were unable to play due to injury, which also had a great impact on Hamburg's strength - this is also an impact of World Cup syndrome. Thorin was too tired in the Argentine national team, and the injury suffered during training after joining Hamburg, and the same was true for Van der Fate.

Leiden East's situation is not much better than Hamburg. Ronaldo's foot injury has not healed after the World Cup. Fortunately, Fanny's physical condition has recovered a lot. Otherwise, he could not find a single forward who can hold on to the formation with two superstar centers, which would be a joke. Gerald's injury in the national team's game has not healed yet. From this aspect, fortunately, Xiao Ming bought Modric, otherwise he would have to use the long-lost Holland and aging in the midfield.

"Steven's injury will be cured in two weeks, but Ronnie has some problems. He has many injuries, but he is always injured. He has never been completely healthy in recent seasons... But although these old injuries cannot be cured, they do not make him unable to play. But now his injuries are always showing no signs of improvement. Colin believes that this may have nothing to do with the injury and requires a comprehensive examination of his body." In a routine report, Pintus said this to Xiao Ming.

"Then let Steven recover well. Now I can give Luca more opportunities to adapt to the game... As for Ronnie, he is recovering from injury in Leiden, right? Find an opportunity for him to have a comprehensive examination and figure out what the problem is." Xiao Ming replied after thinking about it.

Pingtus nodded. He was the team leader of the physical coach and was usually very close to Colin Levin's medical team. Sometimes he reported the physical condition of the players, and sometimes Levin came to report it.

After making this decision, Xiao Ming didn't care much about this matter. Ronaldo's injury has not been a day or two. This ill-fated genius has been with injuries for ten years. However, even if he is injured or in poor condition, he has enough value on the court, and even if he is off the court, he has a huge influence.

The first game of the Champions League must start a good start - now Xiao Ming's mind is just this idea.

Hamburg has reached the finals of five European matches in history. This number is far above teams such as Dortmund, second only to Bundesliga overlord Bayern. However, their performance has not been very good in recent years, and it has gradually recovered its vitality in the past or two years.

After impressing Van der Fate with sincerity last season, the Dutch star quickly showed his value in Hamburg. He helped Hamburg return to the Champions League for the first time six years later, but his absence due to injury in this game was good news for Leiden Oriental.

"If Van der Fate cannot play, then the only player who is threatening to the midfield is Trokhovsky. This player has excellent organizational skills and is good at attacking and defending. He is the engine of Hamburg midfielder. Another thing to note is their midfielder De Jong, which is also a very fierce guy."

Xiao Ming said at the tactical meeting before the game started: "Luka, you have to pay attention to this guy when you are on the court. His defense is very fierce. Be careful not to be injured by him. I don't want to lose two players in a row at this position."

The players burst into laughter, and Modric nodded. Compared with Olic and Joel Luca, Xiao Ming thought that the player who was the most difficult to get the main position and play among the three new players began to get more opportunities due to Gerald's injury, which also reduced his time to adapt to Leiden's oriental style, and also made him under greater pressure.

"In terms of offense, they play more on the ground. Their guards are good at height, but they are not very flexible in turning around. They use fast transfers to tear their defense. We should be very accustomed to this tactic. Luca, remember to increase your running and help disrupt the opponent's defense. Everyone of our frontcourt players has the potential to become the finisher. I hope you can achieve the standards we need in this game." Xiao Ming continued.

Modric nodded heavily. Of course, he knew that Gerald's injury recently would be his chance, and whether he could successfully become a part of the offensive system of Leiden East is crucial. This idol of a young player who resembles Cruyff is also Cruyff, and his technical characteristics are also close to Cruyff. This is exactly what Xiao Ming values ​​him. He has excellent technical and organizational skills, is not tall but does not lack confrontation, and has the ability to run all over the field. Although he cannot replace any of Gerald and Pirlo at this stage, he can become the substitute for both of them at the same time, bringing fresher vitality to the midfield.

"The midfield is a very strong link for Hamburg. Although Van der Fate is not there... As for their forward and defense line, they are not so outstanding. Even if they are away, we must win this game and let everyone know that our goal this season is to achieve outstanding results on all fronts, especially the league and the Champions League. If we win the Champions League again, we can permanently collect the authentic trophy of the Champions League and become the fifth team in European club history to do this... So, work hard, guys, let us achieve this great performance that no English team can do!"

Xiao Ming did not mention the matter at the halftime of the game. He just put forward the goals of this season, so that players who already have countless honors can have more motivation to play.

Since Xiao Ming is unwilling to cause turmoil through the team's blood exchange this season, maintaining the team's strong fighting spirit can only establish a goal to give them more motivation to pursue it.

In this game, except for the injured Ronaldo and Gerrard, all other main players were on the court. Van Nie started as center and Modric replaced Gerrard's position. Compared with the main lineup last season, although Kompany's arrival has strengthened Hamburg's defense line, Van der Fate's absence, which has become the core of Hamburg's offense, has a great impact on Hamburg. In the three rounds of the Bundesliga, Hamburg has tied in three matches, which shows how important Van der Fate is to this Hamburg.

So although Hamburg is playing at home in this game, major bookmakers are still more optimistic about Leiden Oriental.

The process of the game at the beginning seemed to be moving in this direction.

Hamburg, who was at home, launched two threatening attacks at the beginning. The two forwards, Liu Boya and Sanogo, each shot, but Leiden East immediately launched a counterattack and began to pass the midfield quickly, avoiding the fierce defense of De Jong and others, and then continuously launched extremely threatening attacks from both wings.

Ashley Cole, who assisted in the frontcourt, beautifully passed the ball to Jinklaze, who entered the penalty area under Van Nie's cover. Jinklaze missed the shot from a very small angle, announcing the beginning of Leiden's East attack.

In the 12th minute of the game, Pirlo made a pass from Van Nie directly in the midfield. Van Nie got out of the penalty area and received the ball. After attracting Kompani outside the penalty area, he raised his foot and sent the ball into the penalty area beautifully.

Jinklaze inserted into the penalty area from the wing at high speed and received a pass from Fanny to face the goalkeeper directly!

"Kinclazer single-handed-"

Amid the commentator's shouting, Jinklaze raised his foot and made a realistic shot at the far corner, shaking the opponent's goalkeeper Kissstein and losing his center of gravity, then dribbled the ball past the opponent.

Jinklaze's eyes had already seen a huge empty door in front of him, and he only needed to push it lightly...

At this moment, he felt that his support foot was being grabbed by someone. He accelerated to get rid of the other party, but the other party grabbed it very tightly, and then Jinklaze fell down...

"Punishment!" Xiao Ming jumped up from the coach's seat.

"Red card!" More than a thousand Leiden Oriental fans shouted loudly at the scene.

Amid the noise, the referee ran to the scene of the incident. His whistle just sounded, and before running to Kissstein, his hand was pointed at the penalty spot.

Then he showed a red card to Kissstein, who was still shrugging his shoulders and making innocent appearances.

"Beautiful job, Jozell!" Xiao Ming waved his fists off the court. He was so relaxed because Jin Klaze had already stood up. It was obvious that he had not suffered any harm from the opponent's foul just now.

Hamburg's head coach Dore could only shake his head and sigh. He felt that his luck was a little bad. The main goalkeeper was sent off with a red card at the beginning and was awarded a penalty. In the next 78 minutes, Hamburg would have to play one less player at home...

Kissstein wanted to defend himself but couldn't say anything. His foul was too obvious. After walking off the court in frustration, Dole patted him on the shoulder and replaced the midfielder Wiki with substitute goalkeeper Wecht. Hamburg's formation turned into a 432-a very tragic midfielder.

This penalty kick was handed over to Fanny to take the penalty. Fanny has not scored a goal this season, and there has not been a player who scored a lot of goals in these games. It would be nice to let Fanny use this penalty to break the goal drought.

Facing the substitute goalkeeper who had just appeared on the court, Fanny bluntly scored the ball into the lower left corner of the goal. Wecht saved the wrong direction, and Leiden Oriental led 1-0 away.

A huge sigh rang out in the stands, but soon, Hamburg fans began to cheer for their teams loudly - they were looking forward to the team's first time in six years to perform better and more tenaciously - maybe they were not opponents of Leiden East, but Porto and CSKA were not difficult to deal with.

If you can perform better in such an unfavorable situation, it may have a more positive effect on the next Champions League match.

In fact, the Hamburgers did not give up resistance because the situation was not good. Although even they thought it was almost impossible to defeat Leiden East without the offensive core and one less person at the beginning, it seemed more important for Hamburgers, which participated in the Champions League for the first time in six years.

The tenacious Hamburg launched a tenacious defense in the following game, and with one less man, Leiden Oriental failed to continue scoring the goal throughout the first half. Although Leiden Oriental's possession rate was as high as 67% after the first half and the shooting ratio was 11-4, it still could not expand the score.

The first shot in the second half came from Hamburg, relying on a set piece centre-back header, but Leiden East immediately launched a counterattack, perhaps because the first half game inspired the confidence of Hamburg players, who were not as airtight as in the first half.

Ronaldo dribbled the ball along the left and quickly broke through, dribbling past Yarolim and Reinhart in succession. After seeing that the opponent's defense line had been compressed into the penalty area, he did not continue to break through, but lifted his foot and sent the ball to the front of the penalty area.

Modric, who had been running forward parallel to Ronaldo, received a pass from Ronaldo. Fanny struggled to hold Kompani against his body, and then shouted at Modric: "Luca! Shoot!"

Modric took the ball forward and decisively shot with his right foot!

He hit this long shot smoothly without a trace of hesitation - McDonald said it right, a young player came to a new environment, and had the courage and desire to shoot decisively, which was the most important thing.

The ball roared towards Hamburg's goal. After flying into the air, there was a clear parallel forward change, and then it quickly flew to the upper left corner of the goal!

Wecht, who had made several wonderful saves on the bench, jumped up and stretched out his right hand, and then he found that he was still one step slower...

The ball flew in front of his hand and then plunged into the goal. The net began to tremble violently, announcing that Leiden East expanded its lead to the second goal!

He watched the ball fly into the goal. Although the shot was very comfortable, Modric also had a premonition of scoring. However, after the goal, Modric's mind was still blank for a while, and then he woke up amid the cheers of his teammates.

"Cum pretty! Luca!"

"Beautiful goal! Luca!"

Amid the praises of his teammates, Modric's heart exuded a sincere joy, and then he broke free from his teammates' embrace and ran off the field.

"This shot is very decisive." Xiao Ming was clapping and talking to MacDonald. When he saw Modric running over, Xiao Ming thought he was here to hug him, but he went straight to Joel Luca, who jumped from the bench with equal excitement...

"Ha, Luca, congratulations, I knew you could do it!" Joel Luca happily hugged Modric, both of them with great joy. If Xiao Ming hadn't known that they should be very normal, he would have felt gay...

"Two to zero! Luca Modric's beautiful long shot! This is his first official goal in Leiden East, and the shot is so beautiful! Leiden East's victory is already close. Hamburg, one less, still hopes to equalize if they want a victory or even a draw, then now they can only beg for a miracle to happen..."

In fact, Modric scored his first official goal in Leiden East, and defeated Hamburg's hopes. Although Dore replaced Iranian winger Mada Wikia and young player Guerrero who came on loan from Bayern to increase his attack, it made the defense in the backcourt flaw everywhere. Olic, who was substitute Jin Kraze, assisted Ronaldo to score a goal before the end of the game, freeing the score to 3-0. In another game, Porto tied with Moscow CSKA at home, which seemed to indicate that the first in this group was undoubtedly from Leiden East, and the other three teams could only compete for the second place...

Modric, who scored his first goal in Leiden East in the game, was ranked the highest in the game in the post-match scoring. This score was not just because he scored goals in the game - but because he actively ran and showed an all-round style in the game - he was just one number smaller than Gerald. When facing German players with excellent physical fitness, Modric did not feel uncomfortable. He was still able to show his technical level in the confrontation, which is rare for technical players to do this.

"A player like this is really worth 14 million euros. Xiao Ming's vision of people is really good. The players who come to Leiden East seem to have no failure. What's more rare is that whether he spends a lot of money to buy people or buys young players at low prices, he can always achieve great value for money. From this point of view, even Wenger, who is famous for his good at digging players, is not as good as his methods..."

After the game, most media reports focused on Modric, thinking that Xiao Ming had made another good deal, but Xiao Ming was not grateful for this. What he was afraid of was that the media immediately praised a young player after a good performance in a game, which was easy for the players to be elated and also made them have bad associations. However, now it seems that Modric seems very calm and well aware of his position in the team. At least there was no sign of badness in the subsequent training.
Chapter completed!