On April 16th, in the twenty-ninth round of the Priira Liga.
Sporting Lisbon made so player rotations.
Ronaldo scored twice, with Ibrahimovic adding more flair, as the team secured a dominant 3-0 victory over their opponent.
However, on the other hand, Porto maintained their strong winning streak.
Jia De’er’s goal tally reached a terrifying thirty-five, effectively quashing Ronaldo’s hopes of overtaking him.
In his five years since joining the Priira Liga, Jia De’er’s goal counts were thirty, twenty-six, thirty-six, thirty-eight, and he has already scored thirty-five this year; he might very well break the forty-goal mark.
This year’s European Golden Shoe, as well as the Silver and Bronze shoes, will inevitably include Jia De’er.
He has already won the European Golden Shoe and the European Bronze Shoe once before.
When interviewed by the dia, Ronaldo generously stated, "My goal has never been to beco the top scorer, but to be a champion! Besides, the European Golden Shoe only counts league goals, if you added my Europa League goals, I am not inferior to anyone!"
Ronaldo said he didn’t care, but the explanation he added afterwards revealed his true thoughts.
How could he possibly not care about scoring?
That evening, upon returning ho, Ronaldo even issued a strict demand to Deng Kai; in the upcoming matches, Deng Kai was to pass to him more and assist Quaresma less.
Deng Kai retorted, Is Quaresma leaving this sumr, and are you?
Ronaldo was imdiately silenced.
He still wanted to play with Terry for a few more years.
After all, Terry’s "thigh" was really sweet—er, that is... don’t get the wrong idea, it’s purely literal. As for the deeper implications of "sweet", perhaps only Hathaway really knows.
Hathaway: Hmph, thinking of now? Do you bastards even rember that I’m the female lead? I haven’t appeared in thirty or forty Chapters! Long-distance relationships shouldn’t be like this!!!
Speaking of Hathaway, she had finished filming ’Tomb Raider,’ but imdiately after, she rushed off to the United States for comrcial shoots and to participate in so post-production work for other films.
Overall, she was very busy.
The personal ti of a rising artist is compressed to a pitiful extent.
In fact, not just artists, but newcors in all professions have a tough start.
Only when you achieve so level of success in your field will you have a bit more freedom.
Even then, you might not be able to relax, because the fruits of your effort are visible; rest for one day and you lose a day’s inco, which is considerable, making it hard to give up.
Hathaway’s schedule is so full that being able to spend a re half-month per year with Deng Kai is already a luxury.
Of course, Deng Kai and Hathaway make their own efforts, arranging so event tis and locations together, so they can sneak in a day or two of couple’s ti amidst their work.
The Golden Ball award ceremony was one such occasion.
On April 18th, Sporting Lisbon’s team arrived in Barcelona one day ahead of schedule.
Barcelona is a world-renowned city, which aside from its football team, is known for its unique urban planning.
The streets and buildings of Barcelona are square and straight, like a chessboard, clear and distinct.
While it stands out for its uniqueness, it also has major downsides in aspects like community and transportation.
However, it breaks away from the monotonous urban planning and has its own characteristic personality, which is comndable.
Sporting Lisbon doesn’t have many fans in Barcelona.
Reportedly, they will only have about five thousand supporters at Camp Nou tomorrow.
Camp Nou currently has a capacity of ninety-nine thousand people.
It is one of the largest stadiums in Europe.
The atmosphere there is absolutely hellish.
Just like when Lisbon Athletics initially went to Milan, surprisingly, there were Barcelona fans who ca to the airport to welco Quaresma.
They unfurled banners that read "Welco to Barcelona"!
Quaresma felt a bit embarrassed.
However, Viana completely understood Quaresma and urged everyone to move quickly to give Quaresma so ti alone with the fans.
In response to interviews, Quaresma was neither humble nor arrogant, "I’m very grateful to the Barça fans; they are very passionate, which I hadn’t anticipated."
"Of course, this won’t affect my performance in tomorrow’s match, as Kai said, the greatest respect you can show to a team is to give your all. I hope the Barça fans will be able to see my abilities more clearly."
Quaresma’s words did not displease the Barcelona fans.
Because the advantage in progressing still lay with Barcelona.
Frankly speaking, the Barcelona fans had already prepared everything for celebrating tomorrow’s victory.
For Barça to lose at ho was truly difficult.
The condition of the players, the mood of the fans, the atmosphere at ho, the ho advantage—everything was in their favor.
Among these, the human factor was also reflected in the referee appointed for the match.
The main referee for this ga was Jamal Gandour, a head coach from Egypt.
He could be considered a well-known referee in Africa, having officiated three African Cups, the 1998 World Cup, the Euro 2000, and many other high-profile matches.
He was also set to officiate at the upcoming Confederations Cup in South Korea and Japan in May.
This Confederations Cup was a rehearsal for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan; referees who perford well would earn the opportunity to officiate at the World Cup.
Gandour was undoubtedly capable of officiating at the World Cup.
In fact, he did indeed officiate at the Korea-Japan World Cup and even managed a rather crucial match—Spain vs. South Korea in the quarter-finals.
His controversial calls successfully helped South Korea make historic progress into the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Yet, this referee always insisted that he stood by his correct decisions, claiming he did not alter the outco of the match, and that ga was the pinnacle of his career.
With a past and future full of controversies, Gandour’s appointnt to officiate the ga set off alarms in Deng Kai’s mind.
Normally, the selection of head referees for matches is random.
But most of the gas officiated by these special "black whistle" referees were specially arranged.
They all carried a mission with them.
Did Lisbon Athletics have the clout to bring Gandour in to officiate?
Clearly not.
So, Gandour’s arrival was not going to be beneficial for Lisbon Athletics, which naturally ant it would be advantageous for Barcelona.
Dammit!
Deng Kai discussed the situation with Gandour with Trigella and Maxa, letting them have so ntal preparation in advance.
But it was not suitable to tell this to the players.
If they knew, it could easily affect their competitive state and ntality.
Early the next morning, Barça announced their starting lineup for today’s ga.
Aside from substituting Gerard Lopez with Xavi, their starting lineup remained unchanged.
Lisbon Athletics did the sa, fielding the sa players as the last match.
Both sides were full of confidence in their starting lineups.
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