Chapter 103 April 10th

On April 10th, Fiorentina faced Bologna, their opponent in the thirtieth round of the league, at their home stadium. Zhang Jun didn't start, and his goal record remained stuck at twenty. Thirty rounds of the league had already passed, and Fiorentina also had to divide their attention between two competitions. This led many Italian analysts to believe that it was unlikely Zhang Jun would break the thirty league goal mark this season.

Zhang Jun didn't seem too enthusiastic about the record either. Right now, the most important thing was the team's performance. Fiorentina was currently third in the league and had reached the Champions League quarterfinals. Considering the situation three years ago, this was already a remarkable achievement. However, for the current Fiorentina fans, it was only considered moderately good. Their pursuit of honor and victory would never stop.

Bologna was ranked in the middle of Serie A, but Fiorentina was ranked at the top. Their strength was no longer on the same level. In this match, Sabato used a rotation system, replacing all the players in the midfield and front lines. The forwards were veteran Toni and Pazzini, the attacking midfielder was Montolivo, the left midfielder was Gasparoni, the right midfielder was Jorgensen, and the defensive midfielder was Donadel. The changes in the defense were slightly smaller, only the right midfielder and one center-back were replaced, with Lam and Dainelli respectively. Dainelli was the hope of Fiorentina's future defense, so Sabato was giving him as many opportunities to play as possible. Sabato would use the rotation system for most of the matches this season for this reason.

Sabato had said when he decided to adopt the rotation system that there were no absolutely essential starters or substitutes in the current Fiorentina. The duration of a lineup wasn't determined by their record, but by their physical condition and form. Therefore, adopting a rotation system after playing in the Champions League was a very good way to ensure the team's combat effectiveness.

Fiorentina's second team didn't disappoint Sabato. They defeated Bologna 2-0 at home. Pazzini and Montolivo each scored a goal, with Montolivo's being a direct free kick.

Zhang Jun only got the chance to play in the last ten minutes. Sabato sent him up to warm up, along with two other players: Krøldrup and Mascherano. The three of them were the central axis of Fiorentina.

When the three of them came on, Fiorentina had already secured a 2-0 lead. There was no suspense in winning this match, and Fiorentina continued to closely pursue the top two teams, AC Milan and Juventus.

After finishing the league match against Bologna, Fiorentina set off for Munich, Germany, the next day. Three days later, Bayern would be "waiting" for their arrival at the Allianz Arena.

※※※

After the first leg, because Bayern lost, Anke wasn't in the mood to have dinner with Zhang Jun, so he didn't ask Magath for leave. The gathering between the two didn't happen. Now that Zhang Jun had come to Anke's home ground, Anke didn't care about the sensitive pre-match period or the reason why key players from opposing sides couldn't eat together.

After learning about Fiorentina's hotel, he personally drove with Lin Jia to pick up Zhang Jun for dinner.

This wasn't the first time Zhang Jun had seen Lin Jia in person. He had eaten with her during the Beijing Olympics. However, the feeling was different now. Perhaps true love had made Lin Jia even more radiant. Although she wasn't as beautiful as Yilan or Sophie, she was still considered a beauty today, and more importantly, her figure was definitely hot. Today, she was wearing a low-cut dress, which made her chest even more attractive. However, Zhang Jun was with a perfect woman like Sophie every day, so Lin Jia's temptation for him was almost zero. He only praised Lin Jia's beauty and didn't have any other thoughts.

Lin Jia was indeed tall. Wearing high heels, she seemed to be about the same height as Zhang Jun. This height matched Anke, who was also tall.

Seeing them appear hand in hand in front of him, Zhang Jun was very happy for his friend. Although they had missed many opportunities before, they were finally together.

"This is Lin Jia, my girlfriend." Anke introduced without any hesitation. Lin Jia reached out and shook Zhang Jun's hand gently.

"What a pity. If I had known you were treating, I should have brought Sophie." Zhang Jun joked with Anke.

Anke smiled and didn't say anything. Lin Jia seemed very interested in Sophie and asked Zhang Jun to tell her about Sophie.

Zhang Jun had no choice but to tell her how he met Sophie in high school, how they fell in love, and finally got engaged. Lin Jia kept praising: "There are such perfect girls and such perfect love in the world."

"Aren't you afraid of media hype and dissatisfaction from the club by eating out like this? Our behavior can be labeled with many titles." Zhang Jun said to Anke during the meal.

Anke shook his head: "I don't care about them! Let them say whatever they want, we'll eat ours."

"Hey, even if you have a girlfriend, your carefree personality hasn't changed. Oh, right. Have you met each other's parents?"

"Lin Jia has met my parents, but I haven't met hers yet."

"Why?" Zhang Jun was a little surprised. They had been together for half a year, so why hadn't he met Lin Jia's parents yet?

Anke smiled bitterly: "The season hasn't ended, how can I have time to go back to China to see her parents?" He looked at Lin Jia. Lin Jia felt Anke's gaze and looked up at Anke as well. The eye contact between the two lovers made Zhang Jun feel a bit like a third wheel.

After Lin Jia and Anke confirmed their relationship, Lin Jia was afraid that her family was still worried about her, so she called them. She learned that her family no longer objected to her relationship with Anke. Her father's words at the time made her cry tears of emotion on the phone. Her five-year pursuit of love had finally come to fruition, and she and Anke didn't have to hide their relationship anymore.

Zhang Jun tilted his head to look at the two of them, then buried his head in his food. He didn't want to disturb them.

This was a rare opportunity for them to relax before a life-or-death battle.

※※※

Under the twilight in Munich, the roof of the Allianz Arena emitted a faint red light, and a great battle was about to begin.

A reporter stopped Zhang Jun, who had just gotten off the bus: "How confident are you in winning this match? Do you feel any pressure playing at Bayern's home stadium? You scored a wonderful goal in the last leg. Will you have such a wonderful performance in this match?"

Zhang Jun blocked the approaching reporters with his hand and smiled slightly: "Don't you think these questions can't be answered before the match?" Then he rushed out of the crowd.

When Bayern's bus arrived, the flashlights on the scene hardly stopped. Bayern finally felt the advantage of being at their home stadium and received more attention than Fiorentina.

When Anke jumped off the bus, he was stopped by the same reporter: "How confident are you in winning this match? Do you feel any pressure playing at your home stadium? You conceded such a wonderful goal from Zhang Jun in the last leg. Will you completely shut down his shots in this match?"

Anke said to the reporter casually: "Don't you think these questions are stupid to ask now?" After saying that, he didn't care what the other person thought and walked away.

The reporter was annoyed by both of them and didn't ask any more questions, just stood there in a daze.

Fiorentina's locker room.

Sabato threw the marker down, clapped his hands, and said to everyone: "We'll play this match like this. Stick to the attack, try to score goals, we always aim to lead, but leading by only one goal is not reassuring. So, we'll play the same way we started in the last leg..."

"Boss, are we going to deliberately show weakness again?" Xiang Tao raised his hand and asked.

Everyone laughed.

Sabato chuckled: "No. There's no need for that now, and that kind of thing is only good once. Using it too often won't work, and I don't think Magath is such an idiot that he'll fall into the same pit twice." He muttered in his heart at the same time: "Although he really is an idiot..."

"Alright! Enough nonsense, get ready to go on the field!" After Sabato finished speaking, he let the substitute players go first, and then he and the coaching staff also left the locker room, leaving only the eleven players who would start.

"Everyone, hold on a moment, I have something to say." Zhang Jun signaled his teammates to stay for a while.

So everyone waited obediently in the locker room.

"I think everyone is very clear about Fiorentina's current schedule, so everyone's mood hasn't been high recently. Whether it's the Champions League or the league, our opponents are very strong. It will be difficult to win them all, but... it's not impossible. We still have to strive to win every match, and I hope everyone will cheer up. Fiorentina isn't a team that's afraid of any opponent. We even eliminated Real Madrid, didn't we? Our recent record against AC Milan isn't bad, and the same goes for Juventus. What are we afraid of? It should be those teams that are being chased closely by us who are afraid, right? AC Milan and Juventus must be very nervous now. The pressure is always on the leaders." Zhang Jun patted Van Persie next to him, then winked at everyone. "Let's go on the field!"

On the way to the player tunnel, Van Persie said to Zhang Jun in a low voice: "Did you say that just because you saw that everyone's mood has been unstable recently?"

Zhang Jun nodded: "Bayern is a very strong opponent, and if we're not careful, we might..." Out of a little superstitious mentality, Zhang Jun didn't say the terrible outcome.

"Don't think so much, we'll win." This time it was Van Persie's turn to pat Zhang Jun on the shoulder.

Zhang Jun smiled at Van Persie, then walked straight to the front of the team.

This Champions League match was the first match of the day, and Liverpool's match against Lyon was also being played at the same time.

When Zhang Jun and the others came out, it was completely dark outside, and the stadium was brightly lit. The Allianz Arena looked like a pearl radiating a charming light from the outside.

He heard the entire stadium singing Bayern's fan song "Stern des Südens" (Star of the South), which made the atmosphere at Bayern's home stadium heat up immediately. This was a great pressure. The Allianz Arena was much larger than the Stadio Artemio Franchi, and the pressure of playing away from home was much greater than the pressure that the Stadio Artemio Franchi gave to Bayern.

No wonder even though they lost 1-2 to Fiorentina away from home, the Munich media seemed relatively optimistic, believing that Bayern would definitely advance when they returned to their home stadium. This optimism was ridiculed by the Italian media as German arrogance and contempt for Fiorentina.

Now that he had come to Bayern's home stadium, Zhang Jun knew that this was definitely not contempt or arrogance, but that they really believed in the strength of their team and the energy of their home stadium.

※※※

After Sophie finished eating, she took a shower when the match was about to start, and then wrapped herself in a bath towel and curled up on the sofa, waiting for the match to begin. At this time, she received a call from her home in China.

"Mom? Are you still not asleep?" Sophie was surprised. It should be almost three in the morning in China now.

"Yeah, I can't sleep. Your dad is clamoring to watch Zhang Jun's match, so I got up to cook him a midnight snack, so I thought about giving you a call." Although her mother was complaining about her father, her voice sounded a little excited.

Sophie knew what her mother was thinking. She must be waiting for the match to start too, but she just wouldn't admit it. Her father was a standard football fan, but her mother rarely watched football. It was rare that she would get up to pay attention to this match today.

"Feifei didn't go to the stadium? Aren't you a reporter?"

"I didn't go. I'm only responsible for reporting on things within Fiorentina, and the Champions League isn't my responsibility." Sophie brushed her hair, which wasn't dry yet. In fact, she had already planned to resign from headquarters, and was now in a semi-working state, submitting articles when she had them and not caring about anything when she didn't. She felt that she was being unfair to her boss by taking the salary that headquarters gave her while in that state.

"Oh, then Zhang Jun must be distracted, right?" Her mother chuckled on the other end of the phone.

Although they had already established their relationship, Sophie was still a little embarrassed in front of her mother. "Mom~" she said coquettishly, "The match is about to start, aren't you going to watch it?"

"Oh! Right, right! Then I won't say anymore." With that, her mother hung up the phone, she was really anxious. The phone at home was in the living room, but the TV was in her parents' bedroom. If her mother wanted to watch the match, she would have to hang up the phone and run back to her bedroom.

Sophie put down the phone and stared blankly at the TV—which was still playing commercials.

※※※

Yang Pan put down the water glass in his hand, then turned on the TV. It happened to be ESPN, but he was a little surprised that it wasn't showing the Bayern vs. Fiorentina match, but the Liverpool vs. Lyon Champions League match.

"What's going on?" Yang Pan stared at the Liverpool starting lineup on TV and asked strangely. "How can this match, in terms of strength, excitement, and importance, compare to the Bayern vs. Fiorentina match? Did ESPN's brain get waterlogged?" Not seeing the match he wanted to see, Yang Pan was a little annoyed.

Kaka, who was in the same room with him, wasn't surprised: "Big brother... this is London, England. They're naturally going to broadcast their own country's team's Champions League match. And maybe in the eyes of the English, Bayern can be compared to Liverpool, but Fiorentina might not even be as good as Lyon. At least Lyon has been the champion of Ligue 1 for three consecutive years."

"Damn English..." Yang Pan cursed, and unwilling to give up, he changed channels, hoping to find a TV station that was broadcasting the match from Germany.

While cursing the English, he changed channels, and he actually found a TV station that was broadcasting the match from Germany. However, by the time he found it, the match had already started for five minutes.

And what surprised him was that he saw in the upper right corner of the TV screen, the score was: 1:0. The home team was leading!

He turned his head to look at Kaka in surprise, and found that Kaka also looked surprised.

"What's going on? Bayern Munich is leading? The match has only started for five minutes!" he murmured.

"The progress of the match is really beyond most people's expectations. Bayern Munich took the lead just three minutes into the match. Fiorentina looks a little flustered, and even their coach hasn't shown any reaction. The players on the field don't know what to do." The commentator on TV was also talking about the same topic, but the TV camera didn't show a replay of the goal just now, maybe there hadn't been a chance to show it yet. Kaka and Yang Pan could only listen in confusion, not understanding why Bayern could take the lead so quickly. Even at home, this start was too good, right?

The TV gave a close-up of Fiorentina's coach, Antonio Sabato. He was also uncharacteristically not shouting on the sidelines, but had a dark face and a serious expression.

It looked like Fiorentina was in big trouble.

※※※

Zhang Jun looked helplessly at the scoreboard on the big screen. No one in Fiorentina would have thought that Bayern would tie the aggregate score so early.

And it wasn't because their strength wasn't enough, but because of an accident.

Just two minutes and forty seconds into the match, Ballack's harmless shot from outside the penalty area actually hit Kehl's foot, then changed direction, fooled Frey, and easily went into the goal.

At that moment, Zhang Jun really hoped that his eyes were deceiving him, but the referee mercilessly pointed his hand to the center circle, announcing that Bayern's goal was valid.

At that time, Kehl was squatting on the ground, hugging his head in pain. He personally went to pull him up. But other than patting his shoulder and sighing, he didn't know what to say. The "devil schedule" had already brought a lot of pressure to many players, and now being behind away from home made some people have a trace of doubt about the team's future: Can we really keep winning? Can we really enter the Champions League semi-finals?

The Bayern fans' singing became louder.

※※※

At the same time, Milan, Italy.

Li Yongle pounded the TV in front of him hard: "Zhang Jun! What are you doing?! Counterattack! Why are you so silent? It was just an accident! You still have plenty of time! I'm telling you, you must beat Bayern! I'm still looking forward to meeting you in the semi-finals!! Don't run away! Don't get eliminated before me!"

※※※

Krøldrup passed the ball to Zhang Jun, but Zhang Jun shot the football into the sky, and the commentator sighed regretfully.

Krøldrup suddenly grabbed Zhang Jun and said to him in a low voice: "What are you doing? Captain... it's just one goal behind, don't look so downhearted. Everyone is watching you! You have to do something, I passed the ball to you not for you to waste it."

Zhang Jun was surprised by Krøldrup's outburst, but he didn't have time to think about it now. Krøldrup was right, he, the captain, was indeed a little discouraged just now. But now it was fine, he was going to give Anke and Bayern a lesson!

Krøldrup received the ball again in the frontcourt, and Ballack rushed up to defend him as soon as possible. But Krøldrup didn't even look ahead and directly lobbed the football forward, just over Ballack's head, and Zhang Jun received the football behind him!

Turn around!

Accelerate!

Sprint!

Zhang Jun was competing with Lúcio for speed! Obviously, the no-longer-young Lúcio couldn't stop Zhang Jun, who was speeding at full speed.

Zhang Jun's awareness of breaking through was very firm, relying on speed to break through, without any fancy moves. Maybe he couldn't completely get rid of Lúcio, but for Zhang Jun, being able to create a little gap to shoot was enough.

A gap appeared! Zhang Jun shot without hesitation!

Anke blocked the near corner, and the football hit his raised arm, bouncing straight up. Van Persie saw an opportunity and ran towards Anke, intending to head the football into the empty goal in front of the goalkeeper. But Anke's second reaction was much faster than he expected. Anke jumped up from the ground and grabbed the football in his arms in front of Van Persie.

Zhang Jun, who didn't score a goal, wasn't too frustrated. Instead, he turned around and shouted to his teammates: "Alright! Attack! It's our turn to attack! There are still eighty minutes left, we have plenty of opportunities!"

"Fuck Bayern to death!" There was no doubt that this was Xiang Tao's shout. Fortunately, the Germans couldn't understand Sichuan dialect...

Krøldrup, who always had a blank expression, also had a smile on his face.

※※※

Li Yongle sat on the sofa, his hands clasped together and placed near his mouth, muttering: "That's right, that's right. Zhang Jun, you must not lose to Bayern, you have to save yourself for me to defeat you..."

※※※

"Fiorentina seems to have returned to normal. After a brief confusion after being hit, they have launched an offensive towards Bayern's goal again. Sabato still hasn't shown any reaction, which is really incomprehensible. Combining this with Fiorentina's strange performance in the last leg, I always feel like there's a conspiracy... haha." The commentator said jokingly. He must have associated Fiorentina's abnormal performance just now with the match in the last leg.

Bayern's coach Magath had the same idea. When he saw Fiorentina's abnormal performance, he immediately thought of the match a week ago. Fortunately, Fiorentina quickly returned to normal, which made Magath breathe a sigh of relief. In his opinion, the constantly attacking Fiorentina wasn't scary at all. What was scary was the suddenly abnormal Fiorentina. It seemed that he had been frightened by Sabato.

Then Mascherano's long shot was directly confiscated by Anke, and Magath finally completely relaxed. As long as everything continued to develop normally, he was confident in defeating Fiorentina, not to mention that he had such a perfect start.

Fiorentina, this is our home stadium, you won't be arrogant for long! We'll settle the score from a week ago today!

※※※

Sophie was still wrapped in a bath towel, curling up on the sofa watching the match. The air conditioner in the room was regulating the temperature, so in theory, she wouldn't feel cold even if she was wearing a bath towel, especially since it was already mid-April and the weather was getting closer to summer. But Sophie still couldn't stop her body from trembling.

This wasn't because of the cold, but because of nervousness and worry. The match completely absorbed Sophie, and she stared at the TV, afraid of missing a single shot. And her body was unconsciously trembling slightly with the progress of the match.

The match had been going on for twenty minutes, and Fiorentina was still behind. Bayern's defense was very solid, and the refereeing was also in their favor at their home stadium.

Playing away from home was difficult!

But they couldn't give up the match because of this. Zhang Jun, come on!

Sophie bit her lip tightly.

※※※

Zhang Jun kicked hard, kicking up a piece of grass. His shot just now was blocked by Anke again, this time it was blocked, not pushed away. Anke didn't fumble and didn't give Van Persie any chance.

Bayern was really powerful when they returned to their home stadium. No wonder Anke could carelessly invite him to dinner before the match, because they didn't think they would lose to Fiorentina, a small team that had just risen, right?

Damn it! It made him feel unconvinced just thinking about it! So what if it's Bayern Munich? So what if they're a powerhouse team? So what if they have a lot of big-name stars? So what if they can act cocky at home? I don't believe in this evil!

As Zhang Jun thought about it, the hooligan aura deep inside him gradually revealed itself.

Of course, Bayern wasn't just defending, which was obviously not Bayern's style. It was just that in terms of ball possession, Bayern was slightly inferior to Fiorentina. Their counterattacks also created several opportunities, but Fiorentina's crazy attack made many viewers think that Fiorentina had the absolute upper hand on the field.

Sabato also saw Bayern's counterattack, but what could he do now? Should he let the team rein in a little and pay attention to defense? Don't be ridiculous, that would be against Sabato's own will.

He insisted that "the best defense is offense." If he didn't want Bayern's counterattack to threaten his goal, then the best way was not to let Bayern have the ability and time to counterattack, once and for all.

Therefore, facing Bayern's sneak attacks, Sabato's approach was to have the team push forward and create more offsides.

This trick was indeed effective, and many of Bayern's attacks fell into Fiorentina's offside trap. But the offside trap was a very dangerous tactic. When you successfully used it nine times, you wouldn't feel any sense of security at all, because once it failed the tenth time, it would be a fatal failure.

Fiorentina's offside trap tactic didn't even have to be used ten times before an error occurred. Kehl, who was dragging behind, didn't keep up with the pace of the entire defense in time—he seemed to still be distracted by his own own goal—giving Podolski a chance to take advantage of the situation.

If the offside trap tactic failed, would they just wait to concede a goal? Naturally, that wasn't the case. All the remaining hope was placed on the goalkeeper.

At this time, praying to God was not as useful as praying to the goalkeeper.

Podolski received Ballack's scalpel-like through ball and successfully broke the offside trap! He received the football and adjusted his speed, pressing towards Fiorentina's goal.

At the same time, Frey decisively abandoned his goal and attacked. At this time, all the decisions of the goalkeeper must be decisive. Whether to attack or stay, there should be no hesitation. Hesitating for a second meant losing everything.

Podolski didn't look up to see the situation in front of him, which was his biggest mistake. So when Frey approached him, he even forgot to chip the ball and instead flicked the football to the side, hoping to break through from the ground. But Frey was now the main goalkeeper of the French national team after all. This kind of hasty breakthrough was useless to him. He pounced out, knocked the football away from Podolski's feet with one hand, and then quickly got up from the ground, grabbing the football firmly under his body again in front of Podolski.

"Too beautiful! He saved Bayern's one-on-one chance! Frey!! Bayern has such an excellent goalkeeper as Anke, but please don't forget that Fiorentina also has an excellent goalkeeper - Sébastien Frey!!"

※※※

People in front of the TV simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief. When Podolski successfully broke the offside trap just now, they all thought that Fiorentina was doomed this time—being two goals behind before the end of the first half, at Bayern's home stadium, the possibility of a successful comeback was almost only ten percent.

"What's going on?" Yang Pan frowned. "Kehl's condition is obviously not good. Did returning to Germany make him a little unable to let go? First an own goal, then an offside trap failure. If Sabato doesn't substitute him off, I think Fiorentina's next match will be dangerous."

Kaka smiled faintly: "It wouldn't be good to substitute a player after less than thirty minutes of the match, right? What's more, with our understanding of Sabato, is he the kind of person who rushes to substitute a player off just because they made a mistake? Let's just watch the match honestly and see what kind of counterattack Fiorentina can come up with."

※※※

Xiang Tao was a little angry at Kehl's absent-mindedness. Because Fiorentina's offside trap tactic was basically directed by him, he was responsible for the failure now.

Anderlecht in Belgium was the originator of the offside trap tactic, and they were also the first team to use this tactic in the Champions League. Therefore, Anderlecht had always attached great importance to the research of this tactic and the training of players, Xiang Tao came out of here, naturally had a lot of experience with the offside trap.

Xiang Tao yelled at Kehl, then waved his hand forward, signaling him to keep up in time next time and not be dazed anymore.

After yelling at Kehl, Xiang Tao spat on the ground and cursed to himself: "Damn it, what's wrong today? It seems like everything is going wrong..."

As a result, the two sides fell into a stalemate. Fiorentina couldn't break through Bayern Munich's goal, and Bayern's attacks frequently fell into the offside trap. The first half of the two sides ended in such a stalemate, with Bayern Munich still leading Fiorentina 1-0.

※※※

The first half had just ended when Sophie's phone rang again, it was still her mother calling.

"Hey, Feifei, you're a sports reporter, can you tell Mom what's going on? Why is Zhang Jun's team performing so badly? They've shot so many times, but they haven't scored a single goal." As soon as the phone connected, her mother said incessantly.

"Uh... I think maybe it's because they're under too much pressure away from home, plus conceding a goal at the beginning, which had some bad influence on the players' mentality." Sophie said, looking at the TV. She was saying the same things as the ESPN commentator, anyway, the ESPN in China and the ESPN in Italy weren't the same person commentating, so she wasn't afraid of being exposed.

She wasn't very clear about it either, so she directly borrowed the TV commentator's analysis. She felt that Fiorentina was a little strange, was it really because of the impact of conceding a goal too early?

Finally satisfying her mother's curiosity, Sophie put down the phone and sighed, looking at the TV screen playing commercials.

※※※

"Hey, Zhang Jun, did we see crows or black cats on the way here today?" Xiang Tao grabbed Zhang Jun in the locker room and asked in Chinese.

Zhang Jun looked at Xiang Tao strangely, then shook his head: "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"I just think this first half was strangely unlucky, just because we conceded a goal too early, it turned into this." Xiang Tao spread his hands.

"Don't think about those useless things, football matches are just like this. If you could calculate everything, what would be the point? Let's do it in the second half, we still have forty-five minutes." Zhang Jun patted Xiang Tao on the shoulder, then walked back to his seat and sat down, waiting for Sabato to speak.

Sabato looked at the players in the locker room. Although they were behind in the first half, their mood wasn't very low. But there was one exception.

"Dainelli, you're on in the second half, replacing Kehl." Sabato's simple words surprised many people. Including Dainelli himself, he looked up at the coach in surprise.

Kehl seemed very calm. He had a very clear understanding of his own performance in the first half. He also knew that there would be a problem if he wasn't substituted off in this situation.

Zhang Jun was also very surprised by Sabato's decision. In his impression, Sabato wasn't the kind of coach who would rush to substitute a player off just because they made a mistake. Even if the player was really not good, he would wait until after the start of the second half before finding an opportunity to substitute the player off. Substituting a player off during halftime was really rare unless the player was injured.

Seeing that everyone was silent but looked unnatural, Sabato asked: "What, any objections?"

Zhang Jun noticed that Sabato was looking at him. He thought that he was the captain, and the captain not only communicated with the players, but also represented the players to negotiate with the coach, so he had to stand up at this time.

"Boss, I don't think this is a very good idea?"

"Oh?" Sabato raised his eyebrows, "Tell me."

"Although Sébastien's performance wasn't very good at times in the first half, overall, I think it was still very good. The goal conceded at the beginning was just a mistake, and it had nothing to do with the defense. Didn't we not let the other side score another goal in the first half? This shows that the defenders are working hard. What's more, what will outsiders think if you take Sébastien off in this situation? This is Germany, his hometown. I don't think we can let Sébastien be substituted off in his own country under any circumstances."

"Hey, even if it means losing the match?" Sabato stared at Zhang Jun and asked.

Zhang Jun replied decisively: "We can't lose."

"You're so sure?"

"Without a doubt."

The two looked at each other for a while, and Sabato finally looked away first.

"Alright, Kehl will continue to play in the second half. Dainelli, you just keep resting. Even if you fall asleep on the bench, I won't wake you up."

Everyone burst into laughter, and Dainelli also laughed along with everyone in embarrassment.

Kehl pulled on Zhang Jun's jersey and said to him in a low voice: "Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Zhang Jun smiled at Kehl, "You should thank the boss, he definitely didn't really want to substitute you off, otherwise even if I swore that we could win the match, he would have substituted you off. Your performance was really strange in the first half, is there anything wrong?"

Kehl hesitated for a moment, then said to Zhang Jun in a low voice: "Anna is about to give birth..." Anna was Kehl's wife, who always lived on both sides of Germany and Italy, but he hadn't seen Kehl with his wife recently, so he had returned to Germany to prepare for the birth.

"Ah!" Zhang Jun yelled out, attracting everyone's attention. "It's nothing, it's nothing, everyone just do what you're supposed to do!" Zhang Jun waved his hand to his teammates, then grabbed Kehl and came to the corner of the locker room.

"Why didn't you tell us about such an important thing? I don't think anyone knew, right?"

"No, Philipp knew." Kehl was referring to Lahm, who was also German, so he believed that they usually communicated more. "But I didn't let him tell you. The team has been playing frequently recently, and the opponents are all strong, and I was afraid that it would distract everyone. You know, everyone is very enthusiastic..."

Zhang Jun laughed: "Haha, don't be afraid, don't be afraid! Anyway, there hasn't been any good news recently, so your child's birth is a happy event. We Chinese pay attention to auspiciousness, this is a great auspiciousness! This is a good omen." He thought to himself that Xiang Tao was asking about crows and black cats just now, but he didn't expect it to be a good omen.

He coughed loudly on purpose, wanting to attract his teammates' attention, but this time no one paid attention to him...

"Hey, I said... I have an important matter to announce." Zhang Jun ignored Kehl pulling his clothes next to him and shouted with a happy—no, maybe it should be said lewd—expression. "It's very gossipy, don't you want to know?"

Suddenly, everyone's eyes turned to him, including Di Livio and Sabato.

Zhang Jun cleared his throat, then said to everyone in a sonorous voice: "Our Sébastien is going to be a father!"

The locker room was quiet for about three seconds, and then...

"Liar!" Almost everyone responded in unison.

Zhang Jun had a feeling of being a failure as a person—did he look like someone who lied? "Really, I don't get any money for lying to you. Otherwise, why was Sébastien's performance so abnormal in the first half? Ah ah! It's all because a father's heart is worried about the mother and child! Aren't you moved? Shouldn't you congratulate him? You..." Zhang Jun was indulging in self-admiration, but his teammates didn't care about so many sentimental words. One by one, they bypassed him and pounced on Kehl.

"Really? I want to be the child's godfather!"

"Come on, I should be the godfather!"

"Sébastien, let me name the child, okay? Let's call him Ujfalusi Kehl... Ouch, UFO (Ujfalusi's nickname), why did you hit me?"

"Stop pretending to be ignorant, I think it's more appropriate to call him Xiang Kehl."

"Then Antonio Sabato Kehl might be good..."

"Are you guys rebelling?! I'm the coach, I'll be the godfather! I'll name the child! Otherwise, none of you can start!!"

"Damn it! Too despicable! Too shameless! Too hooligan