Dominating Football with Perfect Ball Control

Chapter 76: 76. Griezmann is very depressed

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With Lance’s brace to equalize, Bayer Leverkusen finally regained their morale.

Although Lance was substituted in the 65th minute of the second half due to lack of stamina, his teammates Son Heung-min, Simon Rolfes, and Lars Bender all performed well.

In the 76th minute, Son Heung-min cut in from the left and curled a shot into the far corner of the net.

Bayer Leverkusen narrowly defeated Hamburger SV 3-2, continuing their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich!

Even Bayern Munich’s coach Pep Guardiola and Borussia Dortmund’s coach Jürgen Klopp personally admitted: ”This season, our title contenders are not only Borussia Dortmund (Bayern Munich); Bayer Leverkusen’s momentum is strong, and they also possess powerful competitiveness.”

”Especially the outstanding performance of their young players, which cannot be ignored.”

”Therefore, we must always remain vigilant and strive to earn every point, avoiding being overtaken by Bayer Leverkusen.”

In Guardiola’s and Klopp’s view, both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will go far in the Champions League.

Especially Bayern Munich, their goal is at least to reach the Champions League final.

Therefore, both teams will inevitably need to endure multi-front battles for a long time.

Bayer Leverkusen doesn’t have as many considerations.

At most, they’ll make an appearance in the Round of 16; with good luck, they might reach the Champions League quarterfinals.

Want to reach the semifinals?

Impossible.

Therefore, in the latter half of the season, Bayer Leverkusen’s focus on the Bundesliga might genuinely pose a threat to Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Guardiola and Klopp, the two coaches, have gradually come to view Bayer Leverkusen as an important opponent.

As for Bayer Leverkusen’s coaches, Sascha Lewandowski and Sami Hyypi?, they haven’t realized this yet.

Both of them are foolishly happy.

”We finally managed to win 3 points! Well done, lads!”

Contending for the title?

Can’t think about that for now.

All Bayer Leverkusen can do is try to secure 3 points in every upcoming match and hope for a favorable draw in the Champions League knockout stage.

They aim to advance a few more rounds in the Champions League.

Every knockout round means tens of millions in revenue!

In the last match of the Champions League group stage against Real Sociedad, since they had already secured first place in the group, the coaching staff sent out a rotated lineup.

This allowed players from the reserve and youth teams to experience the Champions League atmosphere.

The future French core, Antoine Griezmann, was very frustrated.

Real Sociedad was destined to be eliminated in the group stage.

Logically, he didn’t need to start; the last group stage match could have been handled casually.

However, Griezmann wanted revenge!

He wanted to battle Lance for another three hundred rounds!

He painstakingly traveled to Madrid for a transfer, then flew to Cologne and had to take a bus to Leverkusen.

After traveling thousands of kilometers, he was told Lance wasn’t on the roster?

Griezmann’s mentality collapsed.

Ultimately, Real Sociedad and Bayer Leverkusen drew 1-1, and the Champions League group stage officially concluded.

Bayer Leverkusen finished with 4 wins and 2 draws, totaling 14 points.

Manchester United finished second in the group with 3 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss, totaling 11 points.

At this point, the results for all other groups in the 2013-2014 Champions League also came out.

They were largely consistent with Lance’s predictions.

Group B: Real Madrid and Galatasaray advanced together.

Serie A giants Juventus surprisingly finished third in the group and could only participate in the Europa League.

Real Madrid displayed their potential as a strong contender for the title.

This season, former Tottenham Hotspur stars Gareth Bale and Luka Modri? joined Real Madrid.

Especially Bale, who broke Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer fee record, arriving at the Bernabéu with a high-profile 110 million euros.

He formed the BBC trio with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

Adding to that, the luxurious midfield configuration of Modri?, Xabi Alonso, Casemiro, and Sami Khedira,

As well as the backline featuring talented young center-back Rapha?l Varane, and prime-age ’Warrior Monk’ Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Dani Carvajal...

This Real Madrid team led by Carlo Ancelotti has swept away the slump of previous years,

And once again showcased a powerful kingly aura to the world.

Group C had no true giants; oil-rich Paris Saint-Germain could barely be considered a quasi-giant.

The frontline of Zlatan Ibrahimovi?, Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Edinson Cavani was quite luxurious.

The midfield combination of Marco Verratti, Blaise Matuidi, Thiago Motta, and Javier Pastore was mediocre.

The defense of Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Alex, and Maxwell was barely passable.

This squad could only be said to have some competitiveness in the Champions League; it was fine for beating weaker teams.

Against strong teams, it would likely struggle.

The upset in Group C was by Greek Super League giant Olympiacos.

They defeated SL Benfica and RSC Anderlecht, successfully advancing from the group stage to the knockout rounds.

Olympiacos also became the most desired draw for all group winners, a true ’lucky baby.’

Group D had no suspense whatsoever.

Group winner Bayern Munich, the quintuple winners, and defending champions.

Guardiola’s team might become the only team to defend the Champions League title since its restructuring.

The group runner-up, Manchester’s new dominant force, Manchester City.

There was no need to even look at the other teams in the group;

Anyone could guess the qualification spots.

Group E also had little suspense.

Premier League giant Chelsea finished first in the group.

Bundesliga powerhouse FC Schalke 04 finished second in the group.

Group F was actually quite balanced in terms of strength.

Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, SSC Napoli, and Olympique de Marseille, all four teams had a certain level of strength.

But Borussia Dortmund was, after all, the Champions League runner-up last season.

No matter how bad Arsenal was, they were at least an existence that other European teams found hard to challenge.

Borussia Dortmund ultimately finished first in the group.

Arsenal finished second in the group.

At this point, all four Bundesliga teams participating advanced.

Group G: Atlético Madrid displayed dominance comparable to Real Madrid.

They advanced undefeated with 16 points, 5 wins and 1 draw.

FC Zenit Saint Petersburg finished second in the group.

”Europe’s black market” FC Porto and Austria Wien could not compete with them.

Group H also had little suspense.

The only two giants, FC Barcelona and AC Milan, advanced together.

AFC Ajax and Celtic FC are also, in a sense, giants.

However, the gap between Eredivisie and Scottish Premiership teams and the top five leagues is growing wider and wider.

Champions League Group Winners:

Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid, FC Barcelona;

Group Runners-up:

Manchester United, Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Manchester City, FC Schalke 04, Arsenal, FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, AC Milan.

...

...

”Lance, the Champions League knockout stage draw is tonight. We’re planning a barbecue party. Come join us?”

”Yes, Lance. You’re the biggest contributor to us reaching the knockout stage; you absolutely have to be there.”

”That’s right, if you don’t come, we’ll be mad.”

After the training day ended, Lance had originally planned to go to school for extra lessons.

Recently, he had been busy with training and matches, falling behind in a lot of his schoolwork, and his high school teachers were complaining.

”Don’t just focus on playing football; at least come to study when you have free time, otherwise, your GPA will make it difficult to graduate high school.”

Lance’s goal was to go to university, at least to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

This would give him a fallback option after retirement.

But his current GPA was less than 4.

To get into a prestigious European university, a GPA of at least 2, or even 1.5, is required.

For the Abitur (German university entrance exam) and overall continuous assessment, out of a total of 900 points, he needed to score around 640 points.

Even for an average university, at least 2.9 points are needed.

A 4.0 GPA is considered relatively poor, a mid-to-low ranking.

No wonder the teacher was quite worried about Lance.

He knew that Lance was very intelligent and could improve his grades with a little effort.

It was just that he trained football too diligently, only able to use some free time for extra lessons.

This left Lance with no private time to relax with his teammates.

Previously, most invitations from teammates had been politely declined by Lance.

This time, Vice-Captain Lars Bender organized a barbecue party and insisted that Lance join.

Seeing that he couldn’t refuse, Lance could only agree.

”Great! Lance, I’ll send you the location then. Remember to bring a Plus One!”

”What’s a Plus One?”

”A female companion! I’m going for physical therapy now, talk later.”

”Uh...”

Lance knew that everyone would bring female companions to such parties.

They would either be wives, girlfriends, or at least dating partners.

Going alone would inevitably be a bit awkward.

But who should he bring?

Lance’s first thought was of the doll-like girl, Chloe, who was his age and often discussed matches with him.

Would she agree to such an event?

Lance only knew that she was his fan; he wasn’t really sure if she would be willing to be involved in his personal life.