Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 239 Porto, the European Black Shop

Manchester City's opponent in the final is Portuguese powerhouse Porto. This is the second time Manchester City has faced a Portuguese team after eliminating Braga in the quarterfinals and Benfica in the semifinals.

However, Porto, the European powerhouse, is still significantly stronger than these two teams.

Even from the perspective of Shan Yongzhuo, a football novice in his previous life, this Porto team is considered to be full of stars.

Falcao, Hulk, Guarin, Moutinho, and Otamendi are all considered top players.

In Shan Yongzhuo's view, this final match might not be so easy.

Five p.m.

The entire Manchester City team traveled by bus to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

This stadium, which opened in 2010, is the only five-star stadium in Ireland and has a seating capacity of more than 50,000 spectators.

When Manchester City's team bus arrived and the players got off, there were already many reporters in the mixed zone, raising various devices and constantly taking pictures.

Nobody paid any attention.

After all, this is the Europa League final, so it has attracted a lot of attention, and the large number of reporters present was to be expected.

These reporters also came from major media outlets in other regions, including CTV5 reporters.

CTV5 had acquired the Europa League broadcasting rights early on and broadcast Manchester City's Europa League performance throughout the season. Now that they've reached the final, they naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity to interview Shan Yongzhuo.

However, because the match was in the early morning, the television had already switched to the broadcast an hour earlier.

Chinese fans watching on television had already felt the excitement of the match.

"We can see that the Manchester City players have come down, including Silva and Balotelli, and they look quite relaxed."

The reporter chatted away, and even saw Balotelli wink at them.

Then, Shan Yongzhuo came down.

The camera quickly followed Shan Yongzhuo, and the image was magnified to the clearest level, but even so, Shan Yongzhuo's figure still appeared a bit small.

The reporter could only bite the bullet and say, "We can see that Shan Yongzhuo's expression is very calm, and he doesn't seem nervous about the competition."

"Shan Yongzhuo has always had a good mental fortitude, and this is his second time participating in the Europa League final."

"Having reached the Europa League final twice in a row, if Shan Yongzhuo can defeat Porto this time, he will achieve a back-to-back Europa League final titles."

Dan Yongzhuo didn't pay attention to this, but followed his teammates to the locker room.

The season is about to begin.

Mancini and Porto coach Villas-Boas attended the pre-match press conference.

Mancini appeared quite low-key, while Villas-Boas boldly expressed his confidence in the match.

Most media outlets have a fairly good impression of Villas-Boas, especially the Portuguese media, who generally have a high level of trust in him.

On the one hand, it's because Villas-Boas is young and handsome, giving a much better impression than Mancini; on the other hand, it's also because of the abilities Villas-Boas has demonstrated.

Villas-Boas served as Mourinho's assistant coach for seven years, from Porto to Chelsea and then to Inter Milan. He was always by Mourinho's side, winning one honor after another.

In 2009, at the age of 30, Villas-Boas began his solo career, returning to Portugal to take over the struggling Coimbra University team. Before he took over, Coimbra University had gone seven games without a win and was at the bottom of the table. After he took over, Coimbra University turned the tide, eventually finishing 11th in the league and advancing to the semi-finals of the Portuguese League Cup.

In the summer of 2010, after gaining widespread recognition at the University of Coimbra, he came to Porto and went on to win the Portuguese Super Cup, the Portuguese Super League, and the Portuguese Cup.

It's fair to say that Villas-Boas is currently enjoying a period of great success and self-satisfaction.

In contrast, while Manchester City also won the Premier League and the FA Cup, more people acknowledged Shan Yongzhuo's phenomenal performance than Mancini's coaching ability.

Only the English media supported Mancini, interpreting his low profile as a sign of his unwillingness to reveal his hand before the match, a display of his unpredictability.

However, once the match is about to begin, anything said beforehand becomes meaningless; the outcome depends on the performance of both teams during the game.

At the referee's signal, the two teams entered the field.

At that moment, a thunderous shout erupted from the west stands: "Single!"

"Single! Goal!"

"Single! Champion!"

"Single! We love you!"

Then, the same cheers erupted from the east stands.

The fans in the west stands were from Manchester City, and they were cheering wildly under the leadership of the Shan Yongzhuo Women's Cheerleading Team.

The east stand was filled with neutral fans from Ireland. Although most Irish fans did not particularly support Manchester City or Porto, this did not stop the Irish female fans from enthusiastically supporting Shan Yongzhuo.

As the camera lens panned across the area, it became clear that not only were there numerous Irish female fans cheering for Shan Yongzhuo, but also many Chinese people.

These are overseas students, overseas Chinese, and so on. Most of them come from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and some even came all the way from Germany and France to Ireland to cheer for Shan Yongzhuo.

Meanwhile, the media also noticed the presence of some important figures in the fans' stands.

Among them are Irish football legends, important officials from the English Football Association and UEFA, as well as some well-known agents and club executives.

Shan Yongzhuo's agent, Thomas Cross, was also present.

As a famous German agent, Kroos was already well-known in Europe at this time, and could be considered one of the top football agents in Europe, simply because he represented Shan Yongzhuo.

With Shan Yongzhuo alone, he is already on par with veteran agents like Raiola and Mendes.

Porto president Costa and Manchester City president Mubarak were also present to watch the final. This was the final match for both teams, and both hoped to win the Europa League title, which was the most important title for both of them.

However, among these important figures, there is one person who is also quite noteworthy: Barcelona's new president, Rosell.

Russell's arrival sparked a flurry of speculation in the media.

After all, Barcelona still has a Champions League final against Manchester United to play, which is Barcelona's top priority this season.

As the president of Barcelona, ​​it is quite intriguing that he would come to Ireland to watch the Europa League final at this time.

The English media, in a rather unfriendly manner, speculated, "What is Rosell doing here to watch this match?"

"Perhaps we can wait for news."

(End of this chapter)