Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 593 The First Ball of the New Year

Shan Yongzhuo was also participating in the event, but not at the front; he was at the very back, surrounded by a huge pile of gifts, and he was responsible for signing them.

Dan Yongzhuo is the most popular Granada player, and his autographed gifts are also the most sought-after. Most people want his autographed gifts, while they don't want other players' gifts as much.

Therefore, Shan Yongzhuo was only responsible for signing autographs.

This job still made Shan Yongzhuo very happy. It only required autographs. Although the workload was relatively large, he was not in a situation where he would be surrounded by a large group of women vying to take photos with him, or even being groped.

He was signing autographs in a small tent, so he wasn't discovered until the very end of the event, which made him feel quite pleased.

The event was also reported by the media.

The event itself is quite positive. For example, since the start of the winter break, most of the reports have been about winter transfers, and Granada has not had any news on this topic, so naturally they are the teams that have been forgotten.

However, the event still garnered Granada a lot of media attention, which pleased Kroos.

Then, he invited Shan Yongzhuo to his home for Christmas.

After Christmas, it was January, and the league resumed immediately.

This season's winter break is shorter than usual because it's a World Cup year.

Granada has also regrouped to prepare for the second half of the season.

The first thing we did after the New Year's gathering was the routine physical fitness test.

Then, after training began, Pellegrini was furious to find that many players had experienced varying degrees of physical decline, especially Nainggolan.

This guy clearly indulged himself during the holidays; you can tell how well he spent his vacation just by looking at his body measurements.

Previously, Nainggolan's physical condition was arguably among the best in the team, better than most of his teammates.

But now, the physical fitness test results are not up to standard.

Who would have thought that Nainggolan could get himself into such a state during such a short vacation?

Pellegrini was furious. He personally took charge of Nainggolan's training and wouldn't tolerate the slightest carelessness.

There's nothing we can do about it. As we saw in the first half of the season, Nainggolan's importance to Granada is second only to Shan Yongzhuo. If his form falters, it will have a significant impact on Granada.

Nainggolan had no intention of slacking off. Despite indulging himself during the holidays, he was still very serious about training. Perhaps that's not quite right, but according to Shan Yongzhuo, Nainggolan completely treated himself as a tool during training.

He does whatever the coach tells him to do.

A tireless tool.

However, this is certainly a good thing, at least it can ensure that Nainggolan's condition recovers quickly.

Time flies, and soon the eighteenth round of La Liga resumed.

Granada also faced their first opponent of the new year, Almería.

This is a very friendly opponent.

Almería is a very young team, founded in 1989. They spent a long time in the Segunda División and returned to La Liga this season as a newly promoted team, but their current situation is very bad.

After seventeen rounds of matches, Almeria has only managed 16 points, placing them 17th in the league and making them a team struggling in the relegation zone.

Granada's entire team traveled to the Mediterranean Stadium, naturally hoping to defeat their opponent.

Pellegrini also hoped to get off to a good start in the new year, so he fielded his full starting lineup, with only Nainggolan excluded.

The starting midfielders in the center are Ziyech and Gunnarsson.

Nainggolan received a red card in the last match and will be suspended for two games.

Of course, this is actually a good thing for Pellegrini, as that bastard Nainggolan is not yet back to his best form.

The suspension will actually help him recover his form and physical condition.

On match day, the Mediterranean Stadium was packed to capacity early on. Almería fans didn't have high hopes for their team to defeat Granada, after all, one was the league leader and the other was seventeenth.

There is still a gap in strength between the two sides.

They came just to see Shan Yongzhuo's performance.

This is Almería's first encounter with Granada this season, and also Shan Yongzhuo's only opportunity to perform at the Mediterranean Stadium this year. For local Almería fans, watching the world's number one star play live is still very appealing.

There were quite a few Granada fans, more than 4,000 in total, which made them look very impressive in the Mediterranean Stadium, which can only hold 20,000 people.

In particular, the nearly one thousand-strong Shan Yongzhuo women's cheerleading team made the Mediterranean Stadium feel like Granada was playing at home.

The Almería players are unfamiliar with Granada.

However, they all knew how terrifying Shan Yongzhuo was.

"That guy is terrifying."

"We must guard against him."

"Yes."

"But can we stop him?"

"Then it depends on Anthony and Tosi."

After saying that, the Almería players all looked at the starting center-backs, Canorea and Tosigliere.

The two defenders' faces darkened.

That's what it means to "watch them".

They weren't confident they could defend against Shan Yongzhuo.

At this moment, they really wanted to say to their opponents, "Have you bastards forgotten that we are the worst defensive team in La Liga?"

But they were helpless.

It was their responsibility to defend against Shan Yongzhuo, and they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it.

The game officially started.

Fueled by the cheers of their home fans, Almería launched their first offensive against Granada.

After some passing, the ball was finally intercepted by Blind on the wing.

Granada, like Almería, was a team that spent a long time in the Spanish Second Division, and the two teams have a history of playing against each other quite often.

However, after Shan Yongzhuo and Kroos bought Granada, they began recruiting and building up their forces.

This season, Granada, although still lagging behind the top teams overall, is a force to be reckoned with compared to Almería.

Then, in the 12th minute of the match, Granada launched a brilliant attack.

Ziyech dribbled past the center circle and passed the ball to Blind, who made a run down the wing. Blind then dribbled a long run all the way to the byline.

If the opposing full-back can keep up in time, Blind can safely deliver the cross.

Blind did indeed deliver a high-quality cross.

Harry Kane leaped high and headed the ball towards the goal.

This was a high-quality header. Almería's goalkeeper, Esteban, touched the ball, but was unable to prevent it from going into the goal.

0:1.

Granada took the lead at the Mediterranean Stadium.

(End of this chapter)