Chapter 161 The Wall

Having defeated AC Milan and Juventus in succession, Fiorentina was like a bolt of purple lightning across the Italian sky, cleaving open the previously solid Serie A tradition. Milan had almost certainly given up on the league, wanting to focus on the Champions League. Failing to win the domestic title, winning a European title was still a glorious achievement.

The biggest threat to Fiorentina's title hopes was Juventus. They were also unburdened by the Champions League and possessed outstanding strength. Although they unexpectedly lost to Fiorentina, it didn't mean they wouldn't have a chance to overtake them. If Fiorentina made any mistakes in the subsequent six league games, Juventus, currently tied on points, would surpass them and become the league leaders, without giving Fiorentina another head-to-head opportunity.

The only advantage for Fiorentina was their schedule. In these final six rounds, Fiorentina's opponents were relatively weak, while Juventus had a very strong opponent waiting for them in the thirty-fifth round – Inter Milan, who had just returned empty-handed from the Champions League.

Even when they were winning against AC Milan and Juventus, most Italian media outlets didn't proclaim, "The league title is in Fiorentina's pocket." They were still waiting, waiting to see Fiorentina's match against the unstable factor, Roma.

The media loved to jump on the bandwagon; it was their nature. Therefore, at this delicate moment for the title race, they were unwilling to provoke the established powerhouses AC Milan and Juventus. But what if Fiorentina won two more consecutive games? At that point, even Milan and Juventus themselves would have to admit the truth.

One day, as Zhang Jun walked into Fiorentina's locker room to change for training, he found many of his teammates gathered in front of a wall. He pushed through the crowd and squeezed inside. He saw two numbers written on a large white sheet of paper, "8·1." There was nothing else.

No one understood what these two numbers meant. Xiang Tao turned his head and saw Zhang Jun standing next to him, so he asked him. But Zhang Jun just shook his head; he didn't know either.

"Who put this paper up?" he asked.

"Don't know. It was already on the locker room wall when we got here."

Zhang Jun tilted his head and thought, but couldn't figure it out. He clapped his hands. "Alright! Everyone change your clothes, we should go train. The boss must be getting impatient."

After everyone left, Zhang Jun was the last to exit. He turned his head again to look at the two numbers on the wall. What did "8" and "1" represent? He still didn't get an answer, so he shook his head, closed the door, and went out.

Training was not easy. As the league approached its end and the hopes of winning increased, Sabato also tightened the requirements for the team. For example, he proposed for the first time that players should not be out loitering after 11 pm. When Sabato announced this rule, Xiang Tao glanced mischievously at Klose, but Klose stared straight ahead, his face expressionless.

※※※

On April 24th, in the thirty-third round of Serie A, Fiorentina hosted Roma. This game was the highlight of the round, a focal battle, because the outcome of this game largely determined the final suspense of the season.

AC Milan, Juventus, and even Inter Milan, were all hoping that Fiorentina would lose. But Udinese and Sampdoria were hoping Fiorentina would win. The former still had hopes of winning the title, and the latter was competing with Roma for a spot in the UEFA Cup.

Zhang Jun didn't score in this game, but Fiorentina narrowly defeated Roma 2:1. With five minutes left in the game, Fiorentina was leading by one goal, and Roma launched a frantic counterattack, hoping to equalize the score. For Juventus and AC Milan, even a draw for Fiorentina would be a very good result, but Fiorentina themselves couldn't accept it. Sabato was roaring and jumping on the sidelines, yelling for the team to hold on. When the referee blew the final whistle after four minutes of added time, many Fiorentina players collapsed on the ground, exhausted, and Sabato felt like he had crawled out of hell for the first time.

For the last five minutes, Fiorentina, who always suppressed their opponents, were for the first time pinned in their own penalty area, unable to lift their heads. Sabato felt like his heart had stopped beating, and he just wanted to know when the game would end.

This was also the first time in his eight-year coaching career that he was so close to the championship trophy, so it was inevitable that he would be nervous.

But his nervousness was quickly thrown to the back of his mind. At the press conference, Sabato, like a superhero who had to change clothes in a phone booth, recited his old lines, "We've won three in a row. I said it before, we will keep winning until we win the final championship."

His unoriginal remarks made many reporters complain in their reports that Sabato now had nothing but his disciple's motto to babble about.

Although they were unwilling to let Sabato be smug, many media outlets had to admit at this point that the league title this season was very likely to belong to Fiorentina.

※※※

Three days later, in the European Champions League, Zhang Jun watched the match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich on television with Sophie. Two battles with Fiorentina had exhausted Bayern Munich's last bit of strength, and Anker, after playing above his level in the previous two games, was now in poor form, unable to stop Ronaldinho's ghostly and tricky shot from outside the penalty area. Ronaldinho received a pass outside the penalty area, but he didn't dribble, didn't pass, and didn't even take a running start. He just wiggled his butt facing Lucio, then raised his left calf and suddenly exerted force, stabbing the ball with a shot from the spot. The football flew into the goal, sticking to the post. Anker didn't react at all; he even stared blankly at the Barcelona players celebrating the goal, not knowing what had just happened.

Originally, Zhang Jun had hoped that Anker would ultimately lift the Champions League trophy in his place, but after seeing that incredible goal, he was speechless. He definitely couldn't pull off a shot like that at the moment; he couldn't even imagine it. No wonder Anker had no way to deal with the ball.

Ronaldinho was at the height of his career, his age, experience, skills, and insights all maturing. Probably not many would disagree if one said he was the number one player in football today.

Even Real Madrid were being suppressed by Barcelona and couldn't lift their heads.

Not to mention Brazil's recent performance in international competitions.

This game was Bayern's home game, but Barcelona left with a 1:1 draw, completely satisfied.

Sophie was still puzzled by Anker's poor performance, but Zhang Jun didn't find it strange, "He's just a match-type goalkeeper, the kind that's unstable. He got into the zone too early in our game, so it's his bad luck for this game... and he was so slow to get into the zone against Ronaldinho. I think they're in for a tough time in the next round at the Camp Nou."

On the other side, AC Milan defeated Liverpool 2:0 in their home game, adding the heaviest weight to their march into the final.

※※※

The Champions League was, after all, someone else's game at the moment. Zhang Jun's only goal was to win the league title this season. He saw that piece of paper in the locker room every day, still with the two numbers "8" and "1." No one found it strange anymore; they were used to it. Although they still didn't know what it specifically meant, it must have some significance being there.

Under the gaze of those two numbers, Fiorentina defeated Lazio 3:2 in the thirty-fourth round of the league, but Zhang Jun didn't score.

In the thirty-fifth round of the league, the highlight was in Turin. Juventus hosted Inter Milan. Both were losers in the Champions League, and they weren't doing well in the domestic league either. They urgently needed a victory to salvage this failed season, with Juventus having an even stronger desire to win. If they won, they could continue to put pressure on Fiorentina. And if they lost... look at Fiorentina's last three opponents. They could declare themselves defeated in advance.

Before the game, Zhang Jun hadn't contacted Li Yongle, afraid of being gossiped about. But the day before the game, Li Yongle took the initiative to call, "Hey, aren't you going to say something about our game against Juventus?"

"..." Zhang Jun was silent for a long time before saying to Li Yongle, "Defeat them."

Li Yongle laughed, "Even if you continue to remain silent, I will do it. This has nothing to do with Fiorentina's fate; it's just because we are Juventus's opponent and can't lose to Juventus. This is the Italian Derby!"

Before the game, Capello had been engaging in a war of words with Inter Milan, putting pressure on the team's coaches and players. Recently, he had even made a fuss about the Chinese players in Inter Milan and Fiorentina, believing that Inter Milan's Li Yongle would desperately help Fiorentina's Zhang Jun win the league title, so Juventus was facing not just Inter Milan, but Inter Milan plus Fiorentina.

Li Yongle retorted, "If he says that, then all the teams in Serie A have Italian players. Why doesn't he make a fuss about that? In that case, isn't Juventus playing against two opponents every game throughout the season? Can I interpret his remarks as racial discrimination?" Li Yongle's last harsh words immediately silenced Capello.

Of course, Li Yongle didn't really think about suing Capello for racial discrimination. After all, his words were ambiguous and could be interpreted in any way. But his active response to Capello also showed that his position on the Inter Milan team was changing little by little. Previously, these words would have been said by their captain, Javier Zanetti. At thirty-six, he was now in a semi-retired state, and Inter Milan's current captain was Adriano, but Mancini intended to replace him with someone with a better overall view to wear the captain's armband.

The highly anticipated Italian Derby ended with Inter Milan's victory, but they also paid the price of Martins being suspended and Adriano being injured. The game was filled with gunpowder from the first minute to the last. No one wanted to lose to their arch-rival, and no one wanted to lose hope and dignity in the league title race.

During the normal game, the referee Paparesta showed a total of thirteen yellow cards and one red card. From this number, one could imagine how intense the game was.

Thanks to Adriano's raid in the twenty-seventh minute of the opening, Inter Milan took the lead, and then Mancini unexpectedly retreated all his players, with Li Yongle organizing the team's defense. Inter Milan's midfield was like an iron curtain, rejecting all of Juventus's attacks.

No matter what tactics Capello adopted or how he made substitutions, Li Yongle didn't give Juventus a single chance. In the end, Inter Milan defeated Juventus 1:0 with this one goal. Reviews of the game were disappointing, because it wasn't as exciting as initially imagined. It was intense... but the audience came to see goals and exciting attacking plays, not the referee handing out cards and a series of rough fouls.

When Capello heard the referee's final whistle, his heart sank.

At the same time as this game, Fiorentina was challenging Atalanta away from home. Although it was an away game, facing Atalanta, who had already been relegated in advance, Fiorentina played quite easily, winning 6:2. It's particularly worth mentioning that Zhang Jun was only one goal away from scoring a hat-trick. His goal count had reached twenty-five, only five goals away from thirty goals. And these five goals had to be scored in the last three league games...

※※※

"That's just impossible! In the final stages of the league, both sides will be very careful and cautious. Where will there be so many opportunities for Zhang Jun to score? If it's not a deliberate team effort, it's really impossible. If the whole team gives up the championship fight for a top scorer's thirty goals, that's just a big joke!"

In the program *Champions and Dreams*, hosted by Ilaria, a guest talked about Zhang Jun's vow to score thirty goals. In his opinion, Zhang Jun had only said that to deal with the situation at the time, but when Zhang Jun looked like he was really going to achieve it, he panicked.

And recently, Zhang Jun was also troubled by this issue. In his opinion, he had already secured the league's top scorer award, but that vow to score thirty goals was really unnecessary.

He was afraid that the team would deliberately increase the assists to him for his boring vow, ignoring the team's primary goal. But he didn't know how to tell his teammates directly, so he finally decided to go to Sabato.

Sabato pulled a chair for Zhang Jun to sit down, but he himself sat unceremoniously on the wide desk, dangling one leg in front of Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun was used to Sabato's style and didn't find anything inappropriate.

"You're looking for me just to talk about this?"

Zhang Jun nodded.

Sabato grinned, "I thought it was something serious, look at how serious you look. So it's this!"

Zhang Jun was a little surprised. He didn't think this was a minor matter. If not handled well, it would definitely affect the team's performance.

"You don't think you can score five goals in three games?"

Zhang Jun nodded again, "It would be very difficult without the team's support."

Sabato counted on his fingers, "Five goals in three games, um, on average each game needs to score... Damn it!" He pulled a calculator directly from the desk, and tapped it, "1.66666666666666666666667 goals..." Sabato almost ran out of breath, and Zhang Jun almost fainted.

"Boss... don't calculate anything after the first decimal place..." Zhang Jun said weakly.

"Oh..." Sabato scratched his head, and then threw the calculator aside. "I don't think scoring an average of 1.6 goals per game is that difficult for you now. Since you made a vow on TV in front of so many people, you must keep it. That's what a man has to do. If you can't do it, then you're not a man."

Sabato's tone was a little heavy, which made Zhang Jun look up again.

"Of course, don't expect the team to fully support you, because that's just your own vow. Our team's vow is the championship, and we have our own things to do."

"Then..."

Sabato didn't give Zhang Jun a chance to speak, he continued, "Can't you even score five goals in three games? Zhang Jun, I know you've been holding your breath since the game against Bayern, so why not take this opportunity to vent, isn't that good?"

Zhang Jun was still hesitant, and Sabato added, "If you really can't do it, then consider it a lesson this time. Remember not to easily promise things you can't do in front of outsiders next time. Okay, I'm still busy, you can go out."

Returning to the locker room, Zhang Jun happened to see Xiang Tao coming out of the bathroom after a shower. He stopped Xiang Tao, "Hey, Xiang Tao. Let me ask you something, is it possible to score an average of 1.6 goals per game?"

"How is that possible?!" Xiang Tao shouted.

Sure enough... Zhang Jun muttered to himself.

"An average of 1.6 goals per game, do you know what that means? That means scoring sixty goals in a whole season! Heavens! In modern football, there's absolutely no striker who can do that!" Obviously, his arithmetic was better than Sabato's. "Who told you the whole season?" Zhang Jun rolled his eyes at Xiang Tao. He knew this kid was thinking crookedly. "I mean, is it possible to average 1.6 goals per game in three games, five goals in three games, can you do that?"

Zhang Jun pointed at Xiang Tao, and Xiang Tao smiled, "You're asking nonsense, I'm a defender, how can I do that? If I could, I wouldn't be here now. But you..." Xiang Tao pointed back, "You can definitely do it."

"Me?"

"Because you're a striker! For a striker, if you're in good form and have good luck, there's no problem scoring a hat-trick or a brace in three consecutive games, let alone five goals in three games? You're a striker, no matter what, as long as you score goals, it's fine. Sometimes, I really envy you."

"Then you go up and score goals too..."

Xiang Tao glared at Zhang Jun, "You idiot, who's going to defend if I rush up? I can only go up occasionally, and I can't stay in front all the time like you, not coming back. A defender's responsibility is very complicated, not only to defend, but also to participate in the team's attack. And the striker only needs to score goals, constantly scoring goals. Because scoring goals is a striker's duty!" Xiang Tao suddenly kicked out, and the slipper on his foot hit the cabinet in front of him with a bang. A small dent appeared on the thin sheet metal cabinet door.

Xiang Tao glanced at the name on the cabinet and was shocked. He rushed over and kept pressing it, hoping to flatten the cabinet surface. Because he had kicked Klose's cabinet.

"Damn! Zhang Jun, you have to testify for me, just say the cabinet dented itself, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything..." Hearing no sound behind him, he turned his head and saw that the locker room was empty, and the gently shaking door showed that Zhang Jun had just left. "Hey, Zhang Jun..."

※※※

Because scoring goals is a striker's duty!

Xiang Tao's words were deeply imprinted in Zhang Jun's mind. It was ridiculous that a striker like himself had to be told this by a defender. What else could he hesitate about? Whether it was five goals in three games or thirty goals in a single season, it was just what he, as a striker, should do. Not doing it would mean he wasn't a man, and not a qualified striker.

Zhang Jun strengthened this thought in his heart, but forgot Xiang Tao in the locker room.

※※※

The semi-finals of the European Champions League had ended on May 4th. As Zhang Jun expected, Bayern Munich, led by Anker, was unable to turn the tables in the away game. They were ultimately defeated 0:1 by Barcelona. Therefore, they were eliminated by the high-flying Barcelona with a total score of 1:2.

On the other side, although AC Milan lost 1:2 to Liverpool at Anfield, it didn't hinder their progress to the final. With a total score of 3:2, AC Milan, representing Italy, would face Spain's Barcelona at the Bernabéu Stadium on May 27th.

For people who loved Real Madrid, it was a truly embarrassing result. Originally, they thought that Real Madrid should be the ones to enter the final on this field, but they were eliminated by Fiorentina. If the Catalans ultimately lifted the trophy, it would be an even more devastating blow to Real Madrid.

After the game, Zhang Jun called Yang Pan and Kaka to congratulate them, and then told them that they must defeat Barcelona, saying that it was a request from a Real Madrid fan, which made Yang Pan and Kaka laugh non-stop. Although Barcelona was the strongest team in Europe, they still had the confidence to defeat their opponents. Because in their minds, only AC Milan was the strongest team.

Perhaps they were in a good mood, Yang Pan and Kaka also congratulated Zhang Jun in advance for winning the Serie A league title and the top scorer award this season.

This congratulation puzzled Zhang Jun a bit.

"You must find it strange, right? The league hasn't ended yet, so how can we say such things? But even if we don't admit it, this is about to become a reality. Fiorentina's performance in the final sprint is impeccable. If you can ultimately win the league title, I wouldn't be surprised at all, and neither would Kaka. That's why we say this. This season, Milan's goal is the European championship, and your goal is the league title. It's not a bad result to have this."

"Also... thirty goals, we all remember the promise you made at the Oscars. Don't try to deny it, haha!"

Zhang Jun's face turned red. Could it be that Yang Pan also knew about his hesitation some time ago?

"No, I definitely won't deny it..." he quickly explained.

"That's good." Yang Pan suddenly stopped using that joking tone to talk to Zhang Jun, and said earnestly, "For the championship, for your dream, Zhang Jun, keep it up!"

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment. How long had it been since he heard Yang Pan talking to him with the tone of an older brother? Since he left Milan...

"What is your dream, Zhang Jun?" Yang Pan asked this little boy who was younger than him the first time they met.

"To play football happily with my friends." The smile on the boy's face made people feel that his answer was very sincere.

"Play football together happily? That's a good dream... but if you want to play together happily, you must keep winning, because if you lose, you won't be happy."

"Keep winning!" Zhang Jun clenched his fist.

※※※

"Ah!! It's incredible!! A brace! A brace!! Zhang Jun has scored two goals in this game! He has already scored two goals!" The Sky TV commentator roared excitedly, "Now the goal count is twenty-seven! Twenty-seven! He is only three goals away from thirty goals!"

Now all of Italy was paying attention to AC Milan's Champions League final, the ownership of the league title, the relegation of the teams, and this promise of thirty goals. When Zhang Jun broke a record that had been sealed in Serie A for almost half a century last season, many people thought that the Chinese striker had been lucky, but if he continued to score thirty goals this time, then no one could doubt anything anymore.

Sabato was waving his arms on the sidelines. He wasn't worried about the team. On the contrary, he was cheering for Zhang Jun, cheering for the team's performance. This was their away game, but their opponents were not strong. They were now leading Brescia 3:1 in the away game, and there was little time left in the game. Brescia had no worries about relegation, but also had no way to enter next season's European competitions, so they had lost their fighting spirit.

After scoring, Zhang Jun changed his celebration pose. From the moment he scored the first goal of this game, he had been celebrating with one gesture, raising his right hand high, extending three fingers, and then hammering his chest with his left hand, signaling to the audience, "Thirty goals, I'll keep my word!"

Fiorentina ultimately defeated Brescia 3:1 in their home game, continuing to maintain a three-point lead over Juventus.

※※※

After this game, in the new episode of *Champions and Dreams*, Ilaria talked about this issue again. It was still the same guest, but his tone was already a little weak, "Uh... three goals in two games... not bad, not bad... if he can't score in the next game, I think the difficulty will be very high. It's much more difficult to score a hat-trick in the most critical game, help the team win the championship, and complete the promise of thirty goals at the same time... it's even more difficult than scoring five goals in three games!"

And as if to go against this guest, in the next round of the league, Fiorentina hosted Vicenza, who was fighting for relegation. Originally, commentators thought that this game would be a tough battle for Fiorentina, but no one expected that Zhang Jun would use a long shot to open the scoring in just one minute and twenty seconds after the opening. Vicenza initially thought that the away game would be difficult, so they formulated a very strict defensive counterattack tactic, but they didn't expect to be ruined by Zhang Jun in just one minute and twenty seconds after the opening.

At that time, many fans who entered the stadium late were still busy looking for seats, and then they heard the thunderous cheers erupting from the Stadio Artemio Franchi – Fiorentina was leading.

"Too... too fast! Zhang Jun is very motivated today! He has no mercy for his opponents, scoring a goal as soon as he comes up, Fiorentina is now leading Vicenza 1:0!"

After scoring, Zhang Jun once again raised three fingers, and then hammered his chest with his left hand. He didn't say a word, but he was able to make the entire Stadio Artemio Franchi roar together with his chest-pounding action.

This was the temperament of a leader.

The Vicenza players felt their feet trembling in this roar, let alone playing a good game. Fiorentina's "devil's home" was not a false name that was bragging.

Although Vicenza really wanted to win this game to avoid relegation, Zhang Jun would not agree to them. The kid scored another goal when the first half was about to end, making all the Vicenza people want to cry – losing this game was equivalent to losing this season.

In the end, Fiorentina swept Vicenza 4:0 at home, pushing this team that had just been promoted from Serie B last year back to Serie B.

This time, the guest was no longer seen in *Champions and Dreams*.

When Zhang Jun stood in front of that white paper again, looking at the two numbers on it, he seemed to understand. He looked left and right, the locker room was empty, everyone was gone. He picked up the marker that Sabato had thrown on the ground, and then drew a big "30" in front of the "8."

Then he threw the pen back on the ground, patted his hands, stepped back, and looked at the paper with satisfaction.

30, the promise of thirty league goals.

8, the eight league rounds since losing the Champions League, can also be seen as the upcoming eight-game winning streak.

1, this is the most important... for Fiorentina, who had experienced these years of ups and downs, after fifty years, they regained a league title – the last league title could be traced back to the 68-69 season of the last century.

※※※

Before the final round of the domestic league, there was still a highlight, a game that Zhang Jun had to pay attention to. That was the European Champions League final held at the Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain. Although Yang Pan and Kaka had a certain number of tickets on hand, Zhang Jun didn't go to the stadium to watch the game. Perhaps deep down in his heart, he was still a little unwilling about losing to Bayern and being eliminated. Originally, this Bernabéu should have been the venue for their game, but now it had become a box in the stands, and he was unwilling to go.

So he stayed at home and had Sophie accompany him to watch the TV broadcast.

It could be seen that Real Madrid's home stadium, the Bernabéu, was a stage that Barcelona desperately wanted, and they were confident that they would defeat AC Milan here. Although the local fans in Madrid were not friendly to them, the majority of the audience in the stands were still Barcelona supporters from Catalonia.

Although it looked like a neutral venue, it was more like Barcelona's home, which was quite unfavorable to AC Milan.

The game was very beautiful, because Barcelona's coach was Rijkaard, and AC Milan's coach was Van Basten. Therefore, this game was also called the contest of the Dutch Three Musketeers. Both were coaches who advocated offense, and both teams were deeply imprinted with the personal marks of their coaches, so both teams were passionate offensive teams.

In such an important final, the coaches of both sides still insisted on attacking. In addition to the strength of the team, how much courage did this require!

The excited commentator's mouth almost never stopped, constantly praising this and praising that. Yes, it was rare for such a smooth and hearty attacking battle to appear in the history of the European Champions League final.

Zhang Jun watched the game quietly, he was neither worried nor nervous. But the light from the TV screen reflected in his eyes, flickering. That was the ambition deep in his heart – Next year... next year, we will also stand on such a field!

This attacking battle ultimately saw Barcelona have the last laugh. They defeated AC Milan 4:2, and the midfield duel between Kaka and Ronaldinho also ended with Ronaldinho's victory. Eto'o and Messi each scored a goal, and Ronaldinho was the biggest winner. He not only won the Champions League title, but also became the best player with two brilliant goals in the final. On the Milan side, Shevchenko and Gilardino scored two goals. Kaka, as the main player, performed well, but had no assists. Yang Pan had one assist for Gilardino to score.

The joy of the winners and the bitterness of the losers were perfectly presented on the screen by advanced TV technology, but Zhang Jun turned off the TV directly.

Sophie was a little strange, how could Zhang Jun be so indifferent today, so calm... so unconcerned about his friend's game?

"Zhang Jun?" she asked strangely.

Zhang Jun naturally knew what Sophie was asking him, he smiled, "Don't worry, I'm fine. The game is over anyway, and I don't want to see Yang Pan and the others sad. Also... I don't want to see Barcelona so smug. This is after all someone else's game, the final round of the league the day after tomorrow is our big battle!"

Sophie nodded, "I know, if we win, we are the champions, if we lose, we may have to play an extra game with Juventus."

Zhang Jun nodded with a smile, "That's right."

※※※

At first, the team members found it strange to suddenly have a set of numbers on the white paper, because the handwriting was obviously not written by one person. But they couldn't see what it meant. But Sabato and Di Livio laughed at this piece of paper for a long time - of course, they didn't let other team members see it.

Since they couldn't figure it out, then they wouldn't think about it now. The most important thing was the game. The team members seemed calm, preparing for the final battle on Sunday under the gaze of this white paper.

Seemingly calm...

The training in the past week was often interrupted by Sabato's whistle and scolding, because the players had made too many mistakes and errors in this week's training. In Sabato's words, "You bunch of bastards! The number of mistakes you've made in a week is more than the number of mistakes you've made in a season!! What are you thinking about in your heads?"

Only two people were performing normally: one was Klose, who didn't care about anything, and the other was their captain Zhang Jun.

The hot weather seemed to make Sabato impatient.

This was not a good sign.

After the last day of training, Sabato didn't keep everyone down to talk about the things that should be paid attention to in tomorrow's game. He waved his hand and dismissed the team.

Just as he was packing things in his office and planning to go home, someone knocked on his door.

Sabato wondered who would be looking for him at this time, "Come in."

The person who pushed the door in was Di Livio. As soon as he saw his assistant's face, Sabato understood what Di Livio was looking for him for.

"Antonio, I want to talk to you." Without exchanging greetings, Di Livio went straight to the point. Sabato liked his straightforward personality. If he didn't go around in circles, everyone would be less worried.

"Is it about tomorrow's game?" Sabato motioned him to sit, but he was still standing in front of the table, packing things non-stop.

Di Livio nodded, "I found that you have also become a little strange recently, you are getting angry more and more often. Does this game make you feel stressed too?"

Sabato then raised his head, grinned at his assistant, "Angelo, you have been with me for two years, when have you ever seen me reveal all my cards? If you think that I am really impatient when I show impatience in front of outsiders... you are too blind, right?"

"Are you pretending all the time?"

"Well, I am a little nervous. It is also the first time that I am facing the league championship just half a step away from myself, so my mood is definitely different from usual. But!" Sabato suddenly raised his voice, "But! But... this level of tension can't possibly make me perform abnormally, so there is only one explanation... that is, I used the emotion in my heart to make my performance more realistic! Even you have been deceived, doesn't this show that I am successful? Ahahaha!" Sabato laughed loudly to himself.

The expression on Di Livio's face was not very natural. Although he had been working with Sabato for two years, it didn't mean that he could calmly accept Sabato's performance at any time.

"I want to make that old bastard Capello think that we, Fiorentina, are in chaos, so that he can take advantage of the situation. He must be calculating in his heart that they will win tomorrow, and we will lose, so that the two sides will have the same points, and he will be able to play an extra game. But he is thinking too beautifully. Tomorrow, we will give them a big 'surprise'! Ahahaha!!"

"Antonio... are you really sure you're okay?"

※※※

After dinner, Zhang Jun suddenly decided to take Sophie out to enjoy the cool air.

Walking out of the air-conditioned room, into the yard. The weather at the end of May could already be considered summer, and the temperature was still not low. Although the daytime heat was gradually fading, the residual heat that hit them still made them gasp.

"It's so hot!" Sophie couldn't help but cry out.

Even Zhang Jun fanned his collar, hoping to create a little wind. Sophie didn't understand why Zhang Jun wanted to enjoy the cool air outside at this time, but it should be enjoying the heat.

The two sat on two lounge chairs in the yard. Zhang Jun put down the back of the lounge chair, and lay down on it like lying on a bed. And Sophie sat upright next to Zhang Jun.

"Why did you suddenly think about coming out to enjoy the cool air?" Sophie asked the confusion in her heart.

"Hehe, it's nothing. I just think that staying in an air-conditioned room with poor ventilation all day is not good for the body. It's hotter outside, but the air is still good." Zhang Jun replied casually. He couldn't say that his reason was wrong, but for Sophie, she didn't think it was that simple.

"Because the game tomorrow makes you feel depressed? So you want to come out to breathe?"

Zhang Jun groaned, "You're too smart, Sophie... I'm not worried about myself, I'm just worried about the team. Everyone's performance is weird, even the boss is like this, getting angry for no reason recently. Although even if we lose the game, we can still play an extra game with Juventus, but I don't think it will be good for us to be dragged into an extra game with a shrewd opponent like Juventus?"

"Oh? So you already have a solution?" Sophie asked.

"Solution? What solution can I have? I'm not the coach... Besides, those are their own affairs, and I can't help."

Sophie smiled, "Isn't that right? Since you can't solve it and can't help, then why are you worrying here?"

"Ah?" Zhang Jun looked at Sophie's smiling face.

"I know how important tomorrow's game is to you, and there will definitely be people who will perform abnormally because of this kind of pressure, but now you are sitting in the yard at home and can't help them at all. If you really want to help them, then wait until tomorrow's game to help them, use your goals to help them."

Sophie's words suddenly awakened Zhang Jun. He was just a player, not the coach, nor the club president. The greatest help he could give to his teammates and his team was to score goals, right?

Zhang Jun sighed in relief, "I don't know if they can sleep well tonight..."

At some point, the daytime heat had completely