From the man behind the football king to the football king

On May 21, Bruno rushed to Toulon, France, and joined the Portugal U20 National Youth Team as scheduled.

Immediately, the team began a week of closed training.

Portugal's first match of the Toulon Cup will be on May 31, against Belgium U20.

A total of ten teams, including the host France, are participating in this Toulon Cup. The ten teams are divided into two groups. Portugal is in Group B, along with Brazil U20, Belgium U20, Mexico U20 and Nigeria U20.

According to the schedule, each team will play a group match with the other four teams in the same group, and then be ranked according to points. The top two teams will compete in a final to compete for the key points; The third and fourth place finals will be held.

The Portuguese Football Association rented a training base for the U20 National Youth Team in Toulon, which serves as the base camp for the Portuguese National Youth Team during their stay in Toulon. Coupled with the early week of training and the Toulon Cup later, Portugal U20 will stay here for a full three weeks.

After Bruno joined the team, he found that there were many people he was familiar with, because most of these players later played in the five major leagues, including several in the Premier League. For example, goalkeeper José Sa plays for Wolves in the Premier League, Cancelo plays for Manchester City, Ricardo Pereira plays for the Blue Foxes, Joao Mario played for the Hammers, and Andre Go Maes plays for Everton and Thiago Ilori is a former Liverpool player.

These people were relatively indifferent to Bruno's arrival. They did not think that Bruno was very strong because of his excellent performance in Novara. They are all regarded as the proud ones among their peers, and many of them have even played for the top three teams in the Portuguese Super League.

In their view, Bruno is just a player from the Serie B team. Although he has produced good data, the premise of Serie B makes these data unconvincing.

Bruno didn't pay attention to this either. Whether it's a mule or a horse, you'll know if you pull it out and run around.

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Sure enough, when the training camp began, these young people who originally looked down upon Bruno were quickly impressed by Bruno.

Bruno, who was born in September 1994, is the youngest in the team. Only forward Bruma and goalkeeper Bruno Varela are slightly younger than him. One was born in October and the other was born at 11. moon.

However, Bruno's basic skills displayed in training simply amazed these self-proclaimed geniuses; and in training games, Bruno used his superb skills to let them understand what it means to be a top player.

They are all young people in their twenties, and everyone is relatively simple. After Bruno showed his strength, everyone quickly accepted him.

Bruno also showed his strong integration ability. A week later, he has already cooperated well with these new teammates.

On the afternoon of May 28, the opening match of the 2013 Toulon Cup took place between the South American powerhouse Colombia U20 and South Korea U20.

Portugal U20 also ended a week of closed training on this day.

One day later, the first game of Group B also started with Mexico beating Nigeria 2-0.

Portugal's first game was on the afternoon of May 31st. It was the second round of the Toulon Cup. They had a bye in the first round.

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The Toulon Cup is a youth football tournament with a long history. The first Toulon Cup was held in 1967, and the second one was held in 1974. It has been held every year in June since then.

The Toulon Cup has always attracted much attention from FIFA and UEFA. History has proven that the players participating in the "Toulon Cup" are all candidates for the future national teams of each participating country. The "Toulon Cup" has become the cradle of cultivating international stars. During the competition, a large number of well-known scouts go to the venue to select potential new stars and recommend them to play for European clubs.

During the national anthem before the game, Bruno always had a strange feeling of discomfort when listening to the Portuguese national anthem.

Ramos did not schedule Bruno to start, which means that he will watch the game from the bench until at least half-time.

Ramos' Portugal U20 plays a 532 formation, which is slightly different from the 442 or 433 formations Bruno often played in Novara.

It is said that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Bruno found that after the game started, his new teammates dared to play hard on the court and actively used speed to open up the situation.

Belgium was also not to be outdone. Both teams played very actively and the offense and defense transitioned quickly. After all, it is a youth team, and the overall technical and tactical content is still much weaker than that of the adult team.

Belgium played more holistically and defended better, while Portugal actively attacked, but mainly concentrated in the center, lacking effective wing attacks, and their playing style was relatively simple.

After overcoming Portugal's opening attack, Belgium quickly stabilized its position, allowing Portugal to try several times but failed.

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After all, the overall strength of Portugal U20 is stronger than Belgium. As the game progresses, Portugal U20 gradually takes control of the situation on the field.

Portuguese players had a lot of running and pressing in the midfield, which made Belgium very uncomfortable and made frequent mistakes. The most fatal one occurred in the 29th minute, when Portugal's No. 11 forward Bruma intercepted the ball. After that, he passed three defensive players in succession and volleyed from the front of the penalty area, but was bravely saved by the opponent's goalkeeper.

However, five minutes later, Portugal's defense made a mistake of its own and failed to clear the opponent's long pass. The opponent's No. 10 player seized the opportunity. Unfortunately, he failed to stop the ball and wasted an empty-net opportunity.

The first half ended with 0:0.

In this half of the game, Bruno felt like a group of children fighting. It looked lively, but it lacked structure.

However, during the halftime break, head coach Ramos affirmed the team's performance in the first half and encouraged the team to keep up their efforts, open up the situation as soon as possible in the second half, and win the game.

However, after the start of the second half, Belgium also adjusted its tactics and began to actively engage in pressing in the midfield, catching Portugal's passing and receiving errors. For a while, Portugal U20 made many passing and receiving errors, and Belgium frequently launched counterattacks.

Especially in the 53rd minute, Belgium intercepted the ball and passed it long to the frontcourt. Three offensive players continuously cooperated to attack the penalty area. There was a leak in the Portuguese defense, and Belgium's No. 8 player started to play without being marked. Fortunately, Portugal U20's starting goalkeeper José Sa played well today and blocked the ball with a single punch, resolving a crisis.

Now Ramos finally couldn't sit still and signaled Bruno and striker Caballero to warm up.

In the 60th minute of the game, Portugal made two substitutions. Bruno replaced defender Ricardo Pereira, while Caballero replaced forward Aladegui.

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After Bruno came on the scene, he began to control Portugal's organization and offense as an attacking midfielder. The quality of Portugal U20's passing suddenly became higher, which also revitalized Portugal's midfield offense.

When the game reached the 63rd minute, Bruno suddenly ran into the space on the right to catch the ball.

Joao Mario immediately passed the ball over, and Bruno stopped the ball behind him, turned around and chased the ball.

This sudden move immediately surprised the Belgian defensive players. Three defensive players around him rushed towards him at the same time, naturally missing Joao Mario on the right.

At this moment, Bruno made a direct pass and accurately sent the ball diagonally in front of Joao Mario.

Joao Mario was originally hesitant to run over to meet Bruno, but unexpectedly he saw the ball coming out. He was so surprised that he didn't have time to think, and directly chased the ball as fast as possible.

As Joao Mario chased the ball, he gradually felt a sense of enlightenment. When he caught up with the ball, he clearly saw that there were no defensive players around him, and there were already teammates ambushing him in the penalty area.

Joao Mario crossed the penalty area on the right side of the penalty area. Forward Esgao near the penalty spot quickly followed up and pushed the ball into the Belgian goal.

1:0!

Esgao, the hero of the goal, quickly rushed to Joao Mario and hugged his teammate hard, while other Portugal U20 players also rushed forward.

This goal is really important for Portugal U20.

Generally speaking, if the score on the field has not been changed by the 70th minute of the game, the team leading the offense may encounter a crisis next. On the one hand, continuous attacks without results will cause emotional anxiety among the players. On the other hand, the players' physical fitness will also have problems. In this case, a crisis may break out.

For the defensive side, continuous successful defense will gradually increase their confidence. At this time, if they play one or two high-quality counterattacks, they are very likely to take the lead.