It wasn't long before the game started. Neil was a little surprised when he looked at the opponent's players, because this time, the players Portugal fielded were almost all Portugal's regular players, almost the Portuguese national youth team.
Neil took a closer look and saw that the man wearing the No. 8 jersey was none other than Ruben Neves, the powerful midfielder who would join the Premier League Wolverhampton Wolves in the future.
Not only that, Neil also saw Gonzalo Guedes, the same Gonzalo Guedes who once transferred to Paris Saint-Germain for 30 million euros, then was loaned to Valencia, and was bought out by Valencia for 40 million euros.
Seeing the lineup of the Portuguese national youth team, Neil broke out in a cold sweat. Neil did not expect that Portugal would attach so much importance to this warm-up match.
Because this game was a warm-up match for the youth team, there were not many spectators, and there were even fewer Indian fans, many of whom were relatives of the players.
In this game, Neil used a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Goalkeeper: (15) Rohit Ramesh;
Guards: (5) Takhellambam Bungson Singh, (3) Sumit Adhikari, (4) Subhashish Bose, (2) Mohammed Kaif;
Midfield: (7) Danny Meitei, (11) MD Arbash, (20) Yohaan Benjamin , (6) Rohan Singh, (13) Mahmad Sami;
Forward: (9) Omang Dadum
The game started unknowingly. After just over 15 minutes, Neil's face felt like the bottom of a pot. In the 6th, 10th and 15th minutes, Portugal scored three goals in a row.
The game had only been going on for 15 minutes and the Portugal National Youth Team was already leading the India National Youth Team 3-0.
Although Neil was well prepared, he was still surprised by the gap in strength between the two sides. Of course, the bad weather with heavy rain greatly affected the Indian players.
But the biggest problem is the lack of coordination among India's defense and the players have not yet got into the game.
Although this was just a warm-up match, Neil was filled with anger and kept accusing the players on the field. Neil was very dissatisfied with the team's defense, which was too easily penetrated by the opponent.
The players slowly regained their form and the defense gradually stabilized.
Although the defense was better, the situation was still controlled by Portugal. The defense could only barely stop the opponent, and the midfield could not hold the ball at all, and the ball was always in the feet of the Portuguese players.
Finally, there is Omang Dadum on the striker. Omang has been hyped up a lot recently. After he joined Punjab FC, some media began to praise Omang.
But Neil knew that Omang Dadum was just like that. In Neil's previous life, Omang Dadum stayed in Punjab FC for a year. Omang Dadum did not have any chance to play and immediately went to the I League. Omang Dadum career could be said to be on the decline in the future.
In this game, Omang Dadum was completely invisible and was completely behind in physical confrontation with the opponent. As long as the Portuguese team pressed Omang, Omang could only pass the ball back.
Several physical confrontations ended with Omang falling to the ground, which put the Indian National Youth Team's offense into a stalemate.
Fortunately, the defense improved, and Sumit Adhikari had several outstanding performances. In terms of physical confrontation, Adhikari was only average, but Adhikari used his fighting spirit to complete several beautiful defenses.
The other teammates gradually began to look upon this newcomer with new eyes and began to recognize Adhikari.
In the end, the first half of the game ended with a score of 0 to 3, and the Indian National Youth Team was completely behind the Portuguese National Youth Team.
Compared to the relaxed Portuguese players, the Indian players were already panting, and all of them lowered their heads in the locker room.
Neil looked at the players who lowered their heads with a very serious expression.
"I am very dissatisfied with your performance in the first half!" Neil said seriously.
After hearing what Neil said, the players lowered their heads even more.
"First of all, we have to acknowledge the gap between the two sides, but this is not an excuse for you to give up the game."
"The only thing you did well was the defense." Neil then recognized the performance on the defensive end after conceding three goals in a row. If it weren't for their efforts, the score would definitely not be 0-3.
Next, Neil began to talk about the next tactical changes, but Neil could see that the player's morale was still low. Neil knew that changes had to be made in the second half of the game.
"We need to strengthen our offense in the second half. Kevin Gomez, you play in the second half!"
When Kevin Gomez heard Neil's words, his eyes lit up. Gomez had not expected that his national team debut would come so soon. Gomez was already prepared to sit on the bench for 90 minutes.
After all, Omang is still famous among them. Although Omang did perform poorly in this game, no one expected that Neil would actually replace him.
Neil not only replaced Omang, he also replaced Subhashish Bose. Among the central defenders, Bose is undoubtedly the best, with strong speed and ability to chase back.
However, in this game, the Indian team was originally in a backward position, so India had no way to attack from behind. In addition, Bose's physical confrontation ability was insufficient, so Neil replaced Bose.
Neil let Sumit Sharma come on as a substitute. In terms of strength and potential, Sumit Sharma is certainly not good enough, but Sumit Sharma is tall and is relatively better in physical confrontation.
The second half of the game had just begun and India even replaced two players. In the first half, Omang Dadum was like a pushover and was easily ravaged by the Portuguese defenders.
So when Kevin Gomez came on as a substitute, the Portuguese players thought that since Gomez was a substitute player, he must be inferior to Omang, so they concluded that Gomez was also a pushover.
But they soon discovered the difference. Compared to Omang who would fall down with a single collision, Gomez was not inferior to them in physical confrontation. They even found that they could not knock Gomez at all.
This surprised them very much. In their minds, Asian players generally lack physical confrontation ability.
Not long after the game started, in the 51st minute, the India team got a corner kick opportunity, and Danny Meitei was responsible for taking the corner kick.
Meitei took a corner kick and the ball fell to the center point. Although Gomez was at a high point, because he was underestimated, there was only one central defender in front of Gomez.
Gomez's judgment on where the football would land was very accurate. He moved forward in time and trapped the opponent's central defender behind him.
Gomez's sudden appearance startled the opponent's central defender. Then Gomez jumped high, and the opponent's central defender had no time to react because of Gomez's sudden jump.
So he didn't jump at all. In desperation, he could only use his hands to pull Gomez's jersey. However, this had no effect on the strong Gomez. Gomez jumped very high like a rocket.
Gomez's head hit the football firmly. The ball was moving very fast and the Portuguese goalkeeper had no chance to react. The football flew into the goal at high speed.
The Indian National Youth Team pulled one goal back to 1-3!
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