Chapter 55: St. Petersburg in the Rain

St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city with a population of one million, is also known as the 'Capital of the North'.

This is a city close to the Gulf of Finland and connected to the Baltic Sea. Water and land transportation is extremely convenient, which has also brought vitality to the city.

But I don’t know if it’s because it’s close to the sea, and there is enough water vapor. It has been rainy and rainy since the Chinese team arrived.

Forget it if it rains heavily.

But it's drizzle and the sky is gloomy, which always gives people an extremely depressing feeling.

For this reason, the Chinese team also gave up outdoor training and moved indoors.

After all, during this period, any injured person outside of competition is a huge loss.

In the early morning, light rain fell sparsely, falling along the roof and eaves to the ground.

From time to time, there will be some small potholes on the ground, and with the falling rain, there will be a trace of ripples.

Since it was early in the morning, there were very few people on the street.

Occasionally, you can see some fans wearing jerseys walking drunkenly to their hotels.

Apparently it was a night of high fun.

Snap!

There were footsteps in the distance.

Soon, it became extremely dense and rapid.

Not long after, a hooded figure wearing a black sweatshirt passed by quickly.

Sneakers stepped on puddles, splashing rainwater.

Even though he is wearing loose clothes, his strong figure can still be seen.

Along with the sound of footsteps, the figure ran farther and farther until it was out of sight.

Under a bus stop, a figure wearing a black sweatshirt stopped. His breathing was not rapid, but felt even and long.

Take a few deep breaths until your breathing rhythm becomes stable.

The man took off his hood.

He has a head of black hair and a pair of sharp eyes under his angular face.

His eyes are like those of a hawk, making people afraid to look directly at him.

However, his overall appearance gives people a gentle feeling.

If there are fans here, they will immediately recognize that this is Lucky, who has been recently touted as the world's best midfielder.

Lucky took shelter from the rain under the bus shelter and rested for a while.

They arrived in St. Petersburg yesterday.

And this is also the stage where they will compete in the quarter-finals.

The Chinese team's opponent in the quarter-finals is Switzerland.

This is a very good lottery.

After all, Switzerland is ranked second in the entire group.

The most troublesome ones are Spain and Argentina.

However, Argentina was assigned to compete with France, while Spain encountered Uruguay.

After entering the quarter-finals, there have been more and more strong dialogues and highlights.

The popularity of the Chinese team, which caused a stir in the group stage and shocked the world, is also rapidly waning.

After only two days, it was overshadowed by other new topics.

But the Chinese team doesn't need the heat. Rather than being judged, they still prefer to play quietly.

The current status is in line with their expectations.

Of course, the Chinese team has not been talked about, but the popularity of Lucky remains high.

In the three group stage games, Lucai was elected the best player three times.

It can be said that among the players with thighs in the World Cup teams, Lucai also has the thickest and hardest thighs.

For this reason, Lucky's name also began to appear among non-fans for the first time.

Lucky has also become one of the most representative players in the midfield.

Compared with the league and Champions League period, the popularity has increased several times.

Of course, this will lead to more unnecessary harassment.

For example, reporters’ follow-up photos and some criticisms on the Internet.

There are many people who are famous for their faults. Even if you are a perfect person, there will be people on the Internet with a magnifying glass looking for shortcomings.

However, Lucky doesn't care about these, nor does he care about the so-called fame. He only cares about the progress of the game. For this reason, as long as it does not affect his training, he will not take care of it.

Lucky stretched out his hand to feel it. Cold raindrops fell on his palm, and the rain became lighter.

Lucky put on his hood and immediately ran back again.

About 10 minutes later, Lucky finally arrived at the hotel.

"Ha~~~~~~~"

As soon as Lucai walked into the room, he saw a sleepy Chen Man walking out of the room.

He looked at Lucky's wet look, then turned to look at the rain outside the window, and said angrily, "How addicted are you to running today?"

"Just to relieve stress!"

Lucky wiped his hair with a dry towel and immediately asked, "You wash it first, or should I wash it first?"

There is only one bathroom in the room, which needs to be shared by two people.

Chen Man waved his hand: "Wash first to avoid catching a cold."

Chen Man didn't really care about Lucky's health, but the Chinese team couldn't do without this guy.

Lucky nodded, returned to the room, took out clean clothes and walked into the bathroom.

Half an hour later, both of them finished washing.

"Let's go! Go have breakfast!"

Lucky said.

Chen Man yawned.

"I don't have much appetite."

Lucky: "You have to eat, too. Without enough energy intake, your feet will be weak during the competition."

Chen Man thought for a moment and nodded: "Let's go! Let's go eat."

When the two arrived at the hotel cafeteria, they found that many Chinese players were already queuing up to get their meals.

The Chinese team has a dedicated chef, which is to avoid the mixing of food during the game and avoid some unexpected events.

After all, food poisoning and food allergies have happened many times before.

There have also been some cases where food of unknown origin was mixed in and caused harm to the players' bodies.

For this reason, almost all World Cup teams now have their own chefs and make special food.

The breakfast is very rich and there are many kinds.

Two eggs, vegetable salad, porridge, steamed corn bread, two meat buns, fruit and a piece of beef.

In the past, meals were simpler and mainly based on nutritional matching.

But during the game period, more attention will be paid to energy intake.

Eating meat early in the morning is very common.

After all, protein is needed to restore physical strength and restore status.

Lekai and Chen Man received their food and sat down at the dining table.

Lekai picked up two eggs, stuffed them one by one and ate them, and then started to drink porridge.

Vegetables and meat were also eaten in big mouthfuls.

Chen Man looked at Lekai eating so deliciously and couldn't help grinning; "You are not an 18-year-old kid, how come you have such a good appetite?"

Lekai stuffed food in his mouth and puffed his cheeks and said: "Good absorption."

Chen Man rolled his eyes unhappily and ate the eggs in small bites.

At this time, there was a bang beside him.

Chen Man turned his head and found that Liu Kairui was holding a larger plate than Lekai.

"Are you a pig?"

Chen Man looked at Liu Kairui's full plate and exclaimed.

Liu Kairui: "Normal breakfast, when you were in the club, didn't you have any dietary regulations? How much you must eat in the morning?"

Hearing this, Chen Man suddenly fell silent, his throat rolling up and down.

This sentence reminded him of bad memories.

How could there be no dietary regulations.

When he first joined Liverpool, Chen Man's body was so weak that it seemed that a gust of wind could blow him down, so the nutritionist specially made training tasks for him.

The most important part of it is eating.

The daily food intake doubled, the training volume tripled, and the stomach expanded during digestion, allowing the body to accommodate more food.

The most important thing is that this barbaric way of muscle growth was called scientific weight gain.

It can be said that Chen Man was simply born like this at that time.

"I'm full!"

Lekai burped. He ate very quickly. He had finished eating when Chen Man just started eating porridge.

Liu Kairui on the other side also lowered his head and sneered.

Chen Man was anxious to see the speed of eating, as if someone was chasing him to eat.

"Can you go slower? Is someone chasing you to eat?" Chen Man said unhappily.

Liu Kairui looked up at Chen Man, then looked at the other party's plate, and suddenly smiled contemptuously.

"Thin dog!"

"Who are you talking about?" Chen Man was furious.

"I'm talking about you!"

"Damn it! Let's compete?"

"Not with the thin dog!"

"You! x-on:#￥ # ￥%￥%"

Chen Man screamed in anger.

Lekai looked at him with a smile. For any man, the thin dog was simply an insult.

"Okay, stop making trouble. It's time to train after dinner."

Lekai interrupted the two people's fight.

The two of them were still relentless in their quarrels, but after quickly finishing the food on their plates, they were ready to start training.