After concluding the conversation with Mendes, both parties agreed to sign the contract after the Europa League match, in the presence of the lawyer invited by Snuffy's father.
At that time, Snuffy would also become one of the players under Mendes, the football magnate.
At 5 PM on February 20th, although the attention was not as high as the Champions League, the Europa League match still attracted a large number of fans.
"Welcome everyone to the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 match between Wolfsburg and Sporting CP."
"In this match, Wolfsburg still fielded their full main squad, deploying their familiar 4-2-3-1 system, which is also their highest-scoring system."
"Sporting CP, playing away, set up in a 4-3-3 formation."
"Goalkeeper: Patrício."
"Defenders: Cédric Suarez, Tobias Figueiredo, Paulo Oliveira, Jefferson."
"Midfielders: João Mário, Carrillo, Andre Silva."
"Forwards: Nani, Fredy Montero, Rosell."
"From the formations of both sides, it can be seen that both teams have a strong desire to attack."
"Now both sets of players are ready, let's enjoy this exciting contest together!"
Dost's classic weak-foot kickoff marked the start of the match.
The two opposing teams were not familiar with each other; Wolfsburg felt that their opponents were a Portuguese giant, so they started cautiously, prioritizing stability to gauge their opponent's quality.
Sporting CP, seeing Wolfsburg's recent nine-game winning streak in the Bundesliga, felt a bit uneasy. This opponent had just crushed Bayern less than a month ago.
Then they went on to win by large margins in every Bundesliga game, so they didn't seem like an easy opponent to deal with. Thus, they set up in a 4-3-3 formation, but it turned into a 4-5-1 once the game started.
The opening phase of the match slowly passed amid mutual probing from both sides.
After a period of probing, Wolfsburg's players felt that their opponents were not as formidable as they seemed.
The Portuguese Primeira Liga giant's reputation was indeed loud, but the intensity of their play was not even as good as Leverkusen's!
After a brief exchange among a few of their attacking midfielders, Wolfsburg's players began to pick up the pace.
They completely suppressed Portugal's attack through a faster tempo of offense-defense transitions and stronger midfield control.
Sporting CP's attacking formation was completely torn apart by Wolfsburg's defense, which started from the midfield and attacking third.
As Nani stopped the ball on the wing, Snuffy immediately came to his side, not rushing to tackle, but simply blocking Nani's path.
When Nani tried to force his way past Snuffy with the ball, Vieirinha, who had already arrived behind Nani, successfully stole the ball and then passed it to Snuffy.
Nani tried to win the ball back, but Snuffy played a quick one-touch pass, performing a wall pass with Vieirinha to complete a one-two.
Seeing Snuffy with the ball and appearing to continue forward, Sporting CP's retreating midfielder, João Mário, quickly moved to cover Nani's position.
After receiving the ball, Snuffy faked a pass, causing João Mário, who was eager to press, to lose his balance.
Seizing this opportunity, Snuffy quickly dribbled forward, feigning a direct run to the byline. Sporting CP's full-back, Jefferson, had no choice but to shift wide to block him.
Snuffy saw his opponent coming to block, and before Jefferson closed in, he passed the ball horizontally to De Bruyne, who was making an overlapping run.
De Bruyne, receiving the ball on the edge of the penalty area, drew the attention of Sporting CP's center-back Figueiredo and the Sporting CP midfielder behind him, who were trying to double-team him.
De Bruyne did not hesitate, directly passing the ball to Dost, the target man in the box, then bypassed the defenders and ran towards the goal.
Dost, with his back to goal, held off Sporting CP's center-back Oliveira, and laid the ball off to Snuffy, who was making a late run.
With no defenders in front of him to interfere, Snuffy met the ball and struck it, and the football easily found the far corner of Sporting CP's goal.
"GOAL!!!! In the twenty-second minute of the match, Snuffy's goal gives Wolfsburg the lead! This is also his first European goal!"
"This is a typical team-play goal, constantly passing, constantly tearing apart Sporting CP's defense."
"After others drew away the defenders, Snuffy then delivered the decisive blow!"
"Sporting CP has now lost control of the game's tempo; they have been running at Wolfsburg's pace!"
Seeing Snuffy's goal, Mendes and Snuffy's parents were all beaming with joy in the VIP box at Volkswagen Arena.
Both parties had already agreed to sign the contract after this match.
At this moment, Snuffy being able to score a European goal in his first European competition of his professional career was, of course, even more reason to be happy!
Sporting CP, after conceding the goal, clearly did not want to leave Volkswagen Arena with a loss.
They began to make wide-ranging, active runs in midfield, attempting to limit Wolfsburg's midfield control and fight for control of the midfield.
Wolfsburg's midfielders, especially De Bruyne, were already adept at dealing with such pressing.
Seeing the situation was not good, he gave up excessive ball control, and after receiving the ball, he safely passed it to his nearby teammates at the fastest possible speed.
And they conducted large-scale ball distribution back and forth between the two wings and the backfield, making it so that although Sporting CP was constantly pressing, they could never gain enough possession.
When they finally managed to gain possession and were about to organize an attack, they had to face Wolfsburg's counter-pressing.
This made their attacks very difficult to achieve the desired effect. In such circumstances, Sporting CP's players increasingly began to go it alone.
Especially Nani, who wanted to seek some breakthroughs through his individual ability.
But in front of Wolfsburg's solid defense, it had no effect whatsoever.
Instead, Wolfsburg's offense created a suffocating rhythm for them. After several attacks, Sporting CP's formation began to narrow.
"They want to hold this score until the second half, don't give them a chance."
Dieter Hecking reminded his players from the sidelines: if they could kill off the two-legged tie in one leg, why not?
Facing Sporting CP's compact defense, Wolfsburg began to frequently use their full-backs to get to the byline to stretch Sporting CP's defensive formation.
This tactical approach of pulling wide and then laying the ball back is quite similar to Bayern's 'two wings flying together'.
It's just that the pendulum, which usually swings left and right, is placed horizontally, making the opponent's defensive line constantly move back and forth, thereby creating gaps.
In the forty-first minute of the match, Arnold, after receiving De Bruyne's laid-off cross, volleyed the ball directly to Gustavo on the left without stopping it.
Gustavo, after receiving the ball, faked a forward run, but actually left the ball in place without touching it.
But this single feint caused the highly tense Sporting CP defenders in front of him to retreat two steps, and with this two-step distance,
It created a flaw in their defensive line, and Gustavo passed the ball between the legs of the defender in front of him.
Rodriguez, before the defenders could react, received Gustavo's pass and delivered a cross into the middle for Dost.
Dost, with Snuffy providing cover, got to the ball's landing spot and, with a diving slide shot, propelled the ball directly into the net.
"GOAL!!!! Dost! This Dutchman has also completely opened his goal-scoring account recently! After scoring a quadruple in the last Bundesliga round, he has now scored in European competition!"
An excited Dost performed an extra-long knee slide, almost crashing into the advertising boards on the sideline.
The first half of the match passed with Wolfsburg's siege.
And in the second half, Sporting CP also did not come up with any particularly good methods.
They could only resort to defensive counter-attacks, waiting for Wolfsburg to make a mistake.
But with two goals in hand and an excellent position to advance, Wolfsburg had no reason to rush or make mistakes.
Ultimately, Sporting CP returned to Lisbon with a 0-2 away loss. They could only hope to turn the tide in their home leg.