N-A-A Chapter 235
Chapter 235
The game was a big success, and the team was in a state of panic.
Chapter 230: Foxes vs. Wolfsburg! Three consecutive league defeats!
Morgan, the team captain and main central defender, was injured, and Pearson’s top priority was to choose a replacement.
Huth, whose performance was getting better and better, basically locked in a starting position.
In other words, Wasilewski, Moore, Upson, and Maguire, who was just loaned in the winter window, will compete for another starting central defender position.
If the order of central defenders in the team is followed, former Polish international Wasilewski is Morgan’s first substitute.
However, Wasilewski’s reaction and speed are too slow.
If he and Huth were to play as central defenders, they would basically be blown up when they met a speedy striker.
Therefore, Pearson immediately ruled out this old central defender who had no other advantages except experience.
Upson was in the same situation as him. They were basically at the end of their careers, and their physical functions had declined greatly, which was not enough to cope with high-intensity games.
So the two were not considered.
Moore, who had the best physical fitness among all central defenders, was originally a defensive star that the team focused on training.
In the Championship period, due to the fierce offensive firepower in the frontcourt, the opponent rarely posed a threat to the back line, and his defensive ability was not tested too much.
However, after reaching the Premier League, which has a higher level, faster pace, and requires players to stay focused in high-intensity games, his physical fitness advantage disappeared instantly.
At the same time, his shortcomings such as poor defensive positioning, recklessness, and easy distraction were also exposed in one game after another!
After a wave of elimination, the Blue Fox coaching team led by Pearson was surprised to find that the best candidate to replace Morgan was Maguire, who had just been loaned in the winter window!
Compared with other central defenders, Maguire is the youngest.
He is tall and has a fast reaction.
Although his experience is not as good as others and his turning speed is slow.
But whether it is defensive awareness or frontal air defense ability, it is not bad at all.
And he has an advantage that other central defenders lack.
That is, he has a certain ability to pass the ball!
Once the opponent is pressed in the frontcourt, Maguire can use his better footwork among central defenders to pass the ball.
So, in the team training, Maguire put on the orange vest representing the main force for the first time, and formed a central defender partnership with Huth.
Huth, who has more experience, was slightly behind, and Maguire was responsible for interception.
Although the two were only partners for the first time, they performed well.
This also made Pearson feel very fortunate.
I thought that renting Maguire would only add more depth to the central defender position.
But I didn’t expect that his strength was not bad, even stronger than other central defenders!
On the other hand, Maguire didn’t expect that he would get the trust of the head coach under the situation of the team’s main central defender.
Therefore, he showed more effort and concentration in training, and even after the team training session, he took the initiative to ask Ling Feng to practice with him.
Ling Feng naturally did not refuse.
In his opinion, Maguire is the most promising central defender in this Leicester City lineup.
You know, Maguire is a star who can play as a main player in the Premier League giants and the Three Lions in the future, and create a record for the transfer fee of defenders!
Judging from the overall game rating, he has the potential of at least 85 overall ratings!
Ling Feng even thought that if the team can get Maguire next season, if they level up in advance, the team’s lineup will only be stronger.
Then, the possibility of competing for the Premier League championship will be even greater!
. . .
The next day, in order to watch the draw ceremony for the Europa League round of 16, Ling Feng called his teammates to his home.
Everyone sat on the sofa and carpet in the living room, staring at the 60-inch LCD TV.
On the TV, there was a live broadcast of the draw at the FIFA headquarters in Switzerland.
With the appearance of the draw guest, Inter Milan legend Materazzi, dressed in a suit, the draw ceremony officially began.
This season, Serie A is very competitive in the Europa League.
There are five teams that have made it to the round of 16 of the Europa League!
They are Inter Milan, Naples, Roma, Fiorentina, and Turin.
This is also the season with the most Serie A teams reaching the round of 16 since the reform of the Europa League!
In recent years, with the gradual decline of Serie A, Italian football has been in the European competition.
The performance on the field is becoming less and less satisfactory. In the previous few seasons, the two Milan giants still achieved some success in the Champions League, but the Europa League at that time was never a blessed place for Italians.
In recent years, Serie A has continued to be weak in the Champions League, and the points of the Europa League have begun to be equal to those of the Champions League, so the Europa League has gradually become the main battlefield of Serie A.
Last year, three Serie A teams, Juventus, Naples and Fiorentina, reached the final quarterfinals, earning a lot of European points for Serie A.
In addition to Serie A, the teams that advanced in La Liga are the defending champion Sevilla and the “Yellow Submarine” Villarreal.
Among the four Premier League teams participating in the Europa League, Liverpool and Tottenham were eliminated, and only Leicester City and Everton were able to advance.
There is also a single seedling of Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.
It is worth mentioning that among the five major European leagues, Ligue 1 is the least competitive.
Guingamp, the only team that reached the Europa League knockout stage, was also eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv.
The teams outside the top five leagues are Besiktas from the Turkish Super League, Dynamo Kyiv and Dnipro from the Ukrainian Super League, Zenit St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow from the Russian Super League, and Club Brugge from the Belgian First Division.
Many media people believe that this year’s championship is likely to be won by a Serie A team.
Soon, the TV first played a short clip of all the qualifying teams, and then officially entered the draw phase.
Everyone in the living room also began to discuss:
“Among these teams, Dnipro should be the worst.”
“If we can draw it, we will definitely be able to advance to the next round.”
“I think so too.”
“I think it’s more interesting to draw Inter Milan or Naples, we will have the opportunity to play against these strong teams!”
“Meazza Stadium and Maradona Stadium, when will we have the opportunity to play in these great stadiums?”
In Ling Feng’s opinion, among all the teams, there are four teams with the strongest overall lineup and strength, namely Inter Milan, Naples, Wolfsburg, and Sevilla!
Ling Feng thinks that if you want to go further in the Europa League, it is best to avoid these four teams.
Because there is no principle of avoiding the same league, there may be a situation of internal war between teams in the same league in this draw.
The team that is drawn first will play the first round of this round of knockout matches at home.
The first team to be drawn is the La Liga powerhouse Villarreal.
Its opponent is the defending champion Sevilla!
What is dramatic is that the La Liga civil war broke out in just the first wave of draws!
Compared with the surprise of other teammates, Ling Feng didn’t even blink.
Draws are never just draws.
UEFA has been manipulating the “secret” of draws for show effects for a long time.
He thinks that Leicester City’s outstanding performance in the Premier League and the Europa League this season has made UEFA see the possibility of hype.
Then they specially arranged a very topical strong opponent for them.
However, Ling Feng is confident that no matter which team they draw, their Leicester City will have the strength to fight!
As time goes by, the draw results are announced one after another:
Zenit draws Turin
Naples draws Dynamo Moscow.
Fiorentina draws Rome.
In the eyes of everyone’s expectation, the draw guest finally drew Leicester City.
And their opponents are:
“Leicester City’s opponent will be.”
“Wolfsburg!”
The live camera immediately gave the club executives of the two teams who came to participate in the draw.
The executives of Wolfsburg smiled, while the executives of Leicester City frowned.
The result of this draw is not good.
This season, Wolfsburg has recovered strongly under the leadership of powerful players such as Drabne, Dost, and Gustavo, and has set off a shocking wave of offensive in the Bundesliga.
Wolfsburg, backed by the Volkswagen Group, ambitiously challenged the salad plate in Bayern’s hands!
At present, Wolfsburg ranks second in the Bundesliga standings, only behind Bayern, and is 10 points ahead of the third-placed Monchengladbach!
And the core player of this Wolfsburg team is of course the future world’s No. 1 offensive midfielder-“Ding Ding” Kevin De Bruyne! ! !
Last winter window, just as Ling Feng emerged in the English Championship, De Bruyne was also sold by Chelsea to Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, starting his own journey to super god.
De Bruyne, who had spent a season in Bremen before, seamlessly adapted to the Bundesliga’s open and aggressive game rhythm quickly.
In the game with
The direct confrontation with Bayern can be regarded as a famous battle in his career.
In the game, the core midfielder of the Belgian national team, who is good at playing football, overturned the Bundesliga giant with two goals and one assist!
In addition to De Bruyne, there are many powerful stars and famous players in the Wolfsburg team.
Dost who scored goals in consecutive games, Croatian international “Sword” Perisic, Swiss goalkeeper Benaglio, Brazilian internationals Gustavo and Naldo, and defender R. Luo.
This Wolfsburg team is even stronger than the Wolfsburg team that won the Bundesliga championship for the first time in the 2008-09 season!
It was called the strongest Wolfsburg team in the past 20 years by fans in later generations!
It is worth mentioning that there is also a Chinese player Zhang Xizhe in the Wolfsburg team.
However, this Chinese player has not even been included in the game list since he joined Wolfsburg for several months.
Later, he was nicknamed “sales midfielder” by fans
It means that he was signed by Volkswagen Group in order to sell cars in China.
Of course, these have nothing to do with the reborn Ling Feng.
What he cares more about is that he, the “De Bruyne outsider”, has the opportunity to meet the real master so soon!
You know, when he first debuted, it was because he drew the peak De Bruyne’s passing attribute and [God’s Vision] talent that he was able to kill in the English Championship and quickly became the absolute core of Leicester City!
To this day, De Bruyne’s talent and passing ability are still his most relied-on core weapons on the court!
However, Mr. Ding has not yet reached the peak of his career, but he has also shown the strength and potential of a top star.
When he, who has the peak De Bruyne’s passing ability, meets De Bruyne who is still on the rise, what interesting things will happen?
Ling Feng suddenly looks forward to this match
. . .
After UEFA’s “draw”, there were several topical duels in the Europa League round of 16.
“La Liga Civil War” Villarreal VS Sevilla!
“Serie A Civil War” Fiorentina VS Roma!
“Dark Horse Showdown” Leicester City VS Wolfsburg!
The first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals will be held in mid-March.
Before that, Leicester City will focus on the league.
Because Chelsea will participate in the League Cup final.
Therefore, the 27th round match against Chelsea was rescheduled, and Leicester City ushered in the first league game in March after a few precious days of rest.
They came to Manchester again, to the heart of the Blue Moon, the Etihad Stadium!
Because of the loss to Liverpool at Anfield in the last game, Manchester City is still seven points behind the top Chelsea in one more round!
Therefore, when Manchester City returned to the home court, Pellegrini chose to put the players who performed poorly in the last game on the bench.
And in the starting eleven lineup, five positions were adjusted.
This also includes the team captain and main central defender Kompany!
And Leicester City captain Morgan happened to be absent due to injury.
Therefore, a very interesting phenomenon also appeared in this game:
Both captains and main central defenders did not start the game!
For Manchester City, Yaya Toure became the captain on the field;
For Leicester City, the captain’s armband was worn on the arm of Andy King, the “three-time hero” who started the game.
Because they were away from home and against Manchester City, who had just lost and urgently needed a victory to chase Chelsea, Pearson chose to avoid the sharp edge.
Anyway, they were not competing for the championship, so there was no need to fight Manchester City to the death.
So he made a rotation:
The core of the team, Ling Feng, still started the game, but Chris Wood was at the forefront.
On both sides were Albrighton and Connaughton.
In the midfield position, Matty James and Andy King both started.
Maguire, the young central defender on loan from Hull City, and Schwarzer, the Australian goalkeeper who came from Chelsea on a free transfer, ushered in their first start in the league.
With such a large rotation, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Leicester City basically gave up strategically.
The situation on the field is just like the importance of both sides.
Manchester City got a lot of opportunities in the first half and repeatedly threatened Leicester City’s goal.
However, they were all resolved one by one by the brave Schwarzer.
It was not until the 68th minute of the second half that David Silva’s shot in front of the goal knocked on Leicester City’s door.
And this goal was also the only goal of the game.
After losing to Manchester City at Etihad, Leicester City has unknowingly suffered in the league.
Encountered a three-game losing streak!
(End of this chapter)