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Chapter 498
The Cardiff Millennium Stadium, which can accommodate 3 fans, is full of seats. More than 3 Newcastle fans and more than [-] Aston Villa fans occupy the whole stadium.

When the Aston Villa players ran onto the field, the words of head coach Martin O'Neill echoed in their minds: "We will attack from the beginning! Our only advantage is that we can put all our attention on this game and give our best in this game! But Newcastle can't play this game without distractions. They must hope to win the game with the least effort, that is, to shrink the defense and use counterattacks to deal with us...We will be fooled by them! Attack from the beginning of the game and compress their formation. Type, take advantage of them! If they counterattack directly with a long pass, let me stare at Baxter and Messi! The big man does not need to compete with him for the header, he does not have the ability to attack with the ball personally, as long as he cuts off the route from him to pass the ball to Messi, he is useless in the counterattack!"

Aston Villa's players faithfully implemented his strategy. Just after the kick-off, several Aston Villa players flooded into Newcastle's half, aggressively pressing the offense!
"Do you want to catch us off guard? You made a mistake!" Mourinho's eyes flashed, and he sneered in his heart.

Ashley Young quickly dribbled the ball along the wing. Although the 29-year-old England international was considered one of the monsters on the right in the past CM games a long time ago, it was not until his transfer to Aston Villa that he really attracted people's attention and became one of the top wing assaulters in the Premier League.

Ashley Young, who broke through on the right, soon ran into Gareth Bell, who was guarding the left of Newcastle. The two were about the same height, about 1.8 meters, and their speed was similar.

Ashley Young first made a cross-cut fake move, and then immediately threw the ball near the baseline to speed up the breakthrough!
Bell turned around when Ashley Young was about to break through from him, squeezed Young to the outside line, and kept rushing into the opponent, and his feet were not slow at all.

Yang was about to catch up with the ball, but Bell hooked the ball back first, stopped suddenly and turned around to block Yang behind him. Now it was Yang's turn to harass him constantly behind him, but Bell didn't take it for too long, and passed the ball to Bostock in front of him as soon as he lifted his foot.

Bostock moved forward with the ball, and he didn't waste time, but directly passed the ball to Long Bisheng near the middle circle.

The defenders of Aston Villa didn't rush forward to grab the ball at Long Bisheng's feet, but focused on Messi and Baxter who ran up from behind. Long Bisheng easily received the ball and turned around. Seeing that no one came up to defend him, he chose to take the ball forward.

"This guy's dribbling speed is not slow." O'Neill thought in his heart, Long Bisheng's dribbling movements are very standard and proficient. At the same time, since no one came up to defend him, his strides are also very large. With his two long legs, the frequency of one step is equal to that of others, so the speed naturally does not appear to be slow at all.

Seeing that Long Bisheng was approaching the 30-meter area with the ball, a defender pounced on him without O'Neill's reminder. Long Bisheng unhurriedly dunked the ball to the side, and then passed it to Gerrard who was following behind. Newcastle took advantage of the situation and turned into a positional battle.

"This guy!" Seeing several Newcastle midfielders and full-backs Maicon rushing across the half, O'Neill realized that his judgment had been wrong. Newcastle did not intend to use defensive counterattacks to deal with Aston Villa, nor did they intend to use simple tactics to solve the game. O'Neill couldn't help but look at the Newcastle coach's bench and cursed in his heart.

After receiving the ball, Gerrard did not dribble too much, but knocked the ball to the right side, and Maicon dribbled the ball and started to break through. When facing the defense of the defender, he passed the ball to Messi in the corner of the penalty area, and continued to rush to the bottom line.

Maicon’s forward drive attracted the attention of Villa’s defense. Messi turned around after receiving the ball. He did not knock the ball back to Maicon, nor did he choose to break through. Instead, he passed the ball directly to the center.

Seeing that his long-range shot failed to score, Long Bisheng shook his head regretfully, and then gave Messi a thumbs up. Messi smiled, made a gesture of indifference, and ran back.

Aston Villa launched a counterattack, they pressed very forward, but Newcastle did not retreat, but launched a blocking attack in the midfield, which made Villa's offense very difficult. Abanglaho relied on his own speed to forcefully break through Maicon's defense and then pass to Delph Nesso in the penalty area.

Aston Villa planned to launch a counterattack in the frontcourt, but Newcastle relied on their technical advantages to slowly organize the attack to Villa's half, which made the Villa players seem a little at a loss. In the end, the attack turned into a shot. After receiving the pass from Long Bisheng, Baxter cleverly lobbed the far corner from the front of the penalty area. The ball was swiftly saved by Parish to the baseline and a corner kick.

Bell took a corner kick and assisted Huntington with a header high.

The next game formed a back-and-forth offensive situation. Although he did not lose the wind on the scene, O'Neill's brows became tighter and tighter. In the case of similar offensive opportunities, it depends on who is better in offense and defense, that is, the individual abilities of the players on both sides are better.

In this regard, Aston Villa is naturally inferior to the star-studded Newcastle. Mourinho's tactic is actually the so-called kingly way-gradually suppress the opponent with a strong overall strength, all-round suppression without taking any advantage!

This style of play naturally has a much higher winning rate for Newcastle, which is superior in overall strength, but O'Neill is wondering about one thing-will Mourinho really let the players do their best for this League Cup championship?

Maybe he doesn't care about the sixth round of the FA Cup, but can he not care about the second round of the Champions League knockout round?
At this time, O'Neill remembered one thing - there is still a week before the second round of the Champions League knockout round!Although the FA Cup is more important than the League Cup, it is obviously easier to win the League Cup, which requires only one game, and the FA Cup, which requires three games to win the championship!
Grab the nearest honor first, this is a truth that all coaches understand!
Thinking of this, O'Neill couldn't help but stood up, and made a gesture to the field - shrink the defense, use the speed of Abang Lahuo and Ashley Young to contain the opponent's attack, even if it is exhausted, he must fight the opponent!
Aston Villa began to retreat, Newcastle immediately took the initiative on the field.

Their offense began to be very patient. If they were not absolutely sure, they would never attack rashly. Instead, they used back and forth long passes and scheduling to tear apart the opponent's defense. This style of play obviously saves more energy for the offensive side than the defensive side.

O'Neill could only grit his teeth and watch. He made a mistake in his judgment at the beginning, and his subsequent changes were all expected by the opponent. He missed every step and was suppressed every step of the way.

Now he can only hope that his players can withstand the opponent's attack, and then wait for the opportunity to appear. Newcastle players are not robots.

But when the game was about to end in the first half, when O'Neal was about to see hope, Long Bisheng's goal made O'Neal's hopes come to nothing!

Bell dribbled the ball in for an assist and passed the ball to Baxter in the middle. Baxter didn't stop the ball and passed the ball directly to the bottom line on the left.

The ball was passed very high and passed directly to the back point. Messi received the ball and passed the ball directly to Long Bisheng in the penalty area, and then quickly rushed to the penalty area.

Messi's running attracted the attention of Villa's defenders. Before the game, O'Neill asked them to keep an eye on Messi. They faithfully implemented O'Neill's arrangement, especially when Messi's running seemed to be receiving a pass from Long Bisheng for a two-over-one cooperation.

So there was only one defender left to defend Long Bisheng behind him.

Long Bisheng stopped the ball at his feet, and instead of passing it back, he took the ball and forcibly turned around and rushed from the other side!
After turning around successfully, he faced Villa's goalkeeper directly. The defender who was blocking him tried his best to interfere with him. Another defender also tried to block his shot from the side, but it was too late!

Long Bisheng slightly adjusted the frequency of his feet, and then suddenly shot with his left foot!

Long Bisheng seldom shoots with his left foot, but it doesn't mean that his left foot can only be used for standing, especially in such close range situations, it doesn't matter which foot he shoots with!

Before the goalkeeper could react, the ball roared into the goal!
After scoring the goal, Long Bisheng did not run down to the stands to celebrate as usual, but ran directly to Newcastle's bench and gave Drogba a big hug!

"Didier, I have fulfilled my promise!" Long Bisheng shouted loudly in Drogba's ear.

(End of this chapter)