Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 339 The First Round of the FA Cup Begins

Chelsea defeated Middlesbrough in the 22nd round of the league, and Chelsea continued to advance in the Premier League.

However, for Chelsea, the team's injury problems are getting worse. After the game against Middlesbrough, an inexplicable influenza made Frank Lampard, Damien Duff The group of others were easily defeated. Fortunately, although Wang Li hadn't reached the state of invulnerability to cold and heat, this kind of ailment could no longer invade his body, so he was spared a depression.

This is indeed a heavy blow to Chelsea, which is short of major generals. If it is not for the timely recovery of captains John Terry and Smerding, the team may not even be able to make up for the FA Cup match on January 1. Their 8-man roster, in this way, they can only go to the reserve team to recruit people.

As for the youth team! ?

Manager Jose Mourinho never goes there and maybe it was a mistake for these youngsters to come to Chelsea.

It wasn't the only bad news for Jose Mourinho, there was also news from La Liga that negotiations between Chelsea and Real Betis over the winter transfer of Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez had collapsed .Although Chelsea's price is very good, but Real Betis is facing a city derby, it is obviously unwise to sell the team's main players before the war.

In this case, Mourinho can only turn his eyes to other directions.

Jerry Jarosic, the original partner of Nedved, entered the Portuguese eye.

Jarosik is currently 27 years old and plays for CSKA Moscow. He plays as a central midfielder on the field. His arrival will alleviate the void caused by Lampard and others' injuries in the midfield, and it will also give Mourinho an extra hand. A national player.In the past two seasons, Jarosik played 2 games for CSKA, scored 55 goals, and played 12 games on behalf of the Czech national team. Germany, Popowski and others played in the same field.

"I'm very happy, this is the biggest opportunity of my career," Jarosic said after flying to London, "I had a meeting with manager Jose Mourinho and what he said to me gave me confidence. And ambition." For Jarosic, Mourinho had a certain impression earlier, and when he was coaching Porto, the two had a "friendship".

"Mourinho has known Jerry for a long time," Jarosik's agent Kular said. "When he scored a goal against Porto, Mourinho has remembered him since then. .”

Although after the match against Middlesbrough, Chelsea's assistant coach Clarke did not confirm the news of Jarosic's signing, but from his words, it is not difficult to draw conclusions that the possibility of Jarosic becoming a Chelsea man has reached 99%. %.

"There is no confirmed news yet. We are focused on the game and don't know he is in the stands. If we think it can help the team in the short term, then we will introduce him, but there is no signing yet."

During the negotiations, CSKA Moscow hoped that the way Jarosik would join Chelsea would be on loan, but Chelsea hoped to introduce the player permanently, but CSKA did not agree. The final agreement reached by the two parties was a loan. Now as long as Jarosik passes On the second day of the medical examination, he will become the first new aid introduced by Chelsea in the winter transfer market.

However, for Jarosik now, the most important thing is to get the approval of his teammates.

Now there are two giants in the Chelsea dressing room-John Terry and Wang Li, one is the captain of the team, the other is the best performer, the pillar star of Chelsea, from this point of view, Chelsea's There is no doubt about the strength of the 'England Gang'. Lampard, Terry, and Wang Li are obviously the representatives of the 'England Gang'.

"He's pretty good, at least for now."

In an interview, Wang Li commented on this new player who joined the team. Although he is also a newcomer, in the current Chelsea, his right to speak is unquestionable: "His attitude is very good. Chelsea needs the help of the dressing room." Unite and we will take him in."

Undoubtedly, since everyone put Wang Li in the position of 'boss', his tone of speech is different now. In fact, he enjoys this 'boss' level status very much, at least many players will be 'obedient'.

"I believe that his arrival will add strength to Chelsea." In the end, Wang Li concluded.

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The FA Cup (The Football Association Challenge Cup), referred to as the FA Cup (FA Cup), is a men's knockout football cup named and hosted by the Football Association of England.The tournament is the oldest football match in the world and is a one-on-one knockout match between football clubs at all levels in England.

There is no seeding team set up in the rules of the FA Cup, so the match and home and away games are completely determined by drawing lots.If the game is tied, the two sides will exchange home and away games for a rematch. If there is another tie, there will be extra time and a penalty kick. For this reason, in the FA Cup, there are often upsets where low-level clubs eliminate high-level clubs. So, but due to the ancient meaning of this season, in the eyes of English fans, the FA Cup championship honor is even equivalent to the Premier League championship.

In August every year, all non-league clubs with basic facilities under the Football Association of England begin to conduct elimination preliminaries. For previous years, this year's FA Cup is even more unusual. In this season, a total of 660 clubs participated in the FA Cup, breaking the record of 1921 participating teams in the 22/656 season.

The Premier League and English Championship teams are eligible to directly skip some rounds of the FA Cup. These two levels of teams can directly and unconditionally enter the top 64 of the FA Cup. Enter the high-level knockout rounds.

Although the historical significance of this season is extraordinary, if there is only this point, it is obviously impossible to attract more Premier League teams to play hard, because no matter how important the championship is, it does not have much practical value. Now, The reason why the FA Cup can still attract many teams to work hard is that the team that wins the FA Cup can qualify for the first round of the UEFA Cup the following year.

Of course, there are special circumstances, for example, if the team is qualified for the UEFA Champions League because of its league ranking, the runner-up of the FA Cup will replace the champion to qualify for the UEFA Cup. If the runner-up also has the qualification for the UEFA Champions League, then this| Places in the UEFA Cup will be given to other teams based on the English Premier League rankings.

On the day of January 1th, after the FA Cup eliminated most of the teams in the first half of the season, it finally ushered in the main match, which is the brutal knockout round joined by the Premier League and the English Championship teams.

Chelsea's luck is not bad. The result of the draw determines that this round of knockout rounds will be held at Stamford Bridge, and the opponent is a League One team that has fought hard to reach the top 64 of the league-Scunthorpe.

Scunthorpe is a small city in the United Kingdom, located in the northeast of England, administratively belonging to North Lincolnshire, with a population of about 6 people, known as the Industrial Garden Town in Lincolnshire, and Hull , York, Doncaster and Sheffield.

And Scunthorpe United FC, the city's only recorded football team, may be happy this year for Scunthorpe fans as they manage to win the second division This is the first time in history that they won the championship of the league and thus succeeded in promotion.

Although this team is not well-known, Scunthorpe has trained many famous players over the years, including Kevin Keegan, Ray Clemence and others, and even Cricket superstar Ian Botham also came through the small club's academy.

As a slowly developing first-tier team, Scunthorpe's financial situation is as stretched as many first-tier teams. Compared with the English first-tier teams, as a newly promoted team, they are in the This season has indeed performed very well, but no matter how hard they work, Scunthorpe is still a League One team. In the eyes of the media and fans, the luck of this team is really bad. After entering the round of 64, the first opponent they encountered was Chelsea, who are in the Premier League. They have almost no hope of winning.

Even the Chelsea players thought so. On the day of the game, Mourinho didn't even send out any main players. This made the substitute players who were usually difficult to play finally get a chance, although the opponents were too different.

However, from the perspective of the Scunthorpe Club, they are really lucky to be home! !

As a League One team, it is not easy to reach the top 64 of the FA Cup. First of all, the Premier League and the English Championship teams have already occupied 44 places, and the remaining 20 places must be in the 24 teams. League One teams and the remaining hundreds of low-level league teams are selected for elimination. Due to the uncertainty of the FA Cup, almost every year the League One teams that enter the top 64 do not have more than 10 places. A newly promoted, Scunthorpe has done very well.

And now, they are 'very lucky' to meet Chelsea.

Maybe the media will gloat, but even if they don't meet Chelsea, but meet an ordinary Premier League or even the English Championship team, Scunthorpe will also be eliminated, so it doesn't matter what team they meet! ?
And meeting Chelsea brought practical benefits to Scunthorpe-sterling income.

In the game at Stamford Bridge, just the ticket income and TV broadcast fees can bring Scunthorpe at least 50 pounds in income. Owned by Scunthorpe, this is a 'charitable' way of supporting England's lower league teams.

All together, Scunthorpe can get at least 100 million pounds in income. Perhaps in the eyes of Chelsea, this money is really a drop in the bucket, not worth mentioning, but for a League One team, But it is really a lot of money, which is even enough for them to buy several players who play in League One.

At 1:8 p.m. on January 2th, the FA Cup round of 64 knockout matches started simultaneously in 32 stadiums, and many fans came to the Stamford Bridge Stadium. As the first round of the game, although the opponents were really worthless I mentioned it, but the Blues fans are still eager to support the game.

As a game that is almost like a warm-up match, Mourinho is not willing to send out the main lineup, which is simply overkill.

After the opening, the on-site commentator Creed Pesvak announced the starting lineup: goalkeeper Thomas Clark, defenders from left to right: Glenn Johnson, Watt, Morais, Smertin, midfielder Joe Cole, Goremi, Thiago Mendes, Scott Parker, Forwards Edur Gudjensen, Didier Drogba.

This set is almost a full bench lineup, which disappointed the Blues fans who came to the scene, but they also understand the team's approach, and the only players on the bench are Paul Ferreira and Alkin Robben. Genuine main force.

But Wang Li failed to appear on the squad at all. As Chelsea's trump card, Mourinho was reluctant to let him play in this kind of game.

In fact, the process of the game proved that even Chelsea's full bench lineup is much, much higher than the level of the League One team.

In the 8th minute of the game, Scunthorpe player Sparoway passed the ball from the right to Hayes in the penalty area. The latter turned around beautifully to get rid of Smertin and shot low with his right foot. The ball passed under Thomas. It was Scunthorpe's first attack of the game and they declared a score. After this goal, all the Blues fans were stunned. Smashed Chelsea's goal in the first attack.

However, Chelsea's subsequent performance did not disappoint them.

In the 15th minute of the game, Chelsea launched an attack from the center. Gudjenssen got rid of the opponent's defense in the frontcourt and shot a low shot, but the football was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper to the bottom line with both hands.

Only 3 minutes later, Drogba received a pass from Gud Jansen and made another pass on the left side of the small penalty area. Scunthorpe defender Butler made a clearance error, and Joe Cole volleyed with his right foot 15 meters from the goal. The score was equalized.

In the 28th minute, the opposing striker Crosby received a corner kick and his header was beautifully saved by Thomas. Then Butler took a corner kick and made a powerful attack, and the football went slightly wide of the post.
Afterwards, although the two teams worked very hard, neither scored any more goals. The score of the two sides was fixed at 1:1 in the first half, and the intermission time was entered.

With a League One team, playing like this in 45 minutes did not show the strength of England's dominant team this season. It can also be seen that Chelsea's strength has been sluggish after the absence of Wang Li.

In the second half, the two sides changed venues to fight again. In the 50th minute of the match, Gudjössen won a free kick outside the edge of the penalty area. The Icelander took the penalty himself.

In the 55th minute, after Joe Cole made a penalty from Chelsea's corner kick, Drogba headed the ball into the penalty area to grab the goal, but unfortunately the ball missed the goal slightly.

In the 58th minute, Thiago Mendes, Portugal's "first parallel importer" in the media, made a long pass to Drogba on the left. Ba's pass kicked himself an own goal, making the goal guarded by goalkeeper Muselwhite be attacked for the second time.

Chelsea finally overtook the score 2:1.
In the 68th minute, Mourinho announced a substitution. He replaced Drogba with the newly introduced striker Jarosic in the winter transfer. This is the first time since Jarosic's transfer. , also appeared at Stamford Bridge for the first time.

In the 72nd minute, Taylor made a cross from the edge of the penalty area, and the unguarded Hayes header was saved by Thomas with one hand.

In the 85th minute, Robben, who came off the bench, received a wonderful pass from Walter and hit the goal 20 meters away from the goal. He was blocked by Musel White, and Joe Cole's supplementary shot was saved again. A shot from close range in the penalty area sent the ball directly into the net.
In the end, Chelsea defeated Scunthorpe 3:1 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup knockout round.

Both sides are satisfied with the result of this game. For Mourinho, the game is just training. He needs to keep Chelsea's substitute players in good shape.And Scunthorpe won a lot of pounds. After the end of this season, at least they will not lack the necessary transfer funds to play in League One.

"There is nothing to say about the game itself. Our players have shown their own level. I am very happy to see this." At the press conference after the game, Jose Mourinho faced reporters with a blank expression. Said with an expression: "Scunthorpe's performance is also very good. I am surprised that the opponent can score first in the opening game. Therefore, I think there must be some problems in our defense. However, the opponent's performance in the attack There is no doubt about it.”

The head coach of Scunthorpe is also very happy to be affirmed by the head coach of the world's top team, Mourinho. He praised the strength of Chelsea's players, and emphasized that 'the gap between us cannot be counted', etc. In short, this young head coach is almost turning into a 'sycophant', and Mourinho laughed when he heard it.

The two teams achieved a win-win situation, which is really a good result.

However, for Mourinho and Chelsea, there is no time to reminisce about this game, because the dense and terrifying stadium is coming soon! !

On January 1, the League Cup played against Manchester United at home.

On January 1th, the 15rd round of the league, away to Tottenham Hotspur.

For Chelsea, who vowed to win the 'quadruple crown', the game against Manchester United must not fail, and for the players, the No. 15 league is also very important, which is related to the large bonuses they get-- —
For Chelsea now, the league is just a way to get bonuses, because that trophy has almost been booked.

(End of this chapter)