Chapter 76: Advance to the League Cup Final
Chapter 76: Advance to the League Cup Final
Li Chen returned to Newcastle that night and was in a much better mood than in the afternoon.
The failure to recruit Yamal is certainly regrettable.
But despite this regret, Li Chen still felt a little surprised that he was able to find a lost boy who was quite talented on the defensive end.
However, he felt that it would be difficult for Juan to convince Fermin to go to England alone, so he deliberately asked Juan to bring both brothers with him.
In this way, Fermin will not feel guilty towards his brother, and his father will agree to let his two sons come to England to continue pursuing their dreams of professional football.
Sure enough, not long after Li Chen returned to Newcastle that evening, Juan called him and said that old Rodriguez had agreed to let the two children come to England with him for trial training.
Li Chen was not vague and directly transferred another 1 euros to Juan. He then asked his assistant to arrange suitable air tickets for them so that they could arrive in Newcastle at noon on January 10.
After making the arrangements, Li Chen devoted himself to preparations for the next two cup matches.
On the evening of January 1, Li Chen led a starting lineup composed almost entirely of substitute players to challenge Sheffield Wednesday away.
Originally, Newcastle fans thought that this would be a big victory without any difficulty, after all, Sheffield Wednesday is just a League One team.
But Liucastle, who had been besieging Sheffield Wednesday from the start of the game, was slow to score.
Sheffield Wednesday, who parked the bus extremely resolutely at home, managed to withstand Newcastle's fierce bombardment.
At the critical moment, Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Cameron Dawson saved Wilson's half-solo shot, which really hit the morale of the entire Newcastle team.
In the 52nd minute of the second half, Sheffield Wednesday scored a goal in their second counterattack of the game, which made the Newcastle team unusually nervous!
At the critical moment, Li Chen replaced three players in a row, replacing Marcelo, Elanga and Joelinton while changing the formation to 442, directly adopting the retro British long pass and lob method!
Don't try any complicated mid-field penetration tricks, just give the ball to the right person and head into the penalty area. Bomb it at a 45-degree angle!
You know what, after this formation change, Newcastle played the tactics that Sheffield Wednesday is very familiar with in the English League One.
But no matter how familiar they are with it, they can't break it, because Newcastle's use of this move against them is completely a dimensionality reduction attack!
Chris Wood was given full tactical control, and with the support of the whole team, he and Wilson opened fire at full power, like two battering rams, and finally broke through Sheffield Wednesday's bus defense line!
而凭借着下半场第73分钟和第86分钟的两粒抢点进球，纽卡斯尔最终才惊险的以2-1的比分逆袭翻盘谢周三，闯进了足总杯的第4轮。
The team's performance in this game was quite average, especially in the first half, where repeated missed opportunities almost put the team in a desperate situation.
However, the players' active performance in executing tactics in the second half made Li Chen choose to forgive them.
However, this thrilling way of advancement was once again a warning to the entire Newcastle team.
It is no joke that cup competitions are prone to upsets. Every year, careless strong teams are eliminated by opponents from lower-level leagues in the first half of the cup competition.
Newcastle almost became a background board like this. Even if they finally succeeded in the reversal, they still couldn't escape the fate of being ridiculed by the media.
At noon on January 1, the two brothers Fermin and Tiago arrived in Newcastle under the leadership of Juan.
Li Chen directly arranged for his assistant to pick them up to the training base to have meals and put their luggage away, and then gave the three of them a surprise.
"Can we go to the game? Really? Tonight?!"
After hearing the itinerary arranged by Li Chen's assistant, Fermin, who was more extroverted, immediately leaned on the dining table and excitedly confirmed it repeatedly.
Thiago was calmer, but there was also excitement in his eyes.
Juan subconsciously wanted to refuse, but when he saw the three home tickets to St. James' Park Stadium that his assistant had handed over, he swallowed his saliva and accepted it.
Although he is a native of Barcelona, he has to support three children at the same time, so he hasn't been to a football game in person for almost 15 years after getting married and having children.
The last time he went to watch Espanyol play was in 2009.
Now he has the chance to see a bunch of famous stars that he knows at Newcastle’s home stadium, and he doesn’t want to miss this opportunity…
After receiving the tickets with thanks again, Juan planned to take his two children for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner to familiarize himself with the surrounding area.
But soon, Li Chen appeared in front of the three people with a smile on his face, and then drove them directly to a nice hotel near the training base.
Boys like Fermin, who were at a rebellious age, could no longer rebel after hearing that Li Chen had billed them for seven days of hotel room and food expenses.
He may have a lot of rebellious genes to protect himself and his family, but his nature is not bad. He knows who looks down on him and who really wants to help him, and he also understands the principle of repaying kindness.
He didn't care what Li Chen wanted from him.
He only knew that Li Chen now gave him and his brother hope to continue to survive in this world and to move forward.
In order to grasp what might be the last hope in their lives, he couldn't think of anything else in his mind. He just made up his mind that he would do whatever Li Chen asked him to do in the future!
Li Chen, who didn't know that he had made Fermin choose the obedient one, settled the three people and returned to the training base.
The near failure in the last round of the FA Cup also set off alarm bells in Li Chen’s heart.
If he and Newcastle still want to achieve their goal of winning the English domestic treble this season, they must not continue to make such mistakes in the upcoming crucial cup matches.
Even though they were facing their familiar old rival Leicester City in this round of the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, Li Chen took the time to hold another tactical meeting in the afternoon.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Newcastle's main players, who were fully prepared at home, played a fierce battle for the League Cup promotion with Leicester City at St. James' Park.
Even though they still need to fight for relegation, Leicester City, which has already reached the final eight of the English League Cup, does not want to give up the chance to advance easily.
But facing Newcastle, who had stabilized their defense from the start, Leicester City's offensive attempts were quite weak.
Their center forward Pasonda was completely useless in the positional battle facing the alternating defense of Ramos and Gvardiol.
But this is not Rodgers' fault. He has been trying his best to activate the form of Leicester City's veteran center forward Vardy. Unfortunately, although he has given enough opportunities, Vardy has not been able to break his goal drought.
The fundamental reason why Leicester City's performance has plummeted is that the group behind the team is unwilling to continue investing in replacing the lineup.
With the current poor defense and half-dead forward line, even if Leicester City's midfield configuration is still good, it is difficult to help the team break through the difficulties.
In response to Leicester City's current lineup deficiencies, Li Chen signaled the team to deploy an offensive formation after consolidating the defense at the beginning of the game, and quickly advanced on both wings to quickly get the ball to Leicester City's defensive hinterland.
When Rogers saw this, he cried out in his heart that something was wrong and said, "Junior brother, you are going to overturn my brother's rice bowl. Why are you aiming for the other person's fatal parts?"
Given Leicester City's current defensive state of scoring one goal and conceding two goals, can they withstand the consecutive goals from Ronaldo and Havertz?
Knowing that the situation was critical, Rogers quickly mobilized troops to block the defense on both wings.
As a result, Leicester City had just made defensive adjustments when Newcastle's Joelinton and Guimaraes took turns holding the ball and started to advance the attack!
Li Chen's offensive routine is linked to one another. No matter what choice Rogers makes, Leicester City will not be able to escape the fate of being targeted by Newcastle. At this moment, the brothers Juan and Rodriguez, who were watching the progress of the game in the stands, were also immersed in the fanatical atmosphere of Newcastle's home court.
Especially every time they see Ramos and Ronaldo perform well, they will raise their hands and cheer passionately!
There's nothing we can do about it, since they are die-hard fans of the Spanish team.
It is normal to have a good impression of Real Madrid stars, even if these stars are no longer in Real Madrid.
But they have defeated Barcelona many times and are still heroes in the hearts of Espanyol fans.
Fermin, who is still fantasizing that he can grow into an excellent center forward in the future and partner with Ronaldo, does not know that his future development position has been determined by Li Chen in the backcourt.
If he is lucky, when he is able to play for the first team, he might be able to play with Ramos, but it is unlikely that he will be able to partner with Pepe.
In Fermin's eyes, Ronaldo, who was extremely brave, was indeed in excellent form today.
Li Chen’s rotation protection for him was so effective that he never gave him the chance to fall into fatigue difficulties.
This has resulted in a corresponding reduction in his playing time in the league and various cup competitions this season, but the number of games in which he has performed well has increased.
Rogers' worries became a reality in the 24th minute of the first half of the game.
Ronaldo, who was in great form, scored a goal from Danny Ward with his signature powerful long shot from outside the penalty area!
Even though Ronaldo's violent shot was beautiful, the Leicester City fans at the scene knew that they could not blame Danny Ward.
But this does not prevent them from missing Schmeichel, who has left the team for Ligue 1 and performed well.
In the following games, Fox City fans missed Schmeichel more and more.
Newcastle, who scored the first goal, kept up the momentum, with Grimaldo scoring in the 36th minute of the first half and Joe Willock scoring in the 51st minute of the second half respectively.
After seeing the score being rewritten to 3-0, Li Chen made substitutions with confidence and gradually focused on controlling the game.
However, he did not replace Madison, who was sitting on the bench today, until the last minute of the game.
This was the last bit of warmth he left for Rogers and Leicester City.
The next night, two other League Cup quarter-final matches also came to an end.
In the end, the teams that reached the semi-finals of the EFL Cup this season were Southampton, Newcastle, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.
In the subsequent draw, Newcastle drew Southampton, avoiding an early battle with Manchester United.
However, in Li Chen's opinion, the draw at this stage is no longer a good or bad one. It does not matter to Newcastle whether they play against Manchester United first or later.
Of course, if Manchester United were eliminated unexpectedly and Newcastle played Nottingham Forest in the final, that would naturally be a better result.
Before the two-round League Cup semi-final, Newcastle will have to go through two league tests.
Facing Fulham and Crystal Palace, who are now on a strong momentum and are likely to break into the top 10 of the standings, Li Chen does not dare to be careless at all.
In the home game against Fulham, Li Chen chose to play it safe and after taking control of the midfield at the start of the game he slowly pushed the formation forward.
This laid the tactical foundation for Newcastle's leading goal in the first half.
But Mitrovic's shot at the beginning of the second half helped Fulham quickly equalize the score!
After that, Fulham's whole team spared no effort in pressing the ball frantically, making it difficult for Newcastle's offensive organization to be effectively connected.
It was not until the 84th minute of the second half that Marcelo, who came on as a substitute, used his breakthrough ability to create a penalty opportunity at the right edge of Fulham's penalty area!
Li Chen didn't know if it was his own illusion. He just felt that the referee Robert Jones was extremely resolute when he whistled the penalty kick, and he didn't even watch the VAR replay...
This caused extreme dissatisfaction from Fulham head coach Marco Silva.
But faced with Ronaldo's penalty kick, Fulham players could only helplessly accept a 1-0 defeat away from home.
After the game, Marco Silva directly expressed his dissatisfaction with the referee's whistle at the press conference.
Li Chen kept silent about this, but he felt the sincerity of the English Football Association.
Of course, Marcelo did not fake a dive, but actually used the rules to get a penalty kick for the team.
It’s just that in critical moments like in the past, the referee can decide whether to award a penalty based on his own subjective judgment.
Whether the decision is made or not, both can be explained. Fulham is only dissatisfied because they did not make any profit in the end.
Next, in order to better prepare for the League Cup semi-final against Southampton, Li Chen chose to play a safe counterattack against Crystal Palace away from home.
However, Crystal Palace coach Vieira, who had already experienced his powerful tactical adjustments, learned his lesson this time.
If Newcastle does not take the initiative to attack, Crystal Palace will be able to control the field. This way, Crystal Palace can save face at home and will not be at risk of too much counterattack.
Li Chen thought that Vieira would not be able to resist attacking in the second half of the game because he had the initiative in attack.
What he really didn't expect was that Vieira endured it until the end of the game!
Now it was Newcastle's turn to accept the draw.
This is good news for Arsenal, who just beat Manchester United 3-2 in this round of the league.
But they only narrowed the points gap between them and Newcastle to 5 points.
The loss to Newcastle in the head-to-head match in the 19th round of the league was really hurtful.
If they had won that game, they would have surpassed Newcastle in points now. It’s a pity to think about it…
Newcastle, who continue to sit firmly at the top of the Premier League standings, sacrificed a league result in exchange for better cup form.
In the two rounds of the Carabao Cup semi-finals held on January 1 and January 24, Newcastle played steadily and did not give Southampton too many opportunities to counterattack.
In the first leg, Newcastle and Southampton drew 0-0 away from home. In the second leg, Newcastle returned to their home court and defeated Southampton 2-0 without any suspense, successfully entering this season's League Cup final!
Facing Manchester United, who eliminated Nottingham Forest and also reached the League Cup final, the entire Newcastle team is full of confidence in winning!
They can't wait to win their first cup title of the season!
(End of this chapter)