Chapter 110
The last day of April ended perfectly, and Chelsea successfully advanced to the Champions League final with an overwhelming advantage.
Good news also came from Manchester United next door. In the first leg away game, Manchester United tied Barcelona 0:0. At Old Trafford, thanks to Scholes' world wave in the 14th minute of the game, Manchester United defeated Barcelona 1:0 and entered the final. Ferguson once again got a ticket to the Champions League championship battle.
The Champions League final, the Premier League derby, the English media are eager to bathe in champagne. They are writing tomorrow's newspaper headlines in the newspapers, and the most important thing is: Who will be the champion in the Champions League final?
Judging from the historical records of both sides, Manchester United undoubtedly has a huge advantage. There is no other reason, it’s just because Manchester United has a “championship formula” in the European battlefield: if they reach the final, they will win the championship.
In the past few dozen seasons, Manchester United has brought the championship back to Old Trafford after reaching the final, but in the games where they failed to win the championship, Manchester United often fell in the quarter-finals.
This formula was undoubtedly a booster for all Manchester United fans before. If it weren't for Endrit, Manchester United fans would even have started celebrating their Manchester United's Champions League title.
But now that Chelsea has Endrit, Manchester United fans are not as confident as before. Can they win? Although Manchester United's lineup was not complete when the two teams last met in the Premier League, they lost that game so cleanly. Even if the lineup was complete, it would be difficult for them to continue writing the "championship formula" against Chelsea with Endrit.
Even the odds offered by the bookmakers were clearly supporting Chelsea to win. How shocking was it that a goalkeeper who had not yet proven himself in the World Cup was able to directly influence the odds with his own strength?
What made Manchester United fans even more uncomfortable was that before the start of the Champions League final, when all the players wanted to live on the training ground, Endrit actually went to America to attend the premiere of the movie "Iron Man"!
This is too arrogant! How could the tyrant Mourinho actually allow Endrit to attend the movie premiere at a time like this? !
Manchester United fans were both angry and happy. They were angry that Endrit didn't seem to take Manchester United seriously at all, but they were also happy that Endrit didn't take Manchester United seriously: Endrit was so lax, he would definitely stumble and fall flat on his face on the day of the Champions League final!
May is a completely fruitful season for Chelsea. Chelsea only has four games left this month, two Premier League games on the 5th and 11th, the FA Cup final on the 16th, and the Champions League final against Manchester United in Moscow on the 22nd.
For Chelsea's backup goalkeeper Carlo Ancelotti, May is a very happy month, because Carlo Ancelotti will start as the starting goalkeeper in the two Premier League games at the beginning of the month.
Chelsea has already won the Premier League title. Even though Endrit is in good physical condition and can play normally, Mourinho still gave Endrit a rest and did not include him in the match roster at all.
Endrit was also relaxed and went straight home to rest after attending the movie premiere. Because Endrit would go directly into his imagination to train at night, he never thought about training in reality.
Mourinho frowned and endured it for two days before rushing to Endrit's house and pulling him out of bed. "I told you to rest, but you really didn't move at all? You didn't participate in the training, but you still know how to warm up, right? You..."
Mourinho cursed and swore, and after Endrit was pulled by the ear and criticized, he started to punch in at the club every day. Except for the time when there were no games, he did not miss any daily training.
rest? It doesn't exist, it's just that the training intensity has decreased.
"I heard that you slept at home for two days?" Barak gave Endrit a thumbs up, "That's great!"
Endrit's face twitched. "Don't listen to the coach's nonsense! I just stayed up late to play games, and I was caught by the coach not long after I fell asleep."
"Playing games?" Barak heard a topic that interested him very much. "What games do you play?"
"That's not important anymore," Endritt looked up at the sky with a look of dejection. "My game console was taken away by the coach. He said he would give it to me after the season is over."
Barak couldn't help but burst out laughing, and under Endrit's angry look, he forced himself to hold back his laughter, reached out and patted Endrit's shoulder, trying to comfort him, "It's okay, there are only a few games left this season."
"I still have the European Cup to prepare for," Endrit sighed. "Coach Capello said that after the Champions League final, I will return to the national team to train every day. Others can take leave at their discretion, but I can't, because if I'm not there, training can't go on."
"It's okay," Ballack tried to comfort him again, "I'm going to participate in the European Cup, and I'm going to the Olympics."
Endrit paused for a moment, then raised his hand to his forehead with even more headache. Well, he had previously told Ronaldinho that they would go to the Beijing Olympics together and invite him to go around. The two of them got so excited while talking that they didn't realize that he didn't have to go to the Olympics.
It’s not because he won’t be selected, but because Britain doesn’t participate in Olympic football at all. Why? Because there are four football associations in the whole of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Although these four football associations are independent members of FIFA and UEFA, they are not members of the International Olympic Committee and therefore cannot participate.
Of course, this is the official reason. In fact, if the four football associations unite to form a unified team, they can still get a seat in the International Olympic Committee. But why not unite? Not being able to play together is just an explanation of the reason. The most important thing is that if the four football associations form a unified team to participate in the Olympics, what if other countries use this as an excuse to ask them to do the same when participating in other international competitions?
If this really happens, the distribution of interests, the four seats on the International Football Association Board and so on will be affected. Can they tolerate this? I can't stand it.
So they simply decided not to participate in the Olympics, and the public had no objection at all. The people of England even called the FA a wise decision.
…
On Saturday, May 16, 2008, the FA Cup final was held at Wembley Stadium, with Chelsea facing Portsmouth.
In the semi-finals, Chelsea defeated Cardiff City and Portsmouth defeated West Bromwich Albion. These two victories meant that this year's FA Cup final was won by just two Premier League teams.
Last year, the FA Cup final was between Manchester United and Chelsea, while this year, the final was between Chelsea and Portsmouth. The excitement of the game was reduced by half, but the commentators of Sky Sports were already very pleased.
"The FA Cup is a hotbed of upsets. Although there were some upsets this year, they were generally not bad. Endrit, who had missed two games for Chelsea and had not met the fans, also started the game."
"It's hard for Portsmouth to win now," the commentator sighed, talking about Portsmouth's past. "In 1939, Portsmouth, which was still struggling to avoid relegation, defeated the absolute favorite Wolves with a huge advantage of 4:1 in the final and became the FA Cup champion that year."
"This year Portsmouth is in the final again. Can they create a miracle?"
"It's difficult," the commentator paused for a moment, then spoke of a possibility, "but it's not impossible. Endrit has not played for nearly half a month, which may affect his condition. If Portsmouth's players are in great shape today, there may be a chance to create a miracle."
But miracles are miracles because they rarely happen. Endrit has not appeared in the media for nearly half a month. When he went to Chelsea for training, he took coach Mourinho's car directly and was rarely photographed by the media. They thought that Endrit might have slacked off, but in fact, not only did Endrit not slack off, but his training volume was even heavier than before - it's like this, it feels good to sleep for a while, but you'll wake up in the crematorium, it's nothing more than that.
Therefore, the situation described by the commentator did not exist at all. Endrit was in very good condition. He stood on the Wembley Stadium with his eyes fixed on the football, wishing he could jump up and knock the football away the next moment: but Portsmouth players did not give Endrit a chance to perform. Throughout the first half, they failed to break through the back line. The football barely flew to the backcourt but was directly blocked by Carvalho, Ashley and others.
On the Chelsea side, Lampard and Drogba pushed the ball into the penalty area in the 27th and 41st minutes of the first half respectively, and Chelsea entered the second half with a big advantage of 2:0.
In the 20th minute after the start of the second half, the Portsmouth striker made a long shot from half court, the ball went straight to the upper right corner of the goal. Endrit jumped high, stretched out his arm and kicked the ball directly to Carvalho.
Chelsea launched a fast break from the backcourt. Endrit did not call out any code words, so the attack was mainly driven by the team's forwards. Lampard made a straight pass in the middle, and Drogba received the ball in the penalty area and scored again in one fell swoop, scoring his second goal, and Chelsea led Portsmouth 3:0.
After conceding another goal, Portsmouth players were still running desperately on the field, trying to launch a counterattack. Endrit stood in front of the goal and expected them to counterattack again, but until the end of the game, Endrit was unable to make another save.
Chelsea defeated Portsmouth 3:0 and became the champion of the FA Cup in the 07-08 season!
"The game is over! This is Chelsea's third championship this year!"
"Chelsea fans at the scene have already put up a banner for the Treble! Maybe in the near future, at the Luzhniki Stadium, Chelsea fans will put up a banner for the Quadruple Crown!"
"On May 22, at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Chelsea will compete with Manchester United for the 2007-08 Champions League title. This is the first English civil war in the history of the Champions League final!"
"On May 21, the night before the final, Chelsea and Manchester United will have a pre-match acclimatization training session in Luzhniki. Sky Sports will be broadcasting the entire event live, so stay tuned..."
The Chelsea players who won the treble did not celebrate as wildly as the Chelsea fans. They remained calm and waited for the day of the Champions League final - that was the stage that many players who joined Chelsea after Mourinho's arrival had been looking forward to and dreaming of.
"Tell me, seeing us win the treble this year and advance to the Champions League final," Ballack turned his head and looked at Endrit, "does he regret it?"
Endrit reached out and took the water bottle in front of Barak, unscrewed the cap and smelled it, and was very shocked, "This is not wine!"
Barak rolled his eyes at Endrit and said, "I'm not talking drunkenly..."
"How could it not be?" Endrit straightened his back. "Will he regret it? To be honest, I am here at Chelsea now, who wouldn't regret leaving? Besides, Robben is in Real Madrid, ahem..."
Endrit didn't say anything else. Barak wanted to roll his eyes again to express his opinion of Endrit's narcissism, but when he thought about it carefully, he couldn't help but laugh and gave Endrit a thumbs up.
Endrit raised his chin slightly, his eyes brighter than the stars in the dark night.
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