Before 11 o'clock in the morning, the Southampton team bus slowly drove into the Stamford Bridge football stadium.
Stamford Bridge is one of the earliest professional football stadiums in England. Before the owner Mills bought the stadium for the first time, the stadium was only used as a polo club for aristocrats. Later, the aristocratic lords fell into poverty and had no money to play polo, so Mills bought it and used it as a football field.
Stanford Stadium was originally oval in shape, but after renovation and expansion, it gradually became square.
Stanford Stadium can now accommodate 42,420 people, and its facilities are first-class in Europe. In addition to the live broadcast room, press center, buffet restaurant, executive box, and jersey purchasing mall, you can also hot-stamp your name on the purchased jersey on site.
What makes Stanford Stadium different from most other stadiums is that the exclusive stand for Blues diehard fans is not the south stand, but the north stand - the Matthew Harding Stand.
Although the Matthew Harding Stand is not as famous as Liverpool's KOP Stand, it is definitely a holy place in the hearts of Chelsea fans.
Matthew Harding was the former CEO of Chelsea Football Club. He died in a plane crash in 1966. In order to commemorate Matthew Harding's contribution to Chelsea, the club named the Taipei stand where the craziest home fans watched the game as the Matthew Harding Stand.
In 2006, after the Blues defended the Premier League title, the then head coach Mourinho threw his championship medal into the Matthew Harding Stand to thank Chelsea's diehard fans for their support, which ignited the entire stadium and made the Matthew Harding Stand the most famous stand of the year.
——Speaking of Mourinho, Mourinho can definitely be regarded as the most unique coach in the world, no doubt about it.
The other three stands at Stamford Bridge are the East Stand which can accommodate more than 10,000 people, the Main Stand on the West Side, and the Shepherd Stand on the South Side.
The East Stand is a three-story stand that also includes the players' passage, the two teams' locker rooms, the players' restaurant, the interview center, etc.
Corresponding to the East Stand is the West Stand, which is also the main stand of the stadium. This stand has more than 13,000 seats and also has Chelsea's top executive box group, commonly known as the Millennium Box. These boxes are named after famous players in the history of Chelsea Club.
The last South Stand is the short side stand, named Shehde Stand, which can only accommodate 6,831 fans and is specially prepared for away fans.
After arriving at Stamford Stadium, the Southampton team had a buffet lunch in the players' restaurant at noon, took a brief rest, and then performed an adaptive warm-up on the green field of Stamford Bridge.
This game is definitely a very crucial one for Southampton.
However, according to the competition system, even if Southampton loses this game, they still have a chance.
The League Cup quarter-finals are played over two rounds, with each team playing one home game and one away game. The elimination result is determined by adding up the number of goals scored in the two games. If the number of goals is the same, the away goals are compared. If the away goals are also the same, overtime will be played. If there is a tie after overtime, it will be a penalty shootout.
Today, the pre-match odds given by William Hill Betting Company are 1.92 for Chelsea to win by two goals, 3.34 for a two-goal draw, and 7.20 for a two-goal loss.
There is not even a handicap.
This shows that the bookmakers are almost 100% optimistic that Chelsea can beat Southampton at home.
As the head coach of Southampton, it was also the first time for Coach Adkins to face a powerful new team like Chelsea. Coach Adkins kept relieving the pressure on the players and himself at the same time.
Although the Southampton players were nervous, they did not actually feel any particular psychological pressure.
After all, considering the strength of a League One team, it is already remarkable that Southampton can play to this level. Even if they really lose to Chelsea, the Saints fans will never blame the players.
After two hours of training, the Southampton players returned to the locker room to rest and adjust.
At 5:30 pm, fans from both teams began to enter the stadium.
In less than 20 minutes, the North Stand, which was full of Chelsea fans wearing blue jerseys, while the Shepherd Stand on the south side was filled with more than 6,800 Southampton fans who came from afar.
Before the game started and the players came on the field, fans of both teams were already singing their team songs to each other from a distance.
Although Southampton and Chelsea are not mortal enemies, or even arch-rivals, long ago, when Southampton was still a Premier League team, every time they played against Chelsea, there would be some minor conflicts between the players and fans of both sides.
This is probably related to the red and white roses. After all, London and Southampton have been inherently hostile to each other for centuries.
Now, although Southampton has become a League One team, and Chelsea has leapt from the middle and lower levels of the Premier League to the top of the Premier League under the strong intervention of Abramovich, the Southampton people still cannot tolerate the bad habits of the West Londoners, especially since Chelsea club has been openly poaching their star player Gu Ran.
This undisguised poaching behavior was also regarded as an arrogant provocation by the Southampton Saints' diehard fans. Therefore, the Saints fans were not afraid of this asymmetric game at all. Even if they lost, the Saints fans would definitely not be afraid of the Blues fans.
5:50 p.m.
The coaches of both teams attended the pre-match press conference in the press center of Stamford Bridge.
This pre-match press conference attracted reporters from major British media outlets, and even media reporters from other European countries came.
Another match that was taking place at the same time as this one was between Manchester United and Tottenham. Judging from the number of stars on both sides, the match between Manchester United and Tottenham should have attracted more attention, but judging from the number of media present, it is obvious that this side is the one that attracts the most attention from the world.
Who wouldn't want to see the performance of Gu Ran, the super star who led the English League One team to the League Cup quarter-finals? Who wouldn't want to know which club this God's favorite, who is being chased by many giants, will choose as his real starting point? Any news about Gu Ran will attract huge traffic! This is why the news media are flocking to it! Before the press conference officially started, Coach Adkins took the initiative to shake hands with Chelsea's current head coach Carlo Ancelotti.
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(End of this chapter)