Walton was actually not happy because this also meant that he was excluded from the main lineup for the battle against Tottenham.

Of course, Walton also knew that given his physical condition, it was indeed impossible for him to play in the League Cup final.

Swindon Town is a relegation team in English Football League One and is in last place.

They have had a terrible season and before the game, they were even worried that they would be beaten by Southampton in double digits.

However, as soon as the game started, they found that this Southampton team was simply a weakling!

Swindon Town immediately changed their tactics and began to attack fiercely.

Southampton, led by Walton, defended with all their might and looked for opportunities to counterattack.

The two sides played back and forth.

In the end, Southampton lost the game 1:4.

Although they lost the game, Southampton's position as the English League One champion was not shaken.

Moreover, young Ward Prowse played well in this game and scored a goal that saved Southampton's face.

3 days later.

That is, the day before the English League Cup final, Southampton took a bus to a hotel near Wembley Stadium in London.

Because it is a top domestic competition, Southampton Club also booked a hotel early so that the team can get the best rest before the game.

This game also attracted the attention of the whole of Britain, Europe and even the world.

Everyone had predicted that the League Cup final would be a battle between Manchester United and Chelsea, but unexpectedly, Redknapp's Tottenham eliminated Manchester United, while Adkins' Southampton eliminated Chelsea.

This is also known as the dark horse battle.

Of course, Tottenham is a strong team in the Premier League and cannot be considered a dark horse, but Southampton, a League One team, is definitely a dark horse to the end.

This alone is enough to excite the media reporters.

What made the media reporters even more excited was that Tottenham's star player Peter Crouch declared in an interview with the media before the game that Gu Ran was his brother, and he was very much looking forward to competing with his brother on the same field. His fiancée Abbey Clancy was also very much looking forward to it.

Speaking of which, Tottenham and Southampton have a close relationship.

Crouch and Gareth Bale are both stars from Southampton, and Tottenham's current head coach Harry Redknapp, commonly known as Old Ray, also once coached Southampton. Old Ray's son Jamie Redknapp, who was once saved by Higuita's "scorpion tail", also retired from the Southampton team.

Therefore, this League Cup match is quite exciting!

On the afternoon of the day the Southampton team checked into the hotel, coach Adkins led the team to Wembley Stadium for adaptive training.

As soon as they walked into the hotel lobby, the players were surrounded by media reporters and fans who came to support them.

It took about half an hour for the players to finally board the bus and head to the nearby Wembley Stadium.

Games like the finals must be held in a neutral, national-level stadium.

Of course, based on the geographical distance, Wembley Stadium is naturally closer to Tottenham Hotspur, so Tottenham Hotspur will definitely benefit from this game.

However, judging by the pre-sale ticket situation, fans of both teams are almost evenly divided.

After all, Tottenham has won the Carabao Cup four times, the most recent being in 2008.

When Southampton's bus arrived at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham had already completed a morning of adaptive warm-up, so Wembley Stadium was occupied by Southampton throughout the afternoon.

Wembley Stadium was first built in 1923, demolished and rebuilt in 2000 and completed in 2007 at a cost of 780 million pounds. It is a circular stadium with a diameter of nearly 300 meters, a 52-meter-high stand and the world's largest single-arch landmark at 133 meters high. It is the largest professional football stadium in Europe.

Wembley Stadium is also recognized as the greatest stadium in the world.

Even the lyrics of the Red Devils Manchester United's team song are: "Manchester United! Manchester United! We are the red boys! We are on the way to Wembley! Wembley! Wembley! We are the great Manchester United! We are on the way to Wembley!"

The Wembley in the lyrics refers to Wembley Stadium.

All the matches that can be held at Wembley Stadium are finals-level, such as the League Cup final, FA Cup final, Community Shield final, European Championship final, and UEFA Champions League final.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the temple of modern football.

Being able to win here, the sense of honor is absolutely supreme for a football player.

Wembley Stadium has had two very classic events in history, one is the "White Horse Final" and the other is the "Matthews Final".

The White Horse Final was a super event when Wembley Stadium hosted a football match for the first time.

No other game could surpass the grandeur of that event.

It was the FA Cup final on April 28, 1923, between West Ham United and Bolton.

In those days, there were no pre-sale tickets for the stadium, and there was not even the word "ticket". Fans only had to pay at the entrance of the stadium to go in and watch the game - and they could even bargain.

The result was that more than 300,000 fans flocked to Wembley Stadium, which was originally designed to accommodate 127,000 people standing to watch the game.

Before the game started, there were so many fans that they were squeezed from the stands into the stadium, resulting in the stadium being full of people and the game being delayed in starting.

The fans started making noise before the game even kicked off.

300,000 people, the slightest carelessness could lead to a major accident.

At this time, a mounted policeman named George Scollay rode his white horse Billy and whipped the fans in the stadium back to the stands, and the game was barely kicked off.

The shot of Scolari riding a white horse slowly moving through the black crowd has become the most profound memory of that game, even more than the game itself.

The reason why it has not been surpassed by later generations is that since the first game at Wembley Stadium, the English Football Association has started a ticketing system to strictly control the number of people entering for safety reasons.

Although there are always people who sneak into the stadium through connections under the ticket sales system, the number of people is finally controlled within 150,000.

Later, after the standing tickets were cancelled and the stadium underwent two renovations, the current seating capacity of Wembley Stadium has become 90,000.

Although it is far less than the 300,000 people at the peak of the first game, the enthusiasm of watching football has not been extinguished for a hundred years.

To commemorate this famous "White Horse Final", after the completion of the new Wembley Stadium in 2007, the English Football Association named a bridge leading to the city center from the stadium as "White Horse Bridge".

...(End of this chapter)