Chapter 303 Friendly Tacit Understanding

When the team scored again, Chelsea players all unconsciously looked towards the coaching seats on the sidelines.

This attack was completely planned by Wang Li, who privately tampered with the coach's tactics, but all Chelsea players participated. When they attacked just now, they relied on their momentum, thinking that the law does not punish the masses, and this might also be a matter of whim. But now that the attack is over, even if they have scored a goal, they are still somewhat cowardly.

Although Mr. Jose Mourinho spends most of his time in the office, he seems to be born with a majestic leadership temperament that makes these players afraid and terrified. This may be another reason for the Portuguese's success.

Fortunately, Mr. Mourinho on the coaching bench seemed to be in a good mood, and was chatting and laughing with assistant coach Clark. This made many players breathe a sigh of relief and feel more courageous.

So, after the game resumed, Chelsea began to adopt a change from 433 to 41212 with the consent of all the players on the field, and the positions of the two full-backs were also slightly forward. In this way, although Chelsea's defensive intensity was reduced, their offensive ability suddenly increased.

The best defense is offense!!

Now, Carl Farmhouse Stadium is interpreting this concept.

Chelsea's attack made Fulham helpless. In order to defend against the waves of attack, they could only choose to retreat. In this way, they had no real strength in counterattack. There was only one old Andy Cole in the frontcourt. Even if he was still in his prime, how could he defeat the solid defense formed by Claude Makelele, John Terry and other generals! ?

The main initiator of the attack was still Wang Li.

After the restart, Wang Li consciously stood a little further back so that he could direct the team's attack. As the core of the attack, he often took on tasks such as passing the ball, attracting attention, and shooting. It can be said that at least a quarter of Fulham's defense now rests on him.

However, this was almost useless. Wang Li was still playing to his heart's content in front of the penalty area, causing headaches for the Fulham players. At this time, goalkeeper Mark Crossley was definitely the most nervous person in the game, because he had to face Chelsea's cold shots almost all the time.

If it was 10 years ago, facing this kind of game, he would definitely be excited, because this kind of game can definitely improve his personal ability, but it is different now. Crossley is 36 years old. Facing Chelsea's offensive intensity, he feels that every minute and every second on the green field is torture.

As time went by, Fulham was about to lose the ball again.

The white-clad fans in the stadium were all nervous, watching Chelsea's offensive drill nervously, with mixed feelings in their hearts. It was obvious that the gap in strength between the two teams from the same Fulham area had widened to a peak, and Chelsea, an outside team, was no longer comparable to Fulham.

In this situation, Fulham players' movements in defense gradually became bigger.

In the 41st minute of the game, after receiving a pass from Wang Li on the wing, Arkin Robben took a step forward and tried to cut inside when he reached the outside of the penalty area. However, he was knocked to the ground by the opponent's French midfielder Malbranque.

Just one minute later, Drogba's shot was saved by the goalkeeper out of the penalty area. William Gallas, who came in from behind, was knocked to the ground by Diop just as he was about to stop the ball. This almost caused a conflict between the two teams.

After that, Lampard kicked the ball to Wang Li. On the right, Wang Li broke through and easily passed Maurice Waltz and Pembridge with two consecutive dribbles. This wonderful performance made the Blues fans excited and also left the Fulham defenders helpless. Finally, Thomas Radzinski, who returned to defense, grabbed Wang Li's jersey with his hand to stop Chelsea's attack.

In the last few minutes of the first half, Fulham's fouls became more and more frequent, and Chelsea players certainly did not want to be beaten like this. As a result, the two teams' movements near the center line became more and more violent, which made Mr. Mourinho's worries come true. If it continues like this, Chelsea will probably have injured players leaving the field soon. However, looking at the time, the game was about to enter the overtime period, and Mourinho did not say anything else.

But Chris Coleman couldn't help it!!

Fulham really can't afford to lose any player now. Their results in the league are not good, but they can still afford to lose a game. If a key player is injured, then their subsequent league results will definitely be affected. This approach is definitely not worth the loss.

When he was a professional player, Coleman's technical level was not outstanding, but he had a mind for analyzing the interests, and it was this mind that helped him lead Fulham to achieve good results in the past two seasons. Even if this was a derby, Coleman would not allow such irrational things to happen.

After thinking it over, even though the fourth official had already raised the substitution card, he still walked to the sidelines and shouted, "Slow down, this is a football game, don't play rugby against each other!!"

Under the gaze of everyone in the stadium, Coleman did not dare to mention the name of the team. Many people thought that this was a scolding of Chelsea, but Fulham players knew that the head coach was talking about them.

However, in Fulham Club, although Coleman's leadership performance is very good, due to his young age, his prestige in the team is not high. Now the confrontation on the field has become heated, and there are few people in the team who really listen to him.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Malbranque knocked Lampard to the ground again in front of the penalty area. This time, the referee Renie could no longer bear it and showed him a yellow card, but Malbranque just spread his hands indifferently, turned and walked towards his own half, preparing to form a human wall to defend this free kick.

This free kick was about 25 meters away from the fans, a little to the left of the middle of the penalty area, which was a very good position.

Wang Li stood in front of the ball, with his hands on his hips, looking at the human wall formed by Fulham.

After the referee signaled that a free kick could be taken, he took two deep breaths, waved his arms twice, and then swung his leg directly at the bottom of the ball. The football drew an arc in the air and went directly into the upper left corner of the goal.

Goalkeeper Mark Crossley was clearly helpless.

"gooooooooal!! Goal!! Dream curve!! Alan once again performed this classic dream curve free kick, it's perfect!! Scored twice, Chelsea leads by 3 goals!!" Although this was the third goal scored by Chelsea in the first half, Graham still felt very excited - "... I can't remember since when Alan has developed this free kick ability. This season Chelsea has the ability to score from free kicks. I believe that future opponents will have to think carefully even if they want to use fouls to stop their attacks. David Beckham went to the Bernabeu, but the Premier League welcomed Alan again. At least in terms of free kicks, we are already ahead of the world."

After Wang Li scored, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half. Chelsea players walked towards the locker room with laughter. Leading by 3 goals in the first half, they didn't feel any pre-match pressure at all.

The outcome of this derby seemed to have been decided. Many media present at the scene felt that there was nothing interesting about the match. The gap between the West London Derby and the London Derby was simply too big.

………Half-time, home team locker room at Carl Farmhouse Stadium.

Chris Coleman stood there with a gloomy face, looking at the Fulham players in the locker room. As a coach, he thought he had done a good job, at least in terms of results. He believed that as long as these players could obey his tactical command, it would be easy to keep their place in the Premier League.

But now Coleman's authority is being questioned.

There is no doubt that in the final stage of the first half, the players on the field did not obey his command at all. As a team head coach, this kind of thing is the most frustrating thing, even more infuriating than losing a few games.

"…….Do you think you are strong enough to win without me? Or do you want to leave Fulham and move to another team next month? "

After saying these two sentences word by word, Coleman closed his eyes twice, calmed himself down, and continued: "Maybe I'm too young, yes, too young, even Mark is one year older than me. But as long as I am still the head coach of Fulham, I have the right to direct the team's games, the right to decide who can play and who sits on the bench, and even the right to let any of you leave the team directly!!"

After hearing these words, the players in the locker room who had expressions of resentment on their faces lowered their heads.

Fulham may have many big-name players, but they are all out of date. Players in their prime years all want to perform well in the team so that their future will be more promising. Although Coleman is not only 35 years old, he does have the right to decide how these players will perform in the next year. As long as he keeps putting them on the bench, what will happen in the future! ?

Seeing the expressions of these players, Coleman felt much more relieved, and then he said: "When Chelsea scored the first goal, I had already given up the game. The gap between the two teams is obvious. I don't want this game that is bound to be lost to affect Fulham's future league results, and I don't want any of you to get injured. Do you understand?"

Hearing Coleman's statement, Malbranque, who has played for the club for four seasons, said unconvincedly: "But the opponent is Chelsea, this is a derby."

"What derby?" Coleman stared at the Frenchman and pointed at him. "I don't know what other meaning this game has. It's just an ordinary league game! Win or lose, we still get three points. The FA won't deduct points from Fulham if we lose. The team's mission this season is to avoid relegation. I won't allow anyone to become an obstacle to this goal. Do you understand?"

Seeing the rare anger on the young head coach's face, the team captain Mark stepped forward cautiously and asked, "Sir, how do we play in the second half?"

36-year-old Mark Crossley called 35-year-old Chris Coleman "Sir", which seemed very unharmonious to bystanders, but the atmosphere in the locker room seemed normal at that time.

Coleman thought for a moment and said, "We will still play defensive counterattack in the second half. Remember, the focus of defensive counterattack is on defense, but don't make too big moves to anger your opponents. I hope that no one of you will be carried off the court on a stretcher during the game."

"...In the second half, Rosseño will play as a defensive midfielder. Pay attention to your cooperation with your teammates. Thomas, you will be in a position to move back a line. Pay attention to participating in defense near the center line. Andy, you will leave the court. McBride will come on..."

Although they were somewhat annoyed with the coach's tactic of giving up hope of winning, going all out and not committing fouls, the players also knew that the coach had no choice but to not let them make too big moves, perhaps for the team's future performance, but also for the health of the players. This at least made the Fulham players somewhat touched by Coleman's approach.

You know, if they lose the derby like this, the pressure will definitely be on the head coach and will have little to do with the players.

………Although the score was 3:0 in the first half, the atmosphere in the visiting team’s locker room was not as good as that of the home team.

After head coach Mourinho walked into the room, he also lost his temper like Coleman. Yes, the Portuguese was very dissatisfied with Chelsea's behavior at the end of the game, but it was almost over at that time, so he didn't say anything.

In the last few minutes of the game, Chelsea players were tackled several times by the opponent. Mourinho was very nervous every time. In the mind of the "madman", results are everything. Even though it was a derby, victory was enough. Chelsea scored a lot of goals, so what if they won 1 or 2 more goals? ?

However, these players obviously did not obey his command and tampered with the tactics without permission. Without anyone's command, they just changed the formation in the usual game and made adjustments naturally. This really made him laugh and cry.

During the 15-minute halftime break, Mr. Mourinho's saliva kept spitting for at least 10 minutes. When he felt a little thirsty and looked at the players with their heads down, he stopped talking with satisfaction and began to arrange tactics.

In the locker room, Mourinho couldn't help but leave a message: "I don't care how much you are worth or how you perform this season. If this happens again in the second half, don't even think about playing in the next game!!"

Wang Li felt depressed after hearing these words. It was obvious that Mr. Mourinho was talking about him.

………During the half-time break, after watching the fierce confrontation in the final stage of the first half, many media reporters were looking forward to the second half. Although there was almost no suspense in this game, for the reporters, the derby was not about the score, but about the momentum and entanglement.

'Maybe, something exciting will happen in the second half! ? ' Many reporters were thinking about this and were very excited.

Chelsea has never lacked big news this season. They have played every game with great fanfare. How could there be no big news in this derby match? ?

Unfortunately, the second half started uneventfully, with neither team changing tactics or launching any major offensive moves.

However, these reporters are still watching the news diligently. They believe that the news will come out soon. You know, in the few seasons since Fulham was promoted to the Premier League, every game with Chelsea has been extremely exciting. Even if the score is not significant, the scene is very exciting.

One minute... five minutes... ten minutes... twenty minutes... the media reporters finally gave up.

After the start of the second half, both teams seemed to have no desire to attack at all. Fulham, under the instruction of head coach Coleman, defended with all their might. Even when they had opportunities to attack, they always ended up poorly, and it seemed that they had no intention of equalizing the score at all.

During the half-time break, head coach Mourinho also arranged a defensive counterattack tactic. He did not want to push his opponent into a corner and force them to fight to the death. So with the invisible tacit understanding between the two head coaches, the game became a complete tacit battle. Both teams became weaklings and seemed to be delaying the game time.

At this time, Wang Li was standing near the center circle. Whenever he had the chance, he would counterattack, pass the ball to his teammates, and take a long shot from outside the penalty area. Compared with his previous performance, he was just coping with the game.

In fact, Wang Li also thought so in his heart. During the half-time break, he had already understood what Mourinho meant - to win the victory steadily.

In this situation, he was not stupid enough to play hard and anger his opponents. Although he was not afraid of the foul tactics of these Fulham players, it was different for other Chelsea players. He did not want to cause his teammates to get injured because of him.

In the 73rd minute of the game, the game finally started to change. Fulham midfielder Bocanegra passed the ball to the middle, and striker Tomasz Radzinski volleyed the ball into the net, and the score became 1:3.

After that, the game returned to the state at the beginning, and all the fans were drowsy.

At this moment, on the court, referee Renie became the most relaxed person. Before the game, he thought that officiating this game would be a busy job, but in the second half, both teams were too "soft". Even in the penalty area, there were no small moves. Renie ran hard for a long time, but he didn't see any fouls, which even made him feel a little bored.

In this situation, time passed slowly, many Fulham fans had begun to leave the stadium, and when the game was about to end, a large area of ​​the stadium was empty.

The Blues fans seemed to be in high spirits. After all, Chelsea were the leading side, and they were very interested even though the game was boring.

Finally, in the 89th minute of the game, Wang Li made a long shot from outside the Fulham penalty area, which added icing on the cake for Chelsea and gave the Blues, who had been silent for dozens of minutes, a chance to burst into cheers.

Despite the goal, Sky TV anchor Graham said listlessly: "The ball went in. The goal was scored by Chelsea youngster Alan Wong. He scored a hat trick in this game." - "However, the second half was really boring for both teams. They didn't seem to have any desire to attack. Fortunately, the game is over and my work for the day is almost over."

“Beep…”

With a long whistle, referee Rainey announced the end of the game.

At this time, the head coaches of both teams walked to the middle of the player tunnel at the same time, and shook hands with each other with smiles on their faces. The sincere expressions even made the reporters who filmed this scene feel that the two were good friends who had known each other for many years.

(To be continued)