Chapter 333: Killing the Last Hope

In the 38th minute of the first half, Wolverhampton finally scored a goal thanks to a follow-up shot by young player Harrison Clark.

When Wolverhampton head coach Dave Jones saw Harrison score, he excitedly stood up from the coaching bench and gave the assistant coach a big hug. At this time, he even thought that this goal would be the turning point of the whole game.

This is not Dave Jones' arrogance. In fact, in this season, Wolverhampton rarely had a strong start. Most of the wins were from the bottom of the game, and Harrison was always the key to scoring goals.

Now, Dave Jones is under too much pressure.

The most important reason is the team's unstable performance in the Premier League. Compared with Wolverhampton's glory last season, when countless media reporters flocked to the team, it is much worse now. This makes Dave Jones, who always likes to be in the spotlight, feel very dissatisfied and helpless.

And now, in a passive situation, the team finally scored a goal, which made the English coach breathe a sigh of relief.

Perhaps, the following game will be Wolverhampton's time. They took the initiative and pressed Chelsea, equalized the score in the first half, and then relied on defensive counterattack tactics in the second half to launch a sharp attack and finally win the away game.

This is the game plan that Dave Jones is currently thinking about.

Unfortunately, this was more of a one-sided idea. On the field, after Wolverhampton finished celebrating, Chelsea launched a high-quality attack. Finally, Wang Li's powerful long-range shot that brushed the post once again set off cheers from the Blues fans, and also told all Wolverhampton supporters that control of the game still belonged to Chelsea.

"G... Oh my god, Allen's super long shot!" The commentator Creed Pesvak was ready to shout "Goal!"

"What a pity, the ball hit the crossbar and went out of the bottom line. Maybe Allen paid too much attention to the angle. With such a powerful shot, as long as it hit the frame, there would be a chance of scoring. What a pity."

But it doesn't matter, Chelsea's attack continues.

Just three minutes later, Wolverhampton's defense was torn apart by Wang Li's breakthrough. They had to increase the number of people defending Wang Li. As a result, the defense on the two flanks became much more careless. After Joe Cole got the ball on the left, he passed it straight to Didier Drogba, who got a very good opportunity.

"Drogba broke away... turned around... and his shot was saved. They were really lucky." Pesvak's words were full of regret, as if Chelsea's failure to score was God's fault: "The opponent's goalkeeper Paul Jones is really strong and he was able to save this kind of ball. I can only say that they were lucky enough today."

Near the end of the first half, Wolverhampton finally got a good counterattack opportunity.

Due to the massive attack, Chelsea's defense line was pressed slightly forward, which allowed Pete to successfully counter-attack again. Fortunately, due to the previous negligence, captain John Terry had been watching Pete, so the English boy was knocked to the ground by the rude man. Wolverhampton got a free kick in a good position, and Terry received a yellow card.

It is worth mentioning that Terry has to miss the next round of the Premier League as his appeal against suspension for accumulating five yellow cards has failed. This yellow card is already the fourth consecutive game he has received a yellow card. According to the rules of the Premier League, Terry may very likely miss two consecutive rounds of the league. Of course, this depends on the efficiency of the FA.

"This is a free kick in a good position, about 25 meters away from the goal. I hope the Chelsea boys can keep the ball, or at least go back to rest with the advantage. Although I don't think Wolverhampton has the ability to end Chelsea's winning streak, the advantage will always make the fans feel better."

Wolverhampton captain Kennedy took the ball thrown by his teammate and walked directly to the penalty spot.

At Wolverhampton, Kennedy has always been the team's midfield core and penalty taker. His position is equivalent to Lampard's previous position at Chelsea, and his penalty level is not much inferior. Although he has only scored 2 goals in 17 league games this season, which is far from Harrison, his importance in the team is unquestionable.

Wolverhampton does not have enough funds to introduce a strong midfield core, so relatively speaking, Kennedy's position in the team is the most stable.

"He's the captain of Wolverhampton. We understand that the former England international is pretty good at taking free throws. I hope young Thomas can keep this ball."

Chelsea captain John Terry looked up at the scoreboard. It was already the 45th minute of the first half. He calculated in his mind that after this penalty kick, Chelsea would probably only have one more chance to attack. According to the team's attacking speed, if they couldn't score, Wolverhampton would probably have time to complete another attack.

So, he walked to the penalty area line and began to deliberately direct the team to form a human wall. He also walked to the referee and began to complain about the Wolverhampton players' positions being always unreasonable, too many small movements, etc. In fact, he was just wasting time.

In this regard, John Terry was obviously experienced. Even the referee Gallagher could not figure out what his purpose was. He just turned his head to look at the penalty area, waved his hand perfunctorily, and warned all the players on the field to be more restrained in their actions.

During this process, one minute had been wasted. Seeing that it was almost time, John Terry went back to participate in Chelsea's defense. At a whistle from Gallagher, Kennedy trotted two steps and kicked the ball under the edge.

As the Blues fans watched anxiously, the football drew a crescent-shaped trajectory in the air and headed straight for the goal corner. This wonderful scene made the Blues fans' hearts rise to their throats.

"Beautiful!" Creed Pesvak shouted

"A beautiful shot and an even more beautiful save, Thomas, Chelsea's young player Weah Thomas Clarke saved the ball and made a great contribution to Chelsea. Oh my God, it was so wonderful."

On the field, Wolverhampton captain Kennedy knew the moment he kicked the ball he would score, but reality did not go his way. In other words, he was too wishful.

Thomas's reaction was so fast. From the replay, we can see that the moment Kennedy kicked the ball, he reacted and immediately rushed in one direction. With both hands, he pressed the spinning half-high ball to the ground and then threw it into his arms. The whole process was really wonderful.

Looking at the tall white man and then at the black-haired boy on the field, Kennedy, as a senior, looked lonely. Both of them were from the Wolverhampton youth team, and now they are standing in the opponent's camp at the same time, and each one is performing better than the other. How can this not make people sigh?

Then he turned around and looked at the short and wretched forward of his own team. His performance this season was undoubtedly perfect. They were both geniuses of the Wolverhampton youth team, but now they had become opponents on the court.

'Maybe he will leave next season,' Kennedy couldn't help but think sadly.

After just one season, last year's golden generation of Wolverhampton youth team fell apart.

Wang Li joined Chelsea, and after the unknown team's backup goalkeeper Thomas transferred, he also joined Chelsea with his outstanding performance. The once most dazzling talents Harrison and Pete remained in Wolverhampton's first team, but now, at least even Dave Jones can't guarantee whether Harrison will be the next Alan Wang, and can't guarantee whether he will leave Wolverhampton after the end of the season.

This is the tragedy of small clubs. After the geniuses they produce become famous, leaving is an inevitable choice.

"The future belongs to the young." Kennedy felt a little sad when he thought of this. Although he was not old, it was very difficult for him to improve his skills.

………

In fact, at this time, he was no longer allowed to express his feelings.

After Thomas caught the ball, he reacted immediately and swung his arm to pass the ball to Scott Parker outside the penalty area. After receiving the ball, the latter turned around and took two steps forward. Before Pete stepped forward to grab the ball, he made a diagonal pass to Wang Li in the middle.

Because of Wolverhampton's free kick just now, many players went to assist, which made their defensive numbers a little scattered. There were only three players from the center line back, namely Butler, Okoronkwo and Naylor.

These three players were certainly not lined up in a straight line. As a full-back, Nigerian international Okoronkwo was standing a little to the left. If he wanted to rush over and affect Wang Li's dribbling attack, he would need to run a long distance.

Therefore, there were only Naylor and Butler on Wang Li's offensive route.

Wang Li is already very familiar with these two players. They were both players of Wolverhampton last season. As a veteran, Butler is experienced, but lacks speed and physical fitness. Naylor has strong personal defensive ability, but is not very good at coordinated defense.

Of course, for Wang Li, when dribbling past an opponent, it doesn’t matter whether the opponent’s defense is strong or weak. The most important thing is speed.

Perhaps what impressed Wang Li's teammates the most about Wolverhampton was his speed. Last season, Wolverhampton had countless successful defensive counterattacks, and a large part of them relied on Wang Li's speed.

So, after the two of them looked at each other, the experienced Butler stepped forward to grab the ball, while Naylor slowly backed away to prevent the black-haired boy in front of him from using his speed to overpower them.

This defensive method does show their tacit understanding and will also pose a great threat to players attacking alone, but the opponent is Wang Li. If the two people in front of him are replaced by Carvalho and Terry, Wang Li may have a headache, but the abilities of Naylor and Butler can no longer arouse Wang Li's interest.

So, all the fans in the stadium saw the black-haired boy on the field directly push the ball forward, and his body passed Butler very lightly. Then, in the nick of time, he put his toes on the football that had rolled to Naylor's feet, let it change direction, and then ran past Naylor very naturally. The whole process of passing the ball seemed natural, but it was incredible to think about it. Naylor and Butler could not delay the black-haired boy's dribbling of the ball for even a second. This was too terrible.

Facing this result, Dave Jones was obviously very angry. He pointed in the direction of Nike with both hands and kept cursing, "What are you doing?" It seemed that he was about to go on the field himself. Unfortunately, this obviously had no effect. Even the referees ignored his somewhat extraordinary behavior and all stared at the Wolverhampton goal on the field, which was facing a crisis.

The following scene was the same as most people imagined. Facing the attack of Wolverhampton goalkeeper Paul Jones, Wang Li made a light high lob shot, and the ball fell straight into the net, making the score between the two teams 3:1, widening the gap of two goals again, and making coach Dave Jones' heart sink to the bottom again.

He loves and hates this black-haired boy.

What he loves is that, thanks to Wang Li's outstanding performance, he is still able to fight in the Premier League. What he hates is... he no longer has time to think so much.

“Beep…”

After Wang Li scored the goal, referee Gallacher also blew the whistle to end the first half. John Terry's time-delaying tactics were indeed effective. At least in the first half, Wolverhampton had no chance.

In just 45 minutes, Chelsea scored 3 goals. This game is the last league game before Christmas. Obviously, Chelsea wants to use a big win as a Christmas gift for the fans. Are you satisfied with this gift? "

“Chelsea is the strongest

………

At the end of the first half, Chelsea took advantage of Wolverhampton's lax defense and Wang Li's individual performance widened the score again. This dealt a very serious blow to Wolverhampton's morale. They walked out of the stadium in a daze and went to the visiting team's locker room to rest and prepare for the second half of the game.

At this time, Dave Jones was obviously in a bad mood. In the entire first half, Wolverhampton only scored one goal, which was not a small number, but Chelsea scored more, which made him see no hope of winning at all.

In fact, although Dave Jones's own level is not very good, he has a quality that few other coaches have, that is, never give up to any team.

Even though Chelsea's tactics were brilliant this season, Jones still wanted to win at Stamford Bridge before the game. Perhaps this was closely related to his love of "fantasy". If other lower-tier Premier League teams met Chelsea, they would basically give up directly, but Dave Jones would not. Even though the team was already two goals behind, he still held a glimmer of hope for victory.

So, during the half-time break, he scolded everyone in the hope of cheering up the team. Of course, this did not include Harrison who scored a goal. He has always been very tolerant of this young player.

Pete was also among those who were scolded. Dave Jones was obviously very angry that he missed the one-on-one shot, especially when he thought that the opponent's goalkeeper was the substitute goalkeeper of Wolverhampton youth team more than a year ago.

“When you saw that big white guy, did your legs go weak?

"You get so nervous when you have a chance to score? How can we play like this? Should we replace you in the second half and let you sit on the bench and watch how your teammates play?"

………

Despite this, Dave Jones did not replace Pete with Miller. Anyway, Pete's performance in the first half was very good, and that goal was also closely related to his performance.

After the start of the second half, Wolverhampton replaced the underperforming veteran defender Butler and midfielder Paul Ince with two powerful midfielders introduced this season. This was a clarion call. Dave Jones obviously no longer believed in these experienced veterans. You know, almost everyone in Chelsea is experienced, and the physical fitness and personal abilities of these veterans are too far behind the opponent, and their experience cannot help the team much.

But what he didn't expect was that just as the second half began, Chelsea, who were leading by two goals, did not slow down the rhythm of the attack at all, and launched a powerful offensive again, repeating the situation at the end of the first half. Now most of Wolverhampton's players are young players. In this passive situation, the strength they can exert is really limited.

Just 3 minutes into the second half, Joe Cole's cold shot was saved by the goalkeeper and Chelsea got a corner kick opportunity.

Frank Lampard took a corner kick from the left side, and goalkeeper Paul Jones rushed out, but Wolverhampton's defense made a mistake. Wayne Bridge, who was standing in front, reacted quickly. He shook his head at the flying football, and the ball flew into the net from the side of defender Naylor.

Because it all happened so fast, Naylor, who was guarding the front point, had no reaction at all.

At this time, even the Sky TV commentator Graham shouted excitedly. Before, apart from Wang Li, he only liked Arjen Robben and Joe Cole among Chelsea's players. But now he added another name to the list in his mind, Wayne Bridge. It must be said that this header was really beautiful. As a full-back, he could score such an excellent goal, which was perfect!

"In the 49th minute of the game, Bridge and Wayne Bridge scored the fourth goal for Chelsea. This header directly changed the score to 4:1. The winner was decided. Wolverhampton's meager resistance looked so ridiculous. Chelsea was too strong."