Chapter 365 The First Championship Trophy

The Cardiff Millennium Stadium is located in Cardiff, Wales. It is the national stadium of Wales and is mainly used for rugby union (rugbunion) matches and the national home venue for international rugby matches.

This stadium was once the largest stadium in the UK, with a capacity of 74,500 spectators and a retractable roof. The stadium has a grand architectural style and after expansion, its seats reached 82,000. Stadiums of this size are among the best in the entire British Isles.

Now, England's most famous Wembley Stadium is being renovated, so this magnificent stadium will be used as the stadium for the FA Cup final and the League Cup final, which greatly enhances the popularity of the Millennium Stadium.

On February 27, the 45th English League Cup final was held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, with Chelsea and Liverpool facing off against each other.

Yesterday, all Chelsea players arrived in Cardiff, Wales. Everyone in Chelsea attached great importance to this game. This is the first time in many years that Chelsea has a chance to win the championship. Even the club chairman Mr. Abramovich came to watch the game and cheered for the players in the locker room before the game.

The same is true for Liverpool. After failing to win the league title for many years, this former super giant is about to fall into the second-rate team. The entire Liverpool needs a championship trophy to give the players more motivation and support the team's future development.

.

Before the game, Liverpool had just experienced a "Gerrard incident". Steven Gerrard publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the team in the media. He emphasized: "I like Liverpool very much, but as a professional player, I also want to win the championship. If Liverpool still can't win the championship this season, I will consider leaving in the summer transfer."

Gerrard's remarks caused a huge uproar, but no media outlets criticized him, and no fans claimed that Gerrard was a traitor. They really understood this English tough guy who was deeply marked by the Liverpool logo.

As one of the world's top midfielders, Gerrard has played for Liverpool for 8 years. During these 8 years, his performance has been very stable, but he only won the pseudo treble of the English Football Cup, English League Cup and UEFA Cup in the 00/01 season, the European Super Cup in 01/02 and the English League Cup in 02/03.

Among all these championships, there is no league championship or Champions League championship, that is to say, all the championships are of little value, which is really hard to accept for a strong professional player. If he still cannot win any significant championship in Liverpool this season, then Gerrard's choice to leave is understandable to everyone.

After Gerrard made this announcement, Mourinho immediately seized the opportunity and contacted Gerrard's agent, who said: "If Steven agrees to leave Liverpool, he will consider Chelsea first."

This made Mourinho feel very happy recently, and he was looking forward to the final even more. He wanted to agree to Liverpool immediately, snatch all their championships, and bring Steven Gerrard to Stamford Bridge. He was even thinking about how the "Double D combination" should be used on the field! !

All of the above was hyped up by the English media. Before the League Cup started, this was definitely shocking news!!

As Chelsea's undisputed No. 1, Wang Li also said in an interview with reporters: "When I was in the England team, I played with Steven. He is very strong. If I can become his teammate, it will definitely feel good. I welcome him."

All these things have given the League Cup final a deeper meaning. Many media reporters feel that this game may become a stage for Gerrard to show his strength for his new club before his transfer, which can make the game more suspenseful and entertaining.

However, there are still few media that believe that Liverpool will win, because the gap between the two teams is too big. In addition to injuries, the two teams also have an unbridgeable gap in strength, record, etc. It can be said that Liverpool and Chelsea are now teams of two different levels.

However, no one could have expected that the game itself would be so exciting.

The underdog Liverpool gained the advantage right from the start.

Only 45 seconds into the game, center back Luis Garcia passed the ball to Morientes on the right. The Spaniard encountered tight defense on the Chelsea wing while dribbling the ball. In the melee, Garcia successfully broke through and made a cross. Paulo Ferreira, who started the game, made a mistake in defense. After receiving the ball, Gerrard turned around and volleyed with his left foot into the far corner at 10 meters on the left side of the penalty area. Faced with this shot, goalkeeper Peter Cech, who started the game, was powerless.

1:0! !

In less than a minute, Liverpool took the lead.

The goal came too quickly, which made the fans in the audience a little unbelievable. After Liverpool scored, Benítez reacted quickly. He immediately made adjustments, strengthened the team's defense, and started a defensive counterattack.

.

Benítez's tactics were correct. As soon as Liverpool scored a goal, Chelsea launched a continuous and fierce attack! !

Wang Li played as a right midfielder in this game. As a striker, his main task was of course to score goals. However, after Benítez made adjustments, Liverpool's morale was boosted and the right side was the focus of their defense. Throughout the first half, Wang Li did not get any good opportunities. This made him realize that even if Liverpool, who had been defeated by Chelsea many times, exerted their full strength, they would not be easy to deal with.

Fortunately, Chelsea's efforts were not in vain. In the 77th minute, in order to get rid of the defensive players, Wang Li made a large transfer from the middle to the right bottom line, and a lob gave his teammates a chance.

Gerrard jumped high and tried to clear the ball, but his clearance was not strong enough, which gave Arkin Robben, who started the game, a chance. The latter volleyed the ball to equalize the score for Chelsea.

Afterwards, the coach Benítez, who felt that the game was out of control, completely gave up his face and immediately arranged for the team to defend with all their strength, trying to drag the game into overtime. This tactic was successful. Facing the full defense of Liverpool's 11 players, Wang Li had no good way to deal with it even if he had outstanding footwork.

However, after the start of overtime, Wang Li's greater advantage gradually emerged. When many players were unable to run, his physical fitness was still able to support long-distance runs. In the 106th minute, Wang Li dribbled the ball from Liverpool's hinterland near the midline, and finally broke the deadlock for Chelsea with a long shot, and the score became 2:1.

Just three minutes later, it was still Wang Li who was pulled down by a Liverpool player in front of the penalty area, and Chelsea got a free kick in a good position.

Wang Liyong launched a free kick with his right foot. The ball was very powerful, but the angle was not tricky due to the influence of the human wall, so goalkeeper Dudek still saved it. Drogba reacted quickly and followed closely with a fierce shot that kicked the ball straight into the net.

3:1! !

From 0:1 to 3:1, from leading at the beginning to being two goals behind now.

Liverpool went through a process from joy to hope, from hope to loss, and from loss to despair.

At the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, the Blues fans were filled with joy, while Liverpool fans were in despair. The local Welsh fans who came to watch the game still preferred Chelsea, because Chelsea's performance this season was too good! ?

As a result, the whole audience still erupted in enthusiastic cheers, as if they were celebrating the championship.

But the final score was not this.

Conceding two goals in a row in extra time was definitely a despairing thing, but Liverpool fans were extremely eager for the championship. With everyone working together, even though there was not much time left in the game, Gerrard still managed to score a goal for the team with a header in the 113th minute, but it was too late. In the end, Chelsea still managed to turn the tables and defeat Liverpool as they wished.

The game was thrilling and the winner was not decided until the second half of extra time. No one had expected this before the game, but in the end Chelsea got the League Cup trophy as they wished, and Wang Li also won his first championship.

For Chelsea, this is the 10th championship title in the club's history and the first championship won by Abramovich and European champion coach Mourinho since they took over Stamford Bridge. This is very meaningful.

After the game, Wang Li and his teammates celebrated the victory. The whole team was delighted, and Mourinho became the protagonist of the team. Although his face was still grim when celebrating, he was treated like a hero by the Blues fans.

.

However, Mourinho generously stepped forward to comfort the defeated Liverpool players this time. Afterwards, Wang Li once again won the best player of the final, and he also lifted the silver trophy representing the championship on behalf of Chelsea.

However, this is just an English League Cup, and this trophy is somewhat useless. Wang Li did not get complacent about it. He knew that Chelsea and he himself would have to chase more championships this season, and the journey had just begun. An English League Cup was nothing. The league championship and the European championship were the most important.

…………Winning the English League Cup is a good start for Chelsea. Although the game process was a bit dangerous, it is indeed a good start for this season's championship.

However, many non-Chelsea supporting media in England began to laugh at the team. They kept mocking Chelsea for being so happy just by winning the English League Cup, which was really pitiful. A report in "English Football" even used the headline "The Chelsea are just an upstart, they have only won 10 championships in a hundred years" to mock Chelsea.

In fact, both the English media and fans are well aware that the League Cup has now become one of the useless trophies that English Premier League teams can get. If it is better than trophies such as the Charity Shield, it is only in determining the qualification for the League Cup qualifiers. However, for top teams such as Chelsea and Manchester United, they can directly enter the Champions League with their league results. The qualification for the League Cup is meaningless. In this way, the League Cup is indeed a bit useless. At most, it is just a high-quality warm-up match. Even though Chelsea has put a lot of effort into this event, the fans do not think it makes any sense.

In England, the most valuable trophies are the League Championship and the Champions League, but for English fans, the most historically significant trophy is the FA Cup.

As for the English League Cup, it can only be a bonus. For example, after Chelsea won the league championship and the Champions League, the media could brag that "the Blues have achieved the feat of winning the Triple Crown". At this time, the League Cup was mentioned as a bonus. If Chelsea only won the League Cup this season, the media would naturally ignore this championship and say bluntly, "This was a fruitless season and Chelsea failed miserably."

This is the true reality of the English League Cup.

Not only that, after Chelsea showed an attitude of not refuting, many media focused on the process of the game. They believed that Chelsea did not win the championship by force, but only won the championship by luck. With such strength, it would be like a dream to want to win the "quadruple crown"! !

Wang Li's performance was also criticized by many media. Since he did not score in the first 90 minutes, The Guardian even directly stated that "Allen's heroics have come to an end, and his super performance will soon return to mediocrity."

As for Liverpool's heroic performance in defense during the game???

They don't care.

"From this game, we can see that Chelsea's performance has become increasingly unsatisfactory after the first half of the league. Although they won the final championship, the whole process was very thrilling. Perhaps they were able to defeat Liverpool more by luck. And young player Alan Wang's performance was not good either. His attack in the 106th minute was not enough to prove his strength." - A report from The Guardian.

Earlier, when the media ridiculed Chelsea as a nouveau riche, it was justified. Chelsea did not make any official statement, and head coach Mourinho wanted to use this as a motivation for the players to win more victories. As a nouveau riche, defeating the giants to win more championships is not a legendary great football road! ?

But then the media started to ridicule the game and made groundless attacks, which directly angered Mourinho! !

As the head coach of Chelsea, Mourinho has a bad temper. Although it is true that Chelsea has won few championships in history, Mourinho hopes to win more championships this season. He hopes to use the League Cup to boost the morale of the players and use the media's criticism as motivation to win the championship.

However, now those media have directed the topic to the competition itself, which he cannot accept.

Anyway, Chelsea's performance is definitely not bad!!

In the entire championship process, the team defeated Newcastle, a mid-level Premier League team, Manchester United, a Premier League giant, and finally won the championship with Liverpool. If you say that the League Cup is useless, Mourinho agrees, because this event has nothing to do with Chelsea except bringing a commemorative trophy. But in terms of the game itself, it is still very exciting, and the players' performance is also very good.

It is okay to mock the trophy, but it is unacceptable to mock Chelsea's strength.

The originally happy mood of winning a championship was disrupted by the English media, making the entire Chelsea team feel frustrated and angry! !

How can I swallow this breath? ? ?

Facts have proved that Chelsea is by no means a soft persimmon and the Portuguese are by no means easy to mess with. That afternoon, Chelsea Club issued an official statement, saying that it "rejects interviews from the following 12 media outlets: The Guardian, The Manchester Evening News, English Football..."

"We have limited strength and cannot play exciting games. Winning a League Cup is already surprising enough. We can only say that our vision is still at the stage of 'nouveau riche'. So, those media reporters who look down on the League Cup trophy and Chelsea's performance, Chelsea will not welcome you in the future." In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Chelsea Club CEO Peter Kenyon said bluntly.

One stone can cause a thousand waves! !

As soon as this official statement was released, it was strongly resisted by the media. In addition to the media that fully supported Chelsea, even the neutral media began to oppose it. In their view, Chelsea's move was an act of declaring war on the English media! !

Even The Times said: "This approach is wrong. The development of modern football is inseparable from the press. Openly refusing interviews from many media will put Chelsea into a vicious circle. Their players will not become famous and the club will not make money..."

etc.

However, fans in London found the report boring.

For Chelsea, as long as they win more than 3 championships this season, what does it matter if all the English media refuse to report it! ? ——They will still be known to everyone!!

As for the players not becoming famous! ? ——Chelsea is not a small club, they do not survive by buying and selling players, and all the players in the first team were famous before joining Chelsea.

The club will not make money!? - Can you expect a club that loses more than 80 million euros a year to make money!? It's a fantasy! !

In short, the reasons given by these media are completely invalid for Chelsea. In this case, Mourinho's extraordinary courage quickly triggered a discussion war within the English media. However, while these journalists were still discussing, in addition to the pure "anti-Chelsea" faction like The Guardian who continued to work hard to attract allies, those media with interview rights nodded and ran to Chelsea, blocking the club's gate waiting to find interview targets.

…………