Chapter 67: Comeback Battle! (1)
On February 3, 22 days after Wang Li was injured, he finally returned to Wolverhampton.
Tina originally disagreed with Wang Li returning to the club so early.
The doctor said that he would need to recover for a month, and Tina was worried that he would be injured again and affect his health. In order to reassure his mother, Wang Li had to let Tina give his foot a comprehensive examination. Only after she confirmed that there was no problem did Wang Li get the "pass".
During these days, the mood of the club teammates was somewhat low, and they all trained very seriously, especially the young players. Wolverhampton won 4 consecutive league games, which even made Dave the best coach of January. The media also praised the Wolverhampton team and even said that they had the strength to compete for the League Cup. But the next day, they lost 0:3 to Fulham, which made Dave very embarrassed and gave the players a wake-up call.
The next opponent is Wolverhampton's brother in distress - Portsmouth. They are also promoted to the Premier League for the first time. Moreover, a few rounds of the league ago, the two teams were ranked last and third from the bottom respectively, which gave them a sense of mutual sympathy.
However, the points gap has widened a lot now. Wolverhampton won 4 consecutive league games and grabbed 12 points in a month, rising to 13th place in the league, while Portsmouth tragically fell to the last place. Facing such a team of players, the club is very confident. Wang Li's recovery from injury gave Dave a tactical supplement, but considering his recovery from injury and the subsequent games against Manchester United and Arsenal, Dave decided not to let him start.
Wang Li was only slightly disappointed with this decision. After Portsmouth came Manchester United, and after Manchester United came Arsenal. He was looking forward to both games. Playing against such giants and quasi-giant teams would allow more fans to know him and arouse his fighting desire. As for Portsmouth? At his current level, he really looked down upon such a second-rate team.
The media is not very concerned about the match between the two newly promoted teams, because there is one biggest focus in this round: Chelsea vs. Arsenal.
Finally, on February 7, the battle was held at Molineux Stadium. As a newly promoted team, like Wolverhampton, Portsmouth did not have any big-name stars, which made the commentator Tonison Hasink in the studio lose interest in introducing the team.
"Next is Alan Wang? Our dancing prince has recovered from his injury? That's great!" When the commentator introduced Wang Li's name, the applause in the audience reached its peak. In Wolverhampton City, Wang Li has undoubtedly become one of the fans' favorite players.
Portsmouth coach Redknapp is definitely a cunning character. He knows that Wolverhampton has performed very well recently and will definitely take the initiative to attack at their home ground, so he arranged a 5311 defensive counterattack formation, with Smelding, who has a very fast dribbling speed, as the attacking midfielder, and only sent Shelingham to the front of the team. In this way, there will be more than 7 players involved in the defense on the back line. He just wants to maintain a draw and win.
This style of play is very embarrassing. Generally, this formation is only deployed when there is a huge gap in strength between the two teams. Redknapp saw that Wolverhampton would attack with all their strength and there would be loopholes in the defense, so Portsmouth would have many opportunities to counterattack.
Wang Li sat on the bench, watching the game seriously.
The teammates on the field almost surrounded Portsmouth's half. The ball was passed back and forth in Portsmouth's half. On the field, the opponent was almost unable to fight back, but he frowned.
"This match is not easy." Wang Li heard Dave's muttering next to him and nodded in agreement. There would only be two results if they continued playing like this: if Wolverhampton scored first, the match would be a foregone conclusion; or if Portsmouth made a surprise attack and the situation was instantly reversed, but Portsmouth's defense was extremely tight and it was not easy for Wolverhampton to score.
As Wang Li expected, Wolverhampton's players ran into big trouble. Throughout the first half, they had a possession rate of 77%, but they had few shots. The ball could not enter the penalty area and was kicked out. Portsmouth even made two quick counterattacks and almost scored a goal.
Although Dave told the players to stay calm and not be too impatient during the half-time break, but on the field, reason could never bury the players' desire to win. Kamara, Butler, and Cameron seemed determined to score a goal and all stood near the Portsmouth penalty area. This indeed put Portsmouth's goal in danger, but also left a huge loophole in Wolverhampton's defense.
"There's danger..." Wang Li saw it clearly from the bench. Smerding near the midline was almost unguarded, leaving only two veterans, Naylor and Erwin, standing steadily in the back. He turned his head and looked at Dave in confusion. In this situation, Dave should have warned him, but why was he still sitting there calmly?
Sure enough, not long after, Portsmouth scored a goal!
On the left side of the penalty area, Cameron's long shot was easily caught by goalkeeper Hislop, who kicked the ball forward. Smelding got the ball, passed Naylor's defense, and poked the ball to striker Shelingham. Facing the double-team of two veterans, Naylor and Irwin, Shelingham put on a gorgeous individual performance. While dribbling the ball quickly, he dodged Irwin at a large angle and then headed the ball towards the left corner of the goal. With Naylor's constant pressing, he kicked the ball into the upper right corner of the goal!
This goal made the fans in the audience silent. They didn't expect that Portsmouth, who had been suppressed throughout the game, would score the first goal! At this time, the cheers of hundreds of Portsmouth fans in the northwest corner even drowned out the entire Molineux Stadium. After reacting, the Wolverhampton fans certainly would not let them be arrogant in their own territory, and the uniform "boo" sound immediately filled the whole stadium.
The morale of the Wolverhampton team was somewhat low. They were the ones attacking throughout the game, but a quick counterattack from the opponent made everything a little ironic.
"It looks like my chance has come." Wang Li knew that Dave would never let Portsmouth win at Molineux Stadium. Sure enough, when the Portsmouth players were still celebrating the goal, Dave asked him to warm up.
"I have to say, Shelingham's goal was very beautiful. Facing two veterans, he...???" At this point, the camera turned and the commentator suddenly changed the subject: "Look at the sidelines! It's Alan, he is warming up? Is Dave going to let him play? Is his foot injury completely healed? The fourth official raised the sign, he really went on the court!!! Alan replaced Kamara, it seems that Dave let him score the goal!! "
The fans finally got excited when they saw the familiar black-haired boy standing on the sidelines. This boy always brought them victory!
"Alan, come on!"
"Alan, go after them and show them how powerful you are!"
"Alan, teach these Pompeii idiots a lesson!"
"Alan, you're the best!"
…
Seeing the black-haired boy preparing to play, Redknapp frowned deeply. He originally thought that this boy would not play, so he did not arrange any tactics against him. However, he did not expect that Dave actually left such an important trump card!
"Then let's see if this boy's strength is as outstanding as his reputation!"
I worked hard until 5am today... I'm leaving this message as a souvenir. I suddenly found that there is a scheduled release function today, which makes me very happy. I can also update on time in the future if I have something to do. Thanks to Qidian (not flattery)!
(I changed the dividing line because I felt that using ellipsis would always result in repetition)