Chapter 845 Four Crowns

Sometimes, things are just weird.

From Paris, France to Monaco, the time difference is one day, but the weather is completely different.

It was a sunny day in Paris, and Yang Huan could stroll leisurely on the streets of Paris, admiring the beauty of this fashion capital and savoring the romantic French style.

But when we arrived in Monaco, the sky was overcast and it was raining heavily.

Faced with such terrible weather, Yang Huan was too lazy to go out and simply stayed in the hotel, playing games, chatting on WeChat, and chatting with UEFA President Platini who came to supervise the game.

Southampton's Stadium of Honor has already passed the five-star stadium assessment, and after Platini's operation, there are basically no major problems in applying to host the UEFA Champions League final.

There are still two years left, and Southampton is under a lot of pressure.

Yang Huan even had a special talk with the Duke of Westminster and Prime Minister Hamad about this matter. They all decided to speed up the project and complete the renovation of Southampton's old town before the Champions League final.

The mayor of Southampton, Terry Matthews, also regarded this banquet as a shining moment in his political career, and even took it more seriously than Yang Huan himself.

We stayed in the hotel for the whole day. In the evening, the rain stopped, the dark clouds dispersed, and a rainbow appeared in the sky.

This made Master Huan feel a little better.

Playing in the rain is a huge disadvantage for Southampton.

At 19:45 in the evening, the European Super Cup officially kicked off.

Perhaps because the opponent is Sevilla, almost half of the people who come to the Stade Louis II are Saints fans, and the voices supporting the Saints are the highest, making the entire Stade Louis II look more like Southampton's home ground.

In this game, Bielsa still used a 4-3-3 formation.

The goalkeeper is Neuer, the defense is Luke Shaw, Nastasic, Varane and Chambers, the midfield is still Pogba, Matic and Oscar, and the front trident is Ravel Morrison, Suarez and Sturridge.

Compared with the Community Shield three days ago, there have been significant adjustments to the lineup.

One important reason for doing this is that after Southampton finishes the Super Cup, they will immediately return to the UK to prepare for the first round of the Premier League, and the first game will be an away game against Liverpool.

Sevilla does not have such worries. The La Liga kicks off relatively late, so they sent out all their main players in this game. However, Emery's team lost players such as Rakitic, Moreno, Bodia, Perotti and others this summer, and their overall strength has also been greatly affected.

Therefore, many fans are not optimistic about Sevilla in this battle.

As it turns out, Sevilla is still inferior to Southampton in overall strength.

From the beginning of the game, the Saints firmly controlled the situation on the field.

When the game was in the tenth minute, Oscar received a pass from Matic in the middle, turned around and got rid of the defender, and made an over-the-top pass into the penalty area.

Sturridge cut into the penalty area from the right rib, jumped high and touched the ball before goalkeeper Beto could come out.

The ball hit Sturridge's head, made an arc, and hit the goal, making it one to zero!

After scoring the goal, the Saints' morale was boosted and they played more vigorously and brilliantly.

Sevilla lost its advantage in the midfield and backcourt and had to retreat to its own penalty area to temporarily avoid the attack.

But even so, in the 34th minute, Southampton once again relied on Matic's long pass in the midfield to accurately find Ravel Morrison, who broke through Sevilla's right-back one-on-one and passed the ball low in front of the goal.

Suarez rushed over, pushed the ball and scored again, making it 2-0!

What was even more unexpected was that Sevilla made another mistake before the end of the first half.

Central defender Fabio committed a foul in front of the penalty area, and Suarez took the free kick himself and scored, 3-0!

No one expected that the first half would end with a score of 3-0.

Thinking back to the last Community Shield match, where Arsenal scored four goals in the first half, Southampton's offensive power this season is absolutely amazing.

Perhaps seeing that the team had established an early advantage in the game, Bielsa replaced Suarez with Harry Kane at halftime, forming an England trident with Sturridge and Ravel Morrison.

This immediately caused the English Saints fans who came to the scene to cheer loudly.

They had heard that the Saints had signed several local young players this summer, among whom Harry Kane entered the first team.

The 21-year-old young player obviously had no stage fright. Right at the beginning of the second half, he shot the ball with his left foot from 25 meters away from the goal, surprising Beto.

It’s a pity that it’s too high!

But despite this, he still won the applause of all the Saints fans.

Afterwards, the native English player was very active, actively participating in counter-attacks in the frontcourt and pressing Sevilla's central defender. Although he was tall, his body movements did not appear clumsy at all.

Finally, in the 53rd minute, Ravel Morrison received a pass from Pogba on the left, and used his excellent personal skills to break through Sevilla's right back one-on-one and pass the ball forward at the bottom line.

Harry Kane, standing in front of the goal, overpowered Sevilla center back Fabio and headed the ball into the goal, scoring his first official goal after joining the Saints.

This is also the fourth goal of the game!

The Saints' outstanding performance surprised everyone.

You know, the Saints didn't try their best in this game. They only arranged some rotation and substitute players to start, but they still showed such amazing fighting power. How can this not be surprising?

Of course, Sevilla's problems are more serious, especially the loss of midfield power and the loopholes in the back line, which were fully exposed under Southampton's fierce offensive wave.

In the 71st minute of the second half, Oscar made another diagonal pass from the middle to Sturridge on the wing.

The latter passed the ball into the penalty area. Harry Kane stopped the ball before the defender, then dribbled and turned flexibly and made a lob pass to the back post.

Midfielder Pogba quickly came back and touched the ball, breaking Beto's goal again, making it five to zero!

After leading 5-0, Bielsa continued to make substitutions and Southampton relaxed.

Sevilla took the opportunity to launch an attack. Forward Bacca scored a proud goal for Sevilla in the 86th minute. In the end, Southampton defeated Sevilla 5-1 and won the new season's European Super Cup.

After the game, Neuer, as captain, lifted the European Super Cup trophy high for Southampton.

This is also the Saints' fourth championship trophy in the past year, following the Premier League, Champions League and Community Shield, creating a record of four championships in a season, which is truly a great harvest.

After the game, the mainstream European media also gave unanimous praise and affirmation to Southampton's performance.

Even the Spanish newspaper AS had to admit, when reporting on this game, that Sevilla's strength was not at the same level as Southampton.

"Although Bielsa made rotations for this game, Southampton's strength is still surprising."

"In this game, the midfield composed of Matic, Pogba and Oscar helped the Saints to firmly control the initiative of the game. Although Matic's contribution on the offensive end was not as good as Toni Kroos, he performed very steadily on the defensive end, which was very impressive."

"On the defensive line, the combination of Varane and Nastasic, apart from Bacca's goal, is almost flawless, which makes people feel at ease about the Saints' defense in the new season."

"In this summer's transfer market, many teams pursued Matic, Ravel Morrison and Sturridge. Even now, Manchester United is still pursuing these players, but Southampton has renewed their contracts with them one after another and retained the players."

"It is not difficult to see from this game that the Saints' move is very far-reaching. They need to ensure the depth of the team's lineup when fighting on multiple fronts in the new season. Matic, Ravel Morrison and Sturridge are all capable of competing for the starting position and can form healthy competition with players such as Hazard, Toni Kroos and Sanchez."

"Three days ago, at Wembley Stadium, they beat Arsenal 4-0. Three days later, they beat Sevilla 5-1 at Stade Louis II in Monaco. In two games, they scored nine goals and conceded one. The Saints' strength is still surprising."

"We have every reason to believe that Southampton is still the strongest contender for the Premier League and the Champions League in the new season!"

While the Spanish media generally praised the entire Southampton team, the British media, in addition to praising the team's outstanding performance, also praised Southampton in the second half of the European Super Cup.

Ravel Morrison and Sturridge both played the whole game and performed quite well.

But the focus of the British media is generally on young player Harry Kane.

As early as when they joined Southampton, Harry Kane and Martial attracted attention from the outside world.

With his tall stature, good footwork and playing as a center forward, Harry Kane is easily reminiscent of Ibrahimovic. Even before the Saints said anything, the British media directly gave him the title of Ibrahimovic II.

The British media were a little disappointed that he didn't have a chance to play in the Community Shield.

But this time, he was in the European Super Cup, and he made one assist and one goal in his debut. This performance simply blinded the reporters' titanium eyes.

Even after the game, many media outlets called Harry Kane England's main center forward for the next decade, and together with Ravelle Morrison and Sturridge, he will shoulder the heavy burden of attacking for the England national team.

And when Southampton legend Alan Shearer commented on Harry Kane in the daily match, he just said that he was a lot like me when I was young. As a result, the media made a big fuss about it and directly gave Harry Kane the title of Alan Shearer II. They almost wanted to make him a superstar.

Everyone in Southampton seemed very rational in response to this wave of praise from the outside world.

Accompanied by the club's press officer, Harry Kane was interviewed by reporters and said that he was not ready yet and still had a lot to learn and improve, so he was not thinking too much about it now.

In an interview with the media, head coach Bielsa has repeatedly stated that Harry Kane is not ready yet and does not have the strength to play as a starter for the first team for the time being, and he still needs to continue to improve.

Out of consideration for player protection, the Saints originally planned to include Harry Kane in the squad for the first round of the league against Liverpool. However, after consultation with the coaching staff, Bielsa talked to Harry Kane for a while and finally excluded him from the squad.

While Southampton was running back and forth and fighting on multiple fronts, Rodgers' Liverpool was preparing their troops, waiting for the arrival of the Saints at Anfield!

On the day of the game, Gao Ren and Wang Lei finally completed the formalities for traveling to the UK and arrived at Heathrow Airport by plane, but they did not go south to Southampton. Instead, they went north to Liverpool accompanied by their agent.