Chapter 163: The Miraculous Prologue Unveiled Quietly!
Chapter 163 The miracle begins quietly!
Author: Thief Cao
Chapter 163 The miracle begins quietly!
On August 8, as the whistle sounded for the match between Manchester United and Tottenham, the 2015-16 Premier League season officially kicked off.
At 21:40 BJ time, Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu were sitting in the LeTV Sports live broadcast room, waiting for Chu Zheng's first Premier League game like many domestic fans.
After many years, since Sun Jihai left Manchester City in 2008, they have never been able to see Chinese players in the Premier League, the top competition.
Now the figure they have been waiting for for many years has appeared again, landing in the Premier League as a Bundesliga double champion and a supernova.
In recent years, Japanese and Korean football has become more and more powerful, and it can be said that it is blooming everywhere in foreign leagues.
Many fans sometimes find it a bit ridiculous when they think about it. They can continue to produce a large number of outstanding players in a small place, but they are a vast country with 140 million people, but they can't even get 11 of them.
"Dear spectators and fans!"
"Welcome everyone to watch the 2015-16 season, the first round of the Premier League, Leicester City versus Sunderland."
"This game will be commented by coaches Zhan Jun and Zhang Luzhang!"
Zhan Jun finished his opening remarks, and everything on the TV screen showed the starting lineups of Leicester City and Sunderland.
Leicester City:(442)
Goalkeeper:Schmeichel
Defenders: De Laet, Huth, Morgan, Schlupp
Midfielder: Albrighton, Drinkwater, Andy King, Mahrez
Forwards: Shinji Okazaki, Vardy
"I may be disappointed that our Chinese player Chu Zheng did not start in this game!"
"Before the game, Leicester City's new coach Ranieri said in an interview with the media that Chu Zheng still needs time to fully integrate into the team because he has only joined the team for such a short period of time."
"But don't worry, everyone. Leicester City spent huge sums of money to bring in Chu Zheng, and they definitely didn't let him come over and sit on the bench."
After finishing the words, Zhan Jun stopped and changed the topic: "At the end of last season, Leicester City won 7 games in the last 9 rounds of the Premier League, successfully staged a victory escape, and narrowly avoided relegation."
"In this summer transfer window, Leicester City also introduced a number of players. They spent a total of nearly 80 million euros in the transfer market and invited the famous Italian coach Claudio Ranieri to serve as the club's head coach."
"So they should also have dreams!" Zhang Lu suddenly answered next to him.
"Haha!" Zhan Jun burst into laughter immediately, "Indeed, after spending so much money, if they don't want to make a difference in the Premier League, they can just make improvements like other clubs."
Sunderland:(4141)
Forward: Defoe
Midfielder: Jermain Lens, Rodwell, Larsson, Adam Johansen
Midfielder: Cattermole
Defenders: Van Aanholt, Kaboul, Coates, Billy Jones
Goalkeeper: Pantilimon
"Sunderland successfully retained the team's head coach Advocaat this summer, who played a key role in relegation, and subsequently introduced Lens, Kaboul, Mwila and other strong players."
"The two meetings between Sunderland and Leicester last season were 0-0,..."
At the scene, on the left side of the player entrance to the King Power Stadium is the Leicester City coaching bench, and behind it is the fan stand.
Chu Zheng was sitting in the last row of the bench, separated from the fans behind him by a half-person-high wall. He could high-five the fans just by raising his hand.
This kind of close contact with fans is something Chu Zheng has never experienced in the Bundesliga.
Listening to the uniform cheers of the fans in the stands behind him to the accompaniment of drum beats, Chu Zheng once again felt the blood in his body rushing wildly after more than two months.
At 15:00 London time, with the whistle of the referee Mason, the game officially started.
As soon as the game started, Chu Zheng set his sights on the visiting team Sunderland.
Sunderland was founded very early, in 1879, and has won the English League One championship six times, but the most recent one was in 1936.
Their most famous battle was in 1973, as a second-division team, they defeated the then-famous Leeds United and successfully won the FA Cup trophy again.
Since the 1990s, Sunderland have been ups and downs between the Championship and the Premier League.
But over the years in the Premier League, their performance has always been at the bottom of the Premier League standings, and they have been fighting for relegation almost every year.
Although the formation given by Sunderland before the game was 4141, their formation actually changed very frequently.
When Leicester City has the ball, they will change their formation to 451 and set up a five-man defensive front in the midfield to intercept and contain Leicester City's midfield transmission.
On the offensive end, Sunderland's players will turn into a 4-4-2 with double midfielders, making the formation very flexible and changeable.
But no matter how they change, Sunderland's strength is evident, they are not as good as Leicester City.
In addition, today was an away game, so Sunderland actually played a bit conservatively, and their tactical strategy was obviously focused on defense.
In the 5th minute of the game, a crisis suddenly broke out in the Leicester City penalty area.
The crisis came from Drinkwater's overthrow and loss of position.
He grabbed the ball from outside the arc of the center circle on his left side, forcing Sunderland right back Jones to dribble the ball behind his back and retreat to near the midline.
As a result, Jones took the ball and hit Johnson who was standing in front of him.
When the two faced each other, they passed by each other, and the ball smoothly transitioned to the feet of Sunderland's right wing-back Johansson.
Drinkwater accidentally let Johansson squeeze behind him, leaving a large gap on Leicester City's left side exposed to Sunderland's force.
After Johnson got rid of Drinkwater, he directly took a long pass from the ribs 40 meters away from the goal to the center of Leicester City's penalty area.
At the moment of passing the ball, Leicester City forward, Defoe and central midfielder Larsson started at the same time, leaving De Laet and Huth behind.
The three players in Leicester City's defense raised their hands towards the linesman to indicate that Sunderland was offside.
Seeing linesman Kolkup's lack of expression, De Laet and Huth instantly realized that something was wrong.
So the two quickly chased into the penalty area of the penalty area.
Fortunately, Larson stopped the ball, and he stopped the ball directly behind Defoe's heel on his right side.
When Huth saw the ball coming, he quickly stretched out his foot, but instead kicked the ball up, hit Defoe's butt and continued flying towards the right side of the small penalty area.
Defoe saw the ball flying behind him and quickly realized it was an opportunity.
So he quickly turned around and blocked the charging de la Ette behind him.
In the upper right corner of the penalty area, Defoe caught up with the ball, twisted his body and hit the ball directly with his near foot.
Schmeichel was right next to the goal post. He chose his position very accurately and promptly saved Defoe's low ball with strong footwork and saved it from the right baseline.
"Damn!!!"
"What are you doing?"
“What the hell!!!!!!!”
Schmeichel quickly got up after saving the ball and shouted at De Laet, Huth and Morgan, venting his dissatisfaction with his own defense.
On the sidelines, Ranieri had no expression on his face.
Players are still in the running-in period of the new tactical system, and some mistakes in coordination are inevitable.
On the bench, Chu Zheng also had a toothache expression on his face.
Chu Zheng is in the central defender position, and he never places his hope on whether the linesman will raise the offside flag.
Chu Zheng felt that even if the linesman was replaced by a high-tech machine, it would be difficult to guarantee that there would be no mistakes, let alone a human being.
Therefore, the safest move is to nip all dangers in the bud.