On August 15, Leicester City traveled to London, more than 160 kilometers away, to play against West Ham United, their opponent in the second round of the Premier League.
From the 1970s to the early 1990s, this team had its ups and downs between England's top league, League One, and the secondary leagues.
Therefore, West Ham United is also nicknamed the Elevator by fans in the Premier League, but their well-known nickname is still the Premier League Hammers.
In addition, West Ham United has also been hailed as the "Football Academy" by the English media. Over the years, West Ham United has continuously sent many talented young players to national teams at all levels.
Although West Ham United has a long history, their glory days can be traced back to the early 1960s.
Ron Greenwood took over as coach of the team at that time, and he subsequently led West Ham to win the FA Cup in 1964 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1965.
But this is not the peak of their glory.
It was 1966 that really made this team's name memorable to English people.
In the World Cup final, three West Ham United players became the heroes of England's first World Cup win.
However, this glory only lasted for a short period of ten years. In the following decades, the Hammers West Ham United experienced decline and recovery.
But in the past two years, West Ham United has been just another ordinary member of the many small clubs in the Premier League, fighting for relegation every year.
However, this year seems a little different.
In the first round of the Premier League, West Ham United played away against the Premier League giants Gunners Arsenal.
Before the game, the Premier League media and fans generally believed that it would be easy for Arsenal to win the game.
However, the result turned out to be Arsenal 0-2 West Ham United, a huge upset that left everyone's eyes wide open.
Therefore, this game attaches great importance to Ranieri, who has returned to the Premier League again.
At 21:50 BJ time, the live signal is connected to the LeTV Sports live room.
Immediately, the countless Chinese fans waiting in front of the computer were cheered up.
"Good evening, fans, and welcome to watch..."
"This game will be guided by Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu to provide you with live commentary!"
In the LeTV Sports live broadcast room, Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu have already entered into commentary mode.
"In today's game, Leicester City has an overall advantage in terms of player value."
"Hehe!" Zhang Lu grinned happily after hearing Zhan Jun's words, "Chu Zheng alone can beat half of the players in West Ham United."
As soon as he finished speaking, the live broadcast camera suddenly cut to the coaches of both teams on the sidelines.
"It can be said that the head coaches of both teams got a dream start in the first round of the league that just passed!" Zhan Jun said with a grin, looking at Ranieri's kind old face on the screen.
"West Ham United was able to beat Arsenal because, on the one hand, they enforced rules and regulations on the field and showed top organizational discipline. On the other hand, it was actually Arsenal's fault."
Zhan Jun nodded and continued: "West Ham United's defensive formation of three central defenders and double midfielders is indeed difficult to break, but Arsenal's midfield performance in that game was really unprecedentedly bad."
"It's an old problem! After Vieira left, Arsenal has never found a suitable successor in the midfield!"
"Arsenal will have a headache if they encounter a team like West Ham United that has tall people, likes to hit high and has a rough playing style!" Zhang Lu said with a smile.
Not long after, the starting lineups of both sides were shown on the live broadcast screen.
"In the summer transfer window, West Ham United invested 20 million pounds to buy Payet and Ogbonna from Marseille and Juventus respectively to strengthen defense and offense."
"Both Payet and Ogbonna performed very well in the first round."
"Especially Payet, the French forward. This player is quite comprehensive and can play multiple positions such as attacking midfielder, midfielder, forward and center."
Hearing Zhan Jun's words, Zhang Lu nodded, "The most important thing is that this player can perform well in multiple positions!"
"As expected, after Chu Zheng performed well in the first round against Sunderland, Ranieri included him in the starting lineup."
Hearing Zhan Jun's words, Zhang Lu chuckled and said: "Actually, I think Ranieri doesn't need to do anything extra."
"When Chu Zheng was at Wolfsburg, Dieter Heijing publicly told the media many times that Chu Zheng was very quick in understanding tactics and had a smart brain that was different from ordinary players. He should be the first player in the game
Let Chu Zheng go up!"
"If he wasn't conservative, would he still be called Ranieri?" Zhan Jun asked.
"Haha!" Zhang Lu suddenly jumped up and down with joy.
At 22:00 BJ time, with Anthony Taylor's whistle, the match between West Ham United and Leicester officially started at the Olympic Stadium in London.
On the field, Leicester City, wearing white jerseys, attacked from left to right.
After kick-off, both Leicester City and West Ham United playing at home played very cautiously.
But not long after the game started, West Ham United played a quality attack.
Game 1 minute and 09 seconds.
After West Ham United hit the wing area 30 meters away from the Leicester City goal from their own right, they were directly blocked by Chu Zheng, Morgan, Schlupp, and Albrighton.
direction.
West Ham United did not insist on this wing attack. Right winger Zarate quickly passed the ball back after receiving the ball.
The ball was passed all the way back to the feet of right center back Winston Reid on the West Ham backcourt, and then quickly transferred to the left wing via left center back Ogbonna.
West Ham United left back Cresswell took the ball and directly made a low and long pass over 40 meters.
On the left side of the arc, Huth, De Laet, and West Ham forward Sakho between them sprinted in tandem.
But Sakho is obviously much faster than Huth and De Laet.
But defense sometimes doesn't need to be fast.
Since he couldn't get the ball, Huth took a defensive position and followed Sakho from behind.
De Laet also had a tacit understanding. He moved inside the penalty area to protect Huth from being broken through.
On the wing, Sakho was blocked by Huth and was completely unable to turn around.
Soon Sakho gave up the idea of turning around, started to lead back, and then passed the ball to West Ham United's right midfielder Noble who came to the front of the ribs.
At the same time, Cresswell also came along the wing and quickly established a three-on-three situation with Sakho and Noble in the rib area.
Seeing Mahrez and Drinkwater standing on the left and right in front of him, Noble did not receive the ball, but hit the ball to Cresswell on the wing, and then quickly crossed into the wing.
Creswell paused briefly after receiving the ball, and then passed the ball forward.
The two of them broke through Leicester City's rib defense with a simple cooperation.
Outside the penalty area, Noble received the ball again.
But Drinkwater followed suit, and he was unable to turn around and face the penalty area.
But Noble is not Sacco.
This player is also a representative figure in the fairy tale of one man and one city in world football.
Noble has been at West Ham United for more than ten years, and he is familiar with every detail of West Ham.
On his own court, he is fearless!
Drinkwater was afraid that being too close would allow Noble to take advantage of the situation, so he forced Noble to the sideline and put some distance between himself and him.
As a result, this gave Noble room to display his abilities.
Soon, Noble looked like he was being forced by Drinkwater to turn and pass back to Cresswell along the touchline.
As a result, the next second, Noble suddenly moved the ball backwards, turned to face the baseline, and then squeezed past Drinkwater.
Seeing that Noble was about to enter the penalty area from the middle of the penalty area, Drinkwater had no choice but to stretch out his foot and trip Noble down.
Seeing their captain being brought down, the London Olympic Stadium immediately rang with boos from Hammers fans.
Chu Zheng, standing on the left side of the arc, felt helpless.
If the defense is replaced by Kanter this time, Chu Zheng believes that Noble will have no chance to break through.
Kanter is the best player Chu Zheng has seen in his career, on par with De Bruyne.
