Chapter 212 Selected as the European Golden Boy and Puskas!
Chapter 212 Selected as the European Golden Boy and Puskas!
Author: Thief Cao
Chapter 212 Selected as the European Golden Boy and Puskas!
On October 27, after the match against Crystal Palace, Leicester City ushered in the fourth round of the EFL Cup.
Leicester City was lucky in this round of the EFL Cup. Instead of being drawn against their rivals in the Premier League, they were drawn against Hull City in the English Championship.
I thought that with Leicester City's current attacking power, it would be easy to win the Championship team Hull City.
Unexpectedly, Leicester City fans and some media who made predictions were collectively slapped in the face after the game started.
The EFL Cup was quite intense this time, and both sides had several good opportunities.
Unfortunately, neither Leicester City nor Hull City converted their chances into goals, and instead dragged the game into overtime.
Chu Zheng came on the scene in the 70th minute of the second half of this game.
After Chu Zheng came on the field, Leicester City's offensive ability reached a new level.
But it's a pity that Vardy, Mahrez, Shinji Okazaki and others felt very bad at shooting today, and they kept wasting the opportunities created by Chu Zheng.
In the end, the game was dragged into a penalty shootout.
Encountering a penalty shootout again reminded Chu Zheng of his tragic experience at Wolfsburg.
But what Chu Zheng was worried about did not happen.
To be precise, it happened, but this time the bad luck did not befall Leicester City, but went to Hull City.
In the penalty shootout, Schmeichel was in great form and saved three consecutive penalties from Hull City, helping Leicester City advance to the quarter-finals of the 2015-16 EFL Cup with a score of 3-1.
After advancing to the EFL Cup finals, Leicester City's schedule suddenly became intensive.
On October 31, the fourth day after returning from Yorkshire, Leicester City, who did not have much time to rest, embarked on the Premier League journey again, heading to Sandwell Metropolitan Municipality-West Brom, West Midlands, England.
Mickey Hawthorn Stadium challenges the 11th round opponent West Bromwich Albion.
West Bromwich Albion defeated Norwich 1-0 away from home in the last round, winning two consecutive games and their third victory this season.
Moreover, West Bromwich Albion did not play in the League Cup in the middle of the week, so the whole team got enough rest, so in this game they were just waiting to work.
In this game, Ranieri also did not underestimate West Bromwich Albion, which is ranked lower in the Premier League standings.
Ranieri, who has coaching experience in the Premier League, knows very well that if you dare to underestimate any team in the Premier League, the results will probably be miserable.
Although a 120-minute fierce battle exerted a great physical exertion on Leicester City's main players, it did not require large-scale rotation.
Leicester City has no shortage of physical monsters.
Needless to say, Kanter, Chu Zheng thinks this guy can circle the earth and continue to play the full 90 minutes when he comes back.
Vardy's physical reserves are also sufficient.
Chu Zheng's physical fitness value is 86, and one game is not enough to completely squeeze him out. What's more, he did not play the entire game in the English League Cup and had to rest for four days after returning.
Therefore, almost all the main players from Leicester City are on the field.
After the game started, Leicester City's performance exceeded the expectations of the media and fans, and there was no sign of weakness at all.
The game was quite open.
In the first half, West Bromwich Albion relied on a corner kick and forward Rondong scored a beautiful header in the penalty area to lead 1-0.
In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Chu Zheng accelerated the rhythm of offensive and defensive transitions at the beginning, once again showing his aggressive offensive style to Premier League fans.
So the goal came naturally.
In the 57th minute of the game, Chu Zheng and Kanter teamed up to continue sweeping the midfield.
After intercepting the ball, Chu Zheng quickly passed the ball to the wing.
Albrighton took advantage of West Bromwich Albion's unsteady defense and quickly crossed the ball, and Mahrez succeeded in grabbing a shot from the center of the penalty area.
1-1!
After equalizing the score, Leicester City continued to attack the West Bromwich Albion goal under Chu Zheng's offensive organization.
In the 61st minute of the game, Chu Zheng dribbled the ball into the left rib area, attracted the defensive player and suddenly separated.
Schlupp from the wing followed up and made a cross. As a result, Vardy volleyed the goalkeeper with his left foot and sent the ball into the stands.
In the 69th minute, Chu Zheng received the ball intercepted by Kanter in the backcourt and suddenly sent a fatal scimitar pass.
Mahrez took the ball at the top of the arc and broke through diagonally to the left, then fired with his left foot into the far corner, scoring twice and reversing the score 2-1.
In the 77th minute, a West Bromwich Albion player made a mistake in passing the ball at the top of the Leicester City arc.
Chu Zheng hit the ball diagonally at the top of the key to the right side of Kanter, then turned around and pushed forward.
Kanter saw that Chu Zheng didn't ask for the ball, so he quickly understood Chu Zheng's intention and pushed the ball to the right side of the center circle with a heavy kick.
Vardy retreated in time, knocked the ball in front of Chu Zheng without stopping, and then turned around and pushed forward.
Chu Zheng got the ball at the kick-off point. When he saw a defensive player in front of him, he stuffed the ball in the direction of Vardy without saying a word.
Next, Vardy used his speed to eat West Bromwich Albion left center back Jonny Evans, who he had just pulled out to catch the ball.
He came to the right edge of the small penalty area and hit the far corner directly to change the score to 3-1.
After the game, it was not Chu Zheng, who scored two assists, nor Mahrez, who scored twice, who became the darling of the media.
But Vardy!
Although Vardy only scored one goal in this game!
But this is his 15th goal in his 11th Premier League game this season. He has already left behind Aguero, Kane, Lukaku and others.
As a result, Vardy was dubbed the 'New England Striker' by the English media.
Moreover, Vardy has scored in 8 consecutive league games. He has tied Sturridge in the Premier League's consecutive scoring record list.
Now the only one left in front of Vardy is Ruud van Nistelrooy, who set a record of scoring in 10 consecutive league games in 2003!
Media attention has always been superficial.
But the major clubs in the Premier League have more detailed data, and they see the man standing behind Vardy!
Chu Zheng's number of assists in the Premier League has reached a terrifying 13. In addition, Chu Zheng also has 5 Premier League goals.
The season has just reached the 11th round, and Chu Zheng's data is really amazing, even shocking.
At this moment, the Premier League giants who were previously interested in Chu Zheng, but finally chose to give up, collectively regretted it.
As a result, scouts from major Premier League clubs once again swarmed out to follow up on Chu Zheng.
But within a few days, as FIFA officially announced the shortlist of candidates for this year's awards, the popularity of striker Vardy quickly faded.
And Chu Zheng made the headlines of major media in England.
Because Chu Zheng not only appeared in the 40-man roster for the 2015 European Golden Boy Award announced by Italy's "Gazzetta dello Sport", he also had a goal among the top 10 candidates for the Puskas Award.
As Chu Zheng's agent, how could Mario let go of this opportunity to make Chu Zheng famous?
I don’t know how this guy works, but within the next week, Chu Zheng’s reputation in Europe exploded.
The most obvious manifestation is the surge in the number of followers on his INS and Twitter, with the number of fans skyrocketing to over 5 million.
After coming to the Premier League, Chu Zheng received much greater exposure than when he was in the Bundesliga.
This is due to the Premier League's unique operating model and global exposure.
Coupled with Chu Zheng's particularly eye-catching playing style and handsome face, the three complement each other, so Chu Zheng's reputation has increased so significantly!
The Chinese media got the news a little later.
After learning that Chu Zheng was selected for the European Golden Boy and Puskas Awards, they immediately put Chu Zheng on the hot search list.
"Chu Zheng, selected as the European Golden Boy! Compared with other candidates, Chu Zheng, who has won a series of honors such as the Bundesliga championship, the German Cup championship, and the Europa League assists champion, has a great possibility of winning!"
"Chu Zheng is about to win two significant heavyweight individual awards in his career!"
"2015 European Golden Boy! Chu Zheng!"
"..."
After Chu Zheng saw these extremely flattering reports in China, he rolled his eyes and said as if he had already obtained these two awards.
But Chu Zheng was still extremely excited to be selected as the European Golden Boy and Puskas.
He never has too many awards!
Especially the European Golden Boy Award, this is the award that Chu Zheng cares about the most.
Because if he doesn't get it this year, then he will completely miss this award.
Because the European selection targets must be young players under the age of 21 who are playing for European clubs.