At the start, Mane and Salah flew on both wings

The semi-finals of the League Cup are Everton, Newcastle United, Portsmouth and Notts County.

In the semi-final draw, Notts County drew Portsmouth of the English Championship, with Everton and Newcastle becoming their opponents.

This means that this season's League Cup final will feature at least one team not from the Super League.

Notts County has played a total of 13 games in the past 13 days, from the League Cup tie with Chelsea on the 11th to the first leg of the semi-final against Portsmouth on January 24th.

In order of starting substitutes, these three games are against Stevenage, ranked 17th, Bristol City, ranked 21st, and Manchester United, ranked 24th. These three games are against teams at the bottom of the rankings. Notts County won comfortably.

The League Cup is a two-leg affair, with Notts County now playing Portsmouth away from home.

Portsmouth's head coach is Slaven Bilic from Croatia. This Croatian once played as a player for West Ham United and Everton in England. He is very comfortable coaching in the British Championship.

As the favorites for relegation, Portsmouth can be said to be the biggest dark horse at present. They have 12 wins, 9 draws and 7 losses in 28 games and are ranked 7th. They are only one step away from being promoted to the play-off zone.

Under Bilic's coaching, Portsmouth's main tactical formation is 4231. For simple tactics, both wings fly together. Portsmouth's players will try their best to distribute the ball to the wings, and the full-backs will also cover more sides and Plug in, and then pass the ball to find the forward.

Bilic's tactics are similar to Zhou Xu's. Portsmouth is also aggressive. The team's top scorer is Rob Hulls, fourth in the British Championship scorer list. This forward is on loan from Queens Park Rangers for 18 rounds. 10 goals were scored in the game.

Norwegian player Eric is the team's starting player. This left winger is the best player in the Portsmouth team. However, he has just come to England from the Norwegian domestic league and is still a little uncomfortable, even after half a season. During the season, he still couldn't perform at the same level as in the domestic league.

Zhou Xu was still studying Portsmouth when he suddenly received a call from Niemann's agent.

Sure enough, Zhou Xu secretly thought, there is still a week left before the winter window closes on February 1, and finally a team wants to buy Notts County players.

It turned out to be Zhou Xu's weakness. Niemann's agent, Karen Benstead, found Zhou Xu. He said that a team had privately contacted Niemann, the team's right winger, and a formal transfer would be made soon. Make an offer and let him prepare as early as possible.

Zhou Xu, who has a bunch of future superstars in the team, naturally has a plan for this kind of thing. He had previously managed the players' agents and asked them to inform Zhou Xu of relevant matters in order to prepare early.

Judging from Benstead's tone, Niemann should be very interested in the transfer. Zhou Xu immediately looked through the scouting report to prepare for the player to leave the team. Zhou Xu didn't want to let Niemann leave, especially since there was no full-back reserve in the team. Originally, the entire world of football was in dire need of full-backs.

Soon Zhou Xu found a suitable candidate. Cancelo, who is currently in the Benfica youth team, did not get a chance to play in the first team until half a year later in a friendly match.

However, as a black shop in the Portuguese Super League, Cancelo's price is not easy to negotiate, even for a 17-year-old kid who has no playing time.

England's efficiency is still very high. In the afternoon, Zhou Xu received a transfer offer from Eston Villa of the Premier League.

This is a completely insulting offer. A 25-year-old started the whole game and defeated Chelsea with the team. He remains unbeaten in English League One. Everyone can see the future of Niemann. As a result, Eston Villa only opened the game. An offer of 2.4 million euros was made, and even 1.2 million of it was a floating clause. Especially when the offer was accompanied by a transfer application submitted by Niemann, Zhou Xu was immediately angry.

Eston Villa has already negotiated a price with Niemann before submitting an offer. Although many clubs do this, it is infuriating enough, especially when you are the person involved.

Without responding or even meeting Niemann, Zhou Xu immediately rushed to Benfica, almost buying and selling by force. He finalized Cancelo's transfer in one afternoon. The sky-high price of 1 million euros made Benfica directly agree. 17-year-old Cancelo arrived at the team that afternoon.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Xu rejected Eston Villa’s offer and then found Niemann

"Chairman, I want to go to Villa."When Nieman saw Zhou Xu, he only said this sentence

"You went to Villa, can you replace Alan Hutton? You're not even Villa's substitute, no, not the third substitute. At Villa, you can't even replace Senegal's Abidubeye, even if he is retiring. This is the reason why you should refuse. Vera just treats you as a lottery ticket. You can substitute for a few games. If you scratch it out, you can sell it for money. If you can't scratch it out, forget it.

As for why I think so, do you think a full-back who is about to win the League One title undefeated, who is only 25 years old and in his prime, who beat Chelsea with the team, and may even enter the League Cup final, only paid 2.4 million? Insulting quote for euros? Moreover, what I can guarantee is that the Premier League is not far away. We will be a Championship team next year, but we will make every effort to attack the Premier League.

I can guarantee that if we were not a Premier League team in the third year, I would accept a reasonable transfer offer. Think about it, now you can't become a starting player in a top league team, but next year you won't be able to play in the Championship for a year. You will only be 27 years old by then. At this age, you can still attract many top league teams, right?"

After that, Zhou Xu left without waiting for Niemann to answer.

The next day, the home game against Portsmouth, the pre-match press conference

"It is said that Aston Villa has made an offer for Niemann. Will he leave the team?"

I glanced at the reporter who asked the question. I didn't recognize him at all. He was from outside.

"I don't know the purpose of your coming here to ask questions. I can only say that my players are not for sale and I will not accept any inquiries or offers. That's it."

After saying that, he directly pointed to the next question.

……

The game started soon. In this game, Niemann sat on the bench, and Cancelo, who had just joined the team, started. Niemann didn't say anything when he learned that he was a substitute. Similarly, Zhou Xu didn't say anything.

Due to the suspension of a large number of players, the backcourt of this game can be said to be completely using the substitute lineup.

"The English League Cup semi-finals have begun, starting with the first leg of Notts County and Portsmouth, played at Mido Lane. The lineups on both sides are relatively conventional. It is worth noting that the 17-year-old Cancelo, whom coach Zhou Xu has just signed from the Portuguese Super League Benfica for 1 million euros, started directly. The previous starter Niemann sat on the bench. This abnormality seems to confirm the rumors that Niemann wanted to leave the team."