Football King Bale

On the way Bell and two teammates left Wimbledon and drove back to Manchester, he received a call and learned the bad news: the coach of the Welsh national team, Gary Speed, died!

Bell was a little confused when he heard the news.

For Gary Speed, Bell still recognizes it very much. Although the cooperation between the two parties has only been one year, the cooperation with each other is also very pleasant. With the joint efforts of the two, Wales will also be able to successfully advance to the European Cup finals next year.

This is also the first time in history that Wales has advanced to the European Cup finals, and it is also the second time in their history that they have advanced to the World Series finals. Before that, Wales had only qualified for the World Cup finals a distant 53 years ago.

In the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland gathered together. You must know that there were only 16 participating teams in the World Cup at that time.

The stars of this World Cup are shining. The French legend Fontaine created the highest scoring record of 13 goals in a single World Cup. This record has not been broken until now.

It is worth mentioning that Wales also witnessed Pele's first goal in the World Cup, when the Brazilian legend was only 17 years old.

Bell still remembers that after Wales beat the Czech Republic at home half a month ago and advanced to the finals of the European Cup, Speed ​​held his and Ramsey's hands and said that he would go to Poland and Ukraine next year to make a big fight for the whole world. The world is dumbfounded by Wales.

But he had only returned to Manchester United for two weeks, but Speed ​​was dead!

Bell didn't know if such a thing happened in another time and space, because he was only a fan of Manchester United at the time, and at most he watched the game of the Three Meows by the way, and he didn't pay attention to Wales where Bell was.

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When Bell was stunned by the news of Gary Speed's death, the entire British Isles were shocked by the news. Not many people even paid attention to the fact that Manchester City were drawn by Liverpool at Anfield at the same time, and they were seven points behind Manchester United in the Premier League table.

According to the British media, although the Welsh Football Association has not clearly announced the cause of Speed's death, a Cheshire Police spokesperson still interpreted Speed's sudden death. According to the preliminary judgment of the British police, This time Speed's death did not show any signs of murder, and it is very likely that the Welsh coach hanged himself.

A police spokesman said: "On Sunday, November 27, at 7.08am, police were called to reports of a criminal incident on Elderford Road, Huntington. When the officers in charge arrived at the scene, they A 42-year-old man was also found dead, and there were no suspicious signs around. Relatives confirmed that the 42-year-old man was Welsh coach Gary Speed. Now, the coroner will also perform an autopsy on his body. to determine the final cause of death."

As a famous player in the Premier League, Speed, who has represented the Welsh national team 85 times, is definitely a legend in British football. In his 22-year long career, Speed, who followed Leeds United to win the top league championship, also played for Everton, Bolton, Sheffield United and other teams, and became the first Premier League player to reach 500 games. .

After announcing his retirement in 2010, Speed ​​quickly took over the coach of the Welsh national team and led the team to a good record of 10 games and 6 wins.

Especially in the European Cup qualifiers, with the support of Bell, Ramsey, Bellamy and others, Wales made great efforts in the future. With 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, they only ranked No. 1 in Group G with a goal difference disadvantage. Two, but eliminated the Czech Republic in the subsequent play-offs and advanced to the finals for the first time in history, thus creating a new history of Welsh football.

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It is conceivable that with Speed's unexpected death, the Welsh football's newly ignited flame will inevitably suffer a huge blow.

Because of the outstanding performance of Wales led by Bell, in the odds of winning the European Cup next year offered by the major bookmakers, although Wales is not the favorite to win the championship, it is also considered to be in the middle of the 16 teams. However, after the news of Speed's death came out, the major bookmakers immediately lowered the odds of Wales winning the European Cup, which caused Wales to drop directly from the original tenth place to the bottom, becoming the least favored. Optimistic about the winning team.

In the latest team odds offered by the famous gambling company William Hill, Spain ranks first with odds of 3.25, followed by Germany at 4.5. It is worth mentioning that England’s odds soared by 1 8, overtaking Italy and tied for third with the Netherlands.

The odds of Wales dropped to 150 to 1, which is much worse than the penultimate Denmark's 101 to 1. You know, before that, Wales' odds of winning the championship were 40 to 1, which can be called a collapse.

Even Bell felt a little chilled. Although he had no plans to lead Wales to win this European Cup, he still had such a gloomy hope after all. But now with Speed's death, he almost lost even this last hope.

It seems that in order to complete the three-year mission of the ball saint system, the hope of the national team to win the championship can only be placed on next year's Olympic Games.

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Three days later, Manchester United ushered in the quarter-finals of this season's League Cup at Old Trafford. This is also the first time Manchester United has played at home in the League Cup this season. In the game, Manchester United played away games.

Manchester United's signing luck in the League Cup this season has been good. The opponent in the third round is Leeds United, a mid-range team in the English Championship, and the opponent in the fourth round is Aldershot, a mid-range team in the English League Two. The opponents in the final, Crystal Palace, also have limited strength. After 18 rounds of the British Championship, they only ranked 10th.

Against such a team, Ferguson naturally carried out the rotation with confidence and boldness. Compared with last weekend's game against Newcastle United, only Fabio and Sneijder were retained, and the remaining nine positions were all rotated. Many of the team's main players, including Bell, have not even entered the team's roster.

As a result, Fabio ushered in his 50th game in the Manchester United shirt, and Evans, who played for Manchester United for the 100th time, wore the captain's armband.

In the end, in Ferguson's starting lineup, the goalkeeper was the team's third goalkeeper Amos, the back four was a combination of Rafael, Evans, Smalling and Fabio, and the midfielders were Valencia, Sne The combination of Germany, Pogba and Kiko, with Diouf and Berbatov on the front line.

Ferguson's long-standing idea of ​​pairing Sneijder and Pogba in the middle finally got the chance to practice.

Before the game, players from both sides held a one-minute silence ceremony for Gary Speed.

After the start of the game, Manchester United did not perform well on the field due to the rotation of too many players. On the contrary, Crystal Palace, who played away, had an anti-customer posture and played very threateningly at Old Trafford.

However, the strength of Crystal Palace's players is indeed limited, and it is difficult to really threaten Manchester United's goal. On the contrary, in the 18th minute, Manchester United, through a quick attack, Pogba played a super world wave in the middle of the midfield 30 meters away from the goal, helping Manchester United open the record.

At the beginning of the second half, both sides made another adjustment. After the opening, Manchester United significantly accelerated the pace of attack, and Ferguson obviously hoped to settle the opponent earlier.

However, contrary to expectations, it was the visiting team Crystal Palace who scored first in the second half. In the 65th minute, Zaha pushed across the midfield, and Ambrose went forward and volleyed with his right foot 30 meters away from the goal. The ball was sent into the upper left corner of the goal, which was a response to Pogba's world wave in the first half, and also helped Crystal Palace equalize the score.

However, even if Manchester United played with most of the substitute lineup, their strength was obviously stronger than that of Crystal Palace. After only three minutes, they surpassed the score again.

In the 68th minute, Diouf scored the ball from the middle of the penalty area. Kiko was pulled down by McCarthy when he was about to break through on the left side. The referee Foy whistled and awarded a penalty. .

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In the end, the 2:1 score was maintained until the end of the game, and Manchester United also successfully advanced to the semi-finals of the League Cup this season.

Although he was promoted, Ferguson was actually not very satisfied with the result of this game. In particular, the combination of Sneijder and Pogba in the midfield that he hopes to investigate is obviously different from the effect he imagined.

The reason is also very obvious. Both of these two types are focused on offense, and they are not willing to invest in defense. If they play in midfield, Manchester United's defense will be very tight.

Of course, if a professional defensive midfielder is arranged behind the two, so that both of them can concentrate on attacking, it should be a good match.

Ferguson couldn't help thinking of a small player in the reserve team. I heard that the little guy was signed by Bell's agent Jonathan Barnett for free for Manchester United, and he performed very well in the reserve team this season.

In addition, Ferguson also discovered a problem with Pogba, that is, this guy sometimes behaves very loosely on the court, and cannot devote himself to the game wholeheartedly. Manchester United's conceded the ball, it was his inadvertent pass in midfield that was intercepted by Crystal Palace, and then quickly counterattacked and scored.

So far, this season's League Cup semi-finals have all been determined. The other three teams are Liverpool, who beat Chelsea 2:0 away, Cardiff City, who beat Blackburn 2:0 at home, and Arsenal, who beat Arsenal 1:0 away. Na's Manchester City.

In the ensuing semi-final draw, Manchester United continued their good luck and once again drew the weakest of the three opponents, the British Championship team Cardiff City!

However, compared to the three opponents Manchester United encountered before, Cardiff City is already considered very strong. They currently rank third in the English Championship and are very hopeful of qualifying for the Premier League next season.