Fox in the Penalty Area

Latest URL: Leeds City's home game against the Madrid Pirates has begun.

Zhou Zijing was sitting on the bench, watching the game.

Sure enough, he failed to get the chance to start in this game.

The only good news is that he entered the squad for the 18-man competition, so he still has a chance to come off the bench in the competition...

Just now, Zhou Zijing experienced the influence of Hu Lai on this team at close range:

Before the players from both sides came on the field, there was a link where the live broadcast DJ of the Leeds City Club led everyone to shout the names of the players on the field.

In the past, this link was limited to the home team players.

Players of the away team skip directly.

But today, before calling out the names of the home players, the DJ led the crowd in a chanting: "Let's welcome home wanderers, LAAAAAAAAI—"

The 30,000 fans in the audience shouted in unison: "HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

It was different from the one after Hu Lai scored a goal. This was a prolonged roar.

If the short "HUUUUU" sound is thunder, then this "HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" sound is continuous rolling thunder, echoing in the sky of Flanders Stadium for a long time.

It also echoed in Zhou Zijing's heart.

There was even a layer of goosebumps on his arms!

Before coming to Leeds, Zhou Zijing had seen how Leeds fans expressed their love for Hu Lai through live TV or online videos.

He knew the Leeds fans would be yelling when Hullai came on. At that time, he thought, what's so strange about this? Who has never seen it!

But when he was in the Flanders Stadium and experienced this scene from the closest distance, he still felt that his soul was hit directly.

He couldn't help falling into a kind of trance-if one day in the future, when I play, there will be so many fans shouting out my last name for a long time...

How cool would that be!

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Not just the fans,

Even the players of Leeds City greeted Hu Lai one by one in the player tunnel before the game, exchanging greetings and greetings.

Everyone had smiles on their faces and chatted happily.

I don't know which sentence mentioned the interesting things in the past, and there was a burst of laughter in the player tunnel.

The harmonious atmosphere before the game couldn't be more harmonious.

Even the commentator Matthew Cox, who saw this scene, couldn't help complaining: "Ladies and gentlemen, audience friends, what you are watching now is a friendly match before the 2027-2028 season, against Leeds City and the Madrid Pirates..."

Good guy, the Champions League group stage has turned into a friendly match.

He Feng and Yan Kang's focus is on Hu Lai's popularity: "It can be seen that although he has left, Hu Lai's popularity in Leeds City is really good. Every Leeds City player who comes over will say hello to him , let’s talk a few more words..."

"This is 'Returning Homecoming', He Feng!" Yan Kang laughed out loud.

This game must be very exciting for Chinese fans who are conscious and proud like him.

This kind of friendly atmosphere is really easy to be intoxicated.

But after the opening whistle, everything changed.

The tender appearance was torn off and replaced by... crazy.

As Hou Lai knew, at the beginning of the game, Leeds City, which occupied the home court, launched a fierce offensive against the Madrid Pirates.

There were already two shots on goal in the opening six minutes, an average of one every three minutes.

Although these two shots did not hit the goal frame, it still made the Madrid Pirates assistant coach Valentine's expression on the sidelines a lot more dignified:

"They don't think about the space behind them, will they be counterattacked by us?"

"If you think about it, it's not Leeds City." Parotti said calmly. "Offensive is their life. What they are best at is attacking, and they can only attack. What they believe in is to penetrate the opponent's defense before being scored by the opponent."

"But Leeds City was able to attack like this before because they had Hu. Now Hu is on our side..." Valentine speculated. "As long as we continue to play like this, as long as we can withstand their opening three axes, the balance of victory will favor us."

Parotti nodded, agreeing with his first assistant's opinion.

Indeed.

A large part of Leeds' success in the first two seasons was due to the fact that they had a super efficient striker.

The existence of Hu Lai makes Leeds City's desperate style of play actually very safe, because they can always open the opponent's goal before being penetrated by the opponent's defense.

Once Leeds City takes the lead, the opponent has to invest more troops in the offense in order to equalize the score, so the defense must be empty.

Leeds can score more goals.

Their offensive is often like an avalanche, as long as they break through a little, they can form a disaster that completely bury their opponents.

It is precisely because of this understanding that Parotti will not be just a "shooter" who is relatively more capable of scoring goals, as some people think.

Think about it, if your team has a player who can always score first, wouldn't that start the game with a score of "1:0"?

What a tactical advantage this is, no professionals are needed, even a fake fan should know.

But now that Leeds City does not have such a player, the onslaught tactics have lost the most important cornerstone.

This season, Leeds City's performance in the league is not good enough, and the offense is weak, which is related to this, and it has a lot to do with it.

Clark tried many combinations of personnel and tactics, but none of them worked very well.

The main reason is that the player's state is not stable enough, and the performance is not up to expectations.

Forwards like Kamara and Lasky, of course, don't play soy sauce in every game. They also perform well, but they can't continue this state all the time.

The same goes for Zhou Zijing, another Chinese striker in the squad.

He once came off the bench in the game against London Mars, scored a goal and contributed an assist, and his performance was very eye-catching.

But in the next league match against Burleigh, Zhou Zijing, who started the game, performed mediocrely, without any outstanding performance.

The player's state is unstable, and the head coach's tactics are useless.

After all, it's hard for a smart woman to cook without rice.

The Leeds City players who are used to playing with Hou Lai seem to have not yet passed the window period after Hou Lai left.

So in the face of Leeds City's onslaught after the opening, Parotti was unmoved and did not make any adjustments.

Just sitting on the sidelines and watching the game with the assistant coaches.

His only worry is that the Leeds City fans were too kind to Hu Lai before, which would make his players underestimate the enemy, thinking that this is a very easy away game to deal with.

But seeing both Hou Lai and Ramirez in the locker room before the game reminded the players that this problem is not too big.

※※※

Tony Clark's formation for this game is 433, the starting center is Poland international Dominik Laski, the left wing is Ismael Kamara, and the right is this season's new Swedish international Frey Derek Soderbergh.

The two of them stretched very far apart, both moving close to the sidelines, making full use of the width of the field.

Pete Williams runs the offense in the center.

Jay Adams and Junpei Morikawa played behind him, with Junpei Morikawa mainly responsible for interception and sweeping, providing protection for the two midfield partners.

Adams was responsible for supporting Pete.

This is Leeds City's lineup in midfield.

The only personnel change is the addition of Soderbergh.

He is the most expensive player Leeds City introduced this summer. The club spent 42 million euros to poach him from La Liga powerhouse Valentia. This transfer fee made him the king of transfer bids for Leeds City this season.

The Swedish international is fast and good at dribbling, but his shooting skills are average. He is a typical winger.

As a former Valentia player, Soderbergh played against the Pirates a lot in La Liga and is very familiar with this team.

The pirates in turn knew him very well.

His strength is indeed stronger than that of Charlie Potter who was originally in this position, and his performance after the transfer did not disappoint. It is in line with his worth and everyone's expectations of him.

But to say how outstanding his ability is... I wouldn't say that.

The value of 42 million euros is the king of transfer bids in Leeds City, but the Madrid Pirates are at the lower middle level, and this value is a lot of money.

As a right winger, Soderbergh happened to face the strongest side of the Madrid Pirates-the left wing formed by Tonini and Ion.

Ion is now in the defense zone, ready to defend Soderbergh.

He is confident that Soderbergh will not break through from himself.

But Soderbergh's choice made Ion a little surprised-the Swedish international didn't get entangled with Ion here, but directly transferred the football long pass to the other side!

The ball went straight across the field and was picked up by Kamara on the left.

While the football was still in the air, Leeds City right-back Farrek Quinn advanced decisively from the full-back position.

A posture to cooperate with Kamala.

When Kamara received the ball, he had already run behind Kamara and was still accelerating forward, with no intention of slowing down and stopping.

With his run, the Pirates' right back Irasusta retreated - he was afraid that Kamara would pass the ball directly behind him and let Quinn sprint.

With Irazusta's retreat, Kamara only needs to face a Portuguese midfielder Silvilio who is not very defensive.

Without hesitation, he directly took the football to the middle!

A sudden acceleration started, and Silvilio, who hadn't reacted, got stuck behind him!

Seeing that Silvilio couldn't stop Camara, the pirate captain Juan Ramirez decisively came up to make up the defense.

Kamara took advantage of his coming up and passed the football sideways to Pete.

After passing the ball, he suddenly changed direction and ran towards the penalty area.

Joaquin Bella steps up to defend Pete.

Pete used his skills to protect the football in front of him, blocking the harassment of Joaquin Bella behind him, and then passed the football forward to the pulled center Laski.

Although the Polish striker is not a completely powerful center in terms of stature, he is definitely not the thin type like Hu Lai.

At the same time, on the basis of his good physical confrontation ability, he also has excellent foot skills.

This makes him more versatile as a center.

He turned his back to the attacking direction and made a posture to turn away from the left side of his body before receiving the ball, allowing Pirates center back Kepa Amantegui to follow and shift his center of gravity there.

After the football came, Lasky sent the football behind him with the outside instep of his right foot...

The football rolls into the box from the other side.

It's not getting rid of, it's passing!

Cheers erupted from the stands of the Flanders Stadium.

I saw Kamara, who just changed direction and went straight into the penalty area, appear behind the football, and he chased after him!

Another Pirates central defender, Riva Moreno, followed the football and turned around. Seeing this scene, he quickly shoveled towards the football, ready to destroy the ball first!

But Kamara's foot movement was faster than him. He stretched out his right foot first and pulled the football slightly to the left, allowing Moreno to shovel it!

Then his left foot waded out the football pulled over very quickly, and he just passed Moreno!

Pirates goalkeeper Heywell didn't hesitate when he saw this, he immediately abandoned the goal and attacked, blocking Kamara's shooting angle!

He bared his teeth and claws, and his huge body basically blocked all the possibilities of Kamara's shots.

But Kamara missed the shot!

He passed the football sideways with his left foot!

"Lasky—!!"

The Polish striker who followed up in the middle had already run to the most deadly place after everyone's attention was attracted by Kamara.

And Amanteji was completely left behind by him!

Laski stretched out his feet and pushed gently horizontally, and the football was pushed into the goal!

The cheers at the Flanders Stadium almost reached their peak!

Only twelve minutes into the game, Leeds City led the Madrid Pirates 1-0!