The Godfather of Football

No one in this world is perfect, including Ye Qiu!

In the eyes of many fans and reporters who don't like Ye Qiu, Ye Qiu has many shortcomings, but this certainly does not include breaking his promise.

On the contrary, whether in the field of football or in the field of business, Ye Qiu's trustworthiness is well known to the world, so many times when facing the media, he either doesn't speak, but as long as he speaks, you generally don't need to doubt the authenticity. Of course, there are exceptions when dealing with player transfers.

For example, before selling Gareth Bale, Van Persie, Vargas and others, Ye Qiu said in an interview with the media that these players were not for sale, but in fact, everyone knew that they all transferred in the end, but Tottenham Hotspur received a generous transfer return.

But there is one situation that Ye Qiu will definitely not joke about, that is, the player's game arrangement!

As early as a week ago, Ye Qiu shouted that he would not change the team's starting lineup and would continue to arrange young and substitute players to play the second round of the League Cup semi-finals. Everyone was shocked. Not only the fans and media outside were surprised, but also all the young players in the team were surprised, because this was a crucial battle!

But the final result was that Ye Qiu once again fulfilled his promise.

The goalkeeper is Joe Hart, the back line is Coentrao, Nastasic, Varane and Kyle Walker, the midfield is Ramsey, Phil Jones and Pogba, and the front court is Eden Hazard, Cavani and Beckham.

Compared with Tottenham's extremely young starting lineup, Manchester City's lineup is star-studded. The goalkeeper is Given, the back line is Lescott, Hangeland, Micah Richards and Zabaleta, the midfield is Gareth Barry, De Jong and Modric, and the front court is Robinho, Adebayor and Wright Phillips.

At first glance, Manchester City's strength is indeed higher than Tottenham's second team, but football is never just based on one lineup. After all, Manchester City's lineup has just played in the league, and Tottenham's young players are not completely defenseless.

However, from the beginning of the game, Manchester City did have an overwhelming advantage and took the lead in launching a fierce attack.

Robinho, who has been rumored to be leaving the team recently, took the lead in a dribbling breakthrough on the left and easily ate Kyle Walker in a one-on-one situation, but when he made a cross immediately afterwards, Varane blocked Adebayor with his body and cleared the ball out of the baseline.

Then Manchester City's corner kick was headed out of the penalty area by Nastasic and failed to pose a threat.

However, Manchester City was obviously unwilling to give up and immediately made a comeback. This time, Robinho made a quick breakthrough on the left, but he used a cunning fake move to deceive Kyle Walker, and then suddenly cut inside to pass the ball to the back post. Adebayor was well positioned this time, suppressed Nastasic with his body, and headed the ball into the goal.

Joe Hart faced the ball and made a very surprising flying save, bravely saving the ball. For this, the young Englishman won a warm and incomparable cheer from the Tottenham fans.

Although, in the past period of time, Joe Hart's performance has been good and bad, and it is difficult to shake the main position of the world's number one goalkeeper Cech, but the performance and progress of the young Englishman are still seen by the fans and have attracted more and more attention. This time, he bravely saved Adebayor's header, which is worthy of recognition.

Perhaps seeing Manchester City's sharp attack on the left, especially Robinho's active performance on the left, the Brazilian seemed to want to vent his frustration in Manchester City on Tottenham Hotspur. Ye Qiu immediately made adjustments, and Beckham's position was appropriately withdrawn to assist Kyle Walker.

The English youngster is very fast, has strong impact, and is also good at footwork, but his defense is a bit unreliable.

But Tottenham Hotspur has a very obvious characteristic, that is, it is panic but not chaotic, especially this group of young players in the team, each of them is obviously full of fighting spirit, obviously because of Ye Qiu's words before the game, and the head coach's trust in them at this critical moment, they are all holding their breath to prove their strength.

This is the advantage of young players, it is easy to change with the ups and downs of emotions, the key is how you guide them.

Tottenham's first threatening attack of the game occurred in the fifth minute. After being suppressed by Manchester City for five minutes after two consecutive attacks, Tottenham quickly launched a threatening attack. Beckham took the ball on the right and made an accurate diagonal long pass. Cavani rushed to the left side of Manchester City's penalty area after offside. After stopping the ball, he made a lob pass to the small penalty area, but Pogba, who came in from behind, failed to get a chance from Given. Manchester City's goalkeeper quickly hugged the ball and resolved Tottenham's attack.

But the two sides played very openly, Manchester City had an advantage in strength, and Mancini's calculations were also very loud, that is, to use the attack after the start to completely suppress the arrogance of this group of young ghosts, and it would be best to be like the city stadium a week ago, suppressing this group of young players of Tottenham to completely lose their fighting spirit.

What is a bit surprising is that Ye Qiu was also very relaxed in this game. Although they are the second team and although their strength is not as good as Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur still insisted on the offensive tactics and fought against Manchester City from the beginning. There is no trickery in the confrontation, it is just a back-and-forth battle between you and me.

Soon, the first wave of offensive had just been resolved, and Tottenham Hotspur came with a second wave of offensive. When Hazard quickly broke through Zabaleta on the left, he caused a foul on Zabaleta. Tottenham Naham Hotspur got a chance to set the ball in the frontcourt.

Beckham personally took the penalty, and the placement was excellent, but Hangeland steadily controlled the high ball advantage. The former Tottenham Hotspur central defender faced his old club and a group of juniors who were a generation younger than him. , obviously showing no mercy at all, steadily cleared Beckham's free kick out of the penalty area. After Pogba got the ball outside the penalty area, he shot directly, high!

After Tottenham Hotspur attacked for a while, Manchester City quickly changed colors. It was Robinho who was still very excited in this game from the left. In just less than eight minutes, he scored consecutively. Three successful breakthroughs were made against Kyle Walker, but only one corner kick was obtained because Tottenham deployed heavy troops in the middle.

But Manchester City's strength advantage is still very clear. They began to control the game very well, and in the first 20 minutes, they got a total of six corner kick opportunities, which made Tottenham a little passive on the scene. Qiu even had to pull Beckham back to participate in the team's right defense.

Everyone watched the game with trepidation. The fans at White Hart Lane, which was full because of the low ticket prices for the cup match, were also trembling with fear. I believe that quite a few fans were praying in their hearts, hoping that The team can get rid of Manchester City's suppression and find the magic weapon to defeat the enemy as soon as possible.

I believe that many people are secretly criticizing Ye Qiu's decision, especially for his continued insistence on using young players to start in such an important semi-final. After all, no matter how strong young people are, it will be difficult for them to compete against Manchester City. This group of powerful stars, like Nastasic, performed very well, but he was still at an absolute disadvantage facing Adebayor.

Tottenham Hotspur were passive on the scene, but their defense was well organized. With Beckham's retreat on the right, the defense was strengthened, and Pogba and Phil Jones also defended the center very tightly. Coupled with Coentrao sitting on the left, Ramsey assisting in defense in the midfield, and Cavani running and pressing in front of him, Tottenham Hotspur's defense is quite stable.

But everyone is not used to it, because it has always been Tottenham Hotspur who beat others. When did they see Ye Qiu's team being beaten by others?

Although Manchester City pressed hard and played hard, in fact, they did not create many threatening offenses. The many corner kicks are a strong proof that they lack effective lethality in the penalty area.

2010 is the year of the African Cup. Yaya Toure of Tottenham Hotspur, Kolo Toure and Adebayor of Manchester City all participated in the African Cup. The difference is that Adebayor Bayeux did not finish the group stage. The Togolese team suffered a machine gun attack in Angola, killing three people, and the Togolese team also ended its Africa Cup of Nations trip early.

Perhaps due to this life-and-death violence, although Adebayor was not injured in the machine gun attack, this round of shock obviously affected his state. Although he scored twice in the first round, And he had an advantage in the competition with several young players from Tottenham Hotspur, but overall, his performance was not ideal.

This unsatisfactory situation also continued into the second round. When Tottenham Hotspur assembled heavy troops in the middle, Manchester City was never able to find an effective way to break through Tottenham Hotspur's defense, relying more on Robinho took the ball on the left, but this was also curbed as Beckham retreated.

In the end, the first half ended with Manchester City having an absolute advantage, but they could not break through Tottenham Hotspur's goal. The two sides ended up with a goalless draw 0:0, and Manchester City looked very dissatisfied because they obviously had the advantage.

“Everyone did a very, very good job in the first half!”

During the halftime break, as soon as Ye Qiu entered the locker room, he immediately praised the team's starting lineup. It was obvious that he had no intention of adjusting the team's tactics or player lineup during the halftime break. This also reassured many players who were a little anxious at first.

To be honest, young players hope to get more competition and performance opportunities, and many of them performed very poorly in this game, such as Ramsey, but this is also a common problem for young players, and it is difficult to maintain their condition for a long time. Time keeping.

"I am satisfied with everyone's performance in the first half. I know many of you may be disappointed with the situation in the first half, but what I want to tell you is that we did not play in a panic in the first half. Because we must clearly see that Manchester City is indeed a very capable team, and we cannot deny this!”

"But I also want to tell you one thing, that is, judging from the performance in the first half, we definitely have the strength to challenge and even defeat Manchester City, and I also believe that at this moment all of you hope to defeat this powerful team. Opponents, like you, I hope to use my performance in this game to prove one thing to everyone.”

"Everyone who can wear the Tottenham Hotspur jersey will not give up easily, and will not be defeated easily, even if we are facing a team that is much stronger than us, even if we are at an absolute disadvantage, but we will not be defeated!"

Ye Qiu's words were nodded in agreement by many players. At least since the miracle of the Champions League final reversal at the Luzhniki Stadium, blood and passion have become a part of Tottenham Hotspur football. That classic game has also become a classic theme for countless Tottenham Hotspur players and fans to inspire themselves.

"Guys, the first half was 0:0, and we were 1:2 behind Manchester City in total, but we still have hope. As long as we beat Manchester City in the second half, we can advance to the finals, and you will appear at Wembley Stadium in west London on February 28. You will have the opportunity to win the first championship trophy in your career, even if it is just the League Cup. But can you refuse such a temptation?"

"No!"

"Can't refuse!"

"Absolutely not!"

The players began to respond to Ye Qiu, and then more and more people spoke up. After all, they were still so young, and Ye Qiu's words were a promise. As long as they beat Manchester City, the people who appeared in the starting lineup at Wembley Stadium would still be their group of young players.

Who can refuse such a temptation? Who can resist the attraction of the championship trophy?

The answer is, no!

But it is definitely not an easy task to defeat Manchester City, so Ye Qiu focused on one player, Micah Richards.

Ivory Coast is still playing in the African Cup, so Kolo Toure and Yaya Toure have not returned to the team. The former is Manchester City's main central defender and Hangeland's right-hand man. In his absence, Mancini replaced him with young player Micah Richards, but the right side is an unreliable Zabaleta, and the right central defender is the young Micah Richards. This is a link that Tottenham can use, but it was not enough in the first half.

After the second half, Manchester City still actively played on its left side. At the same time, as Tottenham maintained a compact defensive posture of three lines, Manchester City began to press forward and frequently created threats.

In the 46th minute, not long after the game started, Gareth Barry passed the ball to Robinho, who got a chance to shoot from a small angle in the penalty area, but Joe Hart was very stable and stuck in position and saved the ball.

Although the defense this time was just the goalkeeper's duty and was mediocre, Joe Hart's performance still won the recognition and cheers of Tottenham fans. I believe that after this game, all fans will get to know Joe Hart again.

But one minute later, Manchester City launched another attack. Wright-Phillips wanted to break through Coentrao on the right, but failed. The Portuguese passed the ball to Ramsey after intercepting the ball, but when the latter turned around with the ball, De Jong appeared behind him and fouled when tackling. He was warned by the referee, but interrupted Tottenham's counterattack.

At least in terms of game experience and the use of rules, Manchester City's players are more experienced and mature.

The counterattack rhythm was interrupted, and Tottenham fell into Manchester City's pressure again. The free kick was taken, and Hangeland headed the ball back to the midfield. Manchester City reorganized the offensive and soon won a corner kick opportunity on the left.

Looking at the first few minutes of the second half, Ye Qiu realized that Mancini was conscious of opening up the right side. With Adebayor in a not very good state, it was difficult for Manchester City to launch their attack and form a threat with Robinho on the left alone. In this case, it was necessary to activate Wright Phillips on the right side.

But Ye Qiu had already prepared for this during the halftime break. Coentrao and Ramsey attached great importance to the defense and protection of the left side. The latter performed poorly in this game and was not in ideal condition, but his attitude was very good and he conscientiously carried out the tasks assigned by Ye Qiu.

In this case, the right side could not be played, so they could only return to the left side. Returning to the left side was equivalent to returning to the rhythm of the first half, which was exactly the rhythm that Tottenham Hotspur was familiar with and accustomed to. In addition, the team's defense had accumulated enough experience to deal with Manchester City's left-wing offensive, and there was no problem with the response.

In this case, Tottenham Hotspur had the strength to withstand the pressure of Manchester City's attack and launch their own counterattack!

It was precisely this corner kick that Robinho won on the left. Manchester City chose a tactical corner kick and quickly kicked it out. Gareth Barry received the ball and passed it low into the penalty area, but Varane headed the ball to Beckham outside the penalty area.

After the Englishman chested the ball, there was no one defending around him. He turned around without any hesitation, tried it, and kicked it out directly from the front of the penalty area with a precise long pass.

The ball drew an arc in the air, and in the stadium below, the Tottenham players wearing white jerseys were rushing forward quickly, and Cavani was the one rushing in the front.

The Uruguayan was tall and big, and his flexibility and starting ability were indeed not his strengths, so it was difficult for him to perform well in a small area, but once he was given enough space to rush up, this guy was like a heavy armored tank. The combination of inertia and his own speed made him very fast and very impactful.

Cavani rushed in front, Hazard, Ramsey, Pogba and others followed closely behind. Tottenham Hotspur's counterattack was very fast, and because of Manchester City's corner kick, Hangeland, Micah Richards and others rushed into Tottenham Hotspur's penalty area. It was obviously too late to retreat now.