Young Football Player

On July 30th, at 7:00 p.m. UK time, the first leg of the UEFA Cup third round of qualification kicked off. Dundee United played against the Premier League giants Liverpool at home.

Dundee United's home stadium, Tanatis Park, which can only accommodate 18,000 people, has long been completely occupied by fans.

Although Dundee United is only the middle and lower reaches of the Scottish Premier League, there are only 12 teams in the Scottish Premier League.

After the restructuring of the Champions League, most of the time the Soviet Super League has 5 places in the European competition, so on average every few seasons, Dundee United can still qualify for the European competition once. Although they are all UEFA Cup qualifications, they are also real European qualifications.

Speaking of the history of the European War, Dundee United also had a short period of glory. Dundee United can be regarded as a team with a better record in the European War in the Scottish League.

Dundee United is the only four teams in the Scottish league that have reached the European finals. The other three are Celtic, Glasgow Rangers and Aberdeen.

Therefore, in the history of Dundee United, Tanatis Park Stadium has also faced many strong teams on the European continent, including Barcelona in La Liga, Roma in Serie A, Borussia Borussia in Bundesliga and so on.

But this time against Liverpool, this will be the first time in the history of Dundee United against a giant team from England in the European war.

Due to historical reasons, Scotland and England have not been able to get along well, so there are always some Scots who are disgusted with everything in England, including football.

And under the background of belonging to the Kingdom of Great Britain, England's major giants all have considerable influence in Scotland, so this time against Liverpool at home, it is hard to find a ticket for the small-capacity Thanatis Park Stadium, even if The ticket price itself has been set very high.

Although Li Chenglong has tried his best to express himself before, but after all, he has only joined the team for less than a week, so he didn't even make the squad for this game.

In the end, amidst the warm cheers from the home fans, Dundee United was undoubtedly defeated.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored on point and French striker David Ngog scored twice as Dundee United suffered a 3-0 defeat at home.

Although it had long been expected that they would not be able to play, they lost 0:3 at home, which still disappointed the fans of Dundee United.

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Although they suffered a disastrous home defeat to Liverpool, life still has to go on, and the team still has to continue training to prepare for the next game.

During the daily training, Li Chenglong, as always, seized the opportunity to express himself as much as possible. Finally, on August 5th, when assistant coach Harrison announced the roster of players for tomorrow's away game at Anfield, Li Chenglong heard what he wanted.

"...Bruce Lee..."

Although it is just an ordinary roll call, this represents the first time that Lee Chenglong has entered the team's roster.

On the morning of August 6, the Dundee United team took a bus to Liverpool.

Obviously, after the disastrous home defeat in the first leg, Dundee United has basically given up this series.

Liverpool is located in the north of England, not far from Scotland, which is convenient for Dundee United, which is running a small business, to save airfare.

At 7:30 in the evening, the second round of the two teams started on time.

Jackie Lee came to Anfield for the first time, and saw the famous phrase "This is Anfield" in the visiting team's dressing room. But today he has to wait for the opportunity, because he is the team's substitute.

At the beginning of the game, Liverpool took the initiative as always, and Dundee United basically had to defend passively. The game did not seem to have much suspense.

"The Scottish league has been declining over the years. It seems that apart from Celtic and Rangers, there is no team that can win points in the European war. Today's Dundee United is no exception." The game is a bit boring , BBC TV's veteran commentator John Mortensen had to say something off topic.

"I remember Dundee United being a good team back then,

The results in the European war are very impressive. ’ Mortensen’s partner strikes up.

"Well, in the 1980s, Dundee United had a brief rise. At that time, they won the only league championship in team history, and relied on this championship to participate in the only Champions League, and then they went all the way to the semi-finals. , lost to Serie A Roma in the semi-finals."

"And they took a 2:0 lead at home in the first round, and they had a very good chance of reaching the final of the year. Unfortunately, they lost 0:3 away in the second round and were eventually eliminated."

"What's interesting is that the final champion of the Champions League that year belonged to Liverpool, Dundee United's opponent today. If they could have knocked out Roma, they would have met Liverpool in the final. They missed that chance, and they finally had a match with Liverpool until today. Chance to fight."

"Although they failed to hit the European Championship that time, Dundee United once again amazed the European football world after three seasons. They went all the way through the UEFA Cup that year and reached the final, which surprised many people. "

"Especially in the quarter-finals match against La Liga giants Barcelona. At that time, Barcelona had famous English players such as Lineker and Mark Hughes. Many people thought that Barcelona would win easily, but Dundee United beat Barcelona at home and away. , became the biggest upset in the European War that year."

"To this day, the series in which Dundee United knocked out Barcelona will still be called one of the top ten upsets by English teams in European competition."

"However, it is a pity that in the final of that year, they faced the Swedish team Gothenburg and lost 1:2. They missed the only chance to win the European championship."

"Dundee United have slipped rapidly since then, back to what they've been for the most part, an average Scottish league team..."

Mortensen can become a famous commentator in the UK because he is familiar with all kinds of deeds and allusions in football. Now when it comes to Dundee United, he has shown off again.

Amidst Mortensen's eloquent talk, at the end of the first half, Liverpool relied on Ngog's goal to temporarily lead Dundee United 1-0.

At halftime, head coach Peter Houston did not get angry. Before coming here, he was mentally prepared to lose. At present, Dundee United is only one goal behind, which can even be said to be better than he expected.

However, he still routinely did what a coach should do. Since there is no hope for the game, it is better to let young players with potential go up and exercise.

"Stewart, Bruce, you two come on in the second half, go and show your strength, don't let the Liverpool people underestimate us."

Although Li Chenglong murmured in his heart that he was 0:4 behind in two rounds, it would be strange not to be underestimated, but he still responded loudly: "Okay, coach!"

"The fourth official raised a card on the sidelines. It seems that Dundee United intends to make a substitution, but I don't know if they intend to make a last-ditch effort or to give up the game."

"They put No. 25 Stewart Armstrong on for No. 8 Scott Robertson and No. 36 Bruce Lee came on for No. 16 Mogalo Gomis."

"Obviously, the two replaced by Dundee United are young players. Armstrong is 1992 and only 18 years old, and Lee is 1993 and only 17 years old."

The moment he stepped on the turf of the stadium, Li Chenglong still couldn't believe that the first game of his professional career came like this, and he actually participated in the European war, and it was still on the famous Anfield stadium.

Although all of this happened by chance, it still made him a little unbelievable.