Young Football Player

On January 22, 2011, in the 23rd round of the 2010/11 Scottish Premier League, Dundee United went away to challenge Kilmarnock.

After winning Hearts in the last round, Dundee United has tied the opponent in points. Currently, the two teams have 42 points, but Hearts has 6 more goals than Dundee United, so the opponent is in the standings. It still has to be ranked ahead of Dundee United, but Dundee United has the advantage of one round less.

The top two players in the standings are undoubtedly the two old hooligans of the time-honored brand. At present, the Rangers rank first with 53 points in one game, and the Celtics are 1 point behind.

Judging from the current situation of Dundee United, that is, competing with Hearts for the third place in the league, the top two do not have much chance.

Kilmarnock's recent state is not bad. Taking advantage of Inverness and Motherwell losing points one after another, Kilmarnock is chasing points continuously. The current ranking has risen to the fifth place, which is Dundee. Lian's ass behind.

However, they are still 8 points behind Dundee United in terms of points, and they are not yet able to threaten the position of Dundee United.

But this time at home, they showed their best form.

With just over 10 minutes into the game, Kilmarnock took the lead in scoring with the momentum of the home court, leading Dundee United 1-0.

The opponent's morale was high and the offensive was fierce. Dundee United could only choose to counterattack with defense, but they never had a good chance to score.

In the second half, Li Chenglong relied on his skillful dribbling to make the opponent foul. In less than 20 minutes, the opponent's defender turned two yellows and one red and was sent off. Dundee United gained the advantage in numbers.

But Kilmarnock's defense was quite resolute after recovery. Dundee United had the advantage of one more man but couldn't open the situation. In the end, Peter Houston had to replace high center forward Joan Daly, hoping to rely on the accumulation of forwards to strengthen the offensive.

In stoppage time, Dundee United finally relied on right-back Severin's forward pass. Joan Daly scored a header and barely equalized the score.

In the end, Dundee United had a difficult 1:1 draw with Kilmarnock in the away game and only scored one point.

"Kimmarnock played very tenaciously in this game. We are very lucky to get one point." This is Lee Chenglong's answer in an interview after the game.

With recent continuous performances, Lee Chenglong has become famous, and reporters have started to interview him after almost every game.

Dundee United only scored one point against a tough team, but Hearts defeated Rangers 1-0 at home, and this time the points that had just been tied were pulled back by two points.

In the matter of competing with Hearts for third place, Dundee United always seemed to be a little unlucky. Every time they were about to catch up, they were pulled away inexplicably.

Just like this time, Kilmarnock suddenly performed exceptionally against Dundee United, but Hearts, who should have been unable to score against Rangers, unexpectedly defeated a strong opponent at home and took all three points.

And Hearts won the game, not only widening the gap with Dundee United again, but also allowing Celtic to regain the top spot occupied by Rangers for a long time, which is another bad news for Dundee United. information.

Rangers lost the top spot, so their make-up match against Dundee United will be even more difficult, because Rangers will definitely try their best to get three points and strive to regain the top spot.

The Football Association of the Soviet Union has already made arrangements. The make-up match between Dundee United and Rangers is initially scheduled to be held in April, but if Rangers go far in the Europa League knockout round, it may continue to be postponed.

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In the middle of the week after the 23rd round of the league, the Scottish FA Cup top 32 supplementary matches were all over, followed by the draw for the top 16.

The result of the draw is not bad for Dundee United, because Dundee United has drawn Hamilton, a team that is currently desperately relegating, and it should not be a big problem to pass the test.

At the same time, the Celtics and the Rangers were drawn together, which means that one of the two hooligans of the old brand will definitely not be able to enter the quarterfinals.

There is less competitive pressure in the FA Cup.

But this result is also urging Dundee United to continue to make efforts in the FA Cup.

The pressure on the FA Cup has become less, which means that the possibility of a dark horse winning the championship has become greater.

If it is a dark horse that finally wins the FA Cup, the fourth place in the league at the end of the season will not qualify for the European competition.

In that case, if Dundee United wants to qualify for the European War, they must strive for third place in the league, or Dundee United will win the FA Cup in person.

It is worth mentioning that, in order to compete with Dundee United for the third place in the league, Hearts voluntarily went out in the top 32 of the FA Cup. They lost 0:1 at home to St. Johnstone with a full bench.

Hearts obviously made a gamble-like decision to fight alone to keep the third place in the league. This is indeed a lot less pressure, but if it fails, there is probably no room for recovery.

For Dundee United, there will be a lot of pressure on the league and the FA Cup, but there is still a chance to make up for the defeat on one front and the other.

Which one is better than the other is actually hard to say clearly.

Previously, Peter Houston could imagine that even if Dundee United could not beat Hearts in the end and only finished fourth in the league, if the FA Cup champion was any one of Rangers, Celtic or Hearts , the fourth place in the league is also eligible for the European war.

But now, Hearts has taken the initiative out of the game, and one of the Rangers and Celtics will definitely be out in the top 16. If Dundee United only finishes fourth in the league, but still wants to qualify for the European competition, the only way is either Celtic won the FA Cup, or Dundee United won the FA Cup themselves.

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On January 29, in the 24th round of the league, Dundee United challenged St. Mirren away.

St. Mirren is currently ranked second to last in the Scottish Super League standings, just higher than the bottom-ranked Hamilton. It is a team that really needs to score points to avoid relegation.

In the away locker room, Peter Houston was doing his pregame pep talk.

"St. Mirren is just a relegation team. As long as we show our real strength, we will definitely be able to take three points from here."

"And we also have to win this game. Hearts' opponent in this round is Celtic, and it's an away game. In the last round, they were lucky enough to win Rangers at home. Not so lucky."

"If Hearts loses points against the Celtics this round, we can at least equalize the score difference after we win."

"If Hearts lose directly, we can even surpass the opponent after winning the game and rise to the third place in the standings, putting huge pressure on the opponent."

"It's already the second half of the season. Every change in the ranking at this time may determine the final ranking..."