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Chapter 232 1 Sweeping the downturn

Chapter 232

"This is the Elland Road Stadium! The second round of No.08 of the 09-30 season will be held here. Leeds United will face Cheltenham at home! Although Leeds United have lost two games in a row in the previous league and lost three games away, they have won five games in a row at home! At Elland Road, Cheltenham, who must be ranked second to last in terms of points, cannot prevent Leeds United from extending their winning streak at home to the sixth game... but for Leeds United There is some bad news. Their top scorer, Beckford, is unable to play in this game due to accumulative yellow cards. Leeds United's head coach McAllister has sent Chinese forward Long Bisheng and Scottish striker Robert Snodgrass. The void created by the array..."

Long Bisheng stood in the middle circle moving his body while communicating with Snodgrass. He and Snodgrass did not play many matches. This 1.8-meter-tall Scottish boy (actually two years older than Long Bisheng) had a good temper.

Snodgrass and Beckford have the same characteristics. Both are opportunistic shooters. It is precisely because of this that Snodgrass has always been Beckford's substitute. No head coach will put two opportunistic shooters on the forward line. Not to mention the single offensive method, it is still a huge waste. Beckford is taller than Snodgrass and has a lot more experience. Naturally, he is the main striker.

While chatting with Snodgrass, Long Bisheng secretly made up his mind. He has already lost two games in a row, and he is [-] points behind Leicester City, which has played one more game.

In the first two games, due to his restlessness, the team lost two games in a row. Today, the most reliable striker partner Beckford is suspended, and he is the biggest reliance for Leeds United to score goals!

"To score! To win!" Long Bisheng silently set a goal for himself.

The referee blew the whistle to start the game, Long Bisheng passed the ball to Snodgrass, and then ran forward quickly.

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Cheltenham has lost four games in a row so far, and the morale of Cheltenham, which has lost nine games, has been exhausted to the extreme. The team's only winning streak this season is a two-game winning streak. When they played against Leeds United in the first round, they lost [-]-[-] at home, and it was Long Bisheng who scored the only goal in that game.

They don't have the slightest confidence in defeating Leeds United in the away game. The only thing they can do is to stick to it, hoping to take a point from the away game.

They succeeded to a certain extent - after the end of the first half, although their defense became shaky under the impact of Long Bisheng and other Leeds players, they still tenaciously kept the score of zero to zero until the end of the first half.

When the half-time whistle sounded, Cheltenham's coach couldn't help but be overjoyed - in his opinion, being able to maintain a draw in the first half meant that there was likely to be an opportunity in the second half.

Leeds United had lost two games in a row before, and they must win against the penultimate Cheltenham at home. Otherwise, the fans and the club would be very dissatisfied. Now that they failed to score in the first half, the Leeds United players will definitely be more upset. At this time, it is a great opportunity for them to fight back!

The head coach of Cheltenham walked into the dressing room with a wishful thinking. McAllister saw his expression in his eyes, but he sneered in his heart.

After changing the previous two games, he might be as the head coach thought, but in today's game, he is not worried. Judging from the first half, Long Bisheng has returned to his best form. Several impacts in the first half made Cheltenham's poor defense line precarious.

Under such circumstances, Cheltenham was not thinking about how to make the defense line stronger, but wishful thinking about scoring goals through counterattacks, which could only make them die faster.

After entering the locker room, McAllister said only one sentence to the players: "Continue to play like this in the second half! Break their defense!"

Seeing that the head coach didn't react because he failed to break the deadlock in the first half, the players were relieved-the luck in the first half was too bad, and they must score first in the second half!

In fact, at this moment, McAllister's heart was not as calm as he showed.

Although he knows that Leeds United will continue to attack in today's state, and it will only be a matter of time before they score, but who can tell what is going on on the football field?What if Leeds United were unlucky today?If they had the upper hand, they would definitely win the game, and Brazil would not have been defeated by Argentina in the 90 World Cup.

But in front of the players, he must appear very confident and show that he doesn't look down on the opponent at all-otherwise, even he, the head coach, will lose confidence. Where do the players have confidence?

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The second half started.

Perhaps it was because of the encouragement from the head coach during the intermission. After the start of the second half, Cheltenham changed his defensive style in the first half and started attacking and intercepting frequently from the midfield.

Delph passed the ball to Robinson. Just as Robinson stopped the ball, an opponent player made a flying tackle from the side. Robinson was also a little careless, and the opponent directly shoveled the ball from under his feet.

Leeds United pressed very high, and when the opponent's midfield intercepted the ball to form a counterattack, Leeds United had only Mister Xie defending in the backcourt!

"Back to defense—" McAllister jumped up from the coach's bench and shouted.

Huntington and Douglas, who were dragging farther back, sprinted back immediately, but the opponent had already passed the ball directly to the lone forward Damian Spencer who had been cruising in the frontcourt. The 28-year-old forward immediately took the ball into the Leeds United half.

Mister Xie safely stopped in front of Spencer, but he didn't stick up. The speed of the opponent was not very fast, but his height reached 1.9 meters. He may not have the upper hand in physical confrontation. What he has to do now is to slow down the speed of the opponent's counterattack.

Spencer swayed from left to right a few times, but Mister Xie was still firmly in front of him. Just as he was about to forcefully rush over, Huntington, who was back on defense, stuck to him from the side and rear. When he staggered, Mister Xie had already tackled the ball with a clean tackle.

The ball rolled to Douglas' feet. Huntington smiled and gave Mister Xie a thumbs-up. Mister Xie also smiled: "Have a nice cooperation."

Douglas turned around with the ball and saw that the opponent's defense was a little looser than before, so he immediately gave the ball to Delph in front of him. Delph looked up and saw that Long Bisheng had rushed into the penalty area, and the defense against him was not as loose as in the first half.

Long Bisheng jumped up near the penalty spot. At this spot, he didn't expect to be able to head the ball directly, but he saw two players around Snodgrass defending, so he forcibly retracted his stomach in the air and exerted strength, shaking his head and slamming the ball towards the goal!

The goalkeeper of the opposing team jumped up and flung the ball in the air. Just as sighs sounded from the stands, a figure wearing a pure white home uniform of Leeds United appeared in front of the goal.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Jonathan Howson!" Elland Road's home commentator howled: "21-year-old Howson opened the scoring for Leeds United! He added the header of the 20-year-old Long Bisheng into the goal! Our new young guards have begun to grow, 21-year-old Howson, 22-year-old Snodgrass, 20-year-old Long Bisheng, Delph! This is our new hope!"

Off the field, McAllister shook his fist fiercely, and then sat down with relief—the poor former star was probably the one who was most shocked when Cheltenham counterattacked just now. Mister Xie's calmness saved his increasingly fragile heart, and the joint attack of Delph, Long Bisheng and Howson made him completely relieved.

Now that the stalemate has been broken, the next game will be easier. He did not require the players to win a big victory. For the current Leeds United, victory is the most important thing. Stopping the losing streak and regaining competitiveness is the kingly way.

Ten minutes later, Howson, who was in excellent form, scored his second goal of the game. After a two-for-one cooperation with Delph, Howson decisively kicked a long shot from the penalty area line.

Although it was 805-12, Long Bisheng did not stop running on the field and looking for opportunities to score goals. Finally, in the No.[-] minute, after receiving a pass from Robinson, he forcibly got rid of a defender of the opponent and broke into the penalty area.

Three to zero, Leeds United swept away their two-game losing streak at home.

(End of this chapter)