Episode [096]: The First League Defeat of the New Season!

On September 23, 2006, Leeds United challenged Manchester City away.

Di Matteo led the team to the away Manchester City Stadium to challenge Sun Jihai's team. This is a Chinese derby, which was quarreled by the Chinese media a long time ago, and the English media is also frantically hyping it up.

There are actually three Chinese in these two teams. This is simply the prosperity of Chinese football.

Chinese fans and the Chinese media have been looking forward to this game for a long time. They have already started to look forward to this game, report on this game, and warm up for this game a long time ago.

This game in China is really extremely hot, and everyone is looking forward to it.

However, at this time, Zhong Cheng was actually suspended. This is undoubtedly a basin of cold water pouring down from the top of his head, which has chilled the hearts of Chinese fans and Chinese media people.

The FA really didn't do some facts, and made some useless things.

This Chinese derby is naturally greatly discounted. Fortunately, Leeds United have introduced a Chinese player, Shao Jiayi, this season. Although it is a pity to lose Zhong Cheng, there are still Shao Jiayi and Sun Jihai. The Chinese derby is still there.

Moreover, in the previous games of Leeds United, Shao Jiayi still got some opportunities. It can be seen that Zhong Cheng's positioning for Shao Jiayi is between the rotation of the main force and the rotation of the substitute. Shao Jiayi can still get the chance to play in Leeds United.

In this way, there is still hope for this Chinese derby.

Therefore, Chinese fans and the Chinese media are also more concerned and valued. They are still promoting the Chinese Derby and reporting this game.

The English media are also reporting, because the previous England-China Derby was a bit misnamed. Sun Jihai performed very well in the Manchester City team and is an important player of the team. However, Li Tie has been suffering from injuries and has no chance to play. It is very difficult for the Chinese Derby to have the opportunity to stage.

But now it is different, Leeds United has Zhong Cheng and Shao Jiayi, this Chinese derby can be staged.

This game attracted a lot of people to watch, but Zhong Cheng did not go to the away game.

This game was completely coached by Di Matteo, who led the team to the away game.

This game is very important for Leeds United, because in the previous games, Leeds United had two consecutive draws. Although they have not lost in the new season, their results have also been greatly affected. Great impact, now Leeds United continue to want a victory, to catch up with Manchester United and other teams ahead.

Di Matteo also attaches great importance to the game he coaches. In this game, he will not consider the Chinese derby or not. What he considers is winning.

Therefore, in this game, Di Matteo did not put Shao Jiayi in the starting lineup, but let Shao Jiayi sit on the bench, waiting for the opportunity. This naturally makes Chinese fans and Chinese media people feel uncomfortable, and Shao Jiayi should win and start.

Even the media in England think so, the Chinese Derby should be the Chinese Derby, why not start for Shao Jiayi. Shao Jiayi's strength is still good. A direct free kick from him has brought three points to Leeds United. He has strength.

It may be that Di Matteo was under too much pressure. He did not choose Shao Jiayi, nor did he let Joaquin rest, but let Joaquin continue to start.

Of course, the opposing Manchester City team has Sun Jihai out, and Sun Jihai is the main player.

Sun Jihai's strength is very good, he occupies a main position in the Manchester City club, and he appeared in the position of right back today.

With a beep, the game officially started.

Di Matteo's Leeds United seem to have continued Zhong Cheng's routine, still defending and counterattacking.

However, Di Matteo's tactics still have his shadow. He asked the players to defend more like Italian chain defense, so the players of Leeds United did not seem to be at their best. .

In the 19th minute of the first half, Leeds United took the lead in conceding the goal.

And it was Sun Jihai, a Chinese player from Manchester City, who scored the goal. Sun Jihai took a long shot from the front right of the penalty area and sent the football directly into the goal of Leeds United.

The starting goalkeeper for this game is Simon Mignolet. Zhong Zheng has a slight injury and is recuperating.

When Di Matteo saw this, he almost vomited blood. The defensive movement is obviously slow, how can it give Manchester City such a big gap? This ball actually allowed Sun Jihai to score, really.

DiMatteo couldn't sit still anymore, so he stood up immediately and yelled into the court, telling the players to pay attention to defense. After Di Matteo yelled, the defense of Leeds United's players improved, but it was limited.

Manchester City's performance today is really good, especially the right back Sun Jihai, this guy is like taking drugs today, he is present in both offense and defense, making it difficult for Leeds United to parry.

Di Matteo shouted loudly to let the team restrict Sun Jihai, but they were not very successful.

At the end of the first half, Sun Jihai made a cross from the right and assisted the center forward of Manchester City to score a goal, 2-0.

At the end of the first half, Leeds United fell behind zero to two, and the game was very close.

The most important thing is that the players of Leeds United did not play very well in the first half of the game. Their condition seemed to be worse, so they performed very poorly.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Di Matteo made a substitution, but Edinson Cavani's performance was also not good. The Manchester City fans who watched the scene shouted Edinson Cavani parallel imports, Edinson · Both Cavani and Tevez are big parallel importers.

It was these two people who ruined Zhong Cheng's reputation for his magical vision.

In this game, Di Matteo really felt powerless. He felt that there was nothing wrong with his tactics, but the players were in poor condition and could not meet his requirements. By the time he tried to hide and defend, the team was already two goals behind. How could this game be played?

Leeds United had only to attack.

Not to mention, after the attack, Leeds United's performance is even better, and they are also full of threats.

Luca Toni and Joaquin led Leeds United's offense. Luca Toni made multiple headers in the penalty area and threatened Manchester City's goal. But Manchester City's defense today is good, coupled with good luck, there is no better way for Luca Toni.

At this time, Di Matteo regretted it a bit, why didn't he play like this in the first place? If you play like this at the beginning, will this game be won soon?

Leeds United's offense came a bit late. Luca Toni's attack was very threatening, but Manchester City's defense was better. In the end, Leeds United lost to Manchester City 0-2 in this game. Ushered in the first loss of the season.

Of course, Shao Jiayi didn't get a single chance throughout the game. He spent a full 90 minutes on the bench. This made the Chinese Derby that everyone was looking forward to not come. This game became Sun Jihai's one-man show. His performance was very good. One goal and one assist, he ended Leeds United's unbeaten record!

After the game, Sun Jihai was naturally praised. And Di Matteo was sadly reminded, and was belittled by countless people, who claimed that Di Matteo was just not suitable to be a head coach, and he was only suitable to be an assistant coach in his life. This dealt a great blow to Di Matteo.

Fortunately, after this game, he has a chance to rest, adjust and learn.

Because the next game is the English League Cup game, there is also a UEFA Champions League game.

In this League Cup, Leeds United has a semi-main lineup, and Shao Jiayi has appeared in the starting list for this game. What made Di Matteo face is that Shao Jiayi performed very well in this game, directly sent out three assists, completed a hat-trick of assists, and helped the team beat Nan'an United 3-0.

After this game, many media reporters and fans questioned Di Matteo, Shao Jiayi was in such a good state, why was Shao Jiayi not allowed to play in the last Premier League match against Manchester City? If Shao Jiayi played, Sun Jihai would not be performing alone.

Di Matteo really has no way to justify at this time, who told Shao Jiayi to be in such a good state?

To be honest, Di Matteo actually felt a little regretful, why didn't he let Shao Jiayi play at that time? He still didn't quite trust the Chinese players, so he let Shao Jiayi sit on the bench for the whole game.

The fans of Leeds United applauded and cheered for Shao Jiayi at this time.

At the end of this game, Leeds United returned to their home court to wait for the arrival of the Porto team. This is a UEFA Champions League group stage match. Zhong Cheng's suspension will not be reflected in the UEFA Champions League team, so Zhong Cheng will lead the team in this game.

Zhong Cheng appeared on the sidelines, and the fans of Leeds United had super confidence. They firmly believed that Leeds United would win this game.

At this time, Di Matteo was standing beside Zhong Cheng, studying hard.

Now Leeds United is ranked first in this group, and only they won the first round. Porto and CSKA Moscow had a 0-0 draw, each scoring a point.

In this game, as long as Leeds United wins, they will be able to consolidate their ranking in this group, which Zhong Cheng is happy to see.

Zhong Cheng naturally hopes that the team can secure the right to qualify in the UEFA Champions League group stage as soon as possible, so that they can focus more on the league.

Porto is no longer the Porto team it was three years ago, and their glory days have passed. The strength of this Porto team has dropped a lot, and Zhong Cheng feels that it should not be a big problem to beat the Porto team.

At this time, Zhong Cheng lined up the full main force to play this game.

In this game, the players of Leeds United were still not in that good condition, but Zhong Cheng still let the team firmly control the rhythm of the game, which made Di Matteo dumbfounded. Great very great.

The Porto team wanted to win the away game, and they were very active in offense, but the effect was not very satisfactory. Leeds United's defense was very tight.

Not long after the start of the second half, Leeds United seized a chance to counterattack. There was a very good goal scored by Modric in the frontcourt, leading by one goal.

After more than 20 minutes, Leeds United broke through Porto's goal again.

This time it was Leeds United centre-back Kompany who scored with a header from Modric's corner.

In this way, Leeds United defeated Porto 2-0 at home, won the second round of the UEFA Champions League group stage this season, and ranked first in the group with a record of two wins.