Chapter 940: Volume 7: Heart of the Lion King, Qualifying Early

The new season has started for half a month, and it is the national team match day again.

Tang En is now worrying about the team's roster.

In the first three rounds of the league, many people were injured. Wayne Rooney had a thigh contusion and had to rest for a week. Michael Carrick had a sprained knee joint. Optimistically, he would have to rest for two weeks. Bentley was injured again not long after his recovery from injury, and it was the same as last time, the old problem-leg ligament strain, which will not heal for at least a month. Downing suffered a calf strain in the game against Wales on August 24th and was out for two weeks. In addition, Terry also received a red card in that game and will be suspended for two games.

All those injured will be replaced, and suitable substitutes need to be found.

So Chris Cohen received a call from the national team for the first time, asking him to pack up and go to London to report, and join the national team for Macedonia.

Although he was a first-team player when Nottingham Forest won the Triple Crown, he had a stable chance to play. But he was never selected for the England team. After all, there are Downing and James Milner in this position, while he is relatively mediocre, with a well-balanced ability in all aspects. His only advantage may be that he actively defends and spares no effort.

Tang En recruited another player from the Forest team and continued to be nepotism. But now the voice of criticizing him is quieter, because his team continues to win, as long as they can win, who cares if he plans to replace the England national team with Nottingham Forest?

Cohen is a little flattered, and then he's sure he's not dreaming, and that this isn't some kind of reality show. Because after the Football Association called him, Tang En's call followed suit.

"Chris. I was the one who brought you up from the reserve team to the first team, and now I'm the one who brought you up from the forest team to the national team. To be honest, I'm under a lot of pressure. If you guys don't do well, I will Being scolded bloody. I don't care about it, but if you don't perform well, it will definitely make the England team disunity..."

Cohen knew what Tang En meant, and he replied: "Don't worry, boss. I will definitely not embarrass you!"

Cohen was replacing Tang Ning who was injured and left the team, but Tang En couldn't guarantee him the chance to play, because there was a lot of competition for the same position.

Both James Milner and Walcott can play as left midfielders. If they want to represent England for the first time, they need to show their full strength in training to impress Dunn and convince other doubters.

Mork was very envious of Cohen being selected for the national team. You must know that his position in the Forest team is relatively solid now, but the boss has never called him once. Even if Bentley was injured twice, he used Walcott came instead.

Terry was injured and Manchester City's Micha Richards was selected for the national team in his place. Previously, due to his ups and downs, he had been hovering at the gate of the national team. Even though he was very talented and had a high voice to be selected for the national team, Tang En would rather offend half of the people in Manchester by not recruiting Richards into the national team.

As a young and famous star, Richards has long been famous in the Premier League and even European football. He was often selected for the national team in the Capello era. In addition to not getting any decent honors in the club, he is considered the best among his peers. This kind of experience made him a little arrogant, and sometimes his mind was not on playing football.

Tang En didn't believe in evil, so he wanted to kill the prestige of the Manchester City vice-captain. So since he entered the England team, Richards has not been selected for the national team once. So much so that the Manchester media analyzed whether Dunn had any conflicts with Richards.

Tang En never admitted this matter, and Richards occasionally complained a few words. Well now, he was called up to the national team. Although he was replacing John Terry, he finally bought this door. He was selected for the first time since Tony Twain coached the national team.

With the first time, there will be a second time, as long as he can seize the opportunity.

Michael Carrick was unable to participate in the national team due to injury, and Tottenham Hotspur's Delphi fired reinforcements. Rooney's replacement was Everton's top scorer James Vaughan. Bentley is replaced by Matt Derbyshell from Blackburn.

With such a team, Tang En flew to Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.

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Even at home, Macedonia could not pose any threat to England. This is what all England fans think.

England players thought so too. In the previous ten qualifiers, England achieved an impressive record of nine wins and one draw, and qualifying for the group stage is not a problem at all. They have long stopped paying attention to their opponents in the group competition.

After the game started, it seemed to develop like this.

Only seven minutes into the kick-off, Walcott made a cross from the wing after a breakthrough, and Mitchell easily jumped up and scored with a header. England lead 1:0.

After taking an early lead, England's players began to relax, a little absent-minded.

This made Tang En very dissatisfied. He kept walking up and down the sidelines, threatening to order the team to continue attacking.

Macedonia performed much better than when they played England away, threatening England's goal many times in the middle of the game.

It wasn't until the 72nd minute that England took advantage of a corner kick, and Richards, who replaced Terry, scored with a header, locking the score at 2:0, and basically ending the game.

Richards was so excited after the goal that he ran to the TV cameras and yelled. After being "snubbed" by Twain for a year, he finally used this goal to prove his worth.

After the game, Tang En did not praise the team's performance, but satirized them mercilessly in the locker room.

"There were 16 shots in the field, but only three of you hit the goal frame!" Can he not be angry with this statistic? "Should I be happy that we were so efficient and scored two goals from within three frames of the frame? Or should I feel sorry for the other nine you missed? Four blocked...that's your stats Statistics, gentlemen! Facing a small Macedonia, you can play like this, how can you face a stronger opponent?"

A group of players were silenced by Tang En's words. They also know that their game is very average. The boss is also right, because when they faced Macedonia, they just couldn't cheer up.

Tang En looked at this group of players, and he knew in his heart that no matter what he said about playing against a team that was too weak, the players would definitely underestimate the enemy. They also had their own agendas, and it was impossible for them to listen to their own opinions. They are real people, not puppets in their own hands.

"I don't want to see a game like today again."

Tang En dropped these words and left the locker room.

A group of players looked at each other in blank dismay, still not quite understanding that even if they underestimated the enemy, after all they won the game, the boss shouldn't be so angry, right?

How did they know that Tang En's most important thing was the team's mental will, they could lose but their will would be shaken. It is not terrible to underestimate the enemy, what is terrible is the slack attitude of the game. Once a habit is formed, it will give the team a fatal blow at a critical moment.

Only the players of the Forest team understood why the boss was dissatisfied. Because that's what the boss asked the team when he was in the Forest team.

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England won Macedonia. Although the process did not satisfy Tang En, the result was good. Now they have 25 points, ranking first in the group. Since second-ranked Denmark and fifth-ranked Ireland shook hands with each other 1:1 in this round of competition, they only have 20 points. The difference between first and second widened to five points.

Because of the next round, England will travel to Denmark, which is a game worth six points, so as long as England can beat Denmark, they will advance early with two rounds left.

In the eyes of the English media, the England team has won tickets to Spain. Because playing Denmark away was not a problem at all, the qualifiers played a round, and they found that there was no team in this group that could cause trouble for Tony Twain's team.

Regardless of whether it is Denmark or Serbia, they were considered a strong team before, but they were vulnerable to the powerful England team.

The media in England were noisy again. They started clamoring that this was the strongest England team in history. They would definitely sweep the European continent. Serbia and Denmark could not stop the team from advancing. The unbeaten games since Tony Twain led the team would continue.

Tang En was tired of hearing such arguments.

But Tang En did feel a little nervous about the upcoming game. The media's over optimism will definitely affect the mood of the team, look at everything that happened in Skopje. Fortunately, their opponent in that game was only Macedonia. What would happen if it was Denmark? The Vikings will not easily let go of such an opportunity at home.

What worries him even more is that this kind of pride may bring even more terrible results when it comes to the European Cup.

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Since criticizing the team's performance in Skopje, the players have noticed the boss has noticeably less smiles on his face.

In an interview, the boss was a lot more cautious when talking about Denmark. He kept emphasizing that Denmark is a strong team. He respected Denmark very much, and his attitude couldn't be lower. It is really surprising that the most arrogant head coach will take the initiative to show weakness.

The players were talking about it.

"The boss's behavior is abnormal..."

"What's so weird? He did it for us!"

"For us to see?"

"I don't want us to underestimate the enemy."

"What kind of enemy are we underestimating against Denmark?"

"It's hard to say...the team has won consecutive victories, and I don't think the game against Denmark is a problem..."

"It's what it is. It's not a problem to qualify. I don't know what the boss is worried about..."

"An opponent who can win by kicking casually, I really can't get excited."

"Look at you underestimating the enemy!"

"ah……"

Discussions like this happen from time to time among the players.

The day before the start of the game, at the hotel where the England team was staying, Tang En called the whole team together for a tactical meeting. As a result, he didn't talk about tactics, and the first sentence shocked the players.

"I was thinking, are we going to lose to Denmark on purpose?"

Tang En didn't look like he was joking when he touched his chin. Everyone was shocked. Their eyes widened and their mouths opened to look at their head coach. They didn't know why the boss said that.

"Anyway, we will definitely be able to qualify. It doesn't matter if we lose a game. I don't care much about the undefeated record. It doesn't make any sense. Compared with this, I hope to pour cold water on those dazed media... But are you willing to do it?"

He stared at the players and asked.

As the captain, Wood stood up: "I don't like doing this, boss."

"reason?"

"I don't like losing, and I don't like losing on purpose."

Wood's words were endorsed by many players, and they all echoed.

"Actually, boss..." Mitchell also stood up: "Don't worry about us being instigated by the media. We are not children, and we don't understand anything."

His words also won the approval and echo of many players.

Tang En spread his hands: "Am I worrying blindly? I have already seen such emotions among you. Some of you must think that Denmark is a team that can win if you play casually, right?"

Some of the players shrunk their necks and lowered their heads.

"Since none of you want to lose, it is necessary for me to make some adjustments to the starting lineup..."

In this way, Dunn put all Nottingham Forest players into the starting lineup. Joe Mattock, Chris Cohen, Mitchell, Abang Rahor, and captain George Wood.

"You know what I want!" he yelled at a starting line-up dominated by Nottingham Forest players.

"victory!!"

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Denmark tried to resist, so they scored a goal.

However, England's counterattack storm was too violent, and the storm was so heavy that the Danes couldn't even lift their heads.

2:1, they defeated Denmark in the away game and won the game, thus gaining the right to qualify two rounds ahead of schedule.

When the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game, England's players rushed onto the pitch and hugged their teammates who had been on the pitch for 90 minutes, knowing that no matter what the other teams played, They have successfully entered the European Cup finals held in Spain.

Tang En also heaved a sigh of relief, stood up, clenched his fists and waved, and was embraced by his colleagues on the coaching staff. The first goal of the contract was achieved.

The next thing he has to think about is the European Cup.

Sean Barclay, chief executive of the English Football Association, gave a standing ovation on the rostrum of the stadium, and smiled to show off his insight to the people next to him: "If I didn't call him back then, how could we be here today? "

"People say that Tony Twain is rebellious, but under the leadership of Mr. Barclay, I can't see this at all." Barclay, who was flattered by his subordinates, "Long Yan Joy".

In the eyes of these people, Tang En has been uncharacteristically honest for a year. If it weren't for Mr. Sean Barclay's personal charm, who could do it?

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News of England's early progress must have spurred the rest of the group's hopefuls.

In a competition on the second day, Wales, who was originally ranked fourth, defeated Serbia 2:1 in an away game. Taking advantage of Denmark's loss, they jumped to second place in the group, leading Denmark by two points. It is hoped that they will directly qualify for the European Cup as the second place in the group.

It is worth mentioning that Wales' two goals all came from one person.

Gareth Bale almost single-handedly sent Wales into second place in the group with two direct free-kicks against Serbia.

There was joy in Wales as their team finally got the chance to play in an international competition. Bale, who scored two goals for the team,'s reputation in Wales has risen to a very remarkable height, and the voice of praise is overwhelming. But he only remembered the agreement he made with Tang En on the sidelines.

I must go to Spain!