The Young Lion

Thanks to Thieves and Shimadzu for their rewards!

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Manchester City, Maine Road Stadium.

The FA Cup semi-final match between Millwall and Aston Villa will be played here, Manchester City's home court.

Manchester City is still working hard in League One, but they have performed well in League One this season. Maybe they will see Blue Moon again in the Premier League next season.

From the environment around the Maine Road Stadium, we can roughly understand why Manchester City was firmly suppressed by Manchester United in this city. Even in the earliest days, the owner of this city was definitely Manchester City, and Manchester United was just an outsider.

On the road leading to the Maine Road Stadium, you can see a large number of abandoned factories in the surrounding area. It seems that there are still traces of the decline of the world’s factories at this time. This area has become a gathering place for immigrants. It is the most appropriate description, and it is not difficult to understand why Manchester City will move away from this stadium in the future and choose a place with a better geographical environment to settle down.

Same as last year, Fleet Street is advocating that Millwall will create a great cause and win the first treble in English football history.

Last year, there was only one Champions League short.

This year, Millwall, the defending champion of the FA Cup, still sent all substitutes to play in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, which is the focus of the All England.

After defeating Newcastle United a few days ago, Millwall won the league title. This is a good boost to the morale of the team, especially the young players. Although their contribution is only a small part, it has witnessed Millwall's continued success With glory, which makes them proud, and Aldridge's trust in them, let them go into battle for the team in the FA Cup semi-finals. This made them both moved and full of fighting spirit.

A large number of wild lion fans came to Manchester City's home stadium in droves. They sang cheerful songs in the stands since the start of the game, celebrating the team's third top league championship in the club's history.

As for the Van der Meyde incident, there was not even a slight wave of waves among the Wild Lions fans, and the timing of the incident was also disgusted by the fans. There is no support for the Dutchman. From top to bottom, the team and fans are looking forward to achieving glory within a month. At this time, someone disturbs the morale of the army, and the fans don't care who he is. Audrey Qi's handling even made many fans feel very happy. For this kind of black sheep, the door should be cleaned up as soon as possible.

When Aldridge in a suit and leather shoes came out of the player tunnel with one hand in his pocket, the Wild Lions fans who occupied most of the stands at the scene couldn't help bowing to him with both hands down.

They were all smiles, very happy to express their highest respect and thanks to His Majesty the King of the Wild Lion.

The live camera swept across the stands, and this scene became the most classic fan scene this season.

When tens of thousands of fans pay respects to a coach at the same time, that scene. Absolutely shocking!

There is no other reason, Aldridge has created a new history. In the Premier League era, he became the most successful head coach in the Premier League!

Not counting the number of top league titles, only comparing the Premier League titles. After Millwall successfully defended their title this season, their number of Premier League titles is already the same as Manchester United.

Manchester United won three Premier League titles in 93, 94, and 96.

Blackburn won the 1995 championship. Arsenal won the '98 Championship.

In the remaining years, 1997, 1999 and 2000, Millwall won the league championship.

Considering that Millwall only entered the Premier League stage in 1994, Aldridge compared Ferguson, and Millwall compared Manchester United. Obviously, the former took a shorter time to win three Premier League titles.

If you add the League Cup, the FA Cup, and the European Championship. Millwall is undoubtedly the most successful club in England in the past five years. Without one, it is the most successful!

Aldridge was also stunned by the sudden actions of the fans on the sidelines, and it took him a long time to recover. Klinsmann and Jensen on the coach's bench saw Aldridge's surprised expression. It is rare to laugh when the game is about to start, and the players sitting on the bench also look admiring.

Aldridge also paid respects to the fans in the stands where the Wild Lions fans were, and then raised his hands and applauded to express his gratitude.

The current scene made him feel a lot of emotions. Millwall is different. The FA Cup semi-final is played in a neutral position. They have more fans who come to the stadium to cheer than the opponent's fans! This surge in the number of fans is evident when they also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup four years ago.

Aston Villa's coach Gregory saw that Aldridge was so admired by the fans, and it would be a complete lie to say that he was not envious. There is no need to deceive yourself on this point. No matter how famous the club is, a coach can convince everyone. The hearts of thousands of fans, this should be one of the pursuits of an aspiring coach, and Aldridge has already achieved this.

After the interaction with the fans, Aldridge put his mind on the upcoming game, the fans gave their full support, and he had to let the team show the record to give back to the fans.

The 1999-2000 FA Cup semi-final is about to start. Millwall and Aston Villa competed for the final ticket at Maine Road Stadium. Millwall, which has attracted much attention, sent a full substitute team today. Their approach is always It is to confuse the outside world, because they are on the bench, you will think that their strength must be greatly reduced, but Millwall's bench players have good potential, and they have performed very steadily after planned training. It is the same this season, look. Look at their bench lineup, players like Glenshire, Klose, Lampard, etc., are fully capable of playing the main force for mid-level clubs in the Premier League.

Millwall started 433.

Goalkeeper: Keller.

Defenders: Ferreira, Barzagli, Metzelder, Ashley Cole.

Midfield: Neal, Lampard, Lamour.

Forwards: Joaquin, Klose, Glenshire.

Makelele was sent off with a red card in the first round of the UEFA Champions League semi-final. Not only will he not be able to play in the second round, Millwall's appeal was also rejected by UEFA, and Makelele was fined for three games. The reason is that Makelele Suspected of insulting remarks to the referee after receiving a red card.

Because of this change, Aldridge let Gattuso rest for the game. After four days of full preparation for the second round of the UEFA Champions League semi-final, Neil played as a defensive midfielder. Aldridge can fully trust this backcourt master.

There are hidden dangers in the combination of Barzagli + Metzelder, but they must be trained. If you don't exercise, how can you improve?

And today's opponents, Aldridge thinks that they are not too dangerous.

Aston Villa ranks 7th in the Premier League, relying on solid defense, their number of goals conceded is only lower than Millwall and Liverpool. There are more Chelsea, even Manchester United, Arsenal and other tycoons have conceded more goals than them.

The factor that restricts them from being able to attack the top six is ​​offense. Aston Villa has the lowest offensive firepower among the top 12 in the Premier League. Even Robson's Newcastle United ranks 12th in the league, with more goals than A 15 more for Ston Villa!

The spirited boys showed blood from the very beginning of the game. Although there is a gap in age with Aston Villa, they are not inferior in confrontation.

Neil guarded the defensive gate in the middle, and his strong aggressiveness made Aston Villa's attack in the middle completely unable to advance to the front line.

Their soft attack failed to pay off in the first ten minutes of the game, and Millwall gradually began to take control of the midfield.

Lampard, England's captain of all age groups except the national team, has also become more stable this season. After Aldridge fixed him in the midfield position, he began to find his feeling.

This feeling is the rationale when grooming the offense. He has been working hard to strengthen the overall situation and to attack in a timely manner to form a threat. However, there used to be a feeling that his strength was not used where it should be used on the court. Now this phenomenon is disappearing.

A qualified midfielder can see him when defending, and he can also see him when attacking. An excellent midfielder is everywhere in the B2B activity area!

It can accurately predict the development of the ball path and appear in the most appropriate place.

Even though Lampard has not yet reached a particularly excellent height, he has already developed in a good direction on the basis of being qualified.

What makes Aldridge even more delighted is Lamor. This season, the starting performance of coming off the bench or playing in minor games is very stable. His technical ability is approaching maturity. What he needs is game experience and enhanced confrontation ability. These two points have made breakthroughs this season. Now look at him on the court. play football. Very reasonable, and he performed with ease, without the excessive excitement and rampage of young players, wishing to use all the strength accumulated in training at once.

Aston Villa's defense is solid, and Millwall's attempt to penetrate the opponent's defense in the middle is a fantasy. Lampard and Larmore frequently shift the ball to the wing.

Comparing Joaquin and Glenciel's performance, Joaquin is even better, because Glenciel has no space, and he can get rid of it on the spot. In the small-scale intensive defense, Glenciel passed Man needs space, explosiveness and speed, but Aston Villa didn't give him that.

On the contrary, Joaquin used his delicate foot skills to create a lot of threats on the right flank, and the quality of the cross was also very good. It is a pity that Klose could not do anything under the flanking attack.

Commanding the substitute lineup, Aldridge made very few adjustments, and the adjustment time was often after 30 minutes, because he needed to give these young players more time to adapt to the game, enter the state first, integrate into the game and take off the pressure , and then make adjustments carefully to avoid confusing players due to frequent changes.

After 25 minutes of this game, Aldridge began to make adjustments. The players played well, but Aston Villa focused on defense, and Millwall had less offensive points, so it was easy to be marked, especially in the penalty area. The threat is almost zero, so Aldridge needs the team to have more offensive points.

He gestured from the sidelines for Ashley Cole and Ferreira to put in the assists.

In the first 25 minutes, the two full-back positions have been pressed near the center line to contain Aston Villa's side counterattack, but Aldridge observed that the opponent's side counterattack was not a midfielder or a full-back pressing forward. , but the offensive player pulls the side to form a side attack. In the process of moving forward, the center player runs forward at high speed to meet it. In this way, Millwall can completely let the full back press up and hand over the counterattack to Neil. If he can't hold back, there will be no numerical disadvantage in the middle. After all, even if Aston Villa counterattacks, they will invest very few players. At that time, it will only test the frontal defense ability of the two central defenders.

Aldridge's adjustment began to pay off, and the effect of Ferreira's assists was not particularly obvious, because Joaquin was skilled at handling the ball and seemed to prefer to control the ball by himself to create threats.

On the other hand, Ashley Cole and Glenshire played vigorously, Cole slipped to the bottom, and Glenshire cut inside, threatening to play well.