I am the king of football

Chapter 126: Well Prepared Birmingham

The next morning, the entire Hull City team, led by Bruce, took a bus to Birmingham's home stadium, St. Andrews. Along the way, blue flags were flying everywhere. This is the iconic royal blue of the Birmingham team.

Hull City's orange bus was so dazzling in this blue ocean that they were booed by countless home fans along the way.

Fortunately, the players who were well prepared were either listening to music with headphones or playing handheld games with headphones. Except for the players who were dozing off in their seats, everyone arrived at St. Andrews Stadium without feeling anything.

This is a large stadium that can accommodate 30,000 people. According to statistics, there were 23,000 home team fans who came to support Birmingham team, and more than 4,000 Hull City fans who came to support them.

When the team changed into their jerseys and walked onto the field, the Tiger City players briefly heard cheers from their own fans in the away stands, and then were surrounded by huge boos.

"Shit! They're so excited."

Cooper touched his ears and felt pain in his eardrums. The atmosphere created by the home team fans was no worse than that of Hull City's home stadium.

"Haha, that's because you've never played in the Premier League. When we get there, this kind of home atmosphere will be nothing but a piece of cake."

Veteran Coren patted Cooper on the shoulder with a smile and made a pie in the sky to the young men in front of him.

"Play well boys, the Premier League is not far away!"

"Understood Captain!"

The warm-up time was very short, and soon both teams finished warming up and entered the locker room waiting for the game to begin.

The team's coach Bruce also made a simple tactical deployment in the final time. These were some suggestions he gave temporarily after seeing the lineup announced by Birmingham two hours before the game started.

"The opponent is playing in a 4132 formation. They are bound to seize the advantage in the midfield, so our midfield will be under great pressure. I need you to withstand this pressure and at least reach a balance with them."

"Roger that!"

"Then on offense, Qin and Harry, you will face the contenders for the best defender combination of the season, Stephen Carr and David Murphy. The mission is simple, score at all costs. Can you do it?"

“You can coach!”

"No problem coach!"

"Very good, you can try to attack them from behind, especially Murphy, his turning speed is not much faster than Maguire~"

“Hahaha, good coach!”

Bruce said the last sentence in a humorous tone. Everyone knows how slow Maguire, who is good at squatting defense, turns.

Maguire, the protagonist, was a little embarrassed. This was indeed his characteristic. Chester, the partner Bruce arranged for him, existed to make up for this.

"Hello, audience friends, the two teams have entered the stadium. The home team Birmingham chose the right to kick off after the captain won the rock-paper-scissors game. They will attack from left to right wearing blue jerseys, while Hull City will attack from right to left wearing orange jerseys."

When Zhan Jun's words came out, both teams had already stood up on the field. With the referee's whistle, the game officially kicked off. "Birmingham played in a 4132 formation in this game. They put the team's tactical focus on the midfield. The team's midfield core Jordan Mouch is constantly organizing the ball."

Both sides were quite stable at the beginning of the game. Obviously, compared with the verbal attacks before the game, everyone still respected each other's strength.

Facing Birmingham's style of play of constantly controlling the ball and slowly advancing, except for Qin Hu and Kane who pressed into the half court to press, everyone else on the Hull City side stood firm in their positions.

This made the opening fifteen minutes of the game very dull. Although Hull City occasionally intercepted the ball in the midfield several times, neither side was able to control the ball for a long time, and the possession rate was almost 50-50.

"Birmingham coach Hughton has obviously studied the characteristics of Hull City's midfielders. Midfielder N'Dawu blocked Cooper's forward run several times, and the players in other positions also did a great job defending."

Slowly, Zhan Jun also saw some clues. It turned out that Birmingham was not overestimating themselves by being so direct before the game. The team's core players who had played in the Premier League were also very capable. Their midfielders were not at all inferior to Hull City's four midfielders.
In this situation, the chances for the forwards of both teams will inevitably decrease, especially for Hull City, it will be quite difficult for them as they do not take the initiative.

Fortunately, Birmingham's forward combination of Adam Rooney and Marlon King are not top strikers. Their midfield created several good opportunities for them in the following time, but neither of them seized them.

"Oh, Adam Rooney. In the 34th minute of the game, he once again missed a great opportunity created for him by his midfield teammates. It turns out that this Rooney is not the Rooney he once was."

The game lasted for more than 30 minutes, and Zhan Jun had complained more than once about Birmingham's forward line wasting opportunities, but he was more troubled by the fact that Hull City had not had any good opportunities.

Fortunately, Colen was not to be underestimated. He kept seizing opportunities while being consciously restricted by the two opponent's midfielders, and finally he seized the moment when the opponent was distracted after the attack failed.

"Gulas took the ball thrown by the doorman and kicked it out! Wow! This long pass was quite far and went directly over the midfield line. Collen quickly came to the point where the ball landed. N'Dawu and Booker approached him again. How would he deal with it?"

"Shu~"

There was no hesitation. Almost at the same moment the ball fell in front of him, Colen made a handling move. He directly picked up the ball again with his right leg, then turned quickly and passed through the position between the two defensive midfielders at the right time.

"It was a very flexible lob! Koren's move was very concealed, which directly deceived the two opponents behind him who had poor vision."

At this moment, the situation in front of Colen suddenly became clear. He rushed forward with the ball, forcing the opponent's defense to make quick changes. A full-back rushed towards him, and two defenders had to retreat in order to defend against Qin Hu and Kane.

"Pass the ball directly to Kane! This is a perfect two-on-two opportunity. Kane and Qin Hu face the combination of Carl and Murphy directly!"

When Kane dribbled the ball to the right, the Birmingham central defender combination, who had been sitting back and watching the situation, could no longer sit still. Carl, who was closest to Kane, chose to rush towards Kane when he had no way to retreat.

"Shu~"

Pass again! This time, Kane made a light lob pass, and the ball flew diagonally into the penalty area and flew straight to a place behind David Murphy, not far from the goalkeeper.

"Qin Hu! He's already charging!!!"

The second chapter is here! Thank you all for your support!!!

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(End of this chapter)