"Wang Xiaodong seems to be holding back a bit today. Has he not entered the state yet?" Huang Jianxiang was a little confused when he saw another ball being taken away from Wang Xiaodong's feet.
Indeed, the current Tottenham midfielder has slowly moved closer to Wang Xiaodong.
Regardless of offense or defense, the ball will always hit Wang Xiaodong's feet immediately.
Coupled with Martin Joel's deliberate guidance, Wang Xiaodong's possession time is gradually increasing, and his position is slowly advancing.
Although the Dutch intend to train Wang Xiaodong towards players like Gerrard or Lampard, no matter what, Wang Xiaodong has been with Tottenham for less than a season.
It is almost impossible to achieve results in such a short period of time.
Forcing Wang Xiaodong to be placed in the midfield now is tantamount to destroying the situation.
It's true that you can train and grow in the game, but don't forget, this is the Europa League final!
If Tottenham still plays with the attitude of "training new players", they will definitely suffer!
As the core of Tottenham's midfield, Wang Xiaodong immediately launched a counterattack after losing the ball.
But the Bremen players were very alert. After learning from the previous lesson, they immediately kicked the ball far away through the pass, making it impossible for Wang Xiaodong to counterattack on the spot.
This is the final, and the Bremen players gave 100% of their energy.
The two teams have different paths into the Europa League.
Bremen was assigned to the Europa League after being eliminated from the Champions League group, while Tottenham was ranked fifth in the Premier League and directly played in the Europa League.
The semi-finals of the two teams were also different. Tottenham won 7-0 in two rounds and easily advanced; Bremen won first and then lost, but eventually advanced to the final with a score of 3-2.
It can be said that before the final started, the mentality of the two teams was completely different.
Bremen has gone through the Champions League and experienced the sorrow of being eliminated; and it has been bumpy on the way to the Europa League, so it attaches great importance to this final. Tottenham have been winning since the beginning of the group stage, and they were lucky enough to advance directly to the top 16. So far, they have lost in the away game against Sevilla in the quarter-finals.
Therefore, when facing Werder Bremen, Tottenham inevitably had a bit of contempt and a bit of carelessness.
In the 9th minute of the game, Bremen got a free kick in the frontcourt.
After the whistle sounded, Frings made a tactic and quickly kicked a ground ball to the left side of Tottenham's penalty area.
Aaron Hunter followed the ball while observing the center of the penalty area. When Bell rushed in front of him, he directly touched the ball and kicked the ball into the penalty area.
"Hunt crosses."
"Center."
"careful!"
At Huang Jianxiang's reminder, Wang Xiaodong jumped up and tried to use his body to fight for the header.
However, no one who is strong can hit the high-altitude ball. A black shadow flashed past and rushed the ball to the door before Wang Xiaodong.
"Klaus... Klose, header!" Huang Jianxiang shouted.
Robinson jumped up hard, but his hand touched nothing.
The ball rubbed the top of the crossbar and flew out of the baseline.
"This ball is too dangerous." Huang Jianxiang wiped away cold sweat, "If it had been a few centimeters lower, the ball might have gone in."
Seeing the ball go out of bounds, the Tottenham fans behind the goal took a deep breath and put their hearts back into their stomachs.
After landing, Wang Xiaodong looked at Klose's back as he slowly ran away, and couldn't help but frown.
"Where did this guy come from?"
Judging from his height and body shape, Klose, who is 1.84 meters tall, looks tall and lanky.
He's not short anymore, especially as a top-drawing forward. It's hard not to be noticed as long as he moves.
But the key is that when Wang Xiaodong just took off, not only was there no Tottenham player marking Klose, but even Wang Xiaodong didn't notice his presence.
"Where's the defender?" Wang Xiaodong shouted dissatisfied.
"Who is watching?" Ledley King also said quickly.
In some words, he is the most suitable person for the deputy team.
"Why did you come here without saying a word?"
"Everyone, please be alert and watch out for others!"
"Never let it slip like this next time!"
However, a few minutes later, Diego once again took the ball to the front of Tottenham's penalty area.
Wang Xiaodong had already caught up behind the Brazilian, but his deft samba steps not only blocked Wang Xiaodong's position, but also blocked his path.
Looking at the Bremen player dribbling the ball left and right in front of him, Wang Xiaodong wanted to tackle the opponent directly behind him.
"Diego is still dribbling the ball, do you want to go wide?"
"No, I'm still taking it."
"Wang Xiaodong was following him, but he felt like he couldn't get started."
For the second time, Wang Xiaodong appeared on the screen and had to stop suddenly because he was afraid of stepping on his opponent's back foot.
Wang Xiaodong was seen raising his hands and subconsciously looking towards the referee.
But the referee ignored it. Rather than saying that Wang Xiaodong accidentally stepped on the opponent's back foot, it is better to say that Diego's ability to control the ball is really strong.
At this moment, Huang Jianxiang's soft drink came from the screen: "Diego makes a direct pass!"
Through ball?
Looking at the vacuum zone in Tottenham's penalty area, many players have not yet reacted.
But the next second, a green and white figure wearing No. 14 jersey stepped out diagonally and headed straight for the ball.
"Aaron Hunter!"
"It's Hunter!"
"Sweep with your left foot!"
"Robinson!"
Anyone can slip away, but not the goalkeeper.
Robinson jumped hard and lifted the ball from the goal line with one hand.
"Dawson..." After the ball was saved by Robinson, it rebounded to the feet of the Tottenham player.
Looking at this non-threatening clearance ball, Huang Jianxiang simply read Dawson's name.
But the next second, something changed suddenly.
Just when Dawson turned around to clear the ball, taking advantage of the gap, Bremen's No. 11 player suddenly burst out of the crowd and cut the ball from Dawson's feet from the side.
"Dawson hesitated to make the rescue..."
"The ball was snatched away by Klose..."
"Turn around and shoot low!"
"this..."
Facing the almost mid-empty gate, even if he turned around and fell to the ground to shoot, the ball still penetrated the Tottenham net thanks to Klose's precise footwork.
"Ah! This, this, this is... a mistake made by the Tottenham players themselves." Huang Jianxiang hugged his forehead, his voice full of regret.
"This ball shouldn't be played!"
"Dawson just made the rescue. What was he thinking?"
The camera switched to the Tottenham defender who had just lost the ball. Dawson looked innocent.
He didn't even see clearly where Klose rushed out from, let alone when Klose stretched out his legs to intercept the ball.
He only felt a dark shadow flash before his eyes, and then the ball under his feet disappeared.
By the time he reacted and wanted to fight back, the German had already used a difficult turn to sweep the ball directly into the Tottenham net.
Klose's move happened in a flash. In order to catch Tottenham off guard, he even risked injury and shot quickly.
Now, higher risk comes with better returns.
No one at Tottenham reacted. Ledley King and Wang Xiaodong had just walked to the edge of their penalty area and waited for their teammates to pass the ball.
But in the blink of an eye, the ball was exchanged and the ball was shot into the net by the opponent.
After the goal, the Bremen players immediately rushed to Klose, and the German ran to the sidelines excitedly, and performed a gorgeous and smooth somersault under the flash of everyone's attention.
"Ohhh! Ohhh! Ohhh!!!"
"Bremen!"
"Werder Bremen leads 1-0!"
"Who would have thought?"
"Tottenham, which had been running smoothly before, was actually led by their opponents in the final."
"This was a mistake that shouldn't have happened."
"Tottenham's defense is careless."
"They themselves are responsible for this conceded goal!"
On the sidelines of the court, Martin Joel roared loudly: "What are you doing?"
"This is the final!"
"Can you cheer up a little bit?"
"This is a low-level mistake, a super, huge, huge, low-level mistake!"
"Boys, if you still want to win the championship, you must eliminate all these fatal mistakes!"
His coach roared loudly on the sidelines, and the Tottenham players in the stadium also looked at each other in confusion.
Dawson's face was still innocent. He couldn't recall where Klose came from just now.
"Did you hit a ghost?" Thinking of this, the 1.89-meter central defender couldn't help but feel a chill running down his spine.
