Celtic Park, a friendly match between Celtic and Leeds United is underway.
This friendly match was quite large, and a charity cup was held. Both parties agreed that all ticket sales would be used for charity in the Glasgow area.
Before the game, coaches Martin O'Neill and Lee George joined hands to donate an additional £50,000 to a local welfare home in Glasgow on behalf of both clubs. The ball boys around the players of both teams were also children from the welfare home.
Both sides also used their main players in this game. Leeds United sent Paul Robinson, Ian Hart, Juris Matheson, Martin Albchesson, Danny Mills, Thomas Graveson, Edgar -Davies, Alan Smith, Jesper Grenchar, Denis Romedal and Robin Van Persie are almost the main starting line-up for Leeds United next season, except for Dominic Mateo who may Dismount one of Tyson or Albucherson.
As for the Celtics, there is almost no change in the lineup compared to previous years. The main change is that two Swedes on the team have left the team. John Mialby, who served as the captain of the Swedish national team, moved to the La Liga team Levante this summer. He followed the Swedish national team to participate in the tournament in Portugal this year. European Cup, but did not appear. His place was replaced by Danish player Ulrik Laursen.
The departure of another Swedish player is fatal to the Celtics. Henrik Larsson spent 7 seasons with Celtic, playing 315 times in various official games and scoring 242 goals. In the summer of 2001, he became the top scorer in Europe this season with 35 league goals in the previous season and won the European Golden Boot Award. Counting his goals in other official games, his total season goals reached an astonishing 53 goals.
Larson's departure has caused the Celtics' forward firepower to plummet. O'Neal had to push Bulgarian Stiliyan Petrov up front to partner with Christopher Sutton, leaving Jackie McNamara to fill Petrov's position.
As soon as the game started, Leeds United followed Lee's tactical requirements and carried out high pressure in the frontcourt. Celtic seemed very uncomfortable with it.
The Celtics' right wing is okay. McNamara, who serves as midfielder, is originally a right back and often helps the team's right back Agathe to share the pressure.
But the left wing suffered.
In the 8th minute of the game, Celtics left midfielder Alan Thompson took the ball. After taking two steps in his own half, he found that the opposite fullback Mills and midfielder Graveson had grabbed the ball. Thompson He is also a veteran in his 30s, and has seen a lot of strong winds and waves, but it is too scary to stand up to these two bald heads. After slowing down, he wanted to find the team's midfielder Neil Lennon or Paul Lambert, but these two people Next to him stood Smith and Davis.
Seeing that Gravesen was about to catch up, he thought about passing the ball back, slowly organized it, and then passed the ball back to Laurson. At this time, the distance between Laursen and Thompson was a bit far, and the ball was not passed very fast. Leeds United's right winger Romedal had already focused on the ball and grabbed the ball before Laursen. Next, he took advantage of the situation and used his speed to pass his fellow Dane.
The Celtics originally played a 352, but because they were severely suppressed by Leeds United, the two full midfielders often came back, so it became a 532.
But because of a mistake of his own, the full-back was behind Romedal, and a center back was passed.
Celtic's central defender Balde quickly made up for it and stayed close to Romedal.
Balder was also very smart. He did not stretch his legs intentionally or get close to Romedal. He always kept a certain distance from Romedal.
Romedal looked at it and said, "Why don't you come up?" Normally he would have already played the bottom, but recently in joint training and tactics classes, Li has been emphasizing the need to cut inside more. Romedal gritted his teeth, dunked the ball, and prepared to cut in from the right to the left.
At this time, another Celtic center back on the right, Farharen, also stepped into the middle and was staring at Van Persie.
Rommedal didn't force it and made a cross.
Instead of passing the ball to Van Persie, he passed the ball to Smith who was following behind Van Persie. Smith did not stop the ball and directly passed the ball to Glenchard on the left penalty area line.
It's not offside, it's a one-shot!
Grenchar took a step forward and saw Celtic goalkeeper Douglas attacking. Farharen stopped caring about Van Persie and stepped in to help block it.
Glenchard didn't want to be greedy for credit. He took another step and passed an inverted triangle to the center. Van Persie easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.
1 to 0!
After scoring the goal, Van Persie went directly to hug Grenjaer. He could feel it. After the two Danes on the wing came back, he played much more comfortably than before.
At this time, Romedal and Smith also came over and gave Van Persie a brief hug, while Davis and Graveson high-fived Van Persie on his way back after celebrating.
Smith has completely forgotten about the quarrel with Van Persie on the court a few days ago.
After all, it is a friendly match, so there is no need to make a big fanfare.
On the coaching bench, George Li simply high-fived each other with several other coaches.
Celtic goalkeeper Douglas fished the ball out of the goal and drove to midfield with a big kick to his forward.
Here the Celtics kick off and the game continues.
Less than ten minutes into the game, the team fell behind. Martin O'Neill kept shouting from the sidelines and arranging tactics.
However, the Celtics were still not used to Leeds United's pressing in the frontcourt. I originally thought that Leeds United would rush aggressively at the beginning and make three goals in the opening game. However, after more than ten minutes passed, Leeds United did not retreat like this. Still pressing in the frontcourt, the Celtics' offense could not be organized at all, and they could only frequently use long passes to find their 1.91-meter center Christopher Sutton.
However, George Lee had already arranged it before the game and directly asked Albchesson to compete with Sutton for the header. Because Albchesson is 1.88 meters tall, it would not be much different to compete with Sutton for the header. If 1 Matt Tyson, who is in his early 8's, may suffer a loss if he defends Sutton.
The Celtics can't attack now, and their defense is turbulent. They have to be careful when hitting the ball in the backcourt, for fear of being directly intercepted by Leeds United and then counterattack.
On the other hand, Leeds is not in a hurry to attack after grabbing the ball. A few people in the backcourt often pass the ball non-stop, and Graveson does not go up, cooperating with Matteisson and Albuchesson to mess around. After all, The brothers in the frontcourt are constantly fighting fiercely, so they also need to take a proper rest. Even Ian Hart often retreats to coordinate the transition between the three of them.
The Celtics also tried to press in the frontcourt, but when encountering Graveson, he sometimes positioned himself further back than the two central defenders.
In the 33rd minute of the game, Albuchesson faced the Celtics' pressing and passed the ball back to Graveson.
Sutton went up to grab Gravesen again, and Gravesen passed the ball to Hart on the left. Sutton chased after him again, and even Agathe from the Celtics also grabbed the ball.
Hart reached half height and passed the ball to Robinson. At this time, the Leeds goalkeeper was already standing on the line of the penalty area. He pulled the ball and made a long pass to Mills on the right. Mills' position was already there. It's close to the midline.
With no one around, Mills stopped the ball firmly with a chest stop and glanced up.
At this time, because the focus of Celtic's defense was on Leeds United's left wing, there was no one on the right side of Leeds United.
Mills passed a short pass to Davis.
The Dutch "Wild Boar" appeared on the left side of the center for most of the first half, when he suddenly appeared on the right side of Leeds United.
After the "Wild Boar" got the ball, he started to advance to the left front. Several Leeds United frontcourt players including Robin van Persie, Glenchard, Romedal and Smith were all running forward.
Several people in the Celtics backcourt were desperately retreating, and no one stepped up to grab the ball.
Because there is no way to retreat, there are only three center backs. The four people in front of them are running. Thompson on the left is also taken away by Mills who is advancing forward. At this time, the midfielder tries to grab Davis again. If Davis is When the ball is passed, Leeds United will play more and less.
The Celtics' midfield and backcourt were retreating, and the midfielder and frontcourt didn't have time to come back. There was a bit of a disconnect between the two sides.
Davis pushed forward without any hindrance, all the way to the outside of the penalty area. Seeing that the defender on the other side had not come up, he raised his foot and shot a long shot. The ball whizzed towards the upper left corner of the goal.
Celtic goalkeeper Douglas stretched out his hand to block it, but the ball was too fast and slightly changed the direction of the ball, hitting the crossbar.
"Clang!" The voice was loud.
After the ball hit the crossbar, it bounced to Van Persie's feet in the left penalty area. Van Persie paused and prepared to shoot.
However, the ball came too suddenly, and Van Persie failed to stop it well. He stopped it a little far away from himself, and was destroyed by the rushing Celtic defender Farharen.
"NO!" "Damn it."
There was a lot of excitement in the Leeds United coaching bench.
I originally thought that Davis's first shot was going to score. The coaching staff and the bench all stood up quickly. As a result, the first shot didn't go in, but the ball went to Van Persie's feet.
George Lee had already raised his hands, Kasper put his hand on Kidd's shoulder, McGee kept kicking his legs, and substitute goalkeeper Ella pulled Schmeichel's clothes, all waiting for the goal.
The result was destroyed by the Celtics.
"Why don't you let him focus on stopping the ball? This is not the first time." Cruyff Jr. suggested to George Lee.
"Look again, maybe I'm too nervous." Li George didn't think there was any big problem. After all, the forward couldn't score every time he shot.
After Leeds United took a corner kick, the ball was confiscated by Celtic goalkeeper Douglas due to low quality.
Douglas immediately drove forward with a big kick. Because Leeds' two center backs went to the front during corner kicks, Kelly and Graveson were left to defend from behind.
Celtic forward Sutton was pestered by Albucheson for nearly 40 minutes, and finally seized the opportunity. Taking advantage of the opponent's center back not retreating, he leaned against Leeds United full-back Kelly and stopped the ball.
When he saw his teammate Petrov advancing, he moved the ball to the side and passed it to Petrov.
Just as Petrov was about to take the ball, he saw a white figure flying over from the ground, and he was shoveled out of the sideline with the ball.
The linesman raised his flag and the ball was thrown in.
Gravesen got up from the ground, spat to the side, and prepared to run back and defend.
"Hey Thomas, hold it tight, don't get hurt."
George Li made trumpet-like shapes with his hands, put them in front of his mouth, and shouted loudly. I don’t know whether to prevent Graveson from being injured or to prevent others from being injured.
Anyway, Gravesen nodded to him as he stepped back and extended his thumb.
At this time, Davis just retreated from the frontcourt to defend and passed by George Lee.
"Edgar, good shot, keep going."
Davis, who was wearing sports glasses, smiled at George Li, revealing his obvious big white teeth.
"The two of them are really good, and they are worth every penny." Cruyff Jr. said to George Lee.
"After all, I chose the person."
"I thought at first you were going to let them stand parallel, with Smith in front."
"No, Thomas is not very fast. What I hope is that he can act as a barrier in the midfield. The offense does not require him to be too forward, he only needs to be responsible for sorting and transitioning." George Li said.
After George Li finished talking about Graveson, he started talking about Davis again.
"Edgar is different. He has plenty of physical strength. He can help attack and press together. He can also retreat to strengthen the defense. He can also participate in threatening the goal when attacking?"
In the 41st minute of the game, Leeds United made another threatening shot.
Leeds United received a set kick on the left side of the penalty area and Hart took the penalty.
Hart did not choose to shoot, but drove the ball to the front of the penalty area. Smith jumped high and headed the ball towards the goal.
Douglas pounced on the first shot, but Van Persie still appeared ghostly near the landing point of the ball in the small penalty area. This time, he did not stop the ball and sent the ball into the goal with a blast.
"NICE!"
"nice shot."
"I didn't stop the ball and scored. It's great."
An accident occurred, the linesman raised his flag and it was offside.
The moment Smith touched the ball, Van Persie was half offside and was spotted by the linesman.
"real or fake?"
"Do you want to appeal?"
"Forget it, after all, there is no need for a friendly match."
There was a lot of chatter on the coaching bench, and George Lee suddenly said to Cruyff.
"There is no need to practice stopping the ball. I don't think it is necessary." George Lee now has to believe this evil. Van Persie's shooting after not stopping the ball is world-class.
He turned to Casper again.
"Chris, go back and look for a collection of Van Persie's goals at Feyenoord, and summarize for me all his goals and shots."
"George, are you kidding me? He is a winger at Feyenoord." Casper started cursing as he started doing this kind of work.
^^^
In the second half, both sides replaced the main players with tacit understanding and replaced them with substitute players.
In the end, Leeds United won the Charity Cup 1-0.
