Leeds United's goal is not a reflection of the strength of both sides. It can only be said that Leeds United seized an opportunity and scored a goal.
The strength of both sides is actually evenly matched, especially since both sides have invested a lot of troops in the midfield.
In the 29th minute of the game, Chelsea launched an attack. Ballack cooperated with Essien to steal the ball from Gravesen, and then passed it to Joe Cole. Before Parker could grab it, Cole passed the ball to the front to get the ball with his back. Didier Drogba.
Drogba blocked Woodgate with his body and stopped the ball. But Woodgate also kept harassing Drogba.
Seeing that Drogba couldn't turn from the left, he tried to turn from the right.
Woodgate took advantage of Drogba's fake move and was about to be deceived, but before he fell to the ground, he put his foot between Drogba's legs and poked the ball away in advance.
Drogba turned around, but the ball was knocked away. He quickly turned around to chase the ball, while Woodgate quickly got up from the ground and continued to defend.
Drogba regained the ball, but at this time Woodgate came up again, and Parker came over at the same time.
Drogba did not dare to push the ball forward, so he could only choose to pass the ball to Ashley Cole who came in from the left.
However, as soon as Cole got the ball, Milner stole the ball and launched another counterattack.
After the attack failed, Drogba turned back and stared at Woodgate, who was with him every step of the way.
Woodgate arranged his long hair handsomely, and then continued to come to Drogba's side.
"Fxxk!" Drogba cursed fiercely, and then looked at his partner, Shevchenko.
When playing 433 before, although Drogba also played a supporting position, playing ball and opening up space for the two wingers and Lampard, at least he had a high tactical status.
Now this Ukrainian is an uncle. Although he passes the ball to himself and cooperates with him, the feeling is different from the previous two seasons.
At this time, Woodgate had already come to Drogba again and started to defend him.
Drogba was angry now.
Brother, you are attacking now, why are you staring at me?
Also, is the level of La Liga so high?
The central defenders who were returned by Real Madrid are of this level, so what level does Real Madrid's current central defender want?
World Footballer of the Year? Or the Golden Globes?
In short, Woodgate gave him a different feeling today than other Premier League central defenders.
Drogba can now feel the heat of his opponent's breath, almost spraying onto his face.
After Drogba saw his defender blocking Leeds United's attack, he turned to attack and started running.
Woodgate continued to follow Drogba.
^^^
"Jonathan, the task for you today is relatively heavy. Although you have just come back, I still have to give you the task of tracking Drogba today."
"Okay, boss."
"I hope to see you as you were before. In my opinion, you are no worse than Ferdinand and Terry."
After all, George Lee had played for Leeds United before, so he still knew what level Woodgate was at. If it were the same Woodgate, he wouldn't let Drogba wreak havoc on his defense, not to mention that he wanted Drogba to die.
But now how much strength Woodgate has left, George Li needs to continue to see. Because apart from the recent games against Bayern and Inter Milan, Leeds United has never faced a team with a top center.
And defending Drogba is the best way to test Woodgate.
"I can do it. I will definitely catch that Ivorian elephant today."
"Don't be too pushy, but I still have to tell you that you have a heavy burden. Except for Scott, the other two central defenders are unlikely to give you much help, because Chelsea also has Shevchenko. Gotta defend.”
"It's okay, I can do it alone."
This was the conversation George Lee had with Woodgate when he assigned him a task before the game.
In short, George Lee gave Woodgate the task of guarding Drogba.
^^^
On the court, Scott Parker rushed over and pulled up Woodgate who fell to the ground.
Just now, in the fight with Drogba, Woodgate was knocked to the ground by his opponent.
It wasn't that Woodgate couldn't fight physically. The ball was actually stuck in Woodgate's position. Drogba couldn't pass it at all, so he could only choose to use more force. However, Woodgate, who was no longer stunned, chose to fall to the ground. , and got a foul.
"Are you okay?" Parker pulled Woodgate up and asked in concern.
"It's okay, at least I'm not too disadvantaged."
Parker asked this because the head coach had taken care of him and wanted to help the backcourt.
But because I also had a heavy defensive task in the midfield today, I couldn't get out to help defend Drogba. I could only give Woodgate a friendly pat on the butt to express his gratitude.
Woodgate also said that he could do it and just let Parker take care of his position first.
When the game progressed to 42 minutes, Chelsea got the best offensive opportunity of the first half.
After receiving a pass from Lampard, Joe Cole used a fake move to get rid of De Jong who was rushing forward, and then passed a through ball behind Matteisson.
There, Shevchenko had successfully countered offside and formed a single shot in the penalty area.
Schmeichel quickly attacked and came to block Shevchenko's shot angle.
Shevchenko made a fake shot with his left foot. After Schmeichel fell to the ground, he used his left foot to dunk the ball over the goalkeeper and switch the ball to his right foot.
Empty door!
Shevchenko pushed lightly with his right foot and pushed the ball towards the door where no one had a handle.
"Gooooooo...wow!!!"
Halfway through the words to explain the goal, he suddenly stopped and changed to an exclamation.
A white figure slid towards the goal with rocket-like speed, and cleared the ball on the goal line before the ball rolled into the goal.
Shevchenko also wanted to go up and make up for the second kick, but Matteisen, who had already been killed, kicked out the baseline in advance.
Amid the exclamations of all Chelsea fans in the audience, Leeds United's No. 6 slowly stood up in the goal, and then arranged his long hair elegantly.
Just now, after Woodgate saw Shevchenko get the ball, he quickly threw away Drogba who was defending him and went to the goal to cover.
After seeing Shevchenko's fake move, he fell to the ground and slid toward the goal.
Fortunately, the ball was saved the moment before the goal was scored.
As soon as Woodgate had his hair cut, a goalkeeper's glove was pressed to his head, messing up his hair.
Then, other Leeds United players came over and pushed him hard. Everyone was very excited.
"Ah, Jonathan, you are so awesome..."
"You are simply superhuman..."
"Oh my god, how did you do that?"
These are things Woodgate couldn't feel when he was at Real Madrid.
In Real Madrid, he was reimbursed in his first season due to injuries, and then his first appearance in the second season was an own goal and a red card and he was sent off. After that, he was stigmatized as a "parallel importer".
Changes in coaches, alienation from teammates, abuse from fans, negative comments from the media...
Now, back at Leeds United, all that has faded away.
On the right, his former teammate Mills was applauding him for his rescue just now.
In front, Smith, also a former teammate and now team captain, was giving himself a thumbs up.
On the sidelines, former teammate and now the team's head coach George Lee nodded to him after seeing him looking at him.
Woodgate smiled, and when the Chelsea players went to take the corner kick, he pushed back his long hair and adjusted his headband.
"Perhaps, after starting over, it would be appropriate to cut my hair short."
Woodgate suddenly felt that it was too much trouble to keep arranging his hair.
