"Mr. Grant, we meet again." George Lee said in the player tunnel to Avran Grant, who was also waiting to enter.
It’s now the first leg of the League Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Leeds United, played at Chelsea’s home stadium, Stamford Bridge.
"There are still many opportunities for us to meet. No matter how this round of the League Cup ends, we still have a league round to play against in March." Grant said to George Lee with a smile.
"Yes, I also think that the game in March was our real match." Li George pointed at the starting lineups of the two teams.
Neither side sent any real main force to play today. After all, both teams are fighting on the fourth front. In comparison, the League Cup is the least important one.
Here at Chelsea, the team's core pivots Drogba, Lampard, Essien and Terry did not play. Leeds United still continued the substitute lineup from the previous game, but in order to help Robben and Barry find their form, they were assigned to the starting lineup today. Joining them in the starting lineup are Smith and Kuyt, who now also need games to maintain their form.
Alan Smith stood at the front of the team bored, and he looked at Ballack beside him. Neither Terry nor Lampard played today, so Ballack, who has many years of experience as captain of the German team, became Chelsea's captain for this game.
"Where's your number 8?"
Ballack heard someone talking to him next to him, so he looked at the No. 17 player wearing a white jersey next to him, and couldn't help but think of what Lampard said to him before the game.
"I don't know if that idiot No. 17 will play tomorrow. Remember not to talk nonsense to him. He is so annoying."
In previous games, Smith and Lampard exchanged jerseys after the game, and their relationship has eased. The most important manifestation is that in recent England national team games, Smith has made some new friends, and Mills is no longer the only familiar person.
Lampard, John Terry, and the two Coles from Chelsea also had interactions with Smith during the national team game.
"He, he's not feeling well." Barak said casually.
"What's going on? Did you catch a cold because the quilt was too windy?" Smith continued to ask.
"What!" Barak was confused by Smith's words and didn't know what he was talking about.
Now he finally knows what Lampard meant by what he said to him before. Now he just wants to start the game quickly and get rid of this talkative man.
But things didn't end that way. Ballack didn't want to pay attention to Smith, but Smith became interested.
"Goalkeeper, how many goals do you think I'm going to score?" After Ballack, Cech behind him was also harassed by Smith.
"You can't get in even one." Cech, wearing the tank soldier "skin" he was getting more and more accustomed to, didn't really want to pay attention to Smith. After saying this, he quickly turned his head and stopped looking at Smith.
As a result, Smith became more and more excessive. He actually wanted to touch Cech's helmet, but when he reached halfway, he was stopped by Edwin van der Sar behind him.
"Edwin, what are you doing?"
"Alan, look, the referees are looking at you. You don't want to be ejected before the kickoff." Van der Sara took Smith's hand and put it back in front of him.
The first few referees were indeed watching them, but they were just watching the fun, and Smith's behavior was indeed quite funny.
The referee on duty was also very cooperative and actually took out the red card from his pocket.
"No, referee." Smith quickly waved his hand and continued his funny behavior.
The referee just came out with the red card, shook it, and said: "I hope this thing will not be used during today's game."
"Yes, I don't think you can even use the yellow one today."
"Hahaha~"
Everyone waiting to enter laughed, including Ballack and Cech who just didn't want to pay attention to Smith. Indeed, Smith is a bit interesting.
Taking this opportunity, Smith once again reached out to touch Cech's helmet, but Cech smiled and opened Smith's hand.
After this episode, people from Leeds United and Chelsea started chatting and bragging one after another, without any sense of tension like before the game.
"Boy, I heard that you are very fast. I will not let you pass me by so easily today."
Ashley Cole patted Bell on the shoulder. He still remembered the incident when Bell used his speed to eat him hard in the previous game.
"Sorry, I'm not playing on the right today. I'm playing on the left. You shouldn't be able to touch me." Bell pointed to Robben behind him. "He's playing on the right today."
As an old teammate, after hearing what Bell said, Robben quickly stepped forward to say hello to his former teammates one by one, but there are not many of his former teammates in today's Chelsea.
After being led by Smith, the tone of the game between the two teams was basically set. That is, the game is a game. Everyone should hold back a little while playing so as not to injure themselves and affect other games.
George Li and Grant looked at each other and seemed very satisfied with the tone of the game.
Due to equipment reasons, the waiting time for today's game seems to be a little later than the scheduled time. There seems to be a problem with the game's timing equipment.
After another ten minutes of waiting, the device was finally repaired.
"Okay, the game is about to begin."
The referee looked at the time and after receiving confirmation from the staff, he began to lead the people behind him to enter.
^^^
Ballack pulled up Smith who fell to the ground. Just now, Ballack had no choice but to knock down Smith who was already single-handedly behind him.
Smith didn't pretend to be pitiful on the ground, holding his legs and rolling around. When he was put down, he felt that the person behind him didn't exert any force just to put him down.
The referee on duty also rushed over, and he could only take out the red card and show it to Ballack.
There was no other way. The referee was quite satisfied with his enforcement throughout the game. The game has now reached 80 minutes and the score between the two teams is 1-1.
Although the game was exciting, the two sides were not very passionate. He only showed Smith a yellow card because he raised his leg a little too high. At other times, the two teams were very restrained in their actions.
But who could have imagined that at the end, Ballack had no choice but to foul in the penalty area in order to defend Smith. For the sake of the fairness of the game, he could only award a penalty kick and then send Ballack off.
Smith also accepted Ballack's extended hand and was pulled up by the opponent.
Seeing the referee show the red card, Smith came to hug Ballack. He also admired Ballack's bloody fighting spirit.
After Ballack accepted Smith's hug, he began to walk off the court.
The Chelsea fans at the scene also stood up and applauded their temporary captain today.
Grant came to the sidelines and offered encouragement to Ballack who left the game. The two of them just stood on the sidelines, waiting to see Leeds United's penalty kick.
"du~"
The referee blew the whistle, and after Smith started, he chose to push into the middle, and Cech rushed towards the right.
2 to 1.
In the end, with this goal, Leeds United won the first leg of the English League Cup semi-finals.
Half a month later, they will play against each other for the second time. However, Leeds United still have two league games and one FA Cup game to play before that.
“I’m looking forward to our meeting again.”
"Me too."
George Lee and Grant shook hands again. They both understood that the rematch was definitely not the second round of the League Cup.
