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When Phil Neville, who served as Tottenham captain in this game, stood on the podium and raised the championship trophy high under the watch of more than 70,000 fans, the atmosphere at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium was also at this moment. Reached the top. Except for a few die-hard Bolton fans, the fans present were using the warmest applause and cheers to send their most sincere congratulations to the Tottenham players on the field!
On the podium, Tottenham players rushed around Phil Neville, trying to grab the trophy from their captain and enjoy the joy of being in close contact with the championship trophy. In the end, after a fierce competition, the strong Michael Dawson became the final winner and won the second English League Cup championship trophy.
In fact, Luca Toni is more likely to be the winner of this trophy than Dawson, but the Italian center, who is about to turn 27, has long passed his competitive age. For Tony, what he values more is practical interests, such as improving his own strength and his status in the team, and seeking a better-paid work contract, rather than competing with his teammates for such a thing that does not bring much. Kudos to the practical benefits.
Like Luca Toni, Tottenham's main players, such as Didier Drogba and Vidic, have not participated in this battle. Because in their view, this honor should belong to those teammates who participated in the entire League Cup competition. It has little to do with them who mainly attack the league battlefield and made little contribution in the League Cup.
Therefore, with the deliberate concessions of Tony, Drogba and others, Dawson was able to become the second player in the Tottenham team to win the League Cup, enjoying the excitement and joy of winning his first championship after becoming a professional player. Mood.
"It's great to be young." Looking at the cheering Tottenham players on the podium, Djorkaeff couldn't help but smile. For this veteran who has experienced countless ups and downs, missing out on a League Cup championship will not make him feel much disappointed at all. "It seems that it won't be long before Tottenham Hotspur will become the top player in English football." It’s a new force that is not weaker than Manchester United and Arsenal. Unfortunately, I guess I won’t be able to witness this day as a player~"
Compared to Djorkaeff, who watched calmly, Kevin Davis' performance seemed quite miserable. The sinister England center who was slapped in the face was angrily fiddling with the silver medal in his hand, while looking at the Tottenham players celebrating on the field with a look of resentment. If Okocha and Campo hadn't noticed that Davis was not looking right and quickly pulled him away from the court, the evil forward would have caused some trouble.
Although Tottenham only won a League Cup title this time, which is like a tasteless title in the eyes of the top giants, it is enough to make Tottenham fans excited for a long time to come. You know, Tottenham Hotspur used substitute players throughout the League Cup. It was naturally extremely difficult to win the final championship.
Not to mention, on the way to winning the championship, Tottenham also used this configuration to kill the favorite Arsenal who played with the main lineup. Therefore, in the eyes of most people, Tottenham's League Cup championship this time can be said to be full of gold. The emergence of this argument has greatly improved Tottenham's image and situation in English football and even European football, making the name Tottenham Hotspur begin to enter the minds of many ambitious players, but due to various reasons Players who cannot join top giants for this reason are within the sight of them, so when they consider their next home, Tottenham has an additional option in their minds.
After all, relying on the bench to defeat a strong opponent like Arsenal and finally win the cup is not something that ordinary teams can do. Even if the championship Tottenham won was only the English League Cup, it would be enough to explain a lot of problems.
Just as George led his team to defeat Bolton and successfully led Tottenham Hotspur to win the club's first championship trophy in four years, the twenty-seventh round of the Premier League also came to an end at the same time. Since Tottenham had a League Cup final to play, their game against Middlesbrough had to be postponed to March 10. As a result, Tottenham Hotspur, who have one game in hand, are further ahead of Arsenal at the top of the standings. As of now, Tottenham are 14 points behind Arsenal in the league. Even if Tottenham has one game less, it can be announced in advance that Tottenham will completely withdraw from the Premier League title race this season. Got it!
Faced with various changes in the standings, George had to re-adjust the team's goals in the league this season, giving up the plan to compete with Arsenal for the Premier League championship, which currently seemed extremely unrealistic, and switched to The goal is to ensure a Champions League spot at the end of the season - given Tottenham's current situation in the league, the possibility of completing this task is still very high. You know, even now that Tottenham have lost four consecutive league games, Tottenham, who have one game less, are still a full nine points ahead of Newcastle United, who are ranked fifth in the league, in the standings!
Of course, ensuring the top four in the standings is just the minimum goal set by George. What George hopes most is that Tottenham can improve the league ranking as much as possible before the end of the season. After all, the third and fourth places in the Premier League cannot directly qualify for the Champions League group stage, and must pass the Champions League qualifying test. As a result, Tottenham's preparations for the new season are bound to be affected to a certain extent.
Although everyone at Tottenham is eager to break the vicious cycle of consecutive wins in the league and stabilize and improve their ranking in the standings, before that, Tottenham still need to solve another opponent, that is, they are about to compete with them for an FA Cup. Fulham FC in the semi-finals!
In this way, the time came to March 6, and the quarter-finals of the 2003-04 English FA Cup began at White Hart Lane!
In the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, although Fulham played away from home, they repeated their old tricks in this game and put up a set of iron barrels in front of Tottenham players, trying to replicate their previous defeat against Tottenham. Spurs' feat, but the problem is that Tottenham's substitute lineup does not lack the means to break the iron barrel formation. Whether it is Luca Toni, who is better at attacking in the penalty area than Drogba, or Matthew Taylor and Poyet, who are quite skilled in long-range shots from behind, as well as Bastour, whose set-piece skills have improved after intensive training. Grams, all have the ability to penetrate the turtle shell created by Fulham!
As a result, Fulham, who was ill-prepared for this, naturally suffered a big loss in the game. Only five minutes into the game, Tottenham players turned Fulham's defense into a mess through patient forward passes and constant cross-positions. Then Tony took advantage of the chaos and received Darren Anderton's cross in the penalty area. He took the ball and used a close-range header to break through Van der Sar's fingers, opening the scoring for Tottenham!
Falling behind by one goal only five minutes into the game disrupted Fulham's pre-match plans, forcing the visiting team to change their playing style and take the initiative in the following hours, hoping to equalize or even overtake the score as soon as possible and regain the game. initiative!
Fulham's approach plays into Tottenham's hands. After actively shrinking the defensive line and luring Fulham players to unknowingly press the formation, Tottenham's counterattack finally came into play. With the high center forward Luca Toni serving as the tactical fulcrum to provide support, Franck Ribery, Basturk, Darren Anderton and others frequently attacked the visiting team's defense, making Fulham's defenders miserable.
In the 58th minute, Vermaelen stole the ball and counterattacked with a long pass. Toni headed the ball over. Basturk, who succeeded in countering offside, broke through alone and passed by Van der Sar who abandoned the goal and Arango who returned to defend. Push shot from behind to help Tottenham seal the victory!
Just like that, when the referee announced the end of the game, Tottenham easily defeated visiting Fulham 2-0 at home and became the first team to advance to the FA Cup semi-finals!
After two consecutive victories in the League Cup and FA Cup, Tottenham players inevitably showed a trace of fatigue. After all, Bolton and Fulham are both teams with extremely tough playing styles, so although it seems that Tottenham won these two games quite easily, the players' physical exertion was not small at all.
The most terrible thing is that before the make-up match against Middlesbrough, Ledley King suffered a minor injury in the team's training. Although the team doctor checked that there was nothing serious, he will still be sidelined for nearly two weeks. This also means that Tottenham will have to compete with the Premier League powers in the absence of their own captain in the next few rounds of games!
House seemingly endless rain. Immediately afterwards, Stephen Carr was also discovered by the team doctor during a routine physical examination that his knee injury had recurred and had to be exempted from the game. Coupled with the accumulation of yellow cards and suspension of the main defensive midfielder Mascherano, George became even more stretched in his formation!
Faced with this extremely embarrassing situation, George had no choice but to admit his mistakes in the rotation strategy, and at the same time secretly made up his mind to cancel this set of players that had gradually shown their disadvantages after they grew up and built up their confidence this season. Rotate your play style. After all, although the practice of arranging substitute players to focus on domestic cup matches can maximize the enthusiasm of substitute players for the game, it also makes Tottenham's formation easier for opponents to figure out, and it is easier for Tottenham to attack. Targeted placement.
Although McLaren is somewhat slow to respond in on-the-spot adjustments and can only be considered second-rate as a head coach, his pre-game arrangements are still quite good. Therefore, in the twenty-seventh round of the Premier League make-up match, facing Middlesbrough who had exhausted their main players, Tottenham, who lacked many main players and were exhausted, unsurprisingly fell into a trap after the game started. Hard fight!
Although Tottenham players worked hard on the court and successfully took a one-goal lead in the 39th minute with Ronaldo's long shot, Dawson made a defensive error in the 81st minute. However, the entire Spurs team's efforts throughout the game were in vain - Mendieta made a pass from the right, Dawson tried to head the ball to clear the ball but accidentally went over the head, and Maccarone, who was ambushing in the penalty area, got the ball and shot into the near corner of the goal. Successfully, the score was evened at one to one!
In the end, when all ninety minutes of game time passed, Tottenham players, who were tied with Middlesbrough in regular time, had to depressingly accept the reality that the team had drawn four consecutive draws in the league.
