The Prince of Inter Milan starts with Brother Xiaosa

Chapter 37 Blue Moon

Leo was sweating profusely after playing the whole game, especially when he was exhausted on defense in the later stages of the game.

But in the end the game was still not won, and he smiled helplessly on the court with his hands on his hips.

Berbatov also walked to him silently, patted Leo on the shoulder and comforted the little brother.

"It's just one game, we did our best."

Yes, the Tottenham players on the field really tried their best, but how could they play in a ten-on-twelve game?

The three points he received turned into one point, and Tottenham coach Martin Jol was furious.

If there are tactical problems with him or poor player performance, then no matter how angry he is, he can't do anything but make internal adjustments.

But this game was different. The referee's decision was very problematic. If it weren't for the inexplicable red card, Tottenham should have easily defeated their opponent at home and scored three points.

After the game, Martin Jol directed all his anger at referee Phil Dodd.

"I don't want to comment too much on the referee's decision in this game. I just want to say that no one can win the game in a ten-on-twelve situation."

Although after an investigation afterwards, the Football Association suspended Dodd for one round, Martin Jol's behavior of publicly blaming the referee was intolerable.

The FA said in a statement: "It is inappropriate to doubt the impartiality of referee Phil Dodd or to suggest that he is biased against his team during the game."

But that's all. They were obviously in the wrong, otherwise it would be impossible not to punish Tottenham's head coach.

Apart from the controversial penalty, the biggest highlight of this ordinary Premier League game was not Robbie Keane, who scored two goals and then was sent off with a red card, but Leo, who assisted and scored twice.

You know, the Tottenham youngster has already received seven assists before the league is halfway through, and Leo also successfully tied Cesc Fabregas for first place in the Premier League assists list.

When he learned the news, Leo himself was stunned for a moment. He felt that it didn't take much effort, so he just passed the ball to Berba and the others.

“Being able to get assists shows that my teammates are all very good, and it’s not all my fault.

After all, I am just a newcomer, and I am very satisfied with the results so far. I hope I can continue to make my own contribution to the team in subsequent games.

As for the assists title, I don't have too many extravagant expectations, I just want to do what I should do. "

If he were British, he would have been blown to the sky by the British media by now.

But it is a pity that Leo is not "one of our own". Compared with the British local media who "coldly treated" him, the Italian side was more enthusiastic.

Sky Sports Italy even sent a camera crew to follow and interview Leo.

However, the note with the number that the beautiful host put into Leo's hand before leaving was crumpled into a ball and thrown into the trash can.

"Bah! I don't feel ashamed if I want an old cow to eat young grass. I'm still a child!
  Besides, I don’t like people older than me, and I don’t have a habit of being obsessed with old age. "

In the final round of the UEFA Cup group stage, Tottenham traveled to Belgium to challenge Anderlecht away from home.

Tottenham had two wins and one loss in the first three rounds, and a draw in the final game would guarantee their qualification.

And their opponent today, the Belgian giant Anderlecht, has one more game to play.

The UEFA Cup format at this time seems quite strange. The group stage that Tottenham is participating in should actually be regarded as the second round of qualifying.

A total of 40 participating teams that advanced in the first round of qualifying were divided into 8 groups of 5 teams each.

In the next two months, each team in the group will play against other teams once, which means that each team will have two home games and two away games for a total of four games. Determined by drawing lots.

In the end, the top three teams in each group can advance to the knockout rounds, and a total of 8 teams from 24 groups advance to the knockout stage.

In addition, a total of 8 teams ranked third in each group of the UEFA Champions League also participate in the knockout rounds of the UEFA Cup.

Of course, in another year, the UEFA Cup will be transformed into the Europa League that everyone will be more familiar with in the future, and the competition system will also undergo comprehensive adjustments.

Leo followed him to Belgium, which was not far from London anyway, but he would probably not be able to play in this game.

For Tottenham, they have no chance of winning the UEFA Cup, so the UEFA Cup is far less important than the league, and many teams don't even pay as much attention to it as the domestic cup competition.

Alas, I don’t know when I can wait until I can play in the European competition. Leo sighed. He also knew that the head coach valued him and asked him to focus on the Premier League.

Tottenham Hotspur, playing away from home, failed to enter the state for a long time, but Anderlecht did not seize the opening opportunity to rewrite the score first.

The two sides entered the halftime break with a goalless draw in the first half.

In the second half, Belgian winger Bart Gur broke the deadlock and the home team took the lead.

But just three minutes later, Berbatov equalized the score.

Tottenham ended up drawing 1-1 with Anderlecht at the Vandenstock Stadium.

The North London team also secured a qualifying spot with seven points from four group stage games, two wins, one draw and one loss.

Although Tottenham have failed to win the last two games, their unbeaten record in eight consecutive games is still satisfactory.

With a dense schedule, the Lilywhites only have two days to prepare for Sunday's home game against Manchester City after returning to London.

Tottenham have maintained a winning record in the six meetings between the two sides in the past three seasons.

The last time Manchester City won at White Hart Lane was in the FA Cup in February 2004.

Coupled with Blue Moon's recent poor away record, they have not won in seven consecutive league away games.

Therefore, the outside world is generally optimistic that Tottenham can successfully score three points at home.

"Xiao Dong also told me the matter. Alas, this matter was really done in an unethical manner."

"It's okay, I don't take it to heart at all."

Seeing that Li Ao didn't want to talk more, Sun Jihai smiled awkwardly as a cover-up and didn't say anything more.

"You performed well in today's game. Many fans in the country are watching and everyone is looking forward to it."

Leo smiled and nodded, but what he was thinking was that the people in the Pig Association had better not cause trouble, as he had a back-up plan.

Manchester City's Chinese Sun Jihai has been defeated in the competition with Richards since last season and lost his main position.

However, due to his versatile status in the backcourt, he had to be put on the substitute list by Manchester City coach Eriksson today.

Li Ao had never met Sun Jihai before and was not familiar with them, but Wang Dong and Sun Jihai were relatively familiar with each other because they were both in Manchester.

Leo and Sun also had this relationship, so they had a casual chat before the game started.

For Tottenham, although French center back Kaboul made a lot of mistakes in the UEFA Cup away game against Anderlecht in midweek, he still entered the starting lineup.

There's nothing we can do about Martin Jol. There's really no one to use him. We can't drag a teenager from the youth team to play.

The position of central defender is different from other positions. It requires a lot of experience. Kabul is much better than the central defender of the youth team.

In addition, although Robbie Keane did not have an additional suspension, the red card he received was not cancelled, so today Darren Bent started the game instead of the suspended Irish forward.

For Manchester City, Michael Johnson and Vassell returned from injury and entered the starting lineup. Petrov recovered from the flu and continued to start. Elano was absent due to a thigh injury.

The visiting team took the lead after the game started. Petrov broke through from the wing and passed in. Michael Johnson got rid of Tottenham's defender in the middle and headed the ball wide of the baseline.

Leo was playing left midfielder today. The flaw in the defense just now had nothing to do with him. It was Zokora who was broken through by his Manchester City teammates.

The Ivorian performed well when he first joined Tottenham, but his performance has not been satisfactory in recent times.

This is why sometimes the head coach lets Leo take his place in the midfield.

Zokora's physical fitness is worse than Leo's in all aspects, and his defensive ability is also better than him, but his passing organization, especially the final pass, is not as good as Leo's.

However, if such a player cannot concentrate and help the team on the defensive end, he basically loses the value of playing.

(End of this chapter)