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Chapter 497 Help me score a goal
The result of a zero-to-one away game made Newcastle's situation suddenly serious.

For the entire long season, a loss was originally nothing, but losing at such a critical moment is very fatal.

The second leg is two weeks later, and a week later, the League Cup final, with Newcastle taking on Aston Villa at the Millennium Stadium in Wales, before hosting Birmingham three days later in the sixth round of the FA Cup.

These two opponents are not very strong, but Newcastle can't afford to lose. Losing the League Cup final means that all the previous hard work is in vain. Losing the sixth round of the FA Cup means that Newcastle will not be able to win the treble this season anyway.

In the European arena, it is recognized that the most glorious triple crown refers to the top domestic league champions, cup champions and European Champions Cup champions. Even if the Champions Cup is replaced by the UEFA Cup, it will not be remembered for such a long time.

There are two cups in England, but it is recognized that the cup with the highest honor is not the League Cup, but the FA Cup. That is because the FA Cup has a long history.

So even if Newcastle won the League Cup, League and Champions Cup, no one would think that they won the Triple Crown, at least it is slightly flawed.

But often people who are too greedy will learn a lesson. Many teams that want to win the Triple Crown will find out after the end of the season that they might have won at least one championship, but because they are too greedy, they end up empty-handed.

It's not just stupid people who do this kind of thing, many smart people do it because they have so much faith in themselves that they must be special.

It's a pity that there are always only a few people who are special.

Mourinho has always been considered "the special one", so in the face of this situation, is he going to eat everything greedily, or is he selectively discarding a few?

No one knows what Mourinho thinks, they can only find some clues through Mourinho's actions.

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On March 2013st, the Welsh Millennium Stadium ushered in the 2014-[-] League Cup final. The two sides are two Premier League teams-Newcastle, which is currently ranked first in the Premier League, and Aston Villa, who is ranked sixth!
Aston Villa is an old and strong team in the Premier League. They have won seven league titles and seven FA Cup titles. Their most glorious year was 82. In that year, they won the European Champions Cup, European Super Cup and Toyota Cup. Unfortunately, the glory of that year was their last glory. In the subsequent games, they never won any decent honors. It's the 90's too.

However, in recent years, Aston Villa seems to have begun to revive. They have always been firmly in the second group, and they are one of the regulars in the UEFA Cup. Sometimes they can pose a threat to the top four positions, which also makes the reputation of this team in Birmingham gradually louder.

Although they used to be brilliant, that was also a matter of the 80s. Apart from their fans, how many other fans will notice that this ordinary Premier League team has such a glorious past?There are many teams that are more brilliant than them, such as Nottingham Forest. They have won the Champions League twice, but not many people can remember it now. Another one is Genoa.

The glory of the past belongs only to the past, and the glory of the present can attract more fans.

The last time Aston Villa won the heavyweight championship was in 1996, and it has been 18 years since now. They had entered the FA Cup final in 2000, but they lost to Chelsea led by Zola and finished second. After 14 years, they naturally did not want the championship to slip away from their hands again.

Normally, Aston Villa can rarely beat Newcastle in the league, but in such a decisive cup game, it is often not the strength of the team that determines the outcome, but their importance and luck in the game.

They have been preparing for this game for a long time. For this reason, they even gave up the last league game. All the main players can play, and their troops are strong.

What about Newcastle?They are also distracted by the second round of the FA Cup and the Champions League, so their coach O'Neill believes that he still has a great chance to beat Newcastle.

Mourinho really adopted a rotation system in this game. Maicon, Dawson, Carrick, and Ribery sat on the bench. They were replaced by Srna, Huntington, Bostock, and Baxter. However, with the strength of these four players, it is obviously wrong to say that they are substitute players. They are capable of playing the main force.

So in this game, Newcastle can be regarded as going all out to win the third League Cup in ten years.

Newcastle fans also paid considerable attention to this game. Tens of thousands of Newcastle fans arrived in Cardiff, and the number of Aston Villa fans was no less than them.

As a team in the northernmost part of England, Newcastle naturally occupies the north locker room, which is a symbol of luck. This locker room really means luck to them. In the past ten years, they have reached the League Cup finals twice, and won the championship twice.

Although Mourinho will not deliberately pursue the League Cup, but basically entered the League Cup final when he played as a substitute, so why not take this championship in his hands?Anyway, it's a pretty good honor.

Long Bisheng started today. This is the first time he has played in the League Cup this season. In the previous League Cup and FA Cup games, Mourinho always let him rest, so that his physical fitness can be maintained for the League and Champions Cup games. But today, when he is fighting for the championship, Mourinho will still send him to play.

This also made Long Bisheng feel a little embarrassed, because he thought that he didn't do much in the previous competition, and it seemed that he came here specifically to pick the fruit in the final.

It's not that he is not interested in this championship. Before coming to Newcastle, he stayed in Leeds for two seasons, but he only won one League One championship. Even if it was the League Cup, he couldn't even touch it. He still hopes to win his first important championship in the Premier League.

Drogba is observing Long Bisheng. At his age, he doesn’t pay much attention to the number of games played. He became famous relatively late, and his peak period was only a few years, but in those few years he has won enough, Premier League champions, Champions League champions, FA Cup champions, League Cup champions. A substitute, to support Newcastle's striker when he is not performing well, but now it seems that it is no longer necessary.

Drogba likes this simple young man, because he used to be the same simple. He prefers that Long Bisheng always appears calm and concentrated before each game, so that the players can perform better on the court.

But today he found that Long Bisheng seemed a little absent-minded, so he decided to have a chat with Long Bisheng.

"Long, how are you doing today?"

Long Bisheng was arranging the shin guards when he heard a voice next to his ear. He raised his head and saw a frightening face appearing in front of him.

"Warcraft" Drogba is notoriously ugly, to put it harshly, he looks like a prehistoric ape-man, but no matter how ugly the face is, once you get used to it, it doesn't matter. Long Bisheng smiled at Drogba and replied, "Not bad."

"Really? I think you seem to be a little distracted. This game is very important to us. Keep up your spirits and win this championship. The boss will give us rewards!" Drogba said with a smile and patted Long Bisheng on the back.

Long Bisheng nodded, and looked at Drogba hesitantly: "Didier... you played the previous League Cup matches, but today I am the main player. You...do you have any objections?"

Drogba froze for a moment, then laughed: "What do you think? The coach's arrangement will naturally have the coach's intentions. Why do I have an opinion? It's not that you want the coach not to let me play the main force...Besides, you are young, and Newcastle's future center forward is of course you. I am old, and I am already a little bit powerless in a league as fierce as the Premier League this season. I can't wait for you to play more games to make me feel more relaxed!"

Speaking of this, Drogba winked at Long Bisheng: "You know that my salary is not bad. I play so few games and get so much salary. Such a good thing happened to me. Why am I angry?"

Long Bisheng couldn't help laughing. Of course he knew that Drogba was joking in the last sentence, but what Drogba said was also reasonable. Now that Drogba is almost 36, he must only play for a limited time at this age. It seems that he is supercilious.

Seeing Long Bisheng's smile, Drogba felt relieved, and patted him on the shoulder again: "Since you took my place today, help me score more goals! Otherwise, I'll be really angry!"

"I will definitely help you score!" Long Bisheng clenched his fists, like a primary school student promising his teacher.

This time it was Drogba's turn to laugh out loud, and Shearer, who had been paying attention to this scene from a distance, also smiled.

(End of this chapter)