The Young Lion

The League One match between Millwall and Sunderland unknowingly progressed to the 40th minute of the second half. Almost everyone believed that the two teams would end in a draw.

Even Aldridge felt that shaking hands and making peace was a fair ending, after all, it was impossible for Millwall to play an amazingly smooth attack.

But surprises come quietly when you don't expect.

Schneider received the ball from the right. In the previous 80 minutes of the game, he would pass the ball at a 45-degree angle from the wing, or pass through the opponent's full back and central defender. But this time, he did After making a fake move, he deceived the opponent's defensive player, moved the ball laterally, and after approaching the middle, he had a passing space, and he kicked the ball to the right side of the arc top of the penalty area.

Sunderland's returning central midfielder saw a Millwall player dropping back from the penalty area in the path of Schneider's pass.

Solskjaer!

He did not go deep into the penalty area after taking Trezeguet's place, but ran back and forth in the penalty area, which, although annoying the Sunderland defenders, did not create a threatening attack.

But at this moment, he appeared at the top of the arc in the penalty area by a strange coincidence, and there was no defender around him to mark him closely.

Facing Schneider's pass, Solskjaer, who was half sideways facing the goal, felt peaceful. He has been observing the situation on the field since he sat on the bench. It is not accidental that he appeared in this position to catch the ball easily. !

If it wasn't for the lack of tacit understanding between him and the rest of the team, he believes that he would not have gotten such a good opportunity more than ten minutes after his debut.

The penalty area was overcrowded. Solskjaer knew that he had no space to take the ball, and he didn't even have time to stop the ball and turn around to adjust. Therefore, he thought about what to do in the next second before receiving the ball.

shoot!

And it is difficult to shoot skillfully!

He rubbed the inside of his right foot against the ground ball and aimed at the upper right dead corner of Sunderland's goal!

After shooting the ball, Solskjaer raised his head and looked at the ball with piercing eyes, which jumped like a rising rainbow.

The next second, Solskjaer was dumbfounded.

The ball popped out of the penalty area!

Solskjaer immediately raised his right hand, while hitting his right arm with his left hand, turned and shouted at the referee: Handball! Handball!

His shot hit the arm of Sunderland's jumping defender before it bounced out of the penalty area, otherwise, Solskjaer was sure it would have been a wonderful goal!

The other Millwall players also raised their arms and shouted at the referee.

Almost at the same time, the referee blew his whistle and pointed at the penalty spot in Sunderland's penalty area with a majestic expression.

penalty!

When the Sunderland players saw the referee decisively awarding a penalty kick, they immediately surrounded the past...

Aldridge didn't react at all on the sidelines. He was far away and couldn't tell whether it was a handball, or whether the opposing player's arms were opened to expand the defensive area. He just instinctively shouted excitedly, That's a handball. , and then he saw that the referee awarded a penalty kick, so he stopped talking and applauded instead.

The fans at the scene booed the referee, and the Sunderland players protested to no avail.

Larson, the first penalty shooter designated by the Millwall team, stood in front of the penalty spot. Under the pressure of boos from the audience, Larson easily shot the ball into the dead corner.

Millwall lead away by one goal!

Aldridge breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the penalty kick.

In any case, it is always more gratifying to win the game and strive for victory than to get a draw.

He applauded the players from the sidelines, then put away his smile and told the players to stabilize and defend.

There are three minutes left in the game, plus stoppage time is about five minutes.

Sunderland was naturally unwilling to fail after falling behind at home, so they launched a fierce offensive counterattack in the last five minutes, but failed to break through the gate of Millwall.

Instead, in the last minute of stoppage time, Stam's header cleared the ball to the right, but Thuram's big-footed clearance turned into a counterattack. Larsson headed back in the middle circle , Not far away, Solskjaer sprinted into the opponent's half at full speed. With Sunderland pressing hard, Solskjaer succeeded in turning offside and went to the meeting alone!

Facing the attacking goalkeeper, Solskjaer pushed the ball into the lower right corner of the goal with full confidence from outside the penalty area.

2:0.

Solskjaer, who played less than 20 minutes, performed magic in the first game of his career.

After making a penalty kick and scoring a goal, it helped Millwall take away three points in the away game, and also steadily improved the team's confidence and cohesion.

After the game, Aldridge hurriedly shook hands with the Sunderland coach, then walked into the player tunnel, and was interviewed in the mixed area, but only a few words.

Sunderland's performance is very stable. In addition to the team's stable performance, we won the game with more or less luck. I also hope that good luck will always favor us.

Millwall, who has won two consecutive victories, continues to sit at the top of the standings, which is not what Aldridge cares about.

In the next period of time, Millwall started a consecutive week of double matches.

After three days of rest, Millwall ushered in the first round opponent of the League Cup at home: Plymouth in the fourth tier league.

In this game, Aldridge carried out a team rotation and played with a full bench.

Goalkeeper Bout, defender Phil Neville, Dean Richards, Marco Materazzi, Zambrotta.

Midfielders Beckham, Vieira, Ballack, Glenshire.

Forward Kevin Phillips, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The average age of this lineup is 19 years old.

Although Aldridge has no idea about the cup game, it does not mean that he will give up the game easily, even if he loses, it must be worthwhile to lose.

He was on the sidelines throughout the game, yelling constantly for players to run to cover.

The offensive starting points of this lineup are the center and the right. Compared with the main lineup, Aldridge is still suppressing Nedved's offensive talent. He gave Ballack more freedom to move forward, while Beckham on the right , Just like a precision-guided weapon, Belle's arc is not yet famous, but as long as Beckham can create several threatening attacks in his ten-footed, twenty-footed long pass, then it can meet Aldridge's expectations.

Glenshire on the left is very fast, and his sprint speed is comparable to that of a track and field athlete. Aldridge also let him just go forward on the left to create a threat.

The first round of the Carabao Cup against Plymouth was not very exciting, the ball was almost flying in the sky, but the Millwall players showed the quality that Aldridge wanted to see.

In the end, the players who shined in the audience were Kevin Phillips and Beckham. The former staged a hat-trick, and the latter's frequent and accurate long passes made people shine.

The final score was 4:3.

After Ballack's unscrupulous attack, only Vieira was left in the defensive barrier. Although his performance was not too bad, he still exposed many flaws, allowing Plymouth's attacking combination to easily face Millwall's young and immature line. defense.

Plymouth had more absolute scoring chances than Millwall. If it wasn't for Bout's high and low gear, I am afraid that Millwall's League Cup trip would have ended in the first game.

After the game, Aldridge praised the whole team. For many players who have no professional game experience, winning the first show is qualified.

And in four days, Aldridge will usher in an opponent at home that makes Millwall fans unhappy: Derby County.

The promotion play-offs three months ago are vivid in my mind. Derby County beat Millwall 5:1 in two rounds, blocking their promotion to the Premier League.

After the game, fans of both sides also broke out small-scale conflicts.

For the tactical setting of this game, Aldridge still followed the deployment of the previous two games, but he needed to mobilize the team's emotions in the preparation meeting.

With three consecutive victories in the new season, the morale of the players in the team is good and they are full of confidence.

They are also increasingly convinced of Aldridge.

At the team preparation meeting, Aldridge stopped talking after analyzing his opponent Derby County, and did not announce the dissolution, but went silent for a while.

The players looked at each other, wondering why the boss suddenly got stuck.

Aldridge pouted with a displeased expression, looked around the team, raised his eyebrows and said, Do you know what the relationship between Derby County and us is?

Most players who have only been in the UK for less than three months have a blank expression, and they really have no interest in the history of the team.

Even Beckham and Neville are confused.

Derby County is the team of Derby City, and it can't compete with Millwall. There is no knot in history that cannot be untied.

Only Southgate in London thought about it.

Looks like Gareth knows. You tell everyone.

Being named by Aldridge, Southgate shrugged: Derby County was our enemy last season, and tomorrow will be a battle of revenge for us.

After listening to Southgate's words, some players were still at a loss.

Aldrich said with a sullen face: Yes, tomorrow is revenge. To tell you the truth, if Millwall defeated Derby County last season, it is very likely that we are now in the top league, but because of losing to that damn it The competitive Derby County, we stayed in the first division. Look at the performance of Derby County in the past half a month. They lost to Barnsley and drew with Luton. It’s a joke. Millwall last season How did they lose to such rubbish? Just because Derby County only scored one point in the first two games, they will come to the Lions Den tomorrow, and they must want to take three points from us. After all, just three months ago, they won Here we stepped on Millwall's corpse and went to Wembley. Although we lost to Leicester City in the end, in their eyes, we are fucking softies, who can make them kill and find us. Get back the confidence and relive the feeling of winning. What do we do? Go up to them and tell them politely: Millwall three months ago has nothing to do with us? Who the fuck listens to this? I just want to see them play It was enough to go home crying when it was over.