Chapter 662 The end of the group stage
In the sixteenth round of the league, Leeds United welcomed Middlesbrough at home. According to the original historical development, Middlesbrough will be relegated after the end of the season.
Judging from the current performance, Middlesbrough's performance is still OK, at least not falling to the relegation zone, and Middlesbrough's lineup is not bad.
Of course, a good lineup does not mean that the game is played well. Real Madrid has already fully proved that, so a team with good players also needs a good head coach.
Although Southgate is good, he is not a talented head coach like Li Yi. He needs time and experience to accumulate.
This point has been fully proved in the game. Leeds United, who are playing at home, suppressed Middlesbrough from the beginning of the game. This suppression is not only in strength, but also in pre-match preparation and tactics.
Although they are all old rivals in the league, they are no strangers to each other, especially Leeds United has changed very little compared with last season. Of course, Middlesbrough has not changed much.
So the two sides skipped the probing phase directly. After the game started, Leeds United launched a fierce attack and broke the situation on the field in the fourth minute.
Although Li Yi's team is good at scoring goals in the opening game, it can be seen from Middlesbrough's reaction that they are not well prepared, and they are still not prepared when they know that their opponents are good at opening attacks.
After taking the lead, Leeds United immediately changed their tactics and gave up the ball to force Middlesbrough to attack. Although this is one of Li Yi's conventional tactics, it needs careful consideration for that team.
Southgate's team was calm at first, but in the face of Leeds United's unmoved, Middlesbrough players still couldn't resist attacking.
Counterattack, Leeds United's counterattack can be said to be very sharp, Owen ushered in his second goal in the league, and it was his national teammate and England heartthrob Beckham who provided him with an assist.
The season in Marseille is about halfway through, and Beckham's time in the Premier League is getting less and less. In this regard, Beckham also cherishes his time in the Premier League more and more.
Therefore, Li Yi also arranged for Beckham to appear in the league as much as possible, and even seldom replaced him in the game, even if the team had ensured victory.
Originally, Li Yi wanted to reduce Beckham's playing time as much as possible this season. In addition to preventing Beckham from getting too tired and injured, he also wanted to give young players more opportunities to play.
But after Beckham took the initiative to find Li Yi and after some in-depth exchanges, Li Yi made a change. Of course, after making the change, Li Yi found several young players in the team.
Li Yi had made promises before, and now that he wants to change, he naturally has to make it clear to them.
Next season, Beckham will leave, and Kante will be transferred to the first team. In fact, this entry and exit will not change much. At that time, Jonny Hausen had been excluded from the team lineup by Li Yi, so signings were still needed.
For the midfield signing, Li Yi has already made arrangements. The Belgian future national team midfielder De Bruyne, the Belgian teenager has just been mentioned to the first team by his club Genk this season, and is currently only a substitute player.
So at this time, it doesn't cost much for Leeds United to make a move. In addition, Corleone made a move under Li Yi's instructions. At present, the two sides have basically agreed on the transfer fee.
Of course, it is not difficult to convince a few young players, as long as Li Yi promises that he will not make big signings next season, it is enough.
A two-goal deficit was a huge blow to Middlesbrough's morale. As the saying goes, taking advantage of your illness will cost you your life. After the restart of the game, Leeds United changed their tactics again.
All-round pressure, the suspense of this game was completely killed in one go, so when the first half ended, the score on the field had become 3:0.
After all, they are all Premier League teams, so face is still to be given, not to mention that there are players in the team from the past. Li Yi made adjustments to the starting lineup shortly after the second half.
In the end, Leeds United did not score in the second half, and Middlesbrough failed to make any useful changes at halftime. The score of 3:0 remained until the end of the game.
Six-game winning streak, with Leeds United winning Middlesbrough, the league ushered in another six-game winning streak, but this round of the league's four giants has won, but the points gap has further widened.
Because Chelsea lost the last round of the league, Liverpool drew again, Chelsea lost to Arsenal, this time the London derby went into a sought-after victory, and Liverpool played 1:1 with West Ham at home.
Therefore, Leeds United is now 8 points ahead of Liverpool in second place and 9 points ahead of Chelsea in third place. As for Arsenal and Manchester United, you can completely ignore them, because both teams are very different.
After the match in Middlesbrough, Li Yi generously gave the players a day off. Although there is still the last round of the Champions League in the middle of the week, this last round has not affected Leeds United's first place in the group.
Li Yi even considered letting young players from the youth team play a round in the Champions League. In fact, Li Yi did so. After the team regrouped, he transferred several young players to the first team.
Seeing Li Yi's move, Marseille almost cried, and then Marseille, from the chairman to the pig's feet, down to the players and fans, began to call on Leeds United to pay attention to the spirit of competition.
There is no hope for them in the Champions League, but the Europa League can still compete, and for PSV and Marseille, the Europa League is also very attractive.
Li Yi responded very well to Marseille's appeal, but in fact, when the main lineup came out, Marseille really cried. There were actually three players in the starting lineup who were transferred from the youth team.
When the Marseilles cry, it means that the Eindhoven people laugh, but when the game starts, the Eindhoven people can't laugh, because Leeds United scored a goal quickly,
And the player whose goal has officially jumped from the youth team, the young England center Harry Kane, at the same time, the Tottenham management has been crying, because Harry Kane belonged to Tottenham a few months ago.
This is not over yet, Eindhoven immediately launched a counterattack, but they found that a short figure finally appeared on their offensive road.
Even this short figure gave PSV a fatal blow. In the 38th minute of the first half, Kante sent a long pass after stealing the ball. Leeds United quickly counterattacked, and Lennon single-handedly rewritten the score to 2:0.
At the end of the game, PSV utterly cried because the final score was 3:1, and Leeds won this victory because of the outstanding performance of several young players.
On the other hand, it was obvious that Atletico Madrid had a 0-0 draw with Marseille. With this game, Marseille got his wish to occupy the third position.