In the locker room, Javier is giving the players his final advice.

"After playing, you must pay attention to defense. The opponent's offense is very fast. I think you have seen this on TV. It will be faster if you get on the court, so I ask you to pay attention to defense at all times. If the football is at the opponent's feet, you must run back as soon as possible!"

"In addition, the opponent's players have strong personal abilities. If they are passed, don't stand in place. Retreat to the back as soon as possible. Pay attention to making up for defense!"

"I think the opponent will make a big attack at the beginning. My request is to try to keep the first twenty minutes as much as possible, so that we can have a chance."

"If we have a chance, what we need to do is to fight back quickly. Leave this to the frontcourt players to complete. Don't insert it blindly, and don't give any loopholes in the backcourt."

Javier kept emphasizing defense.

He has emphasized this many times, but he still feels that it is not enough. Facing an opponent like Arsenal, Jewell has no confidence at all. The gap between them and Arsenal is too big. It is almost impossible to truly limit Arsenal's goals. But if all his energy is on defense, the offense will be stretched.

Many people say that modern football matches defense wins, but if there is no goal, it would be a fantasy to defeat Arsenal just by defense.

"Jerville, can I foul if I get past it?" Brekin asked suddenly raised his hand.

This reminds everyone of what Brekin had said before, he said he would hurt Henry and heard his question. Everyone laughed, but Javier's answer surprised and excited them. "Of course! It would be better if you can stop the opponent with a foul in a place that is not dangerous, but be careful not to take cards. If we are missing one person, we may not have a chance anyway."

Brekin nodded, and everyone nodded.

With Jewell's explanation, they have no pressure on fouls. What are Arsenals afraid of? Their skills are excellent, but we will fouls. If we fight head-on, no Wigan Athletics player will be afraid of injury. Their idea is very simple. We are all ordinary players, all blue-collar workers in professional football. Arsenal are all big-name stars, and they can be said to be white-collar workers and bosses. If we play together, who is afraid of whom if we want to say fouls?

Who is vicious?

Anyway, it doesn’t matter if we get injured. The impact will not be great after returning from injury, so you may not be sure!

This may also be the only advantage of Wigan Athletics.

However, this advantage also made the players feel excited. Especially their anger has been picked up by Arsenal players. When they were warming up, Gilberto Silva actually provoked them, and they looked down on them at all. They wanted to let Arsenal know that they were amazing!

As for why Gilberto provoked. So what the result of provocation is... who cares about so much!

Football is life-and-death, and there is no reason to say!

...

Finally time passed little by little. About ten minutes after the game, the players of both teams stood in the player channel and prepared to play.

The difference in the players' value gap between the two teams is too big and the status is extremely different, so there will naturally be no intersection. In fact, the main players and more than 30 substitutes of the two teams do not even know each other.

This sounds strange, but it is true that there are no national team players in Wigan Athletics, and even if there are players who have played for big clubs, such as Neal Roberts, it has nothing to do with Arsenal. Roberts is already old. When he played for big clubs, most of Arsenal players were still in the youth team.

In other words, the two teams only have conflicts and no friendship.

The result was that both sides glared at each other, especially Zhang Tiehan. His big guy stood there as if to attract hatred. Arsenal players including Gilberto Silva, Pire and others stared at him fiercely. Other Arsenal players had no disgust towards him and did not have any good feelings.

Zhang Tiehan curled his lips to deal with these malicious gazes, thinking that if he left Wigan Athletics in the future, he would never go to Arsenal... It was a paradise for young players, but it was definitely not his paradise. I'm afraid he would quarrel with these people every few days.

Of course, these people would not welcome him.

Time passed while waiting, and soon the player's playing time was coming. The two straight teams walked out of the player channel. Every time they watched football matches on TV, players in large-scale events would be welcomed by fans. That style was very strange. Now, Zhang Tiehan did not report this kind of fantasy, because those who were welcomed were real big-name stars with very strong influence. For example, when Beckham was at Manchester United, he had that influence.

And he himself, when he appeared at Old Trafford, had no welcome voice at all, and most fans didn't know who he was.

He can only enjoy some cheers at JJB Stadium.

When we came to Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Arsenal was popular. No, it should be said that it was their "Great Emperor" Henry. As soon as Henry stepped into the stadium, the radio was introducing Henry, and then the stadium recalled the cheers of tsunamis. The Arsenal players introduced by the radio were much smaller, and some were even covered in the atmosphere of the stadium.

The broadcast then began to introduce Wigan Athletics.

Goalkeeper John Philan, defender Ian Brekin, Jason De Voss, Tony Downing... The names of players were introduced one after another. The fans on the court should do what they should do. They had no response to these unfamiliar names. The only small number of Wigan Athletics fans who made a cry seemed too slim and could not hear clearly in the court.

Next, the broadcast mentioned a name-

"No. 13, Zhang Tiehan!"

"Wow!" The fans finally responded. This time it was not a cheer, but a large number of leaking boos. The boos could even compare to the cheers given to Henry just now.

All the teammates looked at him.

Zhang Tiehan was a little embarrassed and smiled, "When did I become so popular?"

"Zhang, you have always been like this!" Brekin seemed to have evolved into a poet in an instant, "Your dazzling cannot be concealed. Even if you come to Wales, you will definitely emit the light of ridicule!"

Zhang Tiehan's face turned black when he heard this.

Fortunately, the referee was about to blow the whistle and signal the game to begin. He had no intention of fighting with Brekin, and he had no intention of paying attention to the fans who "commonly ridiculed" him... Of course, the bigger reason was that there were too many fans, and he couldn't help but think about it, especially under these many camera lenses.

Finally, the referee announced the official start of the game with a whistle.

...

Just as Javier said, Arsenal bombarded the half-time at the beginning of the game. Every time they had more than seven people in the half-time at the Wigan Athletic, and football was always under Arsenal's feet.

This kind of attack is not an anxious bang, but a kick with rules and regulations. They seem to play very casually, but the penetration has to make Wigan Athletic players stay alert at all times.

Wigan Athletics occasionally has the chance to win the ball, and it is difficult to threaten it.

Just like this time.

Wigan Athletics' offense hit the right side. In this game, Wigan Athletics' right forward was Matt Jackson. The veteran has always performed well in the right side defense. He mentioned him to the right side. Javier hopes that he can use his experience and support the team in defense and offense.

This time Matt Jackson also got the ball. He changed to dribble the ball forward. He saw someone coming to defend the ball across the center line and immediately passed the ball out. He passed it to Ellington in the left front, but the Arsenal player suddenly turned around and immediately cut the ball down. It was not until this time that Matt Jackson noticed that the player who came to defend himself was the Arsenal midfielder Vieira.

After Vieira intercepted the ball, she passed the ball to Gilberto Silva with one kick.

Silva raised his head slightly, and the football immediately reached the feet of the wing forward Piret. He passed the ball with two passes, and the football arrived at the frontcourt. Matt Jackson, Ellington and Zhang Tiehan, who was about to get in, had no time to chase back. Arsenal's formation had already been unfolded. After Piret dribbled the ball to the bottom line, he stabbed the ball back, and the football reached Lungberg again.

Loneberg was in the corner of the penalty area, and he looked at the goal, seemingly hesitant.

Ellington caught up and tried to intercept the ball, but at this time, Loneberg suddenly turned out in disguise and dodged Ellington and passed the ball straight to the corner of the penalty area. Borgkamp, ​​who started the game, was on the football route. Wigan Athletics did not dare to relax at all against the Dutch "Ice Prince". Two people were chasing him. Borgkamp didn't look behind him. He raised his foot and seemed to be trying to shoot, but jumped up to make way out. This action swung past the defensive player, and the football rushed back after passing his point.

A figure keeps up!

The "Fourteen" behind him told everyone his name - Thierry Henry!

"Dangerous!" The fans who supported Wigan Athletics also felt their hearts squeezing. They watched Henry rushed straight to the penalty area and chased the football.

Then Henry tried his best to stretch his feet forward!

Fortunately, he was a little far from the football, and his toes touched the ball, but it was still not enough to change the direction of the football. As a result, the football flew directly out of the baseline. Everyone in Wigan Athletics breathed a long sigh, and the Arsenal fans at the scene sighed a pity.

This is just a microcosm of Arsenal's offense.

In just over ten minutes of the game, Arsenal has played such a threatening ball three times in a row and has not scored yet. It is all about Wigan Athletics' luck.

Under such an offense, Wigan Athletic's defense is in danger.

Wigan Athletic players are very uncomfortable with Arsenal's fast-paced offense. They want to defend well, but the formation frequently has loopholes. Even if they work hard to stabilize the formation, the frontcourt players retreat to defend, it is difficult to limit Arsenal.

Now they finally know why many people say that no team in the world can really stop Arsenal from scoring.
Chapter completed!