Chapter 411 "Peaceful Breakup"

The second half of the game begins!
"We can see that in front of Everton's bench, No. 11 Mirallas and No. 9 Kone are already warming up, and Koeman already has the idea of ​​making substitutions."

"Yes, that's right. After all, they are now two goals behind. Everton needs to take the initiative to seek changes. If they can't play with rhythm and feeling at the beginning of the second half, then I think they have basically no hope in this game. After all, we also know that Chelsea's overall strength is stronger than Everton's."

There were moves on the Everton bench, and there were moves on the Chelsea bench as well. However, unlike Mirallas and Kone, Cahill and Remy's warm-up was like playing, and they probably weren't in a hurry to appear on the field.

"Chelsea!"

“xuuuu——!!!”

"Chelsea!"

“xuuu——!!”

A very funny scene happened in the stands. The fans of the visiting team shouted the name of their home team, but were booed by the fans of the home team the next second.

Everton fans never think that their team is weaker than Chelsea, especially with Lukaku's superb performance this season and a top striker in the team. This is why Everton can still rank eighth so far this season!
Snapped!
Davis made a long pass to the wing, and the forward full-back Baines stopped the ball almost easily facing Pogba who was pressing towards him.

When Pogba is strong in defense, he is really strong. He can make the opposing offensive players confused by all kinds of physical confrontations, but when he is weak in defense, he is basically like no one. Because sometimes the distance is too far, Pogba will directly give up the offensive player he is defending.

Just like now, Baines caught the ball without confronting Pogba and then rushed directly to the bottom line.

"Baines' speed is pretty good, Ake is following him. For Ake, it is relatively easy to keep up with Baines."

"Baines, use your body to protect the ball, cut inside and pass it to the middle. Ake is very fierce and doesn't want to give Baines a chance!"

"Down the bottom...reverse triangle pass, Barkley! Barkley has the ball now, let's see what he will do"

"Lukaku has just arrived in the penalty area and is ready. It would be a good decision to give the ball to Lukaku at this time, because his physical confrontation ability is stronger than that of Chelsea's two central defenders. Should Barkley choose to trust Lukaku?"

"do it yourself!"

The CCTV commentator thought that Lukaku was tall and this was a good passing opportunity, but Barkley on the field only noticed Zouma and Luiz next to Lukaku. In a 1-on-2 situation, it is better not to pass the ball.

Hazard likes to play by walking towards the penalty area from the middle, but Baines did not do it exactly like Hazard. Instead, after advancing and pressuring Chelsea's defense, he suddenly passed the ball to Guy on the right, and then Guy walked towards the penalty area from the middle.

He is not fast, but he has a very good sense of rhythm. Courtois quickly signaled his teammates to press forward.

The defense has been compressed to the back end, and we must not retreat any further!
The right side of the place where Guy rushed up happened to be where Zuma was, so the two naturally started a one-on-one fight. Zuma put his hands behind his back, moved his feet little by little, and retreated following Guy's footsteps.

Ok?
Mourinho frowned outside the field. He didn't know why, but he always felt nervous when he saw Zouma fighting with others in the penalty area.

In the camera, Guy faced the tall Zouma and kept using his advantage in acceleration to make fake moves. Just when Zouma thought he was going to pass the ball to Barkley or Lukaku on the side, Guy suddenly accelerated and rushed to Zouma's left.

!

Zuma was quick-witted and stepped in front of Guy, but he fell into Guy's trap. When he accelerated just now, Guy put his left foot next to Zuma. As long as Zuma stretched out his foot, Zuma's calf would trip Guy.

“Fuck damn!”

Mourinho threw a punch.

Damn it, I knew Zuma was not smart!
"Fell to the ground! Everton's attacking player fell to the ground. This seems to be a foul by Zouma?"

"We need to see what the referee does, because from the angle we saw just now we can't confirm whether this ball was a foul by Zouma..."

In the live broadcast, referee Jonathan Moss, who came hurriedly, raised his right hand and pointed to the position twelve yards away from the goal.

Penalty kick!

"wowwww!!!"

"Wowoww!!! Beep beep beep beep!!! Beep beep beep!!!"

As soon as the penalty was awarded, the stands in the stadium immediately rioted, with all kinds of noises.

"..."

Captain Azpilicueta was arguing with the referee on the field, and Zouma covered his mouth with both hands, a little bit unable to believe the mistake he had just made.

He sent some!
Giving away some more!
"It's okay, don't be nervous"

Luiz patted Zouma on the shoulder, and the Chelsea players who came back to defend the penalty also came over to comfort the Frenchman.

His teammates support Zouma very much, but Zouma feels guilty!
"Lukaku! Lukaku!"

"Gogogo, Chelsea out!"

There was a loud cheer at the scene. Ake picked up the ball from the ground and threw it casually. Davis ran over and pushed Ake, then hit the ball from the ground with his right foot and passed it to Lukaku.

Everton gave the penalty to Lukaku, who has the best penalty taker ability in the team.

There was some conflict between Ake and Davis, and the referee was dealing with the conflict between the two guys. Lukaku, who was responsible for the penalty kick, stood in his position with his hands on his hips.

Beep!
The referee blew the whistle lightly. Lukaku was stunned for a moment. He always felt that the whistle was a little different from the penalty whistle. So he looked back and found that Mossen did not let him take the penalty, but instead showed a yellow card to the player who had a conflict.

Yellow Card: Davies
Yellow Card: Akr
Realizing that it had nothing to do with him, Lukaku turned his head back. At this time, Hazard, who was standing outside the arc, kept swinging his arms to the left.

Courtois pretended not to see anything, but in fact his eyes lit up.

understood!

"Beep——!"

The penalty whistle sounded and Lukaku took small steps in the penalty area.

Super super small steps, like quickly stepping on the spot, approaching the position of the ball little by little.

boom!
Sure enough, Lukaku hit the ball to the left and Courtois made a save to the right.

It was a sure goal, but Courtois failed to save the ball.

Because Lukaku's penalty hit the goal post!

"Screw you!"

Ake rushed forward and kicked the ball to the front court, clearing the ball successfully. Ake is not the kind of person who would hold back, and after clearing the ball, he went straight to Davis who had just had a conflict with him. If Jiang Yuan and Fabregas had not pulled away quickly, the referee might have found trouble with Ake.

The camera turned to Lukaku who missed a penalty. The Belgian's bald head and black face were covered with sweat, which puddled onto the ground.

Was it because he ran too hard in the second half? In fact, Lukaku was already sweating profusely when the second half kicked off.

This guy's ability to regulate body temperature is really exaggerated.

[Fuck, this didn’t even go in. Lukaku likes to hit the post so much. I remember he also hit the post in the first half]

[If Lukaku could stand up, Everton might have tied with Chelsea now. I can only say it’s a pity]

[That's awesome, but I have a question. If Lukaku wasn't good enough, how could Everton have such a high league ranking this season? Don't look down on Lukaku, he just wasn't good enough in this game.]

[Just like Ibrahimovic, he can’t score against a strong team, right? Haha! ]

[If Lukaku can't score against a strong team, then Chelsea is not invincible in today's game. The opponent has a debuff, and no one else can shoot at Everton except Lukaku.]

【Isn’t Barkley’s long shot good? 】

[What about long shots? Didn’t you see Kanter run over as soon as Barkley got the ball? You still want a long shot? I’ll just block it.]

Just as the fans of Dongqiudi commented, Everton only has two attacking points today: Lukaku and Barkley.

Lukaku was not in shooting condition and couldn't even score a penalty.

As for Barkley, he was targeted by Kanter in the first half and now he started to play negatively.

As soon as I got the ball, a little cutie stuck to my face to prevent me from making any moves.

What a joke!

"Beep!"

At the end of the game, Chelsea held on to their 2-goal lead and Everton failed to score any goals.

The only problem Chelsea had in this game was Zouma. It's not that Zouma played badly today, but because of the penalty he conceded at the beginning of the second half, the Frenchman is still frustrated and hasn't gotten over it.

"It's ok, it's ok!"

Terry put his arm around Zouma's shoulders. The guy's shoulders were a bit broad, so it was a bit difficult to hold him. "We won, and we won 2:0. You shouldn't have such an expression, you know? It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter! The result is good!"

“I almost let the team lose the ball”

Zouma is really feeling uncomfortable now. Although Chelsea was leading by 2 goals at that time, if they could score the penalty and find their form, with Everton's strength, they would have a high chance of scoring subsequent goals.

“It doesn’t matter anymore”

In the player tunnel, Jiang Yuan put his hand on Zouma's head: "Remember what you said before the game started, the opponent will not score, we only need to score one to get three points. Now the game is over, isn't that the fact?"

"yep"

Hazard walked over unsteadily, opened the door to the locker room, and looked back at Zouma before walking in: "And we have one more goal, why are you so upset?"

It is very important for a player to maintain a good relationship with teammates. As soon as Zouma made a mistake, so many people came up to comfort him. Even after Zouma gave away a penalty, Terry, who was sitting on the bench, said to Mourinho, "For a defender, this is a difficult situation to deal with. If it were me, I might have to give a penalty to the opponent." It's just that Zouma himself was not aware of this.

However, even with Terry helping to speak on the side, Mourinho still found Zouma in the locker room after the press conference: "Kurt..."

“The situation was very complicated”

Terry, who was sitting next to him, shouted and gave Mourinho a look, indicating that the Portuguese should not speak too excitedly.

ok……

Mourinho took a deep breath. In fact, he had no intention of saying anything bad about Zouma.

"I know, I know the situation was difficult for you defenders to handle, but you should also know that giving away a penalty in the penalty area is a very serious problem."

“You need to be very careful about this.”

Mourinho pointed at Zouma and said: "In the next training, including the remaining games of this season, I will emphasize the defense of the penalty area with you before the game."

Mourinho is also interested in training Zouma. If the team strengthens the central defender position in the summer window, coupled with Luiz and Alonso already in the team, Zouma may lose his main position.

If Zouma wants to secure his position as the main central defender, he must improve himself, or at least change this habit of giving away penalties.

The fact is, when a central defender is very likely to give the opponent a penalty, the head coach will not use him.

"so……"

Mourinho walked over, put his hand on Zouma's shoulder, and squeezed the Frenchman's shoulder muscles: "You can become even more powerful, it depends on how much you are willing to pay"

"Then can I become a billionaire like Jiang?"

Mourinho's mouth twitched, and he pretended to be stupid: "This, this... well, if it's 100 million RMB, I think it's more than enough for your ability."

……

Premier League Table:

1. The Spur, 74 points

2. Liverpool, 70 points

3. Man City, 64 points

4. Chelsea, 62 points

5. Aresenal, 54 points

6. Man United, 51 points

After taking 3 points from Everton, Chelsea's league ranking remains unchanged at fourth. The good news is that it has narrowed the gap with third-placed Manchester City and also widened the gap with fifth-placed Arsenal.

The league is now in its 35th round. Based on the current situation in the standings, Chelsea management has given the Blues a new goal, which is to squeeze out Manchester City and become third in the standings.

Mourinho and Brown analyzed Manchester City's upcoming schedule and concluded that if Chelsea really wanted to rush to third place, they had to get at least 6 or even 7 points in the last three games.

Fortunately, Chelsea's next opponents, Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, and Sunderland, are not particularly strong teams, so it will not be difficult for the Blues to get two wins from these three teams.

The league rankings have almost stabilized, and Chelsea's next focus will be the FA Cup final.

It’s just that right now Twitter and Youtube are all about discussing this season’s Champions League scorer list.

UEFA Championship TOP Scorer List:

1. Jiang, 13 goals - Chelsea (OUT) 2. C. Ronaldo, 12 goals - Real Madrid
3. L.Messi, 10 goals-Barcelona (OUT)

4. R. Lewandowski, 9 goals-Bayern München (OUT)

5. E.Cavani, 8 goals-Paris Saint-Germain (OUT)

Of the top five scorers after the quarter-finals, all except Cristiano Ronaldo have been eliminated. The one closest to the top five is Griezmann from Atletico Madrid, who has 1 goals.

According to the speculation of Chelsea's technical team, although they did not win the league championship this season, they are guaranteed to win 2 silver boots (League + Champions League), so this season is not a very bad season.

In the office on the second floor of Cobham Base, Mourinho had a private chat with Jiang Yuan after the training: "Believe me, and believe in yourself, our league ranking will continue to rise, and you can also win the league golden boot this season."

"Kane is very strong"

Jiang Yuan looked into Mourinho's eyes. Just as he said, Harry Kane, the English center forward, has an incredible ability to score goals.

In a meeting before playing against Everton, Mourinho said that Chelsea and Tottenham would find ways to help their top scorers compete for the Golden Boot, and Chelsea and Tottenham did so.

In yesterday's game, Jiang Yuan scored 2 goals and Kane scored 3. Before the 35th round, the gap between them was 2 goals, but after the 35th round, the gap between Jiang Yuan and Kane was narrowed to 1 goal.

The fact is, when two teams are trying to help a particular player score more goals, the team with the better overall strength will often get more opportunities.

Jiang Yuan’s firing rights at Chelsea are extremely exaggerated; as long as he is within the shooting range he can shoot directly.

But you have to know that Harry Kane’s firing rights at Tottenham are almost unlimited!

"You seem to be lacking confidence?"

Jiang Yuan's answer surprised Mourinho: "I don't think you would say such a thing. You were very confident when you first came to Chelsea."

"Because if I wasn't confident at that time, you wouldn't even give me a chance to play," Jiang Yuan pouted.

"Hahahaha!"

Mourinho showed a long-lost smile: "Come on, if you didn't say it, I almost forgot it!"

I remember that Mourinho brought Jiang Yuan from Porto in order to find a suitable substitute for William.

As a result, this guy became the core of the team in just half a season, and even made Mourinho make the ridiculous decision to transform Hazard.

"Time files, that's what you say a lot"

Jiang Yuan pursed his lips with a complicated expression. On the one hand, he felt the pressure of competing with Kane for the Golden Boot, and on the other hand, he also felt sorry for the team's performance this season. Mourinho could also understand Jiang Yuan's emotions.

“I don’t think you need to be depressed.”

Mourinho took out a piece of gum from the inside pocket of his shirt, put it in his mouth and chewed it, then prepared to give Jiang Yuan a piece. However, when he reached out his hand for the second time, he found that there was no other gum in his pocket: "Sorry, um... Actually, I think that if we don't compare it with last season, our results are still pretty good. You don't need to be frustrated about it, and the same goes for other players. In the last season, I kept the team's Champions League qualification, and I think that's enough."

"I know……"

"Wait, sorry, I was wondering what you mean by 'final season'?"

Jiang Yuan, who heard something wrong, looked up suddenly, his brows tightly furrowed.

oh...

Realizing that he had let the cat out of the bag, Mourinho looked a little flustered.

"It's possible, I'm saying it's possible, I'll leave after this season"

Mourinho originally planned to say that it was a slip of the tongue, but after thinking carefully, he felt that there was no need for him to hide it from Jiang Yuan.

In any case, within two weeks, he will take the initiative to tell some core players of Chelsea about this matter.

Although the matter has not been concluded yet, Mourinho himself is a rather stubborn person. Since he has made up his mind to leave, he will definitely find a way to make Abramovich agree to let him leave.

"When you say leave, do you mean leave Chelsea? Why do you want to leave Chelsea? Why?"

Jiang Yuan leaned forward, feeling confused about Mourinho's behavior. The word "why" was written on his face.

“I can’t tell you the specific reason now.”

Mourinho avoided Jiang Yuan's question: "You only need to know that we still have 4 games this season, 3 league games and 1 FA Cup. We have to work together to win these 4 games. It's enough for you to know this."

"But I want to know why you left. Is it because of Paul?"

"No, Paul is not the whole reason. I can't explain all the reasons to you in a short time. Jiang, focus on the current game and don't think too much about the rest."

It was time to get off work long ago. Mourinho stood up from his chair, patted Jiang Yuan on the shoulder, and then walked out the door.

When Mourinho was about to walk out of the office door, he suddenly stopped and turned to look at Jiang Yuan: "Maybe my departure is a good thing for Chelsea. Well... there is no rush. You will understand what I said later. I am not lying. I never lie."

Walking out of Mourinho's office, we came to the cafeteria of Cobham base. Today's training ended late, so many people stayed in the cafeteria to eat, including Fabregas and Terry, who had never eaten dinner at the base for many years.

Seeing Jiang Yuan walking into the cafeteria with a confused look on his face, Terry, who had just picked up his plate and was about to go to his seat, changed direction and walked towards Jiang Yuan: "Wow, Jiang, you didn't get scolded by Jose, did you?"

"What? No no no"

Jiang Yuan shook his head, picked up the buttered bread on Terry's plate, dipped it in the salad and stuffed it directly into his mouth.

"Shit, you took my bread away, what am I going to eat later?"

"Please take another one."

Jiang Yuan said indifferently. After eating the soft bread, he relaxed from his previous tense expression.

"Are you sure you didn't get scolded?"

Terry looked Jiang Yuan up and down, trying to find signs of Mourinho's lecture on him, but Jiang Yuan looked relaxed at the moment, so Terry could only nod half-believingly.

However...if you think about it carefully, there should be no need for Mourinho to pull Jiang Yuan out and scold him alone. He probably talked about something about the Golden Boot.

“Is this salty or sweet?”

"Sweet? Forget it."

Jiang Yuan walked around the windows of the cafeteria with his plate. He had to eat everything on the menu, but Rozovic also gave each player the opportunity to choose their own snacks. It didn't matter what Jiang Yuan ate. He was in a very complicated mood.

He wanted to talk to Terry and Hazard about Mourinho's departure, but he didn't know whether Mourinho had told anyone else that he was leaving.

Because of too many uncertain factors, Jiang Yuan could only keep the content of his conversation with Mourinho in his heart.

……

Chelsea reporter Kieran Gillb: William, who had just recovered from injury, participated in the second team's competition on the afternoon of May 5, and scored 4 goal and 1 assists in the game. According to observation, William's condition is still a little behind his peak, but compared with when he just participated in the team training a week ago, he has improved a lot.

Pochettino was interviewed by reporters: Harry (Kane) is the top scorer in their team, and the team will provide support for Kane in the battle for the Golden Boot with Jiang this season.

The front page headline of "China Football News" - the top leaders of the Chinese Football Association have met with Lippi, who is unemployed at home. Lippi is open to coaching the Chinese men's football team and he very much hopes to cooperate with Jiang Yuan.

According to reporters, if Lippi successfully takes office, he will receive an annual salary of nearly 2000 million euros (about 1.54 million yuan), which will make the Italian the highest-paid football coach in the world.

Hot discussion among football experts: Can Lippi, who has taken a three-year break, lead the Chinese men's football team to the World Cup in Russia?

[The Football Association has spent a lot of money this time, offering an annual salary of 2000 million euros. Even if Xiao Jiang played for Chelsea, he wouldn't get this much, right?]

[I remember that Xiao Jiang's weekly salary is 26 pounds, which is just over 1000 million per year. However, Chelsea will definitely give Jiang Yuan and Hazard a salary increase after the end of this season, but Chelsea's salary itself is not particularly high, so it will be difficult for Xiao Jiang to surpass Lippi]

[Damn, finally a foreign coach was replaced. I have said it many times that the level of domestic coaches is completely unable to support the national football team to play in world-class competitions such as the Asian qualifiers. Foreign coaches are the only answer. If the head coach was replaced earlier, the national football team might have 1 or 2 more points now.]

[Awesome, Li Yi can get 12 points. If they change the coach, won't the Chinese national football team be in the top two of Group A? They will qualify for the World Cup directly! ]

[Yes, yes, next year is indeed the most promising year for the Chinese national football team. If Lippi can really lead the Chinese national football team to the World Cup, I feel that the 2000 million euros are worth it.]

[The question is how Lippi will use Jiang Yuan. Dong Lu said before that Jiang Yuan should play as a center forward, but there is no one in the national football team who can pass the ball to Jiang Yuan. How about planning for Pogba and Kante?]

[Don't fantasize anymore. Group A includes Iran and South Korea. China's national football team is two points behind South Korea right now. It's still a long way to go before we advance. I guess we'll have to play in the play-offs with Group B.]

[There are only 3 games left. It is still a bit difficult to fall behind by 2 points. Qatar and Uzbekistan are not easy to play. The Chinese national football team should have brought Lippi here earlier! ]

Media reports said that the Chinese national football team may have to pay nearly 2000 million euros in salary for Lippi, but the fans had no objections.

This is not to say that fans think that an annual salary of 2000 million euros is not high, but that Li Yi has just been in prison for a short time. The current Chinese national football team needs a head coach who can be up to par, and Lippi is the best choice.

The eighth round of the Asian qualifiers will begin in a little over a month. Fans urged the Chinese Football Association on Weibo to sign a contract with Lippi as soon as possible so that Lippi can get familiar with the players and make lineup arrangements.

But problems soon arose. The Football Association was willing to pay and Lippi was willing to make the money, but for some reason the contract could not be signed.

There are external forces preventing the Football Association from completing this deal.

But no one knows where this external force comes from.

……

At 5 am on May 9th, Beijing time, Chelsea will face Middlesbrough at home.

In the last round of the league, Middlesbrough drew with Manchester City with a score of 2:2, giving Chelsea a chance to overtake in the standings. I thought it would be an easy game today, but Chelsea, like Manchester City, also drew 2:2 against Middlesbrough.

Is Middlesbrough here to repay a favour?

No, they specialize in hunting the top four teams in the league. The two blue brothers, Manchester City and Chelsea, are all Middlesbrough's prey!

We agreed to get at least 3 points in the last 6 games, but we ended up drawing with the opponent in the first game.

On May 5th in London, Chelsea players took a bus to The Hawthorns, where they played their 12th league match against West Bromwich Albion.

This is Chelsea's penultimate game of the Premier League this season.

"The second half of the game started. In the first half, Jiang Yuan's penalty was saved by Ben Foster and both sides ended in a goalless draw."

"Chelsea are definitely not satisfied with this score. We can also see that Mourinho made Chelsea's first substitution adjustment just after the second half of the game started, with Moses replacing Fabregas!"

It was regrettable that Jiang Yuan missed a penalty in the first half, but after 15 minutes of midfield adjustment, Chelsea immediately regained their form. In the 64th minute, Kante scored a wonderful world wave from the outside to help Chelsea take the lead.

Jiang Yuan was certainly not idle either. Just five minutes after Kante scored a world-class goal, Jiang Yuan cut into the left penalty area and created a penalty.

Facing the second penalty kick of the game, Jiang Yuan shot without hesitation and successfully widened the score difference to 2 goals.

"Grass!"

Jiang Yuan spat out a mouthful of saliva. His heart almost stopped beating when he missed a penalty in the first half. Fortunately, the West Bromwich defender was sleepwalking in the second half, giving him a chance to prove himself again.

"I told you, I told you would score a goal!"

Mourinho hugged Jiang Yuan tightly as he ran to the bench, and kept yelling.

Jiang Yuan has currently scored 29 goals in the league, and he is only one goal away from reaching the 30-goal mark!

Because he wanted to find opportunities to score more goals, Mourinho did not replace Jiang Yuan early to rest, and also left Hazard on the field.

In the end, Jiang Yuan lived up to expectations. He took Moses' cross from the right and shot the ball into West Brom's goal.

At the same time as the score was 3:0, Jiang Yuan's league goal tally exceeded 30 goals.

……

Post-match interview.

"There is still one league game left, and the gap between you and Kane has widened to 1 goals. Can we assume that you have already secured the Premier League Golden Boot this season?"

"No, of course not."

Jiang Yuan smiled and shook his head: "Tottenham has played one less game than us, and now they are leading by 2 goals. When Tottenham finishes this round of games, maybe my lead will not be that big."

"I still think you can win the Golden Boot this season"

The reporter's words made everyone in the press conference room laugh at the same time.

At the end of the season, the hot topics in the five major leagues are not only the league champions but also the Golden Boots of each league. Now the top scorers in each major league are also receiving a lot of media attention.

Apart from the La Liga where Messi holds a huge lead, the competition for the Golden Boot in other leagues is quite intense. People have had large-scale discussions on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms regarding the Golden Boot in the other four major leagues.

However, at this time, a piece of explosive news from the Mirror directly topped the hot search list in the football section.

The front page of the Mirror: Chelsea is looking for a new coach, and the team generally believes that Mourinho will not stay after the end of this season. The Portuguese had already revealed his upcoming departure to the players three days ago.

According to reporters, this is most likely a "peaceful breakup" between Mourinho and the club.

……

(End of this chapter)