When Chu Zhongtian walked onto the court with his teammates from the locker room, it was raining.

"Damn it! I hate rain!" A teammate around me complained.

Chu Zhongtian felt that it was nothing. When he played football at Wimbledon, he often fought in the rain. England is a rainy place, and playing football in the rain is common for English players.

It seems that the weather in this game is good for Tottenham.

Sure enough, unlike the Metz players who looked at the sky or stepped on the grass and complained hard, the Tottenham players who appeared to warm up did not take the weather seriously. They neither looked up at the sky nor looked down. They were not different from usual.

He is the same as Tottenham's players and warms up normally. Apart from some things on the court, he doesn't think there is any difference.

When I was playing football at Wimbledon, the venue in the Ninth Amateur League was much worse than that in Bailu Lane. When it rained, it became a mud pond. The venue was slippery, muddy and bumpy. And it was not like now. When it rained, you could change to a set of long shoe nails, all of which were short shoe nails. Playing football on that kind of field was like skating, and it was completely untenable. He still played for two years and didn't think anything was there.

Now that the conditions are so good, it is even more impossible for him to complain about anything.

Ribery slipped under her feet and fell down. When she got up again, she had some mud on her butt and arms. He shook off the mud on his hands and said angrily: "I will definitely change my shoe nails when I go back later!"

Chu Zhongtian had the foresight. He had changed it long before warming up. Now he was here to test the newly replaced long shoe nails to adapt to the venue.

He sprinted and ran back, he shot, he passed the ball, and felt the support foot on the ground. The result satisfies him.

Because it rains and the temperature drops, it takes more time to warm up than before.

After the warm-up, everyone's body was soaked.

"Go back quickly, wipe your water dry, and then change your clothes!" Assistant coach David Carre shouted at every player running down the court at the entrance of the passage. Like the players, he was also drenched in the rain, but he didn't care. He reminded the players not to catch a cold, but did not consider whether he would catch a cold.

The players who were urging him to trot and walked into the corridor.

Chu Zhongtian looked back at the stands where there were more and more people. In the large white field, he could see sporadic red. Those should be Metz fans, and today they only have more than 2,000 people.

It's so pitiful, I wonder if they can make any small waves in front of the crazy English fans.

Chu Zhongtian, who returned to the locker room, would receive a dry towel handed over by the coach, take off his clothes, wipe the water stains on his body, and then change into the game clothes. Then, under the supervision of the coach, he would change the short nails on his sneakers and replace them with long nails used for games in the slippery and muddy field. After doing all this, he would wait for the head coach to say something to them.

Let Fernandez know how important this game is to his team.

"If we lose, we have to say goodbye to the League Cup. So we can't lose this game. We still attack in the game, and there is no other way except attack. I don't know what tactics Spurs will use. Even if we know at this time, it doesn't make sense, because we must attack. Stick to our own style of play and don't worry about what the opponent will do. Remember, we have no other way except attack, and we have no way out."

Offense is the most common thing Metz players hear. Because offensive football is a symbol of Metz, Fernandez's Metz plays brave and beautiful football in Ligue 1. Although his performance is unstable, it is very popular. Metz players have long been familiar with this tactic and only occasionally play defensive counterattacks. In the two seasons when the team needed to relegate, conservative and negative defensive football was relatively common, and now it is as rare as a panda.

"You are already familiar with the attack, we have been playing like this. But I want to remind you to pay attention to the venue. The venue is slippery when it rains, and it is a bit difficult to cooperate with the ground." He looked at Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian knew that this was told to him because he was responsible for deciding the team's offensive method.

"So try to be concise in passing, don't dribble and control the ball too much. The field is slippery and easy to fall to the ground. The referee should not be so strict about fouls. You should pay attention to this point. While being careful of the opponent's fouls, you can also make appropriate fouls."

Everyone nodded to show that they knew.

"Ibi, use your body and header more." Fernandez said to Ibisekic.

Then he said, "Okay, there's nothing to say. Let's play, boys. Play this game as the final."

※※※The prospects in Metz's locker room are not optimistic, so it is a bit dull.

But in the locker room of the home team Tottenham Hotspur, it was as lively as a bar. With the sound of music, everyone chatted casually, and didn't take the game that was about to start.

Knowing that head coach Yoel came in, they asked them to turn the music down a little.

"In this game, we have a good match, the weather and the venue, and we are good for us. So you just need to perform at a normal level. Note that the most important thing in this game is not that we scored a few goals, but that we don't make mistakes and don't lose the ball. As long as we don't lose the ball, we win!"

In the league before this game, Tottenham also played a rain battle. Last weekend, rainfall was widespread across England. For Tottenham, it was just a warm-up preview for this game. So Joel would say that the weather is also good for them.

This is how Yoel's wishful thinking is - because he scored two away goals and tied Metz away, so he could definitely advance in this game as long as he did not concede the goal. In this case, why did he take the risk of attacking Metz? He already knew how powerful Metz's attack power was: Metz recovered two goals in less than 45 minutes in the last round. If they were given ten minutes, who would know if the result of the game would be reversed?

This game must be focused on guarding.

"Make sure we don't concede the ball, and then consider the offense. Remember, the defense line should be simple and decisive to make the ball, and don't give the opponent the chance to steal in front of our own penalty area. Based on the goal, there will definitely be a lot of room for the defense line. Seize these opportunities, hit their counterattacks, and pass directly from the backcourt to the frontcourt. If the venue is not good, we will pass the long pass and rush."

The Dutch also made a long pass and rushed, which was really "forced by the situation"...※※※When the players on both sides appeared, Chu Zhongtian was still in the front row of the team. Although Proman had already entered the roster, he had just recovered from injury. He brought him with him because there was no good substitute in the midfielder, just in case. In fact, if possible, Fernandez did not intend to let Proman appear.

In such an important game, Bobby Coni, who is slightly inferior in strength, naturally would not start, so the captain of Metz in this game was still Chu Zhongtian. When he wore the captain's armband for the first time in the first round against Leverkusen, he thought he would only be three weeks at most, but he didn't expect that he would wear it for two months... So sometimes he forgot that he was actually a temporary captain, and the captain's armband would still be returned to him after Proman's comeback.

※※※"Look! I'm out!" The fans in the stands were excited as the players from both sides walked out of the corridor.

Tottenham fans are cheering for their heroes, hoping that they can beat their opponents at home and advance smoothly. Metz fans are shouting slogans cheering for Metz.

Wimbledon Athletics fans naturally didn't help each other, they just cheered for Chu Zhongtian.

"Chu! It's Chu! He's coming out!"

"Hey, it's the captain again!"

"Looking at how handsome he looks when he takes the lead in walking out with the captain's armband wearing it!"

"Chu, come on!"

A group of people shouted, and it was very simple for fans to express their emotions. The players were a little more complicated. On the one hand, they were happy about Chu Zhongtian's current results, but on the other hand, they were a little envious and jealous. So many people who played football at that time, some of them even started higher than him, and now he is indeed the best. When he first joined the team, he was useless except for his defense and good physical strength... he couldn't shoot, pass, and dribble.

Gavin Borger did not make an appointment with his former teammates, so he stood alone in another stand. Seeing Chu Zhongtian holding his head up and taking the team to the stadium, he was also one of the people he envied.

In terms of technology, he was far inferior to himself and Russell, but why was he the most successful person now? Why would Russell rather entrusted his dream of professional football to someone who had had conflicts with him than to give himself a close friend who had played with him since childhood? Look at it now, Russell has a good vision.

Why? Actually, when he accidentally saw Chu Zhongtian running to Kings Ranch on the bus, there was an answer to this question, right?

If a person who works so hard does not succeed, it will be unreasonable.

※※※ Chu Zhongtian didn't know that his friends at Wimbledon had come to see him play football, and he didn't know how his former teammates felt when he saw him like this. As before, he lined up for the media to take photos, and then came to exchange team flags with Tottenham captain Ridley King, shaking hands, guessing coins and picking sides.

Tottenham's stadium level is still good, and there is no situation where they are stepped into a mud pond after half an hour of warm-up. Or maybe it is because Tottenham thinks that they are not a problem in advance, so they did not stumbling on the venue conditions, so they chose any side.

Chu Zhongtian deliberately lost the right to pick the side and then got the right to kick the ball.

The team needs to score goals on the away game and has the right to possess the ball from the beginning of the game. Obviously, it is more important than which side to attack first.

After picking the side, both sides shook hands with the referee, took a photo, and then returned to their respective teams.

"We kick off the ball." Chu Zhongtian said to his teammates who were gathering together. "Pay attention to the power of passing the ball, minimize mistakes, and if you lose the ball, you will fight back. Be more active, guys!"

Everyone agreed and dispersed and returned to their respective positions.

In the drizzle, the referee blew the whistle to the beginning of the game. While the whistle sounded, Menez passed the football to Ibissevic, and Ibissevic passed it backwards to Chu Zhongtian. The game began!

※※※ Chu Zhongtian stood outside the middle circle. In order to ensure that the football was passed smoothly, Ibisekic had a relatively strong pass. As a result, he forgot that the field was wet and the football rolled on the turf faster than usual, and the ball was passed to Chu Zhongtian faster and earlier than usual. He stretched out his foot to stop the ball, but the football bounced on the inside of his foot because of the excessive force.

Chu Zhongtian had to lift his foot and unload the football again.

As soon as he received the ball, he heard booing from the stands.

Tottenham fans booed Chu Zhongtian because Chu Zhongtian had a conflict with Tottenham captain Ridley King when the two sides met in the first round, which caused the players of the two teams to almost punch each other. At that time, Tottenham had few fans and no storms. Now when they returned to the White Hart Lane Stadium, it was different.

Tottenham fans have already agreed that as long as Metz's No. 8 gets the ball, they will boo! They will keep booing! They will boo so hard that they dare not take the ball!

But how could they know that Chu Zhongtian firmly believed that a player who was never hated or hated by his opponents was definitely not a creed for good players, so the booing of Tottenham fans was not an insult to him, but a praise - they booed me because they were afraid of me, and they were afraid of me because I performed well, which posed a threat to them. Since they performed well, then keep playing like this!

Because the stop was not done well, he made another move, which delayed some time. So when he stopped the ball and wanted to see what was going on in front of him, the opponent's player was almost in front of him.

Chu Zhongtian turned around and passed the football back.

When he passed the ball, he considered the situation of the field, so he did not use much force. He was not afraid of being cut off by the opponent, because the ball was very fast and it was not that easy to intercept the ball. He considered more about how to pass the ball and not let his teammates get it uncomfortable. If the central defender had to take his own ball, he had to make two or three moves to make the football good, then what mistakes would be made under the opponent's press. If the central defender rushed back to the goalkeeper and the opponent continued to press, and the goalkeeper Winbi stopped the ball but did not stop, wouldn't he stop directly at the feet of the opponent's player? This would be a tragedy.

Sure enough, central defender Rodriguez caught the ball steadily and passed the ball to full-back Ibrahimovic Cabo who was about to step forward on the side.

After Cabo caught the ball, he tried to dribble, but the field was wet and slipped, which made him lose balance. As a result, the ball was not taken out, and he slipped. Robbie Keane originally just came up to grab it symbolically, and he didn't think about anything. But he didn't expect that Metz's player actually fell down by himself. How could he not eat the fat meat sent to his mouth?

He immediately hooked the football that had lost control and drove the ball toward Metz's penalty area.

Seeing that the team had such a good opportunity just as the game started, huge cheers rang out from the stands of the White Hart Lane Stadium.

"Robbie! Rush!"

Metz fans really want to thank Chu Zhongtian for his habit of playing football at this time. When he saw the football being passed to Kabo's feet, he ran over and prepared to respond.

Unexpectedly, he didn't receive the ball, but saw the opponent's counterattack in the frontcourt, so he rushed up without hesitation.

Robbie Keane originally planned to cut in the diagonally and penetrate directly into Metz's penalty area.

But after just taking two steps, before the speed was even increased, I saw Chu Zhongtian blocking the inside. Although he couldn't force a breakthrough,... Why should he rush to hand over the ball with such a good opportunity?

After one round of the game, Robbie Keen had a rough understanding of Chu Zhongtian's defensive ability, at least not the kind of opponent he could break through without any effort.

So he chose to control the football, and anyway, he easily got the ball possession, which was already very beneficial to the team.

Thinking of this, Robbie Keane made a fake move to force a breakthrough inward, then stopped suddenly and turned around, drove the football back, waiting for his teammates to press up.

Chu Zhongtian knew what he was going to do, so he forced Robbie Keen while waving his hand to point at the sideline behind him, allowing Kabo, who was returning to defend, to return to the position, instead of running up to release Keen with him. He didn't need two people to deal with Robbie Keen, but pay attention to his possible pass.

Cabo hesitated for a moment. It was this hesitation that Keane passed the ball through the gap between the two people, just to Lennon who was plugging in from the wing highway.

Chu Zhongtian had no choice but to chase Lennon, and at the same time, he waved to ask Kabo to follow Keane to retreat to the inside. This time, Kabo did not hesitate and followed him firmly.

Chu Zhongtian faced Lennon alone. He glanced at the backcourt from the corner of his eyes. He noticed that even in such a situation, Tottenham's full-back did not come up to participate in the offense. What does this mean? It shows that Tottenham's tactics in this game should tend to be conservative.

Do they really think they can defend 0:0 at home and advance?

Anyway, Lennon, you plan to dribble through me without anyone cooperating?

In Chu Zhongtian's opinion, Lennon was useless except for his fast speed.

As long as you get stuck, no matter how fast you are, it is useless in this small space. What's more, this silly boy is still stopping the ball now... For a speed player, he will have a chance only by letting the football move. Once the football stops, his biggest advantage will be gone.

Lennon made a fake move, and Chu Zhongtian stood inside him, facing him without being moved. Then Lennon wades the ball out, Chu Zhongtian took a big step and followed closely.

Lennon stopped again and dunked the ball in the opposite direction, intending to break through.
To be continued...