2 December 2009, Blackburn Ewood Park.

There was a dead silence in the stadium.

All the Blackburn Rovers fans in the stadium almost held their breath, their eyes fixed on the goal.

In front of the goal line, Blackburn's main goalkeeper Robinson spread his legs and opened his arms, looking directly at the Chelsea striker Kalou, who gently placed the ball on the white spot of the penalty, and slowly bent down, like a dormant cheetah, ready to fly and pounce on its prey.

Kalou put the ball away, slowly stepped back, counting his steps, stepping heavily and each step until he stood still.

In the penalty area, both men watched each other, ready to deliver the most lethal blow to their opponents.

The English League Cup quarter-finals are underway, with Chelsea away at Blackburn.

Chelsea have enjoyed a double week since the start of the season, with a 3-0 win over Arsenal just three days after a stellar ovation, and a weekend away to league leaders Manchester City in the final Champions League group stage clash in midweek that will determine whether Chelsea qualify for the top spot.

In the midst of such a dense schedule, Chelsea have made the right trade-offs.

Scolari started a large number of substitutes in this Carabao Cup game to form a Chelsea second team away to Blackburn Rovers, who are determined to win promotion under Sam Allardyce's management.

The two sides played in full swing in the 90-minute game, which ended in a 2-2 draw, and after entering extra time, it was even more miserable, and finally the two sides drew 3-3 and entered the final penalty shootout hand in hand.

At this moment, the penalty shootout has reached the fifth round.

In the first four rounds of penalty shoot-outs, Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea each missed one.

Chelsea's side it was Ballack who missed the first-round penalty, but in the fourth round it was Chelsea goalkeeper Hilario who saved Kalinic's penalty to save the Blues and drag the shoot-out into the fifth round.

Robinson vs. Kalou, a penalty kick that would have decided the winner.

All eyes of the audience fell on the narrow penalty area, and in front of the coach's bench on the sidelines, Scolari and Allardyce also stared at the box with grim expressions, and they were also very worried.

Whether it's dead or alive depends on this one!

With the referee's whistle, everyone in the audience held their breath.

I saw that Kalou took a deep breath, rushed forward quickly, stepped on the carefully calculated pace just now, and when he arrived in front of the ball, he stepped on it with one foot and picked it up with the other, and his eyes were firmly fixed on the opponent's goalkeeper Robinson.

This is an extremely experienced veteran goalkeeper, who is calm and does not show his flaws in advance, but stares at Kalou.

Kalou's mind was in a hurry, and there was a deceptive feint before hitting goal, but it was actually a ball that was pushed down the middle.

Unexpectedly, Robinson was prepared, and although his body shifted his center of gravity, he reacted quickly and blocked Kalaw's shot with his legs.

At this moment, the entire Ewood Park stadium erupted like madness.

All the Blackburn fans rushed out of their seats, cheering and screaming wildly.

Allardyce even raised his arms and kept shouting, venting his inner excitement.

Five to four, Blackburn beat Chelsea on penalties!

It's not a regular Chelsea squad, but it's still exciting, isn't it?

For Blackburn, the league is a distant and unattainable goal, and only the cup is the most important thing they should pursue, so Allardyce poured all their championship beliefs into the cup.

Knocking out Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers are in the last four of the Carabao Cup!

Next to Sam Allardyce, Scolari silently turned and walked to the visitors' dugout after Kalou's penalty, leaving a helpless back for the live TV camera.

It was Chelsea's second defeat of the season, and it ended in a title loss.

…………

…………

London, Stamford Bridge.

The TV was filled with cheers from Blackburn Rovers celebrating the promotion, while cameras captured Scolari's frustrated back and the Chelsea players walking off the pitch in high spirits.

Chelsea lost the Carabao Cup!

It was quiet in the conference room, but there was no tension at all.

For the result of this game, many people present were mentally prepared, and the defeat was already in their plan.

Fatigue is Chelsea's worst enemy and Scolari spoke to the management before the game.

Chelsea were not lucky to have drawn Atletico Madrid in the group stage of this season's Champions League, and now there is still one final round left in the group stage, while the league is the first and second round of Arsenal and Manchester City, which are also highlights, and the team needs to make some trade-offs.

Whether it's Roman Abramovich or the management, the advice given is to secure the league and the Champions League.

Especially the league.

Against Manchester City this weekend, Abramovich doesn't want to lose no matter what.

As a result, Scolari had a large number of substitutions for this game, and even players such as John Terry and Frank Lampard were not played.

It should be said that it is not bad to be able to play like this with Blackburn in the away game.

Key stars such as John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba are able to recharge their batteries for the weekend.

"How's it going to be over for Manchester City?" Abramovich asked with concern.

While Chelsea were taking on Blackburn, Manchester City were also taking on Arsenal.

"The game was over, and the Gunners were also on the bench and lost 0-3. Granovskia replied.

Abramovich raised an eyebrow, mentally prepared.

Manchester City has no European competitions this season, and all their minds are focused on the league and cup competitions, so they can naturally play more powerfully.

What's more, players such as Stephen Ireland, Elano, Jonau, David Dunn, Bridge and Petrov were absolute mainstays in the Premier League last season, but this season they can only play as substitutes under Gao Han.

One can imagine how strong Manchester City's bench depth is.

"Kaka played another half hour this time and provided an assist. Granovskia said.

Abramovich frowned, a little worried.

Recently, the British media has been paying attention to Kaka's news, Gao Han has arranged for Brazilians to play for twenty or thirty minutes every time, which seems to be helping Brazilians find their rhythm in the game, and Kaka has also found his form one after another in the substitutions.

'He's not going to play in this game at the weekend. Abramovich snapped.

As long as Chelsea keep Manchester City away and the situation on the pitch is not favourable, then Kaka will not have a chance to come off the bench.

How to play Manchester City, that's a headache for the coaching staff, but the management has to think about the whole team.

"Boss, based on what Scolari has told me before, he wants to be able to bring in reinforcements in time for the winter break to ensure the team's competitiveness in the second half of the season. Granovskia said.

"Why?" Abramovich now has a headache at the mere mention of money.

From '07 to the present, he first divorced, and then suffered a subprime mortgage crisis, and his wealth shrank significantly.

What's more, the price of oil has been falling, which has cost Abramovich, who has Siberia's rich oil resources, very much.

"It's the Africa Cup of Nations in January, and the four players including Didier Drogba and Kalou are going back to the Africa Cup of Nations, so I'm afraid they'll be out for the whole of January, and as you can see in this game, Ballack is already struggling to meet the demands of the team. ”

Roman Abramovich nodded, he was no longer the first to arrive, and of course he knew the impact of the Africa Cup of Nations on the Premier League, and Chelsea suffered from it because they had the most African players.

'He hopes to bring in a striker and a midfielder during the winter break. ”

"Striker and midfielder?" Abramovich's brow furrowed even more, he was well aware of the current transfer situation.

"Is there a suitable candidate?"

"We have been in contact with Atletico Madrid, Torres and Villa are very suitable candidates, but Atletico Madrid has made it clear that they refuse to negotiate with us, and both players have liquidated damages of more than 100 million. ”

The current transfer market is a bit exaggerated.

This summer, Manchester City burned more than 400 million euros in one go, and Real Madrid still has a transfer budget of hundreds of millions of euros, which makes the value of players in the entire European football also rise.

Let's talk about Ibrahimovic's move to Barcelona.

Under the competition of Real Madrid, Barcelona not only paid a transfer fee of 70 million euros, but even took an Eto'o, and the whole transfer value exceeded 100 million, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo.

Adebayo's original transfer fee was estimated to be around 30 million euros, but Real Madrid made a move, reaching 40 million euros, and many people even said that it was very cheap and cost-effective.

And the players in Eastern Europe, who were originally relatively cheap, are now very expensive, Barcelona introduced Ziglinski, and Chelsea introduced Zhirkov, both of which exceeded 20 million, which shows that the value of players is indeed soaring.

"No one else to choose?" Abramovich asked with a calm face.

"Yes, it's just ......" Granovsky was a little distracted.

"Just what?"

"In the past six months, among the more popular players in the European transfer market, the striker is Colombian striker Falcao of La Liga China City. ”

"Falcao?" Abramovich has heard of the name, which often appears in newspapers, and is now the top scorer in La Liga, with the momentum of scoring even ahead of the likes of Messi and Ibrahimovic.

And everyone is very optimistic about this Colombian center forward, not only because he scores a lot of goals, but also because there is a Gao Han standing behind him, who is hand-picked by Gao Han to join the China City team.

Gaohan products must be high-quality products, which has become a major golden sign in European football.

At only 23 years old, he was the top scorer in La Liga last season, helping China City to be promoted to La Liga, and this season he has scored a lot of goals, firmly occupying the top scorer list in La Liga, both in terms of strength and potential, he is very optimistic. ”

Abramovich nodded and did not speak.

Granovskia looked at it and continued: "But it's not easy to poach him, the China City team just renewed his contract half a month ago, and Gao Han personally went to Madrid to talk. ”

"Gao Han personally went to Madrid to talk?" Abramovich was a little surprised.

Just for this point, it shows that Gao Han attaches great importance to him.

"Yes, in addition to Falcao, there is also midfielder Ramirez, who is also one of the midfielders who has performed quite well in La Liga this season, and has just renewed his contract under the auspices of Gao Han, so it is not easy to poach these two people, especially during the winter break. ”

Chinatown is full of treasures, making this team the focus of salivation among Europe's major teams.

It's just that due to the cold, many teams can't find a chance to start.

But Chelsea have no such concerns, and everyone knows that Abramovich is not at the right path with Alpine.

"Help me make an appointment with their agent. Abramovich snorted.

Anything that would make Gao Han unhappy but good for Chelsea, he would be happy to do.

(End of chapter)