Chapter 37: Competing Offenses

When he got the starting list for Middlesbrough, Loew frowned, he never thought that Middlesbrough would actually send most of the main players.

With Middlesbrough facing West Ham United in the fifth round of the Premier League in three days' time, are they really not going to rotate to keep their squad fit and fit? Isn't it enough to make them feel intimidated by three races a week?

However, no matter what kind of mentality the opponent has, Notts County do not care, they have only one goal, which is to beat their opponents and qualify for the third round of the League Cup.

Loew made some adjustments to the starting lineup in today's game, without setting up a special defensive midfielder, a single back configuration, a double striker pairing, and a balanced formation of 442, but in fact, for Notts County's staffing, this is a pure attacking formation.

As soon as the game began, Notts County launched a high press, two strikers and two wings on the left and right, and four players rushed across the half at once, beating Middlesbrough with a scrambling hand.

The Middlesbrough players didn't take their opponents Notts County to heart, and perhaps some of them knew that Notts County were worth more than them overall, but Notts County were always a League Two team, so how high could the level be?

With such a contemptuous mentality, in the face of Notts County's high-pressure pressing, Middlesbrough was forced to kick a big foot without a few kicks in the backfield, otherwise it would be a situation where the ball was cut off at the back.

Notts County controlled the ball, immediately increased the tempo and increased the passing rate, although this will increase the turnover rate for those of them who have not reached the peak of tacit understanding, but once the situation is opened first, they will grasp the initiative of the game, and if they want to win the game, how can they not give it a go.

Andres Iniesta dribbled the ball down the left flank, and his masterful possession of the ball at his feet made Middlesbrough's wide defenders unable to stop his advance, and he was in excellent form to blow up Middlesbrough's right flank.

The characteristics of Hubnel and Villa's forward partners are somewhat similar, both are very good at grabbing points in front of goal, and the characteristics of the two partners are not complementary, but in this game Loew is precisely to use the characteristics of the two to threaten the opponent's goal.

In fact, this is Loew's double insurance, the midfield has an advantage, when the side can pass a good ball, maybe a striker will be targeted by the opponent, but two strikers with outstanding ability to grab points appear together in the opponent's penalty area, which will make the opponent's defense naturally porous, which is the opportunity that Notts County wants to take advantage of.

Andres Iniesta played a half-high ball from a 45-degree position on the left flank, which would have been difficult for opposition defenders to handle.

Hubnell jumped up and made a head-to-head gesture, attracting two Middlesbrough defenders, and the three tangled together.

But Hubnell made a false shot, conceded the ball, and was caught off guard, and the two defenders were unable to touch the ball, and directly leaked the ball to the back post.

The unmarked Villa easily headed the ball into the Middlesbrough goal, and the opposition goalkeeper had no time to make an effective save, so he could only symbolically extend his hand and make a gesture.

After the goal, Villa ran wildly, chased by his teammates, all the way to the stands where the Notts County fans were, took off his shirt and threw it out.

The fans in the stands rushed for their shirts, and the Notts County players ran over to celebrate the goal, and even the players on the bench joined in, celebrating for two minutes, and if it wasn't for the referee stopping the celebration under the protest of the Middlesbrough players, it would have been difficult for Notts County to celebrate for 90 minutes until the end of the game.

"I can't believe you still have a nudity fetish, maybe I can leave your phone on the gay forum, I think they must be willing to cover your body, you will be satisfied."

Lescott grabbed Villa's chest and teased, but he was greeted by a monkey stealing peach from Villa.

Of course, Villa's act of undressing and celebrating did not escape the referee's punishment, and Huluwa was yellow carded.

The Middlesbrough players seemed to be a bit of a fool and were scored less than two minutes into the game, and some of them didn't even touch the ball, which was a travesty.

As they took their positions to kick off again, the Middlesbrough players had a look of disbelief on their faces, as if this was not a game against a Second Division team, but against Manchester United, Arsenal and other giants.

After the restart, McClaren shouted from the sidelines to attack, and the Middlesbrough players woke up from a dream and began to attack with inverted foot passes.

I have to say that the old strong team is the old strong team, under the high pressure of Notts County, Middlesbrough still threatens the goal of Notts County with its excellent individual ability and overall strength, if it is not for the last kick of the in-form Boksic to hit the plane, the two teams have re-stood on the same starting line.

The Notts County players didn't panic because they knew it would be difficult to defend the opponent, and the tone of the game was not defensive anyway, as long as there were more goals than the opponent at the end.

Notts County launched an attack from the left flank after kick-off, with Andres Iniesta running down the flank, drawing on the defensive energy of the opposing three, and inevitably, Middlesbrough's central defence was empty.

Andres Iniesta played the ball to the ribs of the box, Hubnel took the ball with his back and crossed diagonally to the edge of the middle of the box, and Alonso cut in and fired a fierce volley into the goal.

There was a burst of exclamations in the stands, and the eyes of the whole court were also following the movement of the ball, and even some couldn't keep up.

When everyone thought it would go in, Middlesbrough goalkeeper Schwarzer made a world-class save and defended his team with one hand after leaping to defend the goal.

McLaren breathed a sigh of relief, it was a blessing that he didn't score two goals in a row in the opening game, and if he was two goals behind, this game would not be easy to play.

But before he could finish his breath, his eyes were still wide, and his mouth opened but he couldn't make any sound, as if he was demented.

Just when Schwarzer saved Alonso's shot, everyone thought that Notts County's attack would end in nothing, but no one expected that the ball bounced back into it, and Villa happened to appear between the balls like a ghost, easily poking the ball into the door of Middlesbrough, at this time, Schwarzer was still lying on the ground before he had time to get up.

There was silence and then another earth-shattering cheer as the visitors Notts County fans celebrated their goal.