Chapter 21: Giggs Strikes Might
The last game of the 98-99 Premier League is, to be exact, the last game of the season, not the Premier League.
Many Manchester United fans ridiculed Ling Feng with the slogan "traitor", and in their opinion, Ling Feng was a traitor to Manchester United, no matter how much he contributed to Manchester United in this year's league.
Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson are also old rivals, and when put together, such a pair of individual managers is like pouring water into boiling oil.
The press conference before the game became a gladiatorial arena for the two to fight each other.
Arsene Wenger said: "Ling Feng is a great player, his contribution this season is obvious to all, but unfortunately, if he hadn't met a low-level manager, I expect Ling Feng would have performed even better this season." ”
Ferguson hit back unflinchingly: "Manchester United's achievements this season are the joint efforts of all the players, Manchester United is definitely not a team that scores goals alone. ”
In the middle of this season, Bergkamp has been out for a period of time due to injury, and the attacking beam has fallen on Anelka, who has scored a total of 25 goals in the season, and is only behind Ling Feng in the Premier League's scorer list, and Henry, who has the second highest number of goals in Arsenal, has only scored ten goals, more than half behind Anelka - it has to be said that the current Henry is indeed inferior to his compatriot Anelka in terms of strength, which is an indisputable fact.
So what Ferguson meant by this meant that Wenger relied on an Anelka, but he didn't think that the top scorer of Manchester United was also Ling Feng, and although Cantona scored a lot of goals, he was just over half of Ling Feng's 32 goals.
Looking at the playful smile on the face of Wenger's old fox, Ferguson also realized his impulsive words, slapped the table angrily and left, and the pre-match press conference was unhappily dispersed.
Before the start of the game, everyone thought that the handshake between the players would be tense, but to their surprise, Ling Feng and the players of the Manchester United team hugged very friendly, which almost made Ferguson, who was sitting in the coach's seat, crooked his nose angrily.
"Kick well," Cantona laughed, "for a perfect game." ”
The other Manchester United players also greeted Ling Feng with a smile, which surprised many people - they originally thought that in the face of Ling Feng, a "traitor", the eyes of the Manchester United players should be as red as their jerseys.
Other Arsenal players also shook hands with Manchester United players without smiling, the two teams are historical rivals in the Premier League, naturally there will not be any too deep friendship - Ling Feng couldn't help but think happily, fortunately Vieira was abducted to Fiorentina, otherwise he and Keane would be another pair of enemies.
When Giggs and Bergkamp shook hands, Ling Feng suddenly had a strange thought, these two people really felt similar to others!
That's right, he is also a superstar who is in the spotlight and a low-key man.
On the court, both of them belong to the kind of players who are highly skilled, but not flashy, practical, is what all fans say about these two.
Superb skills, terrible breakthroughs, wide vision, outstanding awareness, and more importantly, neither of them is the kind of player who doesn't pass the ball after getting the ball, but a few people don't pass the ball, nor is he like Ling Feng, who raises his foot to shoot whenever he has the opportunity - of course, Ling Feng's shit luck has always been very good, and his average unbelievable shooting goal rate is still quite high.
Bergkamp and Ryan Giggs are the kind of people who will never hesitate to pass once their teammates have a better opportunity than themselves.
In life, the two are not as scandalous as Ronaldo and Beckham, they are very low-key in their behavior as they are on the pitch.
"King of the Left Side" Ryan Giggs, "Ice Prince" Bergkamp!
But Bergkamp is happier than Giggs is that he has the chance to play in the World Cup and has been able to make his name at the World Cup – the goal he scored against Argentina a year ago is still being sung by the fans today.
Basten "once" commented: "If Ryan Giggs is worth 20 million pounds, then Bergkamp is worth 100 million pounds. ”
According to Ling Feng's opinion, Basten, the old bastard, is purely looking for a fight on his own, and he won't boast about his family like this!
Both of them are world-class stars, of course, the value of a striker is more expensive than a midfielder, but it is not so expensive!
It's worth five times!
When is Ryan Giggs a rookie?
Bergkamp himself is very modest in this evaluation, because he also knows that compared with Giggs, at most, he can only say that he is slightly stronger than Giggs, just slightly, and that is because Bergkamp is better than Giggs in a flash of inspiration - of course, this is also determined by the factors of the position of the two, as the left wing of the midfield, Giggs just wants to play a Bergkamp like receiving a long pass and hitting the goal directly - he wants to, but he doesn't have that opportunity!
The race has finally begun.
And the initiators of the first round of attacks of the two teams are the two people mentioned above.
In the opening five minutes, Ryan Giggs took the lead, after a series of breakthroughs on the left flank, the ball landed very well, Adams and Campbell could not touch the ball, Cantona followed up with a header, but the ball was decorated by England international David. He-Man pounced.
Manchester United had the first dangerous shot of the game on target.
Three minutes later, Bergkamp cut inside on the right to break through Johansen's defence, slicing through the United defence with a scalpel-like pass, and Anelka followed up with a lifted shot but was blocked by a ready-made Schmeichel with a chest.
A good goalkeeper can top half a team, Schmeichel and David. Seaman is undoubtedly the world's top goalkeeper in this era, and the performance of the two directly determines the outcome of this game.
Ling Feng performed very positively, his running back and forth in the midfield was mainly to contain the middle of the Manchester United team, because whether it was Giggs's breakthrough or Beckham's pass, the final goal was to play the middle, Ling Feng did this, which can be said to be directly stuck in the throat of Manchester United's attack.
David Beckham's cross from the right and Cantona's header - this trick Ling Feng didn't know how many times he used it when he was at Manchester United. Cole's header in front of him headed the ball out and defused the attack.
After a few strokes, Arsenal attacked, Henry protected the ball in front, and then then Anelka rushed past him, and the two played a relay similar to a basketball relay, Henry's heel smashed the ball into Anelka.
When it comes to individual skills, Anelka is not very good, and he is not as good as Thierry Henry, but when it comes to the ability to take chances in front of goal, Anelka is quite strong.
It's just a pity that Stam didn't give the French dwarf a chance to shoot, although the body is huge, but the speed of turning is still fast, plus those long legs, he fell to the ground and shoveled, and actually destroyed the ball in front of Anelka in the penalty area, and at the same time Anelka also hit his leg and flew out.
Dare to make a decisive tackle in the penalty area, Stam's consciousness is quite good, and he can also be called a master of the arts!
The referee saw clearly that the ball was a textbook tackle and there was no foul.
Ignoring Anelka, who fell to the ground and hummed with his legs, the referee awarded Arsenal a throw-in from the edge of the box.
This is how the two teams started a tug-of-war against each other.
The so-called tug-of-war against attack, that is the characteristics of the Premier League, in Serie A, most of the ball is lost in the midfield, so the midfield scramble is particularly fierce, and in the Premier League, the midfielder is only responsible for a transition between attack and defense, most of the balls are cut off near the opponent's penalty area, and then the defender has a big foot, or directly forward, to the midfielder after a quick counterattack.
This is a huge physical drain on the players.
Thirty-five minutes into the first half, the first highlight of the game appeared!
Giggs received the ball on the left side of the midfield, Ling Feng was the first to pounce and steal, but Giggs flicked sideways, a quick start shook off his defense, and killed the Arsenal team at high speed!
For Giggs's breakthrough, the gunners in the arsenal were no longer surprised, first the right-back Dixon stepped forward to block, Ling Feng just followed behind and chased back without hurrying, but Dixon was very lightly flashed by Giggs, and Giggs then knocked his forward route from the left side to the middle.
"Oops!" Ling Feng secretly shouted in his heart that once Giggs cut into the middle, then it would be a huge threat!
Sure enough, Keown was the first to spot the crisis and rushed up quickly, but it didn't stop the Welshman's way forward - he was flashed aside by a jigs by Giggs, and then he could only helplessly watch the red figure pass by him and rush to the forbidden area! By the time he wanted to chase back, Giggs had already rushed some distance, and Keown could only chase after him desperately.
Campbell and Adams, the current pair of England national team's main centre-backs, have formed a camp and are ready to join forces to prevent Ryan Giggs from breaking through.
Even a blind man can now see that Giggs is going to make it solo – because there is only one Andy in front of him who runs into the box. Kerr, but it's impossible to pass the ball in that position.
With two defenders in front and Keown chasing after him, Giggs couldn't afford to hesitate.
The Welshman continued to dribble forward, cleverly flicking the ball sideways to the left as Campbell kicked out, followed by a knock inward, a movement similar to a bull's tail, but very slow, not as good as Ling Feng's famous passing skills.
But even then, Campbell was shaken by Giggs's loss of center of gravity, and watched Giggs pass by him.
Adams immediately stepped in, but Giggs miraculously struck the ball forward with the outside of his left foot again, forced past Adams and Campbell, and rushed into the box!
Single-handed!
But the ball is still a little big, after all, the continuous change of direction cannot be so easy. Seaman had already rushed up and fell to the ground to pounce on the ball.
However, Giggs was a little faster than him, and he touched the ball a second first, and the toe of his left foot was lifted under the ball, and then the ball flew over He-Man's fallen body and fell into the goal......
1:0! Ryan Giggs single-handedly beat five men to help Manchester United break the deadlock on the pitch!
Wembley Stadium has become a sea of red jubilation, even if it is a little smaller – after all, in London, Manchester United fans are naturally not as large as Arsenal fans on their doorstep.
After the goal, I saw Ferguson jumping up from the chair excitedly and waving his hand fiercely, he had been waiting for this goal for too long, he wanted everyone to know that Ling Feng was nothing, Manchester United could beat the Arsenal he joined!
And Giggs's goal just now is really beautiful, riding alone! Ling Feng is not the only one in this world who can ride through the level alone!
Ling Feng stuck in the midfield, watching the players of Manchester United gather around to celebrate, once upon a time, he was one of them, but now he has become an opponent, and what is even worse is that this game is bound to be won.
Ling Feng gently blew his hair upward, if he couldn't win this game, then his reputation would be ruined.
Just imagine being so bold and reckless, defecting to arch-rivals Arsenal in the final minute of the league, and not playing in the penultimate round of the league against Manchester United, everyone can imagine that he was working against the old man Ferguson.
So in this game, neither of them can afford to lose, because the losing side will definitely be scolded by many media.
Unfortunately, this is the FA Cup final, and a winner must be decided, and if there is a draw, then there will be an extra game, and then a draw, a direct penalty shootout!
Ling Feng couldn't afford to lose.
Once he fails, he will fall from the altar, which will be an incomparably huge blow to his reputation, people will call him inadequate, that damn Magath will also stand up and laugh at him with Ferguson, Ling Feng's hard-earned prestige will be tarnished by this impulse.
"Don't worry, if he can do it, you can do it too." A hand was placed on Ling Feng's shoulder, and Ling Feng looked back in amazement, it turned out to be Bergkamp, the Ice Prince.
"Come on." The Ice Prince said, "If you fought us back in Hamburg, we'll win." ”