Wigan Athletic is located in the town of Wigan in the Manchester Region, and its home stadium is the J** Stadium on the edge of Wigan Town.

The J** Stadium is a new stadium that was only unveiled in August 1999 at a cost of £30 million and is shared by Wigan Athletic Football Club and Wigan Warriors Rugby Club.

At 2 p.m. on March 12, the small square in front of the J** stadium was crowded with fans, most of them local Wigan fans, mixed with a small number of Millwall fans, who were from London and came to support Millwall.

The fans formed small groups and were ready to enter the stadium.

On the main road in front of the small square, a bus with the Millwall logo drove by, and some Millwall fans on the side of the road let out shouts of welcome, and more boos from local Wigan fans.

When I was about to reach the gate of the J** sports field, the window in the middle of the car opened, and a young and smiling face appeared inside.

That's flamboyance.

Zhang Yang waved at a group of Millwall fans on the side of the road, because among them were some familiar faces, fans who went to the club to support the team every time they practiced openly.

Those fans also responded by waving and shouting, "Come on! Be sure to win! Today we are here to support the team in the north! ”

"Millwall will win!"

"Zhang Yang, you will bring us victory!"

“……”

Amid the shouts of the fans, the bus entered the fan no-go area and then drove into the side gate of J** Stadium.

Some of the Wigan fans who saw it also looked along the bus as it left, and some people were talking loudly, "That was their manager, right?" ”

"I've seen it on the news, and I guess that's right! They have a young manager! ”

"He's younger than the player!"

"He seems to be very popular, and the Londoners are all shouting his name! But this one met us, and Millwall's desire to win was like a dream! ”

“……”

In the midst of the fans' discussions, it was almost time to enter, and soon the fans crowded at the door to line up for admission.

Inside the field.

Both teams began to warm up.

At the beginning of the warm-up, the fans had just entered, and by the time the warm-up was about to end, the audience was already full.

This is Wigan Athletic's home stadium.

There were more than 20,000 local Wigan fans in the stands at J** Stadium, and thousands of others, some Millwall fans and some neutral fans.

The support for Millwall is bleak.

Millwall is used to it.

Comparing the 44 teams in the Premier League and the Championship, Millwall have one of the fewest fans.

This is a regional issue.

Millwall's small and small population in the London Region can't match the membership of the big clubs combined, let alone a large part of it goes to support Chelsea, Fulham or other regional teams.

This is also due to the history of Millwall FC, Millwall has never entered the Premier League, and the results of the century-old history are not brilliant to talk about, so it is naturally difficult to attract many fans to support.

In the last two or three decades, Millwall has also been known for its football violence, and has produced the most 'football hooligans', giving people the feeling that all the football hooligans in London have come to support Millwall.

If you describe the club as a 'person' and compare Millwall and Wigan Athletic together, Wigan Athletic belongs to the local tyrant who inherits the regional finances, handsome, handsome, young and golden, and his career is also on the rise; Millwall belongs to the poor dicks of the metropolis, the pure moonshine family, and the history of imprisonment, and there is nothing to talk about in the career.

The contrast between the two is stark.

Most of the British media are optimistic about Wigan Athletic, in fact, there are certain external reasons, no matter how you think about it, Wigan Athletic will not lose to Millwall at home, but Zhang Yang will not conform to the views of media reporters, at the pre-match press conference, he said in high spirits, "I like Wigan Town very much, the environment here is very good, people are also very friendly, but unfortunately, today to disappoint them, we are here with full confidence, we have made a lot of preparations for the game, so we will definitely take away the victory!" ”

This is the flamboyant declaration of victory!

The media reporters in the audience felt that it was funny, and two days before the game, they could find the analysis of Wigan Athletic's home game against Millwall on many sports reports, but no matter which report analysis, they could not find a reason to support Millwall's victory.

The young Chinese said Millwall was going to take the victory away at J** Field!

Is he crazy?

Zhang Yang simply ignored the thoughts of media reporters, because he knew that few media reporters would support Millwall.

The pre-match reports speak for themselves.

Among all the media, Zhang Yang only found one supporter - "Telecommunications Sports", so after making a victory declaration, he glanced back and forth with his eyes, and finally found the microphone of the "Telecommunications Sports" logo among dozens or hundreds of reporters, he ignored the press officer's eyes, but only clicked on the reporter, "You come to ask questions!" ”

"Me?"

The reporter of "Telecommunications Sports" pointed at himself, a little caught off guard, and when everyone looked over, he still reacted, and immediately stood up and asked excitedly, but he seemed a little nervous, "Zhang ...... Hello Mr. Zhang, I'm from ...... From Tele Sports, when you were interviewed before, you said that Millwall's goal is promotion, so can you talk about the importance of this match against the league leader, Wigan Athletic, in achieving Millwall's promotion goal? ”

The reporters of other media were in an uproar, they could not have imagined that in the atmosphere of the group not optimistic about Millwall, mixed with such a special reporter, the meaning of the words was obviously optimistic about Millwall.

Is this guy's brain rusty?

"Telecom Sports"?

Many media reporters suddenly realized that "Telesports" is a new media in the United Kingdom, and they purely use network traffic and online charging subscriptions as their main means of income, so the top selling point of the news is very important.

If they follow the trend and report on it, how many more fans will pay for it?

A lot of journalists understood.

Zhang Yang didn't care why "Tele Sports" supported Millwall, after all, they were the only supporters, and the questions raised were also comforting, so he coughed lightly and said patiently with a smile, "For us, this one is very crucial. We have won four in a row, but if we want to catch up with our rivals, the best chance is to beat them head-on, we are seven points away from Wigan Athletic, and if we win this one, the gap will become four, and then it will be much easier for us to catch up. ”

"Also, Wigan Athletic are top of the league and if we can beat them, it will give the whole team more confidence. I believe that as long as I win this one, I will be one step away from the goal of upgrading! ”

Zhang Yang said confidently.

Journalists don't understand why beating Wigan Athletic is only 'one step away' from promotion, because in their opinion, the premise is not true.

Millwall can't win!

Let this young Chinese say big things and see what he will say if he loses the game after the game, or will he run away with his tail between his legs?

Many reporters are looking forward to it.

There are also some media reporters who want to refute Zhang Yang's remarks face to face, but they don't have any chance, Zhang Yang only gives the reporter of "Tele Sports" the opportunity to ask questions, and the others?

I'm sorry!

"I'm busy! The race is about to begin! ”

Zhang Yang left a sentence and left the venue directly, so that he would not find anger for himself!

————

In the away team's dressing room.

Zhang Yang mobilized before the game, he stood in the middle, beckoned everyone to look over, and said, "We have been preparing for the game for more than a week, and we have worked hard for more than a week, and we have never prepared for a game for so long before. It's been a week where everybody's been training hard, everybody's been working hard, but it's all about this game. ”

"If we lose the game, all the hard work will be useless, but I have confidence in the game, do you have confidence?"

"Yes!"

Quite a few players shouted.

Although it doesn't have the grand effect of the army shouting, it is already good for a professional team, Zhang Yang nodded with satisfaction, "Yes, that's it, we have worked hard, and it's time to harvest!" But now I still have to say a few words, you should have seen the news reports in the past two days, it was about this game, yes, there was almost no news bullish on us, they all analyzed the strength of Wigan Athletic, and analyzed the reasons why we definitely lost! ”

"Hardly anybody is looking at us, a lot of the analysis is not good for us, but I think they don't know anything about us. It took us a week to get used to the new formation and we were going to catch them off guard and that's where my confidence comes from. At the press conference just now, I told all the reporters that we will take away the victory and the three points at the J** Stadium! ”

"If I dare to say that, I'm sure you can do it!"

"Do you believe in yourselves?"

The players in the locker room were shocked, they couldn't imagine that Zhang Yang dared to openly say in front of so many reporters that he wanted to 'take away the victory', in case he couldn't do it, the pressure would be too great, and he was tantamount to gambling on his reputation.

Zhang Yang has such full confidence, can they still have confidence in themselves?

"I have faith! We're going to win! ”

"yes, we'll win!"

"Wigan Athletic is nothing! We're beating them in front of all the fans! ”

“……”

One by one, the players shouted.

This time the shouting was uneven and a little noisy, but Zhang Yang's ability was certainly much more useful than the perfunctory answer just now.

At this time, the team is full of fighting spirit!

————

The race is on.

Zhang Yang and Aldous walked to the coach's seat together.

There was a row of seats in the coach's box, but Zhang Yang chose the leftmost one, because he knew that he would definitely get up and direct the game.

Before the game, the team did a lot of preparation.

If other managers have been preparing for a week, they can only stay here and watch the game, Zhang Yang is different from other coaches, directing the game is what he is best at.

At the beginning of the game, there is still no need to adjust.

The first five minutes are normal.

Zhang Yang used 'foresight' to judge the progress of the game, and then he was relieved to be in his position and ready to start enjoying the performance of Wigan Athletic.

The opening of the match belonged to Wigan Athletic.

This is Wigan Athletic's home stadium, and Wigan Athletic's strength has an advantage, and they launched a big attack from the beginning, quite a bit of momentum to break the goal.

Zhang Yang is not in a hurry.

In the judgment of 'foresight', Wigan Athletic did not score, as long as there was no goal, it was equivalent to no attack, because Zhang Yang repeatedly reminded the team of the difficulties before the game, and he believes that every player is prepared for difficulties.

In this game, Millwall will be one to watch in the starting line-up.

Josh Simpson didn't appear in the list, and there were no other right midfielders in the list, Millwall's starting lineup was a bit confusing, and Jody Morris was on the right side of the opening position.

Morris playing right midfield?

Many match analysts wondered, but they didn't think much of it, Millwall's players are very average, and it is not a big deal to change another player to play as a right midfielder.

This may just be a small tactical tweak.

But there's one person who has to think carefully about that, and that's Wigan Athletic's manager Jewell.

As the manager of Wigan Athletic, and one of England's few successful managers, Jewell will not underestimate every adjustment of the opponent, and without a right-back in the Millwall squad, their attack on the right will be problematic.

Jody Morris?

Morris as a right-back, Wigan Athletic may be able to rest assured, Morris is best at playing in the middle of the midfield, he left the middle to go to the wing, Wigan Athletic is equivalent to a huge threat.

But would the other party really do that?

No matter how Jewell thinks about it, he doesn't think that the other party's young manager will be such a stupid guy for a while, otherwise Millwall's results will not be so good.

"Did you give up on the right flank? Millwall, perhaps, gave up on the attack? So what do they rely on to win? ”

This is the only answer that Jewell can think of, but it still doesn't sound logical, the young Chinese coach, but at the press conference, he was ashamed to say that he would take the victory away from the J** stadium.

Millwall will not fail to attack, and they may even step up their offensive to break down Wigan Athletic as soon as possible.

Jewell couldn't figure it out, so he could only watch the game patiently.

As Wigan Athletic went on the attack, the initiative of the game was quickly in his hands, and Jevier quickly felt that something was wrong, because whenever Wigan Athletic were in possession, he could barely see Millwall players up front.

In a normal game, even if one side retreats to defend, there will be frontcourt players running in the middle line, and there should be more than one to be ready to counterattack, but Millwall has a young striker in front, and the other players have retreated to the vicinity of the penalty area.

It's weird.

It's easy to see the formation when you retreat in a football game, but what formation does Millwall have? Those players seemed to stand at will, run at will, and the formation was a group of people retreating into the penalty area.

What the hell is this game playing?

Could it be that Millwall's players haven't gotten into the groove yet, and they can't even run in a basic formation?

Jewell's doubts intensified.