The English Championship is the second tier of the English Premier League.

Although it is only the second division, it must not be underestimated.

English football has a history of 100 years, and teams that can make it to the Championship often have a glorious history worth mentioning.

Ipswich is one of them.

Ipswich is a professional club in Suffolk County in the east of England, founded as early as 1878, and the team's nickname is the "Tractor-Boys", partly because of Ipswich's agricultural background, and partly because other fans of the team joked that they were "hillbillies".

In the early 80s, Ipswich had a glorious period, winning two runners-up finishes in the then English top flight, League One, and the UEFA Cup in 1981.

Ipswich was also one of the founding members of the Premier League when it was founded in 1992.

In 1995, Ipswich Town was relegated to League One, and then in 2000, the new century, he was re-promoted to the Premier League, and finished fifth in the Premier League that season, and also qualified for the UEFA Cup, but unfortunately in the next year, Ipswich expressed a slump, and finally failed to relegate, and was relegated to League One again (the second tier at that time, also equivalent to the Championship, which was established in 2004).

Ipswich have been in the second division for the rest of the year.

It may seem tragic to look at Ipswich's football history, but in reality, Ipswich's record is much better than Millwall's 100-year history of not reaching the top flight.

Even this season, Ipswich are favourites to be promoted to the Championship.

If the teams in the Championship are ranked according to the strength of the squad and the possibility of promotion, Ipswich is in the middle and upper reaches, and the rating is "it is possible to complete the promotion", and Millwall is "worry-free about relegation and lack of progress".

That's just a ranking of squad strength, and it's not directly related to season performance.

Ipswich have been doing well this season, temporarily sitting in seventh place in the league and needing to go one step further to move into the front row of the promoted team; Millwall, on the other hand, was a bit embarrassed, and after three consecutive wins before Christmas, they were still only 14th in the league, not much behind the bikes in the back row.

Of course, this does not fully say anything about strength.

In terms of the overall strength of the team, the two teams are still similarly different, and Ipswich Town is not much better, and they are ranked higher in the league than Millwall, just because they have played better in the league before.

There is no qualitative difference between the two teams in terms of strength.

Therefore, it is very difficult for Ipswich and Millwall to win, especially at Neil Stadium, Millwall's home stadium, the victory or defeat can only be said to be five or five.

After the start of the game, the two sides attacked and defended each other.

However, Millwall relied on home advantage to form some pressure on Ipswich Town at the beginning.

Millwall attacked more and had more time on the ball.

After studying Ipswich Town, Zhang Yang knew that this was not really an advantage, Ipswich was a team that excelled defensively, and whenever it came to a game, most of their energy would be put into defense, especially when it was an away game, they would be more cautious.

Millwall didn't have a good way to defend against Ipswich's 'turtle shell'.

In Zhang Yang's view, it is due to the team's tactics being too simple.

Dennis Wise is not a great manager, and his tactics for his team are as simple as they can get: the defence relies on the players coming back in droves, the attack relies on two wings to open up the situation, and the low cross is the most skillful way, and occasionally the middle will be linked, but not much, and it still depends on the individual players.

This kind of simple offense is too easy to target.

There is no reason to complain too much, because he has little understanding of football tactics, and his limited understanding is only the analysis of the media, but the theory and practice are different, and if he is asked to do tactical training for the team, maybe the situation will be worse.

He's just been watching the game.

Millwall's attack has been unable to find a breakthrough point and it is difficult to pose a direct threat to Ipswich, who is constantly looking for counter-attacks to threaten the Millwall goal.

Many people who know the ball can see at a glance that the situation is not in Millwall's favor.

Some fans are starting to get worried.

Media reporters may have more complaints, because this is the first game after the 'change of manager', and they can find a lot of topics—

"After Zhang Yang became the coach, the first game was a bit bad! Millwall can't play home advantage at all! ”

"Maybe it's because the players don't want to fight! They don't listen to a coach who is that young. ”

"If Millwall loses, I don't know what the young Chinese will say, in yesterday's interview, he could swear that 'it is an honor for Millwall to be the head coach'."

"He'll be the fastest head coach to step down!"

"One? Two days? ”

“……”

In the complaints of many media reporters, Aldous began to worry about the game, and in the past ten minutes, Ipswich has threatened the goal twice.

Zhang Yang sat very calmly, with a simple smile on his face.

With a 'foresight' judgment, no matter how bad the game situation is, no matter how dangerous Ipswich's shot is, he has no worries at all.

"Zhang, maybe we should make adjustments!"

"If the game goes on like this, Ipswich will score sooner or later! We should have the players withdraw to defend! ”

"Keep it up! A point is better than nothing! ”

Aldous became more and more agitated after seeing a dangerous shot from Ipswich that narrowed goalkeeper Graham Stark away.

This was Zhang Yang's first game as head coach and his first game as the first assistant coach.

The two are grasshoppers on a rope.

Zhang Yang still had a flat expression, and he didn't seem to be worried about the game at all, but kept comforting, "Aldous, the coach is not like this, you have to stay calm at all times!" ”

"Calm down! We haven't been scored yet! ”

"The game is like that, there will always be ups and downs, but everything is under my control, so you can rest assured!"

Aldous was skeptical of Zhang Yang's words.

Everything under control?

The opponent is about to score!

Waiting until the thirtieth minute of the game, Aldous kept putting forward adjustment suggestions, hoping that Zhang Yang could adopt it and direct the team's frontcourt to retreat to defense, Zhang Yang suddenly turned his head and said seriously, "Aldous, there is one thing I want to talk about you!" Now I'm the head coach and you're the first assistant coach with the game. ”

"Whether it's the head coach or the assistant coach, we're all sitting here, the first point is to keep a normal heart, you have to learn from me in this regard, when do you think I've been in a hurry?"

'It's dangerous and I'm a little worried, but it's more important to believe in the team and our players at all times. In my opinion, the danger of the game is only temporary, as long as we can find an opportunity, we will definitely score first! ”

Aldous listened stunned, and there was a sentence in his heart, "Why are you so calm?" ”

In the end, he didn't say it.

It wasn't because he didn't dare to offend Zhang Yang, but because the format of the game had changed abruptly, and before he could say it, he saw Ipswich get a steal, and then Millwall launched a quick offensive.

Wing, middle, wing, big foot pass in the penalty area!

Millwall's offensive routine does not seem to have changed, but the simple routine handed down from a hundred years of history can support Millwall to enter the Championship, and naturally has its advantages.

It's because it's simple that it's hard to defend!

In the 33rd minute of the game, fullback Joey Healy dribbled the ball from the middle line to the bottom line, smashed the ball and turned with a big kick.

The football falls straight to the line of the small penalty area!

As soon as the ball fell, Kevin Gere squeezed the defender and rushed over to kick the ball into the goal with the sole of his foot in a half-shovel motion.

"Hiss......"

Quite a few gasped.

Immediately after that, the spectator stands erupted in frantic cheers from the home fans.

"Kevin Gere!"

"Kevin Gere! He kicked the ball into the goal! Well done! It's going to be the new year, the greatest goal! Kevin Geele, he shows the rugged side of a forward player, but that roughness is lovely! ”

"The ball is in! Millwall scored the first goal! ”

"The score became 1-0!"

Amid the stadium's broadcast of Mike Johnson's shouts, the cheers at Neil Stadium reached their highest point.

Millwall dugout.

All the substitutes rushed out with shouts, a celebration unique to professional football.

Aldous also rushed out with the players, and he shouted in surprise, "In!" We really scored a goal! Kevin is amazing! ”

Zhang Yang followed and walked out.

He wasn't as excited as the others, but he cheered a couple of words before reminding, "Aldous, I've said it a long time ago, we're coaches, and we're sitting here to be calm!" Be sure to stay calm at all times! ”

"And, as I said earlier, we will definitely be the ones who will score first!"

"It's normal, it's not a big deal!"

Aldous kept nodding.

When Zhang Yang opened his mouth just now, he only complained in his heart, and now he doesn't believe it, but in the face of this result, he can only sigh 'the team is lucky'.

"Or was it his luck?"

"Anyway, I'm just an assistant coach! Think so much to do! Yes, next I'm going to calm down, calm down, calm down......"